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He Xuan stood with her hands tucked in her sleeves and a bemused frown on her lips as a wave of ghosts paraded by.
Some of them made a wide berth around her from her aura alone, but most either were too busy with each other to care who was around them or simply didn’t recognize her in this form and didn’t stop to question it. It didn’t matter though.
She wasn’t thrilled with herself for agreeing to come here. Qingxuan dragged her around for years, and He Xuan followed willingly, but there was no longer a reason for her to. And yet, when the invitation came this time, all she could do was accept.
Out of habit, she told herself.
Boredom, maybe.
The promise of a meal with no other attachments.
A flash of green the color of mint caught her eye, and she looked up to see Qingxuan waving her hand high above her head as inconspicuously as ever. She didn’t call out her name so they could stay relatively hidden, but she didn’t call out another name either.
He Xuan watched as her smile widened, radiant like the sun in a place meant to be a piece of the night, and a clink in the chain around her heart disappeared—which was admittedly troublesome, as was the one that loosened when she received this invitation in the first place.
Why did Qingxuan have to send it at all?
Didn’t she have other friends? Wasn’t there anyone else she would have rather bothered, especially now of all times?
Even if they were no longer elemental masters, the heavens hadn’t turned their backs on her. She could ascend again if she worked hard enough, even if it wasn’t her destiny, and as far as He Xuan was aware, Qingxuan had made herself a nice little home here with both ghosts and humans alike.
A spy told her that she found work at one of the face shops teaching some of the ghosts how to maintain their skins with oils and preserving creams and how to wear their makeup in a more modern fashion so they could blend in during outings.
It was… not what she was best at, but without any spiritual power of her own, no one could know that. Still, she seemed to be able to borrow enough from somewhere to maintain her yin energy while in Ghost City, as she called it.
Good. She’d always been happier this way, not that He Xuan was ever really that invested in what made her happy and what didn’t.
She nodded back in acknowledgment, and Qingxuan took it as permission to approach her.
“There you are!” Qingxuan said cheerfully, and He Xuan didn’t miss the rosy tip of her nose or the blustered flush to her cheeks. The cold was a nuisance, but it wasn’t something she normally thought about. It seemed Qingxuan forgot that she needed to, however. “They just made these fresh. No worms this time!”
She produced two steaming buns wrapped in paper, and He Xuan’s eyes locked onto them immediately before she blinked to contain herself, but Qingxuan never missed anything. She laughed pleasantly and handed her one of them, keeping the other for herself.
“I thought we could get some soup too, but I wasn’t sure if you would want to walk around and shop a little first, so I brought you a snack.”
He Xuan took the bun without a word and bit into it. She was right. There were no worms.
Qingxuan bit into hers and puffed out a mouthful of steam before smiling sheepishly to cover her mouth with her other hand, a hand that was once soft and unblemished but now covered in a few scars and visible signs of use. No one could deny that she worked hard these days. He Xuan took another bite and swallowed her thoughts down.
The inside filling was warm and spiced, and it was one of the more delicious things she’d had to eat all week, which was somehow expected from Qingxuan. She had an uncanny ability to find the finer things for herself and her friends, so the wares of Ghost City’s market shouldn’t have been any different.
He Xuan let herself be led down the crowded path while she ate, happy to have her mouth full, and Qingxuan made sure to tell her who ran every stall and what they sold, meanwhile whispering loudly behind her palm who had the better deals and who would “skim the dust off your grave”.
“You’re not even dead!” A man whose mouth was on his forehead and eyes were on his chin complained loudly, waving a knife that looked as dull as his brain was. He Xuan took a step forward lazily while sending a glare that had him coughing up a nervous laugh.
Qingxuan picked up one of the bottles off of the table and uncorked it before giving it a sniff. “What’s this seasoning for?”
“Best for yao, but any stubborn meat’ll do,” he said, his temper cooled once he saw that Qingxuan was willing to buy. He even added a wink so they would know what kind of meat he was referring to. He Xuan scrunched her nose. Ghosts and beasts, sure, but she didn’t have the taste for people.
“How much?”
“Ehhhhhhh, 200,” he said.
“Two hundred? See, just like I told you,” she said to He Xuan before stepping away, and the shop owner shouted something unintelligible at her, but Qingxuan was hardly bothered. She never was. “You have to be careful, He Xuan. Not everyone has your best interest in mind.”
He Xuan laughed despite herself. “And you do?”
“Of course,” she said with a smile, and then she seemed to remember that that wasn’t something she should have said anymore and she cleared her throat before taking another bite of her bun. It had cooled enough that she didn’t burn her tongue.
He Xuan watched her for a moment as she stuffed the rest in her mouth, her eyes darting around the market hurriedly like she needed to find somewhere else to take her quickly before He Xuan could change her mind about coming here.
But that wasn’t on her mind as much as it was when she stood alone a moment ago. Then, all she could do was count the reasons she shouldn’t have gone there, now only a single thought remained in her mind.
Qingxuan used the right name.
“You wanted to get soup,” she reminded her, and Qingxuan’s face lit up at once.
“I did! There’s a new stall just opened last week. All of Ghost City has been talking about it,” she said like she knew all the ins and outs of the city.
He Xuan raised an eyebrow. “Can soup be that good?”
“I don’t know, I haven’t tried it yet,” she said. He Xuan raised both eyebrows at that, and she flushed before looking away, her hand moving up out of habit like she had a fan to hide behind. “I sent you the invitation when I heard about it. How was I supposed to come without you?”
She almost asked what would’ve happened if she hadn’t come, but her lips never opened.
It was a stupid question. She always went where Qingxuan told her to.
Even now when they’re like this.
She stepped up and pressed a finger to her arm with a small burst of spiritual power, wrapping Qingxuan in a faint layer of warmth. “Don’t catch a cold. You’re mortal now.”
Her face brightened with a smile. “Oh right, I forgot.”
He Xuan shook her head and took a step past her to take the lead.
“Where are you going?”
“I was called here for soup,” she said, and Qingxuan hurried to catch up with her.
She hooked her arm around her elbow, and He Xuan didn’t shake her off.
Just like she hadn’t all the other times before.