Chapter Text
Ming fan released the fan he was so carefully holding and Yingying let her arms fall on her sides, did they really hear this right? Their Shizun… Is he truly dead?
That explains everything… That explains why Shizun hasn't come to YingYing’s tea parties, or why he has been talking so much with the little beast and neglecting his habits and reunions with Ming Fan as his head disciple, his older disciples and the head masters.
Why he’s been smiling so much to everyone, even those who deserved nothing but his cold shoulder. How could this impostor let Liu-shishu touch him so freely, he may be inhabiting it, but it is and always will be Shizun's body and this brute lord is the main reason why their Shizun is so hated. He made the rumors, the entire Qing Jing Peak knows it!!
Yingying didn't even have the thought of holding Ming Fan when her shidi stormed out of the room, surprising all the Peak Lords around them. Why would she when she wanted to do the same, how could she if her knees were shaking so badly that she doesn't even know if she can hold her own bearings for much longer.
"Xiao Ning, are you okay?" The always lovely Qi-Shishu said with a worried tone, but at this moment everything Yingying could see where the disgusted glances and hateful words she always sended towards or on her Shizun’s back, like all those other cowards.
"I will… I will go see my shidi." She says, bowing down to pick up the fan her shidi dropped in his rush, not wanting one more thing that her Shizun owned to be stolen by this… this, and quickly turning around not feeling capable to look at this man and not break down crying or begging him to tell her what exactly he thinks he is that he can just replace her beloved Shizun, how can he just smile without one care for the world when hers was breaking down in a million of pieces right in front of him.
Tears blurred her vision but she ignored it completely, Shizun always talked about how others were fast to overthrow you when you show weakness, so she should always be somewhere safe to do it, and right now for the first time since she entered the sect, the Peak Main Grounds are not safe anymore.
She looked everywhere for Ming Fan, only finding him in the more deeper place of the bamboo forest that they could go to. She knows that place, the nice clearing, the perfectly made wooden table and the now months unused tea pots. It’s where she and her Shizun have tea parties, sometimes Shizun would call Ming Fan or other older disciples that were able to conquer his trust. And also where she heard Shizun teaching Ming Fan how to deal with the bamboo spirits that more often than not are born here and go to Shizun’s abode, after all, it would be A-Fan’s in the future.
But she isn’t completely sure about this anymore.
She sat down on his side, hugging the boy tightly, they didn’t need much to both start crying. They hugged each other while crying for the lost of the man who has been everything for them, for the man that would pat their heads when they did good but would be very strict when they did wrong, would be more strict with the boys and easier with the girls but always teaching how they can protect themselves because he knew how the world would treat them when they leave his wings, the man that had went through so many things that even though they don’t know any of it, they know affected him entirely.
A man that lost his life for an impostor good for nothing that would most likely destroy their peak because he doesn’t have half of Shizun’s experience nor intelligence.
“I refuse.” Ming Fan says between sobs when they finally release each other.
“What do you mean?” Ning Yingying asks as she wipes her face with the handkerchief that Shizun taught her some time ago to hide in her sleeves, so that it would always be clean when she was on missions.
“I will leave.” He says raising up and the girl quickly raises up after him holding his hand.
“W-what? What do you mean to leave? The sect? But, but, what about your position, and your family?” She asked, holding tightly on his hand, what do he mean with that, is he going to leave her like their Shizun was forced to? She can’t let him do it.
“Yes. I will not stay here, learn from someone that is not even from our world, or what the hell is that he said. I will look for a way to bring Shizun back, and I will go whenever he wants too. If he wants to come back and have his rightful place, then we will do it, but if he wants to go far away and live a monk life, I will be there with him. This peak is nothing if Shizun isn’t here, my family never cared about me anyway, they just sent me here so they could be free of the burden and let my younger and very much more talented brother become the head of the family or something.” Ming Fan said almost in one breath, he has already talked with Shizun about it, Shizun knows about Ming Fan’s eternal loyalty to him, and he will not disappoint him now that he finally has a chance to pay back for everything Shizun even did for him.
“I will go with you.” That phrase made the boy come out of his thoughts, he looked with shock to the girl, but he only saw admiration and determination in her eyes. But before he could continue she beat him on it with a small smile. “I never had a family, I’m only one of the youngest children of one of my ‘father’s lowest concubine, neither he or her, or any of my siblings ever cared about me as much as Shizun does. I don’t want to live without him too.” She says with a small cracked smile, her eyes still puffy because of all the crying they just did, but he could easily see more tears appearing on her eyes.
He sighed and sat down again, she sat on his side and started caressing the fan on her hands, Shizun’s favorite one, because it was made by his own Shizun, Nie Ansang, one of the two youngest immortal on history to become an Peak Lord of their time, after all those his age are peak lords now, like the lord of Ku Xing Peak Lan Qingji, the lord of Ling You Peak Jiang Qingcheng, or the former Chuang Zao Peak lord Chu Qingning, who disappeared with his head disciple Xue Meng a few years ago and no one has any news of him. Along with Nie-Shigong only the former Zhu Xian Peak lord Wei Anxian, who died long long ago.
“How are we going to do it?” The girl cut the silence once more, placing the fan on the table in front of them. Now that he is thinking of this, they can take what is here if they do leave with Shizun, is not like any of the others know of it, and the others that know only came here with Shizun.
“I don’t know.” He says taking a deep breath and looking to the sky, if Shizun was here what he would do?
“Books.” He says after another minute of silence, his Shijie frowned confused and he smiled at her. “If we are going to bring Shizun back, we need to first find a way, and what better than books? We are on the Qing Jing Peak. There is not one book on this whole sect that we don’t have in our library.” He says raising up excitedly and she smiles raising up the same way.
“You are right Didi. We need to go find all the books and scrolls about souls that we can find.” She says animated and he nods. They bow to the place and quickly leave. It is getting close to dinner time, so if they want to run away, they need to be the least suspicious possible.
So for now on, they will keep doing their customary exercises and assignments, while also looking for all the books about souls and possessions they can find, also in secret so no one discovers what they are doing.