Zheng E the Frostwing x Fem! Protagonist
Author’s Note: Greetings, everyone, my name is Sakuraaeris1497 and I absolutely love the new game Where Winds Meet, as other fans of the game do. Therefore, I would be honored to write a one-shot for Zheng E/Zheng the Frostwing from the game since he is one of the popular NPC’s based on my observations. Please note that there may be spoilers for the main and side quest storylines, so if you don’t want spoilers, please don’t read. Specifically, the Granary of Plenty side quest in Kaifeng for Zheng E/Zheng the Frostwing will be used for the purposes of telling this story with a female protagonist as the female reader. I will also be using a Ding Yuxi/Ryan Ding gif as a face claim for Zheng E in particular because he did a boss trailer for the game, which can be found on YouTube.
Please enjoy! :)
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As you were traveling across the the Jianghu in vast areas full of amazing people and beautiful landscapes alongside your ally, Yi Dao, you two happened upon rumors of the Granary of Plenty. According to the locals and your own investigations, the Mistveil Forest suffered from a poison mist that not even disciples of Silver Needle Sect could cure while an affluent clan in Gracetown had their lives extinguished by blades and flames many years ago. During your quest to investigate the poison mist and the destruction of the affluent clan, you and Yi Dao came across an area surrounded by Dawn-to-Dusk blossoms and frost. Upon further inquiry and exploration, you came across the real Master of Grain, Shen Yilun, who was a childhood friend of Zheng E that was being held hostage while Zheng E assumed the formal role and identity of this young man. Determined to put an end to this madness and stop further tragedies in the Jianghu, you battled Zheng E alongside Yi Dao and arose triumphant. Shortly following the battle against Zheng E, Shen Yilun was able to torch the memorial containing the blossoms and Zheng E’s younger sister before being permanently incapacitated by the white-haired man, thereby losing his sister and his childhood friend forever. After the battle, you and Yi Dao waited around a couple days in Kaifeng to speak to Zheng E again, with him vowing to continue to be the new Master of Grain because of Shen Yilun’s death and him asking you to deliver a letter to his house in Apricot Village as he strummed his guqin. Upon further inquiry under the white trees of that simple cottage in Apricot Village, it was discovered that this letter contained all of Zheng E’s years of research into Dawn-to-Dusk blossoms, which could prove to be a boon to the people of Kaifeng if a Silver Needle disciple like local doctor Zhai Xu had his hands on the research documents.
You neither knew nor remembered when you started falling in love with Zheng the Frostwing or when he fell in love with you, but Yi Dao detected a change in you whenever you would visit Autumn Dusk Retreat or Apricot Village in your travels to see the white-haired man. For instance, one change is that you would seem unnaturally giddy as you two would ride in the direction of the two areas to restock on food, medicine, and supplies or would go out of your way for a visit while traveling the Jianghu. Another change was that one time when Zheng E formally invited you and Yi Dao for supper during one of your visits to his house in Apricot Village, he innocently asked if you and the warrior better known as Killerblade were lovers betrothed since you always traveled together in the Jianghu. Upon detecting the intent behind this innocent question, Yi Dao guffawed with a slap of his knee while you gave a girlish giggle into your knuckles before the more-rugged man joked that “ethereal men like a certain Master of Grain” were more your type and that you were still wading around in the pool of single fish. While you did punch Yi Dao’s bicep in response to his teasing with a crimson blush heating up your cheeks followed by a soft-spoken apology and confirmation that you were indeed open to romance, Zheng E pondered deeply for many moons about his current relationship status and yours in terms of the realm of romance.
But what really sold Zheng E on the idea of choosing to love you was during one of the rare times that Yi Dao was gathering intel in the next town over and you were visiting Apricot Village alone. Kneeling on the ground near the white apricot tree in Zheng E’s yard, you were currently in the process of decorating with some offerings around a headstone, which was carved from wood by your own hands thanks to the craftsmanship skills you picked up early in your journey. Caught in the act as Zheng E greeted you warmly before asking what you were doing, you explained that you wanted to make a new memorial for Zheng Ruan, also known affectionately as A-Ruan by her elder brother, since the old one was burned by Shen Yilun, so you wanted to give A-Ruan some fresh blossoms and fruits that you came across in your travels along with some wine from your old home before it was destroyed along with Ruby of the Zhou family, a little girl from your village who always looked up to you. Upon learning that you too had a little sister who was also destroyed in a senseless act of bloodshed and flame, Zheng E’s heart panged with bitter grief and swallowed-down regrets towards the way he initially treated you down in the Granary as his gaze and the core of his soul softened towards you. With his physical presence never departing from the sight of you as you continued to work on the memorial, Zheng E’s slender, gloved hands were gentler than they had been in your battle together under the Granary as he swiped under your misty irises to catch the stray remnants of falling tears that you didn’t even know you were shedding. As innocent as his previous question was regarding your current relationship with Yi Dao, Zheng E asked another innocent question pointed towards a deep dive into the life story of Ruby.
In all honesty, it really shouldn’t have surprised you that Zheng E would want to know about your little sister Ruby just as you always wanted to know more about his little sister A-Ruan. But honestly, it could have been the shock of a former enemy turned ally being so gentle in his inquiry that touched your heart just as your makeshift memorial had touched his heart. That’s why telling Ruby’s story was so easy when doing so around a fellow Jianghu warrior who could understand the righteous fury towards evil and injustice as well as the all-encompassing grief of being an elder sibling who lost their home and their little sister. For a little while, it was like Ruby was alive and well again as you told Zheng E about the many escapades you and her got into such as her copying down sentences for you if you were ever in trouble with your aunt and had to write for hours as punishment, her preference for stories of Jianghu warriors and pine nut candy, her signing you up for a martial arts contest without your knowledge until you got to the venue with the expectation of being a spectator, or you buying her a little red cape with a promise to travel the Jianghu with her under the moniker of “The Twin Wanderers.” Even your detailed stories that explained the presence of the little red bracelet sitting on your wrist that she made you for your sixteenth birthday or the riding mount you and her called “Clip Clop” warmed Zheng E’s heart since he had always wondered why you treasured these two things the most out of any other possessions you owned but never got up the courage to ask. For every story of yours Zheng E heard, you could have sworn he chuckled under his breath with a certain gleam to his eyes as he shared similar tales and escapades that he and A-Ruan got into years ago. For those few short hours under that apricot tree, you and Zheng E could feel each other becoming closer over a shared narrative of being elder siblings with similar literary themes, characters, and archetypes, which led to a steady partnership. You were even shocked out of your skin to hear Zheng E issue a formal apology for what happened between you two in the Granary since he had no idea about what tragedies you suffered before that day, which you promptly accepted even though you soothed Zheng E’s internal worries by stating that had you been in his same position, you’d probably do the same thing as well to protect yourself and others from the Jianghu’s evils. In fact, you recounted how you utterly lost it in combat against Aureate Pavilion and Qianye, the witch that crafted a magic array around your home to trap everyone in the area to be slaughtered until Ruby felt she had no choice but to use her cunning and bravery to help the villagers escape to safety by showing everyone the way out before being struck down by an arrow. Although he knew that this conversation or apology didn’t fully excuse his behavior or expunge his past actions, it did feel nice for Zheng E to know that he had a true ally who could identify with where he was coming from before judging him.
If you and Zheng E were to ever be involved in a serious courtship, I can imagine that he gifts you apricot blossoms from his tree, which he often tucks securely in your hair so he has any excuse to touch you with such a gentle, tender disposition that it almost makes you blush as your heart drums against your chest. Also, since Zheng E was an elder brother with a little sister, I think he knows how to do his own and others’ hair, as evidenced by the ribbon braids and intricate style that he has secured with a hairpin that looks like trails of frost. Chances are that Zheng E would braid and otherwise style your hair for you if you asked him for help or gave him permission to do it for you. All in all, Zheng E’s large, slender hands, even when gloved, handle every tress on your head with the utmost conscientiousness to avoid an accidental snag of a tangle or an accidental crushing of the gift blossom before the stem can be tucked behind your ear. If you didn’t know any better, you would say that perhaps gift giving, acts of service, and quality time could be his love languages because his kind heart would never allow people to go hungry in his vicinity when he has the means to provide for himself easily, he adores the mundane moments of adorning your hair with blossoms or braids, and he feels a tingly warmth and leap in his heart whenever he gifts you a blossom since he loves to see your smile and hear your words of gratitude. Even a simple act like him combing your hair is performed like a sacred ritual to atone for his sins of harming others in his grief and nearly killing you in the Granary, which further compliments the soft humming under his breath of what sounds to you like a song he might have sung for his sister twelve years ago. In addition, Zheng E once commissioned an artisan to craft you a floral hairpin out of silk that resembled a Dawn-to-Dusk blossom because he once heard you remark in passing that even though their poison was a deadly miasma, the flowers themselves were pretty to look at. While he was never a frivolous spender who wasted his money, Zheng E was not above small gestures every so often to show his love to others. Since being gifted that hairpin by Zheng E, you never take it off because it remains a constant part of your wardrobe and it nearly brings a tear to Zheng E’s eye knowing he gets the pleasure of seeing you wear it whenever he sees you in the Jianghu.
However, you’re not afraid to reciprocate either when it comes to combing, styling, or braiding Zheng E’s hair for him. After all, you both see each other as equal partners in your courtship and in the Jianghu. In fact, the most relaxed you’ve ever seen Zheng E is when you two are together, even if Yi Dao is in a small radius only for the purposes of offering backup and protection, doing each other’s hair or just being in each other’s presence while doing separate activities. The real reasons why you like helping Zheng E with his hair? The texture is so soft like silk as it effortlessly glides through the teeth of a comb or the fingers of your hands, and the coloring is so unique since it’s as white as his Jianghu namesake of Frostwing, even when he alleges it was originally the color of fresh ink when he was a child. However, where Zheng E initially believed you were embarrassed to have a lover with white hair before their twilight years, you were quick to dispel his insecurities because every part of him intrigued you. This fact of your personal perception that his handsome features were ethereal was further confirmed with a peck of your rosy lips against the ivory hair near his temple as you whispered to him that he was beautiful, which only caused the young man to chuckle under his breath and lower his head so you wouldn’t see the bashful blush forming on his cheeks. And if you were to ever let Zheng E rest near you as your fingers rhythmically stroke through his hair, trust me, he’d surely melt like ice in the summer sun because your touch, even the sound of your voice, make him feel safe.
A master of the folding fan, Zheng E doesn’t mind helping you hone your martial arts as he teaches you some of his moves and practices with you whenever you are visiting Apricot Village, especially when you recently picked up on techniques for the Panacea and Inkwell Fans. In fact, a common occurrence between the two of you that Yi Dao and others often witness is seeing two figures moving together as if they are dancers for Velvet Shade Sect, with Zheng E often positioned behind you to straighten your arms and correct your posture by tapping your limbs with his closed fan acting like a stick if your stance is too wide or too narrow. Zheng E has even taught you how to use the fan like a flying projectile that can be aimed like an arrow before returning to your hand like a boomerang, which is quite ironic considering that folding fans are normally tools used by Silver Needle Sect and they are normally renowned as healers unless you cross them. While you are still in the process of perfecting your aim with the fan since Zheng E has more experience compared to you, some of your best moments together amongst many are spent in combat training.
In case you haven’t already noticed, Zheng E has a substantial advantage over you when it comes to height. Even in your battle against him in the Granary, you constantly had to look up to even catch a glimpse of his face while dodging a swipe of a fan near your face or spikes of ice stabbing towards your body. Outside of combat, you still struggle to look up at Zheng E, so he often needs to kneel down or you have to stand on top of objects in order to be on equal eye level with each other. Half the time, when it comes to anything like kisses, hugs, or cuddles if the relationship goes beyond friendship, Zheng E has to be seated or laying down so you can access his face without interference from his height or almost getting into accidents of breaking your neck just to meet his eyes.
Since leaving Heaven’s Pier, you’ve always kept your face covered with a cracked, ivory mask to ensure Aureate Pavilion and other enemies of your Uncle Jiang and Aunt Han don’t recognize you, with only the locals of your old home and Yi Dao having any inkling of what you really look like. However, Zheng E had earned your trust over time and you were courting each other, so you decided it was only fair to show him your true face since you already knew his secret of not being the real Shen Yilun. Even before your reveal of what was under that mask, you could tell that Zheng E was always curious about why you kept your face covered even when sleeping or eating, but he never seemed to pry because you thought he didn’t want to be rude or imposing by inquiring. Sure, you weren’t a heavily-perfumed and decorated beauty from Revelry Hall that everyone would pay money to glimpse at, but by all accounts from those in Heaven’s Pier who watched you blossom from a little girl into a young lady, they all said that you weren’t ugly because you had your own charm and radiance. Even your ally, Yi Dao, kept a close eye on you and watched your back to ensure that no men in the Jianghu tried to get handsy with you because he knew what the hearts of men were really like and even he couldn’t deny that you were physically attractive. But to Zheng E, he was absolutely smitten as soon as you peeled off the mask because it was such a shame that a beautiful face like yours would have to hide to avoid persecution by lechers and enemies, and your Wind Sense could definitely discern an audible gulp of the white-haired man’s Adam’s apple as his breath hitched into an almost-cough. Reaching out to touch the thin scar on your left cheekbone that your Uncle Jiang claimed you got as an infant as Zheng E wondered aloud if this was all real while his irises widened with a glossiness like frost, you clutched his gloved palm in your own as you giggled out a tease of “Yes, this is real and so is my face.” But what made your heart skip a beat as your eyes widened in shock was when Zheng E rasped out a honeyed compliment that detailed his personal preference for you alone even if he was surrounded by a thousand women. To Zheng E, he believed you were so beautiful like a Dawn-to-Dusk Blossom because even with a scar on your cheek that others might think was ugly, it didn’t take away from his perception of your beauty just like the poisonous miasma of that aforementioned flower didn’t take away from the blue lights or radiance you saw in it. This only caused your face to redden with warmth as your gaze lowered with eyelashes fluttering like a butterfly’s wings while Zheng E stared warmly at you with the softest smile. Since that private reveal, Zheng E has prettily requested that from now on, he wants you to not wear your mask around him again because he wants to be one of the few who can be given the privilege of gazing upon your true face. In return, you choose to grant his request unless you know that he’s expecting visitors in his professional capacity as Master of Grain or if you’re out in public together. After all, Zheng E isn’t naïve or stupid because he understands the danger of your true identity coming out since he’s in a similar boat and he wouldn’t want to be the catalyst of yet another disaster involving someone he loves.
The quickest way to increasing the love in Zheng E’s heart for you, other than showing care towards honoring the memory of A-Ruan? Show that same level of honor and care to the least of these in society as an honorable warrior of the Jianghu. For instance, you, Yi Dao, and Zheng E were gathering intel related to another mission in order to help common folk in Kaifeng and during this quest, you found yourself growing closer to a little blind girl named Zheng Ran. Unlike others that kinda wrote the girl off as a liar in denial about the whereabouts of her father or a child with a fantastical imagination, you were willing to sit with her and listen to her stories about her father or a magical gold leaf even if she talked on and on for hours. So it was no surprise that when Zheng E witnessed your interactions with this little girl whenever you would visit the outskirts of the capital city of Kaifeng, he was quite pleased to see a warrior who fought with honor and had a heart that cared about society’s orphans, widows, infirm, and poor in the Jianghu. It brought a warm smile to his face knowing that there were still some in the Jianghu who wanted to do the right thing, as you helped out the locals for small rewards even though you would initially not take anything from those who needed it more unless they insisted. In fact, his favorite trinket to see on your person is the decorative gold leaf pendant that hangs from your belt, which was given to you by Zheng Ran alongside a lotus pastry as thanks for helping her locate and reunite with her missing father.
In his free time, you learned that Zheng E often strums on his guqin when he needs to clear his head. From heavy songs of passion that could reawaken the qi of a weary Jianghu warrior to light-hearted tunes that could make a baby laugh, Zheng E plays anything and everything in order to ground him in the present and take his racing mind off of his official duties as the Master of Grain or the tragedies of his childhood. Either way, you love when Zheng E plays something for you because he actually has a good ear for music. But Zheng E also learned through personal experience by spending time with you in the Jianghu that if he chooses the right song to strum on that guqin, he gets the pleasure of watching your arms and legs weave together stories in a fluid dance, especially if the beat is fast-paced like the herald of war drums. Unbeknownst to you, Zheng E often takes a second look that lasts a little longer than necessary whenever he sees you dance, with his eyes widening in softness and a warm smile brightening up his face as he watches you spin and leap around the grass.
Your special nickname for Zheng E is “Bái’Ér (白儿),” which references your close affection for him and his association with frost and the color white. While he was always called “A-Zheng” by his little sister and his childhood friend in youth, he’s kinda glad he has a new nickname from you because it allowed him to close out an old chapter of his life story and open up a new chapter with a new identity. As soon as he hears this nickname, he can instantly tell it’s you near him because you’re the only one who calls him that and you only use it when you know you both are alone, which makes its use all the more special to him. In return, Zheng E has a special nickname of “Wǒ de xīngān (我的心肝)” for you that he also only uses when you two are alone, which you recognized as a term of endearment based in the medical profession that he once practiced as a former member of Silver Needle but also a symbol of how he views you compared to everyone else.
While you remembered that Zheng E was often observed to be coughing into his gloved hand at certain points during your battle under the Granary, nothing scares you more than to see the man nearly hacking out a lung to the point of blood being spewed from his lips, as you fear that you could lose him just as you have others that you’ve known and loved in this world. It also doesn’t help that when Zheng E coughs sometimes, he looks like he’s struggling to even catch a hint of his breath as his face starts becoming more ruddy and borderline blue at times, especially if he overworks his body through combat training, singular and dual cultivation, and other high-level activities. Several times, you have used your own qi to stabilize, diagnose, and heal him out of panic that he was going to die in front of you, but thankfully, his coughing fits are short-lived and mild compared to others who have experienced similar symptoms since he and other civilians were infected by poisonous miasma from some kind of powder, which Zheng E miraculously survived. However, it does break Zheng E’s heart to see you get so upset to the point of a mental breakdown or crying fit whenever he coughs because since that battle in the Granary, he never again wants to be the cause of your pain.
Speaking of pain, Zheng E is a go-to healer for you and Yi Dao amongst warriors you have encountered in the world of Jianghu, especially after you had the intuition to put the pieces together that he might have been a disciple of Silver Needle at one time based on his detailed research into the physiological effects of Dawn-to-Dusk blossoms, his use of a folding fan in combat, his association with apricots, his hands always being gloved up like other Silver Needle disciples, and his impeccable mastery over healing arts. Not to mention you heard whispers in your travels that alleged that Zheng E and your friend Zhai Xu were once Silver Needle peers trained to be great disciples and doctors under the same master. A lot of times, Zheng E is the doctor you often call for aid whenever you’re worse for wear, and for the most part, he will answer the call any time you send it because the last thing he wants is to lose another person he cares about in this world. While he’s given up on the world and himself for the most part because of all the darkness he’s seen and the guilt that consumed him once he realized that he had fallen from grace into the temptation to burn down the world for turning its back on him and his family, he absolutely refuses to give up on you and your relationship together because you chose to love him and have faith in his goodness in spite of everything you knew about him, often times giving him verbal reminders of why he became a warrior for the common folk and the new Master of Grain in the first place. There’s just something about your demeanor that reminds him of who he used to be, the young man who could look past the ugly and dark of society’s downtrodden to find even a hint of light and goodness underneath, so you know without a shadow of a doubt that Zheng E couldn’t imagine his life without you in it.
Since your life stories are so similar, unfortunately, that means you and Zheng E both have a common symptom of nightmares involving graphic scenes of the past or the pain of guilt in the form of “what if” inquiries to address the question of changing the past, which can affect one or both of you when you’re sleeping. For you, you often wonder that if your martial arts were up to par earlier and you hadn’t wasted your time playing with butterflies and toys as a child and actually listened to Aunt Han and Uncle Jiang in training, would you have made it to Ruby in time and would she still be alive? For Zheng E, he often wonders about his innocence and naivety about the hearts of humans and how if he would have been as brave and strong-willed with a blade or even as intuitive about patterns as his little sister, would she and his entire family have survived that night? Even when one or both of you snaps awake and is left trembling or even weeping from the memories or the way you have put yourselves on trial for crimes you didn’t commit as children, you and Zheng E know you have each other’s backs because physical or verbal comfort is often the first thing that is offered whenever you or him see the other person in pain.
Renowned for wearing ivory fur that resembles the beauty of his long tresses or the frost of the battlefield he once fought on against you before becoming your ally, Zheng E doesn’t mind sharing his fur cape with you, especially when he notices how cold you can get during the nights you do spend with him in Apricot Village. The first instance of him draping you in his cape was when you fell asleep on his shoulder while he strummed on his guqin, which reminded you of the many times that you would meet a random traveler on the road and take a few minutes to stop and smell the roses by playing a song with them. Looking up from his guqin to gaze down at your face, Zheng E was genuinely surprised to feel your warmth breath against his neck like a kitten while your shoulders ebbed and flowed with the waves of slumber, even if the white-haired man slightly moved to better adjust you in his arms without jostling you awake. Removing his fur cape from his shoulders while you continued to slumber, Zheng E draped the warm and soft accessory over your smaller body before wrapping his arms around you to further provide you with warmth. And with your Wind Sense, you could’ve sworn that you felt Zheng E’s lips peck your forehead in your sleep as he held you before transferring you to a more comfortable surface like a bed. But if you would’ve asked him directly about it later, he would’ve outright denied it with a statement of “I don’t know what you’re referring to.” However, there have also been times where you’ve stolen Zheng E’s fur cape from him to try it on for yourself, which often makes Yi Dao guffaw at your childlike silliness while he teases in all playfulness that fur is definitely not a fashion accessory in your future because it nearly swallows you up like a puppy trying to carry a bone in its mouth that is several sizes too big. However, Zheng E doesn’t mind when you steal his fur cape so long as you return it because he thinks you look lovely in it, especially because you normally wear dark colors and modest garb that completely covers your femininity, so white is a stark contrast that highlights your natural beauty. In addition, he gets a good laugh out of watching you imitate him by strutting around in the cape while fanning your face with your silk weapon, especially because you have observed him enough times to mimic his mannerisms correctly and it brings back fond memories of A-Ruan playing pranks on him too.
