[曦澄 | XiCheng][MDZS Modern AU]: All The Things I Never Told You [~PART 1~]

〽️👁‍🗨Chapter 121: Hide The Knives. (3)[!TW!]

Note:

Corresponding chapter in WangXian: Trial And Error: [Hide The Knives.][3]

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Link:  https://www.facebook.com/themindsjournal/posts/3394302850814630

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 [the 30th of December]

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{PoV}

Lan Xichen was 7 when the new baby arrived. 

He didn't know where it all came from. He only knew that his Mommy had been away for too long, and then she was away again one stormy night, and Daddy drove the big car like crazy that night, and when she returned  –  she returned with a bundle that moved and squirmed all the time, screaming in a very strange way, unlike any animal he knew of, getting all the attention of everyone in the house.

His kingdom was over. 

No one called him "a good boy" any more. Nobody gave him treats and juices when he begged for them, just like before. Now everyone just told him that "he was far too old for such childish things".

Suddenly he was "GeGe".

- Look! Here! Look at your DiDi, sweetie!  –  his mom would coo, showing him the baby.

He stared and stared and could not see anything special. He could not quite understand how, why, everyone was so head over heels with this small, pink, ugly creature that was far too smelly and far too noisy all the time. Things got worse when Lan Wangji's eyes cleared  – everyone fell in love with his huge honey eyes. 

And yes, overnight, and with zero effort, he was the new Prince in this Kingdom.

Lan Huan hated him. Hated him with a passion! He just took everything away from him, without even trying, without lifting a finger!

Deeply hurt, he stayed away. He kept his distance from everyone, but no one paid attention   –   all the attention was focused on the new baby: his food, his first steps, his first words, his eyes, ahhh, his eyes!,  his smile. He was  –  supposedly?  –  exceptionally beautiful.

Nearly two years passed, and it was time in which Lan Huan reconsidered his priorities and his values. Before, it had always been a great pleasure for him to be well-behaved, always excelling at everything, hard-working; now, he saw no point  –   there was no one left to even notice, nobody cared any more.

He focused on his school, but school was boring, so he focused on his friends. 

He was smart and resourceful, creative, so the mischief that this particular band of bandits caused soon became the stuff of legends at his boarding school. Now his Daddy was telling him off quite often, wondering what devil had gotten into him so that he'd change so much so quickly. He was yelling and asking just where his good boy had disappeared. 

Lan Xichen was silent, always, absolutely always, looking away, growing colder and colder, his heart breaking a little more with every harsh word, and him  -  inevitably getting more and more desensitized to all the scolding.

And then, the car crash happened. 

It had been a lonely Christmas for him  –   they had forced him to come back home  for the holidays, and he had failed to convince the Principal that he preferred to stay here, at the school, all alone even, but not go back to that awful   house.