CHAPTER 6
-an undying hatred.-
Notes: Lan wangji is not wearing his headband and replaced it with a forehead piece! Side Comments are appreciated and it makes me smile
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Wei wuxian walked inside his living hut, limping slightly as he closed the door. He stayed way too long in that town at this hour.
He planned on staying in Yaoyan town that hour to observe the Man dancing in the dead of the night but his mind was disrupted with a engulfment of resentful energy. He vaguely forgotten how he had been residing in such a weak body with a barely alive golden core, he wasn't used to it. His mind was blurring up from the amount of resentful energy entering him he had to leave, it only gave him a hint as well that the Man wasn't a joke.
He was strong like how the scrolls mentioned him to be.
Upon the disappearance of the headache, he immediately ran back to his home and engulf himself in deep meditation in the meantime. Yet somehow, he wasn't able to focus his mind into a state of meditation and instead would be images of the man. Until something clicked.
He snapped out of his thoughts and dragged his gaze to the clothed frame he bought from the man in the market, thinking for a moment before walking towards it and taking the pieces of cloth off it. He observed for a moment before setting it to the sides
Wei wuxian dug through the basket and found A few leaves, herbs and berries. It was enough for him so he took it all and went outside too see the sun rise peeping.
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"A-niang." A voice sounded from behind a man. The said man turned his head to the right so he can see the boy who called out to him, his tensed shoulders softening down and finally relaxes. "Sizhui.." he weakly coaxed.
"..was that to much?" Sizhui asked, walking closer and holding his arm and shoulder. Wangji looked worn out from tonight's cleansing and fighting to the fact he's probably tired. But even so, Wangji shook his head in denial.
"This one is fine, a-yuan."
'clearly you aren't, don't play with me.' sizhui thought and rubbed his back causing Wangji to cough violently. Lan wangji wasn't the type to lie since he was always isolated and more used to the rules that was nudged into his brain back when he was in his 20's, teen, and toddler years, but despite the times he had gone through it, he was able to lie alot of times ever since he left that life behind.
Sizhui's small toddler mind grew up into a mind full of hatred for his father's former family, loathing for their disappearance. It gave him a bitter taste to know they still have parts of them wherever they go..
Sizhui didn't like it. Lan wangji and wei sizhui have been wandering around a place or rather a region named Gusu. The older man held distaste and hate in his facial expression, eyebrows furrowing and face scrunching up while walking through the said region and it gave sizhui a theorized thought that this,
This place,
This very region,
Was his father's former home.
A part of sizhui wishes that his father will magically recover from his probably temporary amnesia Haze of wei ying to shove a few braincells here and there, maybe coke his brain up a bit.
He missed the stories wangji told him about the amazing laozu..the way he would smile oh so softly at the thought of wei wuxian being with them, all the amazing things wei wuxian did. Yet, whenever yuan asks where wei wuxian really was at the moment, wangji would make up different excuses. Those excuses held nothing but pain coated coaxing.
When he was 12 he was finally given the truth and his reaction wasn't that of a terrified young man for his age yet he still seemed upset. Wei yuan had so much hope he and his father would find wei wuxian and be a family, but to find out wei wuxian was no longer existing In the world was a pity. Pity was an understatement
His father clearly likes him, but most likely have the feeling unrequited because of how much he bugged him back in their youths. Wei ying has and is still probably a cold stone faced man while wangji was the opposite. Always so smiley, brightest smile you'll ever see to the fact you'll blow off the charts if you ever came across it.
'Wei-gege!!' a very exasperated wangji nudged a busy wei ying on the arm. He was huffing so loudly that even wei wuxian had to turn his eye to take notice before going back to engross in his work. Wangji wanted to throw out the work out of the windows, he'd go as far as to yanking the piece of worthless work his wei-gege took more attention on and running down to one of the cold springs and drowning it. 'wei-gege why are you ignoring me!!!' Lan zhan pondered as he approached Infront of the man who didn't even look at him.
It made him pout more if it was possible. He ran around the youthful boy, pick up strands of hair and blowing it, leaning or crouching to stare at the beauty the youth withheld. Yet all that and it still didn't seem like wei ying was paying any mind to anything the pitiful troublemaking Lan wangji as doing. 'how am I going to survive with you!!!!' he groaned as he let out another exasperated sigh.
That story didn't leave his mind, it was a daily dose of "ying-gege and ji-gege" dubbed by sizhui. Sizhui has always been fond of hearing his father prattle about his old adventures with wei ying, that softened eyes for when he mentioned his name, it was something he can call a poisonous numbing poison. Wei yuan was a special someone to his father's heart and it was cute to see that being present to his father himself.
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Xichen stared at the scroll and so did wanyin. "Yaoyan town was attacked again?" Wanyin said, clearly tired from the same report over and over again for the few weeks. "Wanyin.." xichen muttered, Jiang Cheng didn't have a say on what xichen should feel right now. The young man knew what type of loathing Lan xichen held for the zhēnzhū shi xuè and he wasn't going to poke his nose into random holes and entrances where his Huan-gege unpurposely left open.
But he ended up doing so.
"Sect leader Lan it's time you take matters into your own hands. Take a break from finding your already deceased brother.." wanyin muttered the last part with a hint of resentment.
"Yaoyan had encountered the same attack at least 7 times and I'm now fully convinced there's something luring these corpses at night and then having it swept gone the next moment." He threw the scroll into the table to show a few more reports from the last few times yaoyan town reached out to them, indeed showing the incoherent lan huan the trouble.
"As as how these are awfully patterned with the zhēnzhū shi xuè's doings I think it's already safe to say that the stupid shi xuè found his way into gusu again instead of around burial mounds" Jiang Cheng emphasized the 'again' as he threw another scroll onto the low table Infront of xichen. A few years back, gusu was faced with the same problem but with caiyi instead of yaoyan. Tho as presented, caiyi didn't have either injured or deceased civilians every morning. At first, yaoyan villagers shrugged it off as some "random heart attack of an old hag" but as time pressed on it didn't stick to its name.
People leave their homes either sickened, pained, injured or deceased.
Somehow whenever they were found deceased they would be stripped off until what they had left were nothing but their inner robes and a hole ripped through the chest. It caused a few complaints from disciples and making them sick at the pit of their stomachs.
The attack of caiyi, or, caiyi de gongji was nothing but a little scare coming from the shi xuè. The sounds of heavy to light footsteps on their roofs gave them goosebumps but it didn't do anything but give them light nightmares. it was still sufferable but not that terrible. The shi xuè left after 2 weeks or so leaving the town back at its peace again yet they were still vigilant about the coming back of the shi xuè. Looking back at it now, rumours spread like water on metal that what happened in Caiyi De Gongji was the shi xuè pursuing a curse into the lands of gusu, leading to another spreading gossip about the zhēnzhū shi xuè being a former Gusu civilian.
Yaoyan went as far as to rumour the shi xuè as the missing hanguang-jun. But people immediately scraped that after seeing how it heavily made the sect leader of the Lan of gusu offended and more stressed. And they were scared he was planning on plastering back an old rule.
"I'll take action in 2 days if it keeps on. " He replied, causing Jiang Cheng to let out an Exasperated sigh.
"Would wanyin like some tea in the time being?" The soft voice lingered in Jiang Cheng's mind like a freely waved river water, calming him down from his stressed wits. For the moment when the scroll was delivered they had forgotten what situation they were in a moment before and what was the original reason why the sect leader of YunmengJiang visited the Sect leader of GusuLan.
Both were already in inner robes, ready to head to bed at any moment. Light steps of the wooden floor were heard as Xichen was out of line of sight to get a teaset and brew some freshly made tea. Jiang Cheng's eyes lingered onto the man's body, the nape to the back, to the arms, to the waist, and back to the long lustrous and long silky hair that was still surprisingly neat and untangled, though it was slightly disheveled.
Jiang Wanyin felt the edges of his lips lift up into a grin. The man was truly beautiful, it's no wonder he's called the first twin jade of Lan. Spotless and peerless beauty truly is like a jade, eye catching in so many different levels.
The thought made him melt once more as he sat down and waited for the said Lan to come back and serve the brewed tea. During the stand by, he was fiddling with a ribbon of a small gift like white box Infront of him. It was white with the color of the ribbon being blue, box being long but the width being small. Another would guess that it was some sort of scroll or a brush inside.
The thought was interrupted when the sound of clacking floorboards were heard again, approaching as the scent of soft sandalwood scent endeared and invaded his nose. In his peripheral vision he caught the glimpse of the older man sitting down in front of him and pouring the hot tea into a cup before offering it to wanyin, of course not without a smile to show the sincerity.
"Wanyin, how much longer will you be staying in Gusu this time? I'll be more than willing to accompany you in your stay" the Sect leader exclaimed excitedly.
Jiang Cheng's eyes narrowed for a few seconds prior, thinking. "I'm sure you will. but since there's barely work for me left in yunmeng due to already having it done 3 weeks prior, I say I'd be able to stay with sect leader Lan In gusu. That, if I suddenly get an emergency."
Xichen despite being slightly dense, caught and latched onto the flirtatious tone the man used at the first part of his sentence. It made the color of his cheeks tinted red, which caught on to Jiang Cheng causing him to have his cheeks heat up as well but having his mouth ply with a grin at the giggling man before him
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Lets watch xicheng's love story for a while before we head back to Xianwang and a new ship event!
Note: Events most likely be unreal, or from the different adaptations. Mostly donghua bc it's the only one I finished fully. Side Comments are appreciated and it makes me smile