29 Chapter 29: Exile

"This is a rather troubling matter..." Sect Leader Jiao smiles wryly, Zhang Binghua and Zhang Xuanhe don't move from their positions. "But alas," he purses his lips, seeming contemplative before continuing, "everything has its consequences, the wheel of karma must continue."

"Xuanhe," he calls and her brother immediately snaps his head up. "Inform Zihua of my recovery."

"Understood," Zhang Binghua watches her brother immediately leave the room, his usual hotheaded act put on only after he does. The rest pf their little group of twelve are either given tasks or dismissed until she's the only one left.

She can hear Zhu Mei's confusion from their growing bond and simply blocks it.

There is a moment of silence before Sect Leaader Jiao asks, "How have they been faring?"

"There have been no signs of them breaking to peer pressure." Zhang Binghua starts, "Nothing they said were lies and the pieces are still in place. Jiao Zihua is growing close to finding out about everything; he has always known that my brother doesn't actually like him romantically."

"So in the end it is Zihua who..." Sect Leader Jiao trails off, looking simultaneously melancholy and relieved. "How many suspect Zimu?"

"The entire sect probably takes it as truth already." Zhang Binghua reports, "Regretfully, all I could do was fit it into the plan. Sect Leader Jiao, you're awake now, so you can choose where everything will go from now."

Jiao Kongrong is silent once again.

It is the most genuine emotion she has ever seen from him. Zhang Binghua guesses, it's probably because his sons are still his sons no matter what. Still the little ones his wife had given birth to.

She doesn't think that there is any humane human who could use their family in a scheme without feeling any emotion. If Sect Leader Jiao had been that type of person then she would have never sworn loyalty to him.

"Trying to kill the sect leader, the punishment is usually death." Sect Leader Jiao says slowly. "Please announce that Zimu is going to be executed privately."

Even now, he still tries to protect his son.

Zhang Binghua stands up, says 'understood' and leaves the room.

She pretends not to hear or see the sect leader's facade breaking down as she closes the door.

Jiao Zihua is starkly aware of many things. From how certain disciples seem to be everywhere and hear everything to the most likely thing the chefs would cook up that night. Or how there seems to be something more to Leiji to how much time they took to commit someone to memory.

He is very aware of the fact that Zhang Xuanhe did not like him all that much. Sure, Fourth Martial Brother acts like he does, but it is in the way he looks at Jiao Zihua sometimes and seems anything but warm.

Most of everyone around him says that being aware is a good thing.

When in truth, being aware feels so very lonely. Jiao Zihua tends to simply gloss over the fact that he can read most of the people he knew better than their closest bonded. And that the small guide in his head can lead him to finding out their deepest, darkest secrets if he wanted to.

Leiji is one mystery he can't figure out at the moment. There is no physical evidence of any weird secret and his intuition seems to go haywire with anything concerning them.

It's the most interested he's been in anything ever since he figured out why his brother hated him so much. Not even mentioning that Leiji is less likely to stab him to death than Jiao Zimu. Though Jiao Zihua may have to stop his small investigation.

They're leaving the sect now that the situation is solved.

Jiao Zihua has to admit, even though Fourth Martial Brother doesn't like him all that much, his loyalty to father is sincere.

...as long as his loyalty to father is sincere, Jiao Zihua won't mind letting feelings grow. Heartbreak is such a feared thing that people are liable to kill to avoid it, Jiao Zihua wants to know if it lives up to its reputation (it does live up to it, so, so much that he regrets and wishes to burn something down).

In any case, Zhang Binghua will surely forgive him for strangling Zhang Xuanhe right here and now right?

"-you think, Third Martial Brother?" Zhang Xuanhe grins, looking excited. The feeling in the back of Jiao Zihua's head says that this is real; meaning that this moment is genuine and fine to enjoy.

"It's really cool!" Jiao Zihua answers with a bright smile.

They were reviewing the different traits the types of energy in certain places could have and how it affects the things that stay there long enough to be saturated by said energy. How the energy can, in fact, un-saturate but it would take years. But then he gives Jiao Zihua his usual 'adoring' gaze and he feels very lonely again. That's right, Zhang Xuanhe actually...

He looks around and catches Leiji walking through the front door looking vexed. Immediately, Jiao Zihua catches onto the chance and rushes over to Leiji with a bright grin.

Zhang Xuanhe follows at a slower pace with a 'jealous' expression. Sometimes, Jiao Zihua really wonders how much effort it takes him to muster such expressions in time and not be caught acting.

"How are you still able to move? Doesn't everything hurt?" Jiao Zihua immediately spouts out the questions he has had ever since five seconds ago.

Leiji smiles awkwardly at him. "Ah, that, Light gave me some pain-killers."

"You're supposed to be on bed-rest!" Jiao Zihua pouts, inwardly ecstatic. Leiji is one of the only peopke who is genuine with their feelings and doesn't shy away from hurtful truths, so Jiao Zihua can be sincere with them too. "Leiji, you shouldn't not listen to your doctor! That's bad for your health!"

"I never met the doctor though?" Leiji says, looking more fond than annoyed. "But am I really supposed to keep this on for a week?" They point out the cast, now looking annoyed.

Zhang Xuanhe cuts in, "Unless you have some bone-healing medicine, then yes you do need to keep it on."

Immediately, Leiji falls into their thinking mode.

...did they really take Zhang Xuanhe's words of a bone-healing medicine seriously? That's...Jiao Zihua sighs. Perhaps this trust in people is something he has to learn to like about them.

The announcement that Jiao Zimu had been the culprit and has been executed privately was met with incredulity and disbelief. Zhang Xuanhe had predicted that this would be the case, but there are still so many other things that were left unaccounted for—mostly because all those factors are unable to be manipulated in any way.

It is only a good five minutes in after that Zhang Xuanhe slips through the crowd to go outside.

How convenient it is that the front door is always opened after an announcement of any sort. He spots some others of their little group and decides to hroup with his supposed partner, she merely smiles weakly at him.

Zhang Xuanhe asks, "Why are you such an idiot?"

Zhu Mei's smile doesn't leave. He huffs, the slightest twinge of pity thrumming until he asks again, "Are you going to leave with him? Let me tell you this, it isn't worth it! If I find your body in some random ditch out there then I'll resurrect you to kill you myself!" And he wasn't even joking.

She laughs though, and they walk together through the twisting path towards where Jiao Zimu would be exiled.

"You're late," his sister scowls, the other nine of their group already in position. Zhang Xuanhe takes his place next to Zhang Binghua while Zhu Mei stands next to him, immediately; all twelve of them fall to one knee and bow their heads. The sect leader had come with Jiao Zimu.

The person himself immediately looks betrayed as he looks at Zhu Mei.

Zhang Xuanhe sneers to himself, serves him right. Unlike Zhang Xuanhe himself, Zhu Mei actually did like the one she was supposed to watch, Jiao Zimu knew and took advantage of that. Unfortunately for him, Zhu Mei is louak to only one person.

"These people are all random disciples I have chosen to witness this." Sect Leader Jiao starts, meant as an alibi for all of them more than anything.

Then he continues with the boring hour-long speech of being exiled, don't come back and bother his brother, all the good sh*t. Something, something, surname will be changed, something and when can Zhang Xuanhe go back to his room and contemplate life? Or maybe he can at least go and try to start caring for Jiao Zihua.

...it isn't fair to Jiao Zihua, he knows that.

Sometimes, Zhang Xuanhe wishes that he took the path his sister did. Everything would have been so much easier and he won't feel like his true self is slipping through every passing second. Maybe he and Jiao Zihua could have had an actual friendship.

Perhaps, something like the one Jiao Zihua had with that Leiji. It wouldn't hurt to let go of that mask...

Sect Leader Jiao finishes talking at last and Jiao Zimu leaves with his head high and only the clothes on his back. Whether or not he will be able to continue surviving is unknown, but at least he isn't dead by his father's hands.

"Leiji," someone—Zhang Binghua?—calls from the doorway. Leiji turns to look at her, having just finished making the bed, and asks, "What is it?"

"Are you leaving now?" She asks, Leiji nods. They were about to, right after telling Hall Master Ling or the sect leader. But then a thought occured to them and they ask, "Can you tell me what happened after I passed out?"

Zhang Binghua gives them a small smile, something like relief in her expression. Though they don't understand why that feeling is there, Leiji tentatively smiles back; feeling like it's been far too long since they made such an expression. Zhang Binghua stares, then clears her throat and says, "Don't smile at strangers, alright?"

Why do people say that?

Leiji had always thought that smiling at people was a normal courtesy. Though they themselves don't smile much at other as a courtesy. Though they themselves don't smile much at others as a courtesy, which was mostly because a lot of people can't bear looking at their oddly-colored hair and eyes.

"So, where were we?" Zhang Binghua asks, mostly to herself, before continuing, "Right, after I managed to get down there and take you, the temple started shaking again. At first, I thought it was another weird earthquake, but after the last ones that deliberately didn't hurt us, I just flew on my sword out of there."

"Met up with Jiao Zihua and Zhang Xuanhe sometime after, then we bumpedinto that chimera. Or rather, it jumped on me and took you." Right. The chimera.

They had forgotten about it.

Mao Mao was it? Lightning says that they should go back and see to it, Leiji knows that, they saw what happened during the time when Lightning took control.

"Of course," Zhang Binghua continues, looking slightly...uh, very exasperated, "we followed it. It brought us back to the garden and dropped you. That was when thr temple started falling apart."

She gestures something that seems like, as Lu Leiji says, 'can you believe this bullsh*t?'

Something that seems to have clicked then, for her. "I just realized...the chimera was probably trying to help us. Living as long as it has in an energy-saturated place like that probably heightened its intelligence, we—I should probably go report this to..."

Zhang Binghua cuts herself off, "In any case, the temple fell apart and we all stayed in the garden. After everything stopped crumbling, we left the place and bumped into, um, your big sister."

"She took you, but followed us and then we met that Ling Hongyun. He was waiting by where we camped." Leiji did know that the temple fell in on itself, the weird thing said so.

They didn't know that Light and Hongyun had actually came to see what was happening.

"Wr got back to the sect via transportation array and dumped you in the medical bay before reporting." Here, Zhang Binghua looks exasperated again. "My teacher doesn't even have the emotional capacity to react to the news of an ancient temple crumbling! He just asked," she makes an odd voice, "'is that all?' No! No that is not all! That is a historic sitethat could have furthered researxh for historians and he just! Doesn't! Care!"

"I heard that your teacher is Hall Master Ling's brother, how is he? Is he like that apathetic human I call teacher?" Leiji blinks, not having expected to be asked something like that. "I guess...no, the two are very different."

So that was what happened. Leiji thanks Zhang Binghua with a smile before leaving the room.