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“YOU THERE!!”
Xie Lian ignores the shout and starts walking faster.
Nothing good ever comes from a shouted ‘You there!’.
He knows best, the last two times ended awfully for him.
He hopes his increased pace will keep them away but as per his awful luck, it doesn't.
“HEY, ARE YOU DEA–” the shout is interrupted by a thunk and a pained yelp.
“Oy, stop being so rude!” a woman with a very scratchy voice interrupts the first person.
“Excuse me, Daozhang, please wait!” she calls out and even though he probably should keep on walking, he stops to turn around.
The woman has almost caught up with him now and she wears very… revealing robes. The man slinking just behind her must've been the man calling out first. He– oh dear! That man was clearly a ghost!
On second glance he notices that the woman too, is a ghost. She's deathly pale and there's a long scar on her throat. It explains the scratchy quality of her voice.
The man wasn't pale, he wasn't even human! He had the body of a man, but the head of a donkey. Currently, he was rubbing his head, where the woman had hit him.
In turn, the both of them study him too, before nodding to each other.
“Please Daozhang, there's no reason to be afraid of us! My name is Wubi. We would like to talk with you about something, can we invite you for tea?”
Xie Lian knew that not all ghosts were bad, but Wubi was surprisingly polite!
He nods and the both of them lead him away into a small tea house.
The owner doesn't bat an eye at his undead customers and leads them to a table, before leaving to prepare them some tea and snacks.
He only notices now, that no one panicked with the presence of ghosts between them. This village must be very used to ghostly presence.
“Please let us explain,” she starts as soon as the tea and snacks are served.
And the story was this:
Months ago a ghost ventured into the infamous Gambling Den in Ghost City. He told the croupiers that he'd had a vision and must make a bet against Hua Chengzhu, Ghost King and City Lord of Ghost City.
The Lord of the city had been in a good mood and granted the request.
Should the Challenger lose, he will help find Chengzhu a wife. Should he win, he'd take the wife himself.
Nearly everyone in the den knew at that point that the ghost was several cups too deep– but with a feral grin Chengzhu accepted the bet and promptly the ghost lost!
The next night, when the challenger was finally sober again, Chengzhu came to speak about the details– because he didn't want just any wife.
He must be:
- The most beautiful being in all three realms. (Xie Lian raises a shapely eyebrow.)
- Wear white cultivator robes. (Xie Lian self-consciously looks down his muddy brown robes– it hadn't been his fault, it was the rainy season and he had just slipped down a muddy ravine before arriving at this town!)
- Should be a master swordsman! (The woman admits that she can't make sure of that but Daozhang is wielding a vicious black sword, so they assumed.)
- Must be kind. (They had seen him give the last half of his muddy and stale bun to a starving child.)
- Must be a virgin! (“Er, how do you know?” Wubi snorts very unladylike and answers, “I am a sex worker, of course I know.” Xie Lian blushes and snaps his mouth shut.)
“And the challenger was my brother…” she admits, burying her face in her pale hands.
And supposedly the brother roped in anyone he knew to help find Chengzhu’s wife.
At least he keeps his side of the bet, Xie Lian thinks and says, “Alright I can… somewhat see why you would come to me, but are there no better options than me?”
Both ghosts hang their heads.
“The problem is, there was more to the bet.” donkey-head says glumly.
“If my brother fails to bring the right one ten times, Chengzhu will disperse him. And the worst. That drunken piece of shit suggested it himself.” Wubi cries.
“...” Xie Lian is left speechless.
His Guoshi clearly was right about alcohol and gambling being bad for oneself!
“Daozhang, you're number ten. You're our last hope!” she whines and buries her head in her hands again.
Xie Lian steals himself and gives them a nod.
“Alright. I don't really believe I'm the right one, but I will try to help.”
She lifts her head again and tears roll down her face.
“Thank you, Daozhang!”
They lead him out of the city and into a dense forest, walking down a path that is well trodden and seems to be frequently used.
And as a gloomy forest parts into crimson lantern light, it occurs to Xie Lian that it must have been mostly ghosts travelling to the nearby town.
Ghost City is beautifully chaotic. The red light of thousands of floating lanterns gives everything a mysterious touch and even though it's morning, the street is full with mingling ghosts and demons.
Most of the people wear masks and the Wubi also puts a mask on her face and hands Xie Lian another mask.
Xie Lian studies it for a moment and finds he likes it. It's a half-mask, covering his face from the nose upwards.
It has the form of a cute little stoat with a huadian on its forehead.
So cute, he thinks and places it on his face.
Wubi leads them through the throngs of shouting ghosts and then quickly away from the main street.
They only walk for a minute more until they come to a stop in front of an elegant building.
Several lightly clad women and men come out of the building, visibly excited about Wubi’s return.
“Jie Jie, Jie Jie you're back!” Several of them shout as they swarm the woman.
“Settle down, settle down and get back inside, I will be with you later.” she says and they all go back inside.
Xie Lian gives the building a wary look but follows Wubi inside the building, Donkey-head following close behind.
The interior is surprisingly elegant and he can't hear or see any unsavoury things and Xie Lian is incredibly glad for that.
They lead him towards the far end of a corridor and into a sizable washing room.
“Daozhang,” Wubi starts.
“No offense, but you might want to wash up. I will leave a fresh change of clothes in front of the door, if you need help putting them on, just ask Lu Tou here,” gesturing towards Donkey-head. Then she walks briskly away, and Xie Lian shuts the door before slowly walking further into the room.
What–
What is he even doing?
Offering himself as a wife to a potentially very dangerous ghost?
Who would even want an old god of misfortune turned scrap collector as a wife?
He buries his face in his hands and groans.
But–
it was to help a person or even more and wasn't this typical for him?
He lets his hands fall down and walks over to the steaming bathtub, stripping himself from his robes on the way.
When he sinks into the water, it's a bit too hot. But after years of only bathing in rivers or the occasional cold bathtub in an inn, it's lovely and he can't help letting out a satisfied sigh. Ruoye loosens itself from his wrist and sloshes into the water, delighted to finally have a warm bath.
As much as he wants, he doesn't take his time but scrubs himself down with precise movements.
When he's done, he stands up, gets out of the tub and grabs a nearby placed towel.
Rubbing off the excess water is a treat in itself, because when your only access to water is a river, towels don't come all inclusive. If he'd been lucky, the weather was sunny and he could sit on a rock, meditating in the sunshine, but more often than not it was cloudy and cold. (Or an angry demon made him run.)
When he's dry he carefully peeks out of the door and sees a bundle of clothes right in front of it.
Inside again, he takes a closer look and–
It's probably the finest thing he's worn in centuries or so.
As requested by their Chengzhu, it's white cultivator robes, but the material itself is incredibly fine and it comes in several layers.
And subtly, stitched at the hem of the outer robes are white dragon and phoenix depictions.
Ah yes, he's supposed to be a wife. But since Hua Chengzhu wants white cultivator robes…
When he's dressed, Ruoye flits back into his new wide sleeve and wraps around his arm.
Xie Lian takes another deep breath before leaving the room.
Lu Tou and Wubi both wait for him outside and now there's a third person.
He's clearly a ghost too and looks suspiciously like Wubi, so that must be her brother.
Deeply, the new ghost bows to him.
“Thank you Daozhang for your help. My name is Zhai Wu.”
When he comes out of his bow, he looks Xie Lian up and down before giving him a nervous smile.
“This time it might actually work. Are you ready to see Chengzhu, Daozhang?”
Xie Lian fiddles with the mask in his hand and he's probably not really ready, but it was his own choice so he nods and places the mask back on his face.
Zhai Wu does the same and leads him out of the brothel, back towards the busy shopping street.
Unlike earlier in the day, the street is less crowded and while it's hard to tell in the perpetual gloom of the ghost realm, Xie Lian thinks it might be noon äow. They walk quickly towards a grand building and Xie Lian notices entrance verses above the great doors and stops to stare. In front of him, his ghostly companion also stops and looks at him in question.
For a moment or two Xie Lian just stares at the frankly terrifying calligraphy before he can make out sentences.
“Those signs have always been there, but I can't really read,” mumbles Zhai Wu.
Xie Lian lets out a disbelieving laugh before saying, “I'm afraid that even if you could read, you wouldn't be able to read that. It's almost illegible.”
Having dawdled enough, they enter the Gambling Den and Zhai Wu immediately walks over to a staff worker who simply nods and leads them down the stairs and into a gigantic hall.
The hall itself is empty and at the end of it stands a raised dais, complete with red sheer curtains, concealing most of what's behind.
“Please wait here, Chengzhu will be here in a moment,” the croupier says and walks away. Behind them ghosts start to trickle into the hall, as if sensing that a good show is about to begin.
The both of them stand there, waiting a little nervously for the Ghost King until suddenly there's a shift in the air and the red curtain ripples with the flood of resentment.
Zhai Wu and Xie Lian both stare at the curtain now, a silhouette clearly visible behind the curtain, lounging on a divan.
Behind them more and more ghosts walk into the hall, but they're all quiet, not daring to speak loudly.
“I see, you're back with another one.” a deep voice drawls from behind the curtain. Xie Lian can see the Ghost King's disinterest through the curtain, he's not even facing them and he really, really hopes his own presence won't doom Zhai Wu.
From behind him he can hear the ghosts whispering.
“Look, that one actually looks good.”
“If Chengzhu doesn't want him, I wouldn't mind a bite…”
Xie Lian suddenly doesn't really want to hear more and shifts his focus back on Zhai Wu (who's sweating profusely next to him) and Hua Cheng.
He takes a few steps towards the curtain and bows deeply.
There's a moment of silence and suddenly Xie Lian can feel the full attention of the Calamity, a heavy weight on his shoulders. He doesn't dare to rise yet.
There's the tinkling of silver and the swish of robes and suddenly gentle hands hook under his elbows and draw him out of the bow.
Xie Lian looks up and his breath catches.
Hua Cheng is the most beautiful man he's ever seen.
Wild black hair frames a handsome and sharp face. Deep black eyes stare at him with undivided attention.
He's wearing a lot of red and now that he's in front of him he sees that the tinkling noise had been silver jewellery around his black boots.
The ghost looks at Zhai Wu and then again at Xie Lian.
“Do you know why this man brought you here, gege?” he asks in a gentle and low voice.
Ah, gege ? Xie Lian thinks but he finds he likes it better than the common Daozhang others call him.
“Ah… to be your wife?” he asks shyly, feeling a flush in his cheeks.
Hua Cheng opens his mouth and then closes it again, looking a little confused.
Behind them the ghosts are starting to whisper, having seemingly expected something else.
Hua Cheng’s head snaps back at Zhai Wu, who immediately stands a little straighter and he gives him a nod.
“Your debt is paid.”
Hua Cheng holds out a hand and Xie Lian hesitates a moment but eventually takes it. It's bigger than his own hand, with elegant and pale fingers. Around one finger is a red string tied.
The ghost leads him back up the stairs to his dais and with his other hand he flicks something into the air. Then he parts the curtain and they step into a quiet hallway.
“A distance shortening spell?” Xie Lian can't help but whisper in awe.
The ghost still holds his hand and turns around to grin at him.
He holds out the other hand, showing off two crimson dice.
Excitedly Xie Lian takes the offered dice and rolls them around in his hand.
They look like normal dice and it's impressive that Hua Cheng had hidden such a powerful distance shortening array in them.
“How do they work?” Xie Lian asks and looks up at the Ghost King.
“It's nothing much, really,” Hua Cheng says with a winningly handsome smile.
“No matter what number I roll, I come out where I want to go.”
“Hua Chengzhu’s creation is impressive,” Xie Lian can't help but praise.
While every god or ghost should have enough spiritual energy to activate an array, drawing one was very intricate work, and not every god had the skills to do it.
One wrong line or sign and you would suddenly be dumped on a freezing mountain!
If Hua Cheng had truly created those dice by his own, he must be incredibly smart and powerful.
“Mh, actually Gege… how about you call me San Lang?” Hua Cheng asks through lowered lashes.
“After all, Gege agreed to be my wife.”
The heat is back in Xie Lian's face and he hides it behind his palms.
“Except,” Hua Cheng murmurs.
“Except you don't want to marry me. Although I would still like you to call me San Lang. I was the third in my family.”
Xie Lian lets his hands fall down again and says, a little too loud, “No!!”
Stunned, they look at each other.
“Er, I mean– I mean I would like to marry… San Lang.” He admits with a blush.
He never thought he would marry someone.
First, he had been too busy with his martial training, then he had been a god and even busier.
And then… then he had been a disgraced, scrap collecting and banished god.
He still was.
While in the beginning, he had women and men waiting left and right, now no one would look at him– except with disgust.
But the way Hua Cheng looks at him now– a smile so bright, it rivals the sun. He wonders what Hua Cheng sees in him, if not the old, broken thing that he is.
“San Lang– I would love to marry you but I'm not a kind person. You don't know what I did in the past and I'm afraid you wouldn't want to marry me if you knew.”
Xie Lian feels a little sick. He doesn't really want to talk about this but he needs to. Hua Cheng needs to know who he's about to marry. What kind of monster Xie Lian truly is.
“Gege could tell me, if he really wants to. But I'm sure no matter what it is, my mind won't change. If my heart is set on something, it won't ever change. I will forever like it.” the Ghost King says with a serious face.
Xie Lian doesn't know if he should laugh or cry. This ghost– San Lang doesn't know him. How can his heart be set on him, ah! So insincere!
But… maybe, deep inside, he always wanted to tell someone about what happened. Not to garner sympathy or judgement or anything like that. Just to tell someone about it.
So he hangs his head and says, ”Alright, I will tell San Lang. But it's going to be a long story.”
Hua Cheng takes his hand again and leads him through the hallway and into a big, comfortable room. On the far end there stands a table and a plush divan where they sit down together.
With a flick of the ghost's hand two servants silently walk into the room and place tea and food on the table.
As silently as they walk in, they leave again.
Hua Cheng pours them tea and then presses a plate with food into his hands.
Xie Lian doesn't really feel like eating, but takes a bite out of a baozi. It's delicious.
Then he starts his story. From his youth, to his ascension. From his fall to his insanity.
And from his last believer to his second ascension he didn't even want.
“You see San Lang. I used to think that it would be so nice to have someone, who'd see me during all of this and still wants to stand by my side.”
Xie Lian smiles sadly and starts plucking little pieces out of his baozi.
“But the one person who actually wanted to stay– I killed him.”
Next to him, Hua Cheng had been silent while he was talking. Slowly he reaches for one of Xie Lian's hands and pulls it into his own.
“You didn't kill him,” Hua Cheng says quietly.
Xie Lian looks up, confused.
“What do you mean?”
“Your last believer,” he clarifies and without dropping Xie Lian's hand he gets up and kneels on one leg, next to Xie Lian and the table.
Xie Lian sucks in a breath. He knows that pose. He knows him–
“Wuming–”
Xie Lian shakes his head. Wuming dispersed, Wuming was gone, Bai Wuxiang had said so–
But that's the thing, isn't it?
That monster had done so many things to take all and any hope Xie Lian had, so of course he had said that.
Tears start running down his face and Xie Lian grips Hua Cheng's hands back with force.
“Wuming, I'm so, so sorry,” he chokes out, through his tears.
Hua Cheng shakes his head and gives him a gentle smile.
“Your Highness never has to apologise to me.”
He sounds so sure about it, but Xie Lian can't accept it.
“No Wuming– no. San Lang. Calling you Wuming was awful. Treating you so harshly and trampling your flower was cruel. So please let me apologise!”
Hua Cheng starts to gently rub his thumb over the back of his hand.
“If gege thinks he has to apologise then he can. But I want you to know that I never blamed you for any of it. It was my decision. And you were grieving. You were tortured and haunted by that monster for such a long time. All I wanted was to help.”
Xie Lian can't take it any longer and moves down from the divan and right into Hua Cheng's surprised arms.
He still catches him in his arms and Xie Lian ropes his arms around his shoulders to hug him close.
He hides his face in the red and rich fabric of his shoulder, staining it with his tears and probably more.
“How did I deserve someone as good as you?” He mumbles into the fabric and somehow Hua Cheng still understands what he said.
“You're you.” The ghost said as if that's somehow enough and after that the both of them are quiet for a while.
Xie Lian isn't sure how much time has passed when he finally shuffles back.
He meets Hua Cheng's eyes and it's so soft, Xie Lian still can't understand it fully.
And then he notices their position and that he's basically straddling the ghost–
A blush creeps up his cheeks and he scrambles back to his feet and awkwardly sits down on the divan again.
…He swears he can also see a faint blush on the ghosts cheeks and there's that tiny grin when he gets up and sits down next to him on the divan.
Xie Lian coughs lightly into his fist and flaps his hands at his own face, hoping it will make the blush go down.
“So San Lang. This is why you probably don't want to marry me,” he says and then he remembers something.
“San Lang. Didn't you have a beloved? Why would you want to marry someone who isn't your beloved?” he asks with a confused tilt to his head.
Hua Cheng's eyes are wide as he stares at him before composing himself again.
“Gege remembers that,” he states, it's not a question.
Xie Lian nods and takes the ghost's hand, just as he had taken his earlier.
“You wanted to avenge them. Did you find them later?”
Hua Cheng shakes his head, face shrouded with his dark hair.
“When I came back I couldn't find them. I searched all this time…” he whispers and Xie Lian’s heart twists with sympathy.
“Do you want my help, looking for them?” he asks quietly, even though he feels as if he just drank vinegar.
Xie Lian lifts his head again, looking straight into Hua Cheng's eyes.
“No,” he says and takes a deep breath.
“I just found them. And they agreed to marry me.”
Xie Lian opens his mouth to reply and then the words register in his head.
That sounds like…
Mh.
Huh?!
His head snaps up and he looks incredulously at Hua Cheng.
“Me?” he asks a little cutely.
“It's been always you,” Hua Cheng admits, looking away again.
“Of course, if his Highness doesn't want to marry m–”
“Yes,” Xie Lian interrupts.
Hua Cheng opens his mouth and closes it again.
He repeats that twice and Xie Lian nods several times, maybe even a little too much and repeats, “Yes. I want to marry you.”
🌸
Years later a god and a ghost sit together at the shore of a forest lake in the mortal realm.
The ghost has his head on the lap of the ghost and enjoys the other's hands on his scalp.
“San Lang,” Xie Lian mumbles, a little reluctant to break the comfortable silence between them and the ghost opens his eye.
“What is it gege?” he asks with a gentle look on his face.
“Back then– what if the ghost's hadn't found me?”
Hua Cheng closes his eye again but keeps smiling.
“Then he would've failed to fulfil his part of the deal and I would've dispersed him.”
Xie Lian's mouth pulls into a displeased line. He knows by now how the Gambling Den works and that the ghosts or humans betting there know the risks.
Still.
“I am glad he found me,” he mumbles and Hua Cheng laughs lightly.
“I am too.”
“But you know,” Xie Lian starts, thinking back to his time as a prince.
“I think Guoshi was right about abstaining from worldly pleasures. See what it brought that ghost. A near dispersement!”
Hua Cheng arches a shapely eyebrow and stares up at the ghost.
“But gege…” he pouts.
“Last night you sounded different about worldly pleasures. In fact, I think you told me to not sto–”
Xie Lian hastily slaps a hand over Hua Cheng's mouth and cries, “San Lang, stop talking!”