Chapter Text
They say the most important time of the day is dawn. Lan Qiren walked down the stairs of the Cloud Recesses, white robes billowing behind him.
"Has Lan Xichen gone out of seclusion yet ?" The aging man asked.
"No sir !" Lan Jingyi shouted, eyes darting around. Behind them, Jin Ling and Lan Sizhui chased each other around, playing some weird form of game.
"Do you want to play with them so badly ?" Lan Qiren's eye twitched.
Lan Jingyi paused for a second. "No, they're dating. Third wheeling is lame."
Lan Qiren sighed. Things were getting bad if Lan Jingyi is the only one abiding by the rules. "Go and tell your friends, running and shouting are prohibited in the Cloud Recesses, Lan Sizhui is to copy ten sets of rules, and bring Jin Ling back to his guest room."
"C'mon old man Lan, do you know that people breaking up couples will be punished by the heavens ?" A familiar voice chimed in from behind him.
"That's none of your business, Wei Wuxian." Lan Qiren clenched his teeth.
Wei Wuxian pouted and backed down when an erratic wave of qi waved across the entire pavillon.
The birds stopped chirping and leaves rustled even though there was no wind. Wei Wuxian froze.
"Lan Zhan !"
Lan Qiren's eyes widened as Wei Wuxian practically dashed back into his chambers. Lan Sizhui came up to him hesitantly.
"...Senior Lan, isn't that...Qi deviation ?"
Wei Wuxian was struggling to keep his husband awake. Lan Wangji's qi was desperately trying to seek help from Wei Wuxian's cultivation.
"Jingyi ! Sizhui !" Wei Wuxian turned, his eyes wide and panicked, "I can't help him. I can't-"
"Of course you can't, you are a demonic cultivator. You'll only make things worse with all your double cultivation."
Wei Wuxian's face darkened. "Lan Qiren you-"
"Get out, take Jingyi and Sizhui with you, their cultivation are too weak to help."
"Go get Lan Xichen."
"And don't interrupt no matter what you hear or see."
Lan Qiren stumbled into his study. His golden core dim and his breathing slow.
Lan Qiren pretty much knew how the rest of his life would go, after Jin Guangyao died. Working day to night for the sake of his clan while Lan Xichen wallows in his seclusion, watching Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian's shameless acts as no one listens to his words of reprimandance, day after day until his death.
He was left behind from his time. He had no one to ask or talk about the 'old days'. He knew he had turned numb to death, he just didn't know that he was numb to his own death too. A distant passage about the value of life by a distant scholar flashed absently in his thoughts.
Death...huh
He just wished...
He just wished that...
"Your waist is so thin~"
Lan Qiren's eyes widened as a hand wrapped across his waist. The smell of alcohol wafting into his nose.
Jin Guangshan laughed happily as he hugged Lan Qiren from behind. "Women are scary, but you are oh so wonderful-"
Bam
"Alcohol is prohibited in the Cloud Recesses." Qingheng-jun smiled pleasantly at Lan Qiren, as he casually threw Jin Guangshan off the roof they're standing on (wait roof ?)
"Is this a dream..." Lan Qiren's face went slack as he watched a very much alive Qingheng-jun chase down a very much alive Cangse Sanren.
"Maybe I should just stay in this dream." He laughed lightly, touching then not feeling his beard, both happy and bitter, for once not opposed to the chaos.