"Lan Zhan? Do you know? When you finally decide 'this is it; I'm done', your whole world starts to get really quiet. I could hear the blood pumping through my veins louder than the battle going on around me. I could hear each tear drop as it fell of...
The tea house proprietor scowled. "What is going on here? If you are sick, you need to leave now. I don't need rumors of some sort of a fainting sickness ruining my business."
Lan SiZhui's eyelids flicked a few times, and he let out a low moan. Wei WuXian immediately rushed to his side and sank down next to him. "It's OK, little turnip. Take your time. Your aunt will still be here when you're ready to sit up." Wen Qing mouthed 'turnip?', and Wei WuXian nodded. Yes, this is your A'Yuan.... To the proprietor he lied, "The boy's just had a bit of a scare that's all. Thought he saw a ghost! You know how the young are. Overly excited about everything. You see this lady here is the boy's aunt, and her house burned down in a fire a while back. We were told that everyone was dead. But happily, the lady escaped the fire! Isn't that nice?" He pulled out a silver piece from his money pouch and balanced it on his palm. "How about some tea? Best thing to calm the nerves, eh?" The proprietor was wavering; Wei WuXian could see it in his face. Jiang Cheng arriving and immediately fainting, however, ruined everything and the four of them quickly found themselves out in the street.
"No talking until we're all alone, and definitely no more fainting!" Wei WuXian hissed. He led the way to an inn a few buildings away where he reserved a room with a bath for Wen Qing and a private parlor for the men.
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Freshly bathed and in clean clothes, Wen Qing sat down at the dining table with the three men. Wei WuXian had ordered a vegetable soup and some bread for her, and plenty of meat dishes for them. Lan SiZhui blanched at the bowls of spicy red food in front of him and stared wistfully at the clear soup. Traveling outside Cloud Recesses had introduced him to more flavorful foods than was served at the Lan dining pavilion, but he was still not used to the level of spice that his Baba craved.
Wen Qing knew that when one was literally starving, there was a fine line between eating enough and too much. Too much and the stomach would reject everything. It would be better to have her eat a little bit and then rest so as not to upset her stomach for the next few days. So after a few bites, she put her spoon down and kept her gaze on her bowl.
Wei WuXian asked, "How did you survive?"
"We were captured almost as soon as we entered the city. The trial and deliberation took only a few minutes and we were all sentenced to die. A few hours before dawn the next morning, Meng Yao and a servant came into our cell. He said we were to be burned at the stake at dawn. It was a symbolic gesture: the last of the Sun clan burning as the sun rises. His servant had some bowls of liquid; he said it was a poison: slow acting and relatively painless. If we drank it then, we would be dead before the flames were lit. But we would live long enough to walk to the execution ground. The spectacle was important, you see. Much more important than the manner of death." Wei WuXian glanced over at Jiang Cheng wondering if they should tell Wen Qing the truth: that her clansmen and women were not poisoned and burned, but hanged fully cognizant of their impending fate and their bodies displayed as a warning first on the Lanling city walls and then at Nightlesss City. The only ones who were supposed to have been burned at the stake were, apparently, kept alive and hidden for years.... Jiang Cheng refused to look at him, though, so Wei WuXian stayed quiet. Let her think they died painlessly for a little while longer.
