章 48: The Nine-tailed Fox watches a mother smile

They break away and Lan Tian leads the way as the follow the sound through the dark tunnel.

It echoes in some places and disappears in others as they traverse the narrow passage. Along with the sobbing they can hear the sound of running water.

The tunnels must lead to an underground water source. Wu Yun has the confirmation when his next step plunges his foot into cold water.

He curses under his breath and trudges on, hoping the water won't get much deeper.

They eventually reach a chamber with a higher ceiling, and the sound of the cries gets louder as it bounces around the cavernous walls.

Lan Tian listens carefully, and then starts walking left, Wu Yun takes hold of his robes to avoid losing sight of him.

They come to a small alcove, nestled away from the flowing water, where a hunched woman is trying to cradle someone lying on their back.

Wu Yun circles around them, and recognizes Jiang Tanmei. This figment of soul is as translucent at the one they saw before, and Min Fengyi's hand cross through him as she tries to hold him to his chest.

Her shoulders heave with the strength of her sobs, she gives no sign of having noticed their presence.

"Mother? I am so cold, where are you?" Jiang Tanmei asks, and lifts a trembling hand in front of his face, trying to reach for someone who isn't there.

Min Fengyi tries to hold his hand but he can't see her any more than she can touch him.

Wu Yun crouches on the stone floor and tells Lan Tian, "This must have been the day Min Guifen poisoned him."

Lan Tian nods, and the two of them watch as Jiang Tanmei shivers.

"Meng-er? Where has mother gone?" He asks, and turns his face to the side, as if he's laying on someone's lap.

Min Fengyi's sobs would tear at her throat if she was still alive, instead they just make her pale frame shake with the violence of her pain.

Wu Yun can only imagine the depth of regret she must be feeling. The worst part is that he has no idea how to break this cycle. If Lu Meng was here, maybe he could talk with Jiang Tanmei and comfort him enough to make him look into the mirror.

Lan Tian looks over at Min Fengyi. "Can you hear me?"

She doesn't say anything, but she turns her head to the side, showing she can hear him even if she can't understand his words.

Wu Yun places a hand on her shoulder, but she flinches away as if burned.

He holds his open palms in front of his chest, showing her that he means her no harm. "You can help your son. He hasn't died yet, if we restore his souls we can bring him back to life."

She shakes her head, and rips her fingers through her unkempt hair. She doesn't resemble the beautiful woman Wu Yun saw in Min Guifen's palace. Her skin is sallow, and the despair in her eyes has aged her beyond her years.

"My son is dead, he needs help," her voice comes out as a croak, ragged as her hair.

Wu Yun tries to touch her again, this time she doesn't flinch. "Listen to me, your son didn't die that day, he survived Min Guifen's poison."

That stops her, and she turns to him with huge humid eyes. "A-Tan is alive?"

"He will be, if you help us," Lan Tian says, taking the mirror out of his robes. "You have to make him look into this."

Min Fengyi takes the mirror from Lan Tian's hands, but looks away from her reflection. She looks at Jiang Tanmei, once again saying he feels cold, with great consternation. She too has no idea how get him to look into the mirror.

"Just try to talk to him, he'll notice it's you." Wu Yun moves away from Jiang Tanmei, giving her space to approach him.

She does, still hunched and frightful as if she expects all of it to be a cruel joke they're playing on her.

"A-Tan, it's mom." She tries to run her fingers through his hair, but he doesn't give any sign of having heard her, let alone of feeling her touch.

Seeing the pain in her face makes Wu Yun wonder if he had a mother. Or rather, if Ling Yan did. If she isn't an immortal too, she's likely long gone. He doesn't know how to feel about that. Some part of him tells him he should be bereft in some way, but just like every other aspect of Ling Yan's life, it still feels like something that happened to someone else.

Still, watching the tenderness in Madam Jiang's eyes, he can't help thinking that it must be nice.

"A-Tan, mother didn't leave you. I never wanted to leave you," Min Fengyi says, her voice sounds less raspy, more assertive.

Jiang Tanmei still doesn't have any reaction, he's asking for Lu Meng again.

"Do you remember when he came to our house? His family worked in the mill, but they died in that terrible fire. Your father took him in. I introduced the two of you and said he was going to be a friend for you to play with. Do you remember what you said?"

He doesn't answer, but he tilts his face sideways, one of his eyes looking up at her.

Min Fengyi smiles through her tears, as they fall through Jiang Tanmei to puddle on the ground.

"You said you didn't need any friends because you already had me."

"Mother? Is it really you?" he asks, looking straight into her eyes.

"It's me, my love. My beautiful boy grew up so fast, not soon after you met Lu Meng, the two of you were inseparable." She laughs, and some of the grace and regal bearing of the woman she must have been in life animates her features. "You forgot all about your silly, old mother."

Jiang Tanmei shakes his head. "Never, mommy, never."

Lan Tian touches Min Fengyi's shoulder as gently as he knows how. He doesn't want to interrupt the moment, but they don't know how long they have until the cycle resumes.

"Madam Jiang, you have to make him look into the mirror."

She nods, and dries her tears with the back of her bony wrist. She holds the mirror in front of Jiang Tanmei's face, so that both of them are reflected in the polished gold surface.

"A-Tan look here," she says, trying to smile at him through the mirror.

He turns his eyes towards the mirror and starts breaking into dust particles as he the other soul figment did, dissolving into his own reflection.

He sketches a smile even as his face crumbles, and manages to say, "Mother always looks so beautiful," before disappearing completely.

Min Fengyi clutches the mirror to her chest, in the same way she couldn't hold Jiang Tanmei.

Wu Yun is beginning to feel like he's intruding into everyone's pain, watching something he isn't supposed to.

"Are you feeling embarrassed?" Lan Tian asks, the corner of his lips ticking up knowingly.

Wu Yun nods. "I can barely handle my own feelings, what am I supposed to do with someone else's?"

Lan Tian snorts, and pulls Wu Yun by the shoulder towards his chest.

He runs his hand over Wu Yun's air and tells him, amused. "You can hide from yours, and everyone else's feelings, here."

Wu Yun hides his face against Lan Tian's neck, and clings to the side of his robe.

He doesn't tell him that being this close is doing nothing to quiet the turmoil of feelings swimming inside his chest.

"Thank you, for helping A-Tan," Madam Jiang says suddenly, making Wu Yun step away from Lan Tian self-consciously.

"It was the right thing to do," Lan Tian says. "Madam Jiang doesn't need to thank us."

"Besides, it will be great to have something to hold over Jiang Tanmei's head."

Lan Tian pinches his side, and Wu Yun jumps away with a laugh.

"Does Madam Jiang know where the other soul is? We already have two, there's only one missing." Lan Tian asks, turning to Min Fengyi.

She seems more present, and less deranged than the Mourning Lady Xue Zhuan described, but her eyes still hold some of that unfocused haze.

She nods, almost imperceptibly, and tightens her hands into fists at her sides. "He has him. Min Guifen."

"Does he know you're here, too?" Wu Yun asks.

"No, I haven't let him see me," Min Fengyi says, shaking her head like it could come loose from her thin neck at any second.

Wu Yun smirks. "Good. We're going to make him pay for all he has done."

---

Min Fengyi knows the way out of the underground tunnels. In fact, she has become well acquainted with the palace ever since Min Guifen brought Jiang Tanmei's souls over.

What Lu Meng thought was an ability to appear and disappear at will, she informs them in her halting, small voice, is only her knowledge of the entire building's plant. She has walked every hall, and snuck into every room. She's aware of where all the secret passages and traps are, too.

They have to find Xue Zhuan and Lu Meng first, and Min Fengyi informs them that she can follow the sound of the settling wood to know where to find them.

Wu Yun almost walks into Xue Zhuan.

"Finally, I thought the two of you had found better things to do," Xue Zhuan says.

Wu Yun tries not to think about what he wanted to happen down in the tunnels when it was just him and Lan Tian. That charged tension has dissipated and he isn't sure he's ready to revisit it.

"Madam Jiang? How did you find her?" Lu Meng asks, looking at Min Fengyi like she's the last person he expected to see.

Lan Tian fills them both in on what happened in the tunnels, and Wu Yun tells them his plan.

---

Min Fengyi leads them through a passageway between the walls, that is meant for servants to walk from room to room without disturbing their masters. Of course it doesn't make much sense in a palace where only Min Guifen lives, but he's the kind of man who cares about appearances even in the Underworld.

The idea that someone would want the people who wait on them hand and foot to remain out of sight, leaves a bad taste in Wu Yun's mouth and is yet more proof that Min Guifen deserves the punishment of whatever court Xue Zhuan sends him to.

They start hearing the sound of frantic pacing, and low muttering coming through the wooden walls.

Min Fengyi silences them with a finger in front of her lips, and moves around a bend. She takes out a wooden beam, which allows them to see into the room through the thin muslin canopy around the large square bed.

Jiang Tanmei is lying on the ground, with a look on his eyes that Wu Yun recognizes immediately. It's the same look he had when he was dying in Lu Meng's arms.

"Meng-er, don't cry," Jiang Tanmei says, straining to speak. "We'll meet each other in the next life."

Min Guifen lets out an enraged shout. "Stop, stop, why won't you stop! It wasn't supposed to be like this."

Predictably, Jiang Tanmei doesn't answer.

Lu Meng clenches his jaw, as he watches Min Guifen loom over the fragment of Jiang Tanmei's soul. Wu Yun has to hold him back to stop him from charging into the room.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this. He told me I would be able to keep you." He leans down, trying to wrap his hands around Jiang Tanmei's shoulders as if to shake him. "If not in life, then in death. I'll have what remains of your mother."

Wu Yun turns to Min Fengyi and mouths the word 'go' at her.

She slips in through the gap in the wall, walking silently towards Min Guifen, who has his back turned to her.

He doesn't hear her coming.

"Neither I, nor my son are yours to keep."