No Rain, No Flowers: a Jun Wu x Xie Lian

Family Issues

Xie Lian hummed a plesant tune as he sat on the swing under the shade of a peach tree in the gardens of the Palace of Divine Might, Ruoye keeping Hong-er tied with his back to the Heavenly Empress' chest as they swung ever higher and higher.

"Higher, mama, higher!" The little boy squealed happily, giggling as they played

The brunet laughed, playfully saying, "If we go any higher, San Lang, we might fly away."

Hong-er looked up, his dark eye meeting Xie Lian's honey ones, "Mama would catch me!"

The former scrap god's smile dropped momentarily, remembering that day eight hundred years ago where he had caught Hong-er during the Shangyuan Parade, "I would. Mama will always try to catch you when you fall, but when you get bigger mama is going to teach you how to save yourself just in case mama cannot."

They continued to swing for a little while longer, stopping when Xie Lian started to feel a little lightheaded.

"Is mama okay?" Hong-er asked, his uncovered eye wide with worry

Xie Lian nodded, his feet touching the ground as he brought the swing to a stop, "I'm alright, sweet boy, I just need a minute."

The little ghost king frowned, remembering his 'mother's' frequent bouts with sickness when they lived with old 'baba', unaware he was remembering a whole different mother, "Does mama need a doctor?"

"Nonsense, I am perfectly fine." Xie Lian denied, "I ate too much at the wedding feast yesterday, something must have not agreed with me."

Of course, that neglected the fact that he had frequently eaten rotten food and garbage, not to mention his own disastrous cooking, and the fact that he had been feeling a little off for the past month or so.

Ignoring that, he had Ruoye wrap back around his wrist and let Hong-er go, encouraging the little boy to play a little more before naptime.

The toddler seemed reluctant, but eventually did as told and began to play with a wooden sword and smack the various trees and bushes around them in pretend fighting.

Xie Lian continued to watch him, sitting on the still swing, his left hand unknowingly going to his belly instinctively.

A few minutes of nothing passed and just as Xie Lian was about to stand up to get Hong-er to go take him back to bed for his afternoon nap, he heard speaking.

He looked around for the source, assuming it to be a servant or one of his husband's deputy officials, but he quickly realized it was inside his head.

Xie Lian looked inwards as he followed the woman's voice, his mind's eye appearing in a temple in a presumably small village.

He looked around, seeing he was now in one of Jun Wu's temples, and right beside the stone statue depicting the dignified-looking older man they assumed his husband to be, was a stone statue of a beautiful young woman that vaguely resembled himself.

There, at the bottom of the alter, was a woman in her late teens or early adulthood kneeling on the floor while an incense stick burned on the packed offering table in front of her, her silent prayer loud in Xie Lian's head:

"Empress, you are newlywed just as I am soon to be, I pray that the husband my parents arranged for me is kind. I won't ask for him to love me or take no concubines, my mother says that I am lucky enough to even be marrying a rich man, that I should be content enough with that. But, please, let him treat me kindly at the very least."

Tears brimmed in Xie Lian's eyes, this was the first prayer he had properly heard in eight hundred years; back at Puqi Shrine, he had not been able to hear the prayers offered to him due to his shackles, but now he heard them for the first time since Xian Le fell.