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English
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Part 8 of 100-Word Drabbles
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Seasons of Drabbles - Winter Round 2023/2024
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Published:
2024-02-03
Words:
707
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1/1
Comments:
11
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11
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3
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Revenge Before Reason. And Also After It.

Summary:

Rong Guang sets out to get revenge on Pei Ming.

One scheme at a time.

Notes:

I hope you enjoy!

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

0.

He finds Ming’guang in the very first temple, the two pieces displayed on the altar in place of a statue.

The wisp outside the temple doesn’t remember much. It knows a name – this temple’s god’s name – and a regret but the sight of the broken sword stirs up a rage that burns away any seal on his memories.

It takes Rong Guang ages to gain the power he needs to break through the temple’s wards, but when he does the sword welcomes him.

It runs to him like a child to cry into its parents’ arms.

It cries for revenge.

I.

They call him “The General Who Broke His Sword.”

They say his title in a whisper, furtive glances to the side as though it’s something to be kept secret. Already the rebellion is forgotten, new heroes and conflicts taking shape upon a new stage, Pei Ming himself relegated to matters of romance. Few remember how he really was.

Rong Guang won’t allow it.

He spreads the tale far and wide, lets the whole world know of their beloved god’s treachery, and watches them immortalize it into a beautiful tale, to follow Pei Ming always.

In heaven, Pei Ming stays silent.

II.

The nice thing about heavenly officials is that they’re highly flammable.

Granted, that’s true of a lot of beings, ghosts included, but there’s never that same sense of satisfaction in burning some ashes versus setting ablaze a temple or two.

Or ten.

Rong Guang watches the pyre and waits. Waits for the flames to reach the heavens and drag out the god he wants to tear to shreds with his bare hands.

The problem though, he soon learns, is that some gods just have too many temples to care about a few flames.

Pei Ming is one of those gods.

III.

Any general worth his title carries a sword, and what better sword for Pei Ming than Ming’guang itself! Rong Guang doesn’t doubt the sentimental bastard will lower his guard upon seeing his beloved blade tucked in among the presents, and that will be the perfect time for him to strike.

Pei Ming, upon seeing the sword that looks so much like his own, is stunned. It lasts for the exact blink of a moment needed for him to grab the blade and throw it off the edge of the heavenly capital.

Rong Guang relishes his expression all the way down.

IV.

“Ol’ Pei… you know I don’t judge your affairs…”

“You do,” Pei Ming interrupts. “Just last week.”

Ling Wen glares. “You know I don’t seriously judge how you choose to immortalize your flirtations. But this?”

On stage, the playwright sings his exultations of General Ming Guang, who’d personally told him of the affair in a dream.

“It wasn’t me!” Pei Ming cries out indignantly! Since when does he commission his own plays? He has enough of them!

“If it was, you’d be the last woman I pick!”

Ling Wen ignores him for a month.

Rong Guang calls it a win.

V.

“Think about it!” Qi Rong bares his sharp teeth. “My brains and your bladeness. That stallion Pei won’t know what hit him!”

Qi Rong’s offers comes with his army of followers. They’re a useless bunch save for their numbers, and Rong Guang has plenty of ways to make use of those.

Still, he doesn’t think twice before rejecting the offer and crushing what might have been a damaging scheme.

“What is wrong with you! You’re making a huge mistake!”

Rong Guang has no time for this wannabe ghost king.

He will be the one to get revenge on Pei Ming.

+I.

“…and that’s when Pei Ming remembered his foot was caught in the rope and…” Rong Guang mimes the general’s flight path to an entranced audience. Ling Wen stifles her laugh, Shi Qingxuan doesn’t, and Pei Xiu shows the barest smile. Even the Rain Master looks on amused.

“Enough!” Pei Ming shoos everyone away and turns around, bright red. “Aren’t we supposed to be friends again?”

“Fuck you and your friendship! Want me to rest in peace? Let me have this!” Rong Guang laughs.

They say the best revenge is living well.

They clearly never had a supply of childhood stories.

Notes:

Thanks for reading!

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