13
Yiran
Ash Song stepped into the shophouse, a paper cup in one hand and a long coat slung over his arm. He was dressed in his noncombat Exorcist uniform—a sleek black suit and slim tie, with a small red lapel pin to identify his Captain status.
“This was not the combination of people I was expecting to see.” He eyed the trio suspiciously, his gaze pausing on the dried blood on Yiran’s clothes.
Yiran tensed. Ash couldn’t sense that he was bearing magic stolen from Rui, could he?
“The blood—” Ash began.
“It’s not mine,” Yiran said quickly. “I’m not hurt.”
“Good. I’ve been looking for you all night.”
“How’d you find me?”
“The tracer on your phone Grandpa had installed,” Ash replied, his frown growing deeper and deeper as he took in the paintings in Zizi’s parlor. He sipped his coffee. “I tracked it to this neighborhood and saw the coupe parked outside.”
Yiran caught Rui giving Zizi a look that said,Are you kidding me?Zizi waggled his eyebrows in reply.
They don’t know what it’s like to have a grandfather like mine.Yiran couldn’t believe that Song Wei had snuck a tracer into his phone. His grandfather didn’t trust him at all.
Ash frowned at Rui, who stared back brazenly as she tightened the belt on her bathrobe. “Cadet Lin Ru Yi, while it would be inappropriate for me to comment on any cadet’s personal life and make judgment on their”—he side-eyed Zizi—“choices, I do think you can do better. Please put on some proper clothes and get back to the Academy. Cadet Senai has beenscreaming her head off about your absence, and I’d like to shut her up.”
Pink blossomed on Rui’s face. “Zizi’s not my—we’re not—”
Grinning, Zizi threw an arm around her shoulders, visibly tickled by Ash’s assumption. “Oh, come on, I’m sure we can all agree Rui looks absolutely ravishing in my old bathrobe.”
Yiran wished he had punched Zizi harder. “How do you know each other?” he asked, looking between Rui and Ash.
“He’s my mentor at the Academy,” Rui said, jamming a good elbow into Zizi’s ribs. He yelped and let go of her. “You’ve got it all wrong, Ash. I saved your little brother’s life last night. That’s my blood on his clothes.”
“I see.” Ash nodded. “So the preliminary reports are accurate. I heard there was an incident with a Revenant and someone from the Academy was involved. In that case, thank you for your service. Put on some proper clothes and get back to the Academy. By the way, you’re under probation. Flout the rules one more time and you’ll be suspended.”
“What? Why?”
“All cadets were ordered to stay in their dorms last night. You didn’t follow that order, ergo, probation. You know how it works.”
“But it was for a good reason.”
Ash took another swig from his coffee cup and placed it on a side table. Zizi frowned at the cup.
“You are free to make an appeal to the Discipline Committee, Cadet Lin. I’m only here to retrieve my brother.”
Rui folded her arms, sullen but resigned.
“Let’s go home, Yiran.”
Ash wasn’t going to question Yiran about his whereabouts the night before or why the coupe was parked outside when Yiran had lost his driving rights. Not in front of two strangers, anyway. Ash might have slipped up with his revelation about the phone tracer, but the real dirty laundry was kept in the family. That was the Song way.
Yiran wasn’t doing things the Song way today.
“Rui saved my life, and possibly the lives of others in the area,” hesaid. “Shouldn’t she be commended instead? I’ll talk to this committee of yours, I’ll tell them what she did.”
Rui and Zizi swapped skeptical looks.They would be right to distrust you.Yiran shook off his guilt.
Ash was paying attention now. It wasn’t every day that Song Yiran stood up for someone else. “Best to keep your nose out of other people’s business, Xiao Ran,” he said, using the diminutive of Yiran’s name to signal his status as the elder.
