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He didn’t know the first thing about handling children, let alone a teenager (or actually three, since Li Cu came as a package deal with Yang Hao and Su Wan). Wu Xie seemed to have a handle on it, seeing as how he helped his grandmother raise his cousins. Pangzi also seemed to know how to handle the teens much better than Xiaoge did, always with snacks and stories of their time in the tombs. Adventure stories that would seem to be blown out of proportion if the near-immortal hadn’t known that they were all real in the first place.
The only person Xiaoge felt that he could turn to just laughed at his predicament while her wife packed up side dishes to bring back to Wushanju. “This will be part of your training, Xiao Long. You need to learn that the world doesn’t only revolve around Wu Xie, no matter what that child may think.” Zhang Dali’s eyes held a sparkle in them that told him that she knew something he didn’t. Even Ba Ye couldn’t hold back his laughter from where he was wrapped up in Chairman Zhang’s arms.
“Don’t tell him just yet, Lady Zhang. This is something he has to go through,” the fortune-teller said in between his giggles. Ever since he had came back, Xiaoge had begun to notice that the older Zhang had become just like himself around his own better half. Always in the shadow of their living sun, never letting them out of their sight.
“Oh, I don’t plan on to. This is something that A-Xie must tell Xiao Long himself.”
Tell me what , his face said. What were they all talking about? Was there something that they knew about Li Cu that he didn’t? Looking at Chairman Zhang’s face, Xiaoge had his answer. The older male had a smirk on his face as he rested his chin on Ba Ye’s shoulder (and wasn’t it strange to see the man that he remembered to be much like a statue, like the ones in the Zhang Manor gardens, have more expressions and clinging to a man who was supposed to be MIA).
“Don’t tease Xiao Long too much, dear. He has ten years of catching up to do…” Lucia playfully scolded her wife. Both women were once again in matching outfits, this time with more of a Western twist, and their purple jade bangles on their left wrists. “But you must ask A-Xie when you get home. That boy has some explaining to do.” The woman chuckled as she reached over to scratch the head of her Irish wolfhound, who was sitting by her side-eyeing the bag she had just finished packing. The large hound let loose a single whine as it moved closer towards the food.
“No, LiLi. Your treats are in the kitchen. Go ask Hao’er to give you one…” Zhang Dali pointed in the direction of where Yang Hao had disappeared when they’d first arrived at the Zhang Manor to ask about some of the dishes that Lady Zhang (“The boys get to call me Zhang-nainai,” Dali told him upon their arrival, after Yang Hao had greeted her as such) had told him about from her time aboard. The dog took that as a command and headed towards where the kitchen was located.
“That dog is worse than Kan Jian’s when it comes to food,” Lucia chuckled once again. “One would think that we don’t feed him enough.”
“You spoil him, dear.” Zhang Dali walked over to place a light kiss to her wife’s cheek before she let her eyes once again rest upon her youngest charge. “You spoil all the children.”
“Oh, and you don’t?”
“She has a point there, Lady Zhang,” Ba Ye nodded along.
“Don’t you have some poor soul to go save, QiQi?” The old Zhang elder shot back with little heat. In her eyes, there was a hint of mischief that Xiaoge had come to recognize from those in the Wu and Lan families. That was one of the things that he hadn’t picked up before he had met Wu Xie, but now, after all that he had been through with him and Pangzi - plus working with all his extended family - he had come to recognize it as “mischief has swift wings”.
“Don’t you have a daughter-in-law to go bother?” Ba Ye returned fire.
“Xiaoge?” Yang Hao’s voice cut into their conversation as he walked in with LiLi at his heels, licking his lips from whatever treat the boy had given him. “Zhang-nainai?”
“It’s nothing Hao’er, just an old man being petty.” The older Zhang left her spouse’s side to walk over to the teen. “Was Sui Zhou able to give you what you need?”
“Yeah, he was kind enough to tell me where I could find some cheap variants or substitutions. Even Tang Fan was kind enough to help me locate markets close enough to Wushanju.” The boy held close an old notebook that Xiaoge hadn't noticed before. It looked well cared for, with all kinds of bookmarks, both old and new, sticking out from it. “Li Cu really liked that honey dish you had Suishu cook for him last time, and I want to try and recreate it.”
“Such a good boy, Hao’er.” Zhang Dali placed her hand on his cheek as she gave him a soft smile. Deep in his memory, he remembered another woman who also offered such a soft smile at a much younger Xiaoge and a promise to live . “But don’t forget to take care of yourself, you hear.”
“Yes, Zhang-nainai.” Yang Hao caught her hand in his as he gave her a goofy grin of his own. The Zhang patriarch was coming to notice how each of the boys responded to the people in Wu Xie’s life. All of them held love and fondness for the teens, while the boys treated each of the adults with a special kind of respect and awe in return. The only one that the teens had yet to respond to was him, other than a cold shoulder or a simple remark. Yang Hao was the only one who was slowly warming up to him. But Xiaoge had the idea that it was because Zhang Dali and Zhang Rishan, along with Lan Meifan, had taken the boy under their paws.
“Then you best get home soon. Lucia and I have a gala to attend to later tonight, so we must get ready soon.” The woman patted the teen’s cheek once more with their joined hands before she lowered it. “We will see you again this weekend for the reunion.”
“Yes, Zhang-nainai.”
“Go home safely, boys.” Lucia walked over with the bag of side dishes to hand over to Xiaoge.
“Yes,” was all he said as he accepted the bag. Inside his head, he was running through all the questions he wanted to ask Wu Xie when they returned to Wushanju. What does his foster mother know that he doesn’t? Why does everyone seem to hold some inside joke amongst them? What does he not know about Li Cu? And why must he talk to Wu Xie about the boy in the first place?
As they walked back to where Xiaoge had parked his pure black CFMoto 650TK, that he had taken out of the many that Zhang Dali kept in her private garage. He had been surprised to find it among her sports cars, both foreign and domestic, but that didn’t stop him from using it from time to time when he was back in Changsha after he returned from the gate. She even gave him the keys to it the first time he laid eyes on it. “ Use it. It’s not like I can at the moment .”
Yang Hao was easily impressed by it the first time he saw it, too, out from underneath the tarp that it was kept under at Wushanju. It was not that Xiaoge had been hoping that any of the teens would like him just as much as they did Wu Xie.
As he handed the teen his spare helmet, the near-immortal swung a leg over to pull out the leather riding gloves that came with the bike. The boy used to fumble with the safety gear the first few times that this had happened, but, after a bit, he easily caught it with a large grin on his face. Yang Hao adjusted his bag so that it would rest in front of him and against the older man’s back before putting the helmet on.
Their ride back home was an easy one. While much had changed since he went behind the Gate, there were still plenty of landmarks around that he could use to find his way back to Wu Xie. The thought of finally being home had hit him hard when Xiaoge saw the younger man (who had changed so much since in the 10 years on the outside but still held that bit of warmth that had captivated him all that time ago) smile up at him from the bed they had borrowed at the village shaman’s house just after the incident that had caused the now ever-present scar on his lover’s neck. Never before had he been so sure that he must never leave Wu Xie behind again. The pain in his chest echoed with the words one of them had said just before he left the gate, “ Do not let him go this time. You’ve already seen what happens when you do .”
When they had arrived back at their home, Xiaoge had noticed that there was an unfamiliar purple Chery Tiggo7 (Zhang Dali had a dark red one just like it) parked next to the entrance to Wushanju. Even Yang Hao didn’t know who the car belonged to, but Xiaoge could hear children laughing from inside along with one of the other teens, Su Wan, shouting.
“Sound like Wu-laoban has company.” It was strange to hear that come from someone younger, that Wu Xie was now more like a boss than he ever had been. Even High-shao now started calling Wu Xie that the few times that they’d met after he got back.
“Hm,” was all the older man could say. He had wanted to ask his questions right away once they got in, but he would have to settle for later. Parking the bike and helping the teen pack the helmets up, Xiaoge steeled his mind for facing Wu Xie.
Upon entering, both of them noticed that there were three young boys, around eight, who were running around the courtyard with toy guns and shooting them at Su Wan, who was also firing a toy gun at them. Wu Xie was nowhere to be found. Su Wan spotted them first, “Hao-ge! Zhang-laoba!” The way that Su Wan had added the laoba made him feel as if maybe they were slowly accepting him, after all. Because Pangzi was the only other one who called him ‘laoba’.
The three boys had taken the opportunity of Su Wan’s distraction to fire at him (though one of the boys held back), and he groaned as if he had really been hit. Two of the boys ran over to him with large grins on their faces while the last one walked over to the two who had just entered into the chaos. “Xie-biaoge is in the sitting room with everyone.”
“Thanks, A-Yuan. I have some treats in the kitchen if you guys want some?” Yang Hao smiled at the boy, who gave a bright one in return. At the mention of treats, Xiaoge had noticed how both Su Wan and the other two boys raced over to the older teen to beg him for some as well. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that old Ping, who had still been a puppy when he’d last seen him, had also come out of hiding along with a pure white puppy dressed in a blue hoodie with long ears attached to the hood.
While Yang Hao distracted the others with food, that left the near-immortal to find his other half. Like A-Yuan had said, he found Wu Xie in the sitting room, one of Xiaoge’s fuzzy blankets wrapped around the man’s shoulders like a shawl, and three other men with him. Xiaoge recognized them as Wu Xie’s cousin Lan Huan, the hacker Meng Yao, and Jiang Cheng, their lover. At Jiang Cheng’s side was a female Kunming dog with more brown than grey fur, and a few scars on her snout.
“Welcome home, Xiaoge…” Wu Xie called to him from the chair he was sitting in, another puppy, this one a pure white one that looked to be a similar breed as Ping and the one at Jiang Cheng’s side. The only difference was it’s pure white fur and near red eyes. “I take it that Hao’er’s lessons went well?”
Xiaoge nodded his head as he made his way over to the other half of his soul to place a kiss to his head. There wasn’t much that he wouldn’t do now that he was back at his love’s side, and he planned to stay there for a long time to come. Now, if only he could get the other man to talk to him about Li Cu. Taking a stance behind the chair that Wu Xie occupied, he noticed how Lan Huan had a knowing smirk on his face to match one of his boyfriends, while the other just scowled.
As if sensing his thoughts, Wu Xie called his attention to the puppy in his lap. “What do you think? Nainai sent him over for Li Cu.”
“A good choice.”
“I thought so, too.” Wu Xie smiled up at him, tilting his head back to do so. The puppy in his lap took that moment to yawn loudly before curling up tighter into a ball. “Nainai thought that it was a good idea for him to have something to take his mind off of what happened.”
“You forgot that this little one is also his welcome gift.” Jiang Cheng continued to scowl as he leaned back into his chair with his arms crossed. Meng Yao had placed a hand on his boyfriend’s crossed arm in a soothing manner, while the dog let loose a soft wouff of agreement.
“I thought that that was the puffball that Chairman Zhang brought by this morning…” Wu Xie sounded confused as he turned towards his cousin.
“Meifan-gugu said that both of them are. Chairman Zhang picked out the bear dog, while she picked out one from one of Ping’s latest litters with Kuai,” Lan Huan said, with one of his well-meaning smiles on his face.
What are you not telling me , Xiaoge wanted to say, but it looked like Jiang Cheng beat him to it.
“When were you going to tell your boyfriend that you now have a son?”
黎簇
He was back with his father again, the man’s face contorted with anger as he continued to beat him. Li Yiming never aimed for his face, which made it easier for others to see the bruises on him. Sometimes he was a teen, dressed like he was when Wu Xie had taken him down into the tomb, while other times he was still a kid, in old clothes that used to belong to Yang Hao and Su Wan. In his arms, he clutched at the toy tiger that Yang Hao had given to him one year for a birthday gift. He wanted to cry out, to call for Wu Xie or Pangzi, or even Zhang Qiling, to save him from the man who had no right to be called a father. Something touched his shoulder and he shot up like lighting entered his spine. He lashed out at whatever had grabbed him, his eyes still clouded with sleep and the nightmare he had experienced.
The sounds of whines caught his attention just as a pair of warm bodies settled into his lap. In the haze, Li Cu looked down to see the fluffy puppy from yesterday, along with a new one, in his lap, both trying to climb up onto his chest.
“It’s okay…” a soft voice said from in front of him. The voice didn’t belong to Wu Xie, this one wasn’t gruff enough. It didn’t belong to Pangzi either, too soft. “You’re safe with me, Li Cu.” The voice held a tone to it that didn’t fit with either man. Lifting his head to see who he had lashed out at, through the haze the first thing he noticed was the bottomless depth of the dark brown eyes that seemed to bore into his very soul.
“I don’t want to go back.” It pained him to hear his voice crack as he leaned forward, knowing full well that this man would always catch him. Even if he hadn’t known him very long, and still hated the fact that he just up and left Wu Xie alone for ten years, he now knew why Pangzi always referred to Zhang Qiling as Laoba, because this man cared more for Li Cu than Li Yiming ever would. “Please, laoba. Don’t let me go back to him ever again.”
“I promise.” The heat in that voice spoke volumes to the teen. A promise and an oath.
(And this time, Zhang Qiling meant to stick around for a long time to come.)