The Nine-tailed Fox jumps into someone else's bath

Wu Yun raises his hands in a conciliatory motion. "I know we didn't start things with the right foot."

"You stole our clothes, and then scratched up my face," A-Tan says, pointing at his damaged cheek. "Now you have invaded my house!"

"Master Jiang, I can escort these two ruffians out," Meng-er says, addressing A-Tan's father.

"How did they steal your clothes?" Master Jiang asks, turning a baleful eye on his son.

A-Tan flushes crimson and stammers through an answer. "That...That is...We were...They!"

Wu Yun sees the perfect opportunity to change the focus back to what really matters. "That's not important right now. Let's focus on how we can save your son from the Prince of Qi!"

Meng-er crosses his arms, a suspicious look on his eye. "I would also like to hear that."

Master Jiang, rubs his long eyebrows with a pensive sound, and finally nods with all the gravity of a funeral ceremony. "Proceed."

Lan Tian exchanges a worried look with Wu Yun. They don't actually have a plan, but Wu Yun ignores him.

"I'm going to exchange places with your son, and go meet the prince of Qi in his stead," Wu Yun says proudly.

Lan Tian fights down the urge to smack him.

A-Tan looks stupefied for a second, and then angry. "We don't look anything alike, everyone will see you're not me!"

Wu Yun clasps his hands behind his back and walks towards A-Tan with little skipping steps. He stands next to him. "But we are around the same height and build, and thinking about our different appearances I orchestrated the scene in the restaurant, so that 'you' will have a perfectly valid excuse to go meet the Prince of Qi wearing a veil."

A-Tan would have jumped Wu Yun again, if Meng-er didn't hold him back. "Do you expect me to believe that unfortunate scene was all part of a grander plan, and not just proof you're deranged!"

Wu Yun, ignores his outburst and shrugs. "I had to make it believable."

A-Tan struggles in Meng-er's arms, ready to go into another tirade, when Jiang Yilong's deep voice echoes in the hall. "Jiang Tanmei, you won't be rude to our guests."

Cowed and blushing profusely, Jiang Tanmei stops struggling and bows to his father. "I apologize, father, for my conduct."

Jiang Yilong turns to Wu Yun with an accessing gaze. "Your plan has merit. But once in the Prince's palace you would have to reveal yourself. What will you do then?"

Wu Yun didn't think that far, but he isn't worried in the least. "I can always kill him."

Lan Tian holds on to his hand, trying to prevent him from digging his own grave any further. Wu Yun tickles his palm to make him release his hold.

Despite Lan Tian's concerns, the barest hint of a smile stretches across Master Jiang's thin lips. "Indeed? That might be the best course of action."

"Lu Meng, take our guests to the free rooms on the west courtyard, they'll be staying with us until the Prince of Qi's retinue comes to escort 'A-Tan'". Master Jiang says, with a slow wave of his tree bark hand.

Lu Meng bows to Jiang Yilong, and motions for Wu Yun, and Lan Tian to follow them. Jiang Tanmei trails after them cursing under his breath.

"Of all the hare-brained ideas...The Prince of Qi will figure everything out and have us all killed!"

"Then what difference does it make for you, little brat? Wasn't the Prince going to kill you anyway?" retorts Wu Yun, incapable of shutting up even when he gets what he wants.

"I don't want the Prince to kill everyone in the Jiang estate, or Meng-er!" Jiang Tanmei says, whispering what he clearly wishes could be a shout.

As if Jiang Tanmei's words have deeply moved him, Lu Meng stops in his tracks, and hugs him to his chest, running his hands down his hair. "I only want to see A-Tan safe, my own life is of no importance."

Jiang Tanmei looks up at him, with a besotted look in his eyes. To Wu Yun it's reminiscent of an upset stomach. "I value Meng-er's life far above mine!"

"That's very nice for both of you, but we were about to be led to a room? I'm very tired and I want to rest," Wu Yun says, stretching his arms above his head with a huge yawn.

Lu Meng and Jiang Tianmei disentangle with twin glares, and continue to lead them through sinuous corridors, until they finally reach a half-open wooden door, with two beds in each corner, and low table in the center of the room, leading up to an open porch with a view of the courtyard and flowering pear trees.

Wu Yun is really looking forward to laying down his head, and not having to look at Jiang Tanmei's perpetual scowl. However his hopes are dashed when he storms into the room and sits down at the table.

"Don't think just because my father is trusting that you're getting out of this that easily!"

Wu Yun sighs, sits down with a dramatic flair of his robes, and hides his face in his crossed arms on top of the table.

"Thank you for your hospitality," Lan Tian says, sitting down. "I am Lan Tian, and he's Wu Yun."

Lu Meng coughs politely into his fist. "Those are certainly...names."

Wu Yun is quick to bristle. "I think they're nice! We picked them ourselves."

"You see that's the kind of inane thing he keeps saying that will get him killed in two seconds!" says Jiang Tanmei with a groan. "Listen here, this is how it's going to go."

Wu Yun and Lan Tian are then treated to Jiang Tanmei rave in great detail about how a young master can't behave like a common street ruffian, and if Wu Yun wants to fool anyone long enough to kill the Prince he'll have learn from him. Lu Meng also offers to teach Lan Tian how to behave like the kind of loyal servant who would accompany his master on such a journey.

Wu Yun agrees to everything he says with the burning hope that he'll finally leave once he's done talking.

Jiang Tanmei finally makes his way to the door, but stops with half his body through the doorway to turn around and say one last thing," Tomorrow you'll have classes with me about proper etiquette, don't event think about trying to evade me, or I'll make sure my father doesn't pay you a single bronze tael!"

Wu Yun nods despiritedly and hides his face in his arms again. If it wasn't for the money he wouldn't even be here in the first place, because Jiang Tianmei clearly deserves whatever horrible fate he would meet at the Prince's hands.

When both Jiang Tanmei and Lu Meng are finally gone, Wu Yun gets up from the table and trows himself face first into one of the beds. He wiggles around in the soft comforter.

"I thought they would never leave," he says, his words muffled against the soft silk.

"I think they're right, we don't know how dangerous this Prince is, we should try and fool him for however long we can." Lan Tian says, sitting at the foot of the bed. "Why didn't you tell me about your plan? The old man might not have believed you."

Wu Yun shrugs, burrowing further into the soft silk. "It was a spur of the moment thing."

"Do you ever think before you act?"

Wu Yun turns around, to face Lan Tian, and rests his face on his spread palms. "Almost never. But I haven't led us wrong, have I?"

Lan Tian can only look at him, dumbstruck. "You've done nothing but led us wrong! How are we going to fool the Prince, let alone survive him?"

"How hard can it be? He's just a human."

"Right now so are we! We don't have any powers or weapons, I'm thinking he'll at least have a lot of the later." He sighs and drops down on his back, like a collapsing tower, finally succumbing under the weight of the day's ordeals. "I want to take a bath, I miss my river" he adds, voicing an errant thought.

"Me too!" says Wu Yun jumping out of the bed with a start. He runs to the door and screams fire down the corridor until a startled maid comes by. She promises a tub and hot water will be delivered to their room soon, along with some food for supper.

Wu Yun has no idea what a tub is, but his ears perk up at the sound of food.

A few minutes later two male servants come in carrying an heavy wooden tub. They move the table aside to place it in the middle of the room. Two more come in with buckets of steaming water that they dump unceremoniously inside it.

The food is brought later and placed on top of the table. As hungry as Wu Yun is, he is more curious about the sweet scent coming up from the bathwater.

Lan Tian pays no attention to the proceedings, and stars unrobing as soon as the servants are gone. He leaves a trail of clothes all the way to the tub, and gets in.

"Why is it so warm?" he asks, once he's fully submerged. "What's wrong with cold water?"

He thinks humans must have remarkably weak constitutions if they can't even stomach a dip in cold water.

"Let me try," Wu Yun says, while taking off his clothes.

He jumps into the tub sitting opposite Lan Tian, who grunts at having to fold his long legs to accommodate Wu Yun.

"I don't know what you were complaining about, this is great." Wu Yun leans back against the wooden wall of the tub and rests his arms on its edges, moaning in satisfaction at the feeling of the warm water loosening his muscles.

For some reason Lan Tian can't stop looking at the bloom of colour spreading all the way up from Wu Yun's milky chest up into his elegant neck. The sounds he's making aren't helping, he wants him to shut up. "Stay quiet, I'm trying to relax," he says closing his eyes in concentration.

Wu Yun lets out a discordant huff but closes his eyes too to soak up the warmth and the sweet scent of crushed peach blossoms.

The silence is short lived. "What do you think is up with that Lu Meng, why does he follow around the insufferable Jiang Tanmei like that?"

"I think it's nice, the way they have each other's backs," Lan Tian admits, averting his eyes. "It's not like they had any reason to be nice to us, we stole their clothes, and you started a fight with Jiang Tanmei."

"You only say that because you aren't the one who's going to have to listen to Jiang Tanmei drone on and on, in that shrill voice of his tomorrow," Wu Yun says, with a scoff.

"You will behave tomorrow, we need his father's money."

Wu Yun smirks, raising his foot to kick water into Lan Tian's face. "No promises."