WIP snippet of 🧂 🦐 canon divergence fic! Diverges after Haixia comes back to life. No poison, but that also means he isn’t able to recover his ability to walk (the fic is much more about the cool stuff they’re doing than it is about that though). I’ll probably write some more in the universe if I get ideas; just little oneshots here and there.
Zhang Haixia knew she was there long before she came to sit next to him at his bar-side table. Her amber and agarwood perfume would catch anyone's attention, not just his, even if they wouldn't have been able to decipher the specific ingredients like he could. She was, after all, wearing way too much of it. He wrinkled his nose and let out a quiet snort, shaking his head as he did so. So much for being discreet.
The woman was beautiful, sweetly coiffed short hair, red lips, and a well fitted lavender cheongsam that accentuated her curves. Her eyes were bright and wide, and she blinked coquettishly before sitting down next to Zhang Haixia. He sighed, resting one hand on the arm of his wheelchair and tracing the rim of his glass with the other.
"Can I help you, Miss?" he asked, eyebrows raised.
She smiled, lips a cupid's bow. "Sorry to be so bold, but I was wondering if you could buy me a drink?"
Zhang Haixia, who had just taken a sip of his beer, let out a short cough. "Miss, if I may say, you're quite forward in your flirtations. Do you believe me to be rich?"
"Now why would you think that?" She rested the top of her hand under her chin and tapped her cheek with her index finger.
He blinked, then frowned and gestured downward at his legs, still and unmoving in his wooden wheelchair. Years ago, he'd regained some feeling in them, as well as a small amount of movement, but the progress had come to a stasis.
Eventually he'd realized, even if the doctor hadn't said it out loud, that he wasn't going to get any better. The Zhang blood in him, strong as it was, couldn't repair the damage to his legs and spine.
Zhang Haixia wasn't ever getting out of that chair.