Chapter 18 - Refinement

A/N: This chapter is an extra long one, and it's also the last chapter of the Cloud Recesses arc flashback - enjoy!! 💗💗

Wei WuXian bought a bunch of quirky gadgets in Caiyi Town and took them back to the Cloud Recesses. After he arrived, everything was shared between the disciples from other sects. Because Lan QiRen had gone to Qinghe and there were no classes for a few days, all of the boys played around in complete chaos, rushing into Wei WuXian and Jiang Cheng's room to sleep there. All through the nights, they ate, drank, wrestled, gambled, and looked at picture books.

Lan Xichen winced at the choking noises his uncle was making, and sent a panicked glance at Wangji. If Uncle Qiren passed out here, in this room where everyone was glued to their seats, how would they be able to treat him? Unfortunately, Wangji didn't seem to notice, as he was too engrossed in the past life of his beloved Wei Wuxian. Neither did any of the Lan disciples, who looked much too rapt with their Senior Wei's exciting lifestyle to be considered appropriate. Even Sizhui was mildly envious that he hadn't grown up with Senior Wei to have such awesome parties.

Jin Ling stared at the board in amazement. Was that his uncle laughing in the background there, eating peanuts and playing dice?? With Wei Wuxian?? It looked so wrong, but also at the same time... it made them seem more like human beings.

During one of the nights, Wei WuXian lost in a game of dice, and was sent to sneak down the mountain and buy jars of Emperor's Smile. This time, everyone finally had the chance to satisfy their taste buds.

"Huh, that's weird!" Wei Wuxian commented. "Why didn't it show..."

"Show what?" Jin Ling asked.

"Hahaha... nevermind." Wei Wuxian hastily replied. There were few memories from his days studying in the Cloud Recesses that had stuck with him across his two lives, but the events that led to the horrifying punishment with the sandalwood sticks was one of those few. He wasn't sure which deity was picking and choosing which events to show on the board, but he hoped they would skip over that painful event.

However, on the second day, before daylight even appeared, someone opened the door of the room, revealing the disciples who spread out on the floor in a tangle, sleeping as if they were a group of corpses. The noise from opening the door startled a few people. As they saw the stone-faced Lan WangJi at the door through their sleepy eyes, they were instantly waken up.

There were low 'oooh's and stifled chuckles from the adult cultivators. Wei Wuxian was so in for it now!

Nie HuaiSang furiously pushed Wei WuXian, who ended up in a position with his legs at the top and head at the bottom, "Wei-xiong! Wei-xiong!" Having been shoved for a few times, Wei WuXian spoke drowsily, "Who? Is anyone else up for it?! Jiang Cheng? The fight is on—like I'm scared of you!"

Some people cringed at the situation. If this had happened to them they'd die on the spot in mortification watching it again, but Wei Wuxian seemed completely unperturbed.

"Your first instinct after you wake up is to fight Jiang Cheng, that's so funny!" giggled a junior disciple.

"Even when he's upside down and half-asleep," added his friend.

Jiang Cheng drank too much last night, and his head still ached as he lay on the ground with his eyes closed. He randomly grabbed something and hurled it at where Wei WuXian's voice came from, "Shut up!"

Unlike Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng didn't have a face of concrete, and he could feel his face heating up as the whole cultivation world watched his grouchy hungover self sprawled on the floor with his hair mussed up and his clothes rumpled.

What most people were thinking about, though, was how funny Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian were together back when they didn't hate each other.

The object landed on Wei WuXian's chest, its pages flipping open. Nie HuaiSang eyed it, only to find that the item Jiang Cheng used to hit Wei WuXian was one of his treasured out-of-print illustrated pornography books. As he looked up and saw Lan WangJi's frigid gaze, he almost died on the spot.

The room, already ringing with laughter, doubled in volume. These teens, no matter how prestigious they were grown up, really were the most hilariously disastrous group ever. The situation really couldn't get any worse than this.

Wei WuXian mumbled a few sentences, hugging the book to his chest, and went to sleep again. Lan WangJi stepped into the room. He used one hand to grip Wei WuXian's back collar, lifted him up, and dragged him in the direction of the door. After a few puzzled moments as he was carried by Lan WangJi, he was finally half-awake. He turned around, "Lan Zhan, what are you doing?"

"Aiiiya..don't hug the pornography book, Senior Wei!" groaned Jingyi, half hiding his face behind his hands.

"Bit of an obvious question, huh?" an older cultivator snorted, "Why else would Hanguang Jun be dragging you out of the room you were partying in?"

"You'd be surprised." Wei Wuxian muttered, "Lan Zhan was a very cranky fellow back in the day."

Lan WangJi didn't say any words, continuing to drag him forward. Wei WuXian woke up a bit more, along with the lying corpses on the ground who gained consciousness one after another. Seeing that Wei WuXian was caught by Lan WangJi again, Jiang Cheng hurried outside and asked, "What's happening? What are you doing?" Lan WangJi turned his head, speaking one word at a time, "To receive. His. Punishment." Jiang Cheng had a slow reaction from his sleep and drinking too much, so he just remembered the mess of a floor in the room. Recalling that they broke a countless number of sect rules of the Cloud Recesses last night, his face immediately froze.

"Thanks for the help there, Jiang Cheng." Wei Wuxian said sarcastically. "And after I went and bought Emperor's Smile for all of you lot! Where's the loyalty?"

"You lost the bet so you had to go down the mountain! Blame yourself for being crap at dice!" Jiang Cheng huffed defensively. Then he remembered the horrible punishment his shixiong had to go through and immediately his stomach plunged with guilt. He should have done something back then, come up with a clever plan or created some sort of diversion. Wei Wuxian most definitely would have if their positions were reversed. Yet another reason why Wei Wuxian was essentially a much better person than him.

Nie Huaisang looked distressed "Wei-xiong, I'm sorry!! I just...assumed you had a plan to escape punishment..."

"Haha, well, it didn't work, did it?" Wei Wuxian sighed dramatically.

"What was your plan?" Jingyi asked eagerly, hoping it'd be a tip he could use to wriggle out of trouble one day.

"Hmm...you might see in a bit. Or maybe you won't, I can't remember if I told anyone out loud. "

Lan WangJi dragged Wei WuXian to the front of the Lan Sect's ancestral hall. There were already a few older disciples of the Lan Sect waiting there, eight in total. Of them, four carried discipline rulers made of sandalwood which were extremely long in length, having numerous square-shaped characters carved onto them. It was a solemn-looking scene, indeed. As Lan WangJi dragged the person over, two of them immediately came up, firmly holding Wei WuXian in place. Wei WuXian half-knelt on the ground, being allowed no room for struggle, "Lan Zhan, are you going to punish me?" Lan WangJi stared at him coldly, maintaining his silence. Wei WuXian spoke, "I won't accept this."

The noise in the room immediately hushed down. Those were some terrifying looking disciple rulers... But Wei Wuxian's confident words made them hope that there wouldn't be any hitting.

At this point, the boys who had woken up also rushed over, but they were blocked outside the ancestral hall, not allowed to go in. They scratched their heads, scared speechless from seeing the discipline ruler.

"What type of friends are they??" Jingyi exclaimed indignantly. "Can't they think of any way to get inside and help you?"

Sizhui nodded vigorously, "If we were there, we would definitely have tried to make them stop. Or at least divide the punishment equally among everyone instead of just you!"

Wei Wuxian smiled fondly over at them, "Not everyone's as brave and noble as you, Sizhui, Jingyi. I wouldn't expect my friends to such things for me."

Then, however, Lan WangJi lifted the bottom of his white clothes, and knelt down beside Wei WuXian. Seeing this, Wei WuXian turned pale with fear. He tried to get up, but Lan WangJi commanded, "Strike!" Wei WuXian gaped with astonishment. He hurriedly spoke, "Wait, wait, I accept this, I accept this, Lan Zhan. I was wrong... Gah!"

"Wait, what??"

Similar mutters of confusion were exchanged throughout the audience. Why was Hanguang Jun being punished along with Wei Wuxian? Hanguang Jun was definitely not partying with them! Did Hanguang Jun want to keep Wei Wuxian company, or something? Was it a strange Lan sect convention?

The palms and legs of both of them received about a hundred strikes of the discipline ruler. Lan WangJi didn't need anyone to hold him down. His back was upright and his kneeling position stayed proper for the whole duration. On the other hand, Wei WuXian wailed and howled without holding back at all, making the disciples watching the scene cringe from imagining the pain.

The junior disciples cringed as well, seeing their two favourite cultivators being hit with those fearsomely huge discipline rulers.

After the beating finished, Lan WangJi silently stood up and walked outside after saluting toward the the disciples in the ancestral hall, showing no evidence that he had been injured. Wei WuXian was the exact opposite. After he was carried onto Jiang Cheng's back, he groaned for the whole way. The youths all surrounded them, asking, "Wei-xiong, what in the world happened?"

"It's understandable for Lan Zhan to punish you, but why did he himself also get the beating?"

"Oh, now they come and help you..." Jingyi snorted.

"Pathetic." Jin Ling sniffed. "I wouldn't even call them friends. Is everyone in your generation useless?"

"Hey, hey, let's not go too far," Wei Wuxian chuckled. "They kept me company and they were a reliable audience for all my crazy stories. And not everyone's useless. Lan Zhan's not useless. Zewu Jun isn't useless. Chifeng Zun wasn't useless. Sect Leader Yao, on the other hand, is totally useless."

Sect Leader gave a yell of anger, "Wei Wuxian! You better be quiet now, or-"

"My apologies, Sect Leader Yao is actually a whole lot worse than useless. In fact, it would be more accurate to call him an obnoxious blood-sucking parasite who I would love to squish under my foot, but can't because I'm not allowed to kill things, apparently. I will have to place my hope in your generation's hands, Sizhui." Wei Wuxian continued loudly.

Lan Xichen refrained from applauding with some difficulty. He turned back to the screen, waiting for the answer he had waited some 16 years to get.

Wei WuXian sighed, leaning on Jiang Cheng's back, "What a miscalculation! It's a long story!" Jiang Cheng spoke, "Cut the crap! What on Earth did you do?!" Wei WuXian answered, "I didn't do anything! Last night, didn't I lose the dice game and go down to buy some Emperor's Smile?"

Jiang Cheng, "... Don't tell me you met him again."

Wei WuXian, "That's actually it. Who knew what was wrong with my luck —when I carried the jars of Emperor's Smile and came up here, he stopped right in front of me again. I'm doubting that maybe he really watches me every single day."

"That's definitely not a coincidence. Of course Hanguang Jun was watching you." Zizhen piped up.

Lan Wangji didn't say anything but averted his eyes. It didn't work on Wei Wuxian, who nudged him teasingly with his shoulder. "Okay, this is the time for you to either deny it or confirm it..."

"I was watching you." Lan Wangji replied after a pause, then quickly continued, seeming to stumble a bit on his words. "Not on purpose, I wanted to make sure you did not break any more rules...but I also liked seeing you. With your friends. I wished I could...be your friend too."

"Only friend?" Wei Wuxian teased again, to which Lan Wangji didn't reply. "Well, considering I didn't realise I liked you until 13 years later, I can't really talk, can I? But, it's not my fault you kept insisting we weren't friends!"

Jiang Cheng, "Not everyone has so much time on their hands. What happened next?" Wei WuXian, "And then I said hello to him again. I said, 'Lan Zhan! What a coincidence—it's you again!'. Of course, he ignored me again. His hand came at me without any words. I said, 'Hey, what's the use of doing this?' He said that if a guest disciple violates the curfew so many times, they need to go to the Lan Sect's ancestral hall to receive their punishment. And I said, 'There's only the two of us here. If you don't say it, and I don't say it, then nobody would know whether or not I violated the curfew, right? I promise that there's no next time. We're already this familiar with each other, so can't you just do me a small favor?'" Everyone looked as if they couldn't bear to listen to this any longer.

No one, except Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang, really knew where Wei Wuxian was going with this. All they knew was that it was going to be something unpleasant.

Wei WuXian continued, "In the end, he said that we weren't familiar with a long face, grabbed his sword, and charged over. He paid no heed to our friendship or whatsoever, so I could only put down the Emperor's Smile and start passing a few moves. His attacks were fast and chased after me so close that I couldn't even throw him off! Eventually, I really was annoyed from him chasing me. I asked, 'Are you really not gonna let go? Huh?!'' "He still said, 'Take your punishment.'"

The junior disciples groaned in disappointment that they didn't get to see this fight. They could imagine it fine in their heads, but the real thing was always more exciting.

"Could you really hold your own against Hanguang Jun? When you were 15? Without your demonic cultivation?" a Lan disciple asked in amazement.

Wei Wuxian pouted. "Of course I could! I wasn't born holding Chenqing. My swordwork was top-level, so Lan Zhan and I were perfectly matched."

"I said, 'Fine!'. Then, I stopped dodging, threw myself over, clung to him, and plummeted outside the wall of the Cloud Recesses!"

"..."

Wei WuXian, "And so, the two of us fell outside the area of the Cloud Recesses together! It was such a bad fall that I saw stars before my eyes. I said, 'How about this, Lan Zhan? Now, you're also outside the Cloud Recesses. We both broke the curfew, and you can't be harsh toward others and loose toward yourself. If you punish me, you'd have to punish yourself as well. Equal treatment. How does that sound?'"

Somehow, Wei Wuxian was still able to make the whole room go silent in shock. How was he still sitting here after such unthinkable stunts like that?? At least now, Lan Xichen pondered, he understood why Wangji received punishment along with Wei Wuxian.

"I can't believe... you did that..." Zizhen said, still looking like he hadn't fully comprehended what Wei Wuxian had just done. "Wait, is that why Hanguang Jun had to punish himself?? But he didn't do anything wrong! It wasn't his fault that he got pushed out of the Cloud Recesses."

Wei Wuxian shrugged, "Those are the Lan sect rules for you."

Wei WuXian, "After he got up, he looked like he really wasn't in a good mood. I sat on the side and told him not to worry, that I won't tell anyone else, and that the only ones who knew about this was the sky, the Earth, and us two. And then, he walked off without saying anything. Who knew that he'd do something like this in the morning... Jiang Cheng, walk slower. You're almost shaking me off." Jiang Cheng wanted to not only shake him off, but, even more so, to make a few man-shaped dents on the ground by slamming his head down

"So, after that, you climbed back over and brought the alcohol to everyone else? You weren't worried at all?"

"I underestimated Lan Zhan's stubborness for following the rules." Wei Wuxian sighed. "I learnt my lesson well, though. I haven't done that again!"

"Is simply carrying you not up to your standards?!" Wei WuXian, "I never asked you to carry me, in the beginning." Jiang Cheng was enraged, "If I don't carry you, you'd probably stay in their ancestral hall and roll on the ground all day long. I don't have that thick of a face to lose! Lan WangJi even had fifty more strikes than you, and he even walked by himself. Yet, you have the nerve to pretend that you're crippled. I don't want to carry you any more. Get off, now!"

Wei WuXian, "No, I'm wounded."

The group joked around on the narrow path made of white stones.

"Senior Wei just wanted to be carried around, doesn't he?" snickered Jingyi. Senior Wei was seriously the most dramatic person he knew, closely followed by Jin Ling and Nie Huaisang.

"...but by Uncle Jiang??" Jin Ling wondered.

They walked right into a person in white robes, holding a book as he passed by. Lan XiChen stopped with wonder and smiled, "What is going on, here?" Jiang Cheng felt extremely awkward, not knowing how to reply. Nie HuaiSang answered before him, "XiChen-ge, Wei-xiong was punished with more than a hundred strikes of the ruler. Is there any medicine?!"

Lan XiChen immediately came up to them, "Was this done by WangJi? Is Young Master Wei still able to walk? What in the world happened?"

The audience immediately felt a rush of liking towards Lan Xichen for so far being the only pleasant, genuinely kind and morally-just person shown on the board so far. Even back then, he was the first person to help.

'Really, it's too bad Lan Xichen doesn't want the role of chief cultiavtor...' Wei Wuxian thought vaguely, 'He would have been the perfect candidate...'

Of course, Jiang Cheng didn't dare to say that Wei WuXian was at fault. Thinking back, it was them who urged Wei WuXian to buy liquor. Each and every one of them should have been punished. He could only speak in a vague way, "It's fine, it's fine; it's not that serious! He can walk. Wei WuXian, why are you still up there?!"

"Well, at least you know and acknowledge that it wasn't all my fault, even if you didn't share my punishment with me." Wei Wuxian shrugged. "Most people don't do either."

Jiang Cheng looked away, twisting the tassel of his Jiang sect bell with his fingers. There were so many ways in which he owed Wei Wuxian... So many words unspoken, thanks not given. Why was it so hard for him to talk properly with his shixiong?

Wei WuXian spoke, "I can't walk." He raised his red palms, which were swollen a few sizes larger, and complained to Lan XiChen, "ZeWu-Jun, your younger brother is so cruel."

Lan XiChen examined his palms, "Yes, the punishment is quite severe, indeed. It is likely that the swelling will not subside until after three or four days."

Jiang Cheng really didn't know that the beating was so severe. He exclaimed, "What? Not after three or four days? His legs and his back were also hit by the discipline rulers. How can Lan WangJi do this?!"

He spoke the last sentence with resentment in spite of himself, and only realized it after Wei WuXian secretly smacked him. However, Lan XiChen didn't mind it at all. He smiled, "Nevertheless, it is not severe enough to require medication. Young Master Wei, let me tell you a way for your injuries to be healed in just a few hours."

Lan WangJi looked down at Wei Wuxian's hands. "Wei Ying... I am sorry."

"Why are you sorry? Didn't you give yourself a worse punishment?" Wei Wuxian replied. "I should be saying sorry to you, for dragging you out of the Cloud Recesses."

"I chose to punish myself. I chose to punish you." Lan WangJi said, eyes downcast. "I still do not know whether it was the most just decision."

Wei Wuxian gazed at his husband, a gaze as tender as a caress. "I find that it can drive you mad, wondering whether what you did was right or wrong - I spent a good few years of my life thinking about that instead of sleeping. In the end, there isn't really a right or wrong choice, the lines are too blurred, so you just do what your instinct tells you and you stick with it."

The scene suddenly changed to the cold spring again. It looked almost identical to how it looked in the present - crystal clear water, lush, verdant greenery, the silent stillness...

It was nighttime, at the cold spring of the Cloud Recesses. Lan WangJi's eyes were closed as he relaxed in the ice-cold water. Suddenly, a voice rang beside his ears, "Lan Zhan."

"..."

Lan WangJi's eyes sprang open. Sure enough, Wei WuXian was lying on his stomach, above the blue stones beside the cold spring, tilting his head and smiling at him.

Lan Wangji's expression in that split-second was so priceless, Nie Huaisang committed it to memory so he paint it in a portrait later. There's nothing like your secret but annoying crush suddenly appearing out of nowhere while you're bathing alone and trying to meditate in a pond.

Lan WangJi blurted out, "How did you come in?!" Wei WuXian slowly crawled up, and spoke as he took off his sash belt, "ZeWu-Jun told me to come in." Lan WangJi, "What are you doing?" Wei WuXian kicked off his boots while leaving piles of clothing all over the ground, "I already stripped, so what do you think I'm here for? I heard that your sect's cold spring can cure injuries aside from helping with one's cultivation. So, your brother told me to come here and bathe with you. Except, it's really not nice of you to come here to heal alone. Eep! It really is cold. Brr..."

The juniors averted their eyes before they could see too much of Senior Wei removing his clothes, listening intently to the narration to make up for it.

Meanwhile, Lan Xichen turned to wink at Lan WangJi. "You're welcome!" He called out with a twinkling smile.

He went into the water, rolling about due to the freezing water of the spring. Lan WangJi quickly distanced himself a few meters away from Wei WuXian, "I came here for cultivation purposes, not to heal... Do not leap around!" Wei WuXian spoke, "But it's so cold, it's so cold..." This time, he didn't intend to emphasize or cause trouble. It was true that most people couldn't become used to the GusuLan Sect's cold spring in a short amount of time, feeling as if their bodies and blood would freeze if they stayed still for just a few moments.

The members of the audience shivered at the thought, including Wei Wuxian. He was glad Lan Zhan didn't bathe much in the cold spring anymore, because it was so much more enjoyable in a warm tub - until, of course, Hanguang Jun inevitably broke the tub into splinters.

Lan WangJi was originally meditating in peace, but with Wei WuXian jumping about, a few splashes of water was thrown on his face. A few droplets trickled down his long lashes and ink black hair. It was beyond his endurance, "Do not move!" As he spoke, he extended an arm, and put his hand on Wei WuXian's shoulder. Wei WuXian instantly felt a surge of warmth coming from where their bodies connected. Feeling better, he couldn't help but to shift closer over there. Lan WangJi was wary of this, "What?" Wei WuXian replied in an innocent tone, "Nothing. It seems like your side is warmer." Lan WangJi firmly kept his arm between the two of them, maintaining the distance. He sternly declared, "It is not." Wei WuXian wanted to get closer to Lan WangJi so that it was more convenient for him to flatter the other. Even though he couldn't go over and was given the cold shoulder, he wasn't angered at all.

"Whenever Wei Wuxian uses that tone, it means that he's about to prank you, is pranking you, or has already pranked you." Jiang Cheng said grimly. With him being flooded with so many memories of the past, little facts and details kept coming back to him in little spurts. It was making him feel like a teenager again - still irritable, but more hopeful.

He glanced at Lan WangJi's palms and shoulder. The bruises were still there, meaning that Lan WangJi really wasn't here to heal. Wei WuXian spoke sincerely, "Lan Zhan, I admire you so much. You really did punish yourself as well, without treating yourself any better. I don't have anything else to say."

Lan WangJi shut his eyes again, without any words. Wei WuXian spoke again, "Really, I've never seen someone as prim and proper as you. It'd be impossible for me to do something like this. You're so cool." Lan WangJi still paid him no attention.

"Ohh, I see!" Zizhen exclaimed. "This is where Senior Wei starts liking Hanguang Jun!"

Wei Wuxian blinked, then thought about it. Of course, he had felt drawn to Lan Zhan since the beginning, getting such a flood of delight every time he successfully managed to evoke a reaction out of him. But Zizhen was right - this was the moment where he realised the true nobility of Lan Zhan's character. And after that, he was hooked.

After Wei WuXian stopped feeling cold, he started to swim around the cold spring. He swum for a while, but still went near Lan WangJi, "Lan Zhan, didn't you notice what I was doing when I talked to you?" Lan WangJi, "I do not know." Wei WuXian, "You don't even know about this? I was complimenting you, trying to become more casual with you." Lan WangJi glanced at him, "What do you want to do?" Wei WuXian, "Lan Zhan, why don't we become friends? We're already so familiar." Lan WangJi, "We are not." Wei WuXian slapped the surface of the water, "Now, you're being boring again. Really. There are lots of benefits if you become friends with me." Lan WangJi, "For example?"

Lan Xichen couldn't restrain his face-splitting grin. Wangji only sustained conversation with a select few people (i.e. him and sometimes his uncle) and it was adorable to see him get so attached to Wei Wuxian so quickly. No one else had bothered sincerely trying to get to know Wangji without treating him differently, like some sort of marble statue to be paraded around, or an ice sculpture to be admired but not interacted with.

Wei WuXian swam near the edge of the spring, and leaned back with his arms on the blue rocks, "I'm always really loyal towards my friends. For example, I'd definitely let you be the first person to look at new porn that I get hold of... Hey, hey, come back! It's fine if you don't look at them. Have you been to Yunmeng? Yunmeng is really fun. Yunmeng's food is also good. I don't know if it's Gusu's or the Cloud Recess's problem, but the food in your sect are so bad. If you come to Lotus Pier, you can eat lots of delicious food. I can take you to pick lotus seed pods and water chestnuts. Lan Zhan, do you wanna come?"

Lan WangJi, "No." Wei WuXian, "Don't answer everything with negative words. You sound so uncaring; girls won't like it. Let me tell you—the girls in Yunmeng look very pretty, different from the sort of pretty in Gusu." He winked his left eye at Lan in a proud way, "You sure you don't wanna come?" Lan WangJi hesitated, but still replied, "No..." Wei WuXian, "Rejecting me without giving me any respect—aren't you scared that I'd conveniently take away your clothes when I leave?" Lan WangJi, "Get lost!!!"

"I can't believe you tried convincing Hanguang Jun, your future husband, to come to Yunmeng with you to meet pretty girls." Jingyi groaned.

"The full list is porn, food, picking lotus, and pretty girls." snorted Jin Ling. "Very convincing for the renowned, dignified, scholarly Hanguang Jun."

"At least I was direct about it." muttered Wei Wuxian. "Unlike others who take decades to ask someone else out."

After Lan QiRen left Qinghe and returned to Gusu, he didn't make Wei WuXian go to the Library Pavilion to copy the Lan Sect's sect rules again, but simply gave him a harsh scolding in front of everyone. Without the parts where he quoted ancient scriptures, it all boiled down to how he had never seen someone so unruly and shameless before, so please get lost, as soon and as far as possible. Please don't go near the other pupils, and especially refrain from tainting his favorite one—Lan WangJi. As he scolded, Wei WuXian only grinned while listening, feeling no humiliation or anger at all. Immediately after Lan QiRen left, Wei WuXian sat down and spoke to Jiang Cheng, "Don't you think that it's a bit too late, telling me to get lost now? He only told me to get lost after I finished tainting his person. It's too late!"

Lan Qiren gave another groan. He should have never sent Wangji to the classes! He should never have let Wei Wuxian attend! So many mistakes...Alas...

The waterborne abyss in Caiyi Town created a great deal of trouble for the GusuLan Sect. It was impossible to completely destroy it, and the Lan Sect couldn't chase it to somewhere else like the Wen Sect did. The sect leader of the Lan Sect was in secluded meditation most of the time, so Lan QiRen used all of his energy on this matter.

"Why was the old sect leader in secluded meditation, again?" Jingyi whispered to Sizhui, who looked nervously at Hanguang Jun before shaking his head quickly, a clear indication that it wasn't a happy story. Then Jingyi realised that the old sect leader was, of course, Hanguang Jun and Zewu Jun's father. He shook away the strange thought.

With the lessons becoming shorter and shorter, Wei WuXian's time spent with his friends in the mountains became longer and longer. Today, Wei WuXian intended on going outside with a group of seven or eight people again. As they passed the Lan Sect's Library Pavilion, he looked through the drape of magnolia branches, and he could just about see Lan WangJi sitting alone by the window. Nie HuaiSang spoke in a puzzled tone, "Is he looking at us? That's strange. We didn't make too much noise, so why does he still look at us like that?" Wei WuXian, "He's probably thinking of how to find faults with us." Jiang Cheng interrupted, "Wrong. Not 'us', but 'me'. I think the only person he's watching is you." Wei WuXian, "Heh. Just let him wait. I'll deal with him after I get back."

The audience let out a collective sigh, bracing themselves for whatever ridiculous plan Wei Wuxian was cooking up.

Lan Xichen looked at his little brother's face. He could just detect the subtle longing and frustration in his demeanour. 'Ah', he realised, 'Wangji wants to go with Wei gongzi!' But of course, there was no way Lan WangJi would approach Wei Wuxian and his friends.

Jiang Cheng, "Don't you dislike how he's boring and how he's not fun? Then, you should stop teasing him. This is like pulling whiskers from a tiger's mouth—stop looking for your own death."

Wei WuXian replied, "No. It's exceptionally fun, precisely because of how a living person can be so not fun."

There were some laughs again at Jiang Cheng being exposed of calling Hanguang Jun 'boring' and 'not fun'.

They only returned to the Cloud Recesses when the time almost reached noon. Lan WangJi sat before the desk, organizing the stack of paper which he wrote on, as heard a creaking noise coming from the window. He looked up to see someone hop inside. Wei WuXian came up by climbing the magnolia tree outside of the Library Pavilion. His face was beaming, "Lan Zhan, I'm back! Did you miss me? Huh? Without me copying texts for these past few days?"

Sizhui started to giggle while Zizhen clasped his face in delight - this was just like every romance story he'd read from his collection. Even several cultivators smiled at all the romantic hints.

Lan WangJi seemed like an old monk in a state of meditation, seeing everything as nothing. He even continued to organize the pile of books with a numb expression. Wei WuXian deliberately misinterpreted his silence, "I know, even if you don't say it, that you definitely missed me. Or else, earlier on, why did you look at me through the window?" Lan WangJi immediately shot him a glance, his eyes full of silent accusations. Wei WuXian sat atop the windowsill, "Look at you, rising to the bait after just a few sentences. You're so easy to catch. This way, you won't be able to maintain your composure."

Wei Wuxian sighed, "Look how easy it was to get under Lan Zhan's skin back when we were teenagers! Ah, the good old days... Now, I'm running out of ridiculous things to do!"

"Mn." Lan WangJi fiddled with Wei Wuxian's long, scarlet hair ribbon, looping it around his fingers. He had missed Wei Wuxian, back then in the few silent, eventless days he'd spent in the library without him. In retrospect, those few days were nothing compared to the year while Wei Wuxian was at the Burial Mounds with the Wen sect, and that in turn was nothing compared to the 13 years Lan Zhan had spent waiting and searching for his Wei Ying.

Lan WangJi, "You, leave." Wei WuXian, "If I don't leave, will you throw me down?" Looking at Lan WangJi's face, Wei WuXian suspected that if he spoke one more sentence, Lan WangJi would really abandon the small amount of selfrestraint he had left and nail him onto the window at once. Wei WuXian quickly added, "Don't be so scary! I'm here to apologise by giving you a present." Lan WangJi refused at once, without thinking twice about it, "No."

No one in the audience questioned Lan Wangji's immediate and resolute 'no'. It was the only sensible answer to any of Wei Wuxian's "apologies".

Wei WuXian, "Are you sure?" Seeing that a guarded look leaked from Lan WangJi's eyes, he fished out two rabbits from his arms, as if he was performing a magic trick. As he held onto them by their ears, it seemed like he was holding two round, chubby snowballs. The snowballs even kicked their legs around.

The cultivators blinked in surprise. They were expecting some sort of talisman that turns the user into a duck or perhaps a fan decorated with the words 'I'm a fuddy-duddy'. But these two snow-white rabbits were adorable! Was Wei Wuxian actually going to be a civil person and give a decent apology this time? Sizhui silently approved. He knew that his father Hanguang Jun secretly loved rabbits, so it was very fitting that Senior Wei would give him two!

He lifted them in front of Lan WangJi's eyes, "It's actually quite strange here. There aren't any pheasants, but there are lots of wild rabbits. They aren't even scared of people. What do you think? Aren't they fat? Do you want them?" Lan WangJi stared at him indifferently. Wei WuXian, "Fine. If you don't want them, I'm gonna give them to other people. We aren't having much flavors in our mouths, anyways."

Sizhui clapped his hands to his mouth - surely not! Surely Senior Wei wasn't going to give Hanguang Jun two adorable bunnies only to take them away and kill them for food! That would be uncharacteristically cruel. The cultivators were making similar noises of disapproval, but weren't as shocked.

"Oh, of course, here's the prank!"

After he heard the last sentence, Lan WangJi spoke, "Stop."

Wei WuXian extended his arms, "I'm not going anywhere."

Lan WangJi, "Who are you giving them to?"

Wei WuXian answered, "I'm gonna give them to whoever's good at roasting rabbit meat."

Lan WangJi, "Killing is forbidden in the Cloud Recesses. It is the third rule on the Wall of Rules."

Wei WuXian, "Fine, then. I'll go down the mountain, kill it outside, and then bring it back to roast it. You don't want it, anyway, so why do you care so much about it?"

"..." Lan WangJi spoke one word at a time, "Give. It. To. me."

Wei WuXian grinned on the windowsill, "Now you want it? Look at you— you're always like this."

Sizhui exhaled in relief. He could see by the mischievous grin on Senior Wei's face that he had orchestrated the whole thing and had been waiting for Lan WangJi to give in and accept the rabbits - of course he wouldn't just offer them to him and then kill them! Sizhui shook his head. Sometimes he wondered if the constant talk about Wei Wuxian, the Yiling Laozu was subconsciously corrupting his memories of him as a child, and then as a teenager.

Both of these rabbits were chubby and round, appearing to two balls made of fluffy snowflakes. One had bleary eyes, and lay on its stomach, remaining motionless even after a long while. As it chewed on the lettuce, its pink mouth moved in a leisurely manner. The other one seemed as if it was actually a cricket, constantly hopping up and down. It played around with its companion, wriggling and leaping nonstop. Wei WuXian tossed over a few pieces of lettuce which he took out of nowhere.

The others had by now also realised that Wei Wuxian had really been intending to give the rabbits to Lan WangJi as a gift, not as food.

"Why does he have lettuce?? Ohh, of course, he's just joking about eating them, he's actually giving them to Hanguang Jun as pets!" said Jingyi said, relieved.

Zizhen was laughing at the decription of the two rabbits. "They're just like Hanguang Jun and Senior Wei! The motionless one is Hanguang Jun and the crazy, energetic one is Senior Wei! Hahaha..."

He suddenly called, "Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan!" The energetic rabbit had stepped on Lan WangJi's inkstone and left a line of black footsteps on the desk. Lan WangJi was unsure of what to do, holding a piece of paper and considering different ways to wipe it off. He didn't want to pay Wei WuXian any attention, but hearing the exaggerated tone, he thought that there might be an issue, "What?" Wei WuXian, "Look at how one is on top of the other... Are they...?"

The juniors looked in alarm at the rabbits then quickly looked away, faces flushed as they realised the two rabbits were, indeed, doing one another.

Lan WangJi, "Both of these are male!" Wei WuXian, "Male? How weird."

Zizhen choked - his metaphor for the rabbits being Senior Wei and Hanguang Jun suddenly seemed a hundred times more accurate, and also explicit.

He lifted them by the ears, examined them, and confirmed, "They really are male. Well, then, I didn't even finish my sentence. Why are you so stern? What were you thinking of? Now that I think about it, I was the one who caught them, and I didn't even notice whether they are male or female, but you even looked at their..." Lan WangJi finally threw him down the Library Pavilion. Wei WuXian laughed while in midair, "Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!" With a bang, Lan WangJi slammed the window closed, and stumbled back to the desk.

As he swept a look at the messy piles of rice paper and ink pawprints on the ground, as well as the two white rabbits which rolled around while dragging pieces of lettuce leaves, he closed his eyes and covered his ears. The clusters of quivering magnolia branches were shut outside the window. Yet, no matter how hard he resisted, he couldn't shut out Wei WuXian's vibrant, unrestrained laughter.

Lan WangJi couldn't help but be impressed by the poetic accuracy of the pictures of the board. At the time he had been surrounded by chaos and mess, and just closed his ears and eyes to it all, which reflected perfectly to him trying to shut out his astronomical and turmoil-inducing feelings for Wei Wuxian. That bright laughter, unique to him, had haunted him for months, years later. Even during those lonely 13 years, sometimes he would think he heard an echo of that laugh, and he would whirl around, heart pounding, only to be met with an empty street.

On the second day, Lan WangJi finally stopped having classes with them. After the Pornography Case and the Rabbit Case, Lan QiRen was certain that Wei WuXian was a basin full of jet-black dye, and feared that his favorite pupil would be stained, which was why he hastened to tell Lan WangJi to stop going to lessons. And so, Wei WuXian sat back in his old spot, and half a month of peace followed. Unfortunately, the good things never lasted long for someone like Wei WuXian.

Nie Huaisang nodded solemnly as he added that quote to his notes, purely because of how accurate it was in describing the life of Wei Wuxian.

Wei Wuxian was nodding thoughtfully "Even now, just when everything was perfect with A-Yuan and Lan Zhan, I had to get sucked in this weird place with you lot. I guess I'll never get any peace."

In the Cloud Recesses, there was a long wall. Every seven steps, there would be a hollowed out window with intricate designs. Lan QiRen explained that the designs of every hollowed out window on this wall was about the life of each ancestor of the GusuLan Clan. The oldest and most famous four windows told the life of the founder of the Lan Sect, Lan An. This founder was born in a temple. He grew up listening to the chanting of sutras, and thus became a famous monk at a very young age. At the age of twenty, he used the "Lan" from "qielan" as his last name and resumed the worldly life, becoming a musician. During his path of cultivation, he met the "fated person" he searched for in Gusu, became cultivation partners with her, and founded the Lan Sect. After his partner passed away, he returned to the temple and ended his life there. The four windows were "qielan", "xiyue", "daolu", and "guiji". During these past few days, the lessons seldomly involved a topic as interesting as this. Although Lan QiRen introduced it with boring timelines, Wei WuXian absorbed the knowledge for once. After class, he laughed, "So, the founder of the Lan Sect was a monk—no wonder! He ventured into the mortal world to meet one person, and, as she went, he went as well, leaving nothing behind on this Earth. But why would a person like him produce such unromantic descendants?"

Wei Wuxian laughed at himself. "I take that back, I take that back. Lan Zhan...I think, no, I know that you are my fated person. You know that right?"

Lan WangJi gazed into his eyes with the intensity of the sun. "Yes. And you are mine."

'I don't like this 'passing away' and other other 'ending their life' stuff - Lan Zhan, let's just live forever!", Wei Wuxian said passionately, wrapping his arms possessively around his beloved.

"Mn. I know you will find a way." Lan WangJi replied, the hint of a smile ghosting his lips.

Since nobody expected the Lan Sect, which was famous for being orthodox, to have such a founder, they started to chat among themselves. As they chatted, the center of the conversation tipped toward the direction of "cultivation partners", and they started to discuss the cultivation partners of their dreams, evaluating the well-known girls in the different sects. At this point, someone asked, "ZiXuan-xiong, who do you think is the best girl?"

Jin Ling's attention, which had been wandering during the long recounting of the Lan An story, suddenly snapped back into place. HIs eyes zeroed in on the young, handsome man in golden Jin sect robes - his father!

As Wei WuXian and Jiang Cheng heard this, they both looked toward a boy in the front rows of the classroom. The boy had proud, handsome features, with a vermilion mark on his forehead. His collar, cuffs, and sash belt all had the white peony named Sparks Amidst Snow sewn on. This was the young master sent to study in Gusu by the LanlingJin Sect—Jin ZiXuan. Another person spoke, "It's best for you to not ask ZiXuan-xiong about this. He's already got a fiancee, so his answer would definitely be his fiancee."

Jin Ling was almost buzzing with excitement. His father and his mother were both being mentioned. It felt so unreal to be directly seeing and hearing about them. He knew he needed to take this opportunity to get to know as much as he could about his parents. This would likely be the one and only chance he'd ever get in his lifetime.

Wei Wuxiand and Jiang Cheng turned to look at each other, both suddenly remembering the series of events that were about to unfold.

"Uh, Jin Ling?" Wei Wuxian said carefully, "I want you to know that, whatever your father says now-"

"SHHHH!" Jin Ling hissed over him, not paying any attention.

Wei Wuxian shrugged at Jiang Cheng. He supposed that Jin Ling was old enough to know the unedited truth about the previous complicated relationship between his parents. Perhaps not mature enough, but he would understand soon. It wasn't as if anything Wei Wuxian could say would make Jin Ling close his ears and turn around, not when he had been starved of any pictures of his parents faces all his life.

Hearing the word "fiancee", Jin ZiXuan's lips seemed to twitch, showing a slight expression of displeasure. The disciple who asked was quite oblivious, continuing with a cheerful face, "Really? Which sect is she from? She must be extremely talented!" Jin ZiXuan raised a brow, "Forget it."

Jin Ling sucked in a breath. Surely he'd heard wrong? Why did it seem like his father didn't really like his mother? Hadn't everyone he'd met who'd known his parents told him that his father and mother had loved each other very much? What did this mean?

The rest of his friends were alternating between watching him anxiously and looking at the screen in surprise.

Jin Ling's hopes that he'd heard his father wrong were dashed by Wei Wuxian's next words.

Wei WuXian suddenly spoke, "What do you mean by 'forget it'?" Everyone in the room looked at him with surprise. Usually, Wei WuXian was always grinning. He had never really been angered, even when he was scolded or punished. Yet, at the moment, there was an obvious streak of hostility on his face. Jiang Cheng didn't criticize Wei WuXian, either, for making trouble out of nothing, as he usually did. He simply sat beside him with a dark face.

Wei Wuxian without his smile looked dangerous - it was the first time on the board that they had seen Wei Wuxian look something other than happy or thoughtful. The juniors had always not been able to imagine Senior Wei as the infamous Yiling Laozu - but suddenly they could picture it.

The fact that Jiang Cheng hadn't corrected Wei Wuxian's rude tone to Jin Zixuan was also a telling sign of a major fight ahead. The cultivators whispered among themselves, speculating on whether this was the stem of all the disagreements between Wei Wuxian and Jin Zixuan - which had ultimately finished with Jin Zixuan dead by Wei Wuxian's (indirect) hand. If that was so, those two careless words, while disrespectful, didn't seem like such a big deal.

Jin ZiXuan spoke in an arrogant tone, "Is the phrase 'forget it' too difficult to understand?"

Wei WuXian smiled sardonically, "The phrase isn't hard to understand. Instead, it's hard to understand how on Earth you are unsatisfied with my shijie."

Wei Wuxian mentioning his shijie and not Jiang Cheng was surprising for most cultivators. Perhaps it was because they knew how she would die - at Wei Wuxian's hand again - but they hadn't considered that maybe Wei Wuxian had a closer relationship with his shijie than they thought.

Everyone whispered to one another. They only understood, after the exchange of words, that they had accidentally stirred up a hornets' nest—Jin ZiXuan's fiancee just happened to be Jiang YanLi of the YunmengJiang Sect. Jiang YanLi was the oldest child of Jiang FengMian and Jiang Cheng's older sister. Her personality was mild, with nothing too notable; her voice was smooth, with nothing too memorable. Her appearance was only above average, and her talents weren't astonishing either. Amid the girls from the other prominent clans, it was only natural that she seemed a bit average.

Wei Wuxian scowled and shook his fist at the board, addressing the bland narrator voice. "Who is saying these things?! You can tell them to fight me! My shijie wasn't average, she was the best, the most compassionate-" he choked on his own words. Memories bombarded him like a shower of birds, suffocating him with memories of his shijie, carrying him when his leg was injured, standing up to Jin Zixun and dozens of cultivators to defend him, pushing him away in those final moments and taking the sword thrust that was meant for him...

Suddenly he found himself enveloped in a firm, warm embrace, infused with the calming scent of sandalwood. Lan WangJi held him like until his heart rate slowed. He stayed like that for a couple more moments, then with a shuddering exhale pulled away. "Thanks." he said, barely louder than a whisper.

Lan WangJi didn't reply, just stroked his hair.

On the other hand, her fiance, Jin ZiXuan, was the exact opposite. He was the only official son of Jin GuangShan, with outstanding looks and exceptional talents. According to common sense, with Jiang YanLi's conditions, it was true that they weren't well-matched with each other. She wasn't even qualified enough to compete with the other girls. The only reason why Jiang YanLi was able to enter an engagement with Jin ZiXuan was because her mother was from the MeishanYu Sect, and the MeishanYu Sect was quite friendly with the sect of which Jin ZiXuan's mother was from. The two madams grew up together, and they had a close relationship. The ways of the Jin Sect were proud, and Jin ZiXuan inherited every single drop of this. With his high standards, he had been unsatisfied with this engagement since a long time ago. He was not only unsatisfied with the candidate, but even more so with her mother taking the liberty to decide for him, making him grow more and more rebellious at heart. Today, he took the opportunity to break out. Jin ZiXuan asked in reply, "Why don't you ask me how on Earth can I be satisfied with her?"

Jin Ling froze in his seat, unable to comprehend what he was hearing. Why was his father being such a - dirtbag? Did his parents not actually love each other?? He wanted to bury his head in his hands, but he was scared of missing a single moment. The other were looking at Jin Zixuan with increasing dislike. Who did he think he was? Just because he was some pimped up heir of the Jin sect didn't mean he could be so cocky condescending and disrespectful to a Jiang Yanli.

The tension in the room was palpable, like the air had turned to solid, quivering heat. No one had any idea how this would end - would they find proof of Wei Wuxian's involvement in the death of Jin Zixuan?

Jiang Cheng instantly stood up. Pushing him to the side, Wei WuXian walked in front of him and sneered, "You sure think that you're pretty satisfying, don't you? Where did you get the guts to be all choosy here?" Because of this engagement, Jin ZiXuan had no positive impressions of the YunmengJiang Sect, and had frowned upon Wei WuXian's behavior since some time ago. On top of that, he boasted himself to be unrivaled among the juniors, without ever having been looked down upon like this. All of the blood in his body rose to his head, and he blurted, "If she's unsatisfied, then tell her to get rid of this engagement! In conclusion, I don't care for your shijie. If you care for her, ask her father about it! Doesn't he treat you better than treating his own child or something?" Hearing the last sentence, Jiang Cheng's eyes stiffened.

Gasps resounded around the room. That was a double edged insult - one directed at Jiang Yanli and the other at Jiang Cheng - and all and all way under the belt. And it was at this point that Wei Wuxian finally snapped.

With uncontrollable anger, Wei WuXian rushed over and sent out a punch. Although Jin ZiXuan was prepared, he didn't expect Wei WuXian to attack so quickly, before he even finished his sentence. Having suffered one punch, half of his face numbed. He immediately struck back without speaking a word. This fight startled both of the two prominent sects. On the same day, Jiang FengMian and Jin GuangShan hastened to Gusu from Yunmeng and Lanling.

"Nice punch!" Jingyi said enthusiastically. "You could really hear that crunch -" He suddenly broke off as he realised that Jin Ling might not like hearing praise for his dad getting punched, even if Jin Ling now knew was a trash bag his father had been.

After the two sect leaders went to see the two who were punished to kneel, and received a severe scolding from Lan QiRen, they wiped some sweat from their foreheads and started to engage in small talk. Jiang FengMian soon brought up the idea of cancelling the engagement. He told Jin GuangShan, "A-Li's mother was the one who insisted on having this engagement, in the first place, and I didn't agree. Looking at it now, as neither of them are keen, it's best if we don't force it."

Just when Jin Ling thought things couldn't get worse - they did. What did this all mean? Were his parents not actually Jin Zixuan and Jiang Yanli? He felt like everything he had been certain of was now, not certain - like a shimmering mirage in a baking desert. It didn't look like other cultivators had any idea what was going on either. It was common knowledge that Jiang Yanli had married Jin Zixuan and left one child after their deaths. Jin Ling looked desperately at Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian, the two most likely to have the answers, but they weren't looking at him, instead both glaring stormily at the screen, for once in sync with one another.

Jin GuangShan was shocked. He felt a bit hesitant, as it was never a good thing to end an engagement with another prominent sect, no matter how one looked at it. He responded, "What do the children know? They can play around however they want to. FengMian-xiong, you and I don't need to pay them any attention."

Jiang FengMian, "Jin-xiong, although we can set the engagement for them, we can't carry out the marriage in place of them. After all, they are the ones who will be spending the rest of their lives together." This engagement had never been the intention of Jin GuangShan. If he wanted to strengthen his sect's power by a marriage with another sect, the YunmengJiang Sect was neither the only choice nor the best choice. It was only that he had never dared to go against Madame Jin. Anyhow, this was initially proposed by the Jiang Sect. Since the Jin Sect was the husband's side, they didn't have as many concerns as the wife's side, so what was the point of worrying over it? After some consideration, Jin GuangShan conjured up the courage and agreed to this matter.

"Look at that slimy, scheming bastard calculating away... I'm glad he's dead and gone now. I didn't need or want to see his face again." One cultivator hissed under her breath. Wei Wuxian gave a brief cough of laughter and turned around, and saw that it was Mianmian. He gave her an air-high-five.

At this time, Wei WuXian still didn't know what this fight broke up, as he knelt on the stone path that Lan QiRen assigned him to. From a distance, Jiang Cheng approached with a sneer on his face, "Look at how well-behaved you are, kneeling so properly." Wei WuXian was gloating, "Of course, I kneel all the time. But Jin ZiXuan is a spoiled brat, so he's definitely never knelt before. If I don't make him kneel to the point that he cries for his parents, my last name won't be Wei anymore."

Jiang Cheng lowered his head, pausing for a few moments, and spoke in a soft voice, "Father came."

Wei WuXian, "Shijie didn't come, did she?" Jiang Cheng, "Why would she come? To see how you lost face for her? If she did come, would she not come to your side and bring you medicine?"

Wei WuXian sighed, "... It'd be nice if shijie came. It's fortunate that you didn't hit him."

Jiang Cheng, "I was going to. If you didn't push me, the other side of Jin ZiXuan's face would also be ruined."

The cultivators were just getting shock after shock - the latest one: Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng actually acting like a normal xiongdi relationship. Wei Wuxian smiled. "I remember now. That was basically the only thing that could unite Jiang Cheng and I - our devotion to shijie." Maybe that was why they had fallen out so badly after shijie was gone - particularly because Wei Wuxian had such a strong hand with her dying.

Wei WuXian, "Nah. He looks uglier right now, with an asymmetrical face. I heard that he values his face a lot, like a peacock. I wonder what he'd think after he looked into a mirror! Hahahaha..." After rolling on the ground with laughter, Wei WuXian spoke again, "Actually, I should have let you hit him, and I should have watched on the side. This way, maybe Uncle Jiang wouldn't have come. But there was no choice. I couldn't help it!" Jiang Cheng humphed lightly, "You wish." Although it was only Wei WuXian's casual words, he held mixed feelings, because he knew that this wasn't a lie. Jiang FengMian had never hurried to another sect in one day for anything related him, no matter if the issue was good or bad, large or small. Never.

Wei Wuxian blinked in surprise at Jiang Cheng. He hadn't known that Jiang Cheng had been so affected by the flippant words that he'd said to try and lighten the mood. Meanwhile, the audience was absorbing the gossip like a sea sponge - that Jiang Cheng secretly had a grudge against Wei Wuxian because Jiang Fengmian seemed to like him better than his actual son, and that Jin ZIxuan's nickname was 'the peacock'

As Wei WuXian saw his melancholy face, he thought that he was still annoyed at Jin ZiXuan's words, "You should go. You don't need to stay with me. If Lan WangJi comes again, you'd be caught by him. If you have time, go visit Jin ZiXuan and look at how idiotic he looks kneeling down." Jiang Cheng was somewhat surprised, "Lan WangJi? Why did he come? He still dared to come see you?"

Wei WuXian replied, "Yeah, I also thought that he should be praised for having the courage to come see me. He was probably told by his uncle to come check if I was kneeling properly." Jiang Cheng instinctively felt a foreboding sensation, "Were you kneeling properly?" Wei WuXian, "I was kneeling properly. After he was some distance away, I found a stick and started to dig in the dirt. The pile beside your foot. There's an ant hole there that I went through tons of trouble to find. When he turned his head, he saw that my shoulders were shaking, and he definitely thought that I was crying. He even came back to ask me. You really should have seen his expression as he saw the ant hole."

"..." Jiang Cheng spoke, "You should get lost and go back to Yunmeng as soon as possible! I don't think that he wants to see you ever again." And so, on that night, Wei WuXian packed up his things and returned to Yunmeng with Jiang FengMian.

The long episode finally went black, ending on a considerably lighter note. Jin Ling could barely concentrate though. All he could think about was how his father and mother might not even be his father and mother, and if they were his father and mother, his father didn't even love his mother. Sizhui balanced a careful hand on his shoulder.

"Jin Ling? I know this is really overwhelming for you. But I'm sure there is an explanation. Let's just ask Senior Wei, okay?"

Wei Wuxian sighed. He never felt like he should be the one talking about shijie and the peacock's relationship considering his reputation for being the one responsible for both their deaths, but Jiang Cheng didn't seem up for talking.

"Jin Ling, what you need to know is, yes, you are the son of Jin Zixuan and Jiang Yanli. Yes, they had a very complicated start to their relationship, full of misunderstandings and assumptions, and me, messing things up because I didn't think the peaco- Jin ZIxuan was good enough for my shijie, but I came to realise that they really did love each other. They were happiest when they were with each other, and with you. So don't worry and be patient, if these pictures continue on for a bit, you'll get to see everything for yourself. You feeling okay?"

Jin Ling nodded, a slight smile on his face, grateful for having Senior Wei as his uncle. Or, one of his many uncles.