Backlash Part 1

Chapter 150: Shaky Calligraphy

When Wen Qing arrived at the Flame Palace to find herself assigned to monitoring Chifeng-zun, it took all of her years of practice to not show any notable reaction. The man was just like she remembered him to be. Stubborn. Angry. Nie Mingjue is proud and resilient. Someone who prides himself in standing tall and shouldering pain. The sort of man who would proclaim to have no fear of death and maintain that expression to the end. It is something Meng Yao is going to want to slowly drain in the process of trying to break Sect Leader Nie's will.

Wen Qing could see the excitement, a sick joy, in Meng Yao's expression. The look in Meng Yao's eyes when he stood over Nie Mingjue was something Wen Qing does not expect to forget. It was unsettling. A malicious and vindictive gaze, alight with the joy of seeing an enemy at your mercy. Seeing someone you want to suffer in a place where you have all the power to make them suffer. It bothers Wen Qing how much the expression seems to belong on Meng Yao's face. It is much more fitting than the polite dimpled smiles he usually wears, but Wen Qing honestly can't say which expression disturbs her more.

Wen Qing kept quiet. There is nothing she can do now aside from her job. She treated Nie Mingjue's injuries. She did not share any comment on the surprising evidence of resentful energy that was swirling in the Sect Leader's body. It was a much smaller amount than what Wei Wuxian often had, but it was also not resting as peacefully. Wen Qing filed it away in the back of her mind. It was hardly the most pressing danger to Chifeng-zun's health while he was a resident of the Flame Palace.

As soon as her shift at the Flame Palace ended, Wen Qing returned to her room. With spiritual energy flowing gently into the lines of ink she traced on the paper, Wen Qing informed Lan Xichen of where Chifeng-zun was. Wen Qing did not say anything about Yangquan. It was obvious that Lan Xichen had not listened to her warnings, but Wen Qing made no comment about Yangquan. Lan Xichen had not pestered her over her mistake with Langya. She would not pester him over his error with Yangquan.

A message appeared back only moments after Wen Qing had written hers. The calligraphy was shaky, like Lan Xichen's hand had been trembling while he tried to write. In those painfully rough characters Lan Xichen's plea seemed even more desperate than his words. Wen Qing was immediately reminded of an eight year old Lan Xichen begging for his father's help. The despair that radiated through Lan Xichen as hid didi seemed to be disappearing before his eyes.

A feeling slowly settled in Wen Qing's gut. It was the same feeling she had when she read the missive that was sent to the Burial Mounds. The one that demanded her youngest didi and her hand themselves over to the Jins. The missive she answered, knowing it would mean certain death for her. Wen Qing already knew what she was going to do before she set ink to paper. Even if she did not yet understand how she was going to do it, she still knew that she would.

Wen Qing knew Lan Xichen was no longer the eight year old that watched in pain and confusion as his didi slowly disappeared into grief. He is not the child who cried outside his father's door begging for help. Wen Qing could not help but to feel an echo of that desperation in the shaky calligraphy asking if she could save Nie Mingjue.

Wen Qing was well aware that there would be no coming back from this. She was almost certain Meng Yao already knew she was a spy. At this point her opinion of Meng Yao had only grown worse. She did not believe he was keeping her secret out of the goodness of his heart. More like he was hoarding her secret. Something that he was keeping on hand to use when it would benefit him. If Nie Mingjue suddenly went missing it would be easy for Meng Yao to guess who did it. Even if she executed everything perfectly Meng Yao would still suspect her first.

Wen Qing had access to the Flame Palace. She spent more time there than any other healer. A necessity to keep her young medical cultivators out of that twisted environment. As the best healer in Qishan, Wen Qing was almost always assigned to treat priority residents. In a case like Chifeng-zun, they might even limit how much they tortured him without her present. If they considered him to still be a valuable source of information, Nie Mingjue was not there for the enjoyment of the torturers.

Wen Qing had better access to Nie Mingjue than anyone who was not under Meng Yao's command. She still didn't know how she would get Nie Mingjue out, but she was certain Meng Yao would guess it was her doing. Wen Qing took a slow breath to steady herself. In her last life Nie Mingjue had been in Nightless City for scarcely more than a few hours before the final attack. He never even made it into the doors of the Flame Palace.

'I will find a way.' Wen Qing thought solemnly. Lan Xichen was asking for her help, and Wen Qing was going to give it to him.

Maybe saving two sect leaders would be enough to earn her family's safety after the war? Wen Qing is not accustomed to assuming things are going to work out well for herself or her family, but if saving two sect leaders of the allied sects isn't enough then she is not sure anything ever will be. Wen Qing tries to ignore the small part of her that winces. Part of her truly does think nothing will be enough, but that part is not especially helpful so Wen Qing has been doing her best to try and focus on more hopeful lines of thought.

The good news is that she can easily get to Nie Mingjue. Wen Qing can enter the Flame Palace almost freely. The question is more about how to get Nie Mingjue out. She is in charge of the infirmary and could pick out a handful of medical cultivators that she knows are not particularly fond of the QishanWen sect. Most of the ones she is aware of are young. She was either able to keep them out of Flame Palace rotations purely because she took the extra shifts herself instead of making another cultivator work in the Flame Palace more.

Getting Nie Mingjue out of Qishan should be doable. If she has confidence in the cultivators she chooses for help, then smuggling Nie Mingjue out in a carriage with them should not be too difficult. They could easily be a group of medical cultivators being sent out to assist the battlefront, or...

Medicinal herbs are still brought in from Dafan. A small group of medical cultivators often travels there to pick up new batches of dried herbs and other things. The trips are not set to a specific schedule. Whenever there is enough to be worth the trip a small group is arranged. Sometimes Wen Qing or Wen Qionglin go with. Never both of them at once, Wen Rouhan wants one of them here as leverage to ensure the other returns.

A plan is beginning to take shape. A plan in which she can get Nie Mingjue out of Qishan and can get her family out of Wen Rouhan's reach. She'll be implicated and likely thrown in the dungeons. Since that could happen the second Meng Yao sees a benefit in revealing Wen Qing as a spy... She had a hard time thinking of that as a serious consequence when she is expecting that result to happen at any moment already. If anything it only encourages her to try and figure out a plan faster. To make sure she can get Nie Mingjue out before she is exposed.

Wen Qing feels a small flare of anticipation. This could work. This could work, and it might just get her family to safety. Wen Qing is already in danger of being at the mercy of Wen Rouhan. It makes it hard to feel threatened by the consequences of the plan that is forming in her head. She just needs to figure out a way to get a prisoner out of the Flame Palace.