The King's Dancer

Chapter 21

"How could I ever deny gege anything he asks for? If I show you, will you promise not to scream?", Hua Cheng asked, and his voice sounded oddly timid, completely unlike the king he'd gotten to know.

"Of course I won't scream", Xie Lian promised immediately. What an absurd thing for Hua Cheng to think!

Hua Cheng sighed again, before he untied the knot of the eyepatch behind his head.

When it fell off, Hua Cheng still had his right eye closed, though from what Xie Lian could see, it looked completely normal so far.

Hua Cheng took Xie Lian's hand in his then, and squeezed it before he started talking again.

"Please, don't be scared of me", Hua Cheng begged him quietly, and Xie Lian could now smell the anxiety rolling off of him. So he made sure to squeeze his hand back reassuringly.

"I could never be scared of San Lang", he swore.

Hua Cheng nodded, and closed his left eye as well.

A few moments later, he opened both of them

When Xie Lian saw Hua Cheng's right eye, he understood why he'd been so worried about showing him. It did indeed look rather terrifying.

The whole eyeball was flaming red, and not the kind of red eye people get from inflammatory diseases or anything, but it was a deep red, like the colour of freshly spilled blood, only that it was brighter, so bright in fact, that it was glowing. The pupil of it was strange, too, completely inhuman. It was a black slit, comparable to the pupil of a snake; however inside this blackness was a bright, white ring. It was tiny, but nevertheless noticeable.

Xie Lian was relieved to find that he could keep his promise. However demonic the eye looked, it still couldn't possibly be enough to scare him away.

"It really doesn't hurt?", he asked, and raised his hand to touch just underneath the eye, making sure to be very careful.

"It doesn't. It feels normal, just like my left eye", Hua Cheng replied, and Xie Lian could physically see the tension seeping out of his whole body when he didn't detect even a trace of fear on Xie Lian's scent.

"How did it happen?", he couldn't help but ask.

"I don't know, gege. I was born with it."

It was indeed a strange affliction to be born with, Xie Lian thought, but didn't say it.

"Do you... see things differently through that eye?"

"A bit. It seems that I have a better vision with it, especially in the dark...", Hua Cheng said, and hesitated, but didn't continue after all.

So Xie Lian kept nudging him gently.

"Is that all?"

Hua Cheng huffed out a small laugh.

"What? Does gege expect me to have some sort of superpowers because of this eye?", Hua Cheng teased gently, and effectively caused Xie Lian to blush.

"Of course not, San Lang. I'm sorry about asking stupid questions. It's just... I've never seen something like this before", he tried to explain himself, and once again put his hand up to touch Hua Cheng's cheek, carefully stroking his thumb underneath the demonic looking eye. It almost looked like the eye itself was trembling at the action, though Xie Lian told himself that it was just twitching because Hua Cheng was sensitive there. So he changed to stroking over his brow instead.

"You know, the more I look at it, the less scary looking it becomes", Xie Lian said after a few moments of silence between them. "It... it's actually... once you get used to it, it is actually pretty", Xie Lian said hesitantly, because he didn't want Hua Cheng to think he was lying to him. He just really thought so!