Chapter 149 - The Fox Stumbles Onto A Slumbering Foe

Chu Yun chanced a glance towards the sliver of the Academy's walls he could see far off in the distance between the tree branches.

"We have to get inside before he leaves."

Xiao Zai's eyebrows shot up towards his hairline. "Why not wait here for him to leave through the gates?"

"What guarantee do we have that's the only entrance into the Academy?" Chu Yun was fairly certain it wasn't. They needed an alternative way to enter or leave in case there was an emergency.

Chu Yun didn't want to risk missing his brother because they played it safe. Who knew where he would disappear to next?

"Did you see another way out or in when you were inside?" Chu Yun asked Hua Nanyi.

She ran her hands over her head with a sigh, and paced the ground in front of Chu Yun, her eyebrows knitted in concentration. "It's not like I had time to see much when I was there. I saw Chu Hean almost right away. It was only by a stroke of luck that he didn't see me too." She sighed, and closed her eyes, trying to recall what she had seen behind the Harmonious Resonance Academy walls. 

"There was an odd trapdoor outside one of the buildings near the wall," she said after some time. "It could lead to a cellar, or to some sort of tunnel system."

Chu Yun grinned widely and patted her on the bicep enthusiastically. "What are you waiting for? Go back there and check."

Hua Nanyi left, but not before shooting him a withering look.

"You know she makes the medicine you take everyday," Xiao Zai said, coming up behind Chu Yun as the two of them watched Hua Nanyi vanish into the shadows. "If I was you I'd consider the real danger of her adding some sort of laxative infusion to it."

Chillingly, that sounded like something she would gleefully do. "Don't repeat that where she can hear you," Chu Yun told Xiao Zai with a scowl. She didn't need any extra inspiration.

Hua Nanyi returned minutes later, sopping wet, and furious. "It turns out I was right, the trapdoor led to a tunnel system, but it was completely flooded." This fact filled her with obvious misery.

But the next words out of her mouth went a long way to improve her sour mood. "I hope the two of you are ready for a frigid swim in the middle of winter."

What other option did they have? Chu Yun said nothing and gestured for her to lead the way.

Xiao Zai fell into step with him, a few paces behind Hua Nanyi. "It's better than laxatives."

Chu Yun shot him a withering glare, taking back every tender feeling he had been nurturing for him.

"I'm going to make you sleep on the floor at my parent's house."

Somehow, the glint in Xiao Zai's eyes made him worry he had taken it up as a challenge.

---

Just as advertised, the tunnels were completely flooded, and the water chilled them to the bone. Hua Nanyi had forgotten to mention the pitch darkness, which was only broken by the flickering glow of torchlight after they had swam for an age and a half.

Hua Nanyi climbed out of the trapdoor first, signalling for them to follow her after confirming the coast was clear.

Chu Yun pulled himself over the stairs with a grimace. His robes clung unpleasantly to his skin and sloshed wetly with each step.

He took in his surroundings with a critical eye. The entire complex behind the walls was bathed in darkness with only a few torches in strategic points lighting the courtyards between each low, wooden building. It didn't look the way Chu Yun expected it too. It more closely reminded him of a daoist monastery or nunnery. There was an air of ascetic tranquillity to it that sat at odds with its image of a place omegas were taught how to be genteel and refined members of society.

"Where to, now?" Chu Yun asked, turning to Hua Nanyi.

She pointed towards a building to their left. "I saw him go into that one. We might as well start there."

As quietly as possible, the three of them climbed the stairs up to the pavilion's landing. Hua Nanyi slid the door quietly open and they slipped inside without anyone being the wiser.

The doors opened into a narrow corridor with doors on each side. Everything was dark, and the only sounds they could hear came from the nature outside the doors.

"Just open doors and take a peek!" Chu Yun whispered after being on the receiving end of Hua Nanyi's and Xiao Zai's expectant looks.

The first room Chu Yun looked into didn't reveal anything useful. It looked like it was used to store gardening tools. The next room had three sleeping occupants and made him hold back his breath nervously. Each person was sleeping on their backs in a cot on the floor, their features made vague by the darkness of the room. Even so, Chu Yun could tell none of them was Chu Hean and retreated into the hallway silently.

From the looks they shot him when their eyes met, Xiao Zai and Hua Nanyi had the same luck.

Finally, there was only one room left. 

Chu Yun was the first to the door, sliding it open noiselessly.

The sight that greeted him almost made him stumbled backwards into Xiao Zai's chest.

There were two occupants in the room, and two cots, but only one of them was being used. The two people were locked in a tight embrace under the covers. Chu Hean had his head pillowed on the chest of man whose face was hidden by the fall of his hair. The leg thrown over the man's own intimately made it obvious it wasn't the first time they had shared a bed.

Chu Yun was frozen in place as he took in the sight of his younger brother. In sleep, he looked so much like the kind, shy boy Chu Yun remembered that it almost made his heart ache.

Behind him, Xiao Zai and Hua Nanyi were equally still, not even daring to breathe.

Only the Heavens knew when he would have an opportunity like this again. Chu Yun steeled his heart and decided to take advantage of it.

"Find something to lock the door with," he whispered to Hua Nanyi. "The two of us will find something to block the windows," he said, with a nod towards Xiao Zai.

No one was leaving the room until Chu Yun got the answers he wanted.