ALL NOVEL 69. In which lives are slowly rebuilt
Over the next few weeks, Wen Zhihao was extremely busy, to the point that he could only get his afternoon nap because he put himself in charge of looking after the small children who needed afternoon naps. In fact, all the mortals went to sleep when nap time came, and their sleep schedule became very regular, matching Wen Zhihao’s.
In the warm late summer afternoons, Wen Zhihao would cover the entire outdoor courtyard of the safe house with bedding, and people and cats could stretch out in the sun or shade as they wished, or in the bedrooms nearby if they preferred privacy. After Wen Zhihao showed how to use a cat as a pillow, some of the braver people stroked a cat, and some children ended up sleeping with their small childish faces half smooshed into cat fur.
The cats basked in the attention they received, letting the mortals rub their fur and their stomachs. Sleeping all day with Wen Zhihao nearby was a sweet summer's wish, fulfilled. When Huang Jialing remarked how they were getting lazy, Wen Zhihao had the cats carry the children on their backs, much to the delighted laughter from the children.
- Bleh, you let a human ride on your back? What kind of animal are you?
- What are you talking about? The human-kittens are scared little kittens! They’re so tiny! You’re just weak, weakling!
- Human Huang didn’t let me carry a kitten by the back of their neck…
- So fragile, these kittens!
In the kitchen, Aunty Liu Jing was there to cook and teach them how to cook what they wanted. Wen Zhihao gave out everyday talismans to aid in mundane things like creating hot water for bathing.
And with all the mortal money provided by Cheng Yahui, Wen Zhihao ‘let loose’ and bought a lot of food and new clothing and new bedding and toys, and frequently gave each of the freed mortals a few silver taels to spend on whatever they wanted.
Senior Liu Zhongmin had thoughtfully brought over some healing cultivators too. With them, they could remove wounds that mortal doctors would be unable to, such as the cruel branding that many had, crippling injuries that had been used to control them, internal injuries and consequences of what they had been forced to do… As for mental wounds, those were harder, slower, to heal.
Wen Zhihao wasn’t trained for this, but he knew how to speak calmly, and that calmness slowly spread to the freed people. It took him a little bit to realise that he had to reconfirm that they had their autonomy back. That they could eat when they wanted, sleep when they wanted, go to the bathroom when they wanted, pet a cat when they wanted; that they could leave the safe house if they wanted, and they could ask someone to accompany them if they didn’t feel safe. That Wen Zhihao didn’t want anything from them, aside from them to be kind to others.
In that safe house, none of them suffered a nightmare, and slowly, they started to believe that maybe, maybe they had truly escaped.
After seeing that Lin Yijun clearly hadn’t reported them, Sun Fuyu decided to help Zhou Sheng, in order to make his story about saving enslaved mortals consistent. Zhou Sheng collaborated with his story, changing his distinctive Blood Sect robes for some sect-less grey cultivator clothing and using a magical device that changed his facial appearance whenever he had to meet with the other Golden Sun Sect cultivators.
Before their first parting, Sun Fuyu reluctantly hugged Wen Zhihao at the slightly open gate of the house.
“Remember to eat well and sleep well and rest when needed, okay?” Wen-ge told him, filling his spatial ring with a pile of calming stones, stacks of talismans, and a big bag of silver mortal money. “And tell Cultivator Zhou to remember to eat and recover too.”
“En…” Sun Fuyu’s arms tightened around Wen-ge, trying to soak in Wen-ge’s aura as much as possible.
Zhou Sheng, who was hidden nearby, snorted to himself. (He would come to be speechless later when Sun Fuyu insisted, “You have to eat dinner, Wen-ge said so!”)
Sun Fuyu heard the sound, and so he finally let go. “I must go now.” He kissed Wen Zhihao on the lips, touched Wen Zhihao’s hand one more time, and then stepped out of the safe house.
Over the next few weeks, he and Zhou Sheng uncovered more and more people involved in trafficking and kidnapping. After their first joint “harvest” of people and money, Huang Jialing joined them too. Sun Fuyu was hesitant, but Zhou Sheng didn’t care. Back when he was at the Golden Sun Sect, Huang Jialing had never done anything bad to him. Whether or not she recognised Zhou Sheng, she remained silent on that matter.
Between the three of them, Sun Fuyu also took the lead in helping the victims, distributing immediate needs items, and he was always the one who brought them back to Wen Zhihao, before having to rush off again.
As Zhou Sheng extracted punishment, mortal money flowed in like a flood, all of which was spent on the victims. Of course, paying a ‘fine’ was not enough. Regardless of how rich they were, all of the former enslavers were forced to help the victims, from the kidnappers to demonic cultivators to the members of the mortal royal family. They were tasked to build new homes for the formerly enslaved people, to build new schools, to cultivate the land, to teach various skills and trades etc. The mortal economy experienced a boom.
Zhou Sheng’s blood magic ensured that they all complied, whether they wanted to or not. Soon, he was able to advance to Middle Stage Nascent Soul.
Zhou Sheng also found a demonic cultivator who was well versed in illusionary mind magic, and let each enslaver experience how they had treated their ‘own slaves’. Those who were extra cruel to enslaved peoples suffered the most as they ‘experienced’ themselves being cruel to themselves. Those who treated others cruelly for years will have dreams of the experiences of their victims for years to come.
It was the task of the other cultivators to help find the original homes.
It was difficult for many of the freed mortals to locate their original homes: they were often taken far away by the slavers; they were often taken away while young and now their memories had faded; and some of them came from small remote villages that no one else knew about except for the locals.
Between what information the mortals could offer, the wide networks that Liu Zhongmin and the other cultivators had, and the tracking abilities of those like Cheng Yahui, they were able to, one by one, find the original homes.
“—Xiao Yue? Xiao Yue, is that you?” A haggard-looking woman’s fear at the two golden robed celestial masters standing outside her home turned into overwhelming disbelief and amazement and old pain when she saw the small girl jump down from one of the flying swords.
This small girl was one of those Wen Zhihao and the others had first saved.
“Mama, mama!” Little Yue’s eyes overflowed as she raced forward and hugged her mother’s legs.
“My Xiao Yue,” the woman cried. Her daughter had been missing for over two weeks, during which she was scared about what could have happened…
Cultivator Hu Jingyan stepped forward. From her spatial ring, she took out a bag of coins, handing it to the shocked mortal woman.
While Hu Jingyan explained what had happened, Zhang Wu stood by quietly as the other children came out of the house and ran over to hug Xiao Yue too.
After confirming that the woman wanted and cared for Xiao Yue, the two of them left.
Over those weeks, Hu Jingyan and Zhang Wu and the others escorted many mortals back to their homes. But not all of them remained, like little Bai whose stepfather looked at with a hiss of, “Disaster star, I’m not returning the money!”—The money he had gained for selling the child.
‘Lucky’ him, Zhou Sheng judged that the stepfather only played a small part in the trafficking industry, and only had to go through a few repeated chilling dreams of what it felt like to be unwillingly captured and taken away.
When Wen Zhihao saw Xiao Bai returning, he sighed inwardly and reached out to carry the child who had become even quieter than usual.
Xiao Bai buried his face in Uncle Wen’s shoulder, eyes red. Those tears started to fall when Uncle Wen patted him gently on the back.
“We’ll keep you, don’t worry,” Wen Zhihao coaxed quietly.
Some, after visiting their original home, didn’t want to stay. The young woman, Hua Cai, who had bravely spoken to Wen Zhihao about how one silver tael was too much, could see the look in her villagers’ eyes and the nasty words they called her. With her age, her history, she was now unmarriable in her parents’ eyes.
“I want to go back to town,” Hua Cai haltingly told the cultivators who had accompanied her. And so she was taken back to the town, where she and some other women bought a house for themselves and started to learn various trade skills that they had always wanted to learn.
In fact, not many of the older mortals decided to return permanently to their old homes. Instead, many of the older freed mortals preferred to go back to towns or cities they had been living in and now knew, while others wanted to go to completely new places where no one knew their history.
It was mostly unwanted and orphaned children who were too young that stayed with Wen Zhihao.
At the end of those weeks, Sun Fuyu returned by himself.
Seeing Wen Zhihao in the courtyard teaching the mortals how to read and write some basic characters, Sun Fuyu went to stand at the corner of the courtyard, watching quietly.
Not all the children were properly focusing. One of them spotted Sun Fuyu, and so reached out and grabbed Wen Zhihao’s sleeve.
“Uncle, Uncle, there’s Little Uncle!”
Wen Zhihao looked up and his eyes lit up when he saw Sun Fuyu. “Thank you, Ah-Yi,” he told the child. “Class, it’s break time now. Go play with the cats.”
“Okay!” was the chorus of milky voices. They suddenly gained a lot of energy as they jumped up and went to play with the large dozing demonic beasts.
Wen Zhihao stood up more slowly. He and Sun Fuyu were about to meet in the middle when Sun Fuyu suddenly jumped into Wen Zhihao’s arms. Wen Zhihao staggered, barely able to withstand the force of such a powerful cultivator.
“Wen-ge, Wen-ge, missed you so much...” Sun Fuyu said quietly, his voice aggrieved.
Wen Zhihao’s heart-strings were tugged. He hugged back tightly. “En, missed Xiao Yu too.”
Little Theatre with Novel-Aware Wen Zhihao:
Wen Zhihao: “Xiao Yu, you came back just in time for chapter 69!”
Sun Fuyu: “En!”
Wen Zhihao leans over and whispers to Sun Fuyu about what ‘69’1a sex position means back in his old world.
Sun Fuyu goes red immediately. “Wen-wen-wen-ge!”
Wen Zhihao laughs. “En, we also have meanings for numbers like 2332laughter/haha/lol and 6663cool/awesome/amazing…”
Look! More fanart from the CG discord server!
From Emi, with Wen Zhihao and jealous Sun Fuyu!
And from risaida25 (*cough indeed the robe colours are wrong*):
Speaking of fanart, Chrysanthemum Garden (CG) is having a 10k Discord Members Celebration event. You submit fanfic or fanart and 50 pieces are randomly drawn to win. Aside from a one-month-of-nitro, I’m also offering one bonus extra (max rating explicit) of your choice/topic/scene \(≧∀≦)/
Submissions are due on August 15th!
Ping me/@DSF on CG’s discord channel, DM me on discord (I’m on CG’s discord and the BL Palace https://discord.gg/xgJ3RCeE5h ), comment, or otherwise contact me if you make anything so that I can share it for others to see!
Also, I was reminded by a certain fishy named tiaf that I don't really have descriptions of the characters 🙈🙈🙈 this is because I have ~feels~ for the characters, not so much what they look like 🙈🙈🙈
Here are the basic notes!
- Dull-yellow robes for outer disciples, golden robes for inner disciples. Both Wen Zhihao and Sun Fuyu wear the “masculine” version; “feminine” and “neutral/mixed” versions also exist.
- Wen Zhihao: long black sleep-messy hair, sometimes tied back really low [think a very low ponytail where the hair type just keeps slipping down...] (unless Sun Fuyu has done his hair properly with a hair crown), loose/comfortable robes, indulgent smile at the “kids”, dark brown eyes, lazy posture. He probably looks...normal. His body was cannon fodder after all LOL. Has two spatial rings (original one and the fancy one that Sun Fuyu gave him).
- Sun Fuyu: neat hair with hair crown (unless Wen Zhihao has patted his head recently), neat robes, light brown eyes and black hair, straight posture and serious expression. Has one spatial ring (from Wen Zhihao). Cute, handsome young man!
- Zhou Sheng has black robes with red detail and a polearm.
- Lin Yijun has more fancy gold robes with details and a sword. Serious/facial paralysis-style expression.
- Aunty Liu Jing, erm, no idea. Middle-aged.
- Old Tang? NO IDEA. Also middle-aged, despite his name.
- Liu Zhongmin: fairly tall, somewhat on the older side of middle-aged and distinguished. If arms revealed, bufffff
- Elder Liu Ru: Old-looking (think white hair, wrinkles) mature woman. Fancy robes that flutter in the breeze~
- Huang Jialing and Qian Jiarui: NO IDEA, though I feel like Qian Jiarui might be more on the masc. side 🤔
- Zhang Wu: Angry baby
- Wang Li Wei: Even angrier baby
- “Cats”: range from kitten size of big cat (tiger/lion/etc.) size
*cough* it’s best if you write the name of the characters in a hypothetical fanart of them...
And….
I was thinking of running a one-day BL & Writing Workshop over on the BL Palace discord server. There would be hypothetical talks/panels coming from various members of the server (including me?), so please check out this survey https://forms.gle/5YcvqUNi26aCjnFL7 if you're interested so I can estimate numbers and organise talks and things ?