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English
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Part 6 of Love Resembles Memories
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Guardian Bingo
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Published:
2022-12-28
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3,533
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1/1
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A Dream World Field Day

Summary:

“Look team, we don’t need to answer this one: we have a pretty good lead, we garnered a lot of head-start that will probably last us through the next round, so we can take a breather. We don’t have to get it right,” he said, trying to sound like a calm, self-confident leader and not like a guy who would rather die again than give that rat Cong Bo the satisfaction of beating him.
---
Fill for 'Shadow Blitz' prompt in Guardian Bingo

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Work Text:

“I hate you,” Chu Shuzhi muttered, conversationally, and frankly, Zhao Yunlan couldn’t even disagree. He was practically dead on his feet already and it was just the first challenge. It was really hard to decide whether the relay race was the worst or the best idea, considering the Kings of Hell were its creators, but it certainly managed to get the job done – everyone was tired and miserable, with some of the contestants like Xiao Guo and Lin Jing lying on the grass, making their best ‘fresh corpses’ impression.

The wonderfully picturesque meadow where the whole event took place was, of course, just an illusion, since Hell was far from the most pleasant location, but it still somehow retained its hellish quality – there was something deeply upsetting about coughing one’s lungs out while the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and the weather was just perfect for sunbathing. Being forced to run almost literally for your life in such conditions was perfectly evil.

“We…Were,” Zhu Hong rasped out, bowed over and supporting herself with her hands on her knees, clearly unable to stand straight, and really, Zhao Yunlan could relate. Zhu Hong took a long breath and continued:”… Chased. By beasts,” she added, as if trying to process that.

“I think the beasts were meant to be a motivation to give your best.” Even as he was saying that, he knew it was not a satisfying explanation – Xiao Guo had almost fainted: if it wasn’t for Chu Shuzhi’s violent threats thrown his way, the poor kid would have been probably mauled. Which would be a shame since he technically wasn’t dead yet.

Still it was either that, or the Kings had decided they had too many employees this year.

Zhu Hong and Chu Shuzhi gave Zhao Yunlan twin glares of ultimate disapproval, and really, it was fair. This was, well, hell.

Zhao Yunlan decided to not care about his own image and collapsed on the grass too, looking up at the fake sun shining mockingly right into his face. Four more challenges to go. Whoever let the Kings of Hell have the access to television should be sent down to the punishment chambers immediately, it was clearly their fault.

“You team has done quite well,” said a dark shape suddenly covering Zhao Yunlan’s field of vision.

Only one person could manage looking both menacing and rested in these circumstances, and they deserved a nice smile.

“Your Lordship!” Zhao Yunlan greeted, not getting up from his sprawl. He did raise his hand to wave at the Ghostlayer though, to show that he cared.

The black hood was covering the Ghostslayer’s expression entirely, an unusual shroud of darkness hiding his face, but Zhao Yunlan had years of experience in reading the entity’s various moods.

Now, the Ghostslayer was amused.

Well, at least their suffering was good for something.

There was a shuffle around him that suggested that Chu Shuzhi and Zhu Hong tried to stand to attention in the Ghostslayer’s presence, but frankly, it was all for nothing – the man’s attention was solely where it was supposed to be: namely on Zhao Yunlan.

“Indeed. Our human recruits have done exceptionally well,” Yunlan replied. Somewhere to his left there was an appreciative groan that sounded like Lin Jing.

“I only hope you continue to overcome the challenges just as swiftly.” Though the words seemed nothing special, there was a curious undertone to them, a meaning just for Zhao Yunlan, received clearly and loudly – the Ghostslayer wanted them to win. He wanted him to win because the question Yunlan wanted to ask? The Ghostslayer wanted to answer it.

Invigorated by the thought, Zhao Yunlan jumped to his feet, turning to face the Enforcer of Hell with his usual grin.

“I can promise you, we got it in the bag!”

The look he received from the Ghostslayer was definitely fond, Zhao Yunlan felt it in his bones.

But the undercurrent of amusement worried him.

--

“That would be 81 episodes in total!” Lin Jing replied, earning himself a glare from the Judiciar.

Well, if there was one thing their newest semi-hire was good at, it was useless bits of knowledge.

Though it came as a surprise to Zhao Yunlan, who himself wasn’t half as bad with pop culture, unlike Lao Chu whose cultural knowledge probably stopped in Ming dynasty or so, Lin Jing just knew things. He was an expert in the most obscure TV shows the Judges of Hell had incorporated into their Hellish Quiz Game, and now even the last team in the running, the Accounting was sweating and muttering curses under their breaths.

It was a wonderful thinking on Zhao Yunlan's part to invite Lin Jing - the student was good enough to make the Accounting look stupid. If he was actually working for the Guardian Lantern, Zhao Yunlan would grant him a bonus or something.

“That is… correct,” the Judiciar admitted, clearly unhappy at his own words.

The Accounting team collectively groaned.

Feeling a bit cheeky, Zhao Yunlan waved happily at Cong Bo and just as he expected, he got a look that would have killed a lesser man. Well, if said lesser man hadn’t been dead already.

“One, final question!” The Judiciar announced, and Zhao Yunlan’s attention snapped to him. The Judiciar had never seen a fair fight that he liked, and he had a clear preference for the Accounting team, if only because it had no Zhao Yunlan in their midst, so whatever the next question was, it wouldn’t be anything good.

Well, second place in this round would still give them lots of points, wouldn’t it? So they could, technically afford to lose that one.  

Zhao Yunlan just didn’t want to.

He turned to look at his team – Lin Jing was staring at the Judiciar, ready to jump to his own button and shout the answer, but the rest of them… The rest of them looked pissed off in varying degrees. There was Xiao Guo, who looked simply sad, Zhu Hong who was clearly annoyed at the fact that she was of no help whatsoever, and Chu Shuzhi who looked ready to strangle the first person that asked him any question. Well, Zhao Yunlan had worked with worse. Probably.

“Look team, we don’t need to answer this one: we have a pretty good lead, we garnered a nice head-start that will probably last us through the next round, so we can take a breather. We don’t have to get it right,” he said, trying to sound like a calm, self-confident leader and not like a guy who would rather die again than give that rat Cong Bo the satisfaction of beating his team. Ever since they’ve run into each other on a case and came out with very different ideas about what uncovering the truth meant, Zhao Yunlan was determined to make the man’s afterlife as miserable as possible without garnering too much attention from the Kings. This was the perfect moment.

The rest of the teams that got eliminated were now lazing around on the grass, in clear view of the stands for the audiences. The whole structure reminded Zhao Yunlan of all the imperial celebrations he’s seen in the TV dramas, with the stands for the courtiers and them, mere peasants down on the ground, brought here to entertain them.

“But..?” Chu Shuzhi prompted, and yeah, he might know Zhao Yunlan a bit too well at this point. He even crossed his arms in that annoyed manner that implied that whatever the answer would be, he was determined not to like it.

“But I would like is to try – don’t fret about it, don’t panic. It’s totally fine if you don’t know. But if any of you do, or think that you do, I want you to touch that button and try. Alright?” His motivational speech was met with blank stares.

“I think you are losing your touch, Lao Zhao,” came a voice from the ground, and Zhao Yunlan didn’t have to look down to recognize Da Qing. The fat cat nuzzled at his trousers, more out of spite than affection – he loved leaving his fur on Zhao Yunlan’s clothing at any opportunity.

“Oh? And what are you doing here, oh mighty cat, so away from your safe seat at the jury’s table? Have you come here to check if we are not cheating?”

Da Qing flicked his tail at him and said nothing, trotting towards Xiao Guo. As the messenger of Hell, the demon cat had some privileges, though what exactly and how did he earn them, Yunlan didn’t know. In their long friendship that mostly consisted of banter and food-stealing, it became noticeable very soon that the cat had very poor memory and even poorer attention span. How he got chosen as the jury in this competition was beyond Zhao Yunlan’s understanding.

“The Judiciar is very clearly supporting the Accountants. I’ve come to show you my support,” Da Qing replied regally, not turning to face Zhao Yunlan. His chosen audience in the person of Guo Changcheng made a face that suggested that he was deeply touched by this favouritism.

“You’ve heard the cat – with him in our camp, we cannot just lose!” Zhao Yunlan exclaimed and this time, his teammates did look somehow more ready for the question.

Sure, give people a cat and suddenly they are motivated. Ungrateful lot, all of them.

On his small podium, the Judiciar cleared his throat.

“One, final question, that will determine the winners of this round!” he exclaimed, and as if to show how little the audiences cared for his hosting skills, the stands erupted in applause and cheers before he finished talking.

If Zhao Yunlan could, he would be there too, laughing at the Judiciar and probably making eyes at the Ghostslayer, but one couldn’t have everything. Well, maybe after they won…

“What is the name of the 1980’s drama with Yun-Fat Chow, where he plays a young student that gets caught up in gang’s business?” The Judiciar asked, and silence fell over the stands and both teams.

Zhao Yunlan knew this. He’s seen episodes of this series, who hasn’t? But what was its name?

Next to him Lin Jing groaned in frustration.

Looking up, Yunlan met Zhu Hong’s panicked gaze. She knew the series too, she could probably picture it, the scenes from it, the main pair, but the title…

A buzzer interrupted the silence and everyone turned to stare at Xiao Guo, who seemed shocked by his own daring, his hand govering over the red buzzer on the white table Lin jing had previously occupied.

“Shanghai Beach,” the boy stammered, looking around fearfully, as if expecting to be exterminated on the spot if the answer was incorrect.

The Judiciar’s face morphed into a grimace of disappointment.

“That is… correct,” the man said sullenly, and for a moment, the whole place was filled with loud cheers coming from all the directions – the stands, other teams, even Lao Chu – everyone was screaming in excitement. Poor Guo Changcheng looked ready to faint.

Zhao Yunlan and Zhu Hong reached him at the same time, patting his arms and supporting him as gently as they could, because the kid was a bit out of it, dazed with his own success. The Accounting team was crying angrily, which was music to Zhao Yunlan's ears, but he decided to be a bigger man and look after Xiao Guo first.

“How did you know!?” Da Qing exclaimed, jumping onto Zhao Yunlan’s shoulder to be on Xiao Guo’s eye level, not caring about the claws that were tearing into Yunlan’s jacket. The bastard could at least lose some weight if he wanted to use Yunlan as his personal transport.

Guo Changcheng looked down, a happy blush spreading on his face.

“I used to volunteer at an elderly house in the neighbourhood. All the grandmas loved it when we watched the re-runs together,” he confessed, and before Zhao Yunlan could, Lao Chu beat him to it and gave Xiao Guo something that looked worryingly like a hug.

Huh. Hell might freeze over after all.

Not willing to interlude on the moment, Zhao Yunlan allowed himself to simply pat Xiao Guo’s arm in an affectionate manner, without taking him away from Lao Chu’s embrace. The kid looked way too happy over there either way.

As Xiao Guo got enveloped in a bigger, messier hug, with Zhu Hong and Lin Jing as willing and very adamant participants, crowding into Lao Chu who was putting up some token protests, Zhao Yunlan felt someone’s gaze boring into his back.

When he turned, he noticed the Ghostslayer standing behind him.

He looked… Lonely.

“I wanted to congratulate you, Chief-“

“-use my name.” Zhao Yunlan was aware that he maybe shouldn’t show such disrespect to the Ghostslayer where all the people could see, but in this moment of triumph hearing his old title sounded too formal. It would put too much distance between them, distance which Zhao Yunlan was determined to cross at the end of this competition.

“Yunlan,” the Ghostlayer said softly, his voice almost reverent, and Zhao Yunlan shuddered. It felt so right, so good, it was as if his name was created solely to be uttered by the Ghostslayer and it was almost as if his answer was just there, there, hidden somewhere in the Ghostslayer’s heart.

“I will win this. Just wait until then, then we will… we will talk,” Zhao Yunlan promised.

The Ghostslayer nodded slowly.

Behind them, the Guardian Lantern team watched them in silence, finally fully aware of the weird connection the two of them shared.

--

It was, of course, too beautiful to be true to just assume everything would be as planned.

It was too optimistic to believe that the Kings would make sure that Hell was well guarded before they organized the event that would require all of the experts to leave their posts.

Though, admittedly, a wild stampede of demonic beasts was not on Zhao Yunlan’s list of ‘things that could potentially go wrong’, it was still something the organisers should have been prepared for, if they were so adamant on keeping the animals here in hell in the first place – a fact that Zhao Yunlan had opposed on many occasions, because these assholes were untameable.

Zhao Yunlan wondered if it would be acceptable for him to exclaim loudly ‘I told you so!’ now. Though, to be fair, he was not in the mood to shout anything at the moment – he was now engaged in a very uneven battle with a particularly bloodthirsty Taotie.

“Why do they even keep you here,” he wondered, dodging the beast’s claws and sending a trail of fire its way.

As expected, even though the fire was enough for the weaker spirits, it did not impress the mythical beast, who just jumped to the side and snorted at him, haughtily.

A loud noise came from behind Zhao Yunlan's back and it sounded like the wooden stands being chomped to pieces by another feral monster.

The whole menagerie was here and it seemed that everyone assumed that it was the Underworld Police’s job to get the situation under control - everyone else has run or teleported away in a very organised haste.

Zhao Yunlan was not even part of the police anymore, and yet he found himself shouting orders to everyone his eyes landed on. Thankfully, most people obeyed, and so the evacuation was almost done - if anyone was unwilling to save their lives, Lao Chu's strings were there to force them into safety.

“Away with you,” Zhao Yunlan muttered and ducked again – the Taotie’s claws marked the ground where he used to stand a second before, but he was already a few metres away, putting his talismans together, getting ready to summon his whip, when he heard it – a small, stifled cry that belonged to no one else but Xiao Guo.

The dumb kid had returned from the safe hideout Lao Chu had dragged him to, and for what? To save Zhu Hong and Zhao Yunlan?

It seemed that way, for he was repeating their names, his eyes glued to yet another beast that was now walking towards him slowly, feeding on his fear.

The Taotie that was fighting Zhu Hong also seemed to get the upper hand, for it swiped at her with its tail, pushing her to the ground and pouncing on her, its ugly mug right next to her face.

Zhao Yunlan’s own adversary was watching him with a mocking glint in its eye -  and alright, that was quite enough. The situation had turned from dangerous into drastic.

Abandoning his initial plan, Zhao Yunlan recalled the ancient, soul-shattering words he had never used before but that he had learned all those years ago, to have that one last line of defense. There had never been a need for them, his talents and quick thinking had always been enough but now, with so many people he actually cared about in danger, the trade-off that came with the spell seemed easy to accept.

The words of the incantation filled the air around him and the Taotie’s mug twisted in surprise.

Good.

If Zhao Yunlan had indeed just traded his soul away, it should at least look badass.

“…Men and gods, none shall survive!” he finished with force, and as if just waiting for the cue, a whole legion of ghost riders jumped from behind his back, their bodies emanating with pale light, their horses almost like a tidal wave, sweeping all the monsters back with the force of their stampede.

They left the humans and Hell’s agents unharmed, but there was no mercy for the beasts – the Taotie disintegrated with loud shrieks the moment the ghost spears touched them, if they had not been destroyed by the hooves of the phantom horses earlier.

In just a few moments of a purely cinematic miracle, the fake meadow has been cleared off the Taotie entirely.

It was amazing.

It also quite possibly almost cost Zhao Yunlan his soul.

Looking at Xiao Guo, a human who followed him here, into Hell to help, it was worth it.

With that thought, Zhao Yunlan collapsed onto his knees, exhausted.

The ghosts shimmered in the sun and dissipated in the wind.

Zhao Yunlan could barely see now. Would he disintegrate now too? He’d not finished his contract yet, would his soul disappear? Reincarnate? Respawn right here where he died, with a new debt to pay?

That didn’t sound too bad except…

Suddenly, there were arms around him. Someone was keeping him up…?

No, this was not it. He was being cradled.

Someone was holding his almost unresponsive body close to their chest, and Zhao Yunlan realized that he knew who that was – there was no one else who would do that, after seeing what Zhao Yunlan had done.

“How can you be so irresponsible?!” The Ghostslayer hissed, his voice raw and desperate.

“Had to save the kids,” Yunlan muttered with a smile, and really, if this was dying he didn’t mind that much – it hurt less than the first time he had died, that he was sure of.

“Of course you did,” The Ghostslayer whispered furiously, and then he hoisted Zhao Yunlan up, keeping him standing with just the force of his embrace.

“Look, I wanted to ask you…” Yunlan started, but his head felt very heavy now, and his body was… it was becoming very light? It didn’t make sense, but it was bit like falling asleep? Or maybe like disappearing.

He almost succumbed to it, but then the Ghostslayer’s voice brought him back.

“You are not going anywhere,” the Enforcer of Hell said darkly, and before Zhao Yunlan could protest that he very clearly was, with all the lightness and everything else going on, a pair of cold, angry lips covered his.

Well, Zhao Yunlan was suddenly wide awake.

He could feel the energy filling him, stabilizing his existence, he could taste the Ghostslayer’s lifeforce on his lips and on his tongue, and it felt more like death than life, but it somehow made him whole again. He felt the sheer anger and hope that belonged to the Ghostslayer, and welcomed them all.

It would be full ungratefulness not to kiss back, after such a daring rescue.

So Zhao Yunlan did just that.

“Oh gods, really?” Zhu Hong muttered somewhere to Yunlan’s right, but he had no intention to address her at the moment.

The Ghostslayer’s life force was no longer dancing on his lips, Zhao Yunlan’s existence back to what it had been before -  if this was all there was to it, aid in the time of need, then they would part and talk about all of this later.

But the Ghostslayer’s hood was gone and his arms were still holding Zhao Yunlan tightly, as if the Ghostlayer was afraid to let go, as if all he cared about right now was keeping Yunlan next to him.

That, and he was still kissing the living daylights out of Zhao Yunlan.

So Zhu Hong would have to wait.

All the other problems could wait.

Everything that mattered right now, was right here.

Notes:

Taotie are very niece beasties that you can google, I personally like to imagine them as they were in the Great Wall movie - big, mean and intelligent lizards with cool horns.

Oh no, there are no answers here... Is that because there are still two more pormpts to go? Probaby not!
(don't worry, there will be some answers soon)

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