“- and then I told him I was practically his last friend in this entire city -” Qian Shanyi giggled, gesturing with a beaker of spirit wine in her hand. The crimson liquid inside swirled into a vortex, a glittering carousel of fun.
Wang Yonghao groaned, covering his eyes with one hand. Even the normally taciturn Linghui Mei couldn’t help but giggle a little.
“How do you even get up in the morning without being weighed down by all these lies?” Wang Yonghao said, lowering his hand. He took a sip out of his own beaker of wine. “And he just took it?”
“Of course not,” Qian Shanyi snorted. “But what could he do? Challenge me to a second duel? Please. No, he just started whining.”
They sat on the grass in Wang Yonghao’s world fragment, lounging around the fire node in their kitchen. Wang Yonghao bought the wine, while Linghui Mei said she would cook for them - rabbit cut into long strips, with spices, eaten straight from the pan. Convenient, since she could snack on her own ingredients.
They were finally celebrating, if in a smaller company than Qian Shanyi would have liked - and there was much to celebrate. The duel, getting rid of the spirit hunters, even the theft of the glassware. Qian Shanyi shared the story of her instructing Shizhe - though her tale quickly became disjointed and out of order, from all the questions, the jokes, and a little bit from the wine.
“I have to say, you are a pretty good cook,” Qian Shanyi noted, swallowing another strip. “Especially for someone who never tastes her own cooking.”
“I had to learn for my children,” Linghui Mei said, smiling into the distance. “And it helps to draw attention away from me. It’s not too uncommon among the jiuweihu, though some traditionalists refuse to learn on principle.“
“But who did you experiment on until you learned?”
Linghui Mei threw a dirty look at Qian Shanyi. Qian Shanyi held it for a moment, but couldn’t resist, and started to laugh.
“I can taste,” Linghui Mei grumbled, her gaze softening. “I just get sick if it is too much. But really, it’s not that difficult to follow a recipe.”
“That doesn’t answer my question,” Qian Shanyi said, her laugh slowly petering out. “It’s well known that the palate of every species is different, especially when it comes to foods that are toxic to one or the other. You could hardly learn to cook for humans by relying on your own taste.”
Linghui Mei bit her lip, then sighed. “One of my human husbands,” she admitted. “He is a farmer, and a decent cook, I’ve been told.”
“One of?” Wang Yonghao asked curiously.
“He knows you are a jiuweihu?” Qian Shanyi asked at the same time.
Linghui Mei looked between the two, her eyebrows furrowed. “Yes,” she finally said, picking up four strips of rabbit off the pan and setting them aside on a plate, handing it off to Qian Shanyi, before putting new ones on the pan. “One of. And yes, he knows. How could he not? I still had to feast every week, when I lived with him.”
“But you left,” Qian Shanyi said, “because you can’t stay in one place, to avoid suspicion.”
Linghui Mei looked away. A corner of her lips trembled slightly.
Pain. Because of what she had to do, or what she couldn’t?
In her mind’s eye, Qian Shanyi could trace out implications, a shadow around what Linghui Mei had said. If the man was human, and knew Linghui Mei was a jiuweihu, he was obligated to report her, by the sapient life incompatibility act. Somehow, she had convinced him not to, at least for long enough to raise a child - but she would have had to leave eventually, to spread out her hunts. Once she did, others around the husband would begin to question what happened to his wife. That thread had to be tied off - perhaps by staging her own death, and never turning back. Only scant visits, from then on, if that.
Qian Shanyi did wonder how Linghui Mei could raise her children, while always on the move. Perhaps she simply didn’t.
And in the back of Qian Shanyi’s mind, another question stirred. Linghui Mei said she never harmed an ordinary person - and she believed her. But how many other jiuweihu did, if their spouse decided to tell the spirit hunters?
Best not to ask, for now.
The ways she spoke - she said husbands, not spouses. Jiuweihu could take the shape of men as well as women - perhaps it was nothing, but to Qian Shanyi’s ear the distinction seemed important, if perhaps subconscious.
It was well-known that children of cultivators were more likely to be cultivators themselves. Not by that much - the chances were still well below one in a hundred - but enough that back in the days of the cultivator clans, the richest of cultivators would take dozens of wives, all to have a chance of producing a direct disciple who was their own offspring. A tradition thankfully relegated to history - but the fact remained.
Many, many possibilities. Linghui Mei had said some of her children were human - perhaps that was a part of it, or perhaps it had to do with how she raised them. She would have to interrogate Linghui Mei about it later, once she could visit a proper library, and consult medical texts - if they knew how the jiuweihu’s unique meridian network developed in the womb, they might find something to help their quest for a better spiritual energy recirculation law.
But for now, if Linghui Mei didn’t want to talk about it -
“I didn’t know you could, um,” Wang Yonghao began, inadvertently stumbling into Qian Shanyi’s exact line of reasoning, much like an elephant stumbling through the wall of a building. He stopped himself, blushing deeply, and tried to cover a cough with a sip from his beaker. “Nevermind.”
“Nevermind what?” Linghui Mei asked sharply. Her voice was tinged with concealed anger, at a fool who poked something he shouldn’t, and just a bit of embarrassment.
Oh sweet mercy.
Wang Yonghao and Linghui Mei seemed to be getting along a bit better after Qian Shanyi poked Wang Yonghao into making an effort - but the jiuweihu was still quick to anger, and knowing Wang Yonghao’s loose tongue… He could drive a fissure so deep they’d never reconcile in a single blink.
This called for emergency measures.
“He meant ‘Have hot, passionate sex with humans’,” Qian Shanyi said, grinning at Wang Yonghao. “And have children, presumably.”
Wang Yonghao grew beetroot-red and reached out, flicking Qian Shanyi on her forehead. She didn’t even try to dodge. Her spiritual shield sparked slightly, and she started to laugh again.
“Never in my life would I have phrased it that way!” Wang Yonghao said, scandalized, glaring at her.
“Right, that’s what you have me for!” Qian Shanyi said, only laughing harder. The spirit wine was getting to her head, just a bit. “Why, Yonghao, are you angling for some kind of demonstration?”
Now it was Linghui Mei’s turn to blush. She coughed politely into her fist, and looked away, her anger at the fool forgotten entirely.
“I am not!” Wang Yonghao shouted, before closing his eyes, breathing out, and turning back to Linghui Mei. “I am sorry, I shouldn’t have spoken,” he said, “especially not with Shanyi here.”
“What did I do?”
“You decided to be born perverted.”
“That’s hardly on me,” Qian Shanyi snorted. “If you have complaints, address them to my parents.”
Wang Yonghao glared at her harder. “You -” he said, helplessly gesturing to Linghui Mei, who was still looking away in embarrassment, trying to find a place for her hands. “How could you embarrass her like this? It’s bad enough that I misspoke, but why do you have to push her?”
Ah, so he can think!
“I sincerely apologize for embarrassing you, Mei,” Qian Shanyi said, putting her beaker of wine up against her chest. “However, as Wang Yonghao had just established, I have been cursed to be beautiful and fabulous and always correct from birth -”
“That’s not what I said!”
“- and so there is nothing whatsoever that I could have done about it,” Qian Shanyi concluded, covering her eyes tragically with one hand. “Ah, if only I was born different! Truly, the suffering of my existence knows no end!”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Twin glares met her eyes, embarrassment transforming into hatred of a common enemy at the speed of alchemy. Then they turned to each other, and both nodded, as if reaching some silent accord.
“Yonghao,” Linghui Mei said coldly, getting up and circling around Qian Shanyi, her arms spread wide. “Would you kindly help me with my master?”
“With pleasure,” Wang Yonghao said grimly, setting his beaker of wine down on the grass, and getting up as well. He rubbed his hands together in preparation, unclipped his sword, and tossed it aside.
Qian Shanyi leapt up onto her feet, quickly backing out of the encirclement. “Woah, woah, woah,” she giggled, gesturing with her own beaker, trying to keep both of the others in her sight at the same time. With her free hand, she tossed her own sword away as well. “Is it not said that peace is built through conversation?”
“Peace? Every other word of yours brings ruin.”
“Yonghao is right. Your tongue is no different from a demon beast on a rampage.”
“Oh, come now, that’s really uncalled for -” Qian Shanyi said, and then the other two sprung at her, and she had to scramble to try and run away.
The fight ended just as quickly as it began. Neither of them wanted to hurt the others, and it was two against one. Even if Linghui Mei was largely untrained, without using her flying sword, Qian Shanyi was never going to win the fight.
But winning wasn’t the goal. The more those two worked together, the better it would be in the end.
“This is dishonorable!” Qian Shanyi shouted, struggling to free herself. She was being held up in the air by Linghui Mei’s twin tails, her hands pulled behind her back and feet held together, while Wang Yonghao left to get some ropes. “Unjust! Demonic! Free me at once!”
“This is for your own good,” Linghui Mei said patronizingly, patting Qian Shanyi on the head. Qian Shanyi snarled, trying to twist her neck around to bite Linghui Mei’s fingers, but missed. ”Children should not drink wine before bedtime.”
“Mei, if you wanted to tie me up all you had to do was ask -” Qian Shanyi began, before wincing at her arms being pulled further behind her back, twisted painfully at her shoulders. “Ow ow ow ow, please stop, these are the only two arms I have!”
“I got the ropes!” Wang Yonghao called, coming over.
“What are you even planning to do?” Qian Shanyi said, still struggling against her bonds. She just wanted to have a bit of fun, not deal with - whatever this was. Linghui Mei’s tails were frustratingly strong.
“What I must,” Linghui Mei said tersely, spinning Qian Shanyi upside down. Her long hair swept across the grass. “Without punishment, how will the children ever learn?”
Qian Shanyi froze, and then slowly turned her head to look Linghui Mei in the eyes. Her hair got in the way, and she had to crane her neck around, but she managed it. “Mei,” she said slowly, “you realize I will have my revenge in the end? For me, some embarrassment is but a temporary trifle - but for you? Do you not fear the depths I might sink to in my retaliation?”
Linghui Mei bowed slightly to Qian Shanyi, unintentionally making her bob up and down in the air. “If a disciple is not willing to risk drowning to save their master,” Linghui Mei pronounced, almost managing to hide a nervous movement of her throat, “then how do they dare to call themselves a good disciple?”
Qian Shanyi held Linghui Mei’s gaze for another moment, and then redoubled her struggles against Linghui Mei’s tails. But by then, it was already too late.
“Now you can relax and think about your jokes,” Wang Yonghao smugly pronounced once she was tied up and gagged, left to lie on her stomach. He sat down right in front of her, picked up his plate of rabbit strips, and deliberately wafted the delicious smell into her face. “And maybe reconsider the worst ones.”
“But before we free you,” Linghui Mei said, equally smugly, “your hairstyle is not appropriate for your childish jokes. I will fix it for you.”
Linghui Mei sat down next to her, pulled Qian Shanyi’s hair back, and started to do something to it. By the feel of it, she was braiding it, and Qian Shanyi could just about see her pull out some ribbons out of a pocket of her robes.
These two had to have planned this in advance. Otherwise, why would Linghui Mei have made the ribbons?
Qian Shanyi arched one eyebrow at the two - or tried to, because she couldn’t look at both of them at the same time. If this was supposed to truly embarrass her, they’d have to try much harder.
She was still not going to go along with it, of course. That much was a question of principles. She achieved her goal - now it was time for her to have some fun.
She foresaw where the events were headed, and just before she got gagged, she bit down on a couple of her own hairs. Now she slowly twisted her tongue around, drawing them fully into her mouth. The other two did not really beat her up - and so her spiritual energy shield was still intact, and was a perfect cover for her rope control technique.
Linking the hair in her mouth to the rope around her hands without seeing the latter was difficult, but by no means impossible. She just had to imagine its position based on feel, make some educated guesses - neither Wang Yonghao nor Linghui Mei were all that good at knots - and keep trying different shapes until the technique snapped into place. Her hands might have been tied, but she could manipulate the hair in her mouth directly with her spiritual energy, and by linking it to the rope around her hands, untie herself whenever she pleased.
Even if she wasted a bit of spiritual energy - so what? The world fragment was full of it.
“So did you find out where that spirit hunter is staying?” Wang Yonghao asked Linghui Mei while Qian Shanyi was busy trying to free herself from unjust imprisonment.
“I did,” Linghui Mei nodded. “About eighty meters north of your tavern. He is staying with a small family - two parents, and I think three children, though two are young and do not leave their mother, so it was hard to pick out their scents. Or rather, he is staying in their stables. I saw the third boy looking in through the window when I passed by.”
Their tavern room would be well within the range of Fang Jiugui’s spiritual energy senses. As expected, really.
“Huh,” Wang Yonghao said, taking another sip of his wine, “so what do you think we should do next? Interrogate that kid for more information?”
Linghui Mei glared at Wang Yonghao. “We will not torture an innocent child.”
“Shanyi would absolutely torture a kid.”
I would not!
Qian Shanyi could only mutely glare at Wang Yonghao.
“My master would do no such thing,” her trustworthy disciple huffed in outrage. “And I would not help you find him, if you insist on making such inappropriate jokes.”
Tie him up next, will you?
Qian Shanyi quietly bided her time while Wang Yonghao and Linghui Mei traded venomless barbs. Linghui Mei seemed to be enjoying herself, all things considered - even humming a tune while working on whatever travesty she was making out of Qian Shanyi’s hair.
Soon, Linghui Mei stood up, and headed for their hut - perhaps to bring more of those ridiculous ribbons. At about the same time, Wang Yonghao turned away from Qian Shanyi to pour himself more wine, safe in the false knowledge that she could not escape.
Now.
It was time to turn the tables.
Silent as a whisper, Qian Shanyi unwound the hair in her mouth, the rope knots around her arms quickly coming apart, and then did the same to her feet. Grabbing one of the two ropes, she sprung at Wang Yonghao from the back, and bowled him over into the grass, the rope encircling his hands and feet before he could even realize what happened.
“Mei - she is mmmm!” Wang Yonghao tried to call out, but another loop of rope around his mouth put a stop to that.
“I thought up some new jokes,” Qian Shanyi smiled dryly, tightening the rope so he could not escape. “You know, this tying up idea is hilarious. Maybe I should deliver you like this to Chu Lin? What kind of… poetry reading do you think she could take from all this?”
Wang Yonghao’s eyes pleaded with her where his voice could not, but she would have no mercy.
“What did you say -” Linghui Mei said, coming out of the hut. She stopped in her tracks, and her eyes widened from shock at seeing newly freed Qian Shanyi.
“Mei, Mei, Mei…” Qian Shanyi mused, grabbing the other rope, and quickly shaping it into a lasso, starting to spin it above her head. Now that it was one on one, their fight would go much differently. “Have I not warned you? Remind me, what was it you said about drowning?”
“Master, there is really no need,” Linghui Mei said quickly, raising her hands defensively. “It was merely a little joke.”
“A joke, hm,” Qian Shanyi smirked, slowly stepping closer. “Care to go for a swim in an ocean of embarrassing jokes?”
“A fox has no business being in an ocean!” Linghui Mei said, quickly sprinting out of the hut, and hiding behind a corner, leaving only her head to peak out. “It is a place for fish and squid,” she finished, furrowing her nose in disgust.
“Is that so?” Qian Shanyi laughed, reeling her lasso back in, and tying the rope around her waist. “Very well. I suppose it was a good prank you two pulled on me, so let’s call us even, for now. But next time you won’t get away so easily.”
She turned around and headed over to untie Wang Yonghao. “Bring those ribbons over, will you?” she called back to Linghui Mei, gesturing to her hair. Now that she could pull it in front of her eyes, she could tell that it was braided, but only partly and on one side of her head, with two dozen ribbons sticking out. “You might as well finish what you started.”
“You… want me to braid your hair?” Linghui Mei asked strangely, coming over.
“You seemed to be having fun, and I don’t care that much, so why not?” Qian Shanyi said easily, pulling the gag out of Wang Yonghao’s mouth. “And while you do that - tell me more about this kid, and the stables Fang Jiugui is staying at.”
“I told you she’d torture a kid!” Wang Yonghao immediately blurted out.
“Please,” Qian Shanyi grimaced. “I am not a barbarian. I don’t want to torture him, I want to bribe him.”