Chapter Text
Wen Kexing, Guigu Guzhu, stands in the middle of a cave surrounded by ghosts.
This is not a rare occurrence, he spent twenty years growing up in Guigu surrounded by ghosts. But today is special. For once, every single ghost around him is looking at him, not with fear, but with hope. Eight years he spent reigning over Guigu with an iron fist and a heavy hand — and every ghost here is actually happy to see him.
Corpse-Eating Ghost actually smiles at him, eager to give him any information.
"Let's return to Guigu right now to prepare the defense and teach them a lesson!"
"Kill them! Kill them! Kill them!"
Wen Kexing listens to Corpse-Eating Ghost's proposal, looks around imperiously at the ghosts around him as they loudly agree, and considers. The plan laid out depends heavily on Wen Kexing's involvement. He's the strongest fighter in all of Guigu, the one most likely to hold his own against anyone the jianghu is likely to throw at them, the one who can carve a path of destruction through anybody who dares to attack. If he does not go with these ghosts to Guigu, chances are that very few would make it.
But Wen Kexing does not want to go. He wants to stay in Siji Shanzhuang, wants to train the silly little idiot, wants to sleep beside his zhiji.
He weighs in his mind the duty he holds to these ghosts around him, against the duty he holds to Zhou Zishu and Zhang Chengling. He weighs the gratefulness and desperation on the face of every ghost, against the way Zhang Chengling's face and voice twisted just that morning when he declared that Guigu was evil.
In one world, he looks at the ghosts with the cold eyes of the Guigu Guzhu, who is less a sect leader and more a slaveowner. The Guzhu does not care about the ghosts' well-being or lives, only about what they can do for him. If they stay here, they run the risk of spoiling his cover and exposing his secrets to Zhou Zishu and Zhang Chengling. So these ghosts cannot stay, and the Guzhu will discard them without any consideration. In that world, the Guzhu sends them off to Guigu without him, leaves them to fend for themselves, turns his back on them all to return to Siji Shanzhuang alone.
In this world, Wen Kexing's mask of Guigu Guzhu shatters when his gaze lands on Yun Zai. He looks at her, and remembers the way Gu Xiang cried in the rain when Hong Lu died. Gu Xiang had been so confident she could protect her new servants … and Wen Kexing has spent over a decade covering for all of Gu Xiang's mistakes. Why not take Yun Zai in? And if he takes in one, why not more?
(And if there is a little sister servant-shaped hole in Wen Kexing's life that aches to be filled, no one here would dare to call him out on it.)
***
"A-xu!"
"Lao-Wen. What is all this?"
"I found some lovely cloth — we absolutely need to go through everything we have to check for moths — and I managed to get such a good deal! And I couldn't have hauled this cart up by myself, so I hired a couple porters to drag the cart up."
"Couldn't afford a horse?"
"A-Xu! You know that path you led us on is horrible for horses!"
"It's horrible for a cart too and yet here we are."
"A-Xu!"
"And if that's your explanation for the two men, then what about the four women?"
"Now we'll have servants to do all that cleaning and sorting of old things! And someone to cook if I'm away!"
"Did you get so distracted by the cloth that you forgot to find a painter?"
"O-of course not! One of the lovely ladies is a deft hand at painting!"
"And another four?"
"Well, Xu Jin's sister didn't feel safe in their father's home, so of course he offered to take her in! But don't worry, she's a skilled seamstress! And Lie Yan's fiance hunted him down and refused to part with him — would you really break up true love? And while Jiuyang is good at painting, her brother would be better at restoring paper and canvas! And since we just had an issue with broken furniture last night —"
"Lao Wen!"
"— I thought having our own carpenter would be a great idea!"
"Whatever, just … don't hire a spy."
"A-Xu! Look who I —"
A long aggrieved sigh. "They can go report to Yun Zai, she'll find something for them to do."
"Zhuangzhu, this is my sister —"
"This is your fifth sister, just set her up with everyone else in the east wing."
"A-Xu! Let me introduce you!"
Zhou Zishu is a half-step away from just brushing this off, like he did for every other introduction that Wen Kexing pulled in the last month, before he realized who exactly was standing there with an awkward smile.
Corpse-Eating Ghost.
"This is an old friend of mine! We used to work together and —"
"Whatever, Lao Wen, put him in the north courtyard." As far from the entrance as can be managed, with the current state of the buildings.
"And he's not to touch anything in the kitchen or he's out."
Zhou Zishu walks away, smirking at the glimpse he catches of two ashen faces.