red flowers, a reminder.

{ ❧ } Lan Xichen had arranged to meet with Jinyu some days prior, having known he would be near where his friend resided due to a summons for aid in the area’s night hunting. The hunt had finished without a hitch, so the Lan Sect cultivator now made his way to a local tea shop. Dressed in plainer robes for travel, he strode quietly down the path until he came to the establishment. 

He paused for a moment, almost not recognizing Jinyu at first, given his outfit, but the chestnut hair and the birds that peeked from beneath those locks soon righted his confusion.

“Jinyu! I hope I haven’t kept you waiting here for too long.” 

He hadn’t noticed the other being around until Lan Xichen spoke up, eyes widening a little in surprised before he turned his head, jade green eyes gazing over to the Lan cultivator. A smile crossed his lips before he stepped over, the two birds upon his shoulders seeming a bit interested into this man that their owner was walking over to- tilting their heads to the side before chirping lightly.

“Oh, not at all! I just have arrived here myself.” He spoke gently, clearly rather happy to see his friend- after all, how long has it been? Months? He wasn’t sure himself but Jinyu couldn’t care about it much at the moment.

I might as well start a new diary while I’m at it, seeing that new home.. new life, new things to note down and new challenges!

 It’s not like someone would ever read this, though. At least, unlike the other one...

The people from the village nearby were so nice though, I am quite surprised that they were willing to help me- a complete stranger- settle down in this old little house just a few minutes on foot away from the main gates. While this place still needs a lot of work, at least now I can use it personally and not be worried anymore about being tied to the Wen sect..

I feel like I can actually breathe for once, which is great- it also feels like my shoulders are a lot less heavy, too..

{ ❀ } She blinked in surprise. Xianhua had passed by Jinyu’s home more than once, but never had she heard singing floating over the wall. Then again, had she ever heard him sing at all? She was struck by the tune as well, it was much like the bird it spoke of; something soft floating on a breeze…

The song itself was punctuated by breath of him performing some action, and the sound of a shovel biting into soil. What was he doing. Shifting the bag on her shoulder, she stood up on her tiptoes peered over the fence.

“…Jinyu-xiong?”

“Huh?” 

Upon hearing the voice calling out to him as he stuck the shovel once more into the dirt, Jinyu raised his head, eyebrows raising in slight surprise before he looked over to the fence- barely noticing Xianhua peering over the fence. Blinking once, then twice, he rose up.

“Oh! I barely saw you there, Xianhua!” He spoke cheerfully, his words were followed by a small grin before he walked over, putting a hand upon the fence. “Why don’t you come in for a moment? You must be a bit tired if you were travelling.” And with that, he then moved toward the door before entering his home- only to open up the front door.

★ While he does have his preferences for food, Jinyu is and will never be picky about it, especially if it’s someone offering him something. If he is by himself, then he will look into what he enjoys the most.

★ Since leaving the Wen sect and settling far away from them, Jinyu never wore his hair up the same way as he did back then, instead opting for either letting it be loose, braided, up in a bun or a high ponytail, depending on his mood, the weather (if it’s really hot out) or current situation.

★ He’s not one that likes fighting, usually preferring to settle things down by talking it out. Though, there’s only one exception to that and it’s his own mother- who he won’t even bother trying to talk to her. (He does kill her in the Sunshot campaign.)

★ His clothes make him look like a twink but he’s actually a twunk under all that. And a really nice looking twunk as well. Though he always wears something that covers most of his body unless he’s overheating from the hot summer weather.

★ All the books and scrolls within his little home are all handwritten by him. It ranges from just simple things like first aid to how certain parts of the human body works or reacts to certain things. He’s still writing a lot more of that, though. Also accompanied at times with full on detailed sketches.

★ He’s a workaholic and tends to forget a few things such as the time of the day, sleep, eating and taking breaks. This is mostly a result from all those years spent with the Wen sect- which he is trying to break that habit, it’s just really hard and has to keep reminding himself to not get too in depth with his papers.

He really tries. Luckily, his birds are there to bother him if he ends up doing too much of it.

★ While his yard usually is filled with more than five birds on a good day, Jinyu actually owns a pair of blue birds from Gusu- a gift from one of his beloved students, Lan Xianhua ( @feiyancao ). If he’s ever doing anything around the perimeter of his home, these two little birds are always on his person- or perching nearby enough.

★ While rain is perfect background noise for when Jinyu is face deep in paperwork, it keeps him up at night for some odd reason. Jinyu doesn’t mind it- he simply believe that he’s a very light sleeper while it really isn’t the case.

★ One will never see Jinyu without the bandages upon his arms and legs. If questions are raised about it, he claims it as a ‘safety measure’ to quickly drop the subject but these bandages are worn to hide faint scarring that he ended up inflicting upon himself during periods of high pressure/stress.

“I will become a bird, And go far, far, flapping my wings. Beyond thousands of stars And to your side.

Even if my body burns, Turns to ash, and disappears My heart will cross time And soar to our promised place...~“

                                                                                          shameful

                                                                                                    [ f e e l i n g s, ]

What else can I do but to laugh at it all?                                                          I’ve lost what I wanted to protect long ago.

“I… about that. I don’t know if I should try and mingle with the villagers…” 

It wasn’t that Ruan wasn’t a social butterfly, he was generally great with people despite his anxieties and trust issues. The problem lay more in his self-perceived ability to bring misfortune to a group and if Jinyu was sticking his neck out to help him, he didn’t want to drag others into it.

“It’d be best if more people didn’t know I was here. If Sect Leader Jiang were to find out a demonic cultivator were simply hanging around it might be disastrous for them. I know you can handle him, but…”

Well there were few things lower on Ruan’s bucket list than ‘be sold out by some random asshole and wind up tortured’.

“I perfectly understand that, but never have I said that you should say your real name to them.” He chuckled softly. While in the beginning, he felt bad for using another name, he learned that honestly, it didn’t matter much. “If anyone sees you, you can just claim that you’re related to me or something, I’m sure they’ll understand that much. I’ve been living here for more than a few months and none of them ever tried to pry more from me than my ‘name’.”

After all, he had have the very same feeling about being found out when he first had left the Wen territory- that if he was found, he’d end up being chased- or killed, depending on who it was.

“H-hey–! Before you do anything hasty, please don’t tell A-Hua!” She’d probably skin him alive if she knew he hadn’t been eating properly again…

Once the look of alarm fades he scratches his chin in thought. If he refused out of pride there was a high chance Jinyu would tell Xianhua and, as much as it confounded him, he did trust Jinyu well enough to not be paranoid about the man’s intentions.

His shoulders droop in defeat and he sighs softly. “I-I mean… I won’t say no… But only for a bit okay? I’m really doing alright, I’ve just had to tighten my belt a bit.”

“Aha, I never said I would. What is said here is between us and no one else.” He spoke gently, unable to hide the grin that showed up upon his lips. He was well aware of how they both cared about each other but that they also kept things from each other as well- it was something that Jinyu found endearing about them.

After all, he never had someone like that at his side.

[ Guess I should post it here too despite this is not a personal/art blog but this post makes an exception, so it can be reblogged.