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"Are you sure about this?" Fang Duobing asks, eyeing the bowl with the dark liquid. It looks like it's sucking all the light from around it, vanishing it into—
Fang Duobing quickly pulls his eyes away, looking up at Di Feisheng's familiar face instead. He looks faintly annoyed.
"I know," he says quickly. "It's the only way to save him, and I haven't changed my mind about that." He wouldn't change his mind. He can still feel the guilt of letting Li Lianhua go. Li Lianhua would tell him to let it go already, but he refuses to, if only to spite Li Lianhua. Li Lianhua had abandoned them and Fang Duobing doesn't need to do anything Li Lianhua would have wanted, he thinks angrily.
But for him, Li Lianhua isn't the only reason. It's different for Di Feisheng. He's okay with that. Li Lianhua has always been more important to Di Feisheng than anything else. He and Fang Duobing might have become close since—since they both lost him, but Fang Duobing knows he doesn't measure up to Li Lianhua in Di Feisheng's world. That's fine. He doesn't want to replace Li Lianhua.
His eyes fall down to the bowl again and he feels the apprehension rise inside him again. He's drunk some dubious concoctions from the Medicine Demon before when he'd been injured and glared at by Di Feisheng, but none of it had looked like that. That doesn't look like anything that should go inside a human, but then— Considering what it's supposed to do, maybe it shouldn't look like anything a human should drink.
Things have been difficult since Li Lianhua left. The Emperor had not been quite as placated by a missing Li Lianhua as Li Lianhua had probably hoped. In the end, Fang Duobing's family had suffered far more than they should because of Fang Duobing's actions. Maybe the guilt that he's so familiar with these days should make him understand Li Lianhua better, but it doesn't.
He swallows once and nods resolutely. "We'll change all of it," Fang Duobing says out loud. All Di Feisheng does is make a low grunt. "You still suck at being supportive you know, A-Fei," Fang Duobing tells him.
"What do you want me to say?" Di Feisheng asks.
Fang Duobing sighs. "Nothing," he answers and then grabs the front of Di Feisheng's robes as he leans in. His lips press against Di Feisheng's and then stay there for a moment. Di Feisheng's broad hand presses against his back, holding him and just… letting him stay there.
He doesn't know if they'll have this afterwards and he just wants a moment to remember. He pulls away and takes a quick, shaky breath. Di Feisheng says nothing, but his hand lingers against Fang Duobing's back. Fang Duobing looks at him for a moment, and then before he has time for any more doubts he grabs the bowl of very unnatural-looking medicine and downs half of it in one go. It tastes of nothing at all—less than nothing somehow—but he can feel the cold as he swallows, like liquid ice running down to his belly, and then—
Di Feisheng grabs the bowl from his hands before it can fall, his arm going around Fang Duobing's waist to keep him from falling to the ground. Quickly, without hesitation, he empties the bowl.
Fang Duobing blinks his eyes open. He sits up abruptly, the blanket falling off him as he pats himself all over like he needs to make sure he's all there.
"Young Master?" a very young, and slightly alarmed voice asks, and Fang Duobing finally realises he's not alone. Di Feisheng would probably tell him it's an inexcusable lapse in attention, but Fang Duobing has just travelled back in time, and that's just a little bit distracting.
He stares at Wang Fu because that's who it is. He looks so painfully young and all at once Fang Duobing is hit with a mix of emotions; nostalgia, guilt, and the nearly unrestrainable urge to hug Wang Fu.
It worked! It actually worked! And the proof of it is staring right at him.
"I'm fine," Fang Duobing manages to say, not able to hold back a broad grin. He's probably alarming Wang Fu even more, but he can't help it. "Where are we?" Fang Duobing asks because that will probably be more helpful than trying to ask when they are. He looks around at where he'd been sleeping. It kind of looks like a woodshed if he's being honest.
He's definitely not at Tianji Manor, and he's pretty sure this isn't Baichuan court and Wang Fu is still here so that narrows things down quite a lot. Has Fang Duobing even met Li Lianhua yet?
"We couldn't afford a room at the inn, Young Master. Don't you remember?" Wang Fu says, sounding vaguely guilty like Fang Duobing might blame him for it. Fang Duobing hadn't done that when he'd been this age, had he? Surely he wouldn't have blamed Wang Fu? He's suddenly not sure.
"Oh, right," Fang Duobing says. Well, that kind of clinches it. They'd only run out of money after leaving Baichuan Court when Fang Duobing had been determined to prove himself as a detective. He thinks that means he's met Li Lianhua for the first time already, but he really can't remember for sure. It's been a while since those days.
Well, these days, now, he thinks, feeling giddy.
"You and Li-er should go back home," he says abruptly. And then, to forestall any arguments that he doesn't quite remember if Wang Fu would give or not, he says, "It'll be cheaper for me to continue on my own."
He stands up and pats Wang Fu on the shoulder and then takes one more look around. He gives one quick thought to Di Feisheng, acknowledging the little twinge in his heart, the part of him that wants to go find Di Feisheng right now. There's no time for any of that, for either of them. They both have their own tasks to fulfil if they want things to work out for the better.
He takes a deep breath and walks out of the woodshed. He has a lot of things to do and Li Lianhua to find.