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Summary: Lan Zhan and Wei Ying meet as children.
Requested by @yoonkiiity.
Tw: child abuse
❄︎
Lan Zhan was a well-behaved boy. Of course, he had to be—he was the Second Jade of Gusu's Cloud Recesses. Along with his brother, he was a sect heir, and therefor hewn by rigid discipline. The elders' efforts to tame a child into a man were indeed successful. While most children fidget in their seats, Lan Zhan would always be sitting plumb and prim. He could recite 3,000 rules 3,000 times if he wanted. Meditation was his chosen pastime while the other kids played.
Still, Lan Zhan was a child at the end of the day, and as a child, he found trouble here and there.
The Lan Clan (which did not include Madam Lan and QingHeng Jun as one lay dead in the ground and the other secluded to the farthest reaches of Gusu) was visiting Lotus Pier for a conference. As their eastern and western borders were married, some affairs were shared between the two sects.
Anyways, back to the trouble young Lan Zhan found himself in.
He was bored in this strange new place, and rule 2,356–do not know boredom for boredom is self-imposed—surely couldn't reach him here in Yunmeng, right? So Lan Zhan confidently asserted to himself that he was bored, and what was a bored boy to do but wander off on an adventure? It was mid morning, when the doves first began to prune their feathers for a day of flight, that Lan Zhan bundled up in his warmest robes and snuck from the piers to the woods. The last dregs of winter refuged there, snowless, but a cold that demanded to be felt.
Lan Zhan wandered around for awhile before he realized he was lost. He'd never been lost before and admittedly found it exciting. Lan Zhan could see, in the distant wood, a lousy shack holding its breath. It was just one sigh away from collapse. The shack was cradled by earth that was slowly consuming it, four walls veined by climbing ivy and sky blue lichen.
In that moment Lan Zhan was gripped by a feeling he couldn't explain. There was a pull in his chest, leading him closer and closer like a hand on the back. The feeling was nebulous but he was as sure as the moon comes eve: he needed to go in the ivy-veined, lousy little shack with the sky blue lichen.
The door groaned as Lan Zhan eased it open. Its insides fared no greater than its outsides. Wet, rotting wood had an unambiguous odor, and he smelled it certainly. Lan Zhan's spirit well-nigh leapt from his chest when he heard a sniffle. In the corner of the shack was a young boy, chewing on the tails of his bright red ribbon. Snot dribbled down his chin as if he'd cried for days without a mother's comfort and all he could do was gather his knees to his chest, hug them tight, and long for an embrace to hold him in the dark. His big, owlish eyes blinked tiredly up at Lan Zhan. The skin beneath them was a puckered purple, almost resembling raisins.
