Chapter Text
“Jingyi you’re stepping on my arm!”
“Tell Jin Ling to stop sitting on me and then we'll talk!”
“I fell, you idiot!”
“We all fell, that’s not an excuse!”
Lan Sizhui barely listens to his friends complaining and bickering in their usual way as he tries to push his body off the ground and see the extent of the damage done to them and their surroundings, feeling his stomach drop.
“Senior Wei is going to kill us,” Ouyang Zizhen cries as he does his best to untangle himself from the other two. “He will hate me and will never want to see me again!”
“Oh shut up, Hanguang-Jun is who we should be worried about,” Lan Jingyi says next, pushing Jin Ling away from his chest and sending the leader to the ground again. “This is all your fault, Zizhen!”
“My fault? You all said it was fine!”
“I didn’t even say anything!”
“Guys,” Sizhui says as calmly as he can and after deciding to help the other three to stand up, “this isn’t the time to play the guilt game, we need to go back and see what happened.”
“Go back?” Jingyi asks after dusting his clothes and looking up with alarmed eyes. “Wait, where are we?”
“I don’t really know,” Sizhui says, focusing on his breathing to not let the panic climb up his throat too fast. “But I don’t think we’re in Gusu anymore.”
“Clearly we’re not in the Cloud Recesses,” Jin Ling points out as he walks a bit further to examine the alley they seem to be in. “So that thing was a transportation array?”
Sizhui wishes he could answer, do something that soothes the anxiousness on the face of his friends as he had done in the past, but he can’t and realising this makes him feel dizzy.
“If we’re not in the Cloud Recesses, then it is obvious it was a transportation array,” Jingyi says as he walks past Jin Ling to leave the alley, but stopping before doing it and turning around. “Wait, how is your spiritual energy?”
At his question, the three are quick to focus on measuring it. A transportation talisman takes a lot of spiritual energy and throwing themselves to an unknown location after using an untested array is bound to drain it even further, but when they check it… it is fine.
“I am completely normal,” Sizhui whispers as he opens his eyes to look at the other three. “I just feel slightly dizzy…”
“Me too,” ZIzhen says next, his levels of anxiousness being equally high. “Maybe… maybe it is an experiment to help people who don’t have much spiritual energy.”
It makes sense and sounds a lot like something Wei Wuxian would do, but then again, they don’t know. What started as a normal day with Jin Ling and Ouyang Zizhen visiting the Cloud Recesses turned into this mess when they decided to mess with one of the experiments Wei Wuxian had left in his place. Guilt is eating away Sizhui’s mind and surely the others’, too, but they don’t need that, they need to solve this and go back to make sure they didn’t mess with anything else.
“Let’s just go back and apologise,” Jingyi snaps anxiously. “With our energy intact, we can go back in no time.”
It’s the obvious thing to do, so they soon start walking as close as they can to each other because even if they won’t admit it, appearing in the middle of heavens knows where it is unnerving and not so common.
“I am the one and only disciple of the Yiling Patriarch!”
No one knew what they were going to find at the end of the alley, but Sizhui is sure that finding a man dressed in cheap black clothes, badly done bun held by a pale red ribbon in an attempt to resemble Wei Wuxian is definitely not what they expected.
“What is he saying?” Jin Ling hisses, eyes glaring at the man who waves around what looks like a bunch of talismans. “Who calls him like that?!”
That’s another point. The number of people who still called the man like that could be counted with their fingers and Wei Wuxian himself never referred to himself like that, furthermore, the man had no disciples because, well, the Gusu disciples were technically his’ too and they are sure this man is not one of them.
“Crazy people,” Jingyi sneers, deciding to ignore the man as someone obsessed with Wei Wuxian rather than something else. “Let’s just go back.”
“But where are we?” Zizhen asks as he looks away from a bunch of people who had been looking their way. “We need to know where to go.”
“Excuse me, sir,” Knowing the rest were going to make up excuses to avoid it, Sizhui walks to a man and asks, “Could you please tell me the name of this place?”
The man gives him an incredulous look as if this is the stupidest question he had received as he eyes his clothes critically, muttering something along the lines of stupid cultivators from big sects before finally replying, “Yiling.”
“Oh for the love of—”
Sizhui ignores Jingyi’s reaction because his stomach makes a flip. It’s not been that long since he and Wen Ning built the cenotaph for Wen Qing and the rest of his family and that history relates immediately to Yiling. The memories are still fuzzy, but there are things he can remember from this place and he feels weird.
“So it will take us a couple of days to go back to Gusu,” Jin Ling sounds more annoyed than worried and that’s probably better. “The elders will complain for an hour, I was supposed to plan the conference.”
The man, who had looked away from Sizhui’s conflictive expression, says, “Yet another pompous conference, that’s all Jin Guangshan cares for.”
His words freeze the four of them but he doesn’t seem to particularly care about it as he just shrugs and walks away, the sword on his sash now noticeable for everyone.
“W-What,” Jin Ling whispers, his eyes fixing on Sizhui’s who look equally lost. “What did he say?”
“He said—” Zizhen starts but stops, frown deepening as he seems to reconsider what he’s about to say. “Jin Guangshan is your grandfather, isn’t he?”
“My late grandfather,” Jin Ling replies, an almost unnoticeable tremor running down his body. “Why would that man mention him if he has been dead for years?”
Jin Ling is not particularly fond of the man, Jin Guangshan died when he was still too young to remember clearly and learning about his unfaithful tendencies, mistreatment of Jin Guangyao and overall thirst for power didn’t do any justice, but still, he was a family member and never really brought himself to fully hate him.
“He was surely messing around,” Jingyi offers, though, it’s evident he isn’t being his confident self. “Rogue cultivators lose touch with the clans, he surely didn’t even bother to see who the new leader is.”
“Many things have happened and you know it.”
They all know it, in fact, and maybe that’s what scares everyone more. First, they have that unknown man claiming to be Wei Wuxian’s disciple while calling him Yiling Patriarch and as he waves around a bunch of modified talismans and then a random rogue cultivator speaks about Jin Guangshan as if he was still alive and in charge of a clan who Jin Ling has fought to change to make it better.
To top it all, they are in Yiling.
“This is too weird,” Zizhen says after a moment of uncomfortable silence. “Maybe… maybe it altered the world instead of us?”
“What do you mean with that?” Jin Ling’s behaviour became less volatile when he was forced to become a leader, but when he’s under stress he gets irritable and the situation has clearly put him in that state. “How could he affect the world? It’s impossible! Let’s just go back to the Cloud Recesses and put an end to this!”
Even if he’s not letting his emotions crush him as much as they are crushing Jin Ling, Sizhui agrees. The uncomfortableness inside of him is growing and he just wants to go back home and see his two fathers to reassure himself everything is still okay and as it is supposed to be.
“Let’s go,”he says softly, reaching to hold Jin Ling’s arm and tug the boy to follow them, afraid he would stay standing there if he didn’t. “Let’s go back.”
They decide to leave the town full of merchants and people and take off in the outsides of it because people are staring too much at them. The place isn’t known for being a place where cultivators reunite and them dressing in different clothes that put at least three of them in big clans could bring problems, more problems; but life seemed to be keen on making things harder because as soon as they got ready to leave, a conversation between to farmers caught their attention.
“Have you heard? Some minor clans are getting ready to enter the Burial Mounds.”
“Why would they do that? It’s a death sentence with that demonic cultivator ruling over it.”
“You know cultivators and their stupid thoughts,” the other replies with a shrug. “If they die, they will only make him stronger.”
“As long as they let us live, I’m tired of all that nonsense.”
No one lived at the Burial Mounds, the last time people have been there was when they and other juniors were captured and trapped inside so those fierce corpses feasted on them and Wei Wuxian could be blamed for it. After Jin Guangyao’s fall, the place was left alone and everyone knew better than getting close.
The only time people lived inside was when the Wen remnants moved there and the only person to rule over it had been Wei Wuxian.
The Wei Wuxian from the past.
The Yiling Patriarch.
An involuntary shiver runs down their spines and without really noticing it, they press themselves to be closer to one another. After hearing all of that and adding it to the previous conflicts, it’s not hard to deduce what is going on here and the realisation is bone-chilling.
It wasn’t a transportation array, they didn’t move from one place to another, they travelled back in time.
“What are we going to do now?” Zizhen sounds truly frightened and no one can’t really blame him. “We don’t know how to go back!”
“Maybe we could ask Senior Wei for help…” Sizhui suggests.
“Are you out of your mind?” Jingyi shrieks. “This is not Senior Wei, this is the Yiling Patriarch.”
And yes, they have discovered history wasn’t exactly as it was painted, they lied in many aspects and Sizhui in specific can tell how cruel they were towards his innocent family, but they can’t be sure about Wei Wuxian’s behaviour during this time.
They were taught the Yiling Patriarch was a bloodthirsty monster who was on his way of building an army of corpses to take over the cultivation world and while they are sure the man who married Lan Wangji is definitely not that monster and is instead a bubbly person who loves his family with all his heart and would do anything for them, they can’t speak for the one in this time. Wei Wuxian himself had admitted he committed many mistakes in his past life and preferred to not talk about what happened around this time, so what if he really is this crazed man who wanted to kill people?
“I’m sure he’s not,” he debates and maybe he’s the least who should be talking about it since he’s one of his fathers, but Wei Wuxian took part in his raising and he doesn’t remember him being a monster.
“His army of the dead, his ghost general,” Jingyi continues, “Sizhui—”
“I know my family weren’t monsters or people looking for revenge,” he says with a bit more determination. “And we know Wen Ning, we still go night-hunting with him.”
He can tell that makes sense for them. Wen Ning couldn’t change in all this time and not even when Xue Yang had pushed those nails inside his head to control him he has moved to kill people.
“I’m sorry, Sizhui,” Jingyi whispers, embarrassment taking over his features. “I didn’t mean to insult you.”
Sizhui can only shake his head and look away, knowing he’s too emotional to properly offer a feasible solution.
“So what?” Jin Ling speaks for the first time in a long time of silence on his part. “We just go and ask him to send us back to our time and that’s it?”
“Wouldn’t that be dangerous?” Zizhen asks, unsure.
“Zizhen, everything is dangerous already,” Jingyi snorts after making sure Sizhui really is okay. “We have broken at least half of our rules already and I’m sure Hanguang-Jun will be the one telling us to copy the rules while doing handstands for a day and apologising to Senior Wei, all at the same time and as soon as we are back.”
“If we go back,” Jin Ling adds, a distant look in his eyes that takes away every chance to joke about it.
“Yes,” Jingyi once more deflates, crossing his arms. “If we go back.”
The atmosphere once more drops and leaves them feeling lost and confused. They never wanted for any of this to happen, they were just curious about what the man was working on and assumed nothing wrong could go with it. Wei Wuxian, of course, has told them not to mess with his things as he didn’t want them to get hurt, but they are sure they never imagined this could happen.
“Who else could help us?” Zizhen asks after even more dreadful seconds had ticked by. “Maybe Hanguang-Jun or Zewu-Jun?”
“They hate demonic cultivation,” Jin Ling says with a frown. “If we appear and say we were sent to the past by a failed experiment, you know what will happen.”
They will come here and attack Wei Wuxian and while they can’t be sure the man is the same they know, they don’t want to be the reason for an even earlier demise.
“And they will ask who we are,” Sizhui says with an unnatural frown on his face. “Our robes are real and they can think we are criminals because they don’t know us.”
At least Jingyi and Sizhui already exist in this world, but they’re only two or three years old so there’s no way they can use that as an excuse.
“Seems we can only go with him…” Zizhen says, sounding once more defeated despite the admiration he feels for Wei Wuxian but shaking his head after a moment. “It will be alright.”
Although feeble, they try to find strength in that thought and end up nodding, taking mere seconds before starting to walk back into the town and towards the Burial Mounds.
The four of them have bad memories of the Burial Mounds.
Being captured is an already unpleasant experience, but being bound and left to be killed by fierce corpses added to the bad experience. Jin Ling often remembers the sense of helplessness that took over him as they waited for their demise and, later on, the despair that filled him as the stupid Jin Chan tried to chastise him for not killing Wei Wuxian.
It wouldn’t surprise anyone to say he regretted stabbing him shortly after doing it. His hands moved out of instinct when his brain put things together and said this man was the reason he was an orphan, but shortly after doing it, he felt the weight of his actions pressing down against him. Wei Wuxian had saved him from certain death when he got trapped in those thombs and had defended him from that stupid bully, not even mentioning the man seemed to be nothing like the monster everyone always said he was.
The conflictive emotions he had back then are the same ones taking over him right now and he doesn’t like it.
“We should probably not mention who we are,” Jingyi says as he looks around the dark forest. “It’s kind of hard to believe and he will think we’re spies or something.”
“I agree with that,” Zizhen nods, almost tripping with one of the rocks. “Let’s be careful.”
Jin Ling has no idea how they should be careful in a situation like this one, but he decides to keep it to himself and instead wonder what in the world will they find. While he trusts Sizhui and believes his family are not vengeful people, the words told by his teachers and books are still in his mind, telling him to be careful, to be ready to face an army.
Reality once more slaps him in the face.
The dark spirits screeching around and forest filled with dead trees clear to reveal a grey-looking plain where small houses are built precariously with dark wood and what looks like blankets posing as curtains. In the middle of the plain there’s a fireplace and at the back of it he can see the palace they were trapped in. Jin Ling takes a moment to stare at everything in confusion before noticing the people who had frozen in their place and are now staring at them.
“Who are you?” a voice demands and when he looks for it, he sees the only young-looking woman walking towards them with hard eyes that adds to her unfriendly tone. “What do you want here?”
“We mean no harm!” Jingyi hurries to say after he looks at Sizhui and the boy looks too stunned to talk. “We just— We came for… guidance.”
The woman raises a brow and Jin Ling doesn’t know why but it reminds him of someone. It’s clear she’s not buying what Jingyi just said, so he decides to step in and talk, “We want to see Wei Wuxian.”
His intervention causes an immediate reaction, but not one he could have expected; most of the people in there flinch when his golden robes seem to catch the few sunrays that slip inside that place. The white peony seems to be a demon for these people and even when he’s not like that, he can’t keep himself from moving behind Zizhen to hide like a wounded puppy.
“What do you want with him?” the woman demands again, raising a protective arm to shield the people around her.
Jingyi and Zizhen look for help from Sizhui and Jin Ling, but the first is just staring ahead at the people in there with wide eyes and Jin Ling no longer feels confident enough to show himself again.
“It’s kind of… personal,” Jingyi tries, tugging Sizhui closer to him when some seem to shift his attention to him. “Again, we really mean no harm it’s just— important.”
“What are your names?” the woman asks with her same distrustful tone.
“I’m Ouyang Zizhen,” the boy says, hoping to soothe the worries of the others by being cooperative.
“I am Lan Jingyi,” Jingyi says next and his surname brings out quiet whispers the other seems to ignore as he bows politely.
The woman’s eyes fall on him and Jin Ling feels like the smallest insect who just wants to crawl back into a hole in the ground to never be seen again. He’s ashamed of many things his clan has done and seeing these people's reactions of pure fear by only his clothes seemed to hit a sensitive nerve he didn’t even know he had. “I am… Jin Ling.”
The Lan brought quiet whispers, the Jin brings gasps and rushed whispers with an urgent sense of alarm that feels like being punched.
The woman, however, doesn’t say anything and her eyes move to Sizhui who is still not moving, expecting him to introduce himself as the others did, though, there’s a small frown on her face as he looks at him. “Who are you?”
“I,” Sizhui sounds breathless as if talking is the most extenuating task. “I am Lan Sizhui…”
And with that, he seems to pass out.
“Sizhui!” Jingyi’s scream is an alarmed one and the way he holds his friend with all his might so he doesn’t fall finally forces Jin Ling to stop hiding behind Zizhen.
Ignoring the best he can the new flinch that comes when his robes once more come into view, he moves to help Jingyi hold Sizhui, noting his friend is truly unresponsive. “Sizhui, wake up!” he pretty much demands, suddenly terrified to be left without him in something that has to do so much with both. “Wake up!”
“Bring him here,” the hostile tone the woman had used until then seems to be replaced by a very professional one and both Jingyi and Jin Ling seem to forget about the whole problem as they carry Sizhui closer to the woman, resting his head on what looks like folded blanket one of the elderly women brought closer. “Move.”
Jin Ling moves to stand at Zizhen’s side while Jingyi takes a bit more as he crouches down to remove Sizhui’s forehead ribbon with a napkin he carried with him, holding it close to his chest as one of the most valuable treasures he has.
It becomes obvious for them this woman possesses medical knowledge and perfectly knows what she is doing. With precise and controlled movements she checks on Sizhui and what could possibly be wrong with him, their anxious eyes staring at her not bothering her at all as she focuses on her now patient.
“W-What happened to him?” Zizhen finally asks with trembling voice, eyes staring at his friend. “Is he going to be okay?”
“He’s fine, he just fainted,” she replies once she seems to be done with her examination. “You surely came here without resting.”
Zizhen seems ready to say something, but Jin Ling holds him back and discretely shakes his head. They need Sizhui to be awake for this and until they find the real reason why he fainted, they shouldn’t do anything.
“If you want to talk to Wei Wuxian, you can wait here,” she finally says as she stands up and seems to study each one of them. “Let me know when he wakes up.”
She walks away to talk with the rest of the people there and Jin Ling does his best to not stare, but can’t keep himself from noticing the doubtful looks they send his way and the overall distrust their arrival had caused.
It’s uncomfortable and even when Jin Ling doesn’t want to admit it, it’s painful. None of these elders seem to want to get revenge, none of these elders are powerful cultivators and he hasn’t seen a single fierce corpse waiting or hanging around before the attack. It is evident there are even more lies waiting for him to uncover and he’s honestly scared to do so.
Why would they be scared of him just because of his robes?
Sizhui wakes up after a couple of hours where the three of them awkwardly stayed in their same spot, eyes fixed on the floor or their own hands in an attempt to block what is surrounding them, not wanting to stress even further the people who already had a routine before they arrived.
“Sizhui,” Zizhen whispers, sounding relieved as he helps the boy sit up. “You scared us to death!”
“I… am sorry,” he says, sounding confused as he rubs his head. “I just… I’m sorry.”
Sizhui doesn’t feel strong enough to explain what happened. The thought of seeing his family had taken over his mind as they got closer, but he never thought it would send his whole brain into overload so it collapsed and it’s even more embarrassing considering it had been he who supported the idea of coming here to look for help.
“You should be more conscious of the energy you spend while traveling,” a voice says and Sizhui feels his whole body tensing as he looks up to see who he knows is Wen Qing. “Next time you may faint while flying and nothing will save you from it.”
“You’re right… thank you,” he says as he looks away from her, feeling that sense of nausea that made him faint in the first place washing over him once more. “Sorry for causing problems.”
The woman just shakes her head and walks away once more after assuring he is indeed fine. Sizhui follows her with his eyes until Jingyi crouches down in front of him with something in his hands.
“Here, I removed it to avoid someone touching it by accident,” he says, extending the napkin where Sizhui can now see his forehead ribbon. “You scared us, but I’m glad you’re fine.”
“It’s just… harder than I thought,” he mutters as he reaches for the ribbon and makes sure to tie it back on its rightful place, thanking Jingyi with a small smile. “Did they say something about us leaving?”
“We can wait for Wei Wuxian here,” Jin Ling replies this time and it doesn’t go unnoticed by Sizhui there is something troubling him. “Guess he’s not around.”
Sizhui realises with a sense of dread that he is not the only one missing. While he can’t remember every single one of the family members that lived with him, he can tell Wen Ning and… him are also missing. “I’m not sure I can face myself.”
“You have to try!” Zizhen whispers, the urgency on his tone sending a shiver down Sizhui’s spine. “We can’t make him hate us, we need his help.”
“I know…”
So they sit there in silence, an uncomfortable one, waiting, wondering how their encounter with this man will go during this time, thinking if they will ever go back to their place or the punishment for their unrestrained curiosity will be getting to witness how horrible things were during this time.
Sizhui specifically thinks about his young self and how his relationship was with Wei Wuxian. There are nights where he dreams about radishes and the man dressed in black promising he will grow taller and stronger, he dreams with a black dizi he swings around and chews on it to his heart content, dreams with a caring smile blooming in a face with wrinkles as gentle eyes stare at him… dreams about being told to stay hidden and don’t move no matter what he sees or hear. He always wanted to know about the missing parts of his life but respected Wei Wuxian’s wishes of not talking about this period of time. He had a good life with people who loved him, so the past was in the past, he didn’t need to know it.
How is he supposed to face it now?
“I have good and bad news,” a cheerful voice says and the eyes of everyone moves to the opening, where they find three silhouettes becoming clearer. “Which one would you like to hear first?”
They’re used to the Wei Wuxian who is way shorter than Lan Wangji, to the one with a slim and somehow weak complexion product of years of malnourishment the unfortunate Mo Xuanyu had to go through before offering his body for someone else, they are so used to this that seeing the person who comes into view leaves them speechless for several seconds.
This Wei Wuxian doesn’t look like the demon they were told he looked like but is definitely not the Wei Wuxian they know, either.
He’s taller, yes, with broader shoulders and a complexion that surely oozes with power and strength when it is in it’s most pristine condition but that now looks completely emaciated. He is thin, so thin it is jarring, with sunken eyes and dark circles that give him the appearance of being sick, his hands are bony and those old and worn robes he’s wearing seem to emphasise it. SIzhui has the fleeting thought that a harsh breeze is more than enough to send him to the ground and it is enough to make him sick, how could this man be the demon they were taught he was?
“Okay,” Wei Wuxian mutters next and when his eyes are drawn to them after they hurried to stand up and dust the dirt from their clothes. “Wen Qing, what is going on here?”
“They wanted to talk to you,” she replies after coming out of heaven’s know where. “One of them fainted, so I told them to wait for you here.”
Wei Wuxian’s demeanour changes from his relaxed self to a cautious one, arms crossing over his chest and head tilting a bit up in a way that makes him look a bit more threatening, his bony fingers tightening the hold they had on his dizi. “How can I help such young masters?”
Jin Ling lets out a quiet snort and SIzhui barely holds back the need to elbow him. “We mean no harm, we just—”
But whatever he was going to say is cut out when something clings to his left leg and even though he perfectly knows what he’s going to find, his reaction is still visceral. Seeing himself, his younger self, clinging to his own leg makes him gasp quietly and move a bit back, prompting Jingyi and Zizhen to hold his arms so he doesn’t collapse again.
“You look like rich brother!” the child, himself, exclaims as his round eyes stare at him and Jingyi. “You two!”
“A-Yuan!” Wei Wuxian cries, posture forgotten as he runs to pick the child from Sizhui’s leg. “I have told you not to hug strangers!”
Sizhui knows he never learnt, even in the Cloud Recesses he got to hug Lan Xichen and even Lan Qiren like that before Lan Wangji carefully and patiently explained why he shouldn’t do it.
“We are just curious about your experiments,” Zizhen continues when he seems to understand who this child is and why Sizhui can’t talk again. “We would like to learn from you.”
“Learn from me?” Wei Wuxian lets out an airy laugh as he walks back to where Wen Ning has been left standing. “Young disciples from big clans want to learn from me? Yeah, I don’t take disciples.”
“We are not part of our clans,” Jingyi hurries to say. “Not anymore.”
“So you deserted,” Wei Wuxian sounds mildly surprised as he raises a brow. “You’re telling me a Jin just walked out of his clan and decided to come here?”
“What if I am a Jin?” Jin Ling says, defensive tone as he takes a step forward. “You think we’re all the same?”
“You haven’t given me reasons to think otherwise,” he replies flatly, unimpressed by Jin Ling’s outburst. “A couple of days ago I received a letter telling me to hand over the Wen so they could be punished.”
Jin Ling’s hands ball up into tight fists and Sizhui would reach out in an attempt to calm him down if he wasn’t feeling so close to fainting once more. Still, he prays for the other to stay calm and think before saying something that could ruin their chances.
“Well— I walked out from them because of that,” he finally says, eyes glaring at the man. “If I could, I would change many things.”
It was the kind of response no one seemed to have expected and Sizhui’s heart gets squeezed when expressions of disbelief appear and Jin Ling seems to feel them as direct attacks.
“We really don’t want to cause more problems,” Sizhui manages to whisper. “We just… we don’t have anywhere else to go and really need to learn from you.”
Wei Wuxian looks confused, troubled and almost devastated, but Sizhui tries to find comfort in the fact that they are not lying. Going to their sects will bring more problems than solutions, so it’s true they have nowhere to go; they don’t belong to this time and only Wei Wuxian can shine a bit of light.
“Aiyah, what are they teaching to the youngster nowadays?” he says after shaking his head harshly to get rid of his own thoughts. “Leaving your clans so hastily and coming all the way here, you will regret what you are doing and I won’t hesitate in kicking you back.”
“Does that mean—”
“I’m not teaching anything, I’m not a teacher, but I guess you can stay here for the time being,” he says with a sigh, placing the little kid on Wen Ning’s arms. “Keep in mind that I will push you out as soon as I have your clans demanding to take you back.”
“We can be sure they won’t be coming,” Zizhen says as a small tremor of excitement seems to run down his spine. “Thank you for letting us stay.”
“Whatever,” the other says with a roll of his eyes. “You’re not staying for free, either, help in what you can and try not to drag much attention if you go out.”
“We promise we won’t.”
Sizhui still has mixed feelings and still needs the hold of the others to not collapse to the floor, but there's an odd bubble of excitement going up his chest. It is possible he’s experiencing it because they now have the chance of finding a way out instead of just feeling hopeless.
“And you’re not at an inn, I better hear no complaints about the lack of fancy beds, you hear?” Wei Wuxian says next, walking towards the palace. “Introduce yourself to everyone, promise you’re not here to cause problems and… yeah, that’s all.”
It becomes obvious the man is overwhelmed by what is happening and getting somehow uncomfortable, so they decide to not say anything and let him retire to his place, after all, they have way more things to worry about right now.
“So,” Jingyi says once he’s sure Sizhui won’t fall, “should we just introduce ourselves like that?”
“Yes? Why would that be an issue?” Jin Ling’s defensiveness is due to his stress and adding more things is making it worse. “We have more things to worry about.”
“Then go introduce yourself first.”
“Let’s not fight, that’s the least we need,” Zizhen says with a tired sigh. “Even if he won’t directly learn from him, we can find something that lets us travel back.”
Jingyi and Jin Ling nod lightly and take a moment to push the conflicting thoughts away and focus on what is going on. Sizhui and Zizhen also decide to take a moment to breathe and get ready, Sizhui really doesn’t want to faint in front of them.
The whole introduction is as hard as they all expected it to be. Their awkwardness gives the Wen remnants more reasons to be weary about these young cultivators from big clans and even though they never do anything that could be considered rude or hurtful, they don’t reveal anything more than their name and are quick to excuse themselves to get away.
It was expected, of course, but Sizhui also gets to understand why Jin Ling is looking so distressed as a couple of elders can’t even look at him as the boy introduces himself and respectfully bows, it is as if his golden robes can physically hurt them and it is painful to watch.
“More lies, can’t say I’m surprised.”
Once they are properly introduced and night falls, Wei Wuxian offers them food they refuse after seeing just how small the plates for everyone else already are by saying they had food before coming to the Burial Mounds. When being there proves to be especially hard, they decided to walk out of the palace and find a place large enough so the four of them can bundle up and sleep on. They find it by the entrance, away from the other houses, they sit down close to one another and decide to ignore their surroundings the best they can.
“I mean, we haven’t seen if they really don’t have fierce corpses around,” Jingyi says, though, the way he scrunches his nose seems to say not even he agreed with it.
“I’m sure they have a hidden cellar full of fierce corpses,” Jin Ling snorts, tightening the hold he has on his Suihua. “They’re terrified of my robes, my robes, that’s not how someone having power would behave.”
“And… there are no cultivators,” Zizhen whispers next, letting his back hit the floor as he lies down. “Even the Ghost General doesn’t look menacing.”
“Again, should we be surprised?” Jin Ling sounds annoyed and the way his eyes are not looking at anyone is another indicator. “The whole freaking world collapsed after my uncle— after Jin Guangyao died, after we saw that mischievous, annoying and overly-energetic man was the terrifying Yiling Patriarch who was supposed to spit fire and have a dozen corpses tearing people apart with a single whistle.”
“But it doesn't feel… right,” Zizhen frowns, turning to lie on his side and look at Jin Ling. “One thing is saying bad things about one person who did some questionable things and another is making out so many lies.”
“Bet they never thought someone was going to see the truth.”
Sizhui knows about the painful weight the past deeds of the clan he had to take the leadership of placed on Jin Ling’s shoulders and the hard work he had put into making things better. Jin Guangyao was like the last nail the coffin his clan had fallen into needed to be sealed, but Jin Ling managed to keep that from happening and to witness him being so heartbroken because everything his ancestors did is catching up with him once more is unfair. Sizhui wishes he could comfort him, but it isn’t that simple anymore.
They have been less than a day here and can already see the whole issue of the Wen remnants being a bunch of cultivators wanting revenge and Wei Wuxian having an army of corpses ready to attack is yet another lie. Jingyi is seeing they were only old and tired people who just want to live while Sizhui is meeting the family that was taken away from him so mercilessly and to think their own sect, the one who takes pride in being rightful and who advocates for the right causes, ignored all of this and didn’t help is horrible.
“My father also ignored it,” Zizhen whispers as if he could understand what they are thinking about. “The worst is, I’m not surprised by that in specific, I mean, he’s like that, but these people are suffering and everyone just… let them.”
“Let’s not beat ourselves for it,” Jingyi offers after a moment. “It doesn’t feel fair...”
“Maybe we could try to make things a bit better for them while we find out how to go back.”
Jin Ling’s and Sizhui’s heads turn to look at Zizhen so fast the latter is sure something cracked, but no pain really registers on his mind as he stares at his friend as if he has given them the answer to the toughest question.
“We won’t try, we will give them a better life… for as long as we can.”
They don’t know how this works, but if there’s a chance to help these people, even if it’s just for a couple of days, then they are willing to take the risk.