Chapter Text
This morning was just another morning in the Cloud Recesses.
Wei Wuxian woke up at 9 a.m. in a fresh state, having been washed up by Lan Wangji, changed his clothes, and put to bed to sleep for a few more hours since 5 a.m. prior.
A set of breakfast was served on the low table near the bed. A steaming hot porridge sprinkled with bacon, steamed spinach marinated with chili oil and sesame seeds, complete with a plate of pork and chives dumpling, all made by the one and only, Hanguang-Jun, Lan Wangji, a gentleman jiaojiao, owned completely in heart, body and soul by the supreme overlord, Yiling Laozu, Wei Wuxian!
No matter how many times Wei Wuxian woke up looking at this situation and thinking about it, it never failed to warm his heart. If Wei Wuxian at his previous life, whether in childhood, teenager, or in his adulthood, was told that in the future someone would pamper him so much like this, Wei Wuxian would laugh out loud, rolling on the ground, thinking it was the best joke ever.
Especially, Wei Wuxian in his early adulthood. How could the notorious and despised Yiling Laozu had someone who could love him to this extent? And yet, the fact nowadays always said otherwise. It seemed like Wei Wuxian was not the only one who could do the impossible, Lan Wangji was also someone who could realize every thing Wei Wuxian deemed as impossible to ever get in his life before.
Speaking of it, his husband was probably teaching at Lanshi at this hour.
So, after finishing up his breakfast and put the empty utensils back at the outside of the Jingshi for the servant to take back, Wei Wuxian went to the direction of Lanshi. He'd enter the Lanshi and sat at the back, waiting for his husband to finish the lecture. After all, listening to the deep and sweet voice of his husband reciting the study material was never a bad choice to start his day.
Wei Wuxian entered the Lanshi, met Lan Wangji's gaze and offered him a wink before he settled on one of the back seats.
Currently, Lan Wangji was teaching the disciple about the custom of mortals. They lived shoulder to shoulder with mortal human, previously Gusulan disciple was excelled in cultivation theory, but just like what Wei Wuxian had pointed out before, they lack in knowledges of mortal human customs. So, Lan Wangji decided to put the study about mortal in the syllabus as well.
Right now, they were talking about mortal dynasty and their great contribution for the past thousands of years.
Speaking about mortal, there were many heroes among the mortal. Such as Yu The Great who introduced the method of flood prevention , Zhuge Liang, Zhou Yu, and Lu Bu, who were famous for their tactics and their mights in many battles, etc.
Those heroes were known by their invention, keen thoughts, and their chivalrous deeds.
Gusulan disciples could not help but feel fascinated learning about the heroic deeds of those famous heroes. If before what they knew about was the amazing thing done by their Gusulan ancestors, the famous thing done in the cultivation world, and of course the infamous Yiling Laozu who was so contradictory, at one side he was a hero in the recent cultivators great war of Sunshot Campaign, on the other side he was said to be a madman. Though after meeting and knowing their Wei qianbei, they knew that those stories about his madness was fake as hell.
But looking at those glorious deeds of mere mortals was still able to fascinate them. Because apparently mortal really knew and able to invent most of the thing they took for granted nowadays, apparently without those heroes, their life might not be as comfortable as today.
"What are immortals? What are mortals?" Lan Wangji walked calmly between the row of seats.
"From thousands of years ago we have lived side by side, complementing each other. The world of immortals was formed due to the emergence of evil creatures. Thousand of years ago, immortals were just the same as mortals. The only difference was our ancestors took different path to cultivate, to risk themselves, doing many trials and error, to seek power, threw themselves into danger to eliminate evils, and helped to create a peaceful world."
Lan Wangji swiped his gaze to the whole classroom, looking back to the serious-faced, and eager expression of the disciples.
"We, immortals, were formed in order to stand side by side with mortals, strive towards the same goals, create a peaceful world free of evil, neither of us is higher nor lower. Mortals can live in a peaceful world because we help eliminate their worries, and we could live comfortably everyday because mortals help us to provide our daily necessities."
He paused for a moment, "Without trial and errors, without any determination, without a brave heart to overcome danger, immortals would not even exist. It is the same with mortals. Without determination to create new things, to try new method, to seek more solutions, we might not be able to have a comfortable life nowadays."
After a short pause, Lan Wangji then directly locked his gaze towards Wei Wuxian while continuing his lecture, speaking up the words one by one as if those words was intended towards Wei Wuxian instead of a material towards the disciples,
"Heroes are people who had a firm belief, a determination, and a brave hearts. Those people we call as heroes nowadays, perhaps in their era were people who had been ridiculed and mocked for their strange and different thoughts. Be that as it may, because they have a firm belief, to reach their goal with determination, and a brave heart to face danger and unknown things, because they had all those qualifications and keep it till the end, only then they deserve to be called heroes."
Lan Wangji's eyes were soft, full of admiration and longing while he stared towards Wei Wuxian and finishing those words. It made Wei Wuxian's nose felt sore and the corner of his eyes warmed up.
How could he unable to catch Lan Wangji's meaning with those words. His husband had said this so many times "Wei Ying, you are good, you are fine, please do not think otherwise," at those sleepless nights when sometimes Wei Wuxian was haunted by the nightmare of the previous life.
For Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian was a hero, a man he admired in his bravery and determination, the man he loved not only because of looks or lust, but also because of deep respect Lan Wangji had towards Wei Wuxian...
The class today was over, Lan Wangji gave the disciples a homework to pick one of the mortal heroes character to be studied in depth.
Only when they understand the importance of mortals in their life, would the future of Gusulan cultivators respect the mortals and cast aside the arrogant thoughts of being superior.
After all, when you're too fixated in superiority and inferiority mindset, your heart would be poisoned and your mind would be too narrow to accept things or to be able to think out of the current customs.
After the last of the disciples went out from the Lanshi, Wei Wuxian stood up and quickly draped himself to Lan Wangji who was tidying up the scrolls and books.
"Lan Zhan! Er Gege! Lan Er Gege!"
"Mn," Lan Wangji's hand caught Wei Wuxian's waist and steadied him, "Have you eat your breakfast?"
"Of course! How could I let a breakfast made specially by Hanguang-Jun to waste away?" Wei Wuxian rubbed his face on Lan Wangji's shoulder.
"Lan Zhan, what do you think you're saying before, hm?" He said softly afterwards.
"Which one?" Lan Wangji calmly asked him back.
Wei Wuxian chuckled before he burried his face even more at the crooks of Lan Wangji's neck, "Lan Zhan...do you think I'm a hero? Do you think I deserve to be placed among those great heroes you mentioned previously?"
Lan Wangji's hand that was currently gathering his brushes paused. He put down the writing material at the table, and strectched his hands out to gather Wei Wuxian's body instead, putting him properly on his lap.
He brushed Wei Wuxian's cheeks with his knuckles, turning his head to look directly on his eyes, "You are." And answered him with a firm tone.
Wei Wuxian was taken aback by the firm tone Lan Wangji used towards him. He smiled in return and asked him again, "You don't think that I am merely someone who has a Heroic Disease?"
Lan Wangji's brow furrowed, and his forehead was wrinkled, "What kind of thing is Heroic Disease?" He asked unhappily.
Wei Wuxian sighed, "Jiang Cheng once told me back then when Lotus Pier was destroyed, that everything I did was done because I love to play becoming a hero,"1 Wei Wuxian smiled bitterly, "Back then when I just took Wen Ning and the others to Burial Mound, before I defected from YunmengJiang, Jiang Cheng visited me. I knew that the moment he visited me was never for a peace talk, but back then in his rages he said if I have a Savior Complex and would die if I didn't save someone or caused troubles2," Here, Wei Wuxian stopped speaking, his eyes was full of complicated thoughts.
"I have never regret of saving people or repaying gratitudes. It's just...even though I had a firm belief that what I did was right, sometimes I wonder, if it's truly the best thing to do?"
He gripped Lan Wangji's collar and rested his forehead on his chest, "Lan Zhan...Do you think I have a savior complex? Do you think the reason I died back then was because I finally had no one else to save and no one else for me to stand up for?"
Lan Wangji was silent. But his grip on Wei Wuxian's waist was tightened.
How he wanted to slap all the facts towards that person who ridiculed Wei Wuxian's righteous deeds as a mere disease. He hated it. He hated that person who planted the idea of Wei Wuxian's life-saving grace as a mere playing hero. He hated that person who negated every belief Wei Wuxian had in his heart as a mere causing problems. He hated that person who's unable to do a good thing and instead brainwashed Wei Wuxian's deeds as something wrong to justify his own shortcomings!
Do you think saving someone's life was a mere playing hero?
Then, killing someone's else, or letting someone died in front of you was something that was called as the right thing?
This kind of logic, Lan Wangji would never understand, not in this life, and not even in the next life!
This kind of person, Lan Wangji didn't want to waste his breath to speak with, and didn't want to waste his time for any encounter!
"Wei Ying. You and...him, have different dao.3" Lan Wangji spoke slowly, as if trying to make Wei Wuxian listened properly.
"Have different way of life,"
"Have different beliefs."
He hugged Wei Wuxian into his arms, "Whatever he said to you, whatever he told you before, do not ever take it to heart. It is not in line with your, with our beliefs."
Lan Wangji hugged him even tighter, as if he wanted to rub his beloved right to his body, wanted to absorb all of his grievances and sadness, so that what was left in him was only happiness.
"Did he not he say it himself before at Yunping, You know everything! You’re better than me at everything! Whether it be talent or cultivation or spirituality or personality, you guys knew everything while I was much lower—then what am I?!?!,4 "
Lan Wangji paused, and his tone became chillier,
"He knows it himself that what you are doing is out of your good heart. He knew it was the right thing. He knew that he was unable to do a good thing while you did it casually. He understands it, and yet he make you think otherwise."
Lan Wangji turned his head and looked straight at Wei Wuxian's eyes solemnly, "Such a person, his words do not deserve to be believed nor remembered."
Wei Wuxian stared at his husband's serious expression.
Wei Wuxian actually knew that what he did either in his previous life or in this new life was the right thing.
He knew and had a conviction for it. If not, he wouldn't be able to do it for so many years and even continued to do it after he died and coming back alive once again.
He actually never took Jiang Cheng's words to heart.
Even so, when a physical wound would leave a scar on the body, leaving a trace while the pain was gone, the wound caused by harsh and malicious words was different.
No matter how many times Wei Wuxian comforted his own self, thinking that Jiang Cheng was just like that, he just had a bad temper, Wei Wuxian was used to his malicious words, so on and so on.
Nevertheless, Wei Wuxian was a human in the end.
He's not a plant. And his heart was hurt by those words5.
The wound inflicted on the heart by the malicious words indeed had left no trace.
Regardless, the pain remained much longer than a physical wound...
He laughed lowly, "Er Gege, don't worry. Of course, I didn't take his words seriously." Wei Wuxian lifted his head, pecked Lan Wangji's lip, and gave him a smile.
"It's just...when you talk about heroes, It reminded me of those words...,"
Looking at Lan Wangji's brows that was going to wrinkle once more, Wei Wuxian quickly continued his words, "But don't worry! Didn't I tell you before that I will only remember what you say and do to me in this life? Even today's words, is the one I'll remember for life and accompany my beliefs!"6
Wei Wuxian cupped his husband's face, and tried to smooth out the wrinkle on Lan Wangji's forehead.
"...Good." Lan Wangji finally looked at him with satisfaction.
After a few tossing, hugging, and kissing, Wei Wuxian was finally freed from Lan Wangji's arms.
Lan Wangji straightened his disheveled robes, and fixed Wei Wuxian's messy hair.
Of course, Lan Wangji's own robes and appearance was still perfect as always, only needed a few pats here and there, and his appearance was back to his immaculate states, as if he didn't just molest a certain someone just now.
"Speaking of which Lan Zhan, I came here today to get you to quickly inspect the thing we retrieved yesterday."
"The crystal ball?"
"Yes. I'm curious about this ball. At a glance this thing exuded a spiritual aura, and yet when I inspected it deeper, it actually contain a trace of resentful energy insides. Yin and Yang. What's this thing actually? Hmmm..." Wei Wuxian caressed his chin, thinking out loud.
Lan Wangji nodded, "The truth is unknown. Need further inspection."
He ushered Wei Wuxian with his hand on his waist and went out from the Lanshi.
The crystal ball was the thing Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji found yesterday during a joint nighthunt with Shizui and Wen Ning, after they finished paying their respect in Qishan, burned incense for Wen Qing, Granny, Uncle fourth, and the other 50 something Wens.
Previously, Wen Ning and Lan Shizui went to Qishan to put their family's ashes, from their bloody corpses that was turned into ashes after they protected everyone's life at the Second siege of Burial Mound. Back then, after the bloodbath of Nightless City, after Wen Qing and Wen Ning offered their life to pay for the death of Jin Zixuan, Wei Wuxian had also built a cenotaph for both of them.
After all, Wen Qing was able to drag the little brother she loved so much, the little brother she had protected her whole life, dragged him to be killed, just to pay the sins they didn't commit. Just to pay for a tragedy that was done by other's malice towards them. How could Wei Wuxian not fall in griefs and wanted to remember them? 7
Wei Wuxian himself had no remnants of his parents to built an ancestral hall for his own parents. The only thing he could do was carving a tablet with Wei Changze and Cangse Sanren's name on it and built a small shrine in Yiling where the couple was supposed to met death before.
His mother was the disciple of Baoshan Sanren, and the mountain where the immortal embraced was unknown. While his father....he was originally said to be a servant of YunmengJiang. And yet, Wei Wuxian didn't even know the origin of his father's life. Where did his father originally came from? How did he became the servant? Did his father also an orphan who was taken in like him? Or did his father have remaining family out there? Neither of those facts was known to him.
Wei Wuxian was sad and felt guilty for not being able to worship his birth parents for almost 4 decades.
Lan Wangji had comforted him, saying that the most important thing was for Wei Wuxian to always remember his parents.
Lan Wangji had done this as well, even though his parent's bussiness was very rare to be spoken in his clan, but he always remembered his mother. Back then when he was young, when he was tempted by Wei Wuxian's words about Lotus Seeds with stems, he went in a journey, crossing many miles, facing dust and rain, just to pick Lotus Seeds with the stems attached. Later, he didn't forget to share the fruits of his journey to his mother, putting up a vase with the Lotus Seeds outside the Gentian house. He wanted to share the favorite things of the person he loved with his mother8.
Dead people could only able to live in this world by living in the memory of the person who was left behind.
Wei Wuxian had always remember and implemented what his mother said to him, "remember the things others do for you, not the things you do for others. Only when people don’t hold so much in their hearts would they finally feel free."9
Only by implementing his mother's words that Wei Wuxian was able to let go of his many grievances, bitterness, and looking at the life with positive thinking.
Previously, in his past life, neither in Lotus Pier, nor in Burial Mound, had Wei Wuxian ever built a tablet and worship his own parents. In Burial Mound, even having a daily meal was already hard, even having been able to continue to breath and living at the next day without being hunted down by the cultivation's world was already a blessing, of course a detailed thing like tablets and ancestral hall was never their priority. Only when Wen Qing and Wen Ning offered up their life was finally Wei Wuxian built a cenotaph for in Burial Mound.
While In Lotus Pier, Wei Wuxian didn't even get any stories about his parents from Uncle Jiang, the only one who was from the generations from his parents and knew them personally.
Uncle Jiang who was famous for treating Wei Wuxian as father and son to the entire cultivation's world10 that even Jin Zixuan from Lanling heard11, and yet never once did Uncle Jiang taught him to be filial towards Wei Wuxian's own parents. Not to the mother whom Uncle Jiang was so famous of loving her even until the person dead for years, and not even to his father whom Uncle Jiang always said "Changze is my brother".
Even a slight mention of Cangse Sanren was spoken with deep hatred and disgust from Madam Yu, and their names being mentioned would only start another fight between Uncle Jiang and Madam Yu. He was never told stories about his own parents, never given out past things or relics from his parents, how could he had a tablet for his parents for him to worship and burnt incense to?
And yet, Wei Wuxian was helpless.
He could not even defend his mother's dignity from being trampled by Madam Yu , who always spread malicious words implicating that Cangse Sanren was a bitch who sleep around with Jiang Fengmian but ran away and married Wei Changze, with the way Madam Yu always accused Wei Wuxian as Jiang Fengmian's bastard12.
He could not even defend his mother's virtue...
As a son, he could not even speak a word of defend when his dead mother was being ridiculed and her reputation was tainted.
Someone said, the dead is the greatest and you shall not speak ill of the dead.
And yet Madam Yu did exactly what was being forbidden.
In spite of that, Madam Yu was the mistress of Lotus Pier.
The mother of Jiang Yanli, his shijie who's kind to Wei Wuxian.
What could Wei Wuxian do back then?
Even back then when he first arrived at Lotus Pier, he didn't dare to complain about his shoes being unfitted. Even back then Jiang Cheng kicked him out to sleep outside in the hallway, even when Jiang Cheng threatened to call many dogs for him and made him went out for fear the dogs really came, being helpless and could only climbed the trees for protection just like what he always did in the streets. Even back then, he promised not to let Uncle Jiang knew Jiang Cheng's behaviour and instead claimed it as his own mischief, ended up him being branded as a naughty kid who went out at night playing and climbing trees13.
He was an outsider. A newcomer. Someone who was being taken in and raised in. The first thing he didn't want to do was causing a trouble for the hosts. Life of being adopted in a house that didn't welcome you is always full of trying so hard not to cause a dissatisfaction.
All so that he would not cause any turmoil in the new house he was brought into.
All because he was being adopted.
All because he was an outsider and was raised in another person's house.
In this life, Lan Wangji helped him to fulfill the loss of almost 40 years when he didn't offer a prayer towards his parents.
In the Cloud Recesses, no matter how Lan Qiren had a grudge towards Cangse Sanren who was once shaved his beard, in the end Lan Qiren was a cultured gentleman, he knew about respects and morality.
Besides, Cangse Sanren shaved his beards back then because she was mad at him who hug the thigh of the wall rules so much, enough that in one nighthunt he almost caused Wei Changze and Jiang Fengmian's life because of Lan Qiren's stubborn nature to uphold the rules first14. Later, in the three months of Wei Wuxian's study in Gusu, he did exactly the same of what his mother did, shaving his beard to retaliate against his prejudice towards Wei Wuxian!
Regardless, no matter how he was dissatisfied with Wei Wuxian's conduct, he never once disrespected or spoke ill of his mother.
It turned out Wei Wuxian finally had a home after almost 40 years he lived his life.
It turned out a home was a place where he didn't have to coax your sibling not to have a temper, a place where his family wouldn't be jealous of him when he achieved a great thing, a place where no one freely disrespected his birth parents, a place where if he was tired he could take a break and freely fall fully knowing that someone would caught him for sure...
Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian went to look at the crystall ball once again.
In fact, this gadget was really interesting. Just like how the Tapir Incense Burner didn't give any hint of spiritual or resentful energy and yet able to trigger a conscious dream, they also didn't know what's wrong with this crystal ball.
Neither Lan Wangji nor Wei Wuxian was a master of magical artifact. Wei Wuxian was indeed an inventor and mastering in array and talismans, he even created his own magical artifact himself, such as ChenQing and Stygian Tiger Seal. Even so, he's not a master who specialized and had learn many things about magical artifacts, so he could not inspect them as good as the one who intentionally mastered in it.
Lan Wangji tried to inspect it using a spiritual energy, nothing happened. Wei Wuxian also tried to inspect its insides using resentful enery, yet nothing happened. Finally, both of them poured spiritual and resentful energy at the same time to inspect the crystal ball....and still nothing happened.
Wei Wuxian wanted to try cutting off the ball in two, before Lan Wangji quickly stopped him.
"Try to search in the library first. Perhaps there is a record left about this thing," was what Lan Wangji said to stop Wei Wuxian from truly breaking the ball.
The crystal ball was beautiful, it invites a feeling of wanting to cherish this thing. Sadly, the one who saw this ball was a certain genius inventor who would not hesitate to break and re-assembling things if it could solve his curiosity and interest.
"Hanguang-Jun is right! How could I forget about your library that hold many interesting records!" Wei Wuxian grinned.
"Ours."
"Hm?"
"Our library."
"Alright, alright, Our library it is," Wei Wuxian laughed happily and hugged Lan Wangji's arm, dragging him towards the Library Pavillion.
However, before they took more than 3 steps, the crystal ball suddenly went bright, exuding a strong white light from within the ball, even illuminating the whole room it was in.
Lan Wangji quickly put Wei Wuxian in his arms and went outside of the room in an instant, while Wei Wuxian at the same time quickly threw a talisman to create a barrier enveloping the whole room, preventing any danger the ball might cause from leaking outside. Both of their action was done spontaneously in less than a span of one breath.
After waiting for quite some time at the outside while being wary and in guard of a sudden attack, finally they realized that neither they felt any spiritual nor resentful energy leaking out from the insides of the room.
Looking at each other, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji decided to check the room once more, while keeping the barrier intact.
It turned out asides from exuding a white light, the crystal ball didn't caused any abnormality, the lights that illuminated the whole room before was condensed into one straight line, pointing at one sides of the wall and created a white screen (ancient style of a projector, lmao~)
Suddenly the white screen of the wall dimmed a little before a scene came out.
It was a room, from the interior it was exactly like their classroom at the Cloud Recesses, the Lanshi, and yet at same time it was somewhat bigger and there were many strange things added in the room. There were no short tables around, but instead a tall table with strange seats.
A person, with a short black hair and a strange rectangular glasses-like thing plastered on his eyes, wearing a body-fitted clothes without any additional robes, accentuating his body and his slender legs, he stood tall in the front of the Lanshi-like room.
Across of him, many other people with similar dressing sat at the table and strange seats.
"G'Day everyone! Today, we meet again for talking about literatures and conducts in ancient history. Yesterday, we talked about how the history cleared the name of Yiling Laozu, into a name we know nowadays, an exalted hero, a pioneer in the cultivation's world thousands years ago." The man paused, and lifted the strange rectangular glasses-like thing to perch more comfortably on his nose.
"Today, let's talk about the emergence of the tendency of smearing Yiling Laozu's deeds into a mere act of heroic illness. For this, you have to bear one hour time to be with this gentleman, Lan Xie," The man smiled towards the students in front of him, and was responded by a series of excited shouts, "Yes, Laoooshiii~"
Watching the sudden bout of scenes from the white screen, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji could only stood in speechless. There's so many things they had in their mind at the same time.
"Lan Zhan...this, this, is this what I think it is?"
Lan Wangji nodded solemnly, "Mn,"
"Lan Zhan, you do think so! That man is surnamed Lan! It turned out that Gusulan descendant is more shameless than me, dare to dress like that!"
Lan Zhan, "....."
What to do...the "Mn" he said was actually a response thinking that Wei Ying was implying this crystal ball turned out to be an artifact able to show a future scenes....not about the person's clothes.
Whatever, as long as Wei Ying is happy~