บท 12: The Nine-tailed Fox is very rude

Wu Yun doesn't hear anything the Prince of Qi says, he's focused only on Lan Tian's strained grunts, and on the sound of the whip striking him.

By the time Rong Jizi finally lets his arm drop it feels like an eternity has passed. Lan Tian's back is a gruesome painting of criss-crossed angry slashes, and weeping blood.

Lan Tian holds himself still, with his hands resting on his knees, despite the violent shivers raking his muscles, and making the blood seep faster.

The Prince takes one look at his ruined back, and turns on his heel to leave the pavilion, followed by his retinue of servants. Rong Jizi who throws them all one last haughty smirk before running after the Prince like a dog called to heel.

As soon as he's free from the servant's grasp, Wu Yun runs to Lan Tian, mindful not to touch his wounds.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," he says, in a mindless litany.

Lan Tian looks at him through unfocused eyes and asks only, "Why are you crying?"

Qiao Xiaojian picks up Lan Tian under the arm and tries to get him to stand. "We have to tend to his wounds or they'll infect. Xin Liqin take his other arm."

Xin Liqin twirls the ends of his hair around his finger with a forlorn expression. "Such a pity, he had such a beautiful back. Lean muscles, slender but powerful, now he'll be scarred forever."

For some reason Xin Liqin's careless words make Wu Yun burn with anger. He pushes him out of the way, and takes hold of Lan Tian's other arm. "I have him," he snaps.

He and Qiao Xiaojian half carry, half drag Lan Tian into their room, where they lay him face down on the bed. He groans at being jostled and having his wounds pulled but otherwise remains quiet.

"Wei Su, we're going to need your help," Qiao Xiaojian says, bowing to Wei Su, who seems flustered at the obsequiousness, but leaves the room in a hurry, coming back seconds later with a huge wooden box that must weight half as much as her.

"You, pull yourself together, and stop standing there gaping like a fish."

Wu Yun startles at his harsh words, and pulls back the loosened robe over his shoulders, retying the sash at his waist. He doesn't feel any more composed, but at least he doesn't cut such a pathetic figure.

"I want to help," he says, kneeling on the floor next to Lan Tian's head.

"Stay out of Wei Su's way, and you'll be helping enough, she's the best doctor in Lingsi county," Qiao Xiaojian says, watching Wei Su search through ten thousand herb bushels and vials with a proud smile.

"Young master is too kind," Wei Su says, hiding her blushing face in the box.

"Is your back hurting?" Wu Yun asks, brushing Lan Tian's sweaty hair away from his eyes.

"It's not too bad," he answers, smiling wanly. He stretches a hand to brush away the salty tear tracks on Wu Yun's cheeks. "I made Wu Yun cry, I'm sorry."

"Fool, what are you apologizing for? You didn't do anything," Wu Yun says, and attempts a wavering smile, relieved to see Lan Tian talking despite the harrowing pain he must be feeling.

"Young master Jiang, may I treat his wounds?" Wei Su asks.

It takes Wu Yun a moment to understand she means him, and he nods, moving out of the way, and lets her approach Lan Tian's back with a bowl of foul smelling green ointment.

Lan Tian hisses through his teeth as Wei Su applies the ointment over the open wounds with soft strokes of a brush, muttering quiet apologies at every gasp of pain.

"Is his back going to heal?" Wu Yun asks, once Wei Su is finished spreading the ointment over every wound.

"The medicine will prevent infection and fever, but he'll probably have the scars for the rest of his life, I'm sorry," she says, lowering her eyes apologetically.

Wu Yun nods, avoiding looking at Lan Tian's back and confronting the reality that his injuries are his fault.

"You're holding your hand against your chest since that dog stepped on it," Lan Tian says from his prone position on the bed. "You're hurt too."

Wu Yun clutched his hand, and then flinches when bones shift unnaturally. "I'm okay," he says, hiding his hand behind his back.

"No you're not, let Wei Su have a look," Qiao Xiaojian says with a scowl, his next words disappear in a wave of loud coughing.

"Look who's talking, you keep coughing your lungs out," Wu Yun says, waving with his uninjured hand at Qiao Xiaojian's heaving chest.

"I'm trying to help you, idiot," Qiao Xiaojian says with a hacking growl.

"Help Lan Tian, I'm fine!"

"Wu Yun," Lan Tian says, pulling Wu Yun's sleeve. "Let her look at your hand. She can help us both."

Wu Yun concedes, giving in to the pleading look in Lan Tian's amber eyes, and shows his injured hand to Wei Su, who cups it softly between her open palms.

"I don't think it's broken, just dislocated," she says, running her thumbs over the meat of Wu Yun's palm. "I'm sorry young master Jiang, this is going to hurt."

"What is-" before Wu Yun can finish his sentence, Wei Su pulls his bones back in place with a sickening crack, making him let out a surprised scream.

"I think that hurt more than when that Rong dog stepped on it," Wu Yun says, clutching his hand against his chest protectively.

"It's necessary to put the bones back in place," Wei Su says. "Please try to move your fingers around."

Wu Yun does, and while his hand is still tender it no longer pains him to move it. "I think it's better," he says, tightening his fingers in a fist.

"Thanks for helping us," Lan Tian says, trying to raise himself from the bed.

Qiao Xiaojian pushes him back gently by the shoulder. "You can't strain your wounds. Stay in bed for at least two days. And both of you, please don't try to leave the Fragrant Lotus pavilion, or who knows what else the Prince will do to you."

"He's keeping a phoenix locked up in a secret room under his library," Wu Yun says, remembering the beast's feeble condition. "It's close to dead already."

"That doesn't surprise me, whatever he's trying to do with his experiments is probably related to the phoenix," Qiao Xiaojian says, with a shrug. "If you're not careful it will be you in that room, instead of it."

"I want to save the phoenix, I can't let it die in a place like that," Wu Yun says.

"Oh, so you want to save the bird, but just yesterday you didn't seem all that worried about what would happen to all the people the Prince brought here against their will." Qiao Xiaojian says, his tone accusing.

"That's because-" Wu Yun stops himself from saying 'we're the same'. He can't help feeling like he has more in common with that phoenix in the cage than he has with the humans whose face he borrows. The cruelty that despicable Prince inflicted on Lan Tian is just more proof of that.

Beasts hunt when they are hungry, and they kill to protect themselves, no animal would whip another to teach it a lesson. He looks at Lan Tian's wounds and knows for sure that there's more good in a single of one of his golden eyes than in all of the humans in the palace put together.

Qiao Xiaojian sighs, seeing the turmoil in Wu Yun's eyes, and deciding to steer clear of the storm brewing in their depths. "Whatever you do, don't leave this room, the Prince has his eye on you now, and Rong Jizi will be on high alert. And there's still the risk of him discovering you're not Jiang Tanmei when he takes you for his experiments."

"I won't let him take Wu Yun," Lan Tian says.

Qiao Xiaojian smiles sadly. "I don't think there's much you can do about it. He'll just have to play it safe and focus on outsmarting him long enough to stay alive."

Lan Tian wants to retort, but Qiao Xiaojian cuts him off. "We're going now. Please remember what I said. I'll have food sent for you."

He and Wei Su leave the room, Lan Tian thanks them for their help while Wu Yun watches their retreating back with a despondent sneer.

"He wants us to stay here like sitting ducks," he says, once the door closes behind their backs. "How is that going to get us out of this situation?"

Lan Tian smiles, and pats the empty space on the bed next to him. "You're so angry, sit next to me and calm down."

"And you're too calm," Wu Yun says, sitting down. "He hurt you," he swallows down the knot in his throat and continues. "I'll kill him for that."

"I couldn't let him hurt you, that's why I stepped in," Lan Tian says, taking Wu Yun's injured hand in his. "A fox should always be smiling."

His gentle words make the knot in Wu Yun's throat grow tighter.

Lan Tian raises the back of Wu Yun's hand to his lips and whispers softly against the skin, "but in the end I still made you cry, I'm sorry."

"Fool, that's because I didn't want to see you hurt either," Wu Yun says, pulling his hand away from Lan Tian's lips. This conversation is making his chest ache like a closed fist is tightening around his heart and squeezing, it hurts and makes him feel light-headed. Wu Yun wants it to stop.

He wants nothing more than to leave this horrible place, and go back to the time when it was just him and Lan Tian. Both of them trying to make sense of the human world, and get their original shapes back. Back when his only concern was how he was going to kill the Jade Emperor. Now his head feels heavy with the weight of everything that worries him, everything that he still needs to do, and all that stands in his way.

A knock at the door startles him out of his reverie. He goes up to open it, and comes face to face with Xin Liqin carrying a tray of steaming bowls of fragrant smelling food.

"Qiao Xiaojian asked me to bring over food, because according to him, one of you is an invalid, and the other suffers from terminal assholery," he says, walking past Wu Yun to place the tray on the low table.

Wu Yun remember that Qiao Xiaojian told them yesterday that Xin Liqin had completely lost his sense of shame. Judging by the words coming out of his mouth he wasn't lying. Then again, Wu Yun isn't the best judge of that.

Xin Liqin turns around to look at Lan Tian and sighs, raising a hand to his chest. "What a shame, such a handsome man...Then again I supposed the scars might give him an heroic aura."

"Why are you still here? You've already delivered the food, you can leave now," Wu Yun says, pointing emphatically at the door.

Xin Liqin cocks his head at him. "You're very rude, you know?"

Lan Tian lets out a muffled chuckle from the bed.

"Rong Jizi is a confusing person, I don't know how such a tender lover can be so cruel at times," Xin Liqin says, shaking his head.

"You're his lover?" Wu Yun asks, remembering what Lan Tian told him about love just that morning and trying to reconcile those tender feelings with Rong Jizi's cruel smile.

Xin Liqin smiles, widening his eyes as if it surprises him too. "I have terrible taste in men."

"But he's not so bad, really, he tells me all kinds of things while we're in bed, he has a lot on his mind. The Prince trusts him with a lot of responsibility, and it worries him that he won't live up to the task. He even sleeps with the keys to the Prince's rookery and stables." Xin Liqin says, sighing wistfully.

Wu Yun shoots Lan Tian a meaningful glance, and approaches Xin Liqin with an open smile.

He throws one arm over his thin shoulders and says with his fox's grin, "Really? Tell us all about those keys."