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Huaisang has his fan in front of him, fanning himself against the blazing sun. He walks through the scrubs, dragging his robes behind him to prevent the tearing of the fine material (he should have worn something less fashionable!).
But there is his lucky customer, looking around in fear of being found out. Huaisang approaches and bows before covering his face with his fan.
“You have the money?”
“O-of course, Young Master Nie! Right here.” The Jin Sect disciple pulls a bagful of change out of his oversized sleeves.
“Hm~ Excellent.” Huaisang digs into his own sleeve and pulls out five books and three pieces of paper, handing them over.
“Here.”
“Ah! Wow... these are nice.”
“Are they?”
“Indeed! This ink is... so fine. So clean. And the bindings— “
“Ah, Ah, you’re embarrassing me. These are good ones to take care of them, I promised Brother Jiang I would let him read. I have to get back... I’m supposed to be studying.”
Huaisang has a great business
Meanwhile Mingjue is hidden in some bushes, not knowing why he’s even doing this but he wants to make sure Huaisang is okay because he is supposed to be studying and he’s out here selling porn in the middle of nowhere.
Or, alternatively, Mingjue walks out of the bushes just as Huaisang finishes that sentence. “Yeah, you’re supposed to be studying.” and glares at the customer like he’s absolute shit.
The customer almost faints on the spot, and Huaisang almost drops his fan, whirling around, absolutely petrified.
“Dage!! You followed me?!”
“Y-young Master, m-maybe I should g— “
Huaisang fans him off behind his shoulder and the disciple flees, but then Huaisang realizes he was never given the pouch.
“Brother! The money— Aiya!” The pouch is thrown in a shrub.
“Dage, you scared him.”
Mingjue, who was glaring the fuck out of the other man, turns his glare to Huaisang. “You told me you were going to study and then I find you out here with some random stranger, getting paid—“ Mingjue looks like he’s about to explode, his face is so red and he’s very upset. Baxia is rattling dangerously in its sheath on Mingjue’s back.
Huaisang notices this, and hurriedly rushes over to his aid before his anger consumes his rationality. He places two gentle hands on his arms, body visibly tense in an attempt to calm him, which would therefore calm Baxia.
“I’m sorry, Dage! I... I’ll go back and study right now! I just... this was important!”
“Important?” Mingjue isn’t so easily placated, even though Baxia stops rattling around at Huaisang’s touch. “He could have hurt you! You’re all alone!”
“What’s so important about porn that you would be so stupid as to put yourself in danger like this?!”
“How could I have been hurt? We were trained under the Lan Sect together... we— we know each other!” Huaisang couldn’t help but get defensive, his brother was yelling at him in the middle of nowhere, followed him out nonetheless, and now was attacking his business.
“I haven’t gotten hurt yet!”
“Yet!” Mingjue is already too lost in his rage to censor his words, too upset at the fact that his brother was out meeting another man. “People who know you can still hurt you, Huaisang!”
“He’s harmless! Brother Wei wouldn’t hurt me, nor Brother Jiang, this Brother isn’t any different— Dage, please calm down!” He squeezes his arm and shakes him a bit, as if that would offer much help.
“If he wanted to hurt me he would have done it the last time we met when I sold him other things. He came without his sword!”
"Sword or no he could have still hurt you! You know this!" Mingjue grabs Huaisang by the collar, dragging him the way they both came. "Do I have to put you on a leash to keep you safe?! How could you think of coming out here without an escort! I forbid it!"
“I can’t just be untrustworthy with everyone! He’s my friend!” Huaisang could only be dragged by his brother’s hand, hand on his wrist.
“It was a quick trip! Next time I’ll bring my saber!” The rare occurrence he actually touches his saber to begin with, the weapon he absolutely despised touching.
"Don't lie to me, Huaisang! You never touch your saber, even when I ask you to!" Mingjue rages. "You never do what I ask. Never." Mingjue is at his wits end. He does everything he can to keep his brother safe but then the idiot goes and runs away. "All I'm trying to do is keep you safe! I can't do that if you're running away and meeting strange men!" He literally growls the last part, upset beyond measure. He's still dragging Huaisang along, uncaring of how his much larger stride is harder for his smaller brother.
“Dage, stop!” Huaisang is trying his utmost best to keep up, but his legs aren’t as long, nor is his running all that great. All he could really do was pull pathetically at Mingjue’s arm in hopes the tempered man will calm down.
“He isn’t strange!!! It was a planned meeting, Dage I do listen!” Most of the time he did, just not when it required studying, or training... okay, maybe his listening skills needed a bit more work.
“You wanted me to have friends! Why are you so upset when I meet with one, hm? I meet some and you scare the wits out of them and drag me back. Dage, stop pulling, I’ll follow you!”
"Friends?!" Mingjue does finally let Huaisang go, but he turns toward him. "How is this a friend if you have to meet him somewhere like this?!" he motions to the nothing around them. "This is just asking for something to go wrong! What if the next friend has wants to...to..." Baxia starts rattling again.
“No!” This time Huaisang grabs on his brother’s shaking fist, trapping it between his smaller hands and rubbing the skin that had paled over due to the amount of strength his brother was using. He brought the fist close to him as if a precious gift.
“It’s my fault! I knew you wouldn’t let me have someone over when... when I was supposed to be studying. So I told him we’d meet at the midpoint of the nearest town! It’s my fault! Just don’t... don’t lose your temper anymore. I’ll take the sect’s punishment, just... don’t get angry. No more.” Huaisang rubbed the fist carefully, bringing it up to his cheek.
Mingjue's temper calms somewhat with the way Huaisang is holding his hand and it takes some effort to unfurl the fist so he can touch Huaisang's face instead. "Why can't you just..." he doesn't know what he wants exactly. For Huaisang to stay home forever, like a locked-up maiden? Or for Huaisang to be more like him? Able to protect himself with his saber like he should? He takes in a shaky breath. Baxia is dormant at his back. "Do you understand why I'm angry Huaisang?"
Of course he understood, Huaisang could be considered the weakest disciple in the entire cultivation world his age; those his age had their golden cores developing, becoming stronger by the day with training, but what did Huaisang do? Carry around a fan and hide from the world? It surely wasn’t the most reputable for his brother’s position as an older brother, unable to train the next heir of the Nie sect.
Huaisang couldn’t fight. He never touched his saber. He couldn’t fly on his sword. He was useless in battle. He was useless to his sect, his sect whose lifestyle focused on wars and fighting! And Huaisang did none of that.
If anyone wanted to get at Mingjue, they would go after his only family: Huaisang, an easy target. Huaisang was defenseless, and he had willingly gone out without considering this.
“Yes...” His head dropped a bit, fingers holding his brother’s hand gently. “I can’t defend myself.”
There were only so much fans could do. So much Huaisang could do. Every encounter he met with, someone had to save him. All he did was cower. It was second nature to him, certainly not fit to run the sect. Mingjue claimed he had talents elsewhere in academics... but Huaisang couldn’t even pass most of his classes with straight A’s. What was he useful for?
“I was unprepared. I’ll bring someone with me next time. I’m sorry, Dage.” His intention was not to make him outraged, risking his temperament. Now Mingjue’s sworn brothers will scold him.
"Huaisang, if you get hurt..." Mingjue swallows hard. "If anything were to happen to you..." He can't even think of that. He's not sure the world would be able to survive the rage that he would feel at that. "Don't do things like this again."
Huaisang nuzzled his cheek into the palm of Mingjue’s hand, turning his head slightly just to kiss the palm before raising his own trembling hand and placing it atop of his, linking their hands together and letting their intertwined hands fall between them.
It must be difficult, having a brother with almost no golden core. The future leader of the Nie sect, not even capable of wielding one of his sect’s prized possessions. Mingjue’s anger was understandable; Huaisang was weak. He was an extra weight on the backs of any cultivator he was with. All because of Huaisang’s dumb fear of the saber, and not wanting to follow that same line of fate all the sect leaders met— one his brother would meet.
“Okay,” he whispered, running a thumb over their hands. Maybe he could figure out some way to defend himself, to lift the strain from his brother’s stress. “Nothing will happen to me, Dage.”
Upon approaching the sect doors, the young disciples almost seemed to sag in relief upon seeing their Young Master return, though tense as the aura radiating from their Sect Leader was rather violent.
Huaisang bowed and carefully took his hand from his brother’s, shutting his fan as he looked up to him. “... I’ll go study now. For real.”