Chapter Text
Wei Ying saw a beautiful man in white getting bullied by another, angry man in ragged brown robes. The ugly man had his hand wrapped in the front of his robes and he was yelling loudly at the nice man in white.
“You son of a bitch,” the man growled, “you think anyone wants the scraps you’re selling? For what, some run down temple in the middle of nowhere? Before you leave here, I’ll beat you black and blue so you won’t even think about disturbing me again!”
Even though his legs were bleeding from the dog bites and his feet and hands were dirty, Wei Ying ran out and collided with the ugly man. “Leave him alone!” Wei Ying shouted, trying to raise his voice to sound more threatening. “Stop being mean! It’s not right!”
The man kicked him back into the dirt and yelled, “Get off me, runt!”
Then, the man flew back away from the man in white and crashed into the building across the street. Another man, dressed in red robes with silver vambraces stepped up in front of Wei Ying. His lengthy black hair flowed in the wind that eerily whistled by. Silver butterflies flittered about, one landing on the finger of the man in white. “You dare speak to them like that?” His voice was low, no louder than a whisper yet it resonated through the entire village. He looked back at Wei Ying; one eye was covered with a black eyepatch and the other was darker than the night sky. One hand rested on a sword with another eye, this one blood red.
He was scary, terrifying even, but Wei Ying couldn’t sense any malice coming from him. At least, no malice directed at him.
“Are you okay, child?” The beautiful man in white knelt next to Wei Ying, patting the top of his head. “Where are your parents?”
Oh. Right, his parents. They’d been gone for too long. The old granny at the inn kicked him out when the payment ran out. When Wei Ying asked when his mom and dad would return, the granny just growled that they were dead and not coming back. “They’re gone,” he whispered.
The man looked down at him with sad eyes before glancing at his feet. “You’re injured! Let me take a look. I keep many medical supplies on me because I can be quite clumsy.”
“You don’t need to,” Wei Ying said, even though he started to sit down. He was so tired.
The man in red squatted next to the man in white and said, “Just let gege help you. It’s no problem to us. What’s your name, kid?”
Wei Ying tried to bow as best as he could while sitting. “My name is Wei Ying, sir! May I know your names as well?”
The man in red replied, “You can call me Hua Chengzhu. I own a city northeast of here, and that is what all my residents call me, and so will you.”
The man in white lightly smacked him and chided, “San Lang, be nice. He’s just a boy. My name is Xie Lian, but you can call me Lian-gege if you’d like.”
“Hua Chengzhu and Lian-gege,” Wei Ying tested the names, rolling them around in his mouth. They were nice people; it was too bad they’d have to leave soon and Wei Ying most likely wouldn’t be allowed to go with them. But maybe… Hua Chengzhu said he owned a city! Maybe he was a king and could find an orphanage for him to stay at, even if he had to work to live there! “Are you a king, Mister Hua Chengzhu?”
Hua Chengzhu smiled and laughed. “No! Not a king. Just a cultivator with a lot of money.”
“We’re both cultivators,” Lian-gege said.
Cultivators! Wei Ying interrupted them excitedly, “My parents were cultivators! They didn’t belong to a sect or anything, but we traveled everywhere so they could help people!” Cultivators were the best and Wei Ying hoped to be one some day. His parents had started to teach him what they knew, but he was still little and couldn’t grasp more than the basics.
Lian-gege shared a look with Hua Chengzhu. “We live in a little village west of San Lang’s city. It’s a place called Puqi Village. Would you like to come stay with us? We can teach you all about cultivation if you’d like.”
“Yes!”
In the ten years since he was taken in by Xie Lian and Hua Cheng, Hua Ying had undergone many changes. For one, Lian-gege and Hua Chengzhu were now Baba and A-die. They had officially adopted Hua Ying when he was seven, and they were very kind about it too. They sat him down and told him that no matter what, they would never try to replace his mother and father, but they’d come to love him like a son so they wished to make it official. Hua Cheng had given him the warmest smile he’d ever seen from him that day, and that was saying something considering he gave Xie Lian over a dozen warm smiles a day! And that was just how many Hua Ying had seen!
Second change, Hua Ying had learned who his new parents truly were. Ghost King Crimson Rain Sought Flower, and the Flower Crowned Martial God and the Emperor of the Gods. When he was twelve, it took a bit of time for him to come to terms with his two fathers being some of the most powerful men in all the realms. He didn’t come out of his room at the Paradise Manor for almost two days. And once he did, Hua Cheng gave him a long hug and apologized to him.
Hua Ying began to cry then and there, upset at making his father worry so.
The third and final change he underwent was one all teenage cultivators went through. A courtesy name. His fathers deliberated for days between them and finally presented one to Hua Ying that they thought he’d like.
Hua Xianwei .
They always knew just what to say to make him cry. They never needed to worry if he thought he wasn’t loved. Any adoptive parent that willingly included their child’s previous surname in their courtesy name was a parent that loved their child dearly.
“I love it,” Hua Xianwei had said.
Now, they were discussing the upcoming year where he would be studying at the Cloud Recesses in Gusu. It was the topic of discussion at the dinner table and both of his fathers had something to say about it.
“It’s very cold there, being by the sea,” Xie Lian said. “You’ll need to make sure that you’re keeping warm. You should rely on your cultivation, yes, but don’t overdo yourself just to show off.”
“And don’t play with the hearts of those Lans. They take that stuff very seriously,” Hua Cheng mumbled, chewing through his food. As a ghost, he didn’t need to eat, but anything Xie Lian cooked would end up in his stomach regardless of whether or not it was edible. Hua Ying learned not to accept any food his fathers cooked, because neither of them were particularly skilled in the kitchen and it showed in what they created. They moved to Paradise Manor almost permanently after the third time Hua Ying fell ill to food poisoning. It was just easier to have the cooks make food suitable for mortals.
Not that Hua Ying would be mortal for much longer. They all knew he would reach immortality very soon.
Xie Lian was in the middle of discussing appropriate winter attire when he cut himself off and began to stare at the table with a fixed expression. After a moment, he sighed and stood up. “Pei Ming and Feng Xin are fighting again. Mu Qing has asked me to put a stop to it.”
Hua Cheng just rolled his eyes and growled, “Leave it for others to clean up. You’re above all that, gege.”
Xie Lian rounded the table to kiss the top of Hua Cheng’s head (Hua Ying faked a gag) and said, “They’re fighting over what they’re gifting A-Ying for his birthday. I need to convince them that getting similar gifts is not a declaration of war.”
Hua Ying called after him, “Tell them I said hello and thank you!” as Xie Lian walked out of the room. His father waved back in acknowledgment.
“Xianwei,” Hua Cheng said, turning his body to better face him. “Once you enter the Cloud Recesses, you will likely hear negative things about me, and even your Baba. You’ll definitely hear negative things about your Uncle He.”
“It’s okay,” Hua Ying shrugged. “It’s because you guys are ghosts. I don’t know why they’d say bad things about Baba, though. Baba is the best!”
Hua Cheng smiled. “Yes he is! Gege is the Heavenly Emperor for a reason, after all.”
The Heavenly Emperor. Hua Ying had never gotten the chance to visit the Heavenly Realm, but his fathers promised him that once he reached immortality, they’d show him everything, even if Hua Cheng was reticent to admit the benefits of having the gods’ support. Hua Ying often dreamed of what it would be like to see the heavenly realm; it was every cultivator’s dream to ascend to godhood, so maybe Hua Ying needed to be a bit more grateful that he had an upper hand. While his fathers assured him that the only way he would ever ascend would be through hard work and dedication, it certainly helped to have the best minds teaching you.
There would be no nepotism, but an astute and brilliant teacher was definitely a bonus the others didn’t have.
Xie Lian entered the dining hall again, looking rather disheveled and exhausted. “Finally stopped fighting. It wasn’t so much that their gifts were similar, rather than they just hurled insults back and forth about each others’ gifts.” He fell down on the ground next to his husband and leaned his head on Hua Cheng’s shoulder. “Do you have all your stuff packed, A-Ying? We leave tomorrow.”
Hua Ying beamed at his fathers and pumped his fist. “All set and ready to go!”
Yes, he was ready for whatever the future held.