Chapter Text
It started with an engagement announcement. Actually it started before that with the whole drama with the Wang cult. Li Cu had been an ordinary student kidnapped by a crazy depressed man when he met Liang Wan Jie. They trauma bonded over Wu Xie, and he really thought that would be the end of it. She’d live her successful doctor life, and he’d come to her when things inevitably went wrong. He thought Liang Wan jie wouldn’t have any reason to get tangled up in the mess he found himself in. She worked in the city far away from Wu Xie and his Wang Cult enemies. Li Cu had been very wrong.
If Li Cu learned anything from his kidnapping, the blame could be solidly laid on a Zhang... Or Wu Xie, who was the way he was because of a Zhang. So in the end both of them ending up in the desert, in the middle of a fight between two crazy cults, was definitely a Zhang’s fault. Li Cu eventually came to discover, actually it was two Zhangs.
Li Cu barely had the chance to speak with her to discover how a different Zhang put Liang Wan in danger before he was kidnapped the second time. Unfortunately she seemed to have become afflicted with whatever Wu Xie had because she had the gall to insist her Zhang was charming. Li Cu wanted to object, but he hadn’t ever met a Zhang for himself.
To be fair all he had to go on was Wang cult propaganda. He wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt just because the Wang were just so vehement in their hate, but he really shouldn’t have bothered. He got to meet Liang Wan’s Zhang for himself during his second kidnapping. He really should have seen it coming.
Turns out Li Cu had met a Zhang before. This Zhang specifically had kidnapped Hao Ge and Su Wan and held them in his creepy room of faces. Li Cu met him too, but he was a little preoccupied at the time.
Wu Xie had been useless as usual and hadn’t come to his rescue at any point. He was too busy meeting his boyfriend on some mountain. Li Cu decided he was writing Wu Xie off completely after that.
Zhang Rishan decided he needed Li Cu for some glorified camping trip. Li Cu had been minding his own business when Zhang Rishan picked him up in his black car and locked the doors. Li Cu had called him every name in the book until he passed out. When he woke up they were in the mountains somewhere.
Zhang Rishan tossed him a pack and lead him on a hike. Li Cu had no choice but to follow.
“Where are we going?” Li Cu asks.
Zhang Rishan ignores his questions. Li Cu wonders if he’s planning on killing him in the mountains somewhere.
“You know people will notice I’m missing,” Li Cu warns.
Zhang Rishan side eyes him skeptically. They only stop to make camp. Li Cu feels the blisters forming on his feet.
Zhang Rishan never explains why he kidnapped Li Cu or if they will be returning to civilization. Every night they make camp, and every day Zhang Rishan woke Li Cu before dawn to begin their hike anew.
From all the hiking Li Cu assumed there was a destination in mind, except it was somehow worse. The destination was some kind of obstacle course of horror. The path had traps and avoiding the path meant more traps. If Li Cu started feeling like the hike was getting easier Zhang Rishan would throw in a surprise attack just to shake things up.
“Why aren’t we stopping yet?” Li Cu asks when the sun begins to set.
“Tired already?” Zhang Rishan asks.
“I mean, yeah,” Li Cu admits.
Zhang Rishan raises an eyebrow.
“Watch your step,” he warns instead of answering.
Li Cu barely manages to avoid a trip wire.
“Why are there traps out here to begin with?” he growls in frustration.
Zhang Rishan ignores him and keeps walking ahead.
When they do finally stop for the night it’s at a camp already set up. Small mercies. Li Cu is ready to collapse. For some bizarre reason Zhang Rishan packed soup dumplings for this trip but didn’t bring chopsticks.
“Grab them with your fingers like this,” he instructed.
Li Cu watched in bewilderment as he used two fingers to snatch the dumplings from the steaming basket still nestled above the fire. When Li Cu tried to remove the basket he stopped him.
“It’s too hot,” Li Cu complained.
He burned himself twice before successfully grabbing one only to puncture the skin and scald himself with the broth. Li Cu was tired and hungry and now his fingers hurt. He was emotionally drained from being kidnapped again. Before he knew it he was sobbing over his burned fingers. He barely remembered Zhang Rishan feeding him and forcing him to drink water before putting him to bed.
The following days hadn’t been much better. Every morning he woke up delirious and probably cried himself to sleep every night (he couldn’t really remember). He also started to really hate soup dumplings which was a shame.
Li Cu couldn’t fault Zhang Rishan’s teaching style. It was effective. At the end of the two weeks the changes were undeniable. His steps were lighter, his hands were tougher, he was faster. His training with Hei Yanjing had been for surviving the Wang, Zhang Rishan seemed to be trying to give him some kind of wilderness training mixed with beating him up. Even if he couldn’t beat Zhang Rishan he could definitely hold his own if he ended up in trouble again.
When they finally made it down the mountain Li Cu was so glad to be back he could have cried.
“Don’t eat too much too soon,” Zhang Rishan warns. “You’ve gotten used to smaller meals.”
“I’m not a baby,” Li Cu grumbles.
“Li Cu,” he says mildly.
Zhang Rishan pauses, seeming to reconsider his approach.
“The next time you exit a tomb and it’s no longer standing, you’ll answer to me,” he said with a polite smile. “You don’t have an excuse to take after Wu Xie anymore.”
Li Cu scowled at him in response. Secretly he couldn’t help agreeing with Zhang Rishan’s point. It wasn’t like Li Cu wanted to take after Wu Xie anyway.
Afterward they didn’t stay in contact. In fact, Li Cu happily pretended he didn’t know him and Zhang Rishan never left Beijing anyway. Li Cu could almost pretend it was just a bad dream, the way he did with the trauma of most of his adventure with Wu Xie.
Then the Iron Triangle made their way home from the Changbai Mountains.