Work Text:
Xie Lian knew that centuries of bad luck wouldn’t be cleared with just his cursed shackles breaking. He still trips on things he swore weren’t there before, get flustering questions from the villagers, or when there are children playing around him, whatever they were playing with would magically fly to his head.
Though it wasn’t as bad as before, he’s gotten good luck sometimes, though his San Lang still offered to share his good luck every time he went out on his own. Maybe it was only to offset Xie Lian’s bad luck, maybe it was also an excuse to hold hands, or maybe both.
Today though, Xie Lian woke up to Hua Cheng not in bed beside him. It turned out that Hua Cheng just had some business to take care of in Ghost City, and coincidentally, Xie Lian had some prayers to answer in Puqi village, so he told Yin Yu to pass Hua Cheng the message.
Xie Lian spent his whole day helping the villagers with various tasks. Once he was done with answering prayers for the day, the sun was already setting, he took his time to walk along a dirt road in between 2 rice fields, enjoying the air while looking for a secluded door to throw his pair of dice.
Xie Lian strolled while thinking of various mundane things, like the nice bun he had with Hua Cheng for lunch yesterday, or last night’s calligraphy practice where Hua Cheng actually showed some semblance of progress. Xie Lian smiled, he would have to give Hua Cheng a reward for his hard work.
His mundane thoughts meant he wasn’t nearly on guard, which is what led to him not noticing a snake angrily hissing from the rice field beside him. Xie Lian noticed one of his dice fell out of his sleeve, must’ve been his bad luck acting up again. He leaned down to pick it up, and in a flash, a pitch black snake lunged and bit his hand before retreating just as fast.
Xie Lian straightened up and stumbled from the shock, he looked at his hand, seeing 2 red dots that were already beginning to swell. He sighed, Ruoye didn’t need to be told to make a knot on his wrist. A snake bite isn’t going to kill him, so he picked up his dice and went on his merry way.
Once Xie Lian finally found a secluded door, he tossed his dice and went through the door, finding that the door has connected to his and Hua Cheng’s bedroom.
“Gege! San Lang missed you!” Hua Cheng greeted with a smile, dropping whatever he was doing and walking up to Xie Lian.
Xie Lian was feeling the effects of the snake bite now, his body felt sluggish and a lot warmer than normal while his head throbs.
He forced a smile for Hua Cheng, “Sorry I was gone for so long.”
The fake smile didn’t work for Hua Cheng who was immediately concerned, “Gege, you’re sick.” Hua Cheng took a spot beside Xie Lian and held his shoulders as he guided his god to their bed.
“Ah it’s nothing San Lang should be concerned about.” Xie Lian said as he sat down on their bed.
Hua Cheng took a hold of Xie Lian’s hand, the one that was bitten by the snake, now red and very swollen.
“Was gege bitten by something?” Hua Cheng asked with a voice full of concern.
“It was a snake, don’t worry, I won’t die from it.” Xie Lian tried to reassure him, though he’s not sure if it worked or not.
Xie Lian recounted his story, and Hua Cheng asked what type of snake it was so he could get an antidote. But the snake striked and withdrew so quickly that Xie Lian wasn’t able to see any identifying features other than its color was black. Not nearly enough for an identification.
Hua Cheng didn’t push the matter, he helped Xie Lian change into a more comfortable robe and lie down in the soft bed. Xie Lian was already getting worse, his voice was shaky and his face pale.
Hua Cheng knelt beside the bed and held Xie Lian’s hand, hot against his cold one, Xie Lian tried reassuring him again, “Don’t you worry my San Lang, even if I seem worse now, I’ll get better in a few days.”
Unsurprisingly, it didn’t work.
Hua Cheng stayed by the bedside until Xie Lian fell asleep, then he mentally chastised himself, yelling in his mind about how he could let this happen, how he failed to protect his god again.
He held back on a sigh and prepared a towel and a small basin filled with cold water, he set them by the bedside table and pulled a chair for himself. He dampened the towel and gently pressed it on Xie Lian’s burning forehead, still deep in thought.
He was furious, both at himself and at that damn snake, he made a note to kill every snake in Puqi village to make sure he got the one that dared to bite his god. He clenched his free hand into a fist, he was careless, he had spent centuries chasing power so he could be one to protect his beloved, but Xie Lian still got hurt because of what he didn’t do.
This wouldn’t have happened if he had stayed until Xie Lian woke up and lent him some luck, or if he had just left his day’s work to Yin Yu and went with Xie Lian, or if he had invited Xie Lian to come with him, or if he had caught up to Xie Lian after his business was over, or if he coaxed Xie Lian to take the day off, or…, or…, or…
Hua Cheng wasn’t sure how long he was absorbed in that train of thought, but when he finally came back to reality, a gentle hand was stroking his cheek. He turned his head to see Xie Lian awake, looking at him with tired eyes.
Xie Lian croaked with a low voice, “My San Lang, I won’t die from this, don’t cry.”
It was only then Hua Cheng realized his cheeks were wet, Xie Lian used his thumb to wipe the tears off, but Hua Cheng turned away, letting Xie Lian’s hand fall back on the bed.
“I’m sorry.” He croaked, “I- I should have-”
“It’s okay San Lang.” Xie Lian gently said.
Hua Cheng still refused to meet Xie Lian’s gaze, “You’re sick because of me,” he said while trying to hold down his sobs, “If- if I wasn’t so useless-”
“You’re not useless.” Xie Lian interrupted again. Hua Cheng now had his back fully turned towards him, he could see Hua Cheng’s back and shoulders shaking, his pale hand covering his face, his breath hitching as he tried to hold himself together.
Xie Lian pushed himself to a sitting position, letting the towel on his forehead fall away. He shuffled forward and pulled his husband into a tight hug, Hua Cheng immediately stiffened.
Xie Lian tried comforting him again, “You’ve done so much for me, you’ve always done your best for me, you gave me so much more love than I know what to do with.” Xie Lian smiled, “You’ve given me so much happiness. So please, never think that you’re useless.” Xie Lian leaned in and gave Hua Cheng a kiss on his cheek.
There was a slight pause, only filled with Hua Cheng’s breathing.
“C- can I hug you back?” Hua Cheng asked, if Xie Lian wasn’t hugging him, he definitely wouldn’t hear him.
Xie Lian gave a small Sure, and in a flash, Hua Cheng turned around and hugged Xie Lian, his face pressed on his shoulder. Xie Lian pats the ghost king’s shaking back, he felt his shoulder get damp and the small sobs against his ear gave him more than enough clues on what was going on.
They stayed like that for a long time, until Hua Cheng broke the hug, he helped Xie Lian get into a new robe since he just cried on the current one. Hua Cheng’s face was red, probably from being embarrassed that he just cried for so long, Xie Lian found it adorable and had to restrain himself to not pet Hua Cheng on the head.
Xie Lian was too tired to stay awake for long, and he eventually fell asleep until the next morning.
When he woke up he looked around and didn’t see Hua Cheng in the room. He yawned and felt forehead with the back of his hand, feeling that most of the fever had gone away during the night.
Xie Lian pressed 2 fingers on his temple and tried to not get embarrassed as he inwardly chanted Hua Cheng’s password.
‘San Lang, where are you?’ He called.
It took less than a second for Hua Cheng to reply, ‘Gege? I’ll come back now.’
Xie Lian stretched in the bed for a few seconds before the door was opened and Hua Cheng rushed to his bedside.
“Gege, gege, you’re better now right?” Hua Cheng enthusiastically asked.
Xie Lian smiled, “Yes I am, were you going somewhere?” he asked.
“Just to Puqi village.”
Xie Lian blinked, “For what?”
“I was thinking on how to find the snake that bit gege, but I’ve decided I can just kill every snake in the village.” Hua Cheng beamed, Xie Lian didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, maybe both at the same time to save the trouble of debating in his head.
“San Lang… you can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
Xie Lian let out an exasperated sigh.
For the next few incense times, he explained to the ghost king that killing all the snakes in the village would mean disastrous effects on the village’s ecosystem. Once he was done explaining that, he spent another few incense times to convince Hua Cheng to not murder every snake anyway.
Hua Cheng huffed, “Alright then. San Lang will do what gege wants.”
Xie Lian chuckled, “Thank you San Lang.”
They spent the day together, the ghost king’s work being pushed over to Yin Yu, Xie Lian made a mental note to convince Hua Cheng to give poor Yin Yu a raise later.
Hua Cheng climbed on the bed next to Xie Lian, they spent the entire day conversing in bed on mundane things, the Puqi villagers and Ghost City folk’s various petty woes, a village stall that was selling steamed buns with strange fillings, a random ghost who did a backflip on Hua Cheng’s gambling table, what to eat for dinner tonight.
By the next day, Xie Lian was back to his usual, healthy self. Hua Cheng was clingier than usual but everything else was normal. In the evening they spent their time together on the divan in Paradise Manor’s great hall, Xie Lian reading a scroll and Hua Cheng lying sideways with his head on Xie Lian’s lap.
“San Lang.” Xie Lian called the ghost king who was lazily building a small palace out of gold foil on the table near him. Hua Cheng turned his head and Xie Lian continued, “Have you been practicing your calligraphy?”.
Hua Cheng’s one eye went wide for a flash before going back to normal, “Well, uh…” his mouth betrayed him and he looked away.
Xie Lian chuckled, Hua Cheng must’ve reacted like that because he completely forgot and hasn’t made up an excuse yet.
“Gege, you were sick, San Lang couldn't think of anything besides gege.” San lang pouted, looking at Xie Lian and trying to wiggle his way out of trouble.
“It’s not like I was in actual danger, San Lang.” Xie Lian patted Hua Cheng’s head, making him let out a small gasp and look away, but he only made it more obvious to Xie Lian how the ears turned bright red.
Xie Lian chuckled and stopped the pats, “Let’s head to the temple now, you have to make up for the amount of practice you missed.” Xie Lian stood up and grabbed Hua Cheng’s hand, dragging him along.
“Okay, gege.” Hua Cheng said with a defeated tone as he caught up to Xie Lian.
They held hands and walked side by side, both smiling earnestly, simply enjoying each other’s presence as they made their way to Qiandeng temple.