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“Xuanyu.” Qin Su’s voice quietened any previous commotion in the room with its intensity, “I need to tell you something, but I need you to make a promise to me first.”
“Anything, Saozi,” he replied instantly.
A moment passed in complete silence, like she was listening out for something other than his response. Now that he had more of a chance to look at her, he realised she was trembling, but why…? She was the sect leader’s wife, surely she couldn’t think they were in any danger. And if she did, it made little sense for her to come to him — it was hardly a secret that his skills in just about anything important were… lacking, to put it kindly.
After deciding that whatever — whoever — she was listening out for wasn’t there, she slammed the door behind her and stormed her way through his room. Anything that even remotely looked like it could be used to secretly listen in through was closed or removed with a fervent desperation. Sensing that it would be better to not get in her way, he made himself busy stretching out his cramped muscles before shifting to sit in a more proper manner.
Finally, she turned back to him.
“Didi, what I’m about to tell you, about to ask from you… it can never leave this room. Understand?”
“Of course,” he paused, “wait, why?”
Her lips contorted into a scowl, though he got the distinct impression that the glare in her eyes was not meant for him, “…I can’t guarantee your safety if anyone finds out you know.”
Eyes wide, he couldn’t help the loud yelp that escaped him, “What!?”
Her hand flew up to his mouth, smothering anything else he could’ve said, “Shush! Do you want us to get caught?” she hissed, wide eyes flitting over to the door.
He shook his head, fists clenched inside his sleeves.
Her shoulders dropped, hand falling back to her side. “Fuck… this is such a mess. I shouldn’t tell you. You should never have had to know, but—”
“Saozi. Saozi, it’s fine.” He repressed the urge to place a comforting hand on her shoulder, “You can trust me. If… if it’s that dangerous, then you shouldn’t be the only one shouldering the burden of knowing.”
At first, he thought she hadn’t heard him. Then her lip began to wobble. Eyes watering, she sank down to the floor with a muffled sob. The hand she pressed to her lips did nothing to quieten the sound.
“Oh sh— are you alright Saozi?”
“Please don’t call me that.” Qin Su’s voice was wrecked. Red rimmed eyes looked up to meet his own, and any questions as to ‘why not?’ died on his tongue. It didn’t matter why, if she didn’t want him to call her that, then he wouldn’t.
“Qin su,” he did his best to keep his voice level, even though her name was unfamiliar on his tongue, “You know you can tell me anything. I won’t tell a soul, I swear. I mean— nobody would believe me if I did, but that’s beside the point. You can trust me Sao— …A-Su.”
She choked on a gasped sob, hands coming up to grip the front of his robes. “They’re going to kill A-Song. They’re going to— you need to help me get him out!”
And just like that, Mo Xuanyu’s world turned on its head. Ice cold dread ran down his back.
A-Song…? His baby nephew A-Song? Why would anyone want to hurt him? He was just a kid, he hadn’t done anything to hurt anyone!
“Who? Who’s going to— who do we need to avoid?”
“I don’t— everyone! Anyone could be in on it, I don’t— I can’t—!”
“Everyone? What about… what about Yao-ge? Surely we could—”
“No!” she yelled, “No, you can’t! He knows! He knows, he knows, he knows…”
A horrible thought crossed Mo Xuanyu’s mind. But surely it couldn’t be true. His brother loved his son, he wouldn’t… but why else would Qin Su be so distraught about him ‘knowing’ if it wasn’t…?
“Alright,” he whispered, sinking down to her level, arms wrapping around her on instinct. For a moment he cursed himself, fearing that the unexpected touch would only cause her more grief. It was only when she leaned her head against him that he allowed himself to continue. “Alright A-Su, we’ll get A-Song out of here. I promise.”
He could feel his shoulder swiftly dampening, but his only concern was helping Qin Su calm down. Even if only a little. “I’ve told you before about how good I was at hiding and sneaking around back in Mo Village, right?”
She nodded.
“Well, what I didn’t tell you was that I’ve also gotten good at sneaking around Koi Tower. I know most of its secret passages by now,” he paused, waiting for that to sink in. “I can get him out, Qin Su. We just need to come up with a plan to make sure it goes unnoticed for as long as possible.”
Finally, her wet face withdrew from the crook of his neck. He would offer her something to wipe it with, but he had nothing on him bar his robes and the few talismans he had tucked into his sleeves. There was some paper and writing utensils on the desk, but nothing suitable for wiping tears. Her heart wrenching sobs had died down to quiet sniffles, but he knew it wouldn’t take much to tip her back over that edge again.
“You would…?”
“Of course I would. You know I would, isn’t that why you came to me?”
“Ah…” she looked away bashfully, “I actually came to you because you were the only person I felt certain wasn’t in on the plot. I figured if they excluded you from everything else, they’d hardly come to you for…”her breath caught on the last word.
“…I guess you weren’t wrong.” Mo Xuanyu tried to ignore his bruised pride. There were more important things to focus on. “Depending on how ready you are, I can probably get him out tonight.”
“Tonight?!”
“Tonight. The only issue with that would be the lack of time for preparation. I’d have to pick up supplies of food and such on the road, and I wouldn’t have a very good plan of where to go. But if we don’t leave soon enough…” he paused for a moment, before grabbing some paper, a brush and ink from the desk. “Do you know when they plan to do it? How much time we have?”
Qin Su shook her head, usually neat hair swaying loosely, “Nothing exact. Just that it’ll be ‘soon’.”
Looking up from where he’d begun writing a list of essentials, he noticed she was trembling again. Slow tears had already begun to drip down her face.
“Hey,” he placed a hand over hers, “It’s going to be okay. Your son is going to be fine, because we would never let anything happen to him.”
Qin Su nodded, swallowing down whatever sound had been creeping up her throat. “Never,” she repeated softly.
He turned back to what he’d written. It was mostly a list of essentials that he would need to stack up on. Qiankun pouches with fresh food, water and clean clothes. But nothing that would be noticeably expensive. If they wanted to get away with this unscathed, they’d have to disappear. Become invisible to the eyes of the cultivation world. Settle down on a farm somewhere where people would barely even have heard of the Lanling Jin.
“It’s probably best to do it tonight, if you don’t know when it’ll happen for certain,” he frowned. It was risky. He wouldn’t be able to get even half of the things he needed, and if they all disappeared in one night then it wouldn’t take a genius to figure out what had happened. They needed an alibi. But if Qin Su said they couldn’t trust anyone else, then…
“One of us will have to stay behind.”
“What?”
“I’m sorry, Qin Su, but whoever leaves will need an alibi. If it’s truly as soon as you fear, then we can’t risk even a few days for us to disappear in advance. It’ll be too obvious. Someone needs to stay behind and lie about the other having gone somewhere a few days ago.”
A stricken look crossed his sister-in-law’s face.
“…I can tell you where the passages are, Su-jie,” the term slipped out thoughtlessly, “you don’t need to be separated from each other. I’ll figure something out.”
“No.” her voiced was haunted, “I… it should be me who does it. They’ll be more likely to believe me than you. Not to mention that it’ll be a lot harder for me to disappear as the sect leader’s…” for a moment she looked like she was going to be sick, “as the sect leader’s wife.”
“…Su-jie?”
She breathed in deeply, “Mo Xuanyu. There’s… there is something I haven’t told you. Something I can’t tell you. But I need you to trust me anyway, can you do that…?”
His head began nodding before she’d even finished her question, “I’d trust you with my life.”
“Don’t be so quick to say such things,” she said, a wet laugh escaping her despite herself. “You might end up promising that to the wrong person.”
“That won’t happen,” he pouted when he saw her doubting look, “It won’t! Because I’ll just trust whoever you trust. You’ve always been good at telling liars from truth-tellers, Jiejie.”
Just like that, the small embers of amusement that had lit in the room were extinguished.
“…Let’s just get back to the plan. There isn’t much time before nightfall and we need to get our stories straight.”
Mo Xuanyu was tempted to ask, but he knew better than to push. Besides, she was right. His nephew’s life was on the line. He didn’t have time to be joking around!
So, pushing the half-filled paper towards Qin Su, they began to plot.
Come the next morning, panic entrenched the halls of Koi Tower. Servants and disciples alike rushed through the gilded halls, politely ignoring the broken wailing from the nursery. As far as they knew, the sole child of the sect leader and his wife had been found dead in his bed that morning. What was left of him, at least.
The sect leader himself looked awful. A blend of grief, horror and more, no doubt. The madam of Koi Tower was inconsolable. Not a single person could get her to so much as stand up, let alone leave the bedside of her late son.
Nobody noticed the absence of the child’s uncle. Nobody realised that Qin Su’s sobs of grief were not that of a mother whose child was dead, but of one who had been separated from that living child indefinitely. Nobody could see the panic that had lain under the father’s grief. Panic born of a plan having happened too soon, with seemingly no explanation as to why.
It had been easy then, for the Madam of the tower to lie. To weave a tale on par with those of her husband’s. When she had told those who asked that Mo Xuanyu had left a week before the murder — that he had gone to visit his mother’s family for the first time in years — not a single person had any reason to doubt. When he did not return, it was even easier for rumours to spread that he must’ve been targeted by the same assassins that had killed poor Jin Rusong.
The Lanling Jin sect held two funerals. One befitting an almost-heir, and one so private that the attendees could be counted on one hand. Both for people who had never truly died at all.
Qin Su was left waiting it out for the day they could reunite once more. When she could leave Koi Tower in the past, to join her brother and son.
(“If anyone asks, tell them he is your sister’s son. It should be easy enough for him to learn to call you Jiujiu.”
“Okay, but why?”
“…It’s safer that way. If anyone comes looking for you, if the alibi falls apart, even a change as small as that could keep you from being discovered.”
“Su-jie.”
“Yes, Xuanyu?”
“I’ll… I promise I’ll do everything I can to make sure this works. I’ll never let anyone harm him, even if it costs me my own life. And— and I’ll keep record of everything that happens, any firsts, seconds, thirds… so that when you join us, you won’t have missed anything at all.”
“…”
“…Jiejie?”
“…You’re a good br— boy. A good boy, Mo Xuanyu. I couldn’t have asked anyone better to help me with this.“
“…”
“…”
“I’ll miss you, Qin Su.”
“I’ll miss you too.”)