Chapter Text
“Ah-! I can’t do this anymore! Xiao Jiu, what is this- AAAHHH!!!”
“Haitang!” Shen Jiu turned around and quickly fussed over her, kneeling down as he quickly checked for any injury on the delicate little princess.
“Never mind, it was just a sticky brown leaf...” Qiu Haitang murmured in embarrassment.
Shen Jiu smiled helplessly, “Come on, I will carry you on my back,” Shen Jiu said.
Qiu Haitang was about to happily agree before she stopped herself, “No,” she shook her head. “Your arm is broken, Xiao Jiu, and I can’t do that to you. You’re not my fiance anymore, you’re not mine anymore. If I still treat you like before, won’t you be reminded of your terrible experience at my home?” Qiu Haitang tilted her head.
Shen Jiu shook his head, “Not at all, it’s okay.”
“You’re always like this!” Qiu Haitang huffed angrily. “Not at all, never mind, it’s okay, it’s nothing, yada yada! We’re not in my house anymore yet you still act like this! This is why I never knew that you suffered so terribly in the hands of my brother, cousins, and late father!” Qiu Haitang’s eyes reddened.
“Hey, don’t cry,” Shen Jiu said gently.
“I’m not crying! And I’ll cry if I want to, you can’t tell me otherwise!” Qiu Haitang snapped. “I followed you so that I could atone to my family’s sin. Wuu... wuu... But I did nothing on this journey except for letting you pampering me and be hurt because of me!” What’s the difference out here and at her home!?
“I don’t need you to atone to anything. It’s never your fault in the first place, Haitang...” Shen Jiu said.
“Look, I know my brother and cousins and noble father might be assholes-“
“Haitang, you’re picking up callous languages again...”
“-And after what they have done to you, someone I love- no, no, loved. After what they have done to you, I’m really angry at them. But I still love them too, they’re my brothers and father, that fire... I could only hope that fire could cleanse their soul a bit, but just to be sure, as their sister and daughter, I’ll serve you to repay their debts even just a little,” Qiu Haitang sighed.
“Haitang, you truly shouldn’t. How about I’ll drop you in the next town? It has a nice atmosphere and nice people-“
“NO!”
“But I can’t let you keep suffering like this...” Shen Jiu said helplessly.
“I let you kept on suffering in my home!”
“You didn’t know that,” Shen Jiu sighed.
“Ignorance doesn’t make me right!” Qiu Haitang stated. “You’re the one who told me that, are you forgetting your own teaching to this e-e-ex-fiancee... of yours?!” Qiu Haitang grew sullen when she mentioned their current status.
“You can still call me your fiance...” Shen Jiu offered and Qiu Haitang looked at him blankly.
“Xiao Jiu, you could be my brother!” Qiu Haitang paled at the notion, remembering what they had found before they burned down the ancestral home of the Qiu’s. There was once a very beautiful prostitute surnamed Shen, her father apparently fell in love with her and forced her to be with him, he raped her to force her to be with him. She ran away from him a month later when he was welcoming another new young concubine. In his dying state, her good brother had said, maniacally, that their father saw that prostitute in Shen Jiu. The timeframe was terrifyingly close, Qiu Haitang couldn’t take a risk for her future.
Although Qiu Haitang loved Shen Jiu to death, she couldn’t risk it at all. For her sake, her future children’s sakes, and Shen Jiu’s sake.
Shen Jiu smiled, he also couldn’t take the risk. He didn’t want Qiu Haitang to be hurt if it was true... “Alright then, do as you please,” Shen Jiu nodded.
Qiu Haitang nodded as she followed Shen Jiu, “Where are we going now?”
“I don’t know. But I would never go to any place that would endanger you,” Shen Jiu said.
“Xiao Jiu, you want to be a cultivator. I will follow you wherever you go. How about we go and try to be accepted into a Sect?” Qiu Haitang said.
“I... I don’t like the idea of being tied to a Sect, Haitang...” Shen Jiu said reluctantly. He rarely rejected Qiu Haitang, now he tried to do it, he felt awkward instead.
“Oh, Xiao Jiu...” Qiu Haitang looked at him sadly. “I’m sorry that we made you like this...” She bit her lips.
“No, not you. I’ve always been this way, Haitang, only towards you that I’m gentle. I... If you see the real me, you would think I’m a disgusting scum...” Shen Jiu said. “That’s why-“
“Is that another attempt to get me to leave you roaming by yourself? Not a chance,” Qiu Haitang sniffed haughtily like a former noble daughter she was. “I’ve seen you at your worst! Even if it’s not your true worst, are you even worse than my brother, cousins, and father?!” Qiu Haitang challenged.
However much Shen Jiu despised and loathed himself, he would never think of himself to be the same or even lower than Qiu Haitang’s shitty male relatives that he had killed in the first place. Shen Jiu’s silence made Qiu Haitang scoffed.
“So I thought.” There’s nothing worse than her brother’s deed of trying to force his own future brother-in-law to bed with him after all, not to mention the said future brother-in-law could be his blood brother and he said nothing at all about it. Qiu Haitang was glad that her Xiao Jiu was always quick-witted and could slip out of that situation for a few times before Qiu Haitang finally overheard him wanting to drug Shen Jiu in that fateful day.
“...” Shen Jiu kept his silence.
“And I’m not going to let you have any rogue master! Xiao Jiu, the last one that brought us away was a trash!” Which they only noticed when he tried to do something inappropriate to Qiu Haitang. Shen Jiu killed the man when he was least expecting it, at the cost of a broken arm and several injuries that kept him awake at night. He didn’t regret it at all, no one touched his sun and sweet savior, although it was really a downer that the bastard did not actually have anything useful for Shen Jiu to continue his cultivation.
“I won’t have any rogue master,” Shen Jiu said to appease her.
“Masters from official Sects were all way better and nobler,” Qiu Haitang said.
“En.”
“Xiao Jiu is obviously very talented, I bet one of them will notice you.”
“En.”
“Xiao Jiu, you’re doing it again! Stop ‘En’-ing to answer me!”
“I still think a Sect is too much...” Shen Jiu said. “Maybe... We should search for another alternative.”
“You mean, like Academy? They did not ask you for your loyalty but... The tuition...” Qiu Haitang looked at Shen Jiu in worry. When they fled from Qiu Family, Qiu Haitang brought some money, but Shen Jiu’s trashy master took most of it and used it for himself. Right now, she only had a few, although it would be enough to buy them a house at a nice place and maybe live a few years with it if nothing problematic came, it wouldn’t be enough to pay for Academy’s tuition...
Shen Jiu shook his head, “No. They’re too expensive, we don’t even know if they’re real deals or not,” Shen Jiu rejected the idea.
“Xiao Jiu, if you kept being like this, you wouldn’t be able to advance. Don’t get too paranoid, I’m here for you!” Qiu Haitang encouraged.
Shen Jiu smiled bitterly inside, it was only because Qiu Haitang was here that he needed to take his step very carefully as of to not hurt Qiu Haitang in the process.
“Let’s go to one of the Four Great Sects!” Qiu Haitang suggested. “You’re afraid of scams and many things, the biggest Sect wouldn’t be a scam!”
Shen Jiu smiled, “Your family used to be the biggest and richest in town,” he said.
Qiu Haitang winced, “Well...”
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean like that-“
“No, no, no, you’re right,” Qiu Haitang looked down guiltily. “But can we at least try? If you don’t like it, we’ll be gone before we’re staying too much, hm?” Qiu Haitang suggested.
“That’s... Sigh, okay,” Shen Jiu nodded reluctantly.
“How about we start with Zhao Hua Sect?” Qiu Haitang said, recalling the name of one of the Four Great Sects.
Shen Jiu stared blankly at her, “It’s Zhao Hua Temple. You want to be a nun?” He asked.
Qiu Haitang shook her head in horror, “No, no, no. How about... Huan Hua Palace? The name sounds pretty,” She suggested.
“Hm, I heard they’re the richest amongst the Four Great Sects,” Shen Jiu contemplated. “Must be filled with many rich young masters and young misses...”
Qiu Haitang patted him, “We’ll try first... After your arm is okay again, we’ll try, okay?”
Shen Jiu looked at her and sighed, “Fine...”
He had an inkling it would be a disaster.
“Xiao Jiu, you’re crazy...” Qiu Haitang heaved as she leaned on a tree stump and collapsed to the ground. “If you want to leave then leave peacefully, should you really said that to her?!”
“I was just saying what I was seeing. She helped you find a suitable cultivation manual, I helped her to open her eyes...” Shen Jiu said aloofly as he patted off non-existential dust on his knees.
“Open her eyes?! You bluntly told her that her master, that was old enough to be her father, and even grandfather, is lusting for her! You’re lucky she only ordered you to leave and banished you, not killing you straight away!” Qiu Haitang facepalmed.
“You are there, Su Xiyan wouldn’t kill someone in front of delicate and pampered girls, knowing they would feel faint because of it,” Shen Jiu shook his head.
“And you literally planted a demon inside her heart! Now whenever she saw her master, she would feel uncomfortable!”
“Good. That will save her,” Shen Jiu said.
“Xiao Jiu, Xiao Jiu, ah... We haven’t even been there for a week...” Qiu Haitang sighed.
Shen Jiu looked at her and sighed, “I’ve already said to you. You can stay in Huan Hua, the place is not for me so I will leave it, but I don’t mind if you stay there. I will even visit you occasionally, just don’t get close to the Old Palace Master... Or the Second Hallmaster... The third and the fifth... In fact, just stay with the fourth Hallmaster, the only female one,” Shen Jiu said solemnly.
“No! I said I go with you then I go with you!” Qiu Haitang said stubbornly.
Shen Jiu winced.
“Alright, next... Let’s go to Cang Qiong-“
“Actually, Haitang,” Shen Jiu cut her off suddenly. “I... I don’t want to go to learn to any Sect... At least not for now...”
Hearing his tone, Qiu Haitang frowned, “Why...?”
“I... I have someone that I need to search for, I’m not sure if he’s still alive, but if he isn’t, then at the very least I want to find his grave...” Shen Jiu said.
Qiu Haitang inhaled heavily, “Who is it?”
“I... Do you know another slave that was brought along with me?”
“No,” Qiu Haitang said blankly.
“Well, I came with my friend. Sold. That friend of mine is very important to me, he essentially raised me. A few years ago, he managed to run away and promised me that he would come and save me... Only he never came, I suppose he died,” he better be died, Shen Jiu thought grimly. Qi-ge better be dead or Shen Jiu wouldn’t know what to feel...
“Oh,” Qiu Haitang frowned sadly. “So you want to search for him first, before joining any Sect?”
“Yes,” Shen Jiu nodded. “Cultivating in a Sect required time and diligence. Although I really want to grow strong, I can’t wait for a few years before searching for him... I’ll learn something along the way. I don’t want you to be burdened, so you don’t have to come.”
Qiu Haitang frowned, “No. This friend of yours was a runaway slave that had been abused by my family too, right? Then, I owed him my apologies. I’ll go with you,” she said stubbornly.
“Haitang...” Shen Jiu said exasperatedly and sighed.
“But, Xiao Jiu...” Qiu Haitang frowned. “Your age... It’s already so late to start off, are you sure...?” Qiu Haitang asked. Shen Jiu was a few years older than Qiu Haitang, even though she was also a bit too late to start now, it wasn’t so bad. However, Shen Jiu... At his age now, he barely even started thanks to that cheap trash master.
Qiu Haitang’s talent was mediocre amongst mediocre. However... Shen Jiu’s talent was a first-class talent that could make many ‘talented young masters’ got jealous, he made several elders in Huan Hua Palace interested in him when they stayed there. However, his age and the bare existence of cultivation discouraged them to take immediate action in snatching a disciple on broad daylight. Qiu Haitang felt it would be a waste if Shen Jiu didn’t try to start the cultivation now...
Shen Jiu paused, He was barely sixteen now, Haitang was fourteen. They originally to be married off when Haitang reached fifteen. Age of sixteen was indeed too late to start, recalling many people started off at the age below ten, or in the case of martial family, they started cultivating at the toddler age.
Shen Jiu smiled, he probably had a not-so-bad talent, but his situation made him look very bad even if compared with a kid from a cultivator family...
“It’s fine...” Shen Jiu said. “Like I said, I’ll pick up something along the way.”
The two of them walked off, unknown to Shen Jiu, the man he was searching for actually stepped into Huan Hua Palace and was greeted with the sight of a scowling Su Xiyan.
“What made Sister Su very displeased today as of to disturb your harmony?” Yue Qingyuan asked to the First Disciple of Huan Hua Palace.
“Ah, it’s nothing of concern, Brother Yue,” Su Xiyan greeted the future Sect Head of Cang Qiong with an equal amount of courtesy. “It’s just... some unpleasant realization...”
“Oh?” Yue Qingyuan raised his brows.
“Nothing,” Su Xiyan shook her head. After that boy’s blunt information to her yesterday to which Su Xiyan told him to leave Huan Hua Palace by the dawn, Su Xiyan actually got uncomfortable and decided to test out the boy’s accusation. The boy named Shen Jiu said if Su Xiyan showed some kind of interest to a martial brother, her master would punish that boy regardless of offense. If Su Xiyan subtly mentioning engagement, her master’s expression would twitch, etc, etc. And everything checked out!
Only now Su Xiyan finally realized her master might not as be as admirable as she thought and it was all because of some random boy who just came here a week ago! “Where did that boy go...?” Su Xiyan pursed her lips slightly. When she finally realized the seriousness of the problem, Su Xiyan had gone off to see the boy only to find out the boy was not around! Don’t tell her, he truly took her order seriously and scram out by the dawn?
“Who?” Yue Qingyuan looked at Su Xiyan.
“No, I was just murmuring to myself,” Su Xiyan said aloofly as she walked a bit closer to Yue Qingyuan as they entered her master’s study where her master was meeting with the Sect Head of Cang Qiong. She instantly put up a slightly soft smile- something she rarely did- as she tilted her head towards Yue Qingyuan, from the corner of her eyes she noticed her master’s grip on his teacup tightened.
Su Xiyan’s heart grew colder. She needed to be more careful from now on...
Shen Jiu’s soft expression was gone when Qiu Haitang went to her room to go to sleep. He poured himself the cold tea from the teapot and drank it. It had been months since they live like this, moving constantly in search for Shen Jiu’s ‘friend’ that was most probably died.
Shen Jiu couldn’t keep going like this, he couldn’t let Qiu Haitang kept being burdened by his selfishness. She just turned fifteen last month, she should be at the peak of her life, enjoying her youth, popularity, romance... Yet here she was, following the useless him around and constantly made Shen Jiu felt guilty for dragging her along even though it was her own desire to go with him.
At the age of fifteen, she should be finding someone to marry, or at the very least enjoying the sight of her suitors competing for her hand in marriage. Yet, she was here with him, her ex-fiance who could very well be her long-lost half-brother.
Shen Jiu wanted to make her settle down somewhere safe, but she refused. He wanted to leave her if just to make sure she wouldn’t follow him and burdened herself, but he couldn’t. For all her bossy-ness, Qiu Haitang was only a noble pampered young lady in the end. She was too naive.
It was ironic to see her continuously reminding Shen Jiu about the danger outside when it was him who was the most experienced one about the world’s cruelty between the two of them. However, her unnecessary concern warmed Shen Jiu’s heart, so he didn’t mind getting an earful from the girl.
Shen Jiu looked out of his wide-open window and sighed as he dragged his hand down his face tiredly, he couldn’t keep being like this. Qiu Haitang... He couldn’t let her suffer. He didn’t know until when he would keep being like this, lost in his guilt and grief for Qi-ge, but...
Shen Jiu lowered his head and sighed, “Qi-ge...” He murmured. “Where are you? Did you die somewhere in the forest?”
“I waited for you, you never came. I searched for you, I never find your trace... So, you’re dead after all?” Shen Jiu sighed again and closed the window. If Qi-ge was truly dead... Then Qiu Haitang was his only anchor of sanity and faith...