#last part will be part 3 hahahahsdlj

[azu1as]

—a tangcheong reincarnation ficlet set during the shaolin tournament arc 👍

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Part 1 2 3

baek cheon didn't think much of the loud commotion being made in the audience stands as a large family entered the arena.

"huh? what's all that noise over there?" yoon jong voiced out.

the rest of the mount hua disciples turned their heads in the direction yoon jong was pointing at and they watched as people unabashedly stared at the person in the center of the group.

"you missing a cousin or something, samae?" one of the disciples joked.

the man in question looked closer to a tang than he did his own family members who walked beside him. whereas their hair were varying shades of light brown, his was dark and closer to tang soso's own color.

tang soso frowned, narrowing her eyes as she tried to peer at his features which were slightly too far to distinguish properly.

"I don't recall having any cousins in shaolin..." she mutters as yu iseol also tilted her head in question.

the man's gaze sweeped lazily across the arena. even from afar, baek cheon could tell that the man's gaze was contemptuous.

he didn't need to use his qi to enhance his eyesight to know that the gaze that was thrown towards the sect leaders' stand was absolutely scathing.

jo gul scratched his cheek. "he must be the rumored son of the zheng merchant family. see the crest on his robes?"

"what do you know of him?" baek cheon asked. he doesn't really understand why but a part of him felt like he had to be on-guard towards the strange man.

"not much," jo gul winced, "just that he's a bit older than us and that he...mildly poisoned one of the daughters of another family in sichuan."

"..."

they all turned towards tang soso.

"are you sure he's not part-tang or something?" yoon jong asked.

their conversation is abruptly interrupted by loud shouts cheering for shaolin.

the disciples of mount hua shared resolute nods as they began marching forward, letting the praises pouring out from the audience straighten their spines and walk more resolutely.

chung myung seamlessly slipped back into their fold, the money pouches he brought with him noticably emptier than when he had arrived.

it felt as if the cheers for them rang louder than those for shaolin. it was a very ovewhelming feeling and all of them could feel the pressure on their shoulders.

once again, they watch the reliable back of their sajil as chung myung finally sets foot on the stage, gazing up.

the current head of the zheng family was not influenced by the excitement that seemed to radiate from his fellow tournament-goers. rather, his eyes were locked on the face of his elder brother who he had never seen look as emotional as he did now.

there was disbelief on his face. he wore a strange expression which wavered between hope and doubt. unfathomable emotions swam in his eyes.

"ge, is everything alright?" he worriedly asked. "if you wish to leave, we don't have to—"

"no." zheng bo cut him off. "we're staying."

he shared concerned looks with his other siblings, but they silently agreed to let it be.

their eldest brother had always been distant, but he was never unkind to them.

they could never understand where the weight zheng bo seemed to always carry on his shoulders came from, but he never lashed at them.

they had never known zheng bo to be anything other than melancholic, so seeing the way the beginnings of a lively spark enter his eyes...

it was as if they were watching him transform into someone else for a moment.

"hyung...?" zheng bo murmured as he practically threw himself over the railing to get a closer look.

luckily, their youngest sibling, about the same age as the youngest second class disciple of mount hua, managed to pull their eldest brother back by the robe.

"zheng bo, what's gotten into you?" their mother worriedly clutched at him.

a string of incomprehensible muttering escaped zheng bo's lips. "...a descendant? no, he—a wife? no, as if..."

questioning stares were thrown their way from other audience members, but they were quickly distracted by the start of the deciding battle between the two finalists.

it was a battle that no one could have ever expected.

it felt too one-sided and the zheng family, as with the rest of the spectators, found themselves at a complete loss over the practically one-sided battle between shaolin's hye yeon and mount hua's chung myung.

there was heavy and glooming feeling charging the atmosphere. the previous racuous and excited cheers turned into silent feelings of apprehension and confusion.

“this is nothing compared to what mount hua has been through.”

zheng bo let out a pained, heartaching noise.

"ge," the second zheng son started, still lost. "do you know what he's talking about?"

it seemed to him that chung myung was talking about something beyond the prior slow decline of their sect.

zheng bo seemed to be too overcome with his own emotions to answer.

they all turned back their heads to the stage and were graced with the sight of a soft curve of a blade that arched beautifully, tearing apart all the golden winds thrown towards its weilder's way by hye yeon.

"beautiful..." someone in the audience behind them mumbled.

and it truly was a mesmerizing sight to see.

and it became all the more so when plum blossoms pink, an unstoppable multitude, bloomed from chung myung's sword.

tang bo crumpled where he had was standing.

happiness, guilt, and, most of all, /relief/ wrapped themselves around his heart—his heart which, for the longest time, for over three decades, had been hollowed and emptied out of any possible feelings.

"you're here too."

tang bo didn't have to be alone anymore.