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Bai Yutang woke up feeling more than a little disoriented, his entire body jerking awake as it tried to stop him from falling into the bottom of a cliff, his eyes snapping wide open in horror.
Unease filled his heart as he searched left and right for the familiar figure of Zhan Zhao, the last vestiges of his nightmare still clinging onto his limbs, heartbeat picking up when he only saw Ming Zhu’er still sleeping tied to the pole.
He carefully rose to his feet, willing his limbs to stop shaking as the sinking feeling refused to leave. Someone else was missing…who…
Huo Xiaomei.
Right…they…yesterday they had just barely escaped a death trap with their lives intact, and they left Linglong with his brothers to recuperate while he and Zhan Zhao returned here.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, he willed the small headache forming behind his eyes to leave—he had to find them as soon as he could. He took a deep breath. Let it out. Took another deeper one…
…And slowly exhaled.
Now certain he wouldn’t accidentally trip on himself, Bai Yutang looked one last time at Ming Zhu’er before going off to find the other pair of the duo. He couldn’t just leave Zhu Zi alone, but Zhan Zhao’s silent departure unsettled him more as time passed. He needed to find Linglong and discuss what to do with that damn cat.
He was about to leave when his eyes caught the plant he had been nurturing, stopping him in his tracks.
Forehead creasing, he carefully grabbed it and turned it over in his hands.
From the state of its leaves…it should be mature enough to bloom in the next few days. He clicked his tongue. If only he could manipulate its growth…a few days is still too many for his taste. Remembering the gaunt look on Zhan Zhao’s face, his face pale and pallid as the moon last night, he felt a rare sense of helplessness as the clock ticked closer and closer to his doom.
No. He shook the thought away forcefully. He refused to let himself think that way.
Placing the plant on the side of the stairway, he heard Zhu Zhi’er running back and darted towards him.
“Did Zhan Zhao not tell you where he was going?” he asked urgently.
The young boy furrowed his brows before shaking his head in certainty. “He just said he had some business to take care of.”
His frown deepened. He just used Soaring Crane yesterday and acted like nothing was wrong the entire night. The more he acted like this, the more he knew something was definitely off. They had to find him as soon as possible, before he could hurt himself even more.
That damn stupid cat, he cursed, almost spitting out blood.
“I need to go meet up with Linglong,” he told Zhu Zhi’er, his voice thin with anxiety. “Hurry and find Xiao Tang to ask him about the antidote.”
The boy nodded, mouth pressed thin.
Without waiting another second, he brushed past him and sped as fast as he could to the city, using his qinggong at its fullest.
Don’t do anything stupid, he begged in his heart. Please, please at least wait for us.
The moment he reached the inn, he walked as fast as he could upstairs, not bothering to knock before opening the door leading to his brothers’ chambers. As he had expected, Linglong was already dressed, now sitting in front of a mirror as she inserted hairpins into her freshly combed hair.
He remembered when her hairdo used to be a lot more elaborate, with her spending up to an hour combing, braiding and pinning her hair in place, adding colorful ribbons to make them pop even more. He used to complain about how long she took to get ready, as though he himself didn’t spend half an hour braiding his own hair and tying them in a neat bun, matching his hair band and ribbon to the robes he chose to wear that day.
She would give him the stink eye before loudly proclaiming:
“Well, if Master Bai thinks it’s so unacceptable, why not help me instead of complaining?”
Bai Yutang had balked when Linglong pulled him to stand behind her, looking into the mirror in front of him at her urging. They had spent the next hour attempting and failing to pin the small braids he had done at the exact spot Linglong wanted, the ribbons braided into her hair all askew as she instructed him with the rigor of a drill inspector.
“Miss Huo, what’s taking so lo- oh.” Zhan Zhao had walked in on them just like that, his face completely slack as the two continued to bicker as if he wasn’t there.
The next time he found them like that, he wouldn’t even say a word, simply watching them from the doorway with that soft smile he had whenever he looked at them. The man was never shy about his affection, so when Bai Yutang caught his eyes one day, he just shook his head and continued to stay there watching them with that same stupidly fond smile on his face.
Of course, the next time he did the same, he and Linglong were already prepared. They shared a quick glance before Bai Yutang cried out, “Oh, Huo Xiaomei, this is a disaster! I haven’t braided my hair either because we took too long to do yours…whatever do we do…?”
“Oh…I would love to help, but I really need to finish my hair first,” Linglong pursed her lips. “If only there was a third pair of hands that could assist us…”
The two of them blatantly turned to Zhan Zhao with wide, innocent eyes, and the man stared at them, dumbfounded, before breaking into a soft laugh.
“Alright, alright,” he shook his head, smiling. “What do I need to do?”
Those simple days…they feel like so long ago.
Now, no longer would she spend over an hour combing and braiding, her hands quick and meticulous as she formed familiar curls over her head before pinning them firmly in place, just to make sure that they wouldn’t move no matter how vigorous a fight would go. She forewent the intricate strips of ribbons and hair accessories for simple hairpins, tying the ends of her long hair together with a simple ribbon.
He didn’t bother to wait for her to finish before he greeted her with: “Zhan Zhao’s disappeared.”
Her hands froze in midair for a split second before she resumed inserting the last pin, carefully making sure it stays before slowly finally rising from her chair, grabbing the sword on the table as she did.
When she turned to him, her gaze was heavy.
“Let’s go.”
“The Yaksha knows their sins—what do we know?”
“Exactly! He could never be wrong!”
The sheer blind faith the people had in the Yaksha staggered Bai Yutang to the core. These people who choose to turn a blind eye no matter how good of a person you have been to them.
What if they or their families were next? Would they still praise the Yaksha to the heavens, begging for his protection and blessings by then?
For the very first time, he truly understood why Zhan Zhao had been so against him becoming one back then.
They watched the people around them file and scatter when his eyes immediately caught onto a familiar frame across the sea of commoners.
Without a single word, he nudged Linglong with his elbow, gaze stuck as Zhan Zhao appeared to wilt in front of his very eyes, his trembling shoulders hunching in as he slowly fell down to his haunches.
“Oh, Zhan-dage…” whispered Linglong beside him.
His mouth tightened into a thin line.
“…Let’s go.”
They gave Zhan Zhao a second for himself before approaching him, careful and slow, as though fearing they would spook him into running away to lick his wounds.
But the man simply looked up at them from below, his figure strangely small as he curled into himself, eyes calm yet eerily empty.
Bai Yutang suppressed the shiver in his bones at that empty, helpless gaze.
Somehow…it was way worse than seeing him unravel before their very eyes.
“A cure?”
Zhan Zhao smiled as he nodded, and Bai Yutang couldn’t help but share a grin with Linglong, carefully letting a small tentative hope plant itself in his heart. A cure. At long last…Xiao Tang had actually figured it out, that darn genius. He would absolutely have to make a toast in his name once this was all over. Though a part of him couldn’t help but wonder…why hadn’t he told him he was so close to finding it?
But no matter. Things have been so incredibly hectic these past few days, he would take whatever good news he could.
Their quiet moment of joy was ultimately shattered when Zhu Zhi’er came dashing in on horseback, the news that Ming Zhu’er had been taken by Zhou Jiliang shaking everyone into action immediately.
“I have a plan on how to deal with them. Don’t worry,” reassured Zhan Zhao before he was off, leaving their worried faces behind.
They stood there, watching his back as it grew smaller until Linglong finally went to her own horse, ready to mount it when he caught her elbow, stopping her in place.
“Bai-dage, what’s–”
His hand slid down to her wrist, brows furrowed in concentration. Linglong immediately fell silent, letting him focus on reading her pulse.
Satisfied, he finally looked at her with a small smile.
“Just making sure your lungs have healed. We were so preoccupied this morning that I didn't have the chance to.”
He was about to let go when she suddenly caught his hand, her frown deepening when she turned it over. Ah.
“This…”
The bruising from their escape last night was still bright red, and it will no doubt turn blue in a few days, but he had been hoping he’d be able to hide it from them until it disappeared completely.
“It’s just a superficial bruise,” he told her calmly. “It doesn’t even hurt anymore.”
She pursed her lips but said nothing, instead turning her own hand so that she could hold his, squeezing gently.
“I won’t be here to watch your backs,” she said quietly, raising her head to peer into his eyes, fear and desperation clinging to her trembling lashes. “Take care of yourself and Zhan-dage, alright? Especially now that…”
He nodded, face grim. Zhan Zhao hadn’t said anything at all, but they knew that seeing Hu Xiaochen’s corpse dangling down the city gate had shook him to his core. That, coupled with what’s happening with the Yaksha and Ming Zhu’er…he would need to keep a very close eye on Zhan Zhao in the following days.
He covered their intertwined hands with his other hand, patting her gently.
“We will. I won’t leave his side unless I have to,” he promised. “You take care as well. If anything happens to you, I’ll make sure Xiao Tang feels our wrath.”
That managed to finally tease a small twitch of her lips, so he’ll take that as a win.
The two of them then hopped onto their respective horses, Zhu Zhi’er having already gone with his own instructions from Zhan Zhao, nodding to each other being parting ways.
He hoped that by the end of this, they would finally be able to have a drink together again.