Crown Prince and Ghost King

Chapter 28

After promising GuZi he wouldn't be away for long, and witnessing his husband threaten Qi Rong without needing to utter a single word, Xie Lian dragged Hua Cheng away from the shrine and on the road. They could have easily teleported to town, just a simple click of dice, but Xie Lian wanted to have the ghost discharge as much frustration as possible; in those cases, he found that a good, long walk helped a great deal, so he took advantage of the quite extensive trek exactly for that.

As soon as he got him away from Qi Rong, his ghostly husband lost some of the tension that was tightening his whole body. The annoyed expression in his eyes wasn't subsiding as quickly, and his youth form seemed years older than normal, but it was an improvement.

«Are you okay, San Lang?», he asked him, twining their fingers together. The crease in his forehead didn't seem to want to go away, Xie Lian could feel spiritual energy sizzling where their hands were joined. He didn't like seeing Hua Cheng so troubled. Throughout the years, the ghost had been his safe haven, his anchor; to see him as lost as he himself tended to be at times... Xie Lian didn't like it.

It made his heart feel some sort of unease he wasn't able to shrug away.

Was he okay?

Admittedly, walking away from the shrine was something that needed to happen for him to stop boiling with anger. His stubbornness was the only reason he didn't leave sooner, and he was sorry for giving His Highness such a headache, but Qi Rong grated on his nerves too much for him to simply ignore him like he always did.

It was the fact that GuZi was there as well, though he didn't really want to say it out loud. To see that fucking ghost act so caringly towards that child, despite what disgusting and awful deeds he committed in the past towards him... it was annoying, frustrating, and infuriating.

Hong-er had to be tied in a sack and dragged all around town behind a carriage, but that child could be fairly treated?

What bullshit!

He didn't blame GuZi, would never blame a child, but the ghost didn't think he could hate Qi Rong more than he already did. In fact, he could, and he so wanted to slit his throat with E-Ming that someone should congratulate him for the sheer amount of self-imposed control.

Someday, of that Hua Cheng was sure, he would have to face the long-forgotten trauma of his childhood without brushing it off with a cheeky laugh. Maybe he should have already did as much.

«Would you believe me if I tell you I am?», he asked back, for once eyes on the road rather than on his beloved.

«No», Xie Lian sincerely answered. «If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine. But allow this god to tell you something».

Stepping a bit closer, so he could hook hand around Hua Cheng's arm, the Crown Prince leaned his head on the ghost's shoulder: «Don't let Qi Rong get to you. You both changed, but my San Lang came a much longer way than Green Lantern. He's not worth your anger».

In fact, few were worth Hua Cheng's anything. His ghost was far too high for anyone to be demanding something from his emotions, no one of those people who belittled him or hated him deserved to have his attention. Mortals, gods, other ghosts, it didn't matter. Hua Cheng was better than them, worked to become better than that.

To let such insulting people receive even a single word from that man they despised... it was more of a gift than anything else.

Xie Lian didn't find himself thinking that kind of things often, so out of place for someone like him, but never once he regretted those trains of thought. He experienced firsthand what was like, to be belittled and hated and pushed away. Hua Cheng managed to pull himself through it without falling to the extent Xie Lian had let his life fall. No one deserved a man like him, sometimes the god put in that "no one" even himself.