✧𝔻𝔼𝕍𝕆𝕋𝕀𝕆ℕ~ 𝒶𝓃𝒾𝓂𝑒 𝑜𝓃𝑒𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓉 𝒸𝑜𝓁𝓁𝑒𝒸𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃~✧

✧Xie Lian- They're Gone✧

A/N- That drawing is amazing lol- I'm kind of jealous of how good it looks.

YOU HAD BEEN fighting together with Xie Lian and Hua Cheng for a long time, and you knew how much they loved each other. They were inseparable, and they would never let either one of them get hurt. To them, you were just a third wheel, and they didn't really care about you at all (or so you thought). But to you, they were your precious teammates, and you would protect them with your life.

One day, you were on a mission with the two of them. Everything was normal and going well, until a Wrath level ghost appeared. Then everything got worse.

Xie Lian grabbed onto the ghost with Ruoye, but the ghost managed to escape and snap the silk bandage in half, essentially depriving Xie Lian of his weapon and leaving him unprotected. Hua Cheng was busy fighting the base slaves the ghost had summoned, and he couldn't protect his lover. You were the only chance to keep the prince of Xianle safe. And, because you cared for him like a brother, you ran in front of him and took a direct hit from the ghost's powerful fists.

Pain flashed up your body as you flew back, hitting the ground hard and ending up lying immobilized right in front of where Hua Cheng was fighting the base slaves. You tried to get up, but something in your legs had snapped, and you couldn't push yourself back up to your feet. You called out Hua Cheng's name multiple times, but he didn't listen, busy beating the last of the slaves.

Xie Lian, however, noticed that you had been hit and rushed over to your side. He was obviously shaken up by the fact that you had taken a hit for him and were now lying bleeding out from a head wound right in front of him. Using his spiritual powers, he bandaged your wounds and poured cold water over them to try and clean the blood off. He called Hua Cheng over, and because it was his lover who called him, the ghost king came to help immediately.

"I don't know how to help them!" you heard Xie Lian cry out, as you began to lose consciousness. "They're bleeding too much! Why did I have to lose Ruoye?"

"It'll be fine, love. Even if they die, it won't affect us much," Hua Cheng said, with his infuriating smile on his face.

"If I die... you won't care? Even though I... took a hit for your husband?" you whispered, shocked by the evident lack of care that he displayed.

"You were never an important part of our team," the ghost king said. "You were just the third wheel. Xie Lian and I were meant to work together in a duo, but when you were added, it ruined everything. You did take a hit for him, but it was a hit he could have taken; he would have survived it. Your foolish weakness is what kills you today, not my choice to not assist you."

"Hua Cheng... please, help them! They're our teammate, no matter how much you hate them, and they deserve help. They're human, after all, and all humans deserve to live!"

You smiled at Xie Lian, who was being kind and trying to help you. You knew your care for him wasn't misplaced. In the end, he really was a sweetheart.

"It's worthless," you said, as darkness closed in on you and it became almost impossible to breathe. "I'm already gone."

"No!" Xie Lian screamed, holding your body in his arms and crying. "It can't be! You can't be gone!"

Hua Cheng sighed and laid his hand across his husband's back, rubbing his back to try and comfort him.

"They're gone. Just accept it," he advised.

Xie Lian shot up to his feet and looked directly into Hua Cheng's brown eyes with his soft amber ones, so full of sadness. His heart hurt, knowing that his husband didn't have the tender heart and love for his teammates that he told himself the ghost king had. Every day, when he doubted Hua Cheng's kindness and love, he would tell himself how kind his husband was, and how he would never allow anyone to be hurt. But now your dead body was lying in his arms, and the husband he thought was so kind didn't care a fig.

"You're a cruel monster, Hua Cheng! I should never have married you! I wish you would have let me die in the sedan chair, rather than saving me! That way I would have never had to even look at you!"

He ran away, carrying your body in his arms, and kept running until he reached a willow grove by a gently flowing river. He buried you there, under the largest tree, and set a stone there, carving the inscription in with a knife.

Y/N. A kind human, whose death was a tragedy to us all. She was the best teammate anyone could ever ask for.

After he made your gravestone, he hung his head and sat there in silence for a long while, praying to all the gods in heaven that you would be reincarnated and be able to serve with him again.

When Hua Cheng found him and tried to comfort him, he wouldn't listen to him, and pushed him away. He was inconsolable from your loss for many months afterwards, praying every day that you were safe in heaven, and that you would return to this world someday soon.

One night, while he was sleeping, you did return. You crept into his home, and saw that Hua Cheng was not with him. When you saw that his husband was not there, you pressed your lips to his cheek and gave him a soft, gentle kiss to wake him up without disturbing him. You weren't sure if it would work, because you were so gentle, but his eyes opened almost immediately.

"Hua Cheng, go away," he snapped.

You smiled and said, "But I'm not your husband."

Hearing your voice again after so long brought tears to his eyes.

"Y/N, you returned to me! I was so depressed from your death that I made everyone, even my husband, leave me alone here. I haven't seen anyone I know in months, I barely get out. I'm so sorry I didn't appreciate you when you were alive. Please, let me rectify this in your death."

"I wouldn't call this reincarnation a death. I'd call it a second life," you said. "But I will allow you to rectify your mistakes."

"Thank you... my friend."