Horse and I turned to walk back to our master’s house. It was the same wooden house, and yet, everything had changed. Sadness enveloped it, or perhaps it was only us. Horse sighed and I wanted to as well, but that wouldn’t change anything. Master was dead and we were alone in the world. That thought seemed to swallow me as I approached the house.
“Wait,” someone called, “I have something to say.”
Horse and I recognised her–how couldn’t we? Lady Li was too beautiful, almost as beautiful as Nüwa, and she was to be married to our master, Farmer Yan. We had seen her once or twice, always outside their master’s house and surrounded by two ladies in waiting. A lady of her wealth and stature did not plough the fields. I bowed, and Horse followed.
“I was with your master last night, dining with him. But I–I didn’t kill him!”
I took a deep breath. I shut my eyes for a moment, thinking about how humans sounded, and then, I opened my mouth to speak. A deep sound–my voice–emerged, and I was able to converse.
“Who else do you think did?”
“I–I don’t know. It was a special dinner, meant to finalise my betrothal to him. There were only two other people, Master Yu, from the temple, and my first cousin, Prince Huang.”
“I see.”
“Did you notice anything odd at the dinner?” Horse asked. I looked at him. He, too, had found his voice.
She shook her head.
I took a deep breath. I hadn’t been a mortal for very long, but even as an animal, I observed plenty and knew what was going on. I knew that I was going to ask a question that may be rude or direspectful, but it had to be asked.
“Did you love my master?”
“Excuse me?” she blinked. A flicker of fury crossed her face, and then disappeared. I opened my mouth to apologise, but she shook her head.
“No, I did not. But your master owns–owned–a lot of land, and with his marriage to me, he will be made a nobleman.”
Maybe she murdered my master to set herself free. And yet, judging by the tears that stained her face, I made the judgement that she didn’t have the heart to do so.
“But you agreed to marry my master, despite the fact that he was a lowly farmer?” Horse chipped in.
“He is wealthy,” she said, “and only needs my title for legitimacy. It will be his way of rising up in the world.”
“Ah,” Horse chimed in, as though to practise using his new voice.
“My cousin, Prince Huang, has postponed his departure to answer questions,” the noblewoman said. “Perhaps he will help you find the murderer.
We nodded, and Lady Li ran off. We pushed open the door to our master’s house, and were greeted by the sight of several wine cups on the table. All of them were empty, save for one, which had a little wine in it. Horse sniffed all of these cups, and he held one out to me. This particular cup had this faintly sweet odour. It could have passed off as the wine’s, if it were sweet.
“Master was poisoned,” Horse said, coming to the conclusion before me. He had a keener sense of smell, after all. “Wolf fungus.”
“Is that so?”
He nodded.
“We cannot rule Lady Li out as a suspect. Look,” he said, making me stare at the cup. It was no ordinary one, with peonies painted on and intricate calligraphy written on it.
“The set could have belonged to her.”
I nodded, agreeing. Right now, anyone could be a suspect.
Further down the hall was the dining table, but the dishes had been cleared and put aside, waiting to be washed. Except our master did not see the next day. We ventured to the bedroom of the house, one of the rooms that we were familiar with. Before we became human, we would sometimes stick our heads through the window to disturb our master, just before he slept. Master would pat us on the forehead and tell us not to be silly–that we would see him at dawn, always.
As an ox, I had felt the damp wave of sadness wash over me, but as a human, this was grief, and it pierced through my skin like an arrow. We would no longer hear his voice.
“Brother, there is no time to grieve. We must seek justice for our master,” Horse said.
“How did you know I was sad?”
“You were clutching your heart, a gesture I had seen some humans make. I, too, am sad, but we must not let these emotions cloud our judgement.”
“But why us? Nüwa is all knowing and powerful. She could have solved this mystery. Why choose two animals and change them into humans? Isn’t it cruel?”
“You mustn’t think this way. You will feel better when you find the culprit.”
We searched the room and found a sheaf of papers. We couldn’t read, but perhaps, we could find someone who could. Prince Huang hadn’t yet left, and all we had to do was to find him.