Work Text:
Zhang Ping was not the one who found Gu Qingzhang's body originally. The person who had was startled by it, even though it was far from the only corpse left standing in the street when the poison mist had been dispersed from the rain. That person had run into Xu Dong, who had chosen to bring the news to Zhang Ping first instead of his master.
That was probably for the best. It was difficult for Zhang Ping to connect this man who had ordered his death—who'd thought he'd actually had Zhang Ping killed—with the boy who his mother had cared for when they were young. Peizhi, on the other hand, would have a much harder time with this, Zhang Ping knew. Lan-daren had loved Gu Qingzhang once, and it was obvious that a part of him still did despite years apart and all of the recent horrible revelations. It would pain him to see his once lover in such a state. And Zhang Ping loved Lan Jue, so he wished he could spare him from that pain as much as he could.
Unlike the others around it, Gu Qingzhang's body was facing the palace rather than towards the outskirts of the capital, like those who had tried to flee. There was an eerie smile frozen on his face, as though he'd found some kind of peace in the success of his great revenge plot. Or maybe he had just accepted his fate in the end. Looking at him, Zhang Ping couldn't help but imagine what the people of their village had looked like in death, frozen in their final moments with the tell-tale lines of poison etched into their skin.
It was still a strange thought, that Zhang Ping had once had a brother. He had Chen Chou, of course, but Gu QIngzhang was something—someone—who tied him to the past and family he'd thought had been completely lost to him. But by the time he'd realized just who Gu Qingzhang had once been to him, any chance of them having that relationship again had already been lost to the past. Zhang Ping had already had reason to suspect what Gu Qingzhang's goals were and what lengths he was willing to sink to in order to reach them.
But with his adopted brother's death, Zhang Ping didn't want to hold onto the grudges any longer, even if they had been well earned. He would see to it that Gu Qingzhang's burial rites were carried out properly. After all, Zhang Ping's mother and lover had both loved this man. And Zhang Ping loved them enough to care for someone whose death he couldn't quite regret.