"How do I look?", Hua Cheng asked, after he got dressed in commoner's robes.
"Precious", Xie Lian giggled.
It was true. No matter how Hua Cheng dressed, he had that air about him that only powerful people could have. There was an easy confidence just oozing off of him, and it absolutely didn't fit the modest clothing. Apart from that, he'd taken off his leather eyepatch, and exchanged it for simple white cloth bandages. In order to fasten them, he'd put his hair up in a ponytail, and somehow it made him look much more youthful.
Hearing that he sounded precious, Hua Cheng got a complicated look on his face, and Xie Lian couldn't help but laugh out right when it eventually turned into a pout.
"What about me?", Xie Lian asked quickly, before his alpha could complain.
"Hot", Hua Cheng said and paused, giving Xie Lian time to feel rather stunned, before he proceeded. "I think taking the outer robe off would be better. Don't underestimate the sun, gege. Last time you were protected by the palanquin, but we'll be walking this time."
Xie Lian blushed, but had to admit that Hua Cheng had a point, and eventually took his outer layer off again. While he did that, he noticed Hua Cheng getting a somewhat weird glint in his eye.
"What?", he asked suspiciously.
"Gege, how would you feel about wearing a straw hat? I think I have one around here…", he said, and started searching through his things.
"So you want me to play the part of a farmer?", Xie Lian asked, feeling somewhat amused now.
"Why not? I think it would suit gege", he said, and seemed to have found what he was looking for, given his triumphant exclamation.
The straw hat he was holding up looked old, and rather battered, however it fit their goal of wanting to blend in with the crowd outside.
After Xie Lian had emptied out his heart to his alpha, Hua Cheng had been relieved, but also apologised quite a lot for not having made it clear from the very beginning that Xie Lian wasn't being held captive in the palace, and asked him if there was something he could do to make it up to Xie Lian.
Of course, Xie Lian had denied any need for that at first, but then he thought better of it, and forced the king to explore the outside city together with him. Last time had been nice, but surely it would be a much better experience if Hua Cheng was to accompany him. Not only that, he wanted to spend time at the market and exploring the city like a normal citizen, which was why they were trying to dress up accordingly right now. After all, they wouldn't take any guards with them, so it was better to blend in. Hua Cheng had assured him that it was unnecessary, but Xie Lian simply had too much fun seeing the king dressed up like this.
When they eventually left the palace, Hua Cheng wasn't wearing his signature red and black robes; instead he was wearing sandy colours, light brown and off white, with no patterns sewn in. They were a bit torn and ruggy, and if he was honest, Hua Cheng looked rather like a beggar more than a commoner. As for Xie Lian, he also wore completely different colours than his usual white ones. He was wearing light and dark green robes. They were pretty, but Xie Lian didn't really think they suited him. However, he did rather like the straw hat Hua Cheng had found for him.
When they passed by the guards outside the palace walls, they looked exceedingly confused, and seemed to be unsure if it was their king who was leaving, or someone they didn't remember walking into the palace, who resembled the king quite a bit. Some of them made to bow despite their confusion, but of course Hua Cheng saw, and stopped them.
"No need. Don't blow our cover", he muttered under his breath, and the guards straightened up immediately, not looking any less confused.
The whole scene reminded Xie Lian a lot of the time when he was young, and tried to sneak out of the palace without having his parents know about it. He wasn't always successful, but it had always been a fun and thrilling game for him to find out if he could fool the guards on duty.
"What is it?", Hua Cheng asked him when Xie Lian had started chuckling again for no apparent reason.
"I just remembered something", he said, and proceeded to tell all about his shenanigans growing up, much to Hua Cheng's own amusement, until they eventually made it to the marketplace, and he got distracted.
Looking through the stalls close up was indeed a much more fun experience, and Hua Cheng could even explain some of the origins of the items that were sold to him.
When a vendor at one stall told them that she was selling coral jewellery, Xie Lian wasn't very inclined to believe her. After all, they were in the middle of the desert! Even if there were corals in the oases surrounding Banyue, surely there wouldn't be enough to make an ample trade out of it?
"Gege, I heard the king buys from this vendor, too sometimes", Hua Cheng informed him with a cheeky grin.
And of course the sales lady jumped right on it.
"The esteemed- err, gongzi... has heard correctly! We are His Majesty's trusted employees, and he has officially made us his sole provider of his personal high quality jewellery. His Majesty has rather extravagant tastes if I do say so myself, and since he favours the colour red so much, we do our best to have the highest quality corals, gems, and stones. But of course we sell metals, too. Let me tell you, His Majesty's most recent purchase was this set of coral earrings. As you can see, it's been polished to perfection and-",
Xie Lian zoned the vendor out while he looked at the earrings. They were indeed very pretty, and from what Xie Lian understood of jewellery, it was true that they were also of rather high quality.
When the vendor was done talking, Hua Cheng looked at her with raised eyebrows.
"Did His Majesty really buy those?", he asked, and with just one look at the king, Xie Lian could tell that he hadn't.
"He has indeed", the vendor confirmed with confidence.
Hua Cheng huffed, and threw some gold coins on the table.
"I don't think His Majesty would appreciate his officially affiliated store lying about such matters. I'm buying them now , but you should stop that nasty habit of lying. Otherwise I might just cut ties with this store and look for a more trustworthy one", Hua Cheng threatened not so thinly, before he grabbed the box the earrings had been presented in, stuffed it into his robes, and proceeded to lead Xie Lian further down the road. By the hand.
"San Lang", Xie Lian couldn't hide his amusement; the king was grumbling about such a common practice among vendors, getting upset about it was just a bit funny to him. "Will you feel better if I give you a kiss?", he asked with a grin.
The question made Hua Cheng stop in his tracks, before he looked around and proceeded to lead Xie Lian off the main street and into a small side alley, without even saying a word. So Xie Lian took that as a yes.
Through the side alley, Hua Cheng led him into a back alley, where there was truly nobody else around, before he manhandled Xie Lian to lean against the wall, caging his head in between Hua Cheng's forearms, which he pressed against the wall as well.
"San Lang?", Xie Lian asked with wide eyes. He hadn't expected a reaction like this.
Instead of answering, Hua Cheng pressed his lips against Xie Lian's, still gently, but also with much more urgency than he'd ever done before. Xie Lian felt a little overwhelmed by that, but tried to keep up. Until he suddenly felt what could only be Hua Cheng's tongue pressing against his lips.
Gasping in surprise, Xie Lian's mouth opened, and he suddenly had a foreign tongue poking against his. It was such an intimate thing, he couldn't help but turn rather shy, and thus his attempts at reciprocating turned out to be somewhat hesitant. Hua Cheng didn't seem to mind, and took his time coaxing Xie Lian deeper and deeper into the kiss, until it was suddenly Xie Lian's own tongue that was invading Hua Cheng's mouth!
Xie Lian hadn't even fully realised when it happened, but he found he rather enjoyed this. How could he not? Hua Cheng's mouth was very welcoming, his tongue soft and playful and he didn't even taste bad. He probably could have done this for days if his tongue wasn't growing tired so fast. Thus, he was about to cut this kiss regrettably short, when Hua Cheng suddenly moved his mouth to kiss along Xie Lian's jaw, and pushed his groin against Xie Lian's at the same time.
It startled a moan out of him, and he could feel himself growing hard and wet; and swallowed thickly.
"S-San Lang… we- we should stop", he whispered, and while Hua Cheng didn't pull back from him, he at least stopped assaulting his throat, and instead rested his head on Xie Lian's shoulder.
"I hate that gege is right. This San Lang is sorry for getting carried away", his alpha said dutifully, to which Xie Lian could only huff out a laugh.
"That's one thing you don't need to be sorry for", Xie Lian said, and then kissed his alpha's cheek.
It took both of them quite a while to calm down properly again, a process that was significantly slowed down by the fact that Hua Cheng kept nuzzling his neck, and even scented him a bit. Xie Lian could only indulge him.
However, eventually they did manage to make their way back to the side alley, and they just turned to head back towards the main street, when Xie Lian heard a wail coming from behind them.
They looked at each other for just a short moment, before Xie Lian turned around and dragged Hua Cheng with him to see what had happened. Unfortunately, the wailing kept continuing and once Xie Lian was sure that the crying person was just around the next corner, Hua Cheng sped up his steps, and walked in front of him.
As expected, there was a small boy in the alley. However he wasn't alone. There were three other, slightly older boys, each of which had a dog attacking the already severely wounded boy. Seeing the scene, Xie Lian's heart immediately clenched painfully.
Hua Cheng stepped forward, and blew a sharp, loud whistle that had even Xie Lian flinching.
The dogs immediately stopped their assault on the boy, and turned towards Hua Cheng, ready to attack him as well. However, his alpha didn't so much as flinch, and instead, at least as far as Xie Lian could tell, gave them quite the stare down. Not to mention the indomitable pheromones he was choosing to display at the moment, which truly marked him as a rather impressive alpha. And sure enough, the dogs' ears and tails drooped, and they laid down on the floors, whining. Then, Hua Cheng turned towards the aggressors, and proceeded to give them a very severe tongue lashing.
In the meantime, Xie Lian had hurried towards the injured boy, who not only had bites all over his arms and legs, but even a bloody face, with hideous marks all over it. Xie Lian could only imagine how much pain the boy must've been in.
"Don't worry, we'll take care of you", Xie Lian immediately promised the boy once they had made eye contact. The only issue was, he didn't even know where to touch him, so he could carry him without hurting him even more.
"What's your name? Can you tell me?", he prodded gently, while still trying to think of something.
The boy had started to calm down somewhat since Xie Lian had started talking to him, and did manage to answer, albeit not without difficulty.
"G-Gu-...zi", he gasped through his pain.
"Guzi?", Xie Lian asked, to which the boy twitched in a way that could be considered an affirmative nod.
"Alright, Guzi. I- I need to get you to a doctor, and I have to carry you to go there and it will probably hurt. Can you bear it?", he asked as gently as he possibly could, and forced himself not to pay attention to the commotion that was currently happening behind him. There was no doubt whatsoever in his mind that Hua Cheng could hold his own against three kids.
Fear entered the child's eyes again, but eventually he nodded again, and Xie Lian leaned forward, moving Guzi's arms to hold Xie Lian around his neck, before he quickly, but carefully pulled the boy against him, until he could support the kid with his own upper body, and made sure to support the child by holding him with his forearm under his bum, to make sure he wouldn't fall off.
Once he was sure he had Guzi in a secure grip, he turned around and momentarily froze.
"San Lang…", he said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
Hua Cheng looked beyond fed up with the boys, but somehow managed to have a tight grip on a wrist of one boy each with just one of his hand. The boys struggled to free themselves, and yelled quite the insults at the king when they were entirely unsuccessful. With his other hand, Hua Cheng was holding three leashes, however the dogs were much more obedient than their masters, and didn't make a single sound, just sitting beside Hua Cheng's feet, suddenly extremely tame.