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It's the slow numbness in his fingertips that makes Xiao Xingchen realize his hands are tied.
Spirit-binding ropes, no less, bindings powerful enough to suppress the majority of his power. He tries to keep his breathing even as he strains his ears, trying to figure out what's going on.
There's the sound of footsteps from his right, a pat pat pat he'd grown familiar with in the past few days. The floor is barely cushioned with dried grass - also a familiar feeling.
"My friend?" he tries. "Is that you?"
The footsteps suddenly stop, and are quickly replaced with sharp laughter.
"Good morning, daozhang," his friend replies, but the accent is all wrong. The words are laced with the tight-tooth grit of the Lanling dialect. The pitch is identical to his friend's voice, but…
"Where is this?" he tries.
"You need to ask even that?" his - the person scoffs. "This is your home, Xiao-daozhang. The coffin house."
Xiao Xingchen flinches at the poison laced in every single word. His friend usually speaks sharply, but that was usually with the bite of sarcasm, not genuine threat. Is - has his friend been possessed?
"Who are you?" he gambles. He's met with a vicious laugh in reply.
"So now you want to know?" The voice gets closer, until it's right beside his ear. "And I had thought it was something you didn't care about. Well, I suppose it's been long enough."
His breath catches as the person's left hand touches his throat. The fingers wrap around his trachea without gripping, one, two, three, four-
No.
"You didn't forget me, did you, Xiao Xingchen?" the voice croons. "I'd be terribly upset."
"Xue Yang," Xiao Xingchen chokes out, and the fingers come away from his throat, patting him on the head like a child.
"That's a good boy," the voice - Xue Yang - hums. "Did you miss me?"
Xiao Xingchen isn't given a chance to reply. The moment Xue Yang finishes speaking, he places his hands on either side of Xiao Xingchen's head and shoves his knees upward.
His blood runs cold. How had it not noticed? No - Xue Yang was supposed to be dead!
"Xue Yang," Xiao Xingchen addresses shakily. "What is the meaning of this?"
"Remember that story of the child who begged for candy?" Xue Yang coos. "You didn't want to hear how it ended, but I want you to know the ending. You see, the receiver of the message had been the nobleman's enemy. Upon the delivery, the child was beaten black and blue. He still went back to the nobleman - he'd made a promise! - and the nobleman refused to even acknowledge him."
"Xue Yang-" Xiao Xingchen sucks in a sharp breath as Xue Yang pushes his robes up and places an icy, four-fingered hand on his abdomen. The fingers press into the flesh, so cold they feel fiery.
"The child jumped in front of the nobleman's carriage, desperate for food, but still the nobleman continued to ignore him. The horse whinnied and the carriage strode forth, running the child over and crushing every bone in his left hand!" Xue Yang laughs, digging his remaining fingers into the seam of Xiao Xingchen's trousers. "All for want of a single piece of candy! Xiao Xingchen, is my life worth so little?"
"Xue Yang-"
Xiao Xingchen hisses at the sudden pain as Xue Yang yanks his trousers off. He closes his legs instinctively but Xue Yang is in between his thighs, forcing his knees open.
"Xue Yang! What is the meaning of this!" The air is icy against his sex and Xue Yang's clothing scratches as he moves.
"What do you think, Xiao-daozhang?" Xue Yang snaps, but freezes when he sees what's in between Xiao Xingchen's legs. Xiao Xingchen tries again to close them, but to no avail. Hot shame shakes his body, followed by fear. He doesn't know how Xue Yang will react to his body. He's managed to push his clitoris into a cock with his cultivation, but he knows what his body looks like.
The sharp laughter with which Xue Yang reacts is expected. The slap across his face is not.
"Does it feel good, Xiao Xingchen? Prancing around with a fake body like this? Judging me when you're just as much of a liar as I am?" Xue Yang growls. "Is this why you don't have a courtesy name?"
"Shizun didn't-"
"Even I have one! Isn't that a thought!" Xue Yang suddenly cackles, nails digging into Xiao Xingchen's thighs.
"From who?" Xiao Xingchen reacts instinctively. Xue Yang? He's the last person who deserves to have a courtesy name. He must be lying-
"From the Jin bastard who maimed me, of course!" Xue Yang laughs, and Xiao Xingchen cries out as a sharp pain snaps across his cock. "Aren't you lucky! If I had your body I would have already died three times over!"
Xue Yang's fingers are rough against his hypersensitive cock. Xiao Xingchen squirms, the stimulation inevitably sending sparks of arousal up his spine. He can't stop it either, not with his cultivation sealed.
"Xue Yang, please," he tries shakily. "What do you want? Whatever grudge you have with me, there's no need to do this."
"Xiao Xingchen," Xue Yang hums, making him flinch with a sharp tug to his cock. "Who ever said anything about a grudge? This is a warm thank you for all that you've done."
"Xue Yang-" There's a sudden sharp pressure against his hole, which has become uncomfortably slick. It's hard and unrelenting but it's too cold to be Xue Yang's cock-
"Xiao-daozhang," Xue Yang croons. "Thank you for the tanghulu you bought me yesterday. I'm so happy to be celebrating New Year's with you."
"No!" Xiao Xingchen cries, shaking as the pressure grows, pressing against him painfully. "Xue Yang, please, whatever you want-"
"Such a shame, isn't it? I would have died for less than this," Xue Yang sighs, and Xiao Xingchen screams as the candied hawthorn breaches him. The stretch feels like a thousand needles stabbing inside of him but he can't even reach out with his qi to see if anything tore.
"It hurts, doesn't it? Like fingers inside a wound," Xue Yang says, almost sounding absentminded if not for the poisonous edge on each word. Xiao Xingchen is barely able to process his words as the next fruit presses against his entrance. His legs shake as the fruit seems to stab all the way into his stomach. He can't help the scream that rips its way out of his throat when Xue Yang cups his cock again.
"Come now, this isn't even as thick as my fingers, and I don't even have five!" Xue Yang cackles, laughs catching wheezily in the back of his throat. "Imagine if they cared a little less about the dead people all over my skin! Then you might've found me covered in cum instead of blood!"
"Please," Xiao Xingchen begs. "Please stop. It hurts."
"It hurts, he says!" Xue Yang croons. "Isn't that cute? Well, it is New Year's, so I suppose I'm feeling nice today."
Before Xiao Xingchen can sigh in relief, something warm and wet lands on his sex, just where the tanghulu touches him. The liquid drips onto his ass and Xiao Xingchen freezes when he feels Xue Yang's breath on his cock.
"Tanghulu is meant to be eaten, isn't it? A shame I won't be eating this one," Xue Yang sings, then thrusts the entire tanghulu into Xiao Xingchen at once. Xiao Xingchen screams as the sugar scrapes against his insides, clawing futilely at the ropes that bind him.
"Xue Yang please-" Xiao Xingchen gasps as Xue Yang angles the tanghulu upwards. "What do you want from me? My fingers? My left arm? Why are you-"
"How are you this stupid!" Xue Yang exclaims, roughly ripping the entire tanghulu out of him. There's definitely blood on his face now, from his bloody tears or a bleeding nose he doesn't know. "Trading your body with one murderer for the sake of another? The Chang Clan deserved everything they got!"
"Xue Yang-"
"Fifty of their lives for a single finger, you say? That's hardly enough!" Xue Yang screams. "I wanted each of them to feel exactly what freezing from inside out felt like! My only regret is that Shuanghua kills too quickly!"
The entire tanghulu stabs into him again like a sword, merciless and bloody. An electric sensation runs all the way down into his toes, undeniably that of arousal, and he can't say whether he's relieved by the little bit of lubrication he can make or disgusted by the fact that he feels anything at all. Xue Yang twists his wrist and the sugar haw stabs into another overstimulated part of him, jabbing at nerves he didn't know existed and sending sensations both down his spine and into his throat.
He sobs as the hawthorn is pulled out and thrust in again, scraping relentlessly at his insides. The stretch isn't getting any less painful either, the fruits starting to tug at his skin as the sugar melts and sticks. Xue Yang tugs his blindfold off and he wails at the thumb pressing against the bone of his eye socket.
"You're so pretty when you cry, you know? All red and bloody. Such a shame your Zichen isn't around to see it."
"Zichen wouldn't-" Xiao Xingchen begins, but Xue Yang presses his thumb into the empty eye socket and he screams. There's hardly any pain but the feeling is overwhelming, like Xue Yang is pressing straight into his brain, agonizing yet numbing and mercilessly violating-
"'I don't want to ever see you again' were his exact words, weren't they?" Xue Yang snaps. "You think others will like you because you cut yourself open for them? Wake up! You have no one but yourself to blame for this! I can't believe you're so stupid that you didn't even recognize me as the corpse delivered to your doorstep!"
He can't tell the difference between his sex and eye socket anymore, every sensation a stab straight through his core. He can't help but recall the way he extracted the sword fragments from Xue Yang when he first found him. There's an ugly, messy gurgling sound, and it takes too long for him to realize that it's coming out of his throat.
"How does it feel, to be fucked on something worth more than my life?" Xue Yang shouts. "How does it feel, being defiled by these hands that killed Song Lan's entire clan? Xiao Xingchen, you are as disgusting of a being as I am!"
He can't see anymore but his vision seems to pulse with red every time Xue Yang presses into him. He can't remember much past that.
"Shit, fuck- wake up! Wake up!"
His insides feel like they've been scraped with a knife. He can't tell which way is up or down. He feels sick.
"You're fine- you're fine, you're fine! It didn't tear anything, I didn't fuck you, your hymen is still intact." The voice is quick, the syllables barely being pronounced. "By all accounts you're still a virgin. Even if you were a princess you'd be fine."
Nothing tore? Then why does everything smell like blood?
"Look, you have your qi back, see? If it hurts you can just heal yourself, can't you?"
Indeed, his hands are no longer numb. But why are they so cold?
"Xiao Xingchen, I will not allow you to die!"