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

〽️👁‍🗨Chapter 120: Hide The Knives. (2) [!TW!]

Note:

Corresponding chapter in WangXian: Trial And Error: [Hide The Knives.][2][TW]

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[the 30th of December]

{PoV}

Mister Lan was sitting at the head of the table, expecting the headache. His sons were late for breakfast, too late, and he knew that his wife was going to explode in a hysteria fit any minute now.

He still could not quite comprehend her clinging desire to these habitual monthly gatherings. He wouldn't call them  "family"  gatherings, as it had been quite clear to him, ever since his youngest turned 18, that the boys did not enjoy those, at all. There was some pathetic desperation in his wife's desire to feed the illusion of her children still being children,  and he despised her for that  -  her ridiculous detachment from facts, from reality.

He could not, for the world, understand her point of view. 

At first, he had thought that it was some sort of warped nostalgia for her fading youth and freshness, but as the years passed, he realized that it was something deeper than that. He was not a psychologist, not in the least, and the human soul would forever be a mystery to him. Both his spouse, and his own sons, were a closed book to him, a forbidden book even  –   one he could not read, and he wasn't allowed either. His marriage of almost 30 years was descending into a disaster and estrangement, and he considered today's  "engagement"  just a compulsory thing, the first item on his agenda for the day, although it was just a simple Tuesday. The first item of many.

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Photo credit: "Locke and Key", Season 2, ep.8

Photo credit: "Locke and Key", Season 2, ep.8

Lan Wangji took after his father, to a great extent. Mister Lan was a man who liked clarity, and strongly disliked vagueness and secrets, and chaos, and psychology, and emotions. His great passion was History: it was set in stone, literally, and his younger son was fascinated with Drawing and Mathematics, showing an early talent for both  -  the things that were set, fixed, clear, undoubtable.