31 The Green Snake acts Unconcerned

"A what?!"

"Brother LiangLin, please don't yell," Lan QingYu said softly. His eyes were cast down at his pale, delicate hands that were plucking the last of the lotus flowers off their roots. His long lashes quivered slightly, but his features showed little emotion otherwise.

The lotus ponds of the White Lotus Hall were now bare of any vegetation. And even the koi fish seemed to swim in sullen circles, mourning the death of their beautiful home in the hands of the green snake.

"What are you talking about? I always talk like this!" LiangLin bellowed, his cheeks now flushed from a mixture of confusion and anger. He turned towards the pond, leaning over the white stone railings.

What did Lan QingYu mean by Zhang YaYun getting married to someone else? The guy was supposed to be swamped with work. At what point did he have the time to find anyone besides Lan QingYu? The two had been so relaxed, smiling at each other as they walked away from the Imperial Hall. They made a beautiful couple. How could something like this suddenly happen?!

"It's true, 51," LiAi said, shooting a worried glance QingYu's way. "That monkey confirmed it earlier today. That new concubine should arrive within a day."

"I thought emperor Zhang preferred men," LiangLin hissed, his brow twitched at the ridiculousness of the situation. It was just a concubine. That damn emperor could have very well declined the offer!

"I'm afraid it doesn't matter what YaYun prefers in this situation."

Everyone stood up straighter in surprise. Rarely had any of them witnessed Zhi ChangNing talk. In fact, the most they had seen her speak were… Actually, now that LiangLin thought about it, this was the first time he heard her talk. Her voice was lower than what her rounded, soft features had promised of, but LiangLin found it very soothing.

Zhi ChangNing composure never faltered and her ever hardened eyes glided over them with little emotion. "Zhang YaYun has an important mission, and that is to make sure the Zhang bloodline is kept alive."

"Tsk," LiangLin crossed his arms over his chest, giving ChangNing the attitude, even though he was well aware she didn't actually deserve it. He looked at her down his nose, giving her a little sneer, flashing the tip of his fang.

"Zhang YaYun is just an emperor, if his bloodline dies out, there are plenty of others waiting in line to be crowned. What makes you think he or his bloodline to be any better than anybody else's? Conceited much?"

"You-!" Irritation pulled at the side of ChangNing's lips, but she quickly suppressed her emotions, a veil of stoic settled over her features once more. "It doesn't concern you."

A hardened soldier, LiangLin noted, but not entirely emotionless as she let others believe. If he pulled at her strings correctly, when the dam breaks, the quietest of them all would break the loudest. His mischievous thoughts must have been visible on his face as LiYue shot him a warning look, stepping closer to them over the little bridge.

LiangLin gave ChangNing a sweet smile that promised a load of trouble. "It concerns me when my brother is involved."

"And it concerns me when the safety of the Zhang's are involved." Zhi ChangNing didn't even crack a little smile. Her sharp glare was unyielding, and the two glowered at each other, neither of them willing to back down.

"It doesn't concern me. I just want to return to Lushan," Lan QingYu mumbled as he threw the shredded petals over the pond surface, scattering it like white stars against the dark water. He turned and walked away without another word.

"QingYu- Argh!" LiangLin growled under his breath as Lan QingYu disappeared inside the house.

Even though LiangLin was secretly happy that the two of them would return to Lushan together and resume their job as entertainers. He would rather gauge his own eyes out then watch QingYu move about like a half-dead chicken for the rest of eternity! The green snake acted like someone had stolen half of his soul!

LiangLin shot his eyes back to ChangNing and relaxed his stiff posture with a deep sigh. There was no point fighting with the husky over the matter.

"Just tell me, what is so important about the Zhang bloodline that you act like the world would end if Zhang YaYun wouldn't have kids of his own?"

"Because it would," ChangNing said drily as she leaned against the low railings with her feet.

"What would?"

"The world, ending for us zodiacs."

**

"You what?!"

"What are you screaming about?" Zhang YaYun snapped at the monkey as he looked over the dragon stone bed. Two books were open and spread over the gigantic stone slab as YaYun trailed the deep carvings with his fingertips, muttering to himself under his breath.

The darkened main hall of the Crescent Moon Hall was lit up only by a few candles lining up the sides of the walls. The little flames cast quivering shadows across the heavy burgundy curtains lining the white walls.

The round stone slab stretched so far, it almost touched the walls, and all four men had to walk along the walls to circle around it. The room was otherwise bare.

Wei KaiJun shot Yu Zhong, and Xie JingYi worried glances over the slab. The ox looked like he was ready to wrestle a bear as his muscles flexed under his robes, visibly irritated at the situation.

Xie JingYi was smiling serenely, although the jolliness didn't reach his eyes.

"Oi, YaYun, did you hit your head on your stroll last night?" Wei KaiJun said with a grin, cocking his head to the side, but none of them was in the mood for smiling or joking around.

"I meant it. Break the contract, so I'm free to leave the crown for my uncle. Or whoever he sees fit to rule over the empire," YaYun said tightly as he flipped over the pages of one of the books, then cursed at the chunk of missing pages.

"None of us knows how to break an ancient contract, YaYun," Xie JingYi said. "I'm not even sure if it is even possible."

YaYun flipped the book pages so violently, he nearly ripped the pages off the spine.

"And you can't just retire, what does that even mean? I've never heard of an emperor retiring. Even with your uncle, he only abdicated his throne, with - err - consequences."

Zhang YaYun shot Xie JingYi an irritated glare from the thin edge of his eyes before turning back to the books in front of him.

"If there is a way to create the contract, there is a way to break it, too. And when it's done, I will retire, abdicate the throne, whatever."

"Why the sudden decision, YaYun?" Yu Zhong had been quiet all this time, but he couldn't keep it up any longer. To him, YaYun had always put the country and his duties before all else. How come everything changed over one single night?

YaYun's fingers twitched against the worn-out pages, and the words blurred out of focus as he recalled his conversation with Lan QingYu.

The green snake had seemed so unhappy, and it had only gone downhill from there when YaYun let slip that a concubine was coming in any minute now.

Their fingers had intertwined for only briefly, but YaYun never wanted to let go. There was a feeling of home, a sense of calmness and a promise of freedom when he spent the heart-wrenchingly short moments with the green snake.

Lan QingYu's forced congratulations were like a knife sinking into his guts. The declaration that one day, QingYu would be free to roam the world, while Zhang YaYun would spend his life here, trapped in his golden birdcage. The two of them parted by these tall, cold walls.

He wanted freedom, not just because of Lan QingYu, no. The green snake merely brought out his true desires and ignited the need to put himself before all else for once in his life. Everything he had now, was forced upon him. He never asked for any of it.

"I had an awakening of some sort," YaYun said coldly. The words on the page beneath his left hand came back to focus, and YaYun slid his fingers over the terrible handwriting at the edge of the page. He could barely make out the words,

'Dragon gods have gone extinct.'

A cruel smile pulled at YaYun's lips, and to his friends' surprise and horror, he chuckled, his voice hollow, bouncing against the walls.

"Oi, YaYun, you ok?"

"Perfect!" YaYun declared as he slammed both books shut and turned towards the dark doorway behind him, partly hidden under the drooping curtains. YaYun might not have the answers or the way to break the zodiac contract, but he knew someone who did. Someone who was hanging around unconscious in the basement of Crescent Moon Hall.

The entire chapter dedicated to dragon gods might have been destroyed, but Zhang YaYun knew the sorcerer's mind was a hidden library of every information he had collected over the years. Of all the living creatures roaming this earth realm, XueYa, besides his rotten father, would be the one to know how to break the contract.

"It's time to wake him up. He has had enough of beauty sleep."