A fateful encounter! (2.3)

Startled, he wheeled around. Qing lai had crouched behind him and was unwrapping the bandages from his forearms, then he pulled bag after bag and vials from his belt and draped everything on a stone slab.

"We need water to survive and to treat the wounds," he interjected. 

Zhi Cheng stared at the muscular forearms. They were not injured; on the contrary, Zhi Cheng could not take his eyes off the alabaster-colored skin, under which he could see the veins and tendons.

"Why are you wearing bandages, Qing lai, if you don't need them?" he asked in astonishment. Qing lai smiled and Zhi Cheng would have liked to pull his fan over his head. He did something stupid every time this man looked at him.

"For situations like this," Qing lai replied. Zhi Cheng raised an eyebrow.

"I travel a lot and you'd be surprised how many people have needed medical help along the way. So I try to be as prepared as possible. I have some pills and herbs that are anti-inflammatory and detoxifying. But we need water to clean the wounds and also to survive," he said. 

Zhi Cheng hid his expression behind the outstretched fan. He was about to get up and leave the situation in a hurry when he realized that Qing lai was about to ask him to do something again. 

Not again, do it yourself, he thought and was just turning around when his robe was grabbed from behind. He paused and closed his eyes tightly.

"Brother Zhi will you help me again? There should be a vein of water somewhere below these caves," Qing lai said in a sincere light tone. Zhi Cheng gritted his teeth so hard that it grated.

"Most of the women and children are too weak. I'm afraid they would get lost or hurt if I send them through the corridors. But you seem to me to be an excellent fighter. You don't mind the uneven ground and the humidity," Qing lai explained his decision. 

Oh, is that so? Zhi Cheng mocked inwardly. He smoothed out his robe, folded up the fan and turned to Qing lai. 

I'm afraid I can't, I'm exhausted and also injured, why don't you give me a little rest? But the words he actually spoke sounded more like.

"Of course, Qing Lai."

As soon as he turned the next corner, he slapped his forehead with his fan. He had to get rid of this Qing lai somehow. That sincere, charismatic aura and those golden, shining eyes made him an idiot. 

Perhaps it was also due to the lack of social interactions in the last eight hundred years. No pig nose, beak or mutant limbs had ever thrown him off track like the breathtaking beauty of the man in white. 

He grabbed one of the woven wicker baskets and piled all the jars he could find into it. Then, without looking back, Zhi Cheng walked deeper into the labyrinthine corridors. 

He followed the clear, fresh smell and felt how it was getting colder and wetter around him. At some point, he heard the sound of rushing water.

It was dark around him, the little sunlight that had illuminated the cave did not reach down here. He looked around furtively in all directions. Then he conjured a blue-green spirit flame in his hand and sent it ahead to light his way. 

The rough rocks eerily threw back the glow of his spirit fire. If he were to cross someone's path now, his heart would literally stop with fear.

After walking for a good half hour, he stood in front of an underground lake. 

The cave was huge, and at one end he could see a waterfall pouring into it and realized that dusk had already fallen. 

The cave was high, with stalactites hanging from the ceiling like menacing daggers. Drop by drop, he sank into the icy cold water. He could see right to the bottom of the lake, it was so clear. There must have been a natural outlet somewhere, otherwise the heights would have been flooded long ago. 

The clear water reflected and refracted the light in all the colors of the rainbow and threw it across the cave onto the walls, creating a completely natural light that illuminated the huge room.

He stepped onto the stone bank and filled jug after jug, pot after pot and then washed himself. He looked at his portrait in the reflective surface. Zhi Cheng had fixed his hair and washed his face so that his cheeks now had a lively, rosy hue. Of course, he had left out the hidden ghost mark.

His dark eyes and blood-red, full lips gave him a seductive look. He tapped his reflection and let it scatter in waves before rising again.

"Why doesn't that face upset him?" grumbled Zhi Cheng, backing away. Why did it have to be him who couldn't control himself?

Back in the section of the cave where they had set up camp, Zhi Cheng crouched in a corner and watched Qing lai skillfully stir together some ointments and powders and brew some foul-smelling teas. 

He distributed his medicine to the injured and bandaged their wounds, then approached Zhi Cheng. The latter eyed him suspiciously, was he about to give him another task? Inwardly, the Ghost King braced himself to give him a piece of his mind this time. It was better if this good guy knew right away that they wouldn't be friends. Qing lai squatted down in front of him.

"Let me help you, Brother Zhi," he said gently, pointing at Zhi Cheng's shoulder. 

He had caught an arrow or two on his escape. Nothing earth-shattering, he had already pulled them out in the same breath. 

But the back of his robe was soaked in blood. A sword strike had slashed his side and one sleeve of his robe hung down in tatters. Blood oozed from a wound on his upper arm. Zhi Cheng raised a brow. These were just trifles, there were times during his tenure as ruler of Duifang when he looked worse every day. But he couldn't say that out loud. 

He cleared his throat. As soon as he got away from here, away from him, everything would be fine. He had planned his escape very carefully for a long time and had deposited a considerable fortune in the banks of the mortal world. As soon as he reached the next town, he would take care of his injuries, new clothes, a decent bed and good wine. 

But when he looked up and their eyes met, the rejection stuck in his throat. Again, Qing lai looked at him directly, without averting his gaze, without fear or discomfort. He met him without prejudice and, above all, without a weapon drawn. Zhi Cheng's heart sank when he opened his mouth and heard himself say:

"I can hardly refuse, Brother Qing!"

Qing lai gave him a beaming smile and Zhi Cheng's heart, which had just sunk into the basement, suddenly jumped up and beat up to his neck.

"Come on then. The women are taking care of each other, we should retreat and not disturb them," Qing lai said, helping him stand up. 

Yeah, right. Just the two of us. What could possibly go wrong? Zhi Cheng sneered inwardly and wished for nothing more than to smack this good guy over the head and disappear.

When they sat down in a side corridor and Qing lai lit a torch made of wood and scraps of cloth, Zhi Cheng felt humiliated and beaten. When was the last time he had been ordered around like this? Never before.