Author Notes: Hello again, everyone! Enjoy the next chapter :)
Beta & Co-author: jeangirlmy
- Chapter Start -
Wu Xie doesn't realise how annoyed Wu ErBai is by their breaking into Warehouse 11 until Er Jing and a dozen underlings arrive that very afternoon to kick them out.
Wu Xie submits with as much grace as he can and insists on keeping the Princess Mute statue, the shellfish and her fishtank. He carts all three to the small apartment waiting for them. Pang Zi isn't there yet so Wu Xie sets the statue down beside the front door and the fishtank on the coffee table.
Compared to Wusanju with its many rooms, back gardens, covered walkways and even a koi pond, this apartment is... tiny. The front door opens straight into the living room with a single counter kitchen after that. The door between them on the left is a cramped bathroom while the one on the right is a bedroom with a desk, cupboard and a double bed set against the far wall where the window is.
Hopefully, this arrangement is a temporary one.
"At least it's cosy," he decides out loud and turns around. "Ahh!"
The Princess Mute statue stares back at him, just two feet away.
"Stop doing that!" He scolds her. "I'm going to die of fright before anything else."
He looks over her head at the empty fishtank on the coffee table. There's a wet trail leading from the fishtank to the floor near the door where he put the statue down.
"As you can see, the bedroom's much smaller than my old one and it doesn't look like there's another. It's better if you stay in the living room, alright?"
He carries the statue back to the front door and goes into the kitchen for a drink of water. When he turns around again, she's nowhere to be found. Shaking his head, he goes to peep inside the bedroom.
There she is, standing at the foot of the bed.
- o -
Wu Xie and Pang Zi are best friends who've lived together for almost two decades. Being in each other's personal space is nothing new. Having the Princess Mute statue there, on the other hand, is akin to having a third person in their small apartment, one who seems to be continuously underfoot.
It takes some getting used to.
Pang Zi loses five years of his life when he reaches inside the tiny storeroom beside the kitchen for the bag of rice only to grab a handful of long hair instead.
Wu Xie loses five days of the remaining three months of his life when he drops his dirty clothes in the laundry basket only to realise someone's head and shoulders are already in it.
"Sorry!" He snatches back his underwear from the statue's head. "Why are you even - you know what? Never mind."
He picks her up and marches to the front door, depositing her there before returning to put his underwear in the basket. When he turns around again, she's missing.
Again.
No matter how many times he and Pang Zi move her, they still find her standing at the foot of their bed when they wake up. She seems to take a great interest in their phones, peering over their shoulders and startling them. She's also fascinated by Pang Zi cooking. One time, he caught her peering so closely into the wok that her hair almost caught on fire.
It's too bad that the shellfish doesn't mind being seen out of the statue, but turns as stealthy as Xiao-ge when occupying her head. Wu Xie and Pang Zi try their best to catch her at it - staring at her for hours or whipping around to catch her off-guard - but to no avail.
- o -
The next morning, Wu Xie opens his eyes and feels like something's missing - the Princess Mute statue. He sits up and gets off the bed, slipping past a snoring Pang Zi.
The statue is kneeling beside the coffee table and gazing down at a row of photos. Frowning, Wu Xie tiptoes closer. He was already in bed last night when Pang Zi said something about the photos he took of their recent trip to the South Sea King's tomb. In particular, the murals on the walls. Wu Xie told him to leave them on the coffee table for him to look at tomorrow before going to sleep.
Now, he inches closer. The photos are neatly lined up and in the correct order.
"I saw her like this when I went to the bathroom two hours ago," Pang Zi says, patting his shoulder on his way to the kitchen. He switches the kettle on. "Looks like she hasn't moved since then."
"Did you arrange the photos?" Wu Xie asks.
"Nope. Left them in the envelope."
They both turn to the statue again who gives no indication of hearing them. The photo she's staring intently at is the one where the mute princess went out to sea in a boat and turned into a monster to fight the King who wanted to abduct her.
"She... can't be the real mute princess, can she?" Pang Zi finally asks.
Wu Xie shakes his head.
"Of course not. It's just a figure made from leather." He keeps his voice low, just in case. "It only moves when the shellfish-"
They turn to stare at each other.
"She's the princess?" Pang Zi asks in shock. "She reincarnated into a shellfish?"
"Shush!" Wu Xie frowns at him. "That... or the soul of the mute princess is somehow inside her."
He kneels down beside the statue and holds out his hand. After a few moments, the shellfish emerges from the long hair and crawls onto his palm.
"Hello, princess," he says quietly.
The shellfish looks up at him and turns around to disappear back inside the statue. For the rest of the day, she remains kneeling and staring down at the photos. The two fish balls Pang Zi left on a small plate beside her remain untouched.
- Chapter End -
A/N: Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment if you enjoyed it :)
