Work Text:
Hua Cheng’s prayers to his god are rudely interrupted by Black Water’s breathless voice coming in over his array.
“Crimson Rain! You’ll—”
“What?” He growls roughly over the array, his tone at odds with how gently he placed the freshly-lit incense in the small, golden bowl on the alter.
“Will you ever let me finish? You’ll be thanking me after this tip-off, you know.”
“Fine. Continue.” Hua Cheng sighs, massaging his temples with his fingers.
Black Water sounds smug as he continues, “You’ll never guess who just ascended.”
Hua Cheng’s stomach drops as the rest of his ghostly form feels weightless. Does he dare hope that his god has ascended again, for a third time? If anyone could do it, it would be him.
“Enough games. Tell me who.” His voice sounds ragged as it echoes off the spacious walls of Thousand Lights Temple.
“Tsk. And Windmaster says I’m no fun. He clearly doesn’t know you.” Black Water remarks dryly, and Hua Cheng grips the edge of the alter so hard the polished wood creaks.
“Anyway, it’s the god you’ve been looking for.” The words come like the taste of rain during a drought.
“He caused quite a ruckus, getting to Heaven. All those golden palaces…They’re going to ask me to repair it all, I can feel it.” Black Water keeps talking, but Hua Cheng hardly hears it. His head is ringing with too many emotions… relief, joy, hope, panic, worry, fear. Above all, love.
“How did he look?” He interjects, his dark eye gazing, unfocused, at the vase of bright white camellias on the alter.
Black Water falls silent for a moment.
Hua Cheng reads too much into that silence before Black Water speaks again.
“He doesn’t look much like a silk-swaddled prince anymore. His robes are dusty, like a wandering cultivator’s. He’s ascended as a scrap-collecting god, you know.”
A smile curves Hua Cheng’s lips as he thinks of the scraps he has used to chase his god all these years. Little remnants of him, things that had been mended by his hand, sold off or laying where he had lain.
Thoughtfully, his black-tipped fingers trace the rim of one such scrap, a once-chipped bowl which one-hundred-and-thirty years ago was mended by His Highness. It held ripening persimmons, and served as an offering dish in Thousand Lights Temple.
The title of ‘Scrap Immortal’ suited His Highness well. Though he knew those ingrates in Heaven would mock him for it.
Their words don’t matter. They don’t matter. They were nothing but false idols spewing meaningless vitriol, but that didn’t mean that their words and actions couldn’t still hurt.
Hua Cheng had to extend a hand to His Highness, to give him an offer of aid, friendship, perhaps even--
No. He would not hope for more.
“Tell me when he descends into the mortal realm, and where he goes.” Hua Cheng instructs of Black Water, who acknowledges his words, and cuts off their connection.
Soon, your highness, soon...
…
The featherlight weight of his hand in his had been like a drug crawling through his bloodstream: addictive. It was hardly any time at all until Hua Cheng needed another taste.
And so, despite the risk-- (pfttt! What risk! Was he, or was he not, a calamity in the flesh?)-- he carried a stolen and doctored scroll in his arms down the avenue of divine might, wearing the unblemished skin of a youth as a disguise. And though he was not wearing the dark, drab colors of the palace of Ling Wen, Hua Cheng felt the guise was strong enough.
He was searching for His Highness. Surely, he hadn’t descended again, so soon after had finished reporting his mission’s success and findings in the telepathic array, including his account of meeting him. Yes, Hua Cheng heard all about that. The gods cautioned His Highness on associating with Hua Cheng, but his god had remained, at least out loud, neutral in his opinion on the ghost king.
Hua Cheng spotted a flash of white weaving in and out of the smattering of gods along the avenue ahead.
“Your highness!” He called brightly, his feet light as they carried him closer and closer to his beloved.
At least three nobodies turned around to look, and for a second, Hua Cheng was afraid His Highness would forgo turning at his address. But he did.
His Highness glanced over his shoulder, and in that moment their eyes caught on each others’.
Hua Cheng held his gaze, moving closer and smiling assuringly. Thinking, ‘yes, your highness. It’s you who I’ve been searching for’.
The other gods who had turned had moved on, but His Highness remained, feet planted and already turning to face him, a strange light in his eye. Hua Cheng wondered what that glint of gold could mean.
Hua Cheng came to a stop before him and smiled winsomely, “Your highness!”
He bowed, his falsified breathing quickened to give the impression of having rushed through all of Heaven to find him.
Warm, honied eyes blinked at him owlishly, moving from his face down to the scroll in his arms.
Black Water had stolen a blank scroll from the palace of Ling Wen, and Yin Yu forged a fairly convincing document in so little time. Hua Cheng was already in a generous mood, so for his assistance in this, even more of his debt was knocked off. At this rate, his fellow ghost king might be free of it just before he incurs more debt from Hua Cheng’s assistance in his revenge.
Hua Cheng bowed again and said blithely, “Your highness, I’ve been looking for you! I was just given my assignment by the hall of Ling Wen, to serve you as a temporary assistant!”
“To serve… me?” Xie Lian blurted, words oversteeped in doubt. Hua Cheng’s long-dead heart ached to hear it embittering his tone.
“Yes!” Hua Cheng declared with a cheerful bob of his head, his ponytail swinging jauntily behind him.
(Art by @heademptyonlyfafa.bsky.social over on Bluesky)
“I’m really very sorry, but I have no intention on lingering in Heaven.” Xie Lian said, shaking his head, “I was planning on descending to build my own temple.”
He said the words without shame, but Hua Cheng marked it as His Highness’ shoulders set stubbornly, as if bracing himself to he shouted at.
Anger and longing crawled over Hua Cheng’s skin like fire-ants. Anger burned though him at how he had been treated all this time by unworthy trash. He could burn their temples! He could drown the world in blood.
But of the two feelings, the longing was the hardest to stamp out.
… I will treat him differently than that trash. If His Highness would let me be by his side…
“By all means, your highness! Let’s go! I’ll help you. I’ll be the perfect shrine attendant, I promise!” He says, overcome with feeling. His smile feels like his very first, real and raw.
Hua Cheng practically saw the refusal die on His Highness’ lips as the god looked into Hua Cheng’s eyes, flapping his lips wordlessly until he finally said, “Alright.”
At last.
Hua Cheng could hear his reluctance, but also this weary hope...
“But the second…?” Xie Lian trailed off, looking to Hua Cheng to give him a name.
Hua Cheng recited it casually and brightly, “I’m the third in my family! They call me San Lang, your highness.”
Xie Lian nodded, “The second San Lang wishes to part ways, he may do so. I will not have you bound to me if it makes you unhappy, regardless of your…” His eyes flick to the scroll in Hua Cheng’s arms, “...Orders.”
Hua Cheng nodded, “I’m yours, your highness. Whether or not I have orders, it makes no difference.”
His Highness stood speechless for a moment before fretting, glancing in the direction of the nearest edge of Heaven, “I didn’t think about getting somebody else down!”
Hua Cheng catches on immediately, “Follow me, your highness!”
His Highness follows him, curiously, to the Earth Master’s palace courtyard door. It’s a place he has access too where they won’t be seen by anyone but Black Water and his clones. He reached into his spacial pocket to pull out his dice.
They are carved from dawn redwood. The pips stand out darkly on the red-tinged wood, painted in cursed ink and glittering with mica.
His Highness’ eyes caught on the movement.
Well, no use hiding it now.
He opened the Earth Master’s door, and beyond it-- a crisp august day in the countryside, just outside of a small town.
His Highness gasped and stepped through.
Hua Cheng eagerly drank in how His Highness marveled at the grit underneath his boots, so different from the paved gold roads of Heaven.
Hua Cheng joined him and closed the door. They had stepped out of a tree trunk not too far from the road.
Xie Lian turned to Hua Cheng with a teasing smile, “I didn’t even see you draw the distance shortening array! You must be very talented, my friend. How could the palace of Ling Wen ever spare you?”
Hua Cheng preened under his praise.
“Just something of my own invention.” He admits, casually throwing them, spinning them between his fingers. Showing off.
His beloved’s cheeks bloomed with color, his eyes fixed on the dice, tracing their movements dedicatedly. It was as shocking as seeing one of his statues come to life.
Only once Hua Cheng pocketed the dice that His Highness seemed to come back to himself, clearing his throat.
“Why did the palace of Ling Wen send such a bright youth like you along with me? She looked as though she could spare no workers.” Xie Lian dithered.
“Oh, I volunteered, your highness.” Hua Cheng said truthfully.
Xie Lian set his hands to his cheeks, looking horrified, “San Lang! Why?!”
“Because I wanted to.” He answered, then shifted the subject, “Now, does your highness have a location in mind for a temple, or shall we look around?”
His Highness glanced around where they stood at the edge of a forest full of maple trees.
“I didn’t have anywhere in mind. I thought I would wander until I found a village with a need for a temple and a spare building I could fix up.” He said the words – again, without shame- but the stiffness in his shoulder’s returned. He was anticipating revulsion, resistance. His Highness would have none of that from Hua Cheng. He just hadn’t learned to trust him yet.
Hua Cheng smiled and pointed casually down the road, “There’s a village not too far from here. How about we start there?”
The tension in Xie Lian’s shoulders unwound and Hua Cheng was miraculously gifted a smile in return, “That sounds perfect, San Lang.”
They set off down the road for the village, walking side by side.
“You can’t call me ‘your highness’ when we’re here.” Xie Lian said thoughtfully after a while.
“Hmm…” Hua Cheng hummed, then suggested with an air of calm, “How about ‘gege’?”
Xie Lian stumbled momentarily beside him, before clearing his throat, “Gege’s fine.”
Hua Cheng spent the rest of their walk into town glowing with satisfaction.
After walking into town, they spent the day asking around after any vacant buildings, and temples that may already be in the area.
Hua Cheng saw it, this twitch in His Highness’ eye, when his gaze alighted on someone throwing something away. He saw it in the way his hands wrung the strap of his pack and his eyes darting quickly from the scrap-- to him. It was if he itched to go collect these broken treasures, but worried about what his heavenly attendant may think of the practice.
The fourth time he saw the signs, Hua Cheng finished paying for some seasoned meat skewers and turned around to find His Highness’ gaze drawn towards a craftsman scratching his head over a broken mallet.
“If gege wants to go see if he’ll give that to us, there’s nothing stopping you.” Hua Cheng drawled, leaning in over his shoulder.
Xie Lian jolted and glanced at him, laughing nervously, “San Lang has nothing against scrap collecting? That’s refreshing.”
Hua Cheng shrugged and straightened up. Even in his younger-looking form, he was almost a head taller than His Highness.
“There’s nothing wrong with saving what others cannot fix, and giving it a purpose again.” Hua Cheng said holding one of the grilled skewers out to His Highness.
Xie Lian looked to the skewer, then into Hua Cheng’s eyes, “Hold onto that for me?”
Hua Cheng hung back and watched as His Highness left his side and approached the craftsman.
He bit into his skewer, the scalding hot juice that filled his mouth was delectable, this moment made delicious by His Highness’ nearness.
His god came back to him, glowing, setting the broken mallet in the bottom of his pack.
Their fingers brushed as His Highness took the skewer from his hand.
Hua Cheng watched him bite into the tender meat and wished it was his flesh between his god’s teeth.
“Mm!” Xie Lian hummed contentedly as he swallowed. His lips were shiny and soft from the grease. Hua Cheng swallowed down his insanity with another bite.
They passed the rest of the day scrap collecting and rumor gathering, finding a dented wok, several scrolls of folklore, two chipped bowls, a mildewed straw mat, and ladle with a broken handle. They also heard tell of Puqi Village (two towns to the northwest) which had both an abandoned building and no major temples to worship at.
By the time they heard this rumor, night had fallen.
His Highness seemed reluctant to make Hua Cheng follow him on foot through the night to Puqi Village, so he suggested they bed down for the night.
Hua Cheng went to the town’s only inn and demanded two rooms of the innkeeper, who took in the sight of them with a cringe, saying, “Young master, I’m afraid we only have one room available tonight.”
“San Lang, it’s fine, I’ve got this mat. I’ll find somewhere outside to sleep.” Xie Lian said at his side.
“We haven’t had a chance to clean that yet!” Hua Cheng protested, “You take the room, I’ll sleep somewhere else.”
Xie Lian frowned, “Where will San Lang sleep?”
Hua Cheng shrugged, “I don’t know, the street?”
Xie Lian sighed and shook his head, “Why can’t we share?”
Hua Cheng turned to the innkeeper and set down the money without counting, “We’ll take that room.”
They ate dinner around the room’s small, low table before moving the flickering lamp to the bedside so that His Highness could read. He held the scrolls he had scrounged earlier that day unfurled in his lap, reading by the meager lamp light.
Hua Cheng sat crosslegged at the foot of the bed, smiling softly at the miracle that was his god, "Some light reading before bed, gege?"
"I wanted to take a look at what we found today." Xie Lian said, tilting the scroll so that Hua Cheng could read.
"This one's about me.” He admitted bashfully, “The writer must have their finger on the pulse of Heaven. I didn’t think anyone would notice I ascended again.”
Hua Cheng read: The Prince of Xianle, ascended thrice as: a Martial God, a Misfortune God, a Rubbish God.
“I noticed!” Hua Cheng protested.
Xie Lian leveled him with a dubious look, though his smile remained, and turned teasing, “With the amount of damage I caused Heaven, I should hope you noticed.”
Hua Cheng’s laughter was genuine as he leaned back on his hands, feeling the rough-spun coverlet beneath him, grounding him against exploding into a million wraith butterflies.
“I regrettably wasn’t in Heaven at the time of your ascension.” He admitted, his grin fading slightly.
Xie Lian chuckled lightly, then held out a hand, "May I examine your orders?"
The scroll appeared in Hua Cheng's hand and he readily handed it over.
He had inspected the forgery quite throughly before sneaking into Heaven.He had tasked Black Water with pilfering a watermarked scroll, and Yin Yu with filling it with Heavenly jargon and enough fine print to be unassailable.
His Highness opened the scroll by its woven gold cord and took a look inside at the neat, black rows of calligraphy.
"Hm." He intoned gently, setting his chin in his hand. Hua Cheng could not parse much of His Highness' mood or impression of the text beyond subtle interest.
After a while of reading, Xie Lian looked up with a smile, "As I thought, you come highly recommended as an attendant. Under which gods have you served?"
That would have been written in the scroll. His Highness was... testing him!
Hua Cheng leaned back with a vulpine grin, “‘Served’ is a strong word, gege."
Judging by the indulgent curve of His Highness' mouth, Hua Cheng could get away with calling his god 'gege' in private for a bit longer!
Xie Lian leaned in, "what would you call it then? In your words."
"I've worked with the Earth Master most extensively." He half-lied.
He worked with Black Water, who was traipsing around heaven as the Earth Master.
"Working with... not serving. Despite working with gods, you are very prideful."
"I don't think pride is a fault, gege."
"No?" Xie Lian smiled warmly as he titled his head, his hair spilling loose down his shoulders and back. Maybe he would eventually let Hua Cheng comb it.
"Not if it's earned." He said, lifting his chin.
His Highness stared at him a moment, his pretty mouth agape. Then he chuckled, covering his mouth with his fist.
His god looked so relaxed sitting half under the coverlet in his inner-robe, laughing and looking at him with those half-lidded eyes.
“Does San Lang have other inventions?” Xie Lian asks eagerly, clueless of Hua Cheng’s bliss.
And so Hua Cheng shows him. Not everything, but that which he has on him.
He shows him his dice, and his pocket dimension where he stores his things and E-Ming. (He does not show him E-Ming.) He shows him how his pocket dimension is sewn into the soft leather bracers on his forearms.
He welcomes it as His Highness’ curious fingertips feel the invisible stitching and slip into the pocket. His two fingers disappear up to the second knuckle, and he gasps softly at the discovery.
Hua Cheng HUNGERS so much he might be salivating, might be crying, might be…
There is another achingly soft gasp of delight when a perfect persimmon tumbles out of Hua Cheng’s bracers when His Highness withdraws his fingers.
(art by @crownlessagain.bsky.social on Bluesky)
He catches it deftly and offers it to his god.
Xie Lian takes it with a shy smile. Again, their fingers brush.
In the end, His Highness cuts and peels the fiery-red fruit and they share the mouthwatering slices.
When Hua Cheng lays down beside His Highness that night, his mouth tastes of honey.
…
The next day, they set off for Puqi Village. They hitched a ride on a cart filled with straw and talked for hours about anything and everything.
His Highness, realizing he knew a great deal about ghosts and gods, asked Hua Cheng for ghostly lore and his opinions on gods in the Upper Court. The conversation strayed into deliciously dangerous territory when they got around to talking about the Crimson Rain Sought Flower.
“What does he look like?” Xie Lian asked.
Hua Cheng looked up at His Highness with a smile before standing up and sitting down closer to Xie Lian.
“What do you think he looks like?” He turned the question back on him.
Xie Lian seemed at a loss for words for a moment. Whether it was the question, or Hua Cheng’s closeness, he didn’t know.
Xie Lian only met his eyes for a moment, then lowered his eyes just as suddenly.
He turned his head slightly and continued to ask, “If Hua Cheng is a big-shot ghost, I’m sure he has many forms and changes often.”
Hua Cheng raised his brows at His Highness turning away and replied, “Yeah, but there are still times when he would use his real face. Of course, we’re talking about his true form.”
Xie Lian suddenly turned to face him head-on again, “Then, I feel his true form is probably a youth like you.”
Hua Cheng’s smile widened, “Why do you say that?”
Xie Lian replied, “No reason. You say whatever and I think whatever, everything is whatever, that’s all.”
Wise words. They seem non-committal on the surface, but His Highness is saying that nothing he concludes is a coincidence. Every answer or reason comes from somewhere.
Hua Cheng laughed. “Who knows? But he’s blind in one eye.” He pointed to his right eye. “This one.”
Just because he had a fabricated duplicate of his intact eye in that socket doesn’t mean he could see out of it. Currently, Hua Cheng wore an enchanted prosthetic under his youthful skin that gave him the ability to see through it. Similar technology had been built into his wraith butterflies.
Xie Lian looked thoughtful as he asked, “Do you know what happened to his eye?”
“That’s a question everyone wants the answer to,” Hua Cheng replied, “He dug it out himself.”
Xie Lian seemed taken aback. “Why?”
“A moment of madness,” Hua Cheng answered.
Xie Lian pressed on, “Does Hua Cheng have any kind of weakness?”
Hua Cheng answered immediately, “His ashes.”
He had no qualms with His Highness knowing his weaknesses. His Highness could do with him what he liked. But, His Highness, as a cultivator and god, surely already knew ashes were every ghost’s weakness.
Xie Lian smiled. “There’s probably no one who can obtain his ashes, so that weakness is the same as having no weakness.”
You could obtain my ashes, so easily. Just ask, your highness.
“You never know,” Hua Cheng said. “There are circumstances where a ghost would voluntarily give away his ashes.”
“Like the bet he had with those thirty-three heavenly officials?”
“Yeah, right,” Hua Cheng scoffed.
As if any of that rot could have taken me down.
“There’s a custom in the Ghost Realm where if a ghost has a special someone, they entrust their ashes to that person.” Hua Cheng continued.
Xie Lian commented, a spark of interest in his eye, “I didn’t know the Ghost Realm had such a romantic practice.”
“They do,” Hua Cheng said, shaking his head, “But not many dare to practice it.”
Xie Lian sighed. “It certainly is painful to think about, to have given everything for love and lose everything in return.”
Hua Cheng laughed out loud again. “What’s there to be afraid of? If it were me, I’d have no regrets giving away my ashes. Who cares if they want me to disintegrate or just scatter the ashes for fun!”
Xie Lian casually reached over and brushed aside a maple leaf that had fallen on Hua Cheng’s shoulder, “You must be a deeply romantic person, San Lang.”
After taking a moment to calm his artificially racing heart, he shrugged casually and said, “Guilty as charged!”
Xie Lian sat back against the side of the cart and asked, “If San Lang doesn’t mind me asking, how did such a brilliant and romantic youth like you wind up in the Middle Court as a temporary assistant?”
“I dabble in a lot of things, so when my parents quarreled and kicked me out, I made use of my skills.” Hua Cheng said, echoing something he said to His Highness centuries ago, not expecting him to remember. He was sowing seeds, hoping to awaken His Highness’ memory of him. It was a long-term plan.
Xie Lian nodded slowly, digesting what little information Hua Cheng had given him.
“But why Heaven?” Xie Lian asked, “Why not become a bureaucrat—or a god, yourself?”
Hua Cheng’s laugh is sharp with judgement, “I’ve never wanted to live a life where I am too short to see the stage.”
Xie Lian’s brows shot upwards, he had caught the idiom, “Gods are not always blindly following orders.”
Hua Cheng lifts an eyebrow back at his god, “No?”
“To be a God is to listen to your followers, to help people.” Xie Lian says, looking a little embarrassed, yet earnest.
Hua Cheng’s expression darkens, “What if the order of Heaven allows the suffering of the common people, and prevents gods from interfering.”
He watched as the color drained from His Highness’ fair face, as the words seemed to catch in his throat, until he finally spoke.
“Then the oder of Heaven is wrong.” Xie Lian said with finality.
The grim expression lifted away from his face like a storm cloud on a wind, and Hua Cheng smiled once more.
“You would be the only one to believe that in all of Heaven.” Hua Cheng said softly, “Which is why I follow you.”
Surprise flashed quickly over His Highness’ face at his confession before he plastered a sheepish expression over it and waved an arm dismissively.
“San Lang, do you mean to say you worship this old god? How could you when the hight of my worship was eight-hundred years ago? San Lang doesn’t know who I am at all. Or else he would know that I’m a failed god.”
Hua Cheng studied him amusedly while he deflected and looked anywhere but at him, until the end of his speech. He leaned in, crowding His Highness against the side of the cart, pinning him in place with just a look.
“Not to me.” He said firmly, then he leaned back suddenly into the hay and laughed, “But I look forward to serving you, and getting to know you and the kind of god you are.”
Xie Lian regarded him with curiosity, “‘Serve me’? I thought you only ‘worked with’ gods.”
“I would serve you.” Hua Cheng said, stretching his legs out to the back of the cart and tucking his hands behind his head.
His Highness said nothing. In his silence, Hua Cheng heard disbelief.
…
His Highness had elicited permission from the village head to take up the abandoned residence on the hill above Puqi Village just as the sun was setting.
Together, they walked up the hill through the numerous chestnut trees and collected the spiny green-cased nuts for their dinner.
Hua Cheng noticed ghost lights up ahead at a fork in the path. It was zhongyuan. Right…
He waited to see what His Highness would do, but he did not have to wait long. His Highness put a protective arm around him and unleashed that cursed white silk from his arm. It snaked out of his sleeve and flew in a tight circle around them. Some kind of protection spell? Handy.
The troupe of ghosts approaches with their lamps held aloft. Small fries, compared to him, but His Highness’s hand tightens on his arm and then slowly begins rubbing soothingly up and down over his sleeve.
“Let’s try walking, San Lang. Stay quiet.” Xie Lian says in a hushed voice.
“Okay, gege!” Hua Cheng whispers back, heart pierced by delight at the sudden development.
They edge past the group, slowly, walking arm in arm.
It is reminiscent of the time a week ago when Hua Cheng had escorted His Highness through the infested woods of Mt. Yujun.
The ghosts bickered amongst themselves, arguing over directions. They seemed dazzlingly lost.
The feeling of that warm hand in the crook of his arm sent a shiver down his spine.
“Are you alright, San Lang?” Xie Lian asked, voice still quiet even though the ghosts were almost out of earshot.
He pouted lightly, then chuckled quietly, “Gege, I’m scared!”
Xie Lian smiled, taking the time to reassure him, even though they both knew Hua Cheng was not actually scared, “Hey, everything’s fine. I’m here to protect you.”
That was when a ghost fire, escaped from one of the ghost’s lanterns bumped into their shield, and fizzled dark. It wasn’t gone, it would be fine.
The ghosts behind them, however, had turned around and begun shrieking and hollering, coming back their way.
“Faster!” Xie Lian hissed, using his strength to haul Hua Cheng along by the arm at a pace slightly slower than running.
The white silk band slipped open and the effect broke, revealing them to the ghosts on their tail.
His Highness glanced back to ascertain the level of danger they were in and tripped on a root in the process.
Hua Cheng caught him and helped him to run again, though by this point, His Highness was turning to stand his ground. He planted himself in front of Hua Cheng and gathered the white silk band to his arm, though it was coiled to strike.
“It’s a daoist!” One of the troupe hissed.
“I apologize that I have offended you.” Xie Lian said saluting with his hands pressed tight together, “We truly do not wish to escalate the situation.”
“You’re a daoist! All daoists want to do is to exterminate our kind!” Another ghost screeched, pointing a gnarled finger at his god. So rude!
“There are others who would slaughter your kind.” Xie Lian said, his voice strong and calm as he reached into his sleeve for something. Perhaps talismans? A hidden weapon?
“Like who? Us ghosts?” A ghost who looked like a pile of human hair chortled.
The lot of them seemed eager to tear the daoist apart, so when one leapt for him-- with a flash of his eyes, Hua Cheng sent his energy out in a single, piercing blot. Invisible and soundless, if His Highness was out of it’s range he wouldn’t know a thing had happened.
The ghost stumbled back as if he had been struck by a mighty blow, twitching and screaming near-silently.
Hua Cheng made quick work of the rest of the trash, sending bolts of pure ghost qi at the rest of them, so that they all knew there was a supreme in their midst.
They scrambled back to their feet and fled into the night, screaming all the way.
His Highness stood frozen in perplexity, watching them flee.
“What just happened?” Xie Lian asked, looking from the receding light of the ghost fire lanterns to Hua Cheng.
Hua Chung shrugged airily, pretending to be ignorant, “You must have intimidated them.”
“Perhaps so…” Xie Lian looked away, seemingly dissatisfied with his answer.
When they resumed walking, His Highness did not entwine their arms again. In Hua Cheng’s filthy heart, he longed for that contact again.
Hua Cheng was the first to spot the dilapidated house on the hill through a butterfly he sent ahead.
He held open the hip-high wicket gate that led into an overgrown garden and let His Highness pass through before stepping in himself.
The roof needed work, the door was barely hanging on, the place reeked of mildew, but His Highness looked at it like a new lease on life.
“This would be a good place for a sign, don’t you think?” Xie Lian said excitedly, spreading his hands over a place in the crude fence that rimmed the property.
“Perfect, gege.” He agreed.
While His Highness investigated the building, he set up a campfire and roasted the chestnuts they had gathered in the dented wok.
“Oh! Thank you, San Lang.” Xie Lian said warmly as he sat in the grass next to Hua Cheng.
“Mn.” He said around a smile, offering his god a silk handkerchief stuffed with steaming chestnuts, “For you, gege. Careful, it’s hot.”
They ate their fill and spoke of their plans for getting Puqi Shrine up and running.
“I want to try and fix the door…” Xie Lian said around a hot mouthful of chestnut.
“Mn. I could take care of the roof and the floors.” Hua Cheng offered, popping a screaming hot chestnut into his mouth straight out of the wok.
“I couldn’t make you do that!” Xie Lian said after he had swallowed.
“What kind of shrine attendant would I be if I didn’t help daozhang, hm?” He contested, smiling at His Highness teasingly.
His Highness watched him quietly for a few long moments, rubbing the corner of the silk handkerchief in between his fingers, before saying, “Alright, then.”
After their dinner (and another persimmon from his spacial pocket for dessert) they slept side-by-side in the long grass that had overtaken the side of the garden. Tomorrow, they would clean their bamboo mat with some vinegar and let it dry. Perhaps they would sleep inside tomorrow, but tonight was a perfect night for laying under the stars.
Their near-constant chatter had shifted into companionable silence as they just listened to the fire dying and the wind moving through the trees.
After a while, His Highness turned onto his back, and his arm fell against Hua Cheng’s. The backs of their hands rested against each other’s, warm skin against cool.
The air stilled in Hua Cheng’s lungs as he forgot to breathe.
“San Lang wants to be here…?” His god’s voice was small and uncertain.
“I do.” He said, with the air remaining in his lungs.
He forced himself to breathe again.
“I wouldn’t have invented the position as your assistant otherwise.” He admitted.
Xie Lian sucked in a breath, turning to face him, “Did you leave another position at court to be with me?”
Hua Cheng dared to look over into his eyes, “Trust me. I won’t be missed.”
“Who wouldn’t miss you?” Xie Lian mumbled to himself, sounding a little irritated.
“Come again?” Hua Cheng teased.
“Nothing.” Xie Lian sighed, turning over onto his other side, facing away from Hua Cheng, “I’m sleeping.”
“Okay, your highness. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”
…
The next few days are joyful, and full of accidents. Mostly due to the rotting would-be shrine and His Highness’ abysmal luck. Hua Cheng negates it’s effects when he can, catches or mends His Highness when he cannot.
One evening, he has his hands around a bandage-wrapped ankle, His Highness’ foot is in his lap. He’s tending to the break by setting it and flooding His Highness with spiritual energy.
His Highness has stopped protesting and claiming he can walk it off in favor of sitting across from Hua Cheng in contemplative silence.
“You know what our shrine is missing?” Hua Cheng asked, flexing His Highness’ foot in his hand as he gauges the pain on his god’s face.
His god doesn’t even flinch as he asks, “What?”
Hua Cheng lowers his leg back down to the ground and watches him put on his sock.
“A divine portrait. I could paint one.” He offers.
Xie Lian shoves his boot on and says, “I was planning on painting one, San Lang shouldn’t trouble himself.”
He stands and sighs, “Besides, if you painted me as I am now, then every worshipper would know that I’m a god tending to my own temple.”
Hua Cheng stands with him and stubbornly says, “I could paint you as you were.”
Xie Lian squints at him suspiciously, “You’ve seen me in my first ascension?”
“I’ve seen illustrated texts.” Hua Cheng supplies truthfully. He does not add that he’s seen the real thing.
“It’ll be my prayer for the day. Don’t gods have to listen to their follower’s prayers?”
He screwed his eyes shut and approached the alter, but remained standing as he prayed.
Please, your highness, allow me to paint your divine portrait for this shrine!
His Highness looked a little stricken when he opened his eyes and turned around.
“Did you hear my prayer?” He asked, half-expecting the answer to be no.
Xie Lian looked regretful, his eyes drifting to the freshly lit incense on the alter, “I’m sorry, San Lang… I do not have the ability to hear prayers unassisted anymore.”
“Oh.”
Xie Lian waved his hands in a panicked attempt to break up the storm clouds brewing over Hua Cheng’s head, “It’s very normal! Most gods go to the palace of Ling Wen for records of their prayers anyway!”
He knew it. No… he suspected it. But what could he do about it? Nothing. Not unless His Highness wanted… and there was no way of knowing (yet) if it was the cursed shackles that had done it.
Hua Cheng glared at the bandages wrapping His Highness’ neck and fought to contain his righteous fury.
His Highness followed his gaze and self-consciously touched his neck with light fingers.
“You know.” The words fell from Xie Lian’s mouth, too soft to be an accusation.
“The information is all there, one just has to go looking.” Hua Cheng said bitterly, “Jun Wu must hate you.”
His god’s eyes widened and his fingers froze over the bandages.
“Why does San Lang think that?” He croaked.
“He banished you twice.” He did this to you.
Xie Lian removed his hand and seemed to shake off a thought before saying, “I don’t think it has anything to do with likes or dislikes. There are many things in this world that can’t be explained that way.”
Sighing, Xie Lian sat back down and removed the boot he had just shoved on, “Besides, one needs to be punished for making mistakes. The Heavenly Emperor was simply doing his duty both times.”
He began stripping down for bed, and Hua Cheng turned aside and shucked off his own long, black boots.
“Perhaps,” Hua Cheng responded noncommittally, pointedly not looking at him or the ankle bearing the other cursed shackle.
He didn’t like arguing with His Highness.
His Highness was kind, forgiving, he had worked hard and suffered much to become so again. But when it was directed at vile, living scum that had a direct hand in his suffering-- it seared through his heart like a steady stream of lava. Hot and molten.
His Highness could forgive. He could not.
They bedded down on the refurbished straw mat, facing away from one another.
As moonlight began to creep in through the front windows of the shrine, Hua Cheng was compelled to speak.
“Is gege angry with me?” He asks in a small voice.
Xie Lian turns and places a warm palm to his back, “What? No. San Lang. You are young, of course you have the worldview that you do.”
He wasn’t that much younger than His Highness, he didn’t need to know that. Not now. Not yet.
The gentle hand withdraws as soon as it came to comfort him, leaving a lingering warmth that set another fire in his heart.
“Rest.”
…
Hua Cheng only tolerated as much rest as he did because His Highness said to, and because his god slept so close. He always found himself tempted, too tempted, to reach out and hold him these past few nights.
At dawn he rose carefully and withdrew his inks and brushes from his pocket space to paint a suitable divine portrait for His Highness.
By the time His Highness rises, sleep rumpled and yawning, the new portrait is hung and Hua Cheng is outside, sweeping the yard.
His Highness caught him glaring at the morning sun and whirling the broom around
“You!” Xie Lian’s exclamation from the doorway startled him into dropping the broom, “You painted the portrait.”
Hua Cheng snatched the broom off of the ground and turned, “Does your highness... like it?”
The brilliant grin on His Highness’ face said everything.
“It’s really well-done.” He said with feeling, and Hua Cheng knew he meant it.
Hua Cheng preened, running his fingers through his mussed hair.
“Did you sleep well last night?” His Highness asked, coming closer.
“Not bad.” He shrugged.
His fingers combed into the ends of Hua Cheng’s misshapen ponytail and Hua Cheng swallowed hard.
“Want me to help you with this?” Xie Lian offered.
What else could he say, but, ‘of course’?
Hua Cheng found himself seated inside the temple at their kitchen table as His Highness rummaged around in his hair for the truths of the universe. At least, that’s what it felt like, as time drug on.
Hua Cheng just luxuriated in the feeling of those divine hands in his hair and tried not to worry about what His Highness was looking for. An imperfection, perhaps? Something that marked him as a clone… Whether His Highness suspected him of being god or ghost, he didn’t know.
His Highness had checked his palms days ago when he offered to do a palm-reading, and had seemingly been satisfied with their complexity.
He giggled as His Highness’ little finger dipped accidentally into the shell of his ear, then called behind him, “Gege, are you helping tie my hair? Or are you thinking of doing something else?”
His Highness jolted, as if caught doing something he shouldn’t.
“Alright, alright.” He said, and finished tying off Hua Cheng’s long, silky hair.
Hua Cheng leisurely went to look at his reflection in the bucket of water sitting in the corner of the room. The result was a crooked ponytail that was more on one side of his head than the other. Hua Cheng loved it.
Hua Cheng turned to look at His Highness with quirked brows.
Just then, a timid voice called from outside, “Daozhang?”
Hua Cheng followed His Highness to the doorway, where they saw a gaggle of young ladies clustered in the yard, each carrying an offering of some sort.
Their eyes brightened when Hua Cheng stepped into view, and a few of them blushed and smiled shyly.
Xie Lian stepped forward, “Good morning, have you come to pay your respects?”
The girls tittered until one of the older-looking girls said, “Yes!” while batting her eyelashes at Hua Cheng. They were their shrine’s first worshipers and they were clearly not there for his god. They were here to ogle Hua Cheng. It was downright disrespectful!
Hua Cheng coldly turned around and went back inside the shrine, taking up his post at the kitchen table while the girls filed in, glancing this way and that at the interior of the humble shrine.
His Highness guided them to leave their offerings on the alter. Mostly chestnuts, bruised apples, and handfuls of dried wildflowers. When they made to kneel, His Highness gently caught them by the elbow and persuaded them to stand. They tackily prayed out loud, sending heated glances his way.
“Dear love god…” One of them crooned.
Hua Cheng saw His Highness grit his teeth.
“I wish for an auspicious love match for my marriage!”
“Oh! Me too!”
“Me three!”
Xie Lian coughed and stammered, “I-I’m afraid this shrine isn’t dedicated to a god of love or marriage! The Xianle kingdom heir can’t grant you a happy marriage or a good match.”
“What can he do, then?” One girl turned her sharp eyes on Xie Lian.
“If you need an extra hand at harvest, for your roof to be repaired, to find your way alone in the dark, or if you are being troubled by angry spirits, he is the one you pray to.”
“What kind of god is he?” Another asked indignantly.
Xie Lian smiled and clapped his hands, “A humble one!”
The girls mutter and mill in the small space before the alter, until one boldly looks up at Hua Cheng, addressing him, “Shrine attendant! That’s what you are, are you not? Why serve such a humble god when you can be much more successful at a bigger temple to say… General Nan Yang or Jun Wu, or somebody?”
Hua Cheng scoffs and rolls his eyes, pushing back his bench as he stands from the table, “My god is the one true god. I don’t need love, or fortune, or fame. I need him. I want only to serve him. I need no reward, and expect no reward, for my service.”
His Highness stared at him like he said something strange, but he only spoke the truth.
The girls seemed divided on their opinion of him. Half seemed to think him delusional, and made to leave, and the other half seemed glow with admiration at his piety.
In the end, half left… and brought back their families. It seemed the whole of Puqi Village stopped by a little at a time, demanding to know if it was true that the shrine was dedicated to a worthless god.
They, at the very least, brought offerings with their complaints. The alter was quickly becoming rather full, though, the donation box remained fairly light.
His Highness attended to the worshipers questions and needs with grace and humility.
Hua Cheng watched him, silently brimming with admiration and adoration, as he puttered around, distributing and lighting incense, sweeping up, and arranging offerings on the alter when things became to crowded. The gaggle of girls followed him like a colossal shadow until their guardians and elder neighbors towed them away from Hua Cheng, who had done absolutely nothing to encourage their attention. They whined and pouted as their elders offered shallow bows to Xie Lian, shouting their hope for his god’s help in the future.
His god sighed once they were all out of earshot, rolling his shoulders and offering Hua Cheng a smile.
Hua Cheng could sense in his god a mixture of satisfaction at the shrine’s unexpected grand opening, and relief that all of the villagers were gone.
“Should we make dinner?” Xie Lian suggested, hooking his arm through Hua Cheng’s to tug him back indoors.
It wasn’t necessarily a possessive reaction to those girls following him around all day, but a ghost could hope.
…
The next day, the shrine is gifted with a dying man whose bowels seem to be leaking sand all over their freshly cleaned floors.
He may look like he’s dying, but in fact, he’s already dead. The man is an empty shell of a supernatural thing, sent to lure do-gooders into the Crescent Moon Pass. His Highness figures this out quickly, because of course he does. His Highness was always clever.
After the shell is caught in it’s deception, it rapidly desiccates until nothing but a dried out husk remains on the floor.
He immediately begins cleaning up and planning an investigative trip out to the Crescent Moon Pass.
Hua Cheng insists on coming-- and, to prove his worth, recites what he knows about the Banyue State Preceptor.
He is interrupted by #34 and #35 knocking on their door, and looking like idiots in their Middle Court disguises. They knew His Highness was planning a trip, and wanted to come too.
“Gege, who are those two?” Hua Cheng drawled, knowing full well who they were.
He wondered if His Highness knew as well, or if he remained ignorant. He supposed that remained to be seen.
“Who’re you?” #34 asked, brushing past His Highness to stare sharply at Hua Cheng.
“Stand back!” #35 stepped around and in front of His Highness, baring his teeth at the no doubt strange youth before him.
Xie Lian peeked around #35’s shoulder, “Oh, do you know him? He’s from the Middle Court, too, I think. A temporary assistant!”
“No such thing!” They chorused harshly, their stances still aggressive.
“How would you two know that?” Hua Cheng smirked, opening his arms challengingly, “I know you two, now that I get a better look at you. You two are bound to a single god.”
He pointed at #34, “You are bound to Xuan Zhen.”
He moved his finger to point at #35, “And you are bound to Nan Yang… or should I say ‘Ju Yang’?”
For a second, #34 smirked before the searing suspicion reared it’s ugly head again.
“And you’re supposed to be – what? Some kind of free-floating Heavenly temporary servant for the gods too poor to afford retainers?” He scoffed.
Hua Cheng gave him a tight-lipped smile, “I volunteered, actually. Just like you two.”
#35 frowned, “So you’re a deserter, you abandoned the god that brought you to Heaven to follow him?!”
“Or to spy on him for that god.” #34 floated ominously.
“Are you two here to spy on me?” Xie Lian asked wearily, hands up placatingly as he steps around #35.
“No!” They both shouted.
“Right.” Xie Lian said, “And neither is San Lang. Can we get going?”
And so they get going… after #35 takes forever to draw a really inadequate formation on the door.
In the time it takes him to draw the simple thing, Hua Cheng and His Highness have packed for the trip. Slipping what they need into Hua Cheng’s leather bracers.
“I’m sorry about them.” Xie Lian apologizes gently, folding their blanket and handing it to Hua Cheng.
“Don’t apologize for them, gege.” He said, slipping the blanket into his bracer, “And it was no harm done. Perhaps I looked like someone to them.”
“Yeah, you did.” #34 snaps from where he’s been seated at the table, scrutinizing them.
Hua Cheng laughed lightly, “Funny, you remind me of someone, too.”
#34 shuddered and looked away to the corner, then back to the rest of the room, “This place is a pigsty! I only see one bed...”
“That’s because I only have one bed.” Xie Lian said.
“You mean to say you two slept on it together?!” The imbecile sputtered like a fish who had forgotten to use it’s gills to breathe.
Hua Cheng regretted nothing. Sleeping next to His Highness was equal parts agony and bliss, and he wanted to get away with it for as long as possible.
“Something wrong with that?” Xie Lian asked calmly as #35 finished with the formation.
“I’m done.” He said, stepping away from the glowing marks on the door, which were all crude and crooked.
Hua Cheng half-expected to step out into a frozen tundra, or somewhere equally dangerous. Until he remembered that Heaven’s formations were far more limited than his own inventions. They required a door. Amateurs.
Hua Cheng followed His Highness out onto a bustling, sandy street. The buildings rose high, made of baked earth bricks, a few market stalls remained open despite the time of night, under colorfully woven canopies.
Hua Cheng leaned over His Highness’ shoulder and pointed out the pole star, navigating by it would bring them to where the Banyue kingdom once lay.
“The night sky is so different than in the Central Planes, just beautiful!” Hua Cheng remarked, smiling up at the stars.
“I really is.” Xie Lian said.
When Hua Cheng glanced downward, he saw that His Highness was looking at him, and not the stars.
…
#34 and #35 seemed insistent on constantly testing him. Shows of force, nasty-tasting true-shape serum, and a ghost-revealing sword… one trick after another from these vultures.
Hua Cheng had little problem outfoxing them. And when he didn’t do that, he simply kept his cool.
He was rewarded for his endurance of those two idiotsby His Highness’ hands constantly touching him. Offering him his hat, brushing sand from his clothes, taking his arm, his wrist, his hand. He loves it, but he doesn’t know what to make of it.
The gods they travel with are deeply unpleasant people, and the sun is hot, but at least on this trip he got the honor and privilege of feeling his gege’s body pressed up against his, until they found their way out of the sandstorm. Then he got to show off his skill in the Banyue language by reading a mourning plaque for a haphazard not-actually general who sounded a little too like someone he knows.
It makes him wish his search of the Banyue kingdom had been more thorough a hundred and some odd years ago. Maybe he could have found him sooner-- No. He would indulge these unhelpful ruminations later… when they weren’t surrounded by scorpion snakes.
And just like that, he fails His Highness.
He becomes distracted and His Highness moves swiftly to catch the snake that would have stung him.
His beloved’s blood is spilled, the snake swinging it’s tail up and around in a flash, sinking its venom-filled stinger into his hand.
His Highness crushes the air from the scorpion snake’s lungs until it dies, but the damage is done.
Hua Cheng is by his side in an instant, eyes sharp like shards of ice. He took his hand tenderly and inspecting the purpling wound.
Though His Highness betrayed no sign of discomfort at the venom working through his bloodstream, Hua Cheng could see it snake darkly into his veins from the mark on his hand.
Hua Cheng wordlessly snatched Ruoye from Xie Lian’s arm and immediately knotted it firmly on his wrist, preventing the venom from advancing.
All the while, Hua Cheng’s mind was a storm of shame at his incompetence, and merciless rage directed at himself. Whoever was controlling those scorpion snakes was as good as dead and dispersed once he got his hands on them. His hands were also covered in his beloved’s blood, for once, long ago he had a hand in the creation of the scorpion snake.
He swiftly took a knife from the pocket space inside his bracer, and #35, seeing his plan, lit a fire in his hand for him to sterilize the knife. At least he was fast on the uptake and eager to help His Highness. Hua Cheng would remember that.
Once the knife was clean and hot, Hua Cheng took His Highness’ hand in his once more and cut a cross lightly into the wound. Then, he knelt, and brought the wound to his lips.
“It’s okay. The venom is aggressive, sucking it won’t do much. I don’t want you to get poisoned...”
Hua Cheng ignored Xie Lian and sucked the tainted blood out of the wound, spitting it onto the ground (even though he wished he could swallow. It would be suspicious if he swallowed).
He felt His Highness tremble under his ministrations, so Hua Cheng kept his grip on his hand firm, grounding him against the pain.
My beloved… I will not allow you to die again.
“I can’t believe you went and got yourself stung. What were you doing, catching the snake when the kid might not have even been bitten? You’re just causing unnecessary trouble.” #34 groaned.
Xie Lian waved his good hand. “Don’t worry. It’s not like it hurts, and I won’t die from it.”
“You're really not in pain?” #34 asked.
“Really. I don’t feel pain anymore,” Xie Lian said, and Hua Cheng almost believed him. Just because you couldn’t feel pain didn’t make an experience painless. Your body or your mind would be paying for it later.
Hua Cheng looked up, lips stained crimson with blood. He glanced over at the crumpled form of the scorpion snake. A second later, it was scattered in gory pieces all over the sandy ground.
It made him feel slightly better.
…
They make it to the ruins of the Banyue Kingdom capital and find the shanyue fern. Hua Cheng wastes no time in crushing some and rubbing it gently into His Highness’ wound.
The leaves were about the size of a baby’s palm and in the shape of peaches, slightly pointy at the ends, with thin, tiny roots. Exactly how he remembered them being.
Xie Lian didn’t protest. He even relaxed into Hua Cheng’s grip as the crushed fern settling into his wound made the swelling in his hand subside.
“Thanks, San Lang,” Xie Lian said.
Hua Cheng thought he’d feel better after righting his wrong, but his hand in His Highness’s hurt lingered like fire on burning tar. It stuck to his skin and couldn’t be put out.
Hua Cheng hung back, arms folded, and watched the merchants pick the herbs with cool detachment.
Xie Lian sidled up to Hua Cheng and asked, “You also searched the same area they’re in now, right? Didn’t you find any there?”
It was obvious His Highness was trying to force a conversation, Hua Cheng wondered if he truly looked that miserable.
Hua Cheng merely shook his head, “You shouldn’t use the ferns over there.”
“Why?” Xie Lian wondered curiously.
Before Hua Cheng could answer, they heard someone scream. “Go away!”
Which is how they met the talking fertilizer.
Hua Cheng had little to no interest for cursed horticulture, but it seemed to unsettle His Highness, who glanced at his hand.
Hua Cheng was quick to reassure him the fern he picked was unfed by human remains, “That one was fine.”
“San Lang was considerate and careful. Thank you, truly,” Xie Lian said, offering him a gentle smile.
Hua Cheng nodded his head, still feeling like he had been buried to become fertilizer.
The fertilizer tried to lure His Highness closer, but Xie Lian was wise to that old trick. The face in the ground implied there was a face among their group that the ghost had seen fifty years prior.
Hua Cheng, of course, knew without a doubt it was that shifty guide, A-Zhao. Hua Cheng surmised that the guide had been routinely leading groups of travelers to their deaths. But why?
And then it all went to shit.
For everyone else, not for Hua Cheng. Or His Highness. He would make certain of it.
Which is why, when it comes to it, he jumps before his beloved can get a chance to.
He has to take care of all of the nasty things at the bottom of the Sinner’s Pit before Gege jumps. Which should give him about… ten seconds to slaughter them all.
With his arms crossed, Hua Cheng nonchalantly looked down into the dark, bottomless Sinner’s Pit with intrigued air.
Xie Lian called out, “San Lang?”
Hua Cheng looked over at the sound of his call and smiled softly. “It’s fine.”
He took another step forward, now teetering on the edge.
Xie Lian called again, “Wait, San Lang, don’t move!”
He truly sounded worried for him. Like he might do something rash to protect this disposable assistant.
The wind rustled Hua Cheng’s red robes, causing his sleeves to dance in the night breeze.
Hua Cheng glanced at His Highness again with a smile, “Don’t be scared.”
Xie Lian’s voice was shaky as he called back, “You...come back here first. Come back here, and I won’t be scared,”
“Don’t worry, I’m just going to leave for a bit. We’ll see each other again soon,” Hua Cheng said.
“Don’t—”
Hua Cheng leapt into the darkness and, moments later, landed lightly on the soles of his boots.
He makes quick, brutal work of it with E-Ming in his hand and the darkness on his side. It’s all carnage by the time His Highness falls and is caught in Hua Cheng’s arms.
After a moment, His Highness seems to gain his bearings. His hands roam across Hua Cheng’s shoulders and up his neck.
“San Lang?” He calls, his voice echoes off the walls of the Sinner’s Pit, “San Lang, is that you?”
His fingers brush the knot in his throat and suddenly retreat.
When he speaks, he sounds out of breath, flustered, “It’s San Lang, right? Are you all right? Are you hurt?”
Hua Cheng is in his true form, he likes being in his true form for a good slaughter, so when he speaks next, his voice is deep and low, “I’m fine.”
“San Lang, are you really all right? Put me down,” Xie Lian said.
“No,” Hua Cheng replied, gripping His Highness’ legs and shoulders a little tighter.
The ground was a lake of filthy blood, and by the roar that rang out across the pit, that Banyue ghost general would have found out about it too.
Hua Cheng spun and side-stepped attacks with His Highness held safe in his arms. In the dark, E-Ming danced with the ghost general, slicing him up, but leaving him alive. Or, as alive as a ghost could be left.
His Highness sent his white silk band to mess with the ghost general, sending him flying and falling on his ass into a puddle of blood and ghost guts.
He roared angrily through the darkness, “You two! Two against one! Despicable!”
Hua Cheng snorted mirthlessly, “Even one-on-one, you won’t win.”
Glancing down at the god he cradled in his arms, only for his ears, he added gently, “You don’t have to fight.”
If his god wanted to fight, that was another matter. After all, his beloved was a martial god at heart. He would-- and should-- accommodate for that.
“All right,” Xie Lian responded but also prompted him, “San Lang, why don’t you put me down? I’ll be in your way like this.”
His god squirmed lightly in his arms, but there was no real threat of His Highness leaving the safety and comfort of his embrace.
“You’re not in the way. Don’t get down.” Hua Cheng insisted.
“Why can’t I get down?” Xie Lian asked, sounding more flummoxed and befuddled than put out.
Because I live to serve you, and hold you, and defend you beyond my last breath?
Hua Cheng’s answer was only two words: “It’s dirty.”
“…” Xie Lian’s silence stretched out in the dark, where the only sounds to be heard were the grunts and roars of the ghost general getting sliced up by E-Ming.
“You can’t possibly keep holding me like this!” The words burst from Xie Lian, sounding incredulous.
“I could,” Hua Cheng replied truthfully.
The wrists slung around his neck tightened their hold as His Highness grasped for words.
He took it as a sign that his beloved didn’t want him to let go.
Once he ceased his attacks on the ghost general at His Highness’ behest, he asked, “San Lang, were you the one who did all this down here?”
“Yes.” Hua Cheng answered, his skin suddenly crawling with the feeling that their newfound friendship was coming to an abrupt end. His Highness would find out what he is, who he is, and… what? Strike the calamity down?
If that is what His Highness wanted, then so be it. Hua Cheng would put his ashes in his hands and bid him crush that crystal ring into dust.
After a few long, torturous moments, Xie Lian sighed, “How should I say this...”
Xie Lian seemed to chew on his words, fingers fiddling with Hua Cheng’s collar for a while before he said earnestly, “San Lang, next time you see a pit like this, don’t just jump in randomly. I couldn’t even stop you. Really, I didn’t know what to do.”
Hua Cheng paused, and when he spoke again, his voice sounded thick with some emotion, “You don’t want to ask anything else?”
“What else do you want me to ask?” Xie Lian said.
“For example, whether I’m human,” Hua Cheng replied.
He was digging his own grave.
Xie Lian let go of Hua Cheng to rub at his forehead in a nervous tic, “Hmm. I don’t think that’s necessary.”
“Is it not?” Hua Cheng asked incredulously, fighting to keep his voice calm.
“Is it? It’s not important whether you’re human or not,” Xie Lian said.
“Oh?” Hua Cheng felt a bit stunned, then felt furious at his lack of faith in his god.
Xie Lian crossed his arms while being held in Hua Cheng’s and replied, “Forming a friendship should depend on how well two people hit it off and how well their personalities match, not their identities. If I like you, you could be a beggar and I'd still like you. If I dislike you, you could be the emperor and I’d still dislike you. Shouldn’t it be like that? It’s simple logic, so whether you’re human or not is irrelevant.”
Relief bubbled up warmly in his chest like a hot spring and Hua Cheng laughed out loud. “Yeah. You’re very right.”
“Right?” Xie Lian said, laughing along too.
Who was he to doubt in his god’s values?
No… what he was doubting was not his god, but that his god could come to… like him. Like him for who he is, in spite of his deception. For, surely, His Highness would have come to the only conclusion there was. He was a ghost, he was not a Heavenly Attendant. A ghost in Heaven of his calibre could only mean one thing: A Calamity.
…
His Highness collapsed on the straw mat the moment they reentered the shrine.
Hua Cheng chuckled and set about fetching a cup of water for him.
#35 threatened to stay until Xie Lian pulled himself up from the mat and offered to cook. #35 fled, citing an emergency at the palace of Nan Yang, leaving the two of them alone in the shrine.
Xie Lian turned to him with a brilliant but tired smile, “He’s not hungry, how about you?”
Hua Cheng smiled cheerfully back. “I’m starving.”
His Highness grinned and stood up again, before turning around and casually tidying the altar table.
“All right, then. What do you want to eat, Hua Cheng?”
At first Hua Cheng was stunned to silence. His Highness was so bold, and correct, with his assumptions.
He chuckled, and good-naturedly said, “I still prefer the name ‘San Lang.’”
After a light dinner, made by His Highness’ hand, they dressed down and sat on the straw mat.
“Crimson Rain Sought Flower?” Xie Lian asked.
“Your Royal Highness the Crown Prince,” Hua Cheng replied cheekily.
Xie Lian finally turned around with a grin. “That’s the first time I’ve heard you address me like that.”
Hua Cheng also sat on the mat, propping up a leg, grinning back at him. “How does it feel?”
Xie Lian gave it a thought and replied truthfully, “It feels...a little different than when others call me by that title.”
“Hm? How so?” Hua Cheng asked. Different how? Different worse?
Xie Lian tilted his head, his eyes squinting a little, “It’s hard to say, it’s just…”
In the end, after a prolonged, thoughtful silence, he didn’t answer. Instead he continued, “That night at Mount Yujun, the groom who whisked me away was you, right?”
Hua Cheng’s smile deepened at the memory of their reunion, dressed as bride and groom. It truly only whetted his appetite for seeing His Highness in garbed in red. With that image in his head, he could never get enough.
Xie Lian became flustered and corrected himself needlessly, “I meant, the groom in disguise who led me away was you, right?”
“I wasn’t disguising myself as a groom,” Hua Cheng replied, which was true. He just wore a lot of red.
“This question only has two possible answers,” Hua Cheng said teasingly. “First, that I came specifically for Your Royal Highness; second, that I was passing by and was free. Which do you think is more believable?”
Xie Lian studied him for a moment, an easy smile dawning on his face, “Which is more believable I can’t say, but you do seem to have a lot of free time…You’re quite different from what the rumors say.”
Hua Cheng changed his sitting position, but with a hand still propping up his cheek, he watched His Highness and asked, “Oh? And how did Your Royal Highness figure out that I am Crimson Rain Sought Flower?
“I thought it was suspicious that anyone from Heaven would volunteer to serve me, let alone come down to the mortal world and play shrine attendant.” Xie Lian said raising an eyebrow at Hua Cheng, who only shrugged one shoulder.
“Even after all the probing, you gave nothing away, so you must be a supreme. You’re dressed all in red like the maples, like blood, and seem to know everything, seem to be capable of everything, and know no fear. And such magnanimity—other than Crimson Rain Sought Flower, who all the heaven officials fear, there didn’t seem to be anyone else you could be.”
Hua Cheng laughed, “May I take those words as a compliment?”
His Highness looked at him with a somewhat frazzled expression- it was very cute- but said nothing around his pursed lips.
“Sparing so many words, how come Your Royal Highness doesn’t question my motives in coming close to you?” Hua Cheng asked, his smile curbed somewhat.
“If you didn’t want to say anything, and I asked, would you tell? Or you might not tell me the truth,” Xie Lian said.
“That’s not necessarily true,” Hua Cheng said. “Besides, you can always kick me out.”
Xie Lian replied, “You’re so powerful. Even if I kicked you out now, if you really wanted to do something bad, wouldn’t you just change your skin and come back?”
The two met eyes and grinned. Suddenly, a small knocking noise broke the temporary silence in the shrine. They looked to where the sound came from and there wasn’t anyone, only that small, black clay pot rolling on the ground.
Ah, Banyue. The little ghost of the Imperial Preceptor they had picked up and taken home with them (and placed into a pickle pot).
She and Xie Lian went outside to talk while gazing at the stars overhead.
Hua Cheng followed them out, but didn’t chime in. He left them to their moment while leaning against a tree in the yard, making soft music with the folded blade of grass between his lips.
When he heard the young ghost declare, “I want to save the common people!” from her pickle pot, Hua Cheng smiled.
Xie Lian gazed up at the night sky, feeling helpless. “Ha ha...really? Maybe. I don’t remember whatever else I might have said.”
“You also said, ‘Do what you think is right!’ Banyue told him, “’Nothing can block your way!’ ‘Even if you fall in the mud a hundred times, you must get up with determination!’ And a lot more similar sayings.”
“Pfft!” Hua Cheng smothered a snicker under his palm.
His Highness, at his core, is unfailingly good. He is immutable, and caring, and he makes me laugh like nothing else ever has. My faith will never be misplaced if it is placed in him.
After a few more words, His Highness left Banyue out to stargaze while he headed back inside with Hua Cheng.
After closing the door, Xie Lian suddenly spoke up. “Banyue remained at Banyue Pass willingly. It wasn’t because she became a wrath that she was trapped there.”
Xie Lian shook his head. “If General Pei Junior really didn’t want to leave those Banyue soldiers behind and also didn’t want the heavens to find out, he could have easily sent a clone to secretly descend and take care of them. Why did he do it this way instead?”
“Clones don’t have the same amount of power,” Hua Cheng said, “You saw how Pei Xiu’s clone A-Zhao was? He couldn’t take care of so many Banyue soldiers, so feeding them the living was the fastest and easiest way to disperse their resentment.”
From here, the conversation quickly turned to his own form. It irked him a little how His Highness assumed he would send a clone to spend time with him!
Xie Lian turned to look at him, somewhat surprised. “Eh? This is your true form?”
“One hundred percent authentic,” Hua Cheng declared.
After that, Xie Lian raised a single finger and poked Hua Cheng right in the meat of his cheek.
Hua Cheng was so startled he did nothing but blink rapidly for a few moments, his cheek tingling from the contact.
The silence was only filled by His Highness’ breathing. His eyes grew wide and panicked as he took his finger back. In the end he only said a simple, “… Not bad.”
It made Hua Cheng burst out laughing, “What’s not bad? Do you mean this skin?”
“Yeah, it’s quite good,” Xie Lian said sincerely, “But…”
“But what?” Hua Cheng asked, wondering what improvements he could make that would make His Highness want to look at him more, touch him more.
Xie Lian stared at his face and studied it for a moment, then finally said, “But, can I see your real face?”
The mirthful smile dropped from Hua Cheng’s lips and his eyes darkened as he looked at the floor in silence.
“I was just asking; don’t take it to heart.” Xie Lian said, smiling placatingly. But Hua Cheng didn’t want to leave this topic on a sour note.
Hua Cheng closed his eyes, and a moment after, he smiled softly. “I’ll let you see it someday, if there’s a chance.”
His Highness’ eyes widened, then he smiled and nodded, “Then I’II wait till the day you feel it’s okay to show me. Let’s rest for now.”
They lay back down on the mat, side by side, pillowing their heads on their arms, when Xie Lian suddenly asked, ears visibly pink through the dark, “You said you’d be my follower… is that true?”
He then he seemed to think better of it and said, rolling onto his back and waving his hands dismissively, “Wait! Never mind, never mind! I don’t want to know!”
There were now several doors before him. He could lie. He could remain silent. Or he could tell the partial truth.
“… I am your believer, Your Highness.” He said at last.
His Highness rolled onto his side, facing Hua Cheng.
His fearful whisper cut through the dark, “Are you from Xianle?”
“I am.” Hua Cheng said, keeping as still as a corpse.
He saw Xie Lian cringe, “I failed you.” His words are heavy with the grief of a fallen nation.
“You never failed me, Your Highness.” He said with feeling. He almost reached out to touch His Highness’ shoulder, but retracted it halfway.
Xie Lian sighed bitterly, “I was a fool. I still am one! I can’t save the common people.”
“Those are good words.” Hua Cheng said quietly.
“Which ones?” Xie Lian asked.
“’I want to save the world, the common people,’” Hua Cheng replied casually, but believing it with his whole heart.
Xie Lian looked thunderstruck, his mouth fell open. He flipped over and curled into a shrimp, covering his whole head with his arms.
He groaned, “… San Lang!”
He really was too cute.
Hua Cheng scooted closer, until he was breathing down Xie Lian’s neck, watching the wispy hairs there stand up, “Hm? What’s wrong with those words?”
Xie Lian flipped back over and said helplessly, “It’s silly.”
“What’s there to be afraid of?” Hua Cheng said. “To dare speak of the people of the world, whether to save or to destroy them, is admirable. The former is harder than the latter, so it’s even more respectable.”
Xie Lian shook his head, blinking rapidly, his mouth twitching at the corners, “If you dare to speak, you have to be able to follow through and actually achieve it.”
He laid an arm over his eyes. “Oh, all right. I suppose that’s nothing. What Banyue said was already pretty good. I’ve said sillier things when I was even younger.”
Hua Cheng laughed. “Oh? Like what? Let’s hear it.”
Xie Lian was pensive for a moment, and he smiled softly with a faraway look in his eyes, “Many, many years ago, there was someone who told me they couldn’t live on anymore. They asked me for the reason they were alive and what was the meaning of their life.”
Oh? Is this about me? His Highness remembers me?
Hua Cheng thought quietly, repeating it over and over until it became a scream.
He glanced at Hua Cheng. “Do you know how I answered?”
Hua Cheng swallowed around the emotion building in in his throat and asked softly, “How did you answer?”
Xie Lian said, “I told them, ‘If you don’t know how to live on anymore, then live for me! If you don’t know the meaning of your life, then make me that meaning, and use me as your reason to live.””
It is about me. It is me. His Highness remembers me.
“Ha ha ha…” Xie Lian let out a small laugh and shook his head, “Even now I don’t understand what I was thinking back then. How did I ever have the courage to tell someone to make me the meaning of their life?”
“It really was something that could only have been said back then. Long ago, I really thought I was invincible and fearless. If you asked me to say the same words now, there is no way they would ever leave my lips again.”
Xie Lian continued slowly, “I don’t know what happened to that person afterward. But to become someone’s reason to live is already a heavy responsibility. How dare I speak of the world?”
Silence blanketed Puqi Shrine, but Hua Cheng’s mind was alight with the fluttering wings of ten-thousand thoughts. He could not just pick one thing to say now. He wanted to comfort him, he wanted to confess, he wanted to be memorable, and wise, and a hundred other things.
After a while, Hua Cheng settled on, “Something like saving the common people, it really doesn’t matter how you do it. But, although brave, it’s foolish.”
“Yeah,” Xie Lian agreed.
Hua Cheng continued, “Although foolish, it’s brave.”
Xie Lian grinned at him in the dark, “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” Hua Cheng said. Sometimes, saying little is saying enough. He made his beloved happy, what was waiting another day, week, month, year, a hundred years, another eight-hundred?
The two stared at the holey ceiling of Puqi Shrine in amiable silence, and Hua Cheng spoke up again after a while.
“You know, Your Highness, we’ve only known each other for two weeks. Is it all right for you to say so much to me?”
“Well,” Xie Lian huffed, crossing his arms over his chest, “what’s the problem? Whatever. Those who have known each other for decades can become strangers in a day. We met by chance, and we may part by chance. If we like each other, then we shall continue to meet; if we don’t, then we shall part. At the end of the day, there’s no banquet in the world that doesn’t come to an end, so let’s take it easy, and I’ll say what I want to say.”
Hua Cheng chuckled, then suddenly he said, “If.”
The word surprised himself as much as it did Xie Lian, who turned his head to face him and echoed,“If?”
Hua Cheng didn’t turn around but continued to stare at the dilapidated ceiling of the shrine, it was easier to focus on the holes in the thatch above them than on His Highness.
Hua Cheng said softly, “If I was ugly.”
“Huh?” Xie Lian sounded completely taken aback.
Hua Cheng turned his head slightly, but kept his eyes trained on the far wall, “If my true appearance is ugly, would you still want to see it?”
Xie Lian sputtered softly, “Is it? Although there’s no real reason, I never thought your true appearance would be too horrible-looking.”
“Who knows?” Hua Cheng said, half-jokingly and a hundred-percent seriously. “What if I'm discolored, disfigured, ugly, monstrous, and horrible. What will you do?”
Xie Lian seemed to chew on his words. “Well...”
Then his voice came out, as sweet as honey, “To be honest, the reason I want to see your true appearance is only because, you see, we’re already like this...”
“Hm?” Hua Cheng perked up. “Like what?”
Almost entwined in bed together?
Xie Lian continued, sounding a little deliciously flustered, “’..Well, we’re sort of friends now, right? So if we’re friends, then we should be honest with each other. My wanting to see your true appearance has nothing to do with how you look. You asked what I would do, but of course I won’t do anything. Don’t worry, as long as it’s your real face, I’m sure I'll... Why are you laughing? I’m being serious.”
Hua Cheng couldn’t help it, he was laughing again until silent giggles turned to louder peals. He was clutching his sides and finally (finally) looking at His Highness with eyes full of mirth.
He should have expected this response, but he was delighted by it all the same.
Xie Lian was poking him again, this time in the shoulder and side. He cherished every prodding.
“San Lang...why are you laughing so much? Did I say something wrong?”
Hua Cheng immediately stopped shaking with laughter, “No, you’re very right.”
Xie Lian huffed, “You’re so insincere...”
“I promise, you won’t find another person more sincere than me in this world,” Hua Cheng replied easily.
It seemed that Xie Lian didn’t want to talk anymore and flipped over, his back facing Hua Cheng, “Forget it, time to sleep. Don’t talk.”
Hua Cheng chuckled again, then said, “Next time.”
Despite his resolve to sleep, Xie Lian peeked over his shoulder and responded, “What’s next time?”
Hua Cheng leaned forward and whispered in his ear, “The next time we meet, I will use my true appearance to greet you.”
His Highness shivered at the touch of his voice and breath, and then relaxed onto the mat and fell asleep.
Quietly, Hua Cheng stole a few more hours with His Royal Highness, just laying beside him on the mat until dawn came.
When the sun’s early rays peeked through the window slats, Hua Cheng removed the chain from his neck and slipped it carefully around His Highness. He pulled his hair gently though and tucked the cold chain and ring into his inner robe, where it would warm quickly at the touch of his living skin.
Already, Hua Cheng began to feel more warm.
He indulged in the sight of His Highness’ hand curling closed over the new lump in his robes.
“San Lang…” He muttered, before curling tighter for comfort.
It was time to go. It was almost unbearable, but he forced himself out the door.
He couldn’t stop himself from sweeping the leaves in the yard into a pile beside the pickle jar before he left the shrine for good. After all, what kind of Heavenly attendant would he be if he left the shrine looking sloppy?
He took out his dice and tossed them, stepping into the maple-red library of Paradise Manor.
Now that his god was found, he had work to do.