Yoko watched as her father entered through the door with an armful of wood, followed closely by Ren, who was happily carrying a couple of sticks. Saito placed the split logs in a neat pile and thanked Ren for his help as he took the little boy's sticks and placed them in the kindling pile. He brushed off his hands and, with a smile, said, "Help me get some more?"

"Ok, Papa." Ren said, and they both headed back out the door. Yoko's father's smile was so bright he was practically glowing. She honestly hadn't seen her father so happy since before her mother died.

Yoko nudged the rocker that Rei was sleeping in before returning to her sewing, pointedly ignoring the other inhabitant of the house who was doing her level best to wear a groove in the floor as she paced back and forth, muttering to herself. Yoko had been working rather hard not to laugh at her little sister's plight. She had brought her current situation down upon herself and was now reaping what she sowed, lying in the bed she made, and other similar metaphors.

When Han moved to the little property next door, their father had practically thrown Wei Lin at the boy. Yoko didn't fault him for that. He was desperately trying to make up for approving her own marriage to Shinichi. Wei Lin performed the duties of the obedient daughter, but had rebelled against her father basically telling her who to like. Yoko could fully understand that, but her little sister had not thought to consider that maybe she should actually give the guy a chance. She had not, and only very recently had that thought crossed her mind.

Wei Lin had put their neighbor in his place a long time ago and composed herself to him as his little sister. She was, by her own making, truly screwed. Now she paced back and forth trying to think of some way to salvage the situation. Her only saving grace in this was Yuji's own insistence to be able to care for himself through his first winter before actively searching for a wife. It gave Wei Lin time to broach the subject, but pretty much everything she could do to prove that she would make a good wife, she had essentially already done as his sister. She was gonna have to start over somehow.

At some point, Yoko had to put down her sewing and take pity on her sister as soon as she made sure she wasn't gonna laugh. "You should have him go with you to the summer festival," she suggested.

"I'm going to be with you and dad.”

“Dad's getting old. I have young children. We're not going very long. You don't need to babysit us."

Wei Lin shook her head. "But what am I supposed to say?" She wondered aloud.

Yoko offered, "If only the guy lived close by, and you could simply walk over there and say, 'Hey, the summer festival's coming up; we should go there together.'"

Wei Lin stopped walking and stared at her older sister. Clearly, she could not deny the clear, obvious, and easily superior intellect of her older sibling. Yoko tilted her head and cocked an eyebrow, and Wei Lin's shoulders fell. "Fine," she said.

"Go now.”

“But…”

“Go, now. Sige, sige" Yoko shooed her off and returned back to her sewing.

"Uh, fine," Wei Lin muttered, and she walked away.

Wei Lin very confidently marched her way over to Yuji's property via the path that connected their two places. All she had to do was ask him to join them for the summer festival. She had a couple weeks to figure out what exactly to do when there, so this part of the plan would be easy, or at least it should be easy. She froze when she heard an odd sound coming from Shinichi's yard. She heard the sound again,it was a long, almost pleasurable moan. "What the hell?" she asked herself just before another moan entered her hearing, along with the sound of Kiyoko's voice.

"Does that feel good?"

Wei Lin could practically feel herself turning red. Yuji moaned again, and a third voice popped in. "You are very tense here," said Kenta.

"What the hell?" she asked herself again. Either she was going to walk around the corner and find something completely normal, or Yuji was having a threesome with the Yin twins. She couldn't quite turn back at this point, and with a deep breath to steady herself, she sallied forward.

The image that came into view turned out to be the normal and more likely explanation of the two scenarios she had come up with. The three of them, Yuji, Kiyoko, and Kenta, were near the fire pit. Kiyoko was sitting with a cup in one hand and leaned forward with her elbows on her knees. Yuji also leaned forward, and Kenta holding Yuji’s arm back, the fingers of his other hand digging into Yuji's shoulders. Yuji made a noise of pain, and Kent apologized.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"WeI Lin," Kiyoko sing-songed Wei Lin's name with her vulpine grin plastered across her face. The two men turned to look at her, Kenta smiled and Yuji held up his free hand to wave. "Come join us," Kiyoko called. "I have something I wanted to ask you, anyway."

Wei Lin approached the group as Kenta finished his back massage, and Yuji stretched his neck and rolled his shoulders. "Oh, that feels so much better. I had that one stuck for a while," he said before turning his attention back to Wei Lin. “Hey A’te

Wei Lin felt herself wince before realizing that Yuji had been looking at her, and he might have noticed. It didn't look like he had. On the other hand, it did look like Kiyoko had. Her eyes went from Wei Lin to Yuji and back again. She tilted her head, and her grin grew even wider.

Kiyoko held up her cup while looking pointedly at Wei Lin. "Would you like a drink? I'm afraid I could only give you my cup. I don't have a spare."

"No, that's fine," Wei Lin replied. Kiyoko asked again, "Are you sure?" pushing the cup towards her. She politely waved the woman off.

Kenta took his seat, leaning close. "Forgive us for prying, dear Wei Lin. However, curiosity does tend to bite hard and deep. Either way, the secret is safe with us, but my sister and I have a bit of a bet going on, and we think that you can solve it."

"A bet?" Wei Lin asked.

Kyoko's smile grew wider, and Kenta confirmed, "A bet. My dear sister here thinks that your sister, Yoko, killed Shinichi, and that your father cleaned up the mess."

Wei Lin stared at the man. He had to be crazy.

He put a hand to his chest in a flourish. "I, however, believe that it's foolish to think of your dear sister as anything but an angel placed on this world to grace us. Therefore, it must be that your father killed Shinichi and cleaned up the mess. And so, I must ask you, which of us is correct?"

He was definitely crazy. There was no way either Yoko or her father had killed Shinichi. If they would have, it would have happened a long time ago. She looked from Kenta to Kyoko to Yuji, who simply shrugged with an apologetic expression. Her eyes returned back to Kenta and his white bushy tail wagging behind him like a puppy.

"I don't think either of them killed him," Wei Lin stated.

"Oh," Kiyoko piped in. "Was it you?"

Wei's gaze immediately went to Kiyoko, but Kenta interrupted before she could say anything. "Dear sister, there is no way in all the hells our dear Wei Lin killed Shinichi. The idea is preposterous."

Wei Lin didn't know if she was more offended by the fact that Kiyoko thought maybe she could kill Shinichi or the fact that Kenta thought that it was impossible that she could’ve killed Shinichi. What a weird situation. Wei Lin looked to Yuji. "Um," she said.

"Oh, don’t look at me. If I had to venture a guess, I'd say Saito killed him, and to be honest, I'd help bury the guy if he did," Yuji said.

"You didn't even know Shinichi," Wei Lin stated.

"Yeah, I, uh, I walked into town with him when I first arrived. I know more than I want to." Yuji replied.

Wei Lin glared at Yuji for a moment, but he didn't offer any more information. There was clearly more behind that story. "So you're not giving us any clues?" asked Kenta.

"No. Um, I just came over here to talk to Yuji," Wei Lin replied.

"Sorry, sorry." He backed off, his hands up in the air as though he was giving up. Neither of the twins made any moves to leave, though Yuji's attention was now fully on her.

"Um, could I talk to you over there?" she asked.

Kiyoko laughed.

Wei Lin and Yuji stood partially down the trail that connected their two properties. In the background, Kenta was pouring himself another drink, and Kiyoko was pretending to be focused on the fire, though Wei Lin was certain she was trying to listen in. "Um, sorry, I just wanted to invite you to the, uh, the summer festival with us," Wei Lin said.

Yuji nodded. "Not sure. Gonna be honest, I was kind of gonna use it as an excuse to introduce myself to some of the girls I haven't yet met." Wei Lin grit her teeth as he looked back at his house. "Now that I've got the house practically built, I'm feeling pretty confident I'm gonna be able to support myself this winter, and I think it'd be all right to accelerate some of my plans."

"I could introduce you to some of my friends." Wei Lin said, grimacing at her own words and covering the expression with her hands as Yuji's attention turned back to her.

"Yeah, all right."

“Shit, shit, shit, shit,” Wei Lin thought to herself, admonishing her stupidity. Yuji's eyebrows furrowed as she was still trying to hide her face.

"Are you okay?" he asked. Wei Lin nodded her head rapidly. "I think I need to get going."

"Okay." He said, though he sounded horribly suspicious.

"Ah, Wei Lin?" Kenta called.

Wei Lin poked her head around the bushes in response.

"If your dear sister is in need of comfort, I'm always close by. That goes for you as well," he said.

Wei Lin turned red as the fox-eared man grinned, his vulpine smile wide. She wasn't one hundred percent sure if he was being honest, which he probably was, or if he was teasing or just wanted to get a rise out of her. It was probably all of them. Wei Lin nodded and backed off towards her dad's house. "Gonna go. Bye Yuji." With that, she turned around and tried very hard not to look like she was fleeing. It was terrible. Absolutely terrible.