It was...very, very difficult. Wei Ying practically clung to Lan Zhan for the first part of it. He started at the very beginning, figured that they deserved that much. If he was going to do this, and retell the story, he may as well do it from the very beginning. It would be necessary to understand, after all, this all started from the beginning, from his being four years old and his parents dying in whatever tragic fight it was that they had been roped into and he had been left on the streets. That was rather important given the fact that it was one of the ways that Wen Chao had managed to snatch him up in the first place. Really all remembrance of his time on the Wen streets was traumatizing...but those dogs.
He brushed over a lot, however, in the first half. The harshness of the streets, and living on them. They really did not need to know anything about that, so he just glossed over a lot of the harshness of things. He didd not really want them to worry about him, even if he was totally emotionally unstable, he did not feel that was on them to deal with. Even if they would state otherwise given the fact that they had grabbed him and dragged him through here. He also somewhat glossed over his time with the Jiang sect. Not that it was unimportant, but it was not important enough for Wei Ying to want to burden them with that whole bucket of emotional spiraling. Especially when it came to Madame Yu and her treatment. Wei Ying would rather not even begin to get into that in the first place, even if he knew that, given the sharp look from Lan Zhan, it was quite clear that he was glossing over things rather heavily when it came to the Jiang Sect, and specifically the Leader of the Jiang Sect and his wife. It did not seem that Lan Qiren or Lan XiChen really noticed, but that was understandable also because they did not know him as well as Lan Zhan did. Thankfully, Lan Zhan did not bring it up to the others, though Wei Ying knew that he would be asking his own share of questions when they returned to the Jinshi.
It was when he began to get to his first interaction with Yang energy that he began to slowly remove himself from Lan Zhan. The two others in the room seemed rather surprised with how the Yang energy had affected him, hence why the first part of the story was required, as he was forced to explain why his body had such an extreme reaction to the Yang energy when in the cave with Lan Zhan. The more turmoil in a person, the more they react. Wei WuXian was basically a walking embodiment of a horrible existence, even if he would say otherwise.
When it came to the capture of the Wen Clan, Wei Ying had removed himself completely from Lan Zhan, fearing his reaction. He could not, simply could not look at them as this part began.
"They have these things called Wen Dogs." Wei Ying began his explanation. "They are these gigantic monstrous being. Nothing like the Spirit dogs or tamed dogs, or even feral dogs. They are taller than me or Lan Zhan, and filled with resentful energy. When I was captured by the Wen Clan, that was one of the placed they left me. The cave, with the Wen Dogs. They wanted information, but I refused to give it to them. I would never give them what they wanted in the first place, but specifically the information that they wanted was rather sensitive in nature, and so how could I justify giving it to them just to spare myself suffering?" Wei Ying asked softly. "It was not easy. They did many things. Beat me, starved me, whipped me over and over and over again until my resolve broke. Never once did I give what they wanted however, and they were getting impatient. They wanted to know and I refused to give it to them." Wei Ying bit his lower lip, worrying it between his teeth, expression anxious and pinched as he continued further.
"Wen Chao was the one who went beyond orders at that point. It was specifically stated that until they get the information which they wanted so desperately, they were not to dispose of me in any way. I was the only one who could give it to them, after all, I was the only one who had done it before. They they knew of, of course, and even I do not know if there was someone else who had done such a thing before myself." Wei Ying inhaled sharply, twisting his hands in his lap, gaze cast firmly on his legs. "He was angry, annoyed, and hurt. It burned his pride that despite all that he placed upon me and put me through, he still could not break me. It had been such a long time, and I cannot even remember how long. The point was, it burned at him, though I have a feeling that there was another person who truly fed into those." Wei Ying furrowed his eyebrows at the revelation of that.
"I am not sure who that person was though. I had seen him, but other than seeing him and hearing his voice, I do not really know who it is. He is quite a large reason of why Wen Chao kept losing his patience. Also how, inadvertently, I managed to survive in the first place." Wei Ying stopped, allowing thoughts to fly through him. Lan XiChen was about to inquire something, but Wei Ying plunged onwards. "Anyways, he finally lost his patience. I knew it was going to happen at some point. He took me up to the hill, and dropped me..." Wei Ying took a few steadying breaths, before he felt capable of continuing. "Dropped me into the burial mounds." There was a collective inhale from Lan XiChen and Lan Qiren, and Lan Zhan had visibly tensed and his eyes were on fire with anger. Not towards Wei ying, he knew...at least not yet towards himself. "I barely managed to survive. I honestly am not even certain how I survived. The resentful energy should have eaten me alive but it did not. It took a lot of effort. I did quite a bit of...Unsavory things, in order to survive. I, barely managed to survive as well. Yet, I pushed through. Just barely. I needed a way to get out of the burial mounds, and to do that I needed cultivation, which was impossible at the time. I needed some sort of cultivation.
"It was then that I recalled the..." Wei Ying paused, hesitating slightly, before decided to go for it, after all they knew almost everything else. He knew Lan Qiren would likely be quite unhappy however, knowing. "I remembered the GusuLan method of Cultivation. Music, through musical instruments. I cannot play a Xiao, like Master Lan XiChen, nor a GuQin such as Lan Zhan here, but I can play a Dizi. Dizi are not too hard to make, at least not totally. I fashioned one, who knows how long it took. I could scarcely tell time in there. Then, I worked on it.
"It took what felt like forever. It took a long, very long, time to perfect it. I needed a mediator and I did not have one, so I had to work with one. Unstable, of course, given the place I was in how could I fashion a stable mediator. That is where the Dizi came in, it aided in focusing the resentful energy." Wei Ying inhaled, breathing, trying to calm himself.
"What is the mediator?" Lan Zhan asked, voice quiet, very soft, worried.
"Emotions." Lan Qiren nearly stood up in horror at such a word being said in answer to his nephew's question. "My emotions. Specifically. It is definitely not a stable mediator, but it was the best that I had at the time. Still is. The conductor is the flute, and the mediator my emotions. It took a while to truly master it. I do not even truly need the flute anymore." Wei Ying admitted with a slight shrug of his shoulders. "It just makes it easier to direct the resentful energy to where I want it to go."
"Your emotions?" Lan Qiren uttered in disbelief.
"Young Master Wei. Your emotions are a incredibly highly unstable mediator." Lan XiChen said, voice soothing and calm.
"I know." Wei Ying said simply. "But it was the best that I could do at the time. I was lucky that I managed to get to the Wen Sect in time to help you."
"But..." Lan Qiren was silenced by the look on Wanji's face, the glare in his eyes.
Lan Zhan, he turned to Wei Ying, and grabbed the boy's hands. He gently turned Wei Ying to face him, a softness in his eyes that was rare to see.
"Will help Wei Ying." He said simply. Wei Ying glanced up at Lan Wangji nervously.
"You don't hate me? For using a forbidden cultivation method?"
"Could never." Was all Lan Zhan said simply.
"Ah, Lan Zhan, you really are so precious." Wei Ying said softly. Chuckling softly, he turned to look at their entwined hands, feeling something...burst in his chest.
"Wei Ying will stay." Lan Zhan hummed, determined. Wei Ying's eyes flew open and back put to Lan Zhan's.
"But...Sect Leader...and...The..." Wei ying did not really know what to say.
"Already agree." Wangji stated, with a look towards Lan Qiren and Lan XiChen that if they did not agree he would simply take Wei Ying anyways and there was nothing that they could do to stop it.
And there, well there really was not. Wangji was the most powerful cultivator of his generation, and Lan Qiren alone had seen what love had done to a Lan when it was not embraced, not agreed to. He would not suffer the same fate on Wangji. He could not see another of his brother through his nephew. He had seen where he had gone wrong with his brother, and he refused, utterly refused, to make the same mistake with his nephew. He knew what love did to a Lan, and he knew that now that Wangji had found it, he would be unable to dissuade the other, no matter what he said.
So he just voiced his agreement, whilst Lan XiChen looked all for the world as though he had been granted a gift by the immortals. Wei Ying, he could not help it anymore and launched himself into Lan Zhan's arms, Lan Zhan simply reaching around to curl his own arms around the thin body.
Wei Ying was trembling with the weight of his emotions, and felt the soothing calm which he always felt with Lan Zhan around, and slowly, but surely, his eyes began to close, and welcome the depths of sleep while laying within Lan Zhan's arms.