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1.
Three siblings stand in a graveyard.
Why didn’t he tell us, they cry, but their brother’s ghost stays mercilessly silent.
2.
Autumn Tree meets Desert Dust in Season 1 of the Glory Pro Alliance. Han Wenqing stops Su Muqiu in the aftermath.
“Where is One Autumn Leaf?”
3.
Su Muqiu hesitates. “He’s not here.”
4.
Autumn Tree shakes his head. “He can’t come.”
The space beside him aches in its emptiness.
5.
“Stop waiting!” Autumn Tree and Desert Dust clash in the middle of a battlefield.
Han Wenqing, behind the monitor, snarls, “Then tell me why!”
6.
Su Muqiu stares at the gold plastic cup in his hands.
Fake, fake, fake. He feels more like he’s lost than he’s won.
“Good game,” Tyranny’s captain tells him grudgingly. He already knows what’s coming next. “Why isn’t he here?”
Ye Xiu, Su Muqiu echoes with him, why aren’t you here?
7.
He’s dead, Su Muqiu can’t say.
8.
He’s gone, Su Muqiu almost succeeds in choking out.
9.
I want him here more than you do, Su Muqiu wants to rage. Instead, he swallows it down and gives in.
“Come with me.”
10.
Two captains stand alone in a graveyard.
“This is Ye Xiu,” Su Muqiu says. This is One Autumn Leaf.
A gust of wind blows through the trees, a wave of grief crashing upon a distant shore.
Han Wenqing bows his head and pays his respects.
0.
Before Season Five ends, one more person visits Ye Xiu’s grave on Qingming.
“Yo,” an older Ye Xiu murmurs, staring straight at the figure floating above his headstone. Beside him, his siblings and lovers settle into their usual tomb-sweeping routine, undisturbed by his presence.
“I don’t know how you did it, but I know it was you that did it, so. Thank you for bringing me here.”
Su Muqiu and Han Wenqing intertwine their hands with his, updating a younger Ye Xiu on the Pro Alliance’s most recent season while Ye Xiu listens. Unlike Ye Xiu, however, their eyes slide over their shared conversation partner.
Take care of them, his younger self mouths.
It feels like an absolution.
Of course, Ye Xiu nods. As if he’s ever needed the reminder.
Settling back against his tombstone, Ye Xiu’s ghost watches his family, content.