Chapter 89: Don't take a peek into someone else's memories

Xi Zirui knows even before reading the plaque that this is the same dragon who cursed the villagers all those centuries ago.

As a dragon, he is an immortal being, the only way for his curse to come to an end would be to kill him.

And so someone did.

The other three join Xi Zirui by the margin of the subterranean river. Li Siqi lets out a gasp, Liao Min a whispered curse, and Han Yu remains steadfastly silent, looking on at the Dragon's remains with a somber expression.

"They killed his lover, and ended up killing him too," he says, with a sigh.

"By the looks of it there's some remorse," Liao Min says, pointing at the stone funeral tablet and the meager offerings in front of it.

"The offerings are recent and the tablet has been dusted," Xi Zirui says. 

Even from a distance it's obvious that someone has been visiting this terrible burial sight - if it can even be called that - and paying their respects.

Xi Zirui's stomach twists. No, this isn't a show of respect, this is one final humiliation.

Han Yu light-steps across the river and lands on the tiny embankment, his feet crunching on the gravel.

He pulls on the chains holding up the mummified arms. As soon as his fingers wrap around the thick metal links he pries them away with a hiss.

Without even noticing he's doing it, Xi Zirui light-steps towards him, getting the hem of his robe wet with his clumsy landing.

He rushes to Han Yu's side and cups the back of his hand, turning it around gently to examine any damage. "Let this master see."

Han Yu grimaces, his nose pinched, but lets Xi Zirui look his fill. "It's fine Shizun, it doesn't hurt anymore."

Xi Zirui isn't so sure about that, there's an imprint of the chains in Han Yu's palm, like a tacky residue. 

A ward of some sort. Like the writing in a talisman but imbued in the chains.

Xi Zirui darts a glance at Huan Xuan's sad remains. Why would anyone put a ward on the chains holding up a man long dead?

Unless he isn't dead. At least not completely.

It seems impossible, looking at the state the body is in, but Huan Xuan is a dragon. What if the wards on the chains are there to prevent him from regenerating? 

Xi Zirui hears a faint buzzing in the back of his head, like a swarm of bees inside his skull. It's not painful, but it leaves him disoriented, almost swaying on his feet.

"Did Host remember something?" Ni Ni asks, anxious.

"Remember what?" Xi Zirui asks, not realizing he's speaking the words aloud in the wake of his brief dizzy spell.

Han Yu looks at him worriedly. "What's going on, Shizun?"

"Everything good over there?" Liao Min shouts, cupping her hands in front of her mouth to make herself heard from across the coursing river.

Xi Zirui waves her concern away distractedly. 

"The funeral tablet, the offerings," Xi Zirui shakes his head, trying to get his thoughts in order. "It's like a cruel joke, but what's the point of making a joke at someone's expense if they can't hear it?"

Han Yu's eyes dart quickly from Xi Zirui's haunted look, to Huan Xuan's white skull. "Does Shizun think that he...all this time?"

Xi Zirui nods. He's sure there's more to it than meets the eye too.

Huan Xuan's robes have barely aged in all the years he has surely spent shackled under the temple.

Carefully, Xi Zirui pulls at his collar, looking for a clue.

Instead his fingertips make contact with something solid and cool tucked between the folds of his robes.

A crackling current travels up Xi Zirui's arm making him groan in pain. Wide-eyed, Han Yu's hand shoots out to pull him away from Huan Xuan, wrapping his fingers around Xi Zirui's wrist.

They form a closed circuit as the current goes through him too. 

Neither of them has the time to understand what's happening before they're both disappearing in a flash of bright light.

---

The first thing Xi Zirui notices is the feeling of soft grass beneath his cheek, tender and humid, tickling his nose.

He gets up with a groan and spots Han Yu sprawled on his back a few paces away.

Xi Zirui shakes him awake gently, and he comes to with a soft groan. "Where are we?" he asks, looking around at the green expanse of grass surrounding them, and the crystalline river rushing by a mere zhang away.

Something crosses Han Yu's eyes and he sits up with a start. "This...this is the river leading to the lake by our sect grounds."

Now that he mentions it, Xi Zirui does recognize the river he coursed through in that awful bamboo raft when he first arrived in this world.

"We were transported here after I touched something around Huan Xuan's neck," Xi Zirui says, inspecting his fingertips, half expecting to see some of that odd residue he saw on Han Yu's hand.

"Have we been transported to his memories?" Han Yu asks, bending down to rip a blade of grass and twist it between his fingers. "It feels real."

Suddenly, Xi Zirui hears a splash and then a white snake-like body emerges from the river. Its massive head is easily the size of cart, and its two red eyes are looking straight at Han Yu and Xi Zirui.

"Xi Ming," it says, breathing out the words in a low raspy voice, spraying a fine mist of water with each exhale.

"Huan Xuan!" rings a clear voice just behind them.

When Xi Zirui turns around he comes face-to-face with someone who looks bizarrely like him.

Down to the little cinnabar beauty mark beneath the left eye.

The same full upper lip, the defined cupid's bow arching over a soft bottom lip; the same humid eyes turning upwards at the corner, the same insouciant smile.

It's not a perfect resemblance, there are some differences that identify them as two separate people.

But Xi Zirui still has the odd sense of looking at himself in a distorted mirror. 

Neither the massive dragon, nor the newcomer seem to notice their presence, leading credence to Han Yu's theory that they might be relieving Huan Xuan's memories.

"He looks just like Shizun," Han Yu says, the words leaving his lips in a whisper as he tracks Xi Ming's every movement.

Something about his focused gaze rubs Xi Zirui the wrong way.

As if sensing his killing aura, Han Yu's eyes snap away from Xi Ming and down towards Xi Zirui's scowling profile.

"Actually, it's obvious that Shizun is far more beautiful," he says. "This man is a pale bud to Shizun's full bloom."

"This master doesn't care," Xi Zirui says, caring deeply.

Han Yu doesn't fully manage to hide his smirk, which leads to Xi Zirui slapping him upside the arm with Untold Sorrow.

Completely uncaring of their little spat, Xi Ming is now sitting on the riverbank, chatting animatedly with a man with bright sapphire eyes, a mane of white hair, and two long jade antlers protruding from his forehead, their tips tinged a faint red hue.

Only Huan Xuan's torso is out of the water, his arms pillowing his chin on the grass as he listens to Xi Ming speak with an absolutely enraptured look in his red eyes.

For some reason, and judging by Xi Ming's appearance, Xi Zirui half-expected Huan Xuan to look like Han Yu.

He doesn't know what it means that he doesn't.

Huan Xuan's jaw is wider and his lips thinner, there's a layer of frost to his beauty, his expressions reveal very little about his feelings, only his bright red eyes betray his thoughts.

He could listen to Xi Ming speak for the rest of his life, it takes only a look into his eyes to see it.

"A-Xuan! Are you listening to me?" Xi Ming asks, waving his hand in front of Huan Xuan's eyes.

Huan Xuan nods solemnly. "This one listens to everything Xi Ming says. Xi Ming was saying how Little Guo is such a troublesome child, and causes problems for his mother, but instead of listening to Xi Ming's advice and admonishing the child, she insists on indulging his every whim."

He pauses. "This one agrees with Xi Ming on his thoughts regarding the proper rearing of young." An almost imperceptible red flush darkens the lobes of his ears. "It's just another area in which this one and Xi Ming are very compatible."

Xi Ming grins, and gets down on his elbows on the grass, so that his face is level with Huan Xuan's. 

"What else does A-Xuan think we're compatible on?"

"Everything. This one thinks Xi Ming will be the perfect spouse," he says, with total seriousness.

Xi Ming throws his head back in a sharp laugh, and then throws his arms around Huan Xuan's neck, bringing their faces within kissing distance.

"Is that so? Has A-Xuan decided that on his own?"

Huan Xuan nods, his expression unchanging. "There's no one else for Huan Xuan if not Xi Ming."

Perhaps overcome with fondness, Xi Ming lets out a sigh and kisses Huan Xuan, tipping his head back to deepen the kiss.

Xi Zirui looks away from the scene, feeling as if he's intruding.

At his side, Han Yu takes his hand, and smiles sadly at Xi Zirui. "At least they were honest about their feelings."

The sad look in his eyes betrays what he leaves unsaid: "At least they had this before they were separated forever."

"At least they had this quiet moment of happiness before it was all taken away from them."

The downwards twist of the corner's of his lips reveals another, deeper worry.

"Are we walking the same doomed path?"

Xi Zirui doesn't have an answer for him, and in silence can only squeeze his hand back.

Huan Xuan breaks the kiss first to try and pull a giggling Xi Ming into the water with him.

It's in that moment that someone's voice cuts through the idyllic scene. "Xi Ming, what are you doing here?"

All four of them turn towards the source of the sound, only to see Su Xueyi making his way towards them with angry strides.