Chapter 199: Don't let yourself be caught

Tuya waits for Xi Zirui's ears and tails to disappear seamlessly into his clothing and hair, and then opens the door, motioning at him to stay quiet and out of sight.

"What business do you have bothering an old woman at this time?" she asks, glaring down the group of fancy cultivators in their fine robes and pristine winter cloaks.

The man leading them enters her house without waiting for an invitation, the rest of group following in after him.

Xi Zirui stays out the way as per Tuya's instructions, busying himself with drying dishes with a rag, while ignoring everything else.

From the corner of his eye he can see that the group of cultivators is comprised of adults, some of them as old as Tuya, others much younger, and a few children around his age or not much older.

One of them, a boy wearing a white cloak with a thick fox fur collar gives him a childish look of curiosity. He looks younger than Xi Zirui, and smaller than the other children who look to be around his age.

Xi Zirui averts his eyes, returning his attention to the dishes.

"Some villagers say they have seen a fox spirit running around these woods," the man leading the Group says, his eyes drifting towards Xi Zirui. "A little boy."

Tuya scoffs. "What they probably saw was my grandson playing in the woods," she spread out her arms. "You can see we wear animal pelts to keep ourselves warm."

The man's eyes drift again towards Xi Zirui. "I can see that."

He motions Xi Zirui forward with an economical flick of his draping sleeve. "Come here boy."

Tuya bristles at once. "The boy has his chores to do, don't bother him." 

The leader of the cultivators doesn't seem fazed by Tuya's complaints. His hand drifts towards his waist, where a pearly white scabbard is tied loosely to the sash around his middle.

"It's okay, granny," Xi Zirui says, stepping away from the washing basin by the window.

He stands in front of the leader of the cultivators, and lifts his chin defiantly.

Unexpectedly, the man grips him by the chin and turns his face this way and that, inspecting him deeply.

"He doesn't look like you, old woman," he says, one corner of his lips raising in disdain.

Tuya crosses her arms. "He takes after his mother, not my son."

Her tone is casual and confident, and some of the cultivators standing just inside the little wooden hut relax, ready to accept a plausible explanation.

The men with his finger lodged in Xi Zirui's skin isn't so easily convinced. "This is a very beautiful boy, very fine features. Undoubtedly he'll grow up to be a great beauty." His eyes narrow. "Not unlike a fox spirit."

A few voices of assent raise behind him, Tuya keeps her cool. "My lord must have spent his life surrounded by ugly people, then."

Xi Zirui tenses, expecting them to try and hurt Tuya for talking back to them, but nothing happens.

The man finally lets go of him and wipes his hands on his robes, as if they have become dirtied after touching Xi Zirui.

"Strip him, if he is a fox spirit there will be some sign of it on his body," he says, nodding towards two people behind him.

Xi Zirui instantly shrinks down on himself. He doesn't know if what the man is saying is true, but he doesn't want to find out either.

Tuya steps in front of him, her wizened features twisted in anger. "Leave my property, I won't let you bully my grandson."

Pitiless, the leader clasps his hands behind his back. "Seize her."

Immediately two other cultivators descend on Tuya, pulling her away from Xi Zirui by the arms. They didn't count on such an old woman to be so strong, and are clearly surprised when she fights back, managing to pull free of their hold and punch one of them in the face and kick another in the groin.

"Run," she yells at Xi Zirui, who doesn't wait to be told twice and dashes out the open door, taking advantage of the commotion Tuya created.

Several hands try to grip him, but Xi Zirui is small and nimble and evades them easily. He has another advantage, which is his familiarity with the woods.

He hears voice behind him, and footsteps giving chase, but he doesn't look back once, disappearing into the thick of the woods as the sounds of the people pursuing him grow more distant.

He hides himself in one of his and Tuya's hunting hideouts, and waits for the moon ti rise in the sky. Confident that he'll have lost the cultivators by now.

His stomach roils with anxiety at the thought of leaving Tuya behind. He doesn't know if she managed to escape the cultivators. She is strong, the strongest person Xi Zirui has ever met, but even she is no match for several adult men.

As their little house comes into view, Xi Zirui's stomach sinks further. All the windows are dark. Tuya never lets the firepit go out, especially in winter.

As fear creeps up his spine Xi Zirui's steps grow slower.

The house looks the same on the outside, but once he steps inside he has to clasp his hands over his mouth for fear that his scream will echo throughout the entire forest.

There's a pool of blood on the floor, and several splatters on the walls.

Xi Zirui doesn't realize he's crying until he finds Tuya's mangled body near her cot. 

She must have dragged herself there, wanting some peace and quiet in her final moments. Despite the grisly scene of their house she survived long enough to see the cultivators leave.

Xi Zirui drops to his knees at her side, taking her cold wrinkled hand in his. "I didn't let them catch me," he says, sobs wracking his thin chest. "They didn't catch me, I ran, just like you said."

Tuya can't answer him.

Xi Zirui hopes that at least she died knowing her sacrifice was not in vain.

He lets go of her hand, and something falls from her slack fingers. It's a small wooden carving Xi Zirui saw her work on before. It depicts a smiling fox with its tail wrapped around the shoulders of a smiling woman.

Seeing it brings fresh tears to Xi Zirui's eyes. He takes the carving and hides it in one of the pockets of his clothing.

In that moment, he makes a promise. 

He'll avenge Tuya no matter what. He will kill every single cultivator present on the day she died even if it is the last thing he does.

---

He puts Tuya to rest in the best way he knows how to, following what he's seen in the village and what Tuya roughly explained to him. He carves her name on a large stone by her grave and kneels on the snow, asking for her forgiveness, vowing once again to avenge her, promising to meet her again.

He leaves after that. Without a look back at their little wooden house, where Xi Zirui learned for the first time, what happiness was.

He takes some food and a few clothes and shoves it into a rough deerskin bag. Wrapping a wolfskin around his shoulders and head, he makes his way down the mountain, ready to start his journey towards revenge.

---

Living on his own is far harder than Xi Zirui imagined, especially because all everyone sees when they look at him is a child, and they're all more interested in doing business with his nonexistent parents.

It's just his luck then, that he's having lunch on the first inn that accepts his money without asking pointless questions when a group of people in familiar light coloured robes and cloaks walks in.

Xi Zirui turns away from them, hiding his face from view. He wants nothing more than to massacre them all, but he knows he's not strong enough yet, there would be no point in attacking them now.

He would only be squandering Tuya's precious gift.

Gingerly, taking advantage of the waiter's distraction, he makes his way out through a side door, completely unseen by everyone.

He's turning the inn's corner when he bumps into a small figure.

The boy falls backwards, his pristine white robes immediately getting muddy.

Xi Zirui recognizes him as the small boy with the finest clothes of all, who looked at him with big curious eyes.

The boy recognizes him too, his eyes widening in realization.

Xi Zirui steadies himself to snap his neck before he can scream for help.

"Run, gege, they're still after you," the boy says, looking behind his shoulder. "We're going to stay in this village for some time, so you should leave now."

Xi Zirui looks into his innocent face, looking for any sign of deception. Finding none he takes the opportunity to disappear into an empty alleyway, taking the boy's advice and disappearing into the surrounding woods.

He might have helped Xi Zirui, but that won't save him from suffering his retribution for Tuya's death.

Sooner or later Xi Zirui will come for him.

He'll come for all of them.