#dbmj

As soon as the words leave his mouth, Wu Xie cringes and without even looking he knows Liu Sang is now staring at him with both eyebrows raised and that condescending expression he gets sometimes. Wu Xie can’t even blame him, he’s earned it.

“I’m so-“

“This is why half the antique business wants you dead, you know?”

Despite himself, Wu Xie chuckles, meeting Liu Sang’s (unimpressed) gaze. Once the initial awkwardness is gone, Wu Xie allows himself to look him over: there are just a few bruises left now, faint traces of all the places Liu Sang had been battered; there are dark circles under his eyes but his gaze seem clear of the fear and anxiety that had clouded it in the first weeks since Thunder City. Wu Xie had only known of those restless days from third parties, keeping him updated about Liu Sang’s condition as he was whisked away to Xiao Hua’s clinic. He still remembers the terrible relief when Xiazi had sent him a video of himself calling Liu Sang over and over and over again, until the latter snapped a loud, prissy “What?”. Xiazi had just grinned at the camera and congratulated him on the successful surgery.

“I can also hear you overthinking again. Stop staring at me,” Liu Sang says, pushing Wu Xie’s shoulder hard. He pulls his legs up closer to his chest, not yet defensive but ready to curl up if need be. “Pangzi brought me a snack earlier, I’m fine. I was just…”

“Practicing?”

Wu Xie watches Liu Sang lick his lips and do a complicated thing with his face, scrunching up and looking away, then up at the sky. Wu Xie thought he had the man pegged back in the South Sea King’s Tomb, then once again in Thunder City but now all of it is doused in the haze of Liu Sang’s sacrifice. The explosion that had knocked them all to the ground while Liu Sang writhed in pain and sketched, drew their way out, pushed it in Wu Xie’s reluctant hands. He hadn’t answered any of Wu Xie’s questions (now he knew why), he had just urged him towards the artifact that would eventually save Wu Xie’s life.

They’d gotten out but the look in Liu Sang’s eyes as he stumbled, as he closed inward more and more now that he couldn’t hear when they called for him. They had won but for weeks Wu Xie had been grappling with having cost Liu Sang his hearing. He’d been doing a pretty shoddy job at it too, he told himself as he sniffled and turned away.

“I wasn’t.”

“Huh?”

“I wasn’t practicing. There’s no point, all I would hear is the cars outside and people talking. Cities aren’t good practice grounds, there is too much going on,” Liu Sang explains with a hint of that arrogance he had flaunted when they'd first met, showing that even if his hearing is coming back at a terribly slow pace, Liu Sang still knows how all this works better than Wu Xie could ever hope to. It makes him grin, though Wu Xie hides it behind his hand.

“I see, I see. You really are a master.”

“I wouldn’t have been hired otherwise.”

“Mh.”

There is another pause, though this one doesn’t feel as heavy. Wu Xie would consider leaving but he can see Liu Sang licking his lips again out of the corner of his eye, working up his way to saying something. So he waits, enjoying the sun.

“I was listening to the leaves,” Liu Sang says eventually, his tone quiet and almost dreamy. Wu Xie turns to him, catches his eye and Liu Sang smiles to himself. A brief and tiny thing, like he hadn’t meant to let it slip.

“Before, the sound was… annoying. It was just like… like cicadas, always there and making my read fuzzy. It’s so distracting, there’s just too many of them.”

Liu Sang interrupts himself as Wu Xie laughs helplessly. Complaining about too many leaves! He waves a hand at Liu Sang when the man looks to be on the verge of getting offended, placating him enough for Liu Sang to also crack a smile. At least he realises how ridiculous that must sound to everyone else.

“Fine, fine, very funny. Anyway, the point is… I’m enjoying it now,” he says, still a bit fussy except… no, it’s not his being fussy. It’s determination, of a sort, it’s Liu Sang asserting himself. It’s Liu Sang taking Wu Xie’s thoughts of guilt and darkness and staggering silence, taking them and stealing them away. He replaces those thoughts with the gentle rustling of leaves through the courtyard, with the smell of sunlight and the feeling of wind grazing their skin. It reminds Wu Xie of his plea to innocence once again, reminds him that in the end they make their choices and they selfishly bear the weight of them. It reminds him that Liu Sang had celebrated their exit from Thunder City as much as the rest of them, throwing peanuts at Wu Xie any time he’d dared to look at Liu Sang with any hint of pity.

“I like the sound. I’m enjoying it while I can.”

Wu Xie looks at Liu Sang now and sees that he is content. Not entirely at peace, but Wu Xie wouldn’t want him to be. They were told there is a chance that Liu Sang might be able to regain his extraordinary hearing eventually, if he builds his way back up to it. Wu Xie doesn’t know how long Liu Sang’s training had originally been but he’s come across him with notes and schedules and regimens spread all over a desk before. Whistling away in the empty rooms of Wushanju as he recovers. Not at peace because Liu Sang still has a goal in sight, one he's allowed Wu Xie and the rest of the Iron Triangle to help him achieve.

So now Wu Xie knocks his shoulder against Liu Sang’s with a proud smile, making the man scoff and turn away, probably hiding a blush. He turns his face to the sun as well, closing his eyes and inhaling the warm breeze.

“Alright then. Do you want me to record it for you? I can overwrite some of those thunder cassettes, if you want.”

“I think Pangzi threw those away earlier today.”

“Wait, what?”

Wu Xie eventually improves this look by taking the jacket off and giving the camera operator a nice long look at his ass. He’s wearing dark jeans and a long-sleeve white thermal shirt, which is a great improvement. 

Look 62

The granny jacket is contrasted by the blessed arrival of Huo Daofu’s daddy jacket, and the rest of the clothing that Huo Daofu is wearing with it.  This is a dark green jacket with a nipped in waist, military styling, and invisible stitching that says "obey" You can't see it, but oh, it's there.

He's wearing this jacket of domination with jeans so tight they appear to be made of paint. I approve of these jeans so much that I might need to take a break from writing for a moment. 

Instead of shoes he’s opted for a pair of tall riding boots, just in case anyone failed to get the message.

He finishes off this look with gold rimmed glasses, pomegranate-toned lips, and an air of authority so strong that even Pangzi does what he tells him to with minimal back chat.

Later the jacket comes off, so he can wrap it solicitously around the shoulders of a person who is already wearing a perfectly good jacket.  OP looks up “service top” in the dictionary.

Underneath, Huo Daofu is wearing a grey houndstooth waistcoat. Shen Wei’s tailor would gnash his teeth in envy, if he saw the cut of this vest. This tops off a warm-toned brown shirt worn with a silver-toned watch. The watch is...round, and it tells time. He’s wearing a brown belt with his black jeans. Huo Daofu is great at combining warm and cool, formal and casual, in a single look. 

Look at this dapper bitch. Slaying this hard has got to be against his Hippocratic oath.

This jacket-free look is combined with hip posture so provocative that it sends Wu Xie into a hasty search for the last scraps of his heteronormative assumptions. Xiao Bai does her best to help.

Look 63

The beards. 

OP's family of origin is full of hairy visigoths, so Pangzi's beard is a style I've encountered before, alas. We call this a [US] Civil War beard. This one is terrible and lopsided, but at least it covers a lot of Pangzi’s face.

Wu Xie’s fake facial hair isn't terrible, but isn't great. You can tell it’s fake because everything about Zhu Yilong is inherently lovely, and this isn’t. 

Also, it's a ridiculous idea for a disguise. Wu Xie's close-trimmed chin patch and mustache are nice style, very typical for a Chinese dude. They let Wu Xie’s lovely facial structure continue to do its thing while they just provide a bit of an accent. But this is a problem, because they don't change his appearance in any meaningful way; his cheekbones are still visible from orbit. 

He’s wearing this facial hair and cap with the same vest he wore earlier to practice slingshot. This time he's accessorizing with a simple tan jacket, with an interesting buttonhole detail... 

...and with an attractive human IV stand.

Doctor doctor, give me the news, I've got a bad case of loving you you loving me.

Look 64

This look belongs to the man that Jia Kezale’s wife has replaced him with. We have to infer his look based on his shoes, and that he is presumably in the same league as the extremely hot Jia Kezale. 

Based on these shoes, which are very nice, if a little weathered, Huarache-style loafers, this other man in her life also presumably wears linen trousers and a guayabera shirt. 

*mentally pictures this person* 

ok, I guess I don't blame her. 

[Image, and shirts, from cubavera dot com]

Look 65

After having his IV fluids, Wu Xie goes for a nighttime motorbike ride, because he apparently needs to go way up on a hill to see that the hotel he’s staying in is circular.

So, what is with the Ultraman motorcycle helmet? Does it have any padding or insulation at all? Why doesn’t it cover more than 40 percent of his head and face?

And shouldn't it have a chin strap?  How does it stay on in a crash?  I mean yes I know this is a show with sentient crustaceans...yeah, never mind. I’m sure that’s a super effective helmet. 

Once the rain starts, his mustache and beard look better. Still not great, but better. Here he looks like he’s cosplaying as Zhou Yunlan.

Now he’s wet and lying on the ground because...oh, hell if I remember. Just look at him, poor moist snookums. He needs a blankie and a hot tea and a hurt-comfort fic about him and his doctor. 

This look gives the newest members of the polycule an opportunity to demonstrate their devotion, as they haul him off the motorcycle and over to a wall, and then continue to stand in the rain, for some reason, instead of going indoors. 

I gotta say, when a producer decides to pour water on Zhu Yilong, they  commit to it.

Speaking of commitment, here’s Huo Daofu holding his hand up over Wu Xie’s face like a tiny umbrella. 

Bonus 1

Look at the yellow duffle coat on that kid. She looks beautiful and classic, and the mustard yellow color just pops so nicely in this scene. 

The mustard yellow also visually marks her allegiance to gold-dragon-wearing Xue Wu. 

Bonus 2

This look is Wu Xie’s antique-scheming outfit, but now he is wearing the Sunglasses of Manpain. They belong to Pangzi, but Wu Xie is wearing them while he waits for Pangzi to collect his angst from the morgue.

These sunglasses are good to wear while contemplating the fact that, despite the many differences in narrative tropes between Chinese and Western media, the one where a female character is hurt and/or dies merely to further a male character's emotional development remains a constant.

That said, this is a nice small signifier of their relationship, as he puts these glasses on Pangzi, allowing him to hide his feelings, while hugging him, allowing him to express his feelings.

He was just so tired. Of everything. Of the lies, the deception, of people treating him like a child. Wu Xie knew that he was a bit innocent and even naïve sometimes, but he was not an idiot.

His family, his friends, everyone. They all acted like they knew what was best for him, second guessing every decision he made, hiding things from him. And all done in his best interests apparently.

Bullshit. His family was preparing him for something but wouldn’t tell him what, no matter how much Wu Xie asked. Maybe it was time to stop asking. Maybe it was time the Nine families understood that they weren’t as powerful and untouchable as they liked to think they were.

Making a decision, Wu Xie sent texts to the people he knew he could trust. This wouldn’t be easy, but Wu Xie was a patient man.

The Nine families had been allowed to run around unchecked for too long. It was time someone reined them in, showed them what little power they actually had. And Wu Xie was more than happy to be that person. Let them underestimate him all they wanted. It would make their destruction all the sweeter.

Since the burn showed up, Rishan had been on the move. He finally had a chance to reunite with Baye, like hell he was going to miss it because he got lazy.

Rishan wasn't stupid. He knew that Nan Feng thought he was being stupidly optimistic, thinking that this soulmate was Baye and not some random person somewhere in China. But, Rishan knew that it was Baye. he couldn't explain how, but he knew. When he explained this to Xiaoge, the other man just nodded, Wu Xie behind him muttering something about Zhangs and their weird feelings. (Rishan didn’t know how, but when Wu Xie spoke, you could hear the italics.)

Which led to Rishan's current predicament. If Baye was alive, does that mean he never died? Was he alive this entire time? If so, why did he never try to find Rishan? Why did he let his soulmate think he was dead for nearly a century? How was he still alive? When they first got together, Rishan had accepted that he would outlive Baye. It was something all Zhangs had to accept. But now, his soulmate was alive and all Rishan had to do was find him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For three days, Baye hadn’t opened his shop. He was waiting. Baye wasn’t stupid, he knew that Rishan knew he was alive. All the man had to do was find him. And with modern technology and Xie Yuchen on his side, Baye knew it wouldn’t be long before he did.

He felt something. Honestly, Baye wasn’t sure how he felt. He was definitely nervous. Rishan would have questions that Baye wasn’t sure he would be able to answer. Or wasn’t sure that he wanted to answer. And then there was the fear. Would Rishan be angry at him for hiding all these years? Had Rishan moved on? Was he searching for Baye only to tell him that he didn’t love the older man anymore, that he was with someone else, someone better?

Realising that his tea had gone cold in the time he spent thinking, Baye sighed, moving to his sink to wash the cup. There was nothing he could do, it was out of his hands now. He had to wait. God, he’s always hated waiting for the damn Zhangs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There it was. After two weeks, Rishan was steps away from meeting his soulmate. Again. Xie Yuchen had proved his worth, finding Baye’s shop on a main street in Shanghai. The man was clever. It was easy to hide in a city this size.

He’d been told by other shopkeepers that the fortune teller had been closed for the past two weeks, which was unusual. They still saw the men go out for his shopping and any other tasks, but there were no customers. When he asked for a description, Rishan nearly cried when Baye was described to him. It was actually him.

Now all he had to do was knock on the door and be reunited with his Baye. That was it, that was all. It was easy. So why wasn’t he moving?  God, there were so many things that could go wrong. Baye might refuse to see him. He might be married to someone else, he might have a family. “Stop overthinking everything and get in here. You’re scaring the neighbours.”

There he was. Rishan’s soulmate. Baye.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was awkward. Things had never been awkward between them before. Tense, yes. Awkward, no. Rishan sipped his tea, looking around the room. Two cats lay curled together on the windowsill, surrounded by plants. It was clearly lived in, clearly loved, clearly Baye’s space. Rishan couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty, barging in like he did. Watching Baye move throughout the room, tending to his plants, Rishan felt happy and at home for the first time in nearly a century. Avoiding Rishan’s gaze, the older man sat across from him, accepting the cup of tea.

"So, here you are. You found me." Rishan nodded, staring at Baye. It was really him. So many years and Rishan still remembered the lines on his face, the flecks of gold in his eyes, his nervous tics. His finger still tapped against the side of the cup when he was nervous. Following Rishans's eyes, Baye forced his finger to still. “Yeah, I found you. Only took a few decades.” There was some guilt as Baye winced, but not enough to stop Rishan.

“Have you been alive all this time? Why didn’t you find me? Decades, Baye. Decades thinking you were dead and I was alone. And all this time you were alive. Why didn’t you find me? Do you have any idea how hard it was, how often I dreamed of you, of reunit-” Voice cracking, Rishan had to stop. God if Foye could see him now. Finally reunited with his soulmate and here he was, shouting at him and making him cry.

Standing, Rishan moved around the table to pull Baye into a tight hug. The older man wrapped his arms tightly around his soulmate’s waist, tears soaking through Rishan’s shirt. Running his fingers through Baye’s hair, something that had always comforted his soulmate, Rishan knew that it wouldn’t be easy. It had been nearly eighty years; they were two very different people now.

But for the first time in decades, Rishan finally felt complete, like he was where he was meant to be. He and Baye would never be separated again, Rishan would make sure of that.