Wan Qiushou's Past

Jiang Manyou swept the glasses off a platter held by a serving girl, laying them down upon the circular table in a practised manner.

Wan Qiushou and Wuxian each took a glass, all raising them and clinking them in the air. As they did so, the contents of their drinks splashed over into the adjacent glasses.

"Cheers!"

Then they ordered another.

"Cheers!"

And another.

"Cheers…"

One more.

"Ch- burp -eers."

Wan Qiushou's face, usually pale, was currently completely flushed, all the way up to his ears, beaming a bright red.

Jiang Manyou was the same as ever. For someone who changed colours so often, it was surprising that he didn't get flushed from drink. Or perhaps he hadn't reached his limit yet. In that regard, Wuxian was fine too. Though he did not drink often, he had a good constitution, innately and also due to enhancement by his cultivation.

Looking at Wan Qiushou, who was having difficulty sitting upright after four glasses, he couldn't help but snort out in laughter. Jiang Manyou grinned too, taking a small sip as he did so.

"Hey, this is a team building activity right?" Jiang Manyou asked jokingly.

Wuxian wore a confused expression.

"What's that?"

"You know. A group of new and unfamiliar colleagues plays some games that emphasise working together in order to become better acquainted with one another," he explained, but then paused in hesitation.

"Or is that team bonding? Maybe it's team bonding- just improving the relationship between colleagues." He corrected.

Resting his head against his raised arm, Wuxian shrugged.

Internally, he felt it was a bit ironic. It was likely that he'd be gone before he began to get close to any of the other gold badge Nightwatchers.

"Never heard of it before."

"Pfft, really? I hear it's common for a lot of the schools and academies around here to do similar things with their students. Maybe it's a difference in terminology?"

"Perhaps…"

Perhaps it was the alcohol talking, or Jiang Manyou was just a social drinker, but he'd suddenly become more of a chatterbox than usual.

"Speaking of education, how come you don't speak any common? Even with the bigwigs, they teach their kids common first before ancient tongue. It's the same with immortals too, I think."

Hearing the term 'ancient tongue' made Wuxian feel uncomfortable. It brought him back to the unsolvable question of how and why he was suddenly transported thousands of years into the future.

And it made him feel like he wasn't supposed to have survived while everyone else he grew up with died.

"I have amnesia. I only remember a few things, and common isn't one of them." He lied.

Jiang Manyou nodded with a slight frown. "Still, it's weird. Why would you remember ancient almost flawlessly, but not common?"

"Perhaps whoever I lived with previously used ancient more than common." Wuxian replied, a slight uninterested look on his face.

Seeing this, Jiang Manyou knew that Wuxian didn't want to speak about his past any further. For someone so outspoken, it was a given that his social skills were better than average.

He turned over to Wan Qiushou, who's eyes had reopened at some point in time. The latter's eyes had been locked onto Wuxian's face with a discerning look. Nevertheless, Qiushou said nothing, quickly withdrawing his gaze and raising his glass to drink more, only to find it empty.

Slamming it onto the table, he raised a hand.

"More drinks!"

———

It was the tenth round of drinks. Or was it eleven? By now, they had stopped counting. At some point in time, Jiang Manyou had disappeared into one of the rooms on the second floor, no doubt to 'greet' miss Lian.

Wan Qiushou and Wuxian sat side by side. Wuxian had tried standing up at some point, but he felt that his strength had deserted him, for he almost fell down before he even started getting up.

Wan Qiushou was worse. His eyes closed and opened now and then. His head leaned back, appearing totally relaxed as he sank down into the soft couch.

'I shouldn't…'

Wuxian tried to stop himself, but his hand moved against his wishes, bringing the glass up to his lips. At the same time, his mouth coordinated too, cooperatively opening and allowing the drink to flow into his body.

After eventually managing to free himself from the drink, he lay back and sighed.

"Wan Qiushou?"

The man in question had his eyes shut, but he answered groggily anyway.

"Call me Qiushou."

Wuxian nodded, though Qiushou couldn't see his action.

"Why do you respect chief Li so much?"

Qiushou let out a low groan, heaving a sigh as he did so.

"What… what do you… mean?" He struggled to respond.

Hearing this, Wuxian couldn't help but let out a subdued laugh.

"It's obvious. The time when I visited his office, you wouldn't even let him pull out chairs on his own."

Qiushou's eyes rolled beneath his eyelids, as if he was looking around but had forgotten to actually open his eyes.

"Mn… long story." He responded slowly.

Wuxian took another sip subconsciously.

"We have time."

Qiushou hugged his arms to his sides, crossing them over each other. He then curled up and lay on his side in a fetal pose.

"I was originally a child born to a peasant family. A demonic lone cultivator killed most of the people in the village. Chief Li confronted the demon, protecting the remaining villagers."

Qiushou's face was as stoic as ever, barely changing. He spoke of those events as if they had nothing to do with him, like he was merely an observer.

"Chief Li found that I had an innate earth qi spirit root. He said that he would bestow upon me his inheritance once I fully temper my body according to the practices of a martial practitioner."

Wuxian hesitantly reached over, patting Qiushou on the back.

'No wonder his name is like that… I suppose if I was still a peasant farmer, ten thousand Autumn harvests would be pretty good.'

"Chief Li saved me and then raised me." Qiushou said simply, finishing his story.

Wuxian nodded with a sigh. Lying about his past while simultaneously taking advantage of Qiushou's drunkenness to pry into matters he wouldn't be able to know otherwise made him feel a pang of guilt within his heart.

"I remember something from my past." He said.

Qiushou's eyes opened and he looked over at Wuxian, his azure blue eyes staring penetratingly. Wuxian felt somewhat unnerved, but continued on anyway.

"I had a master who saved my life and took me in. Like you, I would have died otherwise."

Wan Qiushou stared for a few more seconds, before rolling over and closing his eyes again.

"You're telling the truth." He stated, his voice muffled by the couch's soft fabric.

"Yes… I am." Wuxian replied, somewhat bewildered.

Then, Qiushou abruptly sat up. He scanned their seating area with fuzzy eyes.

"Where are the women? Why is there only you and me?" He asked unhappily.

Wuxian scratched his head.

"I think you need to go and proactively ask the girls to accompany you…" He suggested.

Wan Qiushou's bloodshot eyes lit up. Gathering strength from who knows where, he jumped up and staggered forward, bumping into the other end of the curved couch and the circular table as he exited the seating.

Seeing this, Wuxian sighed helplessly. He left his drink and went over to support Qiushou by the shoulder. It seemed that after some time had passed, he was able to move better, though he was swaying a little too.

Their seating had been on the left of the room, while the seating area for the girls was in the centre of the room. More seating for guests lined the sides of the rest of the room, clearly, it had been designed so that the girls were easily accessible. They could also have a good view of which customers they fancied.

Wan Qiushou had begun moving towards the centre of the room, drawing the attention of quite a few girls as he did so. Though he was handsome, perhaps it was his zombie-ish gait and bloodshot eyes that stood out more.

'Letting Qiushou talk to one of those girls probably wouldn't be a great idea.'

Wuxian slowly manoeuvred Qiushou away from the centre of the room, bringing him over to one of the outdoor areas instead.

Not only was there indoor seating, but guests and workers could take a stroll through the gardens outside. Undoubtedly, the scenic area was designed with more than just 'sightseeing' in mind. Perhaps romantic conversation, the holding of hands, or other things too…

Of course, there were designated smoking sections also, though Wuxian did not plan to visit those. He was only twenty and valued his health greatly… ignoring all of the alcohol he had just consumed.

"Come on. Let's walk it off, shall we?"

As they exited the building, Wuxian took in a deep breath of fresh air, instantly feeling reinvigorated. Qiushou seemed to feel the same way, since his staggered gait became less pronounced and he was leaning on Wuxian less too.

Wuxian gently placed Qiushou down onto one of the outside benches, before stretching his arms a little. Being seated and doing nothing but talk and drink was uncomfortable for him- the opportunity to stretch his legs was welcome.

"Did your friend have a little too much to drink?" Came a soft voice from behind him.

Wuxian was greeted with an unfamiliar face.

It was a man with long green hair, similar in height to Wuxian. He wore baggy white robes, with a piece that stuck up from around where a hood might be that concealed his neck. He had a pair of half-rimmed gold glasses seated on his tall nose-bridge.

Like his hair, this newcomer's eyes were also a vibrant green. Wuxian almost had to do a double take, as due to a combination of this person's good looks and the softness of his voice, he almost mistook the man for a woman.

He nodded in response, exhaling a cloud of misty air as he did so.

The green-haired man smiled, hands tucked inside his robe.

"My friend also had a lot to drink. We've been quite stressed with work recently."

"Ah, I know the feeling." Wuxian replied, smiling faintly in response.

'I have so many techniques to learn, so much cultivation to do. Yet, here I am in a whorehouse, looking after a drunken acquaintance. I told myself I wouldn't drink too much, to avoid making myself and easy target, but I ended up doing so anyway. And worst of all, I haven't even spoken to a woman since arriving. Ah, heavens.'

"I've also been busy lately. I just started a new job. It's taken a lot of acclimatising to get used to. Just in general." Wuxian said, continuing the small talk.

The green-haired man smiled knowingly. He then gestured to Wuxian's outfit.

"It would probably be wiser for you to wear something else the next time you go out. Black clothes like that are conspicuous to say the least."

'Ah.'

This was something Wuxian had not considered. Thinking about it again, it was a stupid mistake and something he should not have overlooked.

"You're right," He admitted, "but I don't have anything else to wear since I'm new in town and haven't had the chance to settle in."

He then immediately clamped a hand around his mouth.

'Idiot! Why are you giving away so much information to a stranger?'

Though Wuxian was no slouch when it came to drinking, even ten tall glasses of whatever it was they'd had that night was no laughing matter. Though he did not consider himself to be that intoxicated, in truth, it was a miracle that he was standing and talking coherently.

The green-haired man chuckled. 

"No need to worry. I'm sure that if anybody meant you harm, they'd likely have spiked your drink. If someone really did want you dead, you wouldn't be conscious- completely incapable of retaliation."

"Makes sense."

The green-haired man glanced down at Wan Qiushou from the corner of his eye. The speed of this movement, combined with Wuxian's current unobservant state, allowed it to go unseen.

"Want to take a stroll?" He asked lightly.

Wuxian hesitated for a moment but realised that he craved some physical activity.

"Fine by me."

As the pair walked ahead, Wan Qiushou's eyes opened, staring at the green-haired man's back. After a few moments, they shut again.