bgm: tenderness

Su Manor, 17 Years Ago 

The delicate-looking lady in soft pinks and furs coughed before asking hoarsely, “So my son will get well?” 

“Yes, Lady Su,” Bai Tingyao gave her a warm smile before offering her a cup of tea in bed. “The Daoist was very clear on that. All we have to do is dispel the yin energy by giving him a girl’s name. I could ask Shiyu for suggestions—”

“Shimeng,” Su Yan’er said suddenly.

“Pardon?” Bai Tingyao hesitated, looking at the frail woman shivering in bed.

“Call him Shimeng,” Su Yan’er whispered. She abruptly clutched Bai Tingyao’s wrist with trembling fingers, nearly spilling the tea as she looked at the young woman with pleading eyes. “You’ll convince Shiyu, won’t you? He always listens to you.”

“Of course,” Bai Tingyao soothed back. “Shimeng is a fine name. I’m sure Shiyu won’t object.”

“That man hates me, I know it,” Su Yan’er shook her head. “I took his mother’s place too soon. But at least—at the very least! He won’t take my child from me. My precious...Su Shimeng…”

“Shhh now,” Bai Tingyao coaxed, brushing back stray strands of hair from the lady’s sweat-slicked forehead. “You’ll need to rest well these next few days. Leave Shiyu and Mengmeng to me.”

“Mengmeng?” Su Yan’er murmured faintly.

“Yes, don’t you think it’s a cute nickname?” 

“Ah, yes. Yes, cute and adorable…just like my child...” Su Yan’er felt a wave of grogginess overcome her as she sank back down into the pillows and fell asleep. 

Bai Tingyao brushed her fingers over the other’s cold, clammy skin and exhaled softly. Moments later, she sensed a chill and glanced sharply at the corner of the room. The air there seemed to shift and ripple, filled with an unseen presence that lingered in the room.

“You…” Bai Tingyao frowned at it. “Even if you want to show your affection, don’t go too far! She’s only a human.”

The ghostly spirit seemed to panic at that, but it quickly dispersed, restoring some warmth to the summer quarters. With a shake of her head, Bai Tingyao left to check on the newly-named Su Shimeng. After all, he was going to be her little brother-in-law one day…

—

In the present day, Bai Tingyao had just finished wiping down Su Yan’er’s sleeping face when a knock sounded on the door.

“Mistress, it’s Sir Su,” a servant’s voice announced.

“Let him in,” Bai Tingyao said calmly. By her feet, Ah-Xiao was quietly playing with a large jade pendant.

Moments later, Su Shiyu strode past the dividing screen to observe his wife putting the face towel back in a basin of warm water. His face still carried traces of fatigue, but he’d hidden most of it behind a stern mask as he approached the bed. 

“Yaoyao, you can get the servants to do these things,” he sighed.

“I’m her physician as well as daughter-in-law, so I know how to look after her best,” Bai Tingyao smiled at her husband. “Besides, you don’t want this sort of thing to spread any further than it has, right?”

Su Shiyu sighed. “The servants we have now are trustworthy. And don’t you have Ting’er to help you?”

“Ting’er said she had errands in town,” Bai Tingyao said as she tucked Su Yan’er in. “Isn’t Old Madam Su just family? It’s fine.”

As Su Pinglu’s second wife, Su Yan’er had married him early in life and was only a couple of years older than Su Shiyu himself. Awkward as it was having a “mother” who could pass as an older sister, Su Shiyu had done his filial duty by the woman as best as he could with Bai Tingyao’s support. Still, his relationship with the woman had always been cold for reasons unknown, earning him Bai Tingyao’s chiding and Su Shimeng’s dissatisfaction.

Hearing this, Su Shiyu had nothing else to say. With a sigh, he prepared to leave when Ah-Xiao suddenly spoke up.

“Papa!”

Inevitably, the man’s gaze drifted to his son and softened. “What is it, Ah-Xiao?”

The three-year-old had tossed aside his jade pendant to stretch his hands towards the taller man. “Papa, pick up!”

“He’s getting so old but still acts so spoiled,” Su Shiyu sighed, but bent down to take the child. Su Lingxiao smelled of all things soft and sweet as well as the scent of his mother: peonies and medicine. Su Shiyu breathed in deeply as the toddler nestled affectionately against his neck.

“Who told his father to neglect him all the time?” Bai Tingyao tutted as she stood up to stroke her son’s hair. “Shiyu, you’ve been overworking again.”

“Isn’t it all for you and this little fellow’s sake?” A rare smile rose to Su Shiyu’s features as he teased Ah-Xiao and made him laugh. “After 15 years of marriage, Yaoyao, I consider him our greatest treasure.”

They had wedded on strictly professional terms to form a partnership that propelled the Su Clan to one of the top families in the jade trade. There was no time for children or even love until things had stabilized in recent years.

“You would,” Bai Tingyao murmured back as she petted her son. 

“He’ll be a fine clan head one day,” Su Shiyu nodded softly. “Won’t you, Ah-Xiao? Hm?”

Ah-Xiao only giggled and tried to kiss his father. “Ah-Xiao loves papa!”

“You little flatterer,” Su Shiyu laughed and pecked him on the forehead. “And what about your mother, eh?”

“Mama loves Ah-Xiao!” the boy insisted instantly. “More than Papa! More than Mengmeng! Mama loves Ah-Xiao the most!”

“That’s ‘big brother Mengmeng’ to you, silly child,” Bai Tingyao muttered back.

The family of three spent some more time together before Su Shiyu had to return to work. He promptly handed Su Lingxiao into Bai Tingyao’s arms, adding with a frown, “That Ting’er still isn’t back yet? She’s supposed to serve by your side, not go dawdling about.”

“Ting’er has always been very good with her work,” Bai Tingyao defended, “Don’t you go scolding her now.”

“She’s only been here for a year,” Su Shiyu protested, but eventually gave in. Yet before he could step away, Ah-Xiao suddenly grabbed the front of his robes. He looked down with amusement, “What is it now, you rascal?”

This time, the boy’s eyes were unexpectedly serious as he stared at his father. “Papa…”

“Papa has to go back to work now.” 

Su Shiyu was already easing those grubby claws free from his shirt when Su Lingxiao suddenly blurted out, “Does Papa love Mama?”

Su Shiyu barely had time to look surprised before Su Lingxiao asked next, “Will Papa ever leave Ah-Xiao and Mama behind?”

A bit troubled, Su Shiyu glanced at Bai Tingyao. “Maybe I really have been neglecting you two too much.”

Bai Tingyao managed to smile at him. “Answer the question before Ah- Xiao gets fussy, Yu-lang.”

“Aye, he’s a regular little emperor,” Su Shiyu teased as he poked his son’s cheeks. “Ah-Xiao, Papa loves you and Mama and most. Of course I wouldn’t leave you.”

As the child stared at him, Su Shiyu caressed his cheeks lovingly and murmured, “Papa will be with you and Mama for a long, long time.”

He managed to make Ah-Xiao giggle again and teased him further before finally leaving the room. Holding her son, Bai Tingyao could only watch her husband’s retreating back with a bitter smile.

“Su Shiyu, you liar…”

—

Back in town, Su Shimeng and Mo Yixuan had flown past multiple streets with no sign of Nan Wuyue in sight. 

“Don’t you have some way of communicating with your disciple?” Su Shimeng asked Mo Yixuan incredulously after they landed on a roof.

“These days, we don’t really talk,” Mo Yixuan replied.

“Why? Did you get into a fight?”

“Something like that.”

“Aw, don’t be like that,” Su Shimeng advised. “Even if he was the one being a brat, you’re his master. You have to be the bigger man!”

Mo Yixuan gave him a withering look. “Is that what you tell your master every time you make a mistake?”

Urk. Su Shimeng couldn’t retort to that.

Fortunately, a shrill whistle soon caught their attention and the duo turned to see a beacon of purple shooting into the skies. Seconds later, it exploded in a shower of glittering stardust.

“Star Pavilion’s signal flare,” Mo Yixuan creased his brows. “He’s over there.”

“Not bad, he’s got brains!” Su Shimeng approved. “But wait, doesn’t that mean he’s in trouble?”

Mo Yixuan had already flown off, so Su Shimeng was forced to play catch-up on his sword. “Ah—wait up!”

—

The crowd had backed off when Nan Wuyue sent off his flare, but soon surged forward as soon as the whistling noise stopped.

“What’s he doing?”

“Looks like he’s calling for help.”

“Help?! Then we have to stop him before they come.”

“Do the undead need help to deal with us humans? A single look or touch and we’re doomed!”

To be honest, the crowd here wasn’t a threat, but Nan Wuyue didn’t want to leave until he got a chance to examine the dead boy first. There was nothing natural about that death and he suspected it was connected to the Jade Ghost cases somehow. But he couldn’t fight off all these people and examine the corpse at the same time, so his best bet was to call for help.

His master and Su Shimeng were both around town, so the signal flare should capture their attention. Meanwhile, the people around him were still debating between rushing him or keeping their distance out of fear. Moments later, they lost the right to choose as two figures appeared in mid-air.

“Shizun!” Nan Wuyue’s eyes widened in relief even as the rest of the crowd fell into a panic.

“W-who are those?”

“Cultivators?”

“No, they’re here for the teen, they must be in cahoots!”

As the murmuring rose to fever pitch, Mo Yixuan creased him brows in annoyance. The next second, a sudden weight slammed down on the mob and knocked the wind out of them. Most of them fell to their knees, too shocked to even shout or make a sound. 

Su Shimeng gave a whistle as he landed next to Nan Wuyue first. “What set your master off?” he asked curiously. Releasing cultivation aura was no kind feat for anyone involved, especially normal humans. 

“He doesn’t like noisy places,” Nan Wuyue muttered. His eyes didn’t move off Mo Yixuan as he landed right by the desiccated body of the little boy and picked up something on the ground.

Su Shimeng recognized the object by its black crumbly mass even as Nan Wuyue’s nostrils flared in recognition.

“Another jade?” 

“That scent again!”

Both of them exchanged looks before running to join their companion. In his palm, Mo Yixuan held the remnants of the special jade that the little boy had shown Nan Wuyue earlier, now reduced to a wretched dark mass.

“Shizun, this is the same scent I caught on the ghost girl and—that man,” Nan Wuyue amended quickly, darting a glance at a clueless Su Shimeng.

“So it is…” Mo Yixuan creased his brows. He quickly scanned the tiny body and frowned at the results. “This one’s missing his heart too.”

“How is that possible?!” Nan Wuyue demanded. “All I did was turn my back on him and he died!”

“You cursed him, that’s what you did!” At last, the crowd around them was beginning to recover. The first to speak was Old Jian, the boy’s father. “Ghoul or ghost, I won’t forgive you for taking away my son!”

“Use your brains!” Su Shimeng shot back, “What kind of ghost wrecks havoc in broad daylight?”

“What kind of havoc can’t happen on the Ghost Festival?” Old Jian shot back. “I haven’t seen any of you people before. Those two in white, you there in the veil—who knows what foul deeds you’re getting up to!”

The rest of the neighbors rose to support him, soon heaping invectives and curses on the trio. Some of them even started to spit until Su Shimeng finally had enough and grabbed the father by the collar.

“Look, I know you’re upset about losing your son, but we’re here to help!” he snapped. “Can’t you think straight? Do murderers hang back for witnesses to pin the crime on them?”

“What does it matter if you’ll kill us all afterwards?” a woman cried out fearfully. “That man, when he landed—he all but crushed us! It only took a single thought!”

“Whether you’re cultivators or demons, you’re strangers to our town,” another added anxiously, “How can the likes of us stand up to the likes of you?”

“Tch, don’t be so dramatic,” Su Shimeng retorted before taking something out of his sleeves. “Even if you don’t know us, you should recognize the Su Clan, right?”

While Mo Yixuan was still studying the body, Nan Wuyue looked back in surprise. In Su Shimeng’s hands was a small wooden talley with the character for “Su” engraved on it in gold strokes—one of the Su Clan’s command tokens.

“I’m the second son of the Su Clan, Su Shimeng!” Su Shimeng went on. “I swear on behalf of my older brother and all the workers in his employ that we’ll get to the bottom of this mystery!”

His words stunned the crowd, with a few vocal members protesting his claim.

“What second son? Isn’t the second child of the Su Clan a daughter?”

“That’s right, her name was Mengmeng and she went away to join those great celestials in the Middle Realms…”

Thoroughly annoyed, Su Shimeng ripped off his hat and faced them head on. “Mengmeng’s only a nickname!”

There was an instant hush. This time, even Mo Yixuan looked up curiously from the corpse. He saw a row of faces around them, all of them gaping in open astonishment at Su Shimeng. 

“S-since you’re all looking, listen up!” Su Shimeng went on while ignoring their stares. “This is the token of the Su Clan Head. Seeing it is as good as seeing him, understand? The words I speak in its name are worth their weight in jade!”

“Y, yes, yes…” Voices, scattered and distracted, muttered out in reply. Even Old Jian had stopped yelling over his son to lose himself in Su Shimeng’s exquisite features.

Mo Yixuan’s angle was only enough to give him a profile view of the inner disciple’s face, but he fancied himself getting lightheaded as well. “Let’s hurry up and go, I’m done here,” he said urgently.

“You guys move first,” Su Shimeng muttered back.

“Fine.” Gently, Mo Yixuan brushed the dried cheek of the dead boy before grabbing Nan Wuyue and taking to the skies. 

“After this, go back to your houses,” Su Shimeng said to the entranced townspeople. “And get someone to help the father give his son a proper burial. You can charge all expenses to the Su Clan!”

When they nodded blankly in response, he beat a hasty exit out of sight.

—

Back in a different area of town, the trio convened with a Su Shimeng once again hidden underneath his hat.

“How did you get the clan head’s token?” Nan Wuyue asked.

“Sis gave it to me this morning,” Su Shimeng replied. “She was worried we’d run into trouble and had me take it just in case. Looks like she was right.”

“And what about your face?” Mo Yixuan asked next. “Don’t tell me that’s a special skill from the Iridescent Radiance Sect.”

“As if,” Su Shimeng snorted, then shook his head. “It’s some kind of natural charm Master says I was born with. We haven’t figured out how to control it yet, so I just hide my face to save trouble.”

“But it obviously doesn’t affect everyone,” Nan Wuyue pointed out. “Your brother and sister-in-law at the Su Manor, for example.”

“I figured out it doesn’t work on family,” Su Shimeng went on. “For the rest of the time, I hide my presence to avoid disturbing the servants.” He suddenly whipped his head towards Mo Yixuan. “I didn’t think it’d affect you of all people, though.”

“And not my disciple,” Mo Yixuan observed. “Your ‘natural charms’ are pretty fickle.”

Su Shimeng gave Nan Wuyue a contemptuous shrug. “Not everyone has the sense to appreciate beauty.”

“Aren’t you full of it,” Nan Wuyue was unimpressed.

“With good cause!” Su Shimeng stomped on a roof tile and sighed. “Forget about my face for now. We’ve got two dead victims and a clue at the jade mines. I say we head there pronto.”

“Wait,” Mo Yixuan spoke up. “Old Song was still alive when I left him. I’d like to check on him. And also—” He opened up his palm, where a pile of the blackened jade laid in a crumbled mess. “I couldn’t keep the jade intact this time either. It seems extra sensitive to cultivators’ qi, so I want to see if he has one that we can save.”

“You realize Old Song might be a husk by now like the rest, right?” Su Shimeng pointed out.

Mo Yixuan only grimaced. “I know.”

“The rest of the people on that list,” Nan Wuyue added quickly, “What are the chances they’re all dead too?”

“We’ll check Old Song first,” Mo Yixuan decided. “Then do a quick sweep through the rest.” As much as I hate to admit it, more bodies might give us more clues.

—

{extra}

Mo Yixuan: If your face is such a problem, why not just wear a permanent face mask?
Su Shimeng: And draw more attention to myself? No thanks.
Mo Yixuan: So you just wear hats and scarves?
Su Shimeng: Works well enough.
Mo Yixuan: So back on Iridescent Radiance Sect, you…?
Su Shimeng: Ah, I’m with master and junior sis most of the time, so I don’t see others much. Unless I want to bribe favors out of them, hah...
Mo Yixuan: …..
Su Shimeng: What?
Mo Yixuan: Between you and your junior sister, who’s prettier?
Su Shimeng: Duh, of course it’s me.
Mo Yixuan: ???
Su Shimeng: She’s more of the handsome type, you know?
Mo Yixuan: I? Don’t? Know? ??
Ruyi: Tch, looks like Su Shimeng’s trying to nudge me into giving his junior sister a cameo again.
Su Shimeng: Won’t you?
Ruyi: I’ve said it before, she’s not part of this story arc!!

—

—

Ruyi

with that, we’ve finally rounded out the major players of Su Manor! next we’ll dig deeper into this mystery before finally bringing everyone home...