Two voices made notes of panic, one a yelp and the other a slightly pained groan. One calmed with the soothing words of a young man while the other was cut off by their jaw being forcefully snapped shut.
He tried to tune into the words of the young man, but they were too hushed to recognize...
•••
All Qing Xiashu could do was pray that it was Xue Huayu, Qi Haomi, or Yan Hesheng that turned up in his general vicinity when he opened his eyes.
Unfortunately... Qing Xiashu was not that lucky.
What little light pushed through the canopy was currently blocked by someone peering down at him. Red hair spilled forward over broad shoulders.
The peoples' hero himself, Hong Chunji.
Waves of agitation were practically rolling off the prince from the moment Qing Xiashu looked at him.
As much as the last two and a half years had eased that upset, it still ached.
There was only one upside to all this. Hong Chunji wasn't paired with Xue Huayu, and wouldn't do her any harm.
"Qing Xiashu." Hong Chunji grumbled, arms crossing. "I don't suppose you smuggled in a knife to kill me with?"
Inherently, Qing Xiashu rolled his eyes at Hong Chunji's dramatics. "I'm offended you think I need a knife to kill you. But I'm not about to try and break their rules... there's way more at stake than is reasonable..."
That wasn't... quite right.
He had smuggled in something of course, but it wasn't for the purpose of hurting his peers.
"Then on that we agree." Hong Chunji said shortly, setting off east.
Qing Xiashu for a long moment only watched him go, shoulders incredibly stiff. He thought distantly about simply splitting away, only thinking better of it when he glanced up to see Hong Chunji looking back at him, waiting for him to catch up.
He did catch up... Falling into step just behind Hong Chunji and keeping his eyes down toward the fallen leaves of the dense forest floor.
The wilds weren't yet dark, clearly still daylight, but not a single full beam of sunlight managed to breach the canopy above.
"You're quiet." Hong Chunji muttered after a long few moments. He was so used to Qing Xiashu chatting enough for both them and Xue Huayu. But now he hadn't said a word in almost two hours.
"What should I say?" Qing Xiashu asked after a while. "You've made your mind up about what kind of person I am. Is there some reason I should try to convince you otherwise?"
Hong Chunji scoffed quietly. "Maybe I want you to try."
"You liked me fine before you knew. Isn't that enough?" The silence was sufficient to answer that question. "No... I suppose it wouldn't be."
The empty quiet continued, only ever broken by their steps and the wind swaying leaves around them.
Oh how Qing Xiashu wished he was back home in the North making Xue Huayu some soup. Or listening to her complain about his constant congee making.
His face paled.
"Shit-"
Hong Chunji looked back with poorly veiled concern. "What's wrong?"
"Xue Xiaojie is going to have to get better at inedia very fast-" Qing Xiashu whispered.
"What?" This time it was said more with confusion than concern.
"I make all of her meals. Since she was six years old no one else has been allowed to make her food other than Xue Shixiong."
"What?" Was asked again.
"I'm saying she doesn't know how to cook and she won't accept food made by anyone but me or Xue Feiyi."
"Then she'll learn."
"I suppose she'll have to..."
But the idea didn't lift Qing Xiashu's spirits any.
By this point the night was starting to set the forest into proper darkness and they had to stop moving to avoid the risk of tripping.
Qing Xiashu scooched closer to Hong Chunji before he settled himself on the ground, slowly working up enough dry sticks to catch a fire.
Something shuffled in the darkness just beyond the light of their little fire.
"What was that?"
The darkness persisted, unmoving.
"Probably a rabbit." Hong Chunji reasoned, dropping his eyes from the direction.
That was until it snarled at them and charged.
Pale yellow light lit up the area with the sound of a snap.
It wasn't just something, it was many somethings.
They began chortling like dogs that had inhaled something toxic.
An entire skulk of empty baihu gui one by one came boldly towards their light.
Beside Qing Xiashu, Hong Chunji went rigid. "We can't hurt them."
Qing Xiashu couldn't find it in himself to feel such reservations. He charged with well placed palm strikes backed up with heavy doses of qi, blasting through a few of these long gone beasts. "We're going to have to."
"But Yan Hesheng--"
"Will understand wholeheartedly!" The head disciple snapped. "A move on! Get one! Or six!"
Hong Chunji finally joined in. Though hesitantly, he placed his back against Qing Xiashu's and took charge of protecting the blind spots that lay there.
The head disciple popped the stitching encasing the paper sewn into his robes and nipped his fingers to start a reasonable flow of blood. The writing was smudged and scratchy, but they did their job. He sent them off as soon as he'd written their parameters.
These makeshift talismans froze and burst the beasts they fell into contact with.
"No weapons huh?" Hong Chunji scoffed at the paper.
"It's a bit of stationary not a weapon, relax."
"Whatever, it's your head if they find out."
Despite whatever disagreements they might have, back to back they fought like this until nothing of the foxes was left but gore surrounding them.
But it wasn't over.
Baihu gui weren't their first guests that night. The stream of foe seemed endless.
They were even greeted by walking corpses, though they thankfully weren't of the human variety.
All the animals they hadn't seen during the day seemed to have become beasts to be put down in the night.
Wild cats, rabbits, wolves, birds from above. Everywhere that an animal could be, ghouls came from.
Pale yellow and warm orange kept their environment so well lit they almost didn't notice the daylight creeping in until the enemies finally stopped coming.
"Oh fucking finally..." Qing Xiashu groaned, dropping himself down against a tree root when the forest was finally quiet once more.
"Should we rest during the day, then travel at night?" Hong Chunji asked, wiping his hands of blood and dirt.
"I can't believe you're actually asking my opinion right now." Qing Xiashu didn't have the energy to make his tone humorous so it just came out fittingly short tempered. "Rest part of the day, travel the rest of it, hold ground at night... I'll just be impressed if we aren't killed tonight or the next."
"Fine..." Hong Chunji sighed eventually.
And so they finally rested themselves down to sleep.
•••
Blood spilled over marble.
Chaoting palace burned.
But the sun was warm. The person holding his hand as they danced through a small river town was comfortable.
The night was cold. His blood ran. His bones broke. A beast snapped up his flesh.
•••
Waking up, aching and contorted on the ground: was miserable.
Qing Xiashu looked to where Hong Chunji had been and found him in a similarly sorry state.
"Hong Shaoye, it's time to get up." Qing Xiashu finally directed, standing and moving over to gently shake Hong Chunji awake.
This didn't at all take much effort.
By the time they began traveling again it was just before noon and they could see decently in the dim light that managed to beat its way through the trees.
Qing Xiashu still had nothing to say.
It wasn't that he couldn't think of anything to talk about. He certainly could most days. He was the reigning monarch of talking about nothing. Especially given his occupation as royals' personal chatterbox.
Today though he didn't want to be told to be quiet.
At this moment, he felt very much like he had before he'd been given his name.
Afraid to open his mouth.
So terrified of being told to be silent that being silent willingly was easier.
"Keep up."
Qing Xiashu forced himself to match pace with the prince, still allowing himself to remain a few strides behind.
Watching Hong Chunji's back somehow made Qing Xiashu's throat ache even more.
The waving of reddish hair and of orange ribbons that dangled from his head taunted him.
Words boiled so close to his tongue only to die back before he could build the courage to speak.
It burned his esophagus like sandpaper on glass.
Only when his cheeks and throat felt hot, did he finally take a deep shaky breath.
A slow deep breath to level the tension in his lungs.
He...
Must have forgotten how sharp cultivator hearing could get.
Hong Chunji's head swiveled toward him.
Qing Xiashu froze mid step.
Shit.
Shit
fuck
shit fuck.
Don't look at him.
Why did someone have to look at him?
Quickly the head disciple averted his eyes and attention away into the forest like he might be able to avoid the prince's scrutiny.
"What's wrong?" Hong Chunji asked.
N o !
Qing Xiashu could not explain how bad of an idea that was to ask.
That was like hitting the giant red instant cry switch!
He was working so hard too!
Tears appeared in Qing Xiashu's eyes so fast he couldn't even get his hands up to catch them before they were falling.
Humiliation beat into him like a horse kick to the gut. No one had seen him cry like this for years, long before he'd hit adulthood.
The silent shaking sobs sounded only like breaths that quivered in snow. His hands fisted into the sides of his robes as his head hung to avoid looking at the expression of most likely annoyance on Hong Chunji's face.
Qing Xiashu would be happy to never see disappointment or anger for any reason on that face ever again.
Muddied brown boots appeared in the blurry section of the forest floor that Qing Xiashu was gazing into. He still didn't dare look up, if anything he only hunched further forward.
Would Hong Chunji scold him?
Threaten him with a real reason to weep?
Stow the information for blackmail?
His mother's voice floated through his mind.
Freezing frantic chaos in it's wake.
"You can cry, but don't cry like that. If you cry with so much sound it means you're only crying for attention. See? You can cry without noise, that's fine."
The words had been so gently spoken in a rare moment of careful instruction that Qing Xiashu lived them like law.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
He tried to quiet the miserable huffing through his running nose, biting into his lip until the sound finally softened to a volume that made him a little more comfortable.
"It's ok to cry... You can cry... But you shouldn't cry like that..." The tone was so infinitely gentle.
It brought no comfort.
Not this again...
What was it this time?
Was he still breathing too loudly?
He'd just tried to quiet that!
Maybe it was the shaking, maybe that drew too much attention.
"You should make sure you breathe. You might choke..."
Oh...
Qing Xiashu in fact wasn't breathing.
And Qing Xiashu did choke.
Coughing and sputtering through tears on a laugh caught in his throat.
Gentle hands rubbed small circles into his shoulders.
When had they gotten there?
Slowly, Qing Xiashu leaned forward until his head pressed against Hong Chunji's chest, this way his hands could finally come up to admit there were tears to wipe away.
Hong Chunji hesitantly tucked his arms around Qing Xiashu's shaking shoulders and pulled him just a little closer.
He didn't seem to understand why Qing Xiashu was crying, but did his best to try and remedy the issue anyway.
"That's better... see? Breathing is better..." He murmured, carefully rubbing the weeping man's back. "Did you get hurt? One of them claw you or something? Did something bite you?"
He came up empty.
Qing Xiashu hesitantly went still against Hong Chunji's chest, unwilling to move even as the tears dried until it had been an unnecessarily long time.
Finally he stepped back and rubbed his eyes one more time. "Ah, sorry about that! It's fine, I'm not hurt." Qing Xiashu laughed, holding his hands up in mock surrender, as though dismissing the questions presented earlier. "I'm just tired out I guess."
Hong Chunji clearly didn't believe a word he said. But rather than continue the conversation Qing Xiashu turned away to lead them further east.
•••
When the night came back in to haunt them, the woods came alive to hunt.
Warped corpses and animals of all kinds bared their teeth and claws, stretching out to bite and gnaw at the humans in their reach.
A few hours in, Qing Xiashu jerked back a little too abruptly to be a dodge.
"You better tell me if you get injured this time." Hong Chunji grumbled quietly as they fought back to back again, he could surely feel the other's every move.
"How about you focus on your own issues!" Qing Xiashu hissed.
Ow.
"What?" Hong Chunji sounded nearly offended. "Worried I'll take advantage of your weakness? I need you just as much as you need me here."
"Comforting, truly comforting, thank you, Hong Shaoye. I'll consider myself perfectly safe in your presence." Qing Xiashu scoffed, already gripping the fresh gash. As long as he could ignore the burning tightness that came from the mess, he could continue to power blast after blast from the palm of his injured arm rather than heal himself.
He wasn't at all comfortable getting so close to each foe and would much rather be able to have Touming in his hand, but at this point he accepted his fate.
"Whatever." Hong Chunji grumbled. "I apologize for my concern, please continue to be an idiot and power through all your problems like an ox." By now the sun was beginning to puncture the canopy again.
"Oh what now? You want me to rely on you? Need I remind you how much you currently distrust me?"
"Believe me. I don't need reminding!" The last of the mutated beasts was obliterated with the following palm strike, and Hong Chunji turned on Qing Xiashu. "Sit. Now."
Qing Xiashu rolled his eyes, but did as he was told, blinking in confusion when Hong Chunji began pulling off the dirty outer layer of his robes and tearing away a long piece of his relatively clean inner robes.
"Hey! Whoa whoa whoa there! Back it up!" Qing Xiashu said quickly when Hong Chunji came swiftly over to him and began pulling the top layers of his robes off. It took a number of uncomfortable seconds to wriggle out of the prince's hold.
"Oh my gods, just let me help you." Hong Chunji snapped, renewing his hold.
"I can do it just fine by myself, you know!"
"But will you do it right? I don't need you dying of infection!"
"Probably-- hey!"
Hong Chunji had grabbed Qing Xiashu's extended arm and yanked it out of his way.
At first Qing Xiashu was far too stunned to move.
A warmth met his lips and he craved to follow after it.
He began to slowly lean into the warm feeling that came from the contact. A quiet sigh twisted clear of his chest as Hong Chunji's hands glided up the sleeves of his robes until they reached his collar line, fingers dipping under the first layer.
By this point Qing Xiashu's brain had truly fried.
Even when Hong Chunji finally pulled back, face bright red, Qing Xiashu remained a little dazed. Eyes hazy and mouth cracked ajar in his shock.
The yelp ripped Qing Xiashu from the moment.
It was his own sound of surprise.
Hong Chunji had suddenly tightened the makeshift bandages on his shoulder where the gash had originally been tucked away.
The bandages that were against nothing but skin.
Quickly the head disciple was scrambling to get the top half of his robes back on.
He hadn't even noticed them come off!
How could he be so unaware!?
How could he be so unaware!? [https://img.wattpad.com/7af25ad765d8c77fec8adf74d7173312bfaeeac8/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f48792d514151696c6f6b343376413d3d2d313439373031373033382e313830393437636133313565363338653339323538363635373335392e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
"Next time just let me do it." Hong Chunji grumbled, turning to walk away and towards their inevitable destination, leaving Qing Xiashu to rush to catch up.
Without question they would be getting no sleep. As a result, their pace was inevitably slow, exhaustion loaded them with an unnecessary weight.
The lack of sleep didn't help, but at least they weren't left aching from a night on the ground.
By the time night rolled around again they were both susceptible to being battered by the beasts that came for them.
Spiritual energy burned like midnight oil, lighting their way but wrecking further exhaustion in its wake.
Blood was splattered in every direction, some human but most yao.
They even saw a number of beasts Qing Xiashu genuinely believed to be myths. And plenty of things he'd only seen in images from the western bestiaries.
It was like beasts in the wilds were coming right up from the underworld just to brutalize the intruding cultivators within their borders.
When dawn broke Qing Xiashu and Hong Chunji collapsed against each other, back to back exactly the way they had been fighting for hours. They didn't really bother moving away from their carnage. Qing Xiashu just slowly turned to Hong Chunji to tend to his injuries, absolutely ignoring the protest as more inner robes were torn into bandage strips.
"Why do we have to use mine!?" Hong Chunji complained as his inner robes were completely shredded even for injuries that hadn't happened yet but were bound to.
"Because you started it with yours, at least one of us might as well have a full set of robes." Qing Xiashu explained as if it were obvious.
"But you have four layers! I only have three!"
"I get cold easier."
"No you don't! You live in the North, if you got cold here you'd be dead up there!"
"Oh, stop complaining, now are you going to let me patch that up or are you going to make me pull some bullshit like you did?" Qing Xiashu asked as he grabbed a hold of Hong Chunji's left arm to treat the long lacerations made by one of their clawed foes.
Hong Chunji scoffed and pulled his arm back. "I can do it fine myself."
"Oh, right, of course, but I can't, huh?" There was another scoff as Qing Xiashu said this, recapturing the arm a little roughly.
For a long few moments they just glared at each other, seemingly daring the other to act out first.
When their stalemate didn't end quickly enough, Hong Chunji tried to pull his arm away again. On a hair trigger, Qing Xiashu pounced.
There was a knee in the center of Hong Chunji's chest before he could even think to prevent his collapse backwards onto the dirt, and leaves.
"Now is this really necessary? I'm of the opinion that it certainly shouldn't be and you should really let me treat these without such a fuss, but if you plan to be so stubborn you'll be treated like a tantrum wielding toddler." Qing Xiashu chattered as he cleaned dirt from the sticky blood covered injuries.
Hong Chunji sputtered a moment before snapping back. "Don't call me a toddler when you're sitting on me, that's weird!"
Qing Xiashu blinked, then slapped his companion on the head with his sleeves. "You're the one that made it weird, Hong Shaoye!"
"Hey! Like hell! You're sitting on me! Are you really so shameless?!"
"Maybe I just like sitting on you! How about that, huh?"
"Well if you're- hh... if y-... fine..." Hong Chunji seemed to finally give in to being pinned and stopped struggling. He let Qing Xiashu clean and bandage his injuries in relative peace. Though not without the usual necessary attitude. Any time Hong Chunji winced, the head disciple jumped on teasing him. Likewise anytime Qing Xiashu looked a little too focused, he was picked on.
"Well I didn't know I meant so much to you."
"What?"
The pinned down prince chuckled. "You're working so hard I can't help but think you actually like me." This only earned another slap of Qing Xiashu's sleeve to the top of the other man's head. "Quit doing that!"
"You! You make everything weird, besides, no one said I didn't like you, it's you that keeps going around telling people how much you don't like me." Qing Xiashu said with an agitated little huff as he finished tying the last of the bandages.
"I don't..."
"Well, you told me, you told Xue Xiaojie, and you told Yan-gege, and us three are really the only people you see regularly... so... you know. That's everybody."
"I never said I don't like you."
"No you're right, your words were 'If I have to look at your disgusting face again you'll burn. Do you hear me? I'll obliterate you over the next word you breathe."' Qing Xiashu recounted in a bland cadence.
Three years yet the words echoed in his head with the clarity in which they'd been spoken.
"I was mad..."
"Obviously."
"And I don't trust you."
"That's perfectly fine."
"But I don't dislike you..."
"...Fine."
"Do you dislike me?"
"No. I never did." With that said, Qing Xiashu set Hong Chunji's freshly bandaged arm down against his side and finally stood, releasing the prince from his mini prison.
"I'm not angry you're related to Xue Feiyi, or for being loyal to him." Hong Chunji pointed out. "I'm angry that you knew but you didn't say anything. You knew where I was from, what he'd done, and what I was looking for and you didn't tell me even when it was under my nose."
"I don't believe he did exactly what he's accused of. I knew he was possibly the one you're looking for, or at least that he might have information. But I don't think he's the right one to look at..." Qing Xiashu muttered, brows furrowed as he turned away from Hong Chunji.
There was a slow sigh, the tell tale sound of the prince giving in on the argument.
"Qing Xiashu." Hong Chunji eventually said in a low sort of tone as he stood up, pulling his outer robes all back into place.
"What?" The head disciple was picking small twigs and pine needles out of a cut on the back of his hand, but looked over his shoulder anyway.
Again the head disciple let out a rather startled yelp as he was, this time, picked clean off the ground and sandwiched between Hong Chunji and a tree. "Oh come on! This is a bit excessive! I didn't even fight you this time!"
"Because you never got the chance." Hong Chunji hummed, supporting one of Qing Xiashu's legs in particular; there were three long scratches along his thigh that closely matched the ones on Hong Chuji's arm.
"You're not taking my pants off." Qing Xiashu said stubbornly.
"Fine." Hong Chunji ripped the cloth open to get to the flesh below.
"Brute! Who's shameless now!?"
"Both of us, do I need to distract you again? Are you just complaining so I'll kiss you?"
"Wh--" Qing Xiashu just knew his face was colored by the idea alone. "No! Of course not!"
"Why don't I believe you?" Hong Chunji asked in a tone that could only be a taunt.
"Because you're out of your mind!" Somehow he couldn't force himself to glare. In fact, a laugh bubbled through his chest, ringing in their little clearing.
Much like last time, Qing Xiashu melted into the kiss the moment it appeared at his lips, muscles relaxing in something that could almost be considered relief. The emotion of the kiss itself still felt a little irritable, but this time Qing Xiashu felt more at ease and a bit less like he might boil over with pent up anxiety.
Unfortunately, this time he was aware of the work being done on his injuries, jolting when something hurt or startled him.
That wasn't to say the kissing stopped for this disruption. It was a little surprising that Hong Chunji could kiss Qing Xiashu breathless and carefully tend to all his wounds. He even switched focus between locations when he'd finished taking care of one or another without even pausing to breathe.
Qing Xiashu slowly realized he'd been set down onto the ground again, but he could hardly bother pulling or pushing away from it.
"You know if you just want to kiss me you don't have to pretend to worry about me bleeding out." Qing Xiashu teased.
Hong Chunji scoffed, finally taking a few steps away from him. "Sleep." He stated, dropping down against some leaves.
Qing Xiashu laughed lightly and found a slightly softer patch to rest for himself as well.
•••
Running water trickled past a comfortable farm house.
A creek running past drained rice paddies.
The whinnying of a horse and the soft laughter of a young woman.
Qing Xiashu was stretching out before he even realized that he'd woken up, yawning and glancing around, he didn't find what he should have...
In fact something of extreme importance was missing.
"Hong Shaoye?" Nothing answered him but the panicked blood rushing in his ears.
Had he been left behind?
"Hong Chunji!" He stood to look around frantically.
He thought they were starting to get somewhere.
"A-Ming!"
Where had he gone?
"Over here!"
Qing Xiashu deflated, relief rushing over him like a bucket of frosty water, taking a deep breath before following the sound.
Right.
Hong Chunji wasn't that stupid.
Taking this forest alone was a death sentence.
When Qing Xiashu finally found the place Hong Chunji had disappeared off to, he understood why entirely.
There was a small crystal clear creek no more than waist deep.
Hong Chunji seemed to be sitting in it, entirely undressed and rinsing the blood and mud out of his hair. Now that the curls were heavy and waterlogged, Qing Xiashu could easily see just how long they were. They seemed to float down in the creek's current impossibly far.
"Oh."
"Get clean. Trust me, you need it." Hong Chunji said, turning his back toward Qing Xiashu to let him get undressed and into the water in relative privacy.
Qing Xiashu practically dove into the chilly water. "Oh, thank the gods." He heaved after he put his head under the water and brought it back up.
"Mn.''
"Can't we just stay here instead of going further East?" Qing Xiashu asked with a dramatic sigh.
"Tempting, but personally I would rather not be in this water when it gets dark."
"Mm, I suppose you're right, we should get moving soon."
"Mn."
By the time they were both relatively clean, Hong Chunji seemed to actually be getting cold in the water. Qing Xiashu heard him scramble up the bank to get dry, failing to prevent himself from laughing. "Shush, I don't want to hear that from you, wait until you have to spend a summer in the South."
Qing Xiashu only snorted at this. "Why in the world would I be in the far South at all? That's like you going to the North just for funsies, the borderlands are one thing but that deep South? I think I'd be drawn and quartered."
"Southerners don't keep many horses."
"Royals do."
"The royals are dead."
"Ah-- yes you have a point."
Well that was certainly awkward...
When Qing Xiashu was successful out of the water and mostly redressed, he witnessed something awful,
"Hong Shaoye, I know you are not about to tie up your hair while it's still that soaked."
"Why not?" Hong Chunji asked honestly, pausing the process of tying it up with his usual gauze ribbons.
"Seriously? No wonder your hair gets so frizzy, come here."
"What's wrong with my hair?" But Hong Chunji stepped closer obediently, even leaning forward when gestured to.
"Nothing. It's what's wrong with your brain." Qing Xiashu muttered with a click of his tongue, using one of his cleaner layers of robes to crunch up Hong Chunji's curls and carefully squeeze them dry until they were only damp.
"Can I put it up now?"
"No, leave it down, normally I'd tell you to wrap your hair up in something soft or whatever but- middle of the woods and all so just twist it up, no tying. Ah-- Here actually, use these." Qing Xiashu rummaged around in his sleeves until he found the long strand of silky ribbon he used to tie his sleeves.
"And why didn't we use that for bandages?" Hong Chunji sighed with soft, tired annoyance.
"It's silk, it doesn't absorb moisture, ya know, like this layer." He tugged on the outer layer of Hong Chunji's robes. "So, not great for bandages, that and it's slippery and won't stay in one spot. Linen is better. But for hair silk is the better option. It won't dry out your hair too fast or hard." He explained while carefully threading Hong Chunji's dark reddish curls into a delicately tucked together wrap. It looked from a distance like a braid with a piece of ribbon woven in. "The layer I squeezed out your hair with was cotton. It's soft so it won't break anything."
"Why does it matter?" Hong Chunji questioned when Qing Xiashu had finally stopped fiddling with his hair. Something that Hong Chunji clearly wouldn't have hesitated to cut off himself if it wouldn't damage his reputation.
"It'll keep it healthy." Qing Xiashu said, giving Hong Chunji a smile while he started patting out the ends of his own hair.
"Do you do all that with your hair?" Hong Chunji asked as they began moving East again.
"What?"
"Your hair, do you treat it the same?"
"Oh, no no, my hair is a totally different texture. Here, feel." Qing Xiashu held up a strand of his own inky black hair and placed it beside one of the dark red tinted curls that was too short to go into the wrap.
"It's heavier?" Hong Chunji questioned. Head tipping as he traced down the piece of hair he'd been offered.
"It's complicated, but for the most part I can treat my hair the way most people around here do. Yours is different, combing your hair can even be bad if the teeth are too small and compact."
"That seems strange... Are you sure?"
"Mm, wide toothed combs are better for you, or just your fingers."
Hong Chunji nodded, taking in the information as they walked, seemingly mulling it over. "How do you know all this?"
"One of my Shidi has very similar hair to yours, it took a lot of experimenting to get it all sorted out."
"You're a kind Shixiong."
Hei Xianying would have aggressively agreed.
"I try." Qing Xiashu said with a chuckle. "They're sweet."
"Sweeter than you certainly."
"Ah! Cruel!"
The fall of night forced them back against one another, their snarky quips growing less pointed and more humorous. Qing Xiashu was really starting to hope they were getting somewhere.
When Hong Chunji felt Qing Xiashu jerk to narrowly avoid a blow from a large snake, he spoke up. "Don't get injured again just so I'll kiss you."
"Oh, will you kiss me anyway?"
"You'll only find out if you don't get injured."
"Challenge accepted." Qing Xiashu grinned as he struck the back of the snake's skull, scattering bone fragments with a burst of the usual pale yellow light.
"Disgusting, rotting melons first and now poorly kept grapes?"
Together they snickered, the head disciple tossing himself away from the batting paw of a ghoulish wild cat. "Truly foul!" He chirped.
The world cracked.
The sound of a century old tree split in half.
Qing Xiashu hoped to see a smoldering log.
It was worse.
It was so much worse.
The beasts around them dispersed quicker than either cultivator, head disciple or prince, could exhale.
The body of the undead wild cat was crushed to the ground, bones split, old coagulated blood pooling slowly.
The thing that crushed the wild cat...
A talon.
Above it a dragon with eyes that bore into their souls in what seemed to be quiet fascination.
The dragon didn't move to attack.
In fact, it only carefully removed its claws from where it had pinned the miserable twice-dead beast, flicking the extremity like a dainty fairy disgusted with the gore.
Beside this dragon was an adult feathered wyrm, settled peacefully there without threat, focus intensely planted on Hong Chunji. This wyrm decided before long to climb up the dragon's limbs and rest on its shoulders.
Qing Xiashu thought his eyes might fall out of his skull if they opened any wider. They didn't dare speak or even breathe in the presence of something so... large.
The dragon towered over them.
Yet they hadn't heard it approach.
Nor seen it.
Nor had it broken a single twig on its way to their side.
And yet here it was.
Less than two meters from where they stood.
It was so close that every breath it took made their robes and hair flutter slightly.
"Xiao Shu. Xiao Ji. Follow me." The dragon instructed, turning its massive body and head, circling back the way it had seemingly come, still not snapping a single branch as it went, slinking through the forest with practiced ease.
Neither Qing Xiashu nor Hong Chunji had the stomach to question how the dragon knew their names, or why they were told to follow. Instead they only obeyed the dragon's gentle voice.
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