Okay so this is the last part of April and we are finally moving closer to that Yunmeng trip! :)
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There was something incredibly...competent in the way Wei Ying paused, looked at the alarm array and the additional text from Nie Huaisang, sighed and then dug around in his coat pocket for his qiankum bag.
It had half smile of amusement, besotted love and respect curling Lan Zhan's lips as he watched.
Considering the noise as he dug into the bag, he was carrying a small house in the confines of the spelled cloth and it was a very traditional qiankum bag, which just made the scene...adorable and so Wei Ying.
A child's reading book appeared and with it, Suibian. The book was stuffed back into the bag, his hair was tied with a flourish and in less time than it took to locate it, Wei Ying was off along the path behind the Jingshi, then airborne.
One day he was going to stop taking this moments and lining the walls of his heart with them.
Stop adding details to this fantasy.
Shaking his head, Lan Zhan leapt onto Bichen and followed, soaring through the sky.
No, he wouldn't. He was still going to be imagining what life could be like if Wei Ying loved him back, when he took his last breath. The last firing of his damn synapses was going be for the image of Wei Ying. His current favorite, favorite one. It changed and they were all favorites except for that day in the hospital....
Although even with a grey pallor and nearly lifeless, Wei Ying was still the most beautiful creature in existence.
Oh was he doomed, flute music and all.
The scene when they arrived was exactly what they had expected, in the massive gold and red array trapping their would-be-traitors and unfortunately proved exactly who was against them in the same breath.
They dropped to the ground beside Lan Xichen who stood like a guardian in front of the array containment box that had been hidden within the freshly scattered dirt before the tear. On the other side of the shield was a similar array and Nie Huaisang was there holding the talisman paper controlling it. For once, he wasn't holding his tablet.
Anger roiled off Lan Xichen, contained like the trap itself into tight lines, a pinched mouth and scowling eyes. At least for him it was obvious.
"Master Wei, A-Zhan." He greeted with a trace of warmth as his attention was on the trap.
"Zewu-jun." Wei Ying greeted formally, stepping off Suibian smoothly.
He didn't make a sound and his trap was both ingenious and dangerous. Lan Zhan had a feeling this didn't prove Wei Ying's innocence like he hoped, because a trap-master was a discipline of cultivation one step up from demonic cultivation, wicked tricks and other 'not good' techniques.
Wei Ying waved a hand and threw a talisman that didn't open the trap, simply revealed what or rather who was trapped inside.
"Su She." Wei Ying said flatly. "What an enormous surprise. And...Lan Minshang? You're a long way from your post?"
"Explain." Lan Zhan snapped out, anger rising. "What did the Wen Sect offer you for treason?"
Lan Minshang straightened, "We are here to investigate."
Wei Ying laughed, "Good one."
"You have no right to speak!" Su She
Lan Zhan stepped forward, Lan Xichen's glare intensified and Wei Ying laughed. "I have no right? You are betraying your sect and you say this? Bold."
"Why are you speaking of betrayal?" Lan Minshang asked sounding curious. "You abandoned your family to die."
Oh this was the last straw. Wei Ying's eyes went cold and power sparked, "What did you say?' He asked in a sweet tone.
Lan Zhan didn't actually care if Wei Ying did something....violent. But, he had to protect Wei Ying and that insult could not be accepted.
"Attempting to insult the Head Disciple of the Yunmeng Jiang, will achieve nothing." Lan Zhan snapped out. "You have broken the law and the rules of Gusu Lan."
"Head Disciple?" Su She sneered.
"Yes. Head Disciple. Now this basic fact has been acknowledged," Lan Xichen snapped, "Perhaps you can explain why the lives of the Gusu Lan Sect mean so little to both of you."
"Money. Power. Fame. Idiocy." Nie Huaisang said on the other side. "Revenge. Jealousy."
"Shut up. You are barely a cultivator!" Su She snarled.
Insulting Wei Ying was one thing for his brother, betraying them all to die and then insulting Nie Huaisang was really crossing a line.
"How dare you." Lan Xichen said coldly.
"You choose to lower yourself with this dog?" Su She replied nastily. Wei Ying flinched at the word 'dog' and Nie Huaisang looked unimpressed and entirely unfazed.
"We will not stay with such a pathetic leader!" Su She shouted. "And him!" He pointed at Lan Zhan. "So virtuous, so perfect he spits on the rest of us! Gets all the privileges and barely spends any time here!"
"My brother, your superior in both skill and rank," Lan Xichen snapped. "Does the work of SCD and Gusu Lan!"
Lan Minshang looked at Lan Zhan who stared at him coldly. Once he might have been friend. Those days were long gone, when Lan Zhan said no to a budding attraction. Lan Minshang had known, seen him kissing Wei Ying when he was sixteen and there was still hope in the world. He had pushed and Lan Zhan, grieving and scared beyond belief for Wei Ying had shoved him away. Since then, there was only coldness.
"Do you have nothing to say?' He asked Lan Zhan.
"You were once considered one of the best students of Gusu. Clealry that was in error, if you believe the Wen Sect will offer you anything more than death." Lan Zhan told him and Lan Minshang flinched.
"This is why we will not stay!" Su She shouted.
"You say that, like your freedom is an option." Nie Huisang snapped viciously and Lan Xichen looked at him in surprise. It wasn't like his little tiger to be so upfront. This attack must have deeply affected him too, he realized.
"You endangered an entire sect out of greed! If you were in the Nie Qinghe Sect, your punishment would be severe. A prison term for at least fifteen years, after a public hearing. Or execution for treason."
"You got thrown out of your sect! For being weak! And a bastard!" Su She shouted back.
The cultivation sects could still do that, if the crime was bad enough and the criminal was considered too dangerous for prison. It was rare though, but Lan Xichen did not doubt that if pushed too far, Nie Mingjue would opt for it.
"Traditionally, in the Jiang," Wei Wuxian added, his tone frigid. "It would be fifteen to twenty years. Death by your own hand for honor, or a choice of exile. Of course, we haven't had that many, as bold as you."
The honor deaths were a lot harder to police, because it was nearly impossible to prove that they didn't kill themselves rather than murder. A 'tragic' death that was never marked down as 'honor encouraged suicide' and sects, especially ones so well established, never talk.
"You can claim what you wish," Wei Ying said stalking forward. "This entrapment would only have been triggered by using resentful energy near it. I assume you were given a token powered by resentful energy. This is proof enough. Whatever information you've them,"
"Shut up!"
Lan Xichen stepped forward. Exile was the Gusu Lan default, but he doubted that Su She and Su Mingshang would simply rehabilitate. And what they had done, what they planned to do, was unforgivable.
Thankfully, Lan Xichen had other, far more modern options. "Considering your crimes also include financial theft and the use of an illegal ward breaker, theft of a valuable artifact with the intent to sell and assault, with the intent to murder...all in front of a SCD Chief....I think the criminal courts will be very interested in your actions."
"We of Gusu Lan will not harbor criminals and we have never upheld the punishment of execution. Also, I will not have this become silent history." Lan Xichen added coldly. "The entire world will know what you have done."
"Mn." Lan Zhan said firmly. "I will make arrangements."
And find out why they were so interested in Wei Ying. Because that comment, meant they had seen the security footage at Lotus Pier.
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It took most of the night to make those arrangements, but his little brother's shoulders were set determinedly as he took his car - with Wei Wuxian no less, - and drove to Caiyi.
Su She and his cousin would be held by the Lan Sect until the authorities arrived to claim them, which would be some time tomorrow. There would be an official investigation and court proceedings, evidence gathering and awkward questions. Lan Xichen was determined that Gusu Lan would weather all of it with grace.
After summoning the sect guards, all of the shocked and outraged Seniors, Lan Xichen had done two things in careful order. He called an immediate meeting with the Elders, breaking established routine that he knew was going to panic them, until that fear turned to outrage and in Uncle's case, shouted rage.
After a grueling two hour meeting , he then called his mother and told her what had happened.
"And he said that? About your brother? He dared?" Mother said sharply on the other end of the line, a rare anger bleeding into her voice.
"He did. The law will deal with them Mother. But at least we discovered the truth before disaster struck." He said, trying to be positive.
"Thanks to your young man." Mother said approvingly.
"...I...Yes." Lan Xichen agreed, reddening to shade somewhere close to red roses.
"You should thank both of them properly my son. By giving up their time, they have saved lives and prevented a terrible scandal." Mother added.
"I will. I plan to. The Elders even agree." Lan Xichen told her.
"None of this was your fault A-Chen." Mother said sternly. "You have shown good leadership and prevented a crisis. Once the Wen leave, order and peace will return, the storms they feared, averted."
He felt it was his fault, but perhaps that was the sentiment of every leader. When something happens, even when prevented, it still burns to know there might have been a way, it could been avoided altogether.
"Any luck with your brother?" Mother asks sounding hopeful as she deftly changed the subject.
This at least was progress Lan Xichen could report happily, "They left together."
"...Well, I do already have a grandchild." Mother said amused, "Even if I don't have a son-in-law. A single one I might add. I expect to have two eventually."
"Mother." Lan Xichen choked and then smiled as he heard her musical laugh.
They spoke for a few minutes more before Lan Xichen finally said goodnight.
The night had been long, and tomorrow would be longer still.