Chapter 9: The Nine-tailed fox makes the Dragon feel weird

Wu Yun looks at all the curious faces staring at him, and arrives at a confusing conclusion.

"None of you is dead or maimed." He almost feels betrayed by this. He was led to believe that the Prince's mansion would be a treacherous place with dangers lurking in every corner, but everyone looks well fed, and as previously noted, not dead.

He opens up his fan again to whisper to Lan Tian, "I'm going to kill Jiang Tanmei." Was all that training for nothing?

"Excellent observation skills," says the young man throwing the chess piece in the air. He catches it in his hand and walks towards Wu Yun and Lan Tian. "I'm Rong Jizi, from Chang'an, and who might you be?"

Rong Jizi moves like he owns the whole room. He has large, almost owlish eyes, and a mean slash of a mouth. He seems to have some sort of authority over the other captives, because they all remain silent as he speaks.

"This is the young master of the Jiang family, Jiang Tanmei. I'm his personal servant Lan Tian," Lan Tian says, introducing Wu Yun, before he has the chance to give up their disguise at the first opportunity.

"What a weird name," Rong Jizi says, looking Lan Tian up and down.

"Hey, I picked his name myself, I think it's very nice!" Wu Yun, chimes in.

"You picked your own servant's name? How presumptuous," says one boy at the back of the room, with the lower half of his hair tied into a braid.

"I think it's sweet, maybe he didn't have a name before," says one of the two girls in the hall. She has a sweet round face, with plump cheeks that dimple whenever she smiles.

Wu Yun ignores all these parallel conversations going on and points at the literal children sitting on the lap of two of the younger boys and trying to pull each other's hair out.

"Why are there children here? Isn't this the Prince's harem?"

From Jiang Tanmei's stuttering, blushing explanation Wu Yun has managed to gather that while human males do not bear offspring, the Prince of Qi might want a harem of them, not to give him heirs, but for pleasure. What pleasure exactly, Wu Yun still isn't sure about. It can't be the pleasure of their company, because everyone in the room looks intractable, and he's pretty sure it's impossible to hold a conversation with a human child.

"Ah, about that. You probably assumed, like most of us, that the Prince wanted you here to warm his bed," Rong Jizi says, walking around the room with his hands clasped behind his back, and a smarmy smirk on his thin lips.

Wu Yun mouths the words 'warm his bed?' to Lan Tian under the cover of the fan. Lan Tian shrugs but his ears have taken on a distinct red tint.

"The Prince apparently doesn't want us for that," Rong Jizi continues. "Which is a real relief for some-"

A boy with loose hair falling over his shoulders like a waterfall, cuts in, interrupting Rong Jizi. "And a disappointment for others! I, for one, think the Prince is very handsome."

"Didn't he kill several families who didn't want to hand over their sons?" asks Lan Tian, frowning.

The boy with the loose hair shrugs. "He didn't kill my family."

"Yes, thank you, Xin Liqin, we are all aware of how happy you are to be here." Rong Jizi is frustrated at having been interrupted, but his unctuous smirk never leaves his lips.

"My father wanted me to join the military, but I'm much happier here, reading books all day and playing the guqin."

"Thank you, Xin Liqin," Rong Jizi says again, this time carefully enunciating every word, and shooting Xin Liqin a glare. "As I was saying, we aren't exactly sure why we're here. But other than being denied contact with our families, the Prince hasn't harmed us in any way."

A thick silence falls on the room after Rong Jizi's words, but no one speaks up. He seems to be exerting his authority, judging by the looks he exchanges with some of the people in the room. One of the girls sitting besides a sickly looking boy hides behind his shoulder at Rong Jizi's cold glare.

"That's great to know!" Wu Yun says, smiling vacantly, desperate to be rid of these people and the oppressive peach blossom fragrance. "Does anyone know where our room is? I want to take a bath and rest."

The girl with the round face gets up from her pillow with a sprightly jump and approaches them with a dimpled smile. "I can take you to one of the empty rooms. That is, if young master allows it?"

She turns to look at a serious faced youth, as tall as Lan Tian, and with a sharp nose to match his sharp eyebrows. He lifts his eyes from the book on his lap long enough to nod at her. "Fu Yan may go."

Fu Yan's dimpled smile widens, and she leads Wu Yun and Lan Tian out of the hall, and through a long corridor on the east wing of the pavilion.

She points out each room's occupants as they walk past them.

"Here is young master's Xin Liqin's room, he plays the guqin beautifully, but the same can't be said of his snoring."

"On the left is young master's Ye Dingxiang's room. He is very nice and polite, but he has a tendency to sleepwalk, so be sure you keep your room's door bolted tightly."

"The room ahead belongs to young master Qiao Xiaojian. He has been feeling ill for the past days, so try not to disturb him."

"The room on the left of yours belongs to young master Rong Jizi." Fu Yan's genial smile falters as she searches for words. "He's very strict about everyone obeying the Prince's rules."

Wu Yun is tired just from hearing her speak. "You talk a lot, huh?"

Lan Tian has other concerns. "What rules?"

Fu Yan's smile falters again. "You just arrived here, you can learn all about the rules tomorrow," she says, brushing off Lan Tian's question.

"Anyway, the last room is yours, and in front is my young master Luo Guangli's room. Every servant rooms with their master, so you can come find me if you need anything." She bows to both of them, her bright smile is back in place but the light of it doesn't reach her crescent moon eyes. "I hope you have a nice rest. You can come join us in the main hall whenever you like."

The room is much larger than their room at the Jiang estate, and grander too. There's a large canopied bed pushed against one of the walls, with thin muslin curtains for privacy. The bed is made out rich dark wood, the headboard has carvings of several phoenixes in flight, meeting on top of the canopy

There's a bed roll on the floor besides the bed, a low table with a tea set on top, and wall hangings of yet more phoenixes with long colourful tails in flight.

"The Prince must really like phoenixes," Wu Yun says, walking towards the nearest painting to inspect it closer.

"Something very weird is happening here," Lan Tian says, walking towards the round oiled- paper window, to gaze at the quiet courtyard outside.

"Jiang Tanmei sure made a mountain out of a molehill, everything seems fine here. Let's just go back tomorrow and ask for the rest of our money," Wu Yun says, joining Lan Tian by the window. He looks out at the blurry image of the lake and lotus flowers, trying to understand what has Lan Tian so engrossed.

"I think the humans are hiding something," Lan Tian says, turning around to face Wu Yun. "The Prince wouldn't have them here if he wasn't getting something out of it."

Wu Yun lets out a long-suffering sigh. Lan Tian's new found soft human side can be a real bore sometimes. "Humans are always hiding something, there's nothing surprising about that."

Lan Tian smiles, indulgent. "As opposed to you? Who always tells the truth?"

Wu Yun taps Lan Tian's nose with a finger, and smiles. "Exactly, I'm always honest. For instance, I wasn't lying about wanting to take a bath."

To Wu Yun's dismay a servant informs them that the Fragrant Lotus pavilion has a communal bath pool that all guests are free to use. Wu Yun follows the servant there cursing the entire way. What is the point of a communal bath? If he wanted to bath in public he'd go to a river.

The servant leads them to an ample room with a vaulted ceiling supported by thick wooden columns. The pool in the centre is completely carved out of marble, and from the dragon shaped spouts fresh water pours in a constant stream.

"Hot water, again," Lan Tian says, looking at the steam raising up from the pool with a frown.

Wu Yun for his part is thrilled, and leaves his discarded robes to pool on the floor, as he runs naked to jump into the water.

While it was nice to have a private bath in their room at the Jiang mansion, Wu Yun has to admit he missed having enough room to swim.

Lan Tian joins him in the water eventually, with much less cheer, and just slumps against the side of the pool. "I hate hot water," he mutters.

Wu Yun swims up to him, and kicks water at his face with a foot. Lan Tian tries to grab hold of his ankle to make him stop.

He eventually does, content to thread water quietly. "Are you going to give me a bath? Is that something Lu Meng taught you?" he asks, after some time.

Lan Tian turns his face away. "I'm not doing that, and next time you play the servant, and I play the young master."

"But you're much more suited for the servant role," Wu Yun says, circling Lan Tian in the water like a shark.

Lan Tian frowns and crosses his arms. "We've gone over this, I'm a dragon, you're a fox. I should be the master."

"Yes, but we aren't in our original forms right now. From what I understand, the servants need to take care of the young masters. And your human form is much taller and stronger than mine."

Wu Yun raises his arms up, and let's them fall back into the water with a dramatic splash, as if he isn't strong enough to hold them up.

"I have such a fragile human constitution, I need you to get me out of danger," Wu Yun smirks, showing his pointed teeth.

"It's not your fragile constitution that gets us in trouble, it's your smart mouth," Lan Tian says.

Wu Yun swims up to Lan Tian, and grips his shoulders to climb on his back. "You like my smart mouth," he says, almost touching Lan Tian's ear shell.

Lan Tian starts struggling and splashing around until he manages to dislodge Wu Yun, who falls back on the water with a graceless spin.

When Wu Yun breaks the surface, Lan Tian's chest is heaving and his face is flushed red.

"Why do you get all red when I talk, or get close to you sometimes?" Wu Yun asks, feeling and odd sense of betrayal at being pushed away so vehemently.

Lan Tian lowers himself into the water, and extends a hand to Wu Yun, who ignores it and remains away from him.

A pained look crosses his eyes at Wu Yun's dismissal.

"I don't know, I don't understand it either. Sometimes you'll say something, and it's like I'll hear something else, start imagining weird things," Lan Tian says, getting redder as he admits this. "Sometimes, when you touch me I think it will burn me if you keep doing it, but at the same time I never want you to stop."

Lan Tian's amber eyes hold a world of confusion in their honeyed depths. Wu Yun takes pity on his disgruntled expression and takes hold of his hand, rubbing it between his palms.

"It's probably just a side effect of being human, you know how weird they are," Wu Yun says, in his best approximation of a comforting voice. "You can't let your human side take the better of you. Remember who you are."

Lan Tian nods, looking down at Wu Yun's dark eyes before averting his gaze.

"Let's get out of here. The warm water isn't good for you," Wu Yun says pulling Lan Tian behind him.

When he's putting his robes back on, Wu Yun feels something sharp dig into his ribs. He pulls it out and finds a tiny square of folded paper.

"Open it," Lan Tian says, over Wu Yun's shoulder.

Wu Yun does. The message reads, "Meet me in my room, second door in the east wing. Qiao Xiaojian."

CREATORS' THOUGHTS
ThirtyTyrants

So I bet you're all relived to find out the Prince of Qi isn't THAT kind of a creep, but I'm sorry to say he's most definetly still a creep, just not the perverted kind.

Lots of shady new humans for Wu Yun to hate, yay! Also, poor dumb Lan Tian.

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