Morning sunlight spilled across Xiao Chunhe’s face. He raised an arm to shield his eyes, then suddenly sat bolt upright.
Yue Jingming was nowhere to be seen. Xiao Chunhe looked down at his own hands and feet, and only after confirming he had not turned into a fox did he quietly exhale. “Thank goodness, thank goodness.”
Because he was a half-demon, he had been born with congenital deficiencies. Unlike a true fox demon, he had inherited neither innate teachings nor magical power, yet neither could he cultivate like an ordinary human. Under normal circumstances, humans and demons could not produce children at all. At birth, half human and half demon, he had been a grotesque little thing. His mother had sacrificed all her cultivation and begged the elders of the clan for help before he had barely managed to survive.
The fifteenth day of every month was when he was weakest. If fortune favored him, he could maintain human form and endure it, and the illnesses plaguing his body would be somewhat milder. If not, he would revert to his true form in agony and could only survive inside the clan’s formation with the help of charm incense.
Last night he had been so intent on eating roast pheasant that he had completely forgotten. Then they had run into those refugees, and he had spent a great deal of true qi helping Yue Jingming. He had passed out while meditating… Xiao Chunhe rolled his eyes around, moved his arms and legs, and, once he was certain he was not in unbearable pain, finally relaxed a little.
Perhaps Heaven had taken pity on him because he had done a rare good deed and allowed him to keep his human form.
Noisy voices came from the distance. Xiao Chunhe stood, and an outer robe slid from his body to the ground at his feet.
“Hm?” He picked it up and brought it to his nose for a sniff.
Yue Jingming’s.
Xiao Chunhe immediately grew uncertain. He slowly wandered toward the commotion and saw Yue Jingming approaching with a water flask. Their eyes met, and Yue Jingming’s steps paused slightly. “You’re awake.”
“What are they arguing about over there?” Xiao Chunhe asked.
“Liang Yun is distributing silver to the refugees.” Yue Jingming handed him the flask.
Xiao Chunhe took it, opened it and sniffed before drinking several mouthfuls straight from the spout. Only then did the burning pain ease from his dry throat. “Has he lost his mind? Giving them a meal was generous enough. Isn’t he afraid they’ll latch onto him and never let go?”
Yue Jingming’s brow shifted slightly. “Would they?”
“My dear Daoist, haven’t you heard the saying, ‘The human heart is never satisfied; the snake would swallow an elephant’? Or the other one: ‘A measure of rice earns gratitude, a bushel breeds resentment.’” Xiao Chunhe gulped down another two mouthfuls and wiped his lips. “Greed is the most frightening thing in this world.”
“Mm.” Yue Jingming handed him something wrapped in oiled paper.
“What’s this now?” Xiao Chunhe took it and actually flinched at the heat. He unfolded the paper, and the aroma of roasted meat rushed out. Inside was a plump chicken leg.
Xiao Chunhe stared at him in shock. “You went and caught another pheasant?”
“This morning Liang Yun took those people hunting. You were sleeping too deeply to wake, so they saved some for you.” Yue Jingming’s tone was mild. “Eat.”
The full-moon night had only just passed, and Xiao Chunhe had no appetite at all. But faced with the handsome Daoist’s earnest gaze, he forced himself to take a bite. “Wow. Delicious.”
Yue Jingming frowned faintly. “There was no salt, and all the fruit had already been divided up. If you don’t like it, I can go—”
With the chicken leg between his teeth, Xiao Chunhe looked up and stared at him suspiciously. “What are you doing?”
“Hm?” Yue Jingming did not understand.
Xiao Chunhe grew even more suspicious. “You never cared what I liked to eat before. You’re acting strange today.”
“…” Yue Jingming was silent for a moment. “I am merely thanking you for helping last night.”
Xiao Chunhe remained doubtful, but he still forced down the entire chicken leg. He looked listless afterward, even more wilted than before.
Yue Jingming took his wrist and checked his pulse.
Xiao Chunhe looked at him sidelong. “Last night… I accidentally fell asleep while meditating. Nothing happened, did it?”
Yue Jingming’s expression did not change. “No.”
“Really?” Xiao Chunhe tilted his head and stared hard at him. “When my true qi is unstable, I can easily sprout fox ears and a tail like I did in that illusion. I’d hate to frighten you, Brother Jingming.”
Yue Jingming met his gaze calmly. “You only slept very deeply. You looked tired.”
“Oh.” Xiao Chunhe straightened and silently let out a breath of relief.
Yue Jingming was upright and old-fashioned. He would never lie about something like this. If Xiao Chunhe had reverted to his true form last night, this Daoist would only have despised him more. He might even have captured him in a fit of anger. There was no way he would be behaving like this… Next full moon, Xiao Chunhe would have to hide somewhere else.
“Well?” He turned his attention back to Yue Jingming and stared at that very attractive hand.
Yue Jingming released his wrist and said seriously, “Your true qi is chaotic, you carry many old injuries, and the gu demon is still dormant within you. The best course would be to return home and recuperate. Do you still have family there?”
Xiao Chunhe plucked a blade of grass and brushed it back and forth over the back of Yue Jingming’s hand. “I haven’t had a home for a long time, Rongxi. Not everything I told you before was a lie. My ties to family are thin. There’s no one in this world who cares whether I live or die.”
Without thinking, Yue Jingming said, “You could go to Zushan.”
Xiao Chunhe looked up and stared at him in astonishment. “Have you lost your mind?”
Yue Jingming said, “…”
Sending Li Yi back had been one thing. If he brought this fox demon home, his master and junior brothers and sisters would discover that he had been associating with a demon, one who had even impersonated him and whose alignment between good and evil remained unclear. His master might very well purge him from the sect on the spot.
“I did not think that through.” Yue Jingming pressed his lips together. “The mountain has abundant medicinal herbs, and decocting medicine would not be difficult. If you trust me, then as before, drink two doses each day. I will also use true qi to help regulate your body. You should begin improving within a month.”
Xiao Chunhe looked at him with a complicated expression. “You’re serious?”
Yue Jingming looked puzzled. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
Xiao Chunhe leaned in, cupped his face with both hands, and looked equal parts astonished and helpless. “I faked my death to make you grieve, then used your name to ruin your reputation, and you still want to treat me? My dear Rongxi, do you remember our wager?”
Yue Jingming’s expression turned solemn. “Of course I remember. These are separate matters. We can settle our grievances another day, but only if you are alive to do so. I told you I would regard you as a friend, so I will not stand by and watch you die. If it were Liang Yun or Shijiu, I would do the same.”
Xiao Chunhe stared at him blankly, then suddenly buried his head against Yue Jingming’s shoulder and muttered weakly, “You’ll be the death of me.”
“What?” Yue Jingming felt him trembling slightly.
Xiao Chunhe raised his head. The flippant, teasing look had returned. Carrying the outer robe, he walked away. “I said there’s really nothing I can do with you. Treat me if you want. But Brother Jingming, don’t be so casually kind to other people in the future.”
Yue Jingming caught the outer robe Xiao Chunhe tossed back and looked up at him.
Xiao Chunhe turned and gave him a deep look. “The greed in a human heart has no end.”
Foxes were the same.
“Young Master Liang, you gave us food and silver. You’re our lifesaving benefactor!” A bearded, unkempt middle-aged man looked at Liang Yun gratefully, yet wiped away tears as he spoke. “But we have no homes and no fields. This silver can only sustain us for so long…”
He Xiaonian, the quick-witted boy from the night before, looked at his elder brother and tugged his sleeve. “Brother, don’t.”
He Danian flung his hand away, turned to glare viciously at him, then dragged the elderly man beside them down to kneel as well. “Young Master Liang, please, give us some way to live!”
Liang Yun hesitated. “What? The silver still isn’t enough?”
He Danian wept. “We’re pitiful people. You said your family in Lintu is one of the great households there. We truly have nowhere to go. Please help us to the end. This humble one asks for nothing else, only that your family give us a patch of land so we can grow enough grain each year to fill our stomachs and no longer suffer this life of wandering!”
“Yes, Young Master Liang…” Seeing him kneel, someone else dropped down as well. “Please have pity on us.”
“This silver probably won’t even last us until Lintu. Young Master Liang, please have mercy and give us a little more!”
Liang Yun looked at a loss. “I already gave you every bit of silver I had on me.”
Someone muttered, “Doesn’t he still have that gold box…”
“I saw it too. It’s set with all kinds of gemstones.”
Another person lowered his voice. “Those two fighters aren’t here, and we’ve eaten our fill now. If we could take that box…”
Liang Yun’s expression darkened.
He Xiaonian rushed forward and stood in front of him. “Young Master Liang saved us and gave us so much silver. That is already an enormous kindness. We have hands and feet. We can find some way to survive. How can we repay kindness with betrayal?”
He Danian seized him by the collar and hauled him aside. “What the hell do you know? The world is this hard now. Where is there any road left for refugees like us? Who knows whether they’re in league with Prince Wenren!”
Liang Yun stared. “I’ve only met Zhou Ran a handful of times. How could we possibly be in league?”
“Everyone hear that? He knows Zhou Ran!” He Danian shouted. “All of this is just a trick to fool us. They’ll definitely turn us over too!”
The refugees, now fed and rested, began stirring restlessly.
“Kill him! Take the gold box!” someone shouted from the crowd, and others immediately joined in.
“Everyone, calm down, I—” Liang Yun was still trying to soothe them when the crowd swallowed him whole.
Although Ye Shijiu could not hear, he knew at once that something was wrong. He slipped away in the confusion and halfway down the path ran into Yue Jingming and Xiao Chunhe returning.
“What happened?” Yue Jingming asked when he saw the panic on his face.
Ye Shijiu signed rapidly and tugged hard on him, trying to drag him back toward the camp.
Before long they saw the rioting refugees and Liang Yun trapped in the middle, hopelessly outnumbered.
“Hah. See that, Brother Jingming?” Xiao Chunhe understood instantly. “The human heart is never satisfied; the snake would swallow an elephant.”
Yue Jingming gathered his qi and sprang forward. His sheathed sword struck the crowd’s major acupoints with precision, dropping people one after another. He seized the battered Liang Yun from the middle and hauled him free.
The refugees lay groaning across the ground. No one dared come forward again.
Still clutching the box tightly, Liang Yun looked close to tears when he saw them. “You’re finally back!”
“You know martial arts. You could have just killed them and vented your anger while you were at it,” Xiao Chunhe said irritably.
Liang Yun sighed. “I was careless. I accidentally let them see the gold box last night… But they truly have nowhere to go. That silver really wouldn’t take them far… I don’t even know what I should do now.”
“It is not your fault.” Yue Jingming looked at the refugees. In his eyes, their bodies all gave off a faint pale-green glow. “Something magnified the greed in their hearts.”
Xiao Chunhe frowned. “Didn’t we remove the formations on them last night?”
Yue Jingming tightened his grip on his sword. Across the groaning crowd, his eyes met those of the only person still standing. “Because the one who laid the formation has been here all along.”
He Xiaonian grinned. His eyes gradually took on a green sheen, and a familiar voice emerged from his mouth. “I wondered who dared break my formation. So it’s you again.”
Xiao Chunhe stared in astonishment. “Cen Shuang?”
Before the words had even left his mouth, Yue Jingming drew his sword and shot toward the other man like an arrow loosed from the string. Liang Yun and Ye Shijiu joined the fight without the slightest hesitation.
Xiao Chunhe’s vision went black.