Chapter Text
Ghosts first materialised as fire, and regardless of what form they took later, the flames never left them. They were normally cold and useless, yet when something came to stir them up, their dreadful heat was overwhelming. To get rid of the unbearable suffocation, Hua Cheng was willing to engulf the world and turn it into ashes.
A gentle breeze hit his face in waves. Up and down, he felt weightless. If it weren’t for the heartbeat thumping against his chest, he’d think he was lost, floating in some unknown space beyond the three realms.
Of course, that was not his own heart. He was dead and had no pulse. It was Xie Lian’s, and the god’s strong but controlled breathing pressed Hua Cheng’s scrawny frame against that powerful beat. Without opening his eyes, he slowly became aware of his situation. He felt Xie Lian’s arms supporting him, one under his hips, the other gently pressing his upper back so he stayed in place. His sore head was resting on Xie Lian’s shoulder, and he had his tiny and weak legs wrapped around Xie Lian’s middle.
Curse Mount Tonglu and the hideous, intolerable shape of a brat he had to take to face its opening. He had endured this form for days and days, yet the relief it brought was meagre. What had even happened? One moment, he'd been walking next to Xie Lian down a dirt road, trying his best not to complain about the midday sun, and the next, he was being carried and they were running…
Running?
Everything in Xie Lian’s body indicated that he was running, but Hua Cheng couldn't feel the steps. Rather, it seemed that they were flying. Had Xie Lian decided to use that damn old black sword to shorten the distance to Mount Tonglu? No, their trajectory wasn’t straight and Xie Lian’s posture wasn’t right for that. It couldn’t be.
They suddenly landed in something flexible. Wood cracked, leaves rustled, and they took off again. Hua Cheng finally opened his eyes and a huge forest, red and purple under the light of twilight, appeared beneath him.
Xie Lian was leaping between tree tops, covering an unbelievable distance with every jump. Doing such a thing was inconceivable for cultivators of the present, but Hua Cheng remembered that, back in the day, it was a popular way to train and play for disciples of Xianle's Royal Holy Pavilion. Mount Taicang was covered by a thick maple forest then; and from far away, the white cultivation robes made the youngsters flying on top of the red trees look like sparkles on a big fire.
They landed on another tree top and Xie Lian somehow used the momentum of the trunk bending to propel himself forward, which made the next jump higher and faster. Marvelling at how high they soared, Hua Cheng told himself that, when he finally could get rid of that stupid childish shape —and they got the Tonglu issue out of the way— he'd definitely give it a shot.
If he got the hang of it, maybe he could challenge Xie Lian to a race.
Without a doubt, Xie Lian would defeat him. Hua Cheng had spent the past few days being an additional hindrance on top of the two cursed shackles that restrained his god’s power, yet he proved again and again that there was no one in the three realms who ran as fast as him and endured as long. Without anything holding him back, Xie Lian was probably able to outrun lightning.
Running after Xie Lian, maybe striking some good luck and having Xie Lian running after him. Hua Cheng smiled and unconsciously nuzzled his head against Xie Lian’s neck.
“San Lang?” he called immediately. “Are you awake?”
“Yes, gege. Why are you running?”
“Some bad luck, ah,” Xie Lian replied with a sigh. “Hold on tight, will you?”
Hua Cheng knew there was no need; after all, if he hadn't fallen while being unconscious, it meant that Xie Lian was holding him securely enough. In any case, he wrapped his idle arms around Xie Lian’s neck.
“Are you tired?” Xie Lian continued. “Are you hurting anywhere?”
Was his hold that weak? Hua Cheng frowned and tightened his embrace. He was indeed tired and sleepy, two sensations that he very rarely encountered since his death.
“I'm fine,” he mumbled and closed his eyes.
The fire and turmoil hammering his head had mostly faded. He didn’t feel hot and his eye socket didn’t hurt any more. Xie Lian’s breathing and heartbeat kept a constant rhythm, and his body was warm in a nice way. There was no bright sun tormenting him, and going up and down across the tree tops felt like gentle swaying.
When Xie Lian finally reached the other side of the forest, landing on a road wide enough to fit two carriages side by side, the moon had appeared in the sky and Hua Cheng was asleep. Xie Lian checked the temperature of his forehead and found him deadly cold, which was a good sign, but did little to appease him.
That had been the worst fit Hua Cheng had had since he and Xie Lian departed towards Mount Tonglu under the emperor’s orders. Such episodes usually appeared as short waves of pain and irritation, during which Hua Cheng was not entirely conscious, but still responsive and even able to play tricks. In contrast, this one had started with a burst of rabid madness, and then it had knocked him out for half a day.
The beginning was truly frightful. Hua Cheng’s gaze turned hazy and he stopped walking. The usual pain attacked him around the area of his missing eye, and he looked very willing to claw out the illusory one he was sporting right then and there. Somehow, he managed not to do it, viciously pulling his own hair instead. Xie Lian tried to soothe him, but he only managed to make Hua Cheng get defensive. Whenever he felt him come closer, he covered his face with both arms, hissed like an angry fox and bolted away. This continued until Hua Cheng hit himself against a boulder from the many rocks littered around that part of the road and went mad with anger.
In his sealed state, Hua Cheng was tiny. He barely reached Xie Lian’s elbow while standing, his legs and arms were short and skinny, yet he could smash boulder after boulder using only his small fists and feet. Xie Lian asked Ruoye to restrain him, but the silk band refused for some reason. He had to put on the work himself, dancing around Hua Cheng for a while until he found an opening to safely catch him from behind. He'd been ready to endure a serious trashing, but instead, Hua Cheng wailed miserably and passed out.
His pitiful scream reminded Xie Lian of a similar situation in the past, during which he had embraced a screaming child covered in bandages. The sense of déjà vu sent a chill down his spine, but the fact that Hua Cheng had lost consciousness gave him no chance to dwell on it.
Trying to wake him up and failing was more than terrifying. There was no one to ask for help: the heavens were in complete disarray and nobody there cared to learn about the afflictions of ghosts anyway. Mortals were the same, and the few powerful ghosts Xie Lian knew besides Hua Cheng were, one, completely out of his reach, and two, probably more willing to finish Hua Cheng off while he was down than to help him.
Desperate, he resorted to do something similar to what he did at Qiandeng Temple when the first wave of the arousal of ghosts hit: by means of physical contact, he guided all the dark energy he could out of Hua Cheng and into his own body. As kissing a small unconscious child on the mouth was out of the question, Xie Lian opted to give him small pecks on his hair and forehead instead, all while rubbing his little hands with gentle motions.
The scene was not too dissimilar from that of a worried mother caring for her child. Even if Xie Lian wasn’t a woman and Hua Cheng wasn’t his son, his actions weren’t so strange that they would bring disaster, right?
Wrong.
Sick with worry, Xie Lian didn’t notice the arrival of a group of shepherds who, upon seeing them from the wrong angle, thought he was taking advantage of a young girl. Fierce on the back of mules, they whipped their mounts to give chase to the pervert, dropping a thousand swear words Xie Lian had never heard before just in the time he needed to pick Hua Cheng up and start running.
Escaping from humans on foot was easy. From riders, not so much. The mules were fast and strong, and they allowed their masters to use slings and bows against their prey. Xie Lian dodged all the arrows and stones, but his constant twisting and hurrying almost made him lose his grip on Hua Cheng a couple of times, filling his heart with anxiety. While he'd been desperate to see him wake up before, he prayed while fleeing that the ghost king remained unconscious. If he came back to his senses to witness such a scene, he'd be very angry, and there was no way to know how he'd react or how his fury would affect him.
Such miserable ordeal prolonged for what felt like hours, as the chase started right at the beginning of a long and narrow valley surrounded by steep cliffs, a perfect one-road trap where the only way out was forward. When they finally came out to the other side, Xie Lian still had to run through several grass fields before a lush forest appeared in front of him.
At last, a way out!
Without hesitation, Xie Lian sped up and prepared to jump. The furious shepherds saw that he wanted to use the dense forest as a way to stop their mounts, which were not able to dodge trees quite as fast, and shot all the ammunition they had left in a last effort to catch him before he could get away.
Unable to focus in dodging because it'd make him lose momentum, Xie Lian gritted his teeth to endure whatever arrow, dart or rock managed to reach him. He hugged Hua Cheng’s little body with strength and took the last few strides, outrunning all projectiles but two: an arrow that grazed his calf, and a stone that hit him right in the back of the head.
“Got him!” one man shouted.
“How is he still moving?!” another yelled in response.
Their surprise was justified; the shot had been strong and well-aimed. Any normal person would've been knocked out on the spot, it was just that Xie Lian was used to all kinds of injuries. Without giving them time to recover from the shock, he leaped.
“Is he flying?!”
“A demon, I told you that’s nothing but a demon! No human can run so fast for so long!”
They screamed some more things, but Xie Lian’s ears were ringing due to the hit in his head and he couldn't hear them right. Besides, he was too occupied trying to prevent an accident that ended with Hua Cheng and himself impaled by a branch. He thought about finding a tree with a wide and sturdy top to have a rest and check on him, but if the shepherds really thought he was a demon and alerted the cultivators of the area, they’d have a terrible time. It was better to cover as much distance as possible, so Xie Lian decided to stop only if Hua Cheng didn’t wake up by nightfall.
Now it was nighttime, and Hua Cheng had woken up but fallen asleep again. It wasn't right, not at all. The road was well maintained, it was probably used frequently. They had to find some village soon, a crossroads shop or a barn. Any building where Xie Lian could let him lie down properly would suffice.
When Hua Cheng woke up again, it was almost midnight and Xie Lian was still walking.
“Gege, it smells like blood.”
“San Lang!” Xie Lian held him away from his chest to see his face. “How are you feeling? Are you alright?”
Hua Cheng blinked. The smell of blood was stronger near Xie Lian’s shoulder. Could he be injured? Although he had dirt and little leaves on his person, and seemed tired, he looked fine. He wasn't pale, his eyes were clear… and worried. His whole face was painted with worry.
“I'm fine. Nothing hurts any more,” he muttered, trying to mentally scold himself for making Xie Lian worry. His thoughts were still sluggish, though, and he didn’t manage to come up with any suitable insult.
“Do you remember waking up before, in the forest?”
"Yes."
“Good. What about before?”
“Not really.”
“Ah... It was such a strong episode,” Xie Lian lamented as he embraced Hua Cheng again, making him lean against his chest. “What could have caused it?”
The smell of blood became strong again. Hua Cheng twitched his nose. He wasn't breathing, so if he perceived the smell with such force anyway, it meant the blood was fresh and it was close.
“I'm sorry we’re still on the road,” Xie Lian said while unconsciously rubbing Hua Cheng’s back. “I’ve been waiting to find a village for some time now, but this path is deserted.”
“The closer to Mount Tonglu, the further from the main roads people build their houses, or the better they hide them,” Hua Cheng explained while looking in his heart for some shame and decency that could force him to get off Xie Lian's arms already. “They know ghosts come in flocks every once in a while.”
“They must really love their land to stay here despite that.”
“Is gege injured?”
Xie Lian looked at Hua Cheng with a puzzled expression.
“It might be gege’s head.”
Remembering the incident with the shepherds, Xie Lian secured Hua Cheng with one hand and took the other to the back of his head. His hair was sticky and wet with semi-dried blood. The guy who hit him really had to be a formidable hunter!
“It's not too bad,” he reassured Hua Cheng who, upon seeing the blood on his fingers, looked ready to go on a rampage. “I’d forgotten about it.”
“Who did it? Who chased us?!”
“I didn’t ask their names,” Xie Lian teased. “I told you before, it was bad luck, a misunderstanding. I ran all the way here to get far from those people, so let’s not think about going back looking for them, alright?”
With his emotions running so high due to his child-like form, Xie Lian could picture Hua Cheng stomping his feet in anger, if only he was not being carried at the moment.
“Let us stop,” Hua Cheng half pleaded, half demanded. “Let me treat that injury and any other Your Highness might have.”
“This is but a scratch, while San Lang had to endure the fever of the mountain for many hours,” Xie Lian replied and moved his free hand to lightly tap Hua Cheng’s nose, but remembered his fingers were smeared with blood now, so he offered him an apologetic smile instead. “I want to find you a proper bed.”
“Sleep doesn’t come naturally to ghosts. After being out for so long, none of us would be able to fall asleep again,” Hua Cheng refuted with a firm voice, very unlike a child. “If we're going to find a proper bed, it'll be for Your Highness.”
Xie Lian wanted to argue, but he knew Hua Cheng couldn’t just leave his injuries be, and that upsetting him while he was aggravated wouldn't do them any good. He also reasoned that the easiest way to make Hua Cheng rest was to sleep himself. They had shared beds during the whole journey and many times before it, and despite he'd noticed early on that Hua Cheng rarely slept —rather waiting for Xie Lian to do so before standing up and do something else— he did lie down and rest next to him for long periods of time, maybe to ensure not to disturb him, maybe to keep him company, maybe taking the chance to let his mind drift off into something akin to a dream. Whatever the case, if Xie Lian slept, Hua Cheng wouldn't move much, and that was better than nothing.
“Alright, should we look for a cave? Or see if we can find one of those hidden houses you mentioned?”
“Anywhere is fine.”
Xie Lian let Hua Cheng on the floor to walk by himself, but he didn’t let go of his hand. They soon found a wide tree at the side of the road which had some roots exposed, forming a little barrier from the elements. Xie Lian had just sat for Hua Cheng to examine his head when they heard the sound of hooves and wheels on the road. It came from afar, but it was unmistakable: there were at least two carts coming in the same direction they'd been walking.
“Gege, these are humans, and they live nearby,” Hua Cheng said with a sudden beaming smile. “They wouldn't be out at this time of the night otherwise.”
Xie Lian had to make a double take. He'd never seen Hua Cheng be happy about the presence of mortals. In fact, the ghost king generally seemed to find everybody but Xie Lian to be a nuisance. His gaze was a bit hazy, maybe the mountain was still affecting him? Mount Tonglu didn’t cause optimism or happiness, though, and Hua Cheng didn’t look ready to break trees in half with his bare hands.
“Let’s ask them for a bed.”
“Of course, but we need a story.”
Hua Cheng tilted his head slightly. Despite his worries, Xie Lian had to stop and admit to himself that this child-like form of his was really too cute to handle.
“I mean…” He coughed. “Many ghosts and demons walk these paths as of late, any human is bound to be suspicious of two lonely travellers like us.”
“Before, gege told all those useless gods that I looked like his son,” Hua Cheng offered.
“Let’s make San Lang my nephew this time,” Xie Lian proposed, very intently ignoring the fact that Hua Cheng had just called Jun Wu, the heavenly emperor, a useless god.
“Why?”
“I just thought they might ask about San Lang’s mother, who’d be my wife, and I wouldn’t know what to say.”
“Wouldn’t it be the same if they asked about gege’s brother or sister?”
Xie Lian was an only son. The closest relative he had of his generation was his little cousin Qi Rong, which made it very easy for him to imagine that one could find siblings and relatives bothersome and have a bad relationship with them. On the contrary, he thought of spouses as people one chose because of love and could do nothing but cherish. He couldn't think of an explanation for the absence of such a person that didn’t make the heart ache.
“San Lang will be my brother’s son, who he entrusted to me to initiate in the path of cultivation,” he suggested, thinking it was a reasonable story.
Little he expected that Hua Cheng wouldn't be satisfied with it.
“Gege’s… shushu’s brother was a bastard, he wouldn't let me go easily,” he protested, crossing his arms as if his complaint was very serious. “Shushu had to steal me away, fleeing with me in his arms. If he hadn't intervened, I'd still be sleeping in the damp floor of a woodshed every night.”
Xie Lian knitted his brows. Hua Cheng was unreadable. Was he playing a little prank, or was he venting distant memories brought back by the fever? Xie Lian knew that only people who had suffered greatly could become ghosts, but he prayed with all his heart that Hua Cheng hadn’t had to face such mistreatment from his own father.
“Wouldn’t the fact that my brother is a… person like that, talk badly about my parents?” he asked.
The question felt stupid as soon as it left his mouth. Hadn’t the queen of Xianle been the one in charge of Qi Rong for most of his early life? It wasn't out of the realm of possibility that a good person raised a monster.
“I don't know anything about my grandparents, I'm afraid.”
Jarring conversation aside, the carts were coming closer. They needed to wrap up their family tale soon.
“Alright, then I went to visit my brother one time, and his wife approached me in secret to tell me that my brother treated her and her son very poorly,” Xie Lian said, studying Hua Cheng’s expression.
“My mother was long gone,” he objected. “She couldn't live with her bastard husband any more, thus one day she left, disappearing without a trace.”
“Leaving you behind?”
“She didn't have a choice.”
“Does it have to be this way?”
“Yes. My mother wasn't evil, so how would anyone believe that shushu left her to her own devices, knowing how horrible her husband is? If she was still with me at the time of my rescue, wouldn't shushu be accused of separating a son from his mother?”
Hua Cheng had a point. People couldn’t see a small child and not ask about his mother! The story was tragic, but at least one could think that the woman was alive and safe, hiding somewhere, and that there was hope for them to one day be reunited.
“I see. In that case, I… asked for my nephew and my brother didn’t give me a concrete answer, so I looked for him in the night and found him… locked in a woodshed, you said?”
Hua Cheng nodded.
“Naturally, I was horrified by this and wanted to confront my brother, but I thought I’d better take San Lang somewhere safe first, so I escaped with him.”
“Shushu’s brother found out and sent many subordinates after us,” Hua Cheng added, finally happy with their crude backstory. “They brought horses and dogs with them, yet they were no match for shushu. He didn’t fight them, though, because they were many, and he was worried about me getting injured. Instead, he fled, and he was so fast that the only thing those ugly subordinates could do was shooting at him with slings and bows. That’s how shushu’s head got injured, and that’s why we're here.”
“Very well, that’s how it happened,” Xie Lian forced a smile to conceal his bewilderment. “There’s just one problem, and it's that you can’t introduce yourself as Hua Cheng, but this story doesn’t allow you to say you’re San Lang either, because you don’t have any siblings.”
This was like a bucket of cold water to Hua Cheng. He seemed ready to rewrite the whole thing or come up with a bloody subplot that explained what happened to his two fictional older brothers, but there wasn't enough time, and if he had given Xie Lian grief by making up a morbid tale, Xie Lian had the right to strike back, and he had to do it while the iron was still hot.
“If you are the son of my brother, naturally your last name is the same as mine: Xie,” he reasoned. “As for your name, should we call you A-Cheng?”
“No,” Hua Cheng said with the thinnest voice.
“What about the first name Lian?” Xie Lian offered, finding the absurdity of his own idea exhilarating. “Nobody is going to ask me for it, in fact, nobody ever uses it. You can have it.”
“A-Cheng will do,” Hua Cheng reconsidered with such anguish that Xie Lian struggled very hard to contain his laughter.
“It won’t do.” He grinned. “People here know about ghosts and you're the most famous and powerful ghost there is. They can’t discriminate against the last name Hua —nobody will disgrace their family name just because it's shared with a notable someone. However, they're surely wary of the first name Cheng.”
“They cannot be.”
“They definitely are, and if not, maybe someone will pick up the coincidence and assume your identity, which cannot happen. You're going to be A-Lian.”
“Gege, no, I was in the wrong about all of this,” Hua Cheng said with a deep frown. “We don’t have to tell them this story, just saying that we're travelling together to cultivate is enough, and my two brothers can be at home because they're way older than me and help with my family's business.”
“We put so much thought into our story, though. It's a shame.”
“I can’t have Your Royal Highness’ holy name!” Hua Cheng despaired. “I'll have any other name Your Highness gives me, even if it's having no name at all, but I can’t have Your name.”
His itch satisfied, Xie Lian now felt bad for Hua Cheng, who had to be rather dazed to come up with and play along all that nonsense. Besides, his words about receiving no name reminded Xie Lian of when he didn’t acknowledge a ghost of his past as anything but ‘Wu Ming’, which was inexcusable.
Everything about how he had treated Wu Ming was inexcusable, and thinking about him submerged Xie Lian in bitter sorrow and regret. Hurrying to take him out of his mind before he started trembling, Xie Lian focused on the child standing in front of him, all dishevelled raven-black hair, snow-white skin and maple-red clothes. He always looked good in red.
“What do you think of the name Hong?” he blurted, surprising even himself. “Shall we call you A-Hong?”
Hua Cheng arched his brows as much as he could. On the other hand, Xie Lian frowned. Something didn’t feel quite right, as if he was mispronouncing a name of someone he once knew.
“Or better… Honghong… ’er?”
Hua Cheng’s lips quivered. Under the moonlight, his eyes looked bigger and their darkness was deeper. Xie Lian felt cold sweat covering his whole body. A memory tried to form in his mind, but it kept getting lost in the void of that haunted gaze.
“W-why that name?” Hua Cheng stammered.
“Uhh…”
“Who’s there?” called a strong voice.
The carts had arrived. Hua Cheng immediately sprang into action, getting in their way while waving his arms.
“Help! Shushu is injured, please!” he cried with such a convincing tone of desperation that Xie Lian almost ran after him to console him.
“A kid?”
“Why is such a small child on this road?”
“What happened? Where is your uncle?” asked the first strong voice.
“We’ve been chased, he’s on that tree and he is bleeding from his head.”
Praying the injury looked bad enough for the newcomers to believe that he was struggling with it, Xie Lian prepared himself to pretend he felt pain. He leaned against the tree roots and let his limbs go limp, he downed his gaze and made his breathing sound heavy. Once he relaxed like this, he realised how tired he was after running for so long.
A middle-aged woman with wide shoulders and the demeanour of an imperial commander appeared with a torch in hand. There were other people behind her, but Xie Lian couldn't see them clearly. Hua Cheng ran to his side and cupped his face.
“Shushu, it’s alright now, there’s people here,” he said, sounding vividly about to cry in relief. Go figure, he could be an amazing actor when he put on the effort.
“Heavens, this is just another child,” one of the people behind the woman said. “How old can he be, sixteen?”
Xie Lian was a little baffled. He was seventeen the first time he ascended and his body hadn't aged ever since, that much was true, but he looked older and most humans assumed he was at least twenty. He couldn’t afford the luxury of spending spiritual powers on changing his appearance, not even unconsciously, so how come they thought he was so young?
Hua Cheng better not have given him a fake skin! He wasn't in the position to waste spiritual powers either.
"Where are your parents, child? Or your grandparents?" asked the woman.
"It's only shushu and me," Hua Cheng replied defensively, but for some reason, Xie Lian thought he also sounded a bit smug about it. "He rescued me and now we're on the run."
There was some murmuring. As Xie Lian suspected, the presence of ghosts in the area made people mistrust strangers. It was possible that they carried talismans, bells and other artefacts to ward off evil. He wasn't worried about any of those revealing Hua Cheng's nature, but the less he was exposed to such things, the better. Pretending to came out of a stupor, he grunted to catch the mortals' attention.
“Bring me some water,” the woman ordered, crouching to get to Xie Lian’s eye level. “Can you talk, boy? How many fingers do you see?”
“I see four, ma’am,” he replied with a whisper and softly pushed Hua Cheng's hands away from his face. “Thanks for stopping, I'm sorry you had to find us like this.”
"What happened?"
"My nephew has a mysterious illness that no doctor can figure out," Xie Lian explained slowly, as if speaking was very hard for him, to give himself time to come up with more stuff for their backstory. "His father thought he'd bring misfortune to the household, so he..."
A shallow wooden bowl filled with water entered Xie Lian's field of vision. He didn't have to pretend to be thirsty; the mere sight of it made his parched throat quiver and his tongue stick to the roof of his mouth.
"He left me to die and shushu saved me," Hua Cheng finished for him with petulance, then took the bowl from whoever was holding it and brought it to Xie Lian's lips. "Here, shushu. Drink slowly."
Xie Lian felt strange drinking from the bowl in Hua Cheng's hands instead of holding it himself, but he played along. The immense relief that came with the first gulp took him by surprise. Was the water imbued with spiritual power? A quick look let him determine that such was the case: the bowl was made of peach wood and it had a protective inscription carved at the bottom. A weak ghost wouldn't be able to hold the bowl, and even a strong one would struggle drinking from it. Their method to identify evil wasn't too dissimilar from the ones he taught at Puqi village, and the fact that they were using water reminded him of his own actions towards the puppet that started his investigation on Banyue pass. It was heart-warming, in a way.
“I see. Well, you can tell me the rest of the story later.” Satisfied with her test, the woman gestured to the people behind her. “Make some space for them, see if there’s something we can use as a cushion.”
“Kid, come here, drink some water too,” one of the people in the back said, apparently a young man. “Have you guys eaten something?”
Reluctantly, Hua Cheng left Xie Lian's side, taking the empty bowl with him. The woman gave her torch to someone and started to unceremoniously check Xie Lian's head.
“Were you attacked by bandits?” she questioned.
“By... my brother's men,” Xie Lian answered, unsure of whether to laugh or cry because their bizarre backstory was being surprisingly useful.
“Here’s more water,” Hua Cheng said, arriving with a small jar. “Is shushu going to be alright?”
“I think so, child,” the woman replied and took the jar from his hands to make Xie Lian drink, being starkly less careful than Hua Cheng. “Where do you come from? What's your name?”
“Our family is from the Imperial Capital,” Hua Cheng answered as Xie Lian was busy trying not to choke. “I'm Xie Cheng.”
Xie Lian tried to meet Hua Cheng’s eyes, but the woman started handling him like a rag doll to clean his wound and didn’t allow it. Hua Cheng was free to choose whatever name he wanted to introduce himself, but why had he rejected the name ‘Hong’ with such a face? Why had he reacted like that? Was it part of his real name?
Most likely, Xie Lian had got a concussion from the stone hit and wasn't thinking straight. To be frank, the issue was probably that being named after one’s own favourite colour was shockingly unrefined. It was too in the face, not Hua Cheng’s style at all.
“Is your head numb?” the woman asked, which made Xie Lian realise he had forgotten to flinch in pain as normal people would do.
“I think so, yes,” he said, trying to sound tired. “How might we address you, ma’am?”
“My family name is Yun and I'm the current head of the house, so Madam Yun works. And you are?”
“Xie d—” he started, then realised the woman thought him too young to be a Taoist priest, “… Lian.”
“Alright then, xiao Xie, you hit your head badly, so you better hold onto me and tell me if you feel dizzy. We're standing up.”
Xiao Xie! This woman really thought of him as a child. Xie Lian tried to see Hua Cheng's face once again, but it was too dark to distinguish his expression. Madam Yun pulled him up and made him support himself with an arm on her shoulders, helping him walk to the nearest cart, where an improvised bed of hay was waiting for him.
“A-Cheng, get in the cart and sit down. You will be in charge of your uncle’s head,” Madam Yun instructed.
Hua Cheng gave the torch to someone else and did as told. He perfectly kept his act of obedient concern, so much so that Xie Lian couldn’t figure out if he had finally come fully back to his senses. Trying to read his expression, he didn’t notice when Madam Yun bent to lift him from the ground.
“How long have you been on the run to be this skinny?” she asked, effortlessly making him sit down in the hay bed. “You really need to gain some weight.”
Xie Lian was a martial god, he was everything but light or skinny! What did Madam Yun do for a living to be able to carry him so nonchalantly?
“Shushu says he doesn’t need much food because of his cultivation, so he gives it all to me,” Hua Cheng explained while he took Fang Xin from Xie Lian’s back. “I hope shushu can eat something soon, to help his injuries.”
“Ah, cultivation,” Madam Yun didn’t sound happy. “Your uncle will eat plenty at the house, don’t you worry,” she assured, and then pushed Xie Lian to lie down.
To his utter shock, she made him rest his head on Hua Cheng’s lap.
“Hold your uncle’s head in this position, so the bumps of the road don’t make his wound worse,” she indicated, making a very livid Xie Lian tilt his head towards Hua Cheng’s body. “You can use this handkerchief to press.”
“Thank you so much, Madam Yun.”
Whatever else the woman said, Xie Lian paid no attention to it. As soon as she left to get back to the front of the cart, he tried to sit up, but Hua Cheng’s little hands kept him in place with the force of an elephant.
“Don't move, gege. You will hurt your head.”
On the private communication array, Hua Cheng’s voice was dripping with mischievous delight. Xie Lian closed his eyes tight, wishing he could pass out instantly, or better, pass away altogether. He really couldn't just rest on Hua Cheng’s lap, his face wasn’t thick enough.
“Pray this scrawny body makes for a comfortable pillow.”
Xie Lian groaned, telling himself that there was no way in heaven he could get comfortable in the midst of such an embarrassing situation. He felt Hua Cheng’s cold and soft thumb rub one of his cheeks, transferring a spark of spiritual energy, and then something icy fluttered in the back of his head.
After a moment, any trace of discomfort coming from his wound completely disappeared. He tensed and could perceive what most likely was one of Hua Cheng’s silver butterflies hovering around his body, going up and down in search of more injuries. It soon found the cut of the arrow in his calf and healed it as well.
“Don’t exhaust your spiritual power unnecessarily.”
“How could attending to gege’s injuries be unnecessary?”
Hua Cheng always put on a tone of righteous reproach when it came to Xie Lian's injuries, making a big deal of menial things. It was a bit awkward and embarrassing, yet it made him feel warm too.
“Don’t get me wrong, I'm very thankful. I just worry these humans will be suspicious if they don’t find any wound when we arrive to their home.”
“You still look injured, you're just healed underneath.”
Ah, of course.
Despite the constant shaking of the cart on the bumpy road, Xie Lian quickly fell asleep. How exhausted he had to be! Without any real injury to nurse, Hua Cheng didn’t have a reason to hold his head, but nothing could have persuaded him not to cradle it like a treasure, feeling endlessly privileged. While Xie Lian didn’t mind sharing a bed with him or having him around, he was shy and skittish, and so far Hua Cheng hadn't had the chance to hold him in this way.
Unfortunately, the fact that Xie Lian had tried to call him Honghong’er kept buzzing in his brain and didn’t let him fully enjoy the present situation. Up to that moment, he hadn't considered that his sealed form looked alike to his mortal body when they first met. He wasn’t even sure if it was that similar; he barely knew how he looked when he was alive. Back then, he had no access to the only mirror in his household, and he wore bandages all the time. Even when he saw himself in a well or something, the image wasn't too clear.
He knew that, sooner or later, Xie Lian would learn the truth. He'd hoped it'd be from his own mouth, when he could gather the courage and find a way to reveal it all without making Xie Lian feel guilty. It was true that he allowed Hua Cheng to remain in the world as a ghost, which was normally considered to be a troubling and regrettable thing —his god had expressed as much himself, many years ago, next to a river full of drifting lanterns and a few ghost fires. However, it'd been Hua Cheng’s choice to stay, and truly, being a ghost was better than being some puny and powerless human. With a bit of apprehension, he slid his hand down and gently rubbed the bandages that covered Xie Lian’s cursed shackle. In order to protect him, becoming a ghost, a calamity while he was at it, was the best decision. After all, Jun Wu couldn't restrain ghosts with those fucking things.
What to do, though? Xie Lian seemed to have figured out that Hua Cheng was the child he saved during the Shangyuan heavenly ceremonial procession all those years ago. He wasn’t sure, though, he didn’t have enough information. How much should he prod to learn the truth? How much should he explain? Perhaps he could avoid the subject; Xie Lian was not the kind of person who pushed for answers regarding private matters.
What a mess. He had to ask Xie Lian exactly how he'd behaved during the fit that day. So far, for how he was still light-headed, and considering how long he'd been out, it felt like when he first had to deal with Mount Tonglu’s opening, one century after becoming a ghost king. Without proper experience to keep himself in check then, he'd endured great misery, wasting all his energy avoiding humans and ghosts alike so he didn’t massacre them by mistake. He'd run deep into wild valleys and even to the bottom of the sea, desperately calling for Xie Lian without finding him. He was tormented by all the pain that ghosts shouldn't be able to feel, while remaining unable to shed any blood or tears to get some relief.
It had been horrible. Lonely and horrible. Hua Cheng had become better at dealing with the horror, but loneliness was a merciless creature with sharp fangs. When the arousal of ghosts found him next to Xie Lian, Hua Cheng was trapped between the fear of doing something bad to his god and the absolute terror of, once again, having to endure that torture without him. He still didn’t know exactly what he'd done to Xie Lian that night and he loathed himself for it. He loathed himself even more because, despite it, he hadn't hesitated for a second before betraying Xie Lian’s trust, sneaking into his shrine in the shape of that ghost Lang Ying right after Xie Lian told him they shouldn't see each other for some time. Xie Lian was easy to read, it was obvious that looking at Hua Cheng conflicted him somehow after that night, yet Hua Cheng had put his weakness first. He ran to his god's presence in selfish desperation, telling himself that, always that he could see Xie Lian, he’d be able to keep the pain and the madness under control.
He'd been mostly right. Whenever the urge to kill or the sorrow invaded his senses, just looking at Xie Lian calmed him down. Besides, Hua Cheng’s sealed form was weak and dumb and inconvenient, yes, but it looked like a child, and Xie Lian really liked children, which, well…
In the past few days, by his own initiative, Xie Lian had hugged and carried Hua Cheng more times than he could count. He'd held his hand for hours at a time, he kept squeezing his cheeks and nuzzling his hair. He shared blankets with him every night and made his hair every morning. His attention brought Hua Cheng a level of comfort and reassurance he hadn’t even imagined before. Even the smallest gesture of tenderness coming from Xie Lian could push all the rage of the volcano to the far corners of Hua Cheng’s mind and make him forget that it was there.
Perhaps that had been the problem. Perhaps Hua Cheng had got too comfortable basking in Xie Lian’s attention, shamelessly taking advantage of his good heart until, due to his carelessness, a wave of the mountain’s evil influence impacted his brain directly, taking him out of commission like a stupid novice. Not happy with doing who knew what unspeakable thing to Xie Lian in the temple and then getting his shrine destroyed, he'd now got him injured and exhausted, and there was a chance he'd also revealed his identity without a back-up plan to buffer the shock.
Useless. Did he really pretend to protect his god like this? They were going to Mount Tonglu; all the scourge of the world was waiting for them. He had to leave both the shape and mind-set of a brat behind as soon as possible.
“Kid, are you alright?” a voice whispered. “How’s your uncle doing?”
It was the young man who’d given them that nasty spiritual water. He'd been sitting at the front of the cart with Madam Yun. Maybe the woman asked him to check on them.
“Shushu is asleep.”
“Asleep or unconscious?”
“Asleep.”
“No wonder, he looked dog-tired. If he can stomach food, he can eat when we arrive, which should be soon.”
“Alright.”
“Will you eat?”
“I'm not hungry.”
“Come on, your uncle will be sad if you don’t eat,” the young man said and offered Hua Cheng a steamed bun. “Here.”
Trying not to frown, Hua Cheng received it and the man left them alone.
Steamed buns seemed to be Xie Lian’s favourite food. Hua Cheng didn’t know if that was because he truly liked them, or because they were cheap and easy to find. Too bad they weren't very nutritious. Madam Yun was right, Xie Lian was a bit too lean for a martial god or a man his apparent age, for that matter.
To Hua Cheng’s dismay, it was surprisingly difficult to make him eat properly. It wasn't that Xie Lian was a picky eater —on the contrary, he ate things that could kill a middle court heavenly official and disperse a wrath level ghost, leaving nothing to waste. The issue was that he broke all the food he could get into little portions so it lasted him longer. With time, this had made the size of his meals quite small, and making him indulge in a big feast was close to impossible.
Hua Cheng thought about keeping the bun until Xie Lian woke up to offer it to him. However, Madam Yun had said he’d have plenty to eat when they arrived to wherever they were going. Knowing Xie Lian, if Hua Cheng gave him the bun, he'd consider his food for the next three days sorted and then he'd find a way to leave the mortals' home without accepting any more provisions, arguing that he didn't want to be an inconvenience. Hua Cheng felt compelled to breathe, just so he could sigh in frustration. In two bites, he ate the whole bun.
The carts left the main road shortly afterwards, entering a grove that soon opened to reveal a big tea plantation. Holding Xie Lian tight, now that the road had become bumpier, Hua Cheng could see lines and lines of tea shrubs make drawings on the soft hills, and a big property of several buildings at the end of the nearest slope.
“Kid, wake up your uncle and see if he can walk,” the young man said in a low voice when they stopped in front of the first building, one that looked like a servant’s house.
“Can I be so shameless as to ask for shushu to be carried?” Hua Cheng requested (with great effort, but willing to go to any length in order to ensure that Xie Lian remained at those humans' property for enough time to rest, eat and recover). “I haven't seen him sleep so soundly in many days; it'd be better not to wake him up.”
“Not even to eat?” asked the young man, eyeing Xie Lian with an arched brow. “When was the last time he ate something?”
“He had some berries in the morning,” Hua Cheng admitted through gritted teeth. “But young master, shushu is a light sleeper. This isn’t normal. I think he needs to rest now.”
“Alright. You know him better than I do. Also, cultivators train to be able to live out of just air and sunlight, don't they?” the man reasoned humorously and Hua Cheng bit his tongue to stop himself from reacting. “Do you reckon he'll mind being carried, though?”
“He won't,” he affirmed. Xie Lian got embarrassed when carried, but he didn't take offence. How Hua Cheng felt about someone else carrying his god, though, was an entirely different issue, but with his current body, he could do nothing but suck it up.
With a nod, the young man jumped off the cart and approached them. He had broad shoulders like Madam Yun and the same strong brows. It was obvious that they were related.
“Hold his head and put it against my shoulder,” the young man instructed and he lifted Xie Lian with a swift move; one arm in his back, the other under his knees. “There’s a candle at the entrance, take it and follow me.”
Hua Cheng made sure that Xie Lian’s head rested properly against the man’s shoulder, then took Fang Xin and got off the cart to follow them, ferociously digging his claws on the cheap sheath of the sword to vent his frustration. He should be the one carrying Xie Lian. He should be carrying him to his bed in Paradise Manor to kiss him goodnight, and then he should go to Mount Tonglu to shove Mu Qing, Feng Xin, Ling Wen, Jun Wu and all the other heavenly trash into a pool of lava. He should turn the volcano upside down and destroy it forever.
What should he do with the statues, though?
The statues!
They arrived to a small room. The young man carefully placed Xie Lian on a narrow wooden bed and turned to Hua Cheng, finding him white as marble, like if his soul had been scared away from his body.
“You need to get some rest too. Your uncle said you're sick and you're pale as the moon right now,” he said. “I'll bring you blankets to cushion the floor.”
“Thank you, young master Yun,” Hua Cheng mumbled, trying his best to put himself together.
“Aren’t you a perceptive little one?” the young man praised with a smirk. “If you need to ask for me, my quarters are in the main building. We'll send someone to bring you there for breakfast.”
“Alright.” Hua Cheng put the candle on the windowsill and propped Fang Xin against the wall next to it. “I appreciate it.”
After giving him the blankets and a crate of water, young master Yun left them alone. Hua Cheng resisted the urge to slap himself for a while, then hesitated for even longer, and finally went to unfasten Xie Lian’s belt and sash, folding them neatly next to the bed. He proceeded to untie Xie Lian’s hair and remove his boots and socks, which, much to his dismay, revealed that his feet had blistered.
How could he skip Xie Lian’s feet when he checked him on the cart? Running and jumping for so long, obviously he'd hurt them. Hua Cheng bit on his sleeve while the butterflies took care of the blisters. At least Xie Lian seemed to sense some relief, because he sighed softly.
Once he folded Xie Lian’s clothes and surveyed the building with his butterflies to ensure there were no threats, Hua Cheng decided against laying the blankets on the floor to pretend to sleep, opting to tuck Xie Lian in them instead. The house was in good condition and it was somewhat warm inside, but regardless, it was late autumn.
After putting out the candle, Hua Cheng sat on a wooden box. The flames inside him were stirring up again, he didn’t know if because of Mount Tonglu or because he was anxious about the statues and paintings he'd left in the mountain’s caves. They were very well hidden, but Xie Lian had a supernatural ability to find everything he should not.
Under no circumstances could Hua Cheng allow his god to climb the mountain. Whatever ghost wanted to try the kiln, it had to be exterminated in the outskirts of the old kingdom. It was the only way.
Looking at Xie Lian’s peaceful sleeping face, Hua Cheng felt vulnerable. What would he do if those divine features twisted in anger and disgust against him? While alive, Hua Cheng had promised to build many temples for Xie Lian, and the thousands of statues he'd erected in the volcanic caves for worship were the closest he'd got to fulfil that promise. However, nobody would accept that as an explanation. What good believer dared to paint himself next to his god? What good believer portrayed his god without clothes? Those caves were sinful and heretic from beginning to end.
Hua Cheng’s right eye socket started to throb. He couldn't show any weakness now, or the influence of the mountain would take over. He put his elbows on his knees and held his head with both hands. Eight hundred years to get ready, yet he hadn't found the words to explain himself. Now Xie Lian had probably found out about his identity through something he had let slip while unconscious, and they were walking straight to the place where Hua Cheng had buried all his secrets. He was doomed.
“San Lang?”
Hua Cheng lifted his head in time to see Xie Lian raise to support himself on his elbows, groggily taking on their surroundings.
“We’re at the Yun’s property. It’s a big tea plantation,” Hua Cheng explained. “They’ll offer us breakfast in the morning. Your Highness should sleep until then.”
Xie Lian sat up slowly. The scarce light of the moon made his jade features glow. He was more beautiful than any statue Hua Cheng had ever carved.
“What about you?” his god asked. “Are you hurting again?”
“I’m fine,” Hua Cheng lied.
He’d been lying for months about everything. Stupid! Idiot! Unable to hold Xie Lian’s gaze, he lowered his head again.
“I can’t stand what that mountain is doing to you.”
Hua Cheng heard the quiet padding of bare feet approaching. Xie Lian crouched in front of him so they were at the same level, but Hua Cheng still didn’t meet his eyes.
“I've been thinking… If we could find the source of its power and destroy it, then you wouldn't have to go through this ever again.” Gently, Xie Lian moved Hua Cheng’s hair away from his face, as if coaxing him to look at him. “It's the least I… I hope it's possible.”
Destroying the source of the kiln’s power? That was downright unthinkable. Hua Cheng smiled despite himself. It was just like his god to consider taking on impossible tasks in order to help someone else. Perhaps it was self-defeating and delusional to think this way, but if there was someone able to learn about the statues or anything else Hua Cheng had done, and forgive him, it’d be Xie Lian. Hua Cheng just needed to trust him, like he’d always done… and play the cards he had left with perspicacity. Didn’t he know the nature of games of chance and fortune better than anyone? No risk, no gain.
He finally raised his head to look at Xie Lian in the eye and smiled genuinely for the first time that day.
“Thank you, shushu.”
Xie Lian snorted and stood up, offering him a hand.
“No need to thank me, Chengcheng.”
Hua Cheng let out a chuckle and allowed Xie Lian to help him stand up. No matter how many worries weighed him down, he could appreciate the hilarity of a heavenly official coming up with sweet versions of the name that brought terror and dread upon the three realms.
“You said you couldn't possibly fall asleep again, but would you give it a try?” Xie Lian asked sweetly, guiding him towards the bed. “This is quite a nice bed, it’d be a shame to… San Lang?”
Hua Cheng squeezed Xie Lian’s hand with more strength than necessary. He’d just blinked and the world had become blurry. He raised his gaze towards Xie Lian and blinked a few more times, but he still couldn’t see his god’s face.
“Gege?” he called, uncertain, and immediately felt two strong hands on him.
“I’m here,” Xie Lian said and Hua Cheng felt himself being lifted and sat on the bed with one swift movement. “I’m here, San Lang. Stay with me, alright?”
The alarm in his voice made Hua Cheng understand that he was about to black out once more. Knowing that any other slip could ruin his game for good made panic and fury climb together up his throat like bile. Fuck that cursed mountain. He wasn’t going to relinquish control to it again.
“Whatever you need to do to feel better, just do it,” Xie Lian urged. “I'll help however I can.”
Following an impulse, Hua Cheng extended both arms towards him and let himself blindly fall into his embrace. Without missing a beat, Xie Lian hugged him back, pressing him against his heartbeat, his breathing, and the ashes hanging from his neck.
“Don’t leave,” Hua Cheng whispered and the words stung in his mouth. He vaguely remembered saying the same thing in Qiandeng Temple.
“I’m here.”
Holding Xie Lian tightly, Hua Cheng allowed his presence, the fact that he was real and there with him, to fill his mind up to the last dark corner. Xie Lian had always been his anchor, the light that could guide him through any storm, and this one was no exception. He was vaguely aware of how his boots and belt were discarded, and of the weight of blankets on top of him. He didn’t care. All that mattered was the unbelievable reality he’d lived in since he found his god again, one where misery wasn’t fuelled by loneliness, and how he’d never let go of it.
“It’s over, gege,” he announced in a whisper when the throbbing subsided a little and his vision cleared. “I’m sorry to have scared you.”
Xie Lian hugged him tighter. “Is this happening because we’re getting closer to Mount Tonglu?”
“It isn’t a matter of distance, but of time,” Hua Cheng answered, half-heartedly resisting the lull of Xie Lian’s heady warmth. “There’s no need to worry, though. I’ve told you already, it’ll be over soon.”
“We’ll wait it out.” Xie Lian sounded resolute. “I said before that we should wait until your period of aggravation ended, and that’s what we’ll do now.”
“The gates of Tonglu won’t remain open forever.”
“According to the heavenly emperor, the gathering of all ghosts should take at least a couple of months. We have time.”
“The aggravation lasts for as long as the mountain calls for us. If I can feel that it’ll be over soon, it means the gates will soon be sealed shut as well.”
Xie Lian clicked his tongue in frustration. After a few seconds of him seemingly mulling over their options, he sighed deeply and curled on himself, burying his face in Hua Cheng’s hair.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured. “It’s just that you’re in this mess because of me, and I can’t even bring you any relief.”
Hua Cheng would have none of that. Xie Lian brought him all the relief, Xie Lian was the only person able to bring him any relief!
“That’s not true,” he said quietly but firmly, glaring at his own ashes that now dangled right in front of his eyes. “It’s not your fault that you have to pick up the mess of other heavenly officials, and I was the one who decided to sneak upon gege’s shrine while suffering from this condition.”
Xie Lian’s pensive hum in reply turned into a quiet yawn. Always polite, he let go of Hua Cheng to be able to cover his mouth with one hand, which left the ghost king feeling a little bereft.
“We’ve had this conversation before, haven’t we?” Xie Lian commented, shuffling a bit to get more comfortable. “Let’s not dwell on it any longer.”
Hua Cheng was about to agree and let Xie Lian sleep when an idea occurred to him.
“May I say one more thing?”
“Hmm?”
“I think we should stay here for one or two days.”
“Really?” Xie Lian asked, sounding a bit more awake.
“Yes. You see, Madam Yun and the young master are very worried about shushu’s injury,” Hua Cheng explained, taking on a fake nervous tone that made Xie Lian’s chest tense to contain a chuckle, which in turn made the corners of Hua Cheng’s lips curl into a smile. “They’re also curious about the mysterious illness that shushu said Chengcheng suffers from. If we leave too soon, they’ll grow suspicious and maybe accuse us of being liars or demons.”
“That would be very bad,” Xie Lian agreed, evidently amused.
“Indeed. As shushu ran so fast and so far, staying two days here won’t delay our journey, and it’ll ensure that the mortals don’t suspect us.”
“What a clever nephew I have.” Xie Lian sighed in relief, sounding tired but content. “We’ll do it that way.”
Happy with the arrangement, Hua Cheng didn't notice how he allowed himself to nestle comfortably against Xie Lian’s torso.
“Good night, gege.”
“Good night, San Lang.”