Chapter 4
It seemed that over the months that they would run into each other every few weeks, to which they both admitted to seeking the other out if they heard local rumors about the other, so the constant meetings didn’t seem that odd. They were something Xie Lian looked forward to and soon three meetings turned into four and five and six, learning a few new things about his friend over time.
Like how Lin Shuo was raised on a mountain as a disciple to a woman he fondly called Lao-Baoshan. There was a longing and wistfulness when he spoke of the mountain and when Xie Lian asked if he even planned to go back and visit his friend quieted for a long moment. Face going blank and empty, and their eyes staring up at the shed they were both sleeping in for the night before softly saying he would like to but he could not. He didn’t say why but Xie Lian felt the dip in his friend’s mood and felt an understanding of the underlying pain there.
Or how he eventually learned that they were from a distant place, not clarifying just where, but different and that was why he was unfamiliar with the lands and history.
Learned that Lin Shuo was sworn brothers with someone they referred to as Mingjue Da-Ge and that he had a little brother called A-Sang and that Shuo considered them close friends and that A-Sang was a little gremlin with skipping lessons but loved to paint fans.
Listened as Lin Shuo rambled a bit about a place called Cloud Recesses that he had attended as a guest disciple with Mingjue Da-Ge and had made another friend there called Zewu-jun. Listened to Lin Shuo list the ridiculous amount of rules that he had to follow while staying there and listen to him gush about the library and how big it was.
Then once he spoke about another younger brother that he had adopted on his journeys, A-Yao. He only spoke of him that one time with pain in his voice and eyes clouded over. It was different then when he would speak of other things, usually speaking of the past he had a wistfulness, a melancholy fondness almost like they were dead (he’s pretty sure they’re not, Lin Shuo always speaks about them like they’re alive) and the one time he mentioned this A-Yao it was like it was physically painful to even think about him, and when asked why his friend clammed up seeming unable to get their voice to work, and Xie Lian had decided not to broach the subject again as he tried to steer it back towards softer memories, a hand resting gently on his friend's shoulder as he tried to comfort them.
He also learned small little things about his life like how he had a marital brother close in age growing up he called Xing Da-Ge and that he had an older Martial sister that he never met. That his older sister had left the mountain before he was there and he later learned that she had a son.
Lin Shuo spoke warmly about his Martial nephew, speaking highly of A-Ying’s intelligence and prowess and how his cultivation was astounding, that he was just as intelligent and quick with talismans as Lin Shuo, and that the compass had been a project they both worked on and created. He spoke a bit about his nephew's martial siblings, Lin Shuo’s sister having passed when A-Ying was young along with his father, and that he was adopted into the Cultivation Sect that his father was originally from.
Apparently, A-Yings Martial sister had a real talent for food, and she was someone too good for the world, being kind and gentle and understanding and that Lin Shuo very much appreciated how kindly she treated his Martial nephew. And if Xie Lian felt a little agitated at how his friend gushed a bit about the girl, gushed about all his friends he had met over the years, no one had to know, right?
The months he had spent in his new friend's company was a balm to his battered soul, a reprieve in a wasteland, an oasis in a desert. It had been a very, very, very long time since he had a friend that he could talk to on equal footing, or any footing really, that didn’t look down at him, call him a laughing stock or or… just a new friend and a fresh start and it didn’t matter how bad his luck got, it never seemed to really affect his friend or how they thought of him, if anything Lin Shuo thought Xie Lian was just a bit clumsy and chaos prone.
He’s spent decades, centuries alone and wandering and being hurt and ridiculed with only some small patches of light here and there to make it bearable, and had conditioned himself to be unbothered by it all, to be used to the pain, and to be happy for what he had. Not to have high expectations because his luck would always cause trouble but somehow he found himself with a friend.
A friend. And it was wonderful and terrifying because he was always so worried that this might be the last time he saw them, that something might happen to them, or his luck would wreak havoc and cause some disaster that would damage their friendship or hurt his friend… but it never happened and he wanted- he wanted to grab on to them and never let go because he was so tired being alone and he didn’t know if he could survive going back to not having a person to talk with, chat with, be friendly with, enjoy life with.
But this was fine, it was okay, and Lin Shuo and him always seemed to run into each other one way or another after they part, whether it be in a calm or relaxed atmosphere or some misfortunate incident that Lin Shuo tends to find Xie Lian in. If anything it’s Lin Shuo who's been pulling him out of the chaotic incidents he finds himself in because of his luck.
It was… it was nice to have that certainty to look forwards to. That reassurance that he would run into his friend once in a while and that life seemed to be looking up a bit for him. And then Xie Lian Ascended for the third time.