Chapter Text
Night time at Puqi Shrine was always a delight for Hua Cheng. While Ghost City was his territory and Paradise Manor was of his design, it wasn’t the same as enjoying the domestic nature of keeping up the shrine. It also didn’t hurt that Gege would always cook a hot meal. Gege’s cooking was always appreciated.
The night began completely normal, the couple had helped the villagers with some minor prayers and needs and then had returned home. They always had to be interrupted at some point during the day from some God or ghost needing one or both of them. Today it was Shi Qingxuan who had stopped by while passing through Puqi. Hua Cheng noticed some of the first major signs of aging appearing in the disgraced God’s face.
He’d have to inform Black Water about that, maybe the bastard would do something, maybe he wouldn’t. Hua Cheng could force him, Gege would be very upset if the former windmaster passed so he could always force He Xuan to do it, to lower his debt of course. If the man had to confront his past to do so, well that wasn’t Hua Cheng’s problem now was it.
Now it was just him and his Gege. Hua Cheng wrapped his arms around his husband’s waist as he cooked, placing a light kiss on his neck. He was in his San Lang form so he was quite shorter than usual.
“San Lang, I can’t cook while you’re clinging to me, darling.” Xie Lian said, kissing Hua Cheng’s head. “I love you, but let me finish this real quick.”
“If that’s what Gege wants, then this devoted believer will gladly-” Before he could finish speaking, Hua Cheng froze as he felt a familiar energy arrive at Puqi Shrine. This energy was one that had graced his presence more than a few times in his life and afterlife, but he had not seen him since he had found His Highness again.
“San Lang?” Xie Lian turned to see his husband’s expression. Hua Cheng changed to his true form as a slight breeze passed through the shrine. It was strong enough to extinguish the candle on the altar. Dianxia frowned before raising his arm, preparing to summon Ruoye to fight.
Hua Cheng lowered his arm down, getting himself a questioning glance. He knew who this was. “It’s fine, Gege.”
A laughter erupted from the shadows in the shrine. Hua Cheng glared as the figure finally showed himself. The man was in a form that was just as tall as Hua Cheng, with his hair pulled up in a high ponytail with a red ribbon, he was twirling a black flute between his fingers. The robes were simple black robes, the only thing sticking out about the man’s outfit was a bright white ribbon with blue clouds tied around his wrist.
“Laoshi.” Hua Cheng gritted his teeth. Xie Lian mouthed the word beside him, eyes jumping between Hua Cheng and the man.
The man fully emerged from the shadows, waving an arm to relight the candle. A wide grin grazed his face. “Oh come on Chengcheng, is that anyway to speak to me? What happened to respecting your elders?”
“San Lang, who is your friend?” Dianxia smiled beside him. He was too good. If a random stranger burst into Paradise Manor unannounced, he would not be so nice.
“Chengcheng!” The man whined, Hua Cheng couldn’t help but roll his eyes, “You didn’t tell His Highness about me?”
Hua Cheng glared at the man as he waltzed around the shrine looking around as they spoke. “No, why would I?”
“I sat through nearly a millennia of ‘His Highness this’ and ‘Dianxia that’ and you didn’t even bother telling your Crown Prince about me?” the man turned to frown at Hua Cheng, his hands held up to where his heart would be, if the asshole had one, “I’m hurt, truly, I’m wounded, you wound this old man.”
“As if I could hurt you.” Hua Cheng sighed as he sat down at the table. He needed to sit down for a visit with his laoshi, “Gege, this is Wei Wuxian, or as the Ghost Realm knows him as, the Patriarch, the oldest ghost who wanders the Mortal plain.”
Dianxia’s eyes widened as he looked at Wei Wuxian who had the biggest grin on his face.
“Aw! You flatter me, didi! It’s not as if I’m as infamous as you are. I don’t even think the Heavenly Realm has me categorized as a Calamity or Supreme like you”
Hua Cheng rolled his eyes. The Civil Gods in the Heavenly Realm were incompetent and he said as much, “Plus you barely do anything to make the Heavenly Realm care about you. They probably consider you just folklore, not a real ghost.”
“Ha, that’s probably due to Wuyong destroying all the records when he took over as Jun Wu or whatever he decided to call himself.” Wei Wuxian at some point had stopped wandering the shrine and had started twirling his flute. He turned to Dianxia and continued, “I have to thank both of you for getting rid of that bastard once and for all.”
Hua Cheng sighed. It was just like his Laoshi to come in and disrupt anything and everything he was doing. Of course he had to mention the former Emperor in front of his husband, the man had no filter and didn’t seem to notice, or care, that he often made people uncomfortable with his rants.
Dianxia clearly couldn’t tell whether he wanted to laugh or to cry and simply just smiled at the ghost.
“Personally I wouldn’t have just imprisoned him, I would have at least tortured him a bit, I’ve tortured people for doing a lot less in my many lifetimes.” The flute twirling stopped as Wei Wuxian clutched the instrument in his hands. Hua Cheng sat up, puzzled at the aggression in his Laoshi. He had only seen him like this once, maybe twice before. Strange.
“But hey everyone’s different! I know that’s not everyone’s style.” The ghost’s mood appeared to change again as he spoke with a more cheerful tone , shrugging off whatever anger he had mere moments before.Giving no one else in the room a chance to speak, he continued talking, waving his hands in the air as he talked. “See I should have realized something was up with that asshole as soon as my Lan Zhan mentioned something about being suspicious of Jun Wu after the God ascended. I told him it was just because he was paranoid after the fiasco with the Prince of Wuyong… “
Wei Wuxian hesitated, stuttering over his words a bit as he mumbled, “But that’s something completely different.”
The Patriarch again shrugged off what he had just said, seemingly ignoring Hua Cheng’s glare. Wei Wuxian turned to Dianxia, “So you’ll have to tell me how you two got together, I mean a love story eight hundred years in the making, it must have been great. Though I’m sure Hua-er was awkward as hell.”
Here we go. This was the Patriarch that Hua Cheng knew and regrettably called Laoshi. Hua Cheng sat back in chair and rolled his eyes as His Highness chuckled.
“Oh I have so many stories to tell when you guys get married.” Shit. Of course Hua Cheng couldn’t lean back in his seat for even a sentence. Wei Wuxian didn’t know they were married, Hua Cheng forgot to invite him to their wedding. He shared a glance with His Highness who simply frowned at him. How could he have forgotten? “He might seem all stoic and cool, but damn did he say some of the funniest things as a teenager. Like I had thought I had heard it all from my nephew, son and his friends, but-”
Wei Wuxian stopped as he finally read the room. Such a great feat never before done by the Patriarch, Hua Cheng should have had one of his butterflies recording it. “What? Did I say something untrue, Hua-er?”
“Well… Laoshi, w-we-”
“We’re already married.” Gege cut him off as Hua Cheng struggled to speak.
“Oh? Really?” Wei Wuxian's sad words stung Hua Cheng. The Patriarch managed a half chuckle as he spoke, “I expected better from you Hua-er. You know I’ve missed out on a lot of weddings in my life, how could you not invite me?”
Fuck. Laoshi had always been sensitive to events like weddings, he never really told Hua Cheng the full truth, when did he ever, but Hua Cheng should have known how he’d react. “Laoshi-”
“You pretend I don’t exist, not even mentioning me to His Highness and you don’t invite me to your wedding, truly I feel betrayed” He was clearly teasing the Ghost King, a small smile had forced on the Patriarch’s smug face, but Hua Cheng knew it wasn’t fully that. He had hit a nerve. That smile was forced.
“It’s not like you’re easy to contact. When was the last time I saw you, a couple decades ago?” Hua Cheng retorted, trying to get off the topic of weddings.
“I gave you my communication password.” Like shit he did.
“No you didn’t”
“Yes, I did. I know I have a shit memory, but I remember that clearly because you asked me what it meant and I- Well it’s a story I don’t talk about much anymore.” Fuck, he had hadn’t he, but Hua Cheng, if he remembered correctly, was still alive during that time so he couldn’t even use the communication array. Did Wei Wuxian really expect him to remember it after he died or ascended or whatever Wei Wuxian assumed his life would end up like?
He didn’t say that though, instead he denied remembering.“Bullshit. I would remember your communication array password if you told me. I told you mine.”
“And I’m not saying it. I may have been known as shameless in my life, but I have some face I’d like to keep.” Wei Wuxian joked. He stared at the wall for a moment. Silence filled the shrine if only for a moment and for Hua Cheng it felt like eternity. Something was off and he didn’t like it. Eventually Wei Wuxian smiled before turning to the Ghost King, “I’m sorry I haven’t been around that much. I really am glad that you found your beloved. But you better tell me if you have kids or anything like that.”
Hua Cheng rolled his eyes. As if he’d want to share Dianxia with anyone.“Yes laoshi.”
“Good. Your highness, Xie Lian, if I may.” Hua Cheng glared at Wei Wuxian as he approached His Highness, “You’ve caused a lot of trouble for my Hua-er throughout his life and afterlife, but you also saved him, so I guess that makes up for it. I mean it when I say you have my blessing, treat my Hua-er well like the world never did.”
His laoshi was always sappy, but a part of Hua Cheng was happy seeing Wei Wuxian and his Gege interact.
Wei Wuxian smiled and handed His Highness a piece of paper, “Here, my communication password if you ever want to reach out to me. I’ve heard so much about you, I’d love to actually get to know you.”
“Thank you.” Dianxia smiled. Hua Cheng caught the words, ‘Venturing out at night is prohibited, Alcohol is prohibited, Fighting without permission is prohibited.’, the Patriarch’s password. It was strange, rules he didn’t seem to follow that should have no meaning to him. Wei Wuxian never explained them to the Ghost King.
Wei Wuxian turned to Hua Cheng and smiled, holding out his arms, clearly waiting for a hug. Hua Cheng relented and hugged his laoshi, not ignoring the fact that his Gege was laughing behind them or the fact that he could smell the alcohol on Wei Wuxian. Not just any alcohol, a specific one, a sweet wine. Hua Cheng’s assumption seemed to be true.
The Patriarch turned to leave, actually using the door this time. Hua Cheng didn’t have the heart to stop him, finally realizing what the visit was. “Sorry about intruding so late at night, I just had some free time and thought I’d stop by, afterall it’s been a busy last couple years hasn’t it, Hua-er. Congrats again, hopefully I see you around more.”
“Thank you, laoshi.” Hua Cheng spoke, but the ghost was already gone. He felt a hand on his shoulder.
He turned to see His Highness looking at him with a pained smile. “San Lang?”
“Yes Gege?”
“What was that about? Is he always like that?” Dianxia asked, leaving the question of ‘Why had Hua Cheng never mentioned his laoshi before’ implied, but not said.
“Is he always running around jumping from topic to topic like that? Yes. Is he normally that depressed, no, but today is an exception.” Hua Cheng changed back into his younger form once again.
“An exception?” Dianxia questioned.
“I didn’t realize it when he first appeared, but after smelling the wine on his breath I remembered what day it was.” Hua Cheng sighed.
The wine was Emperor’s Smile, an ancient wine from a place called Gusu. It was rare and Wei Wuxian spent a good portion of time collecting it and anything else from the town only to get wasted on one specific night a year.
“It’s the anniversary of his husband’s death.”