Chapter 6: Borrow the Tiger (狐假虎威)
The troupe said nothing about Daiwen's shorn hair when they showed up to breakfast, but Mistress He gave them a softer smile than the one she'd turned on the audience last night. Daiwen sat between her and the qiongqi at the round table. Daiwen ate their rice porridge quietly, listening more to the rain patter on the tent than the jovial chatter at the table.
After breakfast, they removed the simple dress that Yanxi had spun for them, and followed Mangtun to one of the four smaller tents for rehearsal. Their scripts waited for them on parchment rolls in a bamboo basket. As much as Daiwen tried to focus, the words fled from their mind like birds from a cage. On the fifth failed try, Mangtun lumbered off of them with an exasperated sigh.
Daiwen collapsed naked in the dirt sweating and heaving. Their mind remained as blank as a slate. The flush of shame returned before their breath.
"I'm s-sorry," they panted into the dusty earth.
"Daiwen, I know you're new to this, but are you even trying?"
They rolled onto their back, staring up at the tent top.
"I...no. I just can't."
"Why?"
The fabric quivered with borrowed life under the endless rain. The thin layer somehow kept the entire tent ground as dry as the ashes of a fire. Daiwen pushed up to sitting, half their body wearing the dust like a coat.
"I think there's something I need to do first."
"Go. Just go. Come back when you're ready. If you're ready," growled the qiongqi, scaled wings flaring at the tips.
"I will," they rasped.
Daiwen ran barefoot into the rain. They stood below the cold downpour, letting it wash them clean before heading back under the big top for their spider-silk sheath.
Yanxi had left a new garment on the next hangar, a hooded, waterproof jacket in Daiwen's size. Daiwen blinked hard and pulled on the fitted silk with a watery smile. If any of the cityfolk had actually gotten to know the circus performers, they would never have suspected them of-the yaoguai.
Daiwen ran back into the downpour and through the trees. Mud splattered them to their knees and the branches whipped their chilled skin, but none pierced through the light, sturdy silk.
Daiwen ran and ran from the woods to the bridge to the millstone at the heart of the city. The exertion hit them as soon as they stopped. They collapsed to their knees in sight of the chained and shackled yaoguai.
Yesterday's crowd had left their mark on the accused. Raw cuts and gashes had sprung up all over their hide. One solid black eye had swollen shut. It hadn't lessened the heat of their glare.
The rain kept a new crowd from forming, but it would only hold out so long. Daiwen staggered back to the market stalls still bustling under their vibrant awnings. They broke a single gold coin into ten silvers and used one to the buy a set of fine needles and clean, sturdy thread. The waterproof basket was the most expensive item of the lot.
They returned to the yaoguai with the basket on one arm and the needle and thread in the other hand. The guards made no move as Daiwen approached the edge of the black-stained millstone. The yaoguai only raised their one working eye, narrowed and piercing.
"Please, let me help you."
"Why?" they growled, their voice as deep and low as a rumble in the earth.
"Because I don't care if you did it."
"Stranger."
"I am. Maybe you are, too."
The yaoguai's gaze remained wary, but the anger burned to embers. Daiwen climbed onto the millstone. They walked over and through the chains, closing the gap between them. Though the yaoguai sat cross-legged, the collar keeping their bull's head low, their hulking mass loomed over Daiwen and radiated a wall of raw heat through the rain.
"This is going to hurt."
The heavy metal clanked at the yaoguai's shrug. Right, it couldn't have been worse than what they'd faced at the hands of yesterday's crowd. The yaoguai didn't flinch for an instant as Daiwen's needle threaded flesh. Daiwen quickly lost count of the sutures and minutes under the rain.
"Ah, beg pardon, what are you doing to my client?"
A pale, reedy citizen in fine gray robes and a storm gray umbrella adjusted their wire-rimmed spectacles at the...spectacle. Daiwen stared up at the yaoguai.
"You have a lawyer?"
"That is the law," said the lawyer. "I am Esquire Kang Guitao (抗龜桃), he/him."
"Daiwen, a friend."
"The yaoguai doesn't have any friends."
"They do now."
Daiwen could feel the yaoguai's searing glare behind their shoulder. It wasn't directed at them. Esquire Kang shrank under his umbrella, nodding hastily and adjusting his spectacles.
"Yes, well, I suppose we could all use friend. Though an alibi would be more helpful," he muttered.
The yaoguai snorted dismissively. Daiwen looked up and back again.
"Do you want to die?"
"...no."
"Then perhaps you should've thought of that before scattering your murders at the farthest corners of the countryside."
The yaoguai roared into the rain-dark sky. The chains screeched and rattled under the strain. Esquire Kang and Daiwen fell onto their butts.
The guards came running, heavy wooden saps in hand. Daiwen staggered to their knees. They threw their arms out in front of the yaoguai.
"No! Don't!"
The guards grabbed them by the jacket and threw them off the millstone, out of the way of the beating. Daiwen screamed at them to stop, eyes blurring with angry tears as the saps broke and snapped their clean stitches.
Despite the lawyer's reedy build, he hooked his arms around Daiwen's and dragged them away. He only let go when they reached a narrow alley. The stone balconies merely hand width's apart caught most of the falling rain.
Esquire Kang leaned back against one wall. He removed his spectacles, flinging off the heaviest drops with a sharp flick. Daiwen slumped against the wall opposite, sitting on the rain-slicked cobblestones. His pitch black eyes softened over the straight edge of his spectacles.
"Making a scene isn't going to help our case."
"Is there anything I could do to help?"
"I-maybe."
The sheer number of crimes blamed on the yaoguai had forced Esquire Kang to wade through a sea of ink and paper. He didn't have time to visit any of the murder sites of himself. The worst of them were in the countrysides to the east and west of Laoshi City.
"I'll go tomorrow. What should I look for?"
"Anything to prove a shred of innocence. I don't know if the judges can be swayed, but a seed of doubt might be enough to...lessen the post-execution dishonorment."
"Did the yaoguai do it?"
"There's no doubt in my mind."
"You're defending them."
"That is the law."
-/-
The rain had cleared by the time that Daiwen returned to the circus grounds. Mangtun raised his shaggy head off his paws, yawning off the last of a nap. Daiwen bowed to him stiffly from the waist.
"I'm sorry for my behavior earlier. If you'll have me, I'm ready to try again."
Mangtun lumbered toward them. He stopped in front of their lowered head. A hot, rough tongue gave their forehead a scraping lick through their new bangs.
"Take off your clothes."
That night, Daiwen hopped into the spotlight wearing nothing but a thin layer of unsealed, red and white bodypaint over their skin. A silk headband held false fox ears to the top of their head.
-/-
Explicit encounter on AO3