legend says

[ --- ]  “ah. he escaped.” disappointment was barely an emotion that mingyan expressed, the disgust in her words easy enough to detect as the hooligan slipped away from beneath her sword and ran away, screaming on top of his lungs. that should teach him to respect a woman or two. mingyan preened to herself rather proudly, before turning almost vengefully at afu, glowering magnificently at the other male. “i was about to get information from him. you made me fail my mission.” her words were clipped as she resheathed her sword, the bells at her waist tinkling merrily. “what are you going to do about that?”

        he wags a finger in her face.  “pokin’ folks with swords ain’t gonna make ‘em talk.  trust me on this.”  not that he has ever threatened anyone with a sword for information -- he just felt like saying it so it gave him some merit, even though it’s feigned.  “what kinda info were you tryin’ to get outta him, anyway?  stuff ‘bout the demons?”  y’know, what they’ve been instructed to find out.  

        bloody hand and all, he slings an arm around her shoulders.  “i’ve heard many things,”  he says, steering her pointedly away from the crime scene, seeing that people are still looking in their direction.  “someone at the pub . . . or maybe it was the brothel---but someone in one of those places was sayin’ somethin’ ‘bout this huge creature.  somethin’ called a phoenix or somethin’ ‘long those lines.  never heard of that, we don’t have those over at the mounds, but i figured it looks somethin’ like a huge rodent with beady eyes an’ long buckteeth.”

         to their left, someone scoffs.  it’s a fair maiden, as youthful as mingyan, but without accessories and a sword.  “don’t listen to him,”  she says as she whisks by, robe fluttering behind her to make a statement.  “it’s just pub talk.”

         “pub talk?”

         she pauses in her step, then turns around.  “what you’re going on about.  and what the other guy---”  she tilts her head in the direction the other man had run off to.  “---would’ve told you, had you asked.  if you’re really here to help us, then get your information straight.”

         a-fu blinks.  looks at mingyan, then looks back at the other woman.  “sooo this means you know what’s up with this phoenix-rodent thing?”

      “i don’t think that this is the right situation..”  

       lian doesn’t really see the appeal of dying so young and for no apparent reason. like yes, he know wei wuxian hurled himself off a cliff to save the world, but like the appeal is lost on lian. he supposes it’s becuase he actually has a survival instinct himself or maybe it simply doesnt appeal to him because he has an image of the way he’d die. maybe protecting his loved ones from something.  that would be the way he’d like to go out, and then maybe become a ghost and listen to how he saved his clan or his loved ones. that would be ideal. 

        he decides to indulge this crazy guy. a shield? wow, what was this cray guy on? ah, but the wei sect was a bunch of weirdos so he wasn’t too surprised. he was about yto say something when he’s shoved towards the cat, who in surprise jumps back, back arched and tail bristling. lian hears the other exclaim to grab the treasure and he takes the invitation and then picks up the cat, allowing the cat to wrestle in his arms for a few moments and then calm down and relax itself in lian’s arms. 

       “how did your invitation end up under this precious furball?” he asks, handing the invitation to the crazy male, and cooing at the cat, petting the ears and the head, hearng purrs. “this precious bundle of cute wouldn’t hurt a fly, let alone steal an invite,” lian adds. 

        most people  ( read: all people )  tend to think of him as the crazy guy, and sure, that may or may not be true most of the time  ( read: all of the time ),  but there’s definitely something really reallyyy strange about this guy, if he thinks the demon reincarnation is a ‘precious bundle of cute who wouldn’t hurt a fly’ -- as if!!!

        “don’t let it fool ya,”  a-fu says slowly, tentatively.  his eyes fixate on the small feline, watching it as it watches him.  he doesn’t get it at all!  yes, he’ll admit that cats are really cute, but this cat also has the look of evil in its eyes, and he simply cannot fathom why this man can’t see that.

        he inches closer, almost as if he’s the prey that’s trying to sneak out in front of a sleeping predator.  “it may be cute an’ small an’ look virtually harmless . . . but it did this to me!”  in one dramatic motion, he sticks a hand up in the air and drags down his sleeve to reveal three long scratch marks.  “the culprit . . . is right there in your arms!!”  he points at the cat’s nose.  naturally, the cat hisses and a-fu jumps back.  “it’s a demon, i’m tellin’ ya.”

“Here, this is for you.” He extended his hand, revealing a still warm bun resting on parchment. “I overheard that you didn’t get enough to eat at dinner.”

Jingyun didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but his hearing really improved after the incident three years ago. Though he was sitting at the Lan sect table with other inner disciples, he was still able to hear a voice whining in the distance: A-Fu is hungry~

The voice was semi high pitched and sort of child-like. Besides, no grown adult would refer to themselves by their pet name, which A-Fu definitely sounded like.

An image formed in his head, featuring a young disciple in his early teens, sort of like how Xiaoyu was when they first met. His vivid imagination prompted him to go to the kitchen after dinner and ask for a bun from the cook, who was cleaning up. He’d hid it up his sleeve and asked around for this A-Fu. Took a while, but he found him in the end.

“It’s okay to take it,” he said, when the bun was not immediately snatched up. “I know how hard it is for a growing boy to restrain himself according to the three bowls regulation.” Jingyun paused, considering his next words carefully before continuing in a whisper. “I won’t tell the sect leader and get you in trouble, A-Fu didi.”

         a-fu is about this 👌 close to crying!  no, seriously!!  

        after being sober and starved for two days  ( two whole days!!! ),  he was absolutely certain that he’d shrivel and die here.  and knowing exactly how the lans uphold themselves in society, he’s super sure that they would make it look like an accident, and no one would think much of it, because they would think that he had gotten drunk and fallen off a cliff or something, and that it would be his own fault for being stupid, and yeah, maybe some stupidity would be involved, but that doesn’t make it any more okay for the lan sect to cover him up!!

        paranoia aside, a-fu’s about to marry this kid.  or convert to the religion of jingyunism.  a steamed bun?  snuck right out of the kitchen just for little ol’ a-fu?  “you’re my hero!!”  he nearly tackles the younger to the ground out of glee.  fortunately, he doesn’t make that big of a scene and instead, snatches the bun from the other’s grasp, giving it a huge smooch.

        okay, maybe he is crying a little.

        “it’s so good,”  comes muffled praise, which sounds a lot like baby babble, but surely, jingyun gets him.  “i literally thought i was gonna starve an’ die an’ then you’d hafta cover up my sudden death.  i mean, c’mon, three bowls?  what kinda rule is that!  oh oh oh, is it ‘cause, if ya eat too much, your head gets bigger, an’ then the headband wouldn’t fit ‘round your head?”  he chokes at the sudden realization.

        actually, though.

        he’s choking.

[ ✂ - - - ]  Ming chooses not to say anything, he watches as the male touches the dead body and asks to what happened. He watches for a bit, rumbles shortly and thinks hard, then decides, if the stranger already for some reason believes he’s a woman, he’ll go with that. He lets out a cough, and then makes his voice higher, fitting to the voice of Yi, a female “he’s dead” he answers back, crounching down like the other.

     “If you want to know the reason why I’d suggest asking them yourself, I don’t know why”

        a-fu is about this close to actually taking the girl’s advice and asking the dead man himself what happened---but then he realizes that the dead man is, well, very much dead and won’t be able to answer him.  so naturally, a-fu starts to make assumptions.  first assumption is that the man died from self-infliction, and this poor, innocent, young maiden just so happened to run into him.  second assumption is that the man was murdered, and this poor, innocent, young maiden just so happened to run into him.  third assumption is that this poor, innocent, young maiden  ( okay, we get it )  killed him.

        surely.

        surely surely surely,

        it can’t be the third one.  this maiden is too pretty and too pure to do something as awful as slitting a man’s throat.

        so it must be either of the first two assumptions.  probably more-so the second one than the first, seeing that there isn’t a bloody sword laying around.  that means only one thing . . .  “there’s a murderer among us.”  he says this a bit too seriously, a bit too creepily, almost as if he knows the truth.  what he says next does not help him any:  “we’ll give him a proper burial.”

    confusion colors his face. lian is not really the antics type but he was holding a bottle of emperor’s smile on his sword which he is planning to drink just outside, so that he can still be drunk but nor get into any trouble for it. 

     lian watches the interaction for a few moments, just standing there. an eggplant for a piece of paper? and even the feline is adorable. the human….not so much but lian can appreciate the kitten. he watches the eggplant fly past him and he just blinks even more in confusion. 

      what? why? so many questions. 

      he keeps a laugh when the cat simply claws at the other male and just stands where he stands, watching him back up almost into him. lian tenses when the other clings to him and makes a point of prentending to think. 

    “that’s not a very nice offer. i don’t particularly enjoy dying.” he says, looking down at the man clinging to him. “bro, like i’ll help you out, but seriously, dying a hero…hmm…aint very tempting.” he says, staring at the cat. 

      “besides, it’s so cute. i can’t kill that.” 

        “who wouldn’t want to die a hero?”

        that’s something a-fu simply cannot understand.  it’s his dream to hurl himself off a cliff in order to save the entire world---granted, he’s not entirely sure how jumping off a cliff would do anyone good.  but he’s heard stories of their ancient sect leader, wei wuxian, doing that at some point -- and well, it must’ve been for a grand reason, right?  right.  so yes, hurling himself off a cliff, becoming a ghost, and listening in on everyone’s conversation talking about his adventures  ( maybe read from a book aptly titled a-fu’s adventures if anyone wants to write a biography, wink wink nudge nudge ).

        dreams aside, he still needs to get the invitation from this cat, and from the looks of it, this guy isn’t helping him.  he pushes himself off the ground and lets out a long puff of air.  “all righty.  here’s the plan.  listen closely, ‘cause i’m only gonna say this once.  so right.  the plan.  what we’re gonna do.  we’re gonnaaaaaaa -- you’re gonna be my shield.  and i’ll just stand here behind you like so---”  he steps behind jiang lian and peeks around, eyes narrowing on the cat who’s still firmly rooted in place.  “and then weeeee---”

        without warn, he shoves the man toward the cat.

        it works.  the cat jumps back, its back arched, its tail bristling.  the invitation is now unguarded.