FengQing Month 2023 - my submissions

and a wall is then placed between us - Day Three: Leaving (genderbent)

Mu Qing takes a deep breath. The only reason she had left his mother alone for so long was her relationship with Feng Xin.

The crown princess...

Her heart felt a sharp pain pierce it. The crown princess had her parents and best childhood friend. They would take care of her. But her own mother had no one, and she needed to raise up. She blinked the sudden tears away and looked to her right, where Feng Xin was coming over. She sat down in the desolate field she told Feng Xin to meet her at. She didn't want to find out if her legs could hold her or not during this conversation. The dead grass was crunching under her wight.

Feng Xin was getting closer, and Mu Qing didn't know if she wanted to run towards her, or away.

Feng Xin sat beside her. She waited for Mu Qing to start. She was the one that requested this talk anyway. Mu Qing looked away from her.

"I- ah. I'm going to go." There. She said it. It wasn't even hard to say. Just, 'I'm going to go.". God, what a heartless bitch she was. Mu Qing's stomach started to ache.

"Oh." Mu Qing's head whipped to Feng Xin, she was staring past her with an unseeing gaze. Feng Xin's usual bun was down, which only made Mu Qing feel more guilty; abusing her privilege to see her in such a state.

"I'll leave tomorrow." Now those words are hard to get out. She already knows the effect they'll have on Feng Xin, but she says them anyway. She looks at a patch of dry dirt.

"I-. Okay." And that's it. Feng Xin has visibly closed off, something that hurts to see, as Mu Qing had worked so hard since meeting her to shed.

Feng Xin takes a deep breath, and gets up, swaying for a moment, then leaving.

When Feng Xin's figure is finally gone, Mu Qing takes a shaky breath as tears start to cascade. They turn the dirt under her into mud.

She spits out a small sob. She worked to hard for a good relationship with Feng Xin. She was valued higher than Qi Rong when the royal family escaped. But how could she let her mother waste away? She had nothing but the clothes on her back, so, she simply stood, and walked in the opposite direction.

__

When she arrived at her mother's old home, it was a bittersweet surprise to see her still there. Her mothers hug after opening the door was enough to forget about the grief of leaving.

After dinner with the other two small families now living within the house alongside them, when her mom was braiding her hair for sleep, Mu Qing stared at the floor.

"That girl. She isn't with you?" Her mother said it like a statement, but Mu Qing knew it was a question.

"No, A-Niang. I Left her to come here. She's still with the process and their majesties." Her mothers fingers never still.

"Hm."

A numbness falls over Mu Qing.

____

AO3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/44102346