Archive of Our Own

Xiaoge stepped lightly on each of the narrow stones that formed the sinuous path. Full of lichen, the slippery stones were the only way through the gigantic monuments that have been fallen for millennia.

He followed the scent. Without a draft, it was uncertain how the scent was carried there. But he felt it, green-leafed vines, fresh and alive. Fresh was also the scent of blood, which he must be used to, but this time, it burned his nostrils.

Turning back a step, he looked at Liu Sang in silent questioning.

Liu Sang nodded, he could finally hear something. When Xiaoge reached for his hand, the young man tapped in his palm with a fingertip, "Dripping slowly."

Xiaoge tapped back, "Can you smell it?" And Liu Sang shook his head in response. It was too far for him to smell whatever it was that was dripping.

Before letting go of the auburn-haired boy's hand, Xiaoge left him one last word, "Blood."

Behind them, distant and late, Pangzi and Wu Xie balanced each other on the stone path, swallowing their curses every time their feet fumbled and one almost threw the other against the monuments - which Xiaoge had already warned not to touch.

Usually this was an invitation for them to touch anything, but something held them back this time. The fallen monuments maintained the grandeur of times of glory and their stone faces evoked The Three Sovereigns, Fuxi, Nuwa and Shennong. But there were five colossal statues there, in the remains of that temple, now shrouded by a mountain and pine forests. 

Reaching the fourth statue, Pangzi looked at Wu Xie, seeking some hint as to who the guy depicted there was. 

Wu Xie ducked his head, observing the carved lines of that face that time hadn't erased its beauty, he spoke low, "The Mountain God, Kunlun."

"How do you know?" Pangzi couldn't remember hearing that name in years - a god forgotten by men so long that little was known about him.

Wu Xie continued to look at the statue, slowly raising his hand, dragged down by the discomfort in his chest.

"Once wasn't just stone," he whispered as his fingertips touched the icy, smooth surface.

It only lasted a second, Pangzi slapped his hand, "Aiyo, Tianzhen! Xiaoge already told us not to touch the statues! What if you arouse the wrath of one of those grumpy old gods?"

"Not this one. Not him." Wu Xie let go and continued on his way with Pangzi, who ignored his friend's brief rambling.

A few steps further and they reached Xiaoge and Liu Sang, who had stopped along the way to look at the fifth statue.

Pangzi opened his mouth to ask about that statue, but Xiaoge raised his finger in front of his mouth, reinforcing what he had asked them before about keeping quiet there. Liu Sang, who had overheard the conversation just now, just rolled his eyes – he might die because friends not only couldn't stop touching what they shouldn't, they also didn't know how to keep their mouths shut.

And then, Pangzi and Wu Xie also gazed at the face of the fifth statue.

Wu Xie didn't show any reaction, but if Pangzi wanted to speak before, now he was speechless.

That face was just...

Pangzi stared at the statue until his head tilted to look at it from another angle, and every way he looked, there wasn't a doubt there. He knew that face very well - and for many years. He looked at that face almost every day.

He turned to face Wu Xie, with even more questions, hoping Wu Xie shared the same doubts as him, but Wu Xie's face was blank.

Then Pangzi pointed to the statue and gestured, the question becoming clear, "Who is he?"

Wu Xie shook his head, showing that he didn't know the answer; Liu Sang did the same.

Pangzi looked at Xiaoge, who nodded. He knew who the fallen god was.

Even though he had no idea why he knew the face of that god. Or it just seemed. The striking resemblance was what had stopped him and Liu Sang from continuing down the path.

Despite claiming to know, Xiaoge didn't bother to provide anything that could serve as an explanation at the moment and indicated to the group that they should proceed.

Pangzi wanted to protest, but since Wu Xie and Liu Sang could wait to hear what Xiaoge might say about it, Pangzi pretended that he could too, but it kept spinning in his head with every step forward.

Flashlights lit the rest of the way, to where the last statue's hand emerged from between the rocks, holding two intertwined dragons in its palm and the fire that rose from their open mouths. 

Beside the stone hand, the closed doors seemed to have become one, the cracks that started on one side, digging into the other. Dry vines hung down the walls and wrapped around the doors, nature's addition or a last lock to prevent those doors from being crossed - already ineffective.

The smell of fresh vines and blood was so strong there that Xiaoge assumed that the others were finally feeling it.

Liu Sang could hear the dripping coming from behind the doors, a drop falling into an overflowing container.

Around, no other sound than the four breaths. The silence was absolute, no echo from paths already traversed or from other chambers. Just the suffocating stillness of a temple that had become a tomb of those once worshipped.

Xiaoge unsheathed his sword and cut through the dead vines in a single move, making the center that joined the doors appear. Sheathing his sword back, he missed Hei Xiazi, the mercenary must have caught up with them by now.

He turned to Liu Sang, who didn't need any questions – there was always a point on expeditions when Xiaoge would expect Hei Xiazi to already be there. This time, that point was now.

When Liu Sang was about to shake his head, he heard something different coming from behind the doors. Trying to pay attention and define what it was, he was unprepared for what came from behind Pangzi and Wu Xie.

"Yaba Zhang, are you going to stand there without opening the door for the rest of the day?"

Xiaoge would roll his eyes if it was like him. Maybe he was doing it, internally. Liu Sang definitely rolled his eyes, mainly because of the fright that Wu Xie and Pangzi took.

"Ai, you want to scare me to death?!" Pangzi complained, as he turned around to purposefully shine the flashlight in the mercenary's face, hitting an innocent Xiao Hua instead.

"Where did you come from?" Wu Xie wondered if he had been so distracted by the statues that he hadn't noticed the others close behind.

"Zhurong's hand," Xiao Hua replied, "There is a passage behind the dragons."

"Zhurong," Wu Xie muttered the name of the fifth god to himself.

"Yeah, this guy," Hei Xiazi spoke as he walked past them until he was beside Xiaoge in front of the door, "the fire god who helped Pangu separate the skies from the earth. Or at least that's what is written in some books out there."

"Xiaoge," Pangzi had another complaint, "why did you tell us to be quiet and this one comes in talking loudly and it's okay?"

But it was Xiazi who responded instead, "C'mon, do you think those guys over there will wake up? They're deader than any corpses we've found so far." Then he turned towards the head of the last statue, now in the distance. "Well, maybe not all of them, but... yeah, it's not dangerous at all."

"Do your job," Xiao Hua wanted to finish that and get out of there, go back to where he had cell phone reception and continue the dispute in the online game he had been playing against Wu Erbai for the last few days.

"Hua'er, don't rush me so cruelly," Xiazi moved closer to the door and those who still had their flashlights lit lowered them. Pulling his glasses from his eyes just enough to look over the top of the lens, Xiazi watched the seal form in the center of the door, glowing in a faint golden light. "That's right, guys, the lock is a seal with Fuxi's eight trigrams. It looks like this thing here was closed by one of the dead guys back there."

"And then how do we open it?" Pangzi had a feeling the answer would be another joke.

"I think," Xiazi pushed his glasses back before turning to the others, "ah, never mind. There's an easy way." He grabbed Wu Xie's arm and pulled him closer to the door, with a grunt of protest that even Liu Sang could not understand. "Here, Wu Xie, you place your hand right here, in the middle of the seal." But he didn't say where the middle of the seal was, or where the seal was at all. Xiaoge was the only one who could vaguely see what was clear only to Xiazi.

Maybe it was just a matter of obviousness, because it was always Wu Xie who touched what he shouldn't and things happened.

Wu Xie placed his palm exactly in the center of the seal.

The sound of a heavy piece of massive bronze dragging between stone latches echoed throughout the entire place, making Liu Sang cover his ears with his hands.

When the sound ceased, the door was still closed.

"We're not there yet, but almost." Xiazi scratched his chin thoughtfully.

"The trigrams," Xiaoge said, trying to observe Wu Xie's face, but it was more expressionless than his own.

"Of course." Xiazi shook his finger as if he was forgetting the most obvious thing in the world.

"Wu Xie, you now draw the trigrams exactly in the sequence they are combined on the seal."

Xiaoge again tried to see the seal more clearly, but he still only saw broken points of what Hei Xiazi could see as a whole.

Hei Xiazi, however, had no idea what the sequence was or even if there was one. He had bets and guesses, like he always did.

Wu Xie raised two fingers and started tracing invisible designs over the doors. With each sequence of strokes, the sound of a new metal gear echoing inside the doors overlapped the previous one.

When he traced the last combination, he brought his palm to the center of the seal again, and then the entire seal glowed visibly for everyone, as well as all the trigram combinations that Wu Xie had drawn on the door. 

Circling the seal, two dragons flashed and disappeared, as did all the golden light. And the doors began to drag themselves through the stones uneven by time, forcing themselves open, causing the surrounding environment to shudder with the movement of the huge pieces.

That's when the smell of blood really reached everyone.

Xiaoge worried, it wasn't the smell of human blood. Besides, what they had come here looking for wasn't just any kind of living thing for it to bleed.

"Wu Xie," Xiaoge called to his friend, who was still in the same place, looking into the darkness of the closed chamber.

"I guess whatever we were looking for," Wu Xie replied, "it's not what we found." He lifted the flashlight again and flicked it on, stepping through the door.

The others followed him into what they now saw as an extensive, high-ceilinged hall. Faded paintings covered the walls, partially obscured by fresh vines, alive despite the close, pitch-dark environment. The pillars that supported the ceiling were carved from top to bottom, but what was in the carvings was impossible to see by how much the vines had taken over those parts of the building.

With most of the group distracted by the place itself, Xiaoge approached Xiazi, giving him a questioning look, but the mercenary pretended to be blind, forcing his friend to speak:

"How did you know?"

"Yaba Zhang, the thing is simple," Xiazi said, leaning closer to the other, "even without memory, you didn't unlearn how to fight, did you?"

Xiaoge nodded, understanding. The part that was possible to understand until then. 

He looked for Liu Sang, knowing that he wasn't easily fascinated like Wu Xie and Pangzi and would follow what he had been paying attention to until then.

Xiao Hua had already been dragged by his cousin for a moment, but his attention was divided. He wasn't ignoring the smell of blood where there should have been nothing but bones - if bones could have remained after all the time this place had been closed.

Close to the walls, Pangzi didn't ask the direct questions he really wanted to.

"Tianzhen, what's on these murals? It looks like a mess."

"In a way," Wu Xie chuckled, "These are stories from the Chaos Era. Here, you see Mount Buzhou, Mount Penglai, Kunlun Mountain, and the Yangtze River."

"Is this guy crying by the river?" Pangzi pointed to the figure in green sitting on top of Kunlun Mountain.

"No. From a single tear of Kunlun-jun, the Yangtze River was born. And when the Great Flood came, Shennong gathered medicinal plants from Mount Penglai and brewed a powerful tea to calm Kunlun-jun's heart, so that he would not cry and would end up causing nature to respond and the flooding to get worse."

"Would all his tears be rivers?" Xiao Hua watched the mural even more closely, trying to find where exactly Wu Xie was reading so many details.

"It wouldn't be," Wu Xie replied, "He wasn't used to crying, so every time he shed a tear, it was a deep pain and, being a god of nature, nature would react in kind. Shennong preemptively brewed the tea, because Kunlun-jun's pain during the Great Flood was such that the damage was unpredictable if he indulged his emotions."

"Hua'er!" They heard Xiazi call. "Bring the distracted ones over here, I think we've got something!" He, Xiaoge and Liu Sang had already advanced into the chamber.

Soon, Xiao Hua, Wu Xie and Pangzi caught up with them, although Xiao Hua wanted to ask Wu Xie a few more questions to confirm his suspicions.

At the back of the chamber, the vines went up a wide staircase with a few steps and, in the center, was where the smell of blood came from.

A figure wrapped in black rags and tied by the vines as if they were ropes or chains around his limbs and neck, had his head leaning forward, making it impossible for his face covered by long dark hair to be seen.

The rags that would once have been his robe lay open on his pale chest, where a puncture over his heart was bleeding, staining the surrounding skin and running down his bare chest until it dripped, the drop falling into an earthenware bowl, which was already full.

Judging by the amount of blood smeared on the floor below him and running down the stairs, that creature had bled more than was possible for a being like him, who looked like an ordinary man - although he clearly wasn't.

"Is he dead?" Pangzi asked anyone who had an answer. The guy looked pretty dead to him.

"He doesn't have a heartbeat," Liu Sang said, "although that's not conclusive about the status of dead or alive in the world we live in..."

"Alive," Xiaoge wanted to approach, but he was reluctant, as if that task, that duty, was not his.

"He is alive." Wu Xie didn't seem to be answering the question asked earlier. He was saying to himself. Climbing the stairs, he ignored the warning to be careful. Beneath his boots, the feel of the slimy blood covering the ground. And his heart was heavy for the reality laid out before him.

Approaching the imprisoned figure, he ducked his head and tried to look into the being's face.

"Who managed to get you here?" He reached the other's face, touching carefully, afraid to cause him even more pain than he should be feeling with his chest open and the vines holding tight throughout his body.

Expectations were growing among the others: was that being still conscious, still capable of coming to his senses? What had they really found there?

"Can you hear me? What do I do to release you from the vines?" When Wu Xie persisted, the other's head finally moved, lifting slightly, unfocused dark eyes tried to look at Wu Xie's face, fighting exhaustion and pain.

From that being's lips, a fragile whisper escaped, so low that not everyone could make it out, "Huoshen*..."

Leaving the flashlight in his pocket, Wu Xie raised his other hand, touching the vine that was wrapped around the other's neck, feeling the mixture of pain and anger spread through him.

"This is unacceptable," with that said, the vines began to unravel from the being's body, faster than he could regain support on his own injured legs or balance amid exhaustion, and he was caught in Wu Xie's arms, who helped him lower himself to the side where the blood had not flowed, placing him sitting on the ground, as he leaned over to end up resting on Wu Xie's chest. The vines began to rot as soon as they left the being's body, slowly dying from the tips.

No one interrupted or approached, watching this unfold, watching the puncture in the creature's chest begin to heal once all the vines had left his body.

Voice breaking and eyes closing again, the being muttered, "I never imagined you could still be alive..."

"Oh, well, most people say the same thing when they see me around..." 

Hearing that, the being tried to open his eyes again and look at Wu Xie's face, with a different sense of understanding now.

A trace of disappointment flashed across the being's saddened eyes, but Wu Xie couldn't see it. The others, however, could.

“Thank you,” he said, while resting his head back on Wu Xie’s chest.

"Who are you? Why did they lock you up here? Who did this to you?" Wu Xie wanted to let the other one rest, but without some understanding of who or what he was and what the whole circumstance around him was, he couldn't contemplate removing him from there.

The being hesitated. But in his current circumstances, he didn't find himself with any choice. Furthermore, if he didn't trust that person a little, he couldn't trust anything else.

"Shen Wei. My name is Shen Wei." With the chest wound fully closed, he drew in a deep breath, letting it fill him until the first faint beat of his heart was heard by Liu Sang. “I used to be… an Underworld entity…” Shen Wei didn't want to reveal what shouldn't be revealed to humans, but looking around, 'human' was a rather vague and simplistic concept to define half of them.

"You don't seem willing," Xiao Hua tried to be polite in framing the statement, given that he didn't have the slightest idea of what they were dealing with, "to talk a lot or answer even the slightest about you and this place."

"I have my duties," Shen Wei replied, without looking up, "and it would be best if you all left here. Once the vines finish rotting and drying up, the doors will close."

Xiao Hua exchanged a brief glance with Xiazi, who continued to watch while standing beside Xiaoge. "Is that what happens if the doors close?"

Shen Wei, thinking of times gone by, sighed heavily, "It would take one of the five honored gods in this temple to open them again."

"Only the five gods can open the doors?" Hei Xiazi didn't need to ask that question.

"Themselves or some remnant of their powers," Shen Wei said with his voice a little firmer, the pain in the scar that was left on his chest lessening the longer he remained still, listening to Wu Xie's heartbeat.

"And they're all dead?" Pangzi wanted to confirm what his friends had said, because that didn't seem to be the case.

Shen Wei wished he had more time to think about answers, about the limit of what to say or not say, but the smell of rot that rose from the vines falling from the walls and columns was getting to him faster.

"No," he gave in, "Two of them are alive," and there was sorrow in his tone, "but they're human now."

"Tianzhen," Pangzi called, "we better decide soon whether to get this guy out of here or leave him here, because the vines are finishing rotting..."

"We don't know the consequences of taking him out of here," Xiazi knew that to imply that would be like a pin under the nail.

Xiaoge didn't need time to think about what his old friend was doing and just nodded in agreement. Xiao Hua and Liu Sang expressed their agreement as well.

Wu Xie, however, immediately disagreed, "I take the consequences upon myself." There was something somber in his face as he seemed to ponder the indignity of leaving Shen Wei behind. He put an arm around Shen Wei's back, holding him around the waist, supporting him better, "Can you walk?"

Shen Wei steadied himself on Wu Xie to get up, feeling his legs for a moment before replying, "Yes, I think so. I apologize for not being able to get us out of here more quickly this time."

"Continuing to hold on to me," Wu Xie guided, "we'll talk about other things after we're safely out of here."

Soon Shen Wei would find out that even if Wu Xie hadn't been there, none of those men would have left him behind.

…

The vast, green scenery was something Shen Wei hadn't seen in a few years. Despite his long life and the constant feeling that everything went by too fast, that the world was ephemeral and a century was the blink of an eye, now that he had experienced the stagnation of his imprisonment, four years felt like an eternity. And he missed the living, vibrant world outside the mountain. He missed the bright sky and the warmth of the sun on his cool skin.

He breathed in the scent of the surrounding pine forest with pleasure, the freshness carried by the breeze that ruffled his long hair and eased the tiredness that still weighed on his body.

Sitting on the soft grass, he lifted his head to look at the man beside him again. He couldn't believe he had the chance to see that face once more.

As Pangzi lit a fire with the wood Xiaoge had just gathered - a meal came first - Xiao Hua had already sat down not far from Wu Xie and resumed the game on his cell phone.

Liu Sang checked the notes he had made in his notebook, finishing drawing the parts that were still incomplete on the temple map - one never knew when that would be needed again.

Hei Xiazi was checking the surroundings, but everything looked as calm as it had when they arrived there.

For a while, the team didn't want to talk, each taking in their own way what they had seen in the temple. The only one who seemed oblivious to it all was Wu Xie, who continued to check, with a frown, the marks that the vines had left on Shen Wei's wrists, which had not healed like the wound on his chest.

Shen Wei didn't mind the restless man touching him and moving his tattered robe to check where there were still wounds. He would have been bothered if it was any of the others. He would have moved away, would have avoided contact.

"Why don't the other wounds heal? What kind of medicine does someone like you need?" Wu Xie was troubled by that, still holding Shen Wei's wrists over his knees, fingers touching lightly, not closing on the already tortured flesh.

"They'll heal on their own, with time," Shen Wei replied calmly, "I don't have as much strength as I had before I was imprisoned, that's why the wounds don't heal as quickly. I used all my energy to heal my chest."

"Oh no, not this 'with time' thing. Are you going to be in pain like that? There must be medicine that works for you, right?" The others were paying attention now, because apparently, Wu Xie knew what kind of thing that Shen Wei was.

A stealthy Xiazi leaned close to them, not entering Wu Xie's field of vision – who also seemed to see nothing but the one he was so worried about right now.

"Didn't you learn anything from Shennong?"

Shen Wei raised his eyes to glare at Xiazi, his mouth slightly open on the verge of saying something about those kinds of things being inappropriate, when Wu Xie himself replied:

"I burned many of his pots and herbs by accident."

"Do you remember?" Shen Wei couldn't contain the question before it left his mouth.

"Remember what?" Wu Xie stopped looking at the wounds on the other and lifted his head to look directly into the other's face. That's when Shen Wei understood.

His memory is not sealed like Kunlun's. But it's also not something he's aware of. To what is the chance of retrieving these memories linked or conditioned? Although he was always a bit forgetful...

"Well..." Shen Wei had to think fast. And though the truth wasn't usually an option, maybe it was now, just because of who he had before him. "You asked me who locked me in there and why."

"I still want to know the answer. What kind of thing did I get out of there, telling my friends that I take the consequences for it? You're from the time of those gods, aren't you? How did they put you there?"

At this point, Hei Xiazi had already sat down between Wu Xie and Xiao Hua, who had already abandoned the game to pay attention. Liu Sang had already dragged his Ouxiang closer as well, staying with Pangzi by the pots he was stirring while he listened to what was going on off to the side.

Shen Wei still remembered what it was like to have a class full of students paying attention to what he said. But he had never had to talk about himself. No more than a name and some information a teacher needed to provide his students. At this moment, he felt a little anxious.

"I was cursed by those who feared what I was... or what I might become... This place was a memorial built by Shennong to honor those who were with him and whose times ended before him. After that, Shennong entrusted me with a task and left. I took care of this task, and also this temple, for thousands of years. A few years ago, I was distracted and deceived... and my only precious possession was stolen from me..." Shen Wei brought his fingers to touch around his neck, becoming silent for a moment. The absence of that priceless gift was what hurt him the most, much more than his taken freedom. "Without this good, I could be cursed and imprisoned. This possession contained... some of the power of one of the gods honored here. And that's what they sealed the door with. This door was made to be opened or closed only by one of the five gods, but I could always walk through it because I had that good with me." 

" Who did this to you?" Wu Xie persisted in getting a clearer answer on that.

"The Hell's Court. They used my brother to distract me and keep me busy fighting him so they could steal my possession.” If you still know, you’ll understand the issue with my brother.

"They kept you bleeding," contrary to expectation, it was Xiaoge who spoke next, "Why? What does the bowl filling and overflowing mean?"

"Wounding my chest and preventing me from healing is preventing me from gathering enough energy to break free on my own. And with no one knowing I was trapped here... I could have been trapped forever. My blood was what fed the vines, creating a cycle where they stayed strong and I stayed weak.”

"The vines moved away when Wu Xie touched them," Pangzi recalled.

Shen Wei wondered if some other being who accidentally found him would have been able to free him.

"Every living thing, conscious of itself or not, fears fire." At the silence of the others and the slightly confused look of Wu Xie, Shen Wei decided not to touch that point anymore. There was something much more urgent. “I have to go back home, I have to keep taking care of my duties... I have to keep taking care of him..."

Wu Xie immediately understood, "Kunlun-jun? Is he alive? Where is he?"

That eagerness to know about Kunlun, to make sure Kunlun was all right, Shen Wei knew well. He had seen it before and he knew where it had led. However, he couldn't say that it had been impulsive or in vain. He was just a child, what did he understand of that feeling back then, the first time he had witnessed it? The only thing he had been able to feel was gratitude for the words that still echoed in his mind: 'Go with him, comfort him and keep yourself safe.'

And in that way he had done, staying with Kunlun on Mount Penglai.

Thus, he wasn't able to lie or omit about Kunlun now. Not for that person.

"Longcheng is where he was the last time I saw him, four years ago. He is human now. You will find him under the name Zhao Yunlan. You must find him.” With the soulfire stolen from him, Shen Wei knew his own limits. Furthermore, the time it would take him to fully recover from the years of imprisonment was imprecise. He no longer knew how Kunlun - Zhao Yunlan - was now. And if they had done what they had to Shen Wei, he only feared… “I fear what they might have done to him while I wasn't around.” He took Wu Xie's hands on his own. Even though that person no longer had even a spark left, he still had a strong spirit like very few Shen Wei had ever met in his long existence. “You need to take care of him while I don't get my strength back to do it.”

"It's Kunlun-jun we're talking about," Wu Xie had a tender voice and a determined gaze, "Of course I'll take care of him. And you."

The rest of the team completely lost hope of ever retiring.

They just wanted an artifact.

Instead, they now had a handful of Chaos Era entities.

—---------------------------------------

One year later…

The one who answered Zhao Yunlan's cell phone that morning was Wu Xie, as he rolled over the sleeping Chief to reach the device.

When he heard Wang Zheng say 'University Street', he immediately thought of texting Shen Wei, but he didn't have the time. The Chief nearly knocked him to the ground by accident when he woke up. 

Wu Xie pushed him into the bathroom to wash up and quickly made coffee. He didn't let the Chief leave without eating some steamed buns with red bean filling as he sipped his coffee and cursed at having to be at a crime scene at such an hour. He cursed less than usual because he had the buns that Wu Xie made. Zhao Yunlan was easily bribed with sweets and desserts.

In the jeep, Wu Xie sat in the passenger seat with a bag of dumplings, sharing with the Chief as he updated him on the contents of the call and Zhao Yunlan drove to their destination.

"Why was none of the others even sent there? You woke me up at dawn and you're making me go on purpose? Is it revenge because I didn't let you sleep last night?" It was more complaining than actually asking questions. Wu Xie was used to it by now.

"Zhao-chu, you sent Xiaoge to scout the old cemetery between Longcheng and Hangzhou yesterday morning, and he still hasn't finished. Chu Shuzhi went on a business trip to Xiangxi. Pangzi took the old items from the suspect's collection to him and Wang Meng to appraise at the antique shop. Lin Jing got called Downstairs. Liu Sang is in the basement working on the collected audio in the haunted hotel. Zhu Hong is on leave, did you forget there was a full moon yesterday? Also it was almost sunrise, so Wang Zheng couldn't go.” Wu Xie made the explanation as long as possible, so Zhao Yunlan ate a little more of the dumplings while listening absently. “There’s also Da Qing and the rookie, but... poor Xiao Guo couldn't go anywhere now…"

"Why couldn't he?" Zhao Yunlan asked with his mouth full.

"When he went to the office last night, he passed out on the floor, and he's still unconscious."

For a moment, Zhao Yunlan was speechless. "What scared him so much that he fainted?" he asked.

"Lao Wu and Wang Zheng,” Wu Xie went on to repeat Wang Zheng's entire explanation. “She told you to find a funeral supply shop to make Lao Wu a new body. She also complained that Zhu Hong’s hands are clumsier than her feet, and what she makes with sandbags and paper looks nowhere near like an actual person." At this point, it was Wu Xie who took a bite of the dumpling to avoid laughing yet again that day at the ghost woman's complaints.

"So I guess I have no choice. What about Da Qing?”

"Wang Zheng already told him to wait for us there."

"Did you say 'us'?" 

"Yunlan... I answered your phone before it even dawned. What did you want me to say?" Not that this was new. Half the time, almost everyone in the SID wasn’t bothered at all to have Wu Xie answering the calls in Zhao Yunlan’s phone.

"At this point they're already gossiping that their Chief lives with a cute guy.” He knew they had been doing it for months already. And he didn’t care at all.

"I don't live with you, Zhao-chu.” Wu Xie would call him Chief Zhao in public for the obvious reason of respect, since Zhao Yunlan was indeed his superior. But in private, he did it to tease the other. It had an effect on everyday life. And an entirely different effect when they were in bed.

"You sleep at your place, huh?"

"Half of the week..."

"A week has seven nights. You can't sleep at your place for three and a half nights. You move out in the middle of the night? You don't."

"What cheap jealousy," Wu Xie sneered, "You'll like him once you meet him."

"You've been saying that for ages, but I never get to see him. What's the matter?" Zhao Yunlan had been waiting to meet Wu Xie's adored partner for quite some time, but something always went wrong.

"He's shy," Wu Xie simply said.

“Bullshit. He doesn’t want to meet me.” He had days he couldn’t even be sure why Wu Xie wanted to be with him, much less it made any sense to why Wu Xie’s partner would want to meet him to see if they’d get along and even, who knows, to talk about dating each other too.

"Of course he does! He's just really shy." There was a bit more than shyness to that, but it wasn’t a lie that Shen Wei was incorrigibly shy. Wu Xie found it intensely attractive. And cute.

"If he's so shy, how did you catch this man? He can't be like me, who's not very smart and not very good in the head..."

"My sweetie is very smart and intelligent, but he's not all that good in the head either. I can't say I am.” 

When it was clear that none of the three were right in the head, Zhao Yunlan moved on to another detail of that matter, “Your friends think it’s normal for three people to date?”

“ My friends mean half of your staff, Zhao-chu. And your whole staff doesn’t live in ways other people understand as ‘normal’. A polyamorous relationship is probably the most normal thing they ever had to think about.”

They got out of the car, and Zhao Yunlan had to talk to the ordinary police officers in order to pass through the security lane. Da Qing's arrival was a separate event, the officer didn't know what to do about the cat also having a badge.

Wu Xie had never thought, in his entire life, that he would one day be someone who would have a badge. Until he practically broke into the SID office less than a year ago and applied for a job directly with the Chief. 

They met with Guo Changcheng, who was trying to understand the murder case and the relationship between Chief and Special Officer Wu, who only wasn't Deputy Chief because that was the cat's job. Or at least that was what Guo Changcheng thought.

Wu Xie was usually attentive, experience in his previous field made him an excellent investigator. But today his attention was divided by being on University Street. He wondered if Shen Wei would know they were there and avoid them or if he finally got the courage to approach Zhao Yunlan. Little did he expect Guo Changcheng's unintentional help.

During the investigation, the unfortunate Guo Changcheng was left hanging from a window. Wu Xie noted curiously that the one who worried about him from down there was exactly his precious Shen Wei.

However, Shen Wei did not see him. He was too distracted by seeing Zhao Yunlan, who quickly swooped down to rescue the unlucky rookie. Wu Xie continued to watch from above.

Zhao Yunlan arrived hurriedly and picked up Guo Changcheng by the back of his collar like a small chick, setting him upright on the ground.

If it weren't for keeping his image as the calm and reserved Chief Zhao, he would've smacked the idiot on the head with his shoe. 

Zhao Yunlan forced himself to turn away; one more look at this moron and he swore… He swore nothing. If Wu Xie saw him losing his temper with the ‘poor rookie’ that early in the morning, he wouldn’t just be scolded when they got home later. He could be the Chief in the Department, but at home, the Chief wouldn’t say a word to upset his ‘first wife’.

He didn’t imagine who he was staring at right now.

"Hi!" He offered the spectacled gentleman a handshake. "The name is Zhao Yunlan, we're from the MPS, and you are?"

For just a split second, the man seemed astonished, but he rapidly recovered as if nothing had happened, so Zhao Yunlan thought he could have imagined it. He politely returned Zhao Yunlan’s handshake. "It's Shen, Shen Wei. I'm a professor here. My apologies, I thought he was a student." 

Shen Wei's hand was icy, like that of a corpse straight out of a refrigerator. Zhao Yunlan froze as soon as he touched it, and couldn't help looking up at Shen Wei, meeting his gaze. Although Shen Wei quickly looked away, Zhao Yunlan found his expression rather unusual. In an odd way, it didn’t feel like looking at a stranger.

As a criminal investigation officer, albeit the unorthodox type, Zhao Yunlan had to be good at memorizing faces, even those that he only glanced at briefly.

He was certain he had never seen this person before.

He had never seen him before, but Zhao Yunlan finally realized who he had just met. He had heard that name for almost a year. And he had great interest in meeting that person since he started dating Wu Xie. Because that was Wu Xie's sweetie.

But he didn't say anything, not yet.

At this instance, the ball of black fur wiggled his butt and pads towards the Professor. Twisting around his legs, he gave Shen Wei's feet a thorough sniff, circled his leg a few more times, and started softly purring at him. 

Master Da Qing usually kept his cool and looked down upon all pathetic homo sapiens with disdain and disinterest. Shen Wei seemed to be an exception. As well as it was with Wu Xie. 

Zhao Yunlan was stunned by the cat's abnormal behavior once more in less than a year: he was inexplicably friendly and cute towards Shen Wei, and even stretched out his ridiculously short front legs towards his knee, asking for a hug.

Shen Wei picked up the cat, who meowed gently and comfortably, emerald eyes gazing at the spectacled man. That was new. Yet he really liked Wu Xie, he would annoy Wu Xie as much as he could to get his attention, rather than being cute.

It seemed to Zhao Yunlan like they have some kind of connection. Or was it Wu Xie's scent lingering on that man? It was about Da Qing, so it couldn’t be that simple.

Quite a while later, Shen Wei reluctantly returned the cat to Zhao Yunlan, giving the cat a pat on the head while doing so. “This cat is very smart, what's his name?"

"Da Qing," Zhao Yunlan answered and carelessly added, "nickname Fatty, also known as That Fat Fuck." He didn’t know if it was his anxiety showing and he was using Da Qing to distract him from that or if… Did Shen Wei notice who he had just met or was he stupid for a minute like Zhao Yunlan? Had Wu Xie never shown a picture of Zhao Yunlan to him as he never showed a picture of Shen Wei to Zhao Yunlan?

The black cat howled and turned evil instantly, fur standing upright and claws assaulting Zhao Yunlan, bringing the Chief back to the moment. 

"Haha, he’s mad." Shen Wei laughed gently and held one of the paws in his hand. The cat retracted his claws and eagerly let Shen Wei pat him on the head.

"I heard about the incident," Shen Wei said, "So the victim is from our university?"

The Chief glanced at Guo Changcheng, who sheepishly took out a photograph of a female student and a student card, and handed it to Shen Wei with trembling hands, "Pro-Professor Shen, plea-pleased to meet you. Will you take a look and... see if you recognise this person?"

As Shen Wei took the photograph from Guo Changcheng's hands, Zhao Yunlan looked around.

"Where the hell is Wu Xie?"

"Is a-Xie here?" Shen Wei asked so casually that Zhao Yunlan couldn't believe that man could keep his expression so calm if he already knew who he was meeting.

"I couldn't leave my best man in the office and just bring the disastrous rookie..."

"You stop teasing poor Xiao Guo," the voice came from right behind Zhao Yunlan, who turned sideways to make way for Wu Xie, who was brushing the leaves from the bushes off his clothes.

"Where were you all this time?" Zhao Yunlan would lose his mind before lunchtime, he predicted.

"Upstairs trying to see what Xiao Guo saw in the glass and then down here, picking up clues." Wu Xie held up a small plastic bag with something indecipherable inside. And then he turned to Shen Wei, "Hi, sweetie. I was going to text you that we were coming here, but I got kicked off the bed by this one," he grumbled, pointing at Zhao Yunlan, "so I ended up not taking time."

Zhao Yunlan was indignant. Shen Wei, on the other hand, was amused.

"It's okay, a-Xie. At least I'm finally getting a chance to meet your-" He was reluctant when he noticed Guo Changcheng still there. He had almost forgotten about it. But Wu Xie nodded, encouraging him to proceed. It wasn't a secret at the Department. “-your partner.”

Guo Changcheng's brain stopped working for a moment as he tried to make sense of that interaction. Da Qing began to consider whether his master would be like an Emperor with many wives.

Zhao Yunlan hadn't planned on meeting his lover's lover at a crime scene with a dead body right there. He had planned to take the two of them out to dinner. Although he had never been able to take Wu Xie out to dinner, it was easier to get him to hunt down non-human criminals in the middle of the night.

Shen Wei was delighted, although he had his misgivings. With Wu Xie there, certain negative implications of meeting Kunlun-jun face to face were nullified.

Of the gods who separated skies from earth, one of them fell and died, his body shaping the world. The other one was left with a slightly damaged memory and wandered where Shen Wei didn't know, until the day Kunlun-jun found him.

After Kunlun-jun's mourning over Mount Penglai, he would certainly be stunned and relieved of all his pain to find out that Zhurong-jun had not vanished as a result of fighting Gonggong* to stop the flood. But Kunlun-jun didn't have the memory to remember Zhurong-jun and the little Ghost King who liked to hang around with them. 

Shen Wei internally lamented this as he continued talking with SID officers about the female student in the photograph and the case.

For five thousand years, Shen Wei had suffered from the distance he had to keep from Kunlun-jun - or the dire consequences of getting close. And for the same five thousand years, he had carried the grief and burden of never seeing Zhurong-jun again.

Now the two were there.

With his mind drifting away from police matters, he just watched the officers discussing the leads and some possibilities, while he felt a little lightness caress his chest and smiled fondly, feeling the pendant around his neck emanate that soft warmth from which he had felt missing for years before getting that good back, straight from the hands of Wu Xie and Xiaoge.

Shen Wei was no longer someone alone now. He had friends - very good ones. And he was twice in love. Loving Kunlun was his reality for thousands of years. Falling in love with Zhurong too, was unexpected. But Shen Wei had that certainty, that if Wu Xie was just the ordinary Wu Xie, just the man with strong spirit and who didn't leave him behind, he would have fallen in love just the same.

This was true of Zhao Yunlan as well - it was apparently impossible for him to regain his memories, so he would never be Kunlun-jun again, despite the soul he carried. And Shen Wei had watched him from the shadows and heard enough from Wu Xie to know, if Zhao Yunlan was just the man, forever, Shen Wei would love him all the same.

When they finished scouting and investigating that part of the campus, Zhao Yunlan sent Da Qing and Guo Changcheng back to the office first. It was past midday, Shen Wei's morning lectures were over, and Wu Xie wanted to say goodbye to him before heading back to work.

At the foot of the stairs of the main University building, the three met again.

"Xiao Wei, we're done here for now," Wu Xie said, brushing his fingertips discreetly over Shen Wei's hand, who blushed but didn't pull away from the caress. Wu Xie's gentle affection was always welcome.

That way of addressing the Professor echoed in Zhao Yunlan's mind. He liked what he heard. He wished he could address the Professor in the same way, not knowing that he had been the first to do so.

"Ah, darling... and Professor Shen... would you like... to take advantage of the time to... go have lunch with me?" Zhao Yunlan had never gone to such trouble to ask someone out. Although one of them was already his partner.

Wu Xie giggled and Shen Wei blushed to the tips of his ears.

"If our a-Xie is fine with that," Shen Wei took courage to answer the way his heart wanted to, "I'd love to have lunch with you both."

"I couldn't be more pleased than finally having you and Yunlan to get to know each other better. Out of a crime scene."

…

In the small tree-lined square, Wu Xie sat on the bench next to Pangzi. On the nearby bench, Xiaoge and Liu Sang settled down. It was the first time all four of them had been able to get together in days, now that Pangzi and Xiaoge had returned from their tasks for the Department. Like the cat, everyone there had a badge.

"Tianzhen, you look happy. What happened while we were gone? Zhao-chu gave you a raise for working overtime at his house, did he?" Pangzi took a handful of peanuts out of his pocket, always happy to tease Wu Xie for 'seducing the Chief'.

"Shen Wei finally met Yunlan. And we went on a date. And everything went well. Or at least so far. We still haven't told Yunlan who Shen Wei really is. I don't know if we can. With relations so fragile with the Hell's Court, I don't know if it would be wise to speak of it."

"You took Xiaoge and Xiazi to fuck the Hell's Court to get back Professor Shen's pendant, what are you worrying about?" And Pangzi still hadn't forgiven Wu Xie for leaving him out of it. Just like Xiao Hua had not forgiven Wu Xie or Xiazi. Liu Sang, on the other hand, said that it was a good thing he hadn't been dragged into this because he wasn't immortal, or lucky like Wu Xie, but he would have liked to have seen Hell up close, (the real one, not the hells he had been through in that life).

"I don't have the powers to light a match. I'm just an ordinary Wu Xie, but as long as Hell thinks that they unexpectedly have to deal with a self-aware primordial god, they won't try anything stupid for a while." Fire God was a joke to Wu Xie, there was no fire there, but at least it wasn't a joke to the Court.

"How do they believe you could bring down the Underworld? I mean… your face doesn't do much to convince of that," Liu Sang sneered.

"His soul," Xiaoge replied, "He's already died and reincarnated, Hell knows what soul he carries. It's the same with Zhao-chu, but he's not self-aware."

"Besides, they know that Kunlun-jun's powers are sealed. And they don't know that I just have no idea what happened to mine - but I guess I did something stupid and lost them. This soul is very old, so my memory is not good. I can't be sure. I can only bluff."

"You and Zhao-chu solve eighty percent of cases just by bluffing," Pangzi shook his head as he said that; some things were incorrigible.

"They're going to give me worry lines for this." Everyone looked up to see Shen Wei approaching. He greeted them, taking a seat next to Wu Xie, reaching out to hold his hand.

"I have worry lines at the thought of what Zhao-chu will do to us when he learns that half of his Department knows who Your Honor is," Liu Sang sighed, anticipating the storm that was to come.

"End of badge times," Xiaoge said without a worried face. No, he definitely didn't want to leave SID.

"Ah, Xiaoge," now Shen Wei was able to call him that naturally, but it had taken a while, "how is your mind?"

"Stable. It doesn't feel empty here. Not anymore." Since they had retrieved Shen Wei's pendant, Shen Wei had been slowly treating Xiaoge's condition as much as possible.

"If Zhurong-jun remembered how to use his powers," Shen Wei teased his partner, but it was a true question after all. With Zhurong being a primordial god, there was much more that his hands could do.

"Ai, Xiao Wei, don't call me by that name," Wu Xie complained, feigning an annoyance that he didn't feel. Shen Wei was already familiar with his fake drama. “I barely remember that time, how can I remember how to use powers? I'm just a useless old man. Get used to the fact that you chose your partners very poorly. Adored Kunlun-jun is just insane. Before he was insane with powers, now he's just insane. Before I was a demented old man with powers, now I'm just a demented old man."

"I have to agree with him," Liu Sang said, "I wasn't there, but it looks like Gonggong hit him in the head. What do you think, Professor Shen?"

"Aiyo, Sang Bei'er," Pangzi didn't bother speaking with his mouth full of peanuts, "Of course Gonggong hit him in the head. Now we clearly know where Tianzhen's whole problem comes from, he's been broken for a long time."

"But it's not true," Xiaoge said, "that he doesn't have any powers anymore."

"Yes," Shen Wei began, "otherwise he wouldn't be able to nullify the damage that my presence and direct contact with me would do to Yunlan. And so, I wouldn't approach."

"That's all I've been able to do since you told me how the deal with Shennong works," Wu Xie explained, now without the dramatic tone, “I know you don't like him, but there's something about what he did that intrigues me, because he never did anything without carefully considering it. He calculated what he was doing to get a result - and it would never be a bad thing, not coming from him. What he didn't include in the calculation, because he didn't know… was that I hadn't scattered back into the chaos and completely disappeared like the others had. Even because I couldn't go back to where I didn't come from."

"What does that mean?" Shen Wei asked. Since the past, there have always been many mysteries about Zhurong, precisely because he was forgetful. Maybe the thing about him being old and demented wasn't just useless drama. Shen Wei had no idea how old someone who existed since before the Three Sovereigns was.

"I have no idea, sweetie. I'd like to know too." Wu Xie scratched his head, legitimately confused by what he himself had said.

"Sometimes you look a little wise, like an ancient god really… but within two minutes you're back to just looking like Tianzhen Wu Xie and nothing else." Pangzi was disappointed with the lack of progress, thinking that if every god was as demented as Wu Xie, it would be better if the world had no gods.

"That's how a decrepit old man's head works." Wu Xie stretched and snuggled closer to his partner, laying his head on his shoulder. Despite Shen Wei's shyness, living for a while with Iron Triangle and the people around them had been like a shock treatment - almost everyone was very affectionate and given to physical displays of affection. And they all always thought that Shen Wei needed a hug, a treat, a friendly word, so he had been bombarded with all kinds of positive attention that he hadn't received in five thousand years. He even had a few uncles and cousins now. He couldn't dare call Wu Erbai anything other than 'Ershu'. Bai Haotian said that he was her eldest brother-in-law, while Liu Sang was her youngest brother-in-law.

Shen Wei cared intimately about a lot more people now. Time couldn't be running out, he had to find a way not to let everything fall apart.

"Did you really burn Shennong's pots and herbs?" Liu Sang had always wanted to ask this since the day they had taken Shen Wei out of the temple. The question snapped Shen Wei out of his thoughts, although it wasn't directed at him.

"It was an accident," Wu Xie sighed, "And that's how I also lost the chance to continue learning medicine. Now you see why it's not good that I have powers? Who knows what else I would burn…"

"It wasn't just in this life that you weren't born to be useful." Although everyone was waiting, they still wondered why Hei Xiazi couldn't come from the front side and always seemed to spring from beyond. Shen Wei had no complaints about this habit, though.

Xiao Hua, although he had come along with his partner, approached from the front, greeting his friends.

The new arrivals took seats on another bench. They were what the others were waiting for in that little square. Since they went about their business as usual, their visits were inconsistent.

"I hope your Chief has gotten used to the fact that your mafia friends will still be your mafia friends," Xiao Hua said. He had money and he didn't have a badge.

"He will take away our Bonus at the end of the month when he knows that we continue to welcome you," Liu Sang predicted, even though it had never happened to him before, it always happened to the monk and he knew, the time for him to lose the Bonus would also come.

Wu Xie watched them for a while as they updated each other on the latest trivial things and didn't start with more serious matters.

His sweet and precious Shen Wei. His friends and family. His beloved Kunlun.

That was something he must protect at all costs. He had already fallen twice. Pangu and the Three Sovereigns had sacrificed themselves for the world and the people. If the pillars and the seal were wavering, and only he and Kunlun were left from that time, he didn't think it was the younger god's responsibility now. He'd already been lucky twice, outlived what other gods hadn't. He didn't believe he would be lucky a third time, but that was okay as long as everyone he loved was safe.

He wasn't concerned. Shen Wei would be fine with his family and Zhao Yunlan.

Everything would be fine.

Meanwhile, he still had a little time to love them more.

…