Wu Xie/Xiao Hua
It was so much to take that he felt numb and uncertain of what could happen next. He wanted to confront his uncle... oh, right, Xie Liang about what Wenjin had told him and see if he deny or confirm it, but he didn't have the strength. Wu Xie was too drained both physically and mentally to do that. He feared that the man he had known as Wu San Xing would admit the truth and make the nightmare as real as the one he had experience in the past.
Perhaps unconsciously he had known the truth a long time ago, thus those awful nightmares in which he doubted his uncle. Now, that doubt that had stayed inside his heart despite himself was growing up on his way to consume him. How could he? What about Xiao Hua? Wu Xie ponder, as Qiling grab his weigh an pull him up into a standing position yet not letting go of his waist.
"Someone is coming." Xiaoge told him as he looked at the crack in the wall from which they enter and just a few seconds after, they hear Pangzi yelling Wu Xie's name.
"Tianzhen! Tianzhen!"
"Pangzi! I'm here!" Wu Xie called back and he could hear hurried steps coming their way in order to meet with him.
"Tianzhen... I finally found you... your uncle San is injured, come on, let's hurry back." Pangzi said and took Wu Xie's hand to pull him along with him and Xiaoge follow them in turn.
Wu Xie didn't have the time to react, because he had so many things on his mind, that he could only follow Pangzi, who had dropped his hold on him as they ran back to where San Xing was and when they reach him, Wu Xie saw the man sit with his eyes closed, while laying his back on a pillar. Xiao Hua was by him, putting a bandage on San Xing's arms that was stained by blood.
Seen the one he had called uncle like that, so vulnerable, while Xiao Hua tended to his wounds... it make it all come back to bite him ten times harder. All that, was so unfair, especially for Xiao Hua and himself... and yet, he could not pretend to no longer care for the man he had loved as a member of his family for so long, for the one he had look up to the most while he grew up. Thus, despite himself, he squatted by Xie Lian and grabbed the bandage that Xiao Hua was putting.
"Let me do it." Wu Xie whisper and Xiao Hua assented, letting go the bandage gently. Still not knowing how to act, Wu Xie keep silent and avoid Xie Lian's gaze. He may had lie to him for most of his life... but not all have been wrong. There was a time he had admire the man and wished to be just like him... it was honestly confusing.
Maybe his silence was interpreted as worry for Xie Lian, because he looked at Wu Xie with a kind of reassurance reflected on his bloody face.
"Don't worry Wu Xie, I am your uncle San, of the Wu family... I'm not that easy to kill." Xie Lian said and at that Wu Xie stopped his action for a fraction of the second. Xiaoge, behind him came closer and so did Chen Wenjin that finally showed herself to him after nineteen years without seen her.
"Chen Wenjin..." Obviously, Xie Lian was surprised to his core to see her out of the blue, but he was not the only one who was surprised as Pan Zi, Pangzi, Xiao Hua and Hei Xiazi were too.
Wenjin squatted down to at the same level as Xie Lian and took a few seconds to look at him. He had aged a lot, but she knew that the lies he had sustained over the year had weight on him heavily to that point. He smiled lightly at her, but his eyes showed uncertainty and caution, perhaps fearing what she was about to tell him. Still, it was time to end the lie.
"I have told Wu Xie everything. You don't need to keep your secret hidden anymore." She whisper and Xie Lian was taken aback by her words, instantly showing a sorrowful expression, but also with a hint of relief, like if a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
"Wu Xie... do you really know it?" Xie Lian asked him sadly and seen the hurt expression of the young man, he knew the answer before he said it out loud.
"Yes..." Wu Xie whisper, still a bit lost at to what to do next, now that it was confirmed that what Wenjin had told him was completely true.
"What happen here? Why is he this injured?" Wu Xie asked to no one in particular in order to escape his own hurt feelings.
"Master San rushed to bomb the snakes, so we could get away and got quite hurt." Pangzi said softly.
"That should had been a while ago. Why he had not been attended until now?!" Wu Xie demanded.
"Tianzhen, don't get mad, the first aid kit was lost with the bomb, but we give him all the medicine we could find to treat him." Pangzi said and Wu Xie knew he was losing it, as his eyes itched with more coming tears he knew he could not hold for long.
Xie Lian also knew that, so he looked at Wu Xie with love, even if he may not believe it now.
"Wu Xie..." Xie Lian whisper weakly. It was better to said what he needed at that moment, because he may not have another chance.
"Wu Xie, I know you may not believe this now... but I'm truly sorry..." At that Wu Xie's tears fell down like two tiny rivers and Wu Xie walked away in order to try contain them, giving the others his back, that soon it was gently rubbed by a man's hand... Xiaoge.
Seen that Wu Xie was going to be in good hands, Xie Lian focus back in Chen Wenjin. She was as beautiful as he remember her. She haven't age either, which wasn't a good thing for her. They all have pass through their own hardships in their own missions.
"Wenjin..." He whisper to her and she came closer to hear what he wanted to tell her.
"Don't worry, Wu San Xing is still alive." Xie Lian said and this time, Wenjin was truly surprised and glad to know that the real Wu San Xing is still somewhere in hiding but at least alive.
"I got it... Lian Huan..." Wenjin said, which of course, drew the attention of everyone present, especially Xiao Hua.
"I know you have suffer taking someone else place, but now, you have returned to be yourself." She ended.
"Wait, what did you just call him?" Xiao Hun asked and Wu Xie sighed, taking of his feelings back into a closed core and turned to face him.
"Xiao Hua... I promise you, that I didn't knew about this until a few minutes ago when Chen Wenjin told me about his identity." Wu Xie explained and Xiao Hua understood now just why Wu Xie looked so devastated after coming back. Wu Xie had always look up to his uncle third since he was a child and now he just found out that the man he had admired and called uncle for so many years, was not only a manipulative liar that had involved him into tomb robbing for who knows what purpose, but an impostor too.
Although this new turn on events certainly was a great hit for Xiao Hua in many ways, it was even worse for Wu Xie, because even though taking the position of the leader of his Xie family at a young age was hard, he never had any expectation of someone he thought was dead, but for Wu Xie it was the complete opposite, he cared for the man as he cared for his father and discovering he had been deceived for so long it was not only shocking, but also devastating, as his real uncle was probably long dead under suspicious circumstances, none of them knew anything about, even after nineteen years had passed. He could only pity Wu Xie as he watch him look at him, with those big tearful eyes of his.
"I know... we both were fooled in the extreme by this man." Xiao Hua said as anger begin to rise inside his chest, for what that man had done to both of them over the years without a hint of shame in his thick skin, but although his rage was great, it was less emotional than in Wu Xie's case.
"Even so... we need to finish this Xiao Hua. We had lose more than enough already to give up and make those who had fallen along the way, die for nothing." Wu Xie added.
"We will finish this journey, I assure you, but I need to settle this Xie family affair before moving on." Xiao Hua asked for Wu Xie's understanding, who of course assented in agreement.
"Fair enough. I will go and scout ahead then." Wu Xie said, as he slightly tapped Xiao Hua's shoulder. "Mop, gather the things and team and let's go." Wu Xie took his own backpack from the ground and walked away without looking back a single time.
"Wait, Tianzhen!" Pangzi yelled as he hurry after Wu Xie, there was no real need to mention Xiaoge, because he was always by Wu Xie, the rest of the group went up after them, including Pan Zi and even Hei Xiazi told Xiao Hua that he too was going to follow the others as well.
Xie Yunchen was sure Wu Xie will keep ongoing along with the others like he said he would, but about Hei Xiazi, there was no way he will walk ahead and leave him behind with the sudden mess thrown at him. They had created a special kind of dynamic between them in the last few days of their traveling together, so he was sure that Xiazi was going to hide in the tunnel close enough to overhead the conversation between Xie Lian Hua and him and when the time was right he will shown himself on is own.
"I'm leaving too, take care, Lian Huan." Wenjin said as she stood and went into one of the cracks the others had went into.
"I often wonder why you keep insisting for me to protect the Xie family when you so obviously belonged to another. I was always puzzle why you didn't ask me to help you protect the Wu family, that you were part off, but only to focus in protecting the Xie family and nothing else... but then, I hear a stranger call you Xie Lian Huan and you pretty much admitting it without batting an eye. Now it's turn out that you don't are a true Wu, but a Xie instead, that had decided to change places for who know what reason with the risky explorer Wu San Xing. How could you do that?!!" Xiao Hua let his anger free.
"It's not only because of what you did to me, your own blood... I was only six when I was told you die and in the blink of an eye, nineteen years passed and you keep deceiving me and Wu Xie!! How could you give your back to your own family to go manipulate someone else?!! And now, who is even the successor of the Xie family?!!" Xiao Hua exploded and at that last question Xie Lian looked at Xiao Hua.
"You were always meant to be the successor, no one else can take your rightful place." The older man said.
"Nonsense!! Why the need to fool us all like this? This is nothing less than despicable that shame the Xie family name! I don't know what plans the Mystic Nine had for Wu Xie, as he seems to be in the center of everything you guys do and plan behind our backs, but this.... this is go to the extreme!" Xiao Hua shouted.
"We had a reason for this... and it also protects the Xie family from what is yet to come." Xie Lian said sadly.
"By condemning Wu Xie in the process? To force him to do things you couldn't on your time? Does he deserve to be hurt like this, just for future plans that may not even work anymore?"
"It has to work... there is a war you don't know off yet... but it can take all nine families out at once..."
"So, only with Wu San Xing could this be done?"
"Yes."
"Then why take his place? Was he the one who die back in the Parcel Islands?"
"No, he is still alive... but San Xing could not pull it off."
"Oh... of course, he may be reluctant to involve his own nephew in whatever hidden war you are fighting, but you have no problems leaving your own family for the same purpose. Not only that, actually you groomed Wu Xie for his entire life and drag him into this business for him to fight this war of yours on his own. Then, he been here is not a coincidence despite his reluctance for this trip... you all wanted him here... or to put it more bluntly, this trip was for him to come to Tamutuo, after been taken to all the other tombs in the dragon vein. He is the Mystic Nine successor..." Xiao Hua concluded and his uncle silence only confirmed it for him.
He didn't know what kind of war was being fought in secret, but he feared now that Wu Xie was going to be at the center of it and that it will not do him any good. Since childhood, Xiao Hua had a soft spot for Wu Xie and always defend him, even against Hei Xiazi's idiotic remarks and now he understood why. Perhaps fate was preparing him for what was coming, because if one member of his family was willing to deceive and hurt Wu Xie for the good of the nine families, he certainly was ready to correct the wrong doings and protect him instead.
He only hope to be strong enough for when that moment come, because if something so awful was done for the sake of the nine families existence, then Wu Xie was in for a ride to hell, he wish to prevent. No matter what, he most protect Wu Xie the best way he can or he will live in shame for the rest of his life.
AN: Thanks for reading, there will be a Heihua and Pingxie coming in the next chapter. Hope you like it, see you soon. Take care until then. ♥♥♥