Chapter 18: The Cat Who Weeps for the Dead Mouse (貓哭老鼠)
Daiwen and the director stood on opposite sides of the lift, their backs to the glass wall overlooking the park. The lift stopped on every floor for guests in colorful clothes, robes, and costumes. They all blurred together into a single, faceless river of color that ebbed and flowed at the lift's chime. If the director hadn't tugged their hand, Daiwen would've swept down to the next floor with the tide.
Director Cai led Daiwen back to a throne-sized, wooden armchair across from the office fire. The director poured two shots of white, sorghum wine (高粱酒), clinking their glass to Daiwen's without a word. Daiwen tapped two fingers against the hard arm of the chair and knocked theirs back with a single swig.
The director refilled both shot glasses before dropping into the other armchair. The two turned just enough to stare directly into the magically silenced inferno dancing along the wall. Director Cai was the one to finally break the silence with a snort and half a smile.
"My brother would kill me if he caught me serving baijiu (白酒) to a guest for breakfast."
"I'm not a guest," said Daiwen, their voice barely over a whisper. "Before he died, he signed me on with the janitorial staff."
The director dropped their head into their hand, laughing.
"You're not-you're not even a guest."
As their shoulders shook with growing violence, their barks of laughter broke down into sobs.
Daiwen set their glass down on the arm of their chair and approached the director. They removed the glass from their hand, setting it beside the other. They returned to sit on the arm of the director's chair.
They pulled Director Cai's back to their chest, hugging them with their arms and legs like a warmer version of their backpack. The director dropped their tear-streaked cheek to Daiwen's thigh.
"It should've been me," they rasped.
Daiwen stiffened. Had the new director known who or why the old director had been killed this whole time? When Daiwen finally spoke, they kept their tone as neutral and polite as possible.
"What do you men?"
"He was supposed to be on vacation!" they sobbed. "I was supposed to be acting director. But I didn't want to step the fuck up. I asked him to postpone until after Spidermoon Festival, so he did and now he's dead and I'm-"
Daiwen hushed them, rubbing their silk-clad shoulders. The confession still left them clueless but harmlessly so. They held the grieving sibling a little tighter.
"If you think like that, you might as well turn yourself in for the murder."
Director Cai fell completely silent at that. They were a creature of pleasure like everyone else at the park. They'd never do anything that would take away their freedom.
"You're...you're right. It's just...I'd do anything to have him back."
"He's gone, Director Cai. But you're not alone."
The director tilted their head back against Daiwen's chest, looking directly up at them between the short black curtains of their hair. Director Cai squeezed their hand.
"I'm gonna help you find the killer. Daiwen, I'm sorry I-"
"Don't."
Director Cai closed their mouth. They reached up with both hands. Daiwen placed their hands in the director's, fingers lacing. Though their faces were upside down, their lips found the other's anyway. Daiwen above and the director below leaned into the kiss.
Cool magic washed through Director Cai's mouth into Daiwen. The two floated up off the massive chair and over the line of fire. The director's fingers shifted like fluid between Daiwen's, growing to long, silver-taloned claws. Their midnight black scales were as sleek as a fish's. Their tongue lengthened until its burning tip flicked the back of Daiwen's throat.
Daiwen and the director pulled back, remaining linked only at the fingers. Director Cai's long, serpentine body curled midnight black up into the soaring space above the fire. Silver, gossamer fins billowed out from their coils. They cringed, forked tongue flicking.
"Sorry, I, uh, got a little excited."
"Good," said Daiwen. "Help me with my clothes."
The director's snakelike face split into a needle-toothed grin. They rolled like a crocodile, switching places over Daiwen. Director Cai raised Daiwen up by one hand. The other stripped Daiwen of everything they owned here in Other Shenmen. They hit the floor with a series of light smacks.
Daiwen grabbed the director's hand with both of theirs.
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Explicit encounter on AO3
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"Can Yishao get into a reserved room?"
"Uh, yeah. We had them bound as the park's guardian so they can go anywhere."
"Bound? Against their will?"
"We, uh, never really thought to ask. Do spirits even have wills?"
Fuck.
The fire along the entire wall went out beneath them.
Double fuck.
"What the-"
Daiwen clamped their hand over the director's mouth. Director Cai's eyes widened at the fear in theirs. Daiwen pointed down at their clothes and the punching doll. The director nodded and let them go.
Daiwen took a shaky breath. They jumped off the wall. At an arm's length away from their jacket, a half-scaled, half-furred arm as long as a human swiped out from the fireplace. Razor-sharp claws raked through their naked side.
Red splattered the floor. Daiwen wheeled up and away, gritting their teeth through the pain.
"Fuck! Shit! Fuck!" swore Director Cai.
The director swooped off the wall, coming up with their back between Daiwen's legs. They yanked their koi-fin tail away from the slashing claws with a yelp.
"Hold on!"
They rocketed up the soaring office. Daiwen held on to their silver ridges for dear life. They pressed themself as flat as they could to the midnight scales.
The higher they flew, the narrower the walls became. Woode snapped with a thunderous crack. Yishao's claws slashed at them in the spray of splinters.
Daiwen and the director screamed and spun away but continued to rocket up Yishao's wood-snapping strikes followed from above and below. As the walls closed in toward the wooden ceiling, their shearing claws only slashed closer.
Only an arm's length from the rafters, the wood burst directly under the director. Black claws tore through midnight underbelly and silver fins.
Daiwen screamed. Director Cai only wheezed, eyes rolling back. Their senseless body hurtled through the rafters. They burst into through a blur of green leaf and gray sky. Daiwen and the director tumbled up in a slowing wheel of black and silver.
The dragon's body unfurled like slanted sheet of laundry between parent and child. Though the director was out cold, they stayed afloat under the curtain of flying rain.
A white and gold blur launched up from the gardens, silent as death.
"Wake up! Wake up!"
But the director couldn't.
Time slowed with the rain above. The dragoncat's scaled and whiskered head crystallized under Daiwen and the director. The black claws of both paws flexed to strike, kill. Daiwen's aura flared purple.
Yishao's claws sheared through silver. An orange-gold blur tackled the dragoncat away from the black.
Yishao hissed and screeched. The dragoncat and the undead dragon spun into the curtains of flying rain. Yishao slashed and ripped red ribbons from the ex-director. The ex-director struck back with the strength of inescapable death.
The curtains ran pink over the park. The current director woke at the gut-twisting shrieks. They were just in time to watch the dragoncat drop to the green gardens as a body and a head. They looked up to see what could've caused Yishao's fall. Their brother floated between the pink curtains, more ribbon-draped skeleton than dragon.
Director Cai's head dropped.
"I think I'm gonna be sick."
"I'm sorry-I'm so sorry."
"I know...I know I said I'd give anything to have him back, but..."
The director shook under Daiwen. Black and silver scales disintegrated off their body and up into the rain. They shrunk back to sobbing, human form.
Daiwen held their arms out uncertainly. Director Cai dropped their face onto Daiwen's naked shoulder without touching any other part of them. Their cries weakened as the clouds cleared overhead.
"You should-should probably get out of here," they mumbled into Daiwen's shoulder.
"I have something to tell you, but I don't think you'll like it."
"I don't think this day could get any worse."
"Since your brother's awake now, I can help him find his heart."
"...yeah, no, I don't like it-"
"I'm sorry, but I need to do this."
"For him? Or for you?"
"For both of us."
Probably. They only knew the last spirit in Laoshi City had been eager to find their body.
The director raised their head off Daiwen's shoulder and cleared their nose with a sniff.
"Daiwen...be careful."
"I will."
With the last of Director Cai's flying spell, they leaped up into the dancing rain. The ex-director swooped under them, catching Daiwen on the back of their serpentine spine. They flew out from Shengtaiguan Park into the brightening sky.