baby it's cold outside (WangXian FF)

4

The sound of the swords clanking against each other were reverberating on the wide raised platform where it was designed so that whoever fell out of it was losing the duel.

There were two men wearing flowy ancient Chinese garbs – one in white and the other in black – and they were fighting on top of the special-built platform, exchanging blow after blow, and after a while, one of the men was pushed onto the edge and the sword touched his neck.

There were claps all over from the spectators of the show before they moved inside for lunch that was provided as part of the tour experience – although some of them lingered, hoping to catch the glimpse of those two beautiful men for a little longer.

"I wonder when I will be able to beat you, Wangji." The man in black grinned. He had long wavy black hair tied in a half ponytail in ancient style, and his robe was beautiful – black with red accents all over.

The man who won was wearing an identical robe in all white with fur lining – making him look like royalty, an Ice Prince – and he was extraordinarily tall and beautiful. His hair was also long and styled in an ancient China style, and his face was perfect, as was the other man. He smiled when his partner teased him as usual.

"One day, Binghe, one day. As long as you keep practicing your swordplay. You do know you still have a lot of openings, right?" The man – Lan Wangji – wiped his sweat with the sleeve of his robe, and he walked to the small building where they kept their fighting properties. He took time to clean the swords and then put them on their sheaths, before he entered the huge palace from the back, straight to his residence.

He was tired and hated the performances that he had to do once daily. But it was the source of his income, besides the tour and souvenirs. He needed to find a buyer fast before Christmas – before the snow became too heavy and the tourists stopped coming.

But who was crazy enough to buy this… monstrosity? In the middle of nowhere nonetheless?

And then, where would he go, if there was a crazy enough person who was willing to buy this all?

Lan Wangji sighed heavily as he took off his long wig and changed his clothes to a normal cable knit jumper, jeans, and heavy wool coat with a hoodie. He was hungry and he had an appointment with his lawyer and best friend – Xie Lian – in the only bar in town. Luo Binghe would come later after he closed the palace in an hour.

He was lucky to have Luo Binghe as his aide and best friend. They practically grew up together, and held this place together from crumbling into pieces, just because his uncle gambled away all his inheritance.

That piece of shit of a so-called family. Because of him, he had to sell this place, the only place he knew since he was a kid.

But anyway, enough of the shitty thoughts.

Lan Wangji decided to walk to the bar and cleared up his mind and hopefully worked up an appetite by the time he got there.

The bar was warm, and the food was really good. They couldn't even order because they were the only patrons there, and the owner of the bar – a handsome man named Liu Qingge – ordered them to sit down and he brought out a tableful of raw food and a huge pot with red broth in it.

"This is our specialty hotpot. Just put those inside the broth and eat them. I made the broth from scratch for three days over low charcoal fire." He explained to them.

The variety of the raw pork meat, intestine, beef slices, chicken, dumplings, mushroom, vegetables, tofu, fishballs and a lot of other ingredients almost overwhelmed them, but Liu Qingge told them not to worry about it, just eat what they could and left them to fetch their drinks.

"I'm… kinda have a second thought about this food." Shen Qingqiu observed the obviously very spicy broth with caution, while Wei Wuxian started to put the meat inside the boiling pot.

Hua Cheng made a stoic face as he took a piece of meat and dipped it inside the pot, swirled it a bit, and then took it out and observed it some more before he put it in his mouth.

"How's it?" Shen Qingqiu asked him. He didn't trust Wei Wuxian who exclaimed that it was very good and not spicy.

"It's… surprisingly not that spicy." Hua Cheng nodded and he took some more meat to dip it into the broth.

"Ugh…" Shen Qingqiu shivered lightly but he took a piece of meat and copied Hua Cheng – swirled it lightly instead of putting them all into the broth and slurped them all including the chilis – then he put it into his mouth.

"Oh wow." He was surprised. "It's… tolerable." He took another piece again.

"Well, I told you, but you wouldn't listen." Wei Wuxian pouted at him.

"Because I know your sense of taste is already burned from all the spices you ate, so yeah, I don't trust you at all regarding spicy food." Shen Qingqiu rolled his eyes and Hua Cheng chuckled.

"Yeah, I almost died back then when he gave me his chili con carne, and I couldn't taste anything for a week because of the amount of spices he put into it."

Hua Cheng really enjoyed this time off with his friends, although it was far from home. But he could read Wei Wuxian well, and if he was correct, the eccentric author had something in mind and it had to do with buying something since he needed a lawyer with him.

He didn't want to think too much though, since Wei Wuxian should soon tell him about it.

He went back to eat when the front door to the bar was opened, and someone entered.

"Hey, Qingge, give me food please, I'm hungry." The person walked inside and called the owner by his name. "The other will join me soon."

The voice was very pleasant and he couldn't help but looked at the newcomer, and suddenly he forgot to breathe.

The person was wearing white parka with hoodie, and he had a face that looked like it was carved by the angels themselves. The man looked so pure and bright and he couldn't help but feeling something stirred inside him.

"Hey, Dianxia, please sit down wherever you like. The usual?" Liu Qingge asked the man, who walked to the corner table and took off his parka.

"The usual is fine, ooh, I want your Christmas latte too." He then looked around and his eyes met Hua Cheng's.

They were the most beautiful hazel colored eyes that were ao transparent they almost looked like gold.

Then the man smiled at him.