#tangcheong

"The Abbot is a fuckwit and a cocksucker, away with him from his post and out of sight," Cheong Myeong pronounces loudly and with a serious face, to which Tang Bo nods cheerfully.

"But Hyung, then who will be the Abbot of Shaolin?.." Tang Bo asks in a trembling voice, trying not to start giggling. The alcohol is taking its toll and everything seems funny to him.

"We'll put a snake in that seat. Even it would do a better job."

"Nonono, we agreed that we'd put a snake in the seat of the elders in the Tang Clan! You promised!" Tang Bo says in an exaggeratedly offended tone.

"Fuck, to hell with you, we'll put a dog in Shaolin," Cheong Myeong rolls his eyes.

"Hahaha! The world won't survive and will collapse with a dog as the Abbot of Shaolin."

"Have you lost your damn mind? How about a punch to the face?" Cheong Myeong clenches his fist in front of Tang Bo's face, at which the latter squints, trying to see what he's showing.

"Mm. An argument," said the leech, when he finally managed to make it out.

Cheong Myeong nodded importantly and went back to his alcohol. Tang Bo, meanwhile, watched his every move, spellbound, catching every shift in his emotions. The faces of both were flushed red from the alcohol, and Tang Bo, having lit his pipe once more, looked at the Hyung sitting before him through half-closed lashes.

"What do you keep finding in that nicotine?"

"Well, try it yourself." Tang Bo leans closer to him and exhales smoke right into his face. And Cheong Myeong, inhaling it, reaches towards him and...

"Who dares to slander the Namgung Clan?!" For some reason, all the patrons of the bar exhale in relief.

Tang Bo, for his part, quietly– or not so quietly– swears and pulls away from Hyung in disappointment.

"Is that about us? Did we say something about the Namgung?"

"We said their sect leader is a victim of incest. But it's the truth!" Cheong Myeong nodded, who seemingly had personal scores to settle with that guy. Suddenly, he rose from his seat.

"Hyung-nim! Where are you going?"

"Running?"

"I'm with you... Ah, fuck. Why?"

"Sahyung said that one more complaint about me and he'll lock me in the Cave of Repentance for a year."

"FOR HOW LONG?! Let's run, quickly!"

The fanfic itself –> here

Chapter spoiler.

Finally noticing that Tang Bo continued to keep silent even after a long time had passed since the Abbot's departure, Cheong Myeong glanced back over his shoulder.

"Tang Bo?"

The intense gaze that had been directed at the door until now shifted to Cheong Myeong. Before the swordsman could blink, Tang Bo's expression changed. It became softer, but at the same time, something else appeared on it, something Cheong Myeong could only grasp by intuition.

...

"I agree with him."

"What?" Cheong Myeong asked sharply, turning around completely. This completely contradicted his recent discussion with the Abbot, where he had firmly proved his point of view.

Noticing his indignation, Tang Bo continued.

"You must slow down, Taoist Brother."– Tang Bo was silent for some time and finally, standing up, whispered so that only Cheong Myeong would hear him. –"This conversation is not for other people's ears, Hyung-nim."

Cheong Myeong nodded almost imperceptibly and followed him outside, where twilight had already imperceptibly fallen.

Tang Soso flinched from an intense gaze, and after looking at its source, she saw none other than her Sahyun, drunk as a lord. Who was looking at her with unfocused eyes.

"Cheong Myeong?"– asked Baek Cheon, sitting closest to him. –"Did something happen?" Everyone sitting at the table and drinking alcohol, the Five Swords along with the monk, exchanged glances.

"Mm. Tang Bo would have liked it here..."

"Ah, it hit him again."

"Maybe he should quit drinking."

Cheong Myeong looked irritably at the whispering chicks.

"What's wrong with you all again?"

They all exchanged glances again.

"You really don't understand?"

Cheong Myeong looked at them as if they were a bit dim.

"You mention him constantly when you get drunk!" Jo Geol cried out.

"When was that?!"

"Do you want us to actually count? Even at the Shaolin tournament, you constantly lamented that if he were here, he would have relieved your boredom!"

"Especially when you visit the Tang Clan. All one ever hears from you is: 'Ah, but Tang Bo'!" Tang Soso nodded.

"Every time it's bad." added Sago.

Cheong Myeong only scratched his cheek, slightly embarrassed. Yes, perhaps there had been a few... dozens of times... Or hundreds...

Sighing, Cheong Myeong raised his gaze to the sky.

"So we've understood that you were married, just tell us which of you is the wife and which is the husband."

"WHAT?! We were best friends!. Besides, he's already dead!"

...

For a moment, an oppressive silence hung in response to such a serious answer.

"A dead wife?"

"..."

"...Husband?"

"Sago. Why you, of all people.."

Tang Bo, having spent fifty years (literally) hoping to inseminate this beautiful man, still hoping for intimacy at least after the wedding:

"Hyung, I'm not wearing any underwear."

"We'll buy some tomorrow. Sleep."

Cheong Myeong, exhausted after the whole ceremony, having been on his feet for twenty hours and not understanding the hints.

And Tang Bo truly just sighed sadly, hugged Cheong Myeong, and immediately passed out, never having understood that his husband simply didn't get the hints.

Opening his eyes right after his death, Tang Bo learns first of all: a hundred years have passed, some war with Paegun had started, and his dear Hyung had also reincarnated. The last part was the most important, since there couldn't exist two identically insane bastards in the story.

When the theory was confirmed and they rushed into each other's embrace, Tang Bo could catch, out of the corner of his eye, angry and even envious gazes directed at him.

'Maybe the previous owner of this body did something to them?' Tang Bo thought and immediately dismissed them.

Until the moment the young head of the Namgung family challenged him to a duel. Which he lost miserably. After him, there was some handsome guy from Mount Hua who first politely questioned him about his relationship with Cheong Myeong, and then also challenged him to a duel and lost.

After that, watching Hyung's surroundings far more closely and learning the stories, Tang Bo understood that he now had far more rivals than in the past!

* * *

"Hyung, what relationship ties you and Paegun... Uh, Jang Ilso, I think." Cheong Myeong raised his brows and said.

"His neck belongs to me."

"......"

"We are enemies, and someday I will cut off his head."

"PHEW... Do it as fast as possible, Hyung." Tang Bo exhaled in relief and smiled, pouring out the alcohol along with the note.

'To my dear swordsman♡.'

He had been pursuing him for decades, get in line, dandy boy.

* * *

"What is that Tang bastard constantly doing next to Cheong Myeong-a?! He's even sleeping in the same room with him! There's no second bed there!"

"Where did he even come from?"

...

All gazes instantly turned to Tang Gunak, who looked no less furious.

"According to my information, this was supposed to be their first meeting."

"If Dojang was a beggar before, how could he have met a child from the Tang Clan's collateral line? The bastard is three years younger than him."

"No idea."

From the open window came a voice that had become so hateful lately.

"Hyung-nim!! I bought wine! Though I ran out of money, but let's go rob some bandits!"

"Let's go!"

"...Are they aware they're stealing from their own?" Im Sobyeong muttered in exhaustion.

"Madness attracts."

Even as a child, Tang Bo could conduct exorcism rituals and much more, like fortune-telling. However, it drained so much life energy that it was foretold he wouldn't live past thirty without a supplementary energy source.

But hey! He's not going to kill innocent children for yang energy! Some humanity remained in him.

Inhaling the smoke of the censer, the scent of incense, and lying around surrounded by ritual papers, Tang Bo didn't count on even a remotely ordinary life.

Until the moment, on his university campus, he met a young guy.

His yang energy... He might have been the reincarnation of a heavenly king. Tang Bo could explain the quantity and purity of his innate energy in no other way. All ghosts and evil spirits literally crumbled before him, without even having the chance to react. In all of Tang Bo's many years of practice, such a case was a first.

Without noticing it himself, Tang Bo began to follow him everywhere. Every time the guy appeared nearby, the voices fell silent and the shadows lightened. For Tang Bo, who had existed in this nightmare since his earliest years, it was literally a breath of fresh air...

"Hey, are you stalking me?"

Fuck. Is he that noticeable?

"...No. I mean... Let me read your fortune! Career, studies, love?" The guy– Cheong Myeong, as Tang Bo had found out– looked at him distrustfully. Clear skies. How surprisingly accurate.

"I'm aware of your reputation and your prices. I have no desire to spend money on..."

"I'll do it for you for free! Do you want it right now?"

"You're talking like you're offering a blowjob. What's with such generosity all of a sudden?"

Tang Bo licked his dry lips.

"I want to know your fate."