Crown Prince and Ghost King

Chapter 20

Keeping it short, he told as much to his husband and finally convinced himself to get up, stretching sore muscles with a satisfied sound leaving his lips: «I know it might be a risk, but in this case it's a risk I'm willing to take. Moreover, I've been thinking».

«Thinking?».

«I was wondering if I should come clean about the identity of my husband», Xie Lian explained, pulling a set of robes from his side of the wardrobe. It was another example of Hua Cheng's amazing manufacture, this time much more similar to the ghost's own robes as they had hints of maple red contrasting embroidered white. The Crown Prince had been wearing his rough cultivator robes for a week, now. Changing it up a bit to follow his husband at the Den was a must.

Well, a bit.

He ditched his usual dressing style in favor of those robes, a lot more swordsman-like. If that was a bit, than how would he describe a lot?

Silly thoughts. He shook them away and donned his clothes, marveling at how perfect the fabric was under his fingers. The silk of Hua Cheng's butterflies was a wonder of nature, and if woven and sewn correctly could make the best fabric in the world.

«This husband would be fine with it, you know».

Hua Cheng relished in the view of His Highness wearing such a rich color, the white and the red together able to make his face and eyes stand out even more beautifully, and gestured towards the dressing table. Taking the invite, Xie Lian sat down in front of it and handed a comb to his husband.

Carefully, the ghost combed those beautiful hair, making sure no knots tangled them after being all mussed in his sleep. They were soft, amazing to play with, completely different from the first time Hua Cheng demanded to take care of them. At first, in fact, Xie Lian's hair were completely ruined, brittle and filled with split ends. A simple action like carding fingers through them could end up in many strands falling out, something that was both a product of stress and lack of care. Even when he met him for the first time, Xie Lian's hair were dirty, oily and tangled.

It couldn't be helped, back then. Xie Lian didn't always have water at his disposal, and when he didn't have enough for his hair, he would simply clean himself as best as he could and not care for them. When he couldn't access a bathtub, his only friends were rivers and ponds, and sometimes the water wasn't even clean enough to do a good job.

All of that, Hua Cheng learned with time, in bits and pieces, because he never forced Xie Lian to narrate his misfortunes. The ghost tried to watch over him, but after dissipating in the aftermath of the fight against Bai WuXiang, and after emerging from Mount TongLu, he completely lost track of Xie Lian. Those years were a blank space in Hua Cheng's knowledge about him, and there were still spots that needed to be filled.

Done with the combing, he gathered some of his hair in a bun and put them in place with a white ribbon, before adding a hairpiece. Looking at it, one might say if was something simple, nothing special; the truth was far from such a description. The metal piece was forged into the shape of a butterfly, but one couldn't use the word "forged" too lightly, as Hua Cheng used one of his own butterflies. He melded it into the piece, under his beloved's fascinated gaze, and gifted the finished item to him in occasion of one of their anniversaries.

The reason why he created such a piece was both aesthetic and functional, because the butterfly embedded in the headpiece could still come alive.

Since that mission could have an unpredictable outcome, this time he wanted to have a guaranteed way to communicate with Xie Lian in case something went wrong and he found himself in trouble. Not that he didn't believe in his husband's capabilities, it was the opposite, but such an inconspicuous item would probably be overlooked by everyone.