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He finds the locket around a corpse.
It wears a rich white outer robe, and for a moment, Pei Ming’s heart sinks, but the height is wrong, the face is twisted, and Xie Lian hurries over with an explanation of the hours before.
The locket is Shi Wudu’s then. It’s covered in grime and the chain is tangled in knots, but Pei Ming takes it and holds the trinket like a treasured pearl as they continue their search of the Nether Water Manor.
It sits lifeless in his palm the whole time.
“Bury it,” Ling Wen whispers later, once they’re back in the Heavenly Capital. By then the chain has been repaired, and the locket cleaned so that it once again shines with all the golden opulence befitting a god of wealth.
Former god of wealth.
“It meant a lot to him. He should have it for his final journey,” Ling Wen continues, sitting by the casket.
Pei Ming shakes his head.
“It meant a lot to him because it could help him look after his brother. He doesn’t need it where he’s going. We do.”
The longevity lock hasn’t pulsed once since Pei Ming plucked it off the corpse. It must only mean that Shi Qingxuan is either unharmed or too far away for its cry to reach. Pei Ming refuses to entertain the other scenarios.
“Ling Wen, see if you can get some ears into Ghost City,” he tells her firmly. “The dead may be tighter lipped than the gods, but surely someone out there has some ideas on where that Demon Xuan can be.”
“Yes…”
“As for me, I’ll start searching the mortal realm.” Pei Ming clutches the locket tightly in his palm. “That brat has always been a careless klutz. With this locket, we’ll find him.”
“Yes,” Ling Wen agrees, a little firmer this time.
It’s a pity then, that she is too busy later with her own things.
And then they’re all too busy with too many things.
The longevity lock hangs safely around Pei Ming’s neck, cold and heavy, and not a single sign of life emits from it, even as Pei Ming stares wordlessly at Shi Qingxuan who leans against a walking stick and takes small steps back.
“Didn’t anyone teach you it’s rude to stare?” Shi Qingxuan snaps at him. His voice is hoarse. His leg is twisted at an odd angle. One arm hangs limply at his side. In the middle of the chaos, Pei Ming hadn’t noticed them before. Now he can’t look away.
“Where is your locket?” Pei Ming blurts out, and watches as Shi Qingxuan’s expression changes.
Surprise. Guilt. Disinterest.
“What kind of thing is that to ask?” he argues. “Why do you care?”
Pei Ming cares because he has its twin. He reaches into his robe for it, then lets it dangle off his thumb before Shi Qingxuan’s eyes. Again, a series of emotions run through them. None of them good.
“Your brother’s,” Pei Ming explains. “I found it at the manor.”
“Oh,” Shi Qingxuan replies. He is quiet now, and shifts uncomfortably on his good leg. “I’m surprised you kept it.”
“I thought it would help find you,” Pei Ming admits. “I guess I was wrong.”
“You usually are,” the quip slips out, but Shi Qingxuan looks guilty for saying it. He straightens up. “Thank you for retrieving it. I’m sure Ge would be happy to know it’s in your care.”
“Please, your brother would be cursing me out for having it and still failing to find you for so long,” Pei Ming retorts. He feels something cold inside him. “Qingxuan, where is your locket? Answer the question.”
Shi Qingxuan looks uncomfortable. He stares at the lock around Pei Ming’s neck with opens his mouth a few times to answer, but each attempt dies on his lips.
Finally, he only shrugs. “I don’t have it anymore. It doesn’t matter.”
“Of course it –
“It doesn’t matter,” Shi Qingxuan repeats sharply. “It’s useless to me now anyway.”
Even if it’s true, the matter isn’t so simple. Pei Ming can see how close to tears he is looking at his brother’s locket. He takes it off.
“Fine, it doesn’t matter,” Pei Ming agrees. “Luckily, it has a twin. Take your brother’s locket. He’d have wanted you to have it.”
“I just told you, it’s useless to me.”
“Even if it’s useless as a spiritual device, it’s something your brother left for you. You should keep it for his sake.”
But Shi Qingxuan only shakes his head again. “If it’s for his sake, that’s all the more reason for it to remain with you. General, look at me. What reason do I have for owning such a beautiful expensive treasure? Nothing good will come of it in my hands.”
“Qingxuan, what are you saying? Your own locket – did it?” Pei Ming frowns as he fully takes in his former colleague’s ragged appearance. It isn’t just the dirty clothes, unkempt hair, and broken limbs that unsettle him. When he looks closer, he realizes that the last time the two of them had seen each other – even though Shi Qingxuan had already been stripped down to a mortal – he still dressed in fine clothes and rich accessories.
Not a single of those accessories remained on him.
“Of course,” Pei Ming says, clenching his fist.
“Don’t be angry, General,” Shi Qingxuan tells him. “Like I said, it doesn’t matter.”
“And your arm and leg? How did they come to be in such a sorry state?”
“That’s none of your business,” Shi Qingxuan replies simply, countering Pei Ming’s growing anger with his own. “General Pei, for your many years of friendship with my brother, I thank you. But you and I have nothing to do with each other.”
“Qingxuan –
“You’re a good man, General. I’m… touched by your care and that you would even get angry on my behalf like this. But.” Shi Qingxuan tears his eyes away from the locket and turned himself around. His whole posture begs for Pei Ming to disappear and never come back.
“None of this has anything to do with me anymore, and never will again. But that one locket was always a favorite of his,” Shi Qingxuan says, his voice barely above a whisper. “Please keep it somewhere safe. And for the rest, let’s just leave it as it is. It’s enough.”
“Are you really sure it’s not enough?” Ling Wen asks dryly. She takes a moment to lament the scrolls that fell to the floor, and then resumes her writing.
“How could it be enough!” Pei Ming snaps. He too stares at the scrolls that toppled by his hands, scowls, and resumes his pacing. “You weren’t there. You didn’t see his face the moment I took out his brother’s longevity lock.”
“You dangled a reminder of his dead brother in front of him. What kind of face is he supposed to make at that?”
Pei Ming doesn’t answer. He simply pulls out the locket from his robes and slams it down on the table. It trembles from the rough handling, then immediately falls silent once more.
“We’re gods,” he says firmly. “Tracking down a trinket like this should be child’s play.”
“You say that and then come to me to do the actual work,” Ling Wen replies. She sets down her brush to review her current writing, then with a satisfied nod, calls in an assistant to take the scroll to dry. Immediately, she starts on another one.
“Noble Jie, you’ll help.”
“I’m busy.”
“That can wait. This can’t. It’s for Qingxuan – or if not him, then for Shuishi-xiong.”
Ling Wen looks up. “Why should I have to do anything for him now? He’s dead.”
“Because we promised him, we’d help his brother.”
“So we did,” Ling Wen agrees and absently taps her forehead, momentarily silent as she relays some messages across the communication array. Then she resumes her writing once again. “As I recall, we’d fulfilled that promise the moment Shi Qingxuan ascended to the heavens. Try again.”
“Come Noble Jie, where’s your compassion? That kind of promise doesn’t just end arbitrarily. Especially now! Qingxuan’s all alone down there – no money, no home, no desire to accept any help from us.”
“If he has no desire, then there’s nothing we can do. Even if the Water Tyrant will hate us for it.”
“He’s a kid who lost everything. Even if it’s at a distance, we have to look out for him.”
“Says the one who keeps closing that distance…” Ling Wen sighs. She falls silent again as she slips back into the communication array, her brush moving the whole time. “You said he was looking well.”
“As well as he could be as a beggar with a broken arm and leg – don’t bother, he won’t let me even look at them, never mind lend him money for a doctor.”
“That little fool!”
“My point exactly,” Pei Ming grumbles. “Shuishi-xiong entrusted him to us long ago. Even if he’s gone now, we aren’t.”
Ling Wen nods slowly. Her shoulders slump.
“Back then,” she says, “the Reverend of Empty Words came after all of us.”
“Hm?”
“My palace caught fire once – I lost an entire shelf of priceless scrolls. Shi Wudu suffered multiple humiliations. And you –
“Never mind me. That wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle,” Pei Ming says, waving his hand dismissively. But his expression withers. “That Qingxuan though… never could make friends, and only ever had his older brother nearby. The Reverend of Empty Words was merciless. Anyone who got too close to him would suffer his fate, so naturally, he kept others away. That brat dared to say we have nothing to do with each other, but you and I were targeted. Isn’t that just proof of how close we really were?”
Ling Wen doesn’t say anything for a long time. Pei Ming can tell she’s watching him carefully, and looks away, willing himself to put Shi Qingxuan’s treacherous words out of his head.
“Maybe you were close once, but then he got to know you and was disappointed,” she offers. “A common reaction.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m a big disappointment. Laugh it up,” Pei Ming scoffs. “Just once I’d like to do something for him that doesn’t bring him pain.”
“And for that, you think finding his longevity lock will help?”
“Who knows?” Pei Ming admits. “At the very least, I want to put it through his thick skull that even without his brother twisting my arm, I care. He can hate me and push me away all he wants, but I’ll still care.”
He can respect Shi Qingxuan’s desire to stay in the mortal realm as a beggar even if he can’t agree with it. He can even accept Qingxuan’s reluctance to accept any overt charity from him.
But to be cut out of his life so cleanly – it stings worse than Pei Ming cares to think about.
He hears Ling Wen scoff.
“Very well,” she says. She pulls back her chair and calm even steps bring her around the desk to face Pei Ming once more. In her hands is the scroll she’d just written. “I’ve put together a list of all the pawn shops in the capital. Including the underground ones. The longevity locks are expertly made and expensive. If it reached a pawn shop, it’s unlikely to be sold quickly.”
“Noble Jie!” Pei Ming beams and grabs the scroll with a bright smile.
“It’s slim but it’s a start,” Ling Wen says, her expression as stoic as ever. “Good luck.”
“I’m sorry, I’ve never seen such an item.”
“No one’s brought anything like that here.”
“If you’re interested in longevity locks, I have plenty. Here, here, look as much as you like.”
“The craftsmanship is superb. I’ll give you a good price for it.”
“Good sir, for the right price, we would be happy to make an exact copy for you.”
“Thanks, but no,” Pei Ming says curtly and exits yet another pawn shop with a sigh. It’s the last of the promising ones – the officials under him had already scoured the rest.
He knew from the beginning it would be a stretch to find Shi Qingxuan’s lost longevity lock waiting patiently in a pawn shop to be bought, but he still dared to hope at least one shopkeeper might recognize it.
“Ah Shuishi-xiong, how tough it all is,” he laments to the lock still in his possession. “You and Qingxuan both – never learned to take good care of your things.”
The lock dangles from his thumb and shines under the midday sun, the glint hitting Pei Ming’s eyes.
“Of course I’m not giving up here. You think you’re the only one with connections? Old Pei never lets a treasure slip away from him.”
If he can’t find it in the shops, he can try casting a net through his worshipers. Pei Ming has a lot of them in the capital now – it’s exceedingly unpleasant to profit off another’s downfall, but the Heavenly Emperor’s defeat left a vacuum that he, as the 2nd most popular martial god, had managed to fill.
As he contemplates his next move, Pei Ming suddenly grows aware that he is being watched. The presence is faint; anyone other than him would have a hard time noticing it. Pei Ming wordlessly tucks the locket away, and scans the crowd until his eyes land on a pale teen in grey robes. The teen meets his eyes and then looks to the ground as Pei Ming walks over.
Surprisingly, he recognizes him.
“You – you were at the pawn shop!” Pei Ming exclaims. He doesn’t quite remember which pawn shop. Not the last one for sure, but he distinctly remembers seeing a boy browsing wares at some point during his earlier wanderings.
Had he been followed this whole time?
“You were the one asking about longevity locks,” the boy said flatly. He showed no surprise or alarm at having been noticed.
“So I was,” Pei Ming acknowledges. “Know anything?”
“No,” the boy replies. “But I saw the lock you showed the shopkeeper. There’s spiritual power in it.”
“You could tell? You a cultivator?” It would explain his masked presence, Pei Ming thinks.
“What’s it for?” the boy asks, ignoring the question.
“It’s nothing special. Just a dowsing device,” Pei Ming replies. “There were two locks in the set – they’re supposed to be able to find each other. Romantic, ain’t it?”
Or at least it would be if the locks didn’t require its wearer to be injured, and not too far away.
The boy looks up at Pei Ming unimpressed. “If it’s a dowsing device, can’t you amplify it’s abilities?” he asks. “Sounds more efficient than randomly searching shops.”
“That’s –
Pei Ming starts, but immediately falls silent as the suggestion sinks in. It’s a very good suggestion.
So good in fact, that he’s shocked he didn’t think of it earlier.
“How does a Heavenly Official forget he has an entire palace of spells at his disposal?”
“Shut it, Noble Jie! That palace of spells happens to be yours!”
“That’s… my locket,” Shi Qingxuan stares at the two identical longevity locks hanging from a proud Pei Ming’s fingers. “You found it? Or no, did you commission a new one?”
“I found it. Have you forgotten who I am? It was total child’s play!” Once they found the right spell anyway. Pei Ming really doesn’t want to think about it anymore. “It’s yours. Really.”
“You really went through all that trouble… General Pei, you didn’t do anything shady to get it back did you? Even if the heavenly court is a complete mess right now, that doesn’t mean you can just do what you want like some vagrant! I’ll still report you, you know!”
“Qingxuan, would it kill you to shut up for once in your life?” Pei Ming sighs. “I didn’t do anything shady. Do you want your locket back or not?”
“Not,” Shi Qingxuan replies at once, dumbfounded. Then angry. “General, I told you last time to drop it. I meant what I said.”
His posture is guarded and his gaze is critical. But he still sneaks glances at the locks as though they’ll disappear at any moment.
“Qingxuan, I went through a lot of trouble for this –
“You just said it was total child’s play.”
“I had to listen to Ling Wen laughing at me,” Pei Ming corrects. “The point is, I couldn’t leave things like that. This lock was important to you, wasn’t it? Are you really okay with it being lost somewhere?”
“I was,” Shi Qingxuan mutters. “But if you already found it, that’s good. Thanks. Keep it safe.”
“I found it so I could return it to you,” Pei Ming says. “One of them. Both of them – whichever. If we hadn’t lost them during the upheaval, I’d have returned all your brother’s things to you so you could live a proper life off them.”
“My current life is plenty proper,” Shi Qingxuan argues. “Just because it’s not one Ge would have approved of doesn’t mean you get a say in it. General Ming Guang, I will say this again. You were my brother’s closest friend. But that does not make you my friend or brother or caretaker or anyone else. Our paths are parallel to each other now. Stop trying to make them intersect.”
Again those harrowing words. Shi Qingxuan and Pei Ming had never gotten along as Heavenly Officials, and Pei Ming had laughed off all kinds of insults and juvenile attempts to ruin the Three Tumors’ friendship.
Why did Qingxuan’s attempts to push him away now hurt so much?
“Qingxuan,” Pei Ming says slowly. “Is it really so difficult for you to accept something from me? Do you truly hate me that much?”
That’s right, the former Wind Master might have answered before, but Shi Qingxuan only averts his gaze.
“General, please just forget it,” Shi Qingxuan says. “Please stop making things difficult.”
“You’re the only one making things difficult.”
He palms the two locks and holds them out to Shi Qingxuan once more. “Take them,” Pei Ming insists.
“What good will it do for me to have them? Why does it matter so much to you?”
“I don’t know. Just take them. Call it a favor for your brother’s old friend.”
At the very least, Shi Qingxuan still loves his brother. He sets the walking stick by a wall and reaches for the longevity locks in Pei Ming’s hand, delicately tracing them with his fingers.
He still doesn’t take them.
Instead, he talks.
“General,” he says quietly. “Did you ever think how strange these locks are?”
“How so?”
“Ge made them for us after my ascension – this was my ascension gift from him. The locks cry out to each other when one of us is hurt and nearby. But why would he give me something like that after I ascended?”
“The locks are made from your golden cores. He couldn’t have forged it before,” Pei Ming replies, but frowns as he concedes the point.
“I know. Just, if it was before, it would make more sense, you know?” he continues. “Before, I was always getting hurt somehow and causing him no end of worries. Before, I would stick very close to him because I was afraid. But after? Ge and I were often busy with our own things. Even if I got hurt, it wouldn’t be anywhere in the locket’s range. In fact, I’d almost forgotten the locks even had that ability until we were on Black Water Island.”
“I see your point,” Pei Ming says. “But both of you always wore your locks regardless.”
“True,” Shi Qingxuan says. “I don’t have any real theories about it. It was only something that crossed my mind after I’d lost it. I think after losing it, that was the first time it really sunk in that Ge wasn’t coming back.” Shi Qinxuan shakes his head and takes his hand away. “Maybe it was always just a sense of security. If I had the lock around my neck, then Ge could find me. But now he can’t.”
“But I still can,” Pei Ming reminds him.
“But you’re still a Heavenly Official. That’s not allowed.”
Pei Ming shrugs. But rather than wait for Shi Qingxuan to retreat again, he takes one of the locks in his palm (Shi Wudu’s, most likely) and swiftly secures it around Shi Qingxuan’s neck.
He ignores the way its twin finally starts to pulsate. He hides it before Qingxuan can also notice.
“Allowed or not, I’ll figure something out. I – Ling Wen and I both – won’t abandon you,” he promises. “But this is yours. Keep it and don’t worry about anything else.”
“But –
“I’m not doing this because I was friends with your brother,” Pei Ming says. “I’m doing it for you. Just once, let me.”
Shi Qingxuan finally lowers his head. He clutches the locket tightly in his fist.
“It might get lost again. Or if things get bad enough, I might have to…”
“If it gets lost again, call me. I’ll get it back,” Pei Ming says. “But what is this “if things get bad enough” crap? Do you really think you’re so alone in this world? If things really get so dire that your only options are to sell your brother’s keepsake or starve, that’s when you limp your ass to the nearest Ming Guang temple, light some incense and cry ‘help me Pei-gege. You’re my only hope!’”
Shi Qingxuan stares at him for a long time.
Then he wordlessly takes the locket off, but rather then shoving it back at Pei Ming like the general has come to expect, he pulls out a thin cloth pouch, and carefully places it inside.
“Just so we’re clear,” Shi Qingxuan says as he tucks the pouch safely away again, “I am not calling you Pei-gege.”