Work Text:
Tang Fan is the smartest, stupidest man Sui Zhou knows.
His brilliant mind can discern vital clues from the tiniest, most innocuous pieces of information, can make connections that no-one else can follow, can see through the veil of a person’s actions to determine their true motives. And yet, despite his brilliance, he is a fool. Absurdly naive, too ready to believe the best of people, Sui Zhou will never understand how Tang Fan can at one and the same time see right through a person’s carefully crafted artifice and yet fail to forsee the consequences of exposing that person’s lies.
Tang Fan knows facts, and motives, and clues…. but he doesn’t know people.
Sui Zhou knows people; he knows their cruelty, their rage, their ugliness. He knows how low people can sink, and how viciously they will fight to protect that which they hold dear.
Which is why he’s already reaching for his sword when, like the fool he is, Tang Fan turns his back on the man whose murderous scheme he has just neatly and publicly dissected. Tang Fan is smiling widely at Sui Zhou, pleased with himself for having solved the case, even as the man behind him, his face a mask of panic, reaches into his sleeve…
Sui Zhou is quick… but not quick enough. Before he can do more than draw his sword, Tang Fan is stumbling backwards, his eyes wide with shock, pulled off balance as the criminal presses a short blade to his throat.
Sui Zhou goes very, very still.
“Stay back!” the man shrieks, his eyes wild. He looks around desperately, but there is no escape; Sui Zhou is between him and the only door.
Sui Zhou watches him carefully, taking in his stance, his grip on the knife, the way he has positioned Tang Fan’s body in front of his. The man is desperate…. but he’s not stupid.
“Drop the sword!” he demands frantically.
Sui Zhou hesitates. There are so many ways that this situation can go south, and most of them involve him being unarmed.
“I’ll kill him!” The criminal puts pressure on the knife and Tang Fan flinches, his chin lifting jerkily as a bead of blood trickles down his throat.
Shit. His heart pounding, Sui Zhou starts to lower his sword…
“This won’t work…” Tang Fan says, almost calmly, his voice tight and high.
“Shut up!” The man doesn’t even look at Tang Fang, his gaze flitting nervously between Sui Zhou and the lure of the open doorway behind him. “I’ll kill him!” he threatens again.
“If you do that, he’ll kill you,” Tang Fan points out reasonably.
“Shut up!” Sui Zhou grits out, glaring at Tang Fan. This is not helping.
Tang’s Fan’s face is pale, his chin raised at an awkward angle, his eyes wide and anxious. But there is a familiar mulish determination in his expression that Sui Zhou has come to know all too well. He tightens his grip on his sword, keeping his attention focused on the increasingly desperate criminal.
“There’s no way out of this,” Tang Fan says firmly. “Even if you kill me. Even if you kill us both. Both the Western and Eastern depots know who you are. The city gates are closed. They'll find you.”
“Shut up!” The man is becoming more and more frantic, the knife trembling at Tang Fan’s throat. “Let me go or I’ll kill him, I swear!”
“He can’t do that. He won’t do that.“ The look Tang Fan gives Sui Zhou is full of meaning and damn it, Sui Zhou hopes to heaven that Tang Fan has a plan because…
“If you kill me,” Tang Fan continues inexorably, “this man will kill you. And then the imperial guards will come for your family… for your mother…. for your brother… for your wife… and your children… and they will kill them too…”
“No!” The man shakes Tang Fan, making him stumble awkwardly. Sui Zhou’s hand tightens on his sword but the opportunity passes too quickly, the criminal pulling Tang Fan back against his chest, the jab of the knife forcing his head back with a gasp.
“Your family will die.” Tang Fan presses, his voice cracking. “Because of you. Because of what you did.”
“No!!” The man’s face creases in rage and he pulls the knife away from Tang Fan’s neck…
Everything seems to happen at once.
Sui Zhou moves forward on instinct, lunging with his sword even as the criminal’s knife slashes at Tang Fan, even as Tang Fan twists in the man’s grasp and uses his weight to pull him off balance.
Tang Fan hits the floor and the criminal gasps wetly, his mouth opening in shock, bright red blood spilling from his lips. Sui Zhou’s sword is buried in his chest. Sui Zhou straightens and the man slides from his blade with a choking gurgle, the knife falling from his hand. Sui Zhou doesn’t spare him a second glance. The wound is mortal.
Tang Fan is sprawled on the floor, his face white, his chest heaving. Sui Zhou looks him over worriedly.
“Are you okay?” he demands.
Tang Fan tears his gaze away from the body of the man who just tried to kill him and nods jerkily.
“I… I think…”
He tries to sit up and winces, presses a hand to his side. It comes away red. He stares at it with a mixture of confusion and dismay.
Shit. Sui Zhou’s sword hits the floor with a clatter as he drops to his knees beside Tang Fan. He pushes Tang Fan’s hand aside and leans over him to get a better look. There’s a gash in the pale fabric of his official robes, just below the ribs, and a spreading red stain. Shit.
Tang Fan cries out as Sui Zhou tucks himself under his arm and hauls him to his feet. He’s wobbly and pale, his weight leaning into Sui Zhou. Sui Zhou presses Tang Fan’s hand firmly over the wound, his voice coming out rough and tight as he orders him curtly, “Keep pressure on it.”
Tang Fan nods obediently, biting his lip against the pain.
Sui Zhou grabs his sword. “Let’s get you to Lao Pei.”
- - - - - - - - -
Tang Fan is visibly drooping by the time they reach Lao Pei’s house, his feet dragging more with every step. He’s pale and sweating and far, far too quiet and Sui Zhou bangs on Lao Pei’s door loud enough to wake the dead.
“What the hell-?” Lao Pei has barely gotten the door open before Sui Zhou is pushing his way inside, dragging Tang Fan with him, and the doctor’s annoyance melts in an instant. “Here, here. Bring him in here.” He hurries ahead of them into his treatment room and between the two of them they help Tang Fan to lie back on the treatment bed. He’s breathing heavily, his face creased with pain, his hand still pressed to his side.
Lao Pei lifts Tang Fan’s hand aside and frowns, leaning in close to examine the blood-soaked gash in Tang Fan’s robes. He shakes his head and starts unfastening Tang Fan’s robes and Sui Zhou is lost, staring helplessly at Tang Fan who is beginning to blink wearily. He doesn’t know what to do next.
Lao Pei looks up from his work and gives Sui Zhou a considering look. “I need clean cloths,” he announces. “In that basket over there,” he gestures with his chin. “And a bowl of water.”
Sui Zhou looks at him blankly. “Come on!” he claps his hands together impatiently and Sui Zhou startles. He blinks for a moment, then nods. Okay. Cloths. Water.
By the time he returns with cloths and water, Lao Pei is bending over Tang Fan’s bared chest and Tang Fan is biting his lip as the doctor prods at the wound. Lao Pei straightens and takes the cloths from Sui Zhou. “Nasty,” he declares, ”but not too serious. He’ll live. Put the bowl over there, if you please.”
Something that has sat tight and heavy in Sui Zhou’s chest eases and he sucks in a shaky breath. His hands are trembling a little as he puts the bowl of water down where Lao Pei can reach it.
Tang Fan’s eyes are closed but they open with a jerk, a grimace of pain on his face, as Lao Pei begins to clean the wound.
Sui Zhou swallows. He takes Tang Fan’s hand, frowning as Tang Fan squeezes tightly, his arm trembling with tension.
“What did you do that for?” he asks gruffly, unable to hide the reproach in his voice.
Tang Fan’s smile is tremulous, his face pinched and drawn.
“He was going to kill me,” he says matter of factly. “If you’d dropped your sword, if you’d let him leave with me…” He bites off a gasp, his hand clenching around Sui Zhou’s. “He’d have killed me to escape.”
He takes a long, shuddering breath. “The only way…” He licks his lips. “The only way to make him drop his guard was to… to make him angry… angry enough to try and stab me.”
“Congratulations,” Lao Pei looks up from his work wryly. “You succeeded.”
“His family was the only thing he cared about.” Tang Fan’s face is earnest, open, and Sui Zhou finds himself having to reconsider his earlier assessment.
“It was his weak spot.” Tang Fan says.
Okay, maybe Tang Fan does know people better than Sui Zhou thinks. But he’s still the stupidest, smartest man that Sui Zhou knows.
“Next time, warn me before you do anything that stupid,” he grumbles.
“Okay.” Tang Fan smiles up at him, and when his hand squeezes Sui Zhou’s, Sui Zhou squeezes back.