Lan wangji and wei ying are strolling in the market of gusu, more likely wei ying was leaping from one shop to another like a hyperactive kid who adores every earthly thing and wangji was following his big baby. After strolling from some time wei ying came to a shop that sells many ancient trinkets and other small decorations for room.
"young man, please look at these. Do you like any of them?" hearing the old woman calling for him wei ying starts looking at the objects kept on the table for sell. His sight struck at the big candle that was stuck to a very beautiful candle holder. It is just an ordinary item but wei ying like that candle holder very much and wished to decorate it in their room.
"grandma, how much is that candle?"
On the other hand hearing his husband asking for the price wangji already readied his money to buy the item for him. What a benevolent husband he is because according to him his husband deserved to be spoiled!
"just one silver coin, son"
"do you wish to buy it?"
"yes, I will buy it."
"but remember this is not any ordinary candle. This candle can burn for 48 hours and within this time it will help you to experience what you wish to be true. After the candle is burnt whole, the situation will be normal again."
"oh, that's pretty exciting."
"lan zhan"
Wangji already placed two silver coin on top of the table. The granny said, "ah son, it is only one silver coin."
'its okay. Keep it." came wangji's short reply.
The grandma smiled at the couple and blessed them.
After strolling for some more shops and eating lunch they returned to cloud recess in the afternoon.
Upon returning home lan zhan decided to finish his work and wei ying went to the bunny field to relax fir sometime. When wei ying was relaxing there, shizui and jingyi also visit them and then returned to study.
At 7 p.m when lan wangji returned to jingshi with their food, he and wei ying took their dinner with wei ying's continuous blabbering. Afterall, 'speech is forbidden while eating' rule is invalid for his husband.
After dinner doing their everyday activity when both lied in each other's embrace wei ying suddenly remembered about the candle.
"lan zhan, lets light the candle and go to sleep."
"mn"
Wei ying excitedly left the bed and lighted the candle went back to sleep in his husband's embrace.
"good night lan zhan."
"mn, good night my love. Sleep well." Said lan zhan and placed a small kiss on his hair.
The next morning,
As usual lan zhan woke up first at 5 am but he noticed something unusual. Feeling confused he got up and sat on the bed and then he realized that his hands are small like a 9 year old kid. He hurriedly went near the mirror that was put on the table. And what he saw made him speechless.
He is in his nine year old kid's body! At this point he doesn't know what to do but being hanguangjun he tried to calm himself down and went to check upon his husband who is still asleep and saw that his husband is also in his small frame probably the same age of him. Though he was panicking internally a second ago seeing his husband's small frame a small smile placed on his lips.
He realised that this must be the candle's magic because the childhood times were the best times for both of them. Though they had hardships too but there were no regrets, guilts. They were happy.
He decided to wake wei ying up. Also they need to arrange their clothes too as the clothes are too big for a 9 year old kid.
Lan wangji slowly went near the bed and got up and started shaking wei ying.
"wei ying"
"wei ying, wake up," he realised his voice also became like a kid. After some more calling finally wei ying stirred in his sleep.
"nghhh, lan zhannnnn, its tooooo early!"
"why are you waking me up now"
"wake up wei ying. I have something to show you."
"mnnnnnmnnnn, cant it wait?"
"no", came lan zhan's prompt reply. He didn't want to waste such day as he know when the candle will burnt whole the effect will lose. So wanted to spend the day fully with his wei ying. He knows how hard wei ying's life was though he didn't say anything but lan zhan knows. So he wants to pamper his husband fully today. He wants to give him those that he couldn't get before.
After much coaxing, wei ying finally got up. As soon as he woke up lan zhan took him to the mirror.
"aaaa wait lan zhan, why so hurr..."
"aaaaa what is this?"
"how did I become so small?"
"mn" replied wangji calmly. When wei ying finally noticed his husband, his mouth formed a big o.
"you too!"
"what is this happening lan zhan?"
"calm down wei ying. It must be the candle's effect. After 48 hours we will be back in our original body."
Hearing this wei ying calmed down. But then a naughty smile spread on his lips. Wangji understood his husband is planning something mischievous.
"lan zhan, well.... As we are in our kids body....dont you think kids should play around and pranking others? What do you say lan zhan?"
Lan zhan never enjoyed his childhood because of his uncle's strict guidance and those rules. So wei ying wanted to have him some fun. He wanted lan zhan to enjoy like a kid. Lan zhan too realised his husband's intention. To be honest he too wanted to enjoy those moments. So he nodded his head in approval.
"great!"
"lets go then"
"wait", said lan zhan stopping wei ying from running.
"what happened lan zhan?"
"we should take a bath first and collect some clothes. These clothes are too big. We might fall."
"oh yes. I didn't notice."
"but where do we get smaller robes?"
Hearing this lan zhan opened his closet and bring out some smaller gusu robes.
"haha why do you have such small robes lan zhan?"
"these were shizui's" hearing this wei ying smiled and both proceeded to take a bath. After bath they dressed in smaller robes sneaked out from jingshi without anyone noticing. They went to the back mountain first.
"lan zhan, do you have a plan? What do you want do as a child?"
"I don't know. I never thought."
"okay okay. First lets go to market to eat something. Did you take your money pouch right?'
"mn"'okay lets go"
Both then left cloud recess and went to the gusu market.
After reaching there wei ying asked, "lan zhan, say what do you want to eat? Is there something that you wanted to eat as a child?"
"I don't really know but may be sweets."
"woooooo, hanguangjun has a sweet teeth." Cooed wei ying and lan zhan's small ears become a shade of pink. The two white clad fluff balls then went near a sweet shop.
"what do you want kids?"
"umm granny, can you give us two plates of sweets please"
"umm, did you bring money"
"yes!" replied wei ying and lan zhan already placed the coins. After getting the sweets both the kids enjoyed it specially lan zhan. He was always deprived of any desires. So after tasting the sweets he was feeling immense happiness. Wei ying watched him silently with a smile. He watched his husband who is always a prime and proper boy since childhood eating the sweet with a noticable fondness.
After filling their stomach they went to stroll further in the market to explore.
On the other hand, in cloud recess, the students were waiting for both hanguangjun and senior wei. When this news reached to master lan, he asked shizui to go to jingshi to check upon them.
When shizui reached near jingshi he called,
"a'die"
"baba"
He called for some time more but without getting any response he decided to enter as he is not forbidde to enter. He slowly opened jinsghi door but found no one there. He entered the room and checked but there is no sign of his a'die and baba. Only a candle was burning. He went to blow it off. But the candle didn't blow off. He tried some more but no avail. He decided this is not the time to play with the candle, he can check on it later. First he have to find them and inform this to master lan. He then went to check on the back mountain, kitchen, everywhere in cloud recess but there is no sign of them. No one even saw them to leave cloud recess. Being exhausted from all the searching he hurriedly but in steady step went to qiren and said, "master lan, they are not in cloud recess. I have searched everywhere. No one even saw them since morning."
Qiren frowned hearing this. He knows he nephew never goes anywhere without telling anyone. Must be that brat's idea, he thought. But he couldn't get over it completely. He dismissed shizui and asking him to take the class instead of wangji.
On the other side, the two kids were enjoying fully. They walked together admiring everything. They ran together which lan zhan never did as a child.
"come on lan zhan. This is our only chance. Lets enjoy fullest. Forget those rules! Lets run!"
Though wangji was adamant at first but seeing wei ying running happily, wangji also followed him running and he sweared, it felt good. He felt free. He felt like a kite flying in the sky without any burden.
When they reached near a guava tree wei ying wanted to climb it up as he was craving for some guava. But lan zhan remembered, wei yig fell down from a tree in his childhood and he didn't want to repeat it. The day should be happy. So he said,"you wait. I will climb"
Wei Ying couldn't believe his ears at first but then he nodded his head excitingly. He loved being pampered by his husband. Wangji slowly climb the tree as he is not habituated in climbing tress but still he managed to do that and pick up some good guavas and throw them to wei ying and then get down. They both shared sweet guavas sitting under the tree and talking happily. Mostly wei ying was talking as wangji is always a silent kid. Basically wei ying was planning for their next destination.
"lan zhan, lets go back to cloud recess. Let's do prank on your uncle together. I'm sure at this time the whole cloud recess found out about our disappearance."
Wangji widened his eyes ans said, "wei ying no. shufu will be angry"
"aiya lan zhan, your shufu is always angry! Besides if we don't prank your uncle, the day is incomplete. Trust me it will be fun to prank on that old man."
Wangji didn't said anything but didn't oppose him too. He will never oppose his wei ying and besides he was also feeling thrilled thinking about prank. Afterall he never played prank on anyone let alone shufu. So he followed wei ying to cloud recess. They enter climbing the wall as there is guards now near the gate. They both sneakily entered and tiptoeingly enter in qiren's room. Qiren was not present at that moment. They went near qiren's study table and noticed that he was grading student's paper. A naughty idea came to wei ying's mind.
"lan zhan!"
"lan zhan, lets draw on this papers!" says wei ying with sparkling eyes. Though wangji was reluctant at first but soon he followed wei ying in drawing on these papers.
They both drew bunnys, flowers, trees even a mimicking picture of qiren with his precious goatee. Of course Wei Ying drew that. Wangji was enjoying painting and wei ying too. Both of their robes are already smashed in ink. But that doesn't matter. What matter is that they were having fun. But soon they heard a footstep coming near the room. They hurriedly tried to run away but the ink poured on the floor but they still managed to ran away but qiren saw two child figures running away and ink poured on his floor. He shouted to find those brats. On the other hand the two kids were running to the black hill. Wangji was clutching wei ying's hand tight. When they reached back mountain both were panting. After a taking a breath, wei ying giggled.
"lan zhan! Did you have fun?"
"mn, thank you wei ying"
"aiya lan zhan! There is no ne..."
"here are two brats", said two disciples finally catching them. Actually when the ink poured on the floor they both ran on the ink so the disciples found them following their inked footsteps. Apparently the disciples were new so they don't know how their hanguangjun looked in childhood so without noticing their protests the disciples brought them to master lan.
"master lan, we brought the kids"
"ok, you may go"
On the other hand, the two culprits were standing there head low. Qiren cleared his throat and said angrily, "lift you faces."
Both first contemplated but wei ying nudged lan zhan with a mischievous glint as if he was enjoying and both lifted their face.
Now this the time for qiren to become speechless.
"you...wha....t! how! How do you...."
He couldn't form any words. Hearing this wei ying giggled and sat down in front of qiren tagging along wangji.
"shufu! Why are you so angry! We were just enjoying!" said wei ying.
Finally qiren came back to his senses. "you brat! What did you do again?"
This time wangji spoke, "shufu wei ying has no fault" and he explained about the candle. Hearing the explanation qiren remain silent.
After sometime he said, "so you both will be back after 48 hours ?"
"mn" came wangji's short reply.
Qiren noticed his younger nephew who is always so proper since childhood. Never once did he disturb him but now seeing wangji enjoying with that brat wei wuxian qiren realised he was too hard on his nephews specially wangji. He didn't said anything,
"whose idea was this?" qiren asked showing the drawing pages.
"of course mine though we both have done the job" replied wei ying with his usual grin.
Qiren just shook his head and asked them to eat as it is near dinner time.
Both then went to meet shizui, jingyi and xichen and explained the matter. Xichen became nostalgic seeing his baby brother. Forgetting any etiquette he hugged his brother to his chest. He missed hugging his brother. Lan zhan also hugged back his xionzhang. On the other hand the ducklings were in aw seeing their parents' younger self. After eating dinner with them the kids duo entered the jingshi to sleep. As their body became younger they are tired already. They lied down on the bed hugging each other.
"lan zhan, I enjoyed so much today."
"mn me too."
"good night lan zhan, lets sleep. Tomorrow we will be back in our own body."
"mn, good night."
Though they will be back again in their original form tomorrow and they have duties to follow but they are happy to enjoy a day. Their heart is full.
Author's Note:
After a long time a one shot hehe. Hope you will like this one too. Also after this one I will try to update some more short stories soon. I will first write them whole and then will publish so that you guys don't have to wait for update so long. And my stories will not be too long as I'm not that great writer I just express my thoughts sometimes through writing and also the stories will be light hearted so that it can make your day better 😃 okay enough ranting haha.
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Once again thank you so much♥️♥️