Of course, that wasn’t the end of it. That wasn’t the end of anything, really. Like, it was obviously a conclusion to one thing, but there were obviously a few other loose ends to address.
And with matters largely handled back at the Green Jade Peaks, they soon returned to the city of Wú Jiǔ to pay another visit – and as things were, they arrived at the crack of dawn, because Mingyue had insisted.
Granted, Mingyue had also hinted that he’d much rather have Jiao Ziyu stay at the Green Jade Peaks to fully recover, but⸺ Yeah, no. There was no way Jiao Ziyu would allow that to happen. Because he was curious. He was undeniably curious and quite eager to confront a certain medicinal cultivator.
The one to greet them at the door wasn’t Yue however. It was Youming Jun, and the Demon Prince didn’t look particularly enthusiastic about their presence. He also looked tired, but this didn’t stop him from putting on what appeared to be his usual spiel.
“You lot just couldn’t stay away, could you?” he said, stepping aside as Mingyue brushed right past him. The Demon Prince didn’t particularly seem to appreciate this very much, but even so, he said nothing, just trailed behind him as he entered.
This inevitably put him right next to Jiao Ziyu, who found himself quite wary at the sight of the other’s wolfish grin.
“So,” the Demon Prince said. “Did you finally get some?”
Jiao Ziyu honestly didn’t know how to respond to that, and was too caught off guard by the question not to react to it.
“Hoh.” Youming Jun whistled. “For being elders, you’re surprisingly virile. That said, you should’ve probably slept in. One should make sure to rest after engaging in such vigorous exercise...”
Having said this, the Demon Prince trailed off, appearing to find immense pleasure in Jiao Ziyu’s reactions.
As for Mingyue, he was clearly annoyed but uninterested in giving the Demon Prince the time of day – no, his true quarry was elsewhere, and Mingyue pursued them with single-minded focus.
In no time, he’d made it to the bedroom, with Jiao Ziyu and the Demon Prince arriving three to four steps behind him. By that point however, Mingyue was already standing next to the bed.
On it, Yue lay, clearly unconscious. As for whether this was due to natural sleep or due to something else, Jiao Ziyu wondered if it might not be the latter. Because he sincerely doubted that he’d been able to sleep through it if Bai Mingyue had been standing over him like that, radiating such a coldness.
And yet, Yue did not awaken, not even as the elder medicinal cultivator knelt down, gently taking hold of his wrist while resting a hand against his forehead.
It didn’t take a genius to know what Mingyue was doing, and Jiao Ziyu was fairly certain that the Demon Prince was aware. He didn’t seem quite pleased, sure, but rather exasperated than⸺
“Are you here to kill me, Master Bai?” Yue asked, voice so full of tired resignation that Jiao Ziyu felt honestly sick for a moment.
Mingyue clearly didn’t like it either, because although the other didn’t say anything, Jiao Ziyu could tell that he was quite disturbed, both by the question and by whatever he’d sensed when prodding Yue’s spiritual veins.
For a brief moment, Mingyue looked like he was about to speak, but then the Demon Prince appeared right beside him.
“Yue,” Youming Jun said, mildly exasperated. “I honestly don’t care if you want to keep asking that, but could you at least start off with a ‘Good morning’?”
Mingyue’s gaze turned positively murderous, shifting towards the Demon Prince. The latter didn’t seem to care about the obvious spike in hostility though.
“Is this a good morning?” Yue asked, looking from Youming Jun to Bai Mingyue and back again.
“I was planning on letting you sleep in,” Youming Jun said. “But as you can see⸺”
He made a vague motion towards both of them.
“So,” Yue said, looking from Jiao Ziyu to Mingyue. “I’m not dreaming.”
“You’re not,” Mingyue said, his voice uncharacteristically soft. “Not yet.”
And before anyone had the chance to say or do anything, Yue was once again firmly unconscious, chest rising and falling with soft, regular breaths. Predictably, he didn’t even stir when Mingyue again took his wrist, holding it for a few more moments before gently placing it back down.
Mingyue then took the time to smooth Yue’s hair back, brushing it away from his forehead. There was undeniable tenderness in the motion.
Any traces of it vanished as soon as Mingyue straightened back up though, turning to level the Demon Prince with a glare so venomous that Jiao Ziyu wouldn’t have been surprised if the other had started coughing up blood.
The Demon Prince didn’t flinch though. Rather, he scowled.
“We need to talk,” Mingyue said.
“Yeah,” the Demon Prince agreed. “We do.”
Thus, Jiao Ziyu found himself seated at a table looking on as Mingyue and Youming Jun sized one another up. Because although they both seemed to have the impression that they needed to talk, neither of them seemed particularly inclined to take the first step towards actual communication – and traded curses and insults didn’t count, not really.
Still, having watched the pair as the silence stubbornly dragged on, Jiao Ziyu wondered if perhaps he should be the one to step in.
However, just as he’d made up his mind to do so, Youming Jun finally spoke.
“So,” he said. “Let’s talk. Why are you here?”
“You know why I’m here,” Mingyue responded. “I should kill you.”
“And I should kill you,” the Demon Prince readily countered. “But I won’t, because my lovely Yue prefers you alive and in good health.”
“What did you do to him?”
“What did I do?” Youming Jun snorted. “You mean besides the obvious?”
“This isn’t about the mark,” Mingyue said, although his tone indicated that he was very displeased about that as well. “What did you do?”
“Well,” said the Demon Prince. “Not that you’d believe me, but he was like that when I found him – or rather, when he found me. Total accident by the way. My uncle got sick of my antics and dumped me into a river, and Yue fished me out downstream. Didn’t immediately realise it was me though, or else I’m pretty sure he would’ve⸺ well, in any case, let’s just say that certain things happened and I felt obligated to take responsibility?”
Jiao Ziyu found that he did not really like the sound of that, and upon seeing Mingyue’s positively murderous expression, he found himself liking the sound of that even less. Still, he opened his mouth to ask about it, but then⸺
“Jun,” a certain medicinal cultivator hissed from the other room. “You bloody knew I was on duty at the clinic today. Why the fuck didn’t you wake me up?”
Youming Jun didn’t seem surprised. Instead, he smiled.
“Well,” the Demon Prince then said. “After last night, I figured you could probably use some additional⸺”
Mingyue’s qi flared dangerously, which only made the other’s smile grow. It also made a certain medicinal cultivator poke his head into the room, narrowing his eyes at the sight of them.
“What the fuck are you two doing here?”
At this, the Demon Prince’s smile blossomed into an outright grin.
On Mingyue’s face, there was visible disbelief followed by dismay followed by blankness. Then, out of nowhere came this weird, friendly yet at the same time quite dangerous – and familiar – smile.
“...Bai Jixue,” Jiao Ziyu whispered under his breath. No one really seemed to pay him much attention though, even if the Demon Prince’s gaze did flicker briefly in his direction.
“This master has a fucking valid reason for being here,” Mingyue said, still wearing that chill-inducing smile of his. “I don’t recall raising a disciple, much less a son, who’d dose his martial uncle with a fucking aphrodisiac!”
Ah.
“Well, he’s still alive, isn’t he?” Yue immediately snapped, pointing right at him. “Last time around, he died miserably believing his feelings were unrequited. So, you’re fucking welcome!”
Huh? “Last time around...?”
“That doesn’t excuse the means!” Mingyue hissed, that smile finally gone from his face, replaced by a scowl. “You could’ve used plenty of other means. Why that specific one?”
Yeah, why that specific one? That was a very good question, one to which Jiao Ziyu would very much like an answer.
“But⸺” Yue began, then began to falter. “But he was the one who⸺”
The youngster trailed off, biting into his bottom lip as he turned his face away, unable to continue. There was little mistaking the flush though, and Mingyue's visible surprise and confusion quickly morphed into anger – and Jiao Ziyu, sensing the danger, quickly stepped to the side so that he had a Demon Prince-shaped shield in-between himself and Mingyue’s imminent wrath. Because on one hand, Jiao Ziyu was positive that he hadn’t actually done anything, but on the other⸺ “Uh... I’m the one that supposedly did what now?”
It would’ve probably been better – or at the very least safer – for him not to speak up and thereby draw additional attention – and ire – towards himself. But Jiao Ziyu did want to know what he’d supposedly⸺
“Well,” said the Demon Prince, glancing at Jiao Ziyu. “You didn’t – or rather, you haven’t yet and now you won’t. But another you did. A different you.”
Huh? “Sorry, you lost me. Another me did what?”
The Demon Prince flashed him a smile, somehow managing to convey both friendliness and vicious satisfaction. “Another you taught the disciples of Bai Mingyue how to deal with certain issues in the mundane world... like how to use the extract of a certain plant as an insect repellent.”
How to use the extract of a certain plant to⸺ Oh. Oh no. Jiao Ziyu had a terrible feeling about this, and the wolfish grin sent his way didn’t make it any better! It also didn’t help when the half-demon brat promptly turned around to pat him on the shoulder.
“I figure it was probably completely unintentional on your part, but⸺” The Demon Prince’s smile was immensely bright and immensely pleased. “⸺I owe you one, truly. If you ever need help with Demon Realm diplomacy, go ahead and ask.”
Looking from the viciously satisfied Demon Prince to the medicinal cultivator now smothered in Mingyue’s embrace, Jiao Ziyu could more or less put the pieces together. There were undeniably more than a few pieces missing, sure, but with the ones he had, Jiao Ziyu found that he could make a decent guess.
“Oh,” he said. “I am so sorry.”
Like, technically, he hadn’t actually done anything, but⸺ As a matter of fact, he had at one point tipped off Mingyue’s disciples – now ex-disciples – on how to get those pesky mosquitoes and flies to stay away. And that method included extracting oil from a certain plant using steam distillation, and smearing it on the skin.
But that particular plant had other properties as well – properties which included attracting certain⸺
“It’s fine,” Yue murmured, muffled voice carrying surprisingly well across the slight distance. “It’s not like I didn’t fucking know what sort of pests it attracts.”
“Well...” Youming Jun grinned. “It worked out pretty well for the both of us, don’t you think?”
Yue only snorted at that – and likely more out of amusement than out of disdain.
Mingyue though, Mingyue clearly didn’t see the humour in it. The glare he directed in the Demon Prince’s direction was positively murderous, enough so that Jiao Ziyu stepped out from behind his impromptu shield and then retreated another step in order to ensure that he wouldn’t end up in the crossfire if things really escalated to that point.
In the end though, it seemed as though it hadn’t been necessary. Because as Yue reached up to hug Mingyue back, the Peak Lord’s killing intent immediately diminished.
His glare still remained quite fierce though, and Jiao Ziyu found himself immensely glad that it wasn’t directed towards him.
Youming Jun didn’t seem particularly fazed though. At first, he seemed amused. But then, after seeing that Mingyue had no intention of letting go, there was an unmistakable flash of irritation.
“Are you letting go anytime soon?”
Mingyue’s fierce glare morphed into something viciously amused.
