Ink Lines

Chapter 28 Nie Sect Upending

Deciding to do it so close to anniversary, is the best trigger. So Lan Zhan, the hero and protagonist had to take them down before the anniversary. To achieve this miracle, Figbird needs to provide accurate, timely information of the Wen movements and plans. And in the spirit of the Wen's best survival mechanisms, perform his own stage production, launch his own distracting scandal.

Huaisang had so much on his Qinghe enemies it was child's play to present it in such a way that appeared...for lack of a better word, natural. All it would take was one incorruptible person, good evidence and enough time and the entire house of cards would come crashing down.

Huaisang had been planning this for years, arranging it for months and everything would work out as he hoped.

Nie Huaisang knows this. His plan to use his 'misfortune' to bring to light curated evidence that Wen and Jin conspired to kill his father. He has tapes, threats, blackmail and other scandal.

This was his home and soon it was going to be his prison. His brother would not let anyone kill him, keeping this within sect law. He was going to lose everything. His life in Lotus Pier, his found family and to an extent his true blood family as well. He was losing - had lost Lan Xichen. He was losing what little happiness he had ever gained, his job, all his inventions and creations tainted.

But he was gaining revenge over Nie Mingjue and assuring his brother remained protected from the Wen or Jin's inevitable assassination plan. His brother was too vocal, too angry. Huaisang had to assume that the first attempt was them as well and the next one would be their handiwork too. The Jin had the means and the stomach to employ the best in the industry and the Wen could supply as well. Jin Guangshan would go for something that couldn't be easily traced to him.

Beyond Mingjue, he was gaining insurance that the Jiang would be okay too. They would continue Furong and his work. The Jiang Sect would be fine. His found family and his blood family were not going to be the latest in a long line of victims. Jin Ling and Wei Sizhui would grow up with their parents. There would be no massacres in the future, no sects burning to the ground.

His brother would be fine. Lan Xichen would get over him.

He thumbed open the photo he had taken when A-Xi finally fell asleep after that terrible night, worn out and heartbroken. He had sat down to appease Huaisang and just fell asleep there, an immortal beauty falling to mortal needs. He's been mortified when he woke, Huaisang remembers with a bittersweet smile.

He might get over Huaisang....but he wasn't getting over the too-tall, insanely gorgeous, righteous, unbearably kind man he'd fallen in love with.

And that was his burden to bear.

Angrily he wiped his eyes, drying his tears. He didn't deserve to cry over Lan Xichen.

The Lan would be safe too. His heart had twisted when he saw that look of betrayed pain, self-hate and trauma etched in Lan Xichen's amber eyes. In the barely noticeable tremble in his sword hand when he realized two of his own had betrayed them to their enemy, making another Burning all too likely. The way the Twin Jades had gravitated towards one another, standing side by side and disturbingly mirroring each other's movements.

What for anyone non-Lan would be brotherly hugs and mutual sobbing.

The Wen broke something fundamental in the Lan. They nearly destroyed the Jiang. They ruined Huaisang's family. Hundreds left bleeding from wounds seen and invisible. No more.

Wandering away from the windows, he looks at the room critically.

Long before the world was taken by storm with a love of monochrome, the Qinghe Nie Sect was putting everything in black, white or silver. They added some green and mink, chocolate browns and the odd tan for spice. This room was painted in ligonier tan, the artist in him supplying the name. The beast motif was on the wall - in case you forget where you are when you wake up and predictably the bathroom was all black.