The foxes steal Mulan and the Rabbit’s supplies

The foxes’ theft of Mulan and the Jade Rabbit’s supplies turns a quiet campsite into a decisive setback in the effort to save Xiu. The loss is made possible by a small, unintended act: Mulan unties the red string securing their belongings while reaching for Xiu’s stuffed toy. By morning, their bags and the Rabbit’s medicines are gone, and the remedy for Xiu’s hupo poison must be sought again before the new moon.

Causes and Background

The theft follows a troubled night for Mulan. After an encounter with Daji leaves her unsettled, she dreams of a giant spider and wakes thinking of Xiu’s fear and suffering. Wanting the comfort of her sister’s familiar toy, Mulan moves quietly toward the bags while the Jade Rabbit sleeps. She unties the red string he had used to fasten their belongings together, retrieves Xiu’s stuffed toy, and returns to rest with it. The act is private and affectionate; its consequence is not apparent to her at the time.

The narrative places that small gesture immediately before the theft, making the loosened string a point of vulnerability without suggesting that Mulan intended to expose their supplies. When morning comes, the Jade Rabbit says that everything is gone. The campsite offers a concrete measure of the loss: the fire has burned out, its ashes scatter in the wind, and neither Mulan’s plain cloth bag nor the Rabbit’s rich silk bundle remains. What Mulan had treated as a way to reach one cherished object has also undone the fastening that kept their provisions together.

The Theft Discovered

Mulan first asks where Black Wind is, and relief follows when she hears his approaching hooves. The horse has escaped before the thieves could take him and comes back to nuzzle her. His return is a limited consolation: the traveling pair still have their companion, but their food, clothes, supplies, and medicine are missing. The contrast between the rescued horse and the vanished bags makes clear that the thieves have taken what the journey depends on, while not succeeding in taking everything.

Only after Mulan asks whether someone stole their things does the Jade Rabbit identify the foxes. He says they have been following the pair all along, waiting for an opportunity to cause mischief. The discovery changes the meaning of the loss: this is not an isolated robbery by unknown passersby but a deliberate obstruction by pursuers who have watched for a useful opening. The Rabbit connects the opened fastening to that opportunity, wondering how the foxes managed to undo the red string. Mulan then admits that she had untied it during the night. His response is not an accusation; he recognizes the foxes’ ability to cause substantial harm with little effort.

What the Loss Costs

The most consequential missing item is the Jade Rabbit’s bundle, which held his medicines and herbs. The Rabbit explains that treating Xiu’s hupo poison requires both Dragon Beard Grass and the Essence of Heavenly Majesty. He had been carrying the Dragon Beard Grass, but the theft leaves the party with neither ingredient. Mulan’s question about whether the grass is difficult to find therefore concerns the practical loss of a necessary part of the remedy, not simply the inconvenience of replacing travel supplies.

The Jade Rabbit answers that Dragon Beard Grass grows only on Green Island, though it is abundant there. Its abundance does not remove the danger created by the theft: the pair must now go to the place where it grows, and the Rabbit says they have only until the new moon. The stolen grass thus converts an already urgent search into a longer detour under a fixed deadline. The passage specifies the need to replace the grass and reach the next stage of the search; it does not claim that either remedy has been permanently lost or that the theft itself resolves Xiu’s condition.

Consequences and Significance

The theft also revises Mulan’s understanding of who is being pursued. She asks why the White Fox continues after the Jade Rabbit, given their long history, but he corrects her: the White Fox is after Mulan, not him. This clarification follows the Rabbit’s revelation that the foxes had been tracking them, placing the stolen supplies within a larger threat directed at Mulan. The setback is therefore both material and informational: it drains the party’s resources while exposing the persistence and focus of their adversary.

Structurally, the episode turns a moment of care into a cause of danger without making that care itself a mistake of intention. Mulan had reached for Xiu’s stuffed toy because the dream had brought her sister painfully to mind; the red string becomes the overlooked link between that private act and the loss of the medicine. The story’s reversal is sharply practical: by morning, the toy remains with Mulan, but the supplies required to help Xiu are gone. The foxes’ advantage lies in exploiting an opening, and the immediate consequence is a forced journey to Green Island against the new-moon deadline. The theft narrows the pair’s options and makes the urgency of their quest newly tangible.