Chapter 17: Memory
A sound of guqin emitting through the air. On the roof, sat Wei Wuxian and a bottle of his favorite Emperor's smile.
The moon rested above his form as the light cascading his features. The music caught some attention from passersby.
One of them being the former head of the Yunmeng Jiang Sect, Jiang Fengmian.
The older man leaped onto the roof and smiled down at the sitting male. "You're playing that music again."
Wei Wuxian smiled back, patting the empty space beside him and offered another jar of Emperor's smile.
"Beautiful isn't it?" Pertaining to the music.
Jiang Fengmian hummed in agreement. "I've never heard such a piece in my entire life until you played it again."
After a long pause, he continued. "What's the name of that song? I might want to have someone play that for me sometime."
Wei Wuxian caressed the strings of his guqin and sighed inwardly. "Wangxian."
"Wangxian..." The purple robed man nodded. "I didn't know there was a song called Wangxian. Do you know who made it?"
"Lan Zhan."
Silence covered the two people that only crickets and a faint sound of footsteps from below can be heard.
"No wonder you insisted on learning the seven-stringed guqin..." Jiang Fengmian trailed off.
"No wonder every time you play that song I can hear your sadness, and yearning. Now I know why you always play that music."
Wei Wuxian knitted his brows, the action received a low chuckle from the other. "Whenever I see you playing that melody, you always look at the sky as if you're missing someone."
"Eyes don't lie, A-Xian." Jiang Fengmian stated softly.
"Forgive me for letting you take the life of the person important to you. If I had known that you two are friends I wouldn't have..."
"Jiang-Shushu," The said man looked back at him. "it's not your fault. I am simply giving him what he wanted, what he needed."
"A-Xian—" Jiang Fengmian was cut off.
"He would've killed himself if I didn't. His resolve is absolute, I could not stop him no matter how hard I tried." Wei Wuxian downed his liquor.
"Shushu, that was years ago. We don't want to tackle that past anymore hm?" He put aside the guqin and faced him.
"Actually there is something I'm meaning to tell you about." Jiang Fengmian waited for him to finish.
"I have a spawn."
The man spit out the liquor he drank. He has never been so shocked in his entire life. "W-what?"
"Well I'm planning to adopt a kid, if you don't mind."
-
"Lan Zhan, tada! Did you like it?" Wei Wuxian grinned, waiting for the other to say something.
"..."
Lan Wangji knew that mischievous grin. He then examined the drawing and found it suspicious.
His eyes landed on the flower that laid on top of his head in the portrait.
I forgot that this is how he views me...
"Yunmeng?" He asked after finally noticing the background.
Wei Wuxian's grin faltered for a second. "Well that...I really wish you could come with me to Yunmeng, Lan Zhan. I wanted to share my home with you."
Lan Wangji turned his back on him and said, "No."
"Why not?" The black robed man frowned. "Is it because of your plans? Lan Zhan, what are you doing?"
"..."
Wei Wuxian misunderstood, "Right...who am I to ask you that?"
Lan Wangji opened his mouth but closed it back again thinking that it would be for the best not to say anything.
Wei Ying is my everything.
"They believed that you are beyond saving. Even your own brother said so, but I know you're still there—"
"Wei Ying, I don't need to be saved." Lan Wangji deadpanned.
"Don't you get it? Everybody scorns at you. Your recent misdeeds made you their enemy—"
"Misdeed?" His frown deepened. Of all people...
It felt like his fragile heart had been pricked by a needle. I expected him to be the last one to say that.
Am I wrong for protecting what he loves?
Lan Wangji sighed and glanced back. Wei Wuxian could see a sad expression on the Second Young Master Lan.
"Wei Ying, it's okay if everyone hates me. But I don't know what I'd do if you hate me too."
-
Wei Wuxian stared down on the table quietly. His mind works to rethink about his life choices.
Then a question popped in his head. A question that he knew the exact answer to that.
Are you tormented by memories?
Yes.
Yes he is.
His past decisions were nothing but good and it hunted him down whenever he recalls Lan Wangji.
Curse me and my damn mouth. I am nothing but an idiot.
"Just why did I say that?" He remembers how Lan Wangji was almost on the verge of crying at that time.
Even after a couple of years passed, I still couldn't let go.
-
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