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Chapter Text

This, was certainly not what Zhou Zishu would have expected when he, along with his soulmate, Lord Seventh and the Great Shaman decided to visit Ye Baiyi at Changming mountain during the new year. All could have gone well if only Wen Kexing did not meddle with Ye Baiyi who was overly absorbed in some sort of array he was studying at that time, and Wen Kexing, trying to annoy the hell out of Ye Baiyi as usual, messed with the array. A flashing light appeared, and before any of them managed to register what happened, Zhou Zishu found himself on a long untouched bed.

He was back to being the cruel and apathetic Zhou Zishu, the leader of the Window of Heaven.

He was bewildered at first, but he eventually came to understand what happened when he met Bi Changfeng and then Han Ying. Between dreaming and travelling back into the past, and with Ye Baiyi studying some sort of strange, confusing array before he ended up where he was now, he felt the latter might have a higher possibility. Ye Baiyi did not look like the type of man who would go to lengths merely to get himself a nice dream.

Having said that, he knew he did not have the time to waste. He needed a plan to save Bi Changfeng, Han Ying and the other juniors who ended up becoming his disciples in the future. Alas, before he managed to come out with a plan, Prince Jin had sent him on an urgent mission. That sort of explained the reason he was here now, facing none other than Princess Jing’an and Office Li. He was relieved to know that he had not killed her yet. This time around, he would save her, but it did not look like she needed his protection at all when he was standing in the middle of the manor surrounded by more than a dozen men with highly skilled martial arts, although nowhere near as strong as he was, pointing their swords at him.

He recognized these people. They came from the legendary Gold Masks Sect where they would get rid of any men as requested upon being hired. They were known for their clean skills in getting rid of anyone without leaving any traces behind. No one had ever managed to find the corpses that had been murdered in their hands. Some said these people were good with poison while some said they were simply highly skilled in their martial arts, but there were none who could have proven how exactly what technique these people used to kill.

Given how many the Window of Heaven had offended, he would not be surprised to reach the day when this Gold Masks Sect would come to him, especially after he had left the Window of Heaven in the future. What surprised him now though was the fact that these people were in Officer Li’s manor.

Unlike the previous time, Officer Li’s manor seemed well prepared, almost as if they had known about the arrival of the Window of Heaven. Rather than ambushing into the manor, the Window of Heaven was ambushed instead. Glancing around, he could see more than a dozen men died, some were killed upon sneaking into the manor, and some died for resisting to stay obedient. The others, upon his order, stayed silent with their wrists bound and they were brought to somewhere else and locked up within this manor upon Officer Li's order while he was currently facing Officer Li and Princess Jing'an, a row of what he assumed was poison placed before him.

“In these ten bottles, there is only one which is non-poisonous. Pick one, Lord Manor Zhou.”

Zhou Zishu’s eyebrow quirked as he turned his attention from the row of poisons to Princess Jing’an, “What will happen after I pick one? Are you going to force the poison on the others as well?”

“No,” Officer Li said firmly, “We will have them deliver your corpse to Prince Jin.”

Zhou Zishu chuckled, “And you think this will stop Prince Jin from killing your family?”

“The Window of Heaven will not be so strong without you. With you gone, I am sure we can manage.”

Zhou Zishu barked out a laugh. If only Duan Pengju was here, he bet the man would be so infuriated to hear that.

Wordlessly, he went over to the row of bottles of poison and simply grabbed one of them. He removed the lid and took in the smell, immediately noticing that this was one of the most toxic poisons that could be found in Central Plain.

They really wanted him dead as soon as possible.

“Wait!”

Startled by the familiar voice, Zhou Zishu froze. He watched incredulously as a young man flew down from the rooftop and landed on his feet just before him. His blood ran cold, and he found himself unable to avert his gaze from the face of the man who he had thought he would never be able to see again.

There was a deafening silence as both the martial brothers had their eyes locked together, none making any attempt to speak. Princess Jing’an and Officer Li turned to glance at each other, unsure of what to do given the current situation.

“Shixiong.”

In the end, it was Qin Jiuxiao who broke the silence, much to everyone’s surprise.

“You are alive,” Zhou Zishu stated firmly.

Zhou Zishu glanced at Princess Jing’an, and then at Officer Li before he turned around to scrutinize his surrounding. Officer Li and his family were clearly well prepared, and with the addition of his junior martial brother standing before him now merely strengthened his logic on what he was facing at the moment.

Officer Li, Princess Jing’an, Qin Jiuxiao, with how their eyes wore nothing but hatred towards him, he could almost be sure that they were all time travellers, just like him and Lao Wen. Returning his concern to the danger he was facing, his eyes once again turned to the row of bottles of poison that were gifted to him by none other than his precious junior martial brother’s lover.

He moved his fingers across each of the bottles before turning to his junior martial brother, “Shidi, do you share the same wish as your lover and her father?”

“I...!” Qin Jiuxiao was dumbfounded by the sudden question, and so he decided to change the topic, “You were planning to kill Jing’an and her family.”

A faint smile lingered on Zhou Zishu’s lips, his eyes still fixed on the row of bottles of poison, “I suppose you will not tell me which one of them is non-poisonous?”

Or it might be possible that all of them were poisonous, but he would not exactly say that out loud. Besides, he had never been the type who was fortunate, so even if there was one out of ten possibilities of picking a non-poisonous one, he doubted he would be fortunate enough to pick it.

In any case, his junior martial brother wanted him dead. He was hating him so much now, and it was perfectly understandable considering what he had done in the past.

He took the second bottle of poison and removed the lid before placing back in its original place, then he repeated the same step for the third and the rest of the bottles of poison. The others present merely stared at him, confounded by what he was planning. When the lid for all ten bottles of poisons had been removed, he placed the first bottle on his lips and gulped down the content. When he was done, he took the second one and did the same as the first, and when that was done too, he repeated the same action for the remaining bottles of poison.

The others merely stared at him in shock. It was only when Zhou Zishu reached for the second last poison did Qin Jiuxiao finally move. He looked horrified as he dashed forward, grasping his senior martial brother’s wrist to stop him from continuing with his ridiculous act.

Alas, as he took a closer look, Zhou Zishu had successfully gulped down the second last poison. There was only one poison left.

Qin Jiuxiao turned back and eyed the last poison. He stretched his hand forward, but Zhou Zishu was much faster. The last bottle of poison was in Zhou Zishu’s hand within a blink of an eye. Qin Jiuxiao stretched his hand forward again, trying to snatch the poison away but Zhou Zishu used another hand to block him as he gulped down the last poison too.

“No!”

Ignoring his junior martial brother’s terrified cry, Zhou Zishu threw the last emptied bottle on the ground. He glanced up and finally realized everyone was staring at him like he was a madman. Well, perhaps he was. Anyone would probably go mad too if a junior martial brother that you had thought was long dead returned to life all of a sudden and wanted you dead.

“Are you all satisfied now? Can you all release my other members of the Window of Heaven now so that they can deliver my corpse back to Prince Jin?” Zhou Zishu’s eyes were fixed on Officer Li and Princess Jing’an before he glanced over at his junior martial brother.

Qin Jiuxiao was stunned. His eyes widened with tears welling up in them, still trying hard to believe what he had just seen.

“Antidotes...” The voice came out just like a whisper, although Qin Jiuxiao did not seem to have realized how soft his voice was. His lips were quivering, and his heart trembled, “Jing’an, quick! Give my Shixiong the antidotes!”

Qin Jiuxiao’s eyes continued to fix on his senior martial brother, terrified that Zhou Zishu might either collapse or start throwing up blood any time soon. While he was too busy scrutinizing his senior martial brother, he did not realize that his words had fallen on deaf ears. It took him quite some time before he realized the two behind him neither responded to him nor moved around to get the antidotes.

“Jing’an?” Qin Jiuxiao turned back to glance at his lover, bemused, “Jing’an, are you listening? We need the antidotes!”

“Jiuxiao,” Princess Jing’an lowered her head, “There are no antidotes.”

“What?” Qin Jiuxiao was confounded.

“There are no antidotes, Jiuxiao,” Princess Jing’an repeated, her eyes still fixed on the ground, “There are no antidotes for any one of these ten poisons.”

Qin Jiuxiao staggered a step back, petrified, “W-What?”

Officer Li glanced at his daughter, knowing how his daughter who had been gentle and kind all her life was not used to something like this. He knew they had both broken their promise to Qin Jiuxiao, and that Qin Jiuxiao might not forgive his daughter later, but getting rid of Zhou Zishu was necessary not only to save his family but also to save the others. Who knew who the Window of Heaven was actually targeting after they finished them? He extended an arm and pulled his daughter into his embrace to comfort her.

“That...” Qin Jiuxiao felt there was a lump in his throat, but he still forced himself to speak, “That is not what we have agreed upon.”

At that said, Zhou Zishu turned to his junior martial brother, slightly wondering what exactly had they agreed upon although it made not much difference now anyway.

“Jing'an, you are joking with me, right? You are just trying to scare my Shixiong, right?” Qin Jiuxiao asked, voice somewhat pleading, but Princess Jing’an continued to stay in her father’s embrace, refusing and afraid to look up to see the possible hatred towards her in the eyes of the man that she loved.

“Why?!” Qin Jiuxiao clenched his fists. He was trembling with rage. If there were really no antidotes, if his senior martial brother were really to die from the poisons, then wouldn’t it make him the one who killed his senior martial brother?

“Jiuxiao,” Officer Li stepped forward and pulled his daughter behind him, shielding her from Qin Jiuxiao’s rage, “I know this is not what we have discussed, but your Shixiong needs to die. He deserves it. If we let him leave alive today, only more innocents would die under his cruel hands. However, this is my decision. It has nothing to do with Jing’an. If you want to blame someone for your Shixiong’s death, then by all means, please put the blame onto me.”

“Father!”

Officer Li raised a hand up to stop his daughter from interrupting, “I do not regret what I have done. Zhou Zishu, you have done evil and killed so many innocents, you should have expected that such a day would come to you.”

Zhou Zishu tugged his lips into a bitter smile, “Of course.”

There was no doubt that he had always been prepared for his death, but what he could have never expected was for his junior martial brother to cheer for his death.

“The ten poisons are ranked the top 10 poisonous in Central Plain,” Officer Li said with a frown, “One would not be able to remain standing as soon as they took one out of these ten poisons, but Lord Manor Zhou, you look like you are not affected by the poisons at all.”

All eyes were on Zhou Zishu who seemed rather confused himself too. He concentrated to feel any sort of poison within him, but all he could feel was the long-forgotten blockage of his internal strength. That was when he remembered he was supposed to insert his seventh nail today.

“Right, I forgot,” Zhou Zishu said, somehow feeling a little nostalgic after not having any nails in him for so long.

The nails might be the reason why he was not affected by any of the poisons. The six out of seven nails he had inserted into himself were highly poisonous, and with these in one’s body, those poisons that were not as strong could never pose any danger to him. However, he only had six nails in him at the moment. There was still a possibility that those poisons he had just taken would suddenly attack him later.

That, however, was something he should worry about later. He unsheathed his sword to defend himself against the Gold Masks sect who were attacking him all of a sudden. Officer Li must have given them the signal to eliminate him upon finding out that the poisons were not working on him.

While he fought against those surrounding him, he caught sight of his junior martial brother unsheathing his sword. He was not quite sure who exactly was his junior martial brother trying to fight against though. He might want to help him fight against the members of the Gold Masks sect, but there was also a high possibility that he was joining the Gold Masks Sect to fight him. With a swift strike, Zhou Zishu cut through the throat of two men. Another three men charged towards him then. This trio seemed to be much stronger than the previous two. He managed to injure one of them on the chest and leg, and the other two men started to slash their swords at him even more violently than before. They looked enraged. It seemed like the man he had injured meant a lot to the two men charging towards him now.

“Careful!”

Qin Jiuxiao’s panicked voice rang through the manor, immediately gaining Zhou Zishu’s attention. Frankly speaking though, there was really no need to scream. Zhou Zishu knew someone was attacking him from behind even without anything hinting it to him. Sensing the sharp end of the sword rushing to the back of his neck, Zhou Zishu bent his upper body to dodge the sword coming to him. He turned around after pushing away two men before him, but before he managed to deal with the other two behind him, a fan came flying from the sky, slashing through four of the men of Gold Masks Sect before it travelled back to the hand of its owner.

Zhou Zishu tugged his lips into a proud, delighted smile. There was only one man he knew who would handle a fan so elegantly, and this was the very same man who would always appear to help him out when the situation turned out to be troublesome.

From the rooftop, a man flew down gracefully, a fond smile lingered on the man’s lips as he stood in front of Zhou Zishu. While the man locked his eyes on Zhou Zishu, the man easily threw his fan back and finished off the rest of the members of the Gold Masks Sect.

“Lao Wen.”

“A-Xu, look at you,” Wen Kexing glanced at the corpses on the ground before turning back to face his soulmate, a mischievous smile on his lips, “You have annoyed so many people, even reaching a point where someone would actually hire the infamous Gold Masks Sect to get rid of you. When exactly will you start learning to be a good man like me?”

Zhou Zishu laughed, “I am more surprise to know that none actually hired this Gold Masks Sect to finish off both of us in the future.”

“What nonsense are you talking about, A-Xu?” Wen Kexing pretended to look puzzled as he added, “I am the well-known Philanthropist Wen. Why would anyone hire any of these to kill me?”

“Yes, you are right,” Zhou Zishu agreed easily, “Philanthropist Wen, remember to stay away from me if you do not want the Gold Masks Sect to target you too.”

Wen Kexing laughed, “As if these weaklings could even touch a strand of our hair.”

Zhou Zishu merely smiled at the statement. It was true that they were not a threat to him at all, and he was sure Qin Jiuxiao should know too. Why did he not hire a stronger assassination sect to get rid of him was something that left him wondering.

“So, A-Xu, are you done here? Can we leave now?”

Zhou Zishu had yet the chance to part his lips when Officer Li spoke up in disdain, “Zhou Zishu, one should reap what he sows. The evil deeds that you have done up until now, God sees clearly, and I believe in the existence of justice in this world. It is my incapability in failing to poison you to death, and I admit defeat.”

He turned to glance at his daughter before turning to Qin Jiuxiao, “Qin Jiuxiao, I know you are probably angry at us, but you promised that you will love and protect Jing’an with your life. I will entrust her to you, and I hope you will keep to your promise and never abandon my daughter.”

“Father…”

Princess Jing’an’s eyes were rimmed red, her arms were wrapped tightly around her father’s waist. She could never watch and do nothing as her father was about to be killed by a merciless killer. If there was really no way of escaping, she would rather die along with her father.

Meanwhile, Qin Jiuxiao had his eyes closed, his fists were clenched tightly at the side. One was the senior martial brother who he had always looked up to while the other one was the woman who he had come to love. He no longer knew who he should side with. Initially, he was crestfallen to learn that his senior martial brother killed Jing’an’s family, but then when Officer Li decided to kill his senior martial brother with poison, he was heartbroken.

“A-Xu, who are these people? Should I kill them for you?” Wen Kexing asked with a frown. These people were speaking so rudely to his soulmate, and he felt exasperated just by looking at them.

“No,” Zhou Zishu said quickly, halting Wen Kexing before he managed to throw his weapon out to them, “Let’s leave.”

Zhou Zishu turned his back to the others, ready to leave the place, much to the other three’s surprise. He was just about to pull Wen Kexing to leave with him when the latter suddenly had a look of wonder on his face.

“A-Xu, did you smell it?”

Zhou Zishu turned to his soulmate, puzzled, “What do you smell?”

Wen Kexing left Zhou Zishu’s side then, hunching to the ground to pick up an empty small bottle which Zhou Zishu discarded to the ground the moment he finished gulping down the content. Anxious about what Wen Kexing was about to find out, Zhou Zishu stiffened.

Wen Kexing took in the leftover smell in the empty bottle and recognized the missing content in an instant.

“Intestine-rupturing herb!”

This was one of the most toxic poisons in the world. Before they time travelled, with nothing better to do, Wen Kexing had busied himself with studying medicines and poisons which explained why he could recognize most of the poisons in the world now. Although he knew the poison well, he had not a single idea of where to get the antidote for all these poisons.

A few feet away from where he was, he saw another discarded empty bottle. He walked over and took the bottle up. To his surprise, this was yet another poison, one where it was rumoured to have no cure to it at all.

“Crane’s red crown!” He exclaimed, astonished.

There were still eight more of the poisons, and he smelled each of them with widened eyes upon recognizing all of them. If the fact that all these top poisons were gathered here was not surprising enough to him, then the fact that he smelled these poisons on his soulmate certainly did.

“A-Xu,” He stood up gravely, his eyes cold and forlorn, “Why do I smell these poisons on you?”

Zhou Zishu’s lips were pursed into a grim line. The answer was as clear as a bell, but Wen Kexing could not find it in himself to believe it. He pressed his lips tightly into a straight line as he advanced to where his soulmate was standing, determined to get an answer out of the elder man.

“Did you drink these poisons?”

Zhou Zishu took a step back and averted his gaze from Wen Kexing. He could not bear to see the expression his soulmate must be wearing judging from his tone of voice which was similar to the time when Wen Kexing found out about the nails back then.

“Tell me you did not drink them.”

Wen Kexing’s voice was covered with a layer of sorrow, causing a pang of hurt in Zhou Zishu’s chest in an instant.

“Lao Wen, I –”

“Tell me you did not drink them!”

Zhou Zishu fixed his eyes on his soulmate, scrutinizing the pain and anger. He looked like he was half about to cry, and also half about to start killing someone – anyone who he thought should be responsible for bringing the poisons here.

“I drank them,” Zhou Zishu answered flatly. There was no point in denying it anyway.

Wen Kexing grimaced as he turned to Qin Jiuxiao who was the nearest out of the three people who seemed like they were responsible for what happened to his soulmate, “Were they the ones who forced the poisons on you? I will kill them!”

Sensing the bloodlust on Wen Kexing, Princess Jing’an stepped back reflexively while her father immediately stood in front of her protectively. Qin Jiuxiao held his sword tightly, ready to defend the two people behind him despite the fact that he was still enraged at what they had done.

However, just as Wen Kexing raised his arm, he was caught by Zhou Zishu who abruptly came to stand in between Qin Jiuxiao and him. Taken by surprise, Wen Kexing tried to shake the hand off, exasperated that he had been stopped.

“A-Xu, do not stop me!”

“You can’t kill him, Lao Wen.”

“Why not?!”

“Because he is our Shidi!”

As if that was the most ridiculous thing ever that had been said, everyone stared at Zhou Zishu, stunned.

“What?” Qin Jiuxiao was astonished.

Officer Li and Princess Jing’an turned to each other, equally bewildered. Qin Jiuxiao had only ever mentioned his senior martial brother was Zhou Zishu, he never mentioned having another senior martial brother.

“Do you still remember Shifu said that you are the third disciple instead of the second disciple of Four Seasons Manor?” asked Zhou Zishu.

Qin Jiuxiao nodded, “Father said the second disciple was the child of Chevalier Zhen Ruyu and his wife, but they went missing mysteriously. Father is deeply sad about it, Shixiong too.”

Zhou Zishu took a brief glance at Wen Kexing who had already averted his gaze from him before he turned to Qin Jiuxiao, “This is the son of Chevalier Zhen and his wife, your missing second senior martial brother. He goes by the name Wen Kexing now.”

Qin Jiuxiao parted his lips, inarticulate. He tried again after a few failed attempts, “You are telling me that... this man here, Wen... Wen Kexing, he is my second senior martial brother?”

Zhou Zishu was about to nod in agreement when Wen Kexing spoke harshly, “Shut it. As long as I could remember, I only have had one Shifu and one Shixiong. I do not remember having any Shidi, let alone a Shidi who would be cruel enough to kill his Shixiong!”

“Lao Wen!”

“What?” Wen Kexing seethed, “Did I say anything wrong?”

“It’s not him. I drank them willingly.”

Wen Kexing turned to Zhou Zishu incredulously, “What…?”          

“I am sorry, I should not –”

Uninterested to listen to whatever excuse Zhou Zishu had to say, Wen Kexing shook his hand off, enraged. He staggered a few steps back, eyes glistening with welling tears, and his chest hurt at the thought of losing his soulmate.

Not again.

“Why?!” Wen Kexing looked betrayed, “Zhou Zishu, have you forgotten your promise to me when you visited my parents’ grave with me, and in front of Shifu’s grave too? You promised that you will take care of me and never leave me alone. Is this just an empty promise?! Have you been lying all this time?!”

Zhou Zishu shook his head, his own eyes equally teary along with his soulmate. Watching how his soulmate looked so sorrowful and broken at his reckless action caused a sudden ache in his chest. He walked over and stretched his arms forward, ready to pull his soulmate into his embrace but was unfortunately pushed away.

“Do not come near me! All you ever think about is that Shidi of yours! You would even kill yourself as soon as he told you that he wanted you dead, but A-Xu, have you forgotten that he is not the only Shidi that you have?! What am I to you?! Do you not know that if you die, then I would not be able to live either?”

Zhou Zishu closed his eyes, and a single drop of tear trickled down his cheeks before he rushed forward to wrap his arms around Wen Kexing tightly, “I am sorry. I am sorry, Lao Wen. It’s my fault, I was not thinking. I promise I will not do it again.”

But it was too late. The poison had already made its home in his body.

Knowing what Wen Kexing was thinking, he pulled himself away, his voice gentle as he spoke, “Look, I am fine. The nails saved me this time. As long as I have them, no poison can hurt me in this world.”

Wen Kexing, however, was far from convinced, “The previous time you told me that you were fine, you were about to die in less than a week!”

“This time is different,” Zhou Zishu said, trying to sound as convincing as possible, “Look, with those poisons, if anything were to happen to me, I would not be standing here right now.”

It did make quite some sense there, so Wen Kexing did look somewhat convinced although not completely. Relieved to know that his words worked, Zhou Zishu added, “We will go to Wu Xi anyway. He can check to confirm if the poison is affecting me at all, and if it does, I am sure he can do something about it.”

“We will go to Nanjiang immediately!” announced Wen Kexing.

As if there was where hope was, Wen Kexing’s eyes brightened. He eagerly grasped Zhou Zishu’s wrist, deciding that time would not wait for them and that they should start travelling to Nanjiang now.

“Wait,” Zhou Zishu grasped Wen Kexing’s wrist, halting him from moving another step forward, “We can’t leave yet. I need to return to get Uncle Bi and –”

“What happened to Uncle Bi?” Qin Jiuxiao stepped forward in an instant at the mention of Bi Changfeng.

Zhou Zishu turned to Qin Jiuxiao, he was silent as his lips were pursed into a grim line, pensive. After giving it some thought, he parted his lips and spoke, “You should come with me to see Uncle Bi. He would be delighted to see you. After that, you should bring Uncle Bi with you regardless of where you plan to go with Princess Jing’an and her family later. He would prefer staying with you.”

Qin Jiuxiao frowned, “What about the others? What about Shixiong? Why are you only trying to make Uncle Bi leave?”

“There are no others,” Zhou Zishu answered grimly, “Uncle Bi is the last of us left.”

Qin Jiuxiao widened his eyes, stunned.

“Let’s get going,” Zhou Zishu said, glancing from Wen Kexing to Qin Jiuxiao before adding, “Jiuxiao, you need to put on a disguise. We can’t have Prince Jin finding out that you are still alive.”

Without further delay, Wen Kexing went to get them four horses, albeit reluctantly. Qin Jiuxiao covered his head with his hood before getting up onto the horse. Officer Li and Princess Jing’an decided to tag along and shared the same horse since Princess Jing’an never rode a horse alone before. Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing each rode a single horse.

With all preparation ready, the five of them started travelling to where the mansion and Zhou Zishu and the people of Four Seasons Manor used to live. On the way there, Qin Jiuxiao looked worried, and he would peek at his two senior martial brothers from time to time, much to Wen Kexing’s annoyance. Officer Li and Princess Jing’an seemed keen on keeping an eye on Zhou Zishu as if they were afraid Zhou Zishu would do something to them which was ridiculous because if Zhou Zishu wanted to do anything, they would be long dead. Zhou Zishu seemed completely unaffected by all the eyes on him, but Wen Kexing was not as relaxed as him. He kept an eye on everyone else in case they dared to do anything to harm his soulmate again. Now that he was here, no one should dare to lift a finger at his soulmate!

When they finally reached their destination, Qin Jiuxiao was the first to rush in to search for Bi Changfeng, and Zhou Zishu the second one. The other three stood outside of the mansion, having found themselves to be of no help since they had never seen Bi Changfeng before.

After a while of waiting, there were rushing footsteps from behind them. Wen Kexing got himself ready for a battle while Princess Jing’an hid behind her father’s protective back. To Wen Kexing’s surprise though, he recognized the two young men.

“Han Ying! Xingming!”

The two young men glanced at Wen Kexing, confounded.

“May I know who are you?” asked Han Ying.

Wen Kexing parted his lips, but no words came out. He was abruptly reminded that at this point in time, none of these people knew him yet. Fortunately, before he could think of what to say to them, Zhou Zishu and Qin Jiuxiao came out.

Bi Changfeng was nowhere to be seen.

“Lord Manor!” Han Ying and Bi Xingming exclaimed in relief.

“Han Ying? Xingming? Why are you two here?” asked Zhou Zishu, bemused.

“Lord Manor, please save Shifu!”

“What happened?” Qin Jiuxiao asked anxiously.

Of course, since Qin Jiuxiao was supposed to be dead, Han Ying and Bi Xingming stared at him as if they had both seen a ghost. Their faces pale, unsure of if they were imagining things or if ghosts really did exist in this world.

As there was no reply, Zhou Zishu repeated the question, completely unaware of the horrified faces, “What happened?”

Han Ying was the first to get out of the daze. He cleared his throat, pretending that he saw no ghost as he fixed his eyes on Zhou Zishu, “Senior Bi has gone to Prince Jin earlier, requesting to leave the Window of Heaven. Prince Jin is furious and wants Lord Manor to deal with him.”

Zhou Zishu pursed his lips into a grim line, crestfallen. He deliberately avoided Bi Changfeng from participating in the mission this time, but he did not expect that he could not wait for even another day to leave this place. After all of his efforts, they seemed to be back to square one.

“Deal?” Qin Jiuxiao clenched his fists, infuriated, “What do you mean by that? Shixiong, you can’t be thinking of inserting those nails into Uncle Bi, right? He is not anyone else but Uncle Bi!”

“Keep your mouth shut.”

Wen Kexing was exasperated at how the younger man was being rude to his senior martial brother for one, as well as how the younger man did not understand his senior martial brother at all. He made it sound like Zhou Zishu enjoyed it whenever he killed someone. He had no idea of how he grieved for them every single second, how he had nightmares of those he had killed, how he wished he could actually die for them.

“And you two,” Wen Kexing turned to Han Ying and Bi Xingming who still looked extremely pale as they stared at Qin Jiuxiao, “He is not a ghost. He is alive, and no, you two aren’t the only ones who did not know he is alive. Even your Lord Manor just found it out like a few hours ago.”

Zhou Zishu turned to Han Ying and Bi Xingming, noticing how surprised they looked. He had almost forgotten that everyone still did not know that Qin Jiuxiao was alive.

“That’s great!” Bi Xingming said in pure relief, “If Shifu knows about this, he might not be so adamant about leaving the Window of Heaven and dying!”

Zhou Zishu heaved a sigh. Tonight was surely an exhausting night.

“Xingming, you bring Jiuxiao and Lao Wen to your Shifu. We are leaving the Window of Heaven tonight, secretly of course,” Zhou Zishu said as he turned to Wen Kexing, “Lao Wen, help me keep them safe. I will be joining you guys soon.”

Wen Kexing looked somewhat reluctant but nodded anyway. While he was fine with protecting Bi Xingming, he would very much prefer to kick the other three away for what they did to his soulmate. He had no idea what kind of heart someone had to have to still be kind and protective over the one who poisoned him.

Without wasting any more time, all of them climbed up onto their horses, leaving only Zhou Zishu and Han Ying to stay behind. Bi Xingming led the way and they started their journey to where Bi Changfeng had been locked in. Zhou Zishu and Han Ying watched them leave, and it was until the others had disappeared from their sight did they finally turn their gazes away.

“Lord Manor, you said you will be leaving the Window of Heaven tonight?” asked Han Ying.

“Yes,” Zhou Zishu said solemnly, “Han Ying, you have three choices. The first one, you can leave now and directly report to Prince Jin and Duan Pengju about what you have just heard.”

As if he had said something absurd, Han Ying sank to his knees in an instant, “Lord Manor! Han Ying would never do such a thing. Whatever Lord Manor wishes to do, Han Ying will never do anything to betray you!”

Zhou Zishu was not surprised, obviously. He knew just how much Han Ying would do just to keep him safe. He gently hunched over and helped Han Ying up, “Your second choice is to stay and pretend you know nothing about what was to happen tonight, or your third choice is you can leave with me.”

Han Ying widened his eyes at the third choice, “Lord Manor, you... you will bring me along?”

“Only if you want.”

“Yes!” Han Ying said immediately, almost in disbelief as he added with insecurity, “But is it really fine? I am not one from Four Seasons Manor, if Lord Manor keeps me by your side, would I not just be a burden to you?”

“Do you wish to be one?”

Han Ying blinked, “What?”

“Do you wish to be a part of Four Seasons Manor?”

“I... I know I have no right to be a part of Four Seasons Manor. I am just an orphan. I am already fortunate enough to have my life saved by Lord Manor.”

“Nonsense, there is nothing wrong with being an orphan. Most of us are, or we would not be ending up at a place like this,” Zhou Zishu said, he fixed his gaze at Han Ying tenderly as he added, “I would like to accept a disciple, that is if you are interested.”

Han Ying was dumbfounded.

Zhou Zishu waited for a response, but after a long time, Han Ying still did not speak. He looked like he was frozen by shock although Zhou Zishu could not quite understand how his words could make the younger man act so exaggeratedly.

“Han Ying.”

“I...!” Han Ying looked half-excited and half-incredulous, “Lord Manor is willing to take me in as your disciple?”

Just as soon as Zhou Zishu nodded, Han Ying sank to his knees so hard that Zhou Zishu had to worry if the younger man would have a problem standing later. With a bright, proud smile plastered across his face, Han Ying spoke in pure ecstasy, “Shifu, please accept a bow from this disciple!”

Zhou Zishu tugged his lips into a tender smile. Despite having experienced a hectic day, at least something good did happen tonight. He had gotten a new disciple.

His eldest disciple, Han Ying.

Chapter Text

After a rather short discussion, Wen Kexing and Qin Jiuxiao proceeded to go to Bi Changfeng while Bi Xingming took Princess Jing’an and Officer Li to a safe place for the time being. Skilled as they were, Wen Kexing and Qin Jiuxiao managed to get into the place where Bi Changfeng had been locked in without being spotted. Upon sneaking into the room, Wen Kexing stood by a corner, uninterested to show himself as he watched in silence from behind.

“You are here,” Bi Changfeng said indifferently, unbothered to even turn around to meet his guest, or probably his tormentor judging from how he must have thought the man who came in was the very same man who would be putting an end to his life tonight.

“Uncle Bi…!”

Taken by surprise by the voice who was supposed to be long dead, Bi Changfeng turned around in an instant. His eyes widened in disbelief, his pounding heart was clearly unable to calm down as he stretched his arm forward, reaching for Qin Jiuxiao’s face with his slightly trembling fingers while he was half-afraid that the younger man would vanish upon being touched.

It did not, of course.

Qin Jiuxiao remained standing before Bi Changfeng, his eyes welling up in tears as he raised a hand up to grasp the hand on his face. It had been so long, he never expected to get the chance to see Bi Changfeng again, nonetheless in a place like this. For a brief moment, he terrifyingly wondered in his past life when he was really dead, did his senior martial brother really kill their Uncle Bi with his own hands?

“Jiuxiao… is this really you? You are alive…?”

Qin Jiuxiao blinked his tears down as he tightened his grasp on the hand on his face, “It’s me, Uncle Bi. I am alive. I am here to get you out of here.”

There was a short moment of silence before Bi Changfeng abruptly pulled his hand back and shook his head, “I can’t leave. Jiuxiao, you know there is only one way to leave the Window of Heaven.”

“No!” Qin Jiuxiao was perturbed at the thought of the seven nails being inserted into Bi Changfeng, “Uncle Bi, you are not going to take the nails. Come with me, we need to get out of here now. Shixiong is the one who told me to come and get you in the first place.”

“What?”

Surely, it was either he had heard it wrongly, or Qin Jiuxiao was imagining things. Bi Changfeng had always observed closely to how much Zhou Zishu had changed since he became the leader of the Window of Heaven. He watched how the younger man started to change into a man who one could only be described as heartless – he killed, be it good or bad men without so much as batting an eye, he would put anyone, the former members of Four Seasons Manor included, through the torment of the seven nails.

“It’s true,” Qin Jiuxiao said, “Shixiong said we will all be leaving tonight. Uncle Bi, your disciple, Xingming will be coming with us too.”

“You are lying,” Bi Changfeng frowned, “Zishu, our Lord Manor… he is not the same anymore. He has changed. Jiuxiao, he is no longer the senior martial brother that you know anymore.”

Qin Jiuxiao shook his head. He parted his lips, ready to argue that it was not true when he abruptly sensed danger approaching. Bi Changfeng must have sensed it too as they both stepped back to dodge what seemed to be a fan flying past in between them and ended up traveling in a circle before it flew back to where it came from. The fan flew around at an extraordinarily swift speed, and if given anyone else who did not react as fast as Bi Changfeng and Qin Jiuxiao, they would have been dead by now.

“My bad, my hand slipped.”

Bi Changfeng and Qin Jiuxiao turned to see a man who Bi Changfeng noticed in an instant had an extremely strong internal strength, one that would not lose to Zhou Zishu. The mysterious man was standing idly by the corner, his slender fingers wrapped around the fan, looking absolutely at ease as if he had not almost killed them just a moment ago.

Noticing two pairs of eyes staring at him, Wen Kexing tugged his lips into a smile as he advanced to where Bi Changfeng and Qin Jiuxiao were, “But I do not think you would mind even if I killed you by accident. After all, aren’t you here because you want to die? No need to trouble your Lord Manor to do it, I will gladly help him out so that he would not need to trouble himself.”

“Wen Kexing, you….!”

“Do you want to be buried along with this man?” Wen Kexing offered Qin Jiuxiao kindly, much to Qin Jiuxiao’s enragement and resulting in Bi Changfeng stepping forward, trying to protect Qin Jiuxiao from whoever it was who sounded like he was threatening Qin Jiuxiao.

“Wen Kexing, Shixiong did not ask you to come with me to kill us!”

“Shut your mouth,” The smile on Wen Kexing vanished, his eyes were filled with rage and strong killing intent as he glared at Qin Jiuxiao, “Someone like you has no right to call him Shixiong anymore. A-Xu is kind. If he can’t bear to kill those who harm him, I will gladly do it for him.”

“You…!”

“Who is this?” Bi Changfeng was bewildered. Were they talking about Zhou Zishu, and who was A-Xu anyway? What was this strange man’s relationship with Zhou Zishu, and why did he look like Qin Jiuxiao had hurt someone important to him?

Qin Jiuxiao parted his lips, but before he had the time to speak, Wen Kexing’s fan came forward and he promptly unsheathed his sword to block the weapon from hurting either him or Bi Changfeng. Gritting his teeth, infuriated, he answered Bi Changfeng, “Shixiong says this man is actually my second Shixiong, Wen Kexing.”

Bi Changfeng widened his eyes.

The second disciple of Qin Huaizhang?

That was ridiculous. If that was true, this meant this man before them now was the son of Zhen Ruyu. Back then, they had searched for the missing family day and night, yet nothing could be found. It was as if they had vanished from the planet. However, Qin Huaizhang did not give up on searching but in the end, after years of searching, there was still no news from the missing family.

“But now that I think about it, are you really my missing second Shixiong?” Qin Jiuxiao asked, frowning as Wen Kexing continued to slam his fan onto Qin Jiuxiao’s sword. Qin Jiuxiao tried his best to defend himself while he staggered back, “I do not know what you have said to Shixiong to make him trust you so much, but you might have been lying to him the whole time!”

Wen Kexing barked out a laugh, “I am definitely not your Shixiong. I would never have a Shidi who would be heartless enough to kill his own Shixiong!”

“You…!”

Qin Jiuxiao was infuriated, and so was Wen Kexing. Bi Changfeng was left standing there, bewildered as he watched the two young men fight. Amidst the chaos, they did not notice a fourth man sneaking in until a familiar sword flew forward, separating Wen Kexing and Qin Jiuxiao as the sword flew past in between where they stood.

“Are you two done fooling around? You two must be afraid that no one out there will be able to find out that someone has sneaked in,” Zhou Zishu said, furious and aggravated, “Wen Kexing, are you here to save or kill people?”

“None,” Wen Kexing said indifferently before his voice turned into one that was filled with concern as he turned to his soulmate, “I am here to ensure that no one hurts you again, including yourself, A-Xu.”

Bi Changfeng raised an eyebrow at the name, realizing with wonder that A-Xu was Zhou Zishu.

Zhou Zishu turned to give a brief glance at Qin Jiuxiao and Bi Changfeng before he heaved an exhausted sigh and turned to Wen Kexing, “There is no time to waste. Let’s hurry and leave, Han Ying and the other juniors are already waiting for us out there.”

“Han Ying will be coming with us?”

Qin Jiuxiao was slightly surprised by the arrangement but Bi Changfeng obviously had other concerns, “Lord Manor, are we really leaving here?”

“Or do you want me to insert the nails of seven torments into you before leaving?”

“Shixiong!” Qin Jiuxiao frowned, and so did Bi Changfeng. None of what was happening now was what he had expected.

Zhou Zishu pursed his lips into a grim line and paid no heed to his junior martial brother or Bi Changfeng as he strode forward. Wen Kexing followed closely behind him. Qin Jiuxiao and Bi Changfeng turned to glance at each other before deciding to follow closely behind Zhou Zishu too when they suddenly saw Zhou Zishu somehow lose his balance. Confounded, the two quickly rushed forward, but Wen Kexing was much faster.

“A-Xu!”

“I am fine,” Zhou Zishu said, pulling himself away from his soulmate and balancing himself up in an instant. Wen Kexing was clearly unconvinced, so Zhou Zishu quickly added with a smile, “Just a little tired. I have not been resting much in the past few days.”

“Just tired?” asked Wen Kexing.

Zhou Zishu nodded, “Let’s leave here quickly, and then I will get the rest that I deserve as soon as possible.”

The four of them skilfully sneaked out and got into the forest where Han Ying was standing there along with the other juniors who became Zhou Zishu’s disciples in the past life. Even Bi Xingming was there along with Princess Jing’an and Officer Li. Han Ying must have sent someone to get them while they waited here.

“Shifu, you are finally out. This disciple is getting worried that something might have happened,” said Han Ying, surprising everyone around them.

“Shi… Han Ying, what did you call my Shixiong?”

Wen Kexing watched in amusement as Han Ying stiffened, the younger man’s face looking somewhat flushed. Finding this adorable, Wen Kexing laughed, “A-Xu, you are so fast, but I can’t believe you get a new disciple when I am not around! Regardless, congratulations on your first disciple, but don’t you think Chengling will be upset if he knows you let someone takes his position?”

“Chengling is not such a petty child.”

Wen Kexing chuckled, “You do not know. That silly child takes great pride in being your eldest disciple.”

“Shifu,” Han Ying frowned, bewildered, “do I have a Shixiong?”

Zhou Zishu turned to give a warning glare to Wen Kexing, hinting for him to keep his mouth shut if he were to continue spouting nonsense before he turned to Han Ying, “Do not listen to him. He did not sleep well yesterday so he is just talking nonsense. As of now, Han Ying, you are my first and only disciple.”

Han Ying looked exhilarated, but Wen Kexing spotted quite a number of juniors looking at Han Ying enviously. He had already noticed in his past life that these juniors were absolutely fond of his soulmate although he was not exactly sure if his soulmate realized such an obvious fact yet.

“Let’s hurry and leave,” Zhou Zishu announced grimly before he climbed up onto his horse.

“Wait a moment, why are these two here…?” Bi Changfeng asked, eyeing Princess Jing’an and Officer Li suspiciously.

Qin Jiuxiao’s face flushed, and he stammered, “T-They…. I….”

“Princess Jing’an is Jiuxiao’s lover,” Zhou Zishu answered flatly.

Wen Kexing added somewhat in annoyance, “And this princess and her father are here to kill your Lord Manor.”

There were many gasps, and Zhou Zishu turned to Wen Kexing in exasperation, “Lao Wen.”

Understanding that Zhou Zishu wanted him to keep his mouth shut, he turned away and pouted. Sensing that the air around them was somehow getting a little suffocating, everyone rode up to their horses and started their journey in silence. No one knew where they were going, they were only following as Zhou Zishu led the way.

Amidst the silence, most of the people peeked at Zhou Zishu, and then at Qin Jiuxiao before turning their eyes to Princess Jing’an, the very woman who had made things complicated between the two martial brothers. It should be a pleasant event to know that Qin Jiuxiao managed to find someone to spend his days growing old with, but at the same time, it was equally disturbing to know that Qin Jiuxiao’s lover had the intention to kill Zhou Zishu.

In the end, only someone as well-respected as Bi Changfeng had the courage to speak at a time like this, “Lord Manor, where are we going?”

“We will not be able to go to Four Seasons Manor, that is for sure,” Zhou Zishu said, trying to hide his sadness from his soulmate about not being able to see the old Four Seasons Manor that was yet to be burned down by Prince Jin.

“We will get to go back after everything has calmed down a little,” Wen Kexing said comfortingly.

Zhou Zishu turned to Wen Kexing and smiled faintly before nodding and parted his lips, his voice solemn, “As of now, we only have three choices as to where we can head to.”

Wen Kexing nodded, completely understanding and agreeing to his soulmate’s choices, “The first is to Changming mountain, but that old freak will surely complain although he would let us all up onto the mountain in the end. The second choice is Nanjiang, but you do not want to trouble Lord Seventh too much. The last choice is Ghost Valley.”

“Lord Seventh?” asked Han Ying, incredulous.

“Ghost Valley?”

Bi Changfeng was confounded. Why of all places would his Lord Manor think that a place like Ghost Valley was safe for them to enter was something he could not quite understand. He parted his lips, about to remind Zhou Zishu that Ghost Valley was not a place where one could go in and leave as they wished when he was abruptly taken by surprise as Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing threw their weapons forward. After a short moment, a few men dropped dead from behind the trees.

The Window of Heaven had caught up to them. They had been surrounded!

“Leader, this isn’t very nice of you. You are taking so many people with you in the middle of the night with one even being the prisoner who Prince Jin wanted you to execute, I sure hope you aren’t thinking of leaving the Window of Heaven?”

Duan Pengju was as annoying as ever, at least from Wen Kexing’s point of view.

“A-Xu, can you leave this guy to me?”

“What do you want to do?” Zhou Zishu asked, puzzled.

“I will make him suffer for the things he did to you. I want to create two holes in his chest, and then I will torture him so hard that he will scream for mercy but I still would not stop.”

Zhou Zishu was inarticulate. It had been at least two decades, yet Wen Kexing still remembered the time when he was brought to Prince Jin after Four Seasons had been burned down, locked up, and tortured by Duan Pengju.

“Insolent!” Duan Pengju scoffed, “You think you can defeat me? Young man, hear my advice, pride leads to downfall, and arrogance to destruction.”

Zhou Zishu and Han Ying blinked, dumbfounded. Wen Kexing was like the others initially, stunned, but it only lasted for a brief moment as he soon started chuckling.

“This...” Chen Zichen said, looking somewhat puzzled, “I think I have heard this before, but it doesn’t sound like what Vice Leader Duan said. Something seems different.”

Wen Kexing’s chuckles soon turned into laughter as he could no longer control himself from hiding how humorous Duan Pengju was. Zhou Zishu was silent the whole time. He wanted to find a hole to hide in it. This was truly too embarrassing.

Prince Jin had always spoken to Zhou ZIshu with idioms, sometimes even citing a poem. Zhou Zishu would often respond to Prince Jin with another set of poems and idioms, and Duan Pengju could only stay silent as he understood nothing. Thus, Zhou Zishu noticed Duan Pengju began to work hard in enhancing his vocabulary and knowledge of literature, most likely to be able to replace him in the future. Duan Pengju did not wish to only replace his place as a fighter, but also someone who could talk to Prince Jin and made him feel delighted just the same as Zhou Zishu managed to.

However, some things were meant to be while some things just weren’t. Idiots should really just keep their mouths shut! Duan Pengju was an embarrassment to the Window of Heaven!

“That...” Han Ying spoke rather awkwardly, unsure if it was right of him to interrupt like that when Wen Kexing was still having an enjoyable time laughing while Duan Pengju... he looked so proud and confident, Han Ying was almost disheartened to hurt him emotionally, “Vice Leader Duan, I think you might have gotten it wrong. The correct saying should be pride leads to destruction, and arrogance to downfall.”

As if that was an excellent reminder, Chen Zichen clapped his hands together, “Yes, that’s it! I remember it now! Shifu taught me this before!”

Duan Pengju’s face turned grim, his face was flushed although no one knew if it was caused by anger or embarrassment, or possibly both. If what Han Ying said did not embarrass Duan Pengju enough, then the continuous uncontrolled laughing coming from Wen Kexing surely did the job.

“I... It’s just a slip of the tongue! Of course, I know what the correct saying is!” exclaimed Duan Pengju.

“Yes, yes. I am sure you know. Regardless,” Wen Kexing who was finally done laughing glanced up at Duan Pengju, releasing the fan in his hand before it returned to his hand in the blink of an eye.

There were a few sounds of falling from behind where Duan Pengju stood. Duan Pengju turned back and froze upon finding out that around ten men had fallen dead, each of them had a similar sharp cut on their throat. Duan Pengju was not the only one who was taken by surprise though, everyone present besides Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing was all stunned.

“Does Vice Leader Duan still think that arrogance leads to downfall now? It still is, but I am certain it is not my downfall that you are referring to,” said Wen Kexing as he calmly fanned himself, “To one who is incompetent, arrogance would certainly lead to downfall instead. However, to someone like me and your previous leader of the Window of Heaven, arrogance belongs to us.”

“You...!”

Duan Pengju was so infuriated that he was beyond words. He thought his only challenge here would be Zhou Zishu, and perhaps Bi Changfeng too at some point. He had thought besides Han Ying, the others who sneaked away along with Zhou Zishu were just some juniors of much lower skills in martial arts compared to him, but this man who was by Zhou Zishu’s side, whoever he was, seemed to be just as dangerous as Zhou Zishu.

He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, controlling himself from cursing as he seethed, “Who the hell are you?!”

Wen Kexing tugged his lips into a smile. He had been waiting for Duan Pengju to ask this. Unlike the previous time, he would offer a different answer, one which he could be proud of, and he was sure his senior martial brother would be delighted to hear it too.

“Wen Kexing, the second disciple of Four Seasons Manor.”

Apart from Zhou Zishu, Qin Jiuxiao, and Bi Changfeng, everyone was stunned. Even Duan Pengju looked shocked.

“Nonsense! Isn’t Qin Jiuxiao the second disciple of Four Seasons Manor? He is dead!” Duan Pengju said confidently, only to end up widening his eyes when a horse came forward and halted in between Han Ying and Zhou Zishu.

“You make it sounds like you miss me,” Qin Jiuxiao sneered. He had always disliked Duan Pengju. This man always looked like he was planning how to get rid of his senior martial brother. If he was actually hiding the fact that he was quenching for the position of the leader of the Window of Heaven, then he was extremely terrible at it.

“I am Qin Jiuxiao, the third disciple of Four Seasons Manor.”

“You...!” Duan Pengju staggered a step back, looking absolutely horrified, “Impossible!”

“Why? Is seeing me alive so surprising?” Qin Jiuxiao asked in amusement although he already knew the answer before even asking.

Duan Pengju was rendered speechless. For a long moment, he turned his glance in between Zhou Zishu and Qin Jiuxiao, inarticulate before he suddenly laughed.

“I understand now. Zhou Zishu, you have really fooled us! You have been lying to His Highness this whole time!” Duan Pengju exclaimed disdainfully, “You deliberately showed His Highness and me how distressed you were, God knows where you got a fake corpse and disguised it as your Shidi, and then pretended to be surprised and went as far as to throw up blood and collapsing in front of us! Zhou Zishu, I must say you sure are good at acting!”

Han Ying turned to his master worriedly, knowing perfectly well that was not an act at all. Qin Jiuxiao who had no idea how his senior martial brother reacted to seeing his corpse before this turned to Zhou Zishu, but the elder man looked completely indifferent - that was until Wen Kexing stretched his hand and placed it on Zhou Zishu’s hand comfortingly, and Qin Jiuxiao noticed how his senior martial brother’s expression softened then.

“On His Highness’s command, Zhou Zishu neglected his responsibility and goes against Prince Jin. He should be captured and dragged to meet Prince Jin before being executed! Qin Jiuxiao fakes his death and left the Window of Heaven, he should be executed immediately. Han Ying, Bi Changfeng, and the others who left the Windows] of Heaven without taking the torment of seven nails should be executed immediately as well!”

Duan Pengju stepped back as he commanded his men to charge forward. Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing threw their sword and fan forward, eliminating twenty men at once. They were fast, but it was not quite enough for what they were facing now was a large army. As the army continued to charge towards them, Wen Kexing retrieved his fan and flew down from his horse, slicing the throats of every man who dared to come near him with his fan.

“Ying’er, Lao Wen and I will deal with these people. You bring the others to a safe place. We will catch up to you all soon,” Zhou Zishu flew off his horse and joined Wen Kexing as soon as he was done speaking, leaving no room for Han Ying to argue at all. Qin Jiuxiao was about to jump off the horse to join the two, but he was halted by Bi Changfeng. He contemplated and understood that with his senior martial brother’s skills, everything would be fine and if he insisted on helping out with the fight, there might be a chance that he would make things worse.

Shortly, half the number of men brought by Duan Pengju were killed, and a path was opened for Han Ying to lead the others to leave. Everyone on the horse stared in awe, mostly at Wen Kexing though. They were watching as Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing fought side by side, both skilfully watching each other’s backs. What surprised them was Wen Kexing being on par with Zhou Zishu – no, to be exact, Wen Kexing seemed to be moving much faster than Zhou Zishu. It was not like Wen Kexing was extraordinarily fast compared to Zhou Zishu, it was more like Zhou Zishu merely did not seem to be moving as fast as he usually did.

“Leave!”

Han Ying rode his horse forward upon being commanded, leading the others to escape through the open path. It was a smooth escape initially, and that was until a startled scream came from behind.

It came from Princess Jing’an.

Han Ying swirled around just in time to see the horse where Officer Li and Princess Jing’an were riding was losing its balance, having been stabbed by a sword at the side. Qin Jiuxiao reacted fast as he promptly jumped off his horse and carried Princess Jing’an in his protective arms before she hit the ground. Bi Changfeng had also jumped to the ground to catch Officer Li before he sustained any major injuries although he did twist one of his ankles in the end.

With the momentary halt, they were soon surrounded by the Window of Heaven. Qin Jiuxiao and Bi Changfeng pushed Princess Jing’an and Officer Li behind them as they unsheathed their swords. Han Ying and the other juniors had also gotten off their horses to join the fight.

Blood splattered everywhere, and more corpses joined the ground. However, there seemed to be an endless number of men from the Window of Heaven and they just could not finish them all no matter how many people they slaughtered. As time passed, the exhaustion eventually caught up to most of the juniors.

“Do not give up! We will definitely live through this and get out of here alive together!” declared Han Ying.

Perhaps it was because Han Ying used to be the commander of the Window of Heaven, he managed to quickly reunite everyone’s spirit. To Han Ying though, he was no longer a commander. He was now a member of Four Seasons Manor, the proud disciple of Zhou Zishu. His master entrusted everyone here to him, and he would rather die than to fail his master’s trust.

While everyone had their eyes fixed on their opponents, a sudden yelp caught their attention before Officer Li abruptly shouted in fear.

“Jing’an!”

Having heard who was in danger, Qin Jiuxiao’s heart skipped a beat. He was supposed to protect her as she stood behind him defencelessly, but some men must have gotten to her while he was busy dealing with those near him. He turned and widened his eyes in horror as he saw a sword swinging its way towards his lover. He promptly dashed forward, and so did Officer Li although they both knew they would not make it in time. They were too far away.

The sword slashed through the air at a swift speed, and fresh blood started trickling down from the sword to the ground. Princess Jing’an was on the ground, her eyes clenched tightly closed, fear of what was about to come. She heard the sound of the sword approaching, but no pain came to her. Confounded, she timidly lifted her eyes and was stunned when she saw a bloodied back before her.

The back looked unfamiliar, it neither belonged to her father nor her lover. Whoever this stranger of a man was, he had saved her. From afar, he could see her father and her lover staring at the injured back too. Her father was gaping with shock while her lover was simply frozen.

To her surprise, when the man moved and turned his back to her while he slashed the man who lifted his sword and tried to harm her, she finally noticed who it was who had saved her. This was the very same man who had murdered her whole family in the past. He was the one whom she had sworn alongside her father that they would never let this man live and continued to harm the others who had done absolutely nothing wrong. Never had she expected that there would come a day when she would be saved by this man.

Zhou Zishu.

She gasped, but before she managed to say anything, she felt herself being pulled up and was somewhat gently pushed to one side to which she then felt her lover’s arm wrapped around her waist. She did not have the time to thank the man yet when he just left them without a word and charged back into the fight.

“A-Xu!” Wen Kexing exclaimed after slashing at another man’s throat, his eyes were cold with killing intent as he fretted over his soulmate’s fresh wound.

“I am –”

Zhou Zishu was in the middle of assuring his soulmate that he was fine when he abruptly froze. The opponent before him who just so happened to be Duan Pengju took it as a chance as he lunged his sword forward, sending Zhou Zishu to stagger back while he strangely started throwing up blood. Wen Kexing’s eyes widened just the same as Zhou Zishu did as he watched Duan Pengju slash at his soulmate’s chest before raising a leg to send his soulmate down the cliff.

“A-Xu!!!”

Chapter Text

Wen Kexing froze with widened eyes. Everything was taking place way faster than his eyes managed to catch on. One moment he was seeing his soulmate standing and swinging Baiyi sword around, slashing at anyone who dared to come near him, but then within a blink of an eye, his soulmate was suddenly bleeding, throwing up blood and falling down the cliff.

There were screams.

He neither registered who exactly was screaming their lungs out nor did he hear what exactly were the screams about. All he could hear was his own pounding heartbeat, they were beating faster with every single step he was advancing to reach the cliff. He ran with arms stretched forward as if to catch his soulmate although he was nowhere near Zhou Zishu yet.

He was too far away.

Standing near the cliff was Duan Pengju, a proud and triumphant smile plastered across his lips as he watched with satisfaction after kicking his former leader down the cliff. Unfortunately to him, his joy in eliminating his former leader could only last this long as there was a sudden flash of white rising from the bottom of the cliff. Before he could voice out his surprise, his throat was cut open and he was left falling onto the ground, dead.

Leaving the dissatisfaction of not being the one to end Duan Pengju’s life aside, Wen Kexing realized he had never been so exhilarated to see Ye Baiyi appearing before him. The man scowled as soon as Duan Pengju was confirmed dead, his eyes scanning the corpse-filled ground and grimacing at the strong metallic smell of blood that filled the area.

In Ye Baiyi’s arm was none other than Zhou Zishu who looked horrible but alive. He looked so much like he was in pain, panting and seemingly having a hard time breathing. With a swift push, Ye Baiyi sent Zhou Zishu to Wen Kexing’s embrace. Wen Kexing wrapped his arm around his soulmate tightly for the elder man did not seem like he had the strength to stand by himself at all.

He glanced down and scrutinized the extent of injuries his soulmate carried. His blood ran cold as his eyes were fixed on the two long cuts which were still oozing blood, one at his chest and another at his back. Zhou Zishu’s robes were stained with blood from his own wounds, as well as from the blood he had just thrown up. He looked so exhausted and fragile, almost as if he would break into a thousand pieces at anyone’s touch.

“Look at what you two brats have gotten yourself into again!” Ye Baiyi said disapprovingly, his eyes however were softening just the slightest bit as he glanced at Zhou Zishu, “Take him and leave. I will stay and help you two clean this mess.”

Ye Baiyi strode forward, and just as he walked past Wen Kexing, he whispered, “I found a cave on the way here. Continue straight from here and you will be able to find it.”

Without waiting for a response from Wen Kexing, he walked away. His weapon unsheathed as he continued to stride forward, ready to take on what remained of the Window of Heaven.

“Thank you,” Wen Kexing said in gratitude as he lifted Zhou Zishu up in his arms. He tried to ignore the ache in his heart as he watched how his soulmate seemed to grimace in pain. He could deal with the pain later, what was more important now was to get to a safe place so that he could check on his soulmate’s wounds.

Wen Kexing led the others as he followed the path directed to him by Ye Baiyi. The journey to the cave was in perfect silence. Everyone was worried for Zhou Zishu who never had they seen the ever strong and aloof man injured to this extent. He did not even have the strength to stand by himself which was strange. It was not like he had not been wounded before, and he was a man who could still remain standing even if there was a poisonous arrow punctured into him. To be weakened to such a state merely by two slashes was not normal at all, and this worried the others as it may be an internal injury that had reduced him to such a state.

After a long silence, they finally came to a halt. Before them was the cave they had been searching for. Wen Kexing was the first to walk in while the others followed closely behind him. Inside the cave was pitch black, and they could hardly see each other. Regardless, they walked in carefully, their eyes darted around and hands well prepared on their swords in case someone was hiding within the cave and was preparing to kill them.

Within the darkness, Wen Kexing halted when he abruptly felt the man in his arms clenching tightly at his robes. The elder man suddenly broke into a series of harsh coughs then, worrying everyone in the cave despite the fact that none could actually see him. Wen Kexing tried to lower his soulmate down onto the ground gently so that he could check on him, but before he managed to do so, he felt something splattered onto his robes.

A strong metallic smell soon enveloped the cave, causing everyone to hold their breath anxiously. Wen Kexing immediately placed Zhou Zishu down on the ground just at the same time when a piercing scream echoed within the cave.

Everyone else froze.

Zhou Zishu never screamed.

“Light up the cave!” cried Wen Kexing, the panic in his voice was as clear as a bell.

In fact, Han Ying was already moving around to light up the cave with Bi Xingming helping him out before even being asked. Bi Changfeng and Qin Jiuxiao blindly searched their way to reach Zhou Zishu in vain.

“A-Xu,” Wen Kexing whispered as he held his soulmate with trembling fingers, “It’s fine, A-Xu. It’s going to be fine.”

Despite his comfort, all he managed to get in response was the hard, panting voice before him that continued to struggle for breath. One hand still remained clasping at his robes while the other was gone. He searched around and found out that his soulmate was grasping tightly at his own chest.

“A-Xu...”, Wen Kexing whispered anxiously, he stretched his hand forward to reach for the elder man’s face, only to be taken aback when he felt how it was covered in sweat, “A-Xu, can you hear me? Tell me what is wrong. Is it your wounds or an internal injury? The nails?!”

There was no response from Zhou Zishu, of course. All he got in return for a response was the continuous panting that struggled for air.

Fortunately, Han Ying and Bi Xingming finally did manage to build a fire, immediately lighting up the cave. However, rather than the relief and joy that should be displayed across everyone’s face of no longer being in dark, there were only horrified expressions.

Stunned, everyone stared with widened eyes at Wen Kexing’s blood-stained robes. The blood did not belong to him. It was obviously Zhou Zishu who must have thrown up his blood at the younger man. In front of Wen Kexing was Zhou Zishu, his knees sank hard to the ground and his back bent downwards, head on the ground with one hand clutching tightly at Wen Kexing's robes and another clutching tightly at his own chest.

He was trembling.

Not from anything else but pain. He looked like he was being burned alive, hurting and unable to breathe. Drops of blood were decorating the ground beneath him, some probably were from the blood he had just thrown up and some probably trickled down from his two visible open wounds. The blood was still trickling down from his wounds as he was shaking so terribly from whatever that caused him so much pain.

“A-Xu,” Wen Kexing gasped, “No! You are hurting yourself!”

He tried to hold his soulmate still, yet he did not manage to stop him from moving. Zhou Zishu’s arms were trembling just the same as his body did, showing just how much in pain he was. Wen Kezing felt he was close to crying at witnessing his soulmate in such a state, but he knew he had no time for weaknesses. He needed to find out what was happening to his soulmate first.

“His wounds,” Bi Changfeng who appeared behind Wen Kexing said worriedly, “We need to take care of his wounds first.”

“Shixiong!” Qin Jiuxiao appeared beside Bi Changfeng, his eyes were rimmed red, “Let me –”

Wen Kexing glared at him, “Take your filthy hands off!”

“What –”

Wen Kexing cut Bi Changfeng off, completely unbothered by whatever a man who was planning to die a moment ago had to say as he turned to one of the few who he trusted here, “Han Ying, come here and help me out.”

Surprised that he was chosen, Han Ying was stunned for a brief moment before he promptly dashed to his master, rushing past Bi Changfeng and Qin Jiuxiao before lowering to the ground near his master.

“Help me hold your Shifu. I need to remove his robes,” said Wen Kexing.

Han Ying did as he was told and watched as his junior martial uncle removed his master’s robes. His eyes were so fixed on the long cut of the wound on his master’s back that he did not realize the gasps and widened eyes around him.

“There does not seem to be any poison on the wound,” said Han Ying, completely bewildered with why his master was suddenly throwing up blood and looking exactly like one who had been poisoned.

Wen Kexing nodded. This is strange, he thought with a frown. If not the wounds, could it be the nails? No, he decided after a while. He had seen what the nails could do, but it was not like this.

“This…” Wen Kexing and Han Ying glanced up when they heard Bi Xingming gasp, “These are…!”

“The nails of seven torments!” concluded Bi Changfeng, flabbergasted. His eyes were wide as he stared at the nails, unable to take his eyes off for even a second.

Qin Jiuxiao dropped to the ground. Tears were welling up in his eyes, and although it was suffocating to look at the nails, similarly to Bi Changfeng, he continued to stare at them with widened eyes.

“What happened?” Han Ying was baffled. He turned around and observed where everyone was looking before he went over to take a look and was immediately gasping too. It was indeed the nails of seven torments, “How did this happen…?!”

“This...” Cheng Xiu gaped, “How is this possible? Lord Manor Zhou can walk just fine a moment ago!”

Wen Kexing abruptly remembered none of these people knew about the nails yet. He turned to glance at Han Ying, noticing how horrified the younger man looked before turning around and noticing everyone sharing the same shock as Han Ying. He parted his lips and was about to inform everyone that the nails could wait when all of a sudden, a flash of ten empty bottles of poisons scattered on the ground appeared in his mind, immediately causing his blood to run cold.

It could not be…!

Hastily, he reached for Zhou Zishu’s wrist with his trembling fingers. His pulse was in a mess, it already was with the nails, and more so now that the ten different types of poison were running wildly within him. That explained why he looked like he was suffocating and was so much in pain. Wen Kexing was sure his soulmate must be feeling ten times worse than what was shown on his face.

“Qin Jiuxiao!” Wen Kexing seethed, his eyes were rimmed red and furious. If eyes could kill, Qin Jiuxiao would have been dead by now.

“Give me the antidotes, quick!”

“What antidotes?” Bi Changfeng asked, looking just as bewildered as the others.

Qin Jiuxiao looked somehow a little puzzled too before he abruptly understood what reduced his senior martial brother to such a state. Standing from afar, Officer Li and Princess Jing’an must have realized what was going on too as they suddenly looked just as horrified as Qin Jiuxiao.

Bi Changfeng’s question was left unanswered as everyone’s eyes were fixed on Zhou Zishu who broke into a few harsh coughs before starting to throw up another large amount of blood again.

“A-Xu!” Wen Kexing cried, stroking Zhou Zishu’s face soothingly as he spoke, his voice sounded so broken that he could hardly even recognize his own voice, “I am sorry, I know it hurts. It will be fine soon, I promise.”

Zhou Zishu did not seem to be able to hear him though, either because he was in too much pain to hear anything else or he was too busy gasping for air. Wen Kexing felt as if there was a hole in his heart, causing him to be unable to breathe as he watched his soulmate suffer like this. He did not deserve such torture. He was so good, so kind-hearted. He deserved to be loved, pampered and taken care of, not like this.

Wen Kexing took a deep breath before he retracted his hands from Zhou Zishu and slowly placed his soulmate under Han Ying’s care. With a pair of eyes that could kill glaring at the man who was responsible for his soulmate’s current torture, he sent his fan flying towards Qin Jiuxiao. It returned to his grasp soon, but not before leaving a small cut on Qin Jiuxiao’s face. It was not exactly aimed to cause such a light injury, and it only resulted in such merely because Bi Changfeng had reacted quickly and pushed the absentminded Qin Jiuxiao away from the dangerous weapon.

“What do you think you are doing?! Are you trying to kill your Shidi?!”

Bi Changfeng stepped forward, furious. As if they were not already distressed enough, why would this Wen Kexing suddenly try to kill Jiuxiao?

“Shut up!” Wen Kexing threw Bi Changfeng a short glare before he fixed his eyes back to Qin Jiuxiao, “I have no such Shidi who would kill his own Shixiong. Qin Jiuxiao, for the sake of A-Xu, I am not going to kill you as long as you give me the antidotes of the ten types of poison that you have forced upon your Shixiong.”

“What?” Bi Changfeng stumbled a step back, stunned.

Wen Kexing waited, but Qin Jiuxiao remained frozen, his eyes blank. Infuriated, Wen Kexing walked past Bi Changfeng and clutched Qin Jiuxiao’s outer robe before yanking him forward, “Are you really going to just stand here and watch your Shixiong die?!”

If Wen Kexing had even expected Qin Jiuxiao to reach into his robes to take out the antidotes, then he was truly overthinking it. The younger man remained motionless, almost as if he had really been frozen while his eyes remained widened as he stared at his senior martial brother. Having been overwhelmed by the surge of fury within him, Wen Kexing gritted his teeth as he connected his fists to Qin Jiuxiao’s face, throwing the younger man towards near where Zhou Zishu and Han Ying were.

If only Bi Changfeng were not already in a state of shock, he would have rushed to Qin Jiuxiao’s side and protected him from Wen Kexing’s rage. Now though, he just could not stop the echoing words in his head, repeating Wen Kexing’s accusation of Qin Jiuxiao being the one who poisoned Zhou Zishu and reduced their Lord Manor to his current state.

Han Ying reflexively moved back along with his trembling master in his arms when Wen Kexing advanced on them only to deliver another hit on Qin Jiuxiao’s face. It probably hurt like hell with how much force Wen Kexing placed into that hit, but Han Ying could not find it in himself to pity the man. He was still struck dumb by the fact that the man who his master doted on the most would actually harm his master in such a cruel way.

Wen Kexing clenched Qin Jiuxiao’s robe as he yanked the man up, “Have you never wondered how did these nails end up inside your Shixiong? All these nails, he had placed one into himself every three months. Tonight is supposed to be the day where he put in the last nail. One year and nine months, that is how long he has been suffering and living with these awful nails. Do you know why he did such a thing to himself? Try to think back, what exactly happened somewhere before these one year and nine months.”

Qin Jiuxiao looked pensive for a moment before his face suddenly looked even more horrified than how it already was.

“That’s right,” If anything, Wen Kexing’s mocking voice was like a stab into Qin Jiuxiao’s already guilty heart, “One year and nine months ago, your lover brought your corpse to your Shixiong. Thinking that he had failed you – that he had failed to protect the one he wanted to protect the most, the one who he would certainly not mind dying for, his beloved Shidi, he felt he had nothing to live for anymore, so he decided to put an end to everything.”

As if Wen Kexing’s harsh, broken words were serving to be the last straw to Qin Jiuxiao’s own aching heart, Qin Jiuxiao finally broke down into tears. Han Ying was not any better though. He turned his red-rimmed eyes to his master, his lips quivering as tears started trickling down his cheeks. He did not know. For the past one year and nine months, he noticed nothing. Sure, there were times when his master would cough out blood, looking slightly pale and suffering from an internal injury, but he had thought it was just a small internal injury that one could recover within a month or two.

Bi Changfeng, having been unable to register all the surprises, staggered back. His legs seemed to have lost their strength to stand, and if not for his disciple promptly rushing to him and holding him, he would have dropped onto the ground. He gasped, his eyes filled with remorse, “I did not know…”

“Shifu…” Bi Xingming tightened his grasp on his master’s arms, his own chest tightening at the piece of shocking news. It was not a secret that all the juniors had looked up to Zhou Zishu, and to know that the man they admired was secretly suffering so much was simply too heart-wrenching.

“We live together, yet… I did not even realize a damn thing…!”

Wen Kexing barked out a mocking laugh, “You sure do not. All you are thinking about is leaving the Window of Heaven. You wanted to force A-Xu, your own Lord Manor who you knew respected you the most to insert those nails into you and watch you die. You know it will break his heart, yet you do not care. You have no idea how much he would have nightmares later, his guilt and remorse always eating him alive every night along with the harsh attacks of the nails.”

Wen Kexing clenched his fists and gritted his teeth at the memories of the night when his soulmate would wake up at night, panting and looking terrified. Sometimes, he would scream out some names, and there were also a few times when he would cry in his sleep. It was hard to watch, really. He hated watching his soulmate suffer both in the past and now.

“Do you all know he hates blood?” Wen Kexing asked to no one in particular, “Do you all really think he enjoys killing people, bad or good, and do you all really think he feels nothing every time he put those nails into those who decided to leave the Window of Heaven? He is already suffering so much, why...?”

“That’s enough. Wen Kexing, crying and screaming here all you want, are you afraid that those from the Window of Heaven can’t find their runaway former leader hiding here?”

Surprised to hear the familiar exasperated voice, Wen Kexing turned around in an instant and was immediately elated to see Ye Baiyi walking into the cave with a frown.

“Ye Baiyi…!” For the second time of the day, he was so relieved that Ye Baiyi was here to the extent that he nearly wanted to sink to his knees to welcome the immortal, “Ye Baiyi, please save A-Xu! A-Xu… he is dying!”

Ye Baiyi calmly walked over and fixed his eyes on Zhou Zishu who looked like he was on the verge of stepping deep into the coffin any time soon. He was panting heavily, his face extremely pale and he was looking so much in pain as if someone was stabbing and burning him repeatedly. Han Ying had already pulled up Zhou Zishu’s robes to cover the man from the cold, as well as to stop everyone from continuing to stare at the nails. Ye Baiyi could not see the exact wounds on Zhou Zishu, but he doubted that just those two wounds would reduce Zhou Zishu to such a state. Despite the fact that he always commented on how this Qin Huaizhang’s disciple was bad in his martial arts, this young man along with Wen Kexing were two of the few who he had to acknowledge were the strongest juniors he had ever seen since he left the mountain.

He glanced over at Wen Kexing who looked apprehensive, his robes were covered in blood which Ye Baiyi assumed must be belonged to Zhou Zishu. He heaved a sigh and asked, “What happened to this brat?”

Wen Kexing went on to inform Ye Baiyi in detail of the ten types of poisons that his soulmate had consumed. He named out each of the poisons easily, having been able to recognize each of them upon taking in all of the smells.

“These ten poisons, by just only consuming one of them, one would have a quick yet torturing death,” Ye Baiyi said grimly as he walked over to Qin Jiuxiao, the one who he had heard Wen Kexing accusing being the one who poisoned Zhou Zishu when he had just arrived and standing outside of the cave, “Just how much do you hate this Shixiong of yours?”

Qin Jiuxiao flinched.

His head was still lowered, tears still streaming down his cheeks uncontrollably when he suddenly felt unfamiliar fingers pushing his chin up. His teary, red-rimmed eyes glanced up and stared at those cold, serene eyes looking back at him.

“You…” Ye Baiyi said, somewhat dumbfounded, “You look just like him. Please do not tell me you are that brat Qin Huaizhang’s son.”

Qin Jiuxiao was taken aback, “You know my father?”

There was a pause before Qin Jiuxiao frowned and added, “How could you speak of my father so disrespectfully? My father is –”

“Not this again,” Ye Baiyi said in exasperation, “Shut up already. This part of you is really similar to that Shixiong of yours. You two get all aggravated the moment I talked about Qin Huaizhang.”

That is because you are damn rude, Wen Kexing had to refrain himself from saying out loud. He needed to be nice now that he needed Ye Baiyi to save his soulmate.

“What is wrong with Qin Huaizhang anyway,” Ye Baiyi said as he turned his gaze from Qin Jiuxiao to Wen Kexing and then finally to Zhou Zishu, “All of his disciples, the younger they are, they just keep getting worse.”

“This… please stop blaming Jiuxiao. This is not Jiuxiao’s fault!”

A rather small, timid voice appeared, and everyone turned their gaze at Princess Jing’an who had been standing silently in a corner along with her father up until now. If she did not open her mouth to speak, most of the people there would have completely forgotten the fact that Officer Li and Princess Jing’an were still there with them.

“It is father and me,” Princess Jing’an continued, “Lord Manor Zhou killed my whole family and me. Now that we all gained our second lives, we could not let Lord Manor Zhou ruin us again. We wanted to kill him. However, we knew Jiuxiao would not want to see his Shixiong dies, so I lied to him. I told him that we would only poison him and give him the antidote later as soon as Lord Manor Zhou promised to never hurt my family, but since we never planned to let Lord Manor Zhou live, we never bothered to look for an antidote. Jiuxiao did not know any of this. If anyone should take the blame, it should be father and me.”

Wen Kexing clenched his fists so hard that his knuckles turned white. He was burning with rage as he tightened his grip on his fan, struggling to keep the weapon with him when all he wanted to do now was to kill everyone who hurt his soulmate. He did not deserve this. He really did not deserve this!

“Princess Jing’an,” Han Ying seethed, his blood boiling as he pulled his master closer to him, “My Shifu just saved you! If you wanted revenge, you should have tried killing all of us from the Window of Heaven. Why are you only targeting Shifu?!”

“Because he is the one to give out the command to eliminate my family,” said Officer Li in a rage. The guilty of having owed Zhou Zishu for saving his daughter was instantly left behind as he was reminded of how his family had been annihilated in a single night in his past life.

“The one who gave out the command to eliminate your family is that damn Prince Jin!” Wen Kexing exclaimed before Han Ying managed to, “You are just a coward! You know you could not hurt that damn prince, so you hurt A-Xu instead. You know his weakness is Qin Jiuxiao, the Shidi who he loves and cares about the most, so you used him to kill A-Xu. You people are the most despicable that I have ever seen!”

Officer Li and Princess Jing’an lowered their heads, obviously ashamed of what they had done, more so as Zhou Zishu did not hold any grudge towards them and even saved Jing’an. Bi Changfeng who was still having a hard time accepting the piece of shocking information turned to glance at Qin Jiuxiao who had his head lowered down again, crying. He did not walk over to comfort him though. He did not do anything, just standing there with his disciple still holding onto his arms while he contemplated how did things reach how it was right now.

He felt useless.

He could not protect any of them, not those who had died, and certainly not Zishu who was close to dying right now.

“So, you are telling me that this idiot Qin Huaizhang’s disciple saved someone who tried to kill him, thus ending up getting injured and being pushed down the cliff?” Ye Baiyi asked in amusement before he abruptly realized something unusual with what had been stated, so he took a brief glance at Wen Kexing before turning to Princess Jing’an and Officer Li, “Wait a moment, you two travelled back from the future too?”

Officer Li nodded grimly, “Not only us. Qin Jiuxiao as well.”

The others who did not come from the future were simply looking confounded, but they did not stay surprised for long. Truthfully, what happened tonight was already too much for them to handle, and they felt that nothing would surprise them anymore, not even if a God suddenly descended from Heaven and appeared before them now. In fact, they really wished something like that would happen and then they would be able to kneel down and beg any God that appeared before them to save Zhou Zishu.

Ye Baiyi heaved an exhausted sigh as he turned to Wen Kexing, “What about the nails?”

“He has six in him now.”

Ye Baiyi nodded. This should at least be a piece of slightly good news to know that Zhou Zishu had not put in the last nail. He lowered himself to the ground next to Zhou Zishu as he checked on his pulse. His fingers remained there for a long moment while his frown deepened with each passing second. After some time, he finally removed his fingers from Zhou Zishu’s wrist, only to turn the younger man around before he connected his palms to Zhou Zishu’s back as he transferred his internal force to this now slowly becoming unconscious man.

“No, Ye Baiyi, you can’t –”

Wen Kexing wanted to stop Ye Baiyi from sending his internal force to Zhou Zishu, worried that it would affect his soulmate’s current body in the wrong way which explained why he had refrained himself from doing so before Ye Baiyi’s arrival, but Ye Baiyi unfortunately cut him off.

“Keep your mouth shut, I know what I am doing,” Ye Baiyi said in annoyance, “He will not die with having my internal force flowing within him. If he dies from this, I will just repay you another Zhou Zishu.”

Wen Kexing glared at him, but he said nothing to retort. He did not have the strength to argue with Ye Baiyi today.

He watched as Zhou Zishu seemed to look more at ease, the pain shown across his face gradually reducing. His eyes were closed, almost as if he was merely in a deep slumber with no poison torturing him. Ye Baiyi must have done something, Wen Kexing realized with gratitude.

“You are able to save him?” Wen Kexing asked hopefully, but the answer he received shattered his heart in an instant.

“No,” Ye Baiyi said flatly. He glanced up to see the horrified expression on everyone before he added, “But I know someone who can save him.”

“The Great Shaman!” Wen Kexing exclaimed, “I will take A-Xu to Nanjiang immediately!”

Ye Baiyi clicked his tongue, “Are you an idiot? You are going to drag this half-dead body to Nanjiang? Your useless Shixiong would be dead before you are even halfway to reaching Nanjiang!”

Wen Kexing realized grimly that he could not get Zhou Zishu to Nanjiang indeed. In that case, he would go there to invite Lord Seventh and the Great Shaman here.

“I will go to Nanjiang! I will bring Lord Seventh and the Great Shaman here!”

“With that lousy speed of yours? Qin Huaizhang’s disciple’s funeral would be long over by the time you return!”

“Then what do I do?!” Wen Kexing yelled, infuriated.

Ye Baiyi hissed, irked by the sudden rise of voice. He retracted his palms from Zhou Zishu and pushed the man to Han Ying rather roughly before he stood up and glared at Wen Kexing, “What are you yelling about now? Someone who is asking for help needs to act like one. Where are your manners?”

Wen Kexing pursed his lips into a grim line, his fists clenched tightly by the side before he slowly lowered his knees. Ye Baiyi who noticed what he was about to do immediately stopped him.

“What are you doing?!”

“I will kneel down to you as long as you are willing to save A-Xu. Please save A-Xu.”

“Save it. That Shixiong of yours will secretly poison me to death if he finds out I let you kneel down to me!” exclaimed Ye Baiyi. He still had not forgotten how furious Zhou Zishu was when he found out about Ye Baiyi nearly killing Wen Kexing by teaching him to use the Combined Six Cultivation Methods to save him.

Ye Baiyi took out a small bottle of pills and gave it to Wen Kexing, “You stay here. I will go to Nanjiang and bring the Great Shaman here. Take this and give him one every day. This will keep him alive for a while.”

Wen Kexing accepted the small bottle of pills in gratitude before he promptly dropped onto the ground in front of his soulmate to feed the pill to Zhou Zishu. Ye Baiyi prepared to leave, but just before he stepped his foot out of the cave, he turned back to glance at Wen Kexing. The man looked so much in relief, so elated and hopeful to know that there was a way to save his soulmate. Ye Baiyi was simply too disheartened to break the man’s happiness by stating the obvious and telling him that even if the Great Shaman was here, there was half a chance that he would not be able to save Zhou Zishu anyway.

However, he did not say anything. He left the cave without another word. After all, Wen Kexing was not that foolish. He probably already understood that there was a high possibility that Zhou Zishu could not be saved in the end, no matter how much he was trying to lie to himself as a form of comfort at the moment.

Chapter Text

The first thing that came to Zhou Zishu when he woke up was a familiar soothing, beautifully blown-out melody surrounding him. It made him feel peaceful and pleasant as he allowed himself to sink into the wonderful music. For a brief moment, he thought he was back at Four Seasons Manor, eating the meal prepared by his soulmate along with his soulmate and his silly disciple.

However, he knew he was not there. He would have known immediately if he was in the manor, but it did not feel like it at all. He was not on a bed either, his head felt like he was resting on someone’s lap. When the music came to an end, there was a comforting hand stroking his hair. He did not mind. It felt strangely familiar, protective even, and he nearly wished he could stay like this forever. There was also a hand grasping his, tight and warm. He lifted his eyes and immediately noticed those familiar thin, slender fingers wrapped around him. He glanced up, and a faint smile instantly made its way on his face as the man above glanced down at him, a relieved smile immediately plastered on his lips.

“A-Xu.”

“Lao Wen,” Zhou Zishu rasped, his throat so dry that even speaking a word hurt.

“Han Ying,” Wen Kexing was about to urge the young man to bring him a cup of water when the said young man was already by his side and handed him the cup of required water. He accepted it with gratitude before slowly pouring the water drop by drop past his soulmate’s lips.

“Do you want another cup, A-Xu?” Wen Kexing’s voice came out soft and gentle, a little raspy too but it was nothing compared to Zhou Zishu.

Having not much strength to speak, Zhou Zishu merely nodded. While Han Ying went to get him another cup of water, Zhou Zishu tried to sit up with the help of his soulmate. He glanced around, counting and confirming that everyone was fine and safe. However, he noticed they had all changed into new sets of robes. He glanced at himself and noticed that his robes had been changed too. Apart from that, he could also feel his hair being tied differently, and as he touched the back of his head, he easily found the familiar hairpin.

Wen Kexing tugged his lips into a tender smile, “Do you like this new set of robes?”

“You pick them. Naturally, I will like them.”

“Han Ying bought the robes, but I did tell him to pick a few different robes for me to select.”

As if hearing his name, Han Ying appeared with another cup of water, and Zhou Zishu finished the water before saying his thanks to his disciple.

“Shifu, here,” Han Ying handed Zhou Zishu his wallet, “Shishu told me to buy everyone’s new robes with your money, stating that while he would very much like to spend his own money for you, he is unwilling to spend his money for other irrelevant people.”

While it was not stated who the irrelevant people were referred to, it was as clear as a bell who exactly he was referring to. Glancing at the wallet, he pushed it back to Han Ying.

“It’s been so long since I get to carry my own wallet, and it feels almost strange to carry it now. You can keep it, and next time when you need to buy anything, you can just use the money in the wallet.”

Han blinked, bemused.

“How long was I out?” Zhou Zishu could still feel the dryness within his voice, but it was a lot better compared to when he first woke up.

“More than a day,” answered Wen Kexing. Before Zhou Zishu could go on further to ask more questions, Wen Kexing answered all of his unasked questions, “The poisons started attacking you. Ye Baiyi saved you, in the meantime. He is on his way to Nanjiang to get Lord Seventh and the Great Shaman here.”

Zhou Zishu nodded and said nothing else, but Wen Kexing could read through him easily.

“Lord Seventh will be fine. The old freak and the Great Shaman are with him. With these two around, I am sure no one will get their finger on Lord Seventh at all.”

Zhou Zishu nodded once again, this time in relief.

“A-Xu, are you hungry? I made some congee.”

Zhou Zishu shook his head, earning a frown from Wen Kexing, “You need to eat something. Just eat a little, please?”

Zhou Zishu did not have much appetite. He was simply too exhausted to do anything at the moment, but he did not want to worry his soulmate any further so he easily agreed to it. Wen Kexing smiled in relief before turning to Han Ying who immediately went over to bring two bowls of congee.

“Shishu, you have not eaten too,” said Han Ying.

“Thank you,” Wen Kexing said before he took a bowl of congee up, bringing up a spoonful of congee and blowing it before placing it near Zhou Zishu’s lips.

Zhou Zishu parted his lips and ate the spoonful of congee fed to him. When Wen Kexing reached down to feed him another spoonful of congee, he stopped him.

“You eat yours. I can eat by myself.”

“I will eat after you finish,” said Wen Kexing.

“I am not so weak that I can’t eat by myself, Lao Wen.”

“Fine.”

Wen Kexing knew Zhou Zishu disliked having people view him as weak, so he reluctantly gave his soulmate the bowl of congee. After making sure that his soulmate was really able to hold the bowl without dropping it, he took his bowl of congee and they both started eating together. When they finished, Han Ying quietly took the bowl away and returned with another cup of water with the daily medicine that Zhou Zishu was required to take. Zhou Zishu took the medicine and swallowed it without any complaints before returning the now-empty cup of water to Han Ying.

“Lao Wen, come here,” Zhou Zishu said, patting his own lap and earning a bewildered look from his soulmate.

Wen Kexing blinked, “What is it, A-Xu?”

Zhou Zishu stretched his hand forward and pulled Wen Kexing down. The younger man who was now resting his head on his lap glanced at him, bewildered.

“Sleep,” Zhou Zishu’s voice came out light and gentle, almost like a whisper, “You did not sleep for more than a day already. You need to rest.”

“I am fine,” Wen Kexing said adamantly and attempted to get up, only to be pushed back down by Zhou Zishu.

“Lao Wen, listen to me,” Zhou Zishu said, stroking his soulmate’s hair just like what his soulmate was doing to him a while ago, “I will still be here when you wake up.”

Wen Kexing frowned, looking somewhat unsure, “You promise?”

Zhou Zishu bent down to place his lips on Wen Kexing’s forehead who immediately had a delighted smile plastered across his lips. Zhou Zishu tugged his lips into a fond smile as he spoke, “I promise.”

Wen Kexing closed his eyes then, relieved and feeling pleasant. He fell into a slumber pretty soon, much to Zhou Zishu’s relief.

“Ying’er, you should get some rest too,” said Zhou Zishu as he glanced up and noticed the obvious exhaustion on his disciple’s face.

Han Ying merely shook his head, “Shifu, I am fine.”

Zhou Zishu was certainly unconvinced. He parted his lips, a lecture of how he disliked disobedient disciples was on the tip of his tongue when he abruptly noticed how everyone looked so exhausted as if they had not been sleeping for days, and then his eyes landed on Qin Jiuxiao. Forget about exhaustion, his junior martial brother looked terrible with what was that? Were those bruises near his lips and cheeks? There was also a small cut on his face.

“Ying’er, come here. Let Lao Wen rest on you for a while,” said Zhou Zishu. Han Ying immediately went over as he took his master’s place and gently placed his junior martial uncle’s head onto his lap without waking the elder man up.

Zhou Zishu watched his soulmate sleep for a while, and it was only after confirming that his soulmate was still sleeping soundly that he walked over to his other junior martial brother. Qin Jiuxiao seemed completely clueless to someone standing before him now, his head lowered, his arms wrapped around his knees with his head resting on top of it. When he suddenly felt his chin being lifted up, he glanced up and was taken aback by who was standing before him now.

“Your face…” Zhou Zishu sounded half-amused and half-worried, “Lao Wen really did not hold back against you, did he?”

Zhou Zishu took a quick glance at his junior martial brother’s face thoroughly, noting in detail the depth of the younger man’s injuries, “Is it only the face? Are you hurt anywhere else?”

Qin Jiuxiao shook his head which was once again lowered now that Zhou Zishu was no longer holding him up by his chin.

Sensing the strange silence from his junior martial brother, Zhou Zishu lifted the younger man’s chin again. He did not notice how the man had been avoiding looking into his eyes as he was studying the wounds on his junior martial brother worriedly. His brows furrowed as he asked, “What’s wrong? Are the wounds hurting that much?”

Qin Jiuxiao pulled himself away from Zhou Zishu’s fingers, once again shaking his head.

Zhou Zishu’s frown deepened. He did not notice it at first, but he was now noticing how his junior martial brother had not been looking into his eyes at all since he woke up.

“Jiuxiao, look at me.”

Qin Jiuxiao stiffened at the stern voice. It took him a moment before he finally glanced up at his senior martial brother. The first thing he realized though was how pale his senior martial brother was, yet he seemed to care none of himself, and he was worrying about someone who tried to kill him instead. He wanted to cry again at the thought of nearly killing such a kind, a one-and-only senior martial brother who loved and cared for him unconditionally.

“Shi –” He bit his lips, his eyes returned to eyeing the ground, head lowered, “Lord Manor, I am fine.”

Zhou Zishu froze.

Qin Jiuxiao had his head lowered, so he did not get to see the surprise on Zhou Zishu’s face, but Bi Changfeng saw it clearly, and so did the others who were not sleeping.

“Jiuxiao!” Bi Changfeng called out to the younger man disapprovingly, urging him to say something, explain himself, or correct the way he addressed his senior martial brother if he did not want to make things worse. Despite that, Qin Jiuxiao paid him no heed, determined to keep his head down and maintain his silence.

“You...” For a brief moment, Zhou Zishu did not know what to say. It felt like his heart was stuck in his throat. He did not expect it would hurt so much to have his junior martial brother deny him, “What did you call me?”

Of course, just as expected, he got no response. The cave was immediately filled with a deafening silence then. Everyone fixed their gazes at Zhou Zishu, none dared to speak except the one who held the most respect from everyone after Zhou Zishu.

Bi Changfeng. The elder man parted his lips, ready to say something to explain on behalf of Qin Jiuxiao but Zhou Zishu beat him to it and spoke first.

“Of course,” A bitter smile made its way to Zhou Zishu’s lips as he said, “Who would want a Shixiong who caused his death and killed his lover? I have long lost the right to be your Shixiong.”

Qin Jiuxiao widened his eyes, flabbergasted by the misunderstanding he had caused. No, he screamed in his head, the one who was wrong and had no right was him, not his Shixiong! He stretched his hand forward, attempting to grasp his senior martial brother’s hand who was turning away from him but he was simply too slow.

He watched as his senior martial brother walked back to Wen Kexing and Han Ying without another word. He closed his eyes, keeping the tears welling up in his eyes in place and stopping them from falling. He had no right to cry. If there was someone who would like to cry, that should be his senior martial brother for how he had such a despicable junior martial brother who not only tried to take his life, and now even denied their relationship as martial brothers.

He parted his lips, ready to explain that was not what he meant at all when he was suddenly feeling bewildered as he watched his senior martial brother hunched over in front of Wen Kexing and stretched his hand into the man’s robes before easily fishing out two small bottles of medication. If anyone was surprised with how both Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing could so easily find the things they wanted in each other’s robes, none dared to comment anything on the matter.

With the two small bottles of medications in Zhou Zishu’s hand now, he walked back over to Qin Jiuxiao to give them to him.

“Take this,” Zhou Zishu said flatly, “Apply the smaller one on your cut and the other on your bruises.”

If anything, the guilt within Qin Jiuxiao merely rose even further. After everything, after how he had hurt his senior martial brother repeatedly, physically and mentally, the elder man continued to show concern for him. His lips were quivering as he harshly pressed them into a thin line. He did not dare to part his lips as he could almost be certain he would start crying and asking for forgiveness from his senior martial brother if he did so.

The problem was he did not think he deserved to be forgiven although he was absolutely sure his senior martial brother would forgive him in an instant.

Mistaking the silence as a form of rejection, Zhou Zishu asked, “Are you worried that there is poison in these?”

Qin Jiuxiao was confounded. He had not meant that at all. He glanced up just in time to see his senior martial brother removing the lids from the two small bottles of medications and applying them on his hand.

“See, it’s safe,” Zhou Zishu said as he raised his hand where he had applied the medication, showing his junior martial brother that there was indeed no poison in any of the two medications. Despite that, Qin Jiuxiao still made no movement to take the two small bottles from him, and he simply gave up.

“Forget it,” Zhou Zishu placed the two small bottles on the ground in front of Qin Jiuxiao as he spoke, “You can use it whenever you want.”

He turned around and returned to his other junior martial brother, but this time, before he managed to stand up, he felt himself abruptly being locked into a pair of arms wrapping tightly around him. Behind him, he heard the sound of someone sobbing. He did not need to turn around to find out who it was.

“I am sorry, Shixiong!” Qin Jiuxiao cried, he could no longer control the tears welling up in his eyes as they started streaming down his red-rimmed eyes, “I am truly sorry, Shixiong! I did not want any of this, but I know I am wrong! I am wrong, and I know I really have no right to ask for your forgiveness. Wen Kexing is right. I... I do not have the right to call you Shixiong. I... I do not deserve to be your Shidi after what I have done. I...!”

Qin Jiuxiao choked amidst his sobs. He pressed his trembling lips tightly together, words suddenly seemed to fail him despite the fact that he had actually prepared a long speech on how to ask for forgiveness. All that managed to escape his lips now was the same three words which he repeated again and again as he tightened his grasp around his senior martial brother.

“I am sorry...”

Every time he said those three words, he would always sound more broken than the previous. He could not help but think back to how he watched his senior martial brother drink one poison after another, yet he was too stunned to stop him back then, and a living nightmare came later. The image of his senior martial brother on the ground, throwing up blood and panting for breath was still haunting him even now. He had a feeling that he would never be able to forget this horrifying scene even in death.

Zhou Zishu’s eyes soon dampened as his junior martial brother’s broken apologies continued to echo within the cave. He pulled apart the two arms wrapped around him to turn around and meet his junior martial brother’s gaze. He raised his hands to the tear-shrieked face, unbothered by the tears trickling down to his hand as he wiped the old and new tears away with his fingers.

“Silly child...” Zhou Zishu said gently, “Look at you, your eyes are swollen already. Just how long have you been crying? What is there to cry for anyway? You did nothing wrong.”

Qin Jiuxiao shook his head as if he had just been accused of doing something he did not do, “No! It’s me! I was the one who poisoned Shixiong! Wen Kexing is absolutely right. I am the worst! There is no Shidi like me in this world who would kill his own Shixiong. I am inhuman!”

Zhou Zishu clicked his tongue in exasperation, “Do not listen to whatever he said. Lao Wen, he... he just goes a little insane when he sees me hurt. He does not know what he is saying. Besides, you did nothing wrong. You did not poison me. I drank the poison willingly, do you not remember?”

“That is...!” Qin Jiuxiao bit his lower lip, his head lowered in shame for a brief moment before he glanced up, “Shixiong is angry at me. Shixiong thinks I want you dead, but Shixiong, please trust me. I have never and would never want to see you dead! Jing’an told me they had the antidote, and that they would give it to you as soon as you promise never to hurt any of them, but I did not want you to be in any sort of pain at all. That’s why I went there when I am not supposed to appear in front of you. I –”

“That is enough,” Zhou Zishu cut his junior martial brother off before the younger man could blame himself further, “You should know that you have done nothing wrong even if you wish for my death. I have killed so many that my hands have long been drenched in blood that I would never be able to wash off. It’s undeniable that I have caused your death and killed your lover and her family in the past life, so it only made sense that you all would want to seek revenge on me.”

“No!” cried Qin Jiuxiao.

“Is that why you chose to put those nails on yourself?” Bi Changfeng asked flatly.

Zhou Zishu turned to the elder man questioning him, but he made no attempt to offer an answer to the question. Knowing that he would not be getting any answer, Bi Changfeng added, “You think it’s your fault that Jiuxiao died? Not only that, but you also think that it is you who have caused the death of everyone else in Four Seasons Manor.”

There was a momentary silence before Zhou Zishu parted his lips, his voice gentle yet doleful, “Do you not think the same as I do? Is that not why you would rather go through the torment of these nails than stay by my side?”

Bi Changfeng widened his eyes, stunned.

It was true that there were times when he thought if they had not followed their current Lord Manor all the way here to be of service to Prince Jin, perhaps many of them might still be alive. However, there were no ifs in this world. They were all dead, he and Zhou Zishu were the only two left standing. While he was in dismay and struggling to come to terms with life as he watched everyone around him dying, he forgot Zhou Zishu felt the same pain as he did, if not more.

“No, Shixiong!” Qin Jiuxiao grasped Zhou Zishu’s wrist, tears that dried up were starting to well up in his eyes once again, “This is not your fault. You have done your best to protect all of us. It’s bad enough that you are troubled by nightmares, you can’t start blaming yourself for everything now!”

“You...” Zhou Zishu was surprised. His junior martial brother definitely was not supposed to know about his nightmares. Only Wen Kexing knew about this, and probably at some point, Zhang Chengling from the past knew too.

“Just how much did Lao Wen tell you all while I was unconscious?” Zhou Zishu said, his expression softened as he patted Qin Jiuxiao’s head.

“A lot, although he was not exactly telling us, mostly to Han Ying, Xingming, and the other juniors,” Bi Changfeng said as he thought back to all the things he heard from Wen Kexing, “Like how you met your other disciple, Chengling, and how you are acting tough on the outside but extremely soft and gentle inside. He also told us a little about himself and how he was the one to be blamed for Han Ying’s death in the past.”

Zhou Zishu was astounded.

“What?” asked Zhou Zishu. He turned to Han Ying and frowned, “That is not true. Lao Wen did not cause the death of Han Ying. I did.”

Han Ying blinked, “But Shishu said it was him who –”

“He is just trying to make me feel better by taking the blame. Han Ying, you were only targeted because Prince Jin wanted to capture me back. If it was not for me, you would not have died.”

Zhou Zishu sounded indifferent as he spoke, but after years of getting to know the elder man, Han Ying could hear the sadness that hid behind the indifferent voice. He wanted to dash to his master and apologize for bringing up something that upset him, but then he realized he still had his junior martial uncle on his lap.

In fact, he did not think it mattered much how he had died in the past. He was alive now and he became a disciple of the man he looked up upon. This was his dream, and to have his dream come true, he would not regret anything even if he were to die at this moment.

“Shifu,” Han Ying said, controlling his voice so that it was not loud enough to wake Wen Kexing but at the same time loud enough to reach his master, “It does not matter how I died. I am alive now, and Shifu is with me.”

Qin Jiuxiao nodded, hurriedly making some comments of agreement as he threw himself into Zhou Zishu and hugged him tightly, “Han Ying is right! The past does not matter. What matters now is that we will survive through whatever obstacles come to us!”

Zhou Zishu tugged his lips into a faint smile, humming softly in response as he patted his junior martial brother’s head fondly. He continued patting the younger man’s head while he waited for the man before him to pull away from the tight embrace, but after some time passed, he realized his junior martial brother was not going to pull away anytime soon.

“Jiuxiao,” He asked, somewhat amused, “How long are you going to hug me like this?”

“Forever!” Qin Jiuxiao answered in an instant as if he had the answer prepared a long time ago, “I am never going to separate from Shixiong again!”

Zhou Zishu chuckled for a while before his expression softened and he was back to patting his junior martial brother’s head with a gentle gaze, “Sorry, Shixiong must have scared you. I probably looked terrible when the poisons suddenly kicked in.”

Qin Jiuxiao shuddered at the image of the fateful night once again.

The piercing scream.

The blood splattered everywhere.

His Shixiong lying lifeless on the ground.

“Were you aware of what was happening?” asked Bi Changfeng.

“No, but Lao Wen’s face says it all. He was looking at me like I just climbed up from hell.”

Everyone except Zhou Zishu looked downcast at how true the statement was, and a deafening silence once again filled the cave. Qin Jiuxiao wrapped his arms tighter around his senior martial brother. If anything, he seemed more reluctant to separate from his senior martial brother than before. In the end, it was Bi Changfeng who broke the silence.

“You sure do look like one.”

Zhou Zishu would have laughed if everyone was not looking so depressed, a grieving expression on their faces as if he would be dying any time soon, which was not exactly wrong.

“That is enough, I am not dead yet,” Zhou Zishu said flatly.

“Of course not!” Qin Jiuxiao stiffened, “Shixiong will live a long life!”

Qin Jiuxiao wrapped his arms around Zhou Zishu much tighter now, tight enough that Zhou Zishu had to compose himself so that he would not wince at the pain from his wound at the back. Overwhelmed by the existence of the poisons and that his senior martial brother might die any time now, Qin Jiuxiao had completely forgotten about the two wounds on Zhou Zishu, but Han Ying and Bi Changfeng had not forgotten about it.

“Master Qin, please stop wrapping your arms so tightly around Shifu!”

“Jiuxiao, Lord Manor still has wounds!”

Startled, Qin Jiuxiao promptly pulled away from Zhou Zishu. He looked terrified, afraid that he had somehow managed to hurt his senior martial brother again.

“Shixiong, I –”

“I am fine,” Zhou Zishu cut him off with a soft, assuring smile. He patted his junior martial brother’s head fondly once again, and Qin Jiuxiao looked half-delighted and half-upset at the touch.

“Shixiong...” Qin Jiuxiao’s voice was soft, almost like a whisper as if he was not sure if he wanted to part his lips at all. His fingers reached towards Zhou Zishu’s sleeve, clenching at the robes as he spoke with his head lowered, “Do you hate me?”

Zhou Zishu blinked, bewildered for a brief moment before he heaved a sigh and pushed his junior martial brother up by the chin, “Just what are you thinking with that tiny little brain of yours? You are my precious Shidi, I would never be able to hate you no matter what you do to me, be it in the past, the present, or in the future.”

Qin Jiuxiao, while he had somehow expected that his senior martial brother would not really hate him because he was too kind, too good to him, he was still surprised to hear those precious words from the man smiling gently in front of him. He blinked back tears before he once again threw himself forward into his senior martial brother’s embrace, but this time, he was careful enough not to hurt his senior martial brother’s wounds.

Zhou Zishu could not help but chuckle, “Why are you so clingy? How old do you think you are?”

Seeing his junior martial brother clinging all over him now, he could not stop himself from being reminded of Chengling. They were really similar like this, clingy and being a crybaby. He would have liked to tease his junior martial brother further, but then a soft mumbling voice made him come to a halt.

“...xu...”

It was soft, just like the sound of the wind, but he had lived long enough with his soulmate to recognize even the sound of breathing from the man. He was calling for him with a rather distressed voice – it was the same voice he had heard calling out to him at night whenever his soulmate had a nightmare about him dying after pulling out the nails.

Without thinking much, he immediately pushed Qin Jiuxiao’s arms away before dashing to Wen Kexing in an instant. Qin Jiuxiao was left stunned, staring at the back of his senior martial brother who had so eagerly pushed him away. This had never happened before.

“No… A-Xu…!”

Han Ying turned to his junior martial uncle on his lap worriedly as the elder man was clearly still in his sleep, most probably in a dream too – a nightmare, but he seemed tense with how his brows were furrowed, his mumbling voice sounded anxious, terrified even. Zhou Zishu reached them in an instant, his hands easily found Wen Kexing’s hands as he held them tightly.

“Lao Wen,” He whispered tenderly as he raised a hand up and stroked Wen Kexing’s hair like he was comforting a child, “Everything is fine. I am here. Lao Wen, I am here.”

“A-Xu!”

All of a sudden, Wen Kexing sat bolt upright, wide awake and visibly taking in a shuddering breath. He glanced around, there were many unfamiliar faces and with whatever he was seeing in his sleep a moment ago, he did not bother to think of who these people were. After all, who they were and why these people were here was hardly any of his concern. All he needed to know was that his soulmate was alive.

“A-Xu!”

“Lao Wen,” Zhou Zishu quickly tightened his grasp on Wen Kexing’s hand in an attempt to prove to his soulmate that he was always here, “Lao Wen, I am here.”

“A-Xu!” Wen Kexing grasped Zhou Zishu’s arms desperately, “A-Xu, I am sorry! I should not have hidden it from you, I just… I just did not want you to worry. You were not supposed to be there. That was not how I planned it. You were supposed to be resting and preparing for the removal of the nails.”

“Lao Wen.”

“You should not have removed your nails for me. If I have known you would do such a thing, I would rather destroy my plan for revenge than –”

“Lao Wen!” Zhou Zishu tightened his grasp on Wen Kexing, pulling him closer so that his soulmate would know that he was here, alive and whatever was troubling his mind was all in the past now, “I am fine, Lao Wen. The nails are still here, I am still alive and I am not going to pull them out before Wu Xi comes and helps me do so.”

Wen Kexing blinked, bewildered.

“You were dreaming, those are all in the past now. I am fine, you saved me after I pulled out the nails. Lao Wen, do you remember?”

“I…” Wen Kexing trailed off as he gradually recalled what happened – why they were here in a cave and who these people were. He looked relieved for a brief moment before he abruptly reached up to grip tightly on his soulmate’s arms, a look of horror and panic crossed his face, “Those poisons!”

“I am fine,” Zhou Zishu grasped back at Wen Kexing’s arms, holding them so gently and comfortingly, “I am fine, Lao Wen. Senior Ye is on his way to get Lord Seventh and the Great Shaman.”

Wen Kexing released a breath that he did not know he was holding. His expression turned from panic to relief and then to distress. His head was lowered, and his voice was as soft as a whisper as he parted his lips.

“I did not manage to save you, again.”

“No,” Zhou Zishu said, his hands on Wen Kexing’s face now, pushing the younger man’s face to look up at him, “No, do not say that, Lao Wen. This is not your fault. It’s… it’s mine. You should not blame yourself.”

Wen Kexing shook his head, blinking back tears as he spoke, sounding absolutely dejected, “I am not enough.”

“Lao Wen?” Zhou Zishu asked, puzzled.

“I am not enough for you to want to live for me. Even after all those years, I thought perhaps I mean something to you…” Wen Kexing laughed bitterly, unbothered by the tears trickling down his cheeks now. Paying no heed to the pain that crossed his soulmate’s face, he continued, “In the end, I am still not enough for you to want to live for me.”

Zhou Zishu froze, he stared at Wen Kexing incredulously as if the younger man had either said something outrageous or offensively wrong.

“I am always not enough, always late, always –”

Having had enough, Zhou Zishu cut Wen Kexing off as he slammed their lips together. He wrapped his arms tightly around the younger man, preventing the younger man from even trying to escape despite the fact that he knew he did not need to do such a thing at all. Wen Kexing would never try to escape from him. If anything, Wen Kexing was pushing himself deeper into the kiss, desperate and hungry to taste his soulmate after the horrifying episode of the night when everything started going wrong.

If anyone was gasping from behind, they paid them no heed. Too deep in their own world to have each other in their arms again, they ignored all the pairs of eyes they noticed were staring at them with wide eyes, astonished and perplexed. None of the others held any importance to them at this moment. They found they would not care for a little even if the Window of Heaven were to charge into the cave now.

“Lao Wen,” Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing finally parted after a good long time. Zhou Zishu had a hand on his soulmate’s face, caressing him with fondness and tenderness, “I prepared to die when I put in these nails. It was you who made me want to live, and when I thought you died, I was so prepared to die with you by pulling out these nails. You mean the whole world to me, please do not forget that.”

Wen Kexing stiffened and nodded after a long moment.

Zhou Zishu tugged his lips into a smile, “There is still some time before dawn. Go and sleep.”

Wen Kexing shook his head. He did not want to go and sleep alone and had more nightmares visiting him. He would rather stay awake.

As if understanding what was going on in Wen Kexing’s head, Zhou Zishu patted his head, “You need to rest. Come, I will sleep with you.”

Wen Kexing nodded, smiling as he allowed his soulmate to pull him to rest. The others watched the two rest their heads on the ground with Wen Kexing so naturally extended his arm and wrapped it around Zhou Zishu who rested his head close to Wen Kexing’s chest. Bi Changfeng and Qin Jiuxiao turned to each other, confounded. They looked like they had a lot in mind but they remained silent. Han Ying lowered his head, his face somewhat flushed, an expression that he shared along with the other juniors.

Chapter Text

When Zhou Zishu woke up the next day, he felt the familiar warm, gentle and slender fingers sliding through his hair. Slowly, he lifted his eyes as his lips naturally made their way into a gentle, fond smile when he met his soulmate’s gaze.

“Good morning, A-Xu.”

It felt so nice to be woken up with Wen Kexing by his side, just like the years of immortal life they had spent together. Feeling so much better after having so much rest, he pushed himself up, and Wen Kexing quickly helped him up too.

“A-Xu, are you hungry?”

“A little,” answered Zhou Zishu.

“What do you want to eat?”

Zhou Zishu seemed pensive for a brief moment before he gave his answer, “I feel like eating the sweet and sour fish that you cooked back then.”

Wen Kexing smiled, “Anything else?”

“Mapo tofu, extra spicy.”

“Anything else?”

“Chicken soup.”

“Anything else?”

Zhou Zishu seemed ready to spell out more food when he suddenly looked like he had thought of something and turned to Wen Kexing, “We are stuck here in this cave, Lao Wen. There is no way you can make them, and we do not have the ingredients.”

“I can go out and buy them. I will make anything for you at any time as long as you crave them.”

Zhou Zishu was about to say no, thinking that there would always be next time. However, when the words were on the tip of his tongue, he came to a halt. There might really not be a next time though. He was not sure if he could actually survive the poisons at all.

“Take Han Ying with you,” Zhou Zishu said instead.

“No,” Wen Kexing said with a  frown, “Han Ying should stay with you, or I will be worried.”

Zhou Zishu pursed his lips into a thin line while Wen Kexing turned around and landed his gaze on Bi Xingming. Noticing the gaze, Bi Xingming immediately stood up.

“I can go with Senior Wen.”

Zhou Zishu turned to Bi Changfeng, and so did Bi Xingming. After all, at this point in time, Bi Xingming was still Bi Changfeng’s disciple, so it was only natural for the latter to have the last say.

Bi Changfeng nodded, giving his approval as soon as he felt the gazes directed at him. Wen Kexing and Bi Xingming then left, but not before Wen Kexing gave a cold glare to Qin Jiuxiao, Officer Li and Princess Jing’an. After ensuring that they had gotten his warning clearly, he turned to Han Ying.

“Do not worry, Shishu,” Han Ying stated firmly, “I will not let anyone hurt Shifu again.”

Wen Kexing nodded, feeling pleased. If it was anyone else, he would probably still worry. However, this was Han Ying, the man who would rather sacrifice his life for his soulmate, and he felt at ease to leave his soulmate under this young man’s care while he was out for a short moment.

With Bi Xingming standing by his side, Wen Kexing prepared to leave the place. Zhou Zishu watched them leave, and after that, the cave was filled with a deafening silence with a few glancing at each other awkwardly. One of them even tried to make a joke but seeing that no one reacted to his joke, he quickly lowered his head and pretended he had never opened his mouth at all.

From the far end side of the cave where they had almost been forgotten, Officer Li and Princess Jing’an turned to each other. They looked like they had something to say but ended up staying there in silence. On the other side, Qin Jiuxiao and Bi Changfeng were locking eyes at each other. These two looked like they were communicating voicelessly. After perhaps nearly an hour or two, they finally decided to stand up and approach their manor lord.

Seeing their approach, Zhou Zishu gave them a faint smile and turned to Bi Changfeng as he spoke, “There is no need to worry. Lao Wen will make sure to keep Xingming safe.”

“I know,” Bi Changfeng said, “That is not what I am concerned about.”

Zhou Zishu raised his eyebrow at Bi Changfeng, noticing how the older man seemed to have other concerns in his mind. Qin Jiuxiao looked the same. He wondered if they were actually having some sort of concern regarding Wen Kexing’s identity.

“Lord Manor,” It was Bi Changfeng who spoke first, “You and Wen Kexing... what exactly is the relationship between the two of you?”

Taken aback by the question, Zhou Zishu blinked, “Lao Wen is my Shidi and Jiuxiao’s Shixiong.”

“Not that…” Bi Changfeng cleared his throat, looking somewhat awkward, “I mean… you… the two of you, are you two married?”

Zhou Zishu froze, completely flabbergasted by the question.

“No.”

This time, it was both Bi Changfeng and Qin Jiuxiao who looked surprised instead. Frowning, Bi Changfeng asked, “He refused to take responsibility?”

“Take...?! That’s not it… Lao Wen, he… he dislikes weddings,” Zhou Zishu said, still feeling somewhat confounded as to where this strange conversation was reaching, “Let’s not talk about this, we –”

Zhou Zishu halted when he heard a clearing voice from behind him. He turned around but before he managed to see who was before him, his junior martial brother was standing in front of him all of a sudden.

“What else do you two want?” Qin Jiuxiao’s voice was surprisingly nothing but harsh.

“Jiuxiao, we…” Princess Jing’an said timidly, her head lowered and her fingers intertwined in a state of unease as she continued to speak, “We just want to talk to Lord Manor Zhou.”

“There is nothing to talk about.”

“Jiuxiao.”

Qin Jiuxiao turned around when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Reluctantly, he stepped aside as his senior martial brother stepped forward.

“Officer Li, Princess Jing’an.”

“Officer Zhou,” Officer Li spoke with great respect, but then he realized that the man before him now only had one remaining identity, so he changed the way he addressed the man, “No, Lord Manor Zhou. I have to thank you for saving my daughter. You disregarded what we have done to you, even going as far as getting injured to save my daughter. For that, I am absolutely thankful to you.”

“Officer Li is exaggerating. Even if it was someone else at that time, I would do the same. I only hope that whatever grudge you have towards me, it will not affect the relationship between Jiuxiao and Princess Jing’an.”

“Shixiong!”

Zhou Zishu raised a hand up to stop Qin Jiuxiao from interrupting while he continued, “Whatever the Window of Heaven did is my decision. Jiuxiao has no part in it at all. If it is revenge that you want, come to me again whenever you want. However, that being said, it doesn’t mean I will really just stand here and wait for you all to kill me. Just like Officer Li is trying to kill me to protect your family, I need to survive too for the sake of those who care for me.”

The cave was in a deep silence when Zhou Zishu was done speaking. While Officer Li and Zhou Zishu locked their eyes together, both of their expressions completely unreadable, Bi Changfeng stepped in between them.

“If Officer Li wishes to seek revenge on our Four Seasons Manor Lord, you would have to step over my dead body first.”

“And mine too,” said Qin Jiuxiao.

“Mine as well,” said Han Ying as he stepped forward, eyeing Officer Li dangerously, “but you have to know that if my Shifu dies here today, then not only should you be afraid of being targeted by the Window of Heaven because before the Window of Heaven even reaches you, my Wen-Shishu will kill you and your daughter, and he would then send all the ghosts to eliminate your family.”

Zhou Zishu nearly rolled his eyes. Why were all his disciples so fond of using Wen Kexing’s name to threaten the others? Previously was Chengling, and now Han Ying too. Seriously, his soulmate was really doing great in influencing his disciples.

“You damn brat,” Zhou Zishu said with exasperation as he smacked Han Ying's head lightly, “Do you think that I am dead?”

“Shifu...”

Han Ying rubbed his head awkwardly and stepped aside for Zhou Zishu to step forward. His head lowered when he felt his master threw a glare at him.

Zhou Zishu heaved a sigh, “Why do all my disciples always learn to threaten others with Lao Wen’s name only? I don’t even know who is your Shifu here anymore.”

Han Ying gaped, “Shifu...!”

“Silence,” Zhou Zishu turned to Officer Li and Princess Jing’an, “Officer Li.”

“Lord Manor Zhou,” Before Zhou Zishu managed to say anything more, Officer Li spoke first, “It’s true that I have always seen you as the one who killed my family. However, Master Wen is right. The one who officially gave out the command to kill us all is Prince Jin. You were just following orders.”

“What Officer Li is trying to say here is...?”

“In addition, Lord Manor Zhou saved my dear daughter. I could never bring any harm to my daughter’s savior. At this moment, Jing’an and I only wish to see the Great Shaman would be able to reach here as soon as possible to save Lord Manor Zhou, or we will both have to live with guilt our entire lives.”

“Live with guilt?!” A furious voice appeared behind Officer Li and Princess Jing’an, “You two should end your own lives to pay for the sins of what you two have done to A-Xu!”

“Lao Wen.”

Hearing the familiar infuriated voice and the unmistakable name, everyone moved aside for Zhou Zishu to walk towards the younger man.

“You are back so fast,” said Zhou Zishu.

Wen Kexing scoffed, “If I do not come back now, should I only come back when they have killed you?”

“Lao Wen.”

Paying no heed to Zhou Zishu’s tone of voice that told Wen Kexing to mind his words, Wen Kexing pulled his soulmate’s wrist to have him stand behind as he stepped forward and narrowed his eyes at both Officer Li and Princess Jing’an, “Listen carefully, the two of you. If you dare to lay a finger on my A-Xu, it’s not only death that you will get. I will make you all scream for your dear life, and you would wish you were dead but I will still –”

“Enough, enough,” Zhou Zishu interrupted and pulled Wen Kexing away from the crowd, “Since you are back, start cooking then.”

“A-Xu!”

“Stop complaining, you said you would make anything I want. Are you backing out now?”

“No, that’s not it. They –”

“What about them? No one is helping you.”

“You are so heartless, A-Xu!”

“L-Lord Manor Zhou, M-Master... Wen...” Princess Jing’an voiced out rather timidly, she eyed the two warily before she continued, “Father and I can help out with the cooking. We have not been able to be of any help, so if there is anything we can do, we will be willing to do it.”

“Help out with cooking?” Wen Kexing scoffed, “Sure, and then you can put poison however much you want into the food. Save you the time and effort to think of how you can kill my A-Xu, right?”

“Lao Wen,” Zhou Zishu said with a frown, “No matter what, Princess Jing’an is a lady. Can’t you be kinder to her?”

Wen Kexing huffed, “I am not like you. You are kind and gentle to everyone else except to me!”

“Is that so?” Zhou Zishu raised an eyebrow at Wen Kexing, but the latter simply ignored his soulmate as he prepared to start cooking.

Zhou Zishu, however, caught Wen Kexing’s wrist and gently pushed the younger man’s chin up. He locked his gaze affectionately at his soulmate, the tenderness in his eyes was surely something that caused anyone to be unable to turn away from, let alone Wen Kexing who openly wished for his soulmate’s eyes to only look at him all the time.

“Lao Wen,” Zhou Zishu’s voice was nothing but seducing, one that Wen Kexing could never turn away and refuse from, “Tell me, when have I not been good to you?”

As if trying to spice things up, the hand on Wen Kexing’s wrist gradually traveled to wrap itself under his waist, and Zhou Zishu slowly moved closer. Wen Kexing gulped. His whole body stiffened, and he could even hear how his own heartbeat was pounding wildly. There were many people here, and the cave had no place for them to hide. They could not do anything here, or could they? Perhaps if he put something in the cooking and made them sleep for a few hours –

“Tell me,” Zhou Zishu's soft, seductive voice pulled his attention back in an instant, “I will change. For you.”

Wen Kexing shook his head immediately.

“You do not want me to be good to you or have I already been good to you?”

“Good!” Wen Kexing exclaimed quickly, “Very good, A-Xu! You are the best!”

Zhou Zishu tugged his lips into a triumphant smile before he released his hold on Wen Kexing and turned around. Wen Kexing could finally breathe now. He did not even know he was holding his breath.

“While there is time,” Zhou Zishu turned to Han Ying and beckoned the younger man to follow him, “Come with me, Ying’er. It’s time for me to show you our Four Seasons Manor’s martial arts.”

Han Ying’s heart skipped a beat. He had been waiting for this moment for years, and to think that he was now officially a disciple of the man he admired, he really could not stop smiling at all. His eyes were glistening and his fingers simply could not stop shaking in excitement.

Wen Kexing on the other hand, after having calmed his fluttering heart finally came to the conclusion that his soulmate was definitely making fun of him and whined, “A-Xu!”

From a distance away, Zhou Zishu could not stop himself from smiling as he imagined how his soulmate must have looked right now. He did not turn around to meet Wen Kexing’s gaze though, knowing that the latter definitely would not be angry at him for real.

Chapter Text

Days passed by pretty fast in the cave, and before anyone knew it, they had already been stuck there for nearly a week now. It usually would not exactly bother them much to be stuck in this cave considering that everyone, Officer Li and Princess Jing’an aside, never had a life filled with freedom to begin with. What bothered them though was how Zhou Zishu’s body seemed to deteriorate continuously. He would always wake up much later than each previous day, and even after sleeping so much, he still looked pale and exhausted, almost as if he had not been sleeping for days already.

Today was no different.

The cave was eerily silent with no one having any interest to speak considering how worried they were. Wen Kexing was as usual, lying down beside Zhou Zishu as he watched his soulmate sleep. Han Ying, Bi Xingming and the other juniors had officially taken it upon their responsibility to cook during the daytime and Wen Kexing would only cook at night in which he would only bother preparing the food that his soulmate liked. If anyone had any comments, he paid them no heed, but then again, it was not like anyone dared to comment about anything at all besides Zhou Zishu.

When it reached the time for Zhou Zishu to wake up, he lifted his eyes groggily. Just like any other day, the first that came into his view was Wen Kexing’s eyes on him, his lips tugged into a tender and fond smile as he wished Zhou Zishu a great morning despite the fact that morning had long passed. Wen Kexing would then help Zhou Zishu up for the latter seemed to have a little trouble waking up by himself. His body was getting weaker, his strength was gradually leaving him and everyone knew exactly what this meant.

His time was running out.

Like any other day, Wen Kexing would keep putting food into Zhou Zishu’s bowl despite the latter complaining that he could not finish all of them. When they were done with the meal, Bi Xingming and the other juniors would do the cleaning while Wen Kexing would start preparing their meals for the night.

Being stuck in the cave was indeed boring, and Zhou Zishu busied himself with teaching Han Ying the martial arts of Four Seasons Manor. He had not much strength to demonstrate how the style worked, thus Qin Jiuxiao and Bi Changfeng would do that for him. All he needed to do was to watch and give some comments, suggesting ways for Han Ying to improve himself.

While Han Ying practiced, Zhou Zishu sat down and drank his tea. The day went by pretty well, that was until he suddenly felt a piercing pain running through him. He started coughing harshly and before he knew what was happening, the cup that was filled with tea was covered in red now.

“Shixiong!”

“Lord Manor!”

“Shifu!”

The three immediately rushed over and surrounded him, their eyes were filled with panic, fear and concern. Zhou Zishu raised a hand up, asking for them to stop making a fuss because he was perfectly fine. At the very least, he was not dead yet.

“Shixiong…” Qin Jiuxiao crouched down and grasped his senior martial brother’s wrist, his voice was sorrowful and terrified while his eyes were rimmed red.

“It is nothing,” Zhou Zishu said indifferently, “I am fine, do not tell Lao Wen about this.”

Han Ying lowered his head in distress. Despite feeling reluctant to obey, he still ended up nodding his head. Bi Changfeng and Qin Jiuxiao however, looked like they had something to argue regarding this matter, but they did not manage to even part their lips when hurried footsteps were heard rushing to them.

Wen Kexing must have heard something considering that the cave was not that huge in the first place.

Hastily, Zhou Zishu slid his sleeve across his lips, wiping away any traces of blood before he quickly hid the cup of blood behind him just in time for Wen Kexing to appear before him. Wen Kexing glanced around, firstly at his soulmate to scrutinize if there was any visible wound before glancing at the others to check if anyone was trying to harm his soulmate.

“A-Xu, what happened? I heard Han Ying calling out to you, he sounded so anxious,” Wen Kexing paused as he turned to Qin Jiuxiao and Bi Changfeng before adding in with a little hostility, “and these two as well.”

“It’s nothing. I just nearly lost my footing but I managed to find my balance before falling,” Zhou Zishu said, a faint smile lingered across his lips as he added, “They are just exaggerating.”

Zhou Zishu’s words were so smooth and convincing that Wen Kexing’s expression started turning from anxious to relieved in an instant. Han Ying averted his gaze from the two, eyes fixed on the ground as he was worried if he looked up for even a moment, he would be unable to hide the worries and fear clouding his eyes. Meanwhile, Qin Jiuxiao stiffened while Bi Changfeng grimaced, both equally surprised with how skillful their Lord Manor was at making up lies. They never noticed this before, but thinking about it now, especially about how Zhou Zishu managed to hide his nails for so long, they were pretty sure the man before them must have taken years of practice to be able to lie so flawlessly now.

“A-Xu, there is still some time before the food will be ready. Why don’t you…?!”

Wen Kexing was walking over to Zhou Zishu as he spoke, but all of a sudden, he froze. His face turned pale in an instant, much to everyone’s bemusement. However, he was quick to recover from whatever it was that surprised him as he put on a forced smile and spoke, “You guys continue. I… I will return to cooking.”

Zhou Zishu parted his lips, he looked like he had something to say but he pursed his lips into a grim line when Wen Kexing turned around without another word. He glanced down to find that Wen Kexing’s fingers were trembling slightly. The younger man must have realized it as he clenched his hands into a pair of fists and quickened his steps like he was eager to walk away from Zhou Zishu and the others.

“Lord Manor…” Bi Changfeng spoke after Wen Kexing was far away from them, “You can’t be hiding this from him forever.”

Zhou Zishu shook his head, “He knows.”

Bi Changfeng frowned, “He knows?”

Zhou Zishu nodded silently. Bi Changfeng and Qin Jiuxiao turned to each other, sharing a baffled gaze before both turned to Zhou Zishu, waiting for an explanation.

“Blood,” Han Ying said as his eyes were fixed on the cup of tea his master was still holding tightly behind his back, “Wen-Shishu must have smelled the blood.”

Bi Changfeng and Qin Jiuxiao turned to each other again, completely understanding now how Wen Kexing had found out about it although they were still somehow perplexed as to how Zhou Zishu knew that Wen Kexing knew. The man surely did not reveal that he had known. However, before any of them managed to ask how Zhou Zishu found out, there were a few loud, startling gasps before worried voices echoed within the cave.

“Master Wen!”

Zhou Zishu immediately placed down the cup of blood on the ground before promptly hurrying over to Wen Kexing. To his surprise, Wen Kexing was surrounded by the juniors who upon seeing his arrival, moved to one side so that he could walk over to Wen Kexing. Bi Xingming was at Wen Kexing’s side, looking absolutely worried at Wen Kexing’s bleeding finger. The knife that Wen Kexing was probably using it to cut some ingredients had a few drops of blood on it.

It was just a small wound. Technically speaking, one should not be worried about just a small cut on a finger, but it was a different case when it came to Wen Kexing. The man had years of experience in cooking, and never had he injured himself while cooking. This merely further proved that he knew what Zhou Zishu was hiding from him.

“Lord Manor,” Bi Xingming was about to explain what happened, but Zhou Zishu stopped him by asking him to bring the things for him to bandage Wen Kexing’s wound instead.

“A-Xu, look at how clumsy I am, I could even cut myself while cooking,” Wen Kexing laughed hollowly, “I am even worse than Chengling.”

Zhou Zishu did not bother to join in on the joke. He waited in silence for Bi Xingming to return. As soon as the younger man returned with the things he requested, he started cleaning the wound in silence.

“Xingming and I shall handle the cooking tonight,” said Han Ying.

Zhou Zishu nodded, a look of gratitude displayed across his face before he turned his attention back to Wen Kexing’s wound. Han Ying and Bi Xingming immediately prepared themselves to cook while Zhou Zishu bandaged Wen Kexing’s wound.

“A-Xu.”

Wen Kexing’s voice appeared softly. Zhou Zishu did not bother forming a reply. He knew his soulmate understood that he was listening.

“A-Xu, let’s get married.”

The hands working on Wen Kexing’s bandage came to a halt in an instant. There were many gasps from behind, mostly from the juniors while Bi Changfeng and Qin Jiuxiao were simply too stunned with the boldness coming from Wen Kexing. All eyes were on Zhou Zishu at the same time, they were all waiting with bated breath to see the response coming from Zhou Zishu’s end. They were not even the ones proposing yet at some point, they looked even more agitated than Wen Kexing.

However, despite everyone’s excitement, Zhou Zishu remained indifferent as he continued to bandage Wen Kexing’s wound. When he was finally done bandaging the finger, he stood up but Wen Kexing caught his wrist before he managed to walk away.

“A-Xu, maybe you missed what I said. I am saying let’s get –”

“Lao Wen.”

Wen Kexing tightened his grasp around Zhou Zishu’s wrist, his voice was as soft as a whisper, and he sounded awfully crestfallen as he asked, “You don’t want to?”

“You do not like weddings,” Zhou Zishu said, turning to meet Wen Kexing’s gaze as he continued, “Besides, did you not always say that getting married is unnecessary as it is just a show to those who aren’t  important? If two people really are devoted to each other, they will live as one even without going through the process of marriage.”

Wen Kexing pursed his lips into a thin line, his eyes downcast. Zhou Zishu took the hand on his wrist as he crouched down, “Don’t worry too much. Everything will be fine.”

Despite his reassurance, Wen Kexing still did not look at ease. In fact, he looked as if he could not hear anything at all. Zhou Zishu knew what exactly his soulmate was worried about, but he did not feel like saying any more empty words like he would not die to deceive his soulmate. He would not believe it anyway.

Zhou Zishu turned around, but before he managed to rise up to his feet, he felt himself being pulled back. A strong pair of arms were wrapped tightly around him, locking him in place and preventing him from moving away. The voice that appeared behind him sounded so despondent like he was pleading for Zhou Zishu to marry him.

“With you, I want to.”

Wen Kexing tightened his grasp around Zhou Zishu, tears were clouding his eyes as he parted his lips again, “I want to be officially married to you so that I will be the first thing you see every morning, and then you will tell me what you want to eat and I will cook for you. When we are free, we can practice martial arts together or talk about all the things in the world. At night, we can go to the rooftop with a jar of liquor in our hands, enjoying the moonlight while you rest on my shoulder.”

Zhou Zishu’s own eyes were dampening as he listened to how his soulmate talked about their days in the future, his voice breaking towards the end. In fact, this was not just an imagination, those were what they actually did after having been turned to be immortal, but in this life, with Zhou Zishu’s current state, such a simple, carefree life merely seemed to be so far away from their reach.

Zhou Zishu took in a deep breath, the tears were left welling up in his eyes as he grasped the arms wrapped around him, “Lao Wen, what you want is not a wedding. What you want is an assurance.”

Wen Kexing did not deny it. He did not think there was a reason to deny anyway. He slowly released his arms from his soulmate, eyeing his soulmate forlornly.

“Yet, you would not give me this assurance?”

A drop of tear trickled down Zhou Zishu’s cheek. He felt helpless. He did not want to die. He did not want to leave his soulmate alone, but there was really nothing he could do about it.

“Because you will leave me again, soon. Very soon. You don’t want me to be a widower,” Wen Kexing laughed, “You are going to abandon me, leave me all alone in this ugly world filled with nothing but cruelty!”

Zhou Zishu turned around and met his soulmate’s furious and crestfallen gaze in an instant, “No, Lao Wen. You aren’t alone. You still have A-Xiang. There is also Chengling, he is so fond of you, and Han Ying. There are also Uncle Bi, and Jiuxiao. They are all your family.”

“Han Ying is your disciple, and so was Chengling! What do they have anything to do with me?! A-Xiang... A-Xiang, she is going to leave me as soon as the brat with the last name Cao appears. As for the other two, you know I dislike them! I have nothing else to live for, A-Xu.”

“No!” Zhou Zishu cried, panicked, “You need to live. You finally get the chance to live freely, you can’t follow after me...!”

Wen Kexing released a dry laugh, “You are so cruel, A-Xu. You pulled out all of your nails when you thought I died back then, yet when the situation is reversed, you would not let me do the same. You want me to watch you die and suffer all alone in this world.”

Zhou Zishu shook his head. He did not want Wen Kexing to suffer at all, not even for a second, but at the same time, he did not want him to die. He deserved to live after living through the past twenty years in pain and drowning himself in the thirst for revenge.

Zhou Zishu reached forward, he wanted to wipe away the tears from Wen Kexing’s face but the younger man did not let him. Not only did Wen Kexing move back to avoid the incoming touch, he even stood up and left the cave.

“Wen –” Qin Jiuxiao wanted to call out to the man, but the man had already left without a second of hesitation. He turned to his senior martial brother helplessly, “Shixiong, should I go and get him?”

Zhou Zishu shook his head, “He will return, latest by tomorrow before sunrise. He knows I do not have too much time left.”

Qin Jiuxiao felt his breath caught in his throat. He parted his lips, seemingly ready to argue on the matter but Zhou Zishu did not let him.

“Han Ying, there is something I need you to do for me.”

Han Ying sank his knees to the ground, “Shifu, please give this disciple your command.”

Zhou Zishu smiled faintly as he pulled his disciple up, “If... If I really can’t make it...”

“Shixiong!”

“Do not interrupt,” Zhou Zishu said, frowning at his junior martial brother before he turned back to his disciple, “The Great Shaman has a medicine that can help one to completely forget about their past. If I really can’t make it, Ying’er, I want you to get the medicine from the Great Shaman and find a way to trick your Wen-Shishu into taking the medicine.”

“Shifu, this...” Han Ying was completely taken aback by his master’s decision. He asked in distress, “Is there no other choice?”

“This is for the best,” Zhou Zishu said, tugging his lips into a faint, bitter smile, “After he forgets everything, Ying’er, I want you to tell him that your Shifu, he is the Lord Manor of Four Seasons Manor, Wen Kexing.”

Han Ying widened his eyes and sank his knees to the ground once again, “Shifu! Han Ying will only have one Shifu in this life. Shifu lives, Han Ying lives. Shifu dies, Han Ying dies.”

Zhou Zishu pulled Han Ying up once again, “Silly, you have finally left the Window of Heaven. Your days ahead are so bright, do not ever think of following me.”

“Shifu...”

“Shixiong.”

“Lord Manor.”

Zhou Zishu turned around to see Bi Changfeng and Qin Jiuxiao behind him. Bi Changfeng looked gloomy, there was a frown on him to show how displeased he felt. Qin Jiuxiao was once again, close to crying.

“Are you serious about this? You are trying to remove your existence...!” Bi Changfeng said incredulously.

“This is for the best.”

“No!” Qin Jiuxiao cried as he rushed forward and threw his arms around his senior martial brother, “Shixiong will not die! The Great Shaman! He is coming!”

“We all know that it’s near to impossible for them to reach here in such a short time, and in addition, they still need to avoid bumping into the Window of Heaven. When the time comes for them to finally reach here, I am afraid...”

Zhou Zishu pulled himself back from Qin Jiuxiao and wiped the tears away from the younger man’s face, “Shixiong might not be able to attend your wedding. I do not have anything much to give you now but this.”

Qin Jiuxiao glanced down to see his senior martial brother handing him none other than Baiyi sword. He shook his head immediately as he staggered back. There was no way he was going to take the sword away from his senior martial brother.

“Shixiong, no...! I am not going to take that! You are not going to die!”

"Jiuxiao –”

“No!” Qin Jiuxiao dropped to the ground, the tears were streaming down his face uncontrollably, “I am sorry, Shixiong. This is all my fault!”

Zhou Zishu lowered himself down in front of his junior martial brother as he wiped the younger man’s tears. His voice was so soft and tender and it merely caused Qin Jiuxiao to break down at the voice.

“Not your fault.”

Qin Jiuxiao threw his arms around Zhou Zishu as he sobbed. He repeated the words I am sorry like they were the only words he knew how to say, his voice breaking increasingly with every time he repeated them.

Chapter Text

As if Zhou Zishu was a fortune teller, Wen Kexing really did return the next day before sunrise. His lips were pursed into a grim line as he entered the cave, his face was extremely dark and no one dared to talk to him at all. One or two timid juniors even staggered back and hid behind Han Ying and Bi Xingming, obviously intimidated by the killing aura unleashing out of Wen Kexing.

Paying no heed to the others, Wen Kexing walked over to Zhou Zishu to pull up the quilt on the man so that it covered up to his neck before he stood up and busied himself with cooking. Surprisingly though, while everyone thought he would start cutting the vegetables in his hand violently to vent his frustration, he was completely gentle. He was cooking rather softly, most probably to prevent waking Zhou Zishu up.

After he was done with the cooking, he went over to his soulmate’s side and spent the rest of the morning admiring the face which he could only describe as nothing else but perfect. Immersed in the beauty before him, he did not notice that something was wrong until around an hour or two after noon arrived.

Zhou Zishu was way much later at waking up this time, and while this was something to worry about, Wen Kexing noticed how his soulmate’s face seemed to be unusually flushing. He brought his hand up to his soulmate’s face and was startled when he felt the burn on the back of his hand.

“A-Xu!”

Sensing the anxiousness in Wen Kexing’s voice, Bi Changfeng and Qin Jiuxiao turned to Wen Kexing worriedly. The others also turned to Wen Kexing in concern.

“Wen-Shishu,” Han Ying was the first to rush to Wen Kexing and asked worriedly, “Is something wrong with Shifu?”

“He is having a fever. Han Ying, give me the medicine, quick!”

With a swift movement, Han Ying immediately reached into his robes and handed over the bottle of pills given by Ye Baiyi to Wen Kexing. Wen Kexing wasted no time in feeding the medicine to his soulmate while Han Ying immediately got Bi Xingming to bring a glass of water to them just in time for Wen Kexing to turn around and ask for it.

All of them waited with bated breath for any kind of response, but alas, Zhou Zishu did not even move a muscle. Forget about moving, he hardly looked like he was even breathing at all. Hastily, Wen Kexing lifted the man to sit up as he connected his palms to the older man’s back, his internal strength flowing into his soulmate at a relatively constant speed. Qin Jiuxiao and Bi Changfeng soon joined in with transferring their internal strength to Zhou Zishu as well.

“Shifu…” Han Ying was by his martial master’s side helplessly. He could not do anything at all besides praying for his martial master’s safety. There were already three men transferring internal strength to his martial master, and they all had extremely strong internal strength. If he were to compare to any of them, he was nothing but a small fly. Despite that, Zhou Zishu was still unconscious.

“Han Ying, go. A-Xu is having a fever, we need medicine!”

Without another word, Han Ying immediately stood up and flew out of the cave.

“I will go with Brother Han!” announced Bi Xingming as he too, flew out of the cave and chased up to Han Ying.

Meanwhile, the remaining juniors who were left in the cave could only stare helplessly as Wen Kexing, Qin Jiuxiao and Bi Changfeng continued to push out whatever internal strength remained in them while Zhou Zishu remained unconscious throughout the process.

“A-Xu!”

Wen Kexing’s distressed voice rang loudly within the cave. He sounded so much frustrated yet desperate and pleading at the same time. Despite that, Zhou Zishu remained unconscious.

“A-Xu, I am sorry. I really should not leave like that. If you are angry, open your eyes and scold me, beat me, do whatever you want as long as you wake up!”

Tears started welling up in Wen Kexing’s eyes, and he silently berated himself for why he left in the first place. He was angry and upset – yes, that was obvious, but it did not mean he had to leave like that. He knew his soulmate needed him now of all times, yet he…

“A-Xu! Please, you can’t leave like this! You promised to roam the world with me! You promised to stay with me forever! You can’t keep breaking promises!”

The juniors watched and listened with tears welling up in their eyes at Wen Kexing’s desperate speech. Qin Jiuxiao’s eyes were clouded with tears at this point, his fingers and lips trembling as he fixed his eyes on his unconscious senior martial brother. He was the very reason his senior martial brother was in such a state now.

“A-Xu, please...” Wen Kexing continued sorrowfully, “As long as you wake up, I will listen to whatever you say. I will never pick a fight with your Shidi anymore. I can even forget about avenging my parents and leave Zhao Jing alone as long as that is what you want!”

“...is that...a promise...?”

Wen Kexing had prepared many more things to say but he swallowed back everything else when he heard the soft, gentle voice appeared before him.

“A-Xu…!”

“Shixiong!”

“Lord Manor!”

After what felt like an eternity, Zhou Zishu gradually lifted his eyes. Officer Li, Princess Jing’an, Bi Changfeng and the juniors breathed a sigh of relief while Wen Kexing and Qin Jiuxiao cried tears of joy.

“Yes,” Wen Kexing said as he wrapped his arms around Zhou Zishu, “I will do whatever you want me to do, be it to never pick a fight with your Shidi or forget about revenge.”

Zhou Zishu smiled faintly as he slowly placed his hand up on Wen Kexing, “It’s our Shidi. As for revenge, if I can make it out of here alive, I will kill Zhao Jing with you. If I can’t make it... you have Jiuxiao, Han Ying and Uncle Bi to help out. Lord Seventh and the Great Shaman will help you out too...”

Tears trickled down Wen Kexing’s eyes as he shook his head, “No! I don’t want them. I only want you!”

“Lao Wen...”

“Let’s not talk about this, A-Xu. You will be fine. We will all get out of here alive.”

Zhou Zishu nodded in agreement, albeit somewhat hesitantly, “Lao Wen, cold. Hug me tighter.”

Wen Kexing glanced around, but before he managed to speak out what he wanted, Qin Jiuxiao was already wrapping the extra thick coat around Zhou Zishu. Wen Kexing helped to wrap the coat closer to his soulmate before hugging him tighter.

“It will be fine soon, A-Xu. Han Ying and Xingming went out to get you medicine for your fever. They should be back soon.”

Zhou Zishu parted his lips, but he was interrupted when quick footsteps were heard rushing into the cave. Han Ying and Bi Xingming had returned.

“Shifu!” exclaimed Han Ying in ecstasy.

“Han Ying, prepare the medicine,” reminded Wen Kexing.

“Yes!” Han Ying immediately went over to boil the medicine with the help of the other juniors. While they were getting the medicine ready, Wen Kexing kept talking to Zhou Zishu to prevent the latter from falling back into a state of unconsciousness.

“The medicine is ready,” announced Han Ying just as soon as he poured the medicine into an empty bowl.

“Give me,” said Wen Kexing.

“Give it to me instead. Master Wen, you should keep holding Lord Manor and keep him warm,” stated Bi Changfeng.

Wen Kexing looked absolutely unwilling, but he ended up nodding in response when he noticed how his soulmate's hands seemed to be freezing before Han Ying handed the small bowl of medicine to Bi Changfeng. Bi Changfeng first scooped a spoonful of the medicine and gently blew on it before moving the spoon towards Zhou Zishu’s lips.

“Here, Lord Manor.”

Zhou Zishu blinked, “Uncle Bi... I can –”

“Do not move,” Bi Changfeng said sternly when he saw how Zhou Zishu was trying to weakly raise his hands up, “Be obedient and let me feed you. You need to save your strength.”

Giving no room for any further arguments, Bi Changfeng moved the spoon closer. Zhou Zishu gradually parted his lips and allowed Bi Changfeng to feed him one spoon after another until the small bowl of medicine was finished.

“Feeling better?” asked Wen Kexing.

Zhou Zishu nodded.

“Do you want to get some rest?”

Zhou Zishu shook his head, “I feel like I have been sleeping too much recently. Lao Wen, will you keep me awake?”

“Of course,” Wen Kexing offered him his usual warm, gentle smile, “What about we talk about what we should do after you recover? A-Xu, what would you like to do?”

“I think... I would want to drink with you on the rooftop.”

Wen Kexing gave out a hearty laugh. The answer was just as expected. His soulmate’s best interest always remained in the liquor indeed.

“Let’s do that then.”

Zhou Zishu nodded and shivered slightly at the same time. He was not the only one who was feeling cold though. Everyone felt it too as the weather started to change.

“It’s snowing,” said Bi Xingming.

“Yes, it’s snowing,” said Zhou Zishu.

“A-Xu, do you remember the time when Chengling came to visit us on the top of the mountain? We were both busy recuperating. That silly disciple of yours was so lonely that he built two snowmen representing both of us to accompany him while he practiced his martial arts all alone under the snow.”

Zhou Zishu chuckled at the memories, “He is really silly indeed.”

“But he is always working hard. Do you know why, A-Xu? It’s not only because he wants to be strong enough to avenge his parents, but also because he wanted you to be proud of him.”

“I know.”

“But seriously, you have really made him work too hard. You have no idea how exhilarated he was when I taught him to get some rest on the rooftop because you would never be able to guess that he would go up there,” Wen Kexing chuckled, abruptly reminded of how Zhang Chengling wrapped his small arms around him and thanked him with a bright smile.

Absorbed with the nostalgic memory, he did not realize that something was wrong until he felt a sense of danger rushing towards him. He blocked the attack with his hand in an instant and was taken aback when he was met with his soulmate’s furious glare.

“I knew it was you!”

Wen Kexing blinked his eyes, completely puzzled as to what he had done wrong. When Zhou Zishu moved to strike again, he immediately jumped back and that was when he realized what he had done to make his soulmate so furious.

“You are always teaching Chengling the bad things!”

“No, wait! Let me explain –”

“Shut up! I am not interested in listening to your excuses! Wen Kexing, come to me like a man and stop hiding behind Han Ying!”

“No!” Wen Kexing exclaimed while he continued to grasp Han Ying’s shoulders and took the young man as his best shield, “I am not an idiot! You will hit me if I let Han Ying go!”

“You deserve it! Now, let my disciple go. It’s enough that you led one astray, don’t you try to do the same to all of my disciples!”

“I refuse!”

“You brat!”

Zhou Zishu dashed to Han Ying, attempting to catch Wen Kexing but the latter was already starting to run out of the cave. Zhou Zishu chased up to him in exasperation while the others also ran along to follow them, some in worry and some in excitement as to what would happen next.

Outside the cave, Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu started fighting. Although they did not use any weapons, just the use of their internal strengths was enough to cut down the trees and send the leaves flying. Zhou Zishu was looking so much more lively now as he sparred with Wen Kexing, so much unlike the pale man who was lying on the ground unconscious just a moment ago. However, his strength did not last long as he soon started coughing.

“A-Xu!”

Wen Kexing grasped Zhou Zishu worriedly while Qin Jiuxiao promptly rushed to his eldest martial brother and wrapped the cloak around him.

“It’s too cold here. Lord Manor, you can’t stay under the snow for so long,” reminded Bi Changfeng.

“A-Xu, let’s get in first,” said Wen Kexing as he held Zhou Zishu’s freezing hands, “Look at you, your hands are as cold as ice.”

“And whose fault do you think it is?” Zhou Zishu asked with a glare.

“Yes, it’s all my fault. After you recover, be it if you want to scold me or beat me up, I will let you do it without complaining.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I promise, A-Xu.”

Zhou Zishu huffed and walked into the cave, but not before he gave a light slap on Wen Kexing’s head. Wen Kexing tugged his lips into a fond smile before he chased up to his soulmate who was still feeling annoyed.

“A-Xu, is that considered your punishment to me already?”

“Shut up.”

“I know it. My A-Xu is hard on the outside but soft inside after all.”

“Say another word and see what I will do.”

“Fine, fine,” Wen Kexing said, chuckling. He did stop talking then, but only for a short moment before he parted his lips again.

“A-Xu.”

“What do you want?”

“What do you want to eat tonight?”

“Pork rib soup.”

“I will do it right now!” Wen Kexing said with a bright grin before he ran over to start cooking. While he was preparing the ingredients for the soup, he continued to ask his soulmate if he had any other requests. Zhou Zishu gave him a long list, and he happily made them all for him.

Chapter Text

The next day, surprisingly true to his words, Wen Kexing started speaking to Qin Jiuxiao and even allowed him to help out with the cooking. When Qin Jiuxiao asked if he could address Wen Kexing as his Shixiong, the latter gave no response, neither agreeing nor rejecting, and Qin Jiuxiao happily decided that the older man had agreed.

When Zhou Zishu woke up that day, if he was surprised to see Qin Jiuxiao helping Wen Kexing to cook, he said nothing about it. The day went on as usual with Zhou Zishu waking up and taking his medicine before having a meal with the others. After that, the junior disciples would start cleaning up the dishes while Zhou Zishu watched as Han Ying showed him his progress in his martial arts. Qin Jiuxiao and Bi Changfeng were there to watch and guide their manor lord’s only disciple while Wen Kexing remained at Zhou Zishu’s side, making sure everything was fine with his soulmate.

After some time, Wen Kexing would then leave them to start cooking. Today, the training for Han Ying ended much earlier, and Zhou Zishu decided to admire the sight of his soulmate cooking for him, just like the time back at Four Seasons Manor in their previous life when he would sit outside of the kitchen while watching Zhang Chengling clumsily helping Wen Kexing to cook. As he watched, Han Ying stayed by his side and served him tea.

This time though, there was no Chengling helping out, but Jiuxiao was here to help out instead. He watched with a fond smile as both his junior martial brothers seemed to be working together pretty well. Everything was near to perfect. There were Lao Wen, Jiuxiao, Han Ying, Uncle Bi, and the other juniors too. If only Chengling were here, and perhaps add in A-Xiang and her silly husband as well, he could really die with no regrets.

“Are you sure?” Qin Jiuxiao asked, sounding pretty unsure.

“Of course!” Wen Kexing was as confident as ever.

“But I remember Shixiong dislikes that the most...”

“He obviously lied to you.”

“But…”

“You are really troublesome. Can you please stop doubting my understanding of A-Xu?”

“No, Shixiong. That is not what I mean. I just –”

“Forget it, let’s ask A-Xu then. We will see which of us understands him better,” Wen Kexing placed his knife down and asked, “A-Xu, what do you –”

Before them, there was the sound of the crashing of a cup. When everyone turned around, all they saw was a man falling onto the ground. Wen Kexing was the first to move, barely catching Zhou Zishu before the latter dropped flat on the ground.

“Shixiong!”

“Shifu!”

“A-Xu!”

Wen Kexing was aghast. Zhou Zishu’s hands were as cold as ice. His face was much paler than he had ever been before like he was really nearing… No! He berated himself for noticing nothing up until now, still happily cooking and arguing pointlessly when his soulmate was enduring the pain and exhaustion all alone.

He tightened his grasp on Zhou Zishu’s arm as he called out to him desperately, “A-Xu, no! Please, you can’t leave me like this!”

“Shixiong!”

Qin Jiuxiao dropped down onto the ground next to his eldest senior martial brother followed by Han Ying who dropped down next to him. Zhou Zishu turned to Qin Jiuxiao and parted his lips but before he managed to speak a word, he was interrupted by his harsh coughs instead.

“A-Xu!”

“Lao Wen...” Zhou Zishu’s voice was barely louder than a whisper. He tried to lift his hand, but it did not manage to reach anyone before he dropped it down again.

“A-Xu!” Wen Kexing was quick to catch him before he dropped his arm back onto himself, “A-Xu, I am here. I am here.”

“Lao Wen...” Zhou Zishu blinked exhaustingly as he tried to wrap his fingers around Wen Kexing, “I... I think I really can’t make it anymore...”

“A-Xu...!” Wen Kexing shook his head, his eyes were rimmed red, “No, A-Xu! You can’t leave me!”

“Lao Wen...”

“A-Xu, please hang in there for a while more. That old freak... Ye Baiyi, he should be arriving soon with the Great Shaman and Lord Seventh.”

“Lao Wen, you and I both know that... it is near to impossible for them to reach here...”

“No!” Wen Kexing tightened his grasp on Zhou Zishu, “They will be here. I am sure they will be here on time.”

“Lao Wen...”

“A-Xu, stop talking. You will be fine. I am not going to let anything happen to you. If... If anything were to happen to you, I will... I will –”

“Someone is coming...!” interrupted Bi Changfeng, horrified by the bad timing to have their foes approaching now of all times.

“The Window of Heaven?!” exclaimed Bi Xingming.

“Lao Wen, you need to –”

“I am not leaving you here alone!”

Zhou Zishu looked helpless, but he did not bother to persuade Wen Kexing any further knowing that no matter what he said, his soulmate would not listen to him anyway. Leaving him with no other choice, he turned to Bi Changfeng instead.

“Uncle Bi, please gather the others and leave now.”

“Shixiong!”

“Shifu!”

“Leave...!”

“I am not leaving!” exclaimed Qin Jiuxiao.

“Shifu, I am not leaving too!”

“Stop –” Zhou Zishu was frustrated, more so when all he wanted to do was to chase everyone away but was interrupted by another round of coughing instead.

“A-Xu!”

“Shixiong,” Qin Jiuxiao wrapped his hands around Zhou Zishu, “We won’t leave. Even if we were to die here, we should die together. The day when the Window of Heaven was formed, we have all made a promise to live and die together.”

Qin Jiuxiao stood up and unsheathed his sword followed by Bi Changfeng and Han Ying before all the other juniors followed their leads too.

“You all...!”

Zhou Zishu was rendered speechless. He tried to push himself up, but with no strength left in him, all he could do was remain resting on his soulmate’s lap.

“A-Xu,” Wen Kexing grasped Zhou Zishu’s fingers tightly.

He tried to focus on listening to the approaching footsteps to identify how many he would have to face while at the same time, he was also considering if he should let Han Ying and the others take Zhou Zishu away while he handled those people from the Window of Heaven, but he was worried of having his soulmate out of his sight especially with Princess Jing’an and Officer Li around.

He glanced over at the two who he thought of as people of even more dangerous than the Window of Heaven. As far as he was aware, they did somehow regret their actions although they did not seem to have apologized at all. He narrowed his eyes at them in suspicion, trying hard to think of what exactly they were thinking and planning when the hand in his slipped off from his grasp all of a sudden.

His blood ran cold, and he thought his heart had stopped beating then.

With a horrified gasp, he called out, “A-Xu!”

All eyes turned back to where Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu were, and they could only widen their eyes in horror at the sight of Zhou Zishu, eyes closed and his body completely and lifelessly leaning against Wen Kexing. Wen Kexing had one hand on his soulmate’s hand and the other cupping his soulmate’s face, desperately calling to the man in the hope of getting a response. Anything, even if just a small sound of a simple breath would be fine too!

The problem was that the unconscious man almost did not look like he was breathing at all. He still was though, just weakly, and he looked like his breathing would stop anytime soon. Wen Kexing pushed Zhou Zishu up as he connected his palms to the older man’s back, feeding him his internal strength to keep him alive as long as he could. No, he would never stop, at least not until Ye Baiyi finally returned with help.

“A-Xu,” He said desperately, “I know you can hear me. You can’t leave me. You promised, don’t you remember? You can’t leave. You can’t!”

There was a visible tremble in his voice, and even his hands on Zhou Zishu’s back were clearly trembling, but he could not help himself. He could not control himself from trembling, and he could not get his soulmate to lift his eyes either. Feeling helpless and in despair, he could feel his eyes dampening, but there was no time for him to cry!

His soulmate!

“A-Xu.”

He needed to save him.

“A-Xu!”

Please wake up!

“A-Xu!”

Don’t leave me all alone!

“A-Xu!”

I can’t live without you.

“A-Xu!”

A-Xu!

“A-Xu!”

Wen Kexing’s increasingly desperate voice combined with Zhou Zishu’s pale face and seemingly lifeless body were what it took for tears to come welling up in the others' eyes. They felt a pang in their chest, and as much as it pained them to be reminded, it was clear that they were on the verge of losing their manor lord.

Zhou Zishu was leaving them.

“Shixiong!”

Qin Jiuxiao sank his knees to the ground followed by Han Ying who reached over to grasp his martial master’s hand with his own trembling hand. Qin Jiuxiao let himself cry, his tears streaming down like a never-ending river. Not like this. He did not want to lose his senior martial brother, not like this, and certainly not here!

Despite the despairing situation they all found themselves in, the approaching footsteps became even much clearer than before, so much so that it was hard for any of them to ignore now. Han Ying clenched his sword and stood up, looking so ready to storm out to kill them all as if killing those people out there now could help him release his anger and helplessness of being unable to save his martial master.

“Wait,” Bi Changfeng placed a hand on Han Ying's shoulder and halted the younger man from rushing out recklessly, “There are only three people.”

Han Ying froze at the statement. If there were only three people approaching, could it be...?! Now that they thought about it, was it not time for Ye Baiyi to be returning already?

True to their hope and prediction, it was Ye Baiyi who entered the cave first, followed by Lord Seventh and the Great Shaman who came in after him.

Those who had their sword unsheathed immediately placed it back into its sheath with relief and exhilaration. They turned their gaze to Zhou Zishu, hoping it was not too late and the Great Shaman was able to save their manor lord.

As Lord Seventh and the Great Shaman rushed over to their friend, the others made way for the two of them to walk over. Han Ying took a few steps back as Lord Seventh took his previous place to hold Zhou Zishu’s hand while Bi Changfeng helped to pull Qin Jiuxiao away so that the Great Shaman could make his way through and placed his fingers on Zhou Zishu’s wrist to check his pulse.

There was a frown on the Great Shaman’s face, and it merely deepened as the time passed. Everyone held their breath as they watched and waited for the Great Shaman to inform them whether their manor lord could be saved.

In the end, it was Lord Seventh who asked the question out loud.

“How is he?”

“Bad,” The Great Shaman answered solemnly, “I need to remove these nails as soon as possible.”

“You can save him?” It was Bi Changfeng who asked.

“I can’t make any guarantees,” said the Great Shaman.

“How confident are you?” asked Wen Kexing.

The Great Shaman pursed his lips into a grim line as he glanced over at Zhou Zishu’s pale face before he turned to look at Wen Kexing, “If it’s just the nails, I would say about 30 percent. However, now with the addition of the poison, I would say only 10 percent.”

Wen Kexing froze.

He did not know if this should be considered a piece of good or bad news.

Chapter Text

Under the beautiful moonlight, jars of empty liquor scattered around. In the middle of all those scattered jars was a young man, his steps wobbled yet it did nothing to stop him from finishing another jar and smashing the empty jar to the ground. The man swiftly grabbed a new jar on the ground when a hand met his.

“Leave me alone,” The man’s voice was as cold as ice, but the hand wrapped around him remained unmoved.

“Jiuxiao, you are drunk. Let me –”

“Move aside!” Qin Jiuxiao pushed the other hand away harshly, “I am not drunk...!”

Unprepared for the sudden push, Princess Jing’an stumbled a few steps back before she was able to regain her balance. She rushed to Qin Jiuxiao’s side again when the man removed the lid and was about to continue drinking.

“Jiuxiao, I am begging you. If you are unhappy, if you are angry at father and I, you can blame me, yell at me, you can do anything to me. I would not say a word even if you were to kill me, but please stop putting all the blame onto yourself. If Lord Manor Zhou knows, he –”

“Stop talking!”

At Qin Jiuxiao's rage, Princess Jing'an went silent in an instant. There was a deafening silence between them until Qin Jiuxiao dropped to the ground all of a sudden, the tears welling up in his eyes were finally falling.

“Shixiong does not blame me, that does not mean I have done nothing wrong at all. I...” Qin Jiuxiao raised a hand to cover his tear-filled eyes as he spoke amidst the sobs, “It’s been three months... Shixiong never once lifted his eyes. If... If anything were to happen to him, I...!”

“But the Great Shaman said it’s normal," Princess Jing'an said in an attempt to comfort the man before her, "Lord Manor Zhou is strong. He can live through this.”

“What about after living through this then? The Great Shaman said he could not remove all of the poison. Shixiong would have to depend on medication every day to control the poison and even so, the Great Shaman is not exactly confident that Shixiong will not die from the poison one day later in the future.”

“Jiuxiao...”

Not knowing any better to say, Princess Jing’an pulled Qin Jiuxiao into her embrace as she whispered tearfully, “I am sorry.”

Qin Jiuxiao stayed in the embrace for a long moment before he finally pulled away. The tears he had shed had long dried when he gazed up at the moon, his eyes looked dim, lacking the usual color that they once had.

“Jing’an,” He spoke her name so gently that it made her heart skip a beat, but with what Qin Jiuxiao said next, she froze.

“If by any chance, Shixiong is unable to live through this, I am going kill myself and accompany Shixiong on the road of death.”

Princess Jing’an stiffened, but she said nothing in return. It was not a surprise anyway.

In the end, the two spent the rest of the night like that with one glancing up at the sky gloomily while the other fixed her gaze at the man she loved. Standing a few feet away was Bi Changfeng, watching them for quite some time now before he decided to turn around to leave with the half-emptied jar of liquor in his hand.

He picked a silent place for he did not want to meet or speak with anyone else as he sat down and gazed up at the beautiful moonlight. It sure was a beautiful night, only if everyone in this mansion was not so depressed – only if he was not immersed in his own sorrow and guilt.

Having left the Window of Heaven, he was stuck here for three months with nothing better to do, and so he did a lot of thinking lately. He thought back of the time when the Window of Heaven was formed, and then how everyone was dying in their own way until there were only Zhou Zishu and him left. He chose to leave too in the end, leaving Zhou Zishu all alone in that kind of place.

In the past, all he could see was how everyone close to him slowly ended up dead one after another, leaving only the manor lord and him, but he managed to see different things in the past few months that he was here. He remembered how Zhou Zishu seemed to talk lesser, his eyes always seemed so exhausted for he was probably losing sleep countless nights, his smiles gradually disappeared and then he started distancing himself from everyone with Qin Jiuxiao being an exception.

Qin Jiuxiao was like a streetlight to him, being the only one to help his senior martial brother to keep moving forward through the darkest road. Alas, everything fell apart after this so-called streetlight created a fake death. Bi Changfeng saw how Zhou Zishu fell apart, but he did nothing to show his concern as he was too immersed in his own sorrow back then.

There was also the problem with the nails. From what he had heard, Zhou Zishu inserted one in every three months. That was probably the very reason for Zhou Zishu being unable to heal his internal injuries after months of having been injured.

He noticed nothing.

Perhaps, it was just as Wen Kexing said. All he ever thought about was leaving the Window of Heaven, abandoning Zhou Zishu, and then leaving him all alone in that hellish place.

What he could not forgive himself though was how he selfishly wanted to die to free himself, unbeknown to him that Zhou Zishu’s life was slowly coming to an end. The things Zhou Zishu said back in the cave still rang loudly in his ears. He could not hide the fact that there were uncontrollable times when he had thought Zhou Zishu caused the death of the others although he was fully aware that all Zhou Zishu wanted to do was to protect everyone.

“The winds cut, clouds are high,

apes wail their sorrows.

The air is fresh, sand white,

birds fly in circles.

On all sides fallen leaves,

go rustling, rustling,

while endless river rolls its waves hour after hour,

come rippling, rippling.

Autumn’s each faded mile

seems like my journey,

to mount alone and ill,

to this balcony.

Life’s failure and regrets

frosting from my temples,

and wretched that I’ve had,

to give up drinking.” ⁽¹⁾

Bi Changfeng turned back and watched as a man walked over to him gracefully. A soft, charming and gentle smile lingered on the man's face as the man gazed up at the moon and cited a poem which to his surprise, suited his thoughts matchingly. He knew this was of no coincidence.

“Lord Seventh,” Bi Changfeng greeted when the poem came to an end and Lord Seventh was standing next to him.

“Senior Bi, what a coincidence to meet you here. Tonight’s moonlight is surely beautiful, did you come out here to enjoy the beauty of nature as well?”

Bi Changfeng glanced up at the moon, but he did not find it to be a beautiful view. Perhaps, it was simply because he had too much to think of lately, or perhaps his worries were causing numbness to what he was seeing, and the so-called beautiful moonlight was nothing but a dull existence to him.

“Beautiful, but why can’t I feel it?”

“When one has too much to stress about, naturally whatever beauty placed before him would be nothing but a gloomy existence.”

“Perhaps, you are right.”

Lord Seventh glanced at Bi Changfeng who was pouring a large amount of liquor down his throat. He had to refrain himself from heaving a sigh when he saw the mixture of expressions on the older man’s face.

Frustration, guilt, anxiety.

If Zhou Zishu were to stay unconscious any longer, he was worried everyone here would turn insane soon, including himself. For the past three months since Zhou Zishu lost consciousness, everyone seemed to be falling apart, drowned in their guilt and sorrow. Wen Kexing hardly left the bedside, he merely ate a little every day because the Great Shaman threatened to knock him unconscious if he refused to take care of his health.

Lord Seventh left Zhou Zishu’s room earlier today, leaving only the Great Shaman to perform his daily health check on his unconscious patient while Wen Kexing as usual, stayed by the side of the bed. While he was walking around, he came across Han Ying who was practicing his martial arts. The young man had been training day and night, most probably to show his martial master his progress the moment Zhou Zishu woke up although it was rather obvious that he was training so hardworkingly to avoid drowning himself into any negative thoughts.

On the other side, he saw Bi Changfeng who was watching the depressing interaction between Qin Jiuxiao and Princess Jing’an. When Bi Changfeng left, he followed closely behind and made his appearance soon after. Technically speaking, Bi Changfeng should be the one he should worry about the least given how the older man seemed to be calmer and more experienced in life and death, but at the same time, it was exactly because of this that the man seemed to be more secretive with what he felt. His guilt towards Zhou Zishu was no less than Qin Jiuxiao's despite him not being the reason that Zhou Zishu was in such a state.

“You should not blame yourself,” said Lord Seventh.

Bi Changfeng lowered the jar of liquor in his hand when he heard that. His eyes were downcasted when he spoke, “You do not understand.”

“I might not be fully aware of what made you blame yourself to such an extent, but you need to know that Zishu never blamed you, and he would not wish for you to blame yourself either.”

“I know.”

Lord Seventh patted Bi Changfeng’s shoulder lightly before he turned around to leave. He headed back to Zhou Zishu’s room where he saw the Great Shaman coming out just as he arrived.

“How is he?” asked Lord Seventh.

“The same,” The Great Shaman answered blankly, “I have expected him to be unconscious for more or less three months, but it has been three and a half months now, yet he still shows no signs of waking up. The poison within him might be the cause, but I...”

“Don’t worry too much. Zishu is strong, I am sure he can pull through this,” said Lord Seventh. The Great Shaman merely nodded in response.

Back in Zhou Zishu’s room, Wen Kexing was holding his soulmate’s hand tightly, his eyes were fixed on his soulmate’s eyes, worried that he would miss catching the eyes lifting if he were to just blink for a brief second. He had been doing this for more than three months, refusing to turn his eyes away for even a moment. He would always tell himself that his soulmate would wake up soon, and then he would complain and whine that it took him too long. However, after so many months, he was truly beginning to worry that he might have to spend the rest of his life looking at his soulmate like this. It was a pleasure to look at his soulmate, but he wanted to look at a conscious one – one who would smile and laugh with him.

It had been suffocating staying at the side of the bed, anxiety growing with every passing second yet there was nothing he could do about it. He wondered if that was what Zhou Zishu felt like back at the armory when he was unconscious.

“A-Xu,” Wen Kexing caressed Zhou Zishu’s face gently, “You sleepyhead, how long more do you plan to keep on sleeping? You have been sleeping for way too long. It’s time to wake up now.”

Of course, there would not be any response. Despite knowing that he was speaking to the air, it still did not stop him from getting crestfallen for not receiving any kind of response.

“A-Xu,” he whispered as he placed Zhou Zishu’s hand on his face, “You would not leave me alone, right? If you die, I...!”

Wen Kexing came to a halt. Something moved. He would have thought it was simply an imagination for the first time, but when he felt the fingers around him move again, his heart skipped a beat and he was simply stunned in the next moment. He turned to glance at the hand he was holding before turning his gaze back to the unconscious man on the bed. This time, rather than looking down in disappointment, his eyes were widened in pure ecstasy.

He was not imagining things.

Zhou Zishu was awake!

A/N: (1) ‘From a Height’ – written by Du Fu

Chapter Text

It had only been two hours since Zhou Zishu finally woke up from his state of unconsciousness. It took quite a while before everyone could all stop hovering over him and asking him how he was feeling. The Great Shaman did a quick, thorough check on him before Wen Kexing and the others were allowed to pull him out of the room to a table filled with food.

Wen Kexing and Qin Jiuxiao pulled their senior martial brother down to take his seat between them before the two of them started filling Zhou Zishu’s bowl with different types of food. Lord Seventh was smiling as he watched how the two were fighting to take care of his friend while the Great Shaman was doing his duty as a physician and reminded Ping’an not to pour Zhou Zishu any liquor.

Bi Changfeng was drinking his liquor as he quietly listened to the sound of Wen Kexing and Qin Jiuxiao arguing over what their senior martial brother preferred to eat first. He felt contented and more than anything, relieved. Zhou Zishu was finally awake, safe, and alive. Now, at least he could stop worrying about how he should face Qin Huaizhang if he managed to meet him some years later in the afterlife.

Han Ying and the juniors however, were worried and wondering if they should stop Wen Kexing and Qin Jiuxiao from going any further in their argument regarding Zhou Zishu's preference in food although it was not like they could do anything even if they wanted to stop them. Han Ying glanced over at his martial master, pleased and delighted to find his martial master awake and sitting here with them with a light smile lingered on his pale face.

Zhou Zishu, however, did not appear to be irked or frustrated with his two junior martial brothers arguing beside him. The light smile lingering on his face said it all. He was pleased to be able to see them again, and hearing their voices made him feel alive. It was not until he finally grasped their hands and pulled them down to sit that they finally stopped arguing, although only for a brief moment.

“Eat this, Shixiong.”

“A-Xu, have some soup first.”

“Shixiong does not like that soup.”

“Nonsense. The thing that he does not like is the meat you gave him.”

“Shixiong!”

“A-Xu!”

“Enough,” Bi Changfeng said in slight exasperation, “Lord Manor has been unconscious for too long. It would do him no good to eat too much all of a sudden.”

Qin Jiuxiao lowered his head, looking somewhat upset while Wen Kexing pursed his lips into a thin line. He seemed ready to speak when Chen Zichen suddenly came in and reported that Gu Xiang had returned.

Wen Kexing turned around just at the same time when Gu Xiang rushed into the dining hall. A sweet smile lingered on her face, but Wen Kexing merely looked at her with a frown.

“Done fooling around out there, finally think of returning?”

“I –“ Gu Xiang was about to retort when she abruptly caught sight of the man sitting near her master. She pointed to the older man in disbelief, “Old sick dude! You are alive and awake!”

Wen Kexing slapped away the finger pointing to his soulmate in displease, “Mind your manners. Do not simply point your fingers at your elders.”

Gu Xiang kept her hands by her side, eyes still on Zhou Zishu when Wen Kexing questioned her further on her long disappearance.

“You have been out for so long, say. Where did you go?”

“I went to a lot of places!” Gu Xiang said excitedly, “Master, you would be surprised to know that there are a lot of beautiful places in this world. Oh, right! Master, you need to meet someone!”

“You brought someone back?” Wen Kexing asked in disbelief. He turned to glance at Zhou Zishu who was smiling. They both knew who exactly Gu Xiang managed to bring back. Except for the silly man with the last name Cao, no one would be foolish enough to follow Gu Xiang home.

As expected, Cao Weining made his appearance, looking somewhat shy yet happy, causing Wen Kexing to roll his eyes.

“Master, meet my husband, Cao Weining!”

Wen Kexing spilled the cup of tea he was drinking, astonished.

“Hus – your what?!”

“My husband!”

“You brat, how dare you get married without my permission?!”

“Were you not the one who told me to scram and get someone to marry to?”

“That is not what I meant!”

Gu Xiang and Wen Kexing started arguing then while Cao Weining and Qin Jiuxiao were worried and wondering if they should stop the two. Zhou Zishu was too busy chuckling, and when he finally managed to stop chuckling, he turned his gaze to Cao Weining and Gu Xiang fondly. To see the two standing together again, it was such a blessing.

After hours of arguments, Wen Kexing and Gu Xiang finally came to a halt. Night arrived soon after they stopped arguing, and everyone returned to their specific room. Wen Kexing wanted to spend the night with Zhou Zishu, but he was unfortunately kicked out by the Great Shaman who insisted that his patient should not be disturbed by anyone at night.

Around a month later, with Lord Seventh’s help to convince the Great Shaman to allow Zhou Zishu to go out for a walk, all of them went out with him. They first went to the busy street to have a walk before they sat down to have a meal at a restaurant.

It was a calm and peaceful day until a customer in the restaurant suddenly slammed his hand on the table, catching the attention of everyone in the restaurant. Zhou Zishu however, had his eyes fixed on the boy before the man who had just slammed his hand on the table.

“What is this?” A muscular and rough-looking middle-aged man spat as he glared at the boy in front of him, “You bumped against me and now, you are trying to run away without taking responsibility?!”

“W-What do you want?” The boy asked timidly.

“Compensate me. You hurt my arm.”

“That is… This is not right. You were the one who knocked me down.”

“What did you say?!”

The fierce and enraged-looking man made the boy step back in fear. The man stretched his arm forward, ready to yank the boy forward and stop him from moving another step back. All of a sudden, a man dressed in blue robes came to stand between them.

“Who the hell are you?” The man asked angrily.

“Bullying a child like this, are you not ashamed of yourself?” Zhou Zishu grasped the man’s hand and pushed him back.

The man staggered a few steps back at Zhou Zishu’s push, but as he took a quick glance at the young man before him, he did not think the man could defeat him if they fought. After all, the man looked so thin, it gave people the feeling that he would fly away if the wind got any stronger out there. That aside, with the way he dressed, he looked like he was some kind of young master who had been protected since young and did not know how to fight at all.

“Damn bastard, know your place!” The man raised his fist, preparing to give Zhou Zishu a lesson, but to his surprise, a hand came wrapping around his fist all of a sudden, and before he could comprehend what was going on, he found himself being thrown back.

The man’s back landed on a table filled with food. He knocked down all the plates of food on the table before he fell to the ground too. He twisted his face in pain as he looked at his now truly hurt and broken right arm. Infuriated, he looked up at whoever it was who dared to raise a hand on him.

It was none other than the young man whom he had thought of as someone who had never ever fought once in his life before. The man was still pretty baffled. He looked so thin, how was he so strong?

Zhou Zishu strode over to the fallen man. The man looked up and stiffened. He gathered up all the strength within him and fled the place as soon as he could.

Once the man left, Zhou Zishu turned around to ask the boy, “Are you hurt?”

The boy shook his head, “Thank you, young master for your help. May I know the name and sect of this young master?”

“He,” Wen Kexing came over to stand beside Zhou Zishu, sliding his fan open as he said, “He is the Lord of Four Seasons Manor, Zhou Zishu. If you really want to thank him for saving you, how about this? This man here is looking for a disciple. How about you become his disciple instead?”

“Can I?” The boy asked excitedly. His admiration for this man who saved him was already as clear as crystal when he saw how Zhou Zishu threw the muscular man back. If he could have an amazing martial master like Zhou Zishu, he would be extremely delighted.

“A-Xu, what do you say?”

“Only if you want,” Zhou Zishu told the boy.

The boy was smiling so brightly, and Wen Kexing could not help from repeating the same thing he had once said in the past, “Silly boy, if you really want to be his disciple, quickly complete the formalities. Kowtow.”

The boy was quick to lower his knees to the floor, ignoring the fact that he was in the middle of a restaurant and everyone present was staring at him.

“Shifu, please accept a bow from this disciple, Zhang Chengling,” Zhang Chengling said before bowing down to Zhou Zishu.

“Good. Now that you are in the sect, you are the second disciple of the sixth generation of this sect. I am very happy to have you as my disciple,” Zhou Zishu said with a smile as he pulled his newly accepted disciple up.

“Thank you, Shifu. This disciple is very happy too.”

“Since the formalities are all completed, quickly return and pack your things to go to Four Seasons Manor to live with us. We will be waiting for you,” said Wen Kexing.

“But I do not know where Four Seasons Manor is,” Zhang Chengling said, bewildered.

Zhou Zishu parted his lips, ready to speak, but Wen Kexing was just a moment faster, “Ask your father. He will bring you over to Four Seasons Manor.”

Zhang Chengling nodded and left after bowing to his martial master. Wen Kexing pulled Zhou Zishu back over to the table to start eating.

The meal started and ended in silence, none mentioned how Zhou Zishu suddenly gained another disciple. It was not until they returned to the manor that Wen Kexing finally voiced out his question.

“A-Xu, are you happy?” Wen Kexing asked with a smile.

“Is that your planning?” asked Zhou Zishu.

Wen Kexing turned his gaze away as he replied, “What are you talking about? It’s pure coincidence.”

Zhou Zishu smiled lightly, “Stop your act. You seriously think I did not notice all the strange glances Lord Seventh and you were throwing at each other the whole day?”

“My A-Xu is smart indeed. How are you going to pay me back for my kindness then?”

Zhou Zishu wrapped his arms around Wen Kexing and carried him up to the table. He leaned forward and placed his lips on him.

“I am all yours tonight.”

“A-Xu...!”

Wen Kexing was both surprised and delighted while Zhou Zishu chuckled.

“No excessive exercise,” The Great Shaman appeared to separate the two all of a sudden, “Lord Manor Zhou, Master Wen, I believe I have said this more than once.”

Zhou Zishu shrugged, “That can’t be helped then.”

“Then after you recover, we can –”

“Such an offer will only be available for tonight.”

“A-Xu...!” Wen Kexing turned to the Great Shaman as if asking him for help. This was a once-in-a-lifetime chance. When would he ever get another chance where his soulmate would give him such an offer?

“No means no,” The Great Shaman insisted.

Wen Kexing was extremely upset, and it was at this time that Lord Seventh walked over to them and pulled the Great Shaman away.

“Beiyuan, what are you...?”

They were walking pretty far away by now, but the others could still hear Lord Seventh’s reply from a distance.

“They can’t, but we can.”

Everyone was amused to watch how the Great Shaman’s ears were slowly turning red. As the two disappeared into Lord Seventh’s room, Wen Kexing took the chance to pull Zhou Zishu away.