Crown Prince and Ghost King

Chapter 31

After a week, Qi Rong finally woke up with his normal attitude back in place. He still refused to pick meaningless fights with Hua Cheng, but he and Xie Lian kept arguing back and forth, with the ghost yelling about how disgusting and poisonous the god's food was.

As a retaliation, Xie Lian only fed him his special new soup for three days, until he gathered up some mercy for the human body that was actually receiving that treatment.

With things seemingly back to normal, yet calm enough for GuZi not to be scared, Xie Lian started wondering a bit; Qi Rong couldn't possibly keep living with them. The shrine was a safe place, and it was supposed to be a safe haven for those who wanted some protection, but it had really been too long.

It was hard to admit it, but Xie Lian didn't want his cousin to live under his roof anymore, if only because he was genuinely risking his peace with the heavens in a moment when he had no intentions of coming up as the one defending him.

He was also tired of having two other people in the shrine, though. A bit of a more... humanly selfish reason, compared to not wanting troubles with more heavenly officials accusing him of colluding with evil beings.

«I don't know what to do», he told his husband, one morning. Qi Rong was already out, because GuZi woke up pretty early and dragged him out in the garden, so they finally had a bit of privacy for themselves. Privacy that Xie Lian immediately used to have an important conversation he was tired of delaying.

Sure, he could have talked to Hua Cheng via communication array, but it wasn't really something that could be discussed in such a way.

He was frustrated because Qi Rong was still too terrified of Lang QianQiu to leave, and was exasperated at himself for feeling frustrated at that. He knew that keeping his cousin there meant protecting more people than just one against the heavens and their faulty justice system, but at the same time he was fed up.

«Even if you were willing to let Qi Rong stay at Ghost City, the kid cannot live there», was the main complaint, spoken alongside a harsh puff of breath.

In an attempt to ease some of Xie Lian's tension, the ghost pulled him close and started brushing his hair with slender fingers, disentangling the loose knots that had formed while he was asleep. Hua Cheng found that it was a simple yet effective way to help ground his beloved, a repetitive action that required nothing from him save for sitting upright.

«What if gege gives his blessing to this village?», he suggested, speaking softly. «We could kick the trash out and have some peace».

PuQi was a small place, after all, and many of the villagers were growing fond of the Crown Prince of XianLe represented by the shrine. It wouldn't be difficult for His Highness to spread his influence and envelop the entirety of the village under his protection.

Xie Lian thought about it.

Heavenly officials rarely did something so big, if only because it required not only a deeply rooted influence, but also a considerable amount of spiritual power. Once the blessing had been granted, it was up to the devotees to keep such a holy protection up and working, but setting it up... well, Xie Lian could probably do it, at that point.

The heavens knew he was married to the most powerful Ghost King still walking the earth, and they probably also knew that he was lacking the cursed shackles he once received as a voluntary punishment. It wasn't like he made any conscious effort to hide the fact he wasn't wearing one, the last few times he climbed up, and gossip traveled fast.

In fact, Xie Lian stopped wearing those bandages shortly after ascending. He was still used to their comfortable presence, before the disaster that had been his third ascension, but between the fact that now everyone was aware of the identity of his husband and that he felt actually quite good when people didn't belittle him...