"Do you think...perhaps I'm some famous criminal? Maybe I was the best there was, but I was finally caught because I tripped and fell into a well. I was knocked unconscious when I hit my head on the stones, and then nearly drowned before someone hauled me back out to claim the hefty reward on my head. The whole traumatic experience then resulted in my memory loss."
Wan Xue stared straight ahead and didn't respond, not even with a nod or a glance. This was not the first outlandish scenario Meng Yuan had come up with today, nor would it, Wan Xue feared, be the last. Also, he had found that the other man did not require any type of response whatsoever in order to continue talking.
"No, that couldn't be," Meng Yuan mused, and for a moment, Wan Xue thought he might have seen sense. "If I was that famous of a criminal, you probably would've already known about me."
Wan Xue looked over at him, an expression of sheer incredulity on his face, wondering why he'd ever thought that something that made sense could possibly leave this man's mouth.
Meng Yuan was already looking in his direction, and their eyes met. "You're right," he said, "that was a stupid idea. You definitely would have recognized me if I was so infamous."
Wan Xue watched him helplessly for a moment longer and then faced forward again. They'd been walking for most of the day and Wan Xue could see evidence of a town in the distance. Since the sun was already lowering in the sky, he thought it would be as good a place as any to spend the night, especially considering it was the first place they'd come across all day.
Having never left the capital and its surrounding area before, Wan Xue didn't know much about the world beyond it. In the time they had been walking, Meng Yuan had been talking for at least eighty percent of that time, and Wan Xue considered whether or not this was far enough from the capital to leave him behind and still fulfill his revenge.
Wan Xue snuck a glance at the apparently carefree emperor walking beside him. His memory loss seemed only to spread to his own life experience. He could still speak and function as normal, even if he was somewhat of an idiot. How odd. But Wan Xue knew little about memory loss to begin with, so maybe this was how these things went.
Meng Yuan noticed his gaze, but Wan Xue's face was expressionless and he looked away after only a moment. Even still, Meng Yuan's gait faltered, and he wasn't sure why. Wan Xue had not slowed down, so he left the other man behind in only a couple of steps.
"Wait, did you have something to say to me?"
Idiot. I can't say anything.
"I mean, not say. I just meant..."
He didn't finish his sentence, but he grabbed Wan Xue's sleeve as he hurried after him. It got Wan Xue's attention, as he'd intended, but it also brought back the look of annoyance he so readily offered Meng Yuan with little to no provocation. Letting go as Wan Xue tugged his sleeve out of his grip, Meng Yuan scratched his head.
"I just meant you were looking at me," he said, "and you've hardly looked at me the rest of the day."
Wan Xue looked away, as if the mere mention of looking at him repulsed him. But he felt his heart stutter when the other man spoke his next words.
"I was just worried something was wrong, that's all."
He'd been about to roll his eyes and walk away, but instead, he stayed frozen where he was, his head turned to the side, his eyes averted, but not moving anywhere.
"Are you...okay?"
Wan Xue couldn't remember the last time someone had genuinely asked him such a question or bothered to wait for any type of answer from him. He clenched his jaw. Why did it have to be him to ask such a thing? The concern that laced his voice was not a tone he was used to hearing, and he didn't want to see the matching expression on his face, the worry expressed for his sake like a knife to his heart, only deepening the wound there.
As he was about to turn away and ignore him in favor of continuing to walk, Wan Xue felt Meng Yuan grab his sleeve once more. This time, he raised his arm and slapped away Meng Yuan's hand, his face resuming its angry expression and meeting the other man's gaze despite himself. As he'd expected, Meng Yuan looked worried. Even though Wan Xue had slapped him away, he didn't even seem offended. How different he was from the man he'd encountered at the palace.
With such a sympathetic look on his face, Meng Yuan looked astoundingly similar to his sister, the way she had taken care of him in the dungeon, the genuine sorrow in her eyes. This pair of siblings had caused him so much pain, only to turn around and offer him comfort in some way or another. The only difference was that the emperor did not remember that first encounter of theirs. Wan Xue balled his hands into fists and wished that he could not remember it either.
With great effort, he calmed the pounding of his heart and affected a neutral expression, rolling his eyes before walking away. Meng Yuan rushed to follow, his long legs allowing him to easily catch up.
"I haven't asked why you were leaving the city," he said as he fell in beside Wan Xue. "Could it be...that you're also a criminal?" he asked, as if his status as a criminal had already been determined.
Wan Xue rolled his eyes for a second time and then looked away. However, Meng Yuan's hand found his sleeve again, as if calling for him or talking to him nonstop was not enough.
"You haven't answered me," he insisted.
Idiot. Rolling my eyes was my answer. Looking up at the man next to him, whose hand was still holding onto his sleeve as if he were a child desperate for someone's attention, he rolled his eyes in an exaggerated manner.
"I'll take that as a no, then," Meng Yuan said.
Good for you. It only took you how long?
"So, what then? It seemed like that was your home, that house we were in. Why would you leave your home behind?"
Because you arrested me and had me sold as a slave.
"Did something happen?" Meng Yuan asked, then paused when he was met with silence. "Since you can't talk, how about I just ask you questions and you can nod at me if I'm right?"
Wan Xue looked up at him with a blank expression, so Meng Yuan assumed this was absolutely fine with him and began.
"Are you...going to live with family somewhere?"
No response.
"Or maybe, you're on your way to fulfill an arranged marriage. Do you have a wife waiting for you?"
Yes, there are plenty of women waiting to marry a mute man who lives in poverty in a small shack. What wife? If he had a wife, he likely wouldn't even be able to feed her. This suggestion was so preposterous he didn't even deign to glare at Meng Yuan or roll his eyes or acknowledge at all that he had spoken.
"I bet you do," Meng Yuan said anyway. "I bet she's waiting for you at the end of this long journey. Her family will have already arranged for a grand ceremony upon your arrival."
Who knew? The violent and relatively stupid emperor was a romantic at heart.
"She'd have to be beautiful, obviously, to be marrying you." He said this with the utmost certainty, and Wan Xue cast a glance at him with some confusion. He had no idea what he was talking about. "Have you already met her, or was it all arranged via some other form of correspondence?" he asked, as if it was already decided that Wan Xue was marrying someone at the end of this journey. "Maybe you were childhood sweethearts, but her family moved away when you were both still young. Now you're going to find her and fulfill the promises you made to one another back then."
Resigned, Wan Xue looked back ahead and continued walking. In his opinion, they could not reach this town soon enough. There were few times in his life that he had regretted his inability to speak. Yes, there were plenty of times where it was inconvenient, and when he was young he had envied others' ability to communicate with such ease. But he had never known anything different, and he had watched as time went on as people lied and misunderstood each other anyway, and he wasn't sure that being able to speak really solved as many problems as he originally thought it would.
But he had never wanted more in his life than he did right now to tell someone to shut the hell up.
[Wan Xue: "It can't be that bad to travel with him for a little while."
*a few hours later*
"I take it back."]
YOU ARE READING
Beiji
Romance"In a life filled with unvoiced and therefore unanswered questions, if there was one thing with which Wan Xue was familiar, it was confusion." Wan Xue has never spoken, so far as he can remember. While his muteness innately comes with its share of d...
