The assault was launched 1 hour after nightfall. The fortress of Qingdao overlooked the sea. The cultivators had gathered to free those of their own who had been taken prisoner in the past 6 months.
Taking advantage of a moonless night, Lan Xichen...
The spirit glanced in our direction and spoke a few words to Lan Zhan. He nodded as usual. I knew my soul mate, he already spoke very little, so having his mother in front of him must have disturbed him to no end.
Come to think of it, he never talked about her. What little I knew about her was revealed to me by Xichen after the events in Jinlintai.
The spirit began to evaporate. She looked me straight in the eye and laughed silently. There was malice in her eyes. I don't know what she said to Lan Zhan but I saw her ears turn pink...
The sphere of light returned to Wangji. Lan Zhan made him disappear and slowly came back to me. His face had taken on its usual impassive appearance. But I could see in his eyes that he had been shaken by what he had just experienced.
He stood next to me to finish the ceremony. I discreetly took his hand in mine. There was no need to make any more waves than we already had!
I felt his strength squeezing my hand. He wasn't okay! I had to get him out of there as soon as possible.
I turned to Xichen who was watching with envy as the various clan leaders summoned their guardian spirits. I leaned toward him.
"Xichen-xiong, I think we're going to have to get out of your company. Lan Zhan is not doing well, I think..."
Xichen leaned over and looked at my soul mate.
"Our mother?"
"I think so. He never talks about it..."
"My brother never talked about it either...go ahead, I'll make up an excuse.
I turned to Lan Zhan with a worried look on my face and pulled him back. He was surprised for a moment, but let himself be dragged away without question. As we passed by SiZhui, he wanted to follow us, but I beckoned him to stay. We could not afford to leave this ceremony to which we had been invited.
We crossed the deserted corridors of the Impure Domain. The night was quiet. The occasional sound of night birds singing and the trickling of fountains could be heard. I pushed open the door to our room and as soon as I stepped through and the door closed, Lan Zhan threw himself into my arms. I held him tightly against me. Tears streamed down his cheeks. It was the first time I had seen him cry.
I didn't know what to do. I was totally helpless. I had always seen him so strong, so sure of himself... to see him like that paralyzed me. Yet it was my role as his husband to support him and help him.
As a cultivator, we are taught never to show our weaknesses... and crying is one of them!
In the Lan clan, this rule was even stricter. Lan Zhan had learned from childhood to hide his feelings. But like fountains that fill and empty simultaneously, it only takes a massive influx of water to make the basin overflow!
In Lan Zhan's case, finding himself facing his mother when he wasn't expecting it had been the water that had made the container of his feelings overflow!
All I could do was to hug him and give him all my love.
I guided him to the bed and we lay there. He buried his face in my neck and I waited for his tears to dry up.
There was silence in the room, what could I say? I only knew part of his story from his early childhood. If he wanted to talk about it, I would listen.
I knew what it felt like to lose your parents. I had been there too, at about the same age as he had.
I heard him sigh and sit up slightly.
"Xichen told me that she was your mother... you didn't know that?
"Mnn... no. Wangji's spirit took up residence there several months after her death."
Silence fell again, only disturbed by the sound of our breaths. Lan Zhan sighed.
"My mother...at first she loved my father, but she lost faith in him when he judged her for the death of her Shifu without hearing why it happened. When he finally asked her to explain, it was too late, she had been hurt by his lack of trust and she kept quiet. She stayed with him and married him because she knew it was the only way for her to continue living. She had killed an elder of the Lan clan and no one would accept her version of events..."
"Did she tell you what happened?"
"Mnn... the elder wanted to send her away because, a union had been arranged for my father, with an heiress of the Jin Clan. She refused because she loved him! So he challenged her. But she was from the Long Clan, the Dragon Clan of the Northern Mountains and she defeated him! The other elders of the clan never forgave her! Because my father married her, she was untouchable, but they made her feel unwanted at every turn. So much so that she ended up putting an end to her life.
My love was silent again. He was lost in his memories. His gaze was far away. Although he was in my arms, I felt as if he was not there. He was a hundred miles away from this room, at a time when his eyes could still see his mother's sweet smile and hear the musical timbre of her voice ....
"When I was a kid, I didn't understand why, I only saw my mother on a full moon. I thought that all the other children in the clan were like me, but one day I found out that this was not the case. The others lived with both parents. But not Xichen and me. I wondered if they loved us. If I had done something wrong. I thought that if I studied hard and became the best of all the disciples, my parents would be proud and love me... But my mother never talked to me about my studies. When I was with her, we read stories, she taught me to play the Qin... Wangji was her Qin... After her death, she saw me coming month after month in front of the Jingshi door, waiting for it to open. She saw me suffering from her absence... she told me that she came to live in Wangji to be with me and to comfort me when I played. Before that, she thought that Xichen and I did not like her! I was taught so well to hide my feelings that I was unable to show my mother that I loved her and that she meant something to me!"
I could sense his desperation, but also guilt in his voice. He must have wondered if things would have been different if he had dared to talk to her. I tightened my grip on him a little more.
Without me expecting it, he smiled slightly.
"She's glad we met. She says that you bring me the joy and the madness necessary to my balance. That you allow me to externalize all that I lock up in me. That with you I can be myself and that I can break down the wall that I have built around my heart and my existence! She is right, you are vital to my life..."
"And you are vital to mine"
He raised his head to me and caressed my cheek. The next thing I knew ... our lips met as if attracted by magnets.
I knew that I would not be able to belong to him for some time, but it did not matter, the love that united us was stronger than anything! It was not only the union of our bodies, it was also the union of our souls, our hearts and our minds.
We were the opposite of each other and yet we were one.
With a wave of my hand, I extinguished the candles. We had to sleep. Tomorrow would begin a long journey that would take us back to the cradle of the Lan Clan... back to YunShen Buzhi.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
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