Chapter 117: The Old Song

Chapter 117: The Old Song

Le Wuya drifted in a haze, as if sunk in a dream, his soul wandering, adrift toward the clouds.

Yet a Jing tribe song, carried on the wind, reached his ears and yanked him back, hard.

The sound was low and deep, like the earth mother's lament.

Le Wuya jolted awake.

They still hadn't made it to Nanting.

His injured leg had gone numb, probably from the bitter cold.

The wind was biting, and the snow stung.

But a towering figure shielded him, solid as a wall.

Maybe afraid he couldn't keep Le Wuya warm enough, Helian Che had shrugged off his heavy cloak and pulled Le Wuya into his arms, leaving only his eyes showing.

He'd opened the front of his clothes and wrapped Le Wuya tight against his bare chest.

A steady wave of warmth seeped through skin and muscle.

Le Wuya thought fuzzily, is this what a brother's like too?

His two Le brothers—the eldest had always been proper and refined, no question; even the second, for all his wild warmth, had never just bared his chest in front of him like this.

Le Wuya turned his head with effort, trying to figure out where they were and what was going on.

He realized they weren't on horseback anymore, but huddled under a small, shady dirt slope.

Helian Che's big horse was resting alongside the little yellow horse.

The little yellow horse, feeling the chill, sneaked behind the big horse, using its tall body to block the wind, curling up like it wanted to crawl right under the big horse's belly.

The big horse didn't care, just kept grazing, huffing out thick white breath with every bite.

Le Wuya remembered something important and quickly sat up, trying to wiggle out of Helian Che's arms.

But the second he moved, the arm that had been holding him so gently locked tight with terrifying strength, almost crushing his ribs.

The squeeze knocked the breath out of him, and he coughed hard for a long time, tears stinging his eyes.

Helian Che, realizing he'd squeezed too hard, felt a twinge of regret. He loosened his hold little by little, patting and rubbing Le Wuya's back to help him catch his breath.

Once his breathing evened out, Le Wuya turned and shot Helian Che a dirty look.

Helian Che, knowing he was in the wrong, took the glare without getting annoyed: "Where are you going?"

Le Wuya rubbed his chest with one hand: "I'm gonna check on the one who's still alive. Don't want him freezing to death on us."

"He won't freeze. I had a blanket with me, wrapped it around him."

Only then did Le Wuya notice the man lying not far away on the slope, wrapped up like a giant cocoon.

He was still out cold, but his breathing was way steadier and stronger than Le Wuya's.

Le Wuya let out a relieved sigh, leaned back, and asked, "Why'd we stop?"

"Wind's picked up, snow too," Helian Che said flatly. "You're too weak. You'd get blown away."

Le Wuya: "You're jinxing me."

Helian Che: "Just telling the truth."

Le Wuya closed his eyes: "Still not allowed to jinx me."

To such unreasonable, childish words, Helian Che wanted to snort, but when the words got to his mouth, all that came out was a short: "...Fine."

Le Wuya lazed in his arms for a bit, making sure his body temp had actually dropped and his head wasn't so foggy anymore, before asking, "What were you singing just now?"

"..." Helian Che paused, then said, "A lullaby. What Jing tribe mothers sing to their kids."

Le Wuya: "...You're not scared you'll sing me to sleep?"

Helian Che looked at his curly hair, thinking, this song wouldn't work on Yaya.

When Yaya was little, every time he sang this song, the kid would get weirdly excited.

Even if he was about to doze off, the second he heard Helian Che sing, he'd fight to wake up, clumsily roll over, crawl into his arms, and stare up at him, totally focused.

Yaya seemed to love that song. Or maybe he just loved hearing Helian Che sing. Helian Che didn't know.

Seeing Helian Che quiet, Le Wuya nodded: "It's pretty nice. Sing it again."

Helian Che held him, rocking gently, singing low, until even the biting wind and snow seemed to soften as they swept past.

He sang a line, and Le Wuya echoed it back.

By the time they'd run through it twice, Le Wuya could hum along.

"You understand Jing?" Helian Che asked. "Pick it up during your trading days too?"

Helian Che rarely ribbed anyone, and when he did crack a joke, it didn't sound funny at all—just cold and sarcastic.

Le Wuya was still sleepy, but made himself stay awake and keep chatting with Helian Che: "I've got Jing blood in me, after all. Is it weird that I speak the language?"

With that, he pulled the cloak tighter around himself: "Speaking of which, I know a Jing song too. Like that one more."

Helian Che rubbed his rough fingertips, imagining running them through Le Wuya's hair: "Sing it."

Le Wuya cleared his throat: "A jug of old wine on my back—"

The second the first line left his lips, Helian Che's whole body went stiff.

Le Wuya's limbs were limp, and his voice came out soft and lazy, stretching what was originally a bold, bleak song into something slow and tender, twisting and turning:

"What chased after me was my mother, she tied a shaman's charm on me, telling me to come back soon... come back soon."

Helian Che's throat felt clogged with a burning fire.

In the song, he remembered a lot of old memories.

His uncle with the goofy smile, his obedient Yaya, and the little brook babbling off into the distance.

...and back then, I was clueless and thought life was just fine.

"Did it sound good?"

After finishing the song, Le Wuya said, "I picked it up after one listen."

As he said this, Le Wuya didn't turn around.

They were so close their hearts were nearly touching.

So he could clearly feel the stiffness in Helian Che's body.

This song—Damuqi had sung it to him, and surely to Helian Che too.

Since they were already this close, Le Wuya figured he might as well gamble again.

If he let on that he might be Helian Ya, how would Helian Che react?

He wanted to see exactly how much Helian Che hated him.

Or maybe...

No, he didn't need to love him—that was too much to ask, almost a pipe dream.

If he lost the bet, at worst Helian Che would shove him forward and let him freeze to death in this howling blizzard.

Le Wuya held his breath, waiting quietly for a long time, waiting for a pair of hands to shove him out of the warm cloak.

But after a long while, what came was a deeper, warmer hug and a cold compliment: "...Beautiful."

The tension in Le Wuya's heart suddenly eased. He leaned back, tilted his head up, and watched the heavy snow fall, gradually building a beautiful world draped in white.

At this moment, curled up in Helian Che's arms, he felt relieved and at peace, like he was nestled in the best and smallest room in the world.

No matter how the wind howled or how loud the outside world got, it didn't matter to him right now.

It was a good day.

...

When the snow and wind let up a bit, Helian Che, with Le Wuya in tow, headed back.

Deep down, Helian Che wanted to forcibly take this man back to the Jing tribe and lock him up for a thorough interrogation—he couldn't quite say what he wanted to interrogate him about, but the key was to lock him up, like catching a gust of wind.

But there was still a knife embedded in his calf, and he didn't know how bad the injury was.

Such a fierce blizzard was no good for a long trip.

By the time Helian Che dropped the man off at the gates of Nanting County, he'd already made up his mind.

Since this man was just naturally meant to be an official of Dayu, fine, let him be.

After all, he was stuck in this small county town—he couldn't escape, couldn't go far.

He'd just come by to check on him regularly.

On the way, Le Wuya, like a little mouse, gnawed through all the jerky Helian Che had brought, recovering a lot of his strength.

He hopped on one foot over to the little yellow horse and leaned against it, watching Helian Che tie the string of corpses back onto the horse.

When Helian Che finished, Le Wuya waved at him: "My leg's messed up—come here a sec."

Helian Che frowned and stepped forward: "What—"

Le Wuya spread his arms and, like a little bird, threw himself into Helian Che's embrace: "Thanks, Brother Da."

Helian Che's breath caught in his throat, a jumble of indescribable feelings churning in his chest. He kept a cold face, pretending he hadn't heard.

Le Wuya rested his chin on Helian Che's chest, looked up with clear, bright eyes and a hint of a smile in them.

He grinned and switched it up: "...Then, thanks, big brother?"

Helian Che's cold expression almost cracked. Flustered, he turned his face away: "...Mm."

It wasn't until he stood in the darkness, watching Le Wuya slowly make his way toward the county gate, that Helian Che regretted it, but too late.

—He should've just scooped him up onto the horse and taken him home.

That was the proper brotherly love the Helian family should have.

Unaware of Helian Che's sinister intentions, Le Wuya reached the county gate before Helian Che could fully change his mind.

He pounded twice on the cold, heavy gate, the impact stinging his palms: "Open up! Open up!"

In the past, Nanting had been a key battleground between Dayu and the Jing tribe, so they'd built a fairly tall city wall.

The soldiers on the wall were startled awake, wrapped in warm blankets, and shouted gruffly: "Who the hell's that? Don't you know the rules? The gate's closed! Come back in the morning!"

"I'm your second grandpa!" Le Wuya yelled back. "Tell Qin Xingyue to get his ass over here with the gate-opening order—his second grandpa will issue it for him right now!"

The soldiers on the wall went quiet for a moment, murmuring among themselves.

"...Sounds like it's our lord?"

"Oh! It really is our lord!"

The gate creaked open slowly.

It just so happened to be Qin Xingyue's turn on duty at the gate that day.

He rushed over, leading the way, first startled by Le Wuya, who had a dagger stuck in his leg and messy hair.

Once he saw the string of corpses tied behind the little yellow horse, he was totally speechless.

Le Wuya leaned against him, naturally draping an arm over his shoulder, and as he limped into the city, he rattled off orders one after another:

"Tell your men that what happened tonight stays quiet—anyone who talks will face military discipline."

"Drag those bodies in and store them in the ice room. I've got use for them."

"There's one person whose... whose head I chopped off, wrapped in a cloth, tied near the horse's tail—don't forget to grab his head too."

"There's also a live one—you guard him personally. Don't let him die. Make sure he lives and spills every bit of truth."

Qin Xingyue couldn't get a word in edgewise, nodding quickly.

The gate, which had opened a crack, creaked as it started to close again.

Le Wuya stopped and turned his head.

The world was pitch dark, with dawn still far off, but in Le Wuya's eyes, this great wind and snow shone with light and warmth.

Because he finally had the confidence to know that even where he couldn't see, that man was always standing there, watching him from afar, never leaving.

...So, he'd always been allowed to have a home.