A Broken Heart Still Beats.

Prologue Part II

He never realized just how he hated the quiet.

He hadn't been in the quiet for years.

Qing Jing was seldom quiet, there were also sounds of disciple practicing their guqin or practicing their sword techniques outside. It was never quiet.

It was quiet now.

None of the disciples dared to speak too loudly, move too brashly, or practice too loudly.

Not with how their Shifu was at the moment.

Shen Tianyan, the younger brother of Shen Qingqiu, their Shifu, had not left the Bamboo House since Shen Qingqiu was taken into the custody of Huan Hua Palace a few months ago. The few times anyone saw him, he looked haggard, with dark eye bags under his eyes and his usually impassive but demure and elegant face blemished by worry and uncountable sleepless nights.

There had been times when the disciples of Qing Jing used to speculate that Shen Tianyan and Shen Qingqiu really hated each other, what with how they used to fight so often, and with their Shifu having gone into seclusion specifically away from everyone and everything for five years after the Immortal Alliance Conference.

But now, now that they all saw a side of their Shifu that they never had before, it was clear that while the brothers fought like wild dogs, their care for each other was without question.

The only disciple that dared to venture near their Shifu; was Ming Fan.

"Shifu," He announced himself before, but Shen Tianyan hadn't heard him, not that it surprised the young man. His Shifu hadn't left the Bamboo House in months, never speaking, and never greeting anyone that came by. "Zhangmen-shibo has arrived."

At this, the teacher waved his hand, the only recognition he would give as he loomed over the scrolls he had been reading for the past days. The words blurred together and he couldn't make sense of a single thing, but he was a stubborn man, and he refused to leave them be until he memorized them.

They were scrolls on Huan Hua Palace's inner corridors, their barriers, and their arrays that left outsiders scrambling and running aimlessly through an endless maze.

Ming Fan left without waiting for the instruction of his Shifu, already knowing the immortal would not give it, even if he stood there staring at him for ten days and nights.

Yue Qingyuan, however, did not politely greet his brother, instead grabbing his Didi by the shoulders and forcing him away from his scrolls. Shen Tianyan audibly growled at him, slapping away his hands as he grabbed the scrolls and made a break for the sunroom. His legs, however, hadn't been used in days, and they were numb, so he fell before he even made it past the threshold.

"A-Yuan, please." Yue Qingyuan called out for him with a broken voice that snapped Shen Tianyan—no—Shen Yuan, out of his daze. Sitting on the ground with his scrolls in hand, he stared up at his Da-ge, the man he hadn't spoken to in years.

It really had been years, he hardly even recognized his own brother.

Yue Qingyuan looked just as terrible as he did. Dark eye bags under his eyes and sunken cheeks from his own lack of self-care. However, it was his eyes that left Shen Yuan reeling. That adoring light, that strong spirit, and unbreakable nature were gone. There wasn't a thing left of the brother he knew, only a shell of the man he once was.

How could he have let so much time go?

"Da-ge...?" He found that he didn't recognize his own voice. He really hadn't spoken in years. The last time had been at the Immortal Alliance Conference; when his Da-ge rushed over to him to check on him and the blood in his hand.