Chapter 3

                                    

                                          
"What did the deputies tell you?"
Feng Xin inhaled sharply at the sudden break in silence. He'd been staring at the bloodstain on the bed, trying to picture what had happened without picturing what had happened. So many details in the room were terrifying but the stain was the worst. There were questions in that stain he needed to ask and didn't want the answers to.
"What?" he murmured, eyes drifting right back to the stain.
The silver and red of Hua Cheng's chest moved between Feng Xin and his view of the bed. "What did his men say?" the Ghost King repeated.
"I... they..." Feng Xin pushed his fingertips against his closed eyes for a moment, trying to drive the stain out of his mind so he could think of anything else.
Xie Lian being the only one on the planet willing, capable, and permitted to comfort Mu Qing meant that the Crown Prince wasn't available to look into who or what had attacked Mu Qing. And Xie Lian not being on hand shouldn't mean that Hua Cheng was on hand. If anything, it should mean the opposite.
But upon reentering the remains of Mu Qing's meticulously decorated rooms, Hua Cheng was already there, studying one of the burns on the ceiling, silver butterflies drifting around him.
He pulled a scroll from a case on his hip, eyes tired. "For the past few months, they had observed the General, Xuan Zhen, entertaining a visitor they believed to be the General, Nan Yang. They did not see or hear the visitor themselves, but General Xuan Zhen made several remarks to staff that made it clear the General's guest was Nan Yang. Examples include saying 'Fetch such and such an item for General Nan Yang' or saying he was not available because he was entertaining General Nan Yang. There are no records of General Nan Yang entering the estate grounds, deputies assumed he entered via special means, whether magical or simply covert, such as by window. Deputy Wen Qiu stated that he heard sounds of distress from the General's quarters and found himself unable to enter said quarters. Deputy Wen Qiu enlisted the assistance of the other two head deputy officials, Kong Tai and Zhang Min. After the span of less than a second, sounds from the General's quarters stopped, and soon after the deputies found they could now enter. After placing the General in a protective barrier and activating the Palace's shields, they went to apprehend the one they thought responsible."
"Nosy boys," Hua Cheng commented lightly.
"Mh," agreed Feng Xin. Reading between the lines, it was clear Mu Qing's deputies had been carefully spying on him. Feng Xin's disciples would have never thought of doing such a ludicrously improper thing. But Mu Qing had chosen men like himself. Pragmatic. If they thought their general was in danger, if they were worried about him, then they wouldn't hesitate to put their ears to the door. "A while ago, I would have thought 'they were spying on him to see if he messes up, to see if they can get ahead'," Feng Xin said.
"Trying to murder you while painting it as arresting you does seem to indicate their true feelings towards him," murmured Hua Cheng.
The three deputies had to be rattled by Xie Lian's own hands to get them to talk and believe none of them wished Mu Qing harm, that they'd keep this matter in confidence. All anyone knew was that Mu Qing had been injured and security across the Heavenly capitol was tightened. The Palace of Xuan Zhen was coordinating patrols and enhanced barrier work themselves.
"What has he been working on lately?" Hua Cheng asked next.
"Just..." Feng Xin trailed off. He suddenly felt an ice-cold finger under his jaw. When he looked upwards, Hua Cheng's brows were furrowed at him.
"You don't have to be here."
"What?" Feng Xin's shoulders came up defensively, not understanding and alarmed.
"If this is too much, you don't have to be here. I can figure this out myself," Crimson Rain Sought Flower said.
Something hot flared in Feng Xin's chest. "You? I'm not letting you do it."
"Why not?" asked Hua Cheng, stepping away from him to go study something by the window.
"You don't care about Mu Qing," Feng Xin said, blinking, watching Hua Cheng kneel and pick at a piece of something in the debris. It wasn't an accusation or said in anger. It was a statement. If anything, he sounded confused that they were having this exchange. "You're just here because his Highness can't be. Someone has to do this that wants it figured out. If we'd found a corpse you would have made it a Ghost City holiday."
"How do I say this..." Hua Cheng's butterflies lifted a leather bag with black and orange beading out from under a piece of Mu Qing's desk. They moved as a well-drilled unit, rotating the object around in the air for him to study. "If he dropped dead, I wouldn't mind terribly?"
Feng Xin's hand squeezed into a fist as he listened.
"But," Hua Cheng said, finally taking the bag in his hands and emptying it. Out spilled mahjong tiles, a pair of die, a figure of an elephant, and a figure of a wheel, all in wood, stone, and jade. "I do mind, very terribly, him being tortured, raped, scarred, and used like kindling in his own home." Hua Cheng looked at him then. "I don't think that's too strange of me."
"Is that funny to you?" Feng Xin's eyes locked on that stain again as he spoke, feeling a pressure building under his scalp. Hearing the list of things done to Mu Qing rattled off so lightly made his stomach jolt. "Do you think that's funny? Of course, I'd be happy if he died but this is too much. It's not funny. And for the record," he said, gritting his teeth. "I'm not certain you didn't have something to do with this."
Hua Cheng stood straighter, furrowing his brow, like he hadn't seen Feng Xin before this moment.
"When I called, you got in immediately," Feng Xin said, feeling a dangerous crackle in his aura. "How many people in the world are there that can hold a god down in his palace? In his rooms? That can make a barrier in his palace that three of his deputies can't surpass. That know enough about me and Mu Qing to impersonate me. That understand his cultivation method. That could possibly hate him enough. No one hates him more than you."
Hua Cheng lifted his brows, expression unreadable as he looked towards nothing.
"I don't think you'd...rape him," Feng Xin said, having a hard time saying the word Hua Cheng had used so easily. "But maybe you'd hold the door for someone. Someone you thought might just hurt him. Or scare him. Or be.... very... very cruel to him. Is that what you did, Hua Cheng?"