TIAN GUAN CI FU Fan fic stories

TAKE MY HAND AND LEAD ME, BREATHLESS, TO TOMORROW

• CHAPTER 1 •

"You signed up for what?"

Hua Cheng leans back on the swivel chair in He Xuan's office, crossing both of his arms behind his head with a smirk.

"You told me you thought I needed a break because my work was falling to shit. So I'm taking one."

He Xuan lifts one hand and rubs at his eyes with his thumb and forefinger, looking all the world like he'd rather go submerge himself in a body of water and scream into the abyss.

"I meant you should go to a fucking beach for a week, not that you should fuck off into the middle of nowhere for four months."

"You should work on your communication a bit more then." Hua Cheng knows the grin on his face is a shit-eating one, but He Xuan makes it so easy.

"What am I supposed to tell your clients? You've got three commissions due over the next month alone." He Xuan looks torn between throwing something at Hua Cheng, and slamming his laptop shut and quitting.

Hua Cheng shrugs. "I'll get Yin Yu to draft an explanation. Call it an artistic break."

"What, you're going to find your inspiration in a fucking rice paddy surrounded by smelly animals?" He Xuan rolls his eyes viciously, his mouth twisted into a sneer. Hua Cheng laughs, knowing he's succeeded in winding up his agent.

"I'm going to find myself, and the meaning of my life, He Xuan." Hua Cheng says with false earnestness, his eyes wide. "Don't you support me in this?"

He Xuan looks over at him and rolls his eyes again. Hua Cheng points out that if he keeps pulling that face, it may get stuck like that.

He Xuan grabs a catalogue of Hua Cheng's own art off his desk and throws it in his direction, close enough that the hard corner smacks Hua Cheng's arm as it flies past. This only makes Hua Cheng more determined to wind him up, and so he gives him a wounded expression.

"No, I don't support you and your ridiculous ideas. Get out of here."

Hua Cheng stands, and his smirk returns to his face.

"See you in September."

"Fuck off."

Hua Cheng's laugh can be heard down the hallway.

How had Hua Cheng ended up in this situation, ready to leave the city and move to a farm in the middle of nowhere?

Well.

The truth of it started when he was twelve years old, trapped in an alleyway with a pack of older bullies descending on him. There had been nothing new to the attack, his classmates picking on him because of the poorer quality of his clothes, his smaller size and the red eye that stood out so harshly in his pale, skinny face compared to his brown eye. He had been an easy target, and this group were no different to the other groups that would corner him and tease him, pin him down so he couldn't fight back.

But something was different that time, in that the seventeen year old heir to the Xianle Enterprises empire had been passing through that part of the city, on his way to some philanthropic event, and had seen the whole thing.

Hua Cheng remembers very little from his early school days, but he remembers the sight of Xie Lian storming down the alley, a closed red umbrella in his hand, and staring in awe as he beat away the bullies with just a fucking umbrella.