Chapter 10: Shadow of a Cat
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The boy's house, being that this was the poorer district, was small. A wooden bed, table, stove— all was crammed into this main room, having only a woven bamboo partition when it was sectioned off. There was a door that led to the back. Shen Jing found it fine; he'd lived in a tiny apartment too, as a child, one where only the bathroom had a solid wall sectioning it off from the brewing cauldron of a living space. His mother was crushed by postpartum depression and could barely keep a job, so they lived simply and almost day to day. In fact, now that he was older, he had an inkling that it was his aunt who covered for the occasional bills that fell through…

He never thought of that aspect of his childhood as being all that horrible. He shared a mattress on the floor with his mother, sure, but did he need more space when he was just a toddler? It was also a reason why he got good at cooking, so there was something to be thankful about, he felt.

Shen Jing led the child to the table where they sat on the two available stools— a single mother, then? Well, no matter. 

"Ah, I haven't introduced myself, have I? My name is Shen Jing, Xiao-Jiang, and I'm from Mount Song Sect, here because of the reports of… en. Here because of the scary things happening. The person who came with me was my da-shixiong, and he and my shizun and the rest of my martial siblings will take care of the problem. It’ll be okay, this will be taken care of soon.” Shen Jing smiled at Xiao-Jiang. “Say, do you want to wash your face first? It must be uncomfortable to have all that sticky, drying thing on your skin. Do you mind if I put the water to boil?”

Xiao-Jiang shook his head and pointed him to where the kettle and clean water was; while Shen Jing stoked the stove into life, Xiao-Jiang went to the back room and washed his face. It didn’t take long; he returned with the front of his clothes half-wet, but his eyes were brighter and calmer now that he’d put that layer of distress away.

While the kid made himself comfortable again on the table, Shen Jing turned to Assistant 51C. "Wu-jie, are there any lists for uh, talking with kids about this…?"

<This what?>

"Fears? I'm not sure. Do you think he knows about the murders just through word of mouth or…? I think he might just be scared. Anyone would be, especially thinking about how those kids from earlier would run past talking that way..."

<Hmm… Hold up, I've got one but it's about, err, psychological first aid. It should still be useful, though. Don't they just need to be listened to? Active listening. Reflective listening. Something along that line.>

That was the thing. Listening to a child in an earnest, compassionate way, that was the hard part… both to execute and to remember. Shen Jing stayed silent as Assistant 51C poured a list distilled from several pamphlets and course notes for first responders training into his head, sorting through the examples provided too as he waited for the water to boil.

Gege,” Xiao-Jiang called out. Shen Jing startled, turning to him.

“Yes?”

The boy pursed his lips, as if in thought, then shook his head again. Shen Jing decided to return to the table and rummaged through the bag He Jiangshan had given him, pulling out a new, empty book. “Wu-jie, can I have a stick of charcoal please? I don’t think ink is a good idea here.”

<Done and done. Check your stocking.>

Shen Jing, “???”

What stocking? Also, why stocking?

<Nothing. Moving on.>

Still dubious, Shen Jing turned back to putting the book and charcoal stick on the table, pushing it closer to Xiao-Jiang. “Xiao-Jiang, do you like to draw? Would you like to scribble as we talk?”

The boy stared back at him, slowly reaching for the stick. Still, he only held it; his eyes were still on Shen Jing, seeking for something Shen Jing wasn’t sure he knew. Their standstill was broken by the kettle’s whistle— Shen Jing gave a hesitant smile and got up, pouring the hot water into the teapot. Then, bringing it back, there was another moment of awkward, confused silence as they waited for the leaves to steep.

“Do you not know what to draw? What about drawing the mountains, a river, the sun?”

"En."

"It's okay. I have plenty of paper. Go on."

Slowly, as though he'd mentally worked his way through the reluctance to mar the paper, Xiao-Jiang started scribbling by dragging a line across the page. Shen Jing smiled; it was a mess from the get go, but it was an honest kind. Xiao-Jiang then dragged the line back downwards, like a V shape from Shen Jing, and oh. He really was drawing a mountain, it seemed.

"You were really scared of your mother getting hurt by the cat shadow," Shen Jing said as a starter. "I would be scared, too, if I know a monster is around and my mother could get eaten."

Xiao-Jiang sniffed and nodded. Shen Jing poured the tea and pushed it towards him, but got a head shake. Xiao-Jiang looked calmer, at least, though the subject of the monster was brought up again.

"Are you scared of the cat shadow because it might eat your mother only, or are you scared of it eating you too, Xiao-Jiang?"

At that, the boy shook his head quickly. He readjusted his grip on the charcoal stick and scribbled a meshy orb, pressing and pressing on that spot until the paper no longer had any surface to hold more layer of that black powder. The placement wasn't where one would put the sun. "Cat shadow can't hurt kids," he suddenly said.

"Cat shadow can't hurt kids?" Shen Jing asked, puzzled. Xiao-Jiang nodded aggressively.

"It's not allowed to, so it can't."

While Shen Jing pondered over the confident statement, a knock broke the silence that had settled. He startled, but managed to scramble out of his seat with his dignity more or less intact. "Y-yeah? Who is this?"

"Xuan Lang," the muffled voice came from the other end.

Shen Jing immediately unlocked the door. "Da-shixiong!"

Xuan Lang entered with a nod, closing the door behind him. Then came the matter of sitting down— Shen Jing froze, but Xuan Lang took one look at Xiao-Jiang working on the paper and nodded at Shen Jing to sit back down.

Okay, Shen Jing, you can't butcher this for the kid just because you're so nervous about Lang-ge's presence

"Is Mom okay?" Xiao-Jiang suddenly piped up. Xuan Lang nodded.

"She will be fine. She's with all the other women, she'll be safe in a group."

It was, well, a blatant reassurance based on no real… Mm, this child's mother was in no danger, but Xiao-Jiang mulled over it before accepting Xuan Lang's words wholesale. "Good," the boy said. His expression turned serious, though it looked a bit strange on such a young face. "Gege and Dage be careful going outside alone, even if cat shadow don’t attack you.”

Shen Jing tilted his head. “Don’t attack us? Is it like how you said it can’t, Xiao-Jiang? It can’t hurt kids?”

It would be a stretch, then, to say that it only didn’t attack children. Shen Jing thought back about what Big Cat had exposited the matter of both why and who the black cat murdered. It would make sense that it wouldn’t target people who were too young to be responsible… and it wouldn’t, of course, target Xiao-Jiang’s mother. What got him curious— and a bit worried— was the fact that Xiao-Jiang seemed to know more than he ought to.

Xiao-Jiang,” Shen Jing said slowly, “you don’t have to answer if it’s scary, but… Did you perhaps… see something?”

The boy gave him a glance before returning to his drawing a bit more seriously. After several moments, he glanced up again, slowing down. “Gege believes me… right?”

Gege believes you.”

“...Mom and the big kids don’t,” Xiao-Jiang huffed, voice now tight with emotions. His lips trembled— Shen Jing reached out to touch his free hand, as if trying to channel the reassurance through skin contact. The boy wrapped his small hand around Shen Jing’s own small index finger; small as he was at age 14, it was still big enough to be a reassurance to a 6 years old. “Three days ago, I was playing outside in the afternoon by the river. It was uh, upstream. The downstream part was other kids’ territory, they think I’m whiny... My kite got stuck on a tree and no one nice was there so I had to get it myself, so I spent a long time trying to climb the tree, and it was getting like, really late in the afternoon. Then I finally climbed it after trying again and again and I saw that there was this, uh… I saw a big cat…”

Shen Jing squeezed the hand back. “It’s okay, you don’t have to rush. Drink some tea? Are you scared? Don’t be. Da-shixiong is here, and Shizun is near, too. Shizun is the Sword Saint of the jianghu, have you heard of sword saints Xiao-Jiang?”

That seemed to have calmed Xiao-Jiang down, though he shook his head. “What’s a sword saint?”

“It means in this world, only 5 people could beat him in a sword fight,” Xuan Lang said. His voice was soft but deep, reassuring like the draw of a deep lake. “Not only can he keep you and your mother safe, he can keep this entire city safe. It’s all right, Xiao-Jiang.”

“The cat was like, this big,” Xiao-Jiang pulled his hand out of Shen Jing’s hold to spread it as far apart as his small body would allow, “and it was jumping down with a big, fat man in dark green clothing in its mouth. It was almost sunset… and it was under the tree, I think. I don’t remember. But I think… the cat ate the man?”

Oh. Oh no. This poor child was a witness to a murder?

Even Xuan Lang was alarmed by this new development. “Were you the only one who saw this, Xiao-Jiang?”

The boy blinked, then shook his head. “I’m not making it up! Ask Xin-jie from the noodles stall down the street! She saw the cat too. But the big kids are mean to her, and they always make fun of her. But she saw it, I swear! She saw it when she was going to meet her friend after class!”

I was going to have a long author's note about some things about the direction this novel will take, but I've decided to let the work speak for itself. The original plot of Through the Eye of the Storm will more or less happen, but know that the core of the novel so far-- connection, support, warmth-- won't go anywhere; that much is assured.

Anyway, I can't remember if I linked this before, but meme?

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