Physician Wei looks at Xi Zirui in a mix of confusion and panic. "I- I don't."

"You don't understand how a brainless creature could have seen through your clever ruse?" Xi Zirui asks, unable to prevent his contempt from staining his words. "You were the one who set up the array. What you were going to do with the spirit creature when you left up to fate."

He glares at her. "But I can make an educated guess," Xi Zirui says, his expression cold. "I guess that the snake spirit you caught, told you it would grant you a boon if you released it unharmed, and you jumped at the chance. Too stupid to realize that it knew all along that you were the one set the array in the first place."

Han Yu shakes his head. "Maybe it even let itself be caught on purpose."

Xi Zirui shoots him a look from the corner of his eyes. What is he trying to imply?

He's feeling  even more distasteful of humans than usual, thanks to the fake doctor -- and anything can set him off.

Han Yu is threading on very thin ice, as far as Xi Zirui is concerned.

"How is that my fault then?" Young miss Wei shouts, now completely out of her depth. "If the creature tricked me and is now harming the people of Peiya then it has nothing to do with me."

She looks almost manic with glee at having talked herself out of any responsibility -- or so she thinks.

Xi Zirui crosses the distance between then and leans down to her eye-level. "Physician Wei is forgetting that she still committed a crime by performing treatments, and prescribing medicine, while she had no qualification to do so."

Han Yu comes up around Xi Zirui's flank. "I'm sure the county magistrate will be interested in learning all about this."

"But I am qualified!" she's raging now, her eyes wide as small moons. "I'm a great doctor, the best! Who cares how I came upon my skills?"

Han Yu loses his composure and grabs her by the front of her robes. "There are three children not too far from here, who have lost their parents, and have no idea what happened to them. You will answer for that, and for everything else you did to the people of Peiya."

Xi Zirui wraps one hand around the hilt of his sword and pulls it out of its scabbard a cun, letting a sliver of its cool blade glint in the dimness of the room. "It's time your start talking, or I'll make you feel like lingchi(1) would be a merciful death."

---

The threat of pain is enough to make 'Physician Wei' spill out all the secrets of her trade.

Like everyone else, she has no awareness of the disappearances, but she does remember the circumstances in which A-Jiu's parents visited.

Her father came because of frequent stomach aches, and left the clinic alive and well, his wife came weeks later asking if Physician Wei had seen her husband. Physician Wei told her she hadn't, and sent her on her way with a prescription for her nerves.

Han Yu confers with Xi Zirui after they're done questioning the fake doctor. "I think she's telling the truth."

So does Xi Zirui.

He's certain that the snake spirit Young Miss Wei stumbled upon tricked her into somehow giving it access to the villagers she treated.

Xi Zirui isn't sure how it worked, but he is sure that Young Miss Wei was only a pawn, as oblivious to the spirit snake's actions as everyone else.

He just doesn't know if he wants to share that information with Han Yu.

He wants to solve this on his own, hear the snake spirit's side, and give it an opportunity to get out unscathed. No amount of retribution is going to bring the humans of Peiya back, and their kind has already suffered enough.

"Where did you find this snake spirit, and have you been back to see it since?"

She tells them she set the trap near a cave entrance, as there were reports that a spirit creature dwelt there.

After that first meeting she hasn't been back to see it.

Xi Zirui thanks her for her cooperation, and advises her to stop seeing patients for the time being.

"Actually, make that forever," Han Yu says with a smirk. "You're young, there's time to learn a new trade, legitimately this time."

"We'll be in touch," it's his finally warning before slamming the door shut on his way out.

They leave the clinic, Han Yu is still vibrating with excitement. "What do you say gege? Should we go look for the snake spirit now?"

"It's too late, we should get some rest and leave in the morning."

Han Yu is disappointed by Xi Zirui's decision, but mercifully doesn't fight him on it -- which makes Xi Zirui's plans much easier.

---

Back in their room, they clean up perfunctorily before getting into bed. Han Yu is out like a candle in a storm as soon as his head hits the pillow.

Xi Zirui waits a few moments more to make sure he's truly asleep before slipping out of the room.

The late summer night is warm, and Xi Zirui forgoes any outer robe, going out only in a thin traveling robe, and silk slippers.

Young Miss Wei didn't give them precise details on the cave's location, but judging by the geography around Peiya village, Xi Zirui can make some educated guesses along the way.

It's always coldest just before the break of dawn, but the heat doesn't let up. After a few minutes of walking Xi Zirui's hair is completely plastered to the back of his neck, and he can feel his own sweat dripping down into the collar of his robes.

The song of the cicadas is a constant companion as he makes his way deeper into the woods.

The sound becomes deafening once he reaches an opening in the sheer rockface of the eroded mountain -- as if the cicadas were trying to guide him in the right direction.

With one look behind his back to ensure no one followed him, Xi Zirui drops his glamour and his red fox ears and tail spring free, twitching in the stifling summer breeze.

It's a relief to finally look like himself after so long hiding. He wouldn't dare change his appearance while in Heavenly Dragon sect grounds.

He's itching to change into his animal form and run freely through open plains, no destination in mind, but that will have to wait.

For now, he hopes that his true appearance puts the snake spirit at ease, and they can work out an agreement that benefits them both.

---

The cave is several degrees cooler than the surrounding woods, Xi Zirui can see why a snake would want to hide away in its cool, humid depths.

Experimentally, he calls out, "Is there anyone here? Brother Snake, you're in grave danger."

He gets no reply, and continues making his way through the tunnels, following his own intuition.

It's possible that the snake spirit is no longer here and Xi Zirui is just wasting his time, but something tells him that a creature that is so sensitive to temperature would rather wait for the end of summer before moving somewhere else, rather than risk heatstroke on the move.

Finally, the tunnels start growing lighter, but not with the warm glow of a fire. Xi Zirui is confused until he happens onto a central gallery and finds that the cave's ceiling has caved in. The light of the moon shines through the circular opening several zhang above Xi Zirui's head, bathing the rocky gallery in silver light.

Its sole occupant sits under a beam of moonlight, eyeing Xi Zirui suspiciously.

He's a handsome man, with a face made of sharp angles that mix well with the sinuous curves of his lips and nose. His long eyebrows are slanted upwards towards his temples at a severe angle, making him look alert, even as his half-lidded eyes give Xi Zirui a lazy once-over.

"Were you the one making the ruckus?" he asks, Xi Zirui.

He leaves the flat rock on which he was sitting and slithers towards Xi Zirui. His long snake tail is as wide as a man's thighs, and thrice as long as an adult man, the scales on his lower body glimmer silver under the moonlight, and his dark hair shines like a dark mirror.

Xi Zirui watches his approach with barely disguised apprehension.

For all he feels an innate connection to all other spirit creatures, Xi Zirui has never met another of his kind.

In fact, he only thinks of them as 'his kind', because that's how Tuya referred to all spirit creatures. Often mentioning that she would help him find more of 'his kind' when he got older.

Now, looking at the silently approaching snake Xi Zirui wonders if that's how other spirit creatures see themselves too. Or if they draw their allegiances along different lines.

"Brother," he says, nodding towards the snake who towers over him by several heads.

"Brother," he replies, smiling and revealing a thin forked tongue. He leans down close to Xi Zirui, who holds fast not to recoil. "Are you aware that you were followed? I've been smelling human sweat ever since you walked into my cave."