“How about you, Shixiong?”

It turned out that Fang Xiaoxiao had just been following Ji Hualiu the entire time, so they skipped right to Xuan Lang. Xuan Lang mulled over his words for a moment before summarizing, “Xiao-shidi coaxed out testimony from a child confirming that it was a yao, likely to be in the shape of a cat. The child also mentioned that he saw one of the murders happening by the river, which was confirmed by what He Jiangshan found; some tracks indicate that the yao disposed of the body there, which are now being found. The question is, what next?”

“Catch it, of course,” Fang Xiaoxiao said. “What else is there to do? It’d solve everything.”

Shen Jing, “......” Well, she’s not wrong…

“What about the behavior?” Bai Nian suddenly asked. Everyone straightened up.

Right. Everyone had been talking about who might be doing this, but what about how to catch it? He Jiangshan said, “The reports say that the victims were reported missing in the evenings, some in the morning.”

“That’s when their families thought something was off,” Fang Xiaoxiao countered. “They could be dead long before then.”

“Other than when, it’s also important to think of who and where,” Ji Hualiu added. “If it has no intentions of coming out again after this, then we might need to find it in its hiding place, which might be easier said than done.”

“Xiao-Jiang saw it happen around dusk,” Shen Jing said in a small voice. “It might be then… And also, what relationship do the victims have in depth?”

That sent everyone else reading their case books again, while Ji Hualiu went deep in thought. Bai Nian only watched them, waiting and watching to see how his disciples would resolve this matter.

"Among the five victims, they no longer have much in common after growing into adulthood," Ji Hualiu said in the end, looking up with a serious expression. Shen Jing felt a sense of familiarity from the quiet sharpness in her eyes, sending a shiver down his spine. "When they do have business dealings, it's often done without much fanfare or through representatives, and only two were active in their family business anyhow. One of them became fascinated by cultivation, but he had no potential and so ended up hoarding what spiritual treasures he could find sold by a wandering cultivator. It did cause some family strife, but nothing severe. The fourth faced a change in fortune and lost his inheritance, but turned back around when he found success in a restaurant he started. He'd dedicated his life to the restaurant and his wife and child after. The fifth was… a very beloved eldest son of his family."

The last sentence was said with a hesitant politeness; it seemed like what Ji Hualiu wanted to say was, an old spoiled brat.

"If they weren't not really connected to each other in adulthood, then it's probably something they did back when they were young?" He Jiangshan tilted his head. In his hands, the book was bent into a roll and back the other way, over and over again; Shen Jing doubted He Jiangshan noticed his fidgeting. "Unless they secretly still kept in contact and none of their family knew…"

"Simpler explanations are often correct," Bai Nian said.

Realization dawned in Xuan Lang's eyes. "It was something in their youth. Xiao-Jiang mentioning how we were too young— this triggering event might have happened before we were born."

“But what is this event?” He Jiangshan asked.

"Two ways to get an answer on why," Xuan Lang said, rising to his feet. The rest, knowing that the current discussion was over, stood up as well. "Pour over this, or catch the yao and get the answer from the source."

______

They rushed an early dinner; Fang Xiaoxiao in particular, who was then bribed with the promise of three cages of dumplings the next day if she didn't mind the lackluster supper— they were short on time, if they were to keep an eye out for the yao. With such an early prowling hour, this was a bit sudden, but they rigged up a system.

"I'll go with Xiao-shidi to the Lower Quarters," Xuan Lang said. "It's possible that the yao will be there, especially given what Xiao-Jiang said about cats. Xiaoxiao, you're the quickest between us all, you have the best chance at a chase if you stumble upon it."

"I'll have her in the air," Bai Nian acquiesced. Fang Xiaoxiao lit up.

"Hualiu and Jiangshan can make sure no one else gets hurt in this Upper Quarters," Xuan Lang said. "If we can't catch it today it's fine, but we should strive for no more victims."

Everyone nodded.

And so Shen Jing found himself back at Xiao-Jiang's house, afternoon's red dyeing the house with desolate melancholy. He stood outside as Xuan Lang talked with the mother in a quiet voice, but Xiao-Jiang seemed to have heard them anyway and barrelled to the door, slamming into his mother’s thigh to peek round it and give Shen Jing puppy eyes. “Jing-gege!”

<Aww, what did I come back to?>

“Wu-jiejie?”

<Sorry there kiddo, had some stuff to resolve. So what’s up?>

Before Shen Jing could answer her, though, Xuan Lang turned to him and nodded at him to come inside, and Xiao-Jiang was on to him.

Only a small lamp was lit to illuminate the entire house. The dimness strained his eyes a bit, enough to leave the moving shadows on the wall a bit too alive for his liking, but Shen Jing tried not to think too hard about it and diverted his attention to Xiao-Jiang instead. The boy looked a lot better; he seemed to have put away whatever worries he had earlier in the day, and was just showing off his bamboo and straw horse toy.

“Is not a horse! It’s cat!”

Sitting beside the kid, Shen Jing blinked. “Ah, are these… the ears?”

It was two small triangular… pillows? Pillow wasn’t the best word, but they were two triangle-shaped fabric with chopped up straw or something akin to it inside, to keep its shape. They were awkwardly sewn through with a thick thread, one that wrapped round the head— each ear was slipping off their intended places and it definitely did not look like ears at all, but that was the nature of abstract art. Shen Jing rolled with it.

Xiao-Jiang nodded, moving one of the ears back and retying the thread that fixed it in place. “It’s Sansan!”

Xuan Lang and Shen Jing showed up right as the two were about to eat dinner; not long after he said that, Xiao-Jiang was called to eat, while the two of them drank tea and Xuan Lang put out the assortment of cakes they prepared at the inn for this. It was clearly a good day for Xiao-Jiang— as the boy dragged Shen Jing out to the back, his mother said with a tired smile, “I’m sorry ‘bout him, he’s not usually this… active.”

Noises from the back, mostly that of a muffled conversation; the two adults inside turned to look at the door, each preoccupied with their own thoughts. Soon after, however, Shen Jing and Xiao-Jiang returned inside, the latter disappointed.

“Mom… Sansan isn’t here again today.”

“Cats are like that,” his mother said with fond exasperation. “I’m sure he’ll be back. He’s been around for such a long time.”

Xuan Lang shot Shen Jing a look, and he explained, “A tortoiseshell cat.”

“He’s big,” Xiao-Jiang explained, putting the toy cat on the table and extending its figure with his hands to show just how big. “And really nice. Sometimes when one of the big kids is playing too mean, he comes in and scratches them so they stop.”

This time, Xuan Lang and Shen Jing exchanged a look.

“Did it?” Xiao-Jiang’s mother said, humoring him. “I think Sansan’s grandfather was like that too. I remember a cat like that when I was a child. I haven’t thought about that cat in so long, but it’s nice to know that he had offsprings.”

“Cat like that?” Xuan Lang asked.

The mother leaned back, pursing her lips in thought. “Ah, just a tortoiseshell cat, but it was a very obedient one. It wasn’t just me who found it; some of my childhood friends and I found this kitten injured and we nursed it back to health, sneaking out whatever scraps we all could get for it. It stuck around for years. After, ah… Well, it gets quite dark.”

The look she gave was aimed at Xuan Lang, but Shen Jing understood it well. Let’s talk about this once Xiao-Jiang is asleep.

Very well. They were here for other reasons, anyway.

<Things are developing well, I assume?>

Shen Jing almost startled at the sudden voice— it had been some time, and he’d forgotten that Wu-jie had returned. “Yes… It’s quite different, but it’s still ongoing.”

<Yeah, this is why I said not to worry too much. Early in the development of the plot program, it’s pretty much necessary to follow certain plot sections closely, but nowadays it’s gotten good at extrapolating the core of the arc or mission and just embed all the clues and necessary character developments— if applicable— and let it develop on its own. You’re doing fine, see?>

“...Yeah.”

It was a lively day for Xiao-Jiang, and as much as he wanted to, he couldn’t keep himself up for long. Soon enough, he was asleep, lying on his back and occasionally snoring softly. The other three were back on the table, bathed in darkness; the only light had been left there near Xiao-Jiang, who still couldn’t sleep well in the dark alone.

“It’s been years, and I suppose most of us who remember it… well, it’s just me now,” the mother said, wistful and melancholic. “Ah-Mei already moved away to another town to marry years ago. But back when I was about seven, Ah-Mei and I used to play with this boy named Jiang Ze, we called him Xiao-Ze… He was this weak, sickly kid, but he was smart and didn’t mind playing with girls. He was the one who picked up the kitten I mentioned earlier, hiding it in his house; unfortunately, an incident happened…”

Xuan Lang tensed as Shen Jing felt his body go cold. He’d read this story in the novel, but here, in this small, dark house talking with a woman who actually knew the original victim, it felt more…

Real. It was a real person who died in this cruel manner, and for that moment, Shen Jing’s heart constricted with such pain that he could understand why this mission plot evolved the way it did— understood in more ways than simply empathizing with motivations in a book.

“He fell into the river and drowned. They only found his body far, far downstream, deep in the woods, and even then they wouldn’t have found it if it weren’t for some strange activities in the forests… I… I’ve always felt like things weren’t simply that… he fell into the river, but you see.” Xiao-Jiang’s mother’s face twisted in bitterness. “I’ve always suspected that something wasn’t right, but Ah-Mei always cautioned me against speaking out about it. She suspected too, of course. But just two young girls whose friend just died; who’d believe us, and who’d believe us enough to try to investigate? We were all just poor children…”