The King's Mate - Part 3: Guishi

Chapter 8

I'm sorry I didn't get to upload the chapter yesterday x.x

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Xie Lian was startled awake by a dip in the mattress, and couldn't help the bout of panic that welled up inside of him when he realised he'd fallen asleep and thus hadn't been aware of his surroundings.

However, the reason for that dip in the mattress was none other than Hua Cheng kneeling down beside him, a tray full of food in his hand.

"Dianxia is truly brave, sleeping here under such circumstances", his alpha teased.

"It's not like I could have done much else", Xie Lian grumbled, and sat up slowly in order to prevent the oncoming dizziness as best as possible. "What have you found out?", he asked, ignoring the food Hua Cheng gave him, feeling much too anxious to stomach anything.

"You eat, I talk", his alpha said with a raised eyebrow, causing Xie Lian to sigh.

True to his word, Hua Cheng did not start talking until Xie Lian had taken the first bite of the frankly delicious, and even somewhat nostalgic, food.

"I got into the dungeon by transforming myself into a mouse", Hua Cheng started with an amused twitch in the corner of his lips. "Turns out, I'm still incredibly lucky. While I was scurrying around down there I caught Pei Ming in the act of interrogating Ling Wen.

"She was in a separate cell, even in a whole different part of the dungeon than her fellow traitors and Pei Ming was... not amused. Apparently, there had been two opposing opinions on how to deal with the situation after you and our kids left, and while Pei Ming was leading the loyalists, Ling Wen was leading the opposition.

"From what I could gather, there have been a lot of arguments and fights over Ling Wen wanting to appoint Mei NianQing as the official, proper new king while Pei Ming insisted for Mei NianQing to remain a stand-in until they found out what had happened to us.

"Things reached a deadlock when Ling Wen announced she had joined forces with Bai WuXiang, and if Pei Ming didn't surrender, she was allowed to use his military forces to take the throne by force. Curiously though, these forces never showed up to the fight that broke out after that provocation. Turns out Bai WuXiang didn't have time to send word out to his troops after his promise to Ling Wen and before I killed him", Hua Cheng snickered.

"After I realised that the situation had played out much more recently than I expected, I turned myself back into my current form, and joined their little discussion by letting Ling Wen know that I killed her benefactor again, but this time properly.

"She seems to know about the existence of demons, but Pei Ming doesn't, and I intend to keep it that way. Either way, they were both very surprised to see me down there, and Ling Wen.... Well, she didn't take the news too well. As for Pei Ming, he was genuinely happy and relieved to see me. He asked after your well-being as well, by the way. I told him I would have an official meeting with him and everyone he deemed trustworthy to explain our absence and to retake the throne.

"He had no objections whatsoever and said he would let everyone know who needed to be present."

Hearing this, Xie Lian hummed in contemplation.

On one hand, he truly hadn't expected for things to be resolved to such a degree before they could even start their investigation properly.

But on the other hand, he was extremely grateful that Hua Cheng had people he could depend on, even in his absence, who were loyal to him and his rule. He even was a bit overwhelmed by the gratitude he felt towards Pei Ming and everyone else who stayed loyal to Hua Cheng.