A Ghost of Snow

1. Snow

Wei Wuxian had always been good at smiling. Some would even say he was born with a smile on his face, incapable of showing any other emotion. It wasn't that he was really happy and never felt sad or hurt, it was just that he thought it was easier to smile, so that's what he always did.
It often made him come off as unabashed and shameless, not that he minded anyway. He would not let anyone take away his smile from him, to him, it was the only thing that really belonged to him.

But today, he was genuinely happy, smiling from ear-to-ear as he walked with Wen Ning to his martial nephew's 100-day celebration banquet. Not that he would go on telling people but it meant the world to him to be invited ever since he was declared an anomaly, an enemy, a disaster, even a monster by many people.

His joy was short-lived though, as soon as he had entered the vicinity of Lanling, a foreboding feeling had settled in his gut which he kept suppressing deeming it unworthy of his attention on such a joyous day. Something about the Qiongqi Street being too quiet did not sit well with him and his doubts were proven true soon after when an arrow came flying towards him, if not for Wen Ning's unhuman reflexes it would have gone straight through his head.

His smile slowly faded being replaced with a serious expression when a Jin cultivator came accusing him of putting a vicious curse on him. This Jin, what was his name again?

Wei Wuxian was confused as to why would he curse someone he didn't even know? He did recall after a lot of yelling from the Jin that he had indeed argued with this very disciple a year or so ago.

"I don't use such under-handed techniques, if I wanted to kill you, I would do it in broad daylight and let everybody know that it was me.", Wei Wuxian had tried to reason in his own unconventional way. It had not worked though, Jin Zixun as Wei Wuxian now knew was convinced that it was obviously Wei Wuxian who was harbouring a grudge and wanted him to suffer.

Wei Wuxian really wanted to tell him that with his attitude there would surely be at least a hundred people out there who wanted him dead. He kept mum though, it wasn't possible to reason with this man so he would just wait for someone to come by and settle it.

The last straw of his patience was pulled when Jin Zuxin broke the gift he had so lovingly prepared for his senior sister's son. A mini war had broken out, in the middle of what Jin Zixuan, his senior sister's husband had found himself. Jin Zixuan had tried really hard to stop them both but none was ready to back down.

Jin Zixuan knew that Wei Wuxian was not at fault, he just wanted him to stop Wen Ning so all of them could just go back to Jinlintai where his wife was waiting for him and her martial brother. What he hadn't expected was for Jin Zixun to be this unreasonable going as far as trying to stab Wei Wuxian when he did not even have a sword on him.

When he pulled out Suihua, his spiritual sword to defend Wei Wuxian  from getting his back stabbed, he was suddenly pushed out of the way and fell onto the ground with his eyes closed. He was sure that by now Wei Wuxian had been killed and he would have to see his wife heartbroken over the loss of her martial sibling. Though when he opened his eyes, Wei Wuxian was still alive, his red eyes seething with anger, Wen Ning had calmed down and sheathed Suibian, Wei Wuxian's spiritual sword and everyone else had their feet frozen to the ground. But what made his eyes go wide was a thin blade that looked like an icicle and he suddenly felt really cold. Wait, was it snowing? In the middle of summer? In Lanling?