mu qing has always been good with children. in one way or another, he has always found himself attached to the little brats, whether with his consent or without. there's something about the young souls that don't register mu qing's icy countenance or his frigid voice.
they see right through the shell mu qing has tried so hard for all these years to keep up.
more specifically, they see the person mu qing has tried for so long to lock away. they see that scared, vulnerable boy screaming for his mother while being dragged by the foot.
they aren't scared of him. why would they be scared of one of their own?
after all, there are much, much worse things to be scared of.
and hong'er is no exception to the rule.
as mu qing runs his fingers through the child's hair slowly and methodically, he seems to calm down, the violent shaking from before turning into faint tremors. mu qing can't help but notice how dirty his hair is, how tangled and matted with dry dirt and blood.
"shhhh, it's okay now," mu qing whispers, though on some level, he thinks they both realize that it isn't.
Then, for the first time in a while, hong'er looks up at mu qing and makes eye contact. and mu qing can't help but notice how wide his eyes (well, single eye) are. how blindly trusting. mu qing sees so much anguish in them, years of a torturous existence that mu qing has been so familiar with. but he also sees faith, faith in mu qing, and a sort of forgiveness that makes mu qing sick.
the child is in no place to forgive mu qing, and yet every second mu qing looks at him, he feels as if he does. hong'er lightly nods and hangs on to mu qing's clothes as the servant boy stands up and picks him up.
the four guoshis and xie lian rush over to look over the situation.
"mu qing, who's that child you're holding? what just happened?"
mu qing isn't sure how to respond. to be honest, not even he knows what happened.
"that child is the one that fell during the heavenly procession. the spirits were coming after him," feng xin jumps in and explains.
"coming after him? What did he do?" this time it was xie lian's turn to be confused.
"i don't know what he did! i only came in after mu qing called me, and by then, a black cloud the size of a person had already engulfed the both of them, and more were coming every second," feng xin continues.
"then what happened with the fire?"
"we tried drawing an array on the ground to keep them in, so the spirits directed the candle fire onto the roof and the curtains, trying to get us to release the array," mu qing says.
"thank the heavens your highness arrived quickly, or else the entire infirmary would've been built to the ground," feng xin comments.
mu qing closes his eyes and bows his head.
without his sight, mu qing's mind automatically focuses on what it can hear, despite what mu qing tells it.
he wants to zone out, he really does, but he can't help but notice that the guoshis are circling around him now, and they're whispering.
they're whispering about hong'er.
and a fire of indignation spreads through mu qing's heart.
who gave them the right? how could they possibly have any idea of what hong'er has gone through?
in the end, they're all common people too. so who gave them the right?
of course, mu qing doesn't know mei nianqing. he doesn't know of wuyong, the crown prince, the white clothed calamity. Not yet.
