Chapter 103: W for Wumbo
Li Xiu stared at the two ancient beings. She threw her hands up. “What is wrong with you both? Xiao Ling? You’re having a meltdown over your past. Yumi? You’re offering to eat her liver! This isn’t normal, even for you!”
Her eyes widened. “Wait, the comet. It’s getting closer, isn’t it? It amplifies spiritual energies and emotions. Is it making you both lose control? Xiao Ling, your repressed memories are surfacing. Yumi, your predatory instincts are going into overdrive. This has to be connected!”
Su Yao lifted her head. Her tears dried as she processed Li Xiu’s words. “The comet could have acted as a catalyst for internal chaos. It’s a plausible theory.”
Yumi hesitated. “The hunger feels stronger than usual.”
Li Xiu nodded. “We need to get a grip before this gets worse. The comet is affecting all of us and we’ve to be prepared. Now, both of you, calm down. We have a city to protect and a midterm to pass.”
Su Yao took a deep breath. “If the comet is influencing us, our priorities must adjust. We need to stabilize ourselves before we can address the external threat.”
Yumi bowed her head. “I apologize. I will control myself.”
Li Xiu sighed. “Good. Now, let’s focus on what we can do. Maybe we should consult Zhang Wei or look into ways to shield ourselves from the comet’s effects.”
Su Yao stood, brushing off her clothes. “First, we finish studying. Then, we deal with the comet. I will not be defeated by a rock in the sky or my own emotions.”
Yumi’s eyes glowed. “The comet is a calling. It urges us to shed these masks. To embrace our primal nature.” Her lips curled back, revealing sharp teeth. “And my nature is an endless hunger.”
Li Xiu took a step back. “Yumi, no! Fight it!”
“Control yourself, gumiho,” Su Yao said. “This isn’t the time for your instincts to override reason.”
Yumi growled. “Reason is the mask. The hunger is the truth. The comet has simply reminded me of that.”
Su Yao pointed at the economics textbook on the table. “Don’t drool on my notes. I will not tolerate damaged property.”
Yumi snarled. She lunged at Su Yao’s throat, claws extended and fangs bared.
Su Yao phased aside with a sigh. The attack tore through the wall behind her. “Li Xiu, stand back.”
Li Xiu scrambled away, “Yumi, stop! This isn’t you!”
Yumi was already spinning for another assault. She swiped at Su Yao again, this time aiming for her midsection. Su Yao caught her wrist. The force of the impact cracked the floor beneath them.
“Your lack of control is disappointing,” Su Yao said as she tightened her grip. “I suppose I must remind you of your place.”
Su Yao’s phone buzzed in her pocket. She phased back a step, dodging another wild swipe from Yumi and answered it on speaker.
“Xiao Ling!” Zhang Wei’s said. “The comet’s energy is amplifying negative traits! People are acting irrationally all over the city!”
“Your warning is too late,” Su Yao said, ducking as Yumi’s claws tore through the air where her head had been. “The effects are already here.”
Yumi shrieked as her form contorted. She lunged again, moving faster than before.
Su Yao deflected a claw strike that gouged deep furrows in her wall. “Of all the places to lose your mind, you choose my apartment,” she said. “The drywall alone will be a nightmare to repair.”
Yumi responded with a frothing snarl, slamming a fist through the kitchen countertop. Splinters of laminate and a broken rice cooker flew across the room.
“You are paying for that,” Su Yao said as she avoided another attack. She kicked Yumi in the chest, sending the gumiho crashing through the bathroom door. “And the door. And whatever you just broke in there.”
Li Xiu watched from a corner. “Can you please focus on subduing her instead of the property damage?!”
“I’m multitasking,” Su Yao said, ducking under a wild swing that shattered the light fixture. “The comet may have stripped her reason, but it didn’t strip her accountability.”
Su Yao blocked another frenzied strike from Yumi. Her eyes narrowed. “This is taking too long. Li Xiu, I must use the ultimate weapon.”
Li Xiu’s face paled. “Ultimate weapon? Xiao Ling, no! Don’t do anything irreversible!”
Su Yao crossed the room and yanked open a kitchen drawer, pulling out a worn cast-iron frying pan. It was blackened with age and covered in faint spiritual runes. “Auntie’s pan. It has pacified more rebellious sects than you have years.”
Before Li Xiu could protest, Su Yao swung the pan. It connected with Yumi’s head with a solid thwack that echoed through the apartment. Yumi’s eyes rolled back and she collapsed to the floor.
Li Xiu stared.
“No cracks. Good.” Su Yao tossed the pan back into the drawer. “Now, help me tie her up before she wakes.”
Su Yao pulled out a coil of ordinary rope from a storage closet. She channeled a spark of foxfire into it and the fibers glowed, hardening into near-indestructible spiritual bindings. “Here. Tie her securely.”
Li Xiu took the rope and began looping it around Yumi’s unconscious form. But instead of simple restraints, she crafted intricate patterns, crisscrossing the ropes in a way that accentuated Yumi’s figure.
Su Yao watched. “What are you doing? That isn’t a practical binding. It looks unnecessary.”
Li Xiu giggled. “This is art! It’s about the aesthetic, the flow of the lines. Don’t you see the beauty?”
Su Yao snorted. “Beauty is irrelevant. Security is the priority. Redo it properly.”
Li Xiu’s smile vanished. She dropped the rope and turned on Su Yao. “You don’t appreciate true art! Fine! If you won’t understand, then you’re next! I’ll tie you up even better!” She lunged for the remaining rope.
Su Yao sidestepped Li Xiu’s lunge and caught the wrist holding the rope. “The comet has addled your mind as well.” She twisted Li Xiu’s arm, forcing her to drop the rope.
Li Xiu struggled. “Let me go! I’ll make you a masterpiece!”
“Your masterpiece is a security hazard,” Su Yao replied. With her free hand, she delivered a precise chop to the back of Li Xiu’s neck. Li Xiu’s eyes fluttered shut and she went limp, collapsing next to Yumi.
Su Yao looked down at the two of them, trussed up and knocked out on her floor. She sighed and picked up the enchanted rope and began tying them both with simple non-artistic knots.
“The comet is becoming a significant inconvenience,” she muttered to the empty room, securing the final knot. “First a feral gumiho, now an aesthetic-crazed heiress.” She pulled out her phone to text Zhang Wei.
Xiao Ling: The comet’s influence has neutralized two assets. My apartment is a mess. Send a containment team and a cleaner. And find a way to block this celestial interference. It’s disrupting my schedule.
Her phone buzzed with a reply as she finished tying the last knot on Li Xiu.
Zhang Wei: We have a problem. The shielding device was supposed to block the comet’s influence, but an intern set it to ‘W’ for Wumbo instead of ‘M’ for Mini. It amplified the effects instead of reducing them. That’s why the irrational behavior is so severe.
She stared at the phone.
Xiao Ling: Fire the intern. Now.
Zhang Wei: He’s already been reassigned to janitorial duties. We need to fix this. The amplification is spreading. People are singing opera in the streets, and the mayor just challenged a pigeon to a duel.
Su Yao pinched the bridge of her nose.
Xiao Ling: Then reset the device. I don’t have time for this. My apartment is trashed, and I’ve two unconscious idiots on my floor.
Zhang Wei: We’re trying, but the controls are stuck. The intern used superglue. We might need your direct intervention.
“This day keeps getting worse.” She looked at the bound forms of Yumi and Li Xiu.
Xiao Ling: Fine. I will be there shortly. Don’t touch anything else.
Su Yao phased into the government operations center to deal with the Wumbo crisis. The room was in chaos. Monitors flickered with images of citizens behaving erratically. Zhang Wei tapped at a console while a team of technicians stood around a large device with a dial stuck on ‘W’.
“Move,” Su Yao said, shoving a technician aside. She examined the device. The dial was indeed glued in place. “Who is the intern responsible for this?”
A young man in a lab coat pointed at the dial. “I thought W was for weaken!”
Su Yao backhanded him across the room. She gripped the dial and channeled a surge of foxfire. The superglue vaporized. She twisted the dial to ‘M’ and the amplification field collapsed.
The chaos on the monitors began to subside. People stopped singing and dueling pigeons.
“It’s working!” Zhang Wei said. “The effects are fading.”
Su Yao turned to him. “The intern is reassigned to permanent latrine duty. Now, I’ve two tied-up liabilities in my apartment. Deal with them.” She phased away before he could respond.
Back in her apartment, Yumi and Li Xiu were stirring awake. The simple knots held firm. Yumi blinked. “What happened? Why am I tied up?”
Li Xiu groaned. “I had the strangest dream about rope art.”
Su Yao untied them. “The comet’s influence is neutralized. Don’t mention this incident again. Now, leave. I need to repair my apartment.”
Yumi stood. She bowed. “My apologies. I lost control.”
Li Xiu nodded. “Thank you for stopping me.”
Su Yao pointed at the door. “Just go.”
They hurried out, leaving Su Yao alone. She pulled out her phone and texted Zhang Wei.
Xiao Ling: Send the bill for repairs to the intern’s department. And increase the security clearance on all equipment.
She phased to the rooftop to observe the city. Although the comet was still visible, its effects were gone. The comet itself was still approaching. More problems would come. At least the midterms were soon. That was a simpler challenge.
The smell of tobacco cut through the air.
A man leaned against the rooftop access door, shrouded in shadow. The tip of his cigarette glowed. He took a long drag. The smoke curled into sharp-edged shapes. “This is my spot,” he said. “Find another perch.”
“Your spot? I see no deed.”
The smoke around him thickened, forming clawed tendrils. “I don’t need a deed. I’ve been smoking here since this building was a field. You’re new. And you’re loud.”
She turned her head. “Your territorial claim is noted. And rejected.”
He chuckled. “You’re the one they’re all whispering about. The fox in the student’s skin.” He took another drag. “You cause ripples. I don’t like ripples. They disturb the atmosphere.”
Su Yao’s eyes narrowed. His spiritual signature was muted and compressed, but it had a weight to it. “The atmosphere is already disturbed by a comet. Your grievance is trivial.”
“Comets come and go. My peace is permanent.” He flicked his cigarette. The ash hung in the air. “Last warning. Scram.”
Su Yao smiled. “Or what? You will attempt to asphyxiate me with your secondhand smoke?”
The man pushed off from the door. “Or I’ll remind you why some territories remain unchallenged for a thousand years.”
Su Yao phased, reappearing in front of him. “Then demonstrate,” she whispered. “I’m bored.”
The man’s smoke hung motionless in the air.
“Well?” Su Yao said. “You issued the warning. Enforce it.”
The man’s lips curled around his cigarette. “You’re standing in my light. You make the first move. I’ll make the last.”
“A predictable taunt from a stagnant power,” Su Yao replied. “I don’t respond to provocations. You want me gone? Remove me.”
“I don’t do favors for trespassers.”
“And I don’t obey the demands of relics who mistake a rooftop for a throne.”
The wind slipped away. He watched, waiting for her to commit and show her hand. She watched back, waiting for him to overreach.
“This is childish,” Su Yao said.
“Then leave,” he rasped.
“You first.”
The man’s smirk widened. “You never change, do you? Still as stubborn as ever. But that’s what made you adorable.”
Su Yao’s eyes narrowed. “Who are you?”
“Wang Liang,” he announced, puffing his chest out. “Your husband. Have you forgotten me so soon, my dear Xie Jing?”
Su Yao laughed, leaning into the role of his wife. “Husband? Marriage is until death do us part. You died. The contract is void. Where were you when I needed you?”
She stepped closer. “Too busy dreaming of your Thousand-Year Kingdom, plunging the world into darkness for your ambition. You cared more for your legacy than for me. And look where it got you, being dead and forgotten, while I endure eternity alone.”
Wang Liang’s smoke tendrils dissipated. “I did it for us! For a future where we could rule together!”
“Rule?” Su Yao scoffed. “You ruled nothing but your own grave. You left me to mourn, and now you crawl back expecting welcome? You are a ghost of a fool, and I’ve no time for ghosts.”
Wang Liang’s shoulders slumped. The smoke around him dissolved into a haze. “I apologize. I was a shortsighted fool blinded by ambition.”
Su Yao maintained her Xie Jing persona and waved a hand. “I don’t want your apology, I never did. I just wanted you to be a better person.”
She turned away, gazing at the distant comet. “Forget about me. You’ve a new life and a second chance now. Find someone who is not a creature rotting from the inside out like I am. You deserve better than a hollow echo of what you once loved.”
Wang Liang reached out. “But you’re all I ever wanted—”
“Then you’re a greater fool than I thought,” Su Yao interrupted. “Now, leave. Your nostalgia is as tiresome as your failed empire.”
Wang Liang’s form solidified. “I will be back.”
Su Yao shook her head with a sigh. “Don’t return until you’ve built a life with someone who can give you what I never could. Our next meeting should be you introducing your new wife and children.”
She paused. “I know you always wanted children. I’m sorry I could not give you that.”
Wang Liang stared at her. He nodded. “So be it. I will honor your wish.” He dissolved into a wisp of smoke, vanishing into the night.
Su Yao chuckled the moment Wang Liang vanished.
“All that dramatic yearning, and his love was so shallow he mistook a performance for the real thing,” she mused aloud to the empty rooftop. “Xie Jing would have sighed and written poetry. I nearly gagged.”
She shook her head. “No wonder his Thousand-Year Kingdom collapsed. His attention to detail was abysmal. An empire toppled by its enemies can rise again. But one which crumbles from within? That’s dead. Forever.”