Mistaken Love And Hate

8. Weight of Love

Lan Wangji had always believed himself to be an unwavering figure, a man shaped by his sense of duty and pride. But the reality of impending fatherhood, coupled with Wei Wuxian's sudden disappearance, shattered the carefully constructed world he had built around himself. Wei Wuxian had taken nothing but his own shadow with him—no belongings, no explanations. Just gone. And with his absence, the rumors of Wei Wuxian's so-called "gold-digging" and "social climbing" hit Lan Wangji with painful accuracy. They stung more than they should have, each whispered accusation striking deeper than he had ever imagined.

Every doubt that Lan Wangji had once buried resurfaced with brutal force, and the harder he tried to suppress them, the more they consumed him. Had Wei Wuxian really been just another opportunist? Had everything between them been a lie?

But as the days stretched on, the weight of the situation became undeniable. Lan Wangji's mind—always sharp, always calculating—was forced to reckon with the truth he had long evaded: he missed Wei Wuxian. It wasn't just his presence that he missed, though that in itself was sharp and aching, but something deeper. The tension between them had always been thick, but it had also been woven with something far more complex than disdain. For the first time, Lan Wangji found himself questioning everything, the feelings he had long dismissed as contempt were now tangled with something he couldn't name. The distance he had created between them felt insufferable, and the loneliness of his own thoughts gnawed at him.

The search for Wei Wuxian became his obsession. He could not let go of the idea that the omega had simply disappeared without a trace. He had to find him, to fix whatever had gone wrong between them. His search took him down paths he hadn't considered, far beyond the walls of the Lan estate. Lan Wangji began digging into his father's history, seeking answers that might explain the strange and fractured bond between them, between Wei Wuxian and him. It was there, hidden beneath layers of carefully guarded truths, that he found the key to everything.

Through a series of old records and whispered confidences, Lan Wangji managed to trace the shadowy figure of his birth mother, Li Qingyu. She had long since disappeared from the public eye, her name almost erased from the family's history. Reluctantly, she agreed to meet him, her face drawn with age and regret. Lan Wangji couldn't help but feel the weight of the moment—the woman who had borne him, yet who had chosen to leave him behind.

Their meeting was tense, an exchange of words guarded and careful, but in the end, she revealed the dark undercurrents of their family's past, things Lan Wangji had never known—things he had never been allowed to know.

"Your father," Li Qingyu began, her voice low, nearly lost in the wind that rattled the windows, "he wasn't always who you think he was. He was never the man the world saw. He was violent, Lan Wangji. His love was always a twisted thing."

Lan Wangji, despite his calm demeanor, felt a shiver run down his spine. He had known of his father's coldness, of his harshness, but this... this was something else entirely.

Li Qingyu's eyes darkened as she continued. "He wasn't kind to me. He wasn't kind to anyone. Your father's cruelty was not just in his actions—it was in his very being. He believed that power was his right, and that nothing could challenge him. Not even me." She paused, swallowing hard. "I escaped. I had to. But I couldn't leave you. I couldn't leave him to that fate. That's why I entrusted you to Wei Wuxian."

Lan Wangji's heart stilled. "Wei Wuxian?" The name felt foreign on his tongue, a distant echo.

"Yes," Li Qingyu confirmed, her voice brittle. "He promised me, years ago. He promised to protect you, to keep you safe, no matter the cost. He swore it, Lan Wangji. With his own blood. And he kept his word. He kept you safe from your father's wrath, from the truth of your parentage."