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It was night in Haixing as Ye Zun waited for Ya Qing to bring Zhao Yunlan to him. The stars were sparser than they had been when he was a child; only the brightest peeked through the hazy sky.
Sounds. Yes, that was Ya Qing and Zhao Yunlan and – some third person. A woman. Yashou, perhaps.
“Chief Zhao,” Ye Zun said. “Nice to meet you. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Ye Zun.” He bowed theatrically.
Zhao Yunlan, that ingrate, merely waved in a manner that dripped with unimpressedness. Very well. If respect wouldn't be freely given, Ye Zun would take it by force.
“The boss behind Zhu Jiu and Ya Qing is none other than me,” Ye Zun said. “And soon, I will be the boss behind you as well!”
He reached out and pushed with all his energy until – yes, that was Zhao Yunlan's mind he felt. He reached his power around it and tightened the grip until he felt the mind acquiesce.
Zhao Yunlan the body had faltered. They occasionally did that when taken over.
“Boss?” Ya Qing asked.
“Between us and humans, there can only be animosity. They cut off our desires and forced us to settle into the same rut, day after day, with no escape.” Ye Zun smiled. “Why not give one of them the same experience?”
The other Yashou woman had taken several steps back and was clutching her bag possessively. No matter. Ye Zun had a better toy to play with.
“Tell me, Zhao Yunlan,” he whispered, “What is the true calling of your heart? Suppression? Oppression? Genocide? Don't you just wish that you could shoot all Dixingians?”
Exasperation floated to the top of Zhao Yunlan's mind. “No,” he answered the final question in the hazy voice all mind controlled had.
This was … unexpected. Ye Zun clearly recalled the Old Boss who raised him telling them all that humans would kill all Dixingians if given half a chance. Perhaps they'd become squeamish in the modern era. He teleported right next to Zhao Yunlan and loomed. “What do you think of Dixingians, then?”
The emotions Ye Zun could detect on his mind made Ye Zun doubt the integrity of the link. The mental equivalent of a shrug?!
Ye Zun pushed deeper in, pulled at the response, and found annoyance at Zhu Jiu, curious neutrality at some Dixingian criminals, a baffling sympathy for some Dixingian criminals, concern and protectiveness and loyalty for that Chu Shuzhi, and – the deepest layer. Respect and a touch of awe for the Black-Cloaked Envoy, subsumed into fondness and adoration for Shen Wei. And the belief that he would come. Ye Zun scoffed. This idiot actually thought that Shen Wei would save him.
“Do you honestly think that traitor would come?” Rock-solid trust and certainty. Ye Zun saw red. “You fool.”
The memory, seared into his mind so deep that ten thousand years of torture could not even begin to erase it, rose and took him over. He grasped it, spun it like thread, and threw it at Zhao Yunlan. He made Zhao Yunlan experience it, rubbed his nose in the glorious Black-Cloaked Envoy being someone who'd break his oaths and abandon his little brother to slavery, all the while chanting See? See? at him.
Zhao Yunlan sat down unprompted. It was a bit unusual for mind controlled minions to do that, but perhaps the revelation of Shen Wei's true nature had stolen the strength from his limbs.
“Ye Zun,” Zhao Yunlan said in a voice entirely too measured to still be under mind control. “I went through extensive training on standards of evidence in cop school. Let's think a bit, okay? You had your brother at your side against that guy, you fell unconscious, you woke up, that dude told you your brother had abandoned you. You weren't actually present for the actual abandoning.”
“Shut up!” Ye Zun hissed. The link was still there, he could feel Zhao Yunlan's patient leading, why wasn't the damned human shutting up?
“So the entire matter of whether your brother abandoned you rests on a single witness testimony.” Zhao Yunlan looked up at him, outwardly relaxed but mentally wound tight and controlled. “Is that guy a reliable witness?”
“Reliable witness?”
“Do you trust him to tell the truth? Did he have your best interests at heart?”
Ye Zun's mind ground to a halt trying to imagine Old Boss caring about anyone other than himself. Memories of the sheer contempt Old Boss had shown Ye Zun, all the times he'd ended up on the ground, choked, mocked, tormented for Old Boss's entertainment or as a convenient punching bag lurked at the back of his mind.
Some of that must've been accidentally sent through the link, for Zhao Yunlan said, “So he would not have told the truth. Tell me, Ye Zun, have you asked your brother why he left you?”
“What's the use?” Ye Zun said. Panic rose in his throat. “He would just lie.”
“Ah, but we were taught how to deal with that as well!” Zhao Yunlan leaned forwards, again acting out a display of relaxed confidence while inside he was a tightly wound spring with a constantly ticking mind. Ye Zun tried grasping it but it slipped between his fingers. “The thing to do is compare the witness statements. Do they agree or disagree on individual points? Which of them is more consistent with what you know of your brother's actions before and after the incident?”
“Get up,” Ye Zun ordered.
Very obediently, Zhao Yunlan rose, the order given to his limbs by the link to his mind. It was still there, so why wasn't it working properly? He paced around in thought. Did his powers not work the same way on humans as on Dixingians, or was this some effect of being still bound to the pillar?
Or perhaps it was the taint of the Hallows on Zhao Yunlan. He spoke as he paced and thought. “You are so very desperate to plead for his innocence. This is perhaps your only chance at a cordial meeting with me, yet you waste it arguing on behalf of another. Is this the true desire of your heart, Zhao Yunlan?” A discordant note. It wasn't, then. As he turned to face Zhao Yunlan, he asked, “Then what is it that you now desire?”
The final words were cut off by something being stuffed into his open mouth. Ye Zun jerked.
“It's a lollipop,” Zhao Yunlan said. “I figured you'd missed their development, all locked up in Dixing like you were. Try licking it.”
Against his saner instincts, Ye Zun took hold of the stem and licked the ball atop. It tasted sweet. “Is this the true desire of your heart? Feeding your enemy sweets?” he scoffed.
Zhao Yunlan sighed and rested a hand on Ye Zun's spectral shoulder. It tingled oddly. Behind the act of resigned camaraderie was a mind rushing like a raging river. “The true desire of my heart is that we – human, Dixingian, Yashou – can all live in peace.”
“Yet the Treaty condemns us Dixingians to the darkness, cut off from all hope.”
“It's much easier to update diplomatic agreements if Dixingians haven't been an escalating public nuisance for months on end.” Zhao Yunlan let his hand drop. “Today is the Reunion Festival, when families on Haixing all gather together to eat and celebrate. How does takeout sound? We could have a picnic. You could sort things out with your brother and eat food instead of people.”
Beneath that genial exterior was a mind that worked hard. Ye Zun stared at it, at the tendrils of dark energy he had wrapped around it, and tried to decipher it. The offer was genuine with no duplicity behind it, but-
Ah. The Haixing version of mind control: manipulation via words and actions instead of via dark energy. Very well. The ground was familiar; Ye Zun would gladly stand on it. “Sure.”
“Excellent!” Zhao Yunlan turned to address his subordinate. “Zhu Hong, why don't you go buy us some takeout? And tell the SID that Professor Shen is to come to the entry to Dixing as soon as he's able to.”
The subordinate – Zhu Hong – flicked her eyes between Zhao Yunlan, Ye Zun, and Ya Qing. Ye Zun ordered Ya Qing to accompany her. Between them they should be able to come up with something worth eating. It had been a long while since he last ate anything. He was quite looking forward to it.
Zhao Yunlan sat back down and patted the grass next to him. “Sit down. Let's watch the stars while we wait.”
“I can hardly see any,” Ye Zun scoffed. More than he'd seen in the past ten thousand years, but much less than the speckled vastness of his youth.
“Light pollution,” Zhao Yunlan explained.
They sat next to each other in silence. The opening salvos of argument had been delivered, and now there was a lull as they waited for additional evidence to arrive. Ye Zun conserved his strength and licked the lollipop. It was weird but appealing, just like the man behind it. He could see why his brother was attracted to Zhao Yunlan.
Perhaps he could even steal his brother's beloved Kunlun. If his brother had placed Kunlun above him while in his heart others were only dust compared to his brother, then what could be a more fitting revenge than being ranked far above his brother in Kunlun's heart? This Zhao Yunlan was so righteous, too – surely Ye Zun's asshole gege would fall instantly from grace once the truth became impossible to conceal.
It was nice to be out of the pillar. Ye Zun let himself enjoy the wait beneath the starry sky.