(END)Wei wuxian is back but something is wrong

I've had enough of yilling

Wei Wuxian stared at the red ribbon.

It shouldn’t be there. The chamber had collapsed. The doppelgänger was gone. Everything they had fought had been torn apart by the force of their music, by the light of Lan Wangji’s guqin, by her will.

And yet—

The ribbon remained.

Wei Wuxian hesitated.

Then, before she could stop herself, she crouched down and reached for it.

— Wei Ying, — Lan Wangji warned.

But her fingers had already brushed against the fabric.

It was warm.

Wei Wuxian inhaled sharply. For a split second, the world around her seemed to tilt. The air grew thick, heavy with something unsaid, something unspoken. A presence lingered—not the doppelgänger, not a spirit—something else.

A memory.

A fragment of something older.

Then, just as suddenly as it came, the feeling was gone.

Wei Wuxian swallowed hard and clenched her fingers around the ribbon.

Lan Wangji was watching her closely.

— Wei Ying.

She exhaled, shaking off the lingering chill.

— I’m fine. — She forced a smile. — But I think we’ve had enough of Yiling for one lifetime.

Lan Wangji nodded.

And this time, they left.

The path down the Burial Mounds was quiet. Too quiet. No restless spirits, no lurking shadows. Just the whisper of the wind through the barren trees, the ruins of what had once been her home standing silent beneath the overcast sky.

Wei Wuxian didn’t look back.

She and Lan Wangji walked side by side, their footsteps steady, the weight of what had happened pressing against them but not holding them down.

She still had the ribbon.

She didn’t know why she had kept it.

But as Yiling faded into the distance behind them, she couldn’t shake the feeling—

That whatever had happened here—

Wasn’t finished yet.

___________________________________

The road away from Yiling was earily quiet.

Wei Wuxian walked beside Lan Wangji, fingers still curled around the red ribbon. She told herself she should let it go, toss it into the wind, leave it behind with the past. But something in her wouldn’t let her.

Lan Wangji glanced at her. He hadn’t said much since they left the Burial Mounds, but his presence was steady, grounding.

— You are troubled.

Wei Wuxian let out a small laugh.

— Lan Zhan, when am I not?

He didn’t argue.

She sighed, twirling the ribbon between her fingers.

— I just don’t get it. That thing—whatever it was—wasn’t just a ghost. It was something else. Something that had been waiting.

Lan Wangji’s gaze darkened slightly.

— It was resentment given form.

Wei Wuxian hummed in agreement.

— But why now? Why did it wait all these years?

She had died. She had come back. But the thing hadn’t appeared until now, until she had returned to Yiling.

Lan Wangji was silent for a moment, then—

— Because it needed you.

Wei Wuxian stopped walking.

She turned to him, frowning.

— Needed me?

He met her gaze evenly.

— To exist.

A cold shiver ran down her spine.

She thought back to the doppelgänger’s words, the way it had smiled at her, the way the shadows had reached for her like they knew her.

Because they did.

Because they had been waiting.

Wei Wuxian swallowed.

— It wasn’t just resentment, was it?

Lan Wangji didn’t answer right away.

Then, softly—

— No.

Wei Wuxian exhaled slowly, tightening her grip on the ribbon.

Something deep inside her whispered that this wasn’t over. That Yiling wasn’t done with her yet.

But she shook off the thought and forced a grin.

— Well. Too bad for it, then. I’m not planning on dying anytime soon.

Lan Wangji gave her a look.

She laughed.

And with that, they kept walking—away from Yiling, away from the ghosts of the past.

But somewhere in the distance, the wind carried a faint, familiar whisper.

And the red ribbon in her hand felt just a little bit warmer.