Body in Flames; Home in Paradise (TGCF HuaLian)

Chapter 1

San Lang looks so sad. It's all he can think as the Wind Masters wind carries them up and away from the burning of Paradise Manor. The building is burning, all of that beautiful architecture, San Lang's house, his armory, all those unique powerful weapons he took so much pride in, it's all burning, all being destroyed, and San Lang looks so sad and...

He can't take it. He just can't.

San Lang is... San Lang is special somehow. He's the first person who Xie Lian has felt this comfortable with in 800 years. It's not that he's the only person Xie Lian's had in all that time, once he was happy looking after Ban Yue, once he even had Lang Qianqiu, and even in their brief acquaintance wind master is already proving to be a wonderful friend, but still... San Lang is special somehow. San Lang makes him feel at home and safe and at peace and like he can be himself in a way that he hasn't felt since he was a young naïve Prince studying in the Royal Holy Pavilion.

And now.

Now San Lang looks so sad.

And his home is burning.

And...

And he just can't take it anymore.

So he jumps.

He has no doubt that there will be consequences once wind master and the others get back and report what happened and that he decided to stay behind but he'll handle that when it comes to it and besides, even if he is accused of conspiring with Hua Cheng, it's not like his punishment can be anything he hasn't been through before.

Disappointing heaven is something he's good at.

Of course he doesn't land directly back in Paradise Manor, not with the speed they were moving away from it at, and of course, with his luck, he doesn't land anywhere convenient either. He lands, in fact, in a trash pile, because where else would he land?

Still it's not that bad. At least he didn't impale himself on anything on the way down.

It doesn't take long to brush the scraps and mud off of his clothes. There stained because of course they are, white is good for that, but he can wash them later properly. For now he ignores the few startled looks he's getting from nearby ghosts and starts moving toward the reason that a heavenly official falling from the sky didn't draw more of a crowd.

Paradise Manor is still burning.

Well, at least this way he can't get lost.

The crowd around the Manor only gets bigger the closer he gets to it but he pushes his way through. There's no Waning Moon Officer to ease his path this time but, just as when he fell, the ghosts are too distracted by the flames to really bother with him.

"Hey what are you doing!" One of them finally calls after him as he passes the edge of the crowd and steps into the burning building.

"You get back here! We're not allowed in there!"

One of them actually does try to grab him but before he can even do anything about it another ghost stopped her. "Wait hold on! Isn't that the Lord's special guest from before?"

"Is it? Is it?" Several ghosts are asking the question. He just glances back to incline his head politely in their direction before continuing into the flames.

His arm hurts.

Pain is... It's a feeling he's used to, a feeling that lurks at the back of his mind, never truly gone but never truly they are either, he can ignore it so well he almost thinks it isn't there, but this time, even if he's ignoring it, he does have to admit at least to himself, .... His arm hurts.