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It isn’t that difficult of a night hunt, not with Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen working side by side, like they have done countless of times now.
Lan Xichen is still the number one cultivator in their generation, after all, and Jiang Cheng himself isn’t someone to scoff at either.
So really, a few restless spirits shouldn’t be something to raise the hairs at the back of Jiang Cheng’s neck, and yet, here they are.
He keeps a close eye on the spirits, makes sure to always have Lan Xichen in his sight too, but nothing outright screams wrong at him. Still, Jiang Cheng can’t help the worry that settles deep in his stomach.
But despite that he keeps his head in the game as best as he can, herds the spirits back towards Lan Xichen who is playing Liebing to finally put them to rest, and it’s not long at all before the clearing is empty again.
“Are you okay?” Jiang Cheng can’t help but ask turning around to check the clearing again for any more threats, because something must be setting his senses off like this and so he is entirely unprepared for what Lan Xichen says.
“Blood has such a metallic taste,” Lan Xichen mutters, followed by a spitting sound, and Jiang Cheng spins around as fast as he can.
To his absolute horror there is blood trickling down from Lan Xichen’s mouth.
“I can’t say I like it,” Lan Xichen weakly says, right before he collapses on the spot and Jiang Cheng throws himself forward to catch him before he can hit the ground.
“Xichen!” Jiang Cheng calls out, but Lan Xichen is lax in his arms, and his breath is shallower than Jiang Cheng would like.
The spirits must have done something to him.
Jiang Cheng grabs Liebing and Shuoyue, before he hefts Lan Xichen into his arms and steps on Sandu. He’s pushing his own limits with how fast he’s flying back to Lotus Pier, but Lan Xichen is growing colder and colder in his arms and Jiang Cheng is sick with worry for him.
He touches down in front of the healer’s quartier, who must have heard him because Jiang Sushan meets him before he even steps completely off his sword.
“What happened?” she asks as she ushers him inside, and she gasps when she takes Lan Xichen’s wrist in her hand, checking his pulse and the flow of his qi.
“He needs qi, right now,” she snaps, and Jiang Cheng immediately starts to channel some to send it over to him.
Jiang Sushan guides them to a bed, and Jiang Cheng carefully puts Lan Xichen down, never fully breaking contact so he doesn’t disrupt the flow of his qi to the other man.
“What’s wrong with him?” he demands to know and Jiang Sushan sends him a glare that shuts him right up.
She takes Lan Xichen’s wrist in her hand again, closing her eyes this time as she focuses on Lan Xichen’s qi and when she opens her eyes again she seems decidedly more relaxed, which does wonders for Jiang Cheng’s nerves.
“He got qi poisoning,” she says and Jiang Cheng concentrates a little bit harder to send more of his own qi to Lan Xichen.
“He’s reacting wonderfully to your qi, there’s no need to worry,” she reassures him and then still fixes Jiang Cheng with a glare.
“How could you let this happen?” she demands to know and Jiang Cheng is yet again reminded that his people love Lan Xichen. Maybe he shouldn’t bring him to night hunts anymore, Jiang Cheng’s people will kill him if something happens to Lan Xichen.
“We were just putting some spirits to rest,” Jiang Cheng defends, because this night hunt shouldn’t have gone so completely wrong.
“And he played Liebing,” Jiang Sushan says with a nod. “One of the spirits must have poisoned him through the music.”
“Oh,” Jiang Cheng weakly mutters and chastises himself for not noticing that. “But he will be okay?” he asks, because he might need to hear it again.
“Yes,” Jiang Sushan tells him. “You have to keep this up for maybe an hour or longer, though. If you get tired please call for someone, if his infected qi travels through his body again, he can still die.”
So not quite out of the woods yet, Jiang Cheng thinks and takes a deep breath, to steady himself and the flow of qi.
“I will,” he promises Jiang Sushan who leaves him be with a pat on the shoulder.
With her gone, Jiang Cheng is left with nothing to do but watch over Lan Xichen. He can see the colour returning to his face, can feel how he turns warmer by the minute again, and the ice cold fear inside Jiang Cheng finally recedes.
Qi poisoning might be easily cured if caught quickly enough, but it is deadly if it’s left unattended for too long.
“Don’t ever do that to me again,” Jiang Cheng mutters and presses Lan Xichen’s hand to his forehead, concentrating on the qi in Lan Xichen.
Now that he knows what he looks for he can feel the last dredges of the poison, but Jiang Sushan was right. Lan Xichen is responding wonderfully to his qi and it shouldn’t even take another hour before all the poison is gone.
“I don’t intend to,” Lan Xichen suddenly mutters, and Jiang Cheng jerks his head back.
Lan Xichen still seems kind of out of it, but he’s looking at Jiang Cheng with a soft smile on his face.
“Didn’t get to court you yet, can’t die,” Lan Xichen mutters and Jiang Cheng can feel himself go hot at those words.
He’s still looking for an adequate response when Lan Xichen’s eyes drift shut again, and the slow and steady breathing let’s Jiang Cheng know that he drifted off to sleep.
“You can’t just say shit like that and then escape the conversation by falling asleep,” Jiang Cheng complains, but he is quiet about it because he doesn’t want to wake Lan Xichen.
The knowledge that Lan Xichen wants to court him sits heavy and hot in his chest, but it’s not an unpleasant feeling.
Jiang Cheng never dared to hope much for something like this, not after he and Lan Xichen became friends, and he would never admit it to anyone, but he has the typical Yunmeng Jiang courtship bells ready in his room. He was prepared to let them dust over, never to be used, but it seems like maybe they will see the light of day eventually.
Jiang Cheng can’t wait to see Lan Xichen’s face when he starts the courtship before him.