Chapter Text
It started as a feeling, deep in his chest Jiu knew something had changed. He felt full , like his heart was about to burst, which was honestly, really weird. He ended up letting it be since it wasn’t painful and he had plenty of other things to worry about.
Then came the bone deep exhaustion, every day he woke up with his mind fresh and rested, but his body felt like it had been up and running day and night for weeks on end.
After that the strange treatment started. Out of the blue, most if not all of the servants and slaves started acting differently towards him. Jiu wouldn’t be surprised if they were treating him like scum, but that was the thing. It was the opposite! Both servants and slaves alike started smuggling food to him, helping him out with his assigned tasks, lessening his punishments when they could and even warning him when Qiu Janluo was in a bad mood AND aiding him when avoiding said young master. At first it looked like a ploy, but as time went by they never demanded any sort of payment, quite the contrary in fact, they assured him that he needn’t do anything since THEY were the ones repaying HIM apparently. He wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth then. It still drove him crazy how he didn’t remember doing anything for them worth such treatment, so he started assisting them just in case.
None of that mattered now, for today he had awoken and waiting for him was the biggest change yet. The Qiu mansion was in ruins, ashes and burnt wood anywhere, no corpses to be seen (he was a bit reluctant to admit that a part of him was glad that all the slaves and servants and slaves had managed to get away from whatever had happened while he was asleep).
After walking through the ruins of what once was his prison searching for clues in order to figure out what had went down in his absence (he pointedly ignored the stinging on his hands and the feeling in his gut) he found what could only be a body, both fear and guilt suffocated his heart, wondering whose
life had he ended
body had he found until he recognised the robe the corpse was wearing.
Qiu Janluo.
He was staring at the lifeless body of his tormentor, all bloody and charred and all guilt he had suddenly dissipated, he even kicked it for good measure. Suddenly, something else caught his attention. There were (what he recognised as) characters scribbled on a barely-standing wall. Even though Jiu couldn’t read, a kind auntie had taught him a few characters here and there. So while he couldn’t make out what was written, due to using letters and other important-looking papers to practice his reading, he could roughly make out the structure of the message left behind. So as far as Jiu knew, the two lone characters at the end of the text could only mean one thing, the perpetrator had signed his message! With this knowledge Jiu tried his best to copy the characters onto a stray piece of cloth with some burnt stick he found laying around and took it with him.
Jiu walked, and walked and walked . He walked until his feet were sore and numb, he walked despite the thirst drying his throat and the hunger making his thin bones ache. Until at last, a village could be seen. Despite his body’s protests, the first thing he knew was that he had to know what the name of his savior was. So he asked every person he saw, some ignored him and some hit him, but it didn’t matter he just had to know . After a while of asking, an old lady took pity on him and read the characters aloud for him.
His savior
His guardian angel
His Shen Yuan
Shen, huh, it doesn't sound too bad...