AU where during Xie Lian’s mission to find Ming Yi, he takes Shi Qingxuan’s advice to use his friendship with Hua Cheng to investigate Paradise Manor, but switches places with a clone to distract Hua Cheng while Xie Lian and Shi Qingxuan sneak around.
(Hua Cheng knows it’s a clone but he thinks it’s funny)
There, on the far right, the coffin for his father.
Next to it, the coffin housing his mother. And to the left of that-
Another coffin.
That wasn’t right.
This tomb was for Xie Lian’s Parents. Whose body had been keeping them company for hundreds of years?
As Xie Lian approached the final coffin, any offering for his parents forgotten, he ran through all of his family members.
Only the Royal family of Xianle were allowed to rest here for enternity. Traditionally, Xianle families were kept with their spouse, and then their children as well if the children died before marriage, but Xie Lian’s parents had no other children. Xie Lian took hold of the lid of the mysterious coffin.
Perhaps it was Qi Rong’s? Even though there should have been a chamber for Xie Lian’s Aunt, it could have been destroyed or disgraced after she broke off her engagement to run away with her body guard. So unless Qi Rong suddenly ran out of self preservation instinct, he probably moved his body and this coffin should be—
Xie Lian’s pupils shrank. This coffin was not empty. It wasn’t housing Qi Ring either. Instead the body he was staring at was-
Himself.
Dressed in black robes made to preserve bodies, the crown prince of Xianle looked almost asleep, from the neck up.
Xie Lian’s trembling fingers gently parted the corpse’s robes to inspect the damage further.
The mangled flesh spanned from the throat, all across the torso. Organs and ribs shined in the faint light of the torches. This body was barely being kept together. It looked like it…
It looked like it had been stabbed a hundred times.
Xie Lian’s breath quickened as he turned and pulled back the bottom of the corpses robes to find a pristine ankle, free of a cursed shackle.
This was Xie Lian’s body after-
After…
Xie Lian scrambled back, heart full of fear, before throwing frantically himself forward once again. Whatever this thing was, he would get to the bottom of it.
He checked the palm lines, the hair, and found it was not a puppet.
But then what was it?
Xie Lian gently brushed the hair from the body’s face, and pressed two fingers to its temple.
His face paled.
It had Xie Lian’s life force, at least, traces of when it was alive. But that couldn’t be so, because if this thing in the coffin was Xie Lian-
Then what was he? Was he the real Xie Lian? Who was the imposter, the thing in the coffin or the thing staring at it?
And if the thing staring at the coffin was not Xie Lian like he had known himself to be all this time…
What was he?
The only answer that came to mind was a clone. But when could Xie Lian have made it? Did he make it? Or was he the clone?
That could only be the truth, right? If he couldn’t remember the creation of the thing in the coffin that meant he was the creation.
Xie Lian slammed the coffin lid shut, breathing heavily as he leaned on his mother’s coffin for support.
His hands were trembling and his lungs burned and his head hurt and his stomach felt like there was a heavy stone suck in the pit of it and when he touched his cheek Xie Lian realized his face was covered in tears.
All he could do was slide to the floor and stare mindlessly for what could’ve been days, years, centuries, or minutes.
When Xie Lian finally calmed down, he stood up, grabbed a torch, and opened the coffin once more. After staring for an undetermined amount of time, he softly closed it, and shoved the coffin onto the floor.
He set the evidence of his creation on fire, and made sure to scatter the ashes.
Whatever had happened, it had already been done.
The only thing Xie Lian’s clone could do now was live for the both of them.
OMG I FINISHED IT I MADE THIS FOR I talk to god but the sky is empty by @neithoftheveil !!!
I want you to know, I downloaded this so I could read it on a flight like three months ago, and I cried on that damn plane. Super embarrassing how could you do this to me 😞
IT WAS SO GOOD!!! I love the dynamics of the Xianle quartet minus Xie Lian! (Especially when they finally came together in violence <3) It did in fact make my heart hurt owie
