When We Meet Again (The Untamed Sequel)

Chapter 18 - Soul mates

"There were good times or goodish times, only the bad times were so—crucial."
― Iris Murdoch, The Sea, The Sea

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Jiang Cheng

Years gone... All I've done is regret...

First regretting that I trust him, then regretting that I didn't kill him again, and then regretting that I even thought of killing him.

I didn't expect him to forgive me. What sort of a human could, after everything I did to him?

On the day Wen Ning told me the truth about my golden core, no, his golden core, I broke down my bedroom door with my bare fists, hoping it will soothe the guilt I felt inside.

But it didn't.

At last, when I couldn't take it anymore, I met him.

And there he was, telling me that he already forgave me as if all I did was steal his candy.

You gave me your golden core! But I scorned you, threw you out of the clan, I lead you to your death, you idiot! How can you forgive so easily? The words screamed in my head but they didn't make it out of my mouth.

'I never blamed you' he said.

And last night...

I was staring at the night sky in the dead of the night when a person in black robes stands next to me. Words were not needed, him standing this way was enough to say that we're mending back together.

"I figured something out." Wei Wuxian says.

"What?"

"Shijie didn't come by herself that day." I glance at him sideways. "She was sent there as a trap, for one of us..." he trails off. "I thought you should know. If that makes you feel better."

"But it doesn't, does it?" I ask and just as always, he smiles. The kind of smile he gives when he says I'm fine when the world is falling apart. "I saw you in the ancestral hall today."

I saw him crying his heart out... and realized that he too had a life full of regrets, and there's nothing that makes it better.

I don't get any reply.

After some time I speak up. "I too figured that. But I guess I still wanted someone to blame."

For a long time, we stare at the sky, in the way we used to do when we were kids.

"Where's Lan Wangji?" I finally ask, to change the subject.

"Asleep." He says.

"Ah, Lans," I say and we laugh. Together.

"So you'll be living there?"

He nods. He has found his happiness.

I nod back. I wish I could find mine.

And I think of the same thing today when I see him lean on Lan Wangi's shoulder, sitting on the dock, looking comfortable than I've ever seen him before.

"Are they partners?" my chief disciple asks, following my gaze.

I nod.

"They are like ice and fire." He shakes his head. "I never knew that he's-" he doesn't continue.

"There will always be more to him than we ever know," I say.

Jiang Cheng, stop sounding so emotional.