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Chapter Fourty Two
“Take care of A’Yuan.” Wen Qing said with a hint of reluctance.
When Wei Wuxian told her that there were other people, who just like him, also broke through the barrier of space and time to return to the past, she really don’t know what to feel. But she also knew that she should bear the burden of being the only “present one” who knew this secret.
And now, even her little nephew was one of them. It was really bizarre to think that A’Yuan’s current soul was now a few months older than her A’Ning. Therefore, whenever she saw the little ball acting so mature, her heart felt so complicated.
Nonetheless, she couldn’t help but still see him as a little child. So when he resolutely decided to go with his parents, she was somehow hesitant.
“Wen Qing, rest assured that I’m not going to let any claws touch our little bunny!” Wei Wuxian promised as he himself raised his claws and pinched the cheeks of the child in Lan Wangji’s arms.
Lan Sizhui held the hand of his mother, wanting but not having the heart to stop the claws that were pinching his soft cheeks.
“Wei Wuxian!” Wen Qing reprimanded as she slapped Wei Wuxian’s hand.
Wei Wuxian, “Of course, A’Niang is an exception~”
Wen Qing rolled her eyes at Wei Wuxian before turning towards A’Yuan. She patted the child’s cheeks that were now slightly red and reminded, “A’Yuan, be good. Stick to your parents, but don’t follow your A’Niang’s bad examples.”
“Ouch! What’s with the personal attack?” Wei Wuxian dramatically held his borrowed chest.
“Shut up! You want to kiss my needles?” Wen Qing threatened.
“Aiyo! Don’t always use violence. No wonder you’re still single~” Wei Wuxian teased as he ran and hid behind Lan Wangji.
“Wei Wuxian!” Wen Qing yelled.
“Please calm down.” Lan Sizhui who was the root of all this chaos tried to intervene but no one seemed to hear him.
At this moment, he felt a large hand patting his head, like a father encouraging his son. Lan Sizhui then realized that he was no longer Lan Sizhui, the head disciple of the Lan Sect. He’s now A’Yuan, the son of Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji. He was just a little child and his words earlier were a little too mature for his age.
He took a deep breath and decisively used his young self’s strongest weapon. Lan Shizhui reached out with his short arms and managed to tug Wen Qing’s robe.
Wen Qing stopped her actions towards Wei Wuxian and curiously looked at the small hands that were trying hard to get her attention.
Lan Sizhui put his head down as he weakly said, “A’Yuan… Aunt Qing, A’Yuan will be good. A’Yuan promised!”
After saying those words, Lan Sizhui felt his face heating up. It was as though his cheeks and ears were burning. He really wanted to find a safe place where he could hide himself.
The instant that he hoped for a safe shelter, he heard a low chuckle beside his ear before his father leaned him on the crook of his neck.
Lan Sizhui froze for a moment, his mind having a hard time processing what had just happened. After a moment, his face heated up even more. His father laughed at him?! Lan Sizhui would never expect that there would be a day when he would make his father laugh! Suddenly, he didn’t know if he should be more ashamed or just be straight proud.
The moment the child’s small voice resounded, it attracted everyone’s attention.
Wei Wuxian had to admit that if A’Yuan decided to act cute, it would definitely be fatal. See? Even Lan Wangji was amused. Wen Qing? Never mind, she was completely defeated.
Wen Qing, “Alright, our A’Yuan is really an obedient child. Come come, give Aunt Qing a kiss and I will let you go.”
Wei Wuxian shook his head at Wen Qing’s display of double standard. He peeked from Lan Wangji’s shoulder and saw A’Yuan still hiding his face. The child slowly pulled away from Lan Wangji’s hug and then shyly face Wen Qing.
Lan Wangji considerately stepped closer as Lan Sizhui leaned forward to give Wen Qing a kiss on the cheeks.
“Good boy!” Wen Qing patted the child’s head, making him more embarrassed.
Seeing the little child’s red face and ears, Wei Wuxian whispered into Lan Wangji’s ear, “He’s really your son,”
“…”
After the little episode with Wen Qing, the family of three, together with the black dog and Xue Yang, flew back to Yunmeng.
It was exactly five days, the agreed upon day when they reached the Yunmeng Jiang Sect. But as they got near the Lotus Pier, Wei Wuxian felt that something was wrong.
He heard sounds of swords clashing and battle roars echoing all over the place. Wei Wuxian’s pupils shrank. Lotus Pier was now being attacked by the Wen Clan. The attackers were a hundred or so, but Jiang Cheng with a few disciples were the only ones fending them off.
Without delay, Wei Wuxian controlled his new sword and accelerated down the Lotus Pier.
Jiang Cheng had already given Suibian back, but Wei Wuxian couldn’t use his spiritual power for the time being. Nevertheless, this sword he had created in his free time was still handy. Its power relies on resentful energy that couldn’t be more abundant during this time of chaos.
Wei Wuxian drew resentful energy towards his sword as their group landed on the middle of the battle field. He and Lan Wangji faced their backs against each other as they started to show their supreme swordsmanship.
Wei Wuxian couldn’t help but remember how Lan Wangji also watched his back before even though they had a conflict because of his new cultivation technique.
“A’Yuan, you know what? Your father was really awesome back then.”
Given that Wei Wuxian even had a spare time to talk to his son shows how this battle was really easy. Not to mention how odd it was for Lan Wangji to bring a child in the middle of the battle field. Little did they know that this little child was a head disciple of Lan Sect in his other life.
Lan Wangji fended an attack for Wei Wuxian before reacting, “Your A’Niang’s control was remarkable.”
Wei Wuxian understood and smiled, “You’ve really changed, even knows how to praise my control over corpse puppets.”
Lan Wangji, “Mnn.”
Lan Sizhui, “…” Are they really talking to me?
“Come on! Please show your opponents respect by not flirting here.” Xue Yang didn’t understand what damn past they were talking about, but he was sure that they were really annoying.
“Do not disrespect your elders,” Lan Wangji reprimanded.
Wei Wuxian giggled, “What Hanguang meant was, show respect to us first.”
Lan Wangji, “Mnn.”
“Whatever! Just fight!” Xue Yang rolled his eyes. He kicked the incoming opponent to show how one should treat their opponents.
Wei Wuxian had to agree with Xue Yang in this, “Fight!”
Lan Wangji, “Mnn.”
Lan Sizhui also joined even though he was just an audience, “Fight!”
Elder Heiying who finally got onto his audience position above the peach blossom tree whispered, “You go fight yourselves.”
Their new addition was really top-notched. Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji, and Xue Yang, who among them is not a prodigy? If they didn’t want to alert others with Elder Heiying’s identity, could this still be called battle? Even Wei Wuxian was only using his sword to fight!
Jiang Cheng’s group noticed the change in the wind of the battle. When they saw the three monsters fighting along side them, their mouth couldn’t be more widely opened.
“Isn’t that Hanguang-jun and Zhengye Xiangu?” a Lan disciple recognized the two.
“Indeed, it’s them. They finally came back!”
“But who is that little devil? His dual sword technique is really commendable,” a Jiang disciple also mentioned.
“Who knows? Who cares as long as he is helping us….”
Jiang Cheng was fighting beside these noisy disciples. As he heard them talked about Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian, he immediately surveyed his surroundings to find them. However, the first thing that he noticed was not Wei Wuxian nor Lan Wangji but the little bun hanging around Lan Wangji.
Jiang Cheng flew towards them to see if he was hallucinating, but he couldn’t escape from the truth when the little version of Lan Wangji came to his view.
“You…” Jiang Cheng’s mind was messed up badly that he almost got hit by a sword.
“Later,” Wei Wuxian interrupted the other’s interrogation. He understood Jiang Cheng’s weird look and knew what he was thinking, but those things could wait. Their main goal at the current moment was to fight and finish the battle.
Even though Jiang Cheng wanted to get answers from Wei Wuxian, he also knew that it was not the right time.
The two of them tacitly agreed that they should finish this battle first. With the new addition of Wei Wuxian’s group, it wasn’t long before they subdued the opposing faction.
Finally given a chance to breathe, Wei Wuxian started to interrogate Jiang Cheng before the man could interrogate him, “What happened, where are your people?”
The Lans are all here, but it was obvious that the majority of the Jiang Sect disciples were missing.
“Do you think I want to send them away? Those damned Wens pressured our borders. If I did not act, it wouldn’t take long before they claim one of our bases.” Jiang Cheng angrily replied as he whipped the last group of enemies.
Jiang Cheng retrieved Zidian and faced Wei Wuxian.
“What? Didn’t I ask you to wait for a week?” Wei Wuxian answered Jiang Cheng’s judging gaze like a guilty bunny.
Jiang Cheng, “Yes, but someone beat you by tipping off to the Wen Sect that you and Lan Wangji were not here.”
“Isn’t this called ‘to come in time is better than to come early?’. Right, Hanguang-jun?” Wei Wuxian asked for his husband’s support.
Lan Wangji, “Yes.”
Hearing Lan Wangji talked, Jiang Cheng finally remembered the bun that was hanging around his torso, “Whose child did you abduct?”
“…” Lan Wangji seemed as if he didn’t want to engage in a conversation with Jiang Cheng, throwing Lan Sizhui a look.
The latter felt the gaze above him and looked up. When he met his father’s eyes, he was startled for a moment before their years of tacit understanding returned to him. Afterwards, he spoke to his father in an innocent voice, “A’Die, A’Yuan is hungry.”
He’s not lying. Really, his body of a child could easily get hungry.
Lan Wangji, “Mnn, A’Die will get you food with your A’Niang.”
Wei Wuxian heard this and almost choke on his own saliva. He gawked as though he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
Meanwhile, Jiang Cheng couldn’t believe his ears. He pointed to Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian disbelievingly, “A…A’Die? A’Niang?”
“…” Ignored.
Xue Yang snorted, “He is this big but he still didn’t know what A’Die and A’Niang means? Well, I’m not the worst after all!”
Elder Heiying couldn’t take his nonsense and jumped straight to his face.
“You…” Xue Yang complained while stabilizing himself from the collision.
On the other hand, Jiang Cheng badly wanted to find a channel to vent his anger after being ignored by Lan Wangji for the second time. So when he heard Xue Yang, he was ready to lash out. But when he realized that it was another child, he immediately swallowed his words.
“You…you’re not also his son, right? Jiang Cheng blurted out, rudely pointing his finger towards Lan Wangji. Somehow, he couldn’t acknowledge that the A’Niang they were talking about was Wei Wuxian.
“What if I am? What if I am not?” Xue Yang asked, finally getting Elder Heiying off his face.
Jiang Cheng scrutinized Xue Yang from his head to his feet. The boy who was now holding Wei Wuxian’s dog looked like he was about 12 years old. It was impossible for him to be Wei Wuxian nor Lan Wangji’s son.
He snorted, “Didn’t Lan Er-gongzi told you that lying is forbidden?”
“I’m not lying,” Xue Yang confidently retorted. Wei Wuxian was after all his martial mother. Consequently, Lan Wangji was his martial father.
Wei Wuxian was really having the time of his life watching Jiang Cheng being messed up. But they weren’t the only people here. Actually, the look on the Lan disciples faces right now was really hard to describe with words.
“Alright, stop messing with him. Xue Yang is my martial son (disciple),” Wei Wuxian intervened.
“And this child?” Jiang Cheng wanted to ask if he was also Wei Wuxian’s disciple but he was too young to cultivate.
Wei Wuxian, however, saw through him, “Aiya! Don’t judge his young age. My A’Yuan had already formed his core!”
Lan Sizhui had already experienced forming his core. With his talent, it was really not surprising that he formed his core early. However, it was still unprecedented in normal circumstances.
The eyes of the surrounding cultivators widened in surprise. This child was a never been heard before kind of genius! The sect that he will join in the future will surely get enough honor! Thinking about this, they couldn’t help but wonder if he was really Hanguang-jun’s son. And if he’s the father, then the mother…
It was at this moment that Lan Sizhui once again received his father’s signal.
“A’Niang, A’Yuan is really hungry… Let’s go get food with A’Die.” the child pulled Zhengye Xiangu’s robe.
Lan Sizhui thought that just a little more and he would be able to perfect the act of being a pampered young master.
“It’s time for A’Yuan’s meal,” Lan Wangji supplemented.
“…” Did they even need to ask?
Meanwhile, Jiang Cheng was already having a mental breakdown. He eyed Wei Wuxian, “We need to talk.”
“There is nothing you need to talk about.” Lan Wangji finally chose to face Jiang Cheng. In a very confident tone he instructed the child in his arms, “Sizhui, introduce yourself.”
Wei Wuxian apologized to Jiang Cheng internally, sorry but when the quiet ones decided to make mischief, he really couldn’t stop them.
Lan Sizhui felt that it was rude to greet people while being bundled around his father. With his good martial arts, he neatly jumped from Lan Wangji’s arms onto the ground, earning another look of approval from the surrounding cultivators.
He clasped his hand and saluted to Jiang Cheng, “Lan Yuan, courtesy name Sizhui, son of Lan Wangji and Zhengye Xiangu greets Sandu Shengshou.”
Sorry, mother. Introducing myself as Wei Yuan will create more complication.
“Good,” Lan Wangji approved as he picked up the child and placed him back to the sling around his torso.
“I will be taking them to eat,” Lan Wangji pulled Wei Wuxian by the waist and walked away.
Somehow, this scene was really familiar. Only this time, they could no longer deceive themselves about Hanguang-jun and Zhengye Xiangu’s relationship. Hanguang-jun taking responsibility and watching over Zhengye Xiangu suddenly made sense!
The Lan disciples exchanged knowing glances. The Cloud Recesses will be in chaos when this news broke out. They just hope that Teacher Lan would timely guard his heart.
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Author's Note
We are nearing to the end and I'm kinda sad and happy at the same time.