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rainbowfic2024-04-23 08:25 am
ilthit) wrote in rainbowfic2024-04-23 08:25 am
Electric Sky #11: The Goat House Murders (Lin Moniao Series)
Name: The Goat House Murders
Story: Lin Moniao Series (AO3 link)
Colors: Electric Sky #11 (Stem The Tides)
Supplies and Styles: gesso, nubs; chiaroscuro, interactive art
Word Count: 700
Rating: mature
Warnings: Rated for violence; serial murder, assassination.
Summary: Shi Jia recounts what happened at the Goat House.
Note: Co-written withminutia_r . This is a scene between the events of Chasing the Bat and Mid-Autumn Festival that ended up not being included in either. Also available on AO3 here (specific chapter link), with art (not mine).
*
For once, when Mu Liqiang gets up, Lin Moniao doesn't turn over and go back to sleep. He's expecting Heng Wanxue at wu, and there's some shopping he wants to do before she shows up.
He knows of a few artisans who sell the sort of trifles that he's looking for, with shopfronts in the same fashionable neighborhood where Shi Jia has his rooms. And so, with his purchase made and a little time yet before he's expected at home, he decides to swing by Shi Jia's, just to make sure that he's made it home alright and hasn't gotten into too much trouble with his superiors.
"I can't stay long," Lin Moniao says, once he's caught his breath after Shi Jia's enthusiastic greeting. But it's only midway through si, after all, and the cozy room where they spent so many hours planning--and other things--before their raid on Immortal Sword Manor looks so inviting, and the fresh pot of tea on the table smells heavenly. "Well, maybe just for tea. You know," he adds, settling himself on a pillow by the table, "you never did tell me what became of the previous tenant of your Bureau's office in Ruyin. Was it really Moneybags Hu who killed him? And whatever happened to all of the goats?"
Shi Jia puts a fresh bowl of tea in front of Lin Moniao, sits down, and starts the story. "You heard that the aspiring poet, Chu Yan, liked to invite people to his home, share access to his books, or rather the books of the Mirrored Sky Society, and offer food and conversation to anybody he or his mother found interesting. I was not investigating them, specifically, but there had been disappearances of notable members of the Jianghu traveling in the area, and it seemed the kind of place travelers might have passed through. Also, I wanted to see the goats.
"Xia Yang is nobody very interesting, of course, but it wasn't difficult to obtain an invitation once I struck up a conversation with Chu Yan in one of the tea-shops. One doesn't like to speak ill of the dead, but the goats were more charming than the man, and both were more charming than his poetry. His mother, however, was a difficult woman to say no to. She was quite old and weak, with a bent back, but so cheerful, humble and solicitous, one instinctively wanted to fetch her things and fluff her pillows, and she played the pipa so beautifully one could sit and listen to it and not even notice a goat nibbling at one's hat.
"There were quite a few guests, so none of them noticed when I wandered off to have a look around the house. They lodged some travelers, too, so I thought perhaps one of the bedrooms would have items left behind by the missing heroes. In the back of the house, I caught another smell behind the smell of goats. Something like an abattoir."
He pauses and gives Lin Moniao a grim look. "I suppose you can guess where this is leading. Or part of it--that this is where the heroes had been disappearing to. But ah. They had been. Taking their sinews. And making them into pipa strings.
"I managed to school my expression and say my goodbyes politely. Then I went and asked around about Chu Yan and his mother, to find out if they had some weakness I could exploit without scaring them into moving on before they could be stopped. It took some time, but I found out about the debt to Moneybags Hu. It seemed like the easiest solution to just anonymously tell Hu where to find them.
"I didn't return directly to Ruyin, but by the time I did, it was all over. Chu Yan was dead, but though the goats were still there, the old woman and the mule were not. I reported it all to my superiors, and they have her description, at least. Also, now the house stood empty, and no-one wanted it after the previous tenant had had to be scraped off the yard. So--we moved in. My supervisor thought the goat bit was really rather good."
Story: Lin Moniao Series (AO3 link)
Colors: Electric Sky #11 (Stem The Tides)
Supplies and Styles: gesso, nubs; chiaroscuro, interactive art
Word Count: 700
Rating: mature
Warnings: Rated for violence; serial murder, assassination.
Summary: Shi Jia recounts what happened at the Goat House.
Note: Co-written with
minutia_r . This is a scene between the events of Chasing the Bat and Mid-Autumn Festival that ended up not being included in either. Also available on AO3 here (specific chapter link), with art (not mine). *
For once, when Mu Liqiang gets up, Lin Moniao doesn't turn over and go back to sleep. He's expecting Heng Wanxue at wu, and there's some shopping he wants to do before she shows up.
He knows of a few artisans who sell the sort of trifles that he's looking for, with shopfronts in the same fashionable neighborhood where Shi Jia has his rooms. And so, with his purchase made and a little time yet before he's expected at home, he decides to swing by Shi Jia's, just to make sure that he's made it home alright and hasn't gotten into too much trouble with his superiors.
"I can't stay long," Lin Moniao says, once he's caught his breath after Shi Jia's enthusiastic greeting. But it's only midway through si, after all, and the cozy room where they spent so many hours planning--and other things--before their raid on Immortal Sword Manor looks so inviting, and the fresh pot of tea on the table smells heavenly. "Well, maybe just for tea. You know," he adds, settling himself on a pillow by the table, "you never did tell me what became of the previous tenant of your Bureau's office in Ruyin. Was it really Moneybags Hu who killed him? And whatever happened to all of the goats?"
Shi Jia puts a fresh bowl of tea in front of Lin Moniao, sits down, and starts the story. "You heard that the aspiring poet, Chu Yan, liked to invite people to his home, share access to his books, or rather the books of the Mirrored Sky Society, and offer food and conversation to anybody he or his mother found interesting. I was not investigating them, specifically, but there had been disappearances of notable members of the Jianghu traveling in the area, and it seemed the kind of place travelers might have passed through. Also, I wanted to see the goats.
"Xia Yang is nobody very interesting, of course, but it wasn't difficult to obtain an invitation once I struck up a conversation with Chu Yan in one of the tea-shops. One doesn't like to speak ill of the dead, but the goats were more charming than the man, and both were more charming than his poetry. His mother, however, was a difficult woman to say no to. She was quite old and weak, with a bent back, but so cheerful, humble and solicitous, one instinctively wanted to fetch her things and fluff her pillows, and she played the pipa so beautifully one could sit and listen to it and not even notice a goat nibbling at one's hat.
"There were quite a few guests, so none of them noticed when I wandered off to have a look around the house. They lodged some travelers, too, so I thought perhaps one of the bedrooms would have items left behind by the missing heroes. In the back of the house, I caught another smell behind the smell of goats. Something like an abattoir."
He pauses and gives Lin Moniao a grim look. "I suppose you can guess where this is leading. Or part of it--that this is where the heroes had been disappearing to. But ah. They had been. Taking their sinews. And making them into pipa strings.
"I managed to school my expression and say my goodbyes politely. Then I went and asked around about Chu Yan and his mother, to find out if they had some weakness I could exploit without scaring them into moving on before they could be stopped. It took some time, but I found out about the debt to Moneybags Hu. It seemed like the easiest solution to just anonymously tell Hu where to find them.
"I didn't return directly to Ruyin, but by the time I did, it was all over. Chu Yan was dead, but though the goats were still there, the old woman and the mule were not. I reported it all to my superiors, and they have her description, at least. Also, now the house stood empty, and no-one wanted it after the previous tenant had had to be scraped off the yard. So--we moved in. My supervisor thought the goat bit was really rather good."
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