Wei Ying eyed the bag and Hui Gai's enthusiasm doubtfully.

"What's in that?!" He didn't mean to sound skeptical but...the bag was still moving.

Rather erratically too...as if it wanted to get out...

"I bought it from a reliable source." Hui Gai said, sure of himself.

When he was going to open the bag to show them, Wei Ying stopped him.

"Let's go home. This might be better in private." He looked up to find the owner of the restaurant watching them with an avid interest.

Oh dear...Wei Ying sighed. It seemed that the incident with the noodles landing in some lady's hair hadn't been forgotten yet...

"It was one time..." He muttered, standing up.

Lan Zhan put money down on the table and they, all four of them teleported back home.

Wei Ying was worried about what they would find when they got there. After all...he had run away.

They were outside the Jingshi now and Wei Ying was rummaging around the debris of his previous experiment, looking for why it had gone so drastically bad.

"I bet it was the flavouring...maybe I should use fresh from now on...sugar is a natural preservative...it might be okay..." He was muttering and just then, Lan Zhan found the bottle of essence.

"Did you put this in?" He inquired, holding it up towards him.

"Yes!" Wei Ying jumped over the discarded cauldron now upside down and still harder than a rock. The mixture had solidified and the cauldron would have to be thrown away. "It's guava flavouring. I went for exotic." He explained, smiling at his husband.

"Perhaps Wei Ying should take the trouble to read properly, next time." Lan Zhan knew there would be a next time...but whether Wei Ying would listen or not was another matter entirely.

He pointed to the word written clearly.

"Iguana..?" Wei Ying slapped his own forehead. "I swear that read Guava the first time I read it!"

Which explained the lizard suddenly appearing.

"Well, I think I'm only partially to blame for that. I did tell him specifically not to move..." He insisted.

Lan Zhan had his own opinion on whose fault this latest change was, but he refrained from commenting for now.

"Do you think he's with XiChen-Ge now?" Wei Ying was asking, linking their arms.

Lan Zhan smiled and nodded.

He led the way with the two demons following behind.

This day had turned from a frightful duty to something incredibly sweet and heart-warming for both of them, something they both needed to feel nurtured. Time spent together when it was just the two of them alone was rare and they were both happy to have spent it in that way.

As the sun set behind the mountains of Gusu, Cloud Recesses was bathed in a fiery light of splendour. The tips of the mountains had icy peaks even at the height of summer, and now they shone golden like arrowheads.

"I hope they're okay..." Wei Ying said softly. He meant both Jiang Cheng and XiChen.

This was family at the end of the day and he wanted them to be happy and healthy.

"Open!" XiChen called out, when they knocked on the door of the Hanshi.

The reason why he had not come to open the door by himself became apparent when they saw the occupants of the room.

XiChen sat on one side of the little table, cradling a large iguana, which hissed as soon as it laid eye on Wei Ying; the cute little piggy and Snizzy were next to each other now, weirdly not fighting but close...together? Warily watching the newcomer with their beloved and too frightened to approach but unable to stay away.

"My enemy's enemy is my friend?" Wei Ying ventured, smiling at the animals.

Snizzy bobbed her head at him in greeting, flicking out her tongue much the same as the hissing lizard, returning to their staring match as soon as she could.

"Sit down." XiChen commanded.

Wei Ying sat down immediately.

He had never heard that tone from his XiChen-Ge before...well, only once before and since it concerned Lan Zhan...Wei Ying had forgiven him then.

Right now, he felt suitably chastised.

Lan Zhan however, took his sweet time sitting down, on purpose. He pushed his robes back with a flourish and settled himself before sitting down, a challenge in his frosty golden eyes as he looked back at his brother.

Uh oh...Wei Ying could smell a fight coming.

He did not want to be in XiChen-Ge's boots right now...not that he was wearing any at the moment...

But, since the Lans were dignified beyond reason, this was going to be a verbal fight to beat them all. Lan Zhan could draw blood with his words alone and would not hold back if he thought he was right.

Wei Ying could feel the waves of irritation flooding from his husband...only to clash with the same from his brother.

"May I ask why, when I came back to collect my husband from your care, I found him like this, instead of how I left him?" XiChen sounded cold.

"Your husband, the ape." Lan Zhan said, in the same tone.

It wasn't a question. And Lan Zhan was pointing it out when he did not need to.

Insult to injury...

"Also not of his doing, might I add." XiChen looked pointedly at Wei Ying.

"Both times, your husband took action without prompting. That makes it his own fault." Lan Zhan stated. His glare at the iguana said what he didn't put into words.

"A-Xian...you were supposed to find a cure, not make it worse." XiChen insisted.

"Then maybe, my husband should have been left alone to work. Instead he was lumbered with...that." Lan Zhan shot back, leaning forward in a stance which said, "try me".

"So...it's my fault?" XiChen declared, in disbelief.

Lan Zhan refused to answer that.

Of course it was his fault.

It certainly wasn't Wei Ying’s...

"Ah...ha...Hui Gai has the cure!" Wei Ying intervened quickly, hating his higher pitch. "Don't you?" He turned to the Demon King, who looked delighted for some reason.

"In a minute. This is getting good." Hui Gai replied, unrepentantly, grinning back at him.

His arms were crossed over his chest and the bag was left swinging from his little finger.

Rather precariously, Wei Ying thought, pleading with his eyes.

Hui Gai could never say no to his friend, And so he tossed the bag over to him.

But at the last minute, it decided to wriggle some more and whatever it was fell out in an octopussy way, a heap of limbs that seemed squishy and squelchy. It was a sort of green colour.

"What is that? And why has it got so many eyes?" XiChen wanted to know.

Wei Ying thought it was quite unfair if that question was directed at himself because how was he supposed to know? It was his first time seeing something like that.

So he shrugged non-committally.

And shifted closer to Lan Zhan, whose arms wrapped securely around his waist while the frosty glare intensified.

"How do you know that's going to work?" XiChen continued.

"I trust Hui Gai." Wei Ying said, straight away.

"Aww, thanks PengYou!" Hui Gai was awfully pleased at that.

Wei Ying beamed at him and gave him two thumbs up.

XiChen clutched the iguana tighter.

It's forked tongue came out from its mouth and licked his cheek. XiChen fought for control. He just wanted his husband back...as a human...

"What have you got to lose?" Hui Gai drawled, not really caring if it worked or not.

"Do we really need to stay?" Zago said. She didn't bother keeping her voice down, either.

"Can we stay until the end of the show?" He retorted. "I wanna see what happens...to...you know..." his eyes drifted to the iguana.

When it looked as if XiChen was going to argue more, Lan Zhan intervened.

"Brother is in no position to refuse help. Unless he wants to stay married to ...a lizard?" He smiled, rather smugly. "Xiongzhang will have to take his chances and trust Wei Ying."

XiChen opened his mouth, but the iguana took matters into its own mouth and swallowed the creature.

There were gasps all around and XiChen stood up, turning the iguana upside down and shaking him by the tail, shouting, "spit it out, spit it out!"

The iguana turned a brighter shade of green and suddenly, XiChen was holding a very naked Jiang Cheng, with traces of green scales still on parts of his body.

Of course, that cleared the room, with Zago saying she had been right in her suggestion to leave faster; and had Hui Gai actually listened, they would not be traumatised for life.

Wei Ying had been yanked away faster than a candle being smothered, before he had time to ask what that cucumber was.

All in all, Lan Zhan decided...it had been quite a productive day.