I'm really not the Saviour! (我唔係救主囖!) [danmei/BL xuanhuan]

45 - Good morning, cruel world

CW: death, gore

***

It was a time of ill tidings.

The first message arrived from Sek'suen a few days after Wong Tang surged into the room where her disciple was convalescing.

"What was in the antidote pills?" she asked, after checking Gou Dzing's pulse and under his eyelids.

"Charcoal, field mint, crampbark... asafoetida..."

Wong Tang stood beside him, meditatively smoking. "Good. You were able to observe even in that situation."

When she left, Gou Dzing thought he could hear her counting under her breath.

The letter bore the deal of the Gou Family, and when Gou Dzing opened it with shaking hands, he recognised the brush strokes of his father's writing.

The Gou Patriarch has been seriously injured, the letter read, and Gou Hei Lok had been found dead. These were both understood to be the work of demons, and those traitorous humans who sided with them.

Hence, Gou Dzing, having met with both victims not long before each incident, and also known to have connections with demons, was to be removed from the family register. This person could no longer use the name of 'Gou'.

How am I still here?

The nameless young man sat alone in his room with the letter until Gaam Yuk Ying returned, impassive as usual.

Once those silvery eyes had finished slowly deciphering the words, he said, "Yuen Muk."

Eye of the Hawk.

That was right. There was that name. Yuen Muk.

"Yuk Ying," said the newly renamed Yuen Muk. "It's amazing... It's just a name, but to think they can just take it like that..."

"They can't." Gaam Yuk Ying curled his fingers between Yuen Muk's. "I can still call you Dzing."

"No." Yuen Muk kissed his boyfriend's hands gratefully. "No, I... I don't want that any more."

"Yuen Muk..." Gaam Yuk Ying repeated. His hands felt a little different, callused in new places.

"You went to see your Master?"

"I went to see... Yes."

"And?"

"Good."

"Distract me a little, Yuk Ying," Yuen Muk wheedled, laying his head down on Gaam Yuk Ying's lap. The puppy eyes returned.

"Put those away."

"Put what away?"

Gaam Yuk Ying tickled Yuen Muk's ribs until he wriggled.

"Stop! Stop! Y- Ying!"

"Oh? You liked that?"

Yuen Muk's face was suddenly serious. "I... We never had a proper chance to talk, did we? After... Yuk Ying, I still..." Sitting up, his hand drifted to the triangular folded collars of the plain robes that Gaam Yuk Ying wore. He rubbed the fabric between his fingers contemplatively.

"This is too thick for Dzue. Aren't you hot?"

Gaam Yuk Ying said, "Then take it off."

Yuen Muk did as he was told.

"Leave it," was the response when he began to do the same with the inner shirt. Yuen Muk sighed and dropped his head on Gaam Yuk Ying's shoulder.

"I keep thinking... I just want to stop thinking for a moment."