A Ghost of Snow

6. Lan Qiren

When Lan Qiren had run after his nephews, his only motive had been to save face for the cultivation world, he did not expect that he would have to go through this theatrical experience of his older nephew being infatuated with a girl, who was probably a decade younger than him and this shameless disciple of his who was flirting with his younger nephew without batting an eye.

He was too old, too tired for this, what was he thinking running to where everyone was half his age, this was giving him a headache and all he wanted was to go have tea in the silence of his own residence back at Cloud Recesses.

Once he had recovered from the initial shock of seeing an all too familiar face after years, he observed that this girl, Baixue, had yet only answered Wei Wuxian. She had acknowledged Lan Xichen by raising her head at his question but not spoken to him.

Lan Qiren was known for a lot of things around the world, his strict demeanor, intimidating aura and straight-forwardness being some of them. He did not think much before he questioned, his voice rough like usual,"Wei Wuxian, was your mother pregnant when your parents parted with you?"

It wasn't the first time today that Wei Wuxian's expression turned gloomy, there was still a smile on his face but something about it didn't fit, it had been so long, he had thought about his parents, nobody wanted to tell him anything about them.

"Grandmaster Lan, I....", he paused for a moment before continuing,"I barely remember what my parents looked like, knowing whether my mother was pregnant is beyond me. I am sorry, I do not know.", his response came out softer than usual, the twinkle in his voice missing.

For the first time in his life Lan Qiren felt that he had done something way out of line and should apologise, but his pride came in the way so he did the next best thing. He cleared his throat and pointed towards Baixue while looking at Wei Wuxian and said,"That is exactly what she, your mother looked like with black hair and your silver eyes."

Wei Wuxian's eyes swirled with emotion, he did not speak and turned towards the young lady to take a better look at her face. Lan Qiren did not expect him to respond so he continued, "Unless it's her ghost, this has to be her daughter."

Wei Wuxian's eyes widened, both alternatives sounded good to his ears, the prospect of having a sister had him smiling for a moment but this girl looked too young to have been born more than twenty years ago. Then was she really his mother's ghost, not possible, if she was a ghost he would know. With that clear in his mind, he nodded to himself, and then turned to look at Lan Qiren, "Neither is she a ghost nor my sister. Grandmaster, this girl is too young, when my parents died, I was four, she doesn't look much older than seventeen and I would know if it was a ghost."

Lan Qiren had to agree that Wei Wuxian did possess a sharp intellect so much so that even when his brain was in an emotional turmoil Wei Wuxian was able to quickly deduce that both the answers he had come up with weren't true. But what made him want to hit this kid in the head was his smooth acknowledgment of the fact that he did practice demonic cultivation without really saying it. Lan Qiren's inner voice repeated Wei Wuxian's statement in a mockery,"I would know if it were a ghost..." "Fool!", Lan Qiren refrained from saying it aloud. Had he not told this boy back when he was just a teenager that if he found a way to control resentment, the cultivation world wouldn't allow his existence. Wasn't it exactly what was happening now.

Wei Wuxian had always been brash and said whatever he wanted to, to whoever he wanted, never minding the social etiquette much, he always spewed facts that were true, if it offended people, he didn't care. But this habit of his had earned him a fair amount of enemies out there. With this new cultivation that he had come up with it was inevitable that he would land in situations such as today.

It had been more than a year since he last saw Wei Wuxian. Lan Qiren noticed that he looked a little sick, his complexion was paler than before and he wore more layers than usual, was he cold? But he was also unusually quieter and calmer than when he used to be a disciple of Yunmeng Jaing. Lan Qiren was sure it was the resentment taking a toll on him and making him behave in a manner opposite to his actual personality. He decided that he would keep reprimanding the kid for a later time though.

In the periphery he could see that two groups of people were approaching them. One was being led by Jaing Wanyin and Nie Mingjue, they even brought Jaing Yanli with them, what were they thinking, "Stupid brats", Lan Qiren's brain supplied. But what caught his attention was the other group- Wen Qing stood with her family in tow and Wen Ning moved to stand beside her, his intimidating eyes clearly warning anyone who decided to attack his family, one look at them and he could tell that there were no cultivators in the group except for Wen Qing who was also a medic and wait was there a toddler with them? Again, he would inquire later.

Now focusing on the problem at hand, Lan Qiren decided to try his luck. Before anyone could speak or throw allegations at each other. He raised his hand and spoke in an authoritative manner looking at the young lady,"Miss, who are you and how do you know Wei Wuxian?"