Feng Xin exhaled before shoving his bloody hand against the talisman that was securing the palace, smearing across the calligraphy. The gates were wide open, but no one could cross the threshold.
Except him.
The barrier glistened brightly in response and Feng Xin stepped through, a feeling of ice momentarily clawing his spine. When they had both been deputies, they'd made their own personal seals such that, if in an emergency, the other would be able to get through. It meant the transgressor owed the other a big favor, very literally forming a spiritual contract.
He'd hoped Mu Qing hadn't changed his seal in all these years and he hadn't.
The palace was empty. He checked Mu Qing's rooms first and the sight was enough that he touched his temple and yelled into their array for his Highness—and yes, Hua Cheng—to come immediately to Mu Qing's palace.
"Coming! What is it?"
"Mu Qing. I think he was attacked. His deputies think I had something to do with it," Feng Xin said. Mu Qing's carefully appointed room was destroyed, the walls charred in streaks, tasteful furniture broken, silks torn and burnt. And the bed had a pool of blood smeared into it. "I'm at his place. It's...Just hurry up!" He dashed back into the hall. Mu Qing wasn't in his bedroom so he couldn't keep staring.
A moment later his Highness and the Ghost King came around a corner. He didn't ask how they got in so easily, he'd stopped being surprised by anything Hua Cheng could do a while ago.
"I haven't found him yet." Feng Xin hadn't finished saying this before hundreds of silver butterflies exploded from behind Hua Cheng and spread out. "This way," he said after a moment, leading them up three levels to a garden. It was enclosed in crystalline glass with five stone paths leading to a fountain at the center.
Beside the fountain, laid out respectfully on a mahogany bench, was Mu Qing. He was under a heavily embroidered blanket, ornate pillows under his head.
Xie Lian's breath caught.
"He's not dead," said Hua Cheng quickly, because indeed, it looked like a dead body.
When they came close, he was panting though his eyes were shut. Mottling his throat and jaw and lips were long, thin burn marks.
"Mu Qing?" whispered Feng Xin and Mu Qing gasped awake, his eyes snapping open. The irises had gone pale, almost white. His delicate lips quivered as the eyes searched, clearly distressed but not seeing them.
"Mu Qing!" Xie Lian said, reaching to touch him and hitting resistance.
"Xie Lian?" Mu Qing's voice was broken.
"There's a barrier around him. The deputies must have done it," said Feng Xin.
Mu Qing's voice hitched, eyes wide as he tried to sit up and then curled in from the pain of the attempt. The silk embroidered blanket slid a little and there were so many more marks on his clavicle and shoulder, Feng Xin's heart stuttered when he saw. He opened his mouth to say something, but Hua Cheng glared at him.
"Shut up," Hua Cheng mouthed at him before putting his hand on the barrier. "Your Highness."
Joining his husband, Xie Lian put his palm to the barrier and the pair brute-forced their way through, sending it shattering apart. After all, it was only a deputy official's handiwork, it couldn't withstand two powerhouses like Xie Lian and Hua Cheng.
Xie Lian knelt by him. "It's Xie Lian! It's me! I'm going to touch you, alright?" It seemed like Mu Qing couldn't see them but could hear him.
Mu Qing grimaced and leaned away.
"Just the hand?" Xie Lian tried.
Still, Mu Qing looked like he was unsure how to answer, making a small sound in his throat.
"You're in your garden," said Hua Cheng quietly. "The third floor. By a fountain. Can you hear the water?"
Mu Qing nodded.
"Lift your right arm and hold it out, you'll touch his Highness."
This seemed easier for him to try, and his slender hand grazed the collar of Xie Lian's robe on his chest, pinching it between his fingers, thumb sliding minutely along the stitching before he let out a breath that was almost a sob. His hand held onto that collar so tightly Feng Xin thought his nails would cut his palm.
Xie Lian carefully slid an arm around him, and as he did so, the prince's expression changed. He looked at Hua Cheng, wide-eyed and the Ghost King looked at Mu Qing like he was furious though Feng Xin didn't know what he could be angry about at a time like this.
"It's okay, it's okay, it's okay," Xie Lian was hurriedly saying over and over against his Mu Qing's temple. Where his hair touched Xie Lian's robe, the tips left traces of crimson and Feng Xin realized the black color was hiding the blood in the strands. After some petting, he looked up again, confused.
"It's not working. It's like it's pouring right through him."
"Stop trying," Hua Cheng replied quickly. "Someone's made him into a resource. You're just giving them more."
A resource?
Feng Xin put together that the first look the prince had given was recognition that Mu Qing's spiritual powers were gone. And it looked like they couldn't give him any, either.
Xie Lian retrieved a bottle from his sleeve. "This is just a pill to dull the pain," he explained, putting one to Mu Qing's blackened lips.
He swallowed it obediently and Xie Lian stroked his hair.
"Do you know who did this?" Hua Cheng asked, eye narrowed as he knelt by the bench.
"I..."
"Did it look like Feng Xin?" Hua Cheng said.
Mu Qing nodded a little.
Fuck.
"Is he here?" Mu Qing asked in such a small voice.
"No," Hua Cheng said, staring at Feng Xin warningly so he wouldn't contradict him.
Mu Qing let out a ragged sigh of relief, going limp against Xie Lian before turning his head and crying into the safety of his chest.
"We're going to fix this," Xie Lian promised, squeezing him.
"It's not just a curse," Mu Qing said weakly, voice muffled. "Even if you got rid of it, I'm..."
Xie Lian bit his lip, trying not to cry himself as Feng Xin's chest hollowed out.
"We'll figure it out," Xie Lian assured him, voice steadier than he looked.
It wasn't that someone had sealed him. Someone had destroyed over eight hundred years of cultivation in the worst, most sick way possible.
With Feng Xin's face.
——
They took him to Paradise Manor. Mu Qing would die if anyone in the Heavens found out about this, so they made up a vague story about an attack.
"Feng Xin didn't do this," Xie Lian told him carefully as he helped Mu Qing bathe. He sat behind him in Hua Cheng's impressive bath, on a step one higher than the one Mu Qing was on, gently rubbing sweet-smelling pieces of honey locust soap over his skin. He still couldn't see very well, but he didn't want to see anything in particular.
Mu Qing nodded. "I know. It's...it's obvious now. I know." Not-Feng Xin hadn't spoken to him in words. In hindsight, he couldn't remember a single sentence. It was only the impression of words and feelings, like in a dream.
"No, it wasn't obvious," Xie Lian murmured to his temple, kissing there.
Xie Lian had gotten very...sweet with him. Before, Mu Qing couldn't imagine liking that sort of thing but now he felt like he'd collapse without his warm voice and arms. The prince slept in his bed, too, keeping him cuddled close. Another thing he wouldn't have previously imagined wanting.
Mu Qing couldn't imagine this thrilled Hua Cheng, but the Ghost King hadn't said anything about it yet and he was too tired to care.
"It took months of work to deceive you," Xie Lian said. "And they used someone you're close to, that has a very sensitive place in your heart." Mu Qing felt Xie Lian's warm palm rest on his chest and sank back against him.
"...did it hurt? When...when you and Crims—on your wedding night?" Mu Qing fumbled around the question. Strangely, this had been tumbling in his head since that night, the thought of Xie Lian experiencing anything like that horrified him.
"No," Xie Lian said firmly. "No, it didn't hurt a bit. Not at all. It's not supposed to. You just go slow and carefully and use oils."
Not at all.
It didn't seem possible.
Xie Lian massaged his temples for him before working skilled fingers into his scalp, Mu Qing shut his eyes like a cat.
"You ascended quite quickly, you know," Xie Lian said. "After we get this thing off you, you could recultivate. This isn't a case of you being banished."
"I know." He didn't care. Like a child who'd lost a doll, he didn't want a new one. He wanted the old one back.
"I know it's not the same," Xie Lian whispered against his ear, squeezing him.
At the tickle on his ear, Mu Qing's stomach flipped, and he turned. It was easy to calculate where Xie Lian's face was, he knew his measurements to this day and had fought him a million times. He put a hand to his cheek, looking up at him, thumb finding a perfect cheekbone.
The prince's hand laid over his, the palm warm and reassuring again. He could feel him smiling lightly.
"It's alright," Xie Lian said softly. "I'm h—"
Mu Qing cut him off with his mouth.
Xie Lian didn't push him off, but he didn't kiss back which was fine because Mu Qing didn't know what the fuck he was doing.
"Mu Qing," he said when Mu Qing sat back, face burning. "You don't feel that way about me," he said, gathering him in and tucking Mu Qing's face under his chin.
"Yes, I do," Mu Qing replied against his shoulder, heart drumming in his chest. He had only the tips of his fingers on Xie Lian's sides, almost like he would push him away rather than hug him back. "Of course, I do, you're...you're incredible. You're—" He struggled not to cry which was exactly not what he wanted to do, and he wasn't sure why his eyes were considering it. "Who wouldn't adore you?"
"Oh, lots of people," Xie Lian said good-naturedly.
"I like you," Mu Qing said sternly as if they were arguing.
"I like you, too."
"Then...then..." he stammered, not having expected that reply.
"You're not used to people being patient with you, let alone kind. Don't have such low standards, hm?"
"You've got a weird idea of low standards!"
"How about this? I can't sleep with someone so vulnerable, can I? So, in half a year, if you still want to, then we will."
Mu Qing went still. He didn't think he'd agree! Or agree in that manner? What kind of agreement was that? Of course, he'd still want to in six months, what difference would that make?
"I... I want to have sex with someone nice," he blurted out, still arguing with him.
"Understandable," Xie Lian murmured.
Mu Qing panted. He didn't know what to say when Xie Lian just agreed.
"...Hua Cheng will kill me," he said, having somehow forgotten whose fucking house they were in.
"I won't let him," Xie Lian replied, rubbing a hand up and down his back for a while before setting back a bit. He put a finger on Mu Qing's mouth. "But no kissing or anything until then, alright?"
"O... okay," Mu Qing said, nodding, bewildered. Was this a joke? "He'll kill me, though."
"I'll tell him right now and make him swear he won't," Xie Lian said. "I'll call him."
"What!" Mu Qing squirmed and then winced.
"Don't wriggle," Xie Lian said, his grip going iron strong. "You'll hurt yourself. Hold on, he's coming."
"Are you out of your mind!" Naked, wet, powerless, weaponless, and mostly blind was the weakest state he could be in!
"Gege."
The baths had an echo, so Mu Qing had no idea from what direction Hua Cheng's smooth voice was coming from.
He was going to be murdered. Right now. He'd be murdered.
"San Lang. Mu Qing wants me to be his first," Xie Lian said as if he was saying what kind of food he was craving. Mu Qing's back was against his chest, Xie Lian holding one of his hands, the other trapping him in place.
"Right now? Gege...He can't..." There was not a trace of murder in Hua Cheng's voice and honestly, it sounded bizarre because he always had at least fifteen percent murder in there.
"I said in six months," said Xie Lian, resting his head on Mu Qing's.
"Oh. Alright, six months. He should be fine by then."
"Mu Qing thinks you'll kill him."
"I won't. I'll swear to it if you like. Swear on my god."
"Swear on it!" Mu Qing demanded frantically.
"I swear on his Highness, the crown prince of Xianle, I will not get jealous or be bothered in any way by you sleeping with him. I won't harm you either."
It didn't seem like that had any loopholes...!!! What was happening?
"Is that all, Gege?"
"I think so. Is that all, Mu Qing?"
"I guess!?" Mu Qing said, baffled. "Are you...fucking with a blind person right now?"
"Mm-mm," he said in the negative. "But nothing until then, okay?"
Mu Qing nodded a little. "Al..alright...But why...did you say my 'first'...?"
He felt Xie Lian's lips on his hair again. "Because it would be."