"Whatever caused you such distress, Xinyuan?" Hu Lijing approached him, hands folded behind his back and body leaning forward ever so slightly. Though he tried hard to sound cursory, the flowing waves of concern in his voice was anything but.

It appeared suddenly, the withdrawn air swirling around Li Xinyuan. The nine-tailed fox spirit found himself failing to understand the crux of such a change, thus fuelling his curiosity akin to a smoldering log burning slowly.

As his words fell, thinning under the weight of the silence pressing heavy in the room, Hu Lijing received no answer from the surgeon, creasing his elegant brows with a frown. "... Xinyuan?"

Li Xinyuan, still for a moment, jolted, as though rising to wakefulness from a trance. "Huh?" He turned to face the amber-haired man, expression dazed. His eyelids trembled, eyelashes fluttering with a shallow inhale. "Did you say something?"

Hu Lijing’s frown deepened further, lips tugging downward. Cautiously, he took a step forward, face softening as he slowly reached to put a hand on his shoulder. "You have been quite out of the ordinary since this morning. Tell me, what is the cause? Do not keep it to yourself like this."

The surgeon turned his head away, head dipped to look at his hands, raven hair rustling as they flowed down. "It is nothing," his eyes narrowed, lips pursing thin with a sigh, "just thoughts. Perhaps, one too many."

Hu Lijing did not believe him, not for a fraction of a second. Li Xinyuan’s demeanour belied his words.

"You lie." He declared, voice thin, soft. "One single thought or even one too many are hardly enough to make you withdraw this way. What is it... Is it the decree calling for His Highness the Crown Prince?"

Li Xinyuan blinked, swallowing around the growing lump in his throat. With a roll of his shoulders, trying to ease the tension mounted upon his shoulders, the surgeon straightened himself and turned to look at the fox over his shoulder. "It is hardly worthy of much thought."

Weary, chagrined. Hu Lijing’s frowning lips pulled further down, the crease between his brows only deepened. "Clearly, if it really were such a small matter, I do not reckon you would be so affected."

Li Xinyuan heaved a breath, silent in its escape, the air swirled out. "Very well, it is no small matter." he turned, looking far more distraught than Hu Lijing fancied his ward.

Immediately, he was beside the raven-haired youth. He may not be so young mentally, twice lived, once dead he may be. But that only stood true to mortal standards, for Hu Lijing, he was still much too young. He was his precious ward.

Disregarding the so prized bubble of Li Xinyuan’s self created boundary, Hu Lijing wrapped his arms around the latter and tugged him close, fingers burying in the luscious hair to stroke at his scalp as he pulled him in his embrace.

Hu Lijing hoped his warmth was a comfort enough. He disliked seeing the surgeon unhappy.

"Tell me." Once more, Li Xinyuan heard the man urge, burying his face against the warm shoulder.

"It really is hardly a great matter," He managed a fragmented chuckle, lips tugging up in a grimace. "We quarreled a little. Now we are not on talking terms whilst he prepares for departure."

"Could I ask the reason for your quarrel?" His voice was soothing as Li Xinyuan nuzzled closer. Hu Lijing’s voice was kinder than he anticipated.

Sighing softly, Li Xinyuan pulled away, a shudder running through his limbs at the loss of warmth. Slowly, he dragged a hand down his face, teeth worrying on his lip.

"How do I put it?" He looked away, golden eyes hidden away behind the partially down lids, flickering as if he was seeing a ghost. "I did not wish for him to go back alone. I wanted His Highness to take me along, I would feel assured closer to him, it would be easier to treat him should it—"

The following words stuck to his throat like tar, not even reaching the tip of his tongue. The night flashed before him once more, like a nightmare far too persistent. Haunting, choking.

Blood. Blood. Everywhere.

The pained groans, the bleeding maw, the falling viscera—

Hole. Bloody, gaping. Red. Red. Red. Everywhere. Everywhere—

With a jerk, Li Xinyuan snapped out, gasping, his face a pallid canvas.

"That night, I would lose my mind should it happen ever again. He— he isn’t—" Li Xinyuan stuttered, stumbled over his words, lips quivering. "He is not meant to die. He is not meant to be injured. He is not just any man—he is the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince does not bleed. Not red. Not ever."

"He is a human, is he not, after all?" Li Xinyuan flinched, eyes widening a fraction.

Those words. Calm, questioning, and leading. But certain. Hu Lijing’s question was like a ray of light, a beacon piercing through the fog in his mind.

Liu Mingyun was a human too. Not just a book character Li Xinyuan once read fleetingly of.

"He is a human, if he hurts, he too bleeds red. Like the rest of you."

Of you. Not us. You.

Li Xinyuan turned his head, the movement slow, stiff in its making. "But of course," He rasped, the words like lead off his tongue, voice sanding off his throat. "He is only a human."

He too will bleed red when hurt, he too will feel pain when hurt. Right, of course.

Jerking, he dipped his head, mouth slightly ajar as he coughed. "Still, we are not on talking terms as of the moment."

"Then," Hu Lijing drawled,cadence soft and drawn out in contemplation, "perhaps you should take the initiative?"

Li Xinyuan could hear the uncertainty of his words, and could taste the hesitation of his suggestion. Obviously, Hu Lijing would know not what to do, he had hardly ever done anything akin to that. Still—

"No." The surgeon shook his head, lips pursed thin. "We both were right in our own ways. I would rather give it time."

In truth, he too was hardly sure if it was the right thing to do.

He turned away, body now infinitely lighter than before.

"Will His Highness not be gone by then? I fear it will be much too late." Hu Lijing cocked a brow, canted his head to the side as he watched Li Xinyuan fall back into the empty silence.

The surgeon merely shook his head. "Who said I shall stay back and listen to him?"

The fox spirit jolted, as if struck out of the blue. Gradually, his face changed, a smug grin stretching on his lips. "Oh."