Chapter Text
"Zewu-jun! "
"Brother! "
"Sect Leader Lan! "
Voices were scrambled inside his mind. He didn't know who were the people calling for him as they sounded like distant memories, voices he had heard once upon a time in a world far away from where he was now. Soon enough, these voices would fade away until all he could hear was silence.
The silence was deafening, to say the least. Despite the silence his clan was known for, Lan Xichen was never good with silence. He's always found peace in hearing a wind chime tinkling as it fluttered along with the wind on days where he found the silence to be too much for him. He strained his ears trying to listen for anything other than silence.
Even a small little peep would suffice for him.
"... er… "
There! A voice!
… But what are they saying?
"... er … ak… ea… "
Wangji? Why did the voice sound eerily similar to his brother's voice?
" Brother… wake up… please… "
Wake up? Was Lan Xichen asleep? Strange… He didn't feel like he was asleep. He felt like he was awake. But maybe he really was asleep if his brother was calling out to him like this. If so, then it was probably time for him to wake up now.
But how is he going to wake up?
Beep.
His ears perked at the faint, high-pitched tone he heard. Was it a bell? Lan Xichen has never heard of a bell with that sound before. It sounded nice.
Beep .
Ah, there it was again.
Lan Xichen felt like he was walking forward. He couldn't tell if his legs were actually moving though.
“Wangji, don’t worry. I’m coming.” he said under his breath, squinting when his vision was suddenly filled with a white light. But his legs didn’t seem to stop because of it. In fact, he felt like he was sprinting towards the light now.
Of course he was confused. Of course he didn’t know where he was going.
But hell would have to freeze over first before Lan Xichen would let his brother down again.
Where…
“...am… I?” Lan Xichen mumbled out as he slowly opened his eyes.
The ceiling above him didn’t look anything similar to the one in his room. His bed felt quite different from the one he had grown accustomed to. Even the clothes on his body felt foreign to him. How long had he been sleeping for his surroundings to suddenly change?
“Brother!” He suddenly heard someone calling out to him, a warm hand reaching out for his. “You’re awake… You’re finally awake…”
Lan Xichen turned his head to look at the speaker and couldn’t believe his eyes at what he saw. It was his brother, yet not quite. The hairstyle was different from the Lan Wangji he once knew and his clothes were not the standard Gusu Lan robes they’ve been mandated to wear since childhood.
“Here, have some water first.” Lan Wangji said, handing his brother a glass of water from the bedside table. “I’m sure you have so many questions.” he added as the older male drank the water. “I will answer them all for you, but the doctors must check up on you first. You’ve been asleep for so long that-”
“Wangji, how long have I been asleep?” Lan Xichen asked, rubbing his eyes.
“Years.” was the reply he was given. “Hundreds upon hundreds of years.” Lan Wangji looked down at his hands. “Uncle wanted to cultivate to immortality just so he can wait for the moment you might wake up. I did the same to accompany him over the years. I'm sure he'll be overjoyed to see you up and awake again."
"Mn." Lan Xichen nodded, smiling softly. "I can't wait to catch up on what happened while I was asleep too."
It would take him two more months until he could meet his uncle again. During that time, Lan Xichen had to undergo therapy so he would walk again after years and years of sleeping. His brother also filled him in on what had happened in the world while he was asleep.
The cultivation world had gone into hiding, acting along behind the scenes. Most of the people from their generation had died and been reborn so many times already, except for a select few who watched over their sects from a distance. Lan Xichen had also been delighted to know that Young Master Wei had formed a new golden core and managed to cultivate to immortality as well, determined to spend forever with his younger brother.
There had been sightings of so many of their old friends who had already passed over the years. Their uncle had been keeping track of them all despite not having anything to do with them anymore. Sometimes, they’d be born again into the cultivation sect they were once in and sometimes not. Lan Xichen thought that their uncle must’ve been quite bored during the time he was asleep.
After all, he didn’t have anyone else to turn to whenever his frustrations towards Lan Wangji’s husband reached an all-time high.
The world was now considerably more peaceful than before. If there was any better time for Lan Xichen to finally start over, it would be now. Things of the past… they were simply that now. His past misdeeds (if people even called it that) were now buried under a few hundred years of history.
For some reason, all of the grievances he had committed in the past didn’t seem to weigh down on him as much as it back then and starting over seemed to be a good idea.
He glanced at the bouquet of white flowers the physical therapist he was assigned to had given after he had completed all his sessions. They were flowers completely foreign to him and he wasn’t well-versed with the smartphone he had been given yet to search it up.
“Brother, are you ready to go?” Lan Wangji asked as he entered the room his brother had been living in during the duration of his physical therapy. “Wei Ying is waiting downstairs in the car.”
Lan Xichen had heard from his brother-in-law that a car was comparable to flying on a sword. He couldn’t wait to ride in one.
“Yeah.” he said, holding the bouquet in one hand and the suitcase containing some of his belongings in another. “I can’t wait to experience what riding in a car feels like. Young Master Wei said that it’s similar to flying on a sword but in lower altitudes, is that true?”
Unbeknownst to him, Lan Wangji lets a small, relieved smile appear on his lips then says, “Why don’t you see it for yourself, brother?”