Wolf King And His Fox Consort [BL]

After Ru Yumei left, Xiao Zai called for Xiao Yuan and Xiao Ziyi to meet him at once.

Neither of them was in a good mood after being roused at such a later hour, but the situation called for an urgent intervention.

"Ru Long is planning something for the summer solstice," Chu Yun said while pacing the length of the office. "That gives us two days to anticipate his movements." He turned to Xiao Ziyi. "Do we know of any suspicious movements: large number of mercenaries for instance, or even Su troops?"

Her face looked grim, but the shake of her head was definite. "Nothing of the sort. I've been receiving regular reports regarding the border towns, and everything is quiet there as well."

"Should that be concerning?" Xiao Zai asked Chu Yun. "Why is everything quiet all of a sudden?"

"He could be moving troops from the borders between Su and Zui and preparing an attack on Haolin," Chu Yun conceded, "but why? Unless he's planning on sieging the city, he must know he's going to lose."

Xiao Yuan let out a choked off sound, as if someone had squeezed his airways, and turned to Xiao Ziyi with a panicked look. "Do they have supplies for something like that? Setting siege to a capital like Haolin requires an immense amount of food for the seiging troops, someone would have had to seen huge convoys, if that was the case."

Once again Xiao Ziyi shook her head in firm denial. "We would have known if that was his plan. He can't seige Haolin without moving immense quantities of men, and supplies. Whatever he's planning it's not that."

Chu Yun kept pacing, his back hurt him terribly but he couldn't sit down, he had to walk around or his thoughts would overwhelm him.

Just then a knock sounded at the door, freezing all of them in place, moments later Chu Hean walked inside, with Lieba Chun in his wake. "Uh, you called for us?" Cu Hean asked Chu Yun, looking a little uncertain at everyone gathered in the room.

The office wasn't small by any means, but with the six of them there it felt cramped. Lieba Chun's elbow almost knocked a vase off of a cherry wood cabinet.

Unlike the rest of them, he seemed amused by the tension permeating the air.

"Well, I don't thinks it's good news," he whispered to Chu Hean, loud enough for everyone else to hear, and earning himself a somewhat discreet stomp on the foot from him.

"No, it really isn't good news," Chu Yun said, before filing them both in on what they had found from the Third Princess.

Lieba Chun let out a prolonged sigh. "You know, we have our problems in the steppes, I'll be the first to admit it, but you are all very complicated." He gave Chu Hean a pointed look. "If you had big herds of goats and sheep to look after you would realise that there are bigger things in life than who is whose parent, who is born as this or that.

In the end of the day: someone has to milk the goats, feed the horses, and cook the food, that's all that matters."

Chu Hean gave him a narrow-eyed look. "Yes, but who is doing what?"

Lieba Chun chuckled drily. "Whoever stays still long enough to be tasked with it. Including me, and probably including you after we get married."

To Chu Yun's surprise, Chu Hean seemed to like that idea.

"Yes, I would prefer to be dealing with a herd of goats just about now, but that's not the case," Xiao Zai interjected. "Ru Long is likely responsible for his father's condition, and the attack on me as well. We don't know what he'll do next, or how. It seems obvious he harbours a grudge against Zui for... I don't know, my uncle's execution?

His own father having him outside of traditional marital arrangements and making a bastard out of him?"

"And he's still looking for his twin sister," Chu Yun pointed out. "That's another loose end."

"Maybe he has found her?" Xiao Ziyi suggested. "Maybe they've joined forces."

All of it was speculation, and they were no closer to an answer.

"Does the summer solstice mean anything to you?" Chu Yun asked his brother, coming to a stop in front of him and Lieba Chun. "Is it an important date for the two of you?"

Chu Hean was silent for a moment, fine eyebrows knit in consideration. "No, we met in the winter. He never mentioned the summer solstice as holding any importance to him."

"Maybe the date is relevant for other reasons? There's going to be a celebration of the harvest, as usual, a lot of people will be in the streets of Haolin celebrating," Xiao Ziyi ventured. "Could it be that he's planning an attack for when a lot of people will be out? Even soldiers take part in the festivities."

"I was planning on paying visit to the Daoist temple to make an offering to thank the Gods for the harvest," Xiao Zai said, almost talking to himself. "But I didn't announce it, so he had no way of knowing that."

"Maybe what he wants is a large audience," Chu Yun said.

Now if only he knew what for.

All of them remained in silence for some time, until Chu Yun turned once again towards Chu Hean. "You said you had a way to bring him here, do you think it would still work?"

Chu Hean chanced a look at everyone in the room, people he barely knew and wasn't all that comfortable in front of, and glared at Chu Yun. "Not in such short notice. But if we had announced that I was getting married weeks ago, for instance, he might have believed it and came here to try and dissuade me."

Yes, it might be too sudden, and too short notice, for a marriage -- but other things in life were far more unpredictable.

"I think I have an alternative," Chu Yun said, grinning widely.