November 7th.
According to the Eastern calendar, today marked the first day of winter.
The chill of autumn, worn thin by time, had finally faded away.
The stone path leading to the orchard was lined with flowerbeds, though only a few blossoms survived the season. Most petals had already fallen, leaving only stubborn specks of color in the frost-bitten air.
Even the Combee hardly wanted to work in this cold.
After asking for Lin Feng's opinion, they all decided to stay inside the hive and rest.
He even asked if they would feel cold during winter and considered buying a heating lamp for them.
Several Vespiquen stacked themselves inside the hive like bricks, forming a shivering wall of honey and wings.
The heater helped. They finally stopped quivering.
The barn, however, had an air conditioner installed long ago. It was meant for the Miltank during the hot summer so they would not overheat. In winter though, their thick layer of fat kept them perfectly warm, so the machine was rarely used at this time of year.
At the moment, Lin Feng sat inside the barn with Gardevoir, going over the storage records.
"Gar...devoir?"
Gardevoir's gaze drifted toward the rows of honey wine barrels with visible confusion.
Something about the orchard had felt off these past few days, but she couldn't figure out why until now.
The barrels.
The honey grape wine.
Everyone knew the barn was filled with dozens upon dozens of barrels. The wine was strong and well-aged, and daily consumption was almost negligible. Aside from Gardevoir having a slightly generous drinking habit, the other Pokémon barely touched it.
Until now, only two or three barrels had been used.
Winter storage wasn't a problem. They wouldn't spoil in the cold.
Next spring, however, they would need to buy more storage capsules. Wine couldn't be left outside under the summer heat for long, even honey wine.
Large cooling capsules were expensive, but necessary.
"One barrel is missing?"
Lin Feng blinked, stunned.
"This... that can't be right, can it?"
If this had happened before Mew arrived, he might have suspected an invisible Pokémon sneaking off with a barrel. But now, with so many Aura users around, including himself, and with Pokémon constantly moving in and out of the barn, how could an entire barrel disappear without anyone noticing?
Was this a joke?
Still, Lin Feng didn't doubt Gardevoir. He began counting the barrels one by one.
He focused his Aura and swept across the barn in an instant.
His expression changed.
"What?! There really is one missing?"
He remembered clearly. When he purchased the barrels, the total was two hundred and fifty.
Now there were only two hundred forty-nine.
Which meant that sometime over the past few days, someone, somehow, had quietly taken away a full honey wine barrel.
Not just a bottle.
A whole barrel.
Could it have been Mew?
After Jirachi fell asleep, Mew had rarely been home. It only returned occasionally, even during meals.
Maybe Jirachi told it something in a dream and Mew had been wandering every day since?
Lin Feng thought back. During the seven days after Jirachi went to sleep, he only saw it three or four times in dreams. After that, Mew was always giggling somewhere, playful and unpredictable, who knew whose dream it visited each night.
Still, Lin Feng had prepared a lunch capsule for it, just in case. Inside were its favorite foods, like the storage capsule he gave Victini.
"It shouldn't be like this..."
He remembered putting a small amount of honey wine inside Mew's supply sphere too. And while Mew liked the wine, it wouldn't haul away an entire barrel, right?
Unless it made drinking buddies out there...
Lin Feng rubbed his forehead helplessly.
"So strange. I'll ask Mew when it comes back."
One barrel wasn't a huge loss. With more than two hundred left, they could drink for ten years at their current pace.
He was even considering selling some.
But the fact that someone managed to take an entire barrel unnoticed by countless Pokémon, several Aura users, and a very awake Miltank was disturbing.
That meant whoever took it was capable, subtle and confident.
A threat worth investigating.
Beside him, Gardevoir shook her head firmly.
"Gardevoir..." (It wasn't Mew.)
"Gardevoir..." (Serperior checked through Aura. Mew last visited on the third. The missing barrel was still there at that time.)
Lin Feng froze.
"...No way."
His expression darkened as he replayed recent events in his mind.
After Jirachi fell asleep, Mew had brought him the Wish Stone, Jirachi's treasured meteorite. It was said to carry concentrated wish energy gathered as it fell through the sky.
Wish Meteorite: A legendary artifact infused with dreamlike wish power. Carrying it is said to bring luck and grant heartfelt desires.
Originally, Jirachi wanted Mew to keep it, since a thousand years later it would not know where its things ended up.
But after learning Jirachi would awaken again next year, Mew wanted Lin Feng to safeguard it.
He allowed Mew to keep the stone for now. It wandered often, so better it stayed with something to protect it.
Days passed.
Fruit tree seeds arrived.
He planted them with Sandshrew and Milotic in the new orchard.
Ordinary days.
"Could it be that strong Ghost-type Pokémon sneaking in at night?" Lin Feng muttered under his breath.
With Gardevoir beside him, he walked out toward the orchard. They would ask Pidgeot if it had noticed anything strange recently.
Just then, Hattrem approached with a storage capsule, ready to collect today's berries.
When Lin Feng saw Hattrem, something sparked in his mind.
A thread of thought.
A sudden connection.
And everything clicked.