Huge shoutout to @NixieEver for co-writing this chapter this me.
It was the next day and lectures had now officially begun.Wangji had wasted absolutely no time the night before, going back and forth through his mirror, either settling issues in Jiangnan or bringing some work back to Gusu.
As a result, he barely slept at all, and was currently running on empty, which wasn't a good thing for two reasons.
One, he needed his precious beauty sleep. Two, the less energy one has, the harder it is to use concealment magic.
There had been occasions where he couldn't use his magic due to lack of energy, but on days like that he usually just holed himself up in his room under the guise of 'meditation'.
He was just sleeping.
However, there was no way that he could do this today. Right now, he had one mission.
Stay as far away from Wei Wuxian as possible!
Listening to others conversations was forbidden in Cloud Recess, but Lan WangJi was too tired to care as his listened to the others talk.
"The Wen clan actually sent someone for lectures." A disciple said, walking through the halls of Cloud Recesses.
"They even made their second young master come along as an escort. That's rare."
WangJi began to think about what the Wens being in Gusu might mean for his future plans and wondered the paths with no destination planned.
'I need to see how Uncle plans to deal with the Wens. I just hope my suspicions are wrong.'
"Wow, Wei-xiong, you are so great." Huaisang said walking beside Wei Ying and Jiang Cheng.
"You dared to face Wen Chao. Except you, there is no one else who dares."
"Why should we be afraid of him." Wuxian laughed, walking along. "Resisting such evil guys is an endless joy for me."
"Wei-xiong, I wish I had courage like yours."
"His courage isn't something other people can compare to." Jiang Cheng scoffed while crossing his arms in displeasure.
"Let me tell you, before improving your courage, you should learn how to play around first. " He smirked with a look that could only spell trouble for anyone around him.
"Play?"
"Yep. How about we play all around Cloud Recesses?" Gesturing with his finger, he whispered in Huaisang's ear.
"There's a stream in back hills. We could catch some fish. "
"Wei-xiong, are you serious?"
"Of course."
"Oi, Wei Wuxian, don't mislead him. Tomorrow are the official lectures. Don't forget, you still have two hundred and sixty scriptures to transcribe." Jiang Cheng huffed.
"There it is again, can you stop mentioning that?" he said, before walking off.
"But, Nie-Xiong, let me tell you this... Oh, it's Ji-Xiong! Hey, Ji-Xiong!"
Looking ahead on their left, was Lan Wangji with his usual dead expression... except for the fact that he was having a full meltdown on the inside.
'Did I do something wrong in a past life? Did i commit some heinous crime and that's why I'm being punished?'
Looking at Huaisang and then Wuxian, there was a hint of panic in his eyes before he walked away.
'Does he have some sort of tracking talisman or something?! Why is he everywhere I look?!'
" He must not have heard me. He must have bad hearing." Wuxian brushed off.
"Wei- Xiong, you even dare to provoke the infamous Lan Wangji? As long as I'm here, I can only avoid him in every encounter."
"It's not a big deal" He grinned, "Tell you what, I even fought him last night."
"You fought with the Lan Wangji? Wei-Xiong, you really are reckless."
"Look, you didn't know how fierce it was last night. There I was, scaling the wall with a jar of liquor in hand....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Uncle, since the first lectures of Lan, the Wen clan has never sent their disciples here." Xichen said, walking into the main office with his uncle.
"Though, they just sent a pair of siblings here this time as collateral. They may have some ulterior motives."
"Xichen, whoever comes to Cloud Recesses, are guests and will be treated as such." Qiren replied, easing into his chair the way all old people tend to.
" No matter what intention they have, what we need to do is treat them with due respect."
"Um, no. what you're supposed to do is keep them under full surveillance, SO YOU DON'T RUIN MY CAREER!" Wangji indignantly screamed, clenching a pretty looking gold pocket mirror.
Oh, what? You thought that his full length mirror was the only trick up his sleeve. Well, guess what, these are hanfu robes we're talking about. His sleeves are loaded, honey.
Getting into his uncle's office and placing a simple spying talisman was child's play for him.
"This can't happen, I can't let it happen." He cursed. "No one stands between me and riches. Whether it's Wen Rouhan or the Jade Emperor himself!"
Laying down in a secluded area on the soft grass, Wangji put his hands over his face in frustration.
Why is it whenever he was going to do something big, something always came up?
He couldn't stop thinking about what Shen'an said yesterday. What did he mean 'big bird'? Jiangnan is a bustling city, it doesn't have any big animals like what he described. Only small things. The biggest bird you'll see is the occasional falcon flying over the taller buildings. And those arent black.
It made a huge mess of the cotton and linen suplies as well, which caused a huge defict, nothing he couldn't cover of course, but still.
There was only one thing he could think of that fit the bill, but surely there was no way on earth.
Why would the Wens be interested in his textlies?
Honestly, first Wei Wuxian, and then the Wens?! Was he really so unlucky?!
Those damn Wen siblings were the problem, right? After all, they were here as spies weren't they? Even a blind fool could figure that out.
All he had to do was try to convince them to not do... well whatever they were planning and his career would be safe! At least until he was safe, anyway. He had money, he could probably just pay them off. Yeah, that would probably work.
Right?
The sister would probably be the one to approach. What was her name again. Wen Qiao? Wen Qiu? Qiong, Qian? Whatever!
Now getting up with a (ridiculous) plan in mind, he headed towards Wen... Qing!
He knew he'd get it eventually.
Running through the trees, he wasted no time getting towards wherever Wen Qing was at the moment.
However, in order to get to the back of Cloud Recesses, you had to pass the back hills.
"Hey, Wei-xiong, did you catch any fish yet?" Huaisang yelled, pushing his hair away from his face as he waded around in the shallow pond water.
"Hold on." he replied with a fish almost in his grasp.
'Almost, almost.'
If he hadn't looked up for just a spilt second, he never would have seen the running mess that was Lan Wangji darting through the trees.
'Was that ... Lan Zhan?' Wuxian said, not caring that the fish already gone.
"Ah, Nie-xiong! I just forgot!" Wuxian said, making his way out of the water.
"Ey, forgot what?"
"Um, I had something really important to do for, uh, my Shijie! Yeah, I promised my Shijie I would help her with...something! Uh, sorry, gotta go, see ya later!" He blurted out before running into the trees.
"... What was that about?" Huaisang muttered, now alone with no one to hang out with.
Going through the trees after Lan Zhan, he could just see his back.
"Lan Zhan!" He shouted at said man, who didn't hear him.
"What am I doing right now?" Wangji muttered, stopping in a clearing, now feeling utterly exhausted.
"This is moronic. I'm being moronic. Lack of sleep and overusing concealment has turned me into a complete moron."
Now running to catch up to him, Wei Ying managed to get right behind him and catch him just by the shoulder.
Startled, Wangji turned around to see Wei Wuxian, the man whom he wanted to avoid at all cost, standing right in front of him.
"...."
"... Why are you running?."
"... No reason." Wangji said, not sounding nervous at all! God, he wanted to just stab himself in the foot right now.
"Ey?" Wuxian said, smirking. At last, the jig was up!
'Ey, what? Why is he saying ey?' Wangji thought, beads of sweat now forming on his forehead.
"Why aren't you using it today?" Wuxian said, now circling him like some sort of curious vulture. "You don't look the same as you did yesterday either."
"... Using what?" Wangji anxiously asked, trying to use his concealment magic, but just failing miserably.
"You've been using concealment magic since the first time we met."
"... Have not."
"Uh, have too?"
"Have not."
" Have too! Don't think I didn't notice that red robe, either." Wuxian quipped.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Wangji said coldly, wiping the sweat from his brow.
'He knows. He knows. Why today, why now, do the heavens hate me that much?'
" That fact that you're actually speaking to me right now is just even more proof. And I bet that you're wearing that robe right now."
"Pathetic." Wangji spat, before trying to walk away.
But this was Wei Wuxian he was dealing with.
Being the troublemaker that he was, he stepped down on the hems of Wangji's robes, making him fall flat on his face, thus revealing his red robes.
"WHAT THE FRICK WAS THAT FOR?!" Wangji yelled from the ground, instantly slapping his hand over his mouth in realization.
"Pfft, so much for the pristine and proper Second Young Master Lan." Wuxian laughed, while Wangji just covered his face with his sleeves.
'Just kill me now, please. God, just put me out of my misery already.'
"Don't worry, I won't tell." Wei Ying chuckled, offering him a hand.
"Hmph, why should I trust you!?" Wangji snapped, slapping his hand away. Getting up, he dusted the dirt off his robes and face and gave Wuxian a malicious scowl before walking away.
"Look, I'm sorry for tripping you up! I won't tell anyone, I promise." Wuxian said chasing after him.
Ignoring him Wangji picked up the pace and just kept looking straight forward.
"Come on, Lan-er gongzi, I didn't mean to!"
"Oh really?" Wangji spat, stopping in his tracks to face him.
"What exactly did you not mean to do? Did you not mean to chase after me, or did you not mean to reveal that I use concealment magic?" He continued, while he now circled Wuxian like a vulture.
" Or did you not mean to step on my hems and trip me up." he said, while pointing an accusing finger at him.
"Fine then, I use concealment magic! Are you satisfied? Did you find out what you wanted to know?"
Now looking down at the ground with a guilty expression, Wei Ying realized that he may have taken it a bit too far.
"Wait, wait, wait!" He said, clutching onto his sleeve while Wangji glared at him.
"I'm really sorry. I was just... curious, that's all. I shouldn't have tripped you up."
Not answering, Wangji just glared at him with a look that could freeze the hottest of deserts.
'I've really hit a nerve, haven't I?'
WuXian sighed seeing how brightly Lan WangJi's eyes burned and winced.
"Listen, you're right it's none of my business and I was pestering you, but I only did so because I thought you might understand. I have to hide myself at home too. And to prove to you that I won't tell anyone about you using concealment magic, I'll tell you my secret... I am terrified of dogs."
WangJi stared at Wei WuXian and felt some of his anger deflate and feeling even more exhausted growled
"Dogs?! I am supposed to believe your scared of dogs?! BORING!!"
WangJi stalked off, his posture was perfect, one fist clenched behind his back, as he maintained the Lan glide.
'I need to stay far away from Wei WuXian!'