Little Fish. Chapter 17.

After dinner, Wei Zangchen made a fuss of bathing Xiao Li and getting him ready for bed. Tactfully, the news that he had intended to wed Gu Lang wasn’t brought up. Once Xiao Li was ready for bed, Wei Zangchen read him to sleep, returning to his own room late.

He sorely wanted to punch Gu Lang in the face for his cheek. They had been fiancés. The key word being “been.” He didn’t doubt the guide loved him, but it had been four years. He had enough on his plate to think about, consenting to a surgery he wasn’t sure would work out.

Sitting half under the covers of his bed, he rubbed his cramping right calf. The day had been too long, with the only time to himself being that stolen moment in the bathroom and the half hour before dinner.

Hearing the door to his room creak, Wei Zangchen thought it was Xiao Li about to creep in, until he noticed it was Gu Lang. His expression immediately turned hostile. He did not want another lecture about his health from the man who’d trapped him here.

Gu Lang chuckled at his expression.

“Not who you were hoping to come sliding into your bed?”

Normal people might have missed it, yet Wei Zangchen saw the way Gu Lang looked at Gun Wen. His jealousy was basically as bright as the sun. He needed to nip this before Gun Wen became the centre of Gu Lang’s paranoid manipulation.

“Xiao Li likes to sneak in.”

“I can hear his breathing, he won’t be waking up immediately.”

Guide senses were on par with their esper brothers. He doubted that showering would have erased the conversation between himself and Chi Ren, even if Gu Lang had seemed clueless after. It all felt like a trap.

“What are you here for?”

“Have you forgotten already? Two hours of guiding each day. You can go to sleep if you hate my face that much.”

Wei Zangchen felt entitled to. Gu Lang reminded him of all he’d lost. He reminded him of all they’d been through. All his past happiness had been tied to that man. That’s why he felt he was allowed to hate that face.

“Enough. If you’re going to conduct guiding then do it, otherwise you can go.”

Walking over to the chair set next to his wardrobe, Gu Lang pulled it over. For a moment Wei Zangchen had thought he’d sit on the bed, his heart rate increasing uncontrollably—naturally heard by the guide. Gu Lang laughed.

“Are you mad I’m over here? Should I join you?”

“Do it and I won’t be held responsible when Chi Ren dismembers you.”

Loosening his mental consciousness, Gu Lang started guiding.

“You can trust her.”

Wei Zangchen was prepared only to trust her as far as getting some control of his body back. He knew he was in a precarious position and that Gu Lang was acting like a complete fool. He should have handed him over already to give his statement. Until Xiao Li was formally adopted by Gun Wen, he couldn’t even go hand himself over. When he didn’t answer, Gu Lang started talking.

“I came back to you dead. I tried to search. Your family asked for answers, then took your life payout. I nearly murdered them. My mental cloud was a mess. Then Chi Ren came along. I didn’t trust her at first. She pissed me off. Always just nodding along with her job until I lost it one day. She asked me then if that was the face I’d show you if we were to meet again.”

Wei Zangchen didn’t want to hear it. His mental cloud was still so starved of guiding that when he tried to push back, nothing happened other than slight fluctuations.

“Her manipulation rivals my own. I won’t see anyone at the centre. I go to her, she lays into me, and that’s been enough.”

Put that way, it sounded like the guide was fishing for reassurance. Wei Zangchen was not about to.

“Please just conduct the guiding.”

Gu Lang snorted.

“I’ve been investigating what happened to the best of my ability and it still took you coming back from the dead. Do you have any idea how inferior I felt?”

“I…”

Wei Zangchen was about to say, “I can go back to the dead.” The joke was too painful and died on his lips.

“I want to punch you in the face. You let me think you were dead. That wasn’t something that happened to us.”

No. They’d thought they were the lucky two. That death wouldn’t come for them. Or, at least, that’s how they lived because they knew thinking about it would only tear them apart. It had been weeks after the accident that his mental cloud had calmed enough to remember who he was. The rest came back later on… but Xiao Li had been there to make each breath worth it.

Before everything, they’d been doing so well. Gu Lang could talk for hours about anything to avoid the issue, and so could he. They both knew the better way to be was for the other to cut the crap, and that had become their thing. Once told, the truth had to come out… as much as clearance allowed. They had a remarkably healthy relationship for two men who went in and out of Gates.

“Will you at least try to get better?”

The gentle plead in Gu Lang’s tone hurt him further.

“I want Gun Wen to adopt Xiao Li legally and for permanent, proper accommodation to be organised for them. I want to know where the children are, if they’re safe, and if they themselves feel safe. I want to know that the others haven’t been rounded up to be experimented on again. I want to know the workers of the institution have been laid to rest properly.”

“I can tell you that won’t happen. Gun Wen can’t legally adopt Xiao Li.”

Wei Zangchen knew it had to be too good to be true. Gu Lang’s personal feelings aside, he saw him as a useful pawn. But Xiao Li needed a permanent, loving parent to give him a whole house as nice as the little prince’s room.

“Then I won’t help you.”

“You won’t ask why?”

“Why would I? You’ve made up your mind. Gun Wen is the best father for Xiao Li. He could use a wingman. A guy like him should be dating and marrying. A good stepmother. A room full of all he could want and need. They’d make a nice happy family.”

Gu Lang’s guiding flared, causing Wei Zangchen to hiss at the unintentional assault. Having such a weak mental consciousness truly annoyed him to no end. Hearing him hiss, Gu Lang eased off.

“You were the only esper who ever made me slip up so badly when guiding. Gun Wen won’t be adopting Xiao Li. I need to legalise Xiao Li’s birth first.”

Legalising birth would prove Xiao Li’s existence without a past. Gu Lang could forge the documents, yet it seemed that he didn’t care much for the child. Then again, Xiao Li was young. He and Gun were both sources of love and trauma. A fresh start might be everything Xiao Li needed to thrive.

“They already know about him anyway. I guess that’s that.”

“Only because of the DNA left and the other children. Close your eyes, your cloud’s too worked up and you’re resisting me too much. I promise I won’t lay a hand on you.”

Wei Zangchen was skeptical. Sliding down, he turned his back on Gu Lang.

Gu Lang kept guiding Wei Zangchen until he was nearly asleep. He had the esper close, his consciousness taking the gifted guiding, then his phone had gone off. Connected shallowly, he felt the surge of panic that filled Wei Zangchen at the sound the esper wouldn’t have heard in four years.

He’d forgotten to turn off the alert for a new Gate assignment through the deployment app.

In his panic, Wei Zangchen severed the connection too fast—Gu Lang feeling almost physically whacked over the head with a chair. Holding his head with one hand, he fumbled out his phone with the other, quickly opening the app alert and ending the beeping.

The end of the rhythmic beeps left silence between them. Gu Lang cursed himself for bringing his phone in with him; it was simply habit to keep it close when at home. He’d felt Wei Zangchen’s genuine fear of that sound. He could hear the esper’s shaking breaths. The way they’d ended the connection… He wanted to get up and go check on Wei Zangchen, yet he’d promised not to touch him.

Gently, he apologised.

“That was my fault. My team is—”

“Get out.”

There was no misunderstanding that, but the guide still wanted to apologise.

“Wei—”

“Get out!”

Wei Zangchen’s mental cloud turned hostile. He’d already had Chi Ren on his case… If she knew about this, then she’d probably make him return Wei Zangchen to her office for closer observation. They definitely didn’t need him setting the bedroom on fire, and his presence carried too much of a risk.

“I… You… Take care of the apartment while I’m away.”

If his team could have heard him then he’d have had to murder them. Stalking out of Wei Zangchen’s bedroom, he pulled up the new mission list. Twin bronze Gates. One Gate was bad enough, but when two opened too close to each other, then things got hectic. Worst of all, he’d already acknowledged as received while trying to silence the alert.

Annoyed and wishing he could take the last five minutes back, Gu Lang barged his way into Gun Wen’s room. Gun Wen dared to snore happily with the damn light on. Kicking the end of the bed, the whole bed shook violently. Gun Wen jerked up with a screech.

“Gah!”

Before he could continue, Gun Wen was reminded that hell was truly a thing when around guides and espers. Extreme displeasure didn’t come close to quite capturing that “extreme” bit. Wei Zangchen had let him in a tiny bit and now two damn Gates had him in trouble again.

“I’ve been called in. Don’t leave the apartment. Don’t burn down the apartment. Don’t fucking think about making me work when I come back. I want you looking after this place and I want you looking after Wei Zangchen. If he loses so much as a gram, it’s on you. And don’t go up to the second floor unless you want to see what it’s like to hang from the top floor by your ankles.”

Gun Wen nodded quickly, no trace of that relaxed sleep remained. Seeing the man terrified, Gu Lang gave him one last nod. If he came home to find anything out of place, then he wanted Gun Wen to truly experience the unhappiness he felt now.

Half an hour later, Gu Lang arrived at the site of the twin Gates. Given his arrival by helicopter was blatantly obvious, his team immediately came running. The four grade-A espers immediately sensed their boss’s bad mood, only Cai Dan brave enough to ask.

“Major?”

Gu Lang adjusted his thoughts. He didn’t particularly want to be called an arsehole when he was actually feeling he was. There was no way to change the alert sound, and he couldn’t very well turn the damn device off.

“It’s nothing. Problems with the cat.”

Both Cai Dan and Shu Min understood who that “new cat” was. Wu Xiaosheng and Fu Long turned their gazes curious. Wu Xiaosheng rarely paid interest to humans, which Gu Lang was remembering all too late. Both he and Fu Long had abandoned their birth names in favour of online gossip before they’d moved into Gu Lang’s team. Personally, the guide didn’t see whatever it was that everyone else saw online, but he was called the “Stone Emperor,” a joke Wei Zangchen had used a hundred times to drive him crazy.

“Major adopted a pet?! Do you have photos? What’s his name? Where did you get him? Is it a him?”

Cai Dan had the nerve to turn away. Gu Lang wished he could borrow some of Wei Zangchen’s fire and set the bastard on fire. Shu Min seemed conflicted, wanting to step in while knowing he’d gotten himself into this situation.

“His name’s Ming Shen. He ran away and came back timid. I was getting through to him until the alert went off. He wasn’t talking to me when I left.”

Shu Min followed Cai Dan’s lead and turned away. Wu Xiaosheng was completely captive.

“Poor little guy! Can we meet him? Is he normally friendly? How long have you had him?”

Gu Lang heard Cai Dan squeak. Gu Lang once again adjusted his mood.

“He’s friendly when he wants to be, but you don’t want to get on his wrong side. He’s soft and cute, then he gets mad when he’s hungry… Cai Dan, what do you think of my cat?”

Cai Dan didn’t want to be brought into this. The esper was unable to look Gu Lang’s way.

“Not my problem.”

Gu Lang clicked his tongue.

“Shu Min?”

Shu Min knew how to be diplomatic… and not to piss him off when Wei Zangchen had finally returned.

“I think you simply need to give him time to open up again. I also think there are two Gates behind us that need our attention. I don’t think your cat will be happy if you don’t hurry home.”

Gu Lang let himself be cheered up by Shu Min. She clearly recognised that he had better things to be doing than being dragged into this mess.

“No. He wasn’t happy when the alert went off…”

Wu Xiaosheng quickly took out his phone.

“I know some good brands for cat food. You can never take enough care. I’ll send you the links now. I can’t believe you didn’t tell us you had a cat, Major. I feel betrayed.”

“He’s only just come back. Once he’s more settled I’ll show him off.”

Wei Zangchen would never have let him get away with bragging about him the way he was now. Gu Lang hoped that idiot Gun Wen would check in with him, or better yet, move Xiao Li to Wei Zangchen’s bed. Wei Zangchen was having too many thoughts, and none of them ones that Gu Lang wanted… other than the surgery. On the way home, he’d have to buy his favourite cat some flowers to apologise…

“Shu Min, remind me I need flowers when I get out of here.”

Wu Xiaosheng immediately objected.

“You can’t bring flowers home to a cat! Some types are extremely toxic! How can you keep a cat and not know this! I’ll send you a safe list! You call yourself a pet owner… You owe me photos for this.”

Thankfully, he really did have a cat at home. He’d have to find a way to bribe Clam Soup into talking to him.

“I might send one, I might not. We have two Gates to deal with and I want to get home. Let’s go, I don’t want the mess inside to spread further.”