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Mo Ran still isn't used to life in Shisheng village after more than a year.
It's a good place, better than--before. (He tries not to think about before too much.)
He knows that he's lucky. Taken in by the head of the village, apprenticed to the village's famous inventor. He would have been lucky even if his uncle and aunt didn't love him, even if his teacher wasn't selfless and kind, even if he didn't have such good friends in his two co-apprentices.
It does.
He sits down; pulls out paper and ink. He writes a letter that will never be read to Xue Meng, reassuring him and instructing him on how to study independently.
He writes a letter that will never be read to Mo Ran.
Xue Meng finds Shizun's horse. He had gone into the forest on foot, but he takes the horse out.
It is just past sunset when he makes it into the village, pale and sweating.
He intends to go home, to his father, but he happens to run into Shi Mei first.
"There's a creepy castle in the forest and some kind of creature living there and it's got Shizun!"
"There was this weird patch of trees that were wrong and they spat me out in front of this creepy castle and I decided fuck it and left but it just spat me out in the same place and I went inside and the creature said I was a trespasser and he was going to keep me there and then Shizun showed up and offered to stay in my place and it said yes!"
What the FUCK.
This was not supposed to happen. This is entirely the opposite of what was supposed to happen.
Shi Mei gapes at Xue Meng, pale and horrified. (He's furious.) "We need - we need to tell your father right now."
"I know, I was on my way there." He gets down off the horse so he can walk beside Shi Mei to his house; it couldn't go at full speed through the village anyway.
Shi Mei is quite tall and can walk very quickly when he wants to. They rush to Xue Zhengyong's house and pound on the door.
Xue Zhengyong opens the door. He sees the youngsters' faces and pales.
"What's wrong?" he asks.
"There's a creature in a castle in the woods and it's got Shizun!" Xue Meng blurts.
"--What?" Xue Zhengyong gapes.
Xue Meng explains what happened. Xue Zhengyong still looks mostly flummoxed.
"We need to go rescue him! Xue Meng can lead us there. We should leave right away."
"--Yes, of course," Xue Zhengyong says. "Only--you're sure that's really what happened? It sounds so bizarre."
"I'm sure!" Xue Meng snaps.
Xue Zhengyong rounds up a posse, who receive less implausible detail, and they head off into the forest.
Shi Mei splits off early from the group and rushes ahead, knowing the route and its shortcuts better than Xue Meng. Ideally he will get the castle and the forest to expel Chu Wanning before the search party has a chance to get a closer look and be drawn into investigating.
The spooky trees rustle menacingly at him.
And nothing. No Chu Wannings emerge.
What the fuck.
What the fuck!
That is deeply concerning on multiple levels and should not be happening and Shi Mei does not have time to figure it out now. He doubles back and rejoins the group.
The group is completely failing to find the castle and the forest, which would probably say bad things about their competence if the castle and the forest weren't already known to have spooky navigation-related magic.
Xue Meng is still extremely frustrated. And worried about Shizun!!!
A few hours after the beast leaves Chu Wanning alone in his room, there is a soft, polite knock at the door.
The door opens.
The girl on the other side is dressed like a servant, and holding a tray of food.
She is also made of metal, looking in some ways more like one of Chu Wanning's inventions than like a human being.
She sets the tray down somewhere not on top of any papers and bows.
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