#but the neighbour was drilling and I needed to write something about people being miserable lol

[ibijau]

it’s Bad timeline time, y’all! Although we’re getting to the people who actually see their fate improve a bit, yay!

He's just a boy, Huaisang thought, staring from a distance.

Of course, he'd always known that Xue Yang was young. He'd heard he wasn't more than sixteen or seventeen at the time of the massacre of the Yueyang Chang Clan, and that would have been years in the future.

As it was, the Sunshot Campaign had just finally ended. It had taken half a year more than it had last time, it had cost many more lives too, but it was over at last. 

The next part of Huaisang's plan was to make sure no conflict could erupt between the Nie sect and the Jin one and... that was going well so far. Most of the problem had come from the Yiling Patriarch's legacy, and Wei Wuxian was too busy running a sect with his sister turned wife to ever think of demonic cultivation, nor would he need to. Jin Guangshan was still capable of creating problems, but Huaisang was getting ready to take care of that too. He had the means, he just needed the occasion.

Without his father's influence, Jin Guangyao would be much less of a threat, so that would be killing two birds with one stone.

Still, while he prepared for his second murder in cold blood, Nie Huaisang had found himself wondering about the person who, in a few years, would have become the catalyst for the divide between Nie Mingjue and Jing Guangyao: Xue Yang.

Without the support of the Jins, Xue Yang wasn't much of a threat. And without the need for demonic cultivators, the Jins would never lower themselves to take in a street rat like him. Still, Huaisang felt slightly guilty that by his fault, a monster like that one remained at large. He knew what Xue Yang was capable of. He'd heard what had happened to the Chang Sect. He'd seen what he had done to Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen. He's witnessed the games he'd played in Yi City.

Huaisang's soul had been blackened this much already. A third murder wouldn't be much. Since he had not learned cultivation yet, it would be easy to kill Xue Yang.

He had arrived in Kuizhou a few days earlier, and set down to work to track the monster. It had been surprisingly easy. A disturbingly smiling youth with a missing finger? There were not many of those, and Xue Yang had never been known for subtlety. Huaisang had had no trouble finding which parts of town he was most active in.

So there he was now, sitting inside a sub-par tavern, staring through a window toward a group of teenagers. Xue Yang was easily the youngest of the group, but already he was rather tall. How old could he be? Twelve, thirteen at most? Perhaps younger, it was hard to say with a face like his. And yet there could be no doubt that this group of older boys was under his thrall. Young, but already good at manipulating people.

Nie Huaisang tore his eyes from the teenagers and took a sip of tea.

He knew he had caused the death of children already. There had been a war, and that war had dragged on longer than necessary. To make it worse, it was only too well known to him how many Wens had died, were dying, would die in the Jin work camps, many of them no more than toddlers. He knew because he'd been there in secret once or twice to try and see if he could find Lan Sizhui, but he'd never discovered the right group of Wens. Too much had changed, Wen Qing's people had been taken to a different place. More deaths to weigh him down.

But none of these children had been directly killed by him. He had killed adults, yes (it was a war, and in fairness they would have killed him too given the chance) and he had murdered Jiang Cheng who had still been so young but... but never a child, never an actual child. He hadn't fallen that low yet. Even a monster had things he wasn't willing to do, especially when he couldn't be sure what Xue Yang would become in the future.

A criminal, certainly, as he already was one and he had no one to put him on a better path. But how dangerous would he be? And who could say he wouldn't make a fateful encounter than would change his ways, leading him to become a good man. He was impossibly clever after all, nearly on the same level as Wei Wuxian. With the right training, the right mindset, Xue Yang could perhaps revolutionise the cultivation world in all the ways Wei Wuxian wouldn't get the chance to.

That train of thought was broken when someone pulled on the chair on the other side of Huaisang's table and sat down across from him.

The boy smiled so widely it revealed an unsettling smile with an empty slot where one canine was still growing.

“I hear you've been asking about me?” Xue Yang asked in a voice that had not yet broken. “I've got to wonder what I've done that they'd send a cultivator after me this time.”

Huaisang maintained a neutral expression, but already he was impressed. He had his sabre with him of course, but aside from that he'd made sure to dress up like an merchant to avoid bringing attention to himself. For most people, changing his clothes and hair was enough. Xue Yang, no matter how young, wasn't most people.

“Are you very used to be chased, then?” Huaisang asked.

He already knew the answer of course. Part of what made it so startling to see Xue Yang was that his reputation was already impressive, and he had always escaped being captured by authorities. He wouldn't be caught by anyone in his life, not until a righteous cultivator dedicated himself to the task, never knowing how much it would cost him.

“I'm used to a lot of things,” Xue Yang replied dismissively, grabbing Huaisang's tea and shamelessly drinking it. He inspected the adult a little longer, and grinned too wickedly for someone who didn't have all his real teeth yet. “You don't look like someone that's going to cause me trouble. So I guess what's happening is you want me to cause trouble for you. Can be arranged. I ask to be paid first though.”

How terrible for a child to already know to make that demand.

“Why do you think I'm a cultivator?” Huaisang inquired.

“Saw your sword when you walked in the street. Normal people don't have one like that. Also, you stopped a moment in front of that old house, the one that's haunted. Most folks just walk faster, but you stopped and you frowned and I bet if you hadn't been more interest in me, you'd have done something about it.”

“You are a very observant boy,” Huaisang noted.

He'd known that about Xue Yang already, of course. He had known a lot about Xue Yang, but it was different from experiencing it. He also took note of the pride that flashed on the boy's face at being complimented, even if Xue Yang tried to hide it. No matter how clever or wicked, any child liked to be acknowledged.

“So, what d'you want me for?” Xue Yang asked, his grin turning greedy. “I can do anything, or I can have it done by someone else. It's easy.”

“Have you ever thought of joining a sect?”

The question startled Xue Yang enough that, for a brief moment, he looked like nothing more than an innocent child. In fairness, Huaisang too felt surprised. This wasn't part of the plan. He was supposed to kill Xue Yang or leave him alone, not... do whatever it was that he was now thinking of.

But of course, plans changed.

“Sects don't take people like me,” Xue Yang protested, nearly pouting in a way that could have been adorable if Huaisang hadn't known what that boy was. “And I'm too old.”

“That's not a no. And some sects take older disciples, as well as people who don't come from cultivating families.”

“Does yours?”

Huaisang hesitated. Qinghe Nie took in anyone as long as they were tough enough. With their founder a butcher, it would have been hypocritical to turn away people because of their birth.

At the same time, he did not want Xue Yang in his sect. First of all, Mingjue would hate that boy so much, as had been proven in their other life. Secondly, the thought of someone like Xue Yang anywhere near Lan Xichen made Huaisang sick to the core. He'd seen and heard what had happened to Xiao Xingchen who like Lan Xichen trusted too easily. He could not take that risk.

What Xue Yang needed was a place that could canalise his wild temperament without stifling it so much he'd run away, and people who could teach him that, actually, human lives other than his own did matter.

Ah.

Well, he'd ruined their lives this much already, what was a little more?

“My sect is not recruiting at the moment,” Huaisang explained with a hand wave. “But I have some friends who are in dire need of disciples. You've heard of the Sunshot Campaign?”

Xue Yang scoffed, as if that weren't even worth answering.

“You might have heard of the Yunmeng Jiang sect too, then.”

From the way his eyes widened, it was obvious Xue Yang had heard of them.

“Listen old man, you're pushing the lie too far!” he protested. “Even kids know that the Jiang sect is this big! What are you going to say next, that you're friend with its leader?”

Huaisang couldn't help a smile. A very clever boy indeed.

“Friend might be pushing it, but I know Jiang Yanli and her husband. I'm from the Nie sect myself.”

Xue Yang's face turned to a mocking grimace.

“You're lying too big again. You don't look anything like a Nie.”

That stung a little more than Huaisang would have expected. He was used to hearing that sort of things, it had been thrown to his face often enough... though mostly in his other life. Since he had fought in the war this time, people were a little more respectful of him. He'd proven his worth as a cultivator, and he was a little less scrawny than he had been when he avoided his sabre... but of course, Xue Yang was right: he'd never look like he belonged in his sect.

“And you're overconfident if you think you can school me,” Huaisang scolded lightly. “Believe me or not, I don't care.”

He rose from his chair. He had seen what he had to see, heard what he needed to hear. Xue Yang was already on his way to becoming the monster he had grown into, in another life, but it might still be stopped. The only question was how to get Wei Wuxian to come in this part of Kuizhou... though for once, trickery might not be the way. He knew Jiang Yanli and Wei Wuxian. If he told them he had met an orphan who showed promises for cultivation, they'd be interested. They were that sort of people.

He ignored Xue Yang as he made his way out of the tavern, but the boy wasn't done with him. Xue Yang actually ran after him, shouting and grabbing his robe to catch his attention.

“Hey, master Nie, you forgot that,” he announced, showing off a small box. “How much will you give to have it back?”

Huaisang glared, not at the boy but at the box. It had been stupid, a mistake on his end. An old habit that was difficult to shake off.

He always used to buy souvenirs for Xichen when he travelled but... Lan Xichen didn't even live with them yet, wouldn't for some more years, and even when he finally did, he wouldn't want gifts from Huaisang.

“It's just candies,” Huaisang snapped, pulling his robe away from Xue Yang's hand “You can keep them for all I care.”

He started walking again and to his relief, Xue Yang did not try to follow. When Huaisang turned around after a moment, he spotted the boy exactly in the spot where he had left him, greedily digging into the pretty box, gorging himself on the delicate candies. He'd get a stomach ache if he didn't slow down but... that was not Huaisang's concern. Xue Yang could choke on those candies and die, it would be a blessing for the world.

Still, Huaisang was determined that he would try to speak to Wei Wuxian.

He knew about being a boy too clever in a world too cruel. Perhaps, with the right people to guide him, Xue Yang might turn out less monstrous than Huaisang had.