Chapter 32: Liu Hanyan's Truth
523 Words
Shen Moyan took a photo of those paw prints and went to find Liu Hanyan.
The milk tea shop was open, but empty inside. On the counter sat a cup of milk tea, still steaming. Beside it, a note:
"Drink the tea. Wait for me."
Shen Moyan sat down and picked up the cup. He took a sip. Sweet, but with a strange taste, like medicine.
"Don't drink."
Hu Sanniang's voice cut in suddenly.
Shen Moyan looked down at the tea. At the bottom of the cup—a single red hair. Fox hair.
He put the cup down, stood up, and headed toward the back. Behind the shop was a small courtyard, the door slightly ajar. He pushed it open and froze.
Someone was kneeling in the courtyard.
Liu Hanyan.
She knelt on the ground, and before her stood another woman. The woman wore white clothes, her hair very long, her face obscured.
"Grandaunt." Liu Hanyan's voice trembled. "I was wrong."
The woman turned and looked at Shen Moyan.
"You're here," she said.
Hu Sanniang.
Shen Moyan's mind went blank. Wasn't Hu Sanniang inside him? How was she outside?
"Don't be afraid." Hu Sanniang's voice came from inside him. "That's a fragment of my soul. Split off three hundred years ago, attached to Liu Hanyan all this time."
"Why?"
"To watch her." Hu Sanniang said. "She's my grandniece, and also my father's spy."
Shen Moyan froze.
He looked at Liu Hanyan. She still knelt there, head down, shoulders trembling.
"Her getting close to you, helping you—all an act." Hu Sanniang's voice continued from inside. "She came on my father's orders. Goal was to lure you to the bottom of the well."
Shen Moyan was silent for a long moment.
Then he walked over and crouched in front of Liu Hanyan.
"Is it true?"
Liu Hanyan looked up at him. Her eyes were red, with tears.
"It's true," she said. "But I regret it."
She reached into her clothes and pulled something out—a jade pendant, carved with the character "Hu."
"My grandfather gave me this. He said when I finished my mission, use this pendant to break the seal and let him out."
She held the pendant out to Shen Moyan.
"Take it. I don't want to finish my mission anymore."
Shen Moyan looked at the pendant but didn't take it.
"Why do you regret it?"
Liu Hanyan looked down.
"Because I actually started to like humans. Like the milk tea you gave me, like the students who come in and call me 'boss lady,' like the sun every morning. I don't want my grandfather to come out and destroy all of it."
She looked up at Shen Moyan.
"Do you believe me?"
Shen Moyan looked at her for a long time.
Then he reached out and took the pendant.
"I do."
Liu Hanyan smiled, tears streaming down her face.
"Thank you."
She stood up and walked to the woman in white—the fragment of Hu Sanniang's soul.
"Grandaunt, what should I do?"
Hu Sanniang looked at her with something strange in her eyes.
"Help us kill him."
- Writer
