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silver_sunTitle: These Tides of Life (previously called) Caught on the Tides of Life.
Chapters: 4/4
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 & 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,
Part 1 here
Part 2 here
Part 3 here
The spring rain has stopped, but there are no guards on the gate, as Di Feijing approaches Six Half Hall, only an old servant sweeping the steps. Blossom falls to cover them like snow, petals caught on the breeze drift like ghosts of all those who have gone.
Di Feijing has wondered how it will feel to return. The thought of it, amongst other things, keeping him awake at night of the journey back. Even now, standing on the steps, he finds he doesn't know.
The broom clatters down the steps as Lao Li sees him, dropped in his surprise at seeing him there. "First Hall Master, you've returned."
Lao Li has been there since before he was taken in, he had seemed old to him even then. Not a fighter, not even in his youth, he has been one of those constant, quite background figures that have made everyday life in the hall run smoothly.
He might not be family, but he does provide a sense of coming home that Di Feijing had tried to not fear would be absent.
“It was time.” He pats the old servant's shoulder, a reassurance for them both that this moment is real. “Call all those who have remained to the main hall.”
"Will you wait there?” Lao Li asks, with the eagerness of someone given hope again when all had seen lost. “I will have tea sent for you."
"Not yet. There is something I must do first.” Di Feijing looks across the courtyard beyond the gates to where the ancestral hall of the Lei family stands.
He hasn't been there since the night before he left. The night Lei Chun has knelt before him and told him had to leave.
So much has happened since them.
His hands shake as he lights the incense sticks, grief and guilt and fear for all that the future might yet take from him weighing heavy on him.
He kneels before the tablets of Lei Sun and his late wife, and those of their ancestors, people who he never had a chance to meet. Forehead pressed to wooden floor, the incense smoke curling down, Di Feijing feels the tears that have been all too frequent of late start once more.
He hopes they will forgive the unsteadiness of his voice as he apologises for how things have got to this point and for not doing a better job of keeping Lei Chun safe. He promises that he will do his best from now on, that he will not waste the chance they gave him, that his life is given to the preservation of Six Half Hall and the Lei family for ever more, and that he hopes that he has their blessing in this.
Outside, a bell is rung over and over calling those present into the hall, it sound echoing across the courtyard.
Finally, Di Feijing rises and wipes his eyes. He bows once more and then goes to face what remains of Six Half Hall.
There are far fewer assembled there than he'd hoped. Not all those missing will be dead, he tells himself, some will have left Six Half Hall, going to seek their fortune elsewhere. Others might be away, too far out into the city to hear the bell.
“You came back,” one of the men who Di Feijing hasn't seen eye to eye with in the past says.
There's a definite edge of hurt to it. He doesn't blame him, but he cannot have dissent, not now, not while the situation is so fragile. He straightens as much as he can, feeling warning twinge in his neck as it reaches current limit.
"It was was the Chief Hall Master's wish that I left at that time,” Di Feijing says, anger and uncertainty all held in check. “Things have now changed, so I have returned."
"You want to be Chief Hall Master now, do you?" one of them calls out.
“No.” Di Feijing holds up a hand, hoping to still any further arguments. "Lei Chun is still Chief Hall Master. I will return to my post as First Hall Master."
He looks at them, daring them to contradict this. When there is none, he says, "In her absence you will treat my word as hers."
There are a few murmurs of what might still be dissent, but there nothing overt, so he continues.
"Circumstances have been difficult, but Six Half Hall will endure. Fang Yingkan is dead. So is Prime Minister Cai. Fu Zongshu and Yuan Shisan Xian are gone. The Youqiao Group has fragmented. It is nothing, they hold nothing over us. They are gone. We are not. It is time to remind any who might doubt us of that.”
He gives them time for this information to sink in, to let them talk.
Given how secretive the Youqiao Group had been its absence from the world has not been immediately noticeable, but there is a power vacuum left by all that has happened. How could it be otherwise? Di Feijing knows that if he is clever and more especially if he is lucky, then he can exploit their absence it for Six Half Hall's gain and their status can rise once more.
Their only rival once more is the House of Sunset Drizzle and they are as weakened as they.
While on route back to the capital he'd learnt that Qi Shaoshang had become leader there, taking the role Su Mengzhen has once held. It had been a surprise, although not an unpleasant one.
Fate it seems had decreed that they would indeed meet again.
From what he had seen of Qi Shaoshang at the inn and what he has learnt since, he is a reasonable man, diligent and sensible, and mostly importantly of all likely to listen both to reason and to plans that don't cause needless deaths and bloodshed.
There is room for Six Half Hall and the House of Sunset Drizzle to coexist. The capital is large, the world beyond larger still. He will make room for them both. They have both suffered catastrophic losses, they both need time to rebuild. A truce between them for now makes sense.
There are far, far worse people in the world than Qi Shaoshang who could have taken on that role and there is nothing to say that Six Half Hall and the House of Sunset Drizzle cannot be on amicable terms once. Once it had been the hope of marriage between Lei Chun and Su Mengzhen, now all Di Feijing can do hope is that those few days spent in friendship together at the inn with him will help ease the negotiation between their groups that will surely happen in the following days.
He can see some uncertainty on the faces of those assembled in the hall, but more than that there is relief. They have spent long weeks mired in it and now they can finally see the way ahead opening up before them. The road ahead will be hard, their prestige and standing both in the capital and in the Jianghu has been damaged. Their resources and finances are depleted, and their sources of income greatly reduced now that their connection with the Youqiao Group died with Lei Sun and Prime Minister Cai.
There are ways they can exist and even prosper which don't require them selling their integrity or autonomy or placing themselves at the whims of others. Less lucrative ways admittedly, but he has ideas. He has seen and heard many things on his way back here. Listened to people's complaints, what is in shortage and why. There are many ways in which money is to be made. Things that can be exploited for their own gain. Information is its own currency.
“Are there any further questions?” Di Feijing takes a seat, one that he used to sit at when Lei Sun led the Hall. His hand remains close to his sword, less any of them make a sudden move. He's recovered enough to combat it. Probably. Hopefully. His health still isn't what it was.
There are a few rapid, hushed exchanges between them, but nothing that feels like hostility towards him. More just wariness at what this means for the future. There comes a time when even those most enured to combat seek peace. Too many have seen their friends and brothers die.
Di Feijing gives them a moment longer and then says, "Fetch me the Hall accounts and holdings registers and a list of all who have remained. Your loyalty Six Half Hall won't go unnoticed or unrewarded."
The looks of those assembled are more positive now. After all, who didn't want to be rewarded?
"Is that all, First Hall Master?"
"Organise an inspection of our properties in the city and those businesses which had our patronage. Any that suffered under Bai Choufei will be let off their payments until now. Gratitude to us and how to things were will bring their loyalty back to us far quicker than fear right now."
There are nods of agreement from some, but still uncertainty from others.
"We will secure what we have and build from there. There is no other way to do this. Any who feel their fortune and future is better served as a lone swordsman in the Jianghu can leave now and never return.”
There's more hushed talk, but no one leaves.
"This is only a beginning," he says, seeing that they waiting for more. "We need to gather information on all our holdings outside the city too. If we are to take those trade routes that the Youqiao Group once held we need to secure staging places along those routes.”
There is more cautious optimism now, and one man steps forward saying, “Some bargeman were asking a few days ago about whether we could offer protection on their routes. I couldn't say yes, no one could. But I could find them again, see if they still needed this and what they'd pay.”
“Good, do that,” Di Feijing says, relief and hope that he might just be able to do this finally setting in. "And arrange a meeting with the new Chief House Master of the House of Sunset Drizzle, Qi Shaoshang."
Those given tasks hurry away, those without leave too, but slower, talking amongst themselves of what they hope the future will bring.
Although Six Half Hall's standing has been damaged, they do have one thing that the House of Sunset Drizzle does not - continuity of leadership and inside knowledge of running it. However good Qi Shaoshang is, he is unknown to those at the House of Sunset Drizzle, nor has he been in charge of anything on that scale before. And from what Di Feijing has heard, the most senior and reliable member there, who could have given him guidance, Yang Wuxie, has left unable to stay there with the memories of Su Mengzhen haunting him.
Six Half Hall will have its own challenges. Such as winning back the favour of those who had been under their protection. They had suffered under the brief, bloody rule of Bai Choufei, but he has hope that they will look back with some fondness to the old way of doing things. Lei Sun had on occasion been ruthless, but he hadn't been consumed by violence in the way that Bai Choufei had been at the end.
Di Feijing looks at the registers and account books that have been placed in front of him. However difficult it might be, he will raise Six Half Hall back to its rightful place. He will honour all that the Lei family have given to him. He will make a home here, he will give Chun-er somewhere safe to return to if she wishes. Or if she wants to remain distant, then he can make certain that money is sent to her, that she will want for nothing.
And if she is gone.
He doesn't want to consider it. Won't consider it, not unless irrefutable evidence is brought to him, and maybe not even then.
The martial world has its tides and storms, and not all weather them unscathed. It is all part of the ebb and flow of the world. Ruler or commoner they are call caught on these tides of life.
Di Feijing closes his eyes and lets the familiar sounds of live in Six Half Hall wash over him, anchoring him back to the moment. Then, opening them, gets back to work.
Chapters: 4/4
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 & 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,
Part 1 here
Part 2 here
Part 3 here
The spring rain has stopped, but there are no guards on the gate, as Di Feijing approaches Six Half Hall, only an old servant sweeping the steps. Blossom falls to cover them like snow, petals caught on the breeze drift like ghosts of all those who have gone.
Di Feijing has wondered how it will feel to return. The thought of it, amongst other things, keeping him awake at night of the journey back. Even now, standing on the steps, he finds he doesn't know.
The broom clatters down the steps as Lao Li sees him, dropped in his surprise at seeing him there. "First Hall Master, you've returned."
Lao Li has been there since before he was taken in, he had seemed old to him even then. Not a fighter, not even in his youth, he has been one of those constant, quite background figures that have made everyday life in the hall run smoothly.
He might not be family, but he does provide a sense of coming home that Di Feijing had tried to not fear would be absent.
“It was time.” He pats the old servant's shoulder, a reassurance for them both that this moment is real. “Call all those who have remained to the main hall.”
"Will you wait there?” Lao Li asks, with the eagerness of someone given hope again when all had seen lost. “I will have tea sent for you."
"Not yet. There is something I must do first.” Di Feijing looks across the courtyard beyond the gates to where the ancestral hall of the Lei family stands.
He hasn't been there since the night before he left. The night Lei Chun has knelt before him and told him had to leave.
So much has happened since them.
His hands shake as he lights the incense sticks, grief and guilt and fear for all that the future might yet take from him weighing heavy on him.
He kneels before the tablets of Lei Sun and his late wife, and those of their ancestors, people who he never had a chance to meet. Forehead pressed to wooden floor, the incense smoke curling down, Di Feijing feels the tears that have been all too frequent of late start once more.
He hopes they will forgive the unsteadiness of his voice as he apologises for how things have got to this point and for not doing a better job of keeping Lei Chun safe. He promises that he will do his best from now on, that he will not waste the chance they gave him, that his life is given to the preservation of Six Half Hall and the Lei family for ever more, and that he hopes that he has their blessing in this.
Outside, a bell is rung over and over calling those present into the hall, it sound echoing across the courtyard.
Finally, Di Feijing rises and wipes his eyes. He bows once more and then goes to face what remains of Six Half Hall.
There are far fewer assembled there than he'd hoped. Not all those missing will be dead, he tells himself, some will have left Six Half Hall, going to seek their fortune elsewhere. Others might be away, too far out into the city to hear the bell.
“You came back,” one of the men who Di Feijing hasn't seen eye to eye with in the past says.
There's a definite edge of hurt to it. He doesn't blame him, but he cannot have dissent, not now, not while the situation is so fragile. He straightens as much as he can, feeling warning twinge in his neck as it reaches current limit.
"It was was the Chief Hall Master's wish that I left at that time,” Di Feijing says, anger and uncertainty all held in check. “Things have now changed, so I have returned."
"You want to be Chief Hall Master now, do you?" one of them calls out.
“No.” Di Feijing holds up a hand, hoping to still any further arguments. "Lei Chun is still Chief Hall Master. I will return to my post as First Hall Master."
He looks at them, daring them to contradict this. When there is none, he says, "In her absence you will treat my word as hers."
There are a few murmurs of what might still be dissent, but there nothing overt, so he continues.
"Circumstances have been difficult, but Six Half Hall will endure. Fang Yingkan is dead. So is Prime Minister Cai. Fu Zongshu and Yuan Shisan Xian are gone. The Youqiao Group has fragmented. It is nothing, they hold nothing over us. They are gone. We are not. It is time to remind any who might doubt us of that.”
He gives them time for this information to sink in, to let them talk.
Given how secretive the Youqiao Group had been its absence from the world has not been immediately noticeable, but there is a power vacuum left by all that has happened. How could it be otherwise? Di Feijing knows that if he is clever and more especially if he is lucky, then he can exploit their absence it for Six Half Hall's gain and their status can rise once more.
Their only rival once more is the House of Sunset Drizzle and they are as weakened as they.
While on route back to the capital he'd learnt that Qi Shaoshang had become leader there, taking the role Su Mengzhen has once held. It had been a surprise, although not an unpleasant one.
Fate it seems had decreed that they would indeed meet again.
From what he had seen of Qi Shaoshang at the inn and what he has learnt since, he is a reasonable man, diligent and sensible, and mostly importantly of all likely to listen both to reason and to plans that don't cause needless deaths and bloodshed.
There is room for Six Half Hall and the House of Sunset Drizzle to coexist. The capital is large, the world beyond larger still. He will make room for them both. They have both suffered catastrophic losses, they both need time to rebuild. A truce between them for now makes sense.
There are far, far worse people in the world than Qi Shaoshang who could have taken on that role and there is nothing to say that Six Half Hall and the House of Sunset Drizzle cannot be on amicable terms once. Once it had been the hope of marriage between Lei Chun and Su Mengzhen, now all Di Feijing can do hope is that those few days spent in friendship together at the inn with him will help ease the negotiation between their groups that will surely happen in the following days.
He can see some uncertainty on the faces of those assembled in the hall, but more than that there is relief. They have spent long weeks mired in it and now they can finally see the way ahead opening up before them. The road ahead will be hard, their prestige and standing both in the capital and in the Jianghu has been damaged. Their resources and finances are depleted, and their sources of income greatly reduced now that their connection with the Youqiao Group died with Lei Sun and Prime Minister Cai.
There are ways they can exist and even prosper which don't require them selling their integrity or autonomy or placing themselves at the whims of others. Less lucrative ways admittedly, but he has ideas. He has seen and heard many things on his way back here. Listened to people's complaints, what is in shortage and why. There are many ways in which money is to be made. Things that can be exploited for their own gain. Information is its own currency.
“Are there any further questions?” Di Feijing takes a seat, one that he used to sit at when Lei Sun led the Hall. His hand remains close to his sword, less any of them make a sudden move. He's recovered enough to combat it. Probably. Hopefully. His health still isn't what it was.
There are a few rapid, hushed exchanges between them, but nothing that feels like hostility towards him. More just wariness at what this means for the future. There comes a time when even those most enured to combat seek peace. Too many have seen their friends and brothers die.
Di Feijing gives them a moment longer and then says, "Fetch me the Hall accounts and holdings registers and a list of all who have remained. Your loyalty Six Half Hall won't go unnoticed or unrewarded."
The looks of those assembled are more positive now. After all, who didn't want to be rewarded?
"Is that all, First Hall Master?"
"Organise an inspection of our properties in the city and those businesses which had our patronage. Any that suffered under Bai Choufei will be let off their payments until now. Gratitude to us and how to things were will bring their loyalty back to us far quicker than fear right now."
There are nods of agreement from some, but still uncertainty from others.
"We will secure what we have and build from there. There is no other way to do this. Any who feel their fortune and future is better served as a lone swordsman in the Jianghu can leave now and never return.”
There's more hushed talk, but no one leaves.
"This is only a beginning," he says, seeing that they waiting for more. "We need to gather information on all our holdings outside the city too. If we are to take those trade routes that the Youqiao Group once held we need to secure staging places along those routes.”
There is more cautious optimism now, and one man steps forward saying, “Some bargeman were asking a few days ago about whether we could offer protection on their routes. I couldn't say yes, no one could. But I could find them again, see if they still needed this and what they'd pay.”
“Good, do that,” Di Feijing says, relief and hope that he might just be able to do this finally setting in. "And arrange a meeting with the new Chief House Master of the House of Sunset Drizzle, Qi Shaoshang."
Those given tasks hurry away, those without leave too, but slower, talking amongst themselves of what they hope the future will bring.
Although Six Half Hall's standing has been damaged, they do have one thing that the House of Sunset Drizzle does not - continuity of leadership and inside knowledge of running it. However good Qi Shaoshang is, he is unknown to those at the House of Sunset Drizzle, nor has he been in charge of anything on that scale before. And from what Di Feijing has heard, the most senior and reliable member there, who could have given him guidance, Yang Wuxie, has left unable to stay there with the memories of Su Mengzhen haunting him.
Six Half Hall will have its own challenges. Such as winning back the favour of those who had been under their protection. They had suffered under the brief, bloody rule of Bai Choufei, but he has hope that they will look back with some fondness to the old way of doing things. Lei Sun had on occasion been ruthless, but he hadn't been consumed by violence in the way that Bai Choufei had been at the end.
Di Feijing looks at the registers and account books that have been placed in front of him. However difficult it might be, he will raise Six Half Hall back to its rightful place. He will honour all that the Lei family have given to him. He will make a home here, he will give Chun-er somewhere safe to return to if she wishes. Or if she wants to remain distant, then he can make certain that money is sent to her, that she will want for nothing.
And if she is gone.
He doesn't want to consider it. Won't consider it, not unless irrefutable evidence is brought to him, and maybe not even then.
The martial world has its tides and storms, and not all weather them unscathed. It is all part of the ebb and flow of the world. Ruler or commoner they are call caught on these tides of life.
Di Feijing closes his eyes and lets the familiar sounds of live in Six Half Hall wash over him, anchoring him back to the moment. Then, opening them, gets back to work.