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Language:
English
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Published:
2024-01-21
Words:
500
Chapters:
1/1
Comments:
13
Kudos:
45
Bookmarks:
8
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243

Commiseration

Summary:

Pei Ming has a promise to keep.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Work Text:

There’s a new hobby in Heaven.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when it starts. In the chaos of rebuilding and the ascension and retirement of various gods, the new Heavenly Capital takes on a distinctly different character.

There’s a newfound solidarity among the older gods, who’d lived through the betrayal and destruction and come out changed for it. Past differences are set aside (to an extent), and there’s a newfound drive to make up for the mistakes of the past. To become worthier of their titles of “heavenly official.”

And somewhere in this, emerges a popular topic: Shi Wudu.

He inspires bitter memories: memories of his conduct, his influence, of the culture he’d instilled and the need to break from it. It doesn’t take long before the memories turn personal. Who doesn’t remember being cheated or silenced, or having to swallow their indignation and bow their head.

It’s the Water Tyrant who becomes the symbol of the old court and all its faults.

Pei Ming doesn’t like it.

He doesn’t like hearing his old friend disparaged, both for things he had done and ones he hadn’t, and he especially doesn’t like the secret gatherings that emerge from it.

“Let it go,” Ling Wen tells him, despite being just as displeased. “It’s just talk.”

But it’s precisely because of that dismissal that Pei Ming can’t. He knows how it works. It starts as ideas and shared understandings, laughter spilled together with wine, but all it takes is one person taking them seriously to give them form.

A kingdom ruled by Pei Ming had also once been just talk.

He puts his deputies to work. Through them he finds out which gods feel the most aggrieved, the depths of their complaints, and where they gather. He’s not above using spies, not when there’s a nagging sense of unease that these old grudges may lead to something more.

And when he feels he’s learned enough, he slips in himself, enjoys the wine, and listens.

It’s surprisingly easy to get swept up in the talk, to nod along and reminisce. But it takes only one remark to confirm his fears.

“And that Shi Qingxuan, continuing on without a care. He’s hardly innocent.”

Pei Ming sets down his wine.

He’d been waiting for the first time that Qingxuan would be mentioned. He will not wait for a second.

“Hey there,” Pei Ming reveals himself with a jovial wave to the group of stunned officials. “Hope you don’t mind me dropping in. I’d heard we’re here to air out our grievances with the old Water Tyrant, and I’ve got plenty myself.” He chuckles long enough for someone’s shoulders to drop and someone else to awkwardly join in.

“Commiserate all you like, it’s hardly my business. But I just wanted to make one thing clear. Anyone thinking about dragging Qingxuan into this should remember – Shi Wudu may be gone, but I’m not. That is all.”

He takes his leave.

Surprisingly, there are fewer secret gatherings after that.

Notes:

I spend a lot of time thinking about how Shi Wudu knew he had hundreds of enemies and chose death as a way to take those grudges with him.

I also spend a lot of time thinking about him trusting Pei Ming to take care of Shi Qingxuan.