A Ghost of Snow

17. What's wrong with him?

To Lan Qiren's eyes the Jingshi had never looked this chaotic before. There were healers coming in one after the other, speaking to each other in hushed voices. His patience was wearing thin. There were at least ten of them now, and not one of them had yet relayed to him or his nephews what was wrong with Wei Wuxian.

They kept going in and out calling seniors of their seniors and now the head of their infirmary was here and even he didn't say a word although he had checked on the patient multiple times. Lan Qiren could swear that he had seen the head performing the same procedure on Wei Wuxian for at least five times now. After the final attempt on his part, he kneeled,"Grandmaster Lan, I am ashamed to admit but I can't seem to find what is wrong with him. I can't access his vitals. The only thing I have managed to find out is the same as that my apprentices have; his heart is beating abnormally to the point that it goes from unusually high to unusually low in a matter of seconds."

To Lan Qiren's ears, this sounded like a slap on his clan's reputation. The Lan clan of Gusu was known to have some of the best healers out there and yet they had failed to even come up with a reasonable explanation for Wei Wuxian's sudden collapse. An irregular heartbeat shouldn't have caused him to abruptly lose consciousness, he was sure it didn't work like that, did it?

"What do you mean you can't access his vitals?", It was Lan Xichen, his voice clearly laced with concern.

"Clan Leader, I....", he hesitated for a while before continuing,"It is like this. I can't feel anything except resentful energy swirling throughout his body. It seems as if he has deliberately shut off his body's vitals' access for others. To even be able to read his pulse, it's like he left it there to let people know that he is alive."

Everyone looked at the head healer with shock etched onto their faces. Lan Qiren was the first to recover, "To be able to do that, one must be on a very high level of their cultivation, not even the most powerful of cultivators can do that and you are telling me that this young man has managed to do it and that too with resentful energy."

The healer nodded, "From what I have read and gathered in my several years of studying healing arts, cultivators in old days did use a similar technique but it isn't the same."

"How is it different?", Lan Wangji asked in his monotonous voice.

"Hanguang-Jun, the first difference is that we are able to touch him easily, his body doesn't repel others' touch. If he was using the energy to protect himself when he is unconscious then none of us would have been able to within a six feet radius of his body. The second difference is that even if someone was somehow able to touch his body, they should either be able to reach all his vitals normally or not reach any of them at all.", he hesitated and looked at Lan Qiren, who nodded for him to continue, "This leads me to the conclusion that he isn't doing it to protect himself but instead to not let others know if there is something wrong with him. There is also a possibility that he is doing it all the time, even when he is awake. Besides, what we find when we try to prod further is just resentful energy.", he paused again and looked Hanguang-Jun right in the eye before saying the last words, "like he is deliberately trying to stop anyone from finding out his weaknesses. Now if you would excuse us, there is nothing more we can do."

Lan Wangji nodded his head in acknowledgment and permitting them to leave his quarters. He then turned his gaze towards the man lying on his bed, his heart pounded at the possibility that something was really wrong with Wei Ying but the logical part of his brain supplied that there was a high chance that Wei Ying was alright, there was nothing wrong with him and he just passed out because of exhaustion.

He remembered that they hadn't eaten properly for more than a day and Wei Ying had not really touched his tea that morning either. So it was quite possible that Wei Ying had fainted from the lack of food and the extreme emotional turmoil that he had gone through. His heart clenched at the thought of this beautiful person not waking up again, he did not want to think about it but he knew Wei Ying never did things without a reason, if he was trying to stop people from knowing what was wrong with him then it must be something awful and he wanted to know what.

Lan Xichen looked at his younger brother, he could easily decipher that his brother was currently going through a heartbreak. He noticed that Wangji's hold on Young Master Wei's hand tightened and his face contorted in worry. He wanted to console Wangji and tell him that it will all be OK but didn't know how, he wasn't sure if that would happen, he wasn't even sure if Wei Wuxian would wake up. He felt helpless and frustrated, all he had ever wanted in his life was for his brother to be happy. He had been the one to encourage Wangji to befriend the head disciple of the Jaings because his brother seemed to like the company of this young man. But he was regretting his decision at that moment, he knew from his first interaction with Wei Wuxian that he wasn't as happy as he liked to portray. He thought that maybe these two people who had shut themselves off from the world would be able to open up to each other but it appeared to him that he had been somewhat wrong.

When his younger brother had told him about his time with his "friend" in the Xuanwu cave, Lan Xichen was indeed happy that Wangji was able to express to Wei Wuxian what he really felt about his home being burnt down. But he was beginning to realise that although Wangji had become a little less rigid after that, there had been no change in Young master Wei's behaviour. In fact, Wei Wuxian had closed off even further after the war which had left his baby brother sad and confused  for days on end. And right now he saw the same hopeless look in Wangji's eyes, which only made his anger rise.

He knew that it wasn't Wei Wuxian's fault, but he couldn't help but feel that Wangji wouldn't ever have been happy if he didn't befriend the infamous trouble maker but he wouldn't have been sad either. He knew his anger wasn't justified, he also knew that he was being unreasonable and selfish, he just wanted his brother to be not sad and confused anymore.

So he did the only thing he could, he prayed that Wei Wuxian would wake up and everything would be alright. With that in mind, he looked at the young lady who was standing in a corner intently looking at her supposed brother. Despite the fact that her face held no emotions, he could see in her eyes that she knew something that they didn't.

When her eyes met his, she moved from her place to stand next to him and whispered, "If you want to, go ahead and tell your brother that he'll wake up by tonight." Lan Xichen's breath hitched, not because of the information that was just given to him but because of how close this young lady was to him. He knew he should step back but he was frozen in place when she moved even closer and spoke in an even softer tone, "He'll be alright for now so, Zewu-Jun, would you mind showing me around?"

Lan Xichen could only nod, he willed himself to walk away from Baixue and towards his brother, "Wangji, she says, Master Wei will probably wake up by tonight."

Lan Qiren and Lan Wangji looked at him with the same confound expression before looking at Baixue who stood unfazed by the three men looking at her, before anyone could even ask her anything, she said, "As I told you earlier Hanguang-Jun, I just know.", and with that she was out of the door with Lan Xichen following her leaving two very confused Lans and an unconscious demonic cultivator behind.