The fifth instalment of the Mafia's Mistake series.
Slender fingers coaxed an onyx dizi into a song as a story erupted from the chamber. It spoke of a lonesome soul wandering the world. He asked the Taoist priest and the scholars and the emperor the same question; where could he find his soulmate? Were there traces of him there? None had the answer so he wandered further more. Seasons changed. Buds turned to petals turned to dust. Brushing shoulders, he found no solace until the gentians were in bloom once more. Barely one day of separation, yet three Autumns had already passed.
The female that birthed this song, a lovely woman both inside and out, continued playing from one song to another, a never ending musical theatre so lovely it could melt hearts made of ice and protected by stone. Cangse Sanren had her eyes closed, absorbed in the music she created, playful imps tugging at the corners of her lips. From her seat on the window perch, a halo of gold enveloped her in a warm glow as the sun began to set, specks of stars beginning to pop up in the sky.
Pudgy little fingers guided a brush over paper, leaving colourful streaks in its wake. A toddler sat at the table in the cottage, the tip of his tongue peeking out of the corner of his mouth from concentration.
"A-Ying, can Baba see?"
Wei Ying put his brush down and proudly showed his painting of his mother to his a-Die. "A-Niang is pwetty," the little one babbled, his fluffy hair falling ever so slightly over his eyes.
Baba wrapped him in a side hug and looked at his wife, catching her eye for the briefest of seconds as they shared a fond, loving glance. "She most certainly is, a-Ying."
At that moment, Cangse Sanren stopped playing her flute and walked over to her husband and son. "What are my two boys up to?" She asked, eyes glinting with the same amount of mischief her little boy had sparkling in his chocolate orbs.
Wei Ying quickly grabbed the painting from his father and added a few characters in the corner of the paper before giving it to his mother.
She observed the painting, done by the talented hand of a youth, one that showed her playing her flute at dusk, before reading the message.
'A-Ying loves a-Niang.'
Smiling softly, she walked around the table and hugged the two most precious people in her life. "I love you too, dear one." She placed a kiss on the crown of his head.
A loud crash sounded through the cottage. Wei Changze and Cangse Sanren exchanged confused looks as they saw the vase she'd gotten as an anniversary gift lying in pieces on the floor...a vase that was on the other side of the room.
"What on earth," Cangse Sanren began as she walked closer before a shot ran out. She collapsed to her knees, hand tightly pressed against the wound on her stomach as more shots rang out.
Wei Ying was in tears, hiding underneath the table as he clutched his mother's flute and the painting against his chest. "A-Niang...Mama~" The toddler wailed, terrified when she coughed and blood splattered on the floor.
Wei Changze ran to his wife, supporting her and shielding her from the occasional gunshots that entered through their open window or pierced through the wood. He dared a glance outside and caught sight of various people, some in blue and others in maroon, battling against each other. They weren't the targets then, Wei Changze figured. They were just the unlucky victims caught in the crossfire of what could be nothing other than a mafia shootout.
In that moment of observing, a bullet pierced through his chest, nicking his lung.
Bloody and terrified, the two parents dragged themselves to their trembling son. Mustering all the energy she had left, Cangse Sanren lifted the rug underneath the table and opened the secret door. She wiped a few of her baby's tears with her thumb before giving him a stern look. "A-Ying, listen to me. Remember what Baba and I always said? If you have to go down this tunnel, you run as fast as you can all the way to the end. The other side will be at Granny Wen's house. Tell her what happened and that Mama needs you to stay there. Can you do that for me?"
Wei Ying, the innocent mind, was scared half to death and felt numb. "B-b-but M-m-m-ama, what ab-bout y-you--"
"Don't worry about us. Now go!" She all but hauled Wei Ying into the tunnel, her voice leaving no room for argument. With only a flute and a painting, the boy longingly looked back up at his mother as she reached for the door to close it again. "Tell Granny Wen that 'The Clouds are burning the Sun'. Remember, A-Ying. Now go!"
Pivoting on his heels, Wei Ying began running as fast as his little legs would carry him, tears pouring down his cheeks in an endless waterfall. He could barely hear the faint words of his mother calling, "I love you, my son..." before the door closed with a heavy thud.
So Wei Ying did as his a-Niang told him to do. He ran. And ran. And ran. Until he reached Granny Wen's house and the boy could run no more.
***
As suspected, by the end Lan Xichen had plopped down on the couch, his kind face painted in disbelief.
Wangji stared out the window once more, taking note of the warm smile the boy carried, his carefree persona, his kind heart, his bubbling laughter, all of it.
The room wore a pregnant silence for what felt like hours, despite it being a mere few minutes. That is, until Lan Wangji sliced through it, his tongue like a blade striking down his enemies on a battlefield. Only he was able to voice the thought on everyone's minds.
"That's impossible..."
Wen Qing, suddenly having found a bit of confidence or perhaps it was the cruelty of it all, barked a laugh. "Funny you should mention that, actually."
Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen both looked at her in tandem, a sight so uncanny it almost made her shift in her seat.
Xichen, face pale and eyes looking years older than when he'd came in, the burden of knowledge now heavy on his shoulders, asked tiredly, "Lady Wen, what do you mean? What else do we not know?"
The doctor snorted, leaning back in her chair with folded arms. "What don't you know? Bloody everything, it seems." She spat before taking a calming breath. "Cangse Sanren was close with my Grandmother, apparently just like a daughter to her. I heard it had something to do with her being friends with Wei Wuxian's Great Grandmother or something like that. As such, she is like Wuxian's grandma. When he came out of the tunnel, he was sick and scared and barely coherent in his speech but she understood what had happened. She took care of him, raised him for a few years, until a woman came to pay a visit...The Madam of the Jiang family, also known as," she pierced through them with her glare, "Your lawyers. The same ones whose motto is to always 'Attempt the Impossible.' Isn't that something?" Her voice was full of mockery towards the men before her.
Wen Qing explained some more. How Cangse Sanren had been good friends with Yu Ziyuan and upon hearing of her death, had sought out her son. She knew of the tunnel and how Granny Wen was to take care of him if anything were to happen to the Wei family, which is how she found him in Yiling. They agreed to let Wei Ying grow up in Yunmeng to settle in with his Junior Brother and Senior Sister as long as he visited Yiling frequently. He lived a peaceful life, happy and safe because they made sure no one knew a victim of the mafia had escaped.
"And that's his story." Wen Qing finished, opening a drawer of her desk and pulling out a porcelain bottle, chugging a few gulps of liquid.
Wangji frowned at the action and she sneered. "It's juice, not alcohol. Do you think I'm that unprofessional, little Lan?"
If the Second Warrior of Gusu Lan was planning on reprimanding her before, he quickly changed his mind and gazed out the window, a pained look on his face.
It had only been half a lie. It was the special fruit wine that Uncle Four made. But what he didn't know couldn't hurt him. She was off duty anyway and besides, after all that she needed a drink.
Xichen, after analyzing the information in silence for a bit, suddenly looked up. "The tunnel, what--"
Wen Qing waved him off as she took another sip. "Apparently that cottage had been in the Wei family for generations. It was neutral ground. But, with the mafia shootouts increasing a tunnel had been made to make an easy escape if something ever happened."
"Neutral ground..." He pondered a moment. "Wait, what did his mother mean with the message? 'The Clouds are burning the Sun', what was she implying? In a literal sense, the sun will burn through the clouds, not the other way around."
Tossing her secret wine stash away, the doctor took to polishing a few needles on her table, anything to keep her hands busy, because if she were to remain completely still, she'd crack. Besides, everyone feared her needles, even the Mafia leaders of Lan. And they had better, considering what she was about to tell them.
"Like I said, neutral ground. The cottage was between the borders of the Qishan Devils...and Gusu Lan." A sharp, shocked inhale. She kept on polishing her needles. "Her message was as encrypted as it was direct; clouds for the Lans and the sun for Qishan's elite. This was seventeen years ago. At that time, Gusu Lan wanted to expand their borders to gain the upper hand over the Qishan Devils. Problem was, for all you lot brag about research and libraries and knowledge, not a single one of you knew that ground belonged to the Wei family."
Wen Qing put the cloth away and fiddled with a needle as she pinned Xichen on the spot. "The Qishan Devils had an elite group called the Sun's Fire. They were stationed on the same land as the cottage, in secret of course. The Wei's knew nothing of this. On that day, Gusu Lan fired the first shots and eliminated the Sun's Fire, claiming the land as part of their territory..." Wen Qing stood, calm and collected, until she flung the same needle down and it landed between Xichen's fingers, digging into the wood of her desk. And though the metal had brushed past him, she made sure the skin was still intact, without a single scratch. "And along with it, they claimed the lives of two innocent people and ruined the life of a child." She seethed, the venom in her cup overflowing as it dripped from her tongue and turned her words into acid. She felt euphoric when both the Lan leaders flinched.
She walked to the window and pointed at Wei Wuxian, laughing without a care in the world as he made a flower crown for Granny Wen and a-Yuan played with Wen Ning. "That boy down there? He's the sole survivor of a massacre that your family created. He's the reason Wangji is unharmed. And he's in danger once more because he has a good heart and helped the very people that destroyed his family."
"Impossible." Lan Wangji said again and Wen Qing wanted to strangle him. Just how much more facts does he need to believe?
He inhaled deeply, a steadying breath, before continuing. "We were told about the border claiming of Gusu Lan. It was part of our history. Qishan Devils burnt a house on our territory as an act of war and the shootout happened. Gusu Lan won."
She did not strangle him, no. But for the second time that week, Wen Qing slapped Lan Wangji, bristling with rage. He eyed her carefully as he cradled his cheek, both from shock and pain. "Your family covered it up, you insolent buffoon!" She shrieked. Her fingers were itching for her needles. "I hated the Qishan Devils with all my heart, which is why I sold them out to you, but they did not start a fire. The cottage was noticed after the last Sun's Fire member fell. In order to cover up their tracks, they decided to burn the bodies in the house...and then they found the Wei family. Innocent people. His mother taught the flute, his father was a painter. And Wei Wuxian..." She trailed off, eyes drawn to the 22 year old youth in question down below. When she spoke, her voice was significantly softer. "Wei Wuxian was left without his parents."
No one could deny the truth, no matter how hard it hurt them. And it did hurt. Lan Wangji felt the pain almost as if Wen Qing's needles were stabbing into his heart.
How could his family have done something so cruel? Yes, perhaps he was not at fault, having been only a child then, but does he not carry some responsibility now? Does he not have even more to repent for as well?
He stole another glance at the boy below. How can one still smile like that after facing such disaster? The last remaining Wei member...
As if he'd felt the gaze of the mafia leader on him, Wuxian looked up and locked eyes with Lan Wangji. A smile splayed across his lips and he lifted his hand to wave, making guilt churn in Wangji's gut...until he stopped. Wei Ying's smile faltered. His hand fell into his lap. A lost look travelled through his eyes. The guilt in Lan Wangji's stomach quickly turned into panic at the sight now before him.
Wei Wuxian's nose began to bleed.