Crown Prince and Ghost King

Chapter 30

--There's a flashback in this, as always marked with <><><>. Please, be mindful of it, as there's child verbal abuse and physical punishment. If you're triggered by these things, please skip it. It's completely safe to avoid reading it.

It helps the story, but it's not necessary to understand it.--

«I think I need a drink».

Face buried in his husband's chest – Xie Lian would never admit out loud how comfortable it was to press himself in between the firm muscles of that chest – the god whined, exhausted from the mess that everything had been.

From start to finish, day and night had been utterly draining, both for his body and his mind. Xie Lian was tired, aching all over and wanting nothing more than to sleep in his ghost's embrace while surrounded by quietness.

He was serious about the drink, though.

Fortunately, Hua Cheng caught the hint and called his servants to have some liquor brought to them in one of their favorite rooms.

It was a place Xie Lian fell in love as soon as he set foot into it, even more beautiful than his private garden. It was probably because Hua Cheng built that room to be reminiscent of the luxurious halls of the royal palace of XianLe.

It reminded Xie Lian of home in more ways than one.

Everything was a profusion of gold, pale red, and powdery blues and greens, a color palette Xie Lian was more than familiar with thanks to his memories. The furniture was made of the most expensive, most refined wood, carved with intricate designs of times long lost, the curtains were heavy and embroidered. On the table in front of the stupidly comfortable divan, Xie Lian's favorite spot to lounge around, a Golden Foil Palace was in the process of being built.

Xie Lian had cheated the game and asked his husband to have it sit still and unchanging until he could work on it again, to avoid the delicate gold foils to be blown away in a breeze.

He really liked that room.

Not as much as the armory, because nothing could be compared to the absolute beauty that was stored in there, but he could spend hours and hours laying on the divan without growing tired of it. He even loved it more than the garden he could pass days in.

Especially when Hua Cheng was with him, strong arms wrapped in red enveloping him in the softest hug one could ever imagine.

«This has been an awful day», Xie Lian commented, ready to die of tiredness. «And an awful night, too».

For him to complain in a manner that was so outright, it surely had been. Humming in understanding, Hua Cheng draped an arm around his back and pulled him close, so much so that Xie Lian could enjoy even more the fact he was using the ghost's chest as a pillow.

It was nice, and the god sighed in happiness.

Happiness that flared up even more when one of the servants  came to their room bringing a tray with a jar of liquor and two cups to drink it from. The ghost placed the tray on the table, bowed deeply to both Hua Cheng and Xie Lian, and then left as silently as he arrived.

The ghost didn't waste time in sitting up and pouring both of them some of the liquor, Xie Lian accepting the cup with a gentle smile; he took a sniff and oh-ed, recognizing the fragrant and mellow taste of it even before taking a sip. They came across the liquor during one of their many trips together, found it in a quaint inn of a town built on the shores of a lake, and Xie Lian couldn't help but love the taste of it.

He didn't drink often, even if his broken vow now allowed him a lot more freedom to dance around the rules, but he did enjoy a cup or two every once in a while.