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Chapter Text

Zhou Zishu breathed in and out.

In, he could smell the mustiness of the rotten bags of grain.

Out, he could hear wind rustling around him.

In again, he could taste the fading essence of the wine he had drank before leaving the explosives higher on the snow covered mountain.

Out again, he could feel the cold seeping into his bones from the stone he sat on. He could feel Wen Kexing’s palms against his own, the soreness the nails had left behind in his chest and an unfamiliar weight around his neck, feeling much like a small chain.

He could feel his hair settling around his shoulders as the Combined Six Cultivation Method seemed to be ending. It must have been coming to a close with how the qi he was receiving from Wen Kexing had slowed to mere drips.

All that was left was to open his eyes and see.

Zhou Zishu was conflicted. He was excited to truly experience life now with Wen Kexing by his side. And yet, there was a feeling of anxiety growing in him that he could not source.

Was he nervous that it hadn’t worked? It clearly had. 

That their enemies would find them once again? Unlikely with how they were buried under the snow.

There was no point in waiting any longer; Wen Kexing was waiting for him.

Zhou Zishu breathed in once more and opened his eyes.

His breath caught at the stark white hair that greeted him. The closed eyes and utter stillness that was never known to Wen Kexing.

It occurred to him now that the palms against his own were cold, but only as they moved away from him limply.

Zhou Zishu gasped and grabbed at Wen Kexing’s wrists as his body moved with the motion, no control of his own.

“Lao Wen!” Zhou Zishu shouted as he got to his knees, pulling the other to his lap.

Moving to hold both of Wen Kexing’s chilled hands into one of his own, he lifted his palm to cup his cheek.

Cold.

Wen Kexing was so cold. His skin was nearly as pale as his hair had turned.

Zhou Zishu lowered his hand to where Wen Kexing’s pulse lay and hand froze, trembling. Zhou Zishu did not know when his eyes had gotten so blurry or when he began to shake, but he knew he needed to confirm.

Finding sudden courage, lowered his hand and waited.

And waited.

“Bastard,” Zhou Zishu gasped, crumpling over his lover’s motionless form. The way Wen Kexing had been acting since they became trapped crashed over him all at once. “You lied. You lied, Lao Wen, you said this would be for both of us.”

Zhou Zishu gripped Wen Kexing’s shoulders as a sob ripped through him. He dropped Wen Kexing’s hands as he gripped his own chest, feeling like his heart was being torn apart. Zhou Zishu wondered briefly if he broke his heart meridian, if he would be able to catch up to Wen Kexing at the Naihe Bridge.

His hand gripped instead at his robes and the unfamiliar metal chain, feeling like the coward he always knew he was. The metal and his fingernails bit into his palm, the pain bringing a brief moment of clarity before it crashed like a wave.

This could not be the end. There had to be another way.

The room sounded odd, his sobs echoing in his ears in a strange way.

Wen Kexing looked more gray in his blurry eyes, unable to stop looking at his still face.

Maybe if they had tried something else, something from the Yin Yang book, this would not have happened.

Zhou Zishu closed his eyes and let out a helpless cry that sounded distorted and slow to his own ears.

Zhou Zishu jerked hard and gasped at the feeling of hands on him.

His eyes flew open, he felt dizzy.

The ceiling above him was replaced with rocks. Somehow, he was on his back, he could vaguely feel the texture of snow under his hands.

Where was he? What happened to Wen Kexing? What had happened to his senses, once fixed now back in the state they had been previously?

“Idiot.” Zhou Zishu’s breath caught, hearing Wen Kexing’s voice - angry with him like it had been mere hours ago. Wen Kexing appeared over him a moment after. Clumps of snow dappling his clothes and his dark, dark, hair. His eyes narrowed as he reached out a hand to help him up. As Zhou Zishu stared in confusion, Wen Kexing’s eyes softened. Worried, he asked, “You didn’t hit your head, did you?”

Zhou Zishu shook his head and grabbed at the offered hand. It was warm, so warm.

“Just,” Zhou Zishu stumbled over what to say. “Surprised to see you…” he trailed off, so confused. Last he had seen, Wen Kexing had been laying dead in his lap, hair as white as the snow and ice around them. And yet here he was in front of Zhou Zishu as though nothing had happened, seemingly angry at him.

Perhaps he had hit his head in the avalanche?

Wen Kexing snorted and moved away, shaking his head and grumping at him for trying to trick him. He told him it was Ye Baiyi who had told him the truth as they wandered further into the armory.

Zhou Zishu touched his chest. His heart and head hurt at how familiar all of this was. It was almost as though he knew exactly what Wen Kexing was going to say before he said it. His eyes widened as he felt a chain around his neck, not able to properly feel the weight of it from his fading senses.

He waited until Wen Kexing bent over to grab at a book on the ground to peek at the chained pendant he now wore. It was a hexagonal blue crystal with a slight red imperfection in the center. Zhou Zishu frowned as he looked it over, he had never seen the jewelry before. It was odd and he could not think of where he could have gotten it other than a vague memory of a thin chain around his neck after Wen Kexing had died in his dream.

Something that he was not going to allow to happen.

“A-Xu! Look!” As he brought his gaze forward, he felt a shiver of fear going through him. Wen Kexing stood excitedly in the middle of several bookcases, having picked up the Yin Yang book just as he had in Zhou Zishu’s dream…Which he was coming to the realization that it somehow was not a dream.

To his growing horror, they followed the near same footsteps as last time right to the pedestal that held the box with the instructions for the Combined Six Cultivation Method.

Zhou Zishu grabbed Wen Kexing’s wrist, his hand holding the cursed book stolen by Rong Xuan. The pulse of blood and qi he could feel from Wen Kexing comforted him for the moment.

“Why don’t we look over the Yin Yang book instead? Surely there’s a better method for this in here. Ye Baiyi had not wanted his disciple to learn the method for a reason I’m sure.” Zhou Zishu was quite sure now, as a white haired Wen Kexing flashed in front of his eyes for a moment.

“A-Xu, we don’t have time for that,” Wen Kexing placed a warm hand on top of Zhou Zishu’s and while he could see the thumb move across the back of his hand, Zhou Zishu cursed himself for not being able to feel it. “Ye Baiyi told me what to do and what to expect. You trust him, don’t you?”

Zhou Zishu fumed to himself. If Ye Baiyi had known what it would do to Wen Kexing, he would have to strangle the old bastard himself, Sword Immortal or not. But perhaps this meant what happened, what Zhou Zishu had seen was an accident, it had not been meant to happen. Maybe he had seen a vision of what could be and he now had time to properly prevent it.

With that in mind, he nodded at Wen Kexing while reaching out and tugging on his robes to bring them closer together and pressed their lips together. 

Zhou Zishu just needed to make sure he took in more of the qi, and kept the flow of it even in the cultivation. He could not let Wen Kexing take the brunt of it again.

“A-Xu,” Wen Kexing chided, eyes warm and mischievous. “We can get distracted like this later.”

Zhou Zishu nodded again, words caught in his throat.

He would make sure they had a later.

They settled across from each other on the platform nearby. Zhou Zishu listened more intently to what Wen Kexing was saying and describing would happen to him, the gaining and losing of his senses until he was healed.

“And what will happen to you, while this is happening to me?” Zhou Zishu asked, like he had not previously. He had thought before that Wen Kexing would tell him all he needed to know. He would not chance that again this time.

“Ah,” Wen Kexing blinked and Zhou Zishu’s eyes narrowed. “I will be regulating the flow of qi as you will not be able to at certain points due to the healing that needs to take place.”

Zhou Zishu nodded, swallowing. From what he could remember he had not been trying to regulate his flow at all. He would not make the same mistake twice.

They grew quiet then as they raised their hands. Zhou Zishu winced as he pushed his qi through the collapsing meridians within him. 

Determined, he met Wen Kexing’s eyes as their hands came together.

The jolt of now familiar qi from Wen Kexing made him hiss as it passed through him. Zhou Zishu closed his eyes and focused on helping move the qi through his body to make it less of a strain on Wen Kexing despite the sharp stabs that pulsed through him as the qi reached each new meridian before returning to Wen Kexing again.

His senses faded one by one and Zhou Zishu could only hope the time was short before he could come back to himself and continue assisting Wen Kexing with regulating the qi.

~X~x~X~

Zhou Zishu breathed in and out.

In and he could smell the mustiness of the rotten bags of grain.

Out again, and he could hear wind rustling around him.

In and out again, and he could feel the cold seeping into his bones from the stone he sat on. He could feel Wen Kexing’s palms against his own, the soreness the nails had left behind in his chest and the weight he now knew was the pendant around his neck.

He could feel his hair settling around his shoulders as the Combined Six Cultivation Method seemed to be ending again. It must have been with how the qi he was receiving from Wen Kexing was slowing.

All that was left was to open his eyes and see.

It had to be different this time, so he did not hesitate to open his eyes.

A choked gasp tore at his throat at the white haired Wen Kexing that greeted him.

His now white brows were creased, as though in pain, as his body pitched forward.

“Lao Wen!” Zhou Zishu caught him and laid him in his lap, hating the way this was familiar.

Wen Kexing said nothing, unconscious it seemed. His breath was coming in short pants, his body still held some warmth. Zhou Zishu scrambled to find his pulse, moving aside a thin chain to properly reach the spot on his neck, barely noticing the small red jewel sliding further into Wen Kexing’s robes with the jostling.

Despite finding both the pulse of blood and qi, Zhou Zishu despaired.

There was little to no qi left in Wen Kexing and he was moments away from a deviation. With so little qi in him, he wouldn’t be able to survive it.

Curling over his lover again, Zhou Zishu grabbed at his robes; feeling the bite of the chain in his palm again.

He cursed at himself again and again, the sound of it odd to his own ears, distorted, sounding almost like he was speaking at half the speed he should have been.

Zhou Zishu’s mind raced as it felt like everything around him was slowing down.

If only he could fix this.

If he did not need to be healed so urgently, this would not have happened.

He knows now he should not have pulled out the nails himself. He should have waited for Wu Xi to perform the surgery. He knows now how pointless it had been, with Wen Kexing’s return to avenge himself at the second Heroes’ Conference.

Zhou Zishu closes his eyes, missing the faint blue glow of the pendant he held.

Chapter Text

When Zhou Zishu becomes aware again, his eyes are closed.

He wonders briefly if when he opens his eyes, he will see the rocky cavern that he and Wen Kexing had trapped themselves in.

The answer comes a moment later when some of his hearing returns and he wobbles where he stands. The sound of waterfalls roaring in his ears, and the fact that he was clearly on his feet ruled out being on the mountain.

Opening his eyes he found himself staring out at the cliff where Wen Kexing had fallen, presumably after being shot by Zhou Zishu’s own disciple.

He snorted, still annoyed at how they had kept this plot from him. As though he were actually a crippled damsel. As though he hadn’t been the right hand spy for the prince of Jin. As though he had not run more complicated operations than this. As though he were not Wen Kexing’s zhiji.

Zhou Zishu huffed. 

Because he knew Wen Kexing, he knew why he did it, even if it infuriated him. His love was too used to having to act on his own, to protect Gu Xiang and ensure she only knew as much as she needed to. And while, in a way, it was an honor to be placed alongside Gu Xiang in Wen Kexing’s heart, Zhou Zishu could not wait to punish Wen Kexing for acting alone as he had promised he would not too long ago during their time at Siji.

Looking out and coming back to his current present time and self, he found the shattered remains of the wine pots he must have been drinking scattered around. He had come here after everything, planning to-

Zhou Zishu reached for his chest, finding it bare except for the pendant and the nails still resting solidly within him.

Exhaling shakily, his legs were suddenly weak, Zhou Zishu crouched down on the rock. He eyed the red medicine tin beside him on the rock, two small pills still resting inside.

Zhou Zishu had done it. Somehow, some way, the last thought he had had in the armory came true. 

He had actually gone back to the last few moments before he was to tear the nails from himself in an attempt to be at his full prowess at the second Heroes’ Conference. To be able to take on anyone who challenged him with ease, to avenge Wen Kexing, his parents and all others affected by Zhao Jing’s treachery.

He reached again for his chest to hold the pendant, a new constant in his life. Bringing the jewel to his eye level, Zhou Zishu noticed the red imperfection within was growing. He wondered what it meant and how it was able to send him back.

For a moment he’s lost again like he had been previously at the beauty of the White Deer Cliffs: so near the feared Ghost Valley and yet so peaceful. The thought of Ghost Valley brings back memories of the wedding-turned-funeral, the betrayal of the Gentle Winds, the slaughter of the joyous ghosts who sought to turn over a new leaf under the leadership of Wen Kexing.

The stinging memory of how he lied to Wen Kexing when planning the future of the valley. About being able to help him bring the ghosts capable of redemption to a rebuilt Siji Manor to assimilate with the human world. Zhou Zishu had meant it, in that Wen Kexing would be able to use the manor, but he had planned that he, himself, would be long gone from the world when that would happen.

Blinking back tears that had gathered, Zhou Zishu found himself wishing that he had left at least one wine jug full, wanting to try to drown out the feelings washing over him now.

Instead, Zhou Zishu took a deep breath and shrugged back into his robes. Once righted, he stowed the medicine tin back into a satchel at his waist.

Things would be different this time.

Zhou Zishu had not removed the nails, he would still be able to proceed with Wu Xi’s surgery after Gu Xiang and Cao Weining were wed. He would ensure that Gentle Winds were nowhere near them and that they would remain protected. Zhou Zishu would keep his promise to Wen Kexing to help with Ghost Valley and lead it into a promising future instead of a thieves' den.

Feeling lighter now than he thought possible, Zhou Zishu thought about his immediate next moves.

He needed to find a place to rest for the night.

He would still need to go to the second Heroes’ Conference the next morning. Zhou Zishu had to be sure that everyone knew of Zhao Jing’s work as he had done before. He would not be at full power, perhaps a tenth of it instead. Still, it would be enough to easily dispatch the initial guards that would rush him. If needed, he could probably even take on Zhao Jing with his pitiful martial arts. Not that he would need to, Wen Kexing would shock everyone as he did last time, Zhou Zishu knew.

And absolutely worst case, despite the pendant on his chest proving otherwise, if Wen Kexing for some reason was actually dead and everything else was an odd drunken dream? Well, Zhou Zishu would take down as many people as he could before he caught up to his zhiji again.

Zhou Zishu fought back the scoff in his throat as he listened to Mo Huaiyang and Zhao Jing exchange barbed pleasantries, wishing that his wine gourd was not still confiscated by Wu Xi. He should have bought another pot of wine before coming here, but he wanted to remain as clear headed as possible. While the shoulder injuries he had received from Duan Pengju were healing nicely, there was only so much that Wu Xi had been able to do for him in the few quick days that had passed since his release. And without his enhanced martial arts from removing the nails, he would have to move a bit more carefully to avoid aggravating them too much.

Though, Zhou Zishu likely did not need to worry, as the Yueyang disciples that acted as security being laughable at best and he would easily be able to duck into his hiding spot behind the raised seating platform that the most notable martial artist sects sat at. Now he just had to wait until they moved to the readied dueling platform below before making his move. 

Taking out the pendant again, he stared at it, wondering just how it had been created and how it held the power it did. If he focused, he could feel a strange aura around it. Could he really be using it to go back in time? What were its limitations? 

Zhou Zishu had more questions than answers and no one he could turn to. He supposed he would have to just wait and see.

And, ideally, he would not need to use the pendant further. The pivotal moment had already passed. He kept the nails in, and now all that needed to happen was to have the day finish out as it had originally. Ending with him making Wen Kexing drink his weight in wine and falling into bed with him, relieved to have the rest of their lives ahead. 

There would still be a few issues that would need to be addressed, of course. He would reveal to Wen Kexing, perhaps tomorrow or the next day, the pendant and how he got it. Zhou Zishu was not worried that Wen Kexing would take it as a joke: they were zhiji, after all. They could figure out how to protect Ghost Valley from Mo Huaiyang and the other sects that followed the attack; maybe they could get Ye Baiyi to stay for the wedding this time to help them.

The clash of swords made Zhou Zishu realize that he had spaced out for perhaps too long. A peek between the wood panels and he saw that the Yueyang disciples were now the only ones on the platform, just like what had been a few days ago for Zhou Zishu. Murmurs of excitement rose up from the crowd as the two honorable martial artists fought.

He wondered if Wen Kexing was hiding behind the decorative display by the Gentle Winds sect or if he was waiting elsewhere for his grand entrance. Zhou Zishu wondered at what point would Wen Kexing have intervened if not for him being there? Would he have challenged Zhao Jing after he won against Mo Huaiyang? Did Zhou Zishu steal his thunder by jumping in to be sure the entire martial world and all gathered heroes knew of what Zhao Jing had done? 

Part of him wanted to linger back and watch the show as Wen Kexing had originally designed it. A play just for him to view, where he knew the ending already. But Zhou Zishu was as much an actor in the production as Wen Kexing was and he was not going to leave anything to chance.

He waited a few more minutes until the voice of the leader of the Shaolin Sect, Ci Mu, rose above the din, praising both vile leaders.

“There are indeed numerous talents emerging in the martial arts world.”

Zhou Zishu did not hold back his scoff this time as he kicked off the ground.

“Ridiculous!” He allowed the disdain he felt toward everyone present to drip through his voice as he leapt over the decorative wall. As though any of these so called ‘heroes’ knew what was truly right. He knew as he had seen the first time he had lived through this, that they all were just as, if not more, prone to being sheep and following the wolf among them.

He kept his face cold and emotionless, slipping into the familiar role of the leader of Tian Chuang. Landing lightly, he kept a hand ready near Baiyi’s hilt at his waist as others stood below him. The disciples on the raised platform watched him warily. Zhou Zishu knew they would not be an issue, even if he did not have full access to his martial arts like last time.

“Zhao Jing, how dare you stand on this stage.”

Zhou Zishu started reciting Zhao Jing’s life story and did not stop for a moment. Even as one of the Five Lake’s sworn allies, if Zhou Zishu actually respected the lot, he would have it in mind to recall the man’s name, called for him to shut up and ordered the guards after him.

He could hear the swords of the disciples leaving their sheathes and waited until they drew closer before sliding out Baiyi as he jumped up. Using the soft sword, he sent a wave of qi at the group surrounding him. Zhou Zishu noted with an inward wince that they had been flown farther away the last time he had done this. Baiyi was stashed at his waist before his feet touched the ground again.

Looking up, he saw that the two leaders had started their fight again and so after jumping down to their level, he resumed his lecture to the crowd. As he talked and scolded, he felt his disgust grow. How had no one been able to figure this out before he had? How many had turned a blind eye to Zhao Jing’s greed?

The shout of pain and dull thud as the scorpion dagger landed in one of the nearby posts, barely made him react. As had happened before, Zhao Jing cheated and Mo Huaiyang retreated to his sect.

Zhou Zishu knew what he had to do next and kept his eyes trained on Zhao Jing as the man tried to turn the crowd on him, blatant lies spilling out. He wanted to glance over to the Gentle Winds, to see if there was a hint of Wen Kexing nearby. But he could not give him away and had to keep Zhao Jing and everyone else’s attention on him until Wen Kexing made his appearance.

He could not stop the quirk of his lips at how Zhao Jing described his relationship with Wen Kexing nor could he stop with mirthless laughter that followed as he stepped up to the dueling platform.

“Seeing as you appear to be the victor, I challenge you.” The way Zhao Jing narrowed his eyes made him smirk again. His eyes scanned over those standing behind Zhao Jing. Locking eyes momentarily with Shen Shen and then again with his little idiot disciple Chengling, he raised his voice to carry over the crowd as he took out Baiyi once again, allowing all to see the sword he inherited from his own shifu. “As the leader of Siji Manor, Zhou Zishu.”

The murmuring of the crowd grew again. He knew the rumors of his sect and how they disappeared under the new leadership of a too-young sect leader. 

“With you as its leader, it’s no wonder Siji Manor was doomed,” Zhao Jing sneered as he raised his sword, ready and confirming for Zhou Zishu that he knew exactly what had happened to his sect members. 

Despite that, he held his breath and tongue. This was the moment. This would tell him if he really did come back and if risking his chance to remove the nails would pay off.

“Who dares to say that Siji Manor is doomed?” The smug and sure voice of the one he held dear came on the wind. Zhou Zishu huffed as he turned to watch Wen Kexing jump onto the decorated wall, the white paper of his fan flicked out against the gray and white robes.

He looked Wen Kexing up and down, drinking in the sight of him and the way he was really truly alive. The pendant, whatever magic it held, had worked.

Wen Kexing’s eyes found his and Zhou Zishu did not remember the way Wen Kexing’s face softened at seeing him. If anything, Zhou Zishu only remembered the reluctant and shy glances he received from Wen Kexing; knowing that he had kept secrets from him and fearing a public scolding.

“Zhiji,” Wen Kexing called and Zhou Zishu’s eyes widened. “Please, let me handle this.”

Zhou Zishu blinked, head tilting to the side as he watched Wen Kexing jump down and approach him. 

That was new, he knew it had to be, because despite the hurt and the way his heart burned at being lied to, what had seared into his mind previously was the fact that Wen Kexing had called Siji Manor his sect in front of the martial leaders.

Now he calls him his zhiji, not in the quiet of their rooms, or amongst friends as Zhou Zishu had thought might happen for the first time he publicly called out their relationship.

Why this change?

There was no answer to this unasked question as Wen Kexing stepped up beside him. He reached out, and Zhou Zishu was ready to hand him Baiyi without being asked. Instead, Wen Kexing’s hand went around the hilt and fingertips touched his wrist before gripping it. The sigh that Wen Kexing exhaled moved his shoulders and Zhou Zishu felt the spark of his love’s qi run along his own.

“A-Xu, I can explain later.”

Zhou Zishu nodded as Wen Kexing shifted his body to regard the leaders of the larger martial arts sects. He did not understand what had changed or why Wen Kexing still held onto him as he spoke, but those words he remembered.

From here, the playful tone returned to Wen Kexing’s voice as he explained he was a different Wen Kexing, one from Siji Manor.

Shen Shen called forth the ghosts the same as Zhou Zishu remembered - the Changing Ghost, Happy Ghost and the Black Grim Reaper. Xie Wang eyed them before asking the ghosts if this was their master.

Zhou Zishu spared a glance their way as they answered an enthusiastic no. Rolling his eyes closed, he then set his gaze back to Wen Kexing. A shiver raced its way down his spine as Wen Kexing declared himself a Siji disciple and Qin Huaizhang as his master. Another followed as Wen Kexing turned back to him, face going from mockingly cheerful to a softer look that Zhou Zishu had become more than accustomed to during their time at the manor as he was declared his shixiong.

“As for my parents,” Wen Kexing looked down at their hands and back up at him through his eyelashes, questioning.

Zhou Zishu huffed, as though he could ever really say no to him.

“We’ll talk later, Lao Wen,” his voice was rough and quiet, but he knew from the hum that the other heard him.

Wen Kexing squeezed his wrist once more before twisting to take the soft sword’s hilt.

He nodded briefly once Wen Kexing had taken his sword and walked past the sneering Zhao Jing to the other end of the dueling platform turned stage so that he would have a view of the entire setting.

Standing beside one of the drums, he watched with pride as his love performed his father’s signature sword forms.

Now that he knew the result and his time was no longer fading quickly with the nails firmly in his chest still, Zhou Zishu could appreciate the work Wen Kexing had put into this performance. He had thought of everything. Anything that anyone tried to bring against him, he defended with a cold and calculated anger that Zhou Zishu recognized from himself.

He would still take the chance to punish Wen Kexing later, but for now, he could watch from the sidelines and appreciate the parade of support Wen Kexing had found and the fall of Zhao Jing as the world he cheated and fought to lead turned against him like the tide.

The moment Gao Xiaolian stepped out with Wu Xi and Jing Beiyuan’s guards, he bit back a smile. When Chengling stood beside her with the letter from his father, Zhou Zishu found himself nodding minutely in approval. Of course when this had first happened days ago, for Zhou Zishu, this had nearly killed him where he stood. Feeling gutted and betrayed. He still felt that, but after everything came after, it was just a relief to see Gu Xiang and Cao Weining alive and standing beside each other.

Zhou Zishu winced, feeling the poisoned qi of the nails course through him. Gritting his teeth, he focused on what the children were saying. His eyesight blurred and his hearing turned to static a few times. Really, he could not wait to have Wu Xi properly remove the nails and to start his recovery. He wanted to see Wen Kexing best Zhao Jing properly, but with blurry eyes would likely be how he saw this fight.

The crowd started chanting to kill Zhao Jing and Zhou Zishu knew what would come next. The snake would try to attack Gao Xiaolian and fail in part due to the large group she had protecting her and Wen Kexing at the ready.

Zhao Jing let out a chilling maniacal laugh and lunged forward, same as before.

Zhou Zishu watched, blinking quickly to see properly, as the guards shielded Gao Xiaolian and Wen Kexing slid in front of him to rebuff him with Baiyi.

Only, Zhou Zishu does not remember locking eyes with Zhao Jing as he turned completely around, having dodged Wen Kexing.

Everything that happened following that was too quick for him to react to.

His sight was suddenly clear and he could see the deranged insanity that had taken hold of the man as his arm shot out. He could see the panic on Wen Kexing’s face and hear Chengling’s cry of ‘Shifu!’

Distantly Zhou Zishu realized this was similar to the time they had been ambushed by the Scorpions and the Beggar Gang while on their way to Siji Manor. After spotting Shen Shen, a dagger had sailed through the air straight for him that Wen Kexing had blocked and knocked back with his fan before Zhou Zishu could even get his hand on Baiyi.

There were two major differences between then and now. One was that Wen Kexing was on the other side of the platform and the soft sword was with him.

The other was that, due to having not removed the nails, Zhou Zishu’s martial arts and agility were severely degraded.

Zhou Zishu really had not thought it would matter though, with Wen Kexing being the one to duel Zhao Jing.

In the span of moments, everything had changed.

Zhou Zishu coughed as a scorpion dart, much like his own poison needle gun, seared through his chest. He staggered back one step, then two as blood dropped from his mouth as he coughed.

He could hear screams from the crowd, but it was like someone had put cotton in his ears, the way everything sounded faded. Zhou Zishu’s legs felt numb and he was aware that he was dropping as he saw Wen Kexing slice Baiyi through Zhao Jing’s neck as he raced to his side.

“A-Xu!” Wen Kexing caught him. “A-Xu, no!”

“Not- - -happen,” Wen Kexing’s words were muffled and he felt like he was only hearing part of what he was saying.

When he tried to say something back, like the location of the red medicine tin, all Zhou Zishu managed to accomplish was coughing up more blood.

“---fix this- - worry, A-Xu -”

Zhou Zishu tried to move his hand to his satchel, unable to direct Wen Kexing to do so, for the red medicine tin. If he could get those pills, he would be fine long enough for Wu Xi to figure out how to heal him, he was sure.

However, his hand felt like it was moving through sludge, barely moving at all. His eyes drifted to the others as the kids tried to reach them. They seemed to be moving slowly, too. In fact, Zhou Zishu realized as his head tilted to look up at Wen Kexing, the sky seemed to be an odd grayish-purple too. 

Zhou Zishu wondered if this oddity was from him actively dying. But then he realized as he closed his eyes again to cough against the blood building up in his throat, that the only one that seemed to be unaffected was Wen Kexing.

Chapter Text

Zhou Zishu’s eyes flew open as he coughed awake. His body tried and failed to sit up. Instead weakly and painfully, he rolled to the side of the bed. As the coughing subsided, the dull pain in his shoulders took over and he collapsed back on to the bed.

He worked to sit up slower this time, wincing at how weak he felt. As he moved, he took in the room he was in, recognizing it as the room he had stayed in while he rested at Jing Beiyuan’s manor.

Once upright, he worked open the under robes he wore and touched at his chest. There was no new wound from the scorpion dagger, only the fresher wounds from his time on the hooks and the ever-present nails.

Had he died? Had the pendant sent him back in time? He did not remember thinking about a particular time he had wanted to go back to.

Zhou Zishu held the pendant up and frowned at it, not seeing anything odd about it and no growth of the red imperfection. 

Maybe Wen Kexing had been able to find the miracle drug Wu Xi had talked to him about in the red tin?

“Lao Wen?” he called to the empty room, but did not hear his love’s quiet approach.

Frowning, he adjusted his robes and stood with the help of a nearby chair to keep his balance. He touched the fabric of the gray robes that lay across the chair’s back. These were the same ones that he had worn when the scorpion dagger had gone through him and there was nothing marring them. In fact, they still looked relatively unworn.

He groaned a little as he struggled to put the soft gray robes on, tying the sash loosely around his waist. He settled in the chair to face the vanity mirror now, wondering what had happened.

Narrowing his eyes, Zhou Zishu glared at the reflection of himself, annoyed at the lost feeling settling over him. As he dropped his gaze to the table, he hummed as he found the hairpin Wen Kexing had gifted him. Touching it lightly, he sighed and wondered where the man was. 

Spotting three small pills off to the side, Zhou Zishu picked them up to roll in his hand. 

Two were familiar yellow pills: he had been given them during his last stay in Jing Beiyuan’s manor after the rescue. Wu Xi had said they would help with pain relief and quicken the healing of his shoulders. 

The third was one he did not recognize: a smaller one that had more of a green tint to it.

Zhou Zishu set the green one back on the vanity and swallowed down the other two as someone knocked on the door.

The person did not wait to be greeted, opening the door and walking in with ease.

“Zishu,” Jing Beiyuan nodded at him through the reflection of the mirror, the quick and much louder steps of Ping’An followed him into the room.

“Beiyuan,” he retorted with a raised eyebrow. The man had no shame.

“You slept for quite a long time,” he said lazily as he picked up one of the combs, holding it loosely for Ping’An to grab. “You missed seeing Wen Kexing off.”

“Where is he going?” Zhou Zishu frowned, turning in his seat despite Jing Beiyuan’s tutting.

“You must have been tired if you can’t remember,” Jing Beiyuan laughed, though it sounded a bit off. “He was returning to the Valley. He had some loose ends to tie up, I believe?”

Zhou Zishu turned back around and stared at the hairpin. Well now he at least knew when he was. Though it was odd to have gone this far back.

“May I?” Ping’An asked, gesturing to Zhou Zishu’s hair. At his nod, Ping’An began to carefully thread the comb through his hair, removing any tangles.

Jing Beiyuan wandered seemingly aimlessly around the room, clearly acting more bored than he really was. Zhou Zishu watched him through the mirror as he passed by, seeing the minute twitch of an eyebrow as his gaze passed the vanity table.

Once Ping’An finished pinning up his hair, Jing Beiyuan shooed him away mid-bow. He only turned back to Zhou Zishu once the door had closed.

He kept his gaze on himself in the mirror, waiting for Jing Beiyuan to speak, unsure if this had happened previously.

“Wen Kexing has asked for Wu Xi and I to tell you about his actual plan.” Jing Beiyuan started as he leaned against a column in the room. Zhou Zishu turned partially so he could watch him. This was not how he found out. He was having tea - not wine - with Wu Xi, Jing Beiyuan and the kids, minus Chengling as his disciple had been sent to the safety of Shen Shen until he could be saved from Jin. Ashinlae had run in saying how Chengling had gone after Wen Kexing after finding out he was the valley master.

“He’s apparently made a deal with the Scorpion's leader. There was something about his ghosts working under him I believe?” Zhou Zishu made no attempt to agree or disagree, as this was something he was still unclear on himself. “He also told Chengling about being the Ghost Valley Master while leaving him with Shen Shen prior to rescuing you.”

This Zhou Zishu did react to, by fully turning around, biting back a hiss at the twinge of his shoulders.

“Hey, hey,” Jing Beiyuan got closer, resting a light hand on top of his shoulder. “I don’t think either of us want me to get Wu Xi right now.”

Zhou Zishu brows furrowed as he stared up at his friend. He sounded annoyed. Before Zhou Zishu could press for any sort of answer, Jing Beiyuan stepped up beside his chair looking down at the vanity table, continuing on.

“Wen Kexing wants us to keep you here where you’re safe so that you will not be associated with Ghost Valley. He’s trying to protect Siji Manor’s name so that it can return to the martial world in honor.” When Zhou Zishu scoffed, Jing Beiyuan’s lip curled into its first genuine smile in days. “His plan is intricate and has its risks. But he’s confident that it will work.”

“He plans to stage his death in front of the martial world and have Chengling play a critical role in this. Wen Kexing says that Chengling has been playing with the needle gun you gave him to find a way to make it less deadly.”

“There’s also the matter of the crowd he’s planning on drawing for this spectacle,” Jing Beiyuan’s eyes rolled as he looked at Zhou Zishu through the mirror now. “Supposedly this Xie Wang is trustworthy enough to keep them at bay?”

Zhou Zishu groaned as he pressed a hand to his forehead. He knew a lot of this from experiencing it first hand and that awful victory dinner they had held after the second Heroes’ Conference, but hearing it explained by his friend, he found himself feeling the anger at Wen Kexing for apparently trusting Xie Wang more than himself.

He glanced at Jing Beiyuan and saw the frown on his face as he glared down at the vanity. No, Zhou Zishu realized after a moment, he was glaring at the green pill he hadn’t taken yet. 

“Wu Xi knew all of this several days ago.” With a heavy sigh, his friend continued as he raised his hand in front of his face. “He was surprised that Wen Kexing would tell me. I suppose he also wanted me to be left in the dark on this plan. He’s kept me in the dark on much, apparently.”

Jing Beiyuan lowered his hand and bowed a little toward Zhou Zishu, much to his surprise. “I apologize, if I had known how Prince Jin was destroying Siji from within Tian Chuang, destroying you, I would have done something sooner.”

Zhou Zishu laughed, it was short and with little humor in it. “Really, Beiyuan. I’m glad you didn’t know. I wanted you both to be safe, even you coming here to heal me is a risk I didn’t want to chance previously.”

It was Jing Beiyuan’s turn to laugh. He raised his hand again as he did so and swiped it hard against the desk, sending the little green pill flying. Zhou Zishu watched as it rolled under the bed and out of sight.

“Well, regardless,” the former prince stepped away from Zhou Zishu. “I should be reporting to Wu Xi that you are sound asleep after taking the medicine he left for you.” He smiled again at Zhou Zishu, setting a gray tin down in the green pill’s spot.  “I’ll leave you to decide what you want to do from here, Zishu.”

He watched as Jing Beiyuan walked out the door and closed it before laughing again to himself. 

None of this had happened previously and Zhou Zishu couldn’t think of what had possibly changed to make this happen instead.

Taking the tin in his hand, he found the same little pain relieving pills from earlier. After putting the tin into his robes, Zhou Zishu reached for the hairpin. Holding it carefully now in his hand, he ran his fingers over it, knowing now that it was the key the martial world searched for, that it was given to him for safe keeping. Slowly he started spinning it in between his fingers as he tried to think over what his next steps would be.

He did not know why he woke up here, in this time, now. He did not know what possessed Wen Kexing to tell Jing Beiyuan about the plan and to have him be the one to tell the plan. 

Was he really meant to stay put in the safety of Jing Beiyuan’s manor? If Wen Kexing’s plan went like it had last time, there would be no issues if Zhou Zishu did not show up. The ghosts had only gotten involved because they were meant to keep him away from Wen Kexing, he had found out after their victory meal.

But as something had already changed now, what was to say something else would not go wrong? 

After all, Zhao Jing had decided to go after him instead of Gao Xiaolian when Zhou Zishu had traveled back last time. 

Maybe someone from the crowd would break away and land a fatal wound. Maybe one of the ghosts would decide to go for Wen Kexing after all or Xie Wang could decide that since he had the armor key, that he did not need to hold on to his side of the plan anymore. Or maybe this time Chengling’s needle gun adaptations would not be as harmless as they had been before.

No, he couldn’t leave anything to chance.

Mind made up, Zhou Zishu slid the hairpin into his hair.

He got to the White Deer Cliff, keeping to the rock formation nearby, his back to the damp stone. From here he could see and hear what was happening. He could see Wen Kexing fighting off some assailants that followed him closer to the cliff’s edge with his qi charged fan as it sliced through the guards.

Zhou Zishu’s stomach twisted at hearing the calls for Wen Kexing’s death and the way his love goaded them on, taunting them with a wooden key. At that moment, he felt the weight of the key turned hairpin on his head, raising a hand to make sure that it was still firmly in place. He hadn’t worn it last time, instead keeping it safe in his robes. But no one in this time knew that the key was on his head and not in Wen Kexing’s hand other than the two of them.

His stomach turned again at Chengling’s voice jumping in as the others quieted down. The way Wen Kexing begged for Chengling to kill him and Chengling’s anger made it hard for a moment for Zhou Zishu to remember that while emotions were high, this was all an act. He had forgotten just how well Chengling had managed to trick Zhao Jing and Gao Chong when he still carried the glazed armor within him.

He let them argue, taking a few deep breaths now. He would have to do his best to keep everything as close to what he remembered happening. Unfortunately, Zhou Zishu had been running on pure adrenaline then and his memory was spotty at best for the exact details.

He knew Ye Baiyi would arrive soon. He knew he fought three of the ghosts and that in the end it was Chengling’s needle gun that pushed Wen Kexing over the edge of the cliff. Details beyond that were sparse.

“Wen Kexing,” Chengling’s voice rose again and Zhou Zishu opened his eyes again. This he remembered. “What were you trying to do, dragging my shifu down with you? You’ve been lying to my shifu this entire time!”

“He didn’t lie to me,” Zhou Zishu called out as he launched himself away from his perch. He landed on the ground quietly, before standing to his full height despite how his shoulder wounds pulled. Walking past his disciple he saw the way Chengling’s eyes widened, looking for all the world like he wanted to toss the entire ruse. Instead of stopping to talk to Chengling, he continued, jumping down to the wet rocks below toward Wen Kexing. “Out of anyone, how could he expect to fool me?”

With his back turned to their attackers for the moment, he glared at Wen Kexing. Just how dare he try to work with Wu Xi against him again. His narrowed eyes were matched by Wen Kexing’s. The valley master actually had the audacity to look annoyed, which made Zhou Zishu shake his head as he huffed out a short laugh. Zhou Zishu knew he had just ruined any attempt Wen Kexing could have made to clear his name from being linked with Ghost Valley. But Wen Kexing should have known better and known that Zhou Zishu would always stand with him.

Stopping just a step away from Wen Kexing, he smirked, eyes easing from their angry glare.This close he could see that the blood that ran from Wen Kexing’s mouth was real, its source a deep cut on his lower lip. Zhou Zishu watched as fresh blood welled up, and despite his deep dislike for it, he found himself wanting to pull him in for a kiss and then berate him for all the tricks.

Zhou Zishu saw as he raised his sight from the bleeding lip to dark eyes, that Wen Kexing kept looking from the crowd on the cliff to him.

“A-Xu,” he started in a hiss between clenched teeth.

“Save it,” Zhou Zishu, reached out and gripped at his elbow. As he let go, he tilted his head to turn and face the crowd when his body was jerked forward into Wen Kexing's chest as the other man belatedly returned the arm grasp.

Zhou Zishu breathed evenly as Wen Kexing shakily exhaled, their eyes meeting again. Frowning, Zhou Zishu tried to read the searching look in Wen Kexing’s eyes; he couldn’t possibly be questioning his sincerity now of all times!

He remembered Zhao Jing berating him for joining the valley master, however that was not the voice that rose up from the crowd. It was a different one, one he did not recognize.

“Ghost Valley has torn our families apart and taken our loved ones. We should teach the Ghost Valley Master how it feels to lose someone!”

Wen Kexing’s gaze left his to glare at the crowd over his shoulder. Zhou Zishu could only watch as his dark eyes widened and hand tightened on his arm. He saw white flutter to the ground, as the blood splattered fan left Wen Kexing’s hold to be replaced by Zhou Zishu’s waist.

His world spun as he heard the twang of an arrow being released from its bow. 

He now faced the crowd and watched the bow lower from a dark hooded man. Wen Kexing’s eyes widened and more blood spilled from his lips.

Zhou Zishu’s knees collapsed on him, as his wounded shoulders were unable to properly hold Wen Kexing’s sudden weight as he slumped against him. As they fell to the ground together, Zhou Zishu was able to see the arrow sticking out from Wen Kexing’s back, blood spreading quickly, staining the blue robes he wore.

Shaking, Zhou Zishu held Wen Kexing in his arms, shifting briefly so that he could try to find where he had stashed Wu Xi’s miracle tin. He knew he had it on him, he had taken it from Wu Xi after all the prompting of ‘just take it’s and ‘what if he needs it’s. Now Zhou Zishu was glad he had taken the red tin and cracked a smile despite the situation as his fingers found it.

His breath left him in the next moment, seeing the gray of the tin in his palm instead of the bright red of the miracle medicine tin.

Zhou Zishu the first time had left with Wu Xi’s blessing and had been given the miracle medicine.

Zhou Zishu this time had snuck out of Jing Beiyuan’s manor, after being given pain medicine to aid him in his journey.

He had no medicine to fix Wen Kexing’s injury.

“Lao Wen,” he choked out, grabbing at Wen Kexing’s shaking hand that had been weakly trying to get into his own blue robes.

There were more shouts from the ridge, but it was lost to the roar of the waterfalls nearby. All he could hear was the wet gasps Wen Kexing made.

“I’ll fix this, Lao Wen. This won’t happen again.” Zhou Zishu vowed as he bowed his head, feeling the pendant under his robes growing warm. A second distant twang sounded and Zhou Zishu glared at the crowd, seeing time slow as the pendant’s magic began to work. The sky changing to the now familiar purple-gray, sounds blending together.

He knew when they needed to go back to, to try to avoid this outcome, to prevent Wen Kexing from being found by the martial world this way.

And maybe, just maybe, Zhou Zishu could save someone else too.

Chapter Text

Zhou Zishu opened his eyes slowly and felt as though the tears from the White Deer Cliff had followed him through time. 

In front of him stood a blooming plum tree, no longer the sapling it once was when he had taken the members of Siji Manor to the capital, yet still not fully grown either. He stared out the open doors to the courtyard of the manor and breathed deeply. Despite not being able to smell the scent of old wood in the room or the flowers that swayed on the branches of the tree, the action calmed him.

The pendant had worked again, evidenced by the fact that the manor was still standing and not a pile of rubble.

Zhou Zishu set an unsteady hand down onto the low table in front of him as he stood. The table was not yet set, though he had evidently just poured himself another cup of wine from the small pools of the liquid on the wood.

He reached to the chain that was around his neck, tugging lightly on it. He found red staining the crystal further. It seemed to grow with each use. Though this time, it looked like the red imperfection had grown larger than the last few times when he had only jumped a few days into the past. Though the state of the crystal did not matter. Right now, he still had time to fix what would come.

With that thought in mind, he darted to the door and nearly knocked over Chengling and the dishware he carried.

“Shifu!” He reached out to steady Chengling with his right arm before realizing that it was still wrapped in the sling and was unable to reach him in time. Thankfully, his disciple recovered on his own, feet moving quickly underneath him to catch both himself and the small bowl that nearly went flying. 

Chengling was smiling despite the collision. It was such a stark difference from the Chenglings he had seen lately. The excitement from celebrating the coming of the new year and his recent and rapid improvements with his martial arts radiating from him. Instead of the sorrow of loss after familial loss. Instead of the guilt eating him alive from keeping secrets from his master.

“Shishu sent me to get the table ready, he says that dinner is nearly done!” The boy sidestepped him and set down his load on the table. Turning, he still kept a bounce in his step. “Unless Shifu has something for me to do?”

Zhou Zishu shook his head as his shoulders jostled in silent laughter. He stepped forward and pulled Chengling into a tight hold to hide how his eyes watered.

“Shifu?” Chengling didn’t hesitate to return the hug, despite his confusion.

“It’s nothing.” Stepping back, Zhou Zishu smiled and reached up to pat Chengling’s shoulder. “You’ve done well lately.”

Chengling’s eyes went wide at the sudden praise, before he could say anything though, Zhou Zishu raised his hand to keep him quiet.

“Once you’ve finished setting the table, I want you to go and pack up a few things. I'm planning a trip for you and your shishu.” Zhou Zishu couldn’t let himself forget that he knew what was going to happen in the coming hours despite how peaceful and perfect everything seemed now. The calm before the sudden storm, but this time he was determined that they would be ready and far, far away before it struck. “I’ll help him with the rest of dinner.”

Chengling nodded excitedly and turned to start setting the table.

Zhou Zishu watched him for a moment before turning and walking toward their kitchen area.

He let his eyes wander around the buildings and the smaller courtyards he passed of his sect. Mind temporarily bringing back images of his sect brothers messing around before being scolded by an elder. The way the manor had creaked eerily when he had first arrived with Chengling and Wen Kexing at the tailend of summer. The area they had fixed into being Chengling’s training area, the little corners Wen Kexing would tuck himself into to read materials on what he had missed from his stolen childhood.

Zhou Zishu wondered dimly if maybe it was better for Wen Kexing to have been in Ghost Valley instead of Siji Manor. If he had been with him in Siji, would he have been able to stop Zhou Zishu from going to the prince when requested? Would Zhou Zishu have listened to him out of all the voices that tried to talk him out of it? 

Or would Wen Kexing have been one of the casualties of a mission, a folded, blood stained lantern presented to Zhou Zishu by the remnants of the group he had sent out? Would he have turned into another stained blossom that he painted on his wall? 

To this day, Wen Kexing’s blossom was the only one that remained white still, with Zhen Yan’s fate still unknown. Zhou Zishu had painted over his own flower before asking the prince to release him with the seventh nail.

Zhou Zishu had stopped walking as his thoughts took a darker turn. He stared at the coal shed, but did not see it. Instead his mind brought him back to being chained, caged and watching the flames rise high above the trees as his home burned. 

He would not let himself go back to Jin again. Not again.

A hand tugging on his elbow shocked him back to the present. For only a moment, he feared he had the timing wrong and instead it was a Tian Chuang operative. But no, there was only ever one person who could successfully sneak up on Zhou Zishu. 

As he turned, his eyes widened at seeing the wild look in Wen Kexing’s. Before he could start to say his name, lips crashed into his own.

Wen Kexing pushed him against the wall, his body weight warm and alive in contrast to the last few times he had had Wen Kexing against him. They moved apart for a moment, staring at each other, eyes searching. Wen Kexing had himself braced over him, one forearm against the wall by his head as the other was tight around his waist. Zhou Zishu didn’t know where this urgency came from for Wen Kexing, but he took advantage of it, needing the reassurance that he was alright.

Zhou Zishu cupped Wen Kexing’s cheek and guided their lips back together, moaning as his tongue moved alongside his own. He cursed himself for resisting Wen Kexing for so long that he had never known his taste, but was glad to know his touch - knowing that would likely fade in the coming days provided the nails progressed as they had when he had been captured.

Part of him wanted to drag Wen Kexing into one of the still abandoned rooms and make love with him until either he lost all feeling or Wu Xi would be able to heal him. 

Physical sensations were already beginning to fade for him, but the sharp bite of Wen Kexing’s canine on his lower lip made a whine slip out. When they parted again, Zhou Zishu saw the blood on Wen Kexing’s lips and knew it was his own. 

Huffing, he tapped at his cheek with his palm, shaking his head fondly. 

“What’s A-Xu doing near the kitchen? I thought you had an aversion to anything to do with cooking?” Wen Kexing teased, head tilting before darting forward to swipe his tongue along Zhou Zishu’s bleeding lip again.

“Nuisance.” Pressing a hand to his chest, he moved Wen Kexing back a step with a laugh.

But Wen Kexing’s question served as a reminder: they were technically on borrowed time now.

Part of him wanted to confide in Wen Kexing, tell him of the pendant, of what was going to happen in the coming hours. But he hesitated because his still slinged arm served as another reminder that the Wen Kexing in front of him now was like the Wen Kexings he had failed to save previously. He still had not gotten it through his head that they were a team, that he did not have to do everything on his own and Zhou Zishu couldn’t risk Wen Kexing running off to meet with Han Ying now or try to stop the assassins that were hunting them.

“I was coming to let you know,” he started, eyes drifting over Wen Kexing’s shoulder to the sky, making sure there were no lanterns yet. Continuing with the fake story he had started to tell Chengling. “That I wanted to take you and Chengling on a sort of trip. There’s a part of the sect land that I haven’t shown you yet. It’s a bit of a distance away, so I wanted to see if you could prepare some food for travel?”

“Ah, is that all?” He met Wen Kexing’s raised eyebrow with one of his own. “I also had wanted to take you both somewhere. I had heard about it in town the last I was there. I thought you might like to see it. I’ve already gathered and packed some food and supplies we would need.”

Wen Kexing was being just as vague as he had been.

He wondered about it briefly, but ultimately he was too relieved that Wen Kexing seemed to be a step ahead. He wondered if his Lao Wen had been planning this surprise trip originally, but had not been able to say anything due to the circumstances that followed that fateful night.

“Good,” Zhou Zishu ran his hand down Wen Kexing’s chest, feeling the bumps of the intricate embroidery on his outer robes before he gripped the fabric to pull Wen Kexing back to him. 

If he was already prepared for a trip, then they had a little more time to do other things before times got dire again. He would let Wen Kexing lead them wherever he wanted once he was sure the danger of Tian Chuang had passed. They would find a way to meet up with Beiyuan and Wu Xi and find a way to combat the book of ghosts that was being spread around. 

But for now, he toyed with his own lip, feeling it wet again and Wen Kexing’s eyes were drawn to it.

Wen Kexing’s lips had barely sealed around his again when Chengling called out to them.

~X~x~X~

It dawned on Zhou Zishu while they ate dinner, that it felt strange not to have the hairpin in his hair and instead to see it neatly within Wen Kexing’s. He had become used to the jade residing with him, but knew that for now there was no need for the hairpin to leave Wen Kexing. Besides he knew his place in Wen Kexing’s heart with or without the pin.

He also noted that Wen Kexing kept watching him, eyes rarely leaving him. He continued to place food into both his and Chengling’s bowls. 

The dinner was lighthearted, and he tried to relish the calm now. Zhou Zishu played along with Wen Kexing as he challenged him to a modified version of their favored drinking game to see who would be cleaning the dishes; as though they both didn’t know that it would be Wen Kexing. Hearing the first firework ring out in the sky he watched the way Chengling tried to restrain himself from looking out as he tried to start gathering their dishes.

“You can go out,” Zhou Zishu said with a gentle smile as he put a hand out over the bowl that Chengling had dropped in a previous life. “The fireworks they release in the village can be seen better in the eastern courtyard.”

“Shishu?” The boy looked excitedly between them both.

“Yes, yes, we’ll take it from here,” Wen Kexing said as he moved his chair closer to where Zhou Zishu sat.

As they watched him run off, Wen Kexing hummed as he pulled Zhou Zishu into his lap. 

With a brief laugh Zhou Zishu shook his head before leaning into Wen Kexing’s chest, he had stopped wondering why Wen Kexing always seemed to do something different than he expected. Zhou Zishu was meddling with time, and Wen Kexing was likely just reacting to Zhou Zishu acting differently this time around. 

Truly though, he wanted time to stop here, before everything fell apart. As he reached for the wine, he toyed with the thought of testing to see if that was something else the pendant could do. 

Wen Kexing reached out and held his hand over top of Zhou Zishu’s on the pitcher’s handle.

He tilted his head back and watched as the lights from a red firework lit up across Wen Kexing’s face. And after a moment he noticed the hairpin was gone.

“Lao Wen?”

“A-Xu,” quick fingers moved to his hair and released it from the leather hairpiece that had held it up. Those same fingers carded through the stands briefly, before gently pulling the hair back up. He could faintly feel the now familiar to him slide of jade along his scalp. “It seems wrong to keep this to myself now.”

Zhou Zishu’s mind raced for a moment, wondering just how coming back to the past would have caused this outcome. He reached up and tentatively touched at the pin before turning around, suddenly not able to speak.

“A-Xu,” Wen Kexing’s eyes were dark, his expression a mix of love and concern. “I’ve been meaning to tell you I-”

“Shifu!” Chengling’s terrified shout echoed through the manor.

~X~x~X~

Han Ying’s injuries were just as bad as before, that detail had not changed. Nor had the paleness of Chengling’s face that still hadn’t faded. Nor the careful way Wen Kexing applied the acupuncture needles to Han Ying’s scalp.

Now Zhou Zishu had to figure out the best way to stabilize Han Ying so they could move to the emergency base. A location further up the mountain, a deep cave hidden by vegetation. It would be the best place to hide and avoid the assassins finding them.

With a sideways glance to Wen Kexing, Zhou Zishu frowned. He also had to keep Wen Kexing from dumping all of his qi into Han Ying.

“Han Ying, what happened?” Zhou Zishu knew, but he had to try to properly gauge how much time they actually had before the agents would be within sight of the manor.

“The prince figured it out, he had some of the others attack to get this back,” Han Ying shakily reached for his inner pocket, pulling out a small, cursed piece of the glazed armor.

Zhou Zishu sighed heavily, turning away. Zhou Zishu did not bother to ask more about the armor and he did not want to hear about how Han Ying would be loyal until his death to him. 

Zhou Zishu cursed to himself for a moment; he should have tried to go further back, back to Yueyang. 

He hadn’t been thinking properly when using the pendant. 

Zhou Zishu could have stopped Han Ying from returning to the prince, could have sent him chasing after something else, anything else. Perhaps even sent him to be the messenger to get Wu Xi. He thought about using the pendant again now to do just that, but it would leave too many variables in the air. And maybe he could get things to be right this time around.

As he turned back to Han Ying, Zhou Zishu saw the pained look cross Wen Kexing’s face as he realized the armor piece on the bed was one of the fakes he had distributed.

Maybe he should have gone even further back and have stopped Wen Kexing from separating from him after they investigated the Zhao funeral home. Zhou Zishu could have stopped him from mass producing the found armor piece and maybe they could have found a more peaceful way to take care of Zhao Jing.

“I killed the ones following me, I made sure of it before coming here,” Han Ying continued with a deep, wet cough. “My Lord, Master Wen. If we can collect the rest of the armor pieces we can find the Yin Yang book and heal you, my Lord.”

Zhou Zishu bit his tongue, getting the rest of the glazed armor was the last thing on his list of things to do. He felt sick at the thought of returning to the armory and of seeing Wen Kexing’s hair turn white and body grow cold. He could not bring himself to promise Han Ying again that they would find the remaining pieces. If he never saw another piece of the armor again, it would still be too soon. 

When Wen Kexing started to lower Han Ying further onto their bed, Zhou Zishu raised his hand to stop him, shaking his head.

“Chengling,” the disciple jumped at being called, but walked over quickly to Zhou Zishu’s side. The boy had been quiet since they brought Han Ying in. Despite the grave situation earlier, he had seen a flash of a smile on his face when he had seen the hairpin in Zhou Zishu’s hair. “I need you to activate the defense statues in the courtyards. All of them. Clean the blood from the pathways. Then go and get the bundle you packed earlier.”

Chengling was good and did not question anything, only turning to the door to follow the orders.

“Chengling, wait,” Wen Kexing called, hands settled on Han Ying’s shoulders for the moment. “Also go to the kitchen, I’ve got the back-basket packed with supplies.”

With a nod, Chengling left the room to carry out his tasks.

“I didn’t think that my first time in Siji Manor would go this way,” Han Ying hummed tiredly, glancing between the two of them.

“You’ll be fine, Han Ying.” Zhou Zishu assured, wondering briefly why Wen Kexing hadn’t tried to send him away as well to look for Wu Xi and Beiyuan. In fact his love had been surprisingly quiet since he had given him the hairpin. “Lao Wen, can you stabilize him? I’ll gather our things. We’ll need to leave soon.”

“Still wanting to go on that trip, A-Xu?” Wen Kexing’s teasing sounded flat as he adjusted his palms to Han Ying’s back.

It was time to let some of the truth out.

“It’s one of the safe places for the sect. We only ever used it sparingly, but it had been maintained previously until we left.” Zhou Zishu stepped around the bed, sliding his previously dislocated arm out of its sling and his hand at the center of Wen Kexing’s back. “We can work on healing Han Ying further once we get there, so don’t overexert yourself.”

“I won’t,” Wen Kexing leaned back into his touch for a moment and Zhou Zishu hesitated in stepping away, for a moment thinking he heard a soft, “again,” from the other.

He turned to look at him, but saw his face was set and concentrated on the task at hand.

“My Lord, there’s no need for you all to leave,” Han Ying tried to assure as he tilted his head to watch as Zhou Zishu moved around the room collecting different items. “I promise you, I took care of those that followed me.”

“Ying’er, you know better than that. There will be more of them out there searching. Bi Xingming cannot put himself and the others at any more risk than they have already in helping you get out.” He pressed his lips together as he tied off a bundle with items for both himself and Wen Kexing. If he was speaking of things he shouldn’t know yet, no one would realize it in the tense moment. “You know that the prince has been searching for me. Getting rid of those that were following you had bought us a little more time.”

“I can’t risk Chengling and Lao Wen being found by them,” at this Zhou Zishu turned to look at the two by the bed. “You know how he is.”

Wen Kexing looked pale and grim faced suddenly, eyes darted to Zhou Zishu before looking back at Han Ying’s back.

Han Ying looked like he had been struck, either by a burst of qi Wen Kexing must have pushed through or from realization. He lowered his gaze from Zhou Zishu and stared down at his lap. “Then you should leave me here, I cannot slow you down or put you at risk like I have.”

“Nonsense,” Zhou Zishu winced a little, more from nearly dropping the bundle with his weakened arm than from the pain of it. “We leave together.”

As he moved to the door of the room, Wen Kexing met him and took the sack from him to place on the floor. Zhou Zishu was surprised that Wen Kexing seemed to have listened; Han Ying looked a little less pale and farther from death’s door and Wen Kexing did not seem to have lost too much of his energy.

“We should be able to leave once Chengling returns. Han Ying should be alright to walk with support if we move slowly. We should have time to get there, provided it’s not too far or hard of a journey.” Wen Kexing tilted his head, looking out of the open door and toward the courtyard. He turned to Zhou Zishu and frowned. “Though if Chengling is setting the traps, how are we going to get out?”

~X~x~X~

As Zhou Zishu was able to show them, getting out of the manor was actually a fairly simple matter. 

Before when they had been surrounded by Tian Chuang, and Wen Kexing in a perilous state, he had not dared to have Chengling try to take them out of the secret shelter within the cellar. He had barely had the time to lock and hide the door again before the assassins had made another attempt at the manor’s gates.

A secret door, under the bench in the center of the hidden shelter, was their escape fully out of the manor.

Hiding the secret room was easy enough to do as Zhou Zishu had known that they would not be returning to the manor again. Destroying the beams of the cellar’s entrance with Baiyi so it looked like it had collapsed from disrepair, he had briefly met Wen Kexing’s eyes and wondered why his Lao Wen was not pushing back more and questioning him. He wondered what Wen Kexing had intended to say before they had been interrupted earlier.

The four of them made their way through the tunnels, Chengling carrying the food and their bundles, Wen Kexing supporting Han Ying and Zhou Zishu leading them.

It was not long after dawn when they exited into a heavily forested area. It was a brief distance from there to the foliage covered cave entrance. The plants covering the cave served to both hide them from view, but would also allow them to look out if needed.

Once he had gotten them into the beginnings of the cave, he let the vines and moss that hung like a curtain drop. While the walk from the tunnel to the cave was short, they had left a trail that would need to be hidden.

“Ah, let me!” Chengling quickly came out, having set down their travel bundles within and knelt to the ground. Zhou Zishu watched with pride as his disciple sent out a brief pulse of qi, disrupting the dirt they had walked on and removing the traces of their travel. 

Zhou Zishu held out his left arm for Chengling to hold and raise himself on so he did not tumble over with the basket on his back. He had praise on the tip of his tongue when Chengling stood, but his disciple was staring oddly toward the manor. “Why are there lanterns? It’s not dark anymore.”

Zhou Zishu bit back a curse, putting his hand on Chengling’s shoulder and pushing him back into the safety of the cave.

“We’ve got to move deeper in. Then we can settle for a bit.” Zhou Zishu spoke quickly, not letting Han Ying speak, knowing that both he and Wen Kexing had heard Chengling.

After settling the others in the back, he made his way back to the front of the cave, the sound of arrows launching from the manor’s defense system growing louder with each step. 

Zhou Zishu leaned against the cool stone wall as he listened. 

He kept a hand on Baiyi’s hilt as he slid down the wall, looking back briefly to where he had left the others. Wen Kexing had been working on Han Ying again. Chengling was helping where and when he could; the boy under strict instruction to stop Wen Kexing every so often to not exhaust himself if he continued to try to heal Han Ying with his qi. They had dim lanterns with them in the main cavern, but Zhou Zishu hadn’t taken one with him, he would be going back to them before long.

He knew that it would only be a matter of time before the manor started to burn. 

From there, it was a waiting game. 

A game of cat and mouse. 

Would Tian Chuang think they had left long ago and fall back to the capital, leaving only a few spies that he and Wen Kexing could take out easily? Or would they search the surrounding forest and mountainside? 

He didn’t realize just how exhausted he was or remember the last time he actually had slept. For his body it had been nearly a full day, but for him, himself from the future, it felt like it must have been days.

Zhou Zishu figured that it wouldn’t hurt to close his eyes for just a few moments.

~X~x~X~

“Those bastards, again. They’ll pay this time.”

Jolting forward, Zhou Zishu felt the shift of fabric that had been covering him. Looking down, he saw that it was Wen Kexing’s maroon and black furred winter robe that had been placed over him.

Zhou Zishu gripped at the fabric, eyes adjusting to the lantern nearby. It was darker now, but the sky could still be somewhat seen through the leaves. Wen Kexing’s silhouette was outlined by the pinkish orange light.

“Lao Wen?” Zhou Zishu called quietly as he started to get up.

Wen Kexing was by his side in moments, hand on his elbow and arm around his back to support him. Zhou Zishu winced, muscles aching from the cold and hard surface, he wasn’t as young as he used to be, nails aside.

“You should have come back if you were so tired, A-Xu,” Wen Kexing chided gently, voice completely different than it had been previously when it was soaked in anger. “I’d have moved you myself, but I didn’t want you to wake suddenly.”

Zhou Zishu leaned into Wen Kexing, breathing deeply he found himself coughing. Wen Kexing took a few quick steps further back into the cave, easily guiding Zhou Zishu with him.

“You should rest more, A-Xu. Come, let’s-”

“They’re burning it, aren’t they?” He could not smell the smoke in the air, but his lungs could certainly feel the irritation of it. Wen Kexing stilled before nodding. 

“For a while now,” he admitted. “Han Ying told us what it is that the prince likes to rule by. ‘If he loves the sword, break it…’”

Zhou Zishu let out a brief, humorless laugh, moving to stand on his own. “‘And if he won’t leave his home, ruin it.’ I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this.”

“But you knew this time.”

Zhou Zishu nodded before the words registered.

His eyes grew wide as he looked at Wen Kexing and found his eyes looked as pained as his own felt.

“You,” his voice caught, words trapped in his throat as his mind raced.

“You brought us here this time to keep us away from them,” Wen Kexing gave a careful smile as he continued speaking, reaching out to hold Zhou Zishu’s left hand, intertwining their fingers. His other hand moved his hair away from where it stuck to his face. Wen Kexing cleared his throat, wincing slightly. “It’s been a long journey, A-Xu. I’m glad you didn’t choose to give yourself to them this time. I was afraid I’d have to do something drastic.”

“Lao Wen,” he scolded, feeling too warm suddenly despite the winter chill. He found himself coughing again too, throat burning.

Both frowned as they heard echoes of coughing further within the cave before looking out through the vines again. The glow he thought he had seen before was more of an orange now. He could see smoke hanging thick in the air above them as the wind blew outside. Zhou Zishu was fairly confident that if his hearing was better, he probably would be able to hear the sound of wood popping.

“Lao Wen,” Zhou Zishu tried to move back toward the entrance, but was stopped by Wen Kexing’s arm. He gripped the sleek fabric of his robe. “Lao Wen, they’re burning the mountain, not just the manor.”

Wen Kexing held him tight enough against his chest that Zhou Zishu had to struggle to turn and face him. His eyes were wide as they darted around the cave. 

Zhou Zishu was only able to blink before Wen Kexing’s hands found his face, one cupping his cheek, the other the back of his head. A startled moan came from his throat as Wen Kexing’s lips sealed against his. 

The desperation of the situation fully hit and Zhou Zishu gripped the front of Wen Kexing’s robes, a hand going into the man’s hair. 

Together they bumped into the stone wall, Zhou Zishu gasped at the impact and immediately started coughing again. Pulling away to rest against each other’s foreheads they held each other, quiet for the moment, knowing they had to act.

“You need to take Chengling and Han Ying and-” Zhou Zishu started and perhaps unsurprisingly, so did Wen Kexing.

Staying within each other’s arms, but moving back to see each other better in the low lantern light, they matched each other’s glares.

“You have to go with them. Lao Wen, they don’t want you. If I go-”

“If you go, you have no plans of entering the capital alive,” Wen Kexing snarled, suddenly furious.

Unsure what to say, because anything other than an agreement would be a lie, Zhou Zishu was quiet for a moment.

“If you go, you’ll only die and they’ll still come for me,” Zhou Zishu countered, feeling Wen Kexing’s hands gripping his arms bruisingly. Wetting his lips, Zhou Zishu leaned forward and kissed his beloved again for only a moment. He huffed a weak laugh, shaking his head before saying firmly. “We go together, if we are to go.”

He could see how glossy his Lao Wen’s eyes were as he nodded and his heart ached. 

Zhou Zishu toyed with the idea of using the pendant now, but hesitated. Maybe they could get past this somehow and the four of them would be able to reunite. He did not want to rely so heavily on the power of the pendant now, but if it really came down to it, like he felt in his gut; he would use the pendant again. Zhou Zishu wanted to ask more of Wen Kexing, to see if he truly remembered everything right now, but any window they had for escape was swiftly closing.

“Shifu!” Chengling’s call pulled them into action.

Moving quickly to the main cavern, Zhou Zishu cursed the low ceiling of it.

“They’re trying to force us out,” Wen Kexing huffed as he quickly repacked the few things that had been taken out of the basket. He handed the basket and one bundle to Chengling and the other travel bundle to Han Ying. “We need to get out. You both will go along the river and-”

“No,” Chengling dropped his bundle. “I-I know that look.” He pointed first at Wen Kexing and then at Zhou Zishu and Zhou Zishu hated to see the distress in his face. “I don’t want to be alone, I won’t leave.”

Zhou Zishu quickly took the boy in his arms and held him tight, words caught in his throat.

“My Lord, you can’t!” Han Ying was standing with Wen Kexing’s help.

Zhou Zishu stared him down, not answering him, but conveying what he needed.

“I-I’ll make sure Chengling is safe,” Han Ying looked down, understanding and accepting this new mission. “Until we meet up with you again.”

“No!”

Wen Kexing moved closer and joined their hug at Chengling’s cry.

“Little idiot,” Zhou Zishu worked hard to keep his voice steady. “Who said we were going to die? We’re just splitting up so it’s harder to see us all. You and Han Ying will be fine, and we will meet with you again.”

This felt worse than it did originally. Instead of fixing anything, Zhou Zishu felt like he had somehow made everything so much worse.

They split from Han Ying and Chengling immediately upon leaving the cave. Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing ran close together through the blaze of what was once a flowering forest. They were sure to make plenty of noise to draw attention to themselves and away from the others.

In all, the fight did not take long. Without proper protection from the smoke, both he and Wen Kexing were out of sorts and took injuries faster because of it.

Zhou Zishu grabbed at his arm as it bled, the swordsmen around them were silent in their strikes just as he had trained them previously. He knew that Duan Pengju was somewhere outside of the blaze, waiting for the results to appear; never wanting to get his hands dirty as always.

Zhou Zishu saw the glint of a blade behind Wen Kexing, but Wen Kexing wasn’t paying attention, eyes locked on him; worried and wild. He dropped his fan of all times to grasp at the front of his robes.

“Lao Wen!”

“A-Xu!”

Zhou Zishu’s hand flew to the pendant just under his robe. 

There would be no way for Wen Kexing to avoid the attack. And there was no way for Zhou Zishu to get to Wen Kexing’s side. It was clear there would not be a way out and he was not about to watch Wen Kexing die again.

The sky turned to a grayish-purple and the heat around Zhou Zishu died down, instead feeling very cold. The only warmth he felt was from the pendant in his palm.

He could feel the sharp edge of a sword start to slice through his shoulder and realized what Wen Kexing had been reacting to.

Closing his eyes, he knew what he needed to do. He needed to go as far back as possible. He had to make sure that he never got the idea to spread the rumors for the glazed armor. That he did not have a reason to go after Zhao Jing in the first place. Zhou Zishu needed to make sure that Wen Kexing never got to Ghost Valley. 

He felt the now familiar and welcome feeling that twisted his gut. He could see the light grow from the pendant as time was rewound.

Suddenly he hears the sound of strangely familiar voices crying out. So familiar, but ones that he had not heard in years . Ones that shouldn’t exist in the field where he was supposed to be collecting herbs for his master.

Opening his eyes, Zhou Zishu gasped as he took in the sight of what appeared to be members of Siji fighting off attackers by torch light. He was suddenly dizzy and could feel Baiyi slip from his hand as he saw Qin Jiuxiao looking at him horrified.

“Shixiong! Behind you!”

His warning came too late and Zhou Zishu felt a blade slice across his back, spinning him around as he fell.

To his surprise, he saw the somewhat younger face of the Beggar Gang’s leader, Huang He, glaring down at him, bloodied sword raised for another strike, blocked by Qin Jiuxiao.

Zhou Zishu’s back hit the ground hard. The breath knocked out of him, he could only gasp airlessly, unable to draw in a proper breath as the fighting continued on around him. 

His vision grew dark and all he could think of was how this was not right. 

This was not where or when he wanted to be. 

What did the pendant do?

Chapter Text

Zhou Zishu breathed deeply, eyebrows furrowing at the familiar scent in the air. 

The bed below him was soft and the blanket over him light, though there was a warm weight over his feet. He wanted to frown at being able to feel the texture so acutely. Instead, he kept his face still, not knowing where he was nor what had happened. Peeking one eye open, he found the room was mostly dark, only two lanterns lit across the way, but so familiar. It was the same room he and Wen Kexing had stayed in while at Siji Manor, the manor lord’s rooms.

He frowned at the ceiling, confused and trying to recall what happened.

Flames reaching high, black shadows moving easily through them and slicing at him and Wen Kexing. Wen Kexing calling out to him. Then Qin Jiuxiao calling out. A slicing pain across his back and darkness.

Zhou Zishu sat up quickly, holding his head, wincing at the ache that was forming and the twinge of pain that sparked from his back. Did he die this time? Or did he mess up and not fall back far enough? 

Taking a moment to breathe and try to calm himself, he heard a whine and looked up to see the shape of a dog at the end of the bed. 

Zhou Zishu frowned, he could not remember a time when he or his sect had kept a dog. Other than the one brief time…

“Yiguo?” Zhou Zishu tried to call quietly, but found his voice was raspier than he expected. He tried to clear his throat and ended up coughing. The dog sat up further, barked once before jumping down off the bed and running to the door, pawing it open and letting light creep into the lowly lit room.

“No,” Zhou Zishu winced, rubbing his forehead. Yiguo was given to Wen Kexing, to Zhen Yan. He was lost to time.

And yet…and yet his mind easily conjured memories of him playing with a dog in the courtyard, sitting with one out by one of the plum trees in the orchard, and splashing through a stream while fishing.

But that had not happened. Zhou Zishu shook his head, laying himself back down against the soft blankets. This was the first time since he had been in the armory that he had all of his senses fully back and it was overwhelming.

He touched his chest, looking for the pendant. It only took a moment for panic to flood through him as he found nothing. No skin warmed chain. No gem near his heart. No pendant. Sitting up again, he looked around and started patting the blankets, trying to see if it was nearby.

He nearly missed the sound of scrambling paws coming back followed by footsteps that were too loud to be Wen Kexing and too steady to be Chengling.

“You better be right this time, or you really are going in a pot!” Zhou Zishu’s eyes shot open and he turned to the door in time to see it open and Qin Jiuxiao walked in. The same dog as before ran to the bed and sniffed at him before turning and barking again at Qin Jiuxiao.

“Shixiong!” Qin Jiuxiao hurred over and sat on the side of the bed, quickly putting a hand on his shoulder and another on his forehead, checking for a temperature. “How are you feeling? It’s been so long!”

You have no idea, Zhou Zishu snorted before waving his hands away. He tried to speak but the ache in his throat made him cough instead, making him remember the fire and smoke that had surrounded him and Wen Kexing previously.

He wasn’t able to think further on his love as Qin Jiuxiao procured some tea, helping him to sit up further and offered him a cup.

“Sorry, it’s not hot, but I can get someone to get more soon.”

Zhou Zishu shook his head at the apology and focused more on taking small sips, wincing as the bitter flavors of the medicinal tea flooded his mouth. Perhaps it served him right that the first thing he would properly taste in months be this way.

“What happened? There was this necklace-” His mind was jumbled and he was so confused. Where was Chengling and Han Ying? Where was Wen Kexing? Why was Qin Jiuxiao here? Why had his senses returned?

“Ah, yeah, weird.” Qin Jiuxiao left his side for a moment, crossing the dim room. He lit a few more lanterns, and picked something up from the vanity. Coming back, he offered it to Zhou Zishu who traded the now empty cup for the pendant. “We found this on you after the fight. But I’ve never seen you wear this before.”

Zhou Zishu had a hard time processing the words once the pendant was back in his hands. He gripped it tightly as the dog whined and bumped its head against the hand Zhou Zishu had rested on the bed after trading the cup with Qin Jiuxiao to refill. Feeling calmer with the necklace in his hands again, his eyebrows furrowed as he moved to pet its head.

“Where did this dog come from?”

The sound of shattered ceramic made Zhou Zishu look up and see Qin Jiuxiao’s face turn pale as his eyes grew wide.

“This dog?” Zhou Zishu frowned as the younger man shook his head in disbelief. “Oh wow. Sanguo, you stay here. I’ll…I’ll get Lao Bi.”

The dog barked and its tail wagged as Qin Jiuxiao fled the room.

“Sanguo?” Zhou Zishu asked to the empty room. The dog jumped on the bed and laid down next to him. 

He was left with his thoughts that were quickly spiraling.

If he was not a child like he had planned then when was he? Had he really managed to go back to the time before he had led his sect into the hands of Prince Jin?

Looking down at the pendant, he felt no power come from it. He had tried to focus and see if he could coax some form of energy from it, but found none. The once blue gem was now completely blood red. 

If he was stuck in the past and about to watch the downfall of his sect again as they were relentlessly attacked…then did that mean Wen Kexing was in Ghost Valley?

He knew the answer to that and it felt like a cold stone had dropped into his stomach at the thought.

His confusion was not alleviated for some time, not until Qin Jiuxiao returned with Bi Changfeng.

“Jiuxiao, he’s disoriented,” Bi Changfeng said exasperatedly once seeing Zhou Zishu sitting up in bed petting Sanguo. “He’s been unconscious for three weeks, he just needs time to adjust.”

Zhou Zishu’s breath caught at seeing Bi Changfeng. The last he had seen the man, he had been furiously disappointed and Zhou Zishu had buried seven nails into his chest. The man in front of him looked younger than he had last seen him and now that he thought of it, so did Qin Jiuxiao.

“Sorry, my Lord,” Bi Changfeng bowed a little. “You know how Jiuxiao gets.”

Zhou Zishu shook his head, hesitating for a moment; caught between needing answers and not wanting to worry the two people who were more like ghosts to him than living beings anymore; before deciding to barrel forward and ask, “When do we leave for Jin?”

“Jin?” This made Bi Changfeng’s eyebrow raise and Qin Jiuxiao looked around the man. “Why would we go to Jin now?”

Zhou Zishu looked up from the dog’s fur, still not sure where it came from or what its significance was.

“Hasn’t the prince sent a request for us to aid him?”

Bi Changfeng didn’t swear often in Zhou Zishu’s memory, but the string of words out of his mouth now nearly made him blush.

“See,” Qin Jiuxiao hissed to the older man. “Something’s not right!”

“You said he didn’t hit his head,” Bi Changfeng shot back.

“I didn’t see it! It was dark!”

Suddenly Bi Changfeng’s words from earlier clicked to Zhou Zishu.

“Three weeks?”

“This is going to take a while.” The sect elder dragged his hand down his face before sending Qin Jiuxiao out of the room to get more tea. “You were helping defend the village at the base of the mountain from a Beggar Gang group. Qin Jiuxiao said that you were fighting fine, like always and suddenly you just stopped.” The older man shrugged. “You were attacked from behind and fell to the ground. This is the first you’ve woken.”

Zhou Zishu could not believe he had somehow lost three weeks in this weird time he had trapped himself in.

“And for the matter of the prince’s request?” Bi Changfeng sighed heavily. “That came through nearly five years ago. You sent the messenger back saying that you were needed here.”

“But the sect was in danger,” Zhou Zishu shook his head frowning, he had known that at the time, the prince’s offer had felt like the only possible option to save his sect. “Why would I have done that?”

Bi Changfeng eyed him warily. “Let’s wait for Jiuxiao to bring us the tea.” Another deep sigh. “We have a lot to talk about.”

~X~x~X~

“So,” Qin Jiuxiao asked as he helped Zhou Zishu lower himself to sit at the table on the far side of the room. “Where do we start?”

Bi Changfeng hadn’t stopped frowning, since Qin Jiuxiao had left for the tea, but he did sigh loudly now.

“Do you know how old you are?”

“Lao Bi, of course he does-” Bi Changfeng raised a hand to quiet Qin Jiuxiao.

Zhou Zishu thought for a moment. The obvious wrong answer was that he was twenty-nine. That was how old he was when he had gotten the pendant. However this body hadn’t suffered the way his previous one had.

“Older than fifteen. I know that Shifu…” He gestured around the room as Qin Jiuxiao bit his lip, obviously Zhou Zishu would not be in the manor lord’s rooms if their shifu was still alive.

“Okay,” Qin Jiuxiao leaned back in his chair, moving his hair out of his face with one hand. “So that’s seven years he doesn’t remember. Ah,” he sat up a little and looked at Zhou Zishu directly. “You’re twenty-two as of a few months ago.” Turning back to Bi Changfeng. “So it could be, ah, worse. I guess.

Bi Changfeng shook his head before pointing at the dog that had laid itself across Zhou Zishu’s feet once he had settled in his chair.

“Do you know where he came from?”

Zhou Zishu couldn’t help the blank look he gave them. He had had flashes of memories in his confusion earlier of growing up with dogs that looked similar to this one, but he didn’t have anything he could say with surety.

“Do you remember Yiguo?”

At this question Zhou Zishu nodded once before biting his lower lip. Yiguo had been a puppy he had found while traveling with his master before they had found the Zhen family. He had given Yiguo to Zhen Yan and then returned to the manor without the dog. Why would these two know of him?

Giving himself a few more moments before talking, Zhou Zishu took the cup that was in front of him in hand. Zhen Yan and his family had always been a sensitive topic in the sect as they were his master’s greatest regret in being unable to save them or find their son. Swirling the steaming liquid he focused on it as he carefully said, “I gave him to Zhen Yan. That was the last I saw him.”

Glancing up from the cup he was confused by the looks on their faces. Bi Changfeng lowered his head into his hand and sounded vaguely like he was praying to his ancestors. Qin Jiuxiao looked pale again, his face twisted in a cringe.

“Ah, so that’s about, gods, was that twelve years ago?” Qin Jiuxiao spoke almost to himself instead of Zhou Zishu.

Zhou Zishu wondered at what exactly could have happened to have caused such rifts in what they thought was his memory. As the two across from him leaned together and whispered, he didn’t try to listen in; instead attempting to straighten things out for himself regarding the pendant and the time traveling.

He had intended to return to the day he met Wen Kexing as Zhen Yan. 

He had wanted to try to protect the Zhen family, either by offering to stay with them until Qin Huaizhang was able to return or by taking them back to Siji Manor with him, perhaps they would have to travel slower due to Zhen Ruyu’s injuries or have gotten a carriage. At the very least, he had wanted to save Zhen Yan. 

Even if he always remained Zhen Yan and did not turn into the man he loved. If Zhen Yan was able to live happily and relatively carefree instead of being abused and hungry for vengeance against the world, Zhou Zishu would have been happy.

As he had found, he had not traveled back nineteen years, he somehow had only gone back seven years and yet somehow things were drastically different.

“Alright,” Bi Changfeng’s hand landing on the table startled Zhou Zishu more than he wanted to admit. “We start from there, then. With Yiguo. If your head starts to bother you, we can stop and resume at another point.”

Qin Jiuxiao took his cup and sipped at it as Bi Changfeng sat up further, looking to Zhou Zishu for a response. He quickly nodded his head, he could handle a headache, he needed information more.

“Twelve years ago, you returned by yourself, saying that your shifu would return after the winter with a new family to add to the sect. You had been so excited, telling everyone about your shidi, and how you couldn’t wait for him to come home.”

Zhou Zishu nodded, silent. That he remembered painfully, before he had tried to bury the memories of Zhen Yan and the pain and disappointment that followed when his master returned alone.

“Huaizhang returned later than expected, several weeks into spring. You had run to greet him, only to find no Zhen Yan, just a puppy. Yiguo,” Bi Changfeng took a sip of his own cup, clearing his throat. “You were rarely seen without Yiguo, he lived a good life for the mutt that he was.”

That was different. He in all honesty had nearly forgotten about Yiguo until Wen Kexing had been talking about him during the fall they spent at Siji together.

“You picked out a resting spot for him by the orchard. His son is out there too,” Qin Jiuxiao laughed a little now. “You never got better at naming the dogs though, did he, Sanguo?”

Zhou Zishu snorted at that and patted the dog’s raised head. “Sanguo makes perfect sense for his name,” he felt like this was a common thing he had to defend.

“Qin Huaizhang never stopped looking for Zhen Yan, despite the gruesome fate of the village and the child’s parents,” Bi Changfeng crossed his arms. “Zhen Yan was his second disciple, his spot still sits empty. You have also never stopped looking, though the trails ran dry early on. You always kept an ear out and Jiuxiao started following you around and looking as soon as he could help you. The only thing that brought you both back to the sect was Huaizhang’s sickness.”

The three bowed their heads for a moment, Zhou Zishu felt rather out of place at the moment.

“After he passed, neighboring sects started trying to take our land. They wanted the farm fields and orchards. They wanted to try to blackmail us into getting information for them,” Zhou Zishu nodded. This all was sounding vaguely the same as he remembered. “You led the sect well at the time-”

“And still do!” Qin Jiuxiao butted in with a grin before being swatted by Bi Changfeng.

“You led us well, but it became hard, very hard. There was a time where some of our brothers started looking to leave the sect. Our injuries and losses were growing, barely able to hold our own in a fight. We were outnumbered. The letter from the prince of Jin arrived and you secluded yourself for a week,” Bi Changfeng shrugged, sitting back suddenly. “Then one night during another attempted raid, help came from an unexpected source. We won that night.”

Zhou Zishu tilted his head now and frowned. That was not right. Help never came. They had never gotten help from anyone, their previous allies had either turned on them or were caught in the complex web of the sect hierarchy and unable to help.

“The helpers were dressed darkly, they disappeared as quickly as they came. It wasn’t until the next morning that a young woman showed up outside of the sect.”

“Liu Qianqiao! She wore these really pretty teal robes, remember?” Qin Jiuxiao cut in excitedly again, leaning closer to Zhou Zishu.

“Do you wish to take over?” Bi Changfeng looked over in annoyance while Qin Jiuxiao laughed.

“No, no, no,” he didn’t even try to sound apologetic. “I just thought that if we give Shixiong more detail, it might spark something from his memory!”

Liu Qianqiao. That was a shock. Zhou Zishu wondered to himself what she could have possibly been doing outside of Siji Manor when, if he was right in remembering things from the proper timeline, she should have been in Ghost Valley.

Bi Changfeng waved his hand dismissively at Qin Jiuxiao. “She came because her master wanted to talk to you about an alliance. But she had refused to say what her sect was, only that you follow her.” Shaking his head again, the sect elder sighed, an annoyed smile on his face as he looked at Zhou Zishu. “You barely consulted the elders and went off with her. We tried to tell you to wait, but you weren’t having any of it. Only Jiuxiao and I went with you. I’m not sure I’ve seen you so desperate before. But I could understand it, despite how wary I was. We hadn’t had a true ally in years.”

“That sounds…right, I suppose,” Zhou Zishu winced, looking down at his tea. If another option other than uprooting his sect from their beloved home had been available at the time, he knows he would have explored it thoroughly. Siji Manor never had outright enemies, but as sect’s creed was to know all, and his shifu’s status as a wandering hero in his youth, the sect often looked into disappearances from concerned families and others were not so glad that they looked into these people, wanting them to stay gone for a reason after all.

When he looked up, he saw the two exchanging another glance. “What is it?”

Qin Jiuxiao seemed to take over for now as Bi Changfeng took a long sip.

“The person we met with was the Ghost Valley Master.” 

Zhou Zishu jolted in his seat, eyes wide. There would be no possible way that that could be true. “Why would Ghost Valley…?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure. You asked why at the time, but the Valley Master just said that once you remembered the hairpin’s meaning, it would make sense.” Qin Jiuxiao scratched the back of his head.

“He gave me a hairpin?” Zhou Zishu’s mind was racing, with the implications of such an action. It was too early for Wen Kexing to be the Valley Master, if Zhou Zishu was twenty-two. He had not risen to power until only a few years prior to their first meeting in Yue.

“No,” Bi Changfeng coughed. “Heavens, no. It didn’t make sense at the time, and it still doesn’t now.”

Qin Jiuxiao looked like he wanted to say something else about it, opening his mouth a few different times before he bit his lip.

“What, Jiuxiao?” Zhou Zishu narrowed his eyes. He would know even now if he was lying. It didn’t matter how many years it had been since Zhou Zishu had seen Qin Jiuxiao alive and well. After helping to raise the man, he would always be able to tell if he was hiding something.

“Ah, it’s stupid, and you already said you’ve explored the idea before,” Qin Jiuxiao sighed, knowing he could not keep quiet anymore and leaning on the table to pour more tea. “I’ve always thought he was talking about the hairpin you got from Zhen Yan.”

“The what?” That hadn’t happened. He had given Zhen Yan the puppy that his shifu found in this apparently different timeline. But the timeline should not have changed yet, Zhou Zishu had only been in it for three weeks and not the seventeen years he had planned on to fix things.

“You know the one that he-ah, maybe you don’t remember that too?” Qin Jiuxiao looked over at Bi Changfeng who shook his head. “It’s something you’ve kept with you. I’m not sure where it is now, but you nearly killed me when we were younger and I dropped it.” Qin Jiuxiao said with a faint laugh to his voice, even now leaning away from Zhou Zishu as if he expected to be cuffed for the previous offense.

“Anyways,” Bi Changfeng cut in. “You had explored the thought that perhaps Zhen Yan was a resident in Ghost Valley. You and a few others had searched for answers while visiting the first time and found none. You haven’t brought up the possibility in the last few years.

Zhou Zishu’s head felt heavy, the ache from earlier growing. He kept his face neutral to it though, he couldn’t let them in on that he was not feeling well. He needed these answers.

“The Valley Master said it was a very simple alliance. He would help supply Siji Manor with fighters as needed. We would help him with cleaning out the valley of the truly troublesome ghosts,” Bi Changfeng started again. “Then the Valley Master requested us take in some women and men that he felt did not belong in Ghost Valley, he wanted our help in helping them to rehabilitate and join the human world again.” 

Another headshake from Bi Changfeng. “That was something I had laughed at out right, and yet you agreed. That if, after you observed the people, you would offer them a second chance. In fact, you’ve even been teaching them the disguise and make-up arts with the help of Liu Qianqiao when she visits.”

“The past four years, we’ve had several people successfully rehabilitate and move on into other towns and villages. We’ve been training the ghosts alongside our own disciples and have sent some disciples to be trained with the ghosts. It’s all worked out rather well, despite my misgivings. The two of you have agreed to meet at the start of each season to swap ghosts and disciples for training and to share information.”

He had to be hallucinating.

This could not actually be the reality he had gone back to.

Maybe he was even still dreaming.

Because this was the exact plan he and Wen Kexing had discussed before Gu Xiang’s wedding.

“What was the Valley Master’s name?” Zhou Zishu asked, wondering if his voice was giving him away.

“He’s never told us,” Bi Changfeng rolled his eyes. “Though you also never asked, he’s always referred to you so familiarly.”

QIn Jiuxiao laughed a little, somehow the both of them were completely unaware of the sudden turmoil Zhou Zishu found himself in. Only Sanguo seemed to sense something was wrong, as he lifted his head from where it rested on his paws to stare at him. “Yeah and you’ve always corrected him. Every time we see him, you always remind him,  ‘My name is Zhou Zishu, Valley Master.’ and then redirect the conversation.”

“What did he try to call me?” Zhou Zishu knew that he should not let his hope get this high. But his mind was buzzing and if it really was him…

“What,” Zhou Zishu asked again, turning to Qin Jiuxiao. The room was spinning and he found that he was suddenly sweating. “Does he call me?”

At this, Qin Jiuxiao frowned a little and leaned toward him, shooting a quick look to Bi Changfeng who started to get out of his chair.

“Are you alright?”

“Fine, I’m fine,” Zhou Zishu grit out, trying to focus on his breathing, but unable to think of anything other than that the Valley Master was-

“He calls you A-Xu.”

-Wen Kexing.

Chapter Text

Opening his eyes, Zhou Zishu saw the clear blue sky over his head and let out a contented sigh. Maybe playing wasn’t so bad or maybe Zhen Yan was suggesting fun games.

Zhou Zishu had decided earlier that afternoon that this was the best day of his life. Well, right after becoming shifu’s disciple that is. This was a close second though.

Yiguo wandered over to where he lay, drying off after playing in the river and skipping stones, and plopped down wearily. Zhou Zishu laughed and rolled over to pet the tired pup and looked for his new friend who shouldn’t have been far behind. Sitting up, he found him crouched down by the slow moving river.

“Zhen Yan,” he called out. Instead of responding or turning around, Zhou Zishu noticed that Zhen Yan’s shoulders started to shake. Frowning, he got up and walked over to him quietly. He remembered that when he had walked into the small home the family inhabited that the other boy had been crying then as well. Zhou Zishu still didn’t know what had made him so upset, but he had thought they were having fun.

“Zhen Yan?” Worried, he crouched down and touched the younger boy’s shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

“A-Xu!” The boy turned suddenly and grabbed onto his shoulders.

Zhou Zishu noticed how red Zhen Yan’s eyes had turned and how distressed he looked, but was not able to do much other than follow the sudden momentum and fall back into the shallow water with Zhen Yan on top of him.

Sputtering as he sat up, Zhou Zishu frowned, more worried.

“Zhen Yan? What happened?”

The boy looked like he had been stricken as he scrambled off of Zhou Zishu, breathing heavily. When Zhou Zishu tried to approach him again, Zhen Yan held up a hand to keep him back.

“Sorry, sorry,” Zhen Yan muttered, staring at the ground as he lowered his hand that clenched into a fist at his side. “I…just remembered something from before.” Zhen Yan looked up at him, with eyes searching.

Zhou Zishu could tell Zhen Yan probably meant something from that, but based on how he had been scared and crying earlier, Zhou Zishu figured it was probably best not to ask further about it.

“I’m sorry,” he started, as that seemed like the sort of thing he should say. “Do you want to take a break for now? Or keep playing?”

Zhen Yan’s eyes shined with tears and Zhou Zishu worried that he said the wrong thing. He raised his hands and reached out, not sure what to do, but Zhen Yan turned away and roughly rubbed at his eyes with his sleeve.

“Let’s…Keep playing,” Zhen Yan paused between words, but after turning back to Zhou Zishu, smiling at him. It almost looked half as happy as it had earlier. Zhou Zishu resolved that he would have to fix that.

~X~x~X~

The next morning, Zhou Zishu woke up and helped Gu Miaomiao with gathering what was needed for breakfast. Zhen Yan was fast on his feet after him, following and helping as Yiguo trailed after them.

Shifu had gone ahead the night before to start traveling to the next town, telling Zhou Zishu to return to the manor the next day and to help set up the area that the Zhen family would be staying in. 

Zhou Zishu, while disappointed that his travel time with his shifu was getting cut short, was thrilled about having a shidi. And sure, Qin Jiuxiao would also be a shidi to him but that wouldn’t be until he was a bit older.

Shifu wouldn’t be able to return to the sect with the Zhens until spring, a whole season away, but it gave Zhou Zishu plenty of time to ask the others in the sect about how to be the best senior.

While they waited for breakfast, Zhen Yan had asked if he could show him some of the moves he would learn once he got to Siji Manor. Zhou Zishu was more than happy to show him, explaining each step.

Gu Miaomiao packed him some additional food for the road back to Siji and instructed Zhen Yan to walk him into town. As they walked to town, Yiguo in Zhou Zishu’s arms again, he had expected Zhen Yan to talk and talk like he had the day before, but instead he was quiet. He felt bad that he wouldn’t be able to see Zhen Yan again for a while and wanted to make sure he had a friend until they were able to be together again.

“Shidi,” Zhou Zishu called out, stopping as they got closer to town, able to just barely hear the noises of the market. When Zhen Yan turned, Zhou Zishu thrust out his arms and put Yiguo into Zhen Yan’s. The other fumbled for only a moment, but held tightly to the dog’s brown fur. “I want you to take care of Yiguo for me. Then you both can come to Siji Manor and Shifu won’t be able to joke about cooking him anymore.”

A smile cracked on Zhen Yan’s face and he set Yiguo on the ground.

“Thank you, Shixiong.” Zhou Zishu stopped Zhen Yan’s bow halfway down.

“There’s no need to thank me.” The smile felt rewarding enough.

Zhen Yan hummed, before nodding and taking the jade hair pin out of his hair and presenting it to Zhou Zishu. “I want you to have this, then.”

“I,” Zhou Zishu took half a step back, startled. “I’m not sure you’re understanding what that means. I can’t accept that.”

“I know exactly what it means.” Zhen Yan laughed, a little oddly this time, but pushed the hairpin against Zhou Zishu’s chest. His smile was fond then, as Zhou Zishu caught the hairpin carefully when Zhen Yan moved back. “And you will someday too. I think you’ll remember.”

Remember?

Before Zhou Zishu could voice his question, Zhen Yan suddenly hugged him tightly. Instinctively Zhou Zishu hugged him back just as hard.

“Don’t worry about me, okay?” the words were only slightly muffled by Zhou Zishu’s robes.

“Zhen Yan,” Zhou Zishu sighed a laugh, rocking the younger while still holding him. “It’s only for the winter. I’ll see you in the spring. I promise.”

“Spring,” Zhen Yan’s laugh sounded a bit off again. “That sounds about right.”

The younger boy stepped back nodding to himself and Zhou Zishu felt bad all over again for having to leave at all, but he couldn’t go against his shifu’s orders.

Zhen Yan smiled suddenly and repeated himself again. “Don’t worry, Shixiong. I’ll be okay and remember what you taught me. I’ll see you in the spring.”

Zhou Zishu smiled back, and nodded before turning and starting his trek back to the manor to start preparations.

~X~x~X~

Zhou Zishu sat up panting and found himself back in his bed in Siji Manor, alone.

He scrambled out of the blankets and went straight for the mirrored table in the corner. His mind was on autopilot as he dropped to his knees and felt along the underside of the table until he felt the slightest give of a button. A moment later a box dropped into his hand and he sat back in the low light of the room’s lamps to see an ornately carved box. Carefully opening it, his breath caught at what he found inside.

The hairpin.

The same jade hairpin that was actually the armory key in disguise.

The hairpin that Wen Kexing had ever so carefully threaded through his hair after saving him from the Tian Chuang torture chamber.

The hairpin that he now clearly remembered being given to by Zhen Yan the last he had seen him.

Somehow, some way, Wen Kexing had gone back in time and he had changed everything.

Standing shakily, he kept hold of the hairpin as he dressed himself quickly. The blue of the Siji robes soft on his skin, Zhou Zishu stopped in front of the mirror and considered his hair for a moment, before pulling it up into the half up style he had grown to like and placing the hairpin neatly into it.

He searched momentarily before finding a small purse with enough coins to get him through a few days on the road and one of his cloaks for traveling. Flipping the hood to the cloak over his head he turned toward the door to his rooms.

The most important thing now would be to find Wen Kexing again.

He was not sure the time, but it looked like he may have slept for another day. He would have to be careful getting out of the sect unseen as he was sure that with the scare he had given Qin Jiuxiao and Bi Changfeng, they would sooner knock him out and hogtie him before letting him leave the manor so soon.

He was surprised however that Sanguo had not been with him when he woke up, but figured the two had taken the dog with them.

Taking quiet steps closer to the door of his room he listened carefully for the sound of anyone nearby. Hearing a resounding silence, he let out a slow breath and opened the doors.

“Do you think sneaking out is going to be that easy, Shixiong?”

Chapter Text

Zhou Zishu found himself back on his bed with Qin Jiuxiao sitting across from him. 

Qin Jiuxiao eyed him up and down, the hood of the cloak down.

“You seemed to have remembered something I take it?”

Zhou Zishu nodded.

Qin Jiuxiao nodded too, eyes on the jade pin in his hair.

“Something to do with the Ghost Valley Master?

He nodded again, unsure of what to say.

Nothing was said about the relaxed styling of his hair, something he had never done prior in his time with Siji Manor. It was not something he had started until he freed himself from Prince Jin.

Sitting this close to Qin Jiuxiao, for the first time in years for him, was a strange comfort. There was no reverence in his eyes, there was no spite or distrust. This Qin Jiuxiao was just staring at him like he was a brother and a friend. One that clearly knew him well enough to be onto his escape scheme. It was so strange to have a different Qin Jiuxiao, but according to Bi Changfeng, this one had been helping him to find Zhen Yan and that meant a lot to him.

“Do you even know where you’re going?”

Ah, right, memory loss. And in some ways, he really had lost his memory of what had happened since things had changed. Perhaps those memories would come back to him, but that wasn’t his main concern right now.

“Mount Qingya,” That was obvious enough to show he knew the location of the valley he figured.

“Yes,” Qin Jiuxiao laughed and rolled his eyes. “But do you know how to get there?”

Frowning, Zhou Zishu reached out swiftly and flicked Qin Jiuxiao’s forehead.

“So you make fun of me for making my hairpin, but you both seem to have gotten matching jewelry.” Qin Jiuxiao said after wincing and rubbing his forehead, smile not leaving his face. 

“What do you mean?” Zhou Zishu frowned and the other squinted at him for a moment.

“Right, memories. I figured you remembered the pendant when you were asking for that one,” Qin Jiuxiao gestured at the outline that could be seen under Zhou Zishu’s robe. “That and because you were running off to go find him, and all. He’s got one just like it, though his is blue. And seeing that yours is red, I figured you exchanged them to resemble each other’s ‘sects’.” He shrugged as he explained. “Valley Master always wears his and plays with it rather obnoxiously.” 

Zhou Zishu was quiet for a moment, thinking. It was evident that Wen Kexing had been able to travel back, but how did he get a pendant? Did it still have any power, unlike Zhou Zishu’s?

“So…are you guys finally going to announce an engagement?”

The question made Zhou Zishu cough suddenly, saliva going down his throat wrong with the sudden intake of breath. It made Qin Jiuxiao lean back and wave his arms.

“Ah, you always said that you weren’t seeing him, but I mean. I have eyes, Shixiong. I’ve seen the way he looks at you and you him. But you’ve always insisted there was nothing. And yet…” Qin Jiuxiao’s eyes rose again to the hairpin neatly pinned through his hair.

Zhou Zishu wondered how he was supposed to explain himself to Qin Jiuxiao. He deserved an explanation, but he had to talk to Wen Kexing, see him again first.

”I…can’t tell you now,” he said quietly, shaking his head. “But I will explain everything after I’ve talked to him.”

Well, maybe not everything, but Zhou Zishu was sure he could come up with a reasonable explanation for Qin Jiuxiao.

“Ah, sure. Talking is all you’re going to be doing.”

It took a moment for Zhou Zishu to register the teasing tone in Qin Jiuxiao’s voice, and an additional moment for his hand to fly out and pinch at his arm.

The two laughed together for a moment, and Zhou Zishu found that he had missed having this with Qin Jiuxiao. He was so glad for a second chance now. The laughter died down and Qin Jiuxiao adopted an oddly serious expression for himself.

“Lao Bi’s already told everyone to bring you back to your room if you’re caught outside. He doesn’t want word of your memory loss to spread outside of the sect. And while we do trust the rehabilitating ghosts, he wants to be careful.” He explained. “I want to help you get to Valley Master, but I’m not sure how to get you out of the manor.”

Zhou Zishu nodded. It made sense, a manor lord with no memories wandering around was a liability. Even if he didn’t lose everything, things were different now. He wouldn’t know if a friend was still a friend or if they were a foe now. But he had to see Wen Kexing, he needed to find him.

“You both had said that we had seasonal meetings. When is the next one?” Zhou Zishu thought quickly.

“The next one was pushed back due to your injury, it’s in a couple weeks. It’ll be the spring meeting.” Qin Jiuxiao put a hand to his chin. “You’re supposed to go to the valley this time, but I’m not sure if Lao Bi will let you go now, probably not until you have more memories back.”

Of course. Zhou Zishu held back a laugh.

It had been spring when they met again in Yue and it was spring again now.

On one hand, that wouldn’t be that far away, compared to how long Wen Kexing had potentially been waiting for him. But on the other, he could not let Wen Kexing wait any longer, it felt cruel.

“I have to go sooner than that,” Zhou Zishu shook his head, knowing this would be hard.

Before Qin Jiuxiao could say anything else, the distant sound of the entrance gong could be heard.

Both stood to walk to the door, but Qin Jiuxiao put a hand out and stopped Zhou Zishu from advancing.

“You stay here,” Qin Jiuxiao said slowly like he was talking to the dog, a stupid grin on his face.

Zhou Zishu frowned and somehow refrained from sticking his tongue out at the younger man as he walked out of the room, but left the door open.

And if the door was left open, of course Zhou Zishu would go through it.

~X~x~X~

Zhou Zishu found himself relieved that the past him hadn't changed the normal patrol patterns. He easily evaded his sect brothers and their disciples, stopping in the shadows only for a moment to admire the fact that they were alive and take note of the new faces and the ghosts training with them.

It was not until he was over the wall and had snuck into the forest near the manor that he let himself breathe for a moment.

That breath was soon caught when he heard barking and quickly threw himself up one of the trees. Looking through them, he was able to see people on the path to the manor. 

Bi Changfeng, Qin Jiuxiao and…Han Ying?

Han Ying was looking at them annoyed as the other two blocked his path. Zhou Zishu took note of the dark clothing and red sash that he wore that looked similar to what the ghosts he had seen training wore.

There was another bark, much closer this time and Zhou Zishu looked down to find Sanguo staring up at him from the ground. 

He wanted to bang his head against the trunk of the tree for a moment before he saw Qin Jiuxiao smirk and whistle for the dog to come back.

“Valley Master is going to be annoyed,” Han Ying complained, glaring at Bi Changfeng and Qin Jiuxiao.

“Valley Master is early. Also Lord Zhou was supposed to be seeing him in a few weeks at Mount Qingya.” Bi Changfeng griped back. “Why has he come here now?”

“He heard about Lord Zhou’s injury and didn’t want to potentially aggravate it by making him travel for the spring meeting.”

“Lord Zhou is quite busy, he will travel to Mount Qingya as planned later in the month.” Bi Changfeng lied plainly. “You can tell Valley Master that he can wait until then.”

Han Ying huffed. “Don’t blame me if he tries to storm the manor looking for him, then.”

Bi Changfeng looked vaguely like he wanted to strangle Han Ying or maybe the Valley Master. Zhou Zishu watched as Qin Jiuxiao laughed again and stepped in front of Bi Changfeng.

“Don’t worry, Lao Bi. I’ll go down with Han Ying to the Zhou Mansion and smooth things over. How about you and Sanguo head back inside?”

While Zhou Zishu wondered at what the Zhou Mansion was, Bi Changfeng raised his hand dismissively and then whistled for Sanguo to follow.

Han Ying rolled his eyes and turned to start walking down but was stopped by Qin Jiuxiao’s raised hand just as Zhou Zishu was wondering how to get past them and find where Wen Kexing was in the village below the mountain.

“Shixiong,” Qin Jiuxiao called out once Bi Changfeng was well enough away. Zhou Zishu tightened his grip on the tree branch he held to. “You can come out now, Han Ying and I can take you into town.”

Han Ying only seemed mildly surprised to see him drop from the tree. He bowed as Zhou Zishu approached. Zhou Zishu made sure that his hood was still over his head for the time being.

“Sneaking around the manor, Shixiong?” Qin Jiuxiao teased, bumping their shoulders together. 

“Just testing the security,” he bumped Qin Jiuxiao’s shoulder back with a grin. “If Sanguo and you were the only ones aware, then I think we’ll need to increase the patrols and training.”

“My Lord, I hope you’re feeling better.” Han Ying spoke quickly. “Valley Master has been in town for a few days. He wanted to make sure that you were well and talk over if you needed more allies sent.”

Zhou Zishu nodded, frustrated with himself for losing time unconscious when he could have gotten to Wen Kexing faster.

As they made their way down the mountain, Zhou Zishu wanted to ask how Han Ying ended up in Ghost Valley, but was unable to ask. He knew that part of the reason Bi Changfeng was not allowing the Valley Master into the sect was because Zhou Zishu had seemingly lost his memories…Which technically he had: the ones he had from this new life were fragmented at best.

Thankfully, Qin Jiuxiao prompted Han Ying to fill the silence by asking leading questions to give Zhou Zishu the information he was missing. Finding out that the Valley Master took him in off the streets along with several other orphans at the time and how he’s excited for his time to come to study at the manor again in the coming summer.

“And the Zhou Mansion is doing well, yes?” Qin Jiuxiao asked. Zhou Zishu hid his smile at his shidi’s attempts to keep him informed and Han Ying’s confused face.

“Yes, it’s been fine the last few days, though wouldn’t you know more about it?”

“Ah, yes, of course!” Qin Jiuxiao laughed and knocked himself on the head. “I know the estate isn’t very old, but I want to make sure that it was up to Valley Master’s standards for a place to stay when away from the valley!”

Han Ying looked over at Zhou Zishu, concerned about Qin Jiuxiao, to which Zhou Zishu could only shake his head and shrug.

“It’s also located just a little outside the village, but right at the bottom of the path. It’s private, yet has the convenience of being so close to the village and so it’s easy for us to go and meet with him when needed.” Qin Jiuxiao continued. “Like right now!”

“Yes, yes,” then Han Ying leaded over to Zhou Zishu and whispered. “Did he knock his head in the last fight, my Lord?”

Zhou Zishu chuckled and shook his head again. “No, he’s just up to his usual antics, ignore him.”

Han Ying nodded and continued keeping pace with him.

Han Ying explained that the Valley Master had flown into a rage at hearing of the latest attack on Siji Manor. That he had ordered for a contingent of ghosts to prepare to leave and head to Siji in case they were needed. Han Ying had been sent ahead of them to act as a messenger and the man had been surprised when the Valley Master accompanied him, as he had expected him to travel with the larger group that was still preparing to leave.

Zhou Zishu, while glad to see the two interacting, in kinder ways than they had when they both had been under him in Tian Chuang, wanted to hurry down the mountainside now that he knew exactly where to find his Lao Wen. At their current pace, he could hope that they would be near the base of the mountain sometime in the afternoon.

~X~x~X~

As they approached, Zhou Zishu felt his breath catch in his throat. He could see the rooftops of the buildings as they descended, four in total. Ones that he learned from Qin Jiuxiao’s educational ramblings were a main building, one for housing any women from the Valley that wanted to stay there, another for the men and a third for the Valley Master.

Entering through the gates, Zhou Zishu’s eyes flew around, not seeing anyone even as they stepped into the main building. 

“Ah, he’s probably back in his room. You can head back, my Lord.”

Han Ying went to lead them, when Qin Jiuxiao grabbed his arm.

“Ah, Shixiong can find his way back, he’s been here before,” Qin Jiuxiao winked at Zhou Zishu, nodding his head to the left. “We should go make them tea and snacks, you know, for their talk!”

With that Qin Jiuxiao dragged Han Ying over toward what he assumed was the kitchen.

Laughing a little nervously, Zhou Zishu stepped out into the small courtyard between buildings, heading for the one that was straight back.

He stood outside, not sure why he was suddenly feeling shaky and nervous.

This had to be his Lao Wen.

But a thought nagged at him that, what if this Wen Kexing was different from his own? What if he changed? What if he, perhaps, preferred Zhou Zishu as he had been previously in this time?

Zhou Zishu knew there was only one way to find out, and he wasn’t going to be a coward about it.

Knocking on the wooden panel of the door, he waited, hearing movement from inside. The voice that answered had Zhou Zishu’s breath catch again in his throat.

“Enter.”

Chapter Text

Zhou Zishu waited for a moment longer before sliding open the door. Stepping inside slowly, he closed the door behind him as he watched the Valley Master, his Wen Kexing.

The man sat at a low table, pouring himself wine from the decanter. His hair was styled the same as the last he had seen it, long and with a golden pin holding the hair away from his face. He could see the downcast eyes were lined heavily with rouge that matched the deep red of the robes he wore as the valley master.

“Did they send you away again, Han Ying? I swear I’ll-” Wen Kexing cut himself off at hearing Zhou Zishu’s amused snort. Glancing up quickly, his eyes visibly brightened as the scowl disappeared. 

“A-Xu! Come, sit, sit!” Wen Kexing grabbed another wine cup and began to pour, not waiting for him to say anything further. “You had me worried. You really should talk to those elders of yours. Gossiping about their sect leader’s injuries at the inn where anyone could hear!” The man ‘tsked’ and pushed the new wine cup to where he expected Zhou Zishu to sit.

“Thankfully, my men have already taken care of those that overheard,” he continued, unbothered by Zhou Zishu’s silence. “If you want, I can go and personally make sure that the bastard that harmed you is in pieces, just say the word!”

“I’m surprised,” Zhou Zishu began, lips quirked up, “that you don’t already have his head on a platter for me, Lao Wen.”

“Ah, well,” Wen Kexing waved a hand in the air, turning to the side. “I might have his severed arm around here some-”

Zhou Zishu watched as the realization of what he had said clicked for Wen Kexing. His eyes grew wide and round as his head whipped to face Zhou Zishu, mouth still dropped open mid-word.

“What…did you say?”

Zhou Zishu’s smile grew as he bowed his head slightly to lift off the hood of the cloak. Standing tall again, he watched Wen Kexing’s eyes follow every movement.

“Lao Wen.”

Wen Kexing made a raspy sob of a noise as he stood and moved unsteadily around the table.

Zhou Zishu had slightly braced himself, expecting for Wen Kexing to push him against the wall similar to his -their- last attempt at changing the future at Siji Manor. Instead, the man moved slowly as though in a trance. 

“A-Xu?” The brokenly hopeful tone tore at Zhou Zishu’s heart and he quickly stepped up to Wen Kexing. 

Wen Kexing’s eyes kept glancing between his own eyes and his hair, clearly recognizing the difference in style and the hairpin.

“Your A-Xu is here now, Lao Wen.” Zhou Zishu gripped at Wen Kexing’s upper arm. “I’m sorry to have kept you waiting.”

That seemed to be all Wen Kexing needed, as he grabbed Zhou Zishu in a tight hug, pressing his nose into his collar.

“A-Xu,” Wen Kexing whispered and Zhou Zishu answered quietly. He breathed deeply, happy to finally, finally know the perfume and smell of his lover.

They moved apart together, watching each other. Wen Kexing’s hands slid from where they had been clasped behind Zhou Zishu’s neck, to hold his neck. Zhou Zishu’s rested lightly against Wen Kexing’s chest, without protest.

Zhou Zishu watched with calm eyes as Wen Kexing’s thumbs stroked over the prominent veins in his neck. Despite the technically vulnerable position, he felt completely at ease and secure. This was perhaps the first time since the first time Siji had burned that he had felt this way.

He closed his eyes as Wen Kexing’s hands moved slowly up his face, cupping his cheeks now. Zhou Zishu let out a short breathy huff of a laugh, able to feel Wen Kexing’s warm breath over his lips. He darted his tongue out to wet his lips and he was not surprised at all when Wen Kexing’s mouth followed a moment later.

They moved together to pull themselves closer again. Zhou Zishu’s arms moving around Wen Kexing’s shoulder and Wen Kexing had a hand on his waist, the other threading through the hair at the back of his scalp.

The kiss was chaste at first, sweet, just a few presses of their lips. When Zhou Zishu started tilting his head to the side, Wen Kexing’s tongue slid along the seam of his lips.

A startled moan came from Zhou Zishu; the feeling was new to him and not at the same time. It was new to this body and to his now restored senses. While his body was not overly sensitive, his mind was still catching up with the fact that he could see, smell, hear and feel like normal again.

Wen Kexing followed the moan by repeating the action and making Zhou Zishu press against him fully. A moment later that same tongue was in his mouth and Zhou Zishu whimpered. He could barely believe the noise he made or the way his legs went weak.

“A-Xu,” Wen Kexing breathed against his lips. His eyes glittered as he teased. “Falling for me again already?”

Zhou Zishu huffed and rolled his eyes, pressing their lips back together. This time they started a wayward trek backwards, attempting to find their way to the valley master’s bed without disentangling from each other with little success.

Especially as a loud and obnoxious knock sounded from the door.

“GE! You said you would take me to the market today! LET’S GO!”

Zhou Zishu jerked his head back, recognizing the younger voice easily. While he had seen her from afar in the few times he had gone to the past, he had not really seen her for more than a few moments. “A-Xiang?”

Wen Kexing only looked annoyed, still holding Zhou Zishu tightly. Before he could shout back, two other voices came from the courtyard.

“A-Xiang! The master is meeting with the manor lord. You must be respectful and wait.”

“But Ge promised!”

“Ah, I mean, couldn’t we take her to town?”

Zhou Zishu smiled at Qin Jiuxiao’s question, turning from the door to Wen Kexing.

“You trust Jiuxiao with her?”

“Of course,” Wen Kexing’s eyes were on him again. “He’s a good kid, you were right. Why?”

“I have a plan,” and patted Wen Kexing’s arm as he stepped away to move back to the door. He smoothed his hair from where Wen Kexing had mused it up, and opened the door as the other man settled just behind him, one hand firm on Zhou Zishu’s waist.

Gu Xiang stood before him at least a head shorter than she would grow to be. Still dressed in bright purple robes, and clearly, she glared up at Zhou Zishu with narrowed eyes, the same attitude.

“Han Ying, Jiuxiao if you could take A-Xiang into town,” he paused for a moment before taking out the travel purse he had packed within the cloak and handed it directly to Gu Xiang. “And buy her what she wants. Then you three can head back to the manor.” Zhou Zishu nodded up the mountain at that.

He could see Han Ying’s eyes going wide and Qin Jiuxiao waggled his eyebrows, clearly staring at the hand on his waist.

Gu Xiang stared from the purse full of money in her hand to Zhou Zishu and back. He had no further warning before she launched herself at him.

“Thank you, thank you!” She cheered before quickly letting go to storm toward the front gates, Han Ying running after her.

“So…” Qin Jiuxiao smirked, looking from between the hand to their faces. “Should we be expecting you both at the manor tonight or…”

Wen Kexing’s grip tightened as Zhou Zishu shook his head with a smile.

“Head back after shopping and make sure A-Xiang stays safe.”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t worry I’ll watch the little fiend. Should I say anything to Lao Bi that will keep him from coming down here after you?”

Zhou Zishu glanced at Wen Kexing out of the side of his eye before looking up at the hairpin and back at him.

Wen Kexing nodded with a sigh, no words needed.

“Gods you two are so gross.” Qin Jiuxiao stuck his tongue out and dodged when Zhou Zishu’s hand darted at him.

“Tell Lao Bi and the others I found a lead.”

Qin Jiuxiao’s excited grin and laugh as he turned made Zhou Zishu relax further into Wen Kexing’s hold. As he watched Qin Jiuxiao follow after the other two, it for a moment felt like this was how it was meant to be.

“I’m glad, A-Xiang knows what she really is to you this time,” Zhou Zishu murmured, slouching a bit so he could rest his head back against Wen Kexing’s shoulder.

Wen Kexing hummed, sounding distracted.

When the hand on his waist pulled him, Zhou Zishu followed, stepping back into the room. As the door closed, Zhou Zishu gasped as he found himself turned around and his back against the wood paneling. 

“A-Xu,” Wen Kexing purred, eyes dark.

“Lao Wen,” Zhou Zishu’s voice and laugh came out breathier than he intended, letting Wen Kexing get away with the manhandling for now. He had questions for Wen Kexing, so many questions. But those could wait.

The laugh turned into a thready moan as Wen Kexing tucked his head, mouth sealing against the skin of his neck. Zhou Zishu gripped Wen Kexing’s arms, arching into him. The strange disconnect and reconnect of his senses making him dizzy as Wen Kexing’s teeth teased at the skin.

Zhou Zishu tilted his head to the side, letting Wen Kexing mouth along the soft skin of his neck and jaw. His eyes closed as the sensations grew to be too much for a moment and his hands lost their hold on the silky red robes.

A soft touch to his wrist turned to a tight grip as a tentative brush of Wen Kexing’s qi moved along his own. Zhou Zishu shivered, able to focus on their qi moving together through his meridians. It gave him an anchor to focus on and he was able to settle what he felt before getting completely overwhelmed. 

“They’re really fixed,” Wen Kexing, however, sounded completely overwhelmed as he pressed the other hand to the small of his back.

Zhou Zishu slowly opened his eyes and saw the teary look in his rouge lined eyes. With his free hand, Zhou Zishu moved it to thread through the hair at the back of Wen Kexing’s head. He pressed lightly and until their foreheads touched. Curious, as he had not been able to properly or easily share qi once he had the nails inserted, Zhou Zishu twisted his hand in Wen Kexing’s hold so his fingertips could touch at his love’s pulse point. Taking a slow breath, he gently pushed his qi to Wen Kexing. The answering gasp from the man made him grin and nod.

“My meridians are as they were before the nails,” Zhou Zishu affirmed.

Wen Kexing’s breath caught at the mention of the nails. He stopped the gentle flow of qi, moving the hand instead carefully around Zhou Zishu’s back. 

Zhou Zishu had half the mind to tell him that it was completely healed until Wen Kexing found his lips again, teasingly nipping at his lower lip. He sighed, as the hand on his back slid lower and lower. Feeling the grip of the hand and upward push just under his ass, Zhou Zishu groaned and wrapped his arms around Wen Kexing’s shoulders. When the push came again, he moved his legs around his lover’s waist, moaning into the kiss as they rubbed against each other.

For the moment, he let himself be lost in Wen Kexing, more comfortably than before. He felt whole in his skin now with the familiar glide of Wen Kexing’s qi molding into his own. Zhou Zishu trusted Wen Kexing not to drop him as they moved through the room, so he wasn’t alarmed when he felt himself being lowered moments later. As his back made contact with the soft bed, he let his legs drop from Wen Kexing’s waist, letting him stay between them.

Zhou Zishu kept a hand pressed to the back of Wen Kexing’s head, kissing him deeply, drunk on the feeling and taste of Wen Kexing’s tongue against his own. Wen Kexing’s hands roamed his sides, gripping at him from time to time. As his hands settled at the fastenings of his robes, Wen Kexing pulled away reluctantly.

For a moment, they stared at each other, panting. Zhou Zishu felt his heart swell suddenly, so incredibly thankful that Wen Kexing was here with him. With a shaky smile, he used his thumb to wipe away at the now smudged color around Wen Kexing’s eyes.

Wen Kexing met the shaking smile with one of his own.

“Can I? I want to see.”

Zhou Zishu closed his eyes and laughed quietly as he nodded. It was such a different tone from the first time Wen Kexing had seen his chest, pawing and pulling at his robes before.

As the fabric came away, he glanced down at his chest with Wen Kexing, surprised to see the relatively unmarked skin that was there. A raised scar near his collarbone from a training mishap was all that was there. No dark, bruised scaring or bumps of the nails burrowed deep under his skin. Nothing to show that they had ever been there. Because this time, they never had.

Hearing a quiet noise, Zhou Zishu saw for the first time Wen Kexing’s fully blue pendant bumping against his fully red one.

Chapter Text

When Zhou Zishu woke the next morning, it was slow and felt like the first real rest he had had in quite some time. He was alone on the large bed, covered with both the blanket and the blood red valley master robe.

Easing himself up in bed, he found that he was not as sore as he had suspected he might be at first. Though with how careful Wen Kexing had been, perhaps that was expected. 

Smiling to himself, Zhou Zishu got out of the bed and grabbed his discarded pants. Looking around for his underrobe, he found it draped rather purposefully on the chair near the mirror. He raised his eyebrow and went to the robe only to be able to see clearly how fully Wen Kexing had marked him the night before. Purple and red blossoms covered his chest and neck. Touching one on his neck, Zhou Zishu smiled at being able to feel the subtle soreness of his skin.

When he glanced down he found his jade hairpin had been carefully placed beside both red and blue pendants. He reached out and stroked both of the colorful gems, easily remembering now that he had questions for his lover.

Going back to the bed to slip on the red robe and tying it loosely, he grabbed a comb, the hairpin and both pendants before going out to find where Wen Kexing had gone.

With the Zhou Mansion being as small as it was, it did not take long to find him tending to a pot in the kitchen. 

Zhou Zishu put a hand on his stomach to quiet its grumbling as he smelled the congee boiling. He stood still in the open doorway; watching as Wen Kexing added seasonings, listening to him hum a familiar melody. 

He took slow and careful steps until he was directly behind Wen Kexing, grinning to himself.

“Lao Wen,” Zhou Zishu called coyly as he wrapped his arms around his waist, pressing against him. He frowned when Wen Kexing didn’t react in any way other than tasting a bit of the congee.

“You know you can’t sneak up on me, A-Xu.” Wen Kexing turned an easy smile on his face.

Zhou Zishu did not know the last time he had seen Wen Kexing so at ease. Especially with how tense everything had been lately, or at least lately to Zhou Zishu. The thought brought a slight frown to his face and as he started to speak again, he found the spoon had been brought to his lips.

“Tell me if it needs anything?” Zhou Zishu looked from the offered spoon to Wen Kexing before leaning forward and taking the offered congee in his mouth. 

“Mm,” he moaned lightly, eyes widening as the spoon slid from his mouth. He looked over to the pot as the flavors washed over his tongue. It was the first food he could properly remember tasting in ages, the bitter medicinal tea didn’t count now. “It’s good, I think there’s enough salt.”

Zhou Zishu flicked his tongue out to get the remnants of the salty taste as he met Wen Kexing’s eyes again and found relief in them.

“You really do have your senses restored,” Wen Kexing sniffed as he moved to place a lid on the pot.

“I thought we already fully discovered that yesterday?” Zhou Zishu laughed as he tilted his neck to show off the marks.

“Yes, yes,” Wen Kexing didn’t even look ashamed, more amused as he turned toward Zhou Zishu. His smile turned predatory as he took in what Zhou Zishu wore. “We can test that out further while we wait for the food to finish. Perhaps you should wear red more often.”

Zhou Zishu stopped Wen Kexing advances with a small chuckle and raised the pendants from the pocket inside one sleeve and the comb and hairpin from the other.

“I think you need to help with my hair,” seeing as how it was Wen Kexing’s fault for the state that it was in. “And we need to talk about these.”

Wen Kexing relented with a sigh and gestured for Zhou Zishu to sit on a chair not too far away. As he took the comb from him, Zhou Zishu let out a hum at the kiss pressed to the corner of his mouth.

“Where do we begin?” Wen Kexing asked as he took some of Zhou Zishu’s hair in hand.

“The Combined Six Cultivation Method,” Zhou Zishu waited for Wen Kexing’s answering hum. “You had said it would make us immortal. Instead, you died and I had a blue gem around my neck.”

“Yours started out as blue? Odd,” he gestured at the pendants Zhou Zishu had set on the counter beside him. “Mine was red. I’m…not entirely sure what happened.

“Ye Baiyi told me what to do, had me repeat it to him and told me to disregard the scroll,” Wen Kexing continued his fingers and comb working slowly through Zhou Zishu’s hair. “My exact memories of then are hard to remember. But I do know that when I woke up at Luo-yi’s manor I had my pendant and was very confused. A-Xiang…she and Xiao Cao were there . And I know that it was strange and I couldn’t find you. Not until everything went wrong again. And again. And again.”

Zhou Zishu tilted his head back, trying to catch Wen Kexing’s eye and failing.

“You were pulled back through time with me?” Zhou Zishu continued questioning. “Why didn’t you tell me about the pendant? And if that’s true, why were we not pulled to the same time now? I had wanted to go back to when we first met…and instead I came back in the middle of an attack on the manor.”

“I wanted to tell you,” Wen Kexing chided, tapping Zhou Zishu’s head with the back of the comb. “You also never tried to tell me about yours. I had to figure it out myself.”

Zhou Zishu had no way to defend himself from either the comb or what Wen Kexing had said. After a pause Wen Kexing continued.

“I think the reason is because you used your crystal more than I did. At the time I had only used it once to save you from Zhao Jing,” another pause, the comb worked through a knot. “Then again when we faced Tian Chuang together. And I did go back to the day we met.”

“Why wasn’t I taken with you then? If we were able to pull each other?” Zhou Zishu’s head spun with what going back so far could mean for Wen Kexing, knowing that that day was twelve years ago from this very moment.

“I have a theory that it’s because we were not touching.” Wen Kexing set the comb down and began parting his hair with his fingers. Zhou Zishu shivered as they touched his scalp. “Each time you moved us to the past, my pendant remained the same. It only had a blue blemish after its first use. Then after such a large jump, it became completely blue.”

Zhou Zishu was quiet, listening and absorbing what Wen Kexing said while enjoying the gentle pulling of his hair into place.

“Your pendant will regain some of its power. Mine has. It’s able to do small jumps, never more than a few hours. The further back I push, the longer it takes to regain.”

That woke Zhou Zishu up from his daze. “You’ve had to use it again?”

“To save A-Xiang and myself a few times when new plans fell apart.”

They were quiet for a few moments as Zhou Zishu gathered his thoughts again.

“Does the pendant have the ability to go forward in time?” Or had Wen Kexing really lived through the past twelve years again?

“No,” He saw Wen Kexing shake his head as he reached for the hairpin. “I tried once and nothing happened. But I was fine with waiting. I didn’t know when you would come back.”

The hairpin slid slowly into his hair as Wen Kexing continued.

“But I knew that you would come back. ”

Zhou Zishu wanted to turn and face his lover, but knew that sometimes he found it easier to say what needed to be said when he couldn’t see Zhou Zishu’s face. Instead he reached his hand over his shoulder and held Wen Kexing’s tightly.

“I needed to save A-Xiang and create a better life for her.” Wen Kexing knew Zhou Zishu as Zhou Zishu knew Wen Kexing, so he knew what to answer with. “So I knew that there were some things I had to let come to pass. This time I learned more skills from my parents, set up a safe place for Yiguo, I even made Drunk like a Dream.”

At that, he heard Wen Kexing’s voice shake and he gripped his hand tighter, wanting to turn around badly.

“I was prepared to lose my memories going into Ghost Valley. I had the vial of Drunk like a Dream hidden on me when I was taken. I hid it in the room Luo-yi kept me in. I knew that I would forget Zhao Jing and that this was his fault. But then, that didn’t happen.”

“I forgot you.” he heard Wen Kexing’s voice break as he knelt behind Zhou Zishu to place his forehead against his back.

“Lao Wen,” Zhou Zishu murmured, thumb rubbing circles into the back of Wen Kexing’s hand.

“The Meng Po soup takes the memories of the most important thing to you,” This wasn’t the first time Wen Kexing had told him about it. But it still pulled hard at his heart to hear how hard this had been for his Lao Wen. “It took you and I felt so empty.”

“But you remembered,” Zhou Zishu reminded him, because he of course had, or they would not be in the Zhou Mansion.

“It took a few days, but yes. I found the vial and was so hungry I just drank it, not knowing what it was. I was sick for days.” Wen Kexing moved around the chair and Zhou Zishu sank down to the floor to meet him. Pulling Wen Kexing into his arms, Zhou Zishu hooked his chin over his shoulder. “But then you were there in my mind again. When I woke up, I wrote down everything that I remembered, so that I wouldn’t forget you again.”

~X~x~X~

They did not start on their way to the manor until well past noon. Their morning was spent with soft words and softer touches. Now they meandered up the sun dappled path, shoulders bumping together as they walked.

With a hidden smile, Zhou Zishu took three quick steps in front of Wen Kexing, a foot sweeping out to knock him off balance. The valley master stumbled as intended and Zhou Zishu was able to press him up against one of the many trees that lined the path. Tilting his head while Wen Kexing was still stunned he nipped at his throat.

“A-Xu,” Wen Kexing teased after a moment, regaining the breath that had been knocked out of him. “I don’t think this is how a manor lord should behave.”

“I would think you would be more wary of your surroundings,” Zhou Zishu teased back in between littering kisses up to his ear.

“Even around my zhiji?” Wen Kexing’s arms wrapped around him, his voice dripping with fondness.

“Especially around me,” Zhou Zishu had only just bitten Wen Kexing’s earlobe when the world tilted and he found himself with his back pressing into grass and dirt and Wen Kexing’s full weight over top of him.

They narrowed their eyes at each other, Zhou Zishu moving his hand in a way that drew Wen Kexing’s attention to it. Successful in distracting him. Zhou Zishu bucked his hips up, making Wen Kexing gasp as they rolled and positions switched. Hands found Zhou Zishu’s waist and the cycle continued.

After detouring to the stream farther off the patch to clean themselves up again, they shook out as much of the dirt and grass as they could from their robes. Now that Wen Kexing’s neck more closely resembled his own, Zhou Zishu was more satisfied in returning to the manor.

Falling into step with each other easily, they chose to walk through the trees instead of the path.

Zhou Zishu’s mind wandered, there was so much that Wen Kexing had done already and so much that still needed to be tended to.

Wen Kexing had told him earlier that he had how he had made more alliances in the time he was in Ghost Valley, knowing the other ghosts intentions and motivations in advance had helped him to defeat the previous valley master much sooner with more support in his uprising. 

He had gone to the Longyuan Cabinet shortly after gaining power to try and stop Long Xiao and save Long Que. Unfortunately, the worst of the damage had already been done and Wen Kexing had cleaned up the aftermath.

“I gave Long-bobo a proper burial and hid away his teachings. I’ll take you there soon.” Wen Kexing had said before batting his eyes with a coy smile. “It’s also where I’ve stowed away my poetry about you.”

Zhou Zishu had then vowed to himself after that to handle Mo Huaiyang when the time came. Despite how Wen Kexing had never blamed him, Zhou Zishu felt he was largely responsible for what had happened to Cao Weining and Gu Xiang.

Wen Kexing had, as Zhou Zishu knew from Bi Changfeng and Qin Jiuxiao, saved Zhou Zishu and Siji from going to Jin. At that point, Wen Kexing had only been the valley master for a little over a year and he had purposefully pushed to strategically gain power to be able to aid him.

Which led to questions on this time’s Zhou Zishu.

“He stopped asking a few years ago for information on Zhen Yan.”

“I think he might have figured it out.”

Wen Kexing nodded. “He never asked me directly if Zhen Yan and I were the same person, but I think he knew. He couldn’t figure out the hairpin part though. And he never answered to ‘A-Xu’.”

Zhou Zishu had met Wen Kexing’s gaze and reached out, fingertips tracing his cheek. “Lao Wen.”

Reassured at the call of his name, Wen Kexing leaned into the touch.

“Jiuxiao thought that you and the other me were together,” Zhou Zishu started.

“Well,” Wen Kexing laughed, moving his face away. “He wasn’t the only one who thought that. We have been the center of gossip in both of our homes. But beyond some simple sparring, we never touched. He was you in shape, but not fully in spirit.” He stared at Zhou Zishu, expression completely open. “I was waiting for you, A-Xu.”

Zhou Zishu cleared his throat, as he realized that they were getting closer to Siji and they had yet to discuss just what exactly they would be telling the elders. Wen Kexing hummed when he brought it up.

“Jiuxiao had said that Lao Bi was keeping it fairly quiet that my memory was gone.” Zhou Zishu had tapped his lower lip as Wen Kexing drew closer to him. Zhou Zishu smirked as he saw where his lover’s eyes were looking. “I still don’t have all of the other me’s memories. Some are here and there, but I know it’s not everything.”

“Those will come with time.” Wen Kexing nodded, reaching out to hold Zhou Zishu’s hand and stop him for a moment. “We’ll tell the elders I am Zhen Yan, and if the magnanimous Manor Lord Zhou would allow this lowly one to rejoin, I’d-” Wen Kexing was cut off with a smothering kiss from Zhou Zishu. Once he was allowed to breathe again he laughed a little. “It’s time things came to light.”

“Good.” Zhou Zishu nodded as Wen Kexing’s face grew serious. “We’ll start revealing Zhao Jing’s plot now, before he can get much more power.”

The manor gates were within view and Zhou Zishu recalled the last time he had approached these gates, there were three of them.

“I miss him,” the words were out of his mouth before he realized it.

“I know…He’s not gone you know?” Wen Kexing held his shoulder.

“If Chengling can live in peace with his family, I think that would be best.” Zhou Zishu looked away from the manor and to Wen Kexing. Offering his hand to him, he asked, “Ready?”

Wen Kexing did not disappoint, his hand moved from his shoulder to his own, threading their fingers together.

“With you, always.”

Chapter Text

A few weeks later, they arrived at Ghost Valley; Wen Kexing, Zhou Zishu, Gu Xiang and Han Ying. The four walked through the stone gates as the drums beat above them. 

Wen Kexing dismissed Han Ying and told Gu Xiang to find Luo Fumeng shortly after they were through the gates, wanting to take a slight detour with Zhou Zishu, he had said with a hand at his lower back.

Zhou Zishu had let out a huff of a laugh at the way the two had scrambled away.

It was Zhou Zishu’s first time seeing the revitalized valley now that he had gone to the past. Some features stayed the same from what he could remember, but it was shocking to see that proper structures had been built, not just rooms carved from the caves. Wen Kexing pointed out the different crops that were growing, suggestions from the other Zhou Zishu about what would be rugged enough to grow within the valley.

It was still filled with criminals and outcasts of the martial arts world, but it was more put together than before. Zhou Zishu could spot some members of Siji working with the ghosts as they passed the training grounds, glad that he was able to start recognizing more people from this time. For all that he could see, the valley was operating much like a sect would.

“You’ve done well, Lao Wen,” Zhou Zishu remarked as they started for the main hall.

“I merely followed our plan,” Wen Kexing shook his head, hands clasped behind his back.

“There’s our gracious leaders,” a light voice called from the only seat in the room. 

Gu Xiang stood beside Luo Fumeng laughing as the older woman started to stand from the seat.

“You can stay there, Luo-yi,” Wen Kexing said, raising his hand.

Luo Fumeng raised a delicate eyebrow, looking the same as Zhou Zishu remembered. A golden dagger-like nail toyed with the corner of her mouth as she regarded them.

“I expect to be invited to the wedding, A-Xing.”

Zhou Zishu was glad he was not the only one to be surprised by her frankness.

“Luo-yi,” Wen Kexing started, but the tragicomic ghost’s attention had moved to Zhou Zishu.

“Make sure he behaves at Siji and that you three visit from time to time, yes?”

Zhou Zishu nodded, unsure completely what he was agreeing to.

“How did you,” Wen Kexing looked over to Gu Xiang who looked at Luo Fumeng confused as well.

“I knew you never planned to stay, A-Xing. Nor should you or A-Xiang.” Luo Fumeng leaned forward to pat Gu Xiang’s head. “Neither of you should have ever been here. You made the valley better though for me and my girls and for that I’m thankful,” she continued as she sat back looking between Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu. “I will still expect you both to assist when needed, of course.”

Zhou Zishu smiled at that, nodding as he bowed. “Anything Luo-yi needs, we can provide.”

~X~x~X~

Zhou Zishu sighed at Gu Xiang as she grumbled and twisted in front of him.

“You know, if you had been watching where you were going, you wouldn’t have gotten the tanghulu stuck in your hair.” He didn’t add on that then they would not be in this mess as that was obvious.

On the few times he had been left alone with Gu Xiang, they had a tenuous relationship at best. She didn’t like that he was stealing away her brother. He was trying his best to show that he meant no harm. So while Wen Kexing ran errands around the valley, Zhou Zishu had offered to take Gu Xiang to the White Deer village’s market.

When Gu Xiang asked for the candy, Zhou Zishu being softhearted, had agreed and didn’t realize the girl would run off with the candied stick, only stopping when he’d grabbed her out of the way of a wayward horse cart.

An older woman had been kind enough to let them into her home to use her kitchen, saying what a shame it was that such pretty hair would be cut. Seeing Gu Xiang’s eyes tear up, Zhou Zishu had assured her that wouldn’t happen as they walked through the woman’s house.

The ten year old couldn’t think of anything to say in response to that so she just turned to face him for a moment, tongue sticking out and looking even more ridiculous with the tanghulu firmly stuck in her hair.

He took a bucket of water, tapping the side of it as he warmed it with his qi, shaking his head.

“So…you’re not going to cut it?”

“I told you it wasn’t necessary,” Zhou Zishu assured as he moved the bucket in front of him, pinning back his sleeves.

“Then what are you going to do?”

“Sit still and you’ll see,” Zhou Zishu moved his hand where she could see it, and motioned back. “Lean back a bit so your hair is wet.”

Gu Xiang was quiet as she laid her head on the edge of the bucket, watching him with narrowed eyes.

Zhou Zishu got to work, not saying anything. He massaged her hair in the warm water, letting it work at dissolving the sugars there. Once loose enough the sugared fruit stick came out easily. Placing a hand on the back of her shoulder, Zhou Zishu pushed her up before using his qi again to carefully dry the damp hair between his palms.

It was a relief to be able to use his qi more freely than he had before, no longer needing to conserve it.

Gu Xiang reached a hand back and carefully touched where the candy had gotten caught previously.

Zhou Zishu fought hard not to laugh as she turned around quickly with wide eyes at him.

“You fixed it!”

“I told you I would, didn’t I?”

Gu Xiang nodded and then looked between the bucket and Zhou Zishu before asking, “Zishu-ge can you not tell Ge about this?”

~X~x~X~

“A-Xu, please have mercy,” Wen Kexing begged as Zhou Zishu laughed above him.

They had retired early from the festivities and returned to their rooms near the back of the manor.

The cool fall breeze moved the red drapery that the room was decorated with, matching the deep red robes that both of them wore.

“You wanted a Kun traditional meal for us to eat in the room, Lao Wen,” Zhou Zishu teased, standing with the wine pot in above his head. “That means that it’s spicy.”

“A-Xu!” His husband whined as he poured himself a cup, keeping it away from him as he sipped at the wine. On his third sip, Wen Kexing hit the back of his knee, making him fall onto his lap.

With relief in sight, Wen Kexing surged forward and kissed the wine from Zhou Zishu’s mouth.

~X~x~X~

They waited until halfway through spring to attempt visiting Ye Baiyi on Mount Changming, though in Zhou Zishu’s opinion, it still felt like the dead of winter there.

As they stood together outside the gates, they leaned into each other for warmth.

“Should we just go in? The gates aren’t even closed,” Wen Kexing started forward and was stopped by Zhou Zishu.

“He could have placed traps we’re not aware of.”

“Traps Shen Shen was able to best last time?”

Zhou Zishu thought for a moment before nodding in agreement and stepping forward through the gates with Wen Kexing. “Should we call out to him?”

“Like what? ‘Ye Baiyi, show yourself?’”

Wen Kexing’s laugh was cut off as he dodged a rock aimed at his head.

In front of the larger building before them, was suddenly a man in white, glaring at them.

“Who trespasses?”

“We come seeking your help and to give you news on your disciple,” Zhou Zishu spoke quickly before Ye Baiyi could throw another stone or Wen Kexing charged forward.

Raising an eyebrow, Ye Baiyi nodded once and walked into the building.

“Still an old monster,” Wen Kexing hissed as Zhou Zishu elbowed his side as they followed him.

The room they walked into was simple, minimal decorations, just three chairs, a table and a firepit that kept the area warm.

As they took off their travel cloaks, Ye Baiyi was very quickly in front of Zhou Zishu, hand on the hilt of Baiyi. 

“Where did you get this sword?” His voice was as cold as the air outside. Both of them had wondered if by some miracle Ye Baiyi would have knowledge of them, but there was no recognition in his eyes.

While Wen Kexing immediately started bristling at how close Ye Baiyi had gotten, Zhou Zishu remained calm.

“I inherited it from my shifu, Qin Huaizhang of Siji Manor.”

“Inherited? The fool’s dead, then,” Ye Baiyi let go of the sword’s hilt and turned to sit, disinterested in both of them again.

Sharing a look with Wen Kexing, Zhou Zishu motioned for him to calm down as he followed Ye Baiyi’s lead to sit.

“What do you have to tell me about my disciple?” Ye Baiyi asked, staring at the fire.

“He was murdered,” Zhou Zishu shot Wen Kexing an alarmed look. They were supposed to break it to him gently. Wen Kexing shook his head, taking out the pendant from within his robes. “We know who did it, but we need your help to bring him to justice.”

The Sword Immortal’s eyes widened as he looked at the pendant. “Where did you get that?”

“We both have one,” Wen Kexing continued and Zhou Zishu resignedly took out his own red pendant. “In a different future, you told me how to do the Combined Six Cultivation Method-”

“The method wouldn’t have resulted in one time stone, let alone two,” Ye Baiyi shook his head. He looked more shocked by the pendants than the news of his disciple’s death, which surprised Zhou Zishu.

“Then…what exactly did you teach Wen Kexing?” Zhou Zishu asked, forgetting that this Ye Baiyi was not the one they knew. He knew what the pendants were on sight, so he must have answers.

“How am I to know?” This one snorted at him, waving his hand as he looked away. 

The immortal refused to answer any more questions on the pendants, not that they had been able to ask many in the first place. Realizing they would not be getting any further answers for the pendants, Zhou Zishu pivoted topics to talk about what they knew about Rong Xuan’s death.

By the time they were leaving the mountain, they had a plan in place for taking down Zhao Jing and Ye Baiyi in tow.

~X~x~X~

“A-Xu, have you seen A-Xiang?” Wen Kexing asked as he entered the room where Zhou Zishu and Lu Qianqiao taught the disguise arts.

He shrieked a moment later when both Zhou Zishu and his current student turned to face him.

“What’s wrong, Lao Wen?” Zhou Zishu and Gu Xiang both started snickering at the way Wen Kexing was acting.

“A-Xu! You! I told you not to call me that with that -” he gestured wildly, “-monstrosity on your face.”

Turning to Gu Xiang, he frowned at her and then glared at Zhou Zishu.

“And A-Xiang is a lady. Why does she have a mustache now?”

“Because Zishu-ge is teaching me all of the disguise arts, Ge,” A-Xiang, now thirteen, shrugged as she turned back to the mirror to smooth out the application.

Zhou Zishu watched, still very amused, as Wen Kexing gave him an exasperated look.

“I tried to teach you last year, but you kept getting sick over the smell of the-” Zhou Zishu reached to the table for a little jar.

“No, no,” Wen Kexing turned and waved his hands walking out of the room.

~X~x~X~

With a sigh, Zhou Zishu stepped off the boat and onto the dock of Mirror Lake Manor. 

Breathing in the scent of peach blossoms, he enjoyed the feel of the sun warming him in the still chilly spring morning. He turned and watched as Wen Kexing was paid Boatman Li, smiling to himself.

Wen Kexing had settled into Siji completely, still occasionally wearing a variety of colorful and extravagant robes, today he wore the blue and gray robes of the manor.

“Ready?” Wen Kexing asked as he stepped up onto the dock.

Feeling playful despite the business they were here on for bringing Zhao Jing to justice by working on getting Zhang Yusen’s support, Zhou Zishu flicked Wen Kexing’s nose and quickly qinggong away into the orchard.

Laughing to himself as he landed near a familiar, though recently abandoned, boat in the middle of the orchard. He took a few steps and drank from his wine gourd as he waited.

The shift in the breeze told him of Wen Kexing’s arrival and he dodged just as he had when they first sparred, swift moving steps guiding him away from the white fan that followed him.

Wen Kexing spun into view following him with similar steps, as the fan fell to the ground and Zhou Zishu blocked his attacks with ease. It was not until Wen Kexing stepped to the left instead of the right, that Zhou Zishu fumbled and found Wen Kexing’s arms wrapped around him.

Laughing, Zhou Zishu tilted his head up to be kissed. Just before their lips touched, they heard a loud gasp come from the abandoned boat.

Turning, they found a young boy leaning out from the boat.
“Your martial arts are amazing!” The boy jumped clumsily down and ran toward them as they stepped apart from each other. “I’m Zhang Chengling!”

“Ah, are you?” Zhou Zishu smiled as he knelt down to be more at eye level with his once disciple. If he was right, he was probably somewhere around seven or eight years old at this point. “I’m Zhou Zishu and this is Wen Kexing. We are from Siji Manor. We were hoping to speak to your father.”

“I can take you to him!” Chengling affirmed. “Can you show me more of your martial arts later?”

“Of course,” Zhou Zishu held back the urge to ruffle the kid’s hair as he stood.

Zhou Zishu could tell that despite being glad to see Chengling, Wen Kexing felt put off by their interrupted alone time.

“Wait until we find the woodshed later,” Zhou Zishu winked as he walked to catch up with Chengling.

“Woodshed?”

~X~x~X~

With their knowledge of the traps, the walk to Long Yuan Cabinet was relatively peaceful.

They paid their respects to Long Que, his wife and the disciples that had passed away before going farther into the library.

“You even packaged everything up,” Zhou Zishu commented as he walked over to the already bound bags.

“Of course! I wanted to make sure I had grabbed everything before,” Wen Kexing said as he counted the floorboards.

Zhou Zishu figured he was working on disabling another trap so he didn’t pay him much mind as he put one of the two bags over his shoulder. Hearing the creek of wood, he turned to see Wen Kexing prying up one of the boards.

“Just as I left it!” Wen Kexing fished out a large bound journal that he handed to Zhou Zishu.

Frowning in confusion, he flipped through the first few pages and found that these must have been the notes Wen Kexing had taken on their previous future. As he flipped further his face turned red and he quickly closed the journal and pushed it against Wen Kexing’s chest.
“Pervert.”

“What?” Wen Kexing feigned innocence. “You don't like the way I described your-”

Zhou Zishu was out of the room before he could hear the rest of what Wen Kexing had said.

~X~x~X~

“Ah!” Chengling fell back to the ground, the weight tied to his waist dragging him down as the qi powered walnut bounced off his shin. “Shifu!”

“A-Xu,” Wen Kexing scolded, bumping his shoulder. “Don’t use my walnuts like that!”

“The skill is Swift Moving Steps, not Dance Like a Bear,” Zhou Zishu ignored Wen Kexing and scolded his first disciple. 

Zhou Zishu heard Wen Kexing laugh under his breath as Chengling got up again and tried again, looking much the same as before.

“A-Xu,” Wen Kexing leaned against his shoulder, voice quiet. “You know that he doesn’t need to learn the moves so quickly. There’s time now.”

Zhou Zishu hummed. “Yes, but he still should have started learning before now. Especially with the events coming up this summer.”

It had taken a long time to collect evidence against Zhao Jing with Ye Baiyi and gather allies to go against him. But they had finally convinced Gao Chong to hold a Heroes’ Conference, presumably to celebrate the martial world, but in reality, a way to condemn Zhao Jing and bring his crimes to light.

In case something went wrong, both Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing had made sure to save the power of their pendants. And if something went wrong that even those could not fix, they wanted to make sure they had left Chengling, Gu Xiang and the rest of Siji Manor protected as best that they could.

“It’ll be fine,” Wen Kexing soothed, speaking more of their hopes than their fears.

~X~x~X~

“A-Xiang, keep an eye on Chengling.” Wen Kexing said as he grabbed Zhou Zishu by the elbow and took him out of the children’s room at the inn and into their own.

As they traveled through Yue again, this time to get to Yueyang, they had overheard some gossip.

The Gentle Winds sect leader, Mo Huaiyang, who had only recently left his seclusion of sixteen years planning on attending the Heroes’ Conference was found dead. Three little pin pricks were the only injuries found on his body. It was suspected that an insect bite was what had killed him.

“A-Xu,” Wen Kexing’s voice shook as he pressed Zhou Zishu to the closed door. “You?”

“She’s my little sister, too.” Zhou Zishu smiled. “I make sure to get even with my losses, Lao Wen.”

~X~x~X~

Much to Wen Kexing’s chagrin at Cao Weining’s horrible poetry, Gu Xiang still found him completely charming.

Zhou Zishu noticed Wen Kexing gave him and Gu Xiang a much easier time now and tried to separate them less.

“She’s not a ghost anymore,” he whispered to Zhou Zishu later that night. “And there’s no longer any danger in Gentle Winds. I’m going to lose her, but differently this time.”

Zhou Zishu tapped his husband’s head. 

“You know she’s going to bully him to join Siji Manor when the day comes. You have nothing to worry about.”

~X~x~X~

Zhou Zishu gasped as Wen Kexing pressed into him.

The day had been long. In the end, they had used both their pendants. Zhao Jing was more a snake than a scorpion. 

Ye Baiyi had exacted his revenge against the murderer of his disciple.

The need to use both of their stones had left them in a stunned state. Ye Baiyi, aware of the pendants and the way the two had acted told them later as the martial world celebrated that he would watch out for Siji and to gather themselves.

They kept their composure until they reached their rooms in Gao Chong’s manor. From there they had turned frantic, grabbing at each other until they had fallen into the bed.

“Lao Wen,” Zhou Zishu moaned.

“A-Xu,” Wen Kexing answered.

~X~x~X~

“I’m happy.”

Zhou Zishu turned away from the full moon to look at Wen Kexing. He was wearing dark green robes now with elaborate stitching that felt as familiar as the words and the location. 

They sat on the roof of the largest inn in Yueyang, waiting for another Heroes’ Conference to come, drinking wine from a stall down the road. At this point, they were nearly at the same age they had been when they had started tumbling back through time.

Wen Kexing played with his blue pendant, eyes on Zhou Zishu.

“Yes?” Zhou Zishu tilted his head before looking back to the moon, drinking again.

“Won’t you ask me why?” Wen Kexing sounded very leading, it made Zhou Zishu want to be difficult.

“I’m sure you’ll tell me if you really want me to know,” he teased, smiling with his lips against the wine jar.

Wen Kexing huffed a little, bumping him with his shoulder before taking the wine away from Zhou Zishu and setting it on the roof next to his own. Before Zhou Zishu could complain about it, Wen Kexing had crawled on top of him.

“The moon looks beautiful tonight,” his eyes on Zhou Zishu.

Zhou Zishu smiled, leaning forward, lips just barely touching Wen Kexing’s. “It is.”