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  In the middle of the battleground, Wei Wuxian was desperate to summon something, anything. Even the dead weren't enough to fight the absurd amounts of Wen soldiers rushing down on them. It had already been hours and the fight was still keep going.

He started to play another melody with desperation, the most powerful melody he had ever played until then.

Nothing happened.

Or so thought Wei Wuxian. 

An eyepatched man watched their fight from the forest nearby. His brows were furrowed deeply. 

The fight took some more hours until the corpses were finally enough to fend the other soldiers off. Wei Wuxian changed his melody again with a crooked grin, his slender fingers tightening on his flute.

Slowly, he stopped playing and stared at the pile of corpes laid in front of his feet. Hundreds of cultivators laid beneath him. Most of them wore the robes of the QishanWen Clan, white with embroidered red flames; a lot of them wore the colors of the other sects that were fighting against the Wen.

That was it, Wei Wuxian had finally killed the Wen-dogs. His crooked grin left its place to a blank expression. 

Next to Wei Wuxian was his shidi, Jiang Wanyin, looking at the dead bodies with his parents in mind. Jiang Wanyin's expression wasn't blank as Wei Wuxian’s. His heart was filled with the utmost hatred and anger. All of his life, he always channeled his anger and self-doubt to the easiest target he could find; those hidden emotions of his heart leaked to target Wei Wuxian in his childhood but, after the massacre of Lotus Pier, his emotions were no longer hidden. All of his hatred was now aimed at the Wen-dogs. Who knew who would he aim at after everything was concluded?

Wei Wuxian eventually turned back to return to the campsite. There was horror in the eyes of the other cultivators who had watched him fight. Good, let them be afraid, he tought. 

He kept walking until some certain Second Young Master grabbed his forearm. Wei Wuxian was afraid of seeing the same horror in Lan Wangji's eyes too, not that he could admit it to himself. Because he couldn't admit it, he stared right through his eyes and shook his arm off. 

"Lan Wangji, what do you think you're doing?"

Lan Wangji's eyes narrowed at Wei Wuxian. No one could read his expression at that moment.

"You've lost control again." 

Wei Wuxian tried to get past him but Lan Wangji didn't let him. He again grabbed his forearm and stared straight into Wei Wuxian's darkened orbs, "It will corrupt your mind."

Wei Wuxian scoffed, "Second Young Master Lan, is that what you think of me? After everything we've been through you're still like this. Who do you think you are?"

Something inside of Lan Wangji curred, "Wei Wuxian!"

"Lan Wangji!"

After some silent starings at each other's eyes Wei Wuxian started again, "You're like this. Even after we fought together, you can't stay put can you? My mind is my mind to think of! I don't need your disdain!" 

Lan Wangji, "Demonic cultivation harms body and mind, it is not open to discussion."

Wei Wuxian, "I know myself best!"

Lan Wangji, "You lose control!"

"It’s none of your business!"

Lan Wangji, "Come back with me."

Wei Wuxian, "We won't discuss it again." 

Wei Wuxian walked straight into his side in the camp, leaving Lan Wangji behind. He tried not to halt when he saw the eyepatched man watching him from between the trees. He couldn't see much of his face but he saw his tall figure. Wei Wuxian huffed and choose to ignore him. He was probably one of the thousand soldiers who were scared of him.

Now was alone Lan Wangji, his chest slowly coming up and down. After some moment, he too walked towards his tent. It was near Wei Wuxian's, much to everyone's discomfort.

Who knew it was Lan Wangji who had requested it to be placed like that in the first place! 

One night during a fight when Lan Zhan was in a different corner of the battlefield, Wei Wuxian noticed something strange in the crowds attacking them - other than the butterfly that always choose to fly near him. There was a shrill scream which Wei Wuxian couldn’t pinpoint whose it had been. He searched the source with his narrowed eyes.

There was a twenty something man who was trapped in the middle of Wei Wuxian’s ghouls. The shrill scream came from man’s chest. It sounded like it belonged to a hurt animal.

Wei Wuxian was controlling his corpses with the same melody the whole evening. Because of that he wasn’t able to stop specific ghouls- so he stopped all of them. Everyone from the two sides were momentarily shocked, had the Commander of the Dead suddenly lost his power?

Wei Wuxian ran through the crowd of dead and reached the man who was on his knees now, hugging the bundle in his chest. No one could see Wei Wuxian and the man due to the crowd of motionless standing corpses.

After the man saw who has come, he immediately put his hand on the bundle and stopped it’s scream. Wei Wuxian looked carefully at it and noticed it right away, there was a baby in the man’s chest. The man closed his eyelids and muttered inunderstandable things, his hand still on the baby’s face. A cold shrill ran down of Wei Wuxian’s spine. The man was choking his baby!

The young man immeadiately shove the man’s hand away with his horrified eyes. He gave one look at the soldier’s white and red robes and took off his outer robe at once. Swallowing, he circled the man with his black outer robe and pushed him down on earth. “Lie here, I won’t hurt you if you lie here.”

The man still held onto his baby, too afraid to look at Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian repeated again, “Gave her to me and lie here. I won’t hurt you, I swear on my life.”

He took the baby from man’s shaking hands and put her little bundle inside of his own robes. Then he put Chenqing on his lips again and this time played a softer tune, something suitible for her tiny ears. Wei Wuxian knew that if he didn’t play and kill until the Wens retreated then the same amount of men would die from their side. Wens were more crowded and they fought with them.

Nevertheless at that moment everything around him made the least meaning.

After the fight was over, he picked the shaking man up and held him still. Acting if he was helping someone from their side, he rushed the man to the nearest forest that was close to the city the Sunshot Campaign cultivators reserved and gave the bundle back to him.

“Don’t run away, I’ll come back alright? Don’t run away, don’t hurt her. I won’t hurt you, I’ll come back!”

Wei Wuxian returned to the camp and took all his money present and his portion of food and the jar of soup his shijie put on his tent and placed them all in a bag. When he came back the man was in no sight.

That night he walked for hours, searching for the little bundle, afraid the man would collapse before reaching a town or the pair would starve to death. At last, he found them miles away where they were left. He stopped them on their track and shoved the bag to the man’s hands,

“Don’t ever fight again. Forget what your surname is, please.”

The man stared at him, shakingly nodding time after time, his chest moving too fast. Eventually he found the power to turn back to where he was headed and he quickly went away with his still shaking legs.

Butterflies followed Wei Wuxian back.

Wei Wuxian saw the eyepatched man's figure for weeks. When he appeared, he was hiding somewhere and watching Wei Wuxian move, eat, fight and talk. At this point, Wei Wuxian knew that the man was neither an ordinary soldier nor he was an ordinary corpse. He appeared out of nowhere everytime Wei Wuxian played something so strong yet he didn't look like a corpse.

Ever since his first sight, silver butterflies started appearing in the campsite too. When the man didn't follow him then a butterfly never left Wei Wuxian alone. Even when he was bathing! Ghosh, thought Wei Wuxian.

Sometimes they appeared in the meeting tent. When sect leaders were frustratedly discussing, a silver butterfly sat on top of Wei Wuxian's shoulder and emphasized the gray of Wei Wuxian's eyes which shone as a clear silver. At those times, the young man looked so much like a ghost, but an elegant one indeed. He also had toned muscles yet his built was tall and slender and even graceful. His face was sharp when he frowned but soft when he smiled, yet understandably his smile was a rare sight in the days of war.

There were other butterflies too, following people everywhere they go, as if collecting information. 

But butterflies couldn't collect information, right? 

Wei Wuxian doubted it was the case. After three weeks of the man’s first appearence he finally found the time and energy to go through with this strange nuisance. At night, when the moon was highest and the brightest in the sky, Wei Wuxian stepped onto the forest with his robes flowing with a cool breeze. His eyes were determined to take something down tonight. He lifted his flute and started to play a wild tune, something even wilder than himself but that kept the elegance and soul of those beautiful silver butterflies. 

After the song ended Wei Wuxian coldly uttered, "Come out."

No one came. 

"I know you're here, come out."

Am I mad already? Was Lan Zhan right? I...I really...I lost control? Is this a hallucination from Burial Mounds?

He halted on his steps and exasperatedly sighed; just when he was about to go back, he heard a deep voice.

"Is this new? The song you played?"

Wei Wuxian immediately turned towards where the voice came and inspected its owner.

There stood a tall man, even taller than Wei Wuxian and mind you Wei Wuxian was pretty tall already!. He wore red embroidered robes and a delicate black sash. His hair was neatly braided and placed on his one shoulder.  

The man walked a step or two when Wei Wuxian suddenly woke up to the voice coming from the man's boots. His boots had decorative thin metal chains, tittering everytime the man walked. They looked like something only a rebellious teenager would wear.

His face had fair but sharp features. His one eye had an eyepatch.

The man chuckled lightly, "Am I that nice looking that you can't even answer my question?" 

Wei Wuxian narrowed his eyes at that and spoke in a low voice, "What song?"

The man tilted his head to a side, "That song you've played. I've never heard it before."

Wei Wuxian, "Who are you? Why do you follow me?"

The man grinned this time, "So you’ve wrote it for me? I must be asking you, why do you summon me?"

Wei Wuxian didn't answer his questions, so the man continued. "No one is able to summon me yet you can; sometimes you even come to the verge of controlling me, as if you can. Who are you?"

Wei Wuxian, "I've never tried to summon you. Who are you?"

The man, "You control the dead yet you really don't recognise me?"  He laughed as if he was amused, "You don't even know me and you dare to control me?"

Wei Wuxian lifted his one eyebrow, "If you're not being controlled then why do you follow me?"

A chuckle came again, "Nothing, just boredom. I'm a fellow cultivator just like you."

He winked an eye and approached Wei Wuxian.

In that silent night, Wei Wuxian didn't sense any killing intent so he didn't move either. 

The man came and put his one hand on Wei Wuxian's eyes for a second.

When Wei Wuxian opened his eyes he saw a person around his age -maybe a bit older, just slightly taller than him. That person did not wear any eyepatch and his features were smoother. "Mind if I trail along?"

He was just about to refuse until the man put his hand on his back. Wei Wuxian's jolts were suddenly awakened with a fresh sensation, he no longer felt tired. The man was giving him an enormous amount of spiritual energy!

The man winked at him again and led the way.

Wei Wuxian, "Who are you?"

"I told you, I'm a ghost and you summoned me into your world. Now I pray our corpse-controller here will let me stay until I find a way to return."

"You're from another world?"

The man blinked.

"You're a shape-shifter?"

"I'm a ghost."

"How long have you been a ghost?"

The man - no the young man now- looked at Wei Wuxian from the corner of his eye. "Longer than you can think of."

Wei Wuxian, "Why can't you go back to your own world?"

The young man winked at him again, "I was kicked out of my house." 

Wei Wuxian tilted his head back, "You really have something wrong with your eye, don't you?"

The forest road ended quickly and the two arrived at the entrance of Wei Wuxian's tent. The man didn’t hesitate to come in and throw himself onto the bed with his arms linked back at his head and a grin on his face.

"You haven't asked my name." He said almost sheepishly.

"You haven't asked mine either." Wei Wuxian stared at the man fully laid on his bed. A while passed and the man did not answer back.

Wei Wuxian, "..."

"...What should I call you?"

"Hmm…I go by different names yet since you’re so talented to summon me here then you can call me by my name, Hong-Hong-er? How is it?”

Wei Wuxian frowned. Was this some sort of a joke? This man was even more shameless than him!

The man laughed for a bit and again winked at Wei Wuxian! “You can call me Hua Cheng.”

"Hua Cheng..." Wei Wuxian whispered the name repeatedly as if to remind himself. He nodded and answered back, "Wei Wuxian..."

"Whatever you do, don't interrupt me; I have enough on my plate, alright? I didn't summon you willingly. When I have time I'll look into it." 

Hua Cheng merely smiled and slowly nodded.

That way Hua Cheng started staying with Wei Wuxian in his tent. Wei Wuxian didn’t doubted him being a soldier of the Wens since the man was clearly dead and a stranger to the cultivation world but he didn’t bring him to the strategy meetings either. Hua Cheng could easily use his butterflies anyway. It was for good that Wei Wuxian was keeping him close. When Jiang Cheng asked who he was, Wei Wuxian answered as such: he is the son of my parents’ old friends. He needs a place to stay.

Why does he stay with you? If he wants to stay he has to fight!

Hua Cheng merely grinned at Jiang Cheng, “If Wei Wuxian fights I’ll also have to fight, don’t I?” He turned back to look at Wei Wuxian.

Wei Wuxian nodded at that claim although he knew he couldn’t control Hua Cheng. After that Jiang Cheng left puffing and muttering something like: you’ll share your rice with him, we don’t need another mouth to feed!

Wei Wuxian returned to his guest, “I don’t have another mat.”

Hua Cheng didn’t reply. Even if his looks are mesmerizing he has an annoying aura around him, thought Wei Wuxian. Sighing he went out and came back with a spare mat. The entire time Wei Wuxian prepared their beddings Hua Cheng merely stared at him with his one hand on his chin and with an odd look in his eyes.

Wei Wuxian, “You’re not gonna get off of my mat?”

Hua Cheng, “Since you clearly control corpses you should make me, yes?”

Wei Wuxian, “Hmphf! It’s the same anyway…”

A short time passed. Wei Wuxian soon fell asleep after a day of hardships and blood. But his eyelids were strained, his entire body was way more stiff than a normal sleeping person. Hua Cheng lifted his one hand towards Wei Wuxian’s back, hesitating, his hand fell back. Then he lifted it again and put it on the boy’s back. After Hua Cheng gave him spiritual energy Wei Wuxian’s muscles finally relaxed and the frown on his face dissipated.

Finally, that’s how he looks when he is at peace, huh?

The next day, Wei Wuxian returned to the battlefield with his new ‘old friend’ in tow. People looked with awe at the new person who neither seemed horrified nor angered with Wei Wuxian, instead, the man had the guts to look amused! That meant only one thing, he was probably even scarier than him!

When the two arrived Lan Wangji was already there, when he saw Hua Cheng walking besides Wei Wuxian, standing way too near, he couldn’t help but tighten his grip on Bichen. He greeted Wei Wuxian with a nodd, “Wei Ying.”

“Lan Zhan.”

Wei Wuxian pointed at Hua Cheng with his head, “An old acquintance, Hua Cheng.”

When Lan Wangji didn’t introduce himself Wei Wuxian spoke for him too, “Second Young Master Lan, Lan Wangji.”

Two men, Hua Cheng and Lan Wangji stared at each other for a second and then they both gave stiff nods. Pleased, Wei Wuxian walked to the fronts and waited to start the attack. His newly digged fierce corpses laid before him. He clapped his hands, “Wake up.”

Hua Cheng watched the whole order from afar with a curious glance. He looked carefree as if he wasn’t going to enter a way too dangerous fight. His arms were clasped in his chest and his one hand was in his chin. He said to himself, “Amazing.”

Lan Wangji stared at him, narrowing his eyes as if to see right through his intentions.

Soon the fight started and Hanguang Jun ran through the Wen soldiers with Bichen, never leaving a certain radius from Wei Wuxian.

Hua Cheng clicked his tongue and stood with the flute playing Wei Wuxian. Half an hour later even Wei Wuxian was surprised at his lack of movement. The man seemed so intimidating yet he didn’t attack anyone! “Won’t you help?” Wei Wuxian blurted.

Hua Cheng smiled at him, “If the Ghost controller wishes so.”

He went straight into the circle of corpses and the corpses stood back to open Hua Cheng a path! If anyone asked, Wei Wuxian could’ve sweared that he didn’t command them to do that!

With his scimitar Hua Cheng ruthlessly started to kill Wen soldiers, yet something was amiss, he only killed those who aimed at Wei Wuxian and tried to break through the corpse barrier! Soldiers soon gathered around him but he effortlessly killed the ones who came down on him too!

Wei Wuxian’s eyes widened seeing Hua Cheng kill effortlessly. His cultivation must be really high. How can a man with that much resentful energy have this high cultivation? He really is strong.

He gathered his thoughts at once and continued controlling the corpses.

Days passed like that. Hua Cheng killed the ones who aimed at Wei Wuxian and Wei Wuxian easily got used to that order. But with the arrival of Hua Cheng, Lan Wangji’s calls for Wei Wuxian to take him back to Gusu was amplified. They still fought the same, all around the battlefield people saw them as oil and water.

One night, laying on their mats next to each other Wei Wuxian asked his new friend, “Hua Cheng, you’re like me too, aren’t you? You’re here because you have a lingering resentment. I have my resentments too. Just because my methods are different does that mean I’m condemned to lose control? Everyone around me kill people, everyone seem to fume with anger yet Lan Zhan only ever sees my wrongs. Even after I told him for times that I could control it, he doesn’t trust me. Do you believe it too…that at some point I’ll become someone who enjoys killing? That I’m already drunk with its wildness? Is something wrong with me? Why do I have this side of me enjoying the brutality of my actions?”

Wei Wuxian clenched his fists. In his heart was a bunch of heavy knots that he didn’t dare open.

Hua Cheng was thoughtful. Maybe a minute had passed, Wei Wuxian thought he wouldn’t answer. He turned his back to Hua Cheng; his hands, clasped together below his head. He closed his eyes, yet Hua Cheng answered,

“If you were in my world, people would’ve built shrines for you.”

A second passed again.

Hua Cheng, “If you need anyone to trust you, then I’ll trust and tell you; you’re not gonna lose control. Even if you lose control it won’t be because of you.”

Wei Wuxian’s lips had parted, he gasped. His heart beat a bit too fast like the times he used to tease Lan Zhan. He swallowed and shut his eyes again. “You don’t even know me.”

The other man slowly answered, “I know you enough.”

Hua Cheng didn’t need to give Wei Wuxian any spiritual energy that night.

Hua Cheng was stuck together with him because he couldn’t return to his own world, Wei Wuxian knew that. Yet to think that Hua Cheng stayed with him despite being able to leave the war, use a jewelry to live his days off till he left; Wei Wuxian felt a certain warmness he didn’t dare feel since Burial Mounds – maybe even ever since his childhood. All because a man choose to stay with him.

The night after Wei Wuxian got into a fight with Jin Zixuan for making his shijie cry, Hua Cheng approached Wei Wuxian with two jars of wine and sat with him on a tree branch watching the night sky and listening to the bugs making sounds.

Wei Wuxian’s shoulders were slumped. He had gotten into a discussion with Lan Wangji later that day. Lan Wangji had asked him, “Wei Ying, don’t you see that?”

Wei Wuxian had answered, “I only see my shijie cry.”

“Demonic cultivation harms temparament.”

Wei Wuxian, “I can control it and it has nothing to do with my temparament!”

Although they didn’t shout this time, it made Wei Wuxian sad that the same man he once thought as his equal and someone he could trust to the utmost, didn’t trust him.

He’d already drunk big amounts of liquor so he was very much lightheaded. When he noticed Hua Cheng approach, he asked giggling, “How old are you really? Pffff ahahah you should live in a mountain.”

Hua Cheng smiled and lifted an eyebrow, “I’m eight hundred years old.”

Wei Wuxian, “You’re ancient. So old! Must I call you gege then? Uncle? Big elder uncle? Pffffff.”

Hua Cheng shook his head, “You’re the first person to think of me as an old uncle but I prefer Gege if you allow me.”

Wei Wuxian halted at once and turned his gaze to Hua Cheng. He held Hua Cheng’s face with his hands, “Who are you really?”

Hua Cheng was frozen, his pupils had grown.

Wei Wuxian got off from his questions after nearly a minute, still holding Hua Cheng’s face he laughed, “Gege…gege, gege, gege! Can I play with your scimitar? He winks at me a lot more often than you do! He is the cutest weapon I’ve seen in my life! E-ming, Ming-er, Ming Ming will you let me hug you hmm?”

E-ming’s eye started to turn frantically! Hua Cheng slapped its tilt and frowned at it, “You, behave!”

As if to prove that he’d behave E-ming fluttered its eye, still turning fastly. Hua Cheng placed E’ming in Wei Wuxian’s hands and placed the boy’s arms around the scimitar. “Here you go.”

Wei Wuxian caressed E-ming’s hilt for a bit then he leaned his head on it and fell asleep.

Hua Cheng carried him back.

After the Sunshot Campaign Wei Wuxian helped Jiang Cheng rebuild Lotus Pier and things went normal for a while. He searched to find Hua Cheng a way back.

The time Lan Wangji visited Wei Wuxian in Yunmeng, Hua Cheng was in no sight. He was trying real hard to not interfere their relationship. But whenever they met a silver butterfly watched them from afar. Those times Hua Cheng had a frown on his face too.

Wei Wuxian seemed to reconciliate with his old friend. He always talked about him well yet they often parted on bad terms.

There was a hunt in Phoenix Mountain organised by the Jin Clan. Although his carefree manner got on nerves of the others no one objected Hua Cheng’s participance on the hunt yet he chose to stay afar and watch the competents. Everyone had heard of his talents in the Sunshot Campaign, people thought him a loyal friend, someone who wasn’t afraid of Wei Wuxian.

Things happened as the way they would happen without Hua Cheng but this time Hua Cheng too arrived when he saw the sword flares of Jin and Lan Sect. Bichen was unsheated to protect Wei Wuxian.

A butterfly stood on Hua Cheng’s shoulder, his glare was piercing everyone on the field especially Jin Zixun and Lan Wangji. Jin Zixun muttered something about the prey. Lan Wangji asked with impulse, “One third of the prey?...” Things escalated quickly and Maiden Jiang stood up for Wei Wuxian and demanded Jin Zixun to apologize.

Jin Zixun was speaking as Jin Guangyao kept his head low, “One-third of all of the prey in the entire Phoenix Mountain is gone. What are the five thousand people here going to hunt for?!” He used the chance to muddle through the matter of apologizing Wei Wuxian.

As he was about to continue Hua Cheng cut his words, “You speak as the world has come to an end. Maiden Jiang clearly told you that it was your incompetence. Moreover Sect Leader Nie himself killed the half of fays and monsters as well, isn’it right Mr. Jin Guangyao? So why don’t you go yell at him too?”

Hua Cheng talked with the slightest care in the world, he was grinning, his arms were crossed in his chest “If you really find yourself incapable then you shouldn’t make excuses. If you want attention then just say so, don’t make a scene…”

“…and one more thing, you judge like the most orthodox of us all, but here stands Young Masters Lan yet they don’t say anything. Don’t you think you’re quite an impertinent? Young Master please feel free to come to me so that I can help you with hunting if that’s what you need, whenever you wish. I can take you to Sect Leader Nie too, if you also want to confront him. The hunt is almost about to finish, hurry up I’ll take you.”

He blinked his eyes and gave Jin Zixun his sincerest smile. Jin Zixun was shaking from anger. He opened and closed his mouth for times, not knowing what to say. His face was completely red! “…This…this…I!...”

E-ming’s red eye was looking straight into Jin Zixun’s eyes. Even though Jin Zixun hadn’t seen Yiling Patriarch fight before and thus he wasn’t afraid of him as the others, he had met Hua Cheng one time before Phoenix Mountain. What a coincidence, that day was too after he’d spoken ill of Wei Wuxian! Hua Cheng was a hard man to forget – especially when he was threatening, which was basically almost all the time!

Jin Zixun, “I… Mr. Crimson Rain… This one… We’ll take our leaves…”

Other voices murmured in the air, “Crimson Rain?” “What the hell is Crimson Rain?” “Haven’t heard of it before!”

Hua Cheng, “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

Jin Zixun, “I…I…a-…pologize…”

He and his friends mounted his swords and left without further word. Jin Guangyao was speechless. Wei Wuxian stared at Hua Cheng with lifted eyebrows. Hua Cheng merely shrugged, “I’ve offered my help yet he declined, what a pity.”

Wei Wuxian turned to Madam Jin with a newly glint in his eyes, “Madam Jin, let us take our leaves.”

After Jin Zixuan stopped them and told that he liked Maiden Jiang, the trio; Jiang Yanli, Wei Wuxian and Hua Cheng left anyway. Hua Cheng seemed to listen something far away, some young Sect Leader Jiang was eavesdropping to a rumorous talk about his shixiong. Crimson Rain’s fists were clenched.

Lan Wangji seemed thoughtful too. After a moment he went to help his brother and Jin Guangyao to bring new hunts to the field.

The same day, after the hunt Wei Wuxian explained Hua Cheng that he had found a way to send him back! Wei Wuxian painted the array with his own blood, it was inspired by the distance shortening arrays Hua Cheng had told him about. Only matter was that the array was a one way solution and required a lot of spiritual energy.

Hua Cheng stood in the middle of the array, he stared straight at Wei Wuxian’s eyes.

Wei Wuxian’s face was down but he was still trying to smile, “Hua Cheng…”

“…Gege…take care.”

Hua Cheng parted his lips.

Wei Wuxian, “E-ming you take care too. Don’t let your master slap you casually, hahahah!”

Hua Cheng spoke with a low voice, “Wei Ying…”

“…I’ll come back.”

He swallowed and hurried to find something on his body. After he found what he was looking for he stretched out a red string and circled it on Wei Wuxian’s pinky finger.

“I’ll come back with this, alright? If you don’t want me to come then you may take it off. As long as you wear it I’ll find you…”

 He clasped his fingers then the red string suddenly disappeared!

Wei Wuxian was too afraid to ask, what happened to it? Was it that Hua Cheng wouldn’t be able to find him anymore?

The Calamity slowly dissipated.

Wei Wuxian was left staring at the blank space Hua Cheng had once invaded.

Afterwards, things have escalated rather quickly. One day in Yunmeng Wei Wuxian found Wen Qing and the other day he was with the Wen Remnants in Burial Mounds. He defected from the Jiang sect, took care of A-Yuan and met Lan Wangji in Yiling who brought him the news of his sister’s wedding.

Lan Wangji didn’t stay for dinner that night though.

Wei Wuxian was helping the Wens with farming when everyone suddenly stopped in their tracks. They were all staring behind Wei Wuxian with the widest eyes. A-Yuan was also surprised, he exclaimed, “Xian-gege, Xian-gege! Look!”

Wei Wuxian turned his back to get a look at the person who dared and was able to break through his wards. Shock reached his eyes at once.

“Hua Cheng!”

Hua Cheng stood in Burial Mounds, more handsome than ever – as usual. His robes were no longer the spare black robes Wei Wuxian gave him – although he looked incredible in black. He wore maple-crimson robes and delicate ornaments. His hair was beatifully braided with red marbles. His black inner robes could be seen behind his gorgeus outwear.

Only, there were two differences between this person and the Hua Cheng Wei Wuxian saw for the first time. In this Hua Cheng’s wrist was tied a red ribbon. Was it the ribbon Wei Wuxian had lost? He couldn’t have taken it, could he? Was he wearing it all the time? And this Hua Cheng had a red string tied around his finger. Wei Wuxian followed the red string’s tip only to find out that in his pinky was a gleaming string too!

Hua Cheng stepped towards Wei Wuxian only to stop at once. He was looking down, his behavior indicated a uncharacteristic inconfidence. Yet Wei Wuxian was beaming with happines to see his immortal friend again but not in front of these elders for some reason. He tugged Hua Cheng’s sleeves to take him to his Demon Subduing Cave. “We have a visitor! Hahah Wen Qing I’ve told you we should’ve bought some tea!”

Hua Cheng’s lips twitched in an embarassed attempt to laugh.

Wei Wuxian eventually took him into his cave. Now Hua Cheng could say what was bothering him and how he came back.

Hua Cheng laughed nervously, “I’ve gone for what, a month and look what happened.”

Wei Wuxian giggled.

Hua Cheng, “A-Xian…”

Hua Cheng had a dark expression. He didn’t dare look at Wei Wuxian’s eyes.

“Wei Ying, I wasn’t there with you. I don’t deserve to be here. I apologize for not being with you when you needed me the most. I understand if you don’t want to see me anymore…that’s okay…I…”

Wei Wuxian frowned, “What are you apologizing for? You didn’t have such a responsibility, why are you sorry?”

Hua Cheng, “I couldn’t keep my promise sooner, I failed you.”

Wei Wuxian, “After you’ve helped me for months, stood for me whenever I needed, how can you ever fail me? It is me who didn’t give you anything at all, is it not?”

Hua Cheng, “You don’t need to give me anything.”

Wei Wuxian, “But I want to.”

This time Hua Cheng looked up at Wei Wuxian, he spoke without taking his eyes off, “Your shidi declared you the enemy of the cultivation world, people constantly accuse you for ridiculous things. I’m not worthy for I allowed things to get this far.”

Wei Wuxian’s brows twitched, “Jiang Cheng did what?!”

Hua Cheng, “Wei Ying. You didn’t know?”

Wei Wuxian was speechless, “…Can you show me?”

After Hua Cheng showed him what he learned from his left butterflies so far, Wei Wuxian shook his head, “It’s not the biggest surprise. That’s fine. Really, alright. It’s okay.”

Hua Cheng swallowed but although he wanted so dearly he didn’t attempt to comfort Wei Wuxian, not when…

Then Wei Wuxian spoke again, “But why are you sorry?! If it’s them who do the bad deeds then why are you apologizing? Gege, all those months… I really missed you!”

“You…?”

“Yes! Did you really think I forgot about you hmm? This Wei Ying missed his Gege too much. What a pity his Gege wasn’t able to come sooner! But he came! And that’s what’s important.”

That night, Hua Cheng stayed for dinner - it wasn’t like he had a place to go in this world either.

He even drank the plain radish soup without a complaint! Then Wei Wuxian decided to bring him into his cave and let him taste the fruit wine of Uncle Four.

Hua Cheng had come back. That meant something to Wei Wuxian, that fact made his stomach flip flop whenever he thought about it. He wanted to become closer to Hua Cheng, maybe learn a few things from his life. What way was there then to be drunk together?

He placed the cups on the floor and signalled Hua Cheng to sit next to him. “Come, come my dear Hua Cheng.”

If Hua Cheng sat down closer than expected, who could say anything to that?

Wei Wuxian, “Well, I must inform you, I, Wei Wuxian, am a heavy drinker. Don’t be sad if I catch you drunk.”

Hua Cheng rolled his sleeves to his elbows to reveal his toned arms while smiling and he blinked, “The Great Yiling Laozu will defeat this poor ghost king with his drinking skills.”

Wei Wuxian stopped once the title ‘ghost king’ was mentioned, he spoke under his breath, “…Gege will play with me?”

Hua Cheng, “What does Wei Ying want to play?”

Wei Wuxian smiled with all his might, “Truth or drink! But we need to be slightly drunk first.”

Hua Cheng tied his hair to his back with a hairpin that came out of nowhere. His long neck was thus also exposed, “I’ll play anything.”

Once decided, they started to drink while staring at each other. Wen Qing’s threat to not let Wei Wuxian drink again was forgotten the moment Wei Wuxian walked into his cave!

Narrowing his eyes Wei Wuxian asked, “Where do you come from?”

Hua Cheng answered after a slight pause, “I was born in the kingdom of XianLe.”

“…My turn, why don’t you demand things?”

Wei Wuxian, “What things?”

Hua Cheng, “The things people are debted to you and the Wens, such as their cores and parents’ corpses or lifetime of friendship.”

Wei Wuxian answered after he digested the fact that Hua Cheng knew about his core, perhaps even from the beginning.

“If they don’t want to pay their debts I won’t force anyone because I know myself best what a debt makes people do. Also I have my fair share of debts too, have I not? Somethings have to come from person’s heart.”

Hua Cheng looked at him with an uneasy heart.

Wei Wuxian, “Aiyah don’t look at me like that. Now it’s my turn. When did you die?”

Hua Cheng, “When I was a mere soldier.”

Wei Wuxian, “Then why did you linger?”

Hua Cheng, “Because I had nothing on this universe.” Turns out what I was looking for was in another, left unsaid.

Wei Wuxian awkwardly laughed, “Have you found what you were looking for then?”

Hua Cheng, “I’ve found it for a long time.”

He has found what he was looking for, for a long time. How long? Wei Wuxian couldn’t ask. His heart made those flip flops again.

Hua Cheng, “Aren’t you asking more than you bargained for? I’ll start asking questions too.”

They asked and answered like this for a while. Wei Wuxian told Hua Cheng things he had never told anyone before: his parents, his childhood, his days in streets, his likes and dislikes. Hua Cheng also told him about his life before and after death: his mother, his days in streets, his gamblers, the ghosts he protected, the city he ruled.

At last it was Wei Wuxian who got fully drunk first or to be accurate who decided to let himself get drunk first. He smiled sheepishly and said, “Gege, I’m finished. I’ve asked everything I wanted.”

His face was way too close to Hua Cheng’s.

Hua Cheng rubbed his own neck, “But I have one last question. It’s about him.”

Wei Wuxian, “Him? Who is that?”

Hua Cheng, “You like him..?”

Wei Wuxian sighed and gazed into Hua Cheng’s eyes, he’d understood at once who Hua Cheng was talking about, “He has his own life. He won’t come back.”

“…But tell me Gege, what have you found since very long?”

Wei Wuxian leaned into Hua Cheng, if anything was to be blamed it was alcohol!

Hua Cheng seemed entirely stiff, “I…” He closed his eyes. “Why do you ask questions you know the answer to?...”

Wei Wuxian while holding himself with his hands on the ground, said, “Because I love the answer.” 

He sent his head up and leaned into a clumsy kiss.

Hua Cheng answered with lots of more eagerness. He was holding himself for a long time. He brushed Wei Wuxian’s clumsiness off with his lips and smiled into his mouth.

Things have drastically changed after that night. Hua Cheng stayed at Burial Mounds.

The confident man got flustered with A-Yuan’s pleas to take the child onto his lap and acted as if he was going to break the child.

He became friends with Wen Qing and Wen Ning, he also prove himself to be very clever.

Heck Wei Wuxian started to think that Hua Cheng didn’t actually need Wei Wuxian’s help to create an array to return in the first place!

He was also ready to take the Wen Remnants and Wei Wuxian to his home, Ghost City he called it, whenever they decided. The thing was: Jiang Yanli was expecting a baby and Wei Wuxian didn’t want to leave before hearing her giving birth in health. Communication butterflies couldn’t be used between worlds and Ghost City didn’t actually sound like a place for mortals. Also, no matter what, the Wens lived their whole lives in this world, within this world’s possibilites. Suddenly migrating to a world with a higher cultivation and far more authorotive kingdoms and not being able to come back at their wish, it was a huge decision.

To Wen Qing’s worries, the Jin Sect actually invited Wei Wuxian to the newborn baby’s one month celebration and then the decision was left after seeing the baby. Wen Qing knew how Wei Wuxian wanted to see his nephew yet she also knew the possible threats.

Wei Wuxian, Wen Ning and Hua Cheng was on their road when an arrow was suddenly thrown at Wei Wuxian. Hua Cheng stopped Wei Wuxian before he could activate Wen Ning’s rampant mode. “You trust me.” He said. Wei Wuxian nodded, frowning.

The Ghost King and the Ghost General started to fend off the arrows that were thrown at them. Situation looked rather easy because Hua Cheng’s butterflies were everywhere, devouring people alive. At some point Jin Zixuan too came into the scene, only to demand Hua Cheng and Wen Ning to stop.

Wei Wuxian knew from the beginning that there was no place for them in the cultivation world anymore. The moment he was declared an enemy of the all sects his chances were lost. If they surrendered themselves then Wei Wuxian would be blamed no matter who the culprit was. He didn’t dare go to Koi Tower.

Hua Cheng was glaring at Jin Zixuan because of his arrogant words when Wei Wuxian spoke,

“Jin Zixuan, tell Shijie that I’ll miss her and that’s the only way. Give this to Jin Ling for me, it’s for protection.”

“…I won’t be around anymore, there is no way back…so… farewell. ” He swallowed the bump in his throat and bowed.

Hua Cheng seemed too stiff for one moment.

Wei Wuxian tugged at his robe and nodded, with the dices thrown the trio disappeared right in front of Jin Zixuan’s eyes!

He had a lot of explaining to do…

-

After their return to the Burial Mounds, sects got flustered with the Yiling Patriarch who killed those Jin disciples. Especially Jin Zixun’s death was a turning point. The masses soon gathered in Koi Tower. The leading force was of course the Jins. The murder which happened on the day of Jin Ling’s one month celebration was unacceptable. Those lives were lost to the Yiling Patriarch’s brutal temper! The same way Jin Zixuan couldn’t protect Wei Wuxian on Qionqi Path, he couldn’t protect him afterwards either.

In the Burial Ground, Wens gathered in the middle of a big array. Hua Cheng asked again, “If we go now, it won’t be easy to return. Finding the frequancy of this universe can take up to months and years. Your decision is surely made?”

Wei Wuxian grinned and kissed him and spoke into his mouth, “Gege, my decision was made long ago.”

Hua Cheng hugged his waist and activated the array.

Wens settled rather easily in Ghost City, they ran errands and lived in a special section of the Paradise Manor’s big gardens. They were free to join the mortal realm too.

In the first days of their arrival, the other Ghosts had looked at them with doubtful eyes but after hearing about their Lord’s marriage in the future, they accepted them as the Lord’s family. Seeing mortals in the Ghost City was a no big deal after all. Uncle Four had opened up a wine shop soon after they moved in. Wei Wuxian was a constant client.

Wen Qing started to study on her medical treaties again. She was eager to learn medicine for dead especially after Wen Ning. Ghost City was filled with dead and the paradise manor was filled with spiritual energy thanks to Hua Cheng. Besides, her brother, Wen Ning, had never felt more at ease ever since he was turned to a fierce corpse. He was surrounded by dead people like him now. He didn’t need to be scared everytime he touched something delicate. Even Hua Cheng, the Lord of the city, was a dead person.

Wei Wuxian and Hua Cheng got married in a grand celebration. Little A-Yuan had followed them the whole wedding. Wei Wuxian smiled at his husband and A-Yuan and oh, he said. We have a little one. Residents of the Ghost City were eager to treat their little heir with the utmost love too!

Years have passed along like this. The first one to ascend was Wen Qing. She ascended one day while she was in her study. She was the first God of the Medicine in Heavenly Realm. She took her little brother as his official. They still lived in Paradise Manor with their family though.

The second to ascend was Wei Wuxian, not long after Wen Qing. He truly did not expect to be sent out of their domestic bliss with his husband while they were having sex, straight into the heavenly realm. He had scratched his chin and asked all the heavenly officials there, what direction was his home at, until Ling Wen, the head of the literature Gods had come and explained that he had indeed ascended.

Wei Wuxian didn’t have big prejudices about this realm but he did know that Hua Cheng didn’t like most of the heavenly officials. Besides his cultivation was on resentful energy, not spiritual energy. He hadn’t got a golden core afterall.

Ling Wen took all of this information pretty quickly and offered him another precious fact, “Young Master, you haven’t ascended as a martial God, you are the God of Death. You’ll have missions and prayers from now on, congratilations.”

Wei Wuxian had fallen silent and digested this knowledge. Then Ling Wen had asked him, what is your name?

Wei Ying, courtesy Wuxian, he had answered.

Ling Wen’s eyes were widened for some reason after hearing that. “You are the husband of Crimson Rain Sought Flower?!”

Wei Wuxian had soon descended straight into Ghost City and didn’t need to explain Hua Cheng anything. Hua Cheng had merely shrugged his shoulders and said, I told you that people would’ve built shrines for you. You’re an immortal now, too bad I don’t need to devour you with spiritual energy to make you an immortal myself.

Wei Wuxian had laughed awkwardly and let his husband devour him with spiritual energy anyway!