The Nine-tailed Fox solves a mystery

Old Man Ou and Madam Ou are surprised to see them come in through the door like a hungry ghost is giving chase.

"Have the young heroes found anything already?" Old Man Ou asks, stepping away from the stone oven and wiping his hands on his apron.

"You look very startled," says Madam Ou, placing the bamboo steamer she's carrying on the counter top. "We're almost finished with lunch, please join us."

Lunch is an awkward affair considering both Wu Yun and Lan Tian are too embarrassed to look at each other properly, and Wan Mi is in such a bad mood that Wu Yun expects her to start flinging dishes on the floor any second.

"Uhm, is there any progress in the investigation?" Old Ou asks, trying to get any type of conversation going. He and his wife are used to chatting animatedly during meals about the day's work, so the silence is making him antsy.

"We might know which weapon killed them, but it's too soon to say anything else," Lan Tian says curtly, shoving and entire mantou in his mouth to prevent any further questions.

"What do you know about Bai Xiaoli?" asks Wu Yun, making both Lan Tian and Wan Mi turn to him with questioning glares.

"Oh the scholar? I'm afraid no one knows much, she moved to Liucun not too long ago," says Madam Ou perking up at the possibility of gossip. "She moved to her father's ancestral home to focus on her studies, wasn't that what she said, dear?"

Old Ou nods. "She did, I remember old Bai, but I never knew he had a daughter, I supposed he could have had one, after leaving Liucun. Is she a suspect?"

"Only of asking unfortunate questions," says Wu Yun with a sigh.

"Thinking of it, she moved here not long after the first case happened!" Madam Ou brings her hands to her mouth, her eyes widening. "Could she be connected to the deaths?"

"Could be, we'll look into it," Wu Yun says taking a bite of rice.

"It's too early to say, in any case," Lan Tian is quick to add, noticing Madam Ou's and Old Ou's worried looks.

"I don't like her," Wan Mi says, looking despondently at her rice bowl and vegetable side dishes.

Madam Ou and Old Ou exchange looks as if this is a portentous affirmation.

Madam Ou pats Wan Mi's hair. "A child's intuition is often right."

"Not hers," Wu Yun mutters under his breath, and finishes the last of his rice. "Thanks for the meal, we'd better continue investigating, we wouldn't want to disappoint the good people of Liucun."

---

After knocking on a few more doors, and a new round of questioning, Wu Yun comes to the conclusion that the good people of Liucun are perhaps getting exactly what they deserve.

None of them are any help at all, and after perfunctorily answering some of their questions the only thing on their minds seems to be village gossip. They're quick to throw aspersions on their neighbours. Either, because their chickens are suddenly too fat, or because they bought a new set of expensive clothes and it's obvious their business isn't doing well enough for such fine fabrics.

They've wasted almost the entire afternoon and Wu Yun wants to scream.

"If one more person mentions that Madam Yi's daughter has been dressing immodestly lately, I might start doing the killing myself," he groans, fighting the impulse to lean against Lan Tian's shoulder. He would have done it before, but he's too conscious of his body and their proximity after Bai Xiaoli's terrible questions.

"Maybe we're looking at this the wrong way. If we ask people if they've seen anything strange lately, they'll all answer with what seems strange to them," Lan Tian says, leaning against the trunk of the pear tree they're resting under while trying to decide the next steps in this fruitless investigation. "Maybe we should ask them if the murdered families did anything unusual before their deaths."

"We already know they were complaining about something, like everyone else in this cursed village," Wu Yun says with a groan. "The husband for the daughter, the new cook for the inn, the broken plow."

"Isn't it weird that they all got what they wanted?" asks Lan Tian, looking Wu Yun in the eye for what feels like the first time that day.

Wu Yun shrugs, and looks away. The sun shining through the pear tree leaves into Lan Tian's amber eyes makes them especially brilliant, like gold dipped in honey. "Maybe if they wanted a house in the clouds..."

"No one else in the village seemed to get what they wanted," Wan Mi says, crossing her arms. "They did, and now they're dead."

"What's so special about a cook, a husband and a plow? Can't you find one of those everywhere?"

Lan Tian shakes his head. "It's not about what they got, it's that they got it. Everyone wants something, and they did, no one else in Liucun got something they had been complaining about solved out of the blue, only to end up dead soon after."

"Alright, what does a human do when they want something?" Wu Yun asks.

Wan Mi's eyes widen and she pulls on Lan Tian's sleeve. "They pray! That's it! It really was a god who killed them."

"We really solved it, uh. I must have a natural talent for mysteries," Wu Yun says, smiling.

The corner of Lan Tian's mouth pulls up in an indulgent smile.

Wan Mi frowns. "You didn't do anything."

Wu Yun ignores her. "Now we just need to find out which god they were praying to."

"Before we go knocking on any more doors, I think we need to go talk with Bai Xiaoli again. Madam Ou is right, it is suspicious that she moved to Liucun around the time the murders started happening," Lan Tian says, as if the words pain him.

Wu Yun groans. "There's nothing I want less than to see that woman again."

---

Despite his protests, Wu Yun still draws the short end of the stick and finds himself knocking on Bai Xiaoli's front door.

Her smile takes up half of her face once she sees it's them. "Oh, I'm so happy you came back."

"What does a husband, a plow, and a cook all have in common?" Wu Yun asks, going straight for the kill, hoping to catch her off guard.

"Oh a riddle I love those!" she says, while tapping her index finger against her chin. "Let's see, a husband is someone that can cook for you, but also plow you like a field."

She winks, while Wu Yun looks at her in complete mortification. "Did I get it right?"

Wan Mi steps forward inside the house and glares at Bai Xiaoli. "The dead families all got what they wanted before they died, what do you know about it? Got any prayers lately?"

Bai Xiaoli blinks in confusion at all the disdain contained in Wan Mi's small figure. "Are you suspecting me? That would explain the odd looks I got when I went to to market to buy turnips this afternoon."

Wu Yun curses old Ou and Madam Ou. Apparently nothing travels faster in Liucun than gossip, except maybe bad ideas.

"Do you know anything about who the murdered families were praying to?" Lan Tian asks, trying to somehow salvage the conversation.

Bai Xiaoli considers this with a thoughtful frown between her brows. "I don't talk much with the other villagers, however, I know there's a small temple built just outside the village gates. From what I heard it's recent. I can take you there tomorrow."

Wu Yun frowns. "Why not today?"

Bai Xiaoli looks around at her piles of papers. "I haven't got much study done today, and it's important for a scholar to stick to routine."

She starts pushing them out of her house in a hurry. She grabs an indignant Wan Mi by the back to the robes and carries her bodily outside. "Bye now, thanks for stopping by. I'll see you tomorrow."

The three of them are left dumbfounded looking at a closed door. Bai Xiaoli waits until she hears the sound of their voices disappearing in the distance, to dig out a mirror from beneath one of her many piles of papers.

She rubs the smooth gold surface, and then asks into it. "This minor god requests an audience."

The mirror heats up in her hand and a man's handsome, but serious face shows up instead of her panicked reflection. "I'm here, Xiaoli may speak."

"They know, what should I do?"

"Then you must act now."

Bai Xiaoli nods. "It will be done as high god commands."

---

They visit a few more homes, asking about any recent changes in worship patterns. Now that they know what to ask for, every family confirms that the murdered families were buying incense but not burning it at the village temple. No one has heard anything about the temple just outside of Liucun that Bai Xiaoli mentioned, however.

Back in the Ou family home, Wu Yun can't get that out of his mind. "I think she was lying to us."

"Then why did she send us in the right direction?" Lan Tian asks. The two of them are whispering in a corner of the living room, while Madam Ou brushes Wan Mi's hair, yet again.

"Did she? Or did she only confirm what we already know? No one else has heard about the temple."

"But they did say that the murdered families where praying somewhere else other than the village temple. Maybe they don't know where the temple is."

Wu Yun finds this hard to believe, he wishes they could force Bai Xiaoli to take them there now but a strong rain started pelting the village soon after they left her house, and they were forced to go back to the Ou household after asking a few more families and getting drenched in the process.

Madam Ou was adamant that they couldn't go out again in the rain, and so they are stuck inside.

"I've readied my son's old room for the young heroes," Old Ou says, joining them in the living room with an armful of linens. "I've made a sleeping mat on the floor for the young lady, the two young heroes can sleep on the bed."

Lan Tian pales. "I'll take the cot, Wu Yun and Wan Mi can sleep on the bed."

Madam Ou chirps in with a scoff. "Nonsense, a young couple needs to sleep on the same bed. I know you want to take after your child, but she's a big girl, she can't sleep on her own." She pinches Wan Mi's cheek. "Can't you dear?"

Wan Mi's smiles up at her as if she wishes she could gauge out her eyes with her phoenix talons instead.

There's no use in arguing with Madam Ou, so Wu Yun and Lan Tian strip down to their inner robes, and lay down in bed on their backs, conspicuously not touching.

Wu Yun doesn't expect to catch a wink of sleep, even with Wan Mi's soft snores filing the air.

"Are you thinking about what she said?" Lan Tian asks, suddenly.

"Of course I am, It's all I can think about," Wu Yun says, turning to face him.

"I'm wondering if maybe...I feel weird around you sometimes because I want to do those things to you. The things everyone thinks we're doing anyway," Lan Tian says, his voice barely above a whisper.

Wu Yun can't think about that. It's bad enough remembering Shu Luan from his dream, and the way his body felt against his, he can't start thinking about Lan Tian too, he absolutely won't do it.

"It's just human nonsense, we shouldn't think about that," he says, his voice hoarse.

"Maybe it's not nonsense." He looks so worried and pained, that Wu Yun wants to reach out and smooth the wrinkle between his sharp brows with his thumb.

Everything was fine before his stupid dream, he liked sleeping in the same bed as Lan Tian, liked feeling his warm chest beneath his cheek. He doesn't want to stop doing any of those things, but now his skin goes warm just thinking about it.

"Are you mad? You look angry," Lan Tian says, reaching out as if he's about to touch Wu Yun's face but dropping his arm back on the mattress just before his fingertips make contact.

"I don't want things to change between us," Wu Yun says in a whisper.

Lan Tian pins him with a serious look. "They won't, listen, they won't."

"Won't they? We're both acting weird." He waves his arm between the two of them, meaning their general awkwardness and stiff distance.

Lan Tian gets a determined look in his eyes, and turns on his side, he rolls Wu Yun on his side too, with a firm hand on his waist, and reels him back until his back meets his chest.

"You were right the first time, we can't let it change us," Lan Tian says, against the back of Wu Yun's neck. "We have to keep doing what we always have, and we'll get used to it."

Wu Yun nods, but the feeling of Lan Tian's strong arm over his waist, and warm chest against his back makes his heart speed up. He wonders if it isn't too late for him, if he hasn't already changed.