Chapter Text
Shanghai, 2018
The fierce corpse disintegrated under Lan Wangji's indifferent gaze, its screams drowned out by the noise of traffic outside the alley.
The cultivator felt nothing. At one time, the night hunt made him feel tense. He was concerned for Lan Sizhui and his friends, for the junior disciples. He tried to keep them safe.
Now he felt nothing more. It was normal: immortality had made everything immobile. Lan Wangji breathed, ate, fought, but as the world evolved, ran towards progress, he was still the same.
He was a fixed point in an evolving world, a gray spot in a colored canvas.
That was how he felt: dull, alive but not really.
He still followed the rules of his sect, even though it had been over fifteen hundred years, and cultivation had become a myth.
All immortals needed an anchor, something to hold on to so as not to go mad.
Baoshan Sanren, ancient and full of regrets, told him that she knew what it meant to survive the one loved most.
He had asked her what was the point of living when there was no one to do it for anymore.
"We have a duty to the world. The gods have blessed us with immortality to defend humanity. Without us, the darkness would win."
She had called it a gift. There were days when Lan Wangji considered it a curse.
If he could, he would have ripped off his golden core and awaited death. But he couldn't, and so he continued with his mission.
He heard a click behind him, and he turned around. A policeman was pointing the gun at him, and the immortal was familiar gray eyes he thought he would never see again.
Wei Ying.
"Keep your hands up, dude. Don't play jokes."
At that moment, the color returned.
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"Are you fucking kidding me?!!"
Captain Shen sighed, "Agent Wei, language."
"Don't use that tone on me! That guy is a homicidal maniac who goes around with a sword and tears people to pieces!"
His colleagues were doing a decent enough job of pretending not to hear, but Wei Ying had noticed that some of them lingered outside the office for a little too long.
The captain rubbed his eyes, looking tired, "He's a Lan, Agent Wei. His family is very rich."
"So we let him go for this? For the money? Who bribed?"
"None. But we have no evidence to keep him here."
Wei Ying slammed his hands on the desk, waving several documents, "No evidence? I saw him stab a guy to death."
"Where is the body?"
Wei Ying stiffened, "In the alley, of course."
"Forensics found nothing. There weren't even traces of blood on the sword."
"It's not possible. I've seen it."
"It was dark, maybe you got confused."
"I'm not confused! - Wei Ying burst out irritably - I know what I saw. He had a weapon with him! How do you explain that?"
"The Lan are collectors."
"Sure, bone collectors."
"Agent Wei ..."
"We're letting a crazy psycho out and kill again!"
"I told you, there wasn't a body or blood at the scene of the alleged crime. It's your word against his. We have no evidence to keep him in custody."
Wei Ying opened his mouth, but he closed it immediately. He hated when the captain said something logical, he could never find something to argue!
"Go apologize to him, Agent Wei. Maybe he won't report you."
"Hell, no. I'd prefer ..."
The captain glared at him, and Wei Ying paused. If looks could kill, he'd be dead.
"Agent Wei, go. Now."
"Yes sir," he said through gritted teeth as he walked out of the captain's office slamming the door, and glared at whoever was staring at him.
" What's up? Don't you have anything else to do? "
Everyone went back to their work, and Wei Ying prepared for his torture. Because if there was one thing he hated with his whole self, it was releasing the criminals.
He had an excellent instinct and was 100% certain that the man was a murderer.
He knew what he had seen, he wasn't confused by the dark or shit like that.
The problem was that there wasn't a body. No corpse, no crime. And his testimony wasn't enough, not without evidence to back it up.
In court, the defense lawyers would have destroyed him.
“He must have had an accomplice. It is the only plausible explanation. Someone who cleaned up the crime scene before the forensics arrived. Who? He must have been pretty damn fast. Was he already there? I should have seen him. Mr. Lan could not have called him, there was no time ... "
As his brain searched for answers to a seemingly unsolvable puzzle, he saw Mr. Lan sign the release papers, sword in plain sight on his desk.
Seriously, they should at least detain him for possession of an unauthorized weapon, but it seemed the rich were allowed everything.
"Mr. Lan ..."
The man turned, the apathetic expression on his nerves. It was a clear sign of psychopathy!
"I apologize for the accident ..."
"Lan Zhan."
"Eh?"
“My name is Lan Zhan. Courtesy name, Lan Wangji. "
Wei Ying frowned. Were there still families who used courtesy names? He had heard that the Lan were very traditional.
He didn't believe that cold-blooded murder was part of the tradition.
"I wanted to apologize for tonight ..." damn, it was too hard. What had to be done to keep one's job.
“I'm doing it for A-Yuan, just for him. "
Lan Wangji didn't let him finish, ”It's not a problem, you have done your job. You saw a suspicious situation and intervened. "
"Let's define it like this ..."
“Next time, for your safety, don't intervene headlong. You may not be lucky. "
Wei Ying clenched his fists, "Is this a warning?"
“No, it's a suggestion. I wouldn't want you to hurt. "
Wei Ying shuddered internally. What a bastard! Next time, that guy won't get away with it that easily!
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Outside the police station, the cell phone rang. It was a call from his older brother.
When he answered, the first thing he heard was, “Finally! Did something happen? Why aren't you back yet?"
“The night hunt went well, I eliminated the fierce corpse. But I got arrested. "
"What? Do you need a lawyer? "
"No, it's all solved."
He paused, not knowing whether to tell Lan Xichen. His brother had for years considered Wei Ying to be the cause of Lan Wangji's pain, but now they both knew what the Jin had done to him.
Wei Ying was not a monster, even though he was dead as one. If anyone deserved a second chance, it was him.
"I saw him again, brother."
"Who?"
"Wei Ying."
Baoshan Sanren had told him not to get too involved with mortals. It wasn't worth it, their lives lasted a blink of an eye.
He couldn't listen to her. He knew that Lan Xichen would understand because he too would go against the rules for two men, and two men only.
Lan Wangji had always been selfish, and immortality could not change it.
Now he had felt something, after centuries of apathy. He didn't want to lose it.
"Brother, I want to see him again."
He hadn't wanted something for centuries. Ironic that it was the very man who had made him feel it the first time to make him feel it again.
Maybe it was meant to be. Perhaps this was the second chance he had prayed for.