The King's Mate - Part 1: Banyue

Chapter 28

Surprised? Yeah me too lol
But this is the third week of me being on sick leave and I don't know how to battle my frustration anymore apart from begging for likes and comments with triple the amount of normal chapters to make me feel better I guess lmfao send help 💀

________________________________________________________________________________

Xie Lian couldn't help staring at Ruoye.

Sure, he stared at her quite a lot, she was his most beloved daughter, after all. However, this time he was looking at her in concern more than anything.

By now it was rather undeniable that there was something not quite right with her, no matter how much it pained him to admit it.

The thing was, her hair was long enough to put into a short ponytail by now. So there was really no more waiting for these things to change. While her hair seemed healthy and thick, it was... white. There was absolutely no pigmentation in that hair at all; it was as white as that of an elderly person. Not even grey, but pure white, like the snow he used to play in back in Xian Le when he himself had still been a kid. He was sure it would be even more disconcerting if she wasn't so pale as well.

Even Shi QingXuan had no explanation for the phenomenon. His best guess was that it may have something to do with the medicine, but he didn't seem very convinced of that himself. Xie Lian knew that Hua Cheng was worried about it as well, but they hadn't properly talked about it yet. Though he knew they definitely should, he thought with a sigh, before he forced himself to pay attention to his unfortunate daughter again.

She was currently in the process of trying to walk, and refused any help Xie Lian tried to give her, even though she kept falling back onto her butt before she even managed to do a whole step. If it wasn't so utterly adorable, Xie Lian was sure he'd be exhausted by her stubbornness already. The next time she fell on her butt, Ruoye started crying, probably in frustration, Xie Lian thought, and promptly hauled her back up onto her feet, before soothing her. When she was done processing her frustration, Xie Lian was finally allowed to help her, and she did manage to walk quite a distance while he was holding both of her tiny hands in his.

When he allowed her to plop back on her butt this time, she gurgled happily, and clapped her hands. Really, she was too adorable for words, Xie Lian thought, his heart feeling full, though he couldn't help feeling a little bittersweet, still too worried from his earlier thoughts.

________________________________________________________________________________

In the evening, when Xie Lian was cuddled up in bed, and comfortably warm in Hua Cheng's arms, he decided it was time to broach the topic.

"San Lang... we need to talk about it", he started.

His husband sighed, but nodded.

"To be honest, gege, I'm afraid it might be because of me", Hua Cheng said quietly, and Xie Lian could hear the insecurity in his voice. Which was really exceedingly rare.

"Why is that?", Xie Lian asked gently.

"Well, Shi QingXuan says he doubts it is any sort of sickness, because all the tests he's done have had unproblematic results. And fact is, I don't know what my parents looked like. For all I know, my father or mother could've had the same hair colour as Ruoye does. And even if neither of them did, my right eye is already strange. It wouldn't be a stretch to assume that there's something wrong with my bloodline that causes weird visuals", his husband explained.

"I really hope that's what it is", Xie Lian said with a relieved sigh, because he somehow felt it was true. "But you said your eye doesn't hurt, right? So we can assume that it's really just the colour of her hair that's off, and that it isn't a sign of some condition that makes her physically suffer, right?", he asked hopefully.