"Of course I did." Despite his fear and his personal distaste, Shen Qingqiu still finds himelf leaning closer to Sims, speaking in a lower, more intimate voice as he says, "It might have been foolish of me to strike out on my own without Liu Qingge's company, especially as I still held another demonic toxin in my veins from a duel gone wrong three years before. But I was still a lord among cultivators in my own right, and I had confidence in my ability to capture this Sower and bring it back to Mu Qingfang for study. My younger martial brother is the best doctor in that world; that's not simple filial piety talking, it's Word of God, straight from the author's mouth. I knew that once he knew what he was up against, Mu-shidi would break the curse before I lost my hand. So I gave chase -- and the demon immediately dropped the pretense of being a frail old beggar woman, leaping to the roof tops with agility any acrobat would envy. I followed it, chasing it from neighborhood to neighborhood, across rooftops, down allies, even ducking into the sewer once or twice -- until I bumped into someone I didn't suspect."
"I hadn't expected to see anyone from Huan Hua Palace here," he says, lips twisting slightly in discomfort. "They hadn't told anyone they were joining this investigation -- but I'd met young Gongyi Xiao before, and thought highly of him. He was a good, strong boy, and a righteous cultivator -- deserving of better treatment than he'd received in the book, honestly. Airplane never really seemed to know what to do with him, poor boy, and Luo Binghe barely even gave him a second glance. They didn't even have a proper fight about it when Binghe stole his fiancee and the lordship of Huan Hua Palace in a single stroke -- poor Xiao was simply exiled to the far side of the world. Better than being torn apart or staked to an anthill like Binghe's real enemies, I suppose."
He takes a deep, slightly shaky breath. "I told him what I was doing, and he immediately agreed to help me. We tracked the Sower Demon in a grand merchant's house, now entirely abandoned -- and there we encountered another group of Huan Hua cultivators, Gongyi Xiao's juniors. They'd caught the Sower Demon and slain it outright, but that bothered me far less than it should have. I stopped caring about Sowers or plagues as soon as I saw who was with. I thought I had two more years..."
He hangs his head, trying to avoid Jon's direct gaze. On the tabletop, his hands twist and clutch at each other, knuckles showing white beneath the skin. "When I last saw him, Luo Binghe was only seventeen. He'd already grown taller than me, but his face still had that puppyish look of adolescence, all soft lines and pinchable cheeks. Now he was twenty, and he'd...he'd become a man. His face was more narrow, shoulders broader -- although he accentuated them even further with the way he tied his robes closed around his waist. His hair fell all the way down his back in a great fleecy wave, barely held back from his face by a simple half-ponytail, and at his hip he wore Xin Mo, the Heart Demon Sword...but all these details paled in comparison to his eyes. They were like two black pools, reflecting an endless starry sky. It felt as though you could fall into those eyes, and once you were in their clutches there would be no hope of ever climbing out. You would simply sink, down and down, forever..."
"He saw me," Shen Qingqiu says with a quiet gasp, his voice strained. "He looked right at me and said, 'Shizun?' in a soft, gentle tone. It means 'teacher' in Mandarin, and hearing that word in that voice made my blood run cold. I tried to back away, but I'd been coming up a set of stairs with Gongyi Xiao behind me, and I heard him let out a soft cry of surprise when I bumped into him. Luo Binghe came closer and said, 'It really is shizun,' in a tone so soft and quiet that I might have missed it if I hadn't been staring at him, all of my senses strained to focus on him. I remembered the scenes in the book where Luo Binghe had spoken to his enemies, how the more he loathed them, the more he longed to sink his claws into their flesh and drink their heart's blood, the more he had exerted himself to speak gently and kindly, to appear a reasonable man. It was this exact voice which he now used to address me, and I knew then that, that..." Shen Qingqiu's voice cracks. "The little sheep I'd cared for was dead..."
He hides his face in his sleeve, shoulders shaking with a hitched sob. "Don't look at me," he begs, "Give me, please, give me a just a moment for pity's sake. Don't look at me while I'm like this."
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"I hadn't expected to see anyone from Huan Hua Palace here," he says, lips twisting slightly in discomfort. "They hadn't told anyone they were joining this investigation -- but I'd met young Gongyi Xiao before, and thought highly of him. He was a good, strong boy, and a righteous cultivator -- deserving of better treatment than he'd received in the book, honestly. Airplane never really seemed to know what to do with him, poor boy, and Luo Binghe barely even gave him a second glance. They didn't even have a proper fight about it when Binghe stole his fiancee and the lordship of Huan Hua Palace in a single stroke -- poor Xiao was simply exiled to the far side of the world. Better than being torn apart or staked to an anthill like Binghe's real enemies, I suppose."
He takes a deep, slightly shaky breath. "I told him what I was doing, and he immediately agreed to help me. We tracked the Sower Demon in a grand merchant's house, now entirely abandoned -- and there we encountered another group of Huan Hua cultivators, Gongyi Xiao's juniors. They'd caught the Sower Demon and slain it outright, but that bothered me far less than it should have. I stopped caring about Sowers or plagues as soon as I saw who was with. I thought I had two more years..."
He hangs his head, trying to avoid Jon's direct gaze. On the tabletop, his hands twist and clutch at each other, knuckles showing white beneath the skin. "When I last saw him, Luo Binghe was only seventeen. He'd already grown taller than me, but his face still had that puppyish look of adolescence, all soft lines and pinchable cheeks. Now he was twenty, and he'd...he'd become a man. His face was more narrow, shoulders broader -- although he accentuated them even further with the way he tied his robes closed around his waist. His hair fell all the way down his back in a great fleecy wave, barely held back from his face by a simple half-ponytail, and at his hip he wore Xin Mo, the Heart Demon Sword...but all these details paled in comparison to his eyes. They were like two black pools, reflecting an endless starry sky. It felt as though you could fall into those eyes, and once you were in their clutches there would be no hope of ever climbing out. You would simply sink, down and down, forever..."
"He saw me," Shen Qingqiu says with a quiet gasp, his voice strained. "He looked right at me and said, 'Shizun?' in a soft, gentle tone. It means 'teacher' in Mandarin, and hearing that word in that voice made my blood run cold. I tried to back away, but I'd been coming up a set of stairs with Gongyi Xiao behind me, and I heard him let out a soft cry of surprise when I bumped into him. Luo Binghe came closer and said, 'It really is shizun,' in a tone so soft and quiet that I might have missed it if I hadn't been staring at him, all of my senses strained to focus on him. I remembered the scenes in the book where Luo Binghe had spoken to his enemies, how the more he loathed them, the more he longed to sink his claws into their flesh and drink their heart's blood, the more he had exerted himself to speak gently and kindly, to appear a reasonable man. It was this exact voice which he now used to address me, and I knew then that, that..." Shen Qingqiu's voice cracks. "The little sheep I'd cared for was dead..."
He hides his face in his sleeve, shoulders shaking with a hitched sob. "Don't look at me," he begs, "Give me, please, give me a just a moment for pity's sake. Don't look at me while I'm like this."