The Nine-tailed Fox has a husband and child?

Wu Yun doesn't understand how they went from trying to send the humans away to suddenly having a daughter, but since Wan Mi seemed to have miscalculated he might as well lean into it to annoy her.

He places a hand on her shoulder, in what he hopes is a fatherly gesture, and says, "She is, but you'll excuse my daughter, she has a tendency to run her mouth. I don't know if we're able to help your village, we need to continue our journey."

His fingers tighten on Wan Mi's bony shoulder, keeping her in place.

The old man sighs, and rubs his hands together, he turns back to look at the rest of the gathered audience with an anxious look.

He hears a sharp intake of breath behind of him, and knows what's going to happen but is powerless to prevent Lan Tian from speaking.

"What is happening with your village?"

Of course he would want to get involved. Wu Yun should know by now that there's no crying human baby, or old wrinkly man that Lan Tian doesn't want to make his problem.

"We have been plagued by strings of violent deaths and hungry ghosts appearing on the locations where they have happened. It started about two months ago, first it was the Li family, simple farmers who all died at their house, then it was the Mu family, who are merchants and wealthiest family in our little village, all dead in the same way. The last of them were the Liang family who ran the inn. You saw for yourselves what happened." The old man says, twisting his fingers. "We have prayed incessantly, and even asked a daoist priest for help but nothing worked."

"Ah, that seems completely outside the realm of our abilities, we don't belong to any renowned cultivation sect," Wu Yun says, trying to pull both Wan Mi and Lan Tian back inside by their robes.

"Ah, the young heroes are wandering cultivators?"

This seems to disappoint the old man, so Wu Yun latches on to it. "We are. Sorry we can't be of more help."

"We'd love to try, anyway," Lan Tian says, shooting Wu Yun a glare.

That's how Wu Yun finds himself in the back of the cart with Lan Tian and Wan Mi, as the villagers insist on driving them to their village, by leading their horses by the reins. Feng Xing has issues with this and bucks and comes to a standstill several times along the way. Wu Yun feels like the horse is the only one who understands him.

"Weren't we just involved in a human mess? Why are you so eager to throw us into another?" he asks Lan Tian, hissing out the words.

"They need help. These humans have done nothing wrong, we should try to help them." Lan Tian says evenly. "Don't pretend you don't care, I saw you crying over Jiang Tanmei's death."

"That's..." The words die on his lips.

Wan Mi smirks. "You cried over a human?"

"You shut up, this whole thing is your fault! I thought you wanted to go to the Kunlun mountains, this will only delay us."

"I need to get there, but I'm not in a rush." Her tone is casual, but she avoids Wu Yun's eyes.

He narrows his eyes at her. "I think you won't receive a warm welcome once you get there. I think you were caught by the Prince's hunters because you weren't careful enough, or were some place you weren't supposed to be."

She crosses her arms in front of her chest and turns her body away from him.

Wu Yun continues, "I think your master is going to give you an earful once we get there."

He doesn't get the chance to gloat for long, because the cart comes to a sudden stop after crossing the wooden gates announcing the Liucun village. The village seems quiet and pleasant, with well maintained gravel paths, and low clean buildings. There's a pear orchard in the distance, and children trying to fly kites in the street. The only thing out of place is the nearby boarded up house with several paper talismans stuck to the door, and an altar of food offerings and incense below the window.

"The young heroes must be hungry, I will take you to my home first, before you look into the evil that has been plaguing us," the old man says, pointing to a small house wedged between two taller buildings.

The old man introduces himself as Ou Liao and takes them inside his house, and motions them to sit around a low table on scuffed up cushions. His wife, Ji Miao, who asks them to call her Madam Ou serves them tea and osmanthus cake, while fawning loudly over Wan Mi.

"What a beautiful girl, the young heroes are very lucky," she says, smoothing Wan Mi's shiny hair. "But why is she wearing men's robes? Such a pretty girl should wear beautiful dresses."

"Ah dear, maybe it's safer for the daughter of wandering cultivators to dress up as a boy? The world is a dangerous place."

Madam Ou nods gravely, looking at the stone faced Wan Mi with a pitying look. "But she doesn't look very much like a boy either, with her hair like that. Do you want me to do your hair in a pony-tail like your father?"

She means Wu Yun, who grins like someone just gave him a pot of gold. "I think she would look lovely like that."

She turns her big watery eyes on Lan Tian, her lower lip trembling, and whispers, "Great Dragon, don't let them do this."

Lan Tian looks from her contrived face, to Wu Yun's open mirth. "Do as your father says."

He turns away quickly, but not so fast that Wu Yun misses the red tint of his ears.

Madam Ou stars combing her hair with enthusiasm. Chattering about the comings and goings of Liucun as she attempts to pin up Wan Mi's slippery hair. She's markedly avoiding talking about the issue that brought them here, more concerned with village gossip, and trying to suss out details of their private life.

"The young heroes are so young, yet their child is already in her teens," Madam Ou says, conversely, turning Wan Mi this way and that to inspect her hairdo. "You must have adopted her when she was already a grown child! Very generous of you, most couples would want a small baby."

Wan Mi sputters in outrage, but Wu Yun pinches her shoulder to shut her up. "Oh yes, she was an unwanted child when we found her, had been living in the streets for years! No one would dare approach her because she didn't speak and snarled like a rabid dog."

Wan Mi glares daggers at him, but Wu Yun is too amused to heed the threat in her large eyes. "It was a struggle to teach her how to behave like a human, but with a lot of patience and dedication, I and Lan Tian were able to teach her how to speak."

Madam Ou's is as moved by the tale Wu Yun is spinning as Wan Mi is outraged. He makes sure to stare her right in the eye as he strikes the final nail in her coffin of dismay. "Her first words, barely a whisper, were my name."

Madam Ou is full on sobbing now, clutching her chest with one hand and wiping her eyes with the other.

She looks up at Lan Tian, her eyes misty. "You have a very beautiful family, your husband is a wonderful man, young hero."

Lan Tian swallows dryly, his ears completely scarlet, and turns to Wu Yun with a chilling smile. "Yes he is, too good actually."

So, maybe Wu Yun has annoyed him too, but he can handle Lan Tian. He couldn't let the opportunity to needle Wan Mi pass him by.

He grins at Lan Tian, his sharp fox grin, the one that hasn't graced his lips since the Prince's estate. "Lan Tian is always complimenting me, he says I'm great at lots of things."

Madam Ou lets out a shy giggle that sounds out of place coming from a woman of her years. "The young hero is so young, I'm sure he's full of vigor to enjoy the full blossom of married life. Of course his husband would be pleased."

Wu Yun doesn't understand her words, and Lan Tian doesn't look any more enlightened.

Madam Ou laughs at their befuddled expressions. "Oh, young heroes, don't be coy, we're simple country folk! There's no need for city decorum here. I understood that young hero meant to say that his husband often complimented his skills in the marital bed."

Wu Yun is violently reminded of the dream of him and Shu Luan entwined in the cream bed sheets. Is that what married people do? Does that mean that everyone in Liucun believes that he and Lan Tian...

His skin heats up like a furnace and he wants to find the nearest cave to hide himself in. He chances a look at Lan Tian, who looks no less mortified.

He has made a grave miscalculation.

Wan Mi notices the panicked look on his face and decides to enact her revenge. "That's right! My parents are very passionate, if it wasn't for their duties as cultivators, they would spend the entire day lost in lovemaking."

Lan Tian and Wu Yun hold their hands in front of Wan Mi's mouth at the same time, cutting off her gleeful, sordid, account.

Lan Tian curves his head to Madam Ou. "I apologize on Wan Mi's behalf, she doesn't know what she's saying."

Madam Ou waves his apology away. "Oh young hero, I'm well aware that children say the damnedest things. Don't worry, I know not to pay a young child's words any mind."

Wu Yun would never be that lucky, so he's quite sure that Wan Mi's words are permanently recorded in Madam Ou's mind.

"We should go have a look at what troubles the village now," Wu Yun says, getting up and smoothing his robes with a stiff smile. "Thanks for you hospitality, Madam Ou."

He's almost out of the door when Old Man Ou comes out from one of the rooms, with a pair of robes in hand.

His cheery smile falls when he sees Wu Yun almost out of the door. "Oh the young heroes are leaving already? I found these robes that belonged to our son that should fit your daughter."

Wu Yun turns to him with a wooden smile and the grim certainty that he'll die in this house before any hungry ghosts have a chance to kill him.

---

The only bright side to the excruciating extra thirty minutes Wu Yun is forced to spend inside the Ou household, enduring Madam Ou's knowing smirks, is Wan Mi's current frown at wearing some village boy's old robes, and having her hair done in a men's style, with no artfully pinned back bangs, or elegant bows.

They're inside the Li family home, looking at a pile of human remains in an even more advanced state of decomposition than the ones at the inn, and burn marks across the ceiling and floors.

"We had to set fire to the hungry ghost, to kill it," Old Man Ou says pointing at the charred wood.

"Ah very clever," Wu Yun says nodding. "Would you please leave us, Old Ou? We need to be able to analyze the house on our own, it's a very private, cultivation matter."

"Ah of course, the young heroes must want to commune with the Dao," Old Ou says, nodding gravely.

"Yes, the Dao, very important to be...uhm...connected, to the Dao."

The old man leaves them alone in the ruin of Li family home, and as soon as he's gone, Wu Yun turns to Lan Tian and Wan Mi with a glare.

"The two of us got us into this. One of you better know how we're supposed to understand what happened here, and prevent it from happening again."

Wan Mi approaches the pile of decomposing flesh and smells the air around it, taking in big lungfuls of the putrid stench.

Her eyes light up with sudden clarity, and she turns to Wu Yun with a superior smirk,"I think I might know what killed them."