Pure | | Lan Sizhui, Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian

Looks and Whispers | One |

Hanguang Jun  has been looking at me differently lately. So has Wei Qianbei. I can't quite put a finger on it.

Lan Sizhui managed to look away from the other two, standing together at the end of the corridor. They were both looking in his direction, whispering things amongst themselves, and they did not bother to hide it. The two of them have been doing that lately, and it almost seemed as if they were following Sizhui around. At least he felt that way. Sizhui pretended not to notice them and continued to walk down the hall towards the teaching room with the rest of the Lan disciples. Lan Qiren was not in the room yet, so he took the extra time to prepare for the meeting on the mission they were leaving for tomorrow morning. His mind, however,  was still on his two seniors outside.

Did I do something wrong? Am I about to get in trouble? Maybe I should just ask them . . .no, that wouldn't be appropriate to confront the seniors. He continued to pick his brain, mind reviewing the events of the past few weeks and days, scanning for any misstep that was worth gaining attention from Wei Wuxian or Lan Wangji. He didn't notice when the teacher, Lan Qiren, walked in and started the class.

Suddenly, Lan Jingyi plopped him on the knuckles with a ruler and Sizhui snatched his hand back with a hiss. 

"What was that for?" Sizhui asked, fighting back the urge to swipe back at  Jingyi, his annoyance was evident from  the look on his face and the attitude in his question. He was hit and pulled from his thoughts.

"You owe me!" said Jingyi, inching his face closer to Sizhui. Jingyi managed to keep a group of young women from Yunmeng off of Sizhui's trail for the past few weeks, and also entertained them, accepting, in Sizhui's place, an invite from them to sneak out to the city for some fun. The Lan disciples were not supposed to take part in any of those blasphemous activities. That probably broke about 300 of the Lan Clan's rules with serious consequences. And yet, Jingyi and a few other Lan Disciples happily broke them for him. Visitors from Yunmeng always seemed to cause trouble in some way or another when they traveled up to the Cloud Recesses. Where they were from, they were always allowed to have more fun and more freedom than here in the Cloud Recesses.

"Pay attentnion!" Lan Qiren snapped towards the two young disciples. "This is an important part of the investigation. The Lurer. She is deep in the cave and if you get touched by its filthy yet alluring and highly addictive magic, you will begin to experience some . . . not so pure behavior." Lan Qiren walked back and forth in the front of the hall, his face showed disgust at the topic he was discussing. "And she likes to aim for the purest person in the group."

"By not so pure behavior, what do you mean?" asked Choi, one of the Lan disciples who sat behind Sizhui and Jingyi.

"I heard it makes your stuff swell up," whispered another to Jingyi.

"I heard that it makes you want to continuously have intercourse with anything and everyone," Jingyi whispered to the boy on side of them and Sizhui. "Makes you do shameless acts in public." He heard rippling chuckles behind him. Sizhui ignored him, keeping his eyes on Lan Qiren. Unlike them, he was taking this lesson seriously. He was the leader, the main young disciple. He had to make sure he was armed with every weapon in his arsenal of knowledge; every trick, curse, spell, weapon of the monsters or spirits that they were to encounter.

"Well, I heard that it makes you confess your love to anyone that you see. No matter who they are," said another disciple.

"Boys! Jingyi, I am about to put you out of the meeting, you say one more word." The boys fell silent. Jingyi wanted to protest that it was not him, but thought better of it. Bad enough he was already singled out. Lan Qiren continued to speak after about 15 seconds of silence in the room satisfied him. "The Lurer needs to be close enough to you to effect you, to poison your core with her spell, to touch your mind. Once you are affected, you are out cold. Then it takes you days to wake up. The side effects, to answer your question, Lan Choi, not so pure means you will begin to grow more lustful, filled with her 'example', her cooersion, her will. Impure thoughts will fill your head and guide your actions thereafter. The perversion of the infected mind," He grunted, "The committing of shameless acts without a care in the world. It is against many rules and  is a pitiful sight, especially when it isn't dealt with in a reasonable amount of time."