WangXian Forever Book 8

Chapter 34 Evidence

Lan XiChen and Jiang Cheng returned to Cloud Recesses the next evening.

They were tired from travelling, but they had covered three villages, the ones with the most casualties resulting from the Sleeping Sickness. There were more and more victims daily, almost as if they had angered whoever was causing these deaths, and that person was sending them a message like this.

"You look worried." XiChen remarked to his husband, threading their fingers together. He smiled warmly, wanting to encourage him to open his heart and say what exactly was on his mind.

"I am." Jiang Cheng murmured.

He looked around the buildings they passed, Cloud Recesses in a mist of the evening fog. There was a silent beauty about the place, a reassurance of a warm welcome despite its cold heritage. It was more a home to him akin to Lotus Pier now and he gladly set foot within its perimeters. More because of this wonderful man, who also had opened his heart and arms to welcome him.

Despite a few years passing in their marriage, Jiang Cheng wasn't used to just saying what was on his mind. Sometimes he had to be coaxed.

Sometimes, he liked being coaxed.

Huan was looking at him with so much love in those bright, warm honey coloured eyes, that it made him weak at the knees. He was still astounded at everything he had these days; a beautiful husband and even more beautiful daughter.

"I'm worried about my brother." He admitted.

The hand squeezing his was more than just reassurance.

"A-Xian is resilient. He's going to get through this. And I hate to say this, but he's been through worse." XiChen really did hate reminding him...but it was the truth.

There was a flash of guilt in those amethyst eyes, and a deep reaching pain.

"It's not a dig..." XiChen hurried to reassure him. "I meant to give you hope...but it backfired."

"No...no...I know what you mean." Jiang Cheng yawned.

He was so tired, he didn't want to think about anything now. Just a bed and his husband.

But when they should have turned towards the Hanshi, XiChen let go of his hand, looking tireder than ever.

"Huan...our bed is that way." Jiang Cheng pointed towards it.

"I know...but the Grandmaster ordered me to give her an update as soon as we returned." He admitted.

"What? Look at the time! Do you even know where she is?" Jiang Cheng protested.

"Yes. She's in the Forbidden room...in the library." He looked even more guilty.

"Really? What happened to the 'only family' rule?" Jiang Cheng looked a little irritated.

XiChen didn't blame him.

Uncle Qiren in the old days was a completely different person now. Still, the old hurts remained, because words couldn't be taken back no more than actions.

"She's a Celestial..." it sounded lame even to his own ears.

"Fine. Let's go." Jiang Cheng huffed at him, renewed vigour in his strides.

"You're coming with me? You could just go home...I won't be long." XiChen was so pleased, but he also felt concerned.

Jiang Cheng was just as tired as himself and it wasn't fair to drag him to yet another task when all he wanted was to go to sleep.

"Of course I'm coming! What did you think, I'd let you face that old dragon by yourself?" Jiang Cheng grinned at him.

Huan paled.

"Watch what you say! I swear she has the ears of a bat." He whispered.

"Let's go find out. I'm not scared of her." Jiang Cheng boasted, but they both knew it wasn't true.

The library was open and as they travelled further in, they could hear scrolls being flung and books snapping shut.

"There are precious relics in there." XiChen mourned quietly, dreading what they would find down there.

"I am well aware, Sect Leader." Baoshan Sanren announced, when their feet fell upon the wooden floor polished to a gleam.

XiChen was surprised to find it still intact.

"Has the Grandmaster been here since yesterday?" He asked, looking at her tired face.

"I didn't come here to look at the snow." She snapped. "What did you find out?"

As she spoke, she was rifling through two books at a time. And listening intently.

"Much the same as the villages we visited before. It is only the men who are like us being affected. And nothing else has really changed, it's still three days in a coma and then they're dead." XiChen reported.

"Did you find anything here?" Jiang Cheng asked, not liking the way he thought XiChen was being bullied.

"Not really. A few interesting things, but what I found out is hardly worth noting. I do have a question for you, though." She stared at XiChen as if she could see into his soul.

"Anything." XiChen quickly said, scared of her tone.

He had heard about what she had said to Jiang Cheng long ago about blaming him for everything that had happened to A-Xian before...before he passed away in his first life. The last thing he wanted was to have a repeat showdown, because after all, there was no point in rehashing the past.

"When this library was burned down, was the new structure built on the foundations of the old one?" Her purple eyes were intense.

XiChen forced himself to keep eye contact, not looking away.

"WangJi knows more about it than I do."

"Ah, yes. You had run away." She frowned.

"He was ordered to!" Jiang Cheng shouted, incensed that she would call it that.

"Semantics. Either way, I found something you might want to know." She replied, ignoring both Sect Leaders, one angry and the other ashamed.

Before she could say what she had found, there was a clattering of boots on the stairs and a frantic disciple rushed towards them.

"Sect Leader, there's a visitor at the gates! He says it's urgent. It's about the Light Bearer of the North and His Dark Angel."

*******

A/N

Dear Lovely Readers,

Another quick one before work because I'm on a roll and didn't want to leave you guys without an update.

Happy Saturday and eat lots of chocolate 🍫 😋 !

Charlie.