#but we really put liu sang through it

[aoioozora]

Liu Kang Tries Earthrealm Activities: The Karaoke.

Characters: Liu Kang, Johnny Cage

Content: singing, joking, memes, friendly LK and JC interactions

Photo credit: your mom

Note: Idk if anyone has done this before, but I thought it would be funny lol. Enjoy!

“Hey Liu Kang! We should totally go to the karaoke!” Johnny Cage exclaimed, barging into the room Liu Kang was in. 

The fire god, not quite bothered by the disruption, patiently looked up from the scroll he was reading and stared at confusion at the actor, trying to process what he just said. 

“What's a karaoke, Johnny Cage?” Liu Kang asked innocently, his glowing eyes gleaming with interest. 

Johnny was about to look at the god with a “are you kidding me bruh?” look, but remembered that Liu Kang was a deity and wasn't fully familiar with Earthrealmer activities. 

“You wanna find out?” asked Johnny, slapping his chest, puffed both with muscle and mostly pride, “Because,” he now sang, raising his arm in the air and slowly swiping it across him, “I can show you the world,” 

Liu Kang, not understanding the reference and taking it literally, smiled. “And I created this world,” he said. 

Johnny clicked his tongue at the other's incompetence in matters of cultural importance. “You say that, but know nothing of what Earthrealmers do in their spare time.” He taunted with a playful smirk. 

Liu Kang smiled again. “That's why I can count on you to help me.”

Johnny laughed. “You came to the right person! Now, off to the karaoke we go!” 

As the two men went, with Johnny leading, Liu Kang silently pondered and was intrigued by this strange sounding place that Johnny was so excited about. When they reached, Johnny booked a room for two hours and before they knew it, they were in a dark room with disco lights and a glittering above, a computer, and television screen. Across the television sat two couches and a table. 

“Well?” asked Johnny, motioning at the room, “What do you think?”

Liu Kang stared confusedly at the room. He had seen all these things separately before, but all of them put together in one room made him wonder how they all worked together. Johnny, seeing his companion's reaction, brought him inside and showed him the ropes. 

Johnny first chose a song; International Love seemed to be his first choice, since a video with the song and his face went viral on the socials, causing the song to be his unofficial theme song. 

“You put it down like New York City! I never sleep! Wild like Los Angeles, my fantasy!”

Liu Kang watched carefully as Johnny sang his heart out and busted out some of his favorite dance moves. The disco lights went crazy on their own, and even in this high strung environment, he was calmly observing the modus operandi of a “karaoke session”. 

When Johnny finished singing, he let out a heavy, but satisfied sigh and handed the mic to Liu Kang.  “Your turn.” he said.

Liu Kang looked curiously at the object Johnny was handing him and remembered that it was a microphone which was handy in amplifying one's voice. He took it, and then looked through the computer screen in front of him, looking at the vast array of songs, none of which he knew. 

After looking in vain for a song he knew, he asked, “Do they have Chinese songs?” 

“Yeah! They got songs in all languages!” Johnny exclaimed and then showed Liu Kang where to find them. 

When Liu Kang saw his native tongue on the screen, he felt at ease, and now put his all into searching for a good song. A lot of them looked like modern songs that hardly made sense to him, but one of them, an old song, caught his eye. 

He declared he would sing it and stood up in front of the television screen where the lyrics were now showing up. 

“Liu Kang! Liu Kang! Liu Kang!” Johnny cheered with a woop, egging him on to start singing. 

He soon did, and Johnny was pleasantly surprised by the fact that Liu Kang's voice was so melodious and soulful. When he had thought of it, he had never really heard Liu Kang sing before. 

Just as Johnny felt like he heard this song somewhere, Liu Kang sang the chorus with passionately, 

“Xuě huā piāo piāo běi fēng xiāo xiāo, tiāndì yīpiàn cāngmáng,”

Johnny chuckled, immediately recognising it. 

When Liu Kang finished his soulful number, Johnny asked him if it was his favorite song. 

“Of course it is. There are very few songs I enjoy and this is one of them.” answered Liu Kang with a wide grin, feeling ecstatic after singing. 

“I've a request for you to sing. It's also a Chinese song.” said Johnny with a mischievous smirk. 

Liu Kang, happy to sing some more, eagerly asked Johnny which song he had in mind. Johnny had to keep himself from laughing as he made Liu Kang listen to it on his phone first. 

“This is a good song! The singer is so kind as to make a song for sad people to feel happy again. Excellent choice, Johnny Cage.” Liu Kang said approvingly. “I didn't know you liked Chinese songs.” 

Johnny flashed an amused smirk, lying straight through his teeth, “Yeah, my recent obsession. I gotta promote my movies in China too, so, I gotta learn Chinese to up my social credits.” he shrugged, smiling. “You got the tune down?” 

“Yes, I think I can sing it.”

He started singing the first stanza, and Johnny sat with feverish excitement for his favorite part of the song to come. 

“Má hái guăn tā gàn má xīn lĭ yào jì de,”

Johnny smirked. It was coming. 

Liu Kang took a deep breath and started singing the chorus. 

“Nĭ shì nèi nèi gè nèi nèi, nèi gè nèi gè nèi gè nèi nèi,”

Johnny lost it. He started laughing hysterically, even falling over on the couch, holding his sides. 

Liu Kang, startled by Johnny's sudden laughter, stopped singing. By this time, Johnny was wheezing, laughing, and coughing all at once. The singer's confusion and concern only added to the other's hysterics. 

“Johnny Cage, why are you laughing?” demanded Liu Kang, now slightly annoyed. 

“It's nothing!” Johnny said through his coughs as he wiped the tears from his eyes, still chuckling. 

“Tell me why.” 

“Ain't nothing but a heartache!” Johnny returned, his hysterics starting again, now louder than the music. 

Liu Kang looked on, his confusion growing by the second. “Did I sing badly?” he asked. 

“No! No, no, you didn't.” Johnny coughed repeatedly. “I just remembered something funny.”

“I want to know what it is.” insisted Liu Kang. 

“Nah, I'm not telling you.” resisted Johnny. He was definitely not yet going to tell him that whatever he was singing sounded like a certain racial slur that started with the letter "n". He wanted to laugh at Liu Kang's innocence a little longer before revealing the truth.

Liu Kang sighed, deciding it wasn't worth his time to know. He was more interested in singing, and continued where he left off. 

When the two hours were up, the two left the karaoke center. 

“So, I see you had fun.” quipped Johnny in a slightly hoarse voice.

“I had the most splendid time, Johnny Cage. Thank you for showing me what a karaoke is.”

“Would you do it again?” 

“Indeed, I would.”

Johnny smirked. “Now let's get some bing chilling!”

“Bing chilling?” Liu Kang looked with confusion at his companion once again, before realising what he said. “You mean bīng qílín, if you're talking about ice cream.” he corrected, “Johnny Cage, your accent and pronunciation are awful. If you're going to promote in China, you should do better.”

“Okay, okay,” Johnny groaned loudly, making a mental note to teach Liu Kang about memes later. 

End.

My other MK fanfiction:

🌸 Johnny Cage sings you to sleep

🌸 Kenshi does your hair

[momosandlemonsoda]

Snippet for FebWhump 2022

I’m not usually a whump writer, but I love me a good shower breakdown and this prompt falls on my birthday, so-- snippet! This snippet is from the as-yet unpublished Arranged Marriage au, lines up with The Lost Tomb Reboot/Chongqi s1 ep16, after Wu Xie collapses in Xiaoge’s arms. It goes... mostly the same in this AU, except Wu Xie and Liu Sang are married and Xiaoge and Wu Xie are together and it’s a giant mess of hurt feelings and miscommunications (we will fix it!)

Prompt for February 27: Shower Breakdown

Ershu, or more likely, Er Jing, had booked them rooms in the nicest hotel close to Wu Xie’s hospital. Or so Liu Sang has heard— he’s been too busy trying to care for his stubborn ass of a husband, too busy trying to defend against the verbal slings and arrows that first Ershu himself and then the other two sides of the iron triangle decided to lob at him, to do more than grab snatched minutes of sleep by Wu Xie’s bedside, listening carefully to his heartbeat, his lungs, forcing food down his throat, and memorizing the doctors’ words because heaven knows his idiot spouse won’t.

He’s not sure how long it’s been when Hei-ye finds him sitting beside Wu Xie’s bedside, watching Wu Xie sleep far more peacefully than he has any right to. He’s gone so long without proper rest that time has become blurry and shallow, all but meaningless compared to the space between labored breaths, the syncopation of the machines. He knows that he drove off with Wu Xie and Pangzi to start the trip back to Hangzhou on Tuesday morning, but beyond that? It’s meaningless, unimportant compared to… this. To watching Wu Xie’s chest rise and fall, the thin blanket shifting over him with each inhalation.

“Liu Sang,” Hei-ye says quietly. He looks up, taking a moment to focus, to notice that Hei-ye is holding out a hand. “You need to come with me.”

“Why?” he asks, rising automatically, smoothing a hand down whatever shirt he’s wearing. If he’s to go a few rounds with Hei Xiazi or Ershu (again) or, heaven forbid, Pangzi, then he wants to be prepared.

“Back to the hotel,” Hei-ye says, and then catches his arm when he turns around to go back to Wu Xie. “You need to sleep and you can’t do that here.”

“Can,” Liu Sang says, tugging his arm. It doesn’t move, and that’s strange, he wonders—

“Liu Sang,” and Hei-ye’s voice isn’t gentle exactly, but it’s softer than Liu Sang has yet heard, “you’ll do no good to Xiao San-ye if you end up in a bed next to him.” He pauses, strokes his chin. “I suppose it would be very romantic, of course, but also very idiotic.”

Liu Sang stares at him a moment, confused, because he and Wu Xie don’t have a romance. He can’t see Hei-ye’s eyes but he gets the impression the man has rolled them. “I thought you were smart, Wu Furen,” Hei-ye says, and that annoys Liu Sang enough that he tries to wrench his arm away. “Look,” Hei-ye says, not budging. “You can get in the car under your own power or I can knock you out and carry you through the hospital. Up to you.”

Liu Sang opens his mouth to argue as he tries to free his arm again, but he ends up swaying and nearly falling. Everything swims alarmingly in front of him, and when he can see again, Hei-ye is shaking his head. “Fine,” he says shortly. “Just for an hour or two.”

“Whatever you say, Wu Furen,” Hei-ye says, and Liu Sang lets himself be led out to the too-hot, too-bright, too-quiet parking lot.

***

Back at the hotel, he’s too jittery to sleep right away, and he can’t remember when he last had anything resembling a meal. He calls down for room service and decides to take a shower while he waits. He’s suddenly aware of just how long he’s been in these clothes, how terrible he smells. He throws them into a corner of the bathroom as he starts the shower, desperate to be clean.

The warm water rushing over him is soothing, loosening muscles. He’s covered in bruises— from the car crash, from the guards, from bouncing around in Jiang Zisuan’s car for hours. Eventually, he picks up the shampoo, pours some into his hand. Its light and floral scent rises as he starts massaging it into his hair, digging his fingernails into his scalp. For long minutes he enjoys the feel of the soap suds slipping over him, the rasp of the facecloth, the feel of finally being clean.

As he stands there, though, the image of Wu Xie, bright red blood running down his chin, flashes to his mind. Then Wu Xie in that hospital bed— flakes of dried blood around his mouth, tubes down his throat, the mutter of doctors and the shrill shriek of the machines. Wu Xie had looked pale and small when Liu Sang had seen him in that first hospital in Macau. He looks even worse now, thinner and bruised. And Liu Sang has less hope now, understands more, and he knows, knows that it’s just a matter of time. That this recovery is just a waypoint on the road to the end.

He thought about the kiss that Wu Xie had given him in the general’s office, how Wu Xie had been so joyful, proud of himself for besting the general, and sweet as he checked Liu Sang over, as he took his mouth. It was their first real kiss since their wedding night, Liu Sang thought, and if Wu Xie died it would be their last.

He thought about sex with Wu Xie, their wedding night, how good it had been, sweet and funny and a little bit dirty and he wanted that again. Suddenly it seemed astonishing to him that they hadn’t had sex since then, that in all the months he’d spent five nights out of seven in Wu Xie’s arms they hadn’t—

He wants. He wants to kiss his husband, to fuck him, be fucked by him. He wants to argue over stupid things like who used the last of the soy milk and the 70 used mugs strewn around the house on a daily basis. He wants—

He covers his eyes, digging the heels of his hands in hard, but the tears leak out anyway. He ignores them, pretends it’s only the hot water on his face. The first sob takes him by surprise, though. It’s ripped from his chest, deep and wracking, and he covers his mouth, desperately trying to keep the rest inside. It’s no use, sob after sob torn from his throat, until he shakes from it, until he nearly loses his balance, leans against the shower wall. Eventually he turns, burying his face into his folded arms and letting the tears run. His husband is dying, and there’s nothing he can do to stop it, and in the meantime he barely even has a marriage.

[sleepyowlwrites]

find the word tag CCCXXXV

oh no I'm running out of things to say. things that I can fit into words into sentences I mean. the thought trains don't stop. @writingamongther0ses @zmwrites

uncover huh

unlike (the original meta-portal rewrite which was a bit too ambitious for my own good)

Haknyeon glares at him, which has no effect whatsoever. “Yes. Younghoon fell through that portal. Jisung here came through it. I think it might be broken, so I don’t see how we’re going to remedy this situation.”

Jacob has a very blank expression on, and Haknyeon knows that means he’s worrying. “Well,” he says.

(Besides Jacob being a natural worrier, he’s a witch. Witches tend to be very level-headed and then worry on top of that for good measure, simply because they can.)

“I should’ve stopped him, but he’s too tall,” Haknyeon says, in a voice very close to a whine which is very unlike him.

Jacob looks him up and down tiredly. “I’m taller than you and I wouldn’t be able to stop him either. He’s a trouble magnet.” He eyes Jisung warily. “You should come home with me, I guess. We’ll be more able to tackle the situation if we’ve eaten dinner.”

(This is a very common witch-reaction: confront problems with food. It’s also a very common Jacob-reaction: confront problems with food at my house, specifically, where I feel more comfortable.)

hint (heartbeat, 2021 I wanna write more Liu Sang but I gotta hold off for now)

He really can’t figure this. What part of this conversation is he missing? “I made the map. It might be a little smudged because my hand was shaking, but it’s clear.”

The warmth doesn’t die but Zhang Qiling’s eyes tighten at that. “We won’t leave you behind,” he says patiently. There's something left unsaid but is hinted at by a tiny change of breathing rhythm.

Liu Sang is very confused. But maybe he’s not? He listens to that change in heartbeat for another moment before pulling at his courage reserves to ask, “Do you, uh, want me to come with you?”

“You’re useful,” Zhang Qiling says, simple and truthful. Then, his ouxiang adds, “Yes. We want you with us.”

Oh. Oh?

“Oh,” Liu Sang whispers. And this is a new kind of pain, a warm, fluttery kind that feels almost good. “Even though I’m useless sometimes?”

“Anyone can be useless sometimes.” This is a simple and truthful statement that requires no clarification.

space (meta-portal after I had figured out my groove)

Jisung beckons to the group. "Let's put the tools away. That's all the chairs we can salvage anyway. If there's still not enough space we can get the crates back out or sit on the floor." "You're not going to make me sit on your lap again?" Yeonjun asks wryly. "If you wanted to, I wouldn't object." Jacob pokes his head into the main room. "Come and help set the tables, would you? I've got the plates and mugs out." Everybody goes, because Jacob ranks after Jisung in terms of giving orders. Haknyeon should be just behind but he's a little iffy on this whole situation and has therefore forfeited his rights to the chain of command. Sangyeon, as the oldest, should also rank highest, but he gave his up willingly.

north (hyunjin's meta-portal stats bcuz we love him)

Hyunjin - 24, 180cm Prince/guardian of northern scarlentis Winter magic faerie, STRESSEDtm because he thinks he has to be on top of everything (but especially Minho’s antics) Friendly and gentle otherwise, responsible, big heart, self-sacrificing

fate (destiny, undesired, 2020 - I guess I had to have a poem)

the problem with fate is that it has no control. what appears to be a maniacal hand destroying the wills of others is, in fact, a simple eventuality that it simply must be. perhaps it didn’t mind that two lovers found each other, but if their strings broken a mere moment later could fate intervene? it was merely the sky and the stars were without mind or desire.

world (meta-portal rewrite)

"someone passed me in the water." it's the stranger talking. his eyes are open.

Jacob helps him to sit up. "Juyeon was in the water?"

the stranger wipes at his nose. "that creeper vine must have been enchanted for it to have affected me."

"focus," Haknyeon snaps, newly invested in the situation because he doesn't want to have lost both brothers. "Juyeon didn't come up?"

"he came up, they pulled him out."

everybody looks at him like he's crazy.

"nobody's here," Jisung says gently.

the stranger shakes his head. "on the other side. this is not where I fell in. I'd heard rumors of new portals randomly appearing but I thought they were just rumors. apparently not, since I just came through one. your friend must've come out in my world."

burn (meta-portal rewrite - oh hey I guess I'll make my year's goal if I finish nano)

Jisung gets up first the next morning and makes blueberry muffins and tea. Jacob gulps down a cup too hot because he's distracted by his locator spell giving back cryptic readings and Haknyeon has to make him a burn potion so he can talk again.

"don't do this, I can't be in charge of these children," Haknyeon tells Jacob.

"thank you," Jacob says when he can feel his throat again.

he packs them all some lunches and locks up the cottage. Jisung ends up walking in between Kevin and Sunwoo and Jacob is grateful that one of the kids has some braincells.

paper, potion, poison, purchase. BONUS: pouch, punch. @ashen-crest @akindofmagictoo and anybody who also has these words, obviously

[kimmyyang]

210503 My favorite moments & translations of the SHL concert including the warming up livestream

1. Zhao Jing calling fans adopted sons and daughters during the livestream and revealing that there will be a game where they hug each other, telling fans to look forward to it (he knows what we want to see haha).

2. Gong Jun arrived at the livestream first, but he still waited for Zhang Zhehan and told Zhang Zhehan to introduce himself first.

3. Zhang Zhehan saying he will talk less as he needs to take care of his throat for the actual concert, so Gong Jun talked mostly in the livestream (translation is here).

4. In the beginning of the concert, ZZH introduced himself: "I'm your Ah Xu." (T ^ T)

5. The MCs asked the casts to write down their top 1 iconic scene, some of them picked the scene where Gao Chong died. GJ & ZZH were having a discussion and the MCs were like "why do these two have to discuss their top 1 scene?" (yeah, you just need to write your own fave scene, it's not pair work LMAO) ZZH picked "you're not worthy" scene where they had to fight against Ye Bai Yi, and GJ picked the sun basking scene where they called each other 'Lao Wen', 'Ah Xu' 3 times. ZZH said: thanks to Gao dage's iconic scene, they got to rest haha.

6. Gao Chong, Zhao Jing & Shen Sheng sitting behind GJ & ZZH wrote "Lao Wen ♡ Lao Zhou" on their whiteboards, they were laughing so much while holding it up.

7. When they played the sun basking scene, the MCs asked GJ "you were pretty focused when watching the scene." GJ replied, "it reminded me of the time when we were filming, it felt so warm just like now, I'm being surrounded with love."

8. MCs said that ZZH added the part where calling Lao Wen's name 3 times. ZZH said: "yes I even asked GJ to call Ah Xu 3 times, I like the number 3 and calling the names 3 times shows 3 different emotions". When MCs asked them to reenact the scene, I heard CWN saying he wants to see it. (I hope I didn't mishear it lol and the MCs were smiling so much while watching them)

9. After ZZH finished singing Gu Meng (T ^ T), the fans were all screaming 'lao po'. XDDD

10. At the beginning of the game segment, when the rules came up on the screen. Fans were screaming loudly and ZZH said: "did you guys even read/ understand it to be screaming like that?" And one of the MCs said: "shouldn't that be Ye Bai Yi's job to diss people?" (The MCs definitely did a lot of prep before the concert haha XD and that is the hugging game Zhao Jing talked about in the livestream)

11. GJ & ZZH were laughing hehehehe when they found out they got the same number.

12. The MCs had to say a number, they have to find enough people to make that number. At one point Ye Bai Yi was with 3 actresses, and ZZH said: "Ye Bai Yi you're a guy and you're hugging 3 girls??? I didn't expect you to be like this." (AHAHAHAHA)

13. I missed out on what happened with CWN & GX, but it seems that they wanted to get eliminated together. (T ^ T)

14. So at the end, ZZH and Cheng Ling won the game and GJ was like: "the person who won the game will sing until tomorrow's concert." (LOL)

15. GJ said: "I feel like you guys planned it out to make me lose the game." (ZZH called 'Lao Wen' 3 times here ahhhh GJ kinda just gave up lol) "Am I right, didi?" Cheng Ling replied yes. ZZH asked GJ to dance as a punishment but GJ forced ZZH to dance and ZZH was like why do I have to do it when I won the game?? Then ZZH sang and GJ danced to 爱的恰恰 (so cute I cry) GJ couldn't do the dance properly, he explained: "I need to save my energy, I have to sing later."

16. When they were picking the winners for the prizes, GJ said: "it's so unfair to the bottom floor, they haven't won anything." ZZH then jokingly added: "the people on the bottom floor, they're super fast at getting the tickets and they're pretty rich too." (because the tickets are more expensive) GJ jokingly followed: "then let's pick someone from level 3, haha I actually did pick out level 3 (from the bag)."

17. Another game, the MCs asked them to say something fierce to the other team, GJ was facing his teammates and kept saying (I can't remember what he said) really loudly. And ZZH was like did you not understand (the instructions) why are you shouting at your teammates? (AHAHAHAHAHA come on I don't think he would say anything fierce to his lao po XD)

18. I can't remember what happened but Ye Bai Yi shouted: "卧槽 (fuck)" during the game segment. (really loudly!!! and I haven't heard any Chinese actors/ celebrities say that in public lmao)

19. GJ couldn't find all the nails on ZZH and asked: "where did you guys hide it?" Ye Bai Yi lifts up ZZH's clothes and said: "here". GJ said:" I can't reach there, they won't be able to broadcast it." (asdfghjklfuuuuu)

20. When they reenacted the "you're not worthy" scene and still bickering like 3-year-olds XDDD

21. When Cao Wei Ning & Ah Xiang were singing Yuan Mie, Ah Xiang got so emotional she cried and messed up, so Cao Wei Ning sang her lines and held her hand really tightly. (I CRIEDDDD)

22. Afterwards, ZZH & GJ walked out with Cheng Ling (then everyone came out too). GJ forgot to bring the red bracelets and ZZH was like "where are the red bracelets? Lao Wen did you give it to someone else?" (AHAHAHAHA)

23. When they had to put the red bracelets on each other's wrists, CWN's hands were shaking so much, you can literally feel how nervous he is through the screen. (sobs) CWN called Ah Xiang "Cao furen (my wife)" and GX called Cao dage "my husband". (T ^ T)

24. When Xi Sang Gui came into the centre, she said: "Ah Xing (WKX) when will it be your wedding?" GJ just smiled and side-eyed ZZH. XDD

25. GJ said that SHL means a lot to him, it's a special, irreplaceable drama to him. I think he also thanked ZZH. ZZH said: "thank you shanrens who're here and watching in front of the screen for giving us the chance to dream and made our dream come true. (no, thank YOU for bringing Ah Xu into our lives T ^ T)

26. Picking winners again and CWN was trying so hard to find the bottom/ centre area card. (so cute)

27. ZZH & GJ singing Tian Wen, ZZH got confused at the start and GJ helped him to get back into the right key, they both laughed and it was just so cuteeeee. And GJ said: "everyone together" which made ZZH laugh cuz you don't usually say that during a slow song lmao.

28. Liu Qianqiao presented 嗑 upside down which is phonetically “嗑到了/ kdl” and it means my ship (cp) is sailing.

Day 2

[januaryisnotanartist]

So, funny you mention this.

In the more Sci-fi side of the AU’s in my brain I actually have the literal crackiest sci-fi AU, which is actually an actor AU. (like, it could work as a straight up space AU, but the way it happened in my head, it was as the actor AU) I know it’s not really related but I’mma tell you all anyway.

(Don’t worry, I won’t also drop the “bullshit science” Jiaoren concept... today...)

-

Liu Sang is the sound guy/general behind the scenes stuff idk, for a pretty popular star trek type show, which stars the Iron triangle in the main roles.

The show they play is basically Lost Tomb, but, you know, In Space. They go around finding lost colonies and civilizations and *ahem* preserving the antiquities as best as they can despite the cults and alarming amount of defunct tech that tries to kill Wu Xie’s character every time.

The show itself has a surprisingly heavy ad-lib script, (like, there’s a proper script, but the actors are allowed and encouraged to adjust the lines and stuff on the fly based on their understanding of their own characters) so set technicians hang out in ‘uniform’ in case they need to fix something on set, they can just ~blend~ with the background extras.

During one take of a bridge scene in which Wu Xie’s character (the captain of the space ship) is supposed to be doing a thing on the computer, he hits the wrong button because the programs used for the ship’s systems has been updated and Wu Xie didn’t read the memo and now the prop screen is beeping incessantly.

Sound/tech guy Liu Sang, who normally hangs out as a comm. tech extra (communication technician, like Uhura and Hoshi sato) during bridge scenes, slides over and turns off the annoying beeping, gives Wu Xie the bitchiest of faces, and says “and this is why we read about the system updates when the ship receives upgrades.” Then shows Wu Xie how to use the new user interface for the scene he’s supposed to be filming.

No one breaks character.

The cameras don’t stop rolling, and what should have been a blooper becomes the actual scene, and Liu Sang’s accidental cameo comm. tech becomes a surprise fan favourite.

So Liu Sang, despite not being an actor, keeps getting cameos, and then he winds up being actually involved in plot lines.

And then finally, his character (referred to only as “Jinx” because of Liu Sang’s on set nickname which Pangzi used during the first cameo) dies in an explosion saving the rest of the crew.

end of season.

the fans go livid.

Then they begin the conspiracies, or maybe the conspiracies had already started by then, because comm. tech Jinx wasn’t actually Liu Sang’s first cameo on the show.

He’d previously played space assassin Wang Can, a minor character during a cult arc, and he’d also played a hacker friend of a friend of Xiazi’s known only as Geist, since the character had a small scene but the actual actor had dropped out last minute and they didn’t have time for a recast for what was essentially a blurry profile shot in front of a computer.

All three characters had been played at different stages of Liu Sang’s hair journey, but speculation abounds on how the three might be related.

There are, of course those who think the trio are unrelated and just happened to be played by the same actor.

The cast and writers of the show listen to the fans and in the end it comes down to Liu Sang’s choice, since he was the one who’d asked to kill off Jinx because he’d failed to realise how much the audience loved his accidental character, and he’d wanted to go back to his normal job.

Liu Sang relents, and they come up with a way to bring him back. They listen to the fan theories, and craft their response, pulling on lore that they’d only skimmed in the show.

A few episodes into the next season, fans are outraged at the lack of mourning for Jinx, but there’s fans who pull apart a few strange turns of phrase from the main crew.

Then several episodes in, it happens.

The ship takes a detour to pick up the ‘new’ comm. tech to fill Jinx’s role.

*unknown planet - system (the one Wu Xie just had the ship set a course to)*

In front of a computer monitor, a familiar silhouette resolves into Geist, (aka, Liu Sang with the floppy black hair (from the time he fought a haunted paint can)) as a notice pops up on his screen:

J-1-NX : Restoration 100%

Geist wanders down through a series of hallways until he comes to a room in which is a large pod/tub like structure. Geist calls out “gege, are you awake now?”, and the top of the pod opens to reveal a pool of funky coloured liquid from which our regularly scheduled Liu Sang Jinx emerges.  wet and naked

Over the next few episodes Jinx’s backstory and connection to both Geist and Wang Can are revealed: They’re members of a clone army that were made for a war centuries ago, equipped with neural downloading so the folks in charge didn’t have to retrain a new replacement every time one was killed (think Cylons from the Galactica reboot) and so secret, hard earned information wasn’t lost. But most batches never saw the field because the war finished before they were needed, and they were put into long term storage.

And then they were forgotten.

And then a few systems malfunctioned and several (dozen?) clones were released from stasis.

Wang Can is back in perma-stasis after going crazy and joining a galactic death cult, but Jinx, Geist (G-31-ST) and several other clones (not all of the same physical model) are running around the galaxy.

J Series were espionage units, designed to have heightened hearing and linguistic comprehension.  1 is actually 001, first of his batch, NX, which were the first batch capable of doing what they were designed to do, with out suffering overstimulation/audio overload every ten minutes.

G series were designed to be good with computer programming. (hackers.)

Wang Can is from a front line series, one with a habit of going homicidal even without repeatedly dying.

[foxofninetales]

Tagged by @rose-nebulijia

Rules: List the LAST lines of the last ten (10) stories you published. Look to see any patterns you notice yourself, and see if anyone else notices any. Then tag some friends.  

Ahhhh, I love this tag game, because ending lines are MY JAM!  The moment a fic really falls into place for me is the moment that I figure out the last line and suddenly it has a SHAPE.  Usually this happens fairly early in the writing process, thank goodness, but when it doesn't I am a Very Whiny Writer.  Occasionally i have to settle for a line that is just okayish in order to get the fic done and posted, but most of the time I am really happy with my end lines.

I’m not sure about patterns, besides a DISTINCT love for punny innuendo, but I’ve included some commentary on each line and what work it was putting in for the story.

Only finished fics are included, not WIPs.

THERE BE FIC SPOILERS BELOW

Mating Behaviors of the Nurse Shark

Most notably, both of his traitorous friends were wearing cheerful, brightly colored balloon stickers that declared in a bouncy yellow font, “I was a very good boy”.

“I absolutely, one-hundred percent, do not want to know,” said Pangzi, and went to find something stronger to put in his coffee.

I idly threw in a reference to Wu Xie getting a sticker for good behavior while Liu Sang was his nurse-in-charge, and then my innuendo-loving brain sat up straight and said, "Oh my god oh my god oh my GOD."

Cabbages and Kings

And – swift and sharp and wild – his fox smiles.

So this is an example of the full-circle thing that I really love to do with the start and end of fics.  This fic begins with Pangzi grumbling that the fox isn't his fox, and he doesn't know why people keep calling it that, so to end it with that acceptance is very pleasing.  Fun fact, I spent DAYS waffling between "swift and sharp and wild" and "swift and soft and wild", which give two very different feelings.  I'm glad I kept it prickly.

Hold Me Fast, Let Me Not Go

"I'm not who I was when I left." He sounds almost afraid; behind the hesitance, his voice still rings with the music of faraway bells.

"That's all right, then," says Kan Jian, who has walked the world to bring him home. "Neither am I."

Another trick I love pulling is basically condensing and rephrasing the themes of the fic in the very end lines.  You have to be careful, because it can be very "1960s-sci-fi moral-of-the-story" if you're blunt with it, but it can be very satisfying if you can make it work.  Here we have Liu Sang - altered beyond his choice, touched by magic and unsure if there is a place for him in the everyday world - and Kan Jian - altered by his own choice, feet still firmly set in earth and the connection he has built with the world by walking it - and the way this brings them closer to face whatever is to come.

Gunpowder and Ink

Okay, each chapter is its own discreet ficlet, so let's flip through all of them:

He holds out his hand. After a long second, numbly, Liu Sang takes it. “You’re crazy,” he says and it comes out as an awed whisper.

“Oh, you’ve figured that out already? I knew we would get along well,” says Wu Xie, Marquis of the house of Wu and future Duke of Wushanju.

Title-dropping Wu Xie was a fun, punchy way to end this, as was the "oh heck what am I getting myself into" feels from Liu Sang and Wu Xie's blithe self-own.

Much later, as the carriage finally makes the turn into the wide drive that leads into the estate, Wu Xie lifts the curtain at the window and peers out. For a moment, as the angle of the coach gives him a view of the road behind him, he thinks he sees a dark figure on a dark horse, but it is far enough away that it could be just a trick of moonlight and shadow.

Not amazing, but a good solid line, bringing home the mysterious moonlit stranger feels and hinting at the future.

Zhang Qiling, looking after him, is pleased. He cannot be everywhere at all times, and to know that there is someone else by Wu Xie who would kill for him warms a place in his soul that he did not know was cold.

Mmm... adequate.  Not amazing, but it does get across the idea that Zhang Qiling is accepting and not jealous, and of course Liu Sang's semiferal protectiveness of his duke.

For someone who claims to be bored by interminable paperwork, it should be noted with what extreme enthusiasm the Duke of Wushanju spends that long, leisurely afternoon signing, stamping, and filing his secretary. In triplicate.

*sings* Innuennnnnnndo!  This was just one of those "yay fun with language!" lines, but it’s also better suited to this genre than bluntly spelling out what they are getting up to.

"You," he says slowly, "are going to either be the light of my life or the bane of my existence."

Wu Xie laughs, bright and free. "How about both?"

Oh, I was very pleased with this one and how it sums up their entire relationship, and the acknowledgement that both of them realize that they have met one of the people who is going to be there the rest of their life.  I love them, your honor.

Behind them, in the ballroom, the clock strikes midnight. When the Qilin finally, finally speaks, his voice is rough. "My mask stays on."

Wu Xie's does not. Nor, it should be recorded, does anything else he is wearing.

*points at 'Innuendo' tag above* Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

“If Two-hand John is havin’ a good evenin’, sometimes he’ll put a tater in the coals for you,” says Liu Sang, after a long minute.

“Let’s hope Two-hand John is having a good evening, then,” says Pangzi.

(He is.)

This one was a little bit unusual, because the last line of a story isn't normally where you would choose to add worldbuilding depth - which is what this is doing, with the implication of the introduction of new characters and locations and especially dropping in a character name with so much backstory potential like “Two-hand John’.  I do like it for that reason, though, because it opens out the end of the story into the implication of their expanding relationship.  You mind can fill in a scene of them huddled close to a barrel fire with two or three scruffy carters, cobbles at their feet and the cold night at their back, exchanging friendly curses and wisecracks and being brought up short when one of them accidentally finishes the other one's joke. And then one laughing when the other is juggling his hot potato, only to burn his own fingers because he wasn't paying attention to their own. Pangzi produces a flask (Pangzi ALWAYS has a flask) and passes it around, and then a couple of the carters do likewise, and Wu Xie comes down the next morning to find both of them passed out drunk-asleep on the sofa in the library, the diamond-edged miniature still clutched in Liu Sang's hand...

There's a whole story just in those last few lines, is all I'm saying.

Good For What Ails You

It’s very good to see that Kan Jian seems to have come through the surgery just fine. Now Wu Xie just has to hope he survives his recovery.

I don't have much to say about this one, because it was one of the "Okay, I have to write SOMETHING so I can publish this damn thing" lines. I love a lot about this fic, but the ending is...it's adequate, but I'm never going to be excited about it.

Too Many Cooks

“His sleeve. Xiaoge, I meant his sleeve. No, don’t give me that ‘It’s his favorite shirt’, it’s your favorite shirt because you can stick your fingers through that hole in the back, and don’t think I haven’t seen you do it. Zhangs and their boy toys, I swear.”

*****

“Um, boss, the bakery girl is standing in front of the shop screaming – is that okay?”

*****

“Wait, that model costs how much?! ���okay, and to get it delivered today would be…oh. Pangzi, stop laughing!”

****

“Okay, so if anyone asks, mixers just periodically upgrade themselves, like Pokémon. We. Know. Nothing.”

Copying the last four lines, because you really need all four to get a complete picture of the end.  This fic was just a bit of light fluff, and trying to write out everything that happened after the mixer destruction was getting very heavy and dull.  The conceit of these "snapshot glimpses" was a fun way to get across a LOT of story with very few words, and a good bouncy kicker at the end.

Carbon and Other Forms of Dating

There was, Wu Xie realized, a gap in his education. Because as clear as all his professors had always been on the importance of appropriate procedures when handling rare artifacts, none of them -

– not a single one! –

- had ever covered what to do when the artifact was handling you.

*****

Dear diary,

Best. Summer. Ever.

The only thing better than frothy, fluffy innuendo?  Innuendo with PUNS.  The diary note makes a nice circular nod to the very beginning lines of the fic.

Intersection

And as the three of them made their way back into the house, the sun shone down on Wushanju, and on the one who walked away.

I don't know how many times I rewrote this ending, and I'm still sure it could have been better.  Overall, though, I was happy with this line and the themes inside it: the triangle together, home in the form of Wushanju, Liu Sang walking away alone as he has never been before, and the promise of the sun's warmth over all of it.

Ad Hoc Services

Then he picks up his phone and texts back, Last time was the introductory discount. Ongoing rates are 20% higher.

10%, and a three-night contract.

Hei Xiazi sighs contentedly, oozes lower into the pillows, and begins tapping his reply.

Finally, finally, someone who really understands foreplay.

Look, we're clear on the "Joys of Innuendo" thing, right?  And at the same time, beneath the breezy humor, we're revisiting the theme of the story - and yes, there is a theme, even if it's not a deep one! - that this is a paid contract, but at the same time Hei Xiazi is enjoying the hell out of it and has met someone who is his equal match.

Comfort Food

Here, there is only the slowly changing angle of the sunlight, and the soft ticking of the clock.

Here, they sleep.

I really love this one, even though it's not doing anything exciting, because it does what I wanted this story to do.  This was what I think of as a "snapshot" story, where it's less about the plot and the interactions than it is about the overall feeling of the scene.  The feeling I was trying to capture here was the comfort that comes when you're sick but being taken care of, and that odd liminal quiet that comes from lying in bed while the rest of the world is bustling about its business.  

Tagging @dinomight, @unforth, @elenothar, @eirenical, @daydreamorama

[lucientelrunya]

Like a lonely house pt 2

Chaotic me deciced to switch back to present tense (already edited part one) and I'm still quite clueless how to tag. But it gave me so much joy to see people enjoy my little idea.

Please feel free to point out any mistakes you spot, I'm always trying to improve my writing and stop myself from agonizing over every sentence and constantly rewrite everything...

I think Zhang Rishan might be a tad bit dramatic in this part, but I hope you enjoy this anyway :)

The blackness and cotton in his head only slowly recede, permeated by the sound of muffled voices Zhang Rishan knows. The voices carry an urgency, an impalpable sense of importance that drags him back to consciousness with a sudden harshness. Still it takes more effort than it should to blink his eyes open and for a moment he is confused why there is a stone ceiling above him and why little white flakes are clinging to his lashes. He rubs at his eyes, his movement sluggish and his arm feels heavy, a dull ache that causes the memories to come rushing back. The strange tomb, the force controlling him, the ritual, the pool - Ba Ye. It’s not a dream - nightmare? - or at least not all of it and he sits up way too quickly for his body to adjust. Thankfully someone grabs his shoulders - again - to keep him upright.

It takes Zhang Rishan another long moment to blink away the black spots and recognize Luo Que beside him, offering him an already open bottle of water, which is considerate and much appreciated. He really needs to drink something, at least to get the taste of copper and something he can’t even begin to describe out of his mouth. The strange pale liquid has dried all over his skin and clothes like some sort of clay, cracking and peeling off in flakes and powdery dust when he moves. He opts to ignore it for now, content with getting it off his lips and out of his eyes.

Luo Que doesn’t say anything and patiently waits for him to gulp down most of the bottle before he sits back again, letting go of Zhang Rishan’s shoulders and looking at him with a barely there question in his eyes. And, yeah, Zhang Rishan would like to know what’s going on here himself, thank you very much. With his vision mostly free of black spots and blurring edges he dares to look around him, having already spotted Zhang Qiling’s black clad legs next to him from the corner of his eye. He is lying on a sleeping bag right next to him, with Huo Daofu examining him quietly and unhurriedly.

And Zhang Rishan’s brain is still mushy enough to take a long moment to truly comprehend what he is looking at when he finds the source of the voices. Liu Sang and Pangzi arguing is not some rare occurrence (as he has learned in the last two days), although it's not really arguing and more of a friendly stage of bickering, but Liu Sang and Wang Pangzi arguing with Ba Ye is not normal, not in the least. So it really hasn’t been a dream or his imagination.

An illusion then, maybe? A hallucination, like the meteorite inside the tomb and Er Ye getting back his dead wife? Maybe he is still in the pool and all of this is just a hallucination? But back then the whole fake world had frozen once Ba Ye had started to doubt and Zhang Rishan is absolutely doubting the possibility of this being real. It feels too much like Er Ye’s illusion of getting Yatou back and Zhang Rishan has lived long enough to know that there is no way to truly bring a dead person back to life.

No one freezes and no one vanishes, not even when he puts his hand on his arm to push a thumb into the wound beneath the bandages and elicits a spark of pain that is absolutely and undeniably real. It quickly vanishes again, his body cataloguing it under ‘inconvenient but not life threatening’ and opting to ignore it like he had been trained. But it leaves Zhang Rishan fairly confident in his assumption that this is not an illusion.

He must have been staring, lost in his contemplation of what is real and what isn’t, because suddenly Ba Ye is turning towards him, a look of relief flashing over his face. “Lieutenant! You are awake! Please, please tell these people who I am!” He sounds worried but also a little irritated and whiny, and so much like the Ba Ye Zhang Rishan remembers. For a moment he allows himself to just watch Ba Ye come over and squat down in front of him. He had obviously tried to wipe his glasses off on his equally stained scarf resulting in smudged pale lines all over his glasses and his face.

And he has to fight the urge to reach out and touch, to convince himself that Ba Ye is real, because he has been dead and gone for almost 80 years. Even if they never found his body, even if he had been hidden somewhere by Qiu De Kao for whatever reason there is just no way for him to be alive right now, alive and the same, he is no Zhang, he has no qilin blood.

Wu Xie kneeling down beside him, half on Zhang Qiling’s sleeping bag, breaks the moment. “You know him” and although it’s not a question Zhang Rishan nods. He glances at Wu Xie, who looks worried but also curious and intrigued, always drawn to mysteries. Pangzi and Liu Sang come over, too, placing themselves behind Ba Ye like they are prepared to grab and restrain him if he tries anything, but they look at Zhang Rishan. With at least 5 pairs of expectant eyes on him, probably six, he has to squish the feeling of vulnerability and helplessness that wants to crawl out and drape itself all over him. Instead he consciously straightens his back, squares his shoulders and shifts to sit cross-legged.

He has no idea what’s going on here, no idea how to tell Ba Ye where or rather when he is now (because right now he can’t fight the acceptance that this is a living, breathing Ba Ye who just hasn’t aged a day) or what happened in the pool or if everything did really happen like he thinks. If that being had been there, in the pool and had granted him a wish he hadn’t ever put into words, had made a fleeting thought into a new reality. Each of them is looking at him like he has all the answers and he hates that he is sitting here on the floor of a dimly lit cave, on a sleeping bag someone else has rolled out for him, with bandages around his arms and feeling so utterly helpless. He can’t suppress the bitter thought that Fo Ye would have known what to do.

Taking a deep breath he decides to start with what he is sure of, which is the answer to Wu Xie’s “You know him”. “I do know this man, his name is Qi Tiezui, also known as Ba Ye”, and the name and the title should mean something to at least Wu Xie and maybe Huo Daofu, even if they obviously don’t recognize him from old photos. Maybe because they never paid attention to those pictures, which are faded and grainy compared to what even the simplest smartphone camera is able to capture nowadays or maybe because Ba Ye looks like he took a mud bath. Maybe both.

On to the second thing he is quite certain of: “As to what happened, I’m not really sure myself. As soon as I entered the tomb some force took over my body and I suppose Zhang Qiling's as well and we came to this cave to enact some kind of blood sacrifice ritual for whatever deity they are worshipping here.” No need to point out he had been meant to be the sacrifice, that bit is quite obvious, although he is not sure why Zhang Qiling is the one still unconscious then. “There was chanting, but I wasn’t able to understand it”, he adds, which makes Liu Sang nod at him. “Yeah, I heard you through the wall, but wasn’t able to identify the words either.”

Zhang Rishan considers asking why they hadn’t followed them into the cave and tried to stop the whole thing, if only to give him a little more time to try and find words for what happened after that, but he doesn’t have to voice his question. “Yeah, almost broke my damn nose trying to follow you two through that convenient little magic wall that suddenly turned into a real wall after you two went through, and we couldn’t find a mechanism or another entry or hear anything. Imagine our immense joy at hearing this idiot here say there’s ‘eerie chanting’!” Pangzi grumbles and there is no need for him to add that the use of some explosives had been on the table. Or had they used explosives?

“Did you blow a hole into the wall?” Zhang Rishan asks, eyeing a pile of broken stone in the vicinity of the wall, but Pangzi shakes his head. “Nah, I wanted to, but then the ground started to shake and - poof - the entrance was back and actually visible.” It takes Zhang Rishan another moment to realize the rubble is what’s left of the statue he had only glimpsed upon entering the cave. Had the earthquake destroyed it? Had it even been an earthquake?

Wu Xie humms beside him, following his line of sight for a moment before he points to the wall behind the rubble. “There are some murals depicting locals worshipping a deity that I have never seen before. But it seems to be for protection against droughts or bad harvests, your garden-variety-harvest-god to ensure plenty of food and the likes. Nothing that can bring dead people back to life.” Ah, right back to the burning question.

Ba Ye sputters quite helplessly at that. “Dead? What do you mean dead? Do I look dead to you? Lieutenant, what is going on here, who are these people?” Considering that Ba Ye’s face is still mostly covered in white it wouldn’t be that unreasonable to mistake him for a ghost. But beneath that he doesn’t look dead or like a walking corpse, he looks just like Zhang Rishan remembers him, just like the last time he had seen him before he had vanished. And he still has no idea how to tell Ba Ye that everyone he knows is dead. Well, everyone except Zhang Rishan.

“I’m Wu Xie, this is Wang Pangzi, Liu Sang, Luo Que and behind me are Huo Daofu and Zhang Qiling.” Wu Xie blindly pats Zhang Qiling’s lower leg when he says his name, his eyes never leaving Ba Ye’s face, gauging his reaction to two familiar family names. And Ba Ye doesn’t disappoint, confusion clearly written all over his face. He is mouthing ‘Wu’ and ‘Huo’ while his eyes scan Wu Xie’s face before he looks at Zhang Rishan with a mixture of confusion, incomprehension and helplessness.

“He is Wu Laogou’s grandson”, Zhang Rishan says softly, because their relation is the most obvious to emphasize how much time has passed and the most obvious in terms of resemblance, Ba Ye must have seen that. And Zhang Rishan holds his gaze until Ba Ye looks down, takes a deep breath, closes his mouth and lets himself plop back down to sit on the ground, his whole body curling inwards. This would be a lot to take in for everybody and Zhang Rishan would like to give Ba Ye a moment to compose himself without everyone else staring at him. There are things he hasn’t told them yet, but he is still not sure how to put any of that into words.

“Did the murals say anything about something being confined here?” Zhang Rishan asks Wu Xie, who just looks puzzled. “Confined? What do you mean?” And he really has to try and put it into words, there is no way around it, is there? He takes another deep breath through his nose. “For the ceremony I was kneeling in that pool and when the tremors started I fell into whatever liquid is in there, and it was like - like there was something in there with me. Like it was a living thing with a consciousness and whatever we did in that ceremony it set that thing free.” He can already feel some doubtful looks but nobody starts to interrupt him and Wu Xie actually nods thoughtfully like he can imagine that, so he continues: “It was communicating with me, not with words, more like with feelings and impressions,” and he just waits for Huo Daofu to interrupt him, to say something about blood loss and hallucinations, but he doesn’t, he just doesn’t - “It made very clear that it had been imprisoned here for whatever purpose and that it was just so very thankful that I set it free.”

Everyone is quiet, mulling over those words. There are still so many questions, like who or what had controlled them to enact this ceremony? Had it been the imprisoned being? Or something else? But why? And who had sealed the tomb? And why?

“So you set some ancient being free and someone from your past turns up. What if he is no human but that being in the shape of someone it saw while it was inside your mind?” Liu Sang questions, looking at Ba Ye thoughtfully who stops his calculations to stare back incredulously. “What? First I’m dead, now I’m some preternatural being? Let me tell you, I’m just a fortune teller!” He acts and sounds just like Ba Ye, but Liu Sang has a point, that being had looked into his mind, had probably had access to all his thoughts and memories. It makes his head hurt even thinking about it.

Pangzi and Liu Sang start bickering about how to test that theory, to find out if someone is human and it only gets more chaotic when Zhang Qiling wakes up and Wu Xie starts worrying over him, asking him how he feels and if he is alright while Huo Daofu tries to rule out a concussion. Zhang Rishan tries to ignore them for the moment, even though he would like to get Zhang Qiling’s version of the ceremony. He feels torn between the possible explanations for this situation, but why would some ancient being that had been trapped in a cave for centuries if not millenia take human form and stay with them? To play tricks on him? Or maybe-

“Lieutenant, if so much time has passed that the grandson of Wu Laogu is at least as old as I am, how come you haven’t aged a day?” Ba Ye’s question jolts him out of these thoughts. “It’s a Zhang-family-thing”, he answers, because Ba Ye already knows so much about their family that it should be enough. Ba Ye nods, visibly brightening at the answer, as if he had hoped for something along those lines. “So, why don’t we just ask Fo Ye for help to prove I’m just a normal human? I mean, if that being was in your head and knows what you know it doesn’t know everything about me.”

Of course he would think of Fo Ye as the answer to everything and of course Zhang Rishan has to say it now. He shakes his head slightly and forces himself to watch Ba Ye’s face and catalogue his reaction. “No. Fo Ye is not with us anymore.” It’s cruel, so cruel to tell him like this and Zhang Rishan hates it even more than he hates saying the words at all. Ba Ye’s whole face crumples but he visibly tries to hide his distress. “How on earth am I supposed to prove I’m just a normal human, then?” he bristles, obviously trying to distract himself with anger. “Tell me! What should I do!” Those last words are directed towards Pangzi and Liu Sang behind him who actually stop their bickering and have the grace to look embarrassed.

“Why would that being even want to stay here? What could be in it for... it?” Pangzi voices Zhang Rishan’s thoughts from before. “Maybe it needs help to leave the cave?” Wu Xie suggests, joining the conversation again after assuring himself that Zhang Qiling is fine aside from a cut on his forehead. “Or maybe it’s just lonely and looking for some company?” Huo Daofu throws in and Zhang Rishan isn’t sure if it’s meant to be a joke or a real suggestion. But if they are just casually throwing around theories he can add one, too.

“Maybe it’s an illusion.” Even if there is no meteorite around and even if he had set that theory aside before. Ba Ye inhales sharply at that suggestion and slaps Zhang Rishan’s knee a little harder than necessary. “Aiya! An Illusion? Does that feel like an illusion? Is there a meteorite around that you haven’t told me about? Shouldn’t you be able to tell the difference?” Ba Ye slaps him again and Zhang Rishan just lets him, flinching only a little. It makes Luo Que beside him tense noticeably, like he contemplates grabbing Ba Ye’s arm and stopping him from hitting his boss, but in the end he doesn’t move and just watches.

“Should I? I mean you were the one who realized it was an illusion back then, and you guided us out of it.” Ba Ye harrumphs at that, knitting his brows. “It’s not an illusion”, Wu Xie says and the certainty in his voice makes it easy to just accept it. After all Wu Xie had come with him and should be a real person, even if they stepped into some fake world at some point, just like Fo Ye, Ba Ye, Er Ye and Chen Pi had been real people who stepped into the meteorite.

“Thank you!” Ba Ye says, giving Wu Xie a small bow. “And if you let me, I can show you that I am perfectly capable of leaving this place all on my own.” Which leaves them with: a lonely godly being looking for company (or a bored godly being looking for some fun?) or the possibility that it is really Ba Ye.

For a moment everyone is quiet again and Zhang Rishan takes the chance to ask Zhang Qiling how he had experienced being possessed or remote controlled or whatever it had been. His answer is disappointingly simple and his experience almost the same as Zhang Rishan’s, except that he had not been in contact with another consciousness but had been knocked out really hard by something as soon as the cave had started to shake. Which confirms Zhang Rishan’s suspicion that there had been something with him in the pool.

He gets up, startling both Ba Ye and Luo Que with the sudden movement, making them stand up with him as if they are preparing to catch him again. It’s endearing and disconcerting at the same time and he opts to ignore the way it makes him feel for the moment, but tucks the feeling away to pick it apart later.

The pool is surprisingly dry and empty, but covered in the same white flaky residue both Zhang Rishan and Ba Ye are covered in, which is reassuring because it means there had been something before. For a moment Zhang Rishan just stares at the empty pool, trying and failing to find a hole or a crack in the stone through which the liquid could have vanished. Surely it did not just evaporate into thin air? His memory is not clear enough to dispel the thought that maybe the liquid had not vanished but changed its shape and made itself into a human being.

“Huh? Why is it empty?” Pangzi asks which makes Zhang Rishan release a breath he hadn’t even been aware of holding. “It wasn’t empty when you could get in?” he reassures himself, looking at the other man. “Hah! Wish it had been, do you have any idea how hard it was to get you out of that stuff?” Pangzi snorts and points at the smudged edge of the pool, where a very visible track of white covers the ground all the way over to their sleeping bags. It also makes Zhang Rishan notice the white smudges all over Pangzis clothes only to find the man grinning at him when he looks up again. The corners of his mouth twitch involuntarily in quiet amusement and he nods his thanks, which makes Pangzi grin even more.

With the pool providing no answers at all Zhang Rishan walks over to the wall to look at the murals, soon joined by Wu Xie who points to the parts of the murals he had mentioned before. It shows a group of people in clothing Zhang Rishan has never seen building this tomb. Maybe some minority? They have no idea how old this tomb is, after all or how long it had been sealed. In the next part of the mural it almost looks like they are summoning the unknown god and not merely worshipping and some part of Zhang Rishan’s mind resonates with that thought. The ceremony looks just like what the two of them had enacted, one person in the pool and the other at the altar with a dagger. But it almost seems like the sacrifice on the mural dissolves into the pool, a thought he really doesn’t want to dwell on.

After that the mural gets quite confusing, depicting the statue that is broken now and people celebrating rich harvests, without any clear connection. He looks back at the picture of the god, tracing the faded lines with his fingers trying to recall everything the being in the pool had tried to tell him through thoughts and feelings and suddenly he understands. Or at least he thinks he does.

“They didn’t worship the god, they captured it and confined it in here because as long as it was here everything around it would be thriving, rich harvests, no sicknesses, people living long and full lives.” As soon as he says it he knows it’s true and he finds Wu Xie nodding next to him. “So, you set that god free and as a gesture of thanks it returned a dead person from your past?” And Zhang Rishan knows dead people don’t come back to life, but this is a god they are talking about and it had made everything else grow, had kept people healthy and strong. Maybe it could do this too?

“I’m still not dead and I was never dead!” Ba Ye protests from beside him and reminds Zhang Rishan that he still doesn’t know what happened when Ba Ye vanished back then, how or when he died. He looks at him and contemplates asking just that but somehow he is afraid of the answer. “Maybe you died and you just forgot.” Pangzi says, pushing at one of the larger rocks left over from the statue with his foot.

“How would someone forget his own death, this is ridiculous! An hour ago I was just in my room, enjoying a nice cup of tea and suddenly I find myself in this cave, almost drowning in that pool!” Ba Ye gestures wildly and angrily with his arm, almost slapping Zhang Rishan in the face in the process, but Pangzi is unimpressed. “How could you not forget your death? Or the fact that you died. Maybe you just dropped dead drinking your tea, things like that happen. Who knows.”

“He didn’t drop dead, he vanished without a trace, leaving everything behind”, Zhang Rishan interjects. If Ba Ye had just dropped dead there would have been a funeral and it would have been just as sad and hard, but there wouldn’t have been a mystery, no reason to wish to know what happened.

“Well, maybe he did drop dead and that god plucked his body from the past, brought him back to life and put him here”, Wu Xie shrugs, “I mean, my terminal lung cancer got healed by magic golden coffin water in thunder city, so it’s not that far-fetched.”

And - oh, oh - realisation hits him like a punch to the sternum, taking his breath away, almost making him double over and sink to his knees. It had been him. Ba Ye never just vanished, had never been kidnapped by the Japanese or Qiu De Kao. He had never died, he had been snatched away by this being - god - whatever - and placed here and now, with Zhang Rishan, because it had wanted to give him something he had lost. But Ba Ye had never been lost, he had been stolen, stolen because Zhang Rishan is selfish and thoughtless and cruel and - He has done this. He has done this to Ba Ye. And to Fo Ye. And -

He can’t breathe. How can he ever say this? How can he ever tell Ba Ye? He can never be forgiven for this, there is no way, absolutely no way. Look out for Ba Ye, that had been his order, the one most important to Fo Ye and thus the most important to Zhang Rishan. And he had failed, miserably - no, he had done the opposite! And for the first time in quite a while he wishes Fo Ye was the one with a long life and not him. Fo Ye would never have done something so stupid.

Unbidden he remembers the illusion he had fallen victim to below the Chen tree, Fo Ye with his gun pointed at him, disappointed, so disappointed and he wishes it had been real, that he had died that day so he would have never been able to come here today. But Ba Ye had been missing before, he had vanished before Zhang Rishan had ever been to this tomb and shared his memories with a god. There would have been no reason to wish to know what happened that day if nothing had happened. And that really makes his head hurt, how is it even possible? How does this work, today and the past linked like this? Like it had always been meant to be this way?

[jiannguo]

Our Song S1 Rewatch : Episode 8

(Update on Episode 7 - It was a Group A vs Group B contest . From Group B, Chris/Mimi and Tanya/Ayunga was competing against Group A members. Out of the four Group B members, only Ayunga made it out to form a new team with a Team A senior. Tanya, Chris Wong and Mimi Lee were unfortunately eliminated. It was heartbreaking😭).

Full Episode 8 with subs:

Group A's Team WangZha(Luo Qi Wang Linkai) and JieTouPaiDang (Ren Xianqi and Liu Yuning) will battle Group B's NaZhan(Na Ying, Xiao Zhan) and YiJianQingXin(Emil Chau, Jiang)

As they are top two groups from both A and B, these two teams have an advantage. Only one senior and one newcomer will be eliminated, remain, unlike previous episode which had two senior and two newcomers eliminated.

Format is unpredictable. There will be a three round battle between the two teams.

The winning team both pair makes it through to next episode. In the losing team, any one senior and one newcomer will be eliminated based on audience votes. They could be a pre-existing pair or a brand new pair.

Na Ying had to take care of something urgent at home, so Angela Chang is helping out NaYing by taking her place.

Banter between Emil Chau and Richie Ren is adorable. It is obvious they have known each other for a long while, the way they were pulling each other's leg.

Group A named themselves " Qi Yu" A Chance Encounter Squad". Group B named themselves "Shao Hua Yi Zhan", which is a mix of the names of all four members.

First round :

Group A's performance is 'Fade Away' sung by Wang Linkai aka Xiao Gui, and Liu Yuning. Unfortunately the solo video of the song has now been 'privated', I'm assuming due to copyright reasons (Original song was sung by Jay Chou).

Performance was wild!!! Extremely stylish for starters. Loved Liu Yuning's vocals the most, he has a raspy tone to his voice, suits with both rap and classic. He pulled it off very well. Ending was magnificent ! His vocals accompanied by Xiao Gui's rap, and the overall composition is excellent.

While comments from other team members, I felt Liu Yuning did put Xiao Zhan on the spot on asking specifically for his feedback, also quipping "everyone wants to hear what he says". But Xiao Zhan held himself well, and gave a really nice feedback, which ended up in another cute banter between Emil and Richie😍

Angela's impersonation of Na-Jie is super adorable 😍😍

Next is Group B's performance, which was by Angela Chang and Jiang YiQiao. The song they chose is "The Furthest Place we can See". Angela commented that Jiang looked quite nervous, but the remake arrangement should remove a lot of the burden from her.

The performance was beautiful, but it felt Angela's voice was overpowering Jiang. She did look nervous, I would say she's more comfortable performing with her Shifu. The gave it a good fight.

The end comments were very appreciative. Emil was so emotional, and as Lin Hai commented, his face represented the four seasons 😆. Cute attempt by Xiao Zhan to raise votes 😆

Group A won by 4 points only. Group A scored 142 and Group B scored 138. Tough round, more to come.

Second Round:

Group A discussed on what to perform next. Since two songs had Xiao Gui in it, they decided to have his second song in the last round to retain the element of surprise. Group B wanted to have the most powerful song in the end, and have 'Inquiring' as the second song. Like Emil said, "having a handsome man helps 😆".

Round 2 begins. Xiao Zhan and Emil Chau sang 'Inquiring'. What a stunning performance! Beautiful stage, and spectacular singing by them both. This is actually my most favourite performance of Our Song Season 1.

It was so touching when Emil hugs Xiao Zhan in the end, and said "out of all the times they sang, that was the best". And later he said, how hard working Xiao Zhan is. He had been singing this song everywhere, eating, going to the toilet, sitting on the sofa or even in the corridor 😆 He can stop now.

Comments from the other contestants were very warm and affectionate. Angela remarked as to how it reflected their own life experiences. Emil with his enormous experience and stage presence, and Xiao Zhan with his sense of freshness brings something uniquely new to the song.

Group B's turn now. It was interesting to see Richie and Liu Yuning collab on the composition and music. Richie, Liu Yuning and Luo Qi are singing "Back here again", with a mash up of another traditional song "Any empty bottles left for sale". The composition with both classical and rock was excellent.

Their thought process with choosing the song was good, they kind of knew Emil and XZ would go for a smooth melodious song. So they went with a classical rock version that would make the audience get up on their feet and sing with them.

Group B won by 6 votes. They scored 143 and Group A scored 137. Hence we get down to third and final round.

Third Round :

Group B goes first. It's one of Emil's golden classic 'Flowery Heart' that is performed by all four team members. In the rehearsal, we can see that Na Jie was a part of the song selection process, and that its a relief for Emil that he doesn't need to memorise new lyrics 😆😆

The harmony between all four members is spectacular! And yes this is a super popular song with beautiful lyrics. They played their trump card at the end. What a perfect ending for Group B. It seems they decided on not doing a 'remake' but keep the original tone and lyrics, full of nostalgia of the past.

A comment from Emil after the performance "In today's competition, there is no victory or loss. The victory is that of the well loved classic that accompanied us through life".

Group A singers for the final round are Richie Ren, Luo Qi and Xiao Gui. They sang "Am I really left with Nothing". Great performance! And Xiao Gui's rapping was brilliant 😍

Group B wins by a margin of 18 votes. They got 149 votes, Group A got 131 votes. This difference was the highest between all three rounds. All members of Group B will be passing through to the next episode. In Group A, one newcomer and one senior will be eliminated.

Lin Hai send handwritten notes to everyone in Group A, which contained their results. Richie and Liu Yuning made it. Luo Qi and Xiao Gui were sadly eliminated.

Final thoughts:

One of the things that stood out for me was the absolute banter between Emil and Richie. It shows how long they've known each other to pull each others leg and pat on the back the same time.

In my opinion, Group B should have swapped second and third songs. Xiao Gui is an excellent rapper but interesting song would be attractive to only a certain generation of people, compared to "Flowery Heart" which is a golden era classic. Hence the difference in the votes was so huge.

My favourite song in the episode is Inquiring. Followed by Flowery Heart and Back here again. Xiao Zhan seems really excited to collaborate with Emil. Hope to see many future collaborations.

Some official photographs from the episode :

[rebelliouslala]

4 Something

warnings- character death, language, cult like behavior, angst

word count- 1.7k

You had been introduced to everyone, but to be honest, you felt as if you could not memorize the men you had just met.

To be fair, there were 16 other men.

Selen was the eldest, and therefore the elder brother figure of the entire Pound. Mouse was the youngest. He was an “intern” at the Dream Gems. He sat next to Chenle, and whispered to him quietly in Korean. He looked so small in this gang. You assumed he had to join when he was possibly younger than you became a member in the Ripple.

Selen had made you meet the others, and even repeat their names. Victory sighed as he endured everyone hugging him and strangely calling him Orpheus. Selen, surprisingly, went quick. With each snap of his fingers, as if it were the 1920’s, he pointed and named.

Your head spun with the names; You only went by small descriptions to memorize each man. And even then, you had no idea. Osaka, or Herac was sitting next to a lean man, Zeus. This man was lanky, but smiled widely and laughed as he sang.

The one that Johnny sat next to, with his statuesque face was Aphrodite. He was breathtaking. Gogo- Hermes, was faced away from a very energetic boy, with feathery hair, Helios. You looked at another man, with a pinched nose, named Athene. Selen sat next to him. You stared at him, and he nodded at you silently. 

And in this room, Johnny was not even referred to his name, his English nor Korean, but as Ares. You held his hand under the table.

“So, Eos has made this, Psy is their name, as a new spy. Now, Athene will make the plan.” Selen said loudly.

The man mentioned nodded, before he did a double take. “What? Hyung—?”

“Eos orders.”

Athene blinked, and he stood up, quietly kicking you.

“OW.” You stated with disgust, glaring up.

“Oh! Pardon me, would you mind punching Selen?” Athene said like a gent. 

There was an ahem. The man who made the noise placed his hands under his chin. “Continue, Athene.” Aphrodite said with a coolness.

The other man sighed quietly, but he got out a scroll. It was curled, but he laid it out so everyone can see. Yuta -you didn’t even want to try to remember his name-, helped it keep it open with his elbow, and another boy who was introduced as Songbird, who smiled up at Athene.

Athene now read loudly, “My fellow Gods, demigods and mortals; we invite a new, fellow mortal by the name of Psy. They have a chance to take down our enemy. Because of this, all business is now closed. We will be quiet and we will,” Athene leaned closer, muttering to himself in Korean, “We will now not be active. Herac, Dolphin, Psy and Ares, shall all go to the West Side and take the corrupt Ripple down. Any news from our spies will be delivered by Songbird and Orpheus.” Athene sighed as he pulled away, “With Godspeed, Eos.”

You hid your smirk at his flat tone. Perhaps Eos was too much of a narcissist to even realize his team was much too sick of his dramatics.

Athene pulled the scroll back, and he blinked. “Any questions?”

“Yeah.” You crossed your arms, “Is Eos okay?”

Aphrodite scoffed and he looked at you through his lashes. The other men, including Selen, scoffed and harrumphed at your response.

“Well don’t look at me like I’m some sort of goon.” You stood up. “You all might’ve thought the same.”

“Eos,” said the young man you saw training earlier, you believe his name was Achilles, “Is a God among us. I am lucky to be seen as a demigod—,”

“Oh my god.” You rolled your eyes as you grabbed Johnny’s shoulder, and whispered loudly, “What a cult, am I right?”

“Psy,” he whispered with guilt.

You turned, and sighed, holding the bridge of your nose as you looked upon everything. The shining waxed table. The white suits everyone wore. Their stares. How they all looked down.

“I’m going to take down the Ripple my way. Chenle—,”

“He is known as Dolphin!” Orpheus, started.

“Not another word out of your mouth.” You glared at him, before turning away, gently tapping Johnny.

He sounded worried. You’re already in enough shit. You should be dead. More than ever in this situation. With Eos. This is the worst scenario and your best friend didn’t know how to act. You held his hand tightly above the table and smiled.

“Let’s go. I will contact Ch- Dolphin, with updates. And or, Victory- Orpehus.” You giggled as Johnny stood up with you.

“Then Godspeed,” Helios said to you calmly.

“God damn,” you replied with a smirk, and pull your friend out as the others daggered your back with judgement.

And another, foreign dagger stared above the table, witnessing every single move you had just made.

The funeral was that. A funeral.

Nothing prepared you for the pain you felt staring at Yangyang’s body. His face was still, no smile, and he was so, so pale. Unlike the photo that was next to him. It was only from a few days ago. He was grinning. Laughing. It was with Mr. Money and Sushi, but they were edited out.

His real name was read out in multiple languages. From German, Chinese, Korean, English. It read the same. Liu “Dreamer” Yangyang. Friend. Son. Brother.

You gripped onto Johnny, and looked up at his eyes, trying to find his warmth. It had to be. It was supposed to be. Impossible. It had to be.

Johnny sighed quietly as his lips contorted, before he finally grabbed onto the words. “D-Do you remember how Dreamer always knew what you wanted for your birthday? And how he always shared with us the photos of Louis and Leon?”

A hot tear escaped your eye, as you hid in his huge chest and nodded. You nodded frantically as you began to sob. Johnny’s big hands held you, and he placed his chin on you, sighing quietly again. 

The plan was ruined. You lost the man who should be here and hugging you and Johnny before you both went on a cruise to Korea, and then after that, the world.

You let go to breathe, biting the inside of your cheeks with anger. Your gaze turned to Victory’s tears, and Sushi looking at the youngest member’s body

His face reminded you, strongly of how you were young once. Running away and living with Johnny out on the streets of Baise. You had only one television, the news, and that broadcast that evening was of a grown woman crying, over and over in Taiwanese, “WHERE IS MY SON? WHO TOOK HIM AWAY FROM ME?”

His eyes shared the same pain.

“Psy.” You turned as Mr. Money hugged you. Embraced you. He hid in you. “I-I can’t we could’ve lost you too. And John, we- fuck.”

Osaka was in the corner, looking down as he stared at the Ripple mourn.

Once Mr. Money had released himself, you stared at Jewel letting Smalls and Henry hug him tightly. Jewel despised any touching. 

The fierce, cunning man, couldn’t even look what is inside the coffin. He only held the two now youngest members close to his heart.

Your hands gripped, nails digging to your palms. Now this was something you couldn’t take. The Pound may have you and Johnny’s lives on a string. But nothing could describe your frustration, to Sicheng. Victory. Whatever his name was.

To Yuta himself.

Osaka got up from his place on the wall, and he strutted himself to the coffin. He peaked over. 

Today, the man wore not the white cult suit from the Pound, but a simple, and dull outfit. He took off his grey jacket, his white shirt bulging out oddly, as his black shoes, matching his black suit pants, had rubbed against the table that Dreamer was placed upon.

“He knew.”

Everyone turned to the man. Osaka took a katana from inside his shirt, and now the cloth hugged him. The weapon had a sky blue diamond handle. The blade itself was an opaque diamond. Osaka placed it in Dreamer’s hands.

Jewel stopped him, gripping it and he glared at him. “What the fuck are you doing?”

“I thought perhaps—,”

Jewel grabbed it with both hands, and he threw back into Osaka’s chest, stepping forward. “You don’t touch his body. You don’t look at it. What the fuck happened there.”

“John already explained,” Smalls tried to explain.

“No, bullshit. John is a nice guy. We don’t even fuckin’ know Osaka- in fact. It seems his Japanese is a little shaky.” Jewel pushed Osaka now, speaking in Japanese quickly, with poison. Your ears weren’t the best in the language, but he did say something along the lines of, “Speak now or hold your peace, bitch.”

Osaka took the blows from Jewel. But he looked up. “We were all ambushed by Dream Gems. You know that they work under the Pound. We believe Chenle—,”

“BBall.” Mr. Money held his cane and separated the men.

“Listen. I’m sorry. I wanted to pay my respects—,” Osaka tried to reason.

“YOU DONT DO SHIT HERE!” Jewel roared, his eyes glowing with anguish. “YOU GOT HIM KILLED!”

“He’s not dead.” You said.

Everyone turned.

“Really? He’s okay? Di-,” Sushi started.

“He’s in a very deep, deep coma.” You slowly take your hand back, and put it in your pockets.

Henry teared up, hugging Smalls, “G-Good.”

“That doesn’t mean shit. Yuta needs to be investigated. On our last and final mission all of the sudden it goes wrong?” Jewel said as he glared at Osaka from the side of his eye.

“Then let’s attack The Pound.”

Johnny held your arm and gently pressed four times.

What.

Are.

You.

Doing.

“We need to make the Pound pay for what they did. And if Osaka isn’t bad, he’ll help.” You look at Osaka. “Won’t you?”

Osaka’s cold face suddenly melted to the side as he leans on a hip and he raised a brow, his smirk curving out as he said, almost naturally, “Perhaps I will for ya, doll.”

Johnny rolled his eyes. “Who should go with us?”

“Gogo. He’s reliable, after all he’s known Sushi for a long time too, hasn’t he?”

The big man nodded. “Yeah.”

You look at everyone. You planned for a bigger plan. A bigger dramatic. But that’s the Pound’s job. Right now, a plan, quite without common sense, was forming.

And the goal is was for you, and Johnny to be safe.

“For the Dreamer.” You said firmly.

“For the end.” The Ripple echoed back.

[hils79]

Monday Fic Recs

Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji (The Untamed)

debt of a knife by iliacquer

The Lans were all shining and strange, more beings of ice than men, but not a single one of them shone as brightly as their lord. He strode forward, his cloak a whisper of noise against the snow, his black hair glittering with frost.

“Kneel,” said Hanguang Jun. His voice was deep.

Or: The AU where warlord!LWJ fic takes rebel WWX captive ~as his warprize~ but is actually protecting him.

This is the second fic I’ve recced by this author and this one is also fantastic. They really do write wonderful fantasy AUs that feel grounded and real.

Zhao Yunlan/Shen Wei (Guardian)

Now Lie in It by xparrot

Ten thousand years before he's even born, Zhao Yunlan falls in love, all over again for the first time.

I'm so weak for old Haixing era fics and this is just lovely! Young Shen Wei is so warm and almost naive but still capable. Of course Zhao Yunlan fell in love with him.

Da Qing's Guide to Being a Cat by anaeiel

Ye Zun looks at Da Qing, who is warm, full, sheltered, and relaxed without care on a soft chest. He looks at Zhao Yunlan, who strokes Da Qing gently with a soft smile on his face, so very pleased and doting. He looks at Shen Wei, who is now focused on a small book held in one hand, and whose other hand dangles without use, and whose lap looks oh-so-empty, and Ye Zun… Ye Zun wants.

This somehow manages to be sweet, tender, funny and kind of heartbreaking at the same time. 

Spark by xparrot

Shen Wei gets a Dixing cold, and Zhao Yunlan does his best to take care of him. That's it. That's the fic.

A lovely, sweet sickfic that made me feel all warm and snuggly

Lay to Rest by elenothar

A few months after the Ye Zun incident, Zhao Yunlan finds out about the other thing Shen Wei did to get his eyesight back. It goes both better and worse than expected.

I love the author’s decision to set this months after the event, but still examines the aftermath well. The characters are written wonderfully. 

Regular Meals by tehanglyfish

In the ancient past, Shen Wei learned to cook in the hope of impressing Kunlun. Ten thousand years later, he finally got the chance.

Or... the one where Shen Wei cooks for the people he loves.

This is such a lovely idea for the story behind Shen Wei learning how to cook. 

Wu Xie/Zhang Qiling (The Lost Tomb)

Wu Xie and the Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by xantissa & merinnan

Wu Xie was having a bad day. A terrible day. The worst day. On top of disasters, traffic jams, and meetings, the last thing he needed was for Xiao Hua to 'helpfully' send him an escort. That is, until the handsome stranger matching Xiao Hua's description saves him from an accident, so perhaps the day isn't as bad as he thought, after all.

This was so fun! I was laughing and facepalming all the way through it. Wu Xie is such a disaster and I love him. Luckily Xiaoge feels the same way

You're My Favorite Flavor by bongarland

On the night of a gala held by the Mystic Nine, a love potion ends up in the refreshments, and chaos ensues.

This is funny and cracky but also really sweet and heartwarming. I’ve put this under the Pingxie heading but there are lots of wonderful side pairings in this as well.

Wu Xie/Liu Sang/Zhang Qiling (The Lost Tomb)

A Knight in Bloody Armour by xantissa & merinnan

When Liu Sang's kidnappers threw another prisoner in with him, he found that the Wu heir was handsome, charming, and downright cryptic and shameless. But that was nothing compared to how terrifying Wu Xie's friend was.

This is such a fascinating idea for a story that’s wonderfully executed. We get all these little hints about what Xiaoge is without any sort of explicit explanation which lets the readers’ minds fill in the blanks. 

Gen (The Lost Tomb)

Overload by frith_in_thorns

Liu Sang saw the moment when they both noticed it. A rhythmic pulse — boom, boom — coming from somewhere deep inside and below. Quiet but insistent in Liu Sang's hearing; very faint for the others.

I loved this so much! I loved how unique and interesting the tomb was, loved everyone taking care of Liu Sang, loved all the whump. Wonderful.

[xcziel]

oooh THANK YOU!!! 💓💕💓

i prefer the chinese subs bc i can point the google translate app once i pause the screen, plus draw things in pleco if i'm not sure, so this is Perfect!

grr i keep looking for ways to watch that liu sang tomb of the sea side story but i DO NOT WANT a vip app membership

seriously i would buy it just to download but i don’t want to mess with monthly payment processor contortions just for like an hour of tv

[puppy-phum]

Now that this hell year is almost over let’s celebrate the good things! If you’re receiving this it means you have made someone’s year better. Tell who on tumblr has made this year better for you (as many people as you like, it can be something as small as liking your posts or sending something sweet) and share some of the content you’ve enjoyed (your own or others)

thank you so much dear anon! ♥ I am happy to know that I’ve managed to make someone’s year at least a tiny bit better :’) as a year on tumblr, this year has been very special to me personally so am happy to know that someone has felt that too!

this is going to be a huge list so be warned! putting it under the cut bc of that~

@i-am-just-a-kiddo you are and will always be on this list first and foremost. you and our friendship is the best thing I have gotten from this hellsite and I continue being thankful for it ♥ I always have so much fun talking to you, you support me so unconditionally, share things with me and allow me to just yell about things every day! you never get bored of that endless stream of random nonsense I pour on you and it means so much to me ♥ I also feel honored to share your things, to see your paintings and read your writings and just be there for you. let’s hope the next year will be kinder to us and the world in general! and hey, maybe you get into guardian at some point heh (and thank you for getting into so many things with me this year already!)

@leonzhng I think I said this at some point too but you were the reason why I got into this community we have going on with @mdzsnet and gave me the confidence to just approach ppl here and love things together ♥ you are always so sweet and kind and lovable and I appreciate you doing all the things you do. your edits are amazing and inspirational and I love all the tag games we keep throwing around :’D 

@ashenwren you!! you are amazing and I’m so happy to have gotten to know you through our network :’) I am excited every day when I get to talk to you, even if it’s just for a moment as our timezones make everything kind of difficult :’D it’s just so nice to share mdzs and dmbj with you, to help you get into these dramas, to share all these ideas and thoughts we have, to share our different cultures and languages and whatnot. you are always so supportive and excited and kind and I wish I could hug you sometimes! I hope I still can write something more for pingxie and that I get to see a ton of your art! ♥

then to all the wonderful ppl in our network who have made my tumblr experience so wonderful this year, who keep being kind and amazing and full of so much talent! to @manhasetardis @aheartfullofjolllly @bees0are0awesome @highwarlockkareena @yibobibo @linglynz @yiqiie @wangxiians @leoyunxi @tiesanjiao @lan-xichens @oneautumnfox @aowyn @wangxianbunnydoodles @weiwuxcian and many others who I might have forgotten: I enjoy seeing you in my notes so much, I enjoy all of your content, seeing us all interact with each other and just being very friendly and welcoming ♥ I am thankful every day that I got to join this network and learn to know so many! continue being awesome and have a nice upcoming year :’)

then quickly to:

@lzswy thank you for loving my music and wanting to know me! I hope we get to talk some more and feel free to push music my way too, am always ready to drown in songs :’)

@kholran thank you for doing my tag games and allowing me to talk to you, to call you my friend, and share my love for liu sang! I will once again tell you that your fic (link here if anyone reading this is interested) was amazing and I hope we get to talk some more! 

and then thank you to all the ppl who I see in my notes all the time and leave amazing tags and just love me with interacting with my content and sometimes making it more known and just giving it their all: @btssjamss @a-force-dyad-in-space @cuppyhands @mylastbraincql @drwcn @fytheuntamed @distantsnows @brutalbeetle @intimisky @kazaore @inessencedevided @bluebelle88 @actualmichelle @sassyassassy @thebeautifulmacabre @merinnan @inkblue-black and many others who I might not recognize or remember or find right now! or who I have already mentioned in the network part bc you guys are awesome like that :’) especially when I have tried out new things this year and have dipped into new fandoms and reached out of this mdzs pit I am still in and unwilling to leave ♥ but you are still there and like my content haha

and then I want to mention some of my favorite works this year (I’ll try to pick one per month from my archives oh boy): 

@i-am-just-a-kiddo‘s amazing niemo fic that owns my heart, soul, and the never to be born firstborn ♥ 

@bloody-bee-tea‘s amazing mdzs related fics that always just make my heart clench but also bring me so much joy!

this amazing wangxian edit that still shatters me

this amazing wwx edit by hanyi ♥ @leonzhng I love the quote in this and this breaks me in all the best ways!

@fytheuntamed‘s whole the untamed memes series that single-handedly has saved this year for me (tho I suppose this started earlier than this year but who cares, quality content either way)

this jc outfits collection post by @linglynz ♥ everything for my am-a-hoe-for-the-angry-purple-guy -needs

this amazing art by @/hana-tox that still gives me so many feels that I feel like bursting 

this stunning edit set for the best album that dropped this year, map of the soul: 7, by @/kassareo

this wangxian edit that inspired me a lot and still makes me catch my breath bc damn that looks gorgeous (by @/itsazbitch)

another very inspirational edit set by @/sammyholdsacandle (some might recognize which one of my edits got inspired by this a lot lol) 

this very beautiful post by @alienwlw that’s really just goals tbh 

@sarawatsaraleo‘s favorite the untamed scenes series, every one of these edits is a huge joy and so beautifully done! ♥

@tiesanjiao‘s wonderful, wonderful wangxian edit that keeps being my one of my favorites ever and just. inspires me to this day, I hope one day I can gif :’D ♥

another one of my absolute favorites is this edit by hanyi again ♥ you just have the best ideas and you make everything so pretty!

this soft but heartbreaking, delicate but so emotional edit by @gusucloud ♥ I think I’ve never loved an edit this much, it’s so pretty and absolutely perfect!

this edit by @highwarlockkareena bc wth, the coloring? the gifs themselves?? gosh it looks so pretty and I might cry

@tiesanjiao‘s wonderful gifset made for the gif challenge that was going around during this time ;; as I was slowly falling in love with the iron triangle and dmbj in general, this felt like a blessing ♥ 

these absolutely stunning pieces of art by @/tiphs 

this absolutely gorgeous post for wwx’s bday by @alienwlw (all of this is just. perfect?? the colors, the gifs, the scenes... everything!)

this gorgeous edit by @distantsnows that makes me smile and cry at the same time ♥

this edit also by @distantsnows that is just. pure perfection?? bc fuck yes, sect leader jaing yanli!! I love you for this one

this edit by @lanzhansmiles bc the colors are just absolutely stunning and I love how they both sit there like that and just? wow 

this edit just makes me feel so many things and just looks so dreamy by @cescedes 

this adorable but also very painful edit by @manhasetardis ♥ I love all about this one :’)

and as a shameless self-promo (bc apparently I haven’t done enough of that lol) I want to mention my wu xie edit which was just so much fun to do and turned out so great and. I just love him a lot ok, he’s a wonderful character and zhu yilong played him so well ♥

I wish you all – all the ppl mentioned here and all who see this and all who still do not – a very merry christmas, happy holidays, and happy new years too! I hope the year 2021 will treat us all well and that you will remain as amazing, lovely, and wonderful as you all have been! ♥ 

[sleepyowlwrites]

find the word tag CCLXXXIV

I'll look through my tags note and think "I should create non-tag content for my blog" and then don't do that. well. this is me. @drippingmoon fun fact: your nickname was, in fact, based on the pfp you had when I started following you rather than your url, but it's such a delightful name: Moonink, like you write stories with ink gathered from moonlight, like they're from beyond time itself, and still a close comfort.

crackle (heartbeat, 2021)

He isn’t useful at all, like this. Once was enough, it really was. Liu Sang demands that his heart slow down and match where his mind is: sure, silent, settled. It doesn’t listen.

Liu Sang watches the sky crackle along its seams and flash purple for a moment. There’s a pause that seems too lengthy, making him wait in unearned agony until the following crash of sound reverberates throughout his whole body, hissing at the tips of his fingers, a sizzle across his collarbones, a fresh sting in his cheek when he bites the inside.

thunder (heartbeat, 2021)

It hurts, it hurts to breathe, to shake in the cool air, to cough heavily when his whole body feels too light to be weighed down by gravity. Liu Sang finishes relearning how to breathe just in time to know that he’s crying. Oh no, not- it was bad enough the first time, with Wu Xie’s large eyes piercing him through. With Pangzi-

But it doesn’t hurt when Pangzi moves him so he can rest fully against his chest, when he makes unintelligible sounds of reassurance, when there’s a hand stroking down his hair. Liu Sang is, he can hear Pangzi’s heartbeat, right there, beside him, so real and so strong.

“You’re alright, Jinx. We all remember but you had a pretty bad time of it, yeah? But you made it out, you’re alive, you’re here with us.”

Thunder disagrees and Liu Sang is horribly embarrassed and still chooses to bury his face in Pangzi’s jacket, trying to block out its growl in his ears. The side of his face that isn’t listening very intently to Pangzi’s heartbeat is covered by a large hand that presses gently but firmly on his ear.

hail snow (I'll tell you again to make you believe, 2020)

“I’m dying,” Jingyi announces upon his arrival at the Jingshi.

He sits very improperly beside Sizhui and gazes mournfully at the guqin beneath his friend’s fingers. Without touching them, he knows they’re warm and calloused. It’s so cold outside. Winter is being extremely harsh this year and more snow falls almost every day. Senior Wei has taken to creating and putting up snow melting talismans so not too much time is wasted in moving it out of the pathways. Jingyi appreciates this, but it didn’t stop him from tripping and falling into a snow pile outside on his way here. He’s grown up in Cloud Recesses, so he knows how to use his spiritual energy to keep his body warm, but there must be something wrong with it today because Jingyi can’t keep the heat from slipping off his fingertips and leaving him all too quickly.

Sizhui doesn’t stop playing, but the tune changes to something a little more cheerful and Jingyi knows it’s just for him. He isn’t cheered, though. The cold has followed him indoors and while he can feel Sizhui’s warmth beside him, it doesn’t penetrate his skin. When the song stops he keeps quiet, which is probably what really tips Sizhui off that something isn’t right. He always take every opportunity to praise Sizhui, because he is the best and should know it. His friend puts a hand on his arm and turns him a little so he can peer at his face.

dew bonus Grimes content

Zan jumped and nearly fell over when out of nowhere, something fell from the roof and landed in front of the two of them. He immediately placed himself in front of Shae, who sighed in frustration and elbowed him.

“Calm down,” she muttered. And then, louder, “This is Grimes.”

The something reconfigured its shape, bones aligning and smoky mass solidifying into somewhat recognizable form underneath the long coat it wore without flesh to support it. Dark red flames like tips of candles served as eyes in the skull that stared back at him. And Zan was staring. Indeed, this was some sort of possessed skeleton, a kind of creature he’d never heard of and wouldn’t have dreamed up if he’d wanted to.

“Like the girl said,” the skeleton spoke, its tone raspy but clear, with plenty of personality in the sounds, “I’m Grimes. And I have no intention of harming Shae. If I did, I would’ve let her summon spirits she had neither the experience nor skill for.”

Zan heard humor in those words and wanted to laugh. He was hearing a skeleton talk. He knew a summoner with a family contract who didn’t fear death, a semi-possessed blacksmith who didn’t understand friendship, and a passionate runaway with a skeleton who lurked in her back yard. What a life he was living.

concern, already, house, weight. BONUS: personal, absolute. @enchanted-lightning-aes @writingamongther0ses @oh-no-another-idea @livvywrites @diphthongsfordays @viskafrer OR ANYBODY or nobody

[januaryisnotanartist]

So day 5 of KanSang week is Wang Clan! Liu Sang.

Which got me thinking about how would Liu Sang fit in with the Wang Clan (and Wang Can) and still be Liu Sang (and not secretly Wang Can), and how could I get KanSang from such a universe?

I derailed directly into Liu Sang & Li Cu are bros.

(warning, this (d)evolved into a kinda fic as I was rambling.)

-

We begin with “Wang Can is the younger half brother of Liu Sang”, top it off with a bit of “evil step mother who was willing to burn her step son alive in an attempt to frame him for attempted murder gone wrong clearly belongs to a crazy death cult and was secretly a Wang operative the whole time, so when she and her husband died the Wang Clan swooped in to pick up the free orphans freshly traumatised kids ripe for brainwashing indoctrination into their cult clan.”

So now we have Liu Wang Can, who was raised by a woman who was already preparing him to join the Wang Clan, and Liu Sang who, because I need him to have a reason to firmly resist the Wang's Anti-Zhang propaganda, is from the Worship False Idols universe. (Which is to say: Liu Sang was rescued from human traffickers by Zhang Qiling before he moved in with his estranged father and wicked stepmother.)

Wang Can dives headfirst into the clan and evil assassin training, while Liu Sang keeps his head down because: where else can he go? His brother is here, he has no one left to turn to, and this clan is out for his ouxiang. Liu Sang chooses to stay so he can learn everything about the man who saved him, and more? importantly: about the clan who plan to hurt the man who'd saved him.

Everyone assumes Wang Can is the more terrifying “twin”. They're wrong.

Liu Sang has to watch as his brother strips away his own humanity despite Liu Sang's best efforts.

And then comes Li Cu.

Liu Sang would laugh if his brother's poor reaction to having a crush wasn't so... horrifying. He's not even sure Wang Can has realised his increased brutality and douchebaggery are attempts to show off for Li Cu.

As a big brother, Liu Sang thinks it might be his responsibility to explain some things before Li Cu kills Wang Can in self-defense, so he tracks down the new comer at one of the out door firing ranges while Li Cu's taking a break.

(Liu Sang hates the firing ranges, they always give him sensory overload, then Wang Can has to go out on extra dangerous missions just to prove they're useful and Wang Liu Sang isn't a burden, because like hell is he ever going to tell them just how much he can hear. They, because they're always considered as a unit, because both of them cling a little too much to one another. There's a reason they can't shake the foul rumours about their relationship, they're both too possessive.)

He remembers to make noise loud enough for a normal person to hear before he gets within striking distance, finds a nice crunchy leaf and crushes it under foot to get Li Cu's attention. Li Cu's first reaction almost makes Liu Sang laugh out loud.

“The hell did you do to your hair?!”

Because Liu Sang's hair has always had more red than Wang Can's, and they wear it differently. He doesn't stop the smirk though, tosses Li Cu a candy bar (technically contraband while off mission) and waits to see how long it takes Li Cu to realise he's not Wang Can.

It takes a few less sentences than Liu Sang hoped for Li Cu to cotton on, but still long enough for it to be funny.

They don't become friends, but they certainly aren't enemies, and they aren't nothing to each other.

Almost something like friends maybe.

Liu Sang reminds Li Cu not to lose himself to the Wang Clan, because they're very good at acting nice, at choosing just the right person to send to get under your skin. Every person you trusted in the Wang Clan was another way they had to get you to do what they wanted.

Liu Sang getting close to Li Cu ends up riling Wang Can, who can't figure out which of them he's more jealous about, so the higher ups send Liu Sang off on a mission.

“Only a week or two.”

Liu Sang says goodbye to Li Cu on his way out.

“Do ever think about leaving the Wangs?” Li Cu wants to know. “Just, go missing in the middle of a mission on not look back?”

“My brother's here,” Liu Sang tells him. Because the Wangs know how to use connections, and if they'd ever sent both brothers out together, Liu Sang would have given in to the temptation to run away years ago. To drag his brother back to some semblance of humanity and not the murder puppet the Wangs had turned him into.

-

Liu Sang returns to a compound devoid of life, the secret regrouping call had gone out, he knows where he's supposed to go but there's a terrible weight sitting in his chest as he walks through the building. The poisonous gas no longer a threat, he can see where the infiltrators' bodies would have been.

They'd taken their own dead and left the Wangs to rot.

He'd have found it funny if his brother hadn't been one of the corpses.

Liu Sang can't hear himself screaming over the ringing in his ears, his world falling apart at the seams. He'd kept himself together through the hell of the Wangs by focusing on trying to take care of his brother.

Who is he if he's not Wang Can's gege?

His brother is dead, and he knows exactly whose fault it is.

There's a grenade pin by his brother's corpse, and explosive damage by on of the vents, and the Wangs had made his brother such a good little soldier.

Liu Sang thinks of the man with the tattoo who'd saved him from one hell only to leave him to another. The man the Wangs hated more than any other.

He has no path forward but one. Liu Sang takes the information he'd gathered painstakingly through the years in secret, always too afraid to use it, and heads to the meeting location.

When his is the only heartbeat left there, he goes to find every safe house and backup location left.

He tracks down every member of the Wangs he can find and ensures no one loyal lives.

And then he's left back where he was. Alone. No idea what to do next.

-

Li Cu thinks he's hallucinating the first time he sees Liu Sang across the street.

To be fair, he hadn't even been sure it was him, Liu Sang had vanished almost as Li Cu was noticing him.

He'd never mentioned Liu Sang to Wu Xie and the others, it hadn't felt right. Liu Sang wasn't a Wang, not really. He'd taken the name, the tattoo, but unlike his brother, Liu Sang had still hung on to his old name, a secret Liu Sang had only shared once when he'd been tired enough to be tipsy.

Now Liu Sang was here, and obviously wanted to talk to Li Cu judging by how often Li Cu caught him watching. Liu Sang had apologised more than once for Wang Can's poor social skills, but Liu Sang's weren't exactly up to par either, unless they were being directly compared to his brother's.

So Li Cu makes himself available, waits in the cold, dark night for Liu Sang to appear from nowhere. And by cold, dark night, Li Cu means he takes to haunting a quiet table at a street food vendor while he tries to study.

Liu Sang sits down across from him with food, and they just share the table for a while, eating, studying, waiting.

From up close Liu Sang looks terrible, and not for the first time since Wu Xie had raided the Wang base, Li Cu wonders what happened to Liu Sang.

“Sorry about your brother,” Li Cu doesn't realise he's going to say it out loud until it's already out of his mouth. It seems like the kind of thing he should be saying though.

Liu Sang freezes, chopsticks halfway to his mouth, a clump of rice drops back onto his plate.

“You don't have to lie about it,” Liu Sang says at last, “I think part of me always knew we weren't both leaving.” He puts his chopsticks down and looks a little lost. “Sometimes, I wonder I there was ever anything in him that I could have saved.”

“Not by the end,” Li Cu says, and there's a look of realisation on Liu Sang's face, and Li Cu gets the feeling Liu Sang knows now that Li Cu had been there when Wang Can had pulled the pin from the grenade.

They sit in silence so long, Li Cu wonders if he should go back to his food or his textbook, but then Liu Sang finally starts talking again.

“I actually, tracked you down to ask...” Liu Sang looks like he'd rather swallow razors, “for a favour. From you. I want to ask you to do me a favour.”

Of all the things Li Cu expects to follow, learning tattoo artistry is not one of them. It takes months before Liu Sang is happy with Li Cu's skills, by which time Li Cu has long stopped asking why Liu Sang doesn't just go to a proper tattoo artist.

He doesn't ask where Liu Sang got the equipment, or how he'd managed to get the studio for an entire day, he doesn't know if he wants an answer or not.

Li Cu knows that Liu Sang already has a tattoo, all the Wang Clan members had had one, a phoenix on the back of their right shoulders that only showed in the heat. Li Cu had been not far off having to get one as well, something that had repulsed him so deeply he'd been shaken by the depth of it.

His back had already been mutilated, like hell he'd let anyone else mark him against his will again.

(He hates that he suddenly understands why Liu Sang had gotten him to learn to tattoo.)

To his surprise, there's also an unfinished tattoo across Liu Sang's chest, and it looks vaguely familiar to Li Cu.

“Qilin?” He thinks he knows why.

Liu Sang nods, and turns his back so Li Cu can press a hot cloth against his shoulder. Once the phoenix is visible, Li Cu places the stencil carefully so it aligns just right then readies the tools while they wait for the phoenix to vanish from sight.

Li Cu has only been practicing for a few months, so he's not very fast, but he makes sure the lines are steady, that the shading is right.

It takes all day, and they won't be able to check the cover up has worked for another few days, but in the end Li Cu is confident no amount of heat will let the phoenix show through the multi-tailed fox he's inked onto Liu Sang's shoulder.

-

Before they part ways again, Li Cu pulls Liu Sang into what is probably the world's most awkward hug, and makes sure he has Li Cu's contact information.

“At least let me know you're alive every once in a while, yeah?” Because Li Cu already knows Liu Sang's leaving.

Liu Sang nods, but Li Cu isn't really expecting much.

Three days later he gets a picture of a town sign from an unfamiliar number, accompanied by the words: Not Dead Yet.

-

Liu Sang keeps in contact, more than Li Cu thought he would, not that he minds. Except that Liu Sang has a strange penchant for meerkat memes and keeps being weirdly funny at the worst possible times.

Like a few years later when Li Cu learned Liu Sang was on a job with Erbai's crew after Liu Sang sent him a text, which caused Li Cu to snort his drink through his nose and all over his freshly complete collage homework.

Help! He's a Himbo! My One True Weakness!

[lucientelrunya]

Like a lonely house pt 3

Phew, I feel a little like that bird meme "the risk I took was calculated, but man am I bad at math" (which I really am *points to the 70 years that are actually 80 years* !!), with how I went "Huh, there is no 50.000+words slow burn of them, but I want!!!" and my brain was like "well, do it yourself. Here, have Chapter 1, 3, 6 and 9, I already prepared them. Oh and here is some Ba Ye+Wu Xie-friendship" And then I struggle with how to bridge the gap between those chapters.....

This part is me struggling really hard. Trying to bridge those gaps and trying to puzzle Mystic Nine-Canon and Book-Canon together. Like, Wu Laogou??? He wasn't even born? My perfectionism can't handle this!! But I guess I am like Hamilton, I'll never be satisfied *sigh*, so ... yeah. Feel free to point out any mistakes you spot!

I should definitely add that this is canon-divergent... ish (which canon???), I'm not sure if there is anything I should warn about in this part, maybe just more sadness? But @psychic-waffles and @gaiahenshin wanted someone to hug Zhang Rishan so ... here you go I guess ^^°°° (I see those tags and reblogs and favorites and I am beyond thrilled every single time, I don't even know how to react!)

It takes a conscious effort to make his lungs work properly again and take a deep breath. Fo Ye had entrusted him with his legacy and he will do everything he can to not disappoint him any further. He has to face the consequences of what he has done, he has to. But before he can get a grip on himself someone tips his chin up to shine a flashlight right into his eyes. He automatically flinches back from the blinding light, dislodging the hand from his face in the process and finds Huo Daofu staring at him, flashlight in his hand and one brow raised. “Back with us?” he asks, eyes scanning Zhang Rishan’s face methodically and only taking a step back once he nods slowly. How long had he stood frozen, trapped in his thoughts for Huo Daofu to come over and start to worry?

“Good. Any more insights on god-radio?” What is he talking about? "God-radio?" Zhang Rishan repeats slowly, confused, which only makes Huo Daofu raise both brows this time. He pointedly looks over at the mural where Zhang Rishan's fingers are still touching the picture of said god. Ah, they must have thought it was still somehow communicating with him.

“Time travel”, Zhang Rishan mutters, trying to ignore the way Luo Que hovers anxiously at his side and the way Ba Ye has his hands wrapped around his upper arm like he had always done when he wanted to hide behind him or was whining about something (and the possible connection between those two things). His words cause several confused “huh”’s from different directions. Taking a slow deep breath he braces himself to say the words, to confess and take the blame for this mess. “No, I didn't get any further godly insights, but I think Ba Ye is right, he never died, he was, as you phrased it so nicely, plucked from the past and put here, now”, he says, inclining his head at Wu Xie.

“But why?” Ba Ye asks and Zhang Rishan makes himself turn his head to look at him when he says his next words. “Because of me.” And there it is. “Because this god was inside my mind and it was so incredibly thankful I gave it its freedom that it wanted to give something to me in return, to grant me a wish.” Not that he had wished for Ba Ye to be ripped out of his time, exactly, his thoughts had been a jumbled mess at that moment. He had never consciously wished for anything in particular. But Ba Ye’s sudden disappearance in the middle of a war had torn a hole into Fo Ye’s heart and, by extension, into Zhang Rishan’s (not only by extension, of course, because Ba Ye had been important to Zhang Rishan, too - is important - but to Fo Ye he had practically been family). He could have said how Fo Ye had looked for Ba Ye for months, for years, with a war raging right on their doorstep, when thousands of people were dying or disappearing, when the city they had so desperately tried to protect had been burned to the ground. How Fo Ye had never truly gotten over not being able to find him - save him - or at least find out what happened. He had felt Ba Ye’s absence all his life, a regret he couldn’t let go of, not even on his deathbed. A regret Zhang Rishan had taken into his own heart, after Fo Ye’s death, added to his own regrets and moulded into a lump of regret-failure-pain-bitterness-sorrow that his trained mind still hasn’t filed away properly. He has failed Ba Ye, too, and has missed Ba Ye, too. And this is his mess, this is what his jumbled thoughts had made a god do, so he leaves it at that.

Zhang Rishan is prepared for anger, for reproaches, for being smacked again, but Ba Ye’s face is unreadable and he doesn’t say anything, his fingers around Zhang Rishan’s arm only slightly tightening their grip. He waits for something - anything - to happen, (maybe for the sky to fall down or the earth to open up and swallow him), for him to wake up and realize everything’s only just been a dream - nightmare? - or for one of them to tell him he’s crazy and there’s no way this could be possible. And someone does: “But that’s impossible, that would be a paradox”, Wu Xie says and Zhang Rishan looks at him pointedly.

“A bootstrap paradox, to be exact”, Huo Daofu remarks and really, that’s the part of all of this he wants to comment on? “A what now?” Pangzi asks, squinting at Huo Daofu and Zhang Rishan is glad he is not the only one who has no idea what Huo Daofu is talking about. “A bootstrap paradox. It basically describes phenomena with a cause-effect-loop just like this. I mean, you don’t know my gran, but she was absolutely obsessed with the famous Qi Tiezui so I don’t know how many times I heard the story of his tragic, mysterious disappearance and all the questions and the search and Zhang Da Fo Ye’s heartbreak.” He looks like he wants to roll his eyes in annoyance at the mention of his grandmother. “But that’s exactly that. He vanished and you wanted to find out why and that wish brought him here in the first place. So what came first? There is no discernable point of origin for- what, I like Sci-Fi, don’t look at me like that!”

It is somehow reassuring and disconcerting at the same time that Huo Daofu of all people manages to sum up his thoughts like this, aside from his guilt. And that he is able to put a name to this, even if that doesn’t mean it’s a real thing. Fiction is fiction after all. How can there even be such a thing? But then, how could there be a god chained to a cave or a mysterious force controlling people like that or golden coffin water that saved people from certain death? After everything else he has already seen and lived through or just heard about in his life he shouldn’t be so doubtful. It’s also quite unsettling how much Huo Daofu knows about Ba Ye’s disappearance and how casually he mentions those details. But Ba Ye doesn’t seem too upset about the mention of Fo Ye’s heartbreak, at least for the moment. Instead he perks up at Huo Daofu’s words.

“Good, good! After all you heard and all you read about that then it must be a real thing, so I think we can all agree that all of this is real and I am real!” And, curiously, Wu Xie looks at Liu Sang, who jerks his head in a small gesture of confirmation that’s not really a nod. But it is obviously enough for Wu Xie to smile at Ba Ye and nod. “Yes, I think we can. And I wanted to ask you something. You were the one who stole one of my grandpa’s dogs, right?” The question makes Ba Ye laugh awkwardly and let go of Zhang Rishan’s arm, so he can gesture at Wu Xie.

“Of course that’s what he would tell his grandchildren about me. Let me tell you, I took out that dog’s gallstones and I brought it back safe and sound! And he acted like I murdered it!” Wu Xie laughs at the face Ba Ye makes, or maybe his helpless gesturing. “He always said you kidnapped that dog just to get back at him.” Zhang Rishan isn’t sure if he imagines how the conversation tiptoes on the line of ‘friendly conversation’ and ‘fishing for information’. But he hadn’t been present for the whole Dog-stealing-thing, so he keeps listening, ignoring Pangzi who starts to tease Huo Daofu about his obvious love for science fiction and then continues to question him about his favorites.

“Aiyah! That’s just what I told Fo Ye, that Wu Laogou would never give me his dog if I asked him because he would think I wanted to get back at him. But I really wasn’t! We needed his gallstones to cure Mo Ce so Fo Ye said I had to steal it if I wouldn’t ask for it. So I stole it, but as I said, I brought it back better than new, freshly cured. And he even made me apologize to the dog!” That is actually something he hadn’t known, but Wu Xie laughing and saying “Of course he would!” is enough to finally fully convince him that all of this is real. It puts his mind at ease and shifts his focus to other things he still has questions about.

They should definitely find out more about this god and the people that imprisoned it. He takes out his phone to take some photos of the mural and finds it mostly covered in white, but just like before it just crumbles away in little flakes. Surprisingly his phone still works and there is no trace of dampness to it. For a moment he stares at the screen and then at his arm, where Ba Ye's hands had grabbed him. The dried white stuff has crumbled away where the cloth had been moved or touched, leaving no trace, no lingering wetness. Deliberately taking note of every part of his skin he realizes that actually nothing feels wet or damp, even though he practically swam in that liquid. He can only recall the feeling of the liquid clinging to him and dragging him down like water-soaked and heavy clothing would do, but it seems highly unlikely that he was unconscious long enough for his clothes to completely dry. It's like whatever was in the pool only wrapped itself around him, like a cocoon, but didn't soak through anything.

Luo Que is still beside him, silently watching him. His arms are covered in white flakes, too, so he must have helped Pangzi get him out of the pool. “Do you remember what the liquid felt like?” Luo Que looks confused for a moment, furrowing his brows until his eyes drift down to his own arms and he seems to get what Zhang Rishan is asking. “Not really like liquid, it felt cool but not wet at all”, he answers, rubbing at one of the larger stains that crumbles away under his fingertips. This only confirms his suspicions, he wants this stuff analyzed. Luo Que finds a zip-lock-bag somewhere in his backpack and together they manage to get at least some of the white flakes and dust into the bag, although it seems to disintegrate once it gets shaken off whatever surface it had clung to.

Wondering if this is even really a tomb he takes pictures of the whole mural. It seems more like a temple - no, they didn’t worship the god here, so more of a prison for a god if there is a word for such a thing. He turns only to find Ba Ye watching him, staring at his phone. Of course, the kinds of cameras Ba Ye knows were big and bulky so he hands it to Ba Ye. “It’s a camera and a phone”, he explains, which only makes Ba Ye stare harder, turning the device in his hands. “It’s so small!” His wonder makes Zhang Rishan smile and he promises to show Ba Ye what it can do later.

Which seems almost like a cue for them to decide to carefully explore the rest of the tomb for more information and to find out if it really is a tomb. They take the dagger, the only remarkable thing on the altar and maybe something that can help them find out more about the people that used it. Maybe at least how old this cave is. Zhang Rishan is still unsure if it’s a tomb or a prison, even after they find two more caves with clay jugs filled with human ashes. Cremation is not exactly a common burial tradition for this region and there are no grave goods at all. Not one single treasure, to Pangzi’s great disappointment, no more murals, no scripture, nothing. It’s mostly a disappointment in terms of exploration, but maybe they can find out some more.

Since it already got dark when they reached the tomb they decide to spend the night in the cave with the pool, which is the only one with enough room for all of them (and they don’t really want to sleep next to rows of human ashes). It’s still quite dark, even with Pangzi’s heater instead of a fire but more comfortable than outside where Liu Sang had heard rain and thunder. None of them goes to check, there is no need to hurry back, they can spend one night in the cave and hopefully the rain will have stopped the next day.

Reception in the cave is strong enough to mail the pictures to some contacts and ask them to look into it. Ba Ye watches him curiously while he types in the message and Zhang Rishan shows him all the other functions - or at least everything he frequently uses his phone for, which makes Pangzi laugh. “Ahh, President Zhang,” he scolds, using the title he had never used before. “You are all about work! Show the poor man some good things! Here, look at this game,” and he tucks on Ba Ye’s shoulder to get him to lean over his own phone.

“Pangzi, the ‘poor man’ doesn’t have a phone to send you money for your stupid game”, Wu Xie leans on Pangzi’s other shoulder, grinning and obviously finished with his phone call. “Ah, Tianzhen, pay attention. I’m already done with that one, this is a new one. Here, look!” Judging by the way all three of them look at the phone it must be something cute and Zhang Rishan finds himself smiling again, glad and thankful that they include Ba Ye so effortlessly. He will need people who can care for him and help him if he decides he won’t forgive Zhang Rishan after they get a chance to talk about everything that has happened since Ba Ye vanished.

This thought wipes the small smile off his face and he distracts himself by texting Liang Wan, asking her when she will be back from her trip because he wants her to check Ba Ye, blood tests and all. He will do everything he can to make sure Ba Ye is okay (or as okay as he can be) and has everything he needs for a life in the 21. century. Which is another reason why he offers Ba Ye his sleeping bag, who simply refuses, adamant that they can share. They end up with Zhang Rishan sitting on one half, leaning his back against the wall and Ba Ye using his leg as a pillow, curled up next to him on the other half. It’s familiar, but he represses the memories, busying himself with shrugging out of his coat without waking Ba Ye to drape it over him because he can feel him shiver against his leg. It seems to be getting colder but he doesn’t mind. Ba Ye doesn’t wake, but when he looks back up Wu Xie smiles at him from where Pangzi is halfway wrapped around him, head on Zhang Qilings lap.

When they pack up the next morning it’s still raining and it’s really noticeably colder than before. Zhang Rishan lets Ba Ye keep his coat, he will need some protection against the rain in his thin changshan, even if the thick forest they had hiked through should offer some protection against the rain. But when they leave the cave there is no more forest, only muddy ground where lush undergrowth had been and some tree stumps that look long dead.

“Well, the forest was unusual”, Liu Sang says but still seems just as perturbed as everyone else. For a moment they just stand there and look around them. “I guess they really needed that god to grow something around here”, Pangzi jokes, but he sounds uneasy about it. And how could they not be, with miles of dead land around them where hours before there had been fruit trees and berry bushes in abundance. Zhang Rishan represses a shiver of uneasiness and just wants to leave this place as soon as possible. He is not the only one. Instinctively they walk faster on their way back, or as fast as they can. The rain had made the ground slippery with mud and dead plants. None of them feels comfortable about stopping for the night but it’s safer than trying to navigate through the dark. Thankfully the rain stopped some time before that and they manage get a fire going, but still all of them are quiet and thoughtful, no trace of the easy banter of the day before.

They are packed and ready to go with the first light of the next day. Without the rain the ground dries up fast and the sun is too bright and too warm, which is actually typical for this region. At one point they cross a very visible line where the dead zone ends and there are plants and trees again, but they don’t stop to inspect it further, too glad to be out.

It’s mid afternoon when they reach the end of the road where they had left their cars and from there it’s only roughly another two hours to drive to the small village where they had spent the night before setting out on this endeavour. The villagers don’t seem to know that a whole forest has vanished and happily accommodate them again in the small inn. They had seemed to avoid the general area of said forest and hadn’t wanted to talk about it before, just whispering about local legends of a ‘man-eating wood’. Luckily the owner of the small inn doesn’t seem to remember their exact number or he simply doesn’t care that they left the allegedly cursed forest with an additional person. He gives them the same rooms (which are actually the only rooms available) and goes off to prepare dinner.

They disperse to their rooms to clean up and rest for a moment until dinner is ready. Wu Xie had made sure that Zhang Rishan shares his room with Ba Ye so they can talk, but both of them seem a bit reluctant to start. They wash in a somewhat uncomfortable silence until Zhang Rishan takes off the bandages, inspecting the two cuts on his arms and is surprised at the 2 neat rows of staples. He hadn’t realized they were that long and deep that they required stapling and is actually impressed at Huo Daofu’s level of preparation for such a small trip. He obviously knows what he is doing, the cuts are clean and already healing nicely. “Let me help you”, Ba Ye takes the fresh bandages out of his hand, and starts slowly wrapping them around Zhang Rishan’s arms.

“I understand there are a lot of things that have happened since I disappeared, so just tell me”, Ba Ye’s voice is quiet and he keeps his eyes on his hands. And, taking a deep breath to brace himself, Zhang Rishan tells him. About the second attack on Changsha, the third, and finally the fourth one when they lost and everything they had tried to protect had been destroyed. He doesn’t go into detail about all the lives that were lost in the war, while Ba Ye’s fingers work slower and slower until they stop, hovering over Fo Ye’s bracelet. Zhang Rishan pulls his arms away to tuck down his sleeves, hiding the bandages and the bracelet alike, while he only briefly mentions the destruction and despair. Ba Ye had seen enough of that after the first attack on Changsha. He tells him about the years after the war, how they slowly rebuild and how Fo Ye kept looking for Ba Ye. There are not only sad things to say - Fo Ye had been happy in his marriage with Xinyue, Er Ye had been pleased with his new apprentice, the Huo-Clan had thrived, just like the Xie-Clan - although those outweigh the good things, because one by one he recounts the deaths of everyone Ba Ye knows.

“I’m sorry”, he finishes and hates that the words don’t do justice to the depth of his feelings. “You lost them too”, Ba Ye says, his voice surprisingly steady and almost gentle, and Zhang Rishan stares at him, at a loss. Yes, he did. But little by little, parts of his world crumbling away, piece by piece, until only duty remained. He’d had time to adjust to the holes, find ways around them, new paths that had grown old and used and then been torn away, too. What he had lost in the course of 80 years Ba Ye had lost in one day, one moment, one blink of an eye.

“Yes”, he says and doesn’t know how to put into words that their pain shouldn’t be compared, because there are not enough words to even begin to describe this. Pain is something he has been trained to file away into different threat levels, into different boxes. He is not allowed to have one named ‘unbearable’, but he doesn’t know how else to label the pain of that one moment when the worst thing has happened and it feels like the world just stops, just shatters and falls to pieces, never to be whole again. But everything stays the same. It’s just his world that shattered, his heart that has been torn apart never to be whole again. He is the one who changed, not the world. And he doesn’t even fathom himself how he had to change to survive that, who he had to become. Because he had become a person that would cause that kind of pain to someone else like this. He had killed countless people in his lifetime, on purpose as a Zhang, as a soldier, in the war or by mistake, by failure, by not being able to save them but he had never thought himself capable of such cruelty.

Whatever Ba Ye reads in his face (or maybe in his heart, because Ba Ye had always been good at reading hearts), it makes him knit his brows. Not in anguish or sorrow but something more akin to chagrin and he grabs the sides of Zhang Rishan’s sweater to roughly tug him forward into a bone crushing hug. And Zhang Rishan allows himself to be moved, just like he had always allowed himself to be moved whenever Ba Ye was tugging on him.

Ba Ye presses his face into the crook of his neck, arms wrapping tightly around his sides, fingers digging into his shoulder blades and Zhang Rishan can feel the shaky inhale against the bare skin of his neck. Carefully he wraps his arms around Ba Ye’s shoulders and holds him up when he feels the other man lean most of his weight on him. He doesn’t say anything, when he feels the wetness of quiet tears against his shoulder, just closes his eyes, offering whatever comfort he can offer like this.

[translations-by-aiimee]

Dig a Grave to Dig Out a Ghost - Chapter 18

Original Title: 挖坟挖出鬼

Genres: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Supernatural, Yaoi

This translation is based on multiple MTLs and my own limited knowledge of Chinese characters. If I have made any egregious mistakes, please let me know.

Chapter Index

Chapter 18 - Memories

Lin Yan was afraid that the professor was going to run away. When the event was over, he didn't even take the time to change his clothes. He called over to little Daoist priest to tell him he could leave first, then rushed to the backstage lounge. The crowd trying to leave completely blocked the exit. Lin Yan wasn't able to get out for a while. Behind him was a swarm of school reporters, sweating profusely as they followed.

"Excuse me! Coming through!" He wasn't sure whose foot he stepped on in his rush, but the girl in front of him turned around and gave him a sharp look.

"Lin Yan!" a clear voice rang out. Lin Yan looked up and saw Weiwei standing at the door with a red staff badge hanging around her neck.

Lin Yan didn't care anymore about feeling embarrassed while he hurried through the crowd without any organized manner. He shouted at Weiwei: "Can you do me a favour? This is urgent!"

"It's my birthday next week, come over for dinner!" Weiwei shouted on her tiptoes.

"Okay, whatever, help stop the crowd behind me!"

Lin Yan ran as fast as he could straight down the corridor, stumbling from time to time over the hem of his clothes. When he burst into the backstage VIP room completely dishevelled, he realized that he had been worried for nothing. The professor hadn't planned on sneaking away at all. He was seated on the sofa and had waited for him, sipping his tea.

"You came? Sit down."

Lin Yan clutched his chest and nodded, breathing too heavily to speak.

The lounge was decorated in a very stylish way, with arc-shaped floor-to-ceiling French windows, beige wallpaper, and light brown soft leather sofas that looked like they were worth a lot of money. The school had always been willing to spend money on entertaining guests. The professor poured a glass of water for Lin Yan and pointed to the single-seater sofa opposite of him.

"You're Lin Yan, who came to us for an internship before, right? You performed well today. You've got guts and have a good mind." The professor pondered for a moment: "I thought you'd come find me sooner or later. I didn't expect that you would get back here so soon. "

"Do you know me?" A series of questions popped up in his mind. Lin Yan suppressed the urge to outright address his issue. He apologized for the outburst just then, and then said seriously: "I did here for that internship. This is very important to me, please tell me everything you know."

The professor nodded slightly: "I can probably guess what happened. So, I'll speak slowly. Listen carefully. If there's any useful information, I'll tell you." He sighed and looked out the window. He spoke softly: "The fact that you are still standing here in good shape is already much better than the person who came before you."

Lin Yan looked back at Xiao Yu, who was holding his hand tightly, standing ignorantly.

The floor-to-ceiling windows were facing the path outside the auditorium. The students must use this path to get to the dormitories. In the night, boys and girls walked down it together in large groups. I don’t know who yelled: "The river flows eastward, the stars in the sky look to the Big Dipper!*" The professor smiled, turned his face to Lin Yan, and recalled: "I was about the same age as you when I first entered the tomb. It was a good time to be young."

*(Song lyrics from "Hao Han Ge" by Liu Huan)

"Young people don't know what's important. . ."

The professor spoke very coherently, as if he had been wanted to say all this for many years. Lin Yan even felt that he was using this as an opportunity to reminisce about his nostalgic youth. But when the professor painted the scene back to Lin Yan, it sent a chill down Lin Yan's spine.

Twenty-five years ago, a group of coal miners in Jinxiang County accidentally collapsed a mineshaft while they were hacking away. They removed some jade plates and funerary wooden figurines from inside the hole, which turned out to be the entrance tunnel of an underground tomb. Once the county head official learned about this tomb, he blocked off the mausoleum and reported the news to the central government. At that time, China was still a novice in both archaeological technology and cultural relic preservation, and it was still difficult to excavate many imperial tombs. Therefore, this cultural Ming Dynasty tomb was handed over to the university, and a team of several master's students hired some local volunteers and rushed to Jinxiang.

This group of people included the professor and Lin Yan’s current supervisor. When preparing the materials for the tomb, the professor and Lin Yan both found some strange information. He strangely discovered that whether it were the county chronicles, the local chronicles, or genealogical records, there was no record of the tomb's owner. One of the workers on the team claimed to be a master of fengshui. After seeing the mausoleum, he said that it would be impossible to excavate. The earth's meridians formed a breeding ground for negative energy. The evil spirits attracted to the space were too dense to bury people. The owner of the tomb wouldn't be able to find peace after death. Not to mention the misfortune it would bring future generations. However, most of the students were young and energetic. They were eager to try after seeing the exquisitely carved jade artifacts. Without much consideration, they went directly to the tomb with tools and equipment.

"Strange events started after that." The professor adjusted his glasses and grimaced: "We should have listened to the warnings, but we didn't believe in evil at the time."

First, the four chickens brought to ward off evil spirits died overnight. When the underground tomb gate was opened, the scaffold collapsed, and an 18-year-old fell and broke his right hand. Everyone thought it was an accident, but from the time they entered the tomb, all those involved in the excavation had nightmares whenever they closed their eyes. Every night they dreamed that they were dying to the point that no one dared try to sleep anymore. Fatigue and constant fear made everyone’s fighting spirit die off after only a week.

"What happened after that?" Lin Yan looked back at Xiao Yu in surprise. He thought he had been tormented thoroughly by him, but he hadn't even seen half of this ghost's ferociousness yet.

"After entering the main chamber, we found many valuable cultural relics beside the coffin, but they were poorly preserved. We could only brush off the embroideries. Watching the treasures that we brought out so easily blacken and carbonize the moment the sunlight hit them was the fatal blow to our spirits. I cried miserably, but everyone was equally depressed and even fearful. No one had the energy to comfort me."

The professor's hand shifted on the windowpane, leaving behind a damp handprint. "There seemed to be some kind of energy in that tomb that could make people fall into despair. We worked hard and sang to make ourselves feel more brave, but it was still useless. A rural volunteer girl went crazy on the ninth morning and smashed her husband's head in with a machete while everyone could only stand in shock."

"Blood sprayed all over the bricks on the top of the tomb, and it was dripping everywhere. The woman put her husband's head in front of the blank memorial plaque, kowtowed three times, and sat on the ground convulsing, laughing eerily, while laughing and shouting a name." The professor looked at Lin Yan and asked, "Do you know what name it was?"

Lin Yan took a dazed step back. He wanted to break away from the hand holding his, but Xiao Yu held it tighter, not giving him a chance to escape.

"It was Xiao Yu. Who exactly is Xiao Yu? I searched through both the official and unofficial records, but I couldn't find any record that mentioned this name." The professor's expression became painful: "We gave the woman a consolation fee to settle the matter. After she took the money, she laughed for a while before she raised her machete and slashed it down across her neck. The blood was sprayed onto the memorial plaque. When she fell, only a thin piece of skin kept her head attached to her body. At that time, people didn't know much about archaeology. At first glance, some of the students were okay, but the hired volunteers were all scared away, saying that we dug up the grave of the dead, and this was retribution for it."

"The last person who left was the fengshui guy. He told me that the tomb had no fengshui. The owner of the tomb had died violently. Nothing could approach the tomb through the evil energy breeding ground. This resentment built up over a long time. The woman's body had been filled with too much Yin energy and she was the first to fall prey to the ghost."

"The man left. The students didn't want to go, but they were still having nightmares every time they. They tried to stick it out for a week before packing their bags and returning to school. No one else died. The first time the lead took over, he wouldn't even touch the coffin. It was a disappointment for everyone."

Lin Yan imagined the beheading. His face grew pale, and his stomach felt sick.

"Are you alright? You don't look well." The professor seemed to catch on to the younger's expression, and pointed to Lin Yan's cup: "Drink some water. Take a break then you can listen some more."

Lin Yan shook his head and asked, "Was it really like the fengshui master said?"

The professor hesitated for a while, and his fingers scribbled across a section of thin vapor he exhaled onto the glass. Two words appeared on the glass: "Xiao Yu." As if he didn't want to see it, the professor wiped it away and shook his head: "I have seen a lot of weird things throughout my career. The demon and ghost theory is not unfounded, but I think that the tomb might be some kind of spiritual formation. In ancient times, emperors and generals did everything they could to prevent their bodies from being destroyed. Many strange arts and techniques also emerged. It is possible that the woman was already delirious and so was the first to lose her mind in the consuming and the gloomy atmosphere in the tomb."

Lin Yan imagined the shadowy chamber with two headless bodies lying on the ground. He could barely squeeze out a wry smile: "What does this whole thing have to do with me?"

"I'm getting to that part." The professor sadly lowered his head: "Young people have never been willing to admit defeat. Since then, I've been very interested in the history of the Ming Dynasty Chenghua period. At first, I wanted to find out the identity of the tomb owner but I really fell in love with the history, and, 20 years later, I became an expert in the field. But long-term research in any field will encounter roadblocks. I was troubled by problem for nearly two months, and finally decided to go to the Ming Tomb again."

Lin Yan asked puzzledly: "Are you not afraid something will happen again?"

The professor shrugged: "No way, the large amount of untouched cultural relics inside was too tempting. The team left before anyone had even touched the coffin the last time I was there. I've never gotten over it."

"Be considerate of the obsessions of an old man who has been involved in academia for most of his life." The professor said: "When the newspaper published the news about the excavation of the Ming Tomb again, a message came from my secretary saying that someone was willing to help me. He understood fengshui. If something went wrong, I could turn to him."

"I'm not the same young man who spent a whole year studying about the tomb. I ran all over the country all day and night. I was too busy to take care of it, so I asked the secretary to keep in touch with him."

"Later on, something did happened. It was exactly the same as before. After entering the tomb door, everyone was inexplicably depressed and paranoid, and soon began to have nightmares. I was so afraid that the tragedy would happen again, so I had to ask the person who knew fengshui for help. He told me that I need to find a person who shares the same horoscope as the evil creature in order to make it stop. Then he gave me a birth date and said that he could find someone with the same birth date horoscope."

Lin Yan had already guessed the answer. He pointed at himself and hesitated to confirm: "Me?"

The professor nodded: "That birth year made me think of a student. I asked your supervisor. He said that he had a friend’s son who was looking for an internship, and his own student, Lin Yan. It was just an extreme coincident that your birthday fell onto the right date."

"You know what happened after that." The professor looked at the path outside the window. The students were almost all gone now. The moonlight didn't reach the path, instead only reflecting the black shadows of the trees that were swaying back and forth in the night breeze. "If you want to ask me who the owner of the tomb is, I can only tell you that I don't know. It's shameful; after more than 20 years, I have revisited this topic year after year, but I still haven't made any progress."

"If you have anything else to ask, please go ahead. As soon as you say the name 'Xiao Yu', I knew it was you. You've got a lot of guts to throw my things like that." The professor laughed, "I was just like that when I was young. I had trouble with authority back then. It took a lot to keep up with me."

Lin Yan hurriedly lowered his head and apologized. He kept thinking that it was this File Folder dragged him into this mess, but it didn't seem like he did it intentionally. . . How much did he know about what happened after? Thinking of this, Lin Yan raised his head and asked, "Don't you want to hear how I know Xiao Yu's name?"

The professor waved his hand and relaxed his expression: "People my age don't want to listen to these ghost and monster stories. It's bad luck. I know you're fine when I see you standing here. I didn't discuss it with you. I blame myself for not discussing this with you sooner. I'll try my best to explain anything you need, but the rest. . ." The professor said, spreading his hands, expressing that there was nothing he could do.

During their talk, the professor's personal secretary came in and urged him to leave, saying that the car was ready and the school officials were all waiting downstairs. The professor nodded to the secretary, turned around and asked Lin Yan, "Is there anything else you want to know?"

Lin Yan felt stuck. The most renowned Ming historians in China had no answers. Did he really have no choice but to wait out the three months, waiting for this ghost to remember his life experience and tell him his wish. But what he couldn't remember? Would Lin Yan be forced to accompany him for eternity as a ghost?

As he pondered, a thought popped up, like a small copper hammer hitting the glass with a crisp sound. Lin Yan stopped the professor who was packing up and asked: "You. . . you mentioned that the fengshui guy had mentioned a horoscope date. I happened to be looking for an internship at that time, so it all worked out, right?" Lin Yan's voice was trembling with excitement: "This is too much of a coincidence. It's almost like he was waiting for me. . . Where is he now? How did he know something would happen in the Ming Tomb?"

The professor suddenly stopped, frowning and thought it over: "You're right to be suspicious. At that time, I was busy planning the excavation and didn't care much about it. . ." The secretary who was waiting at the door shouted: " Xiao Liu, do you remember that fortune teller? Give me his contact information."

The young girl flipped through the folder in her arms, and replied: "That person never contacted me directly. He had been passing messages through a young guy who was new to the team. I'll look into it for you. I'll get back to you about in in the next few days."

The professor's face sank, and just like Lin Yan, he had no answer. He whispered to him: "It'll should be easy to track him down." He patted Lin Yan on the shoulder: "I'll help you out with this, don't worry. "He took out a pen and left Lin Yan's his phone number, and the corner of his mouth ticked up: "I still owe you your prize. I'll give it to you the next time we meet."

When he left, the crowd was gone. The corridor was empty. The old custodian didn’t even turn on the ceiling light to save electricity. Only the wall lamp glowed a dull yellow. Lin Yan’s face drained of all colour. He suddenly felt like he was in a horror movie. He was the lead actor stumbling along the wall in a terrifying corridor.

The professor's story made him feel incredibly afraid. Behind him was a ghost, a murderer who put people to death in a cruel and bloody way. He didn't even dare to look behind him. He was afraid that when he turned around, a ghost covered in bloodstains would be there, grinning sinisterly at him through a veil of long hair, saying: It's your turn.

Lin Yan's breathing became heavier and heavier. When he couldn't resist the urge to run away, he was suddenly pushed harshly against the wall. His body was wrenched around. Lin Yan raised his head and squeezed his eyes shut.