Dance with you

Chapter 32

It took a little while for Lan Qiren to come to the gate. Liu Xin had distracted the children by giving them a small cloth ball to throw back and forth. She had turned to inspect the giant stone wall that was looming over them. The seal script that was used to inscribe the many rules the Lan Sect was famous for, looked intimidating and took a while for her to decipher. She must have been taught seal script at some point during her life as a student, but that knowledge was only seldom of use. Lan Qiren had to clear his throat to draw attention to himself.

When the disciple had told him who was waiting at the gate, he had had to rummage through his memory a bit before recognizing her name. In his mind, an image of a young maiden in Jin gold, strong but also vulnerable, came to the forefront. But all of his memories were thrown aside, when the disciple mentioned Lan Xichen. He had immediately let a senior disciple take over the lead on the repair he had been overseeing and sent another disciple to fetch Wangji. His younger nephew had worried about his brother ever since the attack and neglected himself in the process, no matter how often Qiren told him to take care of himself and rest.

Lan Qiren didn't know what to expect as he came to the entrance of Cloud Recesses. He still remembered the news of her leaving the Jin Sect, having heard it from Jin Zixuan during the Cloud Recesses as he delivered a message of gratitude on her behalf. Xichen had apparently extended an invitation to her to join the Gusu lectures, but due to her circumstances she couldn't accept it. No matter how hard he tried, Xichen couldn't quite hide the slightly sad air surrounding him after he got the news. Wangji, whose opinion of the girl had been pretty bad from the get go, was upset at his brother's sadness. He didn't have any sympathy towards her. For a moment, Lan Qiren questioned his decision to let Wangji know of the news about his brother immediately. He would probably join Qiren as fast as he could, even though he was supposed to be resting in bed to complete the recovery of the leg he had injured in the attack. It didn't matter now, Qiren supposed. He had already sent someone to his younger nephew.

Lan Qiren didn't know what he had expected to see outside the gate, but it definitely wasn't four children standing in a circle, throwing a ball back and forth. Only when he let his eyes wander a bit, did he see the teenager standing on the sidelines, occupied with reading the wall of rules. The seemingly genuine interest in their rules was something Qiren found commendable. On the other hand however, he wanted to know what those children were doing here. One polite cough later, he had their attention. To be honest, he didn't expect the children to react. But they did. They put away the ball and turned to him, no ruckus or complaints.

Liu Xin bowed deeply to him as she spoke, "Greetings, Master Lan." He nodded approvingly at her, noting how the children repeated what she did.

"Greetings, Liu-guniang and welcome to Cloud Recesses," he replied. "I was informed you had a message for me." She nodded and her hand disappeared into her sleeve, reappearing with a letter, which she handed to him.

The moment his hand touched the paper, he could clearly feel Lan Xichen's qi signature emanating from within, with small traces of her qi on the outside from carrying the letter. Everyone was silent as he opened the letter and carefully read its contents. The calligraphy was definitely Xichen's, Qiren didn't doubt that as he was the one who had taught his nephews. Xichen, dutiful as always, had not only included information about his own well-being, but he was already thinking of Sect politics and what actions they would have to take. Qiren could admit to himself that he would have preferred if XIchen had come home directly, instead of only sending a letter, but he could also understand that the journey took long and could be quite hard for someone who was barely finishing up his healing process. The Nie Sect would take care of him, he was sure.