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Chapter Text

The array restraining them had been slowly losing power for the past few hours, at first unnoticeably so, but as time passed by, the grip on their souls loosened and the two ghost fires started glowing more brightly. They could only hope about what it meant. One flame seized the opportunity and started to trash against the magical barrier surrounding them with more force at each thrust. The second ghost fire, which at first stayed in a corner, wary, decided to join the other when it saw that the only thing happening was the barrier flickering.

Suddenly, from one moment to the next, the array's power dropped drastically, now weakening at an alarming rate - as if its energy was being drained completely. Then, a red, dying, flash and the room turned green, completely basked into the light of two ghost fires at their strongest. Then the darkness again and an eerie silence.

“San Lang!” Xie Lian turned around to show the sugar sculpting stand. “Look, this tángrén¹ is shaped like E-Ming! Isn’t it adorable?”

Hua Cheng took it in his hand and observed it with clear skepticism. “It doesn’t look like it at all. The blade is too curved and the handle is crooked.”   

“Ah, San Lang…” Xie Lian smiled apologetically at the vendor, even though said vendor didn’t seem distraught in the slightest.

“I can make one for gege much better than that trash,” Hua Cheng said with a decisive nod, his voice full of contempt, but he still slid a silver coin to the merchant before giving back the sculpture to Xie Lian.

Just as Xie Lian was about to protest, Ruoye tugged him violently toward the crowd, making him trip in the process.

“Ruoye!” Xie Lian admonished. The silk band had been acting up all day for no apparent reason, tugging him this or that way in Ghost City. It was acting like a dog barking at every other dog it saw on the street, except that there was nothing to bark at. Xie Lian had looked closely at the auras of the people around him all day, but he hadn’t sensed any unusual presence – well, unusual for Ghost City anyway. His husband would have surely been more useful, but Xie Lian didn’t want to disturb him.

It hadn’t been long since he came back, and was most of the time swamped with work. His and Yin Yu’s disappearances had left Ghost City in disarray. And with the rumors that Black Water had also been killed, a lot of wraths – and other delusional low-level ghosts – had tried their luck at taking over the city. Those coups attempts had been delt with rather quickly and easily enough. After all, even if Hua Cheng was still not completely back at his full power, no wrath or savage could possibly compare to him. But there was still a lot of more boring duties to take care of, and Yin Yu – who had only just regained a human form thanks to Quan Yizhen’s efforts after spending a year as a ghost fire – was still in extended vacation. Though Xie Lian had no doubt that he would soon go back to work to finally have an excuse to get away from his shidi.

Hua Cheng, of course, did his utmost to spend as much time as he could with Xie Lian, but on top of all of that, he had also taken a month-long vacation after their wedding, which didn’t help with his workload. They barely even saw each other during the day for the past week. Now, Hua Cheng had just joined him for a stroll in the city before dinner and Xie Lian didn’t want to ruin it because of Ruoye’s antics.

Still, Hua Cheng caught him when he tripped and looked down at him with concern. “Gege, is everything alright?”

“Yes, yes, don’t worry. Ruoye is just acting up,” Xie Lian dismissed him. “He can be pretty unruly when he wants to.” It wasn’t completely a lie. Ruoye could be a bit rowdy sometimes, but not to that point and not when Xie Lian curtly rebuked him. It knew how to read Xie Lian’s emotions better than anyone. The god had wondered many times if maybe the silk band could sense them because of how it was born.

Hua Cheng didn’t seem convinced but dropped the subject seeing that Xie Lian didn’t want to talk about it. “It’s getting late, does gege want to have diner in Ghost City or at Paradise Manor?”

“I think I’d rather go home.” Even though Xie Lian really loved the city and felt much more at home there than in the Heavens – not that it was hard to feel more at home than in the Heavens –, Ghost City was a lot and could quickly become too much, especially when every single ghost, demon, yao and human in the street was looking at them both. Their little stroll had been fun, but Xie Lian was starting to get tired and at the moment wanted nothing more than to spend some peaceful time alone with his husband.

“Is gege going to cook then?” Hua Cheng asked, taking his arm and leading him back to the manor.

“Mn,” Xie Lian agreed. “What do you want?”

“I can’t possibly choose. Whatever gege makes is a blessing to my palate,” Hua Cheng said with cheer.

Xie Lian let out a laugh at his husband's antics. “Alright, alright. I guess I’ll improvise.” He shook his head with fondness.

“Even better,” Hua Cheng grinned.

The rest of the walk passed like this, with Hua Cheng trying to cheer Xie Lian up, which he appreciated, and it worked for the most part, but he was still a bit lost in thought.

When they arrived at Paradise Manor, a bulky ghost with a bluish skin was anxiously waiting for them at the front door, not daring to enter inside the manor. Xie Lian recognised him as part of the Gambler's Den security team. He was holding a scroll in his hands. 

When he saw the ghost king coming, he straightened up. “Chengzhu, I'm sorry to disturb you and Grand-Uncle, but I have the report you asked for.”

Hua Cheng frowned, clearly unhappy to have more work thrown his way, but despite what he said, Xie Lian knew that he cared deeply about his city and took his role seriously. 

Hua Cheng dismissed the ghost with a torn look.

“Take care of your work,” Xie Lian told him. “You don't have to cook with me.” They both enjoyed the simple domesticity of preparing their meals together, with Hua Cheng following Xie Lian's lead - cutting vegetables and stirring pots. Nowadays it was rare for Xie Lian to work in the kitchen alone, preparing dinner without his husband's comforting presence. 

“But gege, I want to be with you,” Hua Cheng pouted. 

“And you'll be soon enough,” Xie Lian answered with a laugh. “A few incense times and I'll be all yours.” He immediately regretted saying that when he saw the grin that appeared on his husband's face. 

“Fine. If I get gege as a prize, I guess I can work a bit more,” Hua Cheng said, all previous gloom forgotten. 

Xie Lian's face turned red and he fled to the kitchen as his husband laughed. 

While he cooked, he got lost in thoughts trying to figure out what could have made Ruoye act the way he had. And so, the god didn’t pay attention to what he was doing. When he came back to himself, he was left in front of a dish of rice balls that looked much more edible than usual. He wouldn’t go as far as to call it good, but definitely not bad. He frowned.

Swallowing the wave of sadness about to overwhelm him, he messed the dish up. On a whim he added some sauce and herbs that definitely didn’t go together and tinted the rice brown, as well as a full branch of mahogany that was only a little rotten and should have probably been thrown away.

When he stared at the plates, he thought that the rice balls looked a bit like dead birds on a branch. It looked like… It looked like “Lovebirds Upon a Branch meatballs”². He didn’t know how he felt about that. He shook his head and carried the plates to the dining room, not wanting to dwell on it.

Hua Cheng was absent mindedly playing with his chopsticks while reading his scroll. When Xie Lian entered the room, he immediately discarded the scroll and smiled at him.

Xie Lian returned the smile, trying to forget about his uneasiness and put the two plates on the table before taking a sit next to his husband.

“What’s the name if this dish gege?” Hua Cheng asked before starting eating. He would always ask him every time he cooked something. Even before Xie Lian told him why he named his dishes, he knew it held significance to him.

“… Lovebirds Upon a Branch meatballs” Xie Lian answered hesitantly.

Xie Lian rarely talked about his parents, if ever. Although 800 years had passed, it was still a sensitive subject for him. But as much as he didn’t want to talk about it, it was important to him.

A few months after Hua Cheng came back, he found Xie Lian weeping while holding Ruoye, apologizing to the ribbon, a discarded pair of scissors next to him. “I’m sorry Ruoye! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I know it’s not your fault. I’m sorry!” Hua Cheng knew that Xie Lian had a complicated relationship with Ruoye. He had seen how he acted toward it 800 years ago when it appeared for the first time, with infinite hatred and hurt in his eyes. Back then, Hua Cheng hadn’t known how Ruoye came to be, but he could only guess that it wasn’t good. After all, it appeared at the worst time of Xie Lian’s life.

“Gege, gege!” Hua Cheng had pried Ruoye out of his hands and held Xie Lian to his chest, trying to comfort him. That night, Xie Lian had told him about Ruoye’s birth, and they had had a long discussion about his parents, interrupted by Xie Lian’s ugly sobs.

Hua Cheng smiled at him with infinite kindness and understanding. He sat closer to Xie Lian and took him in his arms, stroking his hand. It wasn’t convenient for eating, but Xie Lian couldn’t have cared less. It made him feel better as he leaned on Hua Cheng’s side with a sigh.

The rest of the dinner was uneventful as Hua Cheng made light conversation while they ate.

A few hours later, laying in bed, Xie Lian whispered in his husband’s chest “I just wish you could have met them.” Hua Cheng hugged him closer. “I think my mom would have loved you,” Xie Lian continued. “My dad not so much”, he let out a small, sullen, laugh. “We never agreed on anything.”

Hua Cheng just kissed his forehead and hold him to his chest to show him that he was here and that he was listening. But he didn’t know what to say. After all, he didn’t have the best relationship with his parents either.

After that, Xie Lian stopped talking and they both fell asleep.

The two ghosts, a man and a woman, were observing their surroundings apprehensively. They were looking for someone to approach but there were so many inhuman creatures around them that it made them anxious, and the few humans scattered in the crowd didn’t look like a much better option.

They had been wandering haphazardly for a few months when one day they stopped at the only shrine in a small village to rest for a few hours. The shed was a bit dilapidated as it was a village of farmers that barely had enough to feed themselves and therefore had no money to spare to build an actual shrine, but it was still clearly well cared for, cleaned dutifully and with fresh fruits on the altar. The two ghosts didn’t recognize the god whose statue was displayed as it had been grossly crafted out of a piece of wood by inexperienced hands.

A shrine was not the best place to stay for ghosts, but the man refused to acknowledge his unhuman status and had insisted they went in. The woman had expected the shrine to be warded against ghosts, but weirdly nothing had happened when they had gone in.

As they got up to leave and continue their travel, a man with greyish daoist robes entered the shrine. He was in all likelihood the one responsible for tending to the shrine.

“Oh, hello!” he said. “I haven’t seen you before. Were you praying to Dianxia?”

“Ah, we’re sorry,” the ghost woman said, “we were just passing by.”

The daoist looked at them curiously. “No one ever travels here.”

“We are just wandering here and there,” she answered evasively.

“Hum… Well, Dianxia can bless your travels! He is quite the wanderer himself you know,” the daoist said proudly. “Well, I guess less now but for the past 800 years he was,” he rambled to himself a bit.

The ghost man, who hadn’t said a single thing since the other man came in, frowned. Why was this priest proud that his god was a vagrant?

“Really? Who exactly is this god?” the woman asked, curious.

“You haven’t heard of the Scrap Immortal?!” the daoist exclaimed, looking extremely shocked.

“Well, no?” she said, confused. Was he really that famous? And since when was there a god of scraps? That certainly didn’t sound very heavenly.

“But he defeated the previous heavenly emperor!”

That… was not what she expected. Could a scrap god really be that strong? “The… His Majesty Jun Wu?”

“Umph, that scum! He doesn’t deserve to be addressed so reverently.”

“How dare you!” the ghost man exclaimed. He couldn’t believe it. To talk like that about the heavenly emperor! The woman tried to calm him down, putting her hand on his arm.

“How dare you!” the daoist retorqued. “Do you not know what he did? He’s an impostor and a murderer. You should thank Dianxia for exposing and defeating him,” he nodded to himself.

“Wha- what?” The woman was shell-shocked. Although they obviously didn’t know the man themselves, their son had always talked about him with admiration and the head priest had spoke of him with a weird mixt of reverence and fondness. “Can you… Can you tell us everything that happened please?” It might give them information about their child.

The daoist humped, making sure to show his disapproval of the two ghosts, but quickly dropped it and started smiling, clearly too happy to recount his Dianxia’s heroicness.

After the man stopped talking, the woman turned back to the altar, looking at the idol with a deep gaze.  She didn’t know how to process all of that.

“So, he is a god again now,” the ghost man said finally. “He is in the Heavens.”

“Oh no, he’s only rarely in the heavenly realm. They say he spends most of his time in Ghost City and sometimes in the mortal realm,” the daoist corrected, finally moving to do what he had come for, lighting up some incense.

The other man frowned with scorn. “And why would he stay in the ghost realm?”

“Well, that’s Crimson Rain’s territory,” the Daoist simply answered.

On their travels, the two had heard a lot about Crimson Rain Sought Flower and Ghost City from other ghosts them met and humans alike. People would rather gossip about demons than gods.

“Daoshi³, you said they fought together. Are they close then?” the woman inquired, clear curiosity in her voice.

The priest looked at them for a second before laughing lightly. “Yeah, they’re sworn brothers. Some even say they’re married.”

The ghost man didn’t appear to find that very funny and was about to retort when the woman stopped him once again, not wanting to cause a scene. “Thank you so much Daoshi for taking the time to explain everything to us. We will get going now.” She bowed to him while the man defiantly looked at the priest and left without a word. She spared a glance at the altar regretfully, wishing she had anything to offer, before crossing the threshold.

That’s how the two ghosts found themselves in Ghost City.

“So, dear, do you think we should just ask them?” the woman pondered, not really expecting an answer. Her husband had been scowling the whole time.

“I don’t know why you believed that man. It was obviously a lie. He would never collude with a ghost,” the man said, looking distastefully at the chaos of people and shops around them.

She sighed. “It is the best lead we have had so far.” Really, it was the only lead they had, and it had been corroborated by plenty of people they met along the way. Her husband was just being, as always, stubborn. “And they also said that they saved the world.”

The man remained silent after that, and they kept walking along the seemingly infinite red lighted street.

Seeing that her husband was not going to help her, the woman decided to take the matter into her own hands and stop to the next shop she saw, asking about her son by herself. The shop in question would have looked like a normal noodle restaurant if not for the humanoid chicken bathing himself in a gigantic pot full of broth.

She forced herself to smile politely and not let her, uhm, sanitary concerns show on her face. “Excuse me!” The chicken stopped was he was doing and looked at her with a disturbing glare. “Um… I was wondering if you knew were Taizi Dianxia was?”

The chicken looked at her suspiciously. “Why do you want to know where Xie Daozhang is?”

She was trying to find an answer that would seem plausible when a pig holding a butcher’s shop next door butted in. “I saw Granduncle yesterday! He was here with Chengzhu.”

“Hey, who asked you!” objected the chicken.

“But Chengzhu’s not here today,” the pig ignored him and continued, “so I don’t know if Granduncle’s still here.”

“Yeah, there was this huge brawl with the green goblin’s lackeys earlier! Chengzhu went to kick them out,” a woman with an axe in her head that was passing by added.

“Pah! That trash never stops! Can’t see that our Chengzhu’s the best!” the chicken exclaimed.

“Yeah, Chengzhu didn’t even have to raise a finger to beat them up!” the butcher raised his bloody knife with excitement.

“How do you know? You weren’t even there!” the axe woman protested.

“I don’t need to to know that Chengzhu’s stronger than them. Are ya saying that he’s not?!” the pig accused.

“True, true, true,” the chicken said.

“You’re just trying to make yourself interesting!” the axe woman retorted.

While the three of them kept arguing, the two ghosts discreetly left. “There must be someone here who can direct us,” the woman sighed. If they could just find someone a little bit more... normal to talk to...

She look all around her, trying to spot anyone human-looking that seemed at least a bit amiable and didn't look like a crook. She was starting to despair when she bumped head first into someone.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I- ” the person said.

She froze when she heard that voice.

The day had begun well enough. The heartache of yesterday was gone, he checked in with Ling Wen who told him that everything was going well in Heaven, he had breakfast with his husband before going to the mortal realm to answer a few prayers, he even helped a cow give birth in Puqi village. But when he went back to Paradise Manor to have a late lunch with Hua Cheng, some of Qi Rong’s followers decided to spark trouble.

It was quite incredible that despite being almost dispersed and currently being trapped in a lantern as a ghost fire, some people still claimed to be his subordinates.

Xie Lian had wanted to go with Hua Cheng, but his husband insisted that he should rest and that he wouldn’t be long. So, Xie Lian went on a mindless stroll around the manor, looking for something to do, not wanting to sit still.

When he got closer to the entrance, Ruoye suddenly tensed up, stopping him in his tracks. “What is it Ruoye? Acting up again? There’s nothing outside.”

But Ruoye didn’t listen, tugging violently toward the door.

“Stop! Seriously what is wrong with you these days?” Xie Lian frowned, trying to force Ruoye back into his sleeve. But the ribbon only pulled him with even more urgency toward the street.

Being a bit irritated by him but having nothing better to do, Xie Lian decided to give up and follow him, at least until Hua Cheng came back.

An incense time later, Hua Cheng still hadn’t given him news and he was questioning whether he should contact him via his communication array to ask him if everything was alright. Realistically, he knew that things could not go wrong but there could always be complications.

Lost in thoughts, he wasn’t looking at where he went, simply letting Ruoye direct him – he well knew by then that the denizens of Ghost City would get out of his way anyway – when he bumped into someone.

He started apologizing by reflex before looking down. “Oh, I’m sorry. I- ”

The words got stuck in his throat. In front of him was a small woman, her hair tied inexpertly in two buns. She was dressed in simple clothes and looked a bit thin and tired, but her face was full of delight. Although it had been 800 years, she was exactly as he remembered her.

“Mother?”

His voice was small, tight with emotion, he didn’t want to fall victim to fake hopes as he so quickly had when Qi Rong had messed with her coffin. It was impossible. Not only was she dead, but her ashes had been… they had been scattered. But he would recognize her everywhere and couldn’t deny what he saw. No amount of blinking or pinching his arm made her form disappear.

“My son!” She jumped into his arms and engulfed him in a tight hug.

Oh, her voice! He had forgotten what she sounded like, but now that he heard it, he could tell that it hadn’t changed at all.

“Mama!” He hugged her back, putting all his despair into this embrace.

He let out a sob when he saw a man behind her, his hair grey, a complicated expression on his face.

“Father?” The man only nodded in answer and walked a little closer.

By then, every ghost in the street were looking at the three of them in shock. Were those two ghosts that had been asking around really Granduncle’s parents?

But Xie Lian couldn’t care less. His eyes stayed fixed on his father for a few seconds before looking back at his mother. “I’m sorry… Mama I’m sorry! I- I- I never wanted- ” By now his sobs were uncontrollable. He was wailing like a madman.

“It’s alright,” the queen interrupted him. She took his face in her hands and kissed both his cheeks and then his forehead, vainly wiping his tears with her thumbs again and again. “I’m so happy to see you A-Lian! We finally found you.” She was crying too.

They stayed like that, holding each other, whimpering and bawling on the dirty floor of a street full of people for a long time.

Uncharacteristically, the king didn’t say anything about the display.

Eventually, when Xie Lian calmed down a bit, he let go of his mother with great reluctance, fearing that were he to let her go, she would disappear. Nonetheless, he forced himself to get up, helping his mother, and looked at his father. He was suddenly aware of the hundreds of eyes fixed on them.

The king stared at him for a few seconds before giving him a short, brusque, hug. Xie Lian wasn’t expecting it. His father had never been one to show much emotion and most of their interactions had been filled with animosity and awkwardness since he was 12.

He looked at his parents, starting to tear up again. “What- what happened?” he let out between harsh breaths.

Chapter Text

The queen was lost. She didn’t know what to do. It appeared that no matter what she tried to cheer her son up, it only angered him more. She knew that her cooking was the opposite of good, but she put love in it and naively thought that it would be enough. Her “Love Birds Upon a Branch meatballs” were only meatballs by name – they were far from being able to afford meat and Xie Lian refused to hunt –, really it was just some cluster of burned rice, but she tried.

She could see that her son was suffering but she didn’t know what to do.

Feng Xin had just left, the stack of stolen gold and silver wares was still sitting on the table, discarded after their argument. And Xie Lian had locked himself in his room.

She was dragging him down, she knew that. Her son wouldn’t have had to resort to robbery if not for her and the former king. Feng Xin and he wouldn’t have fought. That child wouldn’t have left. Maybe, he would even have been able to take care of Jian Lan.

Feng Xin had kept his relationship from all of them, but when he came home after finding out that the poor woman had died, she saw immediately that something was wrong – more wrong than usual – and questioned him. The queen and Feng Xin had always had a good relationship, she almost considered him as a child of her own, and when she asked him what happened, he broke and cried in her arms, telling her all about the past few months. She had tried her best to comfort him, but in the end nothing she could say would have made the situation any better. Now he was gone too.

Her son had told her time and time again to stop worrying, to just stay put and rest, but when Mu Qing left, she took over all the household chores on top of taking care of the sick king. And with the departure of Feng Xin, she guessed she would have to find some work.

She sat heavily on a wobbly chair. Every time she thought things couldn’t get worst, another hardship came their way. She didn’t know the first thing about actual work, but as it was, Xie Lian was in no shape to help. She couldn’t possibly let him keep stealing. Not only she knew that it would eat him alive, but it was also too dangerous.

Everything went bad when he left the house, but he had panic attacks when he stayed at home and – she didn’t want to think about it – hallucinations. She couldn’t leave him alone, nor could she leave the king alone, but someone had to bring some money in.

She went to check on the king who was still sleeping in his room. He was up less and less these days, but there was no way to make it better without the right medication.

After making sure to leave a bowl of “Love Birds Upon a Branch meatballs” next to him in case he woke up and wanted to eat, she grab a bucket and her husband’s spare robes and walked to the river. Without actual soap, there was little point to wash them, but she couldn’t exactly leave him in dirty clothing.

As she bent down to fill the bucket with water, she heard a noise. It wasn’t exactly suspicious since she was in the forest, but for some reason this particular noise made her stop in her tracks. She stood up straight and looked waringly around her.

After a while without hearing anything else, she decided to quickly finish what she came to do and leave as fast as possible. She hurried back to the house. She had a bad feeling.

The queen stopped in front of the door. Something wasn’t right. She carefully opened the door. There was an eerie silence. Could she have scared herself over nothing? She wished.

The bucket of water had been half spilled in her hurry, but she couldn’t find in herself to care at the moment. She put the dripping robes on the table next to the gold and Xie Lian’s discarded portion of meatballs when she noticed that the king’s room was slightly open.

Her dread came back in full force as she approached the door. At first, she didn’t saw him. Her husband wasn’t in his bed. How could this be? He hadn’t be able to get up alone in days. But when she turned her head, she saw it.

That white ghost dressed in mourning clothing with his mocking mask, annunciator of death. She had never seen him before, but her son and his attendants had told her enough about him. There was no mistaking.

She had two realizations at that moment.

One, that her son had been right when he wept about being haunted by a ghost. That thing had been there all along and none of them believed him (“I’m sorry!” she cried in her mind).

And two, that she was going to die. Her husband lied still in the creature’s hands, and she knew he was dead. She couldn’t even focus on her pain. All she cared about right now was that her son was still in the next room. She knew that he couldn’t die, but still, she feared.

After two seconds spent in complete silence, as if time had frozen, she opened her mouth to scream, but in a flash of white, the creature got to her and put a talisman on her, effectively stopping all of her movements.

“Don’t look at me like that,” it whispered in her ear. “I didn’t kill him. He was already dead when I arrived. What a pity you couldn’t get him the right medicine, it was nothing but a benign cold,” he said, his voice filled with fake compassion.

The white ghost walked back to her husband body and grabbed it, carrying it with little care to the main room. With a flick of his hand, she felt her body moving against her will, following the ghost.

The calamity looked around the room for a bit before fixing his eyes on the roof beams. “That will do nicely,” he told himself.

When he grabbed the ribbon that her son had discarded earlier and used it to haul the king’s body off the floor, she understood was he was doing.

After he was done, he turned back to look at her and said “Don’t be too offended, it’s nothing personal, really. You just happened to be his mother.”

She wanted to scream, trash, do anything to alert her son that the ghost was here, but once again she was powerless.

The calamity walked towards her without urgency, knowing there was nothing she could do, and grabbed her.

“Please, please, please, please!” she screamed in her head. “Don’t do this to him! Please, don’t do this to him! Hadn’t he suffered enough?!” In her last moments, she couldn’t bring herself to care about her life, but only about her son. “A-Lian my baby, I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

She was silently crying when she passed, a white ribbon around her neck.

The next time she opened her eyes, the world was blurry. She didn’t know where she was, but she could hear sobs. No, laugher. Both.

She tried to open her eyes but she didn’t have eyes, so she just willed her consciousness to see. And what she saw was her son looking as in agony. The blood dripping from his forehead matching with the splatters on the wall, as if he had bashed his head against it hard enough to break skin.

She was barely aware when she saw her son bring down her and her husband’s bodies.

“I’m here!”

She was barely aware when she saw her son take their place and bring the ribbon to his neck.

“Please, I’m here!”

She was barely aware when she heard her son’s neck break and when she saw the ribbon moving for the first time.

“I’m here!”

She was barely aware when she saw her son’s body drop on the floor.

“I’m…”

She was barely aware but she burned with agony alongside her son.

Then her son left and she was alone.

She stayed in that house for days, ignorant of what happened to him, when the white ghost came back. “You’re still here,” he said slightly taken aback. “I guess I underestimated you.” Then he turned to a corner of the room and paused. “The both of you.”

Until then, she hadn’t realized the other presence, too focused on her grief. But when she looked in the same direction as the calamity, she saw a tiny ghost fire, barely burning. She wondered if it was what she looked like too.

He took her in his hand, and she knew that he could disperse her in a blink. But he looked thoughtful. “I guess you could be useful later, and it’s not like you could cause much trouble,” he said derisively before shoving her in a spirit trapping pouch with her husband’s ghost fire.

She was in the dark.

She felt it when he burned their bodies and took their ashes, then she was in the dark again.

The next time she woke up was when her son came close for the first time since it happened. She trashed, desperate to get out, wanting to see him but nothing she did had any effect. It was the first time her husband moved too.

She heard Bai Wuxiang talk to Xie Lian, offering him his condolences and telling him he buried them in dignity in the royal mausoleum.

“It’s not us!” she wanted to say. “Don’t listen to him! Please, don’t listen to him!”

After that, she doesn’t know what happened. The calamity stopped carrying them around, leaving them to rot in a cave protected by an array, alone.

During the first few months – years? – she tried, time and time again to break free of the magical seal on their soul, but it was meaningless. After a while, she just resigned herself to being trapped, but she did not pass, no. If there was the slightest chance that the array would break one day, she had to be here to go back to her son. “I’m so sorry I left you alone A-Lian. But I promise you, I’ll find you again one day.”

It surprised her that, despite being almost always inactive, her husband’s fire stayed steady too.

And that for 800 years.

Until one day, the array broke with no explanation.

It took them quite a while to reform after centuries spent being suppressed, but after a year, they finally left that cave.

She had to find her son.

Chapter Text

“Do we really have to talk in the middle of the street?” the king humphed.

“I- yes, you’re right,” Xie Lian stammered. “Please, follow me.”

As he started walking back to Paradise Manor, he couldn’t help but look back at his parents every few seconds to make sure they were still there. His mother noticed it and quietly grabbed his hand, squeezing it lightly. She didn’t let go for the rest of the way.

Xie Lian led them through multiple corridors before settling in a sitting room, stopping a servant on the way to ask for tea. The worker had bowed low and scurried away quickly after seeing his troubled expression and the strangers with him.

Usually, Xie Lian took the time to talk to them. At first, they had all been wary of him, but everyone quickly realized that Xie Daozhang was much more amicable than their Chengzhu. But right now, all he could bring himself to care about was the situation at hand.

They sat in the divans in awkward silence, his mother next to him and his father in front of him.

The king had been looking all around, clearly disapproving of the gaudiness of it all, while his mother only stared at him.

“What an admirable collection of paintings,” the queen tried to make small talk.

“Thank you,” Xie Lian replied evasively. Most of them were by Hua Cheng’s hand. Xie Lian had insisted to expose more of his husband’s art in the manor.

He had been trying to think of a way to tell Hua Cheng that his parents were here. He wanted him to be here. He needed him to be here. He didn’t want him to see his father, knowing that the king would say something scornful and then Xie Lian and him would fight. He didn’t have the energy to deal with that so soon. But Hua Cheng was going to come back at any time anyway, and it would definitely be preferable if Xie Lian let him know of the situation beforehand.

“So,” his mother started. “How have you been my son? I’m glad to see you have been doing better.”

“I- Fine. I’m fine.” He definitely hadn’t been fine the whole time, but he was not about to say that to his parents, and he was now, so that’s all that mattered. There was no need to dwell on anything else.

“San Lang,” he called in his array.

“I’m sorry I’m taking longer than expected gege,” Hua Cheng answered immediately, irritation clear in in voice. “That trash is too organized. I think they are working with someone else. Someone smarter than Qi Rong.”

“Mn,” Xie Lian acknowledged absent mindedly.

Hua Cheng noticed immediately that his husband’s tone was off. “Gege? Is something wrong?”

“Not wrong.”

Hua Cheng waited for him to continue but Xie Lian stayed silent.

“Then what happened?”

“My- urgh… my parents are here?” Xie Lian finally said, trying to keep his voice normal but ending up making it sound like a question.

“What?!” Hua Cheng let out with incredulity.

At that moment, three servants entered the room with tea and plates of small cakes.

“How did you know to find me here?” Xie Lan asked his parents, trying to buy himself some time before addressing not just their presence here in Ghost City but here as ghosts.

“I’m in the green sitting room with them right now,” he said to Hua Cheng in the array. Grabbing a purple sweet potato cake and biting it nervously.

“I’ll be here in five,” Hua Cheng answered before disconnecting.

“We met a Daoist in one of your shrines that told us you preferred to stay here now,” his mother graciously filled in, omitting the elephant in the room, drinking calmly from her cup. “We knew you would ascend again!” she said overjoyed.

“Right…” Xie Lian took a deep breath. “I think we should talk about how you are here. I saw you-” he stopped himself and looked at them intently. He could sense their ghostly auras. They had to be at least wraths. It didn’t make sense. “You shouldn’t be able to be ghosts,” he finished.

The king let out a derisive laugh.

“… I’m sorry A-Lian, we never intended to leave you.” His mother looked pained, and Xie Lian couldn’t stand it. He took her in his arms.

“We- ” When she started to explain, Xie Lian realized that he really didn’t want to do that alone.

“Actually,” he interrupted her. “Sorry, but can we wait for… for someone?” he asked hesitantly.

“Is that someone Hua Cheng?” The queen’s expression was unreadable.

Xie Lian inspected her face carefully.  He wondered how much they knew about Hua Cheng. Most of the rumors going around about the supreme wouldn’t please them.

“Yes,” he nodded, taking a sip of tea.

His father hadn’t touched his. “Why do we need to wait for a stranger?”

“Dear,” the queen tried to defuse the situation.

“What?” the king continued. “He’s acting like he’s his wife or something.”

Xie Lian tensed up. “What is that supposed to mean?” he accused, slamming his cup on the table.

“You’re acting all needy, like you won’t survive without him,” the king retorqued. “Can’t you have a conversation on your own?”

“It’s not because I can that I should!” Xie Lian got up in his anger. He couldn’t believe it. He’d expected it but still. Was it too much to ask for his father to be happy to see him after 800 years? For him to not jump to criticize everything he did?

His mother grabbed his arm and pulled him back on the divan. “Please! Don’t fight. We only just reunited. Shouldn’t we celebrate?”

The king relented and stopped talking, finally grabbing his cup. Xie Lian threw draggers at him with his eyes.

“Well, personally I would like to meet him,” the queen tried to cheer up the atmosphere. “Is he busy at the moment?”

Xie Lian reluctantly looked away from his father and turned to his mother. He shouldn’t waste his time on him when his mother was right here. “He shouldn’t be long. There was an incident earlier at the periphery of the city. He went in person,” he looked intently at his father, “to resolve the situation.”

He hesitated a bit. Should he tell them about Qi Rong? His mother would want to know…

“Actually, it has something to do with Qi Rong,” he decided to say.

The queen was shocked. “Rong-er?” She brought her hands to her face. “You saw him? I thought he was…”

“He is dead. He is a ghost now. A calamity, even if only by name. I met him again only two years ago. I hadn’t known before. I- I don’t know what to make of him, Mother. I want to say he hasn’t changed but he did some bad things, real bad things, even for him. But then, he endangered his life to save a child.”

His mother looked anguished. “Do you- do you know how he died?” she asked hesitantly, afraid to hear the answer.

“No. I wasn’t around and we’re not really on talking terms,” he said with a bitter smile.

“This is my fault,” the queen said. “I never knew how to raise him. And when we left the capital…”

When the five of them had fled the city, Qi Rong hadn’t gone with them. That day, they packed their things in a hurry. Xie Lian went to find Qi Rong so that he could leave with them, but they had a fight and eventually went their separate ways. Seeing Xie Lian come back without Qi Rong, looking grim, no one questioned it, and they ran away, leaving prince Xiao Jing behind. The queen never heard of him again.

What would her sister say if she knew of that? The felt immensely guilty for following everyone else and not going after him. It was her role, she should have taken care of him. She knew deep down that Qi Rong had thought he was a burden for everyone, that she was only taking care of him out of obligation. He must have died being convinced of it. She proved him right that day, they all had. It was never her intention – while it was an obligation for her to raise him, she did care about him – but she proved him right nonetheless.

“It was me who drove him away,” Xie Lian interrupted her train of thoughts. “Don’t blame yourself for that, mother. Nothing of what happened in XianLe was your fault.”

“It wasn’t Dianxia’s fault either,” said a new voice.

Xie Lian immediately relaxed and turned to the door, looking for his husband.

Hua Cheng was in a form that looked like a slightly adjusted version of his true one. He had two eyes and a neat ponytail, but some strands carefully positioned still partially covered his right eye. His outfit was less lavish than usual, just fine enough to make a statement about his status and good taste, but not too much as to not make the king and queen feel humiliated or show off too much. He still had makeup and jewelry but much less than what he tended to prefer, as if not wanting to attract too much attention.

It was impossible, of course. In Xie Lian’s opinion, Hua Cheng would always stand out, no matter what he wore or what he looked like. He just had a presence.

Still, his husband had clearly put a lot of thoughts into his looks, wanting to make a good first impression.

Xie Lian stood up to introduce him to his parents. “Mother, Father, this is Hua Cheng.”

“Your Majesties,” Hua Cheng bowed.

The queen stood up to return his bow while the king stayed seated. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lord Hua Chengzhu.”

“Please, don’t bow to me, and there’s no need to be so formal. Her Majesty can call me Hua Cheng.”

He lacked his usual arrogance. Xie Lian could tell that he was uneasy. He had seen him act like this only once before, with his Guoshi. Evidently, the situation was the same here.

The queen sat back next to her husband, gracefully changing seats, letting Hua Cheng take place next to Xie Lian.

There was an awkward silence for a moment before his mother and Hua Cheng both opened their mouth to say something, but Xie Lian cut them both off.

“Can you please tell me how you are both here? I need to know.”

He knew that he should introduce Hua Cheng better than with just his name. That it was incredibly rude to barely acknowledge him and carry on with the conversation, but right now he was tired. He felt as if he had a weight of a thousand dàn¹ on his shoulders.

He needed to know if this was a curse. He needed to know how real this was. He was scared to learn that this was temporary. He didn’t think he could survive to seeing his parent die a second time. But of course he would.

The queen stared at Hua Cheng for a few seconds before nodding. She recounted what happened with very minimal details, not wanting to burden her son more. She also knew that, not only would the king be unhappy she told everything to Xie Lian, but he would also be furious she’d do so in front of Hua Cheng.

Hearing her talk, Xie Lian’s face palled. Hua Cheng took his hand and squeezed it, uncaring of the stare the king threw his way.

“I- I-,” stammered Xie Lian. “How could I have been so stupid?” He started laughing through his tears. “Of course he would lie to me, that’s all he ever did. And I believed him. I believed him when I could have- I could have…!” He took his head in his hands. “It’s my fault. Once again, it’s my fault,” he muttered to himself.

“A-Lian don’t blame yourself,” his mother tried to comfort him. “You couldn’t have known.”

“But I should have!” Xie Lian retorted. He rose to his feet and started pacing. He wanted to punch something. He wanted to cry like a little boy. He wanted to laugh. “For all those years, all those years! And I never suspected a thing! I am truly as naïve as he said I was. All this time, you were… you were…”

Xie Lian’s legs buckled and suddenly he was falling to the floor. He would have surely hit the floor ungracefully with force if Hua Cheng hadn’t caught him.

“Gege!”

Xie Lian’s father’s frown deepened upon hearing the familiar address.

“You can’t keep blaming yourself for things Bai Wuxiang did to you,” Hua Cheng cradled him in his arms. He carefully brought his hands to his face and pushed some loose strands of hair out of his face to not be dampened and dirtied by his tears and snot. “You did your best Dianxia, no one else could have done better in your stead.”

He lowered his voice, directing his words at Xie Lian only. “You are infinitely kind, compassionate, strong, intelligent, courageous, but you can also be hateful, weak, foolish and scared when the circumstances force you to be, but that’s alright because you are just human. Whether humans ascend or fall, they are still human, they still make mistakes. Don’t you agree? Of all the gods in heaven, you’re the less flawed. But what if you still have flaws? You think you made the wrong decision, but you made the best decision you could with the information you had at the time. And what else could you have done, Your Highness?  He was a calamity and you were a human. No one can blame you for failing when it was impossible to success, and you shouldn’t either.

You think you could have done more but it’s important for you not to lose sight of what you actually have been able to do. You’re the one who defeated Bai Wuxiang. That’s still thanks to you that the array broke and that your parents are here today.”

Xie Lian looked up from where his face was buried in Hua Cheng’s shoulder. He took a minute to pull himself together before whispering “Thank you San Lang.”

When they both sat back on the couch, Xie Lian cleared his throat awkwardly. “I’m sorry for that. I’m happy that you are both here, really.”

The king looked incredibly uncomfortable, but the queen was looking fondly at Hua Cheng. “That’s a great friend that you have A-Lian, don’t let him go.”

“I won’t,” Xie Lian answered with no hesitation.

“I wouldn’t dream of leaving him,” added Hua Cheng with as much determination.

“Well, I don’t want him around! He is clearly a bad influence!” the king exclaimed.

Hua Cheng tensed up but didn’t say anything.

“Bad?” the queen was stunned. Her husband had made it very clear that he didn’t like Hua Cheng from the start, but for him to say that he was a bad influence after he just comforted their son so caringly! “Do you not remember what our son looked like the last time we saw him? Only a fool would refuse to see that he makes him happy!”

“Wha- How dare you speak to me like that?” The king was baffled. The queen had always been a very calm person, never saying a word against anyone. She had never taken side during their arguments, always choosing to try to appease the both of them instead. “He is a ghost!”

“Aren’t you a ghost?” Xie Lian snapped.

The king visibly wavered. “You think I asked for it?!”

“You think he did?!”

“Both of you calm down,” interrupted the queen. “Please.” She looked intently at her husband, “I think you should take a walk to clear your mind.”

“What?” the king asked, not expecting to be kicked out.

“Now,” she said with more firmness than Xie Lian thought her capable of.

His father looked at her with anger before relenting. “Fine.” He stormed out.

Xie Lian looked at Hua Cheng but he couldn’t read his expression. “San Lang?” he called in the communication array.

“He’ll be fine. I’ll make sure he stays inside the manor or in the inner gardens.”

That was not what Xie Lian had wanted to talk about. He had wanted to tell him not to listen to his father. But now that Hua Cheng was talking about it, he realized that there was another concern. “What about the cursed artifacts or everything else dangerous that we keep in the manor?” Even if his father was a ghost, he was neither a cultivator nor a martial artist.

“Don’t worry. Every door that needs to be locked will be.”

The queen, unaware of their exchange, sighed heavily. “I am sorry,” she said to the both of them.

“Don’t apologize for him,” Xie Lian said, displeased.

She turned to Hua Cheng. “Please, do not take what he said at heart. Everything that happened these past few months took a toll on him. He is just saying things because he is upset about himself. He will come around.”

Seeing that Xie Lian wasn’t convinced and Hua Cheng just looked uncomfortable, she changed the subject. “So, really, how have you been doing A-Lian? You don’t need to lie to me.”

“… It has been complicated,” he said hesitantly. “But I’m fine now. I’m happy. San- Hua Cheng helped me a lot. I wouldn’t be where I am today without him.”

“I’m glad. But aren’t you going to introduce him better A-Lian?” his mother asked him with a knowing expression.

“He…” Xie Lian felt his eyes starting to water. The day before his wedding, Xie Lian had visited the royal mausoleum and talked to his mother. He had cried telling her about his soon-to-be husband, wishing she could be there. Now, she was in front of him, looking at him with such a kind expression. He had missed her so much. “He’s… he’s my husband, mama”, he said, his voice tight with emotion. “I got married”, he sobbed.

Hua Cheng tensed up. It was barely noticeable, but Xie Lian knew that he was scared of his mother’s reaction. His husband was not the type to care about other people’s opinion, but he knew how much Xie Lian loved his mother and how much it would hurt Xie Lian if she were to disapprove of his marriage, much more than his father.

Xie Lian’s mother clearly wasn’t surprised and went to crush him in her embrace. “Oh A-Lian” She was tearing up too. “I never thought I’d see the day where you would marry. I am so happy for you.”

She hugged him a while longer before letting him go and turning to look at Hua Cheng properly.

“Your Majesty- ” he started before the queen interrupted him.

“Oh, nothing of the sort! You can call me mother!” she said with a still teary smile.

“I- I wouldn’t dare.” Very rare were the times Xie Lian saw his husband having trouble finding his words, but the topic of his childhood and his parents was always a difficult one for him.

“Nonsense! You are my son too now. And you clearly care deeply for him.” Her smile dropped a little, sadness making its way into her expression. “Thank you for looking after him,” she said more solemnly, before engulfing him in a hug too.

Hua Cheng was taken aback. He froze completely for a few seconds before tentatively returning the queen’s hug. “Thank you,” he finally said, his voice tight with emotion. “It is my honor to be allowed to be at your son’s side.”

“Ah,” the queen said to Xie Lian, letting Hua Cheng go, “he’s a keeper.”

Xie Lian answered with a radiant smile, “I know Mama.”

“Ah, I missed so much. Tell me more about you,” she turned to Hua Cheng excitedly. “How old are you? Where are you from?” Then to the both of them, “Where did you meet? When did you meet? When did you get married? You both live here, right? For how long have you lived here?”

Hua Cheng seemed a bit at loss in front of the flood of questions but still answered the first two. “I am seven years younger than His Highness, and I’m actually from XianLe.”

“XianLe?” the queen wasn’t expecting this answer. “Did you meet there then?” He nodded. “Did I meet you back then?”

Xie Lian answered that question. “You have actually, once.”

“Really? I don’t remember it,” she seemed lost in thought, examining Hua Cheng, trying to remember. “You must have been very young if you are seven years younger.”

“Do you remember the kid that fell from a tower during the ShangYuan festival?” Xie Lian asked tentatively.

“Yes?” She waited for Xie Lian to elaborate, but when he didn’t she realized. “Oh! It’s you! You have grown up indeed,” she laughed. “Have you been married long then, if you knew each other all this time?”

“No, I- ” Xie Lian didn’t know how to explain without revealing too much. “He followed me and protected me as best as he could both during the war and the fall of XianLe. I didn’t realize it was him at the time. But after you… were gone, a lot of things happened and we lost each other,” his voice cracked, still overflowing with guilt of what happened to Wu Ming.

“I searched for him for 800 years,” Hua Cheng took over, “hoping to be able to protect him and give him the life he deserves. Everything I am today is because of him. And I did find him two years ago.”

“He helped me in so many ways,” Xie Lian added. “He’s the kindest, most intelligent, most beautiful, strongest person I know. I fell hopelessly in love,” he blushed furiously. He was not used to talk so openly about his love for his husband – even though his feelings were obvious to anyone who saw the two of them interacting – but he thought that, right now, it needed to be said out loud, both for his mother and his husband. “And we got married 3 months ago.”

“Ah, how romantic!” His mother was delighted. “I’m glad you found someone willing to stay with you through all these hardships.”

“I couldn’t ask anything more,” Hua Cheng said seriously.

The queen seemed very pleased by this answer, but her face dropped after a moment, remembering something. “Ah, A-Lian I know I shouldn’t ask this, please don’t be angry, but… do you know what happened to Feng Xin and Mu Qing?”

It made sense that his mother asked about them, Xie Lian thought, she had cared for both of them. “It’s alright. I met them again when I met San Lang actually. I had just ascended again, and they came to help me with a mission. They both ascended on their own as martial gods eight centuries ago. They’re doing well and we reconciled.”

“Really?” the queen relaxed, letting go of a weight she had been carrying. “That’s good, that’s good! Do you think I could see them?” she got excited before remembering that back in XianLe, she never saw her son after he ascended and before the civil war. “Ah, never mind, I’m sure they must be very busy.”

“No, it’s alright,” Xie Lian smiled. “They will be very happy to see you.” At least Feng Xin.

“Feng Xin, Mu Qing, would you be free tomorrow to come to Paradise Manor?” he called in their shared communication array.

“Why?” Mu Qing answered immediately.

“Don’t be so defensive!” Feng Xin rebuked him.

“Just… I’ll explain tomorrow. Will you come?” Xie Lian asked tentatively. He wasn’t feeling like explaining all over again that his parents were here.

Feng Xin paused, clearly not excited at the idea of going to Ghost City. “Of course, Your Highness,” he relented.

Mu Qing only answered with a grunt, but Xie Lian could imagine him rolling his eyes.

“Thank you! I’ll see you tomorrow then!”

“Wait, Your Hi-”

Xie Lian cut the array.

“I talked to them just now, they’ll come here tomorrow,” Xie Lian said to his mother.

“Really? Ah, thank you so much.”

The queen played with her teacup a bit before asking, “Can you tell me more about what happened two years ago? We heard some things, but I would like your version.”

Xie Lian nodded.

He told her about what happened, with some of Hua Cheng’s participation, but after two incense times, the ghost king interrupted him. “We should continue this conversation around lunch. You need to eat something gege.”

That made Xie Lian remember that he indeed hadn’t eaten anything since this morning and initially came to Paradise Manor for lunch.

“Oh, I could cook something for the two of you!” his mother said with great enthusiasm, before seemingly remembering something. “Ah, I mean. You don’t have to-”

“I would love nothing more,” Xie Lian interrupted her, with a watery smile.

“It would be an honor,” Hua Cheng added solemnly.

The queen was quick to regain her smile.

“Let me lead you to the kitchen,” the ghost king said. She nodded eagerly.

“I only heard good things about your cooking,” Hua Cheng said as the three of them walked to the kitchen. “His Highness talks very highly of it.”

“Really?” She was stunned. His words seemed sincere, but she couldn’t believe it. She knew her dishes weren’t worth any praise, and her son had expressed his distaste for them quite clearly in the past.

“I’m sorry I didn’t appreciate it before,” Xie Lian said, ashamed of how he had behaved back then, “but I- I think I understand what your cooking was about now. I’ve trained to cook like you these past centuries.”

“Is that so? You’re going to have to let me taste it then!” she said with delight.

“Next time,” Xie Lian promised, feeling his heart warm up.

“I have eaten so many recreations of your dishes, I can’t wait to taste the original,” Hua Cheng said as they entered the kitchen.

“You tried them?” the queen asked dubiously.

“Of course. Everything made by Dianxia is a blessing,” Hua Cheng answered with a grin.

She laughed.

All traces of Xie Lian’s cooking attempt yesterday had been cleaned. The kitchen was extremely well furnished. Xie Lian had never understood how to use most of the utensils, and there was a lot of exotic goods that he had never saw anywhere else than here. It tended to make his cooking experiments even more interesting. He was sure his mother would love it too.

And indeed, “Oh that’s amazing! Can I really use it?”

“How course Your Majesty,” Hua Cheng answered.

She gave him a look at the use of her title but didn’t pursue the matter further as she was way too distracted by the different assortments of ingredients in front of her.

She browsed the large number of shelves and cupboards quite a while, taking ingredients seemingly randomly and putting them on the counter before turning to Hua Cheng.

“Do you know where the fishes are stored, dear?”

“We don’t keep any here,” he answered simply.

“Well, since I could now, I decided to go back to some precepts of my old cultivation path,” Xie Lian explained. “So, I don’t eat any meat or fish anymore. And San Lang didn’t want to eat some if I didn’t. So no, we don’t have any here.”

When he trained in the Royal Holy Pavilion, he had been quite adamant about not consuming any animal flesh. It had always pained him a lot to be forced to eat some when it was the only food available during his 800 years of exile.

“Oh, I see. It’s nice of you to accompany him,” his mother said to Hua Cheng.

“It’s only normal,” the ghost king answered.

She shook her head fondly, then pulled out a large block of tofu and started cooking.

Hua Cheng had always thought that it was extremely interesting to watch Xie Lian cook. It was a completed mess, but he always seemed very confident in his actions, a choreography that only Xie Lian could follow. Compared to what the queen was doing now, in retrospect it almost seemed well organized.

The three of them made light conversation all the while the queen prepared her dish.

When she finished, the kitchen was a complete mess, with splatters of food she hadn’t even used from the floor to the ceiling. A few spoons had been bent when she had tired to mix mushrooms with the tofu that had inexplicably hardened. But she was smiling from eye to eye.

“How is it called?” Xie Lian asked.

The queen’s smile brightened, if it was even possible, and she said proudly, “Loving Reunions Under a Faithful Sun noodles”. It really had nothing of noodles.

“An auspicious name,” Hua Cheng approved.

Xie Lian nodded, not trusting himself to speak, before going to help his mother arranging the food into four plates.

“Ah, shouldn’t we-” Xie Lian started.

“I already told a servant to lead His Majesty to the dining room,” Hua Cheng answered immediately.

“Thank you, San Lang.” He didn’t want to see his father, but they would have to address the issue at some point.

It was definitely more mid-afternoon than lunch time now. The three were talking, still trying to make up for lost time, but only exchanging joyful anecdotes. When the king entered the room, the conversation died instantly.

He sat stiffly in the remaining chair next to his wife before looking dubiously at his plate.

“A-Lian and Hua Cheng kindly let me use the kitchen to cook us something,” the queen said, trying to sound as cheerful as she could.

“Don’t you have a cook?” the king asked Hua Cheng.

“We do but Her Majesty seemed very thrilled at the idea of cooking,” he simply answered.

The king snickered, thinking that the ghost king didn’t know what he had signed for.

“Well,” the queen cleared her throat, “now that we are all here, let’s eat.”

The king looked intently at Hua Cheng when he confidently took a spoonful from his plate – even though it was supposed to be noodles, they were impossible to eat with chopsticks – and brought it to his mouth.

The queen was also looking at him, with more apprehension.

But Hua Cheng only chewed for a bit before swallowing. “It’s delicious Your Majesty. Maybe try using less Sichuan pepper next time, but the mix of cilantro and anise is very interesting.”

“Really? Thank you. I’ll be sure to remember it!” she answered, overjoyed.

Xie Lian chased back tears. Even though it was a completely different dish, it still tasted as he remembered it. His mother cooking had a uniqueness that he had never been able to recreate.

The king started eating carefully, his face scrunched, but made no further comments.

They all ate in relatively peaceful silence until Hua Cheng finished his plate and asked for seconds. The queen positively beamed at him.

The ghost king got up. “Do you want some too gege?”

“Please,” Xie Lian answered, handing him his plate. “Thank you, San Lang.”

Hua Cheng nodded and left the room, going to the kitchen with the two plates.

He could have asked a servant to bring the leftovers to the dining room, but he had sensed the atmosphere and had wanted to give Xie Lian a few minutes alone with his parents.

“You two seem awfully close,” his father said, as expected.

Xie Lian looked at him for a second before answering honestly. “That’s normal considering that we are married.” He didn’t care about his father’s reaction anymore – if he ever had –, but it might be better if he said it while Hua Cheng wasn’t here, because he knew it would upset the ghost king.

“You- Did you really married a demon?!” the king exclaimed, rising from his seat.

“He is no demon, and I will not tolerate another word against him!” Xie Lian shouted back. “If you insult him again, you won’t be welcome here anymore, and I doubt you have anywhere else to go.”

The king knew he was right and decided to consequently change his angle of attack.

“And what about the Xie line?”

“I’m an immortal so I can perfectly be the line,” Xie Lian answered unbothered. “You should be more worried about yourself.”

“You- ”

It made him think of something. “That’s a question actually. Do you know where your ashes are?”

“Ashes?” his mother asked, confused.

“Do you know where your remains are?” he insisted. “They must be somewhere if you are still here.” When Qi Rong desecrated his mother’s tomb, Xie Lian had thought that her ashes had been scattered. It had shattered him to think that he even failed to protect his mother’s remains. He wouldn’t fail a second time.

“No, we have no idea where they are,” his mother answered. “Bai Wuxiang must have taken them.”

Seeing her son’s stricken expression, she tried to comfort him. “It’s alright, it was a long time ago. It doesn’t really matter anymore.”

“No,” he said firmly. “We need to find them. We can’t take the risk of them being destroyed.”

Hua Cheng walked back into the room at that moment with two smoking plates.

“If gege is talking about Their Majesties’ ashes, then we can go to Mont Tonglu to ask Jun Wu about it tomorrow,” he said to Xie Lian while putting his plate in front of him.

“Tomorrow?” Xie Lian asked. “Shouldn’t we go now?”

“The array broke a year ago, a day won’t change anything. Gege needs to rest, and I’m sure that Their Majesties are tired of their journey too,” Hua Cheng answered calmly.

Xie Lian frowned, about to protest, but now that he paid attention, his parents did look exhausted, and he probably wasn’t in the right mind to confront Jun Wu right now.

“Alright,” he relented. “We will go see Jun Wu when Feng Xin and Mu Qing come tomorrow.” He was still reluctant to leave his parents alone.

They finished eating, then Xie Lian took his parents for a tour of Paradise Manor – as the king had mostly stayed in the gardens. Hua Cheng went back to his work, mainly to give more time to Xie Lian with his parents.

His father spent some time in the library while his mother complimented the artwork all around the room. This time, Xie Lian pointed up those that were from his husband.

Xie Lian almost forgot to eat again, but servants brought them diner. Hua Cheng didn’t join them, which worried Xie Lian a bit.

The diner was a much more peaceful affair than lunch.

After that, they decided to retreat for the night early, a servant guiding the queen and king to the rooms that had been prepared for them.

When Xie Lian entered his rooms, Hua Cheng was already there.

“How did it go gege?” he asked, kissing him lightly.

“Fine, but I’m really sorry for my father, San Lang,” Xie Lian said regretfully.

“You have nothing to apologize for. I can understand his concerns,” Hua Cheng answered derisively.

“Don’t say that!”

“Well, I am-”

“Everything about you is perfect,” Xie Lian cut him off. “If he can’t see that, then he’s an idiot. I don’t want to hear you belittle yourself.”

“Gege…” Hua Cheng tried to disagree.

“Don’t you think that your god’s opinion matters more than an old man’s?” Xie Lian said as firmly as he could. “And your god thinks you’re perfect.”

Xie Lian peppered his face with little kisses.

“Let’s just go to sleep. Gege is exhausted,” Hua Cheng changed the subject.

“Alright,” Xie Lian accepted to drop the matter for now. He was really tired. “But San Lang?”

“Hm?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too gege.”

Chapter Text

Xie Lian was pacing in the main hall, waiting for Feng Xin and Mu Qing. He tried to sit, but he immediately started bouncing his leg, so he decided to get up again. He wanted to go to Mount Tonglu now to get it over with, he didn’t want to go at all. Ah, why did everything had to be so messy?

He was about to try sitting again when he heard footsteps. He went to open the door with a bit too much strength.

“Feng Xin! Mu Qing!” he greeted, a bit too joyful.

“Your Highness?” Feng Xin greeted back, slightly confused.

“Why did you want to see us?” said Mu Qing directly with a frown.

Xie Lian scratched his neck with a nervous laugh. “Do I need a reason haha?”

“You’re acting weird,” Mu Qing insisted.

“Am I?”

“Seriously, what is it Your Highness?” Feng Xin started questioning him too.

“Hum, why don’t we sit down first?” Xie Lian asked nervously, practically dragging them through the manor to a sitting room.

When they arrived, he forcefully pushed a cup of tea in their hands and heavily sat down on a chair, nervously sipping his own cup.

“So, two persons came to see us yesterday,” Xie Lian started. “It was quite a surprise.”

“Okay?” Mu Qing said, irritation clear in his voice.

“And they asked to see you. Well, she asked to see you.”

“Who?”

Xie Lian took a deep breath, then, looking straight at them, said “My parents.”

The thing was, Feng Xin and Mu Qing didn’t know how his parents died. They weren’t around anymore back then, and they never talked about it. As far as they were concerned, they died of old age. And he didn’t exactly want to tell them the truth. Feng Xin especially would feel infinitely guilty. Xie Lian knew the feeling too well. He wouldn’t wish that to anyone else.

“That’s… not very funny, Your Highness,” Feng Xin finally said.

“You’re right,” Xie Lian answered. “I’m not joking though.”

“Wha- what?” Feng Xin stammered.

“How?” Mu Qing asked, straight to the point.

Xie Lian sighed. “Jun Wu kept their souls prisoner in an array. It broke when his powers were sealed. They came yesterday, looking for me,” he summarized, without explaining why Jun Wu had their souls in the first place. “San Lang and I are going to Mount Tonglu to ask him about their ashes. My mother asked if she could see you, so I would appreciate if you could look after them while we’re gone.”

“That’s… He held them captive for 800 years?” Mu Qing asked, frowning.

“Will you be alright?” Feng Xin worried. “Seeing Jun Wu again after everything…”

“It’s fine,” Xie Lian lied between his teeth. Of course it wasn’t fine. “San Lang will be with me.” Honestly, he hoped they could just ask his Guoshi to interrogate Jun Wu in their stead. Hua Cheng had proposed him to go alone too, but Xie Lian knew that realistically there was little chance Jun Wu would accept to talk to anyone else than him.

“Alright.” Neither of them looked convinced but they dropped it.

“Right, so I’ll get going.”

A servant appeared to guide Mu Qing and Feng Xin to the gardens, where his parents were waiting.

Right when they were about to leave the room, Xie Lian said “And don’t… don’t say anything mean about San Lang alright?” At Feng Xin and Mu Qing’s skeptical faces, he added “I’m not asking you to pretend to like him, but don’t give reasons to my father to be ruder than he already is.”

“You told him…?” Feng Xin asked tentatively.

“Yes,” Xie Lian sighed. “Anyway, I expect to be back before lunch.”

With that, Xie Lian finally left to meet Hua Cheng in another room.

He was lazily playing with his dices. Xie Lian stared at his hands for a moment, captivated by his graceful movements, confidently rolling the dices around his fingers.

He cleared his throat and teared his eyes away.

When Hua Cheng looked up, he extended a hand to him. “Should we go gege?”

“Mn,” Xie Lian agreed, taking his hand and waiting for Hua Cheng to roll his dices before stepping through the nearest door.

When the door closed behind them, the air immediately changed, feeling much hotter and ashy.

Before them stood a shed, build into the face of the mountain.

The queen was reading a book about the recent history of the Heavens – well, maybe not recent exactly, but she was trying to get up to date to better understand the world in which her son had lived these past years – when a servant approached her and announced her son’s friends.

She carefully put the book aside, not wanting to damage her son’s, or her son’s husband’s – husband! – possessions. She looked up and smiled at the sight of Feng Xin and Mu Qing. They certainly looked better than the last time she saw them.

Feng Xin looked shocked, as if he had just realized that she was still alive – as alive as a ghost can be anyway –, and Mu Qing’s expression was pretty much unreadable.

“Ah, Feng Xin, Mu Qing! I’m happy to see you,” she exclaimed. “Oh, should I call you ‘generals’ now? I heard that you ascended, and as major martial gods! Congratulations, congratulations! That’s incredible. I know three gods now! Can you believe it? I always agreed with A-Lian when he said that you both had great potential, but the three of you, ascended! I’m so proud of you. You all grew up so much!” the queen said with glee in her voice.

“Thank you,” Feng Xin bowed with a smile. “It’s good to see Your Majesty too.”

Mu Qing didn’t say anything and simply nodded in acknowledgment.

“Ah, don’t bow to me! I’m the one who should bow to you now that you are gods! And I should thank you for indulging me and coming to see me. I hope I am not disturbing you. A-Lian said it was alright, but…”

“It’s fine, Your Majesty,” Feng Xin said. “But can I ask where His Majesty is? His Highness told us that he would be here too.”

“Ah,” the queen smile dropped for a second before she smiled again as if nothing happened. “Don’t worry about him. He just went to the library. He went to search for records about XianLe. But enough about him, tell me about you. How have you both been?”

“Good… we’ve been good…” Feng Xin hesitated. “I’m sorry,” he finally said.

“Don’t be. It wasn’t easy for anyone, and we asked a lot from you. The both of you. You had no reason to stay. I’m really glad to see you have been doing better.”

“But– !” Feng Xin protested.

“No ‘but’!” the queen interrupted. “A-Lian told me that you reconciled so I’m sure you’ve had this conversation already. I never blamed you, I was never mad at you. I’m grateful that you stayed as long as you did, taking care of parents that weren’t yours. But let’s not dwell on the past. I hear you are both generals of the South. It’s good that you are working together.”

“Right,” Mu Qing said with a snicker. Feng Xin gave him a sharp nudge.

“We have been doing fine Your Majesty, really,” Feng Xin finally answered after taking a minute to process what the queen said, feeling very emotional. “Things have been a bit busy for the past year, after everything that happened with Jun Wu… hum,” he hesitated, “Do you know what happened with Jun Wu?”

“I’ve been told, yes,” the queen answered.

“Right, so,” Feng Xin continued, “we had a lot to do, rebuilding the Heavens and all, but everything is mostly done now so we’re good.”

“You’re good because no one asked you for help with the inventory or to do the accounts,” Mu Qing chimed in. “They know you’re too slow-witted to help.”

“Hey!”

“Boys!” the queen stopped them from starting a fist fight. Reminded of her presence, they both calmed down immediately. “I’m glad to see that you haven’t changed, but I wanted to ask you something.”

“What is it, Your Majesty?”

“About A-Lian… He doesn’t want to tell me what happened all these years. He thinks it will hurt me to know,” she sighed, “but really I think it will hurt me more not to know.” She couldn’t help but worry about her son.

Feng Xin looked uneasy. The question was to be expected but he still didn’t know how to answer it. “It was…hard,” he hesitated. “Honestly, even we don’t know the full extent of what he went through. He doesn’t like to talk about it. If there’s someone beside him who knows what happened it would be Hua Cheng.”

“But he won’t tell you if Xie Lian doesn’t want to,” Mu Qing stated.

“About Hua Cheng,” the queen jumped on the occasion, “do you know him well?”

“Yes,” Mu Qing answered.

“No,” Feng Xin said at the same time.

They looked at each other angrily before Feng Xin corrected, “I wouldn’t say ‘well’, but yeah we know him.”

“And what do you think of him?” the queen asked. She was confident in her opinion of him. It was clear that he cared a lot about her son and would protect him no matter what, but she still met him only a day ago. The opinion of her son’s closest friends would definitely be valuable.

Mu Qing opened his mouth to answer but Feng Xin nudged him and whispered aggressively, “Be nice!”

“I don’t like him– ” Mu Qing started, ignoring him.

“Hey!” Feng Xin tried to intervene, but Mu Qing kicked him in the ribs.

“ –but he’s good for him,” he finished reluctantly.

“I see.” The queen smiled. “I think he is a good man too,” she added.

Both Feng Xin and Mu Qing made a face at that.

The shed looked pretty gloomy. Hua Cheng was throwing daggers at it with his eyes.

They tried knocking at the door, but they received no answer.

“Let’s just go in,” Xie Lian said with very little enthusiasm.

They pushed the door open. Everything was a bit dusty, as if no one had bothered cleaning the place more than absolutely necessary. Sound was coming from the next room.

They silently walked toward the noise. Opening a second door, Xie Lian saw his guoshi playing mahjong with three paper dolls.

“Master,” he called. When he received no answer but a brief dismissal, he sighed and resigned himself to wait for the end of the game.

A few minutes later, his guoshi slammed his tiles on the table. “I was about to win but you distracted me, ah!” He scolded his expression before rising from his chair and greeting Xie Lian, “Your Highness.” He then looked at Hua Cheng and frowned. “And what is he doing here?”

“We came to see Jun Wu, master,” Xie Lian ignored him.

“Umph. You haven’t visited your old guoshi in more than a year and now that you’re finally here, you are asking about His Highness. Ungrateful student. That’s his influence,” he pointed at Hua Cheng, “you weren’t like this before.”

Hua Cheng said nothing, simply smiling.

“And stop smiling like that!”

“Master,” Xie Lian interrupted, “it’s important. He has my parents’ ashes.”

Mei Nianqing seemed taken aback. He spoke slowly, “But…Your Highness…you said that Qi Rong…”

“My parents are in Paradise Manor right now. They told me that Jun Wu had switched their bodies with fake ones. Please, I need you to ask him where he put their ashes,” Xie Lian explained.

“They are…ghosts?” Mei Nianqing was shocked.

Xie Lian nodded.

“I… alright, I’ll go ask him. You can make yourself at home in the meantime, Your Highness. There’s tea over there.” He pointed at a wobbly table before brushing his clothes and disappearing though a door leading to stairs going down to the heart of the mountain.

Xie Lian served himself a cup of tea to calm his nerves. When he sat down on a chair, Hua Cheng came to silently hug him from behind.

“We’re going to find them gege,” he reassured him.

An incense time later, Mei Nianqing came back, looking grim. He let the door open behind him. “I’m sorry Your Highness, but he will only talk to you.”

Xie Lian let out a beath. He knew it. “I’ll go.”

He steeled himself and got up, walking toward the stairs. Hua Cheng grabbed his hand as they sank into the dark. The corridor was narrow, and very steep, the walls made of uneven rock. Hua Cheng released a few butterflies to light up the way and prevent them from tripping.

It took them a few minutes to reach the bottom of the stairs. Another closed door was in front of them. A voice came from behind it. “You can come in, XianLe.”

Upon hearing it Xie Lian shuddered.  It was a voice he still heard in his nightmares.

“You are okay. I’m here with you,” another deep voice said in his ear, accompanied by a kiss on his temple. That voice made him relax. It was the voice that always comforted him after he woke up in a panic. He blinked and looked up at Hua Cheng. He hadn’t noticed his vision blurring.

He conjured a small smile and pushed the door open.

The king was walking toward them, a scroll in hand.

Feng Xin and Mu Qing had sat down with the queen, and Feng Xin was in the middle of retelling a story. None of them heard him coming.

“And Mu Qing started chasing the poor fox around because he was really persuaded that it was him. But then Xie Lian came back from the village with him,” Feng Xin laughed. “He was very disappointed to see Mu Qing tormenting an innocent fox.”

“It was his clone!” Mu Qing defended himself.

“No it wasn’t, you’re just delusional,” Feng Xin retorted.

The queen was laughing heartily. Hearing her son’s friends telling her stories about him and his husband made her feel like a normal mother again, easing her worries. She knew that they obviously cherry-picked the anecdotes they were recounting, but that there were happy stories to be told at all was already a huge relief. There certainly wasn’t any when she left her son.

“What are you all talking about?” the king asked when he got closer.

His appearance startled everyone.

Feng Xin immediately rose from his sit and greeted him with a bow, “Your Majesty.”

“The boys were telling me stories about A-Lian and Hua Cheng,” the queen answered.

The king scoffed.

Feng Xin and Mu Qing exchanged a look, uneasy.

“Do you want to hear about them?” the queen asked tentatively. She hoped that if he cared to listen, he would change his mind.

“And listen to all the ways that demon corrupted our son? I’d rather not,” the king scowled.

“He is a ghost, not a demon,” the queen tried to correct placatingly.

“His Highness can take care of himself, Your Majesty. And he is quite stubborn. I really doubt that there’s anything that could corrupt him,” Feng Xin intervened.

“Why are you all defending him? I heard about him. There is nothing good in him. I see behind the mask he puts on. He is an arrogant monster who thinks that he owns the world.”

“With all due respect Your Majesty, you shouldn’t call him a monster when everything he did, he did for His Highness,” Feng Xin countered attack. He may not like the man but calling him a monster was excessive.

“You can call him obsessive, cunning, haughty, nonchalant, obnoxious, sarcastic, scary, overwhelming, stalkery, but not a monster,” Mu Qing added.

Feng Xin turned to look at him, refraining from beating him. “Stop that! You’re not helping!”

“Sure, he’s arrogant but that’s because he is smarter, stronger, richer, and more skilled than others. Shouldn’t you be happy that he gave back his money and status to Xie Lian?” Mu Qing continued with a displeased expression. Looking at him, one would think that he was being forced to eat Xie Lian’s cooking. “Yes, he is a ghost, but do you even know why? I assume the same reason as you. Because he didn’t want to leave Xie Lian alone suffering. He would do anything for him. He did anything for him.”

The king, the queen and Feng Xin all looked at Mu Qing as if he suddenly grew a second head, completely shocked that he would defend Hua Cheng like that.

“Urgh, I can’t believe I just said that,” he said to himself, embarrassed, his face growing red.

“Mu Qing…” Feng Xin started, a smile making its way on his face.

“Shut up!” Mu Qing answered aggressively. “Don’t you dare tell him I said that!”

Feng Xin laughed and threw an arm over his shoulders while Mu Qing tried to push him off.

Xie Lian’s father was distraught. He would have left or argued back, but he initially came here for a reason, and he was aware that the two men were now gods and that he wasn’t in position to orally fight with them, so he conceded to just change the topic of conversation. “Enough about that. There is no point in talking about it. I have questions about XianLe,” he said angrily while pulling out the scroll he had been carrying.

Jun Wu was looking at them with a peaceful expression, but Xie Lian knew better than to trust him. He was sitting on a rock, appearing to have been meditating. He put on a calm and collected demeanor, but he didn’t have the upper hand anymore. He was the one locked in a cage, Xie Lian reminded himself.

“How have you been XianLe?” he asked unconcernedly.

“What did you do with my parents’ ashes?” Xie Lian went straight to the point.

“Aren’t they in the Royal Mausoleum?” he answered, as if nothing was wrong.

Xie Lian closed his fists tightly. “Stop lying!” he shouted. “I know what you did.”

“Answer the question,” Hua Cheng snarled, pulling E-Ming out of his sheath.

“There’s no need to be aggressive. Aren’t we having an amicable conversation?”

“We aren’t.” Hua Cheng started menacingly walking closer, but Xie Lian grabbed his arm, patting it lightly to calm him down.

Jun Wu looked disapprovingly at Hua Cheng before answering, “I don’t know.” He shrugged.

“What do you mean ‘you don’t know’?” Xie Lian started getting angry. If anything happened to his parents’ ashes…

“I mean that they were in my palace, but as you are aware, it was destroyed,” he looked at him pointedly.

Xie Lian staggered. It wasn’t possible, it–

“They can’t have been destroyed, the queen and king are fine. So, you better be more useful than that and remember better,” Hua Cheng barked.

– it wasn’t possible. Right. His parents were fine, so their ashes must be too.

“I don’t know what happened when you set fire to my capital,” Jun Wu reiterated.

He looked thoughtful for a moment. “But now that I think about it, I didn’t saw them when I was looking for a sword right before you two sowed chaos.” He smiled, “You may want to ask your cousin. He was roaming around at that time, if I recall correctly.”

“What did they look like?” Xie Lian asked. If Qi Rong had taken them, it would complicate everything. Hopefully, he hadn’t figured out what they were and just kept them as a trophy to show his superiority over Jun Wu.

“Two golden daggers with emeralds embedded in the hilt. I thought they looked quite nice in my collection,” he laughed.

Hearing him laugh talking about his parents’ remains as decorations, Xie Lian couldn’t keep his collected demeanor anymore and slapped Jun Wu hard in the face. Without his spiritual powers, Jun Wu could not withstand it and fell on the floor under the force of the blow.

Xie Lian took a deep breath, trying to calm himself, backing off a few steps while Jun Wu sat back on his rock, smiling at him.

“You better be telling the truth,” Hua Cheng threatened, walking slowly in circles around him.

“I have no interest in deceiving you anymore,” Jun Wu stated calmly.

“Like I’d believe you,” the ghost king spat.

Xie Lian grabbed his hand and pulled him away. “Let’s go.”

They left not without Hua Cheng throwing a last murdering glare at Jun Wu.

The walk back up the stairs was mostly silent. Xie Lian was deep in thoughts. He didn’t think Jun Wu was lying but he ought to be careful regardless. The prospect of him telling the truth was more worrying though. If his parents’ ashes whereabout were unknown… No, they would go ask Qi Rong before starting to worry.

Xie Lian was pacing in front of Puqi shrine. Lang Qianqiu had refused to come to Ghost City and the more Hua Cheng avoided going to the Heavens, the better everyone was.

He wanted to call Feng Xin and Mu Qing via the array to check on his parents, but he felt rather ridiculous. He was acting like a parent who worried for the children they left for the first time to a childminder. But they were in Paradise Manor, there were all adults, centuries old, Feng Xin and Mu Qing were two of the strongest martial gods in Heaven, and if anything happened, they would immediately inform him.

He sighed. He knew he was being a bit paranoid, but the situation warranted it.

“Gege, don’t fret. I promise you we’ll find them. If nothing happened to them for the past year, nothing will happen now,” Hua Cheng reminded him.

“I know, I know…”

The ghost king was about to hug him when a light blinded them both. However, the first thing they heard wasn’t Lang Qianqiu, but Qi Rong swearing.

A tired looking Lang Qianqiu emerged from the light giving a strong kick to the green lantern he carried.

“Your Highness Tai Hua,” Xie Lian greeted him. “How have you been doing?”

“Fine.” He didn’t seem to want to develop, looking rather awkward. Even if he did not resent Xie Lian anymore, their interactions were still tense.

“And how is Guzi?”

“Waiting for his father to recover.” He said the word ‘father’ with a mix of complicated emotions, clearly not happy to have Guzi still see Qi Rong as his father.

Xie Lian could only understand. He would have asked if there was any progress with that, but with Qi Rong’s soul right in front of him, he could see that not much had changed. He didn’t know if he felt reassured or disappointed by that.

“THAT’S RIGHT, I’M HIS FATHER! YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT? OH YEAH, I FORGOT, NONE OF YOU FUCKERS COULD EVER DREAM OF HAVING A CHILD HAHA!”

All of their gazes turned to the lantern that had started to flicker.

Xie Lian felt tired already. “Qi Rong.” They had decided to ask him questions as broad as they could to give him less opportunities to lie. “Did you steal artefacts from Jun Wu?”

Qi Rong immediately used the opportunity to brag. “THIS ANCESTOR DID. IT WAS NO DIFFICULTY. I TOOK SOME SHITS FROM HIS COLLECTION AND THERE WAS NOTHING THAT FUCKER JUN WU COULD DO TO STOP THIS ANCESTOR!”

“What did they look like?” Xie Lian insisted.

“Why do you wanna know?” Qi Rong asked wary, calming down.

Hua Cheng opened the lantern and grabbed with a hand the ghost fire that was hiding inside. He tightened his grip on it menacingly. Immediately, it started yelling again.

“THOSE SHITTY TRINKETS? THEY WERE GOLD KNIVES WITH GREEN GEMSTONES. THEY DIDN’T EVEN LOOK THAT GOOD. I HAVE SOME MUCH BETTER OF MY OWN! JUN WU’S COLLECTION IS TRASH!”

“Where did you put them?” Xie Lian questioned, losing patience. They were this close!

“In my lair.”

“What lair?”

“LIKE I’D TELL YOU!” He started laughing like a madman.

“It’s okay gege, I already know where it is,” Hua Cheng told him calmly.

“WHAT?” Qi Rong exclaimed angrily.

Hua Cheng ignored him and kept talking to Xie Lian. “I interrogated some of his minions yesterday when they attacked. They told me where it was.”

“What?” Now Qi Rong seemed more confused, as if he didn’t know what Hua Cheng was talking about, but Xie Lian brushed it off for now. Whatever this attack was really about, it would wait for now.

“Alright. Let’s go then,” Xie Lian agreed. Then to Lang Qianqiu he said, “Thank you Your Highness for coming. I’m sorry to have bothered you with my cousin.” He stepped back and cupped his hands in front of him. “Take care.”

Lang Qianqiu nodded. “You too.”

Hua Cheng put back the ghost fire in the lantern, but before that he crushed it with his hand, his eye glowing red for a second. There was an instant were the flame stopped burning but then it flickered back to life, much dimmer than it was before. Whatever progress Qi Rong had made in the past year, Hua Cheng had surely destroyed it.

When they arrived at the lair, they made a quick deal of cleaning it. There was a surprising amount of ghosts worming around.

They looked for the daggers all around the lair, going through every cave three times at Xie Lian insistence, but they found nothing. Qi Rong’s lackeys were useless in directing them, but after a shichen, one of them said tentatively “Maybe Qi Rong took them.”

“We saw him a shichen ago and he said they were here,” Xie Lian dismissed them quickly.

“Well, he was here right before you came,” they insisted.

“What?” Xie Lian turned around. “That’s impossible.”

“I’m not lying!” They immediately started to defend themselves, shielding their face with their arms. “You can ask everyone! He was here!”

Xie Lian looked worryingly at Hua Cheng before darting to the next cave and violently grabbing another ghost, asking him when he saw Qi Rong for the last time.

He asked a dozen ghosts like that – every time receiving the same answer: ‘A shichen ago, right before you arrived’ – before Hua Cheng stopped him.

He grabbed his shoulders. “They are not lying gege.”

Xie Lian stopped moving, deflating. “But… but it’s impossible. He was with us.”

“It’s not impossible if it wasn’t the real him,” Hua Cheng said grimly.

“You mean… someone pretended to be him?” Xie Lian felt dread rising in him.

Hua Cheng nodded. “It would also explain why the attack yesterday was so weird. It wasn’t Qi Rong leading them.”

That meant that there was a ghost powerful enough to pretend to be a calamity that had been roaming around freely for heaven knows how long, and nobody noticed it.

And this ghost most likely had his parents’ ashes.

Shit.

Chapter Text

Xie Lian insisted to keep searching the lair, in vain, while Hua Cheng continued with the ghosts’ interrogation, but no one knew anything.

After another shichen, it was Hua Cheng who dragged him back to Paradise Manor, insisting that he should rest and wouldn’t achieve anything in that state. As he walked through the corridors leading to the garden – where Hua Cheng’s butterflies spotted his parents – Xie Lian felt incredibly dispirited.

Why couldn’t he have anything good? Why?!

His parents had just come back and now he was going to lose them again. He was useless, useless, useless useless uselessuselessuse–

Hua Cheng, sensing that his thoughts had spiraled, grabbed his waist, engulfing him in a half hug. Xie Lian sighed and shook his head, trying to refocus on the environment around him.

He knew this wasn’t the same as before. He had spiritual power, a lot of it, things weren’t as hopeless as back then, whoever this ghost was, they couldn’t possibly compare to Bai Wuxiang, and more importantly, Hua Cheng was here with him.

Still, Xie Lian didn’t know what he would tell his parents. He felt responsible, even though he knew it wasn’t his fault. But if he only had–

“We’ll find them gege,” Hua Cheng spoke, “Yin Yu is already investigating that ghost, but there are ways to track down ashes anyway.”

That pulled Xie Lian out of his thoughts. “Really?”

“As you know, ghosts have a very deep connection with their ashes. Most ghosts can vaguely sense where their own ashes are. It depends on the level of the ghost. Stronger ghosts can pinpoint them exactly. For weaker ghosts, they can’t really sense them, it’s more of an intuition of in which direction they are. As if you were guided by an imprecise compass that you can’t explain, and the closer you are the clearer it gets.” Hua Cheng seemed pensive for a minute. “That’s how most ghosts find their ashes after they died.”

Xie Lian didn’t want to think about Hua Cheng – no, Hong-er – looking for his own body, searching through a mass grave, if in a grave at all.

“But in general, ghosts appear near their ashes,” Hua Cheng continues, as if unbothered by the memory, “and we don’t know how far Their Majesties’ ashes are, so relying only this probably wouldn’t work. But there are a few spells we could try, to help.”

“So, people can just use those spells to track down a ghost’s ashes?” Xie Lian exclaimed. He never heard of any spell like this. Surely, the Heavens would have known of such spells. But then again, if gods or cultivators knew of it, wouldn’t be extremely dangerous for ghosts?

He instinctively grabbed the ring on the chain around his neck.

Hua Cheng, noticing the gesture, grinned. “Don’t worry gege, as far as I’m aware, it only works if it’s the ghost themselves who is looking for their ashes. And only very few people know about those spells. Casting spells on ashes whichever they are, are very taboo. And there were very little studies conducted about those spells anyway, because no one wants their ashes to be experimented on.”

That made Xie Lian a little more hopeful, giving him an idea of what to do next, but the perspective also worried him. He knew that Hua Cheng would never suggest doing anything that could hurt his parents, but he still could help but ask “Are you sure it’s safe?”

“Of course, gege. You can study the spells later if you want to see for yourself, but I actually ‘bribed’ He Xuan into testing them a month ago.”

Xie Lian grimaced. He knew that Hua Cheng must have been absolutely certain that the spell would be harmless – or harmless enough – to ask Black Water to test it, but for him to accept… Xie Lian knew that he didn’t have much care for his life after everything that happened with the Wind Master, but from that to allow his ashes to serve as a test subject…

Well, there wasn’t much he could do directly. Afterall, he didn’t know the calamity very well. But he made a mental note to talk about it with Hua Cheng later, when the situation at hand would be resolved.

Speaking of the situation at hand, they had arrived at the gardens.

He could not hear what the four persons sitting under the gazebo were talking about, but he could see in their body language that Feng Xin and Mu Qing were uncomfortable with the topic of discussion.

As they got closer, Hua Cheng removed his arm from his waist. Xie Lian frowned but didn’t say anything about it. In the past few months, he had gotten used to Hua Cheng’s excessive displays of affection, but he guessed it was rather normal to not make such a display in front of his parents.

When Feng Xin and Mu Qing noticed Xie Lian and Hua Cheng coming their way, they immediately stopped talking. Xie Lian wasn’t sure if it was for his sake or theirs.

Xie Lian took a moment to properly look at his parents for the first time that day. They looked much better than yesterday, their clothes less royal than what they would have worn in XianLe but still excessively extravagant. They looked more healthy and younger than the day before, but Xie Lian couldn’t tell whether their forms had actually changed, being relived from the worry of what had happened to their son, or if it was because everything Hua Cheng had so graciously accommodated them with offered them an opportunity to hide their tiredness. His father may hate Hua Cheng, but he was still making full use of his generosity. That irritated Xie Lian quite a bit.

Xie Lian took a seat under the gazebo, next to his mother, Hua Cheng at his side, and, deciding to waste no more time, grimly tried to explain in the least concerning way possible the situation. Hua Cheng chimed in to reassure his parents that there was no need to worry and that their ashes would be found.

The queen didn’t look to concerned, choosing to believe her son and her son-in-law when they said that they could handle the situation.

The king, however, didn’t look too pleased but restrained himself from saying anything.

Feng Xin and Mu Qing were both frowning. “How come we never heard of those spells?” Mu Qing asked.

“Because you’re incompetent,” Hua Cheng answered calmly.

“You– ” Feng Xin started to yell, but Xie Lian interrupted the argument before it could start.

“Please!” He really didn’t want to have his friends and husband fighting in front of his parents.

The firmness in his voice shut everyone up.

“Alright, then we should try this spell of yours,” the queen said, refocusing the conversation on the matter at hands after a few awkward seconds of silence. She sighed. “We’re sorry to cause you trouble A-Lian, A-Cheng.”

Xie Lian could see that the use of the nickname startled a bit his husband, but Hua Cheng gave a heartfelt smile to the queen, a rare sight for anyone who wasn’t Xie Lian. He didn’t say anything about it out loud though, only answering with a sincere “It is no trouble Your Majesty.”

“Mu Qing, Feng Xin,” Xie Lian called his friends, “could you research that ghost too on your side while we’re gone?”

“Of course,” Mu Qing said, rolling his eyes.

“Maybe Ling Wen will know something about them,” Feng Xin added.

“Thank you both.”

“Yes, thank you boys,” the queen agreed.

And so, Feng Xin and Mu Qing returned to the Heavens while Hua Cheng and Xie Lian took care of the spell.

When they both drew the complex array together and nothing happened at first, Xie Lian panicked, but Hua Cheng reassured him and explained that it only meant that the ashes weren’t in the Ghost Realm. So, Xie Lian quickly threw his dices and opened the closest door, emerging in Puqi shrine.

There were two places other than Paradise Manor that Xie Lian considered his home and where he would go first, should he need to go to the Mortal Realm: Puqi shrine and his cottage on Mount Taicang. Hua Cheng had even created portals that stayed constantly open between the two places and Paradise Manor that only himself and Xie Lian could cross.

But out of the two places, Xie Lian didn’t think that going to where XianLe once stood with his parents was a good idea at that moment – if ever –, so he chose Puqi shrine.

When his parents walked through the door after him and still nothing changed, his panic came back in full force.

He was about to speak, but his mother cut him off.

“I can… feel something.” She frowned. “That way…” She pointed to the West.

“I can feel it too,” confirmed the king.

Xie Lian let out a sigh of relief, letting himself relax. It worked!

“We should prepare to travel,” Hua Cheng said. “We don’t know how long it will take until we find them.”

“Right,” Xie Lian said. He hoped it wouldn’t be too long, but they also needed time to think about what they would do when they would find the ashes. Assuming that the ghost was with them and that they could be reasoned with, they could just talk to them, even buy the ashes from them or offer something in exchange. It was unlikely that the ghost knew what the daggers truly were, so it shouldn’t be too complicated. If the ghost couldn’t be reasoned with, they could always fight. There was no question about who would come out victorious, but could they make sure that the ashes would stay unscathed?

“I’ll ask for a carriage to be prepared,” Hua Cheng announced, pulling him out of his thoughts.

“Nothing ostentatious.” Xie Lian squinted at him. “Keep it simple.” He knew how his husband could be. “We don’t know anything about the ghost we are going after, we shouldn’t attract attention.”

Hua Cheng pouted a little but agreed. “Gege is right as always.”

The queen giggled at that answer which made Xie Lian blush.

As it was almost lunchtime, Hua Cheng insisted they – or more accurately Xie Lian, as he was the only one who really needed it – ate before leaving, while servants packed the things they would need.

They ended up leaving much later than Xie Lian would have liked, but he could admit that it was better to be well prepared, as they didn’t know anything of the journey that awaited them.

They went back to Puqi shrine and climbed into the horse-drawn carriage that waited for them. It looked very modest but was still comfortable.

The trip went peacefully, with the queen making light conversation with Xie Lian and Hua Cheng while the king stayed stubbornly silent.

In the evening, they stopped at a small town to eat and rest for the night. Hua Cheng had proposed to come back to Paradise Manor with the dices, but Xie Lian had insisted they shouldn’t get too far. If anything happened, his parents would be able to sense it better if they stayed closer.

While looking for a restaurant and an inn, they passed by a night market selling all kind of goods. Xie Lian was too distracted to pay much attention, but at some point Hua Cheng handed him a flower cake¹ .

“I thought gege might like one.”

Xie Lian took it with gratitude. “Thank you, San Lang.” He was a bit hungry. He looked behind him to see that his mother was already nibbling on one of her own while his father looked at the cake in his hand as if it had personally offended him.

Seeing that Hua Cheng didn’t get one for himself, Xie Lian cut his own in two and gave him one half with a smile. “Here, let’s share!”

Hua Cheng gladly took it and started munching on it while starring at him intently. Xie Lian quickly looked away, feeling his cheeks heating.

After another few minutes walking through the market, Xie Lian decided to ask for directions to an old lady that ran a stand of tea leaves. She was very kind in indicating him where he could find an inn, so Xie Lian bought a bunch of leaves as a thanks.

When he turned to his right to talk to Hua Cheng, he realized that his husband wasn’t next to him but a few stalls away, speaking with his mother. As he walked closer, he saw him handing some money to the vendor and his mother treading excitedly towards him.

“A-Lian, look at the earrings A-Cheng bought me,” she said, a matching pair of earrings in her open palm.

They were undeniably beautiful, shaped like golden fans with white and red stones inlaid in them, but they also looked very expensive. Still, it warmed his heart to see his mother happy.

“Ah San Lang, you didn’t have to.”

“But Her Majesty really liked them,” Hua Cheng replied with a pout. “And they suit her perfectly. It would be a shame to leave them here where they would only rust when Her Majesty’s beauty can make them shine.”

The queen laughed. “A-Lian, your husband is such a flatterer.”

“I know mama,” Xie Lian answered with a found smile.

Hua Cheng feigned hurt at his response. “Gege! You wound me! Shouldn’t you know that I’m always sincere?”

“Stop being silly,” Xie Lian said. He went to instinctively grab Hua Cheng’s shoulders and stand on his tiptoes to kiss him when he remembered that his mother was watching them. He immediately let go and backed off a few steps, awkwardly clearing his throat, his face flaming red.

“Oh, don’t let me stop you. Just pretend I’m not here,” his mother said, very unhelpfully.

“Mama!” he screamed, hiding his face behind his hands while Hua Cheng laughed at him. What a betrayal!

Xie Lian threw him a falsely angry stare and turned around, starting to walk away in the direction the old lady from the tea stall indicated him. Hua Cheng caught up to him in two steps and grabbed his arm to make him look at him.

“Gege, gege, forgive me,” he said with an amused smile. “Here, I even have a present for you to make it up for it.” He was holding a worn-out book in his hand.

Xie Lian was a bit confused, no recognizing the book, the cover too damaged for him to make out the title.

“You were talking about that old cultivation book the other week, and how you would have wanted to have the second volume. It was pure luck that one of the vendors of the market just so happened to have a copy,” Hua Cheng explained with a grin.

He had indeed found an interesting booklet about martial arts and cultivation when he was scrap collecting a few days ago. The woman who gave it to him seemed pretty happy to get rid of it, but Xie Lian couldn’t understand why. The writing wasn’t very good, making it all seem rather boring, but the content was actually really interesting! He had been a bit upset to see that the book was in two parts and had mentioned it offhandedly to Hua Cheng when he had finished reading it.

“Oh, you remembered.” He grabbed the book and started flipping through it, happy to see that the inside wasn’t as damaged as the cover. “Thank you, San Lang.” He smiled gratefully at him. Of course his husband wouldn’t only listen attentively to his ramblings, but also remember everything he said.

“Are you going to stand here all night? Shouldn’t we go to the inn?” the king made his presence known, his annoyance clear in his voice.

Everyone startled a bit at the sudden interruption. Xie Lian had forgotten his father was here. He took a deep breath, restraining himself to show his exasperation.

“The lady at the stall says it’s this way,” he only answered while vaguely pointing a street. After carefully tucking the book away in his sleeve, making sure to not damage it more, he started walking in the direction he pointed.

When they arrived at the inn, they quickly sorted their sleeping arrangements and then went to eat in the small room on the first floor that served as a restaurant. The room was very modest, with less than a dozen small, mismatched tables, and a handful of chairs and benches scattered around.

It was already quite late so apart from two women discussing in hushed tones a few tables away, they were the only ones in the room. Therefore, a server came to ask for their order almost immediately.

“Xiānshēngmen, nǚshì², good evening! What can I get ya?”

The king frowned at the address, clearly not finding it respectful enough. Xie Lian on the other hand thought it was completely normal. They all had dressed down for the trip – well, only Hua Cheng and his parents really – wearing inconspicuous clothing.

His mother hadn’t appeared bothered at all, only showing a bit of gloominess just now when she realized that she couldn’t wear the earrings Hua Cheng had gifted her.

His father had been the most reluctant one, not happy to have to part with the opulence he just got back.

Xie Lian smiled at the waiter and asked for a simple mushroom soup. Hua Cheng ordered an assortment of bao, jiaozi, cold noodles, stir-fired noodles and fried rice after him. It seemed too much for one person, but Xie Lian knew that Hua Cheng intended to share with him. He mentally sighed.

His husband had taken on him to see that he ate more and better. When outside or on his own, Xie Lian still had a hard time remembering that he could eat as much as he needed or even remembering to eat at all. He wasn’t even that hungry most of the time! So what if he skipped a meal or two? It was not like it would kill him.

But evidently Hua Cheng didn’t like that way of thinking very much. He found that the best way to make sure that Xie Lian ate was to just hand him food, knowing that he wouldn’t bare to see it wasted.

After his parents ordered their food too and the waiter left, Xie Lian turned towards Hua Cheng. “Have you heard anything from Yin Yu?”

“He’s been looking for other similar cases or strange occurrences that happened after the ghost first appeared as Qi Rong, but there is not result so far. Everything turns out to be dead ends. Either this ghost has really kept to themselves, or they are really good at erasing their tracks.”

Feng Xin and Mu Qing had more or less said the same thing to him a few hours prior. He didn’t like it. Why would a seemingly discrete and peaceful ghost suddenly decide to impersonate Qi Rong? But really, why would anyone want to impersonate Qi Rong?

Xie Lian spent the rest of the dinner trying to figure out what the ghost’s intentions could be, barely reacting when Hua Cheng put some food in front of him, only absentmindedly reaching for it with his chopsticks. He was vaguely aware that Hua Cheng was making conversation with his mother and Xie Lian felt a bit bad for leaving him alone with it, but he really did seem to have let himself relax fully when with his mother. And everyone mostly just ignored his father.

When they were about to retreat in their rooms for the night, his mother called him. “A-Lian, can I talk to you for a second?” It might have worried him if it wasn’t for her kind smile.

“Of course,” he answered his mother. He wished good night to his father and sent a smile to Hua Cheng before walking back to the room they just left.

“What is it mama?” Xie Lian asked as he took a sit.

“Nothing much,” his mother answered him, mirroring his movements. “I just wanted to talk to you alone for a bit. Just the two of us.”

It had been a while since the two of them simply sat and talk, just like this. Even without counting the past 800 years, it would have been a few months before his first ascension. He spent the past centuries regretting he didn’t spend more time with his mother. Hua Cheng had told him time and time again that he shouldn’t blame himself for that, that he was just a kid at the time, and any teenager wanted to get away from their parents, but still, he couldn’t help but feel guilty. He had thought himself so mature back then, but he really had been acting like a child.

“So,” his mother spoke, “your San Lang is quite the attentive husband.”

“Mom!” Xie Lian yelled in embarrassment. She was having way too much fun with the fact that he was married!

She smiled with mischief. “What? It’s a compliment. And it’s true. That’s a good thing he is here, because my boy can’t take care of himself.”

Even though she was probably right, Xie Lian pouted a little. By his standards, he was fine. “I’m not a kid anymore, Ma.”

“That doesn’t mean you should have to shoulder everything alone,” she said knowingly.

He stayed silent for a moment. Before whispering “I missed you, Ma,” his head down, looking at the floor.

His mother looked at him with a piercing gaze, looking for the best words, but when she noticed a tear running down his cheek, she raised from her chair and went to embrace him.

“Silly child, it’s alright to cry. It hasn’t been a day I haven’t regretted leaving you. And even before I…” She absentmindedly started to rock him like a child, petting his hair. “None of us knew how to deal with the situation. We all made poor choices because we didn’t know better. I wish I had tried to talk to you more, listen to what you were and weren’t saying more, share some part of your burden. But what happened happened. Now we should only focus on the present, and the future. And I’m here now, with you.”

They stayed in that position for a while. Xie Lian had so many things he wanted and needed to say to his mother, but he didn’t know how to express any of it with anything else than ugly sobs. He had always thought that if he had the chance to see his mother one more time, just once, he wouldn’t stop talking until she left again. But now, he couldn’t find any of these words. So he didn’t say anything, hoping that his silence would be enough. He didn’t want to leave her arms.

When, after some time, she saw he calmed down, his mother rekindled the discussion. “Ah! But don’t you think you can divert the subject from Hua Cheng!”

“MA!” he exclaimed, this time with laughter in his voice.

“Can I ask you something?” she said, her tone growing a bit more serious.

He hummed in agreement.

“Why do you choose to live so humbly,” she made a vague hand gesture pointing at his clothes, “when he is so wiling to bathe you in luxury?”

Xie Lian searched for the right words for a moment. He knew his mother wasn’t judging him in the slightest, unlike his father who was annoyed at seeing him like this, but he would also be annoyed if he let Hua Cheng pamper him as much as he wanted, so his opinion didn’t matter. “I spend so long without any luxury that it feels more like myself if I’m like this.”

“Does it really, or do you feel like you don’t deserve luxury?” his mother questioned, going straight to the point.

Xie Lian thought about it for a second. It certainly had been the case before, but it wasn’t true anymore. “I feel like I don’t need it.”

“It doesn’t have to be about need.”

“I don’t need it to be happy,” he corrected. “I wouldn’t be happier with luxuries. I much prefer simple heartfelt things than accumulated luxuries. It is much better of a present to have San Lang remembering some of my silly ramblings from a week ago and buying me a book accordingly, even though it’s not worth much more than scraps, than him buying me some riches just because. Not that it wouldn’t be heartfelt too, but you know…” he digressed. “And anyway, even though I do already, I would rather not depend too much on him financially.” It wasn’t that he felt guilty that Hua Cheng spent so much money on him… or maybe it was a little. But he also didn’t want to be helpless.

“I see, I see,” his mother said with a smile. “It’s good that Hua Cheng supports and encourages your choices.”

“I know, he’s perfect,” he answered blushing a little. “You know, now that I think about it, distancing myself from excessive luxuries was the only part of my cultivation that didn’t respect back then, but it’s the only part that I respect now.”

He started laughing, but then realized what he just said. What he just heavily implied. In front of his own mother. His whole body flushed as red as a hot pepper, and his laughter died down immediately. “Wait, no! I mean– I– I– Aaaah!” He extricated himself from his mother’s arms and stood up disgracefully. “Please forget I said anything!” He started bolting to his room to the sound of his mother’s laughter.

Chapter Text

Xie Lian woke up to movement on his right. He blinked his eyes open, his mind foggy with exhaustion. The room was still dark, it definitely wasn’t morning yet. He couldn’t see much but there was a figure cautiously walking to the other side the room.

“San Lang?” he asked, his voice deep with sleep.

The figure stopped then walked back to the bed. “Go back to sleep gege,” Hua Cheng answered, kissing him on the top of his hair and stroking his cheek lovingly.

But Xie Lian had had enough time to wake up completely and was now more alert. After all these years of wandering, he was still a light sleeper and could wake up in mere seconds if needed.

“Where are you going?” he asked, sitting up. Hua Cheng rarely actually slept but he still loved to rest with him through the night. And he never left without a good reason.

Hua Cheng sighed. “Some kid in a village nearby prayed to me. I’m going to deal with it. I won’t be long. Don’t worry about it gege, I’m sorry I woke you up.”

“Ah, you should go then. My San Lang is so good.” Hua Cheng scowled at that, clearly disagreeing but didn’t say anything. He simply kissed him again, this time on the lips and got up to leave.

Even thought he was trying not to show it, it was obvious to Xie Lian that he was in a hurry. Still, he laid back down and closed his eyes, trusting his husband to handle the situation just fine.

A lot of people prayed to Crimson Rain, much to the displeasure of Heaven, but Hua Cheng rarely acknowledged them. Xie Lian took care of all the prayers that were addressed to the both of them, sometimes with Hua Cheng’s help. But the calamity never cared about those that were directed to him only, though to be fair, those tended to be prayers that couldn’t be made to the gods: wishing for someone else’s death, riches, spouse or suffering. But sometimes desperate people whom the Heavens didn’t listen to prayed for help. Especially children. Those prayers were always answered.

Xie Lian woke up again a few hours later to the feeling of sunlight on his face. He turned to his right again to see that Hua Cheng hadn’t come back. He quickly got out of bed and got dressed before opening his communication array. “San Lang? Is everything okay?”

Hua Cheng didn’t answer immediately. He didn’t take longer than a minute but still, it did nothing to ease Xie Lian’s worry.

“Yes, don’t worry gege. The situation is just more complicated than I thought.”

That made Xie Lian pause. This was weirdly similar to what happened with the fake Qi Rong’s minions not even three days ago. It was probably just a coincidence, but Xie Lian couldn’t shake the odd feeling he had about it.

“It turned out that the kid isn’t human. He’s a ghost, he was killed a few years ago,” Hua Cheng explained. “This village, along with another few around, decided to overcome their poverty by selling off some of their children. The boy was a victim of their system, but he only prayed to me when his younger sister was sold.” His voice grew a bit frenzied, “I got to her in time, but I wish he called me sooner. He isn’t the only ghost child here. Far from it. I could have – ”

“San Lang,” Xie Lian interrupted him. “That’s…  that’s horrifying, I can’t fathom people doing this, but you are fixing it now. Don’t blame yourself for things out of your control, alright? You are doing good right now.” It was a rare instance for Xie Lian to be the one comforting Hua Cheng, but when he went to answer prayers on his own, the calamity always came back angry, bloody and distressed. It definitely affected him more than he let it show.

There was a silence for a while in the array. When Hua Cheng spoke again, his voice was back under control. “I got rid of the traders. I’m going around the villages in the area to make sure that the problem is definitively taken care of. Then I’ll stay a bit to help those who wish to pass, and after that I’ll take the rest to Ghost City.”

“Alright. San Lang I…” Xie Lian wanted to ask him if he wished for him to come and help, but he couldn’t leave his parents right now, and he was reluctant to delay their search for their ashes. But it hurt him to not be able to help not only his husband but also those children.

Hua Cheng seemed to understand Xie Lian’s feelings and answered his unspoken dilemma. “I’m fine on my own gege. Actually, I would rather you didn’t have to see that.”

Xie Lian wasn’t sure whether he was talking about the ghost children or him unlashing his fury, but either way he wanted to answer that he wouldn’t mind.

“I’ll catch up to you when I’m done,” Hua Cheng concluded, preventing him from answering his previous statement.

“Of course.” Xie Lian hesitated. What was he supposed to say? Be safe? He certainly wasn’t the one in danger. Good luck? He already had more than enough luck and it wasn’t very appropriate given the situation.

In the end, he settled on: “Don’t hesitate to call me, okay?”

“I’m always happy to talk to gege,” easily replied Hua Cheng.

After another few minutes of conversation, they bid their goodbyes. Xie Lian finished to get ready for the day and went down to the first floor to see if his parents were already up.

When he walked into the small room that served as a restaurant, he immediately spotted them – not that it was very hard given the size of the room.

“Mother, father,” he greeted them as he took a sit in front of them.

His father only gave him a nod, seeping grimly his tea while his mother smiled at him and asked “A-Lian, did you sleep well? Is A-Cheng not up yet?”

“Ah no, he had to leave earlier. Something came up,” he answered vaguely.

“Something?” his father said more than asked derisively.

“Is everything alright?” his mother inquired furrowing her brows.

Xie Lian was pondering on how to say it so that his parents wouldn’t ask more questions while not mentioning anything that could shock them. It was way too early to be talking about child trafficking, and he didn’t want to traumatize his mother. Fortunately, a staff member came to ask him what he wanted to eat, buying him some time.

When the server left, he decided to go with “He is fine. He young boy prayed to him, so he went to help him.” This at least should redirect their questions on –

“Prayed?” his father not exactly snorted because kings don’t snort, but close enough. “To him? You must mean prayed to you. Do you have him do all your work for you? Why would anyone pray to a ghost?”

Xie Lian took a deep breath to not start a fist fight with his father in the middle of a restaurant. “No, I mean prayed to him. I’m not sure why he can hear prayers exactly, but I suspect it is because while he rejected his ascension, he was never formally banished, so he’s still considered as a god, sort of.”

“Ascension?” the king chocked.

Even though Xie Lian didn’t think that ascension had anything to do with someone’s worth, it was still nice to see his father speechless.

“Oh, yes. Did I forgot to mention it?” he said on the same tone someone would use to discuss the weather. “He ascended a few centuries ago because he sacrificed his eye to save a group of mortals from feral ghosts.”

Hua Cheng rarely wanted to dwell on his past, especially the vulnerable moments like the time he spent in Mount Tonglu. He always brushed it off. But Xie Lian knew it had been a really hard time for him, both physically and mentally. He wished he hadn’t had to go through all of that. Not that he wasn’t proud of him that he succeeded, but suffering was never worth rejoicing.

Still, Xie Lian was feeling quite smug seeing his father’s mouth hanging open.

“He… was a god before he became a ghost?” the king asked.

“No. He was already a ghost at the time.” He hadn’t had time to do anything before dying. He spent his teenage years fighting a war for him. All to be rewarded with death.

“Ghosts can ascend?” His father couldn’t mask his surprise.

“As I told you before,” Xie Lian said intently, “him being a ghost does not dictate his worth. He is a much better person than you’ll ever be.”

This made his father recover from his shock. “Why are you always acting like you know everything better than anyone else?!”

Xie Lian raised his voice to meet his father’s. “Not anyone else. You.”

“Don’t be so ungrateful! Respect your father!” The king pointed his finger at him accusingly.

“I will when you’ll respect my husband!” He wasn’t even asking his father to respect him, just Hua Cheng! He could live with his father despising him. He could understand, he despised himself too! But he couldn’t accept anyone slandering his husband. After everything he went through!

“Please, please! Calm down!” his mother physically placed herself being the two of them. “Let’s not argue when we will have to travel all day together alright?”

The king hmpfted and sat back on his seat, forcefully gulping his tea.

Xie Lian thought that this would be the end of the conversation, but his mother turned to him.

She was looking rather concerned. “That was very brave and kind of him to save them. I can’t imagine maiming myself for people I don’t even know. But you said he… rejected his ascension? Why would he do that?”

Ah. Now Xie Lian was feeling sheepish. He should have anticipated that question would come. “Hum… well, he… He didn’t want to be there if I wasn’t,” he mumbled the last part.

“What?” the queen asked him to repeat.

“He didn’t want to be in Heaven or be affiliated to them if I wasn’t here.” He looked away, embarrassed. “And he doesn’t think anyone but me deserves to be a god,” he added with flushed cheeks.

“Aw, that’s romantic!” his mother said. “But… did he really? Ascension is not just any feat… To reject it…”

Xie Lian laughed awkwardly, not knowing what to answer to that. Of course he was aware of that. He, better than anyone else, knew it. He had rejected his second ascension too. He hadn’t taken it lightly either. And he knew exactly what Hua Cheng had given up for him.

“I hope he didn’t do it on a whim,” his father said on an indecipherable tone.

“Of course not. No one would take that decision lightly,” Xie Lian answered a bit aggressively.

The conversation was interrupted by the waiter coming back with his food. Both of his parents dropped the subject, and they went on a completely different topic of conversation. His father stayed completely silent for the rest of the meal, seemingly lost in thoughts. Ah, if it could make him less rude toward San Lang, even a bit, I’ll take it.

Once they finished, they quickly gathered their belongings and got back to their carriage, leaving the insignificant town behind. Fair to Xie Lian’s luck – contrary to his spiritual power that had only be restrained, his luck had been dispersed. He now had to slowly rebuild it from scratch, but it took some time, and while it wasn’t as abysmal as it was before, it was still pretty bad – not even a few shichen later they ran into some trouble.

They had been going through a forest, far enough from any village that they hadn’t cross path with a single human being the whole time – they seemed to get farther and farther away from the big towns, going deeper into the countryside – but they could now see a dozen figures on the road ahead, blocking the cart’s only path, looking very out of place. Why would bandits choose a spot with so little traffic? That seemed very counterproductive.

Xie Lian internally sighed and decided to pretend that nothing was amiss and keep going, but he could sense his parents growing anxious.

“Say Daozhang,” one of the men called out to him when they got close enough, “don’t you have some money to spare for us lowly ones?”

Now, normally Xie Lian was all for giving money to those in need – it would be quite the hypocrisy for him not to – but when it came to sketchy men who reeked alcohol and had speckles of dried blood on their clothes, he wasn’t so adamant about it.

“Good day gentlemen,” he calmly answered with a smile. “I’m afraid not, but if you could move away from the road, we would appreciate it.”

“Tss,” the man – probably the leader – spat on the floor. “I asked you nicely and this is how you answer me?”

“Apology if my answer offended you, but – ”

“No ‘but’!” the leader interrupted him, pulling out his sword – a rusty thing that wasn’t cared for at all, Xie Lian noted with disesteem.

The other men of the group where quick to follow their leader, all grabbing their swords with little grace. It was evident that none of them really knew how to use them and that they only counted on the fact that they would outnumber the travelers who wouldn’t have any weapon.

Xie Lian raised his hands peacefully. “We don’t have to fight.”

“That’s right,” agreed the leader. “Just give us your money.”

“If you insist.” Xie Lian swiftly got out of the cart, rummaging through his sleeve as the men snickered. When his hand grabbed what he was looking for, he made a little triumphant sound before pulling out a sword as white as snow.

The bandits took a step back, not having excepted him to carry a sword of his own, and not one of such fine craftmanship at that. The leader opened his mouth to yell orders, but no sound had time to come out before he fell on the floor, knocked out. Xie Lian had used the pommel of his sword to hit him on the head.

The men stayed frozen for a few seconds, shocked that their leader had been taken down so fast. But, arrogant as they were, it didn’t deter them.

Ruoye leaped out of Xie Lian’s sleeve to bound five of the men, while the rest charged him with their swords raised. Their positions were truly horrendous, thought Xie Lian.

It took him less than a minute to defeat them too. He hadn’t even needed to unsheathe his sword. He dusted his clothes.

“Ruoye, can you move them out of the way? Thank you.”

The silk band made a little twirl in the air before grabbing an unconscious body and dragging it further away.

Xie Lian walked back to the cart as if nothing had happened. He didn’t knock them out that hard after all, they would be fine. Maybe it’ll even make them think twice before carrying out ambushes next time.

He was about to put his sword away when his mother exclaimed “What a beautiful sword!” She moved to sit closer to him to get a better look.

The sword was indeed exquisite. Its white blade, hidden in its white sheath, was mesmerizing, simple yet elegant and giving off an aura of power.

The king, that Xie Lian hadn’t heard pronounce a word in hours curiously glanced at the sword too and said “It looks like it was made for you. It matches you perfectly.”

Xie Lian settled in the cart, smiling a little and grabbed the reins to start moving again as Ruoye had finished clearing the way. “That’s because it was. San Lang designed and forged it for me. He even went to the White Caves to get the spiritual steel himself.”

The White Caves were a place of legend. Until recently Xie Lian hadn’t even known that they really existed. It was said that the steel found inside them was so infused with spiritual power that it had turned white.

After the fight with Jun Wu, Xie Lian had finally gotten rid of Fang Xin, and even though Hua Cheng had already gifted him his entire armory, he still decided to forge him a new sword that would match him.

At the mention of San Lang’s name, the king pulled a face and returned to his previous silent state.

“Oh my!” the queen exclaimed. “That’s an extraordinary gift. I wish my husband would put so much thought and effort into his gifts.”

The king sent her a murderous look.

“It was his wedding gift to me,” Xie Lian explained. “Well, one of them,” he added.

Ruoye flew back toward Xie Lian, slipping into his sleeve in one swift movement. The king jumped on the occasion to change the subject.

“What is this thing?”

“That’s Ruoye, my spiritual weapon,” Xie Lian simply answered, not willing to elaborate. He now regretted to not have told Ruoye to stay still. He grabbed his arm by reflex, as if it would hide Ruoye from his parent’s eyes.

“That’s a curious spiritual weapon to have.” His father looked at his sleeve with suspicion.

Feeling that Ruoye was getting agitated, Xie Lian started stroking it. “We had a complicated start, but he was here when no one else was.”

He had wanted nothing more than to destroy it, tear it to shreds, burn it black. He had hated it so much for following him like a lost chick looking for his mother hen after what it did.

“He stayed by my side for 800 years and help me through them. I owe him so much.”

It had nursed him back to health after each of his multiple deaths. It had hunted for food when he was too tired to move a single limb. It had tried to make him laugh when he couldn’t bare his days anymore. It had made conversation with him, in its own way, when he felt isolation was making him go crazy. It had helped him busk so many times.

And even if many times over the years Xie Lian had moments when he had wanted and tried to get rid of it, it always came back.

His mother hummed pensively. “It looks like the bandages you used to wear back then.”

Xie Lian tensed up immediately. Please don’t ask about it. Please don’t recognize it. Please don’t – I can’t I can’t talk about it I can’t don’t please

“Ah, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” his mother promptly backtracked, fearing that bringing up those times would make her son lash out like he used to back then. She didn’t want to anger him. She hadn’t mean to dust off bad memories. It just looked oddly familiar. And not only looked but felt to. “Forget what I said. Your mother didn’t think before speaking, just ignore her.”

Seeing his mother so distressed because of him made Xie Lian calm down. He felt guilty. He didn’t want her to think that he hadn’t changed. That she couldn’t be around him without stressing that she would say something that would anger him.

“Ah no, it’s ok. I guess it does,” he said lamely, with a small, tired voice.

No one dared to keep going on that subject so they all quickly dropped the matter.

Another hour passed in relative silence before Hua Cheng suddenly appeared next to him, lifting his mood immediately. “San Lang! How did it go?”

“Fine. The children are all settled, and the villagers won’t ever do anything like that again,” he said, his tone taking a darker edge before returning to normal. “And you? How was the ride so far?”

Xie Lian was about to answer with a simple ‘fine’ when his mother spoke up. “Some bandits tried to attack us, but A-Lian sorted it out before they could do anything.”

Hua Cheng looked at him with concern.

“What?” Xie Lian shrugged. “It’s fine, I easily took care of them.”

“I don’t doubt it gege, but why is it that the second I leave you alone you get in trouble?” He said that on a light tone, but Xie Lian could see that he was tense, and not only because he didn’t like him being in danger – not that he had been – but also because the timing felt off.

With his husband having the same intuition that something was wrong, Xie Lian’s unease grew. They exchanged a look. They both knew they would have to be on their guard, even if they didn’t understand what was going on.

But Xie Lian didn’t want to alarm his parents, so he answered out loud with a little laugh, “Ah, well, you know how my luck is when you aren’t here to compensate it.”

“Hm. Thankfully I’m here now.”

Around midday, they passed by a small, impoverished, village. The houses were barely standing and the few people roaming looked more like ghosts than mortals. The town reminded Xie Lian of Yong’an when he used to bring them water with the Rain Master’s hat.

Originally, they had thought that they could stop to eat lunch, but the feeling of uneasiness that had followed Xie Lian since this morning was so strong here that they quickly decided to leave. They had packed food anyway.

Another few hours later found them at the outskirts of a completely empty town. But it wasn’t an abandoned village with houses in ruins, no. This was a full-blown city with buildings in perfect condition. The streets were clean, and everything was in its place. There wasn’t the slightest bit of disorder. But there also wasn’t a single living being in sight. Not a single noise.

“It’s here,” the queen spoke up. 

Chapter Text

“You can feel them?” Xie Lian asked, throwing an apprehensive look at the city in front of them.

“Mn, they’re somewhere inside,” his mother answered.

Xie Lian nodded in acknowledgement then turned to his father. “Yours too?”

“Yes.”

“Alright.” He steeled himself. Whatever laid ahead, they would deal with it. Hua Cheng was with him. It’s not like anyone could do anything against the both of them. “Lead the way then.”

They started walking through the town. His parents looked focused, too focused, staring up ahead unblinkingly, their mind completely absorbed by their goal. But Hua Cheng assured him that it was normal for ghosts to react that way when in close proximity of their ashes.

Is that why you are always staring at me? Xie Lian thought with amusement.

The city was in perfect condition, but it was extremely eerie. There was no presence whatsoever. But it wasn’t as if the whole city had frozen in time. No, the wind was billowing, waving slowly some curtains and making ripples in the fountain they passed. But it was completely silent, as well as odorless.

“Gege,” Hua Cheng whispered, “let’s stay close.”

“Hm. It would be a bad if we got separated.” He had a really bad feeling.

They moved as to flank Xie Lian’s parents. Hua Cheng on their left and Xie Lian on their right.

The whole place felt like walking into a dream, when your mind can only conjure images and the basics sounds that you yourself provoke, like talking, but nothing to complicated.

This tensed Xie Lian a bit. He wasn’t used to not being able to sense anything, to have to rely on his vision only. All his instincts were dulled, as well as his spiritual powers. They weren’t restrained or anything, but no matter how much concentration he put into it, they wouldn’t stay alert. They weren’t picking up on the things surrounding them like they should have. It was as if they were sleeping.

“You think it could be an illusion?” Xie Lian asked Hua Cheng.

“It looks like one. But it must be a really good one, especially if it covers the whole town. It has to be this ghost’s specialty.”

That wasn’t good news. In a direct confrontation, there was no doubt on who would win, but if the ghost controlled fully the territory they were in, it would be much more difficult.

How much of this town was real? Was there even a town at all?

Xie Lian wanted to grab his husband’s hand to make sure that they wouldn’t be separated. It reminded him too much of what happened in the mountains of Mount Tonglu, when the walls kept moving to split their group apart. But he looked at the red string on his finger and remembered that no matter what they couldn’t lose each other, they were connected. Plus, it was important that his parents stayed between them.

They kept walking for two incense times before the king spoke up.

“They’re moving,” he said with a frown.

The group came to a stop. The streets around them looked all the same. It felt as if they hadn’t advanced at all.

“What do we do?” the queen ask worryingly.

“We don’t have a lot of choices,” Xie Lian answered. They knew next to nothing about this ghost. Neither Feng Xin and Mu Qing nor Yin Yu had came back to them yet with new information. Going after the ghost blindly was for sure a bad idea, but now that they were here, they couldn’t exactly afford to waste time and stay still. “We keep going for now.”

Hua Cheng released butterflies all over the city, tasking them to look for anything suspicious, any clue they could find.

Evidently, their blind walk wasn’t very efficient because after a shichen of moving around, they still hadn’t found anything nor anything had found them.

“It's getting dark and we’re getting nowhere. We should stop somewhere to rest and think of a better course of action,” Hua Cheng proposed.

“I don’t understand. What do they want?” Xie Lian exclaimed in frustration. “They’re just making us walk around but they are not doing anything.”

They turned at the next corner to meet with a dead end. In the past two hours, all the streets they took had seem to stretch indefinitely. Now, a lavish house was blocking their path.

There wasn’t anything wrong with the house per say but Xie Lian couldn’t shake the feeling that it shouldn’t be there.

Seeing the impediment, the group came to a stop, but after a few seconds Xie Lian decided to move forward anyway, breaking their side-by-side formation.

He opened the door and crossed the threshold. His mother was following him closely, his father and Hua Cheng behind them.

“Wait – !”

Right after Xie Lian set foot inside, the door started to glow. His father, alarmed, took a step back while his mother jumped after him in a panic.

The floor shook and the door slammed close, then they were in the dark.

“Mom! Are you ok?” Xie Lian lit a palm flame with haste to see that his mother had fallen to the ground in her precipitation. Thankfully, she didn’t seem too hurt as she quickly got up and dusted her clothes.

“I’m fine, I’m fine.”

“Mother, don’t jump into magic doors! What were you thinking?!” Xie Lian exclaimed, bringing the torch closer to her, to make sure that she hadn’t been injured anywhere.

“Obviously I wasn’t going to leave you alone on the other side,” she answered as if it was perfectly normal.

“Don’t put yourself in danger for me,” Xie Lian replied. Even if he was touched by his mother’s worry, it was still a stupid thing to do, especially considering that if they ran into trouble, there wouldn’t be much his mother would be able to help him with.

“Yes, yes, I know. You don’t need your mother anymore.”

He sighed. “Don’t say it like that. Of course I still need you. I would just rather you let me deal with trouble alone.”

“Alright, alright. But what do we do now? How do we get back to your father and A-Cheng?”

The door had disappeared. In fact, he hadn’t been able to see it when he first opened the door as the place was completely covered with darkness, but they weren’t inside the house. It seemed they had landed in some sort of caves.

“San Lang?!” he called, not actually expecting any answer. “Father?!”

After a minute of silence, he looked at his hand where a red string stretching into the distance had appeared. “We follow this.”

Hua Cheng ran to open the door after them, but there wasn’t anyone on the other side.

Thousands of butterflies rushed inside the room after him, invading the space.

“Gege!” the calamity called desperately.

He turned to the door in a furry, focusing all his power on it.

Seeing him this distressed, the king took a step back, not knowing what to do.

A butterfly perched itself on the ghost king’s shoulder.

“There are caves underneath the city,” he spoke in a low voice. “The door had a teleportation array leading to them, but it’s destroyed now.”

“So how do we get to these caves?” the king asked. He didn’t exactly want to go in there but mostly, he didn’t want to be left behind.

BOOM!

Hua Cheng had blasted the floor, leaving a gaping hole directly into the cave system. “Like that.”

Without hesitation, he jumped in the hole.

The king stared at where he was moments ago, dumfounded. So far for not being left behind.

He looked around, trying to come up with a course of action. He couldn’t really jump after him, the gulf was too deep. He couldn’t even see the bottom of it. Or he guessed he could as he was a ghost now, but he wasn’t feeling very inclined to try.

Suddenly, the chasm lit up with hundreds of butterflies flying up to the top to form a platform, right in front of him.

The king looked at them with suspicion. There was no way he would. He didn’t trust them.

“Your Majesty, I assure you it’s much safer for you to follow me than to stay here,” Hua Cheng’s voice came from bellow. The king could hear the concealed irritation in his voice. He was clearly trying to appear calm and to not unlash his anger on him, but anyone could sense his agitation. And his butterflies were also vibrating with energy.

Reluctantly, the king stepped onto the butterflies, waiting for them to give out under his feet. Surprisingly they didn’t. He felt himself being carefully lowered to the ground.

The caves were illuminated by the insects. It was a mixt of eerie and beautiful.

“This way, Your Majesty.”

The ghost king seemed to be guided by a red ray of light, no a string.

“What is this?”

“A spiritual device.”

The conversation was short lived. Neither of them really wanted to talk to the other and the situation wasn’t the best to start bounding anyway.

The more time passed, the more agitated the ghost king became. The king of XianLe could see that he was panicking, unwilling to waste a single second. If the string went through a wall, instead of finding a way around, he would punch a hole right through it. This was starting to worry the king. Surely this must weaken the whole structure? He wasn’t looking forward to being buried alive because his… son-in-law was being reckless.

“Why are you so panicked? He can handle himself,” he eventually spoke up.

“Is it a reason not to worry, especially when we don’t know what we are facing? Plus, Your Majesty you should know that he has quite the self-sacrificing tendencies.”

“I’m telling you he will be alright,” the king reiterated with irritation.

“Right,” Hua Cheng answered shortly, wanting to end the conversation.

“There’s nothing to do, he doesn’t answer. There must be something here that is blocking the communication array,” Xie Lian sighed, letting his hand drop back at his side.

“I’m sure A-Cheng can handle the situation on his side,” the queen tried to reassure her son.

“I just hope dad can behave,” he answered sarcastically, keeping his gaze intently on the tunnel in front of them.

“You know, I think he mostly just doesn’t like to be out of his depth. He is a bit overwhelmed by everything. He missed so much of your life. No matter what you think, he cares a lot about you,” she tried to explain.

“It’s not about me.”

“It is, for him.” She could tell by his voice that he was getting irritated, but she thought it could do him good to hear what she had to say. “I’m not telling you to be nicer with him. He is obviously the one at fault. And I’m mad at him too, for how he is acting.

He is extremely stubborn and prideful, so much so that he would rather get into deeper waters than admit he was wrong. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t aware that he’s wrong.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“That if you give him a second chance, you should try to talk it out peacefully, but you will have to be the bigger person. Your father can be really immature, but he is not a bad person.”

“Why are you defending him?” Xie Lian asked with a tired voice.

“I’m not,” she placated him. “I can see that the current situation hurts you. I’m trying to help.”

He finally turned to look at her. “Alright, I’ll think about it. But right now, we should focus on finding them.”

“Fine, fine.”

It went better than she thought it would.

She wished her husband could just apologize and move on, but he wouldn’t. And staying like this would just keep on hurting everyone. Why did he always had to complicate things? He was supposed to be the older one.

Thankfully her son didn’t take after him. Between the three children, the one that resembled him the most would be Mu Qing. The thought made her laugh. Neither of them would like the comparison. And even if he was prideful too, he was more levelheaded in her opinion.

They kept following the red string inside the caves.

“That’s a useful spiritual device.”

“San Lang made it, so that we would never loose each other again. It also shows me that he is alright.”

“I see. It’s smart,” the queen said, walking closer to get a better look at it.

“San Lang is very intelligent,” her son responded immediately.

“Of course, of course,” she nodded with a very serious face.

They kept on walking for an incense time, when, after a twisted turn, a red figure appeared in the middle of the tunnel, the red string leading right to his finger.

“A-Cheng!”

On the other side of the wall he just broke was standing Xie Lian’s figure.

“Where is your mother?” the king asked.

But before the person in front of them could respond E-Ming leaped at him, plunging into his stomach.

“W-what are you doing?!” the king screamed at Hua Cheng.

How dare that thing take His Highness’ image?!

And what a pathetic attempt.

It looked wrong. His eyebrows were a little too far apart, his lips a little too thin, his eyes a little too wide, their color a little too brownish, noting like their usual intense amber.

It was nothing that most people would notice at first glance. But he wasn’t most people. He spent years carving his likeness to perfection. In the past two years, every moment he spent with His Highness, he spent them studying his every detail, engraving his being into his memory. Those inconsistencies were blindingly obvious to him.

He felt wrong too. His spiritual energy didn’t feel like home, warm and welcoming. It was cold and superficial. His body language wasn’t kind and full of love. It was guarded and indifferent.

This impersonation was an insult to His Highness very being. His kindness, his beauty, his infinite benevolence, his radiance.

But he didn’t say any of that. He didn’t know how to act with the king. He didn’t think that making such declaration in front of him would please him. The king already hated him. He didn’t want to give him more reasons to think he was a creep.

“Look at his hand,” he eventually decided to say.

The king squinted his eyes, not seeing anything at first, but then noticed that the red string wasn’t ending on the little red knot on the person’s third finger but was instead going right through the flesh of his hand.

The figure stayed still for a moment before frowning and vanishing in an instant, not saying anything, leaving E-Ming to return to Hua Cheng’s hand.

“Oh.” The king cleared his throat, collecting himself. “You noticed really fast that it wasn’t him.”

“Yes, well, I know your son.” Hua Cheng was quite at lost with Xie Lian’s father. He didn’t know how to act at all. The world was usually divided between Xie Lian, that he worshiped, and the others, that he despised. In addition of these two, there was a third category composed until recently uniquely of his mother, that he didn’t remember but loved deeply, and had now gained a new member: the queen of XianLe. And if he was being honest with himself, there may have been a fourth category, of the people he didn’t despise as much, namely He Xuan and Yin Yu – and maybe Yushi Huang.

But the king of XianLe didn’t fit into any of those. Along with Mei Nianqing, he was part of the people he didn’t like in the slightest, but who he still wanted to make a good impression on. The problem was: he didn’t know how and clearly it wasn’t working.

“It… would seem so,” answered the king.

But it was the last of his problems right now. He needed to find Xie Lian. He couldn’t let this be the Kiln all over again. He couldn’t let Xie Lian fight a powerful ghost alone. Especially a ghost that resented him personally.

Yin Yu had contacted him earlier to tell him what he had discovered about the ghost. Apparently, he was from XianLe, lived in the Imperial Capital and had a wealthy life, but died from the Human Face Disease. He blamed his demise on the prince.

What an ungrateful fool. He should thank him on him knees for descending. Will those trash of his past never stop to harass him for risking his everything to save them?

He had debated about whether or not telling Xie Lian was a good idea. It would hurt him undeniably, but he didn’t want to risk him getting hurt because he withheld some information.

But now the spirituals arrays had been blocked. It was too late to warn him.

A sudden ball of fire coming right at them with full speed interrupted his musings.

But it wasn’t targeting him. It was targeting the king.

He jumped in the way and parried it with a swing of E-Ming, sending it back where it came from. But the impact shook the whole cave system. Fuck.

He had pierced too many holes in the tunnels’ walls. Any more blow and it would collapse on their heads. He had been careless, focusing too much on getting to Xie Lian.

Another fireball came their way. This time, he absorbed it with his butterflies. But three more appeared.

He couldn’t afford to lose some more time. This was clearly a distraction. He regrouped his butterflies to create a shield surrounding them, protecting them from the assault and started walking anew. The king hurried to stay close to him.

“Mom, stop!”

Xie Lian grabbed her hand and pulled her behind him, preventing her from going any closer to the man in front of them.

“What?” She looked, confused, between her son and the man in red.

“It’s not San Lang,” Xie Lian stated calmly.

She studied the man’s face, then nodded. “Ah yes, you’re right. I can tell too. I’ve never seen him looking at you so indifferently.”

Xie Lian blushed immediately.

“Seriously?” the ghost exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air in exasperation. “What’s up with all of you? I’m not looking at him indifferently!”

“Hmm… It’s not indifferent per say,” the queen agreed, “but compared to how A-Cheng usually looks at him…”

“Can we move on please?” Xie Lian interrupted her. They finally found the ghost! It was not to discuss his acting skills or Hua Cheng’s love.

“Right, right.” The ghost cleared his throat. “If you’ll follow me.” He pointed at a staircase that had just appeared in the rock and didn’t wait for them to climb it.

Xie Lian exchanged a look with his mother before following the ghost, on his guard.

The staircase opened onto a sort of throne room, with a table and two chairs in poor condition in the middle, and a raised armchair at the back, looking down upon the whole room.

The ghost went to sit on the armchair while Xie Lian and his mother took the two remaining sits.

Xie Lian was trying to assess the ghost, but it was difficult to focus when looking at San Lang’s face. Even if it was painfully obvious in its every trait that it wasn’t him.

“Would you mind changing your form?” he asked politely.

“What, you don’t like to look at his face?” the ghost spat back.

“Not particularly when he isn’t the one wearing it,” he answered with a threatening smile.

“Fine,” the ghost backed down, “I don’t like to wear it anyway,” he said under his breath.

He changed his form to one of a man Xie Lian had never seen in his life. His robes were of a dark blue and his hair up in a tight bun. He didn’t have an imposing presence even if his clothing and whole appearance were an effort for it to be true. His eyebrows were thick and his nose slightly crooked. He was ugly but he wasn’t particularly beautiful either. Without being forgettable like Yin Yu’s, his face was of little interest overall.

Xie Lian couldn’t tell if it was his real form or not.

“So,” the ghost spoke up with a derisive voice, “I’ll tell you a funny story. When I heard that the Night Touring Green Lantern had been severely wounded during the fight against the Heavenly Emperor last year, so much that he still hadn’t recovered, I went to his lair to pay him a visit. I wasn’t expecting to find it completely deserted. So, I went through his stuff and took some shinny things here and there. But then Crimson Rain, the crown prince of XianLe, and the king and queen who should have disappeared with their kingdom long ago came after me.”

Xie Lian tensed up. That the ghost knew who he and Hua Cheng were was pretty normal. But he shouldn’t have recognized his parents. No one knew them anymore.

No, no, calm down. There must have been an explanation. He looked quite like his mother after all. Maybe he just made the connection. They made quite the display in the streets of Ghost City when his parents first came back. Maybe he overhead some ghosts talking about it. Maybe he had even been there.

“So I thought,” the ghost kept going, “what a perfect opportunity! I had been looking for a way to get my revenge on you for quite some time. I’m not a fool. I know you are too powerful for me, especially with that Crimson Rain of yours always running around you. But now I finally have a lever! It was just a matter of distracting you, giving me some time to cast an illusion and separate the two of you. I wasn’t sure my trap would work, but that’s the thing with those that are too powerful, they think nothing can defeat them and they’re not careful enough.” He laughed.

“What? You are targeting me? Why?” He was sure he had never seen this person in his life. Well, maybe not sure, because there were years of his life he remembered nothing of, but still.

“Because everything is your fault!”

He heard those words before, so many times.

W-what? No! There’s no way…

The man grabbed his sleeve and pulled it up.

No! No, please! Don’t– !

A face looked back at him.

He staggered and jumped back slightly. He would have fallen from his chair if not for his mother who caught him and steadied him.

Why was this happening again? Would he never be allowed to find peace?

“So, here’s the deal.  You can’t die, and from what I heard, hurting you physically is pointless. So emotionally it is. You have two options: first,” he pulled the two golden daggers from his robes, “I crush their ashes and your parents will die all over again because of you, or second, you destroy Crimson Rain’s ashes.”

His eyes widened in surprise. “I don’t even know where they are!” Xie Lian lied between his teeth. “And you’ll have to kill me first!”

“But it’s not about your death,” the ghost retorted. “It’s about Their Majesties’.” He spat the last two words with venom. “And don’t lie to me. Everyone know that fool is stupid enough to follow the tradition.”

The queen that had been trying to sooth her son while being as panicked as him, looked very confused at the mention of a tradition.

Xie Lian’s expression darkened. His mind was working at full speed, trying to find a way to get the ghost to drop the daggers he clutched in his hands.

Seeing that Xie Lian didn’t respond, the queen asked worryingly in a whisper “Do you really know where they are?” But he didn’t acknowledge her, his whole attention fixed on the ghost.

Hua Cheng looked around through his butterflies.

“He has a clone moving around. I don’t think he has enough spiritual energy to maintain any more, so if I take this one out there won’t be anything blocking our way anymore,” he explained the situation.

There were moving too slowly like this. They needed to get rid of the attacker.

Hua Cheng had tried multiple times to launch E-Ming at him, but he would just fire in direction of both the wall and the king, redirecting the scimitar’s attention on parrying the blow so that the caves wouldn’t collapse. His butterflies were already busy protecting the king in every direction.

So, the calamity would have to fight with his bare hands. He jumped out of the protective shield and lunged at the ghost, who dodged his attack and threw another few balls of fire.

The two fought with increasing intensity under the king’s eyes. A particularly strong blow in his direction made him take a step back and trip, falling on the ground. He was about to get up when he felt something under his right hand. He looked down to see some intricate designs under a thick layer of dust and rock debris. He couldn’t understand what it all meant but it was certainly magical.

They had hardly moved so the king was currently where the ghost had first appeared to shoot at them.

Could this thing be… ?

He had never cared much about cultivation, deeming it a waste of time, but right now he wished he could understand what that array was.

He heard the ghost grunt, and turned their way to see that Hua Cheng had smashed his head into the floor and was about to rip his throat with his nails that had, at some point, stretched themselves into claws.

That was… gruesome. But more importantly, the ghost had his hand raised behind his back, out of Hua Cheng’s field of vision, ready to strike on the floor.

The king got up and ran to them.

A lot happened in the next instants. Blood spurted from the clone’s throat, and the whole cave shook stronger than ever.

As huge rocks started to fall all around them, the king grabbed Hua Cheng by the sleeve and dragged him to the array, praying that it was what he thought it was.

The caves collapsed completely, boulders falling to the spot they were just a second ago.

In a flash of light, they landed up inside a house, at the surface. The king immediately dragged them both under a table, fearing that the house would collapse too as the floor was still shaking.

Thankfully, after a minute the tremors stopped and the house was still standing. The king let out a breath and got up, dusting his clothes and fixing his bun to pretend that he hadn’t been cowering in fear under a table mere instants before.

The calamity stood up too, looking at him weirdly.

“What?” the king snapped, uncomfortable under Hua Cheng’s gaze.

“… Thank you…” the man in red said hesitantly, as if not sure what had just happened.

The king didn’t know what to answer. He didn’t really want to acknowledge what happened, so he ended up saying: “It’s a good thing I was here to get us both out.”

He winced internally. Now he sounded like Qi Rong, pretending that he saved the day even though he barely did anything and Hua Cheng had done all the fighting.

“You… didn’t have to worry about me,” the ghost king responded hesitantly. “You shouldn’t endanger yourself. You should have left the moment you realized there was a way out.”

“Don’t tell me what to do!” the king admonished. “And don't get the wrong idea. I don't like you. I did it for my son because, for some reason I can’t fathom, he would be sad if you got hurt.”

“Right. Of course,” the calamity answered immediately, looking away with a self-depreciative smile.

The king stared at him for a minute and sighed.

Why does he look like a scolded child? Seriously…

Okay, maybe he had been a little mean but… Ah, forget it!

“Let’s just… keep moving,” he eventually said.

The whole room shook violently.

“What is happening?” the queen all but yelled, clutching her chair.

But the ghost ignored her.

“Alright. Time’s up.” He raised his hand to make a show of destroying the daggers, but he closed his fist on thin air.

“W-what?” he stammered.

In a flash of red, the ghost was pinned to the ground by Hua Cheng.

“San Lang!” Xie Lian let out an exclamation of relief.

“Gege! Are you alright?” His eyes didn’t leave the ghost but worry was clear in his voice.

“Yes, yes, don’t worry. We’re both fine.”

Reassured, he drove E-Ming into the ghost’s left shoulder, efficiently preventing him from moving. As the ghost wailed in pain, he got up and held the daggers out to the king that had walked inside the room behind him. “Your Majesty.”

The king grabbed them and gave one to the queen, to whom he started to talk in hushed tones. But Xie Lian couldn’t care less about what they said to each other. He hurriedly walked to Hua Cheng and took his head in his hands with care, studying his face.

“Are you alright?”

“Better now that Gege is here,” he smirked.

Xie Lian smiled and gave him a quick kiss before lowering his gaze to the ghost who was still grunting in pain, trying to pull E-Ming out of his shoulder.

His expression darkened instantly.

Now, normally Xie Lian would have tried to solve the situation peacefully, especially since this ghost was from XianLe and lingering because of him, but he had threatened his San Lang’s life.

No one got to walk away with that.

He summoned his white sword in his hand, bringing it down swiftly. The ghost’s head rolled, and his whole body fluttered and burned down to nothing.

His ashes may not have been destroyed, but Xie Lian’s sword was powerful enough to slay the ghost definitely. It was over.

Xie Lian wiped his blade on his robes and turned around to join his parents where they were standing. “You should change your ashes’ form, for safety.”

His mother stayed silent for a moment, looking at the blood on his robes, before answering. “But we don’t know how.”

“I can show you how to do it,” Hua Cheng intervened. “But I can’t do it for you. No one should know where your ashes are or even what they look like.”

“No one?” She looked pointedly at him. “What about the tradition?” She thought she had mostly pieced together what it was.

“Who told you about that?” the ghost king asked, surprised.

“The ghost,” she answered, nodding toward where his corpse had been.

“What happened exactly?” Hua Cheng asked Xie Lian with a frown.

“Nothing of importance. Everything’s fine now.” Given the look Hua Cheng sent him, he didn’t believe his answer.

“Wait, what tradition?” the king questioned them.

There was silence for a moment, neither Xie Lian nor Hua Cheng wanting to answer that question, both for different reasons. So, the queen was the one to speak. “Giving your ashes to your beloved,” she said very confidently, before adding a “right?”.

“Mn,” Xie Lian nodded.

“Oh,” the king seemed to understand, staying silent for a few seconds before regaining his haughty tone and looking at Hua Cheng. “So everyone knows where your ashes are. Doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose?”

Both Xie Lian and the queen stared at him aggressively, but before they could tell him off, Hua Cheng answered.

“It doesn’t matter. To me, it’s the safest place in the world, and if their hiding place is destroyed, then there’s no need for me to exist either.”

“… Mpf.” The king dropped the subject but didn’t seem annoyed by that declaration.

Xie Lian took his answer as a “That’s fine, I guess” which was an absolute win!

He looked at Hua Cheng questioningly, asking silently what happened for his father to react like that, but Hua Cheng only shrugged in answer, seeming as much at lost as him.

“Could we go home now? I’m a bit tired after all those emotions,” the queen spoke up.

Home. Xie Lian smiled.

“Yes, I’ll have a dinner prepared too. It’s getting late,” Hua Cheng agreed, taking out his dices.

They landed on a double six and he opened the nearest door directly to one of the dining rooms of Paradise Manor.

“Let’s go home.” Xie Lian crossed the threshold.

Chapter Text

The dinner was a mostly silent affair, not out of awkwardness, but because they were all too tired to hold a conversation for long.

Xie Lian barely remembered to tell Feng Xin and Mu Qing that the situation was settled before going to sleep. It had only been two days since they left Paradise Manor, but it felt like a week. He wanted nothing more than to sink into his husband’s arms and pass out for at least 15 hours straight.

He almost fell asleep in his bath, his husband’s fingers cradling through his hair, lulling him. He knew that Hua Cheng was tired too, but he had still insisted on helping him washing the dust and grime from the caves off his hair.

When he finally settled in his husband’s hold and closed his eyes in their bed, he was at peace. At last, it was all over. At last, they were all reunited and he didn’t have to worry about anything anymore. He wasn’t waiting anymore for the sword to fall and take his parents away a second time.

The next day, Hua Cheng kept his promise and showed his parents how to shape their ashes in the morning. Xie Lian used that time to go check their cottage on Mount Taicang, then went to Puqi village to see if anyone needed some help.

A shichen before lunch time, the ghost king contacted him via his communication array.

“Gege.”

“San Lang!” he answered in his mind in an over-joyous way.

“Excited to hear me, gege? It’s only been a few hours since we parted ways.” Even if he couldn’t see it, Xie Lian could hear his grin.

“You’re the one who always says that even a few hours is too much,” Xie Lian pouted.

Hua Cheng laughed. “And gege always says that I’m acting like a spoiled child.”

“Did you call me just to tease me?” He wouldn’t put it past him. He had multiple times before. Especially during heavenly meetings.

“I wanted to hear your voice of course. But also, the queen invited the two idiots for lunch.”

Xie Lian smiled at that. His mother must have asked Hua Cheng to extend her invitation, seeing that she couldn’t contact them herself. And she wouldn’t take the initiative without asking for his permission. It must have displeased him quite a lot, but it seemed that the ghost king was as weak to the queen’s whishes than to Xie Lian’s, if he still agreed.

“She wants to cook for them and asked if gege would like to help her with that,” Hua Cheng continued.

“Oh! Of course! I’ll come right back then,” he answered, delighted.

His cooking had always been his anchor to his mother. All those years, he had dreamed of being able to share it with her.

He hurried back to Paradise Manor, excited at the prospect.

When he arrived in the kitchen, his mother was already sorting through ingredients with Hua Cheng. Xie Lian suspected that his husband was here to make sure that neither of them hurt themselves with knives, fire or anything else. The two were surely a deadly combination. Still, he asked:

“Are you cooking too San Lang?”

“I wouldn’t want to intrude,” he answered simply.

Xie Lian was about to respond that he was never intruding when the queen spoke.

“Don’t be silly,” she said, “it’s good to spend some quality time with your family, and I want to cook with both of my sons.”

As much as he hated the idea to be cooking for Feng Xin and Mu Qing, Hua Cheng couldn’t say no to that. (It’s not like they would eat it much of it anyway.) And if his eyes watered a bit, no one saw it other than Xie Lian.

He really loved his mom.

“Plus, we’re making two dishes, and we don’t have a lot of time before the boys arrive,” the queen added.

“What do you want to make?” Xie Lian asked her.

“Ma po tofu and hot pot,” she answered with a smile. “I want to make them something they’ll like.”

“Alright.”

Xie Lian didn’t have the heart to tell her that neither Feng Xin nor Mu Qing would want to eat a single spoon of what she would cook, and Hua Cheng thought it would be his pleasure to force them to eat it. So neither corrected her, and they got to work.

They cooked while making easy conversation and with a lot of laughs. And if they threw a bit of food at each other for fun, well, it’s not like the kitchen wasn’t a mess already.

The result was… questionable at best. Even with Hua Cheng’s help, the queen’s cooking was still horrendous. Completely unsalvageable. Though, the ghost king may not have put a lot of effort into salvaging the dishes since Her Majesty seemed very happy with them as they were.

Xie Lian thought they looked like the most delicious food he had ever seen.

“How are they called?” Hua Cheng asked.

“Crimson Harmony on Soft Tofu Clouds and Celestial Feast in Bubbling Waters pot,” she answered, proud of herself. She beamed.

“Her Majesty always comes up with the best names,” he praised.

Before she could answer, a servant knocked at the door. “Chengzhu, the generals Xuan Zhen and Nan Yang are here.”

“Bring them to the second dining room,” he ordered in a much colder voice than a second ago.

“Yes, Chengzhu.” They heard footsteps retreat.

The queen grabbed Crimson Harmony on Soft Tofu Clouds. “A-Cheng, A-Lian could you take the Celestial Feast in Bubbling Waters pot please?”

“Of course.” Hua Cheng went to take most of the remaining plates, leaving almost nothing for Xie Lian to carry. The prince shook his head affectionally. They could have told the queen that servants could carry all the plates for them, but she looked very happy bringing her own dishes to the table. And if Hua Cheng willed the manor to change its room disposition so that the queen wouldn’t have to carry the food too far, she didn’t notice.

When they arrived in the dining room, Mu Qing and Feng Xin were already arguing in hushed tones. The two gods looked at them in synchronization when they heard them walk through the door, and their faces turned white at the same time when they saw the dishes.

It was obvious, even from afar, who cooked them.

Crimson Harmony on Soft Tofu Clouds was a visual disaster, with tofu that looked more like misshapen chunks than the expected delicate cubes. Some pieces were nearly burnt while others were still cold in the center. The sauce was a mismatched blend of overly spicy chili oil and raw, bitter garlic. Scattered throughout were pieces of vegetables — wilted and mushy from overcooking — that added nothing but an unappealing sogginess to the dish. The intended harmony of flavors and textures was completely lost, leaving a jarring, discordant mess on the plate. Despite its vibrant red color – it was definitely crimson –, the dish was a painful assault on the senses rather than a harmonious delight.

And Celestial Feast in Bubbling Waters pot was no better. The hot pot bubbled menacingly, filled with a murky broth that smelled vaguely of burnt cabbage. The "celestial feast" was a chaotic mix of overcooked, mushy vegetables and undercooked, crunchy ones, creating a thoroughly unpleasant texture contrast. Pieces of tofu were either disintegrating into the broth or rubbery and tough. The dipping sauces were poorly balanced: some were overly salty while others were bland and watery.

Before the two generals could say anything, the queen walked up to them happily, placing the plates on the table. “Feng Xin! Mu Qing! We all cooked for you.”

“All?” Mu Qing asked, looking suspiciously at Hua Cheng.

“With much love,” he responded with the most insincere voice.

If it was possible, Feng Xin and Mu Qing would have palled even more. The fear now clear in their eyes.

“That’s… hot pot?” Feng Xin asked, eyeing the Celestial Feast in Bubbling Waters pot, trying to discern what it was.

“Yes!” the queen answered happily. “I thought I would cook your favorite dishes.”

“Wait,” Mu Qing studied Crimson Harmony on Soft Tofu Clouds, “that’s ma po tofu?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

Mu Qing cleared his throat awkwardly then spoke hesitantly, “I didn't know Xie Lian knew what my favorite dish was.”

Xie Lian tilted his head quizzically. “Is it? I thought it was sweet and sour pork.”

“Oh, I didn’t ask A-Lian,” the queen explained. “You told me one time, when you were teaching me how to cook back... then.” She faltered at the end, still not knowing how to refer to that period after the fall of XianLe.

Mu Qing pulled a face, clearly not happy at the idea of being associated in any capacity with the queen’s cooking abilities, before catching up with what she said. “You… remember that?”

“Of course.” She paused for a second before continuing. “We never talked much, so of course I remember the few things you told me about yourself.”

“I– ” Mu Qing looked away, clearly at a loss for words.

But the queen ignored his hesitation and kept going.  “I just don’t know how to show you that we – I – am grateful that you, the two of you, were there to help us then, and here for A-Lian now. Even if we treated you badly, especially you Mu Qing. Again, I’m sorry for that. And I would like to know my son’s friends better.”

The god stared at her for a while without saying anything, before Feng Xin spoke up. “Don’t bother with him Your Majesty. He has the emotional maturity of a five years old and doesn’t know how to accept apologies, or any form of fondness.”

“You–!” started Mu Qing.

“It’s fine,” the queen laughed. “But when we spoke the other day, we talked mostly about A-Lian, so I wanted to hear more about you two today!”

The two generals eyed Hua Cheng aggressively, as if it would make him leave the room. But the ghost king only smirked. “Please do tell us about yourselves. And don’t hesitate to share personal details.”

“Yes,” the queen agreed. “For example, A-Lian got married during the time I wasn’t here. What about you two?”

If Feng Xin had been drinking, he would have spit out his drink. “What?” he croaked.

“Well, Feng Xin has a son,” Mu Qing threw him under the bus.

“Really?” the queen exclaimed, excited.

Feng Xin sent a murderous glare at Mu Qing before answering. “Ah, well… You remember Jian Lan?”

“Ah,” she frowned, her excitement subsiding. “Yes, I do.”

“Well… hum… she is a ghost now, and she was pregnant when she died. The child’s a ghost too,” he explained awkwardly, not wanting to dwell on the specifics of it.

“Wait, you knew about that?” Xie Lian asked his mother. How come Feng Xin never told him but told his mother who barely knew him?

“Yes,” she answered. “He confided in me at the time. You… had a lot of things to think about, so…”

Right. He had been the worst friend possible. He had been so blinded by his own pain that he hadn’t noticed Feng Xin’s. Or anyone else’s.

“Anyway, how did you name him?” the queen tried to bring the subject back to the newfound son.

“I didn’t. I… wasn’t aware of his existence – or that Jian Lan had lingered as a ghost – until recently. But his name’s Cuocuo.”

“Cuocuo? That’s…” Mistake, quite a cruel name to give a child. “I’m really sorry. It must have been hard to find out after all these years,” she tried to sympathize.

“It was quite the scandal in Heaven,” Hua Cheng chimed in.

“San Lang…” Xie Lian chided him.

“Well in any case, I would like to meet him,” the queen said.

“Right, yeah…Maybe…” Feng Xin answered, very elusively, not thrilled at the prospect.

“I’m sure Your Majesty would like him. He is a very well-behaved boy,” Hua Cheng added, ironically.

Feng Xin threw him an angry stare.

“And so, are you with Jian Lan again?” the queen asked him.

“Ah,” he coughed. “Hum, no. We… we weren’t… we’re not anymore…”

“She hates his guts,” Mu Qing nicely explained.

“What’s your problem?!” Feng Xin angrily pointed his finger at him.

Better his finger than his fist, Xie Lian thought.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” the queen immediately apologized. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.” She looked down at her lap.

“It’s fine.” Feng Xin sighed. “I’m not in love with her anymore.”

“Oh. Is there anyone else you like then?” She wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do, to keep inquiring about that. But she was curious.

Feng Xin immediately flushed red and glanced at Mu Qing before quickly looking away. “N-no!”

“What – what was that?!” Mu Qing yelled.

The king suddenly entered the room to join them for lunch, interrupting the conversation.

He stopped in front of the table, looking suspiciously between Feng Xin and Mu Qing, both crimson red. “What is going on?”

“Nothing!” they both yelled.

After lunch – surprisingly enough, Feng Xin and Mu Qing ate some of the food. Not nearly enough in Hua Cheng’s opinion. These two never knew how to be appreciative of anything. But they ate some nonetheless – after Feng Xin and Mu Qing left, the Xie family, Hua Cheng included, sat around tea.

Now was a good time to discuss what his parents would want to do on the long term.

“What do you want to do now that everything’s settled? Do you want to stay here?” Xie Lian asked.

“I can have a new separate wing build,” Hua Cheng provided.

Paradise Manor did have some spare guest rooms, but it wasn’t built with a long-term accommodation in mind. Right now, it felt like Xie Lian’s parents were staying at his place; which would no doubt turn very awkward very fast – if it wasn’t already. And even if his husband wouldn’t complain, Xie Lian knew that it would start annoying him at some point too.

But Hua Cheng had technically already added a different wing for Yin Yu a century ago, and they never crossed path in the manor accidentally, so this could be a good solution.

Truth be told, even if he certainly wouldn’t want to see his parents every day in the future, Xie Lian would still prefer they stayed nearby. After everything that happened, he didn’t want to be parted from them once more.

“Or I can get you a house wherever you’d like,” Hua Cheng added, faced with Xie Lian’s parents’ silence.

But the queen and king still didn’t answer.

“If you stay here, you probably won’t like Ghost City but that’s fine,” Xie Lian kept talking to not face their lack of response, “we can create some teleportation arrays directly to the mortal realm – anywhere you want – so you can come and go as you wish.” He smiled.

His parents stayed silent.

He didn’t want to understand what that meant. “What?” he asked, trying to keep his smile up.

The king and queen looked at each other, seemingly conflicted about what to say.

“You’re gonna stay, right?” Xie Lian could feel his insides shattering but he kept smiling, as if it would will his little peaceful, happy bubble to not explode.

“A-Lian–” his mother started.

“You’re gonna stay!” he repeated with more force. His smile hurt and he could feel himself shaking. “Please don’t leave me,” he added in the smallest voice, almost a whisper. He felt as small and fragile as his voice.

He put his cup down on the table with trembling hands, not wanting to drop and break it. He felt as if he would shatter completely at any second.

No, no, no, no, no, no, this wasn’t happening, this wasn’t happening

Suddenly, arms embraced him and hugged him tight. He raised his head. He had a hard time focusing but he was distantly aware that it was Hua Cheng.

“please don’t leave me alone, not again, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I know- I know I should want you to be at- at peace, but but I–” he jabbered, all in one go.

“Gege! Gege, breathe!”

He turned his head vaguely in the direction of Hua Cheng’s face, and it was only then than he realized that he couldn’t breathe, and that tears were clouding his vision.

He couldn’t breathe.

He brought a shaking hand to his chest, grabbing the collar of his robes. It hurt.

“Gege!”

Was the world swaying? It felt like it was swaying.

He couldn’t breathe.

“Gege!”

Hua Cheng was calling him. His voice felt like it was very far.

His vision was clouded but his chest hurt.

“A-Lian!”

He couldn’t breathe. He was choking.

Someone tried to pry his hand from his chest. No, no, it hurts! They don’t understand. It hurts!

He tried to fight it, but he was too weak, shaking too much.

His hand was moved and his fist was pried open, laid against a chest.

“Gege, focus on my voice and my breathing. Can you feel my chest move? Breathe with me gege.”

Right, right, that was Hua Cheng. He was safe.

“Breathe in.”

He tried to, very shakily, as he felt Hua Cheng forcefully fill his dead lungs with air to move his hand.

“Breathe out.”

He let out a pathetic gasp. He felt arms encircling him. Warm.

“That’s it gege, you’re doing good. Now keep going. Breathe in.”

Hua Cheng kept encouraging him for another few minutes before his breath finally settled down.

He kept his head where he had hidden it in Hua Cheng’s neck and waited some time to calm down fully, soothed by his husband stroking his back and hair. He just wanted a few more minutes before facing reality again.

Thinking about his parents almost sent him into another panic attack. He gripped Hua Cheng tighter.

“I’m here gege.”

“Mn.”

Hua Cheng carefully grabbed his head in his hands, tilting it so Xie Lian would look at him. He brushed off his dried tears with his thumbs.

“Are you feeling better?”

“Mn.”

He didn’t want to stop looking into his husband’s eyes, but he could hear his parents getting agitated a few chǐ from him. He took a final deep breath before turning away from Hua Cheng.

His mother stared at him with worry, and his father’s expression was unreadable.

“A-Lian?”

“Ah,” he laughed anxiously. He was ashamed to appear so weak in front of them. And he didn’t want them to worry for him. Had he done anything except crying the past few days?

“Sorry about, hum… that. You can…” he swallowed a lump in his throat, “leave if you want, of course. That’s the best. You shouldn’t be forced to linger because of me.”

He couldn’t do this to them. He hurt them so much already. He couldn’t.

“A-Lian, we…”

Ruoye, having felt his distress, came out of his sleeve, tentatively approaching his face and stroking his cheek, trying to comfort him.

At his sight, the queen stopped her sentence before starting again. “What is Ruoye?”

“W-what?” He was taken aback by the question. Why was she talking about it again? Why now?

“This… silk bandage. It’s… it’s… from then,” she declared. It wasn’t a question anymore.

He froze. He felt Hua Cheng tense too at the mention. How… how could she know?

That’s impossible… She can’t…she can’t know that. SHE CAN’T KNOW THAT!

“I wasn’t sure,” she continued despite his obvious panic, “because why would you keep it?” The king sent her a questioning look, clearly at loss. “But what are the chances? I… When I died…”

She struggled to explain things. She didn’t know how to phrase them. Talking about that time was clearly painful for everyone in the room, her included, but it needed to be said. “I saw you. When I was a ghost fire… I saw you lower our bodies down. And I saw your despair. And that you tried,” she gulped, desperately trying to keep her voice steady, “to follow us.”

“What?” the king choked out, his eyes opened wide, darting between the queen and his son.

“You– ” Xie Lian’s voice broke, “were there?”

No. Heavens, no. She was never meant to see that. What kind of son was he to let his own mother see him like that?

His voice failed him, but he could feel the tears streaming down his face.

His mother nodded. She took a deep breath, trying to keep her emotions at bay, but failed too. Tears started pouring from her eyes and she let out a sob. “I saw that thing – Ruoye – come alive. I’m sorry that it’s the only thing we left you. It was never our intention. Believe us, we would never abandon you like this!”

In a very uncharacteristic show of emotion, his father got up from his seat and pulled Xie Lian into a hug. He didn’t say anything, he just held his son close to his chest.

It had been a very, very long time since he last felt his father’s embrace. It must have been since he turned 10. Maybe even before. Now, he couldn’t help but feel like a child in his arms once more. So, so small and afraid. “Baba…”

“Your mother is right,” he finally said, his words muffled from where his face was buried in his son’s hair. “We didn’t mean to leave you. We didn’t mean to hurt you. Not then, and not now.”

“We thought… that you would… have recovered from everything. That you could be happy,” the queen explained.

“I am happy,” Xie Lian tried to correct, his current state opposing his words.

“But could you be if we left?” she insisted.

“… I’m… I’ll be…” What? Fine? How could he say that to their face? Never mind that no one would believe him, it was his parents. He couldn’t tell them – even as an obvious lie – that he’d be fine if they died. Again. “I’ll survive. I always do.”

“We don’t want to put you through that pain again. Not ever,” she said. “You’ve suffered enough. We’ve made you suffer enough.”

“That’s not true! You never– ” he tried to protest.

“But we did! And we’re your parents A-Lian. If it can prevent you from being further hurt, of course we’ll stay. We couldn’t rest in peace leaving you like that anyway.”

“But– !”

“Xie Lian, listen to me,” said his father in an authoritative voice. “It’s okay. You are not taking anything from us. We don’t mind staying. Nothing is your fault because there is no fault here. This is not a bad thing for us.”

“I thought you hated being a ghost,” Xie Lian didn’t let go.

“Maybe it’s not as bad as I thought it was.” It looked like it physically hurt the king to say that, but it was a rare show of raw sincerity. “Maybe not all ghosts are bad.”

He pointedly didn’t look at Hua Cheng saying that. But Xie Lian let out a wet laugh all the same. “Really?”

“Don’t make me repeat it, son,” the king hmphed.

Maybe, maybe, he could let himself be happy. Maybe things could just be okay.

“… Thank you,” he cried.

He was still hugging his father. Soon his mother joined them and beckoned Hua Cheng with a tilt of her head.

His husband hesitated for a second, but when Xie Lian looked at him expectantly too, he joined the collective hug.

Xie Lian could tell that he was uncomfortable, but he was glad nonetheless to have all those people with him, in his arms.

Eventually, after what could have been a few minutes or an incense time, the king seemed to have had enough of physical affection and broke the human ball they formed.

The queen moved away too and finally answered his initial question. “I don’t care about where we stay, as long as we can see you and that we’re not a bother. And I would want to better see Ghost City. More calmly, when we are not desperately looking for you,” she laughed.

“I don’t think anything about Ghost City is calm,” Xie Lian laughed with her.

“I guess staying here is not too bad for now,” the king agreed with his wife.

“Yeah, you have all the time of the world to figure it out later,” Xie Lian said, wiping off his dried tears.

They all sat back in their seats.

“Hm, the tea is cold now,” the king returned to grumping.

Xie Lian laughed.

Chapter Text

The next few days went by peacefully.

Xie Lian had let Mei Nianqing know that the queen and king had come back as ghosts, but the imperial preceptor had refused his invitation to come and visit them. Maybe it was for the best. He wasn’t sure how the encounter would have gone.

At first, he had thought that seeing other people they knew from XianLe would have made his parents feel more at home, but Xie Lian wasn’t sure what the king and queen’s feelings about the head priest were now that they kingdom was now more.

Things returned more or less to normal. Both he and his husband had been busy with their respective duties to Heaven and Ghost City, but Xie Lian couldn’t have been happier.

It had taken a week for the new wing of the manor to be built. And it only took so long because Hua Cheng had insisted to do a lot of it himself, asking for their majesties’ opinions at almost every step, wanting everything to be perfect.

 So, his parents had relocated a bit farther away, but Xie Lian still saw them at least every other day, even if only to eat dinner together.

Thankfully, his father had calmed down and had stopped criticizing everything and everyone, but was still a bit grumpy and seldom went out.

His mother, on the other hand, had taken everything in stride and adapted really fast to the life in Ghost City. She had shown true curiosity for the place and had asked them both for multiple tours of the city. Xie Lian had been glad to see that she seemed amused by everything she observed.

The ghosts had been very open about their interest in the woman that was sometimes seen strolling with the two lords of the city. The rumors had been spreading like crazy since the day of their arrival. Everyone had wanted to take a look at the mother of their granduncle, but Hua Cheng had been very clear that they ought to treat her with the upmost politeness and respect, and to be on their best behavior. So, they weren’t exactly ruly, but they were trying.

But despite all of that, one thing still bothered Xie Lian. In presence of his parents, Hua Cheng always kept using the same form than when he first met them; which wasn’t exactly a problem per say, but his husband was known to change face every day – if not multiple times a day.

The only two forms that Xie Lian had ever saw him maintain were his Xiao Hua one when they went to Puqi village, and his true one when they spent time together. So, Xie Lian was a bit concerned at Hua Cheng’s repetitive use of this new form. Whatever face he was using for the day, he would change it when approaching the queen and king.

But he liked to use different skins! And it pained Xie Lian to see that he restrained himself even in small capacity because of his parents.

So, he decided to talk about it with Hua Cheng directly.

The ghost king was in his office slumped over a scroll, looking utterly bored by its contents.

He was in a form that Xie Lian had never seen. Slightly shorter than usual but looking a bit older – probably somewhere in his late twenties – his hair held in a low bun by two pins with dangling silver lantern accessories. He was dressed in his usual red but with more black than average. Both his face and robes seemed more on the androgynous side, and he wore quite a lot of black and red make up around his eyes.

He was definitely handsome.

When Xie Lian walked into the room, Hua Cheng immediately looked up and sat up straight with a smile.

“Gege! Didn’t you have things to do at Puqi shrine?”

“Ah, yes, but I wanted to ask something to San Lang.”

Hua Cheng rose from his seat to give him a quick kiss.

“Oh? Do tell.” He looked intrigued.

Xie Lian, who had been mirroring his husband’s smile until now, put on a more serious face. He wasn’t exactly sure how to go about this.

 “I noticed that you are always using the same form when my parents are here.”

“You don’t like it?” Hua Cheng said on a playful tone, but he tensed, looking away slightly.

“I do. I love every form of you,” Xie Lian replied easily. “But it isn’t about me. I know you love to shapeshift. I assure you, they wouldn’t mind it at all. And even if they did, it would be their problem, not yours. I never want you to feel uncomfortable because of them. They should not dictate whatever form you take or don’t take,” he assured him, then added “including your true one.”

“I’m not uncomfortable,” the ghost king denied immediately. The last thing he wanted was to make his gege worry about such a trivial matter.

“But you’re not fully comfortable either,” Xie Lian insisted, refusing to drop the matter.

“Gege, it’s really not a big deal.” He tried to downplay it again, but Xie Lian knew his husband well enough to easily see through him.

“San Lang, everything you are, every part of you, I adore. And I don’t want you to hide anything of yourself out of insecurity, especially in your own home.”

“Gege– ” the ghost king tried to interrupt him to reaffirm that he was fine, but Xie Lian didn’t let him.

“And if you prefer,” he continued, “if it makes you more comfortable, we can always find somewhere else for my parents to live.”

“Your Highness, no!” Hua Cheng exclaimed, panicked. “I know you are happy to have Their Majesties here. I would never ask that of you.”

He took a step away, holding Xie Lian’s shoulders, and looking worriedly at him.

“I know,” the prince smiled lovingly. “But San Lang will always come first. And I’ll be happier if my husband was back to his confident self.”

The ghost king stared at him, completely stunned for a second. Xie Lian winced internally. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to his husband that he was his priority no matter what, but sometimes his insecurities got the upper hand and he fell into vicious spirals of worthlessness.

Xie Lian guessed he would just have to keep proving him that he was more than he could ever ask for.

He engulfed his husband in a hug, resting his head on his shoulder.

“You don’t have to choose between us. I’m fine. Really,” Hua Cheng finally said.

“Then think about it?” Xie Lian looked up to see him wearing a complicated expression. “Whenever you’re ready.” He kissed him before going back to snuggle into his husband’s neck. “Whether your true form, or any other, they’re all perfect.”

There was a heavy pause, where Hua Cheng was just staring at him, before the ghost sighed and rested his chin on the top of his husband’s head.

“Alright, I’ll use my true form at dinner. It’s less… flamboyant.”

“I think you’re really handsome like this,” Xie Lian immediately said, before adding “and pretty” after reflection, not sure which one his husband would prefer currently.

“Thanks gege,” he gave him a sweet smile and kissed him again.

Xie Lian tried to convince his husband to go back to his work after that, but it was useless. He had only been waiting for a reason to drop it and now that his gege was here, he wasn’t going to neglect him for a bunch of mind-numbing scrolls.

Xie Lian sighed and put on his best show of disapprobation. He also had things to do in Puqi village after all! But Hua Cheng only smirked at his weak fight. He didn’t put a lot of effort into freeing himself from his husband’s embrace and the ghost knew it.

A few hours later, as they both walked together to join the queen and king for dinner, Hua Cheng shifted back into his true form.

Xie Lian shot him a loving and reassuring smile. He stood on tiptoe to reach his husband’s face and kissed him sweetly.

“I promise, it’s fine.”

“Of course gege.” He smiled but Xie Lian could tell that he was only doing so to hide his nerves.

When they entered the room, Xie Lian threw a pointed stare at his parents, daring them to say anything. They were already sitting side by side at the dinner table. The two husbands therefore took a seat in front of them.

“A-Lian, A-Cheng, look at this!” The queen pointed at the dish sitting in the middle of the table. “One of the cooks, Lu Xinfan, showed me how to make biangbiang noodles.”

That’s supposed to be noodles? thought Xie Lian. It looked more like a blueish stew with clumps of raw vegetables and… were those entire pears in it?

“I called it Silken Ribbons of Fortune,” she added with a smile.

“It looks delicious,” Hua Cheng complimented, evading her eyes.

The queen promptly grabbed everyone’s bowl and cheerfully served generous portions.

They only got a few minutes of respite before someone addressed the metaphorical elephant in the room.

“So, what is up with the shapeshifting?” the king asked after taking his time to fully chew and swallow his first spoon of Silken Ribbons of Fortune – there was no point in trying to eat it with chopsticks.

His tone was very conversational, not indicative of bad intentions in any way, but still, Hua Cheng tensed, and the queen and Xie Lian both threw murderous stares in his direction.

“What? I’m just asking. There is no harm in that,” the king defended himself.

“Nothing is up,” Xie Lian answered, with only a bit of aggressivity in his voice.

“Hmm. I was wondering why you always wore the same skin. Everyone says that you change face every day,” the king kept talking, in a rare feat of addressing Hua Cheng directly.

“I didn’t want to overwhelm Your Majesties,” Hua Cheng answered, shifting slightly on his seat.

“Ah! Who is overwhelmed?” the king brushed him off with a wave of his hand, before looking at him more intently. “So, is this an invention of yours or your true face?”

“Dear! You can’t just ask that!” the queen exclaimed.

“Why? He is my son-in-law, is he not?”

Is that a positive acknowledgement? wondered Xie Lian.

“Don’t even think about saying something mean,” the prince said out loud.

“Why are you getting so riled up for?” the king sighed. “I am not saying anything.”

“It is my true form,” Hua Cheng finally answered to stop them from arguing, looking intently at his plate.

“Why are you all making a fuss over nothing? I don’t understand,” the king asked, exasperated. “It’s not like he’s ugly.”

Hua Cheng looked up suddenly and stared at him.

“And what’s with the look?” the king kept going. “Xie Lian, your husband has a tremendous lack of self-confidence.” He pointed his spoon at him.

There was a pause where no one knew how to answer to that, before the queen decided to speak, ignoring the king’s previous comments.

“I think you are very handsome,” she said to Hua Cheng, then to Xie Lian: “You are very lucky A-Lian. I wish my husband was good-looking like that.”

The king, who had just resigned himself to eating a second spoon of the stew-noodles, dropped the cutlery into his bowl and looked indignantly at his wife. “What?!”

She just laughed at him.

Xie Lian turned to look at his husband who wore an unreadable expression but at least seemed less tense than before. He grabbed his hand and called him in the array.

“San Lang? Are you okay?”

Hua Cheng blinked a few times, pulled out of his thoughts and sent him a sincere smile. “Mn. I’m fine gege.”

Not paying attention to his parents who were still arguing, Xie Lian gave him a quick but loving kiss.

“A-Lian,” his mother called him hesitantly one evening, a few days later, while they were strolling around the gardens of Paradise Manor.

He hummed in acknowledgment, giving her time to find her words.

It was dark around them. The only light coming from a few lanterns scattered throughout the garden and fireflies. The air was peaceful, hot but with a fresh breeze. The only noise around coming from the rustling leaves.

“You said… that Rong-er was a ghost now.”

He stopped and turned around to look at her. He had honestly forgotten that they had talked about him. His mother had never brought it up again before now.

“He is.”

“I…” She looked at the lotus pond in front of her painfully. “I know that he probably doesn’t want to see me but…” she trailed off.

Xie Lian cringed at her words. She was most definitely right. And he hadn’t even told her what Qi Rong did in the royal mausoleum.

Surely, a meeting between the two would go horribly. But he could see that it was weighting down on her. She must have thought a lot about it to only bring it now, and well, it had been her sister’s dying wish to take care of her child.

He sighed and grimaced. “Honestly mother, I don’t think it’s a good idea at all. But he’s a ghost fire now, so if you really want to see him, there won’t be much he will be able to do to evade you.”

‘Or to hurt you’ was left unsaid.

The queen looked full of sorrow. “I would like to apologize to him.”

“He won’t receive your apologies very well.”

“I don’t expect him to,” she said, her voice worn and deeply tired. “But I still owe them to him.”

Right now, his mother looked old, bone-deep tired, as if she was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders. It was the first time that she truly looked the part of an 800 years old spirit who lingered out of regret.

“You don’t owe him anything,” Xie Lian denied, “but if it makes you feel better, I will arrange a meeting.”

“Thank you.” Her voice was fragile.

He called Lang Qianqiu the next day. The martial god of the East was surprised at his guoshi’s demand to see Qi Rong again so soon.

Xie Lian didn’t bother explaining that it was his mother who wanted to talk to him. It was probably for the best anyway. No need to complicate things by telling him that the last ruling monarchs of XianLe were alive – well, as alive as ghosts can be.

Xie Lian promised to a crying Guzi that his father wouldn’t get hurt before taking the lantern to Puqi shrine. He knew Hua Cheng wouldn’t appreciate it, if he brought Qi Rong to Paradise Manor.

He set the yelling lantern on the table before stepping back into the garden and closing the door behind him.

A portal appeared and his mother stepped through it, coming directly from Ghost City.

She winced when she heard Qi Rong’s obscene screams.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay with you?” Xie Lian asked, a bit worried.

“I’ll be fine. Plus, I know you do not want to see him.”

That was certainly true. He really didn’t feel like putting up with his cousin at the moment – not that he ever did.

“Just… don’t take what he says at face value. He is worse than he was before.”

“So you said.”

She hesitated a moment before continuing. “You know, it’s not his fault that he is like this. His father only showed him violence when he grew up. And when he arrived at the palace, he was surrounded by strangers. None of us had the heart to punish him for his actions. I should have taught him better.”

Xie Lian frowned. “I can understand his circumstances. But his childhood doesn’t excuse everything he did.”

“Things are more complicated than that.”

“No they aren’t,” he said firmly. “He chose to behave like this. He still does, eight centuries later.”

“You don’t truly understand what he went through,” she insisted. “I don’t either. Growing up like that…”

“You know, San Lang had a really hard childhood too.”

He didn’t like to talk about Hua Cheng’s past, especially when he wasn’t here. But he felt that it was important she understood that Qi Rong’s actions was not her failure.

“His father was like Qi Rong’s, if not worse. He spent his teenage years on a battlefield. Yet, he is nothing like him,” he said vehemently.

The queen posed, profound sorrow in her eyes. “… Not everyone can be as resilient as your San Lang. But I’m sorry to hear that he went through this.”

She sighed. “Alright, I won’t say any more on the subject. I don’t want to upset you.”

He nodded. Getting angry at her would lead him nowhere.

“I’ll be back in an hour,” he said, then headed to Puqi village. He still had things to do from yesterday after all.

The queen stared at the shrine’s door for a few minutes, trying to find the courage to open it.

Finally, she took a deep breath and push it with a shaking hand.

When the ghost flame saw her, it immediately felt silent.

“…”

“… Rong-er.” Her voice was soft, almost a murmur.

“WHAT? WHAT? YIMU? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? YOU’RE DEAD!” Qi Rong exclaimed, bouncing against the paper walls of the lantern.

“I am,” she answered simply, waiting to see if Qi Rong’s reaction would be good or bad. Though, she didn’t have much hope it would be positive.

“IT’S NOT POSSIBLE! NO WAY! I SCATTERED YOUR ASHES!” he let out.

She took a step back in shock. “What?”

She had expecting it to be bad, but not that bad. Did Xie Lian know about this?

“THAT’S RIGHT! YOU SHOULD ASK MY GOOD COUSIN ABOUT IT HAHAHA!”

That was something she was definitely going to ask Xie Lian about later, but for now she decided to drop it. She came here for a reason after all. She couldn’t let him deter her so fast.

“Rong-er, I’ve come to apologize to you,” she explained.

The green flame dimmed for a second before glowing more furiously. “YOU THINK THAT I– ”

But the queen didn’t let him dismiss her. She took a deep breath and started her speech. She had thought a lot about what to say, but she was still scared.

“I never knew how to act around you when you were younger. I still don’t today.

I failed to raise you as I didn’t want to put any restrictions your way, because of everything you had went through. But you were lost. What you needed was a parental figure to reassure you and guide you, help you through it and not ignore it. I didn’t know what to do with the fact that, even after everything that happened, you were still a kid.

So, I take responsibility for the way you grew up to be.”

“DON’T YOU DARE LOOK DOWN ON ME! I AM BETTER THAN ALL OF YOU!” the ghost fire said furiously, knocking against the lantern so hard that it was almost toppling over.

“I don’t look down on you Rong-er.” It pained her to hear him say so.

“I know you always thought so, but I…” She faltered. She needed to say this, she couldn’t let herself cry now.

“You never were a burden, or an obligation. I didn’t want to replace your mother, but you needed someone to love you. And I did. I did care about you. I did love you. But I failed to show it to you. I… proved you the opposite even.”

She swallowed a sob.

“I should have refused to leave XianLe without you. That day, I failed as a queen, but more importantly, I failed as an aunt. I failed as a mother. I failed you.”

She looked down in an attempt to hide the tears that were pooling her eyes.

The queen was expecting him to yell at her again, but she was met with nothing but silence for a minute.

“Pah, I don’t need your cheap excuses and your cheap love! Now you’re pretending to be my mother! Like I need YOU!” Qi Rong’s voice was unreadable before he started screaming more aggressively. “THIS ANCESTER HAS A SON! AND HE’S MUCH BETTER THAN YOU!”

Dazed, she raised her head. “You… you have a son?” She couldn’t keep the incredulity out of her voice.

“THAT’S RIGHT, I DO! AND NOW HE’S IN HEAVEN, TRAINING WITH A MARTIAL GOD, THANKS TO ME!”

She didn’t have words. If there was one person she had never envisioned with children, it was Qi Rong, which worried her a little. “That’s… wonderful. What’s his name? How old is he?”

The ghost fire paused. “Hurghh… ten or something, IT DOESN’T MATTER! He’s named Guzi.”

“Oh, wait… I remember A-Lian told me that you became a ghost fire after saving a child. Was that him?”

“THAT’S RIGHT! I WAS THE MOST POWERFUL OF ALL CALAMITIES BEFORE! THAT DOG FUCKER HUA CHENG WOULDN’T EVEN DARE LOOK IN MY DIRECTION! AND I WAS A HERO, SAVING THE BRAT, WHEN MY WHITE LOTUS COUSIN DIDN’T EVEN CARE!”

“You did good. I’m proud of you.” She smiled. Maybe he wasn’t so hopeless after all!

“YOU THINK I’D GIVE TWO SHITS ABOUT THAT?” The queen was sure that if he had been able to, he would have spat on the ground. She winced internally.

“BUT YOU SHOULD DEFINITELY BE PROUDER OF ME THAN MY FUCKING COUSIN! HE STOOPED SO LOW HAHAHA! EVEN FUCKING A DEMON! HOW THE PERFECT PRINCE HAVE FALLEN!

THEY ARE DISGUSTING! DISGUSTING! THE THINGS I SAW! HA, FOR ALL THAT DOG FUCKED XIE LIAN CLAIMS TO BE SO PURE AND ABOVE US ALL, I CAN TELL YA, HE IS ROTTEN HAHAHA!”

Still as crass as ever. The queen sighed. “A-Cheng is not a demon,” she said firmly. “And if he were, that would make you one too. Now, I certainly don’t want to argue about the rest, so I’ll just say this: A-Lian is well withing his rights to do whatever he wants with his husband.”

“So back to you,” she moved on from the matter as fast as possible, bringing back a more serious tone. “I wanted to tell you that everything that happened 800 years ago, I’m sorry for. And I want to be there for you now. But I understand that you have every reason to hate me and not want to ever see me again.”

“Tss, you think you’ve changed?” Qi Rong took a calmer but more serious voice, less maniac and more mature. But still accusative. “You’re so much better now?”

“I hope I have changed. I am trying, at least.”

“Bullshit.”

He retreated in a corner of the lantern, his flame shrinking. There was nothing but silence for a while.

The queen wondered if she should just take it as the dismissal that it was and leave, when she heard Qi Rong whisper.

“I don’t need any of you.”

She didn’t know if it was directed at her or if he had been mumbling to himself, so she didn’t respond.

She sighed. “I will be in the garden until A-Lian comes back.”

The queen started to walk out but hesitated, her hand on the door handle. She gave the lantern a mournful look before finally stepping out of the shrine.

She waited for her son, seated at the small table in the garden, lost in thought. A part of her still hoped that Rong-er would call her back. Run towards her yelling “YIMU!” and recount all of his feats of today.

But she knew that she had lost that little Rong-er forever.

When Xie Lian came back, he had a huge sack on his back. He dropped it unceremoniously on the ground and took her in his arms when he saw her grim look.

Well, she couldn’t have everything, she guessed. It would be too much to ask.

She already had a lot.

Still, as Xie Lian went to give the lantern back to whoever was in charge of supervising Qi Rong, she couldn’t get rid of the bitter feeling in her heart.

Xie Lian never asked his mother how it went. It had been fairly obvious from her gloom mood for days afterwards that it didn’t went well. He had been waiting for her to open up, but she didn’t seem to want to talk about it, apart from a very heavy discussion about what happened at the royal mausoleum.

Some people were not mean to reconcile, and perhaps it was for the best.

He just hoped his mother would be able to let it go.

As the weeks passed, he forgot about it completely.

Before he could even realize it, his parents had been there for three months already.

That day he had to leave early because of an emergency in the Heavens that turned out to be an extremely long and boring meeting.

Since Jun Wu had been defeated, Ling Wen had started to ask him to settle all kind of petty dispute between minor gods acting like children. He would have refused, but he knew that no one else would accept and that Ling Wen would have to do it herself. He pitied her really. She looked even more tired than before. He often wondered if she would be the first god to die from exhaustion.

When he came back to Paradise Manor late in the afternoon, Hua Cheng welcomed him with a big smile – wider than usual.

“What is it?” Xie Lian asked, falling into his husband’s arms.

“I got a present for gege,” Hua Cheng answered, pulling him toward the nearest couch before handing a huge flat wooden box to him.

Xie Lian took it and looked it over curiously. “What is this for?”

“Gege really doesn’t know? I’m wounded.” Hua Cheng grinned.

“San Lang, please don’t tease me.”

“Our six months wedding anniversary.” He took his hand in his and kissed it.

“Six months? San Lang, are we counting six months anniversaries?” Xie Lian laughed.

“As far as I’m concerned, every day since our wedding is an anniversary.” He said it with mirth, but Xie Lian could tell that Hua Cheng was serious.

Xie Lian blushed furiously. “San Laang…”

“And besides, it’s coincidentally also the anniversary of the first time we made pickled plums together today.”

“San Lang! You just invented that!”

“Of course not!” He brought his hand to his heart in false shock before smiling. “I remember every day with gege perfectly.”

Xie Lian hid his red face in his hands as Hua Cheng laughed.

But the ghost king didn’t let him shy away from him and grabbed his hands in his to move them aside from his face and force Xie Lian to look at him.

“Won’t gege open my gift?” he asked sweetly.

Xie Lian was always weak to his husband, and quite curious of what the box contained, so he opened it without further ado.

“San Lang…” he said in a breathless murmur.

In the box laid a majestic kite in the shape of a butterfly that Xie Lian had no doubt Hua Cheng made himself. It was huge and of incredible craftmanship with intricate designs of mystical beasts on the wings. It was exceedingly beautiful, but Xie Lian could also see the enchantments woven in the paper and bamboo armature.

“I talked with Her Majesty,” Hua Cheng explained. “She said that gege had quite the passion for flying kites when he was younger.”

“I did.” He wore a wide smile. It had been so long since he last flew a kite.

He cautiously dragged his hand along the edges of the kite. “It has some spiritual energy.”

“Gege noticed. Yes, I made it so it could fly perfectly no matter the weather or the wind.”

“San Lang truly thinks of everything.”

“Does gege like it?”

“I do, very much. Thank you.” He put the box down carefully and kissed his husband.

“It’s nothing,” Hua Cheng answered when Xie Lian pulled away to breathe, chasing after his lips.

“Does San Lang want to go try it with me in the gardens now?”

He wanted to keep kissing his husband, but he also couldn’t wait to try his new gift. He did love kites.

“Of course gege.” Hua Cheng followed a very excited Xie Lian to the gardens.

Even later that evening, after a late afternoon spent reminiscing of his childhood days with his husband; his father handed Hua Cheng, too, a painted wooden box, unceremoniously, at dinner.

Xie Lian looked at Hua Cheng questioningly, but his husband only raised a brow.

“What is this?” he asked his father.

“Your mother told me that you… have married six months ago today,” the king explained, not looking at Hua Cheng.

“So you care now?” It came out a bit more aggressively than he intended.

“You–!”

“What your father wants to say,” the queen interrupted, “is that he is sorry for the way he acted before.”

“Hmpf.” The king didn’t agree but didn’t contradict her either.

There was an awkward silence for a moment, before the queen spoke again.

“Why don’t you open it A-Cheng?” She tried to put as much cheer in her voice as she could.

He snapped out of his daze. “Ah. Of course.”

He lifted the lid to reveal two golden phoenix taking flight with inlaid gems for their eyes and in their feathers, forming ear cuffs.

Still not looking at Hua Cheng, the king explained to Xie Lian: “I wasn’t sure what to give since you don’t exactly have a bride, but I figured it would be fine since he wears a lot of jewelry anyway. Well, it’s not silver, but you don’t give silver for weddings.”

The queen gave him a hard nudge in the ribs. “And I said, why wouldn’t it be fine? Jewelry is for everyone.”

“I didn’t say it wasn’t!” the king defended himself.

Hua Cheng interrupted their argument by bowing to them both. “Thank you, Your Majesties.”

The queen smiled while the king looked uncomfortable.

“Yes, well…”, he hesitated, “I know that you don’t care about it but… you have my benediction.” He looked away but his words seemed sincere nonetheless.

Xie Lian could feel his eyes watering. “Actually, I do care. So thank you.”

He grabbed his husband’s hand on the table and squeezed it.

“I promise I’ll make myself worthy of it,” Hua Cheng told the king with conviction. “I will dedicate my every breath to protect His Highness’ happiness.”

The king sighed, finally looking at him in the eye. “You already are.”

“San Lang is my happiness,” Xie Lian added.

“Thank you,” Hua Cheng answered to them both, his eye shining with emotion.

Xie Lian smiled at him with so much love, and kissed his hand. He asked him a question in the communication array before turning to his parents.

“Father, mother, I’d like to renew our vows, with you this time.”

“Ah!” The queen squealed with joy. “A-Lian! Of course we’d love to!”

The king nodded, a hint of a smile on his face.

Later, as he bowed to his husband in front of his parents, Xie Lian thought “I can’t wait for an eternity with you.”