Bruised (A Fengqing Fanfic)

Chapter 4

Hua Cheng let out a breathless laugh of surprise, feeling like he'd been slapped.

"I wouldn't let Xie Lian lose anyone he cares about."

"Like the Wind Master?" Feng Xin said, taking the bag from Hua Cheng and picking up the items that had been in it.

Hua Cheng tensed a strange sensation in his chest. Feng Xin wasn't usually so...smart, he guessed. Maybe he got smarter when he was angry.

"Shi Qingxuan wasn't even a person to you, was he?"

"You're going to want to stop talking now," Hua Cheng said darkly.

"Or what?" Feng Xin said, tucking the bag into a sleeve. "You didn't deny letting someone in, either. Who've you been letting in?"

"No one," Hua Cheng lied. "I don't have anything to do with this. If you don't want my help, then I'll come back later to look at things," he said, raising his hands like he was surrendering and dissolving himself into his butterflies.

Fuck.

If you had the shape of a civil office official, carried an armload of scrolls, and looked generally in a hurry, well. That was all you needed to look like a Heavenly Official. Hua Cheng pushed a pair of spectacles up his scholarly nose as he found one of Ling Wen's clerks. "Master Tong has those files ready for you, but we're not sure which. Can you come to show us the dates you wanted?" Master Tong was a medicinal goddess.

The clerk looked up from her writing. "Of course, one moment," she said, setting her brush into its jade holder to dry. She was taller than one would expect, her black hair drawn into a practical braid.

Together they headed to Master Tong's Palace and weaved their way through the halls, Hua Cheng giving small greetings to a few of the under clerks he knew. Once they were in the fifth record room of Master Tong's Palace, Hua Cheng locked the door.

"What did you hear about Mu Qing?"

The under goddess shrugged, leaning on one of the scroll shelves that lined the wall "What did I hear or what do I know?"

"Both."

"I heard he was injured and, in his palace, recovering. I know he's in your manor," she said, checking her nails.

"And?"

She was in the middle of shrugging again when Hua Cheng grabbed her collar and shoved her against the shelves.

"And?" Hua Cheng repeated.

She bared her teeth at him. "And I don't give a shit about him! What do you want from me?"

Hua Cheng glared at her a moment more before dropping her. The clerk adjusted her robes. "You're in a bad mood."

"I just got accused of this."

"You care about what someone thinks that isn't married to you? If you didn't do anything, don't worry," she said, withdrawing a mirror and checking her reflection. After some silence, her eyes flicked to him. "Ah. You did do something."

Hua Cheng drummed his fingers on one of the room's worktables.

"Oh. You suspect our new friend?" she asked, lifting a brow.

"Did you talk to him? Does he know you're here?"

"No, I'm a very private person, Hua Cheng, you know that," she said. "Alright. He has the motive. Does he have the means?"

Hua Cheng shook his head. "I don't know his method. I can't accuse him without some idea of how he could have done it. If he's not responsible, the real culprit could escape or strike again. Put a clone on him for me?"

She looked upwards for a moment. "Done," she said.

Hua Cheng exhaled, looking up at the record room rafters that arched about them. It was going to be annoying trying to share any of this with Feng Xin if it came down to it. He glanced at the tall, female clerk. "How is he?"

"How would I know?" He Xuan said, frowning a little and tucking her hands into her sleeves.

Silence.

Hua Cheng passed the other Ghost King a prettily wrapped paper bag.

"He's fine," she muttered, digging into the bag and pulling out a piece of melon-shaped candy*. "Fine. Of course, he's fine. He's unstoppable, isn't he? Nothing stops him." He Xuan looked at the floor, that frustrated, lost look on her face.

"Did he figure out about the fan?"

"No, of course not. He's so stupid, of course not," He Xuan huffed, getting upset enough to turn into a male Ming Yi.

"Hey," hissed Hua Cheng. "Calm down."

He Xuan huffed and switched back to an upset clerk frantically stuffing candy into her mouth, sniffling.

Hua Cheng reached over and squeezed her shoulder without looking at her. Feng Xin didn't get how hard it was to say something to Black Water. What could he say? No, Black Water, that's too much? You're going above and beyond? You're being unreasonable?

Those were things Hua Cheng could never say to someone who knew even a thousandth of the insane shit he did.

"Calm down," he repeated to the sniffling woman. "Calm down and eat your candy."

*tanggua/zaotang is a type of candy that's very ancient. The ones Hua Cheng gave He Xuan are in the shape of a melon, but they don't taste like melon. This is a kind of candy that you make as an offering to a Kitchen God/Ghost so I thought it would be appropriate.