It's been thirteen years since Lan Zhan was last in a room with Wei Wuxian, but its been five minutes since he saw Wei Ying teaching art online. Devising a complex plan to save Wei Ying from being framed from murder, Lan Zhan throws his life and he...
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He couldn't protect Wei Ying before...had failed to be there or do anything useful last time.
This time he had to be faster and better equipped to save them.
The stress of this discovery pushes Lan Zhan to a feverish level. He shoves everyone in his network to strive harder, throwing a little more caution to the wind and in the end his jackpot hits, three days into May. It comes without surprise, from Figbird.
And on its wings, like a harbinger of cruel fate, his network unearths another threat.
The Wen are not simply content to fight Wei Ying head-on. They plan to frame him so convincingly, even someone so willing to see the truth like his brother Lan Xichen...is going to believe they were wrong. That Wei Ying and by extension Jiang Cheng, is evil.
The risk is too high.
Opinion on someone Lan Zhan has learned is a little too much like a coin. A simple toss is enough to throw the world into chaos, to overturn what should be a stable narrative.
Perhaps most people go through life without such a toss, perhaps Lan Zhan can even claim to be one. But Wei Ying's life, the Jiang have no such favors. They don't have a pre-established reputation built on a generations-long image and family honor.
If the Wen Sect throws, what side the coin will end up on is a game of chance that Lan Zhan is only too willing to play. His way. He too can alter events. He too can fight dirty.
But this realization and only strengthened conviction screeches to a halt when Jin Zixuan is abruptly right in his estimation. Someone is going to have to get closer. And very few are allowed close to Wei Ying and his family.
Someone has to be there to monitor what happens. Someone is going to have to be nimble and divert the Jiang siblings. Someone is going to have to protect them, listening into both sides of the war.
In Lan Zhan's original estimation, Jin Zixuan himself is perfect for this role. He lives mostly in Yunmeng, in the same family compound as Wei Ying and his siblings. He is married to one of those siblings.
They draw up a plan. It seems watertight.
And then naturally, as if fate was laughing at him, the world collapses in on itself. Or rather, his plan takes a hit and Lan Zhan this time, barely recovers from it.
Lady Jin has heart trouble. She needs surgery and she asks her son to come to Lanling.
Jin Zixuan can hardly refuse and Jiang Yanli would never let him.
Then another disaster hits.
Some in his network, Figbird in particular, strongly doubt that the explosion that nearly kills him on an otherwise calm Tuesday, was either accidental or coincidental. Others curse the bad luck of it. Either way, Lan Zhan investigates a fierce corpse attack in an abandoned factory with Detective Luo and it blows up right at their feet.
