"GŌNGZI!" Lìngxiāo heard Mō Qīn yell, while all he could hear was the rushing sounds of the wind in his ears.
But this tone of his felt different. Not the untamed, arrogant one, but tamed—someone who actually cared like a friend.
Lìngxiāo almost couldn't believe it.
'What is..happening..?'
"Is this the same moth trauma again?!"
"HEY, QĪN! KEEP UP WITH THE HEIR! HE'S REALLY ANOTHER BIG TROUBLE!"
"Focus on Gōngzǐ. I can handle here."
The other two curses which were free spoke with Mō Qīn and the others.
"IS THAT MEAN THAT FEMALE HIGH-RANKED CURSE MOCKED ME BY CHANGING VOICE?!" The female curse among them said with both panic and insulted rage.
'Where..am I..?'
'I am alive..?'
'How?'
'Heir..gonna die..? Who..?'
Lìngxiāo forced his eyes to open against the rushing wind. It felt like the same scene he had left earlier. But it was also different. The mountain looked different—not bottomless black with deeper, wild looking bushes.
Below was Mèi Xùe lake—flowing like an aggressive dragon.
He felt his body full of each year of history. The hair felt longer, hands felt stronger and more skilled. The twenty-five years of life was in every piece of him.
It was reality.
He couldn't remember why or how he ended up here either. He remembered only Mō Qīn as his tamed curse which he had back then. Even the other three he had just summoned earlier were unfamiliar to him, so when they grabbed him before he could fall into the lake, he felt like danger was claiming him.
"Who..you.." Lìngxiāo swallowed hard. His voice felt like he hadn't used it for years. He looked around. "Who..the heir..?"
His eyes snapped on the female curse with the same horror he had felt with that moth one.
"Stop touching me..." He hissed faintly, his hand generating the frozen fire again which was spreading over the female one's arm like frozen needles.
"Gōngzǐ, I am not that bitch!!" The female one cried out.
She quickly pulled away that arm which was freezing, cracking it quickly before it had gotten solid—which was a bit slower than usual because of Lìngxiāo's slow realization to life.
The curses shared an uneasy look. They started to throw reminders of reality as told.
"GŌNGZI, it is not her!!"
"She is snake and that one was creepy moth! She is not here!"
The boys said first.
"I am your serpent, Gōngzǐ! You are not nineteen. You are twenty-five right now and you have come here with multiple intentions." The female one said quickly, her eyes wide but relieved as she carefully put back Lìngxiāo's hat which she had been wearing.
"I am twenty-five already..?" Lìngxiāo blinked like he had become an adult in one jump. His chest too tight with that memory. He looked at the female curse and then the other two males. "You all are my curses..?"
"Yes!" Three of them said almost like a plea.
"That arrogant heir is Chóng Fēi, now grown up! You two came here alone. You were supposed to meet Mō Qīn here and find more clues of the story you suddenly found—clues over here that this place might have some connections with multiple things, but your main intention was to release your energy before you break!" The three-eyed one said.
"You are not dreaming. But you did terrible things when you were lost in the trauma loop. You didn't know what you were doing, and before we could cover things up, you made damage!" The eight-eyed one said.
"Chóng Fēi?" Lìngxiāo blinked, removing hair and water—tears—from his eyes which he didn't realize he was having. "I came with him? He have grown up..from that ten years old kid too.."
He did a quick math.
'If he's five years younger than me and I am twenty-five, then he is twenty already!'
'I thought I would never meet him after what happened here..'
'He have grown up..and alive while all I have heard was his siblings being born and dying..'
'What damage did I make..?'
He paused while the curses weren't even moving to take him up because if he wasn't steady yet, thankfully, he would bring more chaos without meaning to.
"Come on, Gōngzǐ. You HAVE to remember! Only your this self can handle those chaos. Not your six years old self which kept hunting you." The female curse pressed, her usual teasing tone pressed cold for now.
He looked at himself—all soaked in rain. Now it was raining much heavier. The water—not only rain water but soil and damaged trees falling into the lake, flowing from the Queen Stone to Liánlěi Tān beach.
A few pieces of conversation came back to him like a river had broken a path.
"I'm hiding nothing."
"What do I have to hide from you, Gōngzǐ?"
"Can't you be.. open enough?"
"You are too pro—"
'Did he mean..I am too professional..?'
'I was not before..but now for a few years.'
Lìngxiāo blinked in silent recognition. And now looked at his curses with the gaze of familiarity.
His memories slowly settled back about everything. Then the recent events—from his return to Yún Xi for the common people who were willing to die to kill him right away, to running back here to release those dangerous energies while Chóng Fēi was left behind with all of the heavy rain and thunders.
'It was all that trauma hit again..perhaps actually bigger than Chóng Fēi's.'
'But is he alright even after I set proper safety everywhere..?'
He looked up at the peak from where perhaps he had fallen. The edges were rougher than before, wild looking from the soil damage from the heavy rain. He couldn't believe he still had made any big mistake. Who knows what was waiting for him up there.
The words about Chóng Fēi being in trouble which might be because of him was a new layer of guilt and worry for him—which he never wished to happen, which was why he had come this far to release those energies and also listen to Chóng Fēi's problem which was always clear on his face.
He knew he would intentionally never hurt anyone. Not even Chóng Fēi. Those much big shields were not for just saving the town but a lot of lives right over other mountains too. For the mountain which seemed to hold both of his memories and a lot of secrets.
Or why Chóng Fēi refused to let him go while his work was already with the ghosts?
"Where is Mō Qīn? And Chóng Gōngzǐ?" He asked, back to composure but still shaken. Now concern creeping to him.
All three of their eyes faintly softened as if a shade of worry had been lifted away—but not totally.
"Welcome back." The eight-eyed one breathed, removing an invisible sweat.
"Shut up, he just came back from another death. Greet properly." The female curse ordered.
The other curses rolled their eyes with a faint exhale.
"He knows what we meant already." The three-eyed one said.
"It is fine." Lìngxiāo whispered.
He pressed the bridge of his nose, removing both sweat and the layer of water from his face. It felt suddenly cold and heavy with this uncomfortable posture at mid-fall where two curses held him by his arms and another by his legs.
The eight-eyed one looked at Lìngxiāo from his feet's side, not hearing the female one at all, coming to the point. "There is a lot to inform you actually if you are ready."
Lìngxiāo nodded, wet hair tangled at his fingers as he pushed them back which framed his face differently. "I am ready..Let me stand. Take me up."
"Really?" The eight-eyed one observed again. "Could you remember how you felt by the heir's story with that exorcist?"
Lìngxiāo stared at the curse like: really? No other question was there to check his memory?
But he answered after clearing his throat which felt like ringing—perhaps going to catch a cold. "Cut-sleeve..." his muttering was lightly pressed down with awkwardness within the worry. His cheeks warm beneath the coolness.
His single words said everything to know.
"Ah, he really is back to his sense." The three-eyed one exhaled.
"Move, move now. I would do the rest." The female curse slapped away the other curses from him.
Her cold fingers gave a familiar light press over Lìngxiāo's forearm like a comfort or for grounding.
Her legs transformed into her dragon fruit-red snake tail, which she had extended to let Lìngxiāo stand over her.
"Fine. I am going to Mō Qīn." With that, the three-eyed one flew upwards of the mountain, leaving them.
"OY MŌ QĪN! IS EVERYTHING FINE?" The three-eyed curse's call echoed around the mountains which no ordinary humans could hear—but only he himself, his curses, and the yàos.
'I hope whatever damage I had made.. would not be permanent as my smile..'
Lìngxiāo watched the curse go. His feet touched over the tail as he usually rode his curses. He kept a hold on her too—by chance if he couldn't make it.
"Careful. He seems still struggling to stand on his own." The eight-eyed one said, he didn't leave, just flapping over the wind.
"I know. But he is not a baby either." She muttered, turned at Lìngxiāo.
She started to guide him up. The other one followed.
Lìngxiāo's chest felt the dull ache of worry as bit by bit they got closer to the peak, dodging the rocks or trees which was still falling but stopped more than before.
The female curse held a nervous smile, her tone softened only for him like preparing him for another blow. "The next thing might be horrifying..just we can not fix it as it was before even if repaired much, Gōngzǐ."
"Alright.." Lìngxiāo could only whisper the words and nod once.
But his insides were a storm again.