Xiao Ying froze, his breath caught in his throat and threatening to choke him.
He should leave.
He needed to go.
He shouldn't be here.
This was a private conversation between mother and child that Xiao Ying most definitely was not a part of.
He tried to remember back to writing this scene, and failed to recall any sort of real mother son heart to heart ever happening.
It didn't matter anyway, he needed to leave.
This was private and didn't involve him.
"Ming Cheng, know that no matter what, I will protect you to the best of my abilities, as long as you tell me if there's ever something bothering you. You can tell me everything, all your fears and problems, no matter how small or large they may be, and I will try and fix them Ming Cheng," Lan Chang went on continuing to say, the tenderness and care in her voice palpable and thick.
Xiao Ying felt himself seize up and closed his eyes, barrelling through the door head first in an attempt to just leave.
He couldn't breathe, he couldn't think.
He just had to get away from there and Ming Cheng.
Xiao Ying opened his eyes and found himself in the corridor outside of Lan Chang's room, and immediately began searching around for a window.
Marching up to the nearest one, he ripped open the curtains, and slammed the wooden frames outwards, releasing the hot, almost stuffy inside air of the corridor outwards, letting the night breeze inside.
Xiao Ying inhaled as deeply as he could, almost panting in and out as he tried to cool himself down and to stop feeling the bundled up, complicated knotted mess of feelings inside of him.
It was perfectly rational for Xiao Ying to be feeling the need to get away from Ming Cheng, wasn't it?
He had seen nothing but the child's face for days, upon days, on end.
It was perfectly normal to escape from him at the first opportunity he could to finally get some alone time, to finally do something that wasn't related to the plot of his stupid, shitty book.
It was perfectly reasonable for him to runaway from the scene.
It didn't involve him in the slightest and a third person listening in would only make things uncomfortable for Ming Cheng.
If Ming Cheng was to be given the best life he possibly could have, then it would be good for him to have Lan Chang as a mother figure for him, teaching him about the world in her wise and sometimes shounen action hero ways.
It would be extremely useful to have her around to teach Ming Cheng practical fighting skills, diplomacy, more level headedness, while giving him somebody to open up to, so he would at least have an emotional support structure to help him and keep him going.
But more pressingly, why the fuck was Xiao Ying now in the world of his novel!?
Why the fuck was he in the body of Liu Yang?
What purpose could this possibly serve in aiding him to help Ming Cheng, like his afterlife overlords presumably wanted him to do?
Unless...
His wishes back in that room had somehow been granted.
The Gods had taken pity on him, and he was now free to finally get away from Ming Cheng for at least a few hours of the day and fully explore his mishmash, terribly bland world to experience all the fineries.
"Wait," Xiao Ying repeated back to himself out loud now.
If he could separate himself from Ming Cheng, then he would be able to spy on all the other inhabitants of the palace.
If he had managed to make any sweeping changes to the original novel, and set off a subplot or a nefarious scheme, then he would be able to learn of it, and help Ming Cheng deal with it by keeping an eye on everyone and then relaying the information back to Ming Cheng.
It was almost perfect.
Xiao Ying cheered, throwing his arms upwards in delight and relief, crying out now, tears pouring out of his eyes and down his face, the weight of everything that had been resting on his shoulders evaporating away, letting him fall down gracefully to his knees, and curling into him.
He was happy.
He was so, so happy.
He was no longer in that tiny, tiny room, plunged into darkness with nothing but a screen to light the way that he was supposed to travel, all his input and work limited by the constraints of the keyboard.
His world and mind was no longer comprised of Ming Cheng and only Ming Cheng. He finally had the opportunity to do something else, see anything else.
He was free!
He was free!
He was free!
He could hop, skip, and jump.
He could do cartwheels up and down this corridor if he wanted to.
Xiao Ying pulled his head out from his arms and wiped away his tears on his sleeves, breathing out a big sigh of relief before laughing at himself, what he was wearing, where he was, and the absurdity of it all.
He sighed, and smiled quietly at the floor.
He was free.
Above him, the moon radiated it's silvery light, and shone down onto the palace below, the courtyards quiet, the soldier's stood dedicated at their posts, and the emperor walking and paced the lengths of his chamber languidly.
His brother had sent himself off to bed, tired from the trip and the banquet, but still rearing and itching to rush off back to war, and some other battle.
He supposed that he could keep his sibling around for only a few months before the hot headed and irritable charging bull of a man lost his temper and began torturing the soldiers under the guise of sparring with them.
It was a good banquet; the kitchen staff had out done themselves making the wide variety of foods based off of lentils for his brother, but he couldn't dismiss all their contributions to the banquet as simply them doing their service.
Consort Jing had expressed her interest in one of the child apprentice servants.
He would need to invite her for tea and send for a representative from the palace employment office.
He could feel change on the wind.