Hey everyone! Since the last chapter was so short, I'm doing a double chapter update for you! *grins* Enjoy!

-Chapter Three-

Sighing as he stopped outside of school, Xie Lian looked to the doors as everyone meandered in from outside. He headed inside, changed his shoes to the ones for school, before heading down to his homeroom and slid into his seat. Several others were scattered about in the classroom as he pulled his books out of his bag to put in his desk for class.

"Yo Xie Lian!"

Looking up, Xie Lian saw his two best friends coming over to his desk. "Hey Fu Yao. Nan Feng."

"Is it true?" Fu Yao asked as he put his hands down on the edge of Xie Lian's desk.

"You seriously got lost in Ghost Forest?" Nan Feng added.

"And during that bad storm that came through?" Fu Yao continued.

"Man. I'm surprised you're not sick from being in that rain all night long." Nan Feng shook his head.

Xie Lian gave an embarrassed laugh. "Y-yeah, I got lost." He gave a shake of his head. "But I wasn't in the rain at all."

"Seriously?" Fu Yao asked with a confused look.

"Yeah. I met someone in the woods who took me to this cave before it started raining."

"Wait, you met someone?" Nan Feng asked.

Xie Lian nodded. "Yeah he was nice. He even gave me some meat dumplings and made a fire inside the cave to stay warm. Though he had a strange outfit on, it was also neat looking." He gave a smile.

"Did he give you his name at all?" Fu Yao asked.

"Yeah." He gave a nod. "Hua Cheng."

Fu Yao and Nan Feng's dark eyes widened in surprise before exclaiming together. "You met Hua Cheng?!"

Xie Lian gave a blink at the two of them. "You know him?"

"Duh! Everyone knows about Hua Cheng," Fu Yao pointed out. Xie Lian gave a confused look. "You know, the Ghost King? It's how the woods got their name."

"You seriously don't know about that?" Nan Feng gaped in surprise at his friend.

"Eh heh. No I didn't," Xie Lian replied with an embarrassed chuckle. Fu Yao rolled his eyes while Nan Feng shook his head in disbelief just before the bell signalling for class to start rang.

Sighing at their friend, Fu Yao and Nan Feng turned and went to their seats as others started filing in and sitting. Everyone was seated before the teacher came in, followed by another boy right behind him.

Dressed in a bright red flowing robe with a white undershirt, white pants, and light grey boots, the boy walked over to stand beside the teacher's desk. His long, black hair was pulled up into a ponytail with a red ribbon and two locks of hair were left loose on either side of his head. Golden hazel eyes looked at the class set into a pale face.

"Class, I'd like you to meet our new transfer student, San Lang." The teacher motioned towards the boy. "He came here from Shanghai. So please be polite and greet him." The class all said hello to him as the teacher pulled out his notebook and material for the class. "San Lang, go ahead and sit in the empty seat by Xie Lian."

"Yes sir," San Lang replied with a nod. He headed down the aisle towards the back where the seat was to Xie Lian's right.

Watching as he walked towards him, Xie Lian gave a blink as the boy caught his gaze and a small tug of a smile played at his lips before sliding into the seat and setting his bag on the desk.

"Xie Lian?" the teacher spoke up as he looked at his notebook.

"Y-yes sir?"

"Your mother said you had something to say to the class?"

Blinking before giving a look of embarrassed defeat, Xie Lian felt his cheeks get a slight bit warm in frustration as he slowly stood. He figured his mother had called the school and informed them of his apology she wanted him to say. All eyes turned to him.

"I...I'm sorry for the other day and making anyone worry. Please forgive me." He kept his gaze somewhat trained down on his desk, not wanting to look up at all the stares he was getting.

"Alright. You may be seated," the teacher spoke up. Xie Lian quickly sat back down and pulled out his book. "Xie Lian, please share your book with San Lang until I can get him one after class."

"Yes sir."

Looking over towards the new boy, Xie Lian scooted his desk a little more towards him. The boy had a slight smile as he scooted his desk towards Xie Lian's. Moving the book over as the teacher said to open to the page they were to read from, their hands touched for a brief second. Xie Lian's cheeks flushed a little with warmth as he pulled his hand away.

"S-sorry," he whispered slightly as the teacher started talking. The other boy didn't say anything but he did give a slight nod.

Getting through the next few classes, lunch finally came. San Lang turned to look at Xie Lian before giving a slight tilt of his head.

"So what was that apology about this morning? Did something happen?" San Lang asked curiously. Xie Lian felt his cheeks flush slightly in embarrassment.

"It was because he got lost in Ghost Forest," Fu Yao said as he came over to sit with his lunch. Nan Feng also came over with his lunch. "Your mother made you do it, didn't she?"

"Y-yeah." The medium brown haired boy hung his head with a small sigh of defeat.

"I mean, I can see she was worried about you but damn," Nan Feng said with a shake of his head. "She needs to lay off."

"I don't know...she just..." Xie Lian shrugged, trailing off as he pulled out his lunch.

"Well I still can't believe you said you met Hua Cheng in the woods," Fu Yao pointed out. This got San Lang's attention.

"And I still can't believe you didn't know who he was," Nan Feng added.

"Well sorry I didn't know," Xie Lian replied as he took a bite of his food. He rarely paid attention to ghost stories much anyways.

"Hua Cheng, the Ghost King?" San Lang asked as he turned to look at the three of them but mostly kept his gaze on Xie Lian.

"Yeah." Fu Yao raised an eyebrow at him. "You know about him?"

"Of course." San Lang gave a smile. "I love learning about various folklores and legends around the country." He looked at Xie Lian. "So...you really met him?" The brown haired boy nodded as San Lang pulled out his own lunch after scooting his desk over to them. "What did you think about him?"

"He was really nice," Xie Lian replied with a smile. "He took me to this cave in the woods before it started storming out. Inside, he made a little fire."

San Lang opened his lunch, revealing some rice and vegetables, a few pieces of meat, and four meat dumplings. Xie Lian gave a blink at them.

"Something wrong?" San Lang asked, noticing the other boy looking at his lunch. He looked down at the meat dumplings then picked one up. "Do you want one?"

"Uh…" Xie Lian gave a blink as San Lang reached out, took his hand, and placed the meat dumpling in his palm much like he'd done to Hua Cheng the other night. "I...I can't take your lunch."

"It's okay. I have plenty to eat." The red clad boy smiled as he picked up another dumpling. "These are my favourite." He gave another grin before biting into the dumpling.

"So if you really met Hua Cheng," Fu Yao spoke up, getting Xie Lian to look back at him. "What did he look like?"

"Well he was taller than me by almost a whole head," Xie Lian started. "He had dark hair that was long down to his waist. There was a lock of hair off to his right that had a red ribbon braided into it with a red bead looking charm dangling off the end. He wore an interesting looking red coat jacket that reminded me of something worn a long time ago." He gave a pause and looked at San Lang. "It was the same red as your outfit. And he had black boots." He gave a small pause as he recalled those eyes that had looked at him. "And his eyes….his left one was so dark, it looked black. But his right eye was red."

"His eye was red?" Fu Yao asked with a blink.

"Well what do you expect?" Nan Feng shoved food in his mouth, chewed, then swallowed. San Lang glanced towards him. "He's a Ghost King. But even so, it sounds creepy with eyes like that."

"I didn't think they were creepy," Xie Lian said. The other three looked at him. "I thought they were neat."

"Do you really think so?" San Lang asked. The other boy looked towards him.

"Y-yes." Xie Lian felt his cheeks warm a little in embarrassment. "I mean….I've never seen eyes like that before. But I thought it was cool."

"Did you know, some view heterochromia as something bad?" San Lang asked. "In the old days, some might even think it was a bad omen or meant that person was a monster."

"Really?" Xie Lian looked at the red clad boy in surprise, who nodded. "I think that's dumb. Who cares if someone's eyes are two different colours?"

San Lang gave a blink at the other boy's words but also smiled before taking a bite of his food. "I feel the same." He gave a pause before bringing his right hand up and pointed at his right eye. "I've also heard that Hua Cheng is blind in this eye."

"Blind?" Nan Feng asked, confused. "I haven't heard of that."

"Can ghosts go blind?" Fu Yao asked.

San Lang gave a nod. "They can." He lowered his hand away from his face, took a bite, chewed, then swallowed. "It's said he gouged out his own eye to create his scimitar with magic." The three boys gave surprised looks.

"That's crazy!" Fu Yao said.

"Why would he do that?" Nan Feng asked at the same time.

"It's a powerful sword and it can slay anything he wants," San Lang replied. "Only he can use it because of this. Besides, it was how he became one of the four Ghost Kings."

"F-four?!" the three boys asked curiously.

"Yup. There's Qi Rong, He Xuan, Bai Wuxiang, and Hua Cheng," San Lang pointed out. "Qi Rong, also known as the Green Ghost King is technically only a Wrath level ghost. He's a nuisance really. Hua Cheng actually kicked his ass once." He gave a grin before continuing. "He Xuan, or the Black Ghost King is a Devastation level ghost. While he's powerful, he doesn't cause much trouble."

"Wrath? Devastation? I don't understand," Xie Lian said, confused.

"There's four levels to ghosts," San Lang pointed out. Fierce, Severe, Wrath, and Devastation. Fierce ranks can only kill single targets and Severe a household so they are the weakest. Wrath could take out a whole city if they wanted to attack humans."

The three boys blinked in surprise before Nan Feng spoke up. "So what does Devastation rank do?"

"They could annihilate an entire country if they so wished," San Lang replied. The three boys gulped in surprise. "Which is why there's luckily only three actual Devastation level Ghost Kings and the Green Ghost King almost to Devastation level." He gave a pause. "Bai Wuxiang, or the White Ghost King is the eldest and the one that's the most insane. He is quite powerful as well, however, Hua Cheng, or the Red Ghost King, is still the king of them all. Piss him off and well….." He gave a small smirking smile. "Let's just say there won't be much left of that person anymore."

"Yeesh. And you said you met him?" Nan Feng looked at Xie Lian who gave an embarrassed look. "Dude. You got lucky he didn't kill you."

"Or eat you," Fu Yao added as he stuffed some food in his mouth.

"Oh Hua Cheng doesn't eat people or other ghosts," San Lang replied after giving the two of them a look. "That's something the Black Ghost King does. It's how he became a Ghost King, devouring a massive amount of ghosts." The two cringed a bit at the information. "Qi Rong tries to imitate that by devouring humans and ghosts alike. But he also likes to hang corpses upside down to imitate the blood rain that Hua Cheng is able to create when he kills the ghosts that piss him off or cause too much trouble. Though since he got his ass kicked by Hua Cheng, he's toned it down a bit."

"So if Hua Cheng is such a badass, why did he help Xie Lian out?" Nan Feng asked, then looked at his friend. "No offence that we wanted you hurt or anything." Xie Lian gave an embarrassed laugh.

San Lang gave a blink at the dark haired boy before picking up another one of his dumplings and gave a shrug. "Some people are worth helping in his eyes." The red clad boy ate his dumpling. "I suppose anyways."

"Well...whatever his reason, I just wish I could give him a proper thanks for helping me," Xie Lian smiled. The other three blinked as they looked towards him. "I mean...being stuck in that storm would have sucked. Not to mention, what if someone else came along and found me in the woods? Someone that wasn't a good person?"

"You are really strange," Fu Yao commented with a roll of his eyes. "Thanking a ghost for saving you. I've never heard of that one."

"I'm sure he knows you're grateful," San Lang replied with a smile. "But if you really wanted to thank him…." He paused, tapping the ends of his chopsticks against his chin as he seemed lost in thought. "You could leave him an offering of something you made."

"An offering?" Xie Lian gave a blink while the others gave furrows of their brows.

"Yeah. I've heard he likes offerings given to him."

"I wonder what kind of offering he'd like?" Xie Lian pondered aloud.

"You're seriously going to make him something?" Fu Yao asked with a raise of an eyebrow at his friend.

"Well, I do want to thank him," Xie Lian replied before looking towards San Lang. "Do you know what kinds of offerings he likes?"

"Hmmm…." He tapped his chin in thought with the chopsticks again. "I think anything might do."

"Ah! Then maybe I could make him something to eat like he gave me!" Xie Lian grinned. "Those were really tasty meat dumplings!"

Both Fu Yao and Nan Feng half choked on their lunches. San Lang gave a blink. Xie Lian looked at them as well.

"If there is any way to kill a ghost, your cooking would do the trick," Nan Feng scoffed.

"It's not that bad," Xie Lian pouted.

"The last time you tried making cookies in cooking class, the teacher ran to the bathroom," Fu Yao pointed out.

"Or the time you burnt the soup," Nan Feng added.

"Let's not forget how you burnt the rice," Fu Yao continued and rolled his eyes. "How can you burn rice that bad?"

Xie Lian gave an embarrassed laugh as San Lang looked at the brown haired boy. "Okay. Maybe cooking something isn't the best idea." He gave a pause as he finished off his lunch. "I guess I'll just have to think of something else instead."

Suddenly the bell rang signalling the end of lunch. They quickly finished up their lunches before moving the desks back as the class started to file back in for the next class. The rest of the day seemed to fly by and the bell rang to let school out for the day.

"See you later Xie Lian," Fu Yao and Nan Feng spoke as they headed outside. "Nice to meet you, San Lang."

"Nice to meet you too," the red clad boy replied as the other two turned and headed off to the right outside the gates to school.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow," Xie Lian spoke up with a smile to his new friend. He started to turn to the left.

"Mind if I walk with you?" San Lang asked as Xie Lian stopped and looked back at him. "I go this way too."

"Uh….s-sure." The lighter haired boy gave a nod as the other smiled. They started walking along, quiet for a few moments before Xie Lian spoke up again. "So….um….about what I could give to Hua Cheng as an offering…." He gave a pause. "Do you think he'd like a picture?"

"A picture?" San Lang looked towards him with a puzzled look.

"Y-yeah." Xie Lian paused while walking, as did the other boy, before putting his bag on the ground. He opened it and rummaged inside for a moment before pulling out his sketchbook and flipped a few pages. "I uh...I didn't want to show the other two. They would have laughed. Besides, it's not super great since the firelight wasn't very bright to see all his features but um…."

Turning the book around in his hands, he held it up to show the picture he'd drawn of Hua Cheng from his memory. San Lang's eyes widened then blinked a couple of times as he looked at the soft features that had been drawn, including the silver butterflies. He reached up, took the book, and looked at the drawing for a moment.

"It's really good," he spoke up with a soft smile, looking up at the other boy, whose face was somewhat pink in embarrassment.

"Y-you think so?" Xie Lian asked. "I'm not super great but I guess I can draw better than I can cook." He gave an embarrassed laugh.

"I think he would like this," San Lang nodded as he handed it back to the other boy. Xie Lian smiled before closing the book and put it back in his bag then slung it up on his back.

"I hope so. I'm at a loss for anything else to give." He gave a small sigh then furrowed his brows a little as they continued walking along. His cheeks grew warm as he recalled the Ghost King having carried him in his arms through the dark woods. "I uh….sort of left out the part where I fell asleep in the woods to Fu Yao and Nan Feng. They would have laughed had they known."

"You fell asleep?" Golden hazel eyes blinked as they looked at him. The other boy nodded in embarrassment. "You know that's dangerous right?"

"Y-yeah. Even Hua Cheng chided me for it." He gave a pause. "When I got lost, I sort of sat down for a few minutes and fell asleep. It was daylight when I did that. When I woke up…." He trailed off, feeling his cheeks get warm again.

"When you woke up….?"

"Well...I…." He shook his head. "You'll laugh…."

"I promise I won't laugh." Brown eyes looked towards him. "You have my word."

"Well….he was carrying me. Hua Cheng was. In his arms." Xie Lian glanced over towards San Lang, who gave him a surprised look before smiling a little.

"So he found you while you were asleep?"

"Y-yeah I guess so." Xie Lian gave another embarrassed laugh. "I don't know if he knew I'd woken up since I remained still. After all, I didn't know who he was or where he was taking me. Somehow, I think he knew though. But….that's when I saw them; the silver butterflies."

"You saw butterflies?" Xie Lian nodded.

"They were translucent and glowing softly like silver moonlight." He thought back to the two he'd seen. "They were so pretty. It also surprised me how Hua Cheng was able to walk through the forest when it was so dark out. I couldn't see anything." He gave a pause. "But maybe the butterflies were showing him the way to the cave? I don't know." He shrugged. "I just know by the time we got to the cave, they were gone. He set me gently on this ledge before starting a fire, asked if I was hungry, and gave me meat dumplings like what you had in your lunch today."

"Then the storm came?"

"It was a short bit before it did, but yeah."

"Did he say anything to you? I mean, other than chiding you for sleeping in the woods?"

"He did talk a little but not a lot," Xie Lian replied. "I did most of the talking, what little we did. He was mostly quiet." He gave a pause. "Though I gave him half of one of the dumplings despite him saying he wasn't hungry." He gave another pause. "He ate it but I wonder….do ghosts actually need to eat to survive?"

"Some do and some don't." Xie Lian gave a puzzled look. "Lower ranked ghosts like Fierce and Severe do mostly. Wrath and Devastation doesn't necessarily have to eat as much. The Black Ghost King is one of the exceptions."

"So when Hua Cheng ate the dumpling half I gave him, he really didn't need it?"

"Not really. But I'm sure he still appreciated the offer to share." San Lang gave a smile.

"I'm really grateful to have met you." Golden hazel eyes blinked at the other boy as he smiled. "It's nice making a new friend."

"Yeah, it is." The red clad boy smiled.

"And you're so knowledgeable about ghosts. That's pretty neat too." Xie Lian gave a smile. "So how would I go about leaving the picture for Hua Cheng?"

"Hmmm….." San Lang gave a tap to his chin in thought as they continued walking. "Well, you don't want it to get ruined so I'd say put it in one of those page protectors first. Then maybe put it in a container so it doesn't blow away and set it out by the edge of the woods."

"Will he really find it?"

"I'm sure he should." San Lang gave a smile. "You could always try praying to him too. He should hear it."

"Praying?"

"Yeah. Like the gods that hear their prayers, he should too."

"Even though he's a ghost?"

"Yup. There are some that follow him."

"Wow. I didn't know ghosts could have followers." Xie Lian gave a grin. "That's pretty neat." He paused before stopping at the end of the sidewalk to a house and looked towards it. A small sigh escaped him. "This is my house."

"Oh?" San Lang gave a look at it then pointed further down the road. "I live further that way." He gave the light haired boy a smile. "So I guess I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah. Certainly." Xie Lian smiled as San Lang gave a wave and continued down the sidewalk then turned the corner, disappearing out of sight. Xie Lian gave another sigh before heading inside. His mother wasn't home yet from work, which left the house empty.

Going to his room, he pulled out the sketchbook and gently removed it. Finding a page protector he had for some of his other sketches, he slid it in there then went looking for a container to put it in. Lastly, he wrote a quick note down.

Hua Cheng,

Thank you for the other night. I hope you'll like this picture I drew to show my gratitude.

Xie Lian

Smiling, he set the note inside then put the top on and taped a piece of paper to it with Hua Cheng's name. Then going to the back door, he went outside and across the back field towards the woods.

Stopping at the edge of the woods, he glanced around where he could set it so Hua Cheng would be able to find it. There was a nice little tree that he set the container at the base of before pulling out the red ribbon he'd grabbed from his room. Lightly tying it around the trunk, he smiled before clasping his hands together.

"Hua Cheng, I don't know if you can hear this," he started closing his eyes, "but I wanted to thank you. So I left you a gift at the edge of the woods. Look for the red ribbon on the tree, okay?"

Opening his eyes, he looked down at the container and smiled as he dropped his hands back to his sides. With a step back, he turned and headed back towards his house, not noticing the silvery butterfly that fluttered above.

Well that's the chapter. San Lang has made his appearance! *grins* And of course, can't forget Xie Lian's two best friends.
I went with more of the donghua's character appearances since that's the first thing I watched getting into this fandom. Though Starember's art is amazingly gorgeous too.
Also, Xie Lian's hair is shorter in this for a modernised look. I had come across a modern fanart with Xie Lian having shorter, shoulder length hair, which sort of fueled the inspiration. Fu Yao and Nan Feng also have shorter hair, similar to Xie Lian, but able to pull it back into their hairstyles like in the donghua.
Anyways, thanks again for reading! Any and all reviews and critiques are appreciated! *hands out cookies*