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Both Hua Cheng and Xie Lian have gone through a great deal of pain and hardships throughout their long existence, and they more than deserve a while at Puqi Shrine free from everything but each other.
Outside the Shrine, Hua Cheng is busy chopping wood for the fire, starting to gather them up as he cleaves through the last one. The sun is starting to set, painting him in a beautiful soft light. Xie Lian watches him for a moment, savoring the feeling of seeing his husband do such a domestic task. As he steps outside to join Hua Cheng, he notices some animals running just outside along their fence.
“San Lang, look, they’re back,” he calls to him quietly, trying not to frighten them.
For whatever reason, they often see a fox and white ferret playing together. They seem to not view each other as predator and prey, but rather unaware of such a hierarchy. Both of them watch the animals for a moment before Xie Lian remembers his original reason for going outside.
“San Lang, what do you want for dinner tonight?” He asks as he helps Hua Cheng stack up the chopped wood in neat piles.
“This San Lang would be happy with any dish Gege would like to make.” Hua Cheng replies with a smile.
“You always say that my love, I am asking specifically what you want.”
“I do not care about the taste so much as I care that it was made by my beloved. Although tonight I wish to make the meal with you if Gege would have me in his kitchen.”
Xie Lian may be confident in his cooking abilities, but he craves closeness with the red clad man, and so he gratefully agrees. Though others had fallen ill because of Xie Lian's food, Hua Cheng's tongue could only taste the love with which the meal was made. However, he did know that objectively, his husband's cooking could not taste very good at all to elicit such a reaction from others, and he didn't want Xie Lian to continue to consume such food.
"How about we try a different recipe tonight?" He asks.
"Of course, what is it?" Xie Lian replies with a smile, happy to try new things in the kitchen.
“Well, this particular recipe came under my ownership when a renowned chef bet it, and of course she lost. Though it has been quite some time since then, I haven’t tried it yet, so we may learn together.”
Hua Cheng, though very skilled with a blade, manages to nick his finger while chopping carrots. Paying it almost no mind, he wipes it to make sure he does not contaminate the food and moves on. As he does this, Xie Lian watches with slight concern. He gently removes the knife from Hua Cheng’s hand and picks up his slightly injured one. Xie Lian carefully dabs at the cut with his outer robe, kissing it once the minor bleeding ceased completely. The tender expression on his face made Hua Cheng’s heart swell.
“Gege is so kind, thank you.”
While Xie Lian is cooking at the stove, Hua Cheng wraps both his arms around the other’s waist, leaving a small kiss on his cheek and resting his chin on Xie Lian’s strong shoulder. Xie Lian turns around to fully embrace him after a moment. When he pulls back, he finds his fingers wrapping around the coral bead in Hua Cheng’s hair, which was a habit he seemed to notice himself doing a lot lately.
He pulls himself away from Xie Lian only to begin his task of preparing the chicken he had gotten earlier. As Hua Cheng is slicing the chicken into cubes, he hums a tune unfamiliar to Xie Lian.
“San Lang, what piece of music is that?”
Hua Cheng smiles as he sets down his knife. “I can’t seem to remember, so I suppose I must show Gege instead.”
He bowes and offers his hand, which Xie Lian takes eagerly. He continues humming now, moving Xie Lian’s body with him as they sway leisurely in the kitchen. Xie Lian places a soft kiss on Hua Cheng’s lips, then rests his forehead against the other’s. They spend an unknown amount of time in each other’s embrace, until they smell something burning.
“The vegetables!” Xie Lian leaps back over to the stove to try and salvage the burnt remains of them.
In response to the disappointed look on his face, Hua Cheng says, “It is my fault for dragging Gege away from your task, and I apologize. But don’t worry, we will try this as many times as we need to get this right. In the meantime, you could name the recipe.”
Life at Puqi shrine continues on. They had adopted a new routine at night. It started with Hua Cheng undoing Xie Lian's hair before they went to sleep and Xie Lian fixing Hua Cheng's in the morning. Now they both undo the other’s hair before bed and redo them in the morning. When they wake up in the mornings, Hua Cheng often wakes up first and spends time basking in the warmth of his love, always trying to convince Xie Lian to stay in bed for just a few more minutes. Xie Lian almost always caves and they now spent almost half an hour each morning just embracing each other under the covers, reveling in the skin-to-skin contact and feeling more at peace with the other so close to them. They more than deserve it.
Both of them love spending time here, it’s a place free of responsibilities where they can just be with one another in the quiet. However, Hua Cheng internally winces every time Xie Lian lays down on that beaten up old bed or adds a new patch to the same robes he wears almost daily. The fact that his god has lived like this for so long makes him want to give him every luxury he could possibly want and provide him with nothing but comfort and happiness.
A few months ago, while they were getting used to sleeping together as partners instead of acquaintances, Hua Cheng had introduced Xie Lian to the concept of spooning. Now, that is the way they prefer to sleep almost every night, though they always switch between the little and big spoon.
There had been several nights when they had ventured a little beyond just kissing, but tonight was meant for slow, gentle kisses.
Sometimes, it just became too much for Hua Cheng, his feelings spilling over into tears. He had spent so long waiting for Xie Lian and dreaming endlessly about being able to meet him again. He never would have thought that he would end up where he is now, often in Xie Lian’s arms and always in his heart. The first time it happened, he stepped away from his husband and hid his face, not thinking himself good enough to be seen by his love. He was, after all, extremely sensitive about his appearance.
After a few more similar occurrences, Xie Lian knew exactly what he needed. He would alternate between rubbing his back, running his hands through his hair, and smothering him in gentle kisses, all while whispering sweet things to him. “My beautiful San Lang,” “I’m right here,” “I love you so much.”
He wipes away the remaining tears with his thumbs, gently sliding them back and forth across Hua Cheng's face. Though it pains him to see him like this, he was also glad that Hua Cheng felt safe and comfortable to be open with him.
As the temperatures increased, they eventually stopped wearing their inner robes to sleep and only wore pants. Hua Cheng's skin is cool to the touch, and Xie Lian loves the feeling of his bare chest against Hua Cheng's back, nothing separating their skin.
Xie Lian is cleaning inside Puqi Shrine while Hua Cheng takes care of the outside. The sun is streaming into the singular room and giving everything a comfortable warmth. He was about to ask Hua Cheng to take a break and join him for some tea, when he heard a sound that made his heart sink.
"San Lang?"
Receiving no response, he begins to get truly worried.
He creeps out of the door, Ryoue at the ready. Xie Lian’s eyes widen as he takes in the scene before him. He indeed sees Hua Cheng, but he looks up to see White No Face with his hand around his husband’s throat. White No Face seemed to finally notice him.
“I’m so glad you could join us.” He leisurely looks down to Hua Cheng who is struggling to escape with no avail. “Oh, this. I asked you to become a supreme once before, and you disobeyed me. It seems you require more motivation, so I provided it for you.”
Xie Lian’s heart is surely beating hard enough to bruise his chest. He has to stay calm and make a plan to escape, after all, it’s not like this is the first time they have outwitted White No Face. Sending what he hopes is a confident look to Hua Cheng, he tries to think of anything he can do.
Suddenly, White No Face is directly behind him, Hua Cheng still in his clutches. “Oh, I apologize if I made it seem like you could escape this time. No, you really must learn this time.”
The ring on his necklace has never felt heavier, this undefeatable enemy so close to the ashes keeping Hua Cheng in this world. Touching it would get White No Face’s attention, so he just had to remain neutral and fix this. There has to be a way out of this. His breaths are coming quicker, but he just has to recite the Ethics Sutra, everything is going to be fine, it always is.
As if able to read his thoughts, White No Face releases his hold on Hua Cheng before kicking him to the ground and digging his foot into his neck. Xie Lian has never seen him so powerless, and at this sight, he breaks down even further. He has no idea what to do, and he doesn't know how he would ever be able to recover from this situation. Any final thread of hope he might have been holding onto snapped when White No Face reaches for him. More specifically, he reaches right for the necklace, though there was no way he could have known about it.
“You could have put up a much better fight, Xianle, I am once again disappointed in you. You know that means punishment.” Without hesitation, he crushes the silver ring in his palm and Xie Lian watches, horrified, as it turns to dust in his hand. He immediately whipped his head around to see Hua Cheng, but where he had previously been, there was now only the remnants of his ashes.
No. NO, NO, NO
He violently jerks awake, gasping and panting into the silence. He barely registered his own voice repeating that word over and over, only focused on Hua Cheng and making sure he was safe. He rolled Hua Cheng towards him to look at his face, waking the other up in the process. The second he registered the distraught and panicked look on Xie Lian’s face, he leapt into action.
“Gege, what happened, are you alright?” He looked him over for injuries before crushing him against his chest.
Xie Lian let go and started sobbing against him, curling his arms around his back. They spent a few minutes like this, wrapped in each other’s arms before Xie Lian had finally calmed down enough to choke out words.
“White No Face was here, he had you, San Lang, he had your ashes,” a few more tears fell and he pauses to collect himself. “He crushed the ring and then you were gone-”
“Gege, I will never leave you, I will always be right here with you, it’s okay,” He runs his fingers through Xie Lian’s hair, trying to comfort him. He curses White No-Face. Xie Lian has been through so much, too much because of this creature. Even now, when they don’t have to worry about it, Xie Lian is still being haunted in his dreams.
They eventually drift back to sleep, and as he watches the sleeping form of Xie Lian, the Ghost King is once again reminded of his promise to protect his beloved.