The Nine-tailed Fox wishes looks could kill

TW: For general creepiness and unwanted (non-sexual) touching

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The next day Jiang Tanmei has a group of servants pack robes and headpieces into chests and boxes, so Wu Yun can arrive with all the pomp and circumstance befitting the young master of the Jiang family.

He also hides a whip and a dagger among the clothes, and advises both him and Lan Tian not to take them out in front of anyone.

"I didn't teach you how to play the guqin because I know a lost cause when I see it," Jiang Tanmei says, overseeing the servants work. "If the Prince of Qi asks you to play anything, just tell him you've hurt your wrist and can't play. You need to dress yourself properly every morning, if you can't do it on your own, ask Lan Tian for help, Lu Meng taught him how to do it."

Wu Yun turns to Lan Tian with a raised eyebrow. Lan Tian avoids his eyes but nods to Jiang Tanmei.

"So you really will be my servant. How the mighty dragon has fallen," Wu Yun says, elbowing him.

Lan Tian huffs but doesn't reply.

"I wish I understood half the things the two of you say," Jiang Tanmei says, rolling his eyes. "Here's half of the money my father promised you."

He hands them two pouches filled with gold taels, that they attach to their waists.

Jiang Tanmei looks pensive as he observes the two of them. Lan Tian is dressed in simple blue and black cotton robes, and Wu Yun is wearing a cream and white brocade robe, complete with a golden cuff and pin.

Lu Meng comes into the room carrying a wide-brimmed bamboo hat covered in a white muslin veil.

As soon as Wu Yun puts it on, it's as if a mist has descended on the world, blanketing it all in white. He can make out everything through the veil, but edges are diffused and softened like the indistinct scenery of a dream. Even Jiang Tanmei's sharp eyebrows seem less severe somehow.

"One last thing," Jiang Tanmei says, taking out a paper folding fan from his sleeve and handing it to Wu Yun. "A young master must always carry a fan. You can hide the lower-half of your face behind it when in the Prince's presence, you can also use it to talk with Lan Tian discreetly."

Wu Yun opens the fan and inspects the delicately rendered mountain scenery with soaring cranes over the peaks. On the horizon the words, 'I, myself, am in the mountain', are written in exquisite calligraphy.

"What does it mean?" Jiang Tanmei and his poems, Wu Yun wonders if he can read anything not covered in seven layers of metaphor.

"You'll understand it someday, now let's go outside, the Prince's carriage is waiting for you," Jiang Tanmei says, walking out the room.

A black carriage yoked to four black horses is waiting for them outside the Jiang estate's gates.

"This is where we leave you," Lu Meng says with a serious expression, stopping inside the courtyard. He bows first to Lan Tian, and then to Wu Yun. "I hope your journey goes well, and that all your endeavours are successful."

For once Wu Yun doesn't have anything scathing to say and just nods.

"Be careful. Don't die. We'll see each other soon," Jiang Tanmei doesn't bow, but he pats Lan Tian awkwardly on the shoulder, and approaches Wu Yun, to smooth out his robes and close up his veil. "Don't say anything to annoy the Prince. Not every conversation needs to be a verbal sparring match."

"But those are my favourite," Wu Yun whines in fake dismay.

The right corner of Jiang Tanmei's lip ticks up. He asks the servants to carry their chests to the carriage.

Wu Yun gets up into the coach, and turns around to catch one last glimpse of the Jiang estate where he spent almost a week, and of Jiang Tanmei and Lu Meng, staying out of sight of the Prince's servants, under the shade of a weeping willow.

Lan Tian helps him navigate his long sleeves and the billowy veil, and sit down inside the coach.

The ride starts before Wu Yun has the time to realize it's happening. He's jostled inside, as the large wheels roll over the cobbled street, and ends up squeezed against Lan Tian.

"Are you worried? About what we'll find in the Prince's estate?" Lan Tian asks him, trying to discern his expression under the white veil.

"What is there to worry about? We'll be rid of the Prince faster than we were of Jiang Tanmei and Lu Meng," Wu Yun says.

Despite his carefree words they spend the entire three-hour ride in silence.

After riding through a dirt-road a few li out of the nearest town, they finally arrive at a large palace, nestled between a thick outcropping of tall pine trees.

The main pavilion is so grand that they could see it in the distance even several li away.

The carriage driver leads them straight through the tall gates and into the estate itself. Save for a few servants with heads bowed low, no one else seems to be waiting for them.

Lan Tian helps Wu Yun out of the carriage, fulfilling his role of the young master's personal manservant. Their chests are immediately carried away by a group of silent servants.

"Please follow me, Young Master Jiang, I will take you to meet his Highness," says a servant girl, no older than fourteen.

They follow after her into the main pavilion. The first thing Wu Yun notices about the Qi estate is how dark it is. While the Jiang house was always airy and filled with light, here all the windows are bolted shut, and heavy drapes and tapestries cover every available surface of the walls.

The servant girl leads them into a large hall, with a tall ceiling and several weapons mounted in racks on the walls. A suit of armour is displayed behind the throne-like chair on the raised platform against the hall's north wall.

The Prince is sitting on his chair, behind a table, apparently engrossed in some scrolls.

He seems not to have noticed their presence at first, but he then raises one arm and motions them forward while keeping his eyes on the scroll.

Wu Yun bows, just as Jiang Tanmei instructed him to, and greets the Prince. "This humble one thanks His Highness for his kind invitation."

The Prince of Qi is younger than Wu Yun expected. In his mind's eye he saw a balding middle-aged man with a soft stomach, but the prince must be in his mid-thirties at most, and still has a full head of long, lustrous black hair. He would be called handsome, if not for his two ice chip eyes, as desolate as the jagged edge of a ravine, and just as deadly.

The Prince doesn't acknowledge his words, but looks up from his scrolls long enough to scowl.

"Why are you wearing that? Take it off!" he shouts, pointing at Wu Yun's veil.

Wu Yun decides then that he will give him a slow death. He removes the veiled hat envisioning sticking the dagger Jiang Tanmei gave him through the prince's cold eyes.

He takes out the fan from his waist belt as soon as the veil is off and opens it in front of his face. He looks sideways at Lan Tian and spares him a look that he hopes conveys all his distaste for the present situation.

Lan Tian almost smiles, but manages to hold himself back.

"Why are you hiding your face like a flustered maiden?" The prince asks, getting up from his chair and circling the table in Wu Yun's direction.

"My young master suffered an accident, and doesn't want to show his damaged face in front of His Highness," Lan Tian says, throwing one arm in front of Wu Yun's chest.

The prince ignores him and takes hold of Wu Yun's wrist, gripping it tightly and making him lower the fan.

Wu Yun meets his cold eyes with a look of pure hatred, incapable of hiding his disgust at the feel of the Prince's hands on him.

The prince holds Wu Yun's chin up with his other hand, turning it this way and that, as if inspecting a horse's teeth.

"He looks fine to me, better than I remembered." The Prince smirks at the twist of revulsion in Wu Yun's lips. "The young master of the Jiang family has grown more beautiful since I last saw him."

He runs a thumb over Wu Yun's smooth cheekbone, who turns away from his fingers. "Not that it matters."

Wu Yun doesn't understand the human concept of beauty yet, but he wishes he was hideous if only to never be looked at like that.

The Prince's smile widens like a fresh wound at the barely contained hatred in Wu Yun's clear eyes.

Lan Tian's hands are balled into fists at his sides, his short nails cutting crescent moons into his palm.

"Take them to the Fragrant Lotus courtyard," the Prince says, to the young servant who's been kowtowing on the floor the entire time since they walked in. "I'll have the pleasure of Young Master Jiang's company some other time."

He waves them off with a dismissive flick of his sleeve, and goes back to his scrolls.

They leave the hall without another word.

Lan Tian walks a few steps behind the servant girl, with Wu Yun at his side.

He waits until she's out of hearing distance to whisper angrily, "If he had touched you again, I might have tried to kill him with my bare hands."

"You and me both," Wu Yun says, almost spitting out the words. "I'd rather be slapped by Jiang Tanmei a thousand times than be touched by him again."

"At least when Jiang Tanmei slaps you I know you deserve it."

Wu Yun laughs, more loudly than he intended, and elbows Lan Tian on the side. Some of the tension seems to have dissipated, the charged energy of the hall no longer weights him down.

They cross a bridge to arrive the Fragrant Lotus pavilion, which sits in a middle of lake, peppered with blooming lotus flowers. The eaves of the pavilion's sloped roof are decorated with lanterns at each corner. The atmosphere is surprisingly cheery.

The servant girl opens the sliding doors for them, and motions them inside. Once they step in she closes the doors behind them and leaves.

The pavilion seems to be composed of several smaller wings, and a central hall, decorated with all manner of billowy satiny wall hangings, and landscape paintings. A strong scent of peach incense permeates the air and makes Wu Yun want to sneeze.

In the center of the room about a dozen people, between young men, children, and even two girls, surround two finely dressed young men playing a heated game of chess.

The din dies down as soon as Wu Yun's next step into the hall makes the floor crack.

Fourteen pairs of eyes turn on them at once.

One of the boys playing chess picks up a chess stone and throws it in the air. "Look everyone, fresh meat."