Chapter Text
From the moment that Xie Lian overheard the whispers about Ghost City, he decided then and there that avoiding such a notorious place was the safest and wisest course of action. However, nothing tended to go according to plan when Xie Lian and his misfortunes were involved, so not only did he end up in the very place he wanted to stay far away from, he did so without knowing how or why.
The day had started on such a high note too. The village he was passing through had been very generous with their trash, so in no time at all his basket was filled to the brim with old cookware and fabrics and other little miscellaneous household items. An older woman even gave him a couple of writing brushes, the tips damaged, but Xie Lian was confident that a little bit of trimming was all they needed to be usable again. A food vendor even called out and gave him a free lunch and bag of chestnuts after Xie Lian agreed to cleanse out a ghost fire belonging to the previous owner.
But, of course, all good things must come to an end, as things want to do with Xie Lian around. As soon as he left the village, he tripped while trying to avoid a pothole and fell into a nearby ravine, causing all the trash he collected to be swept away by the river. By the time he finally climbed out of the ravine, the sun had already ducked behind the mountains, and so Xie Lian completely missed the hornets' nest until the angry things began stinging him with a vengeance. The hornets chased him relentlessly until he had no choice but to throw himself into the river himself. The current tossed him to and fro, forcing him to clutch his bamboo hat for fear of losing it. At some point, the veil must have caught on a log or sharp rock, because he felt it rip off before the river spat him out onto its muddy banks.
Thankfully, the hornets have long since given up on chasing him and Xie Lian heaved a deep breath —both as sigh of relief and to force his lungs to start working again.
“Well, that could have been worse,” Xie Lian told Ruoye, who slithered out of his sleeve to flutter against his cheek before retreating back under his clothes.
Xie Lian laid on the riverbank for a while before his body stopped shaking enough so that he could eventually sit up and look himself over. It was hard to see in the darkness, but he was relieved to find that the bamboo hat was only slightly frayed at the edges. Sadly, Xie Lian’s snow white robes and boots were torn, the skin underneath cut and bleeding, and brown with river sludge. His basket was completely crushed, so he abandoned it on the shore, carefully pulling his arms through the straps and ignoring the pain that such a simple moment caused.
“Hey!” a voice shouted just as Xie Lian was working up the courage to check on the welts left behind by the hornet stings. “What’s this scrawny-looking human doing here?”
Scrawny? Xie Lian wondered with the slightest hint of annoyance, before squashing the feeling away and smiling at what he realized was a small crowd gathering around him, chattering amongst themselves and asking questions about where this strange human came from. There was a red haze at the edge of his vision and his eyes were watering, but he slowly climbed to his feet and turned to where he thought the initial voice was coming from.
“Forgive me for trespassing,” Xie Lian said and gave a small bow, because the thought of managing anything else made his head spin. Then the words processed and he squinted at the crowd. Wait. Human. They said human.
Some of the faces staring back at him could almost pass as human, albeit some were wearing masks, but their pallor and the weediness of their hair marked them as something else entirely. Although it probably helped that Xie Lian looked at the other faces in the crowd and found a wide variety of animal features staring back at him. That was also a telling sign.
“Oh,” he said at last, trying to process how he ended up in a place like Ghost City of all places. How awkward. “Apologies again for the intrusion. I fell into the river and suddenly ended up here.”
The crowd shared glances of confusion and started to murmur to each other until the first voice, a man with a deer head, said, “Young man, the distance you would have had to cover— And crossing into the ghost realm like you did—”
Another voice piped up. “Look at the guy! He can barely stand upright. Is he drunk?”
“Definitely a concussion,” said another voice that sounded like it was coming from underwater. But maybe that was from the aforementioned concussion. Who can really say?
At the word concussion, Xie Lian felt overcome with dizziness and nausea. He covered his mouth with one hand and fought against the urge to vomit.
“Is he dying?” A woman with claws and a blue mask asked. He couldn’t tell if she sounded curious or eager.
“Let’s eat him,” chirped what can only be described as a frog, if a frog had rows of razor sharp teeth.
Having heard quite enough of that thank you very much, Xie Lian swallowed down a mouthful of bile and put his hat on, bowing to the crowd again before he bolted. Someone shouted after him, but he didn’t allow himself to stop. His body already felt numb and if he stopped, he knewthat he was going to pass out, and getting eaten was not how he wanted to end a relatively nice day.
He ran up the riverbank, ignoring the shouts and hollers behind him, toward the bright lights and large red buildings in the distance. A city, he realized. A grand and bustling city, by the sounds of it as he got closer. A city of ghosts.
Maybe avoiding crowds and people who might try to eat him was the smartest thing to do in this scenario, but Xie Lian kept running because the red haze was starting to grow and there was some gray around the edges now too. The world blurred in red, black, and gold as he tried to find a safe place he could rest— just for a moment—
There were more shouts when Xie Lian careened around a corner and knocked down a number of stalls and nearby bystanders, so he kept running until the noises fell farther and farther away. When it was finally quiet, he stumbled to a stop and leaned against the nearest wall, gasping for air and wheezing. Every breath was sharp and painful. The hornet venom must be working through his system faster than he thought. However, the thought of looking for a doctor in a place like this might end up badly for him. Also, he was very, very lost.
Struggling to decide on the best course of action, Xie Lian noticed the nearby staircase leading up to a grand and extravagant temple, covered in shining lanterns that made his eyes hurt. There was no name on the placard above the gate, but he imagined it must belong to a very important and prominent god. Who else could it be for, after all?
Xie Lian took a careful step forward, but his knees buckled underneath him and he collapsed on those beautifully made steps. His bamboo hat was knocked off from the fall and rolled a short distance away. Xie Lian breathed as deeply as he could while his throat constricted and his head spun. It felt disrespectful to desecrate such a luxurious and magnificent temple with his broken body, but he couldn’t move no matter how much he tried to do so —whether it was to leave or to enter the sanctuary he found.
Just then, a gleaming silver butterfly drifted into view, like a falling star descending to the earth. It was so beautiful that Xie Lian felt the overwhelming urge to cry, but his eyes were already streaming anyway so it didn't really matter. All the same, he reached out a trembling hand so that the butterfly could land on his finger if it wanted to. And it did.
Xie Lian’s bottom lip trembled as he smiled at it. Admired its lovely wings and delicate little body through his blurry vision, utterly entranced. It reminds him of a ghost fire that fascinated him just as much, once upon a time.
“Ah. What a sight you are,” he breathed out laboriously, and even that took what remaining strength he had left. The step behind his cheek was so cold against his flushed skin that he shivered. And... was the ground shaking or was that just him? He couldn't tell anymore. “My little friend, can I tell you a secret?”
The butterfly’s wings caressed his cheek, which he took as permission.
Drawing in a shaky breath, Xie Lian exhaled and said, very quietly, “It hurts.”
The moment those hushed words left his mouth, a sudden gust of wind washed over him and the butterfly. His fingers twitched, wanting to cover it, wanting to protect it, but lacking the strength to do so.
He had never been able to protect anything that mattered to him. No matter how hard he tried. No matter what he did.
“Dianxia!”
Xie Lian blinked and tried to focus on the blurred figure above him, who had seemed to appear out of nowhere and somehow knew who he was, blood red robes fluttering around long legs. Black boots. Silver chains. Whoever this person was, the figure crouched beside Xie Lian's prone body and touched his shoulder with a large and gentle hand. Red, was all Xie Lian is able to think, but then he hadn’t been called by his title in such a long time either. And this voice—
It reminded him of something, of someone, and it took him a long moment to place it. But that had to be wrong, because he—
And Xie Lian—
And yet—
Yet despite all that, Xie Lian’s lips silently form the name, even though no sound came out as the darkness swept him up at last and he lost consciousness—
He still said it.
One name. A name given entirely on a whim, cruel and thoughtless, but ended up meaning so much.
Wu Ming.