Archive of Our Own ^beta

The bell to sweet shop chimed a little tune as Xue Yang walked in the door.

He was on his lunch break, the first one he had actually used to get lunch in the entire time he'd been working at this "company". It was the first time in the last few weeks he hadn't been laden with frankly criminal amounts of work, and he hadn't really known what to do with the free time. He had set off at the building walking aimlessly down the street. He was pretty sure he'd crossed a few different towns by now, and he was pretty sure his lunch break was about to be over, but he was also pretty sure that Jin Guangyao wouldn't be able to do shit to him if he was late. They needed him more than he would ever need them, so when the little corner shop with a sugar smell wafting out caught his eye, he didn't think twice before heading in.

The walls were painted bright pink and blue with yellow and white pop art designs. It was garish, almost unpleasant on the eyes, but in a way that invoked a wave of nostalgia. The walls were lined with case upon case of candies, the local and international brands, and little plastic bags for kids to fill and pay by the ounce. At the counter was a freezer case of ice cream, so large it bent twice, and menu board showcasing their collection of smoothies, milkshakes, crepes, and bubble teas.

And there, behind POS, was probably the most attractive man Xue Yang had ever seen.

He wasn't sure particularly why this man was so attractive. Sure, he was objectively beautiful, but that had never really caused Xue Yang to look at anyone twice before. He was relatively tall, probably a few years older than Xue Yang, who was fresh out of community college, and had a smile that seemed to reflect the light of the sun itself.

The sight of it ignited a pang in Xue Yang's chest, an oddly familiar ache he couldn't tell the origin of.

This whole place felt weirdly homey. Like he had been here before. He'd never been one to feel safe, but he couldn't help but notice that the moment he walked in the door, he hadn't felt the need to look over his shoulder.

He should probably just get some candy and leave. He deserved it, after all his hard work. He was carrying the weight of this entire "company".

It wasn't really a company as much as a money laundering operation set up by Jin Guangyao. He was advertising this big watchtower project that would be set up cultivator offices at various posts across the countryside. But that wasn't was really happening. Sure, a few of them would be built, in maybe Qinghai or Gansu, but it wouldn't be the large-scale project LanlingJin was promising. Most of the money was actually being funneled into demonic cultivation research.

This wasn't the Yiling Laozu's "demonic" cultivation that was actually just ghost cultivation with a propagandized twist. This was real demonic cultivation, using resentful energy on living people. And Xue Yang was head of the project.

It was still in its preliminary phases. Xue Yang hadn't experimented on many people yet. Only one person so far, Chang Ci'an, who Jin Guangyao. But given the success of that one, Xue Yang was set to start working on taking out more people.

Jin Guangyao was working on finding the next group of people for him to use. Xue Yang had a feeling the TingshanHe clan would be out of luck quite soon, but the gap between experiment subjects was the reason Xue Yang had time today. Right now, he was just figuring out how to write out what he'd done to the Chang bastard as lab reports.

He tried to browse through the candies, but he couldn't think of anything he particularly liked, so he just put a few of each into his bags. He knew this was probably overpriced as hell, but Jin Guangyao wasn't paying him the big bucks for nothing.

When he brought the bags up to the counter to be weighed, he accidentally made eye contact with the man behind it, their hands brushing ever so slightly as he handed him the bag.

It was like a flash of light hit him, and suddenly he wasn't in the candy shop anymore.

He was lying in a coffin, stuffed with bedding, in a dark room that reeked of rot. His eyes were half-lidded, as if he was barely waking up, and there was a man sitting at his side.

The man turned, and though there was a white cloth wrapped over his eyes, Xue Yang could tell it was the man behind the candy counter. Xiao Xingchen, something in his mind told him.

Xiao Xingchen reached out, and ever so gently, wrapped a warm hand around his. Xue Yang stayed still, wanting to see where this was going. But he had a feeling that he couldn't move even if he tried. This wasn't some random hallucination or dream, it was a memory.

He watched as Xiao Xingchen turned over his palm, and folded a small piece of candy into it.

He was just beginning like he was going to drown in the feeling of warmth and safety that emanated from that memory, when suddenly the world was turned on its head.

Xiao Xingchen was laying on a mat on the floor, the color drained from his face and spilled across his throat. Xue Yang was sitting over him, screaming and begging for him to wake up. Candy was scattered across the floor, stained red, and Xue Yang knew in his heart that this was somehow all his fault.

When Xue Yang snapped back to reality, Xiao Xingchen had just finished weighing out his candy and was handing it back to him. That sweet smile was still on his face, gazing at Xue Yang like he was a person who deserved kindness.

He must not have seen the vision then. He didn’t know how much blood his hands were stained with, in this life and whichever one he had just witnessed.

He didn’t want him to know. He didn’t want him to any pain in this life. He didn’t want him to be hurt by any of the awful things he was going to do, not again.

He quickly paid for the candy, then pulled out his phone, shooting off a quick text to Jin Guangyao.

“I quit.”

It was simple really. Xue Yang knew how to disappear, and Jin Guangyao knew better than to launch a manhunt looking for him. This was the perfect time to make his escape.

That done, he turned back to Xiao Xingchen with a sugar-sweet smile on his face. “Say, by any chance, are you hiring?”