Chapter 15: Down the River
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“We can omit certain information, of course, out of consideration for those involved. Wording and delivery is another dimension to be discussed. What do you think?”

It wasn’t a bad idea— they might be able to fish some other information Xiao-Jiang’s mother didn’t know, for one. Of course, it was based on the premise that anyone would talk, but it was worth a shot.

“How should we account for the possibility of there being no more targets?” Xuan Lang asked. While he spoke, a hand reached past him for a cage of dimsum. All eyes went to Fang Xiaoxiao, who blinked as if to say, go on, talk without me. When she caught Bai Nian’s gaze, though, she nudged the bamboo container and tilted her head. Bai Nian shook his head.

Xuan Lang, “......” Communication between a sword cultivator and his cherished disciple.

“Do you think we can… You know, the fact that the cat might be close to…” He Jiangshan said, drawing everyone’s attention back to the matter at hand. “Not like have them as hostages, but to have them try to reach out. To the yao.”

Shen Jing exchanged a look with Xuan Lang. Xuan Lang said, "We'll have to ask. Xiao-shidi can talk to them."

Why is my job talking to people? But there was nothing Shen Jing could say— the conversation had moved on.

“So,” Ji Hualiu summarized, “on my side, I’ll try urging anyone who thinks they might be involved with that old matter to loudly seek our protection. The rumors of this can be spread to more people in case the yao is hiding in the city. If it isn’t, then when it strikes, we are more likely to be there with the possible victims. Meanwhile, Da-shixiong and Xiao-shidi can either try to talk to Xiao-Jiang about the habits and possible whereabouts of the yao, or if they talk with the mother, ask her to directly interact with the yao if possible. Otherwise, we ask her about any other details she might remember. Is there anything anyone wants to add?”

Xuan Lang nodded thoughtfully. “It won’t take long to stop by the Lower Quarters, so I’d like to take a look at the location where they found the bodies.”

“All right. I will take Jiangshan with me.”

Now that things were sorted out, Ji Hualiu finally called for someone to clear the tables. Turning to Fang Xiaoxiao, she asked, “You’re done, right? Now that you’ve eaten half the table, how would you rate the meal?”

“...Pretty good,” Fang Xiaoxiao admitted readily, unashamed of her appetite. Shen Jing admired her. He was sure that most of it went to her muscles. He was sure she would one day hit like a truck; right now, she hit like a motorcycle. “When I finally leave the peak to make my way in the world, I’m going to make sure I get my abundant share of pork dumplings, just mark my words.”

“Even if we don’t, you’ll be sure to remind us at a frequent interval,” Ji Hualiu said mildly. As Xuan Lang stood up, she did too, followed by the rest. The sun was warm as it streamed in through the open windows; the light illuminated the quiet determination on their faces, as well as Bai Nian’s watching gaze. “Should we regroup before sunset?”

“Mm.”

And with that, they dispersed. 

 

____

 

The early afternoon was a pleasant time to take a walk; though the sun was overhead, they were high enough in the mountains for the passing breeze to be wonderful gusts of natural AC. As they passed by the stalls, Fang Xiaoxiao peered at one or two of them. When Xuan Lang shot her a judging look for eyeing the snacks, she defended, “It’s for Xiao-Jiang!”

“Mm.”

Da-shixiong doesn’t trust me?”

Xuan Lang stared straight on ahead. “I trust you. I just don’t believe you.”

Shen Jing hid a smile behind his sleeve.

In the end, she did buy haw flakes and one or two bags of seeds, because Fang Xiaoxiao wouldn’t be Fang Xiaoxiao if she was so easily swayed. What she did, though, was hand it over to Shen Jing, eyes staring straight at Xuan Lang as she did it, as if to say ‘see? I can do this.’ Shen Jing, caught between the two of them, backed a bit.

Xiao-Jiang was playing alone outside when they found him, sitting under a skinny tree with bamboo toys set in front of him. He beamed when Shen Jing handed him Fang Xiaoxiao's haw flakes, happily saying, "Thank you Jiejie!"

Fang Xiaoxiao pinched his cheek until he almost cried.

Xuan Lang, Shen Jing, "......"

"Fourth Shijie is training to be a sword cultivator like Shizun, so she's very strong," Shen Jing explained as he gently patted teary-eyed Xiao-Jiang's cheek. Sitting beside him, Shen Jing could feel the lingering heat of the midday sun on the rock, sloped and flat and likely placed there by someone to sit on long ago. "She's really sorry, she just doesn't know her own strength sometimes. Here, let's open your snacks. Are you playing alone?"

Sniffling a bit, Xiao-Jiang rubbed his cheek several times before shaking his head. "I'm waiting for Sansan, but he's been gone… now I'm bored."

Shen Jing petted him. "Where does he usually go?"

"Umm, usually here, or our house, or by the river. But I don't wanna go to the river…"

It was a place where he saw something horrific, even if Xiao-Jiang's reaction now seemed lackluster. "It's better to stay here. Do the big kids pass by here? They won't bother you here, right?"

Xiao-Jiang shook his head. “The uncle three houses down sometimes throws things at you if you’re too loud.”

Ah. Well, that was something. In the end, they bade him goodbye. After some consideration, Xuan Lang decided against interrupting Xiao-Jiang’s mother at her work hours, too— if her boss saw this as her slacking off, it could lead to trouble. And so they travelled the beaten path that led to the fields, taking in their surroundings as they kept an eye out for any passing tortoiseshell cats.

It was not time for harvest yet, and a good number of people were idle; some others were sitting by the rice fields, fishing in the muddy waters. The path down to the riverbank was but a dirt mound that sloped dangerously at times, but thankfully the clear weather had dried the surface— Shen Jing, though he had to tense a bit and focus on his balance sometimes, didn’t have to deal with it wet too. Fang Xiaoxiao had gone on ahead, moving with enviable nimbleness. Xuan Lang, on the other hand, was last, keeping an eye on him. It was all it took for Shen Jing to not slack off.

<Slow down, don’t hurry.>

He couldn’t, Wu-jie. He lived to not inconvenience.

Shen Jing could feel eyes on them, too. His brain was perceiving them on him, but logically he was sure they were looking at Fang Xiaoxiao and Xuan Lang, both of whom looked a lot more like self-assured disciples of a reputable sect. Shen Jing probably looked like a toddler they had to bring out to play. 

Da-shixiong!” Fang Xiaoxiao called out. Her voice carried over, drawing everyone’s attention— Shen Jing felt his stomach cramp at the thought. “Should I ask, yeah?”

“Wait until I get there,” Xuan Lang replied, a bit exasperated.

There really was a difference between Fang Xiaoxiao with and without He Jiangshan. When he was around, she had someone specific to chat with, and while she would still be one step ahead and probably walking backwards sometimes to challenge herself, the conversation took the edge off. With Xuan Lang and Shen Jing, however, talking felt about as satisfying as punching a lumpy cushion. The entire time they were walking, Fang Xiaoxiao had gone on ahead before backtracking to where they were, then diverted her attention to some potted plants or chickens wandering the streets, then tried to strike a conversation again.

It probably took aeons for Shen Jing to make his way down to the riverbanks, a trek of approximately one kilometer that gave him a minor heart attack every 300 meters or so. Fang Xiaoxiao had long since started watching a child that looked about 10 years old catch a carp with his bare hands.

“We need to borrow a boat to take us to where they found the bodies,” Xuan Lang said. A middle aged man who’d been sitting on his boat stood up and nodded aggressively.

“Was the one who took the team there,” the man bragged. “‘s an awkward place, you’ll want me.”

Feeling his heart rate quicken and his breathing stagnate at the exchange, Shen Jing tuned out their voices, focusing instead on his own thoughts. It was only when Xuan Lang nudged him forward by the shoulder that he startled back to earth, stumbling forward into the boat where Fang Xiaoxiao stood.

“I wanna learn how to row boats someday,” she chattered along as Xuan Lang got in and the man pushed away from the banks. “Do you think they’ll have a class on that, Da-shixiong?”

“Ask your shijie,” he answered simply.

Maybe it was because there were a lot of people on the banks, working on the fields, or maybe because another person was on the boat, but they passed by this section of the river in silence. Fang Xiaoxiao stopped talking. She busied herself by staring at the waters, leaning over the side with her hand outstretched, as though she wanted to stick it in. Given how dirty it looked, Shen Jing was certain it would give her three different kinds of worms and parasites— could those things enter through the gap between the nail and the nailbed?

“Fourth Shijie…” Now he couldn’t stop thinking about it.

<I’m not sure I want to look it up for you because it’s bigtime gross, but don’t they usually enter the body through other means?>

Shen Jing: But do you want to take the chance?

<I’m not the one taking the chance. You tell that to your fourth shijie, duh.>

Going downstream was a quick affair; it wasn’t half an hour when they left the winding section lined with fields, leaving behind the crops waving in the wind and the people going about their days. As they left the blurry edges of civilization, the clusters of trees thickened, and soon the foliages wove canopies over the water, casting shadows meters into the waterline. The sound of trickling water and insects prevailed now, accentuated with the occasional rustles or birds flying overhead. Shen Jing sat watching his surroundings, transfixed.

"Hey, I didn't know this river branched quite like this!"

He startled back to awareness. Indeed, ahead of them was a split in the river, and one was almost a 90 degrees angle, spanning only four or five meters across. The bigger branch had tapered from the easily 30 meters stretch to only about 20, but the waters seemed stronger there, its surface disturbed. The boatman maneuvered the boat with practiced ease and in they went to the heart of the forest. Shen Jing could feel it closing in on him, almost claustrophobic.

For the first time in this entire ride, the boatman spoke up. “I can’t go too far down. But just so you know, there used to be a real small village around here, way back then. They constructed a small dam here, since the waters here go pretty far down, though it’s now mostly in shambles. Still enough to, eh, stop, you know. Human bodies from moving further down. That’s where they found ‘em. Stuck there. The stench is probably still gonna be there. Just letting you know.”

“Thanks,” Fang Xiaoxiao said, nodding.

"That all the found bodies were in this stream… It was arranged," Xuan Lang murmured, deep in thought. Shen Jing turned to look at him. Xuan Lang didn’t elaborate, though, and they went silent. Finally, the boat stopped, and the three of them hopped off.

“It’s not that long of a walk, but mind your steps. Some parts got brambles on the road,” the boatman called out. As he nodded, Xuan Lang handed him a silver piece and the three of them walked further into the forest.

"Hey, Da-shixiong. Earlier, what were you muttering?" Fang Xiaoxiao asked once they were out of earshot. It felt like it wasn’t that far at all— Shen Jing kept getting distracted by the buzzing of insects and flies that kept flying past him. They were treading a barely-there footpath right at the edge of the banks; between the insects and the possibility of tripping on a root and braining himself on a rock in the stream, Shen Jing was frankly feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Life felt like an overly slippery terrain today, and wow, what an apt analogy for his daily existence.

"How many victims are there so far, how many of them are found, and how many of them are found here?" Xuan Lang said, glancing at her. Shen Jing forced himself to refocus on the matter at hand. It was a blessing nobody could hear his wandering thoughts, not even Assistant 51C. "The river is wider on the other branch. If this was something natural, it's more likely that more of the bodies would be carried to the bigger stream. The angle of the entrance to this one was also awkward. By chance alone, do you—"

"Yeah, I get it… They must've been steered to enter this one. To hide the bodies? Or to make it more likely to be found?"

Xuan Lang sighed. "Let me finish my sentences."

"Sorry!"

Xiao-Ze fell into the river and drowned. He was found in the river deep in the woods, because of some strange activities there,” Xuan Lang recounted. “Would you bet that the yao is what caused, or enabled that?”

“It’s big enough to drag a human adult, it’s probably capable of following them here and making sure they get to this stream, sure,” Fang Xiaoxiao said, nodding. “Cat yaos… A good chunk of them can grow in size like fox ones, right? Dragging something here doesn’t need to be a perfect steer, so long as you can reel them in and keep them closer to the banks every now and then.”

Shen Jing stopped in his steps, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. After a moment, he resumed walking.

The adults who were this case’s victims were not blameless, but this was also about an innocent child who drowned…

Their destination was in sight, though. Mere meters ahead, a broken, mossy dam sat in the stream, water humming like a chime as it trickled over it.

Sorry this was late! Real life stuff. I folded like 150 dumplings yesterday! No, the dumplings are not related to the fact that it was new year's.

Speaking of new yearses, happy new year from the future! Well, it's still 2 hours til then for me, but see you in 2021 anyhow!

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