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His body was in unbearable pain from the punishment.
His brother begged him to stop, to not go but, how could he stay put and do nothing?.
Lan WangJi knew that Wei Ying didn't mind, that he longed for it even, stupidly believing that it will make things better and people happier.
But he hated it.
He felt the shadow of the crystal approach, mocking him and his feelings.
He won't allow it.
He won't let the sects kill the love of his life.
He will bring him back this time and he will help may it be the last thing he does, he won't fail.
''Then why did you write that?'' a voice from the depths of his mind asked him, sounding awfully like what he believes the crystal would sound like, had it had a voice.
Lan Wangji decided to ignore his treacherous mind, only bad thoughts would come out of answering that and he didn't have the luxury to deal with that at the moment.
While struggling with his thoughts his eyes started to feel heavy and, with a loud thud, his body fell and his consciousness faded.
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"Brother, why?"
"You see, A-Zhan, the crystal does it out of kindness"
Lan Xichen stopped to focus on a particularly stubborn knot in his brother's hair and then continued with a kind voice.
"We're safe here in the recesse so you may think it's not worth it for the rare times it happens but... the world is cruel"
Absentmindedly Xicheng hugged his brother as if to try and protect him from the horrors he was thinking of.
"people... they wouldn't be able to function normally if not for the crystal, that's why we should be thankful for it's existence"
He didn't get it.
He only thought of it as disrespectful.
Humans were not so weak that they wouldn't be able to go on.
And what about the people that...
Isn't it just like saying to their face that they didn't matter?
He buried those thoughts, his brother was wiser and older than him so he figured that he will eventually understand as well
"hm, I see"
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When Lan Wangji woke up he didn't have the slightest idea of how and why he was on the floor with open wounds.
The only hint was a torn piece of a scroll with his handwriting on it.
"Go to burial mounds, save everything you can, it's important"
When he got there he found a child, he was sick and he needed to immediately bring him to a medic.
He knew this boy.
"A-Yuan, it's me, hold on tight"
When did he meet him, how did he know this boy?
And why did he feel like something was missing?
Oh, well, he had more urgent things to occupy his mind with and it probably wasn't important to begin with.