Crown Prince and Ghost King

Chapter 32

What a mess.

Xie Lian, kneeling beside the creek to wash a set of robes, shook his head as he played in his head the conversation he just had with Pei Ming. He didn't doubt his words, his promise not to disclose the real identity of Ming Yi, but there was some unease wriggling beneath his skin.

Although... what was there to do?

That the god knew, a way to force a heavenly official to get permanent amnesia about a specific memory didn't exist. There were creatures who could cause memory loss – and Xie Lian knew it well enough, what a horrible experience that had been – but it was always reversible. Moreover, it afflicted the victim by taking away large chunk of memories, not just some of them.

Ghosts couldn't use their spiritual powers to manipulate the mind of a person in such a delicate way, not even Hua Cheng had such an ability, and even if they could... Xie Lian wasn't sure a method like that was reliable.

There were only two viable options, but none of them actually viable.

The first was to cause Pei Ming to be banished from the heavens, and the cruel truth of officials in exile not being listened to could solve the problem. For someone like Xie Lian, who had powerful allies no one dared to go against, it would be easy to frame Pei Ming and have him kicked out.

Of course, it wasn't going to happen. Not only because it was a vile, villainous thing to do, but also because Pei Ming was a powerful and influential martial god who ruled over the North, one with thousands of temples at his name. As much as other officials would describe him as a hopeless womanizer, his swordsmanship was one of the best Xie Lian had ever seen and heard of.

The second option was to kill him.

And, while it would give him the opportunity to see the lover he lost, it was the most despicable act Xie Lian could think of. To kill someone who was innocent when it came to that problem seemingly impossible to solve went against everything the Crown Prince preached.

Pei Ming was certainly not an innocent person altogether, but killing him over something he had no fault in meant spilling clean blood.

Scratch that, it meant Xie Lian would have no morals anymore and just killed because it was easier that way.

What was left was to simply let things play out. Trust Pei Ming and his words, even if there wasn't really an established friendship between him and Xie Lian.

With that in mind, Xie Lian stopped mulling over it, as there was no point in dwelling on an unsolvable matter. He called forth RuoYe, hung the robes on the silk band to let them dry in the sun, and recited the password for He Xuan's private communication array.

A surprise, really, that he knew it. He didn't expect He Xuan to give it to him, after the whole deal with Shi Wudu.

"Xie Lian?"

"Pei Ming came by, today", he said, cutting straight to the point. He Xuan was a ghost of few words, he didn't like when people would draw things out just for the sake of conversation. "I was asked to deliver his words to you".

"So he knows".

"He doesn't want to have any sort of interactions with you. It's... understandable, really". He didn't tell He Xuan the reason, though. Pei Ming, even if implicitly, probably trusted him not to disclose what he had with Shi Wudu. It wasn't that arduous of a guess for Xie Lian, that he would not want the man who killed the Water Master to know about their relationship.

"You don't need to worry. He's not going to tell anyone".

"Do you trust him on that?".