"Sometimes I suspect if those half-mind-driven cultivators' children are you all or something.." Chóng Fēi muttered, putting another lozenge into his mouth for his throat pain.
Lìngxiāo held a faint smile, almost fond. Sometimes Chóng Fēi didn't let the air get too heavy either. His jokes were dry, but those who knew would smile for sure.
He cleared his throat, grabbing everyone's attention as he answered firmly. "Of course. Everyone's life has value. And that is why I am here. But as guardians, it is our duty to protect them. They are not like us."
Then he remembered the recent light but sure changes. "There has been no murder report came to me after the one you have called me for too. I would be careful with the presence of the dark energy so it does not harm anyone."
Those men looked at each other thoughtfully, yet they didn't really look like they wanted to admit it.
"Well..that is true."
"I did not realize why or when the gûi got silent a little. Did it get asleep or something?"
They muttered to themselves, seeming finally to start believing bit by bit.
Lìngxiāo exhaled softly. 'Finally.'
"So I was hoping for a second chance for the innocent souls—which can be the most basic but important step towards success and an ideal society." He closed the scroll for now.
The ending of his speech was just emotions. "So that no soul gets punished before they have learned what blood rain is..nor get turned from their beloved family and friends..they deserve a beautiful life."
He kept a hand over his own chest faintly, his fingers only brushing through the thin layer of silk. "And I am willing to help without asking anything in return..no payments. Just help."
Lìngxiāo finally paused, which felt like forever. He felt like he had freed his past shell from this curse as he spoke for himself. For others. He had never felt this peace in his whole life.
But another call made him turn to the crowd again.
"Has Gōngzǐ agreed on it?"
"Will Féng Xiānsheng ever agree on it even?"
This was like the only boundary he needed to cross. Not even Chóng Féng, but Chóng Fēi. He still had the power—at least to prove his points. Today or after releasing the whole town from the curse, he would fix things for the children too.
So he turned at Chóng Fēi, not worrying whatever answer came from the other side, and asked, "Would you like to fight back with my judgement, Fēi Gōngzǐ?"
Chóng Fēi's gaze moved over him silently. His gaze on him with calmness and something more he couldn't quite read. Sometimes Chóng Fēi was just too good at hiding things within him, even if some things Lìngxiāo caught easily.
"My meeting..so I would speak of some stuff of course." He muttered as he stood up from his seat.
Lìngxiāo nodded once, his head politely lowered over his hands on the table instead.
Everyone's gaze went back to him. A few looked like they were praying he wouldn't take Lìngxiāo's side and ruin their tradition.
"First of all, I thank you for your valuable speech, Lìngxiāo Gōngzǐ. You were not brought here just to sit like a rag doll. You have done your part for now." Chóng Fēi said with a quiet nod, speaking politely again, his hand going to some scrolls.
"My pleasure, Gōngzǐ." Lìngxiāo answered back politely, waiting for the decision, his smile less pressured.
Not only for the plan to take action, but to try to understand that person who he had seen so little—with no fixed personality, just developing—and even why the ghost would be after him specifically.
An affected person's personality tells a lot about ghosts, and ghosts tell a lot about someone's personality.
"The rule of the sinful children under eighteen—and then raising them until eighteen before taking action—it is one of those top twenty rules which have never been touched because..it has always felt fair, and it was made by the formal powerful leaders of the Chóng generation." Chóng Fēi said.
His words had a shade of weight that was different from Lìngxiāo's. Lìngxiāo's felt like the silently heavy sky before rain..and Chóng Fēi's felt like a fully gray sky with light rain falling in a narrow direction.
Nobody spoke here.
They were just waiting for the real decision, as if Chóng Fēi was intentionally teasing their patience.
"Not even my zhù fù thought of changing it before. I myself was thinking about it, while I am not officially announced to have my throne." Chóng Fēi pushed back his hair with a light grip on his skull as if it hurt—his sneezing had stopped a bit more than before, but his nose was still red.
"But later, his biggest focus became stabilizing the gûi as much as possible, and inventing ways so the common people die 'less' and we can survive within this disaster until there is a permanent, harmless way to fix the town's crisis." Chóng Fēi added, his tone firm but almost unsatisfied by this side left untouched.
Hearing it, Lìngxiāo was a little surprised, because the first impression he had gotten from this young man was never this way. His father was a cold-looking hot-headed one, and Chóng Fēi was the reactive hot-headed one whose anger was always on his nose, ready to be blown.
But he had heard that people get rough when they don't get care or time from their parents. Chóng Fēi was always attention-demanding since childhood, keeping even Lìngxiāo with him for more than twenty hours of the whole day, like he would sacrifice his sleep for playing.
He would do anything to make his father pay some extra seconds on him, which always used to go wrong or didn't last long—because he wasn't of an age to yell too hard. Too young.
The last few years surely had more history buried under this roof that shaped him this way. His anger issues were understandable that way. But still, he couldn't tell why he was suddenly taking the risk of breaking his father's rules.
'Has Féng Xiānsheng really invited me here for this, or did things just end up this way?'
'I really..do not think he might have wished for my opinion here.'
He kept quiet for now. His nerves popping into his ears from the cold, and his headache already there.