Wu Xie
He had said he will scout ahead and he try it, but at some point, Wu Xie stumble on his own feet and was about to fall, when Xiaoge catch him midway. Right there, once again on Xiaoge's arms, he broke down for a minute, before he recollected himself in front of his lover and friend.
"Wu Xie..." Xiaoge didn't asked the question, but Wu Xie knew it was there, waiting for Wu Xie to respond it for him.
"I'm alright, Xiaoge... just a bit shaken, but it will pass soon." Wu Xie told him and Xiaoge let go of Wu Xie so they could keep scouting before the others join them in full. Pan Zi was left behind with Mop's team to keep an eye on them, while giving Wu Xie a little bit of time to pull himself together, after what had been a shock to pretty much everyone, including Pan Zi as well.
They walked around the place until they reached a tunnel from where they could hear air circulating from somewhere close.
"Tianzhen, can you hear that?" Pangzi asked as he looked around with his flashlight.
"Yeah... but I think is coming from bellow." Wu Xie said as he listen more carefully. He squatted down to remove the tree leaves and Pangzi help him with the task until they found two big iron rings that seem to be the next stone door to another tunnel deeper underground.
"Let's try it out." Wu Xie said and all three of them try to pull it up with everything they got, but with no luck, because the stone was way too heavy, even for Xiaoge's strength. At the end, the effort only manage to wound Wu Xie's hand, which he ignored and try to keep pulling up, despite his bleeding fingers.
"Tianzhen, your hand is bleeding, please take a rest and let me and Xiaoge try again." Pangzi offered, but Wu Xie, of course didn't listen to him at all and keep trying, until Xiaoge stop all his struggles as he pulled Wu Xie up.
"Wu Xie... please stop." Xiaoge whisper as he deeply look at him.
"I... I truly am fine..." Wu Xie protested as Xiaoge take off Wu Xie's glove.
"You are not." Xiaoge insisted.
"I will bring Pan Zi here along with Mop's team and see if with more people we can lift this thing." Pangzi said, leaving them alone.
"Xiaoge..." Wu Xie whisper as his lover did his best to clean his wound and put a band aid on his finger.
"I'm here... don't take it all on your own." Xiaoge whisper as he pull Wu Xie into a warm hug, that Wu Xie responded, hugging him back. Then Xiaoge, taking the chance they were still alone, kiss the young man, as he was itching to do since the whole ordeal started and Wu Xie comply, letting Xiaoge in and deepening the kiss to his content, until they hear coming footsteps in the distance.
"I will be alright..." Wu Xie assure Xiaoge, who simply gifted Wu Xie with a soft smile and a gentle kiss over his forehead, before the others showed up and they try again the stone door with more numbers this time.
Xiao Hua
"For what all this charade? Who are the Mystic Nine fighting with and why Wu Xie?" Xiao Hua asked his uncle.
"This fight is not new to us, it quite old actually... but we could do nothing on our own... then, someone give us some answers." Xie Lian whisper.
"Someone? Who?" Xiao Hua asked.
"He must not be named for now, but he is the reason Wu Xie was chosen since childhood."
"What the hell that means? Just how many secrets are you keeping from us?"
"Xiao Hua, don't ask me that... it will only involve you into something you will not be able to escape once in, like us before you."
"I don't care, you are forcing Wu Xie into this and he is not just a random kid! He is family too and you dare play with his life, like he means nothing but someone to be used as tool!"
"Damn it, is not like I don't care for Wu Xie! I'm not that heartless and I did try to find a way to keep him out, but there is only one way to end this war..."
"That's hypocrite... you said you care for him, but are still willing to throw him into the fire when the time comes to save your skin along with the rest of the Mystic Nine. Do you know just how much are you destroying him? He is been called Tianzhen so many times, is embarrassing and even his own name was giving to him in hope to keep him innocent, but you guys are trying to make him into something else!"
"We didn't have a choice! Doing this was never easy for me, precisely because of Wu Xie's innocence and it had plague me for years, but if we don't push Wu Xie into the right direction, pretty much all your generation will inherit our problems and sins and I assure it will be paid in something far worse than blood. There are just too many things that your generation don't know and for a good reason... I will plead for forgiveness the rest of my life and accept my punishment once dead, but... I just couldn't find another way..."
"And do you think it will be that easy to involve Wu Xie? What about Zhang Qiling? I dare to say that if he ever finds out about what you guys are planning to do with his lover, he will not sit back and let you destroy him."
"If Zhang Qiling ever find out the reason, he will give Wu Xie the same motivation as if not. That cannot be changed... not changed any longer no matter how badly both of them may want it." Xie Lian whisper sadly. Closing his eyes again.
"So Zhang Qiling is actually the reason? Oh... you played your cards far too well. You knew Wu Xie will eventually fall for him, knowing that Wu Xie was always driven by curiosity and mysteries and certainly there is no bigger mystery in Wu Xie's world that this quiet, yet strong man dressed in black, that doesn't age and keeps him safe no matter the danger he is in. This is why you pull Wu Xie into tomb robbing... so they will meet and fall in love... which will force Wu Xie to the extreme for him as well... Oh, you did well indeed." Xiao Hua clapped a few times in praise, as his anger raised even more.
"No wonder you didn't marry as Wu San Xing, nor expand his business while you played his role... your goal was to keep those two in contact while exploring tombs and bond into a point of no return, so they could fit right at the center of your plan. You involved Wu Xie this time around, using Zhang Qiling as bait as well..." Xiao Hua said with disgust.
"That's not entirely true..." The voice came from the very same crack that Wenjin had taken, which was now back to help Xie Lian face his understandable enraged nephew.
"What do you mean?" Xiao Hua asked, directing his attention to her instead.
"I sent a video to Xie Lian Huan, and also to Zhang Qiling... but I never send one to Wu Xie, which means that someone else did. It did it." She explained.
"It? What's that?" He asked.
"It is what we are fighting againstandis not a single person, but a force that also works against us in turn. This It, as we don't have a name for it, also manipulate things to go their way... and involve Wu Xie as well, even if Lian Huan didn't and this time is not the only one that a luring from their part had been done." She said.
"So that means that Wu Xie is not only the chosen one of the Nine Gates, but also, of this It you mention." Xiao Hua concluded.
"Yes, perhaps it had been like that for them as well... perhaps only Wu Xie can uncover the secrets of both sides and finally end it all." Wenjin whisper.
"Ever since you guys went to the Parcel Islands, all this madness begin... just what the hell did you saw down there to be pushed to do this?" Xiao Hua finally asked the thing he wanted to know best.
"That is something that I can't tell you... not because I don't want to, but because I can't remember. We were put to sleep when inside the tomb and when we wake up, not all the members of the expedition team were there and at least a weak had pass since we fainted inside the tomb. We spend a few years in the Golmud Sanatorium in which were brought to and we were also alter from what we were before that."
"You mean longevity?"
"Yes although we didn't figure out the change back then. While in the Sanatorium, we study the collected data we got and remember from the Parcel Islands and the results pointed at something inside Mount Chagbai. Of course, we went there and in our trip we really figure out that we no longer aged..."
"What did you find in the Cloud Palace?"
"The Bronze door... the Ultimate."
"The Ultimate? So you enter the Bronze door? What is this Ultimate you are talking about?" Xiao Hua asked eagerly to know the answer.
"The Ultimate is something none of the Nine Gates members were ready for it, nor will any of you either... is the end of all existence. I can only assure you, that if you want to know more about it, you will have to enter yourself... but there may be a high chance you will never come back from inside the gate again and if you do... well, it may be as something different... perhaps like us... or like Zhang Qiling."
"Then at least tell me what's inside the Queen Mother's palace that you all seems so eager to find?" Xiao Hua asked.
"I don't know. The only clue I got is that this is my place for salvation. Our eternal youth is not like that of Zhang Qiling's, ours have side effect that can only be cured here."
"What side effects?"
"The very same one Huo Ling had before us. Eventually, our bodies will transform into something inhuman. I don't have much time left."
"Huo Ling? That's why she went missing? Where is she?"
"In the Golmud Sanatorium, but her side effects are too advance to be reversed. I don't think she can be brought back to what she was before the Parcel Islands expedition. When she first begin to notice the changes, she ask us not to tell her family about what she was going through... it was going to be crueler than she been missing. At least her family could remember her as what she was before transforming into something else and I think you will also agree to keep her secret for her family sake."
"Alright... I will keep the secret." Xiao Hua said solemnly and in that moment, a man from Mop's team came to meet them and tell them that they had found a stone door in the floor and that Wu Xie and the others had go down the rabbit hole first.
"Alright... I will go with them this time. Will you come too, Xie Yunchen?" Wenjin asked and Xiao Hua looked at his tired uncle, still on the floor with his eyes closed.
"You go ahead first... I will stay with him for a bit longer." Xiao Hua said and Wenjin assented, leaving them behind for good.
After watching her leave, Xiao Hua moved closer to the crack he was sure Xiazi was hidden.
"Come on out Hei Xiazi. Haven't you listen enough already?" Xiao Hua demanded to Xiazi, which of course, came out when he was asked to.
"Ah, Master Hua, you are such a man... I'm even jealous of Wu Xie now." Xiazi joked.
"I'm not in the mood for jokes..." Xiao Hua said and Xiazi put an arm over Xiao Hua's shoulder to pull him closer.
"My bad, you have such a hard pill to swallow, but if it helps, you did it with dignity. I agree with him when he said to you that you are the rightful heir of the Xie family. You are a man of honor that values not only the family, but also friends. You are not blinded by money, like most, you are a man who are beyond mundane things and care for what's right. I have no problems seen you with a bright future despite what hardships you may found on your way up."
"Don't flatter me that much, I not buying anything you may offer next." At that Xiazi laughed.
"No, I will not dare to offer you anything this time... well, not for a price that is, but I can always offer a free kiss that may help you forget this nightmare for a minute or two..."
"You know... I may be so much out of my mind right now that I may be tempt to accept your offer..." Xiao Hua whisper. They had not moved from the spot he asked Xiazi to go out, so if they walked a few steps back, they will be out of sight from both Xie Lian and the man that had come to look for them.
"I'm not joking Xie Yunchen... if you want comfort, that's exactly what I will give you, no compromises, no unwanted bonds you may not be ready to face yet... just comfort, just honest feelings and warmth." Xiazi said seriously as he looked at Xiao Hua.
"Then you win this time... I truly need some of that comfort right now." Xiao Hua said tiredly and Xiazi wasted no time in pulling Xiao Hua into a little further inside the tunnel and kiss him senseless on the spot. He was not going to take any chances for Xiao Hua to change his mind, so he kiss the man he was really falling for and give him exactly what he needed.
Xiazi kissed Xie Yunchen with as much warmth, not desire as he could muster. He kiss Yunchen with real feelings behind it, opening himself for Xiao Hua to feel them as well. Xiazi kissed Xiao Hua with that which could be called love... or the thing more close to it. The desire that it may arise as they kissed was of second nature, he wanted for Xiao Hua to feel cared for, to feel loved, understood, cherish and beloved... and so he did.
This time Xiao Hua didn't hesitate to kiss Xiazi back, nor pull Shades away when he embrace him, while pulling him closer. Xiao Hua let himself be drowned into what Xiazi wanted for him to feel, to explore and accept. Xiao Hua also didn't move an inch when Xiazi gently caress his back as he press him closer. He was not searching for desire, he was trying to convey the warmth he had asked for and it felt like a lifeline.
As they kissed, Xiao Hua felt tears fall from his closed eyes, but Xiazi was in a gentlemen mode, and wipe them away with his finger, without breaking their kiss. There was no hunger to lead to something more, just plain feelings he was in need of at that moment, so they only separate when there was no more air to breath and then, there was a second one that had a hint of more at first, but that Xiazi controlled it to perfection a second later, keeping it just right for his kind of depressing mood.
Xiao Hua was hurt and drained and Xiazi was offering a hint of heaven to dull his senses even if it was for a short period. Once the kissing ended, Xiao Hua was going back to reality and to his now, alive uncle, but at least for a few minutes, he was going to enjoy what Xiazi offered and that was... deep affection he could not deny or been blinded off or... maybe even love...
AN: Oh my... you are doing far better than Wu Xie and Xiaoge right now. LOL. Hope you like it, see you next time. A tropical storm is coming to my island tomorrow, so I don't know if I will post a chapter then. Until next time, please take care. 😊💖💕