#we had to throw my favourite shirt coz it got so much blood on it it couldn’t be washed off

[randomingoftherandomness]

Yuanzhi is covered in blood and Shangjue can smell it as soon as he enters the courtyard/grounds.

The tang in the air is almost immediate and assaults his senses with the full force of a hammer to his head.

“Shangjue gege?” Ziyu holds him firmly by the elbow. He shakes his head, looking back up at the empty courtyard in front of him.

Something is wrong.

He quickly unsheathes his sword and Ziyu wordlessly does the same. Heart pounding high in his throat, he rushes in, eyes frantically looking for signs of life.

His feet take him in the direction where the scent of blood is strongest — Yuanzhi’s laboratory.

Shangjue suppresses the panic that gnaws at his heels. Outpacing Ziyu, he doesn’t look back, sprinting to the door.

“Didi! Didi!”

“Ge? Zhiren?”

Yuanzhi peeks his head beyond a screen, looking startled at their entrance. His mouth is a mess of blood and spit that spills all the way down the front of his robes, and Shangjue drops his sword in his rush to pull Yuanzhi into his arms.

“What’s going on?” Yuanzhi coughs, patting at Shangjue’s back with complaint in the scrunch of his nose. “Ge… too tight…!”

“You tell us, Yuanzhi Didi,” Ziyu says, looking around the laboratory. “What’s all this?” Sheathing his sword, he gestures to the array of pots boiling on the multiple burners and the almost wicked way the steam casts the rest of the room.

“Ah.”

Shangjue lets him pull back far enough to frown at him.

“Ah? That’s all you have to say?” Shangjue chides. Lifting his sleeve, he wipes at the blood around Yuanzhi’s mouth, only for him to retch and scramble for a bucket to vomit into.

From behind him, Ziyu quickly goes to pour a fresh cup of tea, while he rubs Yuanzhi’s back.

“It’s just an experiment,” Yuanzhi explains, wheezing when he lifts his head. “Took it a bit too far, ‘s all.”

Shangjue clenches his jaw. Meeting Yuanzhi’s eyes he is only slightly mollified when his Didi looks appropriately cowed at his glare. Ziyu bustles forth with the cup of tea and Shangjue steps back to retrieve his sword.

Hiding his shaking his hands in his sleeves. He takes a moment to calm himself down before he does something stupid in front of their Zhiren like throw Yuanzhi over his knees and spank him for the foolishness.

They’ll have words about this later.