Fic: Caught on the Tides of Life (1/3)
Jul. 10th, 2025 08:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silver_sunSomething a bit different, well it's still H/C and for a Cdrama, but it's not MLC (yes I am still working on that last part of Before the Dawn) This is for Heroes (2022) and is Di Feijing canon divergent thing. I'll post it here are 3 shortish parts over the next couple of days. Then once it's done I’ll put it on ao3.
The Fei character in Di Feijing's name is the same as in Di Feisheng, but the Di character is a different one.
Di Feijing - 狄飞惊
Di Feisheng - 笛飞声
Title: Caught on the Tides of Life.
Chapters: 1/3
Fandom: Heroes (2022) ("Shuo Ying Xiong Shei Shi Ying Xiong" (说英雄谁是英雄))
Rating: general
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Di Feijing & Lei Chun, Di Feijing and Qi Shaoshang
Characters: Di Feijing, Qi Shaoshang and Wang Xiaoshi (breifly) Lei Chun mentioned a lot (Di Feijing misses his sister)
Additional Tags: Canon diverent AU - for Di Feijing at least, hurt/comfort,
There is no shelter here, but then he has never taken the easy path. A faint, weary smile forms on Di Feijing's icy, bloody stained lips. Unable to go on, he sinks to his knees beneath the bare trees.
He'd never expected to survive his fight with Fang Yingkan. That he has managed to blind him, leaving him defenceless and wounded in this wilderness will have to be revenge enough. The vile young marquis will never harm another. He is content to let him wander in pain and fear before the ice and snow claim him.
He presses a hand against the wound in his side. There is no warm welling up of blood now - the bitter cold has stopped the bleeding. Perhaps if he'd reached safety or if someone was searching for him there might have been a slimmest chance of survival.
There is no one coming this time. It had been a miracle that Lei Sun and his wife had found him on that snowy night all those years ago.
Fate it seems cannot be outrun, not in the end.
Tired, barely feeling the cold around him, Di Feijing closes his eyes, breath slowing, barely misting in the icy air.
"-ll Master Di!"
Someone is shaking him, one hand on his shoulder, the other holding his hand. The voice is familiar, although in his disorientated state Di Feijing can't bring whose it is to mind.
It's a struggle to open his eyes, even the snowflakes that have settled on his lashes seems to have an impossible amount of weight.
He manages just enough to see Wang Xiaoshi's earnest, worried face blurring in front of him. At least he's likely to get a proper burial. There is no better person he could run into out here. There are few better people anywhere. He hopes Wang Yingkan remains are eaten by wolves and carrion birds, scattered to the corners of the Earth.
He tries to blink, but he doesn't have the energy to open them again.
“Stay awake!”
“Don't tell...Chun-er.” He can't bear the thought of her blaming herself for sending him away. He'd have liked to see her again, to know that she is safe, but he doubts it will happen in this life. Perhaps in the next he can be her brother again. He'd like that. Perhaps he will do a better job of protecting her. He'd like that too.
“You're not going to die,” Wang Xiaoshi says firmly, as he hauls him to his feet.
Dizzy, the cold air sears Di Feijing's lungs as he gasps, his legs buckling beneath him as he tries to stand. He doesn't fall, the arm around him holds him tight. They stand like that for a moment, then he is lifted off his off his feet.
“Fang Yingkan is dead," Wang Xiaoshi says, still talking to him, trying to keep him awake, as he carries him over to his horse, then lifts him into the saddle. “You did...”
Di Feijing doesn't hear the rest as he slumps forward, the last fragile scraps of consciousness fading away.
The next few times Di Feijing wakes is to a sea of pain, breathlessness and fever. The room seems distorted around him, while each cough feels like it will rip the wound open again. Who tends his wounds or spoons bitter medicine into his mouth he cannot tell. It could be one person or a dozen different ones. Or maybe none of it is real at all.
He dreams of snow and of blood. His life has been covered in both. His parents both lost to illness in the bitter winter cold. Madam Lei and Lei Sun taking him from the icy and snow, giving him food and shelter. Taking him into their family, letting him be a big brother to their only daughter.
Lei Chun. Chun-er.
His dearest little sister, his only family left in the world. Of how he has let her down, how he has left her all alone.
Tear fall, drying in streaks on his fever hot cheeks.
Finally Di Feijing wakes clear headed, if still sore and weak. His neck hurts, worse than the still healing wound given to him by Fang Yingkan, but that isn't an unusual occurrence. Sleeping without the pillow he'd adapted for his damaged neck tends to do that. It is acceptable, Di Feijing decides, given that he'd never expected to wake ever again.
The bed, the room, everything is unfamiliar. Equally unknown is the man sitting on a chair just across from the bed, seemingly asleep. Dressed for travel, he is around his own age, or perhaps a little older, the small thin moustache making him seem that way.
There doesn't seem to be any immediate danger, nor does the sleeping man appear to be any kind of jailer or guard.
It pays to be cautious however, given that the safety of his current situation is unknown.
Lying down and having limited movement in his neck gives him a restricted view of the room. The sounds that drift up from the floor below would suggest an inn. There is too much coming and going for a private residence and there is too little perfume and music for it to be a brothel.
Pain flares through his side and chest as he tries to sit up, his arms trembling with the effort, until he falls back.
You did nearly died, of course you're going to be weak, Di Feijing reminds himself, trying not to worry at how defenceless he is or be too frustrated with himself. Neither would do any good, so it would be a waste of what little energy he has.
He tries to reach for the cup instead. Perhaps if he can drink something he can gather his thoughts and feel a little better.
Again, the fact he is lying down makes it awkward. His fingers brush the side of it, but before he can try to grasp it it topples over. It falls from the table, clattering as it rolls across on the wooden floor, water pooling about it. The man in the chair is awake in an instant, alert for danger.
He looks at the cup that has stopped near his feet and then at Di Feijing. “Hall Master Di, you're awake.”
Dizzy from even the minimal effort of looking around and trying to get a drink, Di Feijing struggles to breathe around his words. “You...know...me?”
“Yes.” The man picks up the cup, placing it down on the table and then refilling it.
“Then you...have the...advantage.”
“Qi Shaoshang.” Leaning in, he helps Di Feijing sit up before continuing. “Wang Xiaoshi asked me to come.”
Di Feijing half remembers Wang Xiaoshi lifting him onto a horse. The arm around him the only warmth left in the world. But he'd been half frozen and close to death from blood loss at that point. It could all have been a dream conjured in his dying mind. Yet dreams would not have got him to an inn. Nor would it have treated his wounds and placed him in bed. “He's...here?”
“No. He had left as soon as I arrived.” Holding the cup, Qi Shaoshang helps him to drink without spilling. "I let Wang Xiaoshi go once, because he'd done a good thing, one that no other dared to do. From what I hear you have done the world a service too. Fang Yingkan deserved the death you gave him."
While there is relief in knowing that there isn't a risk of reprisal from Qi Shaoshang, it brings a fresh source of worry with it. He cannot have his involvement too widely know. He cannot place Six Half Hall, and Lei Chun, in danger by his association with them. It hardly matters it didn't occur in the capital.
He wanted to avenger her, to make the one who'd hurt her pay with his life, not bring down the wrath of the Youqiao group upon her. The sudden fear that he could have doomed her and the whole of Six Half Hall, in his reckless revenge. If any of Fang Yingkan's men had survived...
Di Feijing grasps as Qi Shaoshang's wrist, trying to put himself up. He has find out somehow. He has to... "Who knows?"
"Right now? Only you, Wang Xiaoshi and myself.” Qi Shaoshang's hand closes over his. An act of reassurance. “There is no need for concern."
"Good. That's...good." He feels shivery, almost tearful. Weak from the rapid switch between fear and relief. It's awful, if entirely normal, following such a serious injury. He knows how long it took him to feel able to do anything after the injury to his neck. All he can hope is that this doesn't leave him with another life long issue.
Qi Shaoshang lets him have a moment, before he checks the bandage, making sure that his attempts to sit up haven't caused any new bleeding. Finding that they haven't, he helps him drink another cup of water.
No longer thirsty, but exhausted once more to the point he can barely keep his eyes open, Di Feijing isn't certain whether his words of thanks are intelligible or not.
They seem to be as Qi Shaoshang says, “I have heard it said if you haven't got a friend, you can go to Di Feijing. This time it seems you are the one in need.”
Said in the wrong way the second part could easy come across as belittling or even a threat, but his tone is genuine, kind, as he helps Di Feijing lay back down. Then adds an additional roll of cloth to help support his neck where it will no longer straighten.
There is still some discomfort there, but it's less, and Di Feijing is mostly asleep by the time the covers are tucked in around him.
TBC
Part 2 here
The Fei character in Di Feijing's name is the same as in Di Feisheng, but the Di character is a different one.
Di Feijing - 狄飞惊
Di Feisheng - 笛飞声
Title: Caught on the Tides of Life.
Chapters: 1/3
Fandom: Heroes (2022) ("Shuo Ying Xiong Shei Shi Ying Xiong" (说英雄谁是英雄))
Rating: general
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Di Feijing & Lei Chun, Di Feijing and Qi Shaoshang
Characters: Di Feijing, Qi Shaoshang and Wang Xiaoshi (breifly) Lei Chun mentioned a lot (Di Feijing misses his sister)
Additional Tags: Canon diverent AU - for Di Feijing at least, hurt/comfort,
There is no shelter here, but then he has never taken the easy path. A faint, weary smile forms on Di Feijing's icy, bloody stained lips. Unable to go on, he sinks to his knees beneath the bare trees.
He'd never expected to survive his fight with Fang Yingkan. That he has managed to blind him, leaving him defenceless and wounded in this wilderness will have to be revenge enough. The vile young marquis will never harm another. He is content to let him wander in pain and fear before the ice and snow claim him.
He presses a hand against the wound in his side. There is no warm welling up of blood now - the bitter cold has stopped the bleeding. Perhaps if he'd reached safety or if someone was searching for him there might have been a slimmest chance of survival.
There is no one coming this time. It had been a miracle that Lei Sun and his wife had found him on that snowy night all those years ago.
Fate it seems cannot be outrun, not in the end.
Tired, barely feeling the cold around him, Di Feijing closes his eyes, breath slowing, barely misting in the icy air.
"-ll Master Di!"
Someone is shaking him, one hand on his shoulder, the other holding his hand. The voice is familiar, although in his disorientated state Di Feijing can't bring whose it is to mind.
It's a struggle to open his eyes, even the snowflakes that have settled on his lashes seems to have an impossible amount of weight.
He manages just enough to see Wang Xiaoshi's earnest, worried face blurring in front of him. At least he's likely to get a proper burial. There is no better person he could run into out here. There are few better people anywhere. He hopes Wang Yingkan remains are eaten by wolves and carrion birds, scattered to the corners of the Earth.
He tries to blink, but he doesn't have the energy to open them again.
“Stay awake!”
“Don't tell...Chun-er.” He can't bear the thought of her blaming herself for sending him away. He'd have liked to see her again, to know that she is safe, but he doubts it will happen in this life. Perhaps in the next he can be her brother again. He'd like that. Perhaps he will do a better job of protecting her. He'd like that too.
“You're not going to die,” Wang Xiaoshi says firmly, as he hauls him to his feet.
Dizzy, the cold air sears Di Feijing's lungs as he gasps, his legs buckling beneath him as he tries to stand. He doesn't fall, the arm around him holds him tight. They stand like that for a moment, then he is lifted off his off his feet.
“Fang Yingkan is dead," Wang Xiaoshi says, still talking to him, trying to keep him awake, as he carries him over to his horse, then lifts him into the saddle. “You did...”
Di Feijing doesn't hear the rest as he slumps forward, the last fragile scraps of consciousness fading away.
The next few times Di Feijing wakes is to a sea of pain, breathlessness and fever. The room seems distorted around him, while each cough feels like it will rip the wound open again. Who tends his wounds or spoons bitter medicine into his mouth he cannot tell. It could be one person or a dozen different ones. Or maybe none of it is real at all.
He dreams of snow and of blood. His life has been covered in both. His parents both lost to illness in the bitter winter cold. Madam Lei and Lei Sun taking him from the icy and snow, giving him food and shelter. Taking him into their family, letting him be a big brother to their only daughter.
Lei Chun. Chun-er.
His dearest little sister, his only family left in the world. Of how he has let her down, how he has left her all alone.
Tear fall, drying in streaks on his fever hot cheeks.
Finally Di Feijing wakes clear headed, if still sore and weak. His neck hurts, worse than the still healing wound given to him by Fang Yingkan, but that isn't an unusual occurrence. Sleeping without the pillow he'd adapted for his damaged neck tends to do that. It is acceptable, Di Feijing decides, given that he'd never expected to wake ever again.
The bed, the room, everything is unfamiliar. Equally unknown is the man sitting on a chair just across from the bed, seemingly asleep. Dressed for travel, he is around his own age, or perhaps a little older, the small thin moustache making him seem that way.
There doesn't seem to be any immediate danger, nor does the sleeping man appear to be any kind of jailer or guard.
It pays to be cautious however, given that the safety of his current situation is unknown.
Lying down and having limited movement in his neck gives him a restricted view of the room. The sounds that drift up from the floor below would suggest an inn. There is too much coming and going for a private residence and there is too little perfume and music for it to be a brothel.
Pain flares through his side and chest as he tries to sit up, his arms trembling with the effort, until he falls back.
You did nearly died, of course you're going to be weak, Di Feijing reminds himself, trying not to worry at how defenceless he is or be too frustrated with himself. Neither would do any good, so it would be a waste of what little energy he has.
He tries to reach for the cup instead. Perhaps if he can drink something he can gather his thoughts and feel a little better.
Again, the fact he is lying down makes it awkward. His fingers brush the side of it, but before he can try to grasp it it topples over. It falls from the table, clattering as it rolls across on the wooden floor, water pooling about it. The man in the chair is awake in an instant, alert for danger.
He looks at the cup that has stopped near his feet and then at Di Feijing. “Hall Master Di, you're awake.”
Dizzy from even the minimal effort of looking around and trying to get a drink, Di Feijing struggles to breathe around his words. “You...know...me?”
“Yes.” The man picks up the cup, placing it down on the table and then refilling it.
“Then you...have the...advantage.”
“Qi Shaoshang.” Leaning in, he helps Di Feijing sit up before continuing. “Wang Xiaoshi asked me to come.”
Di Feijing half remembers Wang Xiaoshi lifting him onto a horse. The arm around him the only warmth left in the world. But he'd been half frozen and close to death from blood loss at that point. It could all have been a dream conjured in his dying mind. Yet dreams would not have got him to an inn. Nor would it have treated his wounds and placed him in bed. “He's...here?”
“No. He had left as soon as I arrived.” Holding the cup, Qi Shaoshang helps him to drink without spilling. "I let Wang Xiaoshi go once, because he'd done a good thing, one that no other dared to do. From what I hear you have done the world a service too. Fang Yingkan deserved the death you gave him."
While there is relief in knowing that there isn't a risk of reprisal from Qi Shaoshang, it brings a fresh source of worry with it. He cannot have his involvement too widely know. He cannot place Six Half Hall, and Lei Chun, in danger by his association with them. It hardly matters it didn't occur in the capital.
He wanted to avenger her, to make the one who'd hurt her pay with his life, not bring down the wrath of the Youqiao group upon her. The sudden fear that he could have doomed her and the whole of Six Half Hall, in his reckless revenge. If any of Fang Yingkan's men had survived...
Di Feijing grasps as Qi Shaoshang's wrist, trying to put himself up. He has find out somehow. He has to... "Who knows?"
"Right now? Only you, Wang Xiaoshi and myself.” Qi Shaoshang's hand closes over his. An act of reassurance. “There is no need for concern."
"Good. That's...good." He feels shivery, almost tearful. Weak from the rapid switch between fear and relief. It's awful, if entirely normal, following such a serious injury. He knows how long it took him to feel able to do anything after the injury to his neck. All he can hope is that this doesn't leave him with another life long issue.
Qi Shaoshang lets him have a moment, before he checks the bandage, making sure that his attempts to sit up haven't caused any new bleeding. Finding that they haven't, he helps him drink another cup of water.
No longer thirsty, but exhausted once more to the point he can barely keep his eyes open, Di Feijing isn't certain whether his words of thanks are intelligible or not.
They seem to be as Qi Shaoshang says, “I have heard it said if you haven't got a friend, you can go to Di Feijing. This time it seems you are the one in need.”
Said in the wrong way the second part could easy come across as belittling or even a threat, but his tone is genuine, kind, as he helps Di Feijing lay back down. Then adds an additional roll of cloth to help support his neck where it will no longer straighten.
There is still some discomfort there, but it's less, and Di Feijing is mostly asleep by the time the covers are tucked in around him.
TBC
Part 2 here