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The legend went like this:
There was once a someone who was known to be quite a charming man with smartness matching his beauty. He was also the ward of the Jiang Clan and was known to best the heir of the Clan’s leader. But anyone who would meet him would only praise his knowledge and wit and skills with his sword. Though he was a charmer, he was also praised for his recklessness and many people hated how shameless he was with his opinions even when it brought pride to those who knew him about his chivalry.
However, kindness and chivalry are two things that are noble but reap disgust in a world such as ours. And he was not excused from that.
A war was all it took and a charming young man’s reckless kindness had turned the whole world against him. It greeted him with a curse and everyone who he loved was suddenly too afraid to even look at him.
The legend says that he had become a monster. Devouring the ones who he had saved. Losing his sanity and was now raising corpses in the evil space of the Burial Mounds. The once pristine young man had now become a mindless beast that parents use people to scare their children to obedience and cultivators threaten to thrown their enemies to mercy of the Yiling Patriarch.
Wei Wuxian was a name that was forgotten now. All that remained was the echo of Yiling Patriarch.
“Wen Qing-jiejie!” Wei Wuxian whines, dragging his claws down the gnarly, matted fur of his beastly arms as he glared at the woman whose skin shone under the candle light. Wen Ning, looking more human than them with his mermaid scales and barely concealed fangs, was staying with A-Yuan and fidgeting.
“You have to sell those seeds! What do you think anyone is going to eat!” she retorts, folding her hands together; Wei Wuxian saw the way her tails flickered and knew she was wining the argument.
“I know! But who will come here to buy anything?” He looks down at himself. His arms were covered in dark fur and he had grown two foot over the last two years, his horns were making it hard to lift his head properly. And if one could squint past the dark hair on his face, they’d see the dark circles that hung under bright eyes. “And none of us can go down and sell them.”
Wen Qing sighs, long fingers leaving marks behind as the trail the cave walls, making mindless patterns. “I know, A-Xian. But we will die like this.”
“The curse won’t allow us to die until it’s broken. You know that.”
“That’s not the point, A-Ning. We will still be severely hurt and if the curse was to be broken, the chances are we will die the very next moment. Granny is already failing her health and without food to sustain her, she will only suffer more and more.”
Flinching, Wei Wuxian gets up. there are voices echoing in his ears and he needs to get out of this place now. Without preamble, he storms off and the siblings doesn’t say anything even though A-Yuan mutters something only to be shushed.
The air of the Burial Mounds is fresher than it had been five decades ago. When they first came here. Wei Wuxian has been slowly but steadily clearing out all the corpses here and giving them a proper burial with the Wens’ help and using their limited Qi to dispel the feng shui.
It had helped them cultivate their own food for enough survival. But this year they were facing a great draught and there were diseases in the air. He had concocted a spell when diffused into lotus seeds, it would increase immunity to fight against diseases. The only downside was that it didn’t work on them because their curse would fight its effect with the accidental immortality.
But the bad name as demons and monsters drove away most of those who wanted to buy it. To this date, there were only five people who had managed to come all the way here after rumours of the magical lotus seeds were spread around by Wen Ning. All five of them had refused to meet his eyes and one almost wet herself. They cowered and almost attacked him when he opened his beastly palm with the fragile seed within it.
The coins and produce it gave them lasted for very little time. And now they were in dire need of new food or they’d have to risk illness that even the curse can’t fight off. Especially since all of the Wens are old or children and the only real healthy adults were the Wen siblings and Wei Wuxian himself.
It was not like they could walk down town with their beastly builds and scare away towns to loot their produce and money. Chances are their own stocks are dwindling and the commoners are struggling. They can’t loot the rich sects and clans either because they’d shoot him down before he can even touch one grain of rice. The curse didn’t list death from physical harm as a non-possibility.
Sighing, Wei Wuxian gazed woefully at the bright sun staring down at him. He wished there was some way to conjure clouds to bless their fields. They had some seeds but they barely water to drink, let alone water plants.
“Young Master Wei?” Uncle Four’s voice alerted him and Wei Wuxian turned to see him waving him over from the mouth of the cave. “Can you help us with something?”
Who was he to say no?
The Jiang Clan was run by unfamiliar faces now. Wei Wuxian had not seen the day his adoptive parents passed neither was he aware of the day his sister married only a few days after his brother became the new sect leader, without Wei Wuxian beside him as his right-hand-man. The day his sister bore the Jin Clan’s heir was something he heard and that day Wen Qing had found him shrivelled into a pathetic knot under the sycamore tree, tears matting his fur.
Then some more years passed and his brother was married. An heir was born out of it and then decades passed. His brother and sister had lived a happy life and they had passed away with old age. Wei Wuxian was the only one left behind, taking care of another family and hated by everyone else.
The world outside the Burial Mounds had long since became alien to him. Even if the curse were to break, Wei Wuxian would be terrified to face a world were no one he knew would exist. He was a myth and he wished to remain like that.
Only, fate had other plans.
One day, Wen Qing came running to him in the Demon Subduing Cave (Wen Qing was very unimpressed when he named it and claimed the space as his personal chambers) with a half anxious, half hopeful look.
“There is a customer, I think,” she pants. “He is here and not leaving.”
“What? Did Wen Ning go and ask?”
“No. Come out, Wei Wuxian!” she nags and doesn’t wait for a reply before dragging him outside. The walk to the other cave is short and he can see the way everyone is crowded into the entrance, hidden behind shadows and looking at the new figure Wei Wuxian spies is just standing there, about three feet away.
“How did you flee past him without him noticing?” he whispers only for Wen Qing to roll her eyes and inform him about the secret passage Wei Wuxian made only three weeks ago. “Oh, right.”
Before he could rile her up more, they were already near the entrance and Wei Wuxian was impressed the stranger didn’t lip his head up. that man had impressive self-control, at least. He slips into the cave and fishes Wen Ning from the crowd.
He was the most human like and he’d have to speak to him first. Wen Qing glares at him but Wen Ning is already meekly making his way over. A-Yuan sneezed and Wei Wuxian was fast to shush him gently, not wanting to miss anything.
Good thing, because the moment the stranger lifted his face up, Wei Wuxian felt his breath hitch. That man was the single most beautiful person he has seen in his whole life. Even though his memories of actual humans are blurry with time, he knows for a fact that no one could hold a candle to the cold beauty of this one.
He cannot hear Wen Ning’s meek voice or the stranger’s words but he sees those lips move once and then his friend is walking back, looking confused and relieved. In the confusion of beauty, he had forgotten that they were monsters now.
“Why isn’t he screaming for his life now?” he mutters and Wen Qing shrugs, clearly confused. “Is he broken?”
“I guess we are just lucky.” Wei Wuxian snorts at that.
“Young Master Wei,” Wen Ning says the moment he is near enough to say. “The man wants to meet you. He wants to buy some lotus seeds.”
“Ah, of course. A customer.” Wei Wuxian smiles at Wen Ning and turns to Aunty Six. “Can you bring me that pouch when I signal? I’ll go speak to him first.”
“What are you asking him as payment?” Granny asks only for Wen Qing to cut in, firmly glaring at Wei Wuxian as if daring to refute.
“Food, of course. What else?”
“Right.” He is quick to escape outside and notices that the man hasn’t gone back to looking down at his feet. Instead, he stares right at Wei Wuxian, face impassive.
Honestly, Wei Wuxian had expected something much more amusing to happen. Maybe some screaming. Maybe some crying and begging to spare lives. He’d even expected a sword to fly at him arm only for him to block and make them run away. He’d expected to be disappointed.
Instead, the man is clam and collected. Looking at Wei Wuxian with a brave set of golden eyes that stares at him head on. Interesting.
“What is your name, Young Master?” he asks, trying not to smile like he would have in his human form. Now, his smiles meant fangs and threatening, feral grins.
“Lan Wangji. Are you the Yiling Patriarch?”
“Yes. But I would prefer if you called me Wei Wuxian,” he says, appreciating the calm tone. “I hear you are asking for some Lotus Seeds?”
“Yes.”
“Why? Might I ask?”
Lan Wangji hesitates, brows tilting down just a bit. “My brother is sick. He needs to be healed soon.”
“Ah, I see.” Tilting his head, Wei Wuxian smirks, showing one fang. “What shall your price be, then?”
“Anything you ask,” Lan Wangji promises, solemn.
“Anything? That is a serious gamble, my friend. Are you sure?”
“Yes. Anything.”
“Alright. Then…” Wei Wuxian puts on the show of thinking very seriously, tapping at his chin with one clawed finger. It was proving to be very amusing to mess with this serious little man. Well technically, this man would have been his height if Wei Wuxian was a human still.
“How about you stay here? You can pay with your service to my family!” He means it as a joke of course. He just wants to see if this proposition can make this man squirm and finally break that cool façade of his.
Wei Wuxian was never the best at reading people. And his plan is backfired when Lan Wangji nods, looking rather solemn and like he was in a funeral.
“I accept. But I request that you let me go and give the seeds to my brother first.”
Oh, shit. Wen Qing is really going to cook him now, isn’t she?
“You did what?!” Wen Qing yells the moment the words are out of Wei Wuxian’s mouth. They are in the Demon Subduing cave and he had just finished relaying what was done. Wen Qing, as you can see, was not happy.
“Are you an idiot?! I asked you to bring food and you brought a person!” she continues to lecture, pacing the stone floor and long nails scratching through her scales leaving them to flake onto the floor. “What do you want us to do with him? Cannibalise his body?”
“What? No!” Wei Wuxian chokes out, looking at her with shock. “I meant it as a tease but he took it too seriously. Qing-jie, this isn’t my fault!”
“Not you fault, my ass!” Wen Qing hisses, looking at him with her scary red eyes that forces him to shrink back into the ground. “We are starving here, Wei Wuxian!”
“Hey! I’m sorry, alright?” Wei Wuxian mutters and to put his last defence out, he says, “I did ask him to bring some food and seeds along with him.”
“Some? Will that be enough? Also, what is to say he will come back?”
He had not thought of that. Lan Wangji had just seemed so serious and honourable but maybe that was all a façade. “Oh. Shit. Um, then I’ll go down to the town and terrorise a few people.”
Wen Qing sighs. She’s stopped pacing now and is just giving him her most disapproving and disappointing look. It looks so much like Jiang Yanli’s, it hurts some days to think that he can never see this on her face again when he’s squabbling too hard with his brother. The pain on his face must have been obvious because she softens, plopping onto the floor with a grumble.
“I guess we have no other choice then.”
“Jiejie, I really am sorry.”
“I know, Wei Wuxian. You are dumb and I’ve known you for decades. I should have gone instead.”
Wei Wuxian doesn’t respond to that. Guilt and shame eating away at his insides. Failure. He was such a failure.
“Young Master Wei! Qing-jie!” Wen Ning’s voice interrupts the silence they were both consumed in. The sound of his running feet was not even heard, both of them too emersed in their own thoughts.
Jerking at the sudden disruption, Wei Wuxian turns to his friend. “Yes, Wen Ning?”
“Lan Wangji is back!” he says, looking panicked and excited, hands fidgeting with his tattered clothes. “He has brought food!”
Somewhere in the first sentence, Wei Wuxian’s brain had stopped working. But Wen Qing was already up and about, ushering her brother outside the cave and leaving Wei Wuxian behind.
“What the hell?”
Somehow, Lan Wangji ends up in Wei Wuxian’s cave, looking indifferent and wearing much coarser robes than the one he’d worn when they first met. Wen Ning stands by the mouth of the cave, A-Yuan clinging onto his neck as the little child, covered in scales and tiny horns on his head glimmering under the setting sun, looks at the newcomer in awe.
A-Yuan must have what human beings actually looked like.
“You can go, A-Ning,” Wei Wuxian says, standing up after he’s gathered his wits once again. But then a thought occurs to him and he turns to Lan Wangji, noticing the tightening around his shoulder for the first time. “Unless you want them to stay here? If that makes you feel safe.”
Lan Wangji, though seems like a person who has minimal case of expressions under his sleeve from their minimal interaction, looks visibly surprised and confused. “Why?”
“Why, what? Why I asked? I might look like a monster, but there are worse monsters out there, from where you come from,” he scoffs, using one clawed fingertip to scratch under his eyes.
“I see. I apologise if I offended you,” Lan Wangji says, looking away.
“Aiya! Lan Wangji, you really are so sweet!” Wei Wuxian teases and then turns to find Wen Ning looking clearly torn. “Ah, will you answer that question, though? Our Wen Ning is quite a shy person.”
“There is no need for you to stay.” Lan Wangji inclines his head to the pair. “Thank you.”
Flustered, Wen Ning bows, causing A-Yuan to squeak when one scale rubs against his own causing a very funny sound. They book it out of there in mere moments, Wen Ning’s soothing baby babble tittering off into the dusk.
Silence reigns over them for a while and Lan Wangji is starting to look stiff and uncomfortable again.
“You can sit, Lan Wangji. Come on!” Wei Wuxian says, patting the space in front of him after he sits down himself.
The man follows his instructions wordlessly and Wei Wuxian wonders what they should talk about. Should he tell Lan Wangji that he is free to go home anytime? Or should he tease him some more and pretend to be all mean before releasing Lan Wangji back to his habitat?
“What should I call you?” Lan Wangji asks, voice funnily lowered and somehow submissive for such a dominant persona. “Do you wish to keep me here as a slave or something else?”
Wei Wuxian has to blink once. Then twice. All the while Lan Wangji stays still, hands clenched around each other and eyes downcast. His ears are red and shoulders tensed.
“Are you fucking mad?”
Snapping his head up, Lan Wangji stares at Wei Wuxian. He knows that the expression on his face must be terrifying. But all he feels is this rage. This pure undulated rage of being so done with perceived as if he is some mindless beast.
“Can you—please stop reducing me to a monster,” Wei Wuxian snaps, holding contact with wide golden eyes. “I may have been cursed but the only sin I have committed was save some old men and women and a child from being killed by others just because they were under the name Wen. I am a human under the curse. I am not keeping you here to be a salve or my prostitute or whatever you think you should be. Is that clear?”
A silence. Lan Wangji is still looking shocked but then he suddenly looks down again. The tenseness in his shoulder has loosened a bit. “Yes.”
Sighing, Wei Wuxian rocks back until his arms are supporting his torso’s weight. “Look, Lan Wangji—”
“You can call me Lan Zhan,” he cuts in, still not looking up.
“Uh,” he replies, very smartly. “Sure? Then I insist you call me Wei Ying.”
“Wei Ying.”
Dang, it sounds good to have someone call him by his birth name. Wei Wuxian clears his throat. “Anyways, as if was saying, Lan…Zhan, you are free to leave anytime. I only asked you stay here because I wanted to tease you.”
Lan Wangji is back to frowning openly at him, lips downturned and golden eyes twitching just a bit. “I have no paid you for curing my brother,” he says.
“Ah, yes, your brother. How is he? Did the seed work?”
“Yes. It did. But, Wei Ying, I have not paid you yet.”
“You brought food, yes? We are in dire need of it. The drought this year has ruined the crops and we really are short of food.” Wei Wuxian stops, thinking if he should tell Lan Wangji more. Somehow, that open, earnest look on his face pulls that honesty out. “Though we are immortal, we need food to not suffer till the curse breaks.”
“No one told us anything,” Lan Wangji says, looking down again. “All they said was you prey on people. That you devoured everyone you saved.”
Bursting into laughter, Wei Wuxian almost slaps Lan Wangji’s shoulder but stops when he is reminded of the beastly strength of this new form. “How funny, Lan Zhan! I told you, there are worst monsters out there. Fortunately, I am not like those ridiculous tales.”
“Yes. Wei Ying isn’t.”
Something in those words is so soft and serious, it mellows something that had hardened inside Wei Wuxian after all these years of solitude. “Thank you, Lan Zhan. So, about you being free. I will show you the path.”
“I haven’t paid you,” Lan Wangji repeats.
“Aiya! So stubborn,” Wei Wuxian tuts even when amusement curls inside him. “Fine, fine. I will accept payment if you bring us food every week. But under one condition.”
“Yes?” Lan Wangji seems appeased, looking eager to fulfil whatever sense of righteousness is filling him up.
“Only if you are able to afford it. I do not want you to be a poor commoner who sacrifices all your corps to appease our appetite, alright?”
“You do not recognise my family name?” Lan Wangji asks and even in his monotonous voice, Wei Wuxian can detect a line of incredulousness. It is very confusing.
“What? Lan?” He tilts his head and tried to remember from about five decades ago, but nothing comes up. “No. can’t remember anything. What is it, Lan Zhan?”
Lan Wangji is quiet for a while, eyes darting over Wei Wuxian’s face for a while before the man rises, a soft sight leaving his lips. “It is nothing. Rest assured, Wei Ying, my family is not poor enough to afford food in the drought.”
“How can I know that, Lan Zhan?” he teases.
Very seriously, Lan Wangji stares at him and Wei Wuxian feels like he should be careful of pissing him off. “Lying is forbidden in our clan.”
“Fair enough. Now, let me show you the way out.” Wei Wuxian offers him and hand just to be dramatic and isn’t annoyed when Lan Wangji huffs, refusing it as he stalks out of the cave.
It has been such a long time since Wei Wuxian felt like a boy.
The way down the Burial Mounds is a bit tricky and Wei Wuxian barely remembers as he navigates through the brambles and dried grass, their feet snaping up dead sticks. It has been over a year since he made his way down. The last time he had was because he got into fight with Wen Qing and desperately needed some space. A-Yuan was with him then, clinging onto his fur with a muted wonder.
Decades has passed but A-Yuan has not grown up yet. He still looked like the two-year-old and behaved like a five-year-old now. That was all the difference. Sometimes, Wei Wuxian hated the world. How could someone be so cruel to curse a child? And only one face would rise to his forefront and that would make him grind his teeth.
“Wei Ying?” A sudden nudge to his side snaps him out of the thoughts. Looking up, he notices that Lan Wangji had walked away from him, clearly not noticing that Wei Wuxian had stopped. Turning to his side, he saw a rock lying by his feet.
“Ah, sorry, Lan Zhan! I zoned out. Let’s continue walking; it’s only a bit more.”
Lan Wangji narrows his eyes just a bit before nodding once and starts to walk again. Taking long steps to reach the man’s side, Wei Wuxian wonders when was the last time he felt so normal. Maybe remaining a beast was becoming his new normal and being a human was only a background dream.
“Say, Lan Zhan, what do you?” he asks, wanting to fill the silence with chatter before his mind wanders off again, perpetually losing them in this maze.
“I am a cultivator,” Lan Wangji replies, looking at him. “What was Wei Ying, before the curse?”
“What I was, mn? I was a cultivator too!”
“The legend says that you were a man who harnessed demonic energy. They said nothing about you being a cultivator.”
“Well, the legends are growing distorted with age. Hell, when I was first turned there were still lies.”
“Wei Ying. What really happened?” There’s that again. Those fierce emotions hidden behind the passive mask of Lan Wangji’s face. It burns in his eyes, making his eyes almost shine in the dusky sunlight. There is a rush in his ears and Wei Wuxian suddenly feels like he is back in Yungmeng. Submerged in the pool and simply floating. Lost in time and just another worthless speck in the vast column of life.
Tearing his eyes away from Lan Wangji isn’t easy. But he manages and by some twist of fate realises that they have reached the foot of the mountain. “Oh! Look, Lan Zhan! We are here!”
Grinning at Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian flashes his hands at the light flooding past the trees. The land around the Mounds is barren and he ensures to guide Lan Wangji to the nearest town.
“I see. Thank you, Wei Ying.” Lan Wangji bows and Wei Wuxian flounders for words but the man is already speaking, fierce eyes looking at him once again. “I will see you again soon.”
It happens just so that Lan Wangji never breaks his promises. It doesn’t even take a full three weeks, just as the food their benefactor brought was dwindling, for Lan Wangji to return. This time, A-Yuan is the one who alerts them.
The man in question is dragged over by the child, innocent and so bright with happiness at the prospect of a new play mate. Lan Wangji looks just a bit embarrassed when he’s greeted with open looks of wonder and curiosity. Wei Wuxian himself is a bit lost and it is only Wen Qing’s insistent elbow that digs too hard to push his upright that works.
“Lan Zhan!” he cheers, stepping over to the entrance of the cave to pluck the child into the air. “A-Yuan! Look what you brought! Such a wonderful present by the best child!”
“Gege!” A-Yuan squeals, delighted at the impromptu arial lessons. Wei Wuxian smiles as he hooks the kid against his hip and turns to Lan Wangji who looks at them with a softness that is new and yet makes his insides feel too hot.
“You’re early,” he says.
“Yes. I brought food.” Lan Wangji looks over his shoulder and Wei Wuxian notices the little sack that was lying just behind him.
“Oh! Thank you so much!” Wei Wuxian places A-Yuan down just in time for Wen Qing and Granny to show up. the child is picked up again by Wen Qing while Granny grins at Lan Wangji with kind eyes that is not hindered by the grey scales covering her skin.
“You must stay for dinner, Young Master Lan. We cannot accept your gifts without paying you back with something.” Granny pats the man with one, bony hand covered with scales and nails sharp but black with age.
“You saved my brother’s life. I shall be grateful for eternity,” Lan Wangji says, looking a bit uncomfortable at the attention. Wei Wuxian watches, clearly interested in what was transpiring.
“Oh! That was our A-Xian. This is a thank you from the rest of us. Will you stay for dinner, Young Master?”
Lan Wangji flicks his eyes to Wei Wuxian who tries to relax his posture to not look intimidating. Then they flicker to Wen Qing and A-Yuan, both looking like human sized lizards with horns but there is a sense of softness in them too. Wei Wuxian has long since learnt that monsters don’t always look exaggeratingly terrifying; the worst monsters are dressed in human skin.
“I will stay, then. Thank you for your hospitality,” Lan Wangji says, bowing and Granny only laughs at him.
“You are always welcome. Now would you like to meet the rest of the family?”
Wei Wuxian didn’t know what he expected to happen after Lan Wangji met his chosen family. It surely wasn’t that he would have to take care of a drunken Young Master. Seriously, he was growing to old to run around young men and their inebriated wishes.
It all started with a healthy meal. Lan Wangji was getting along great with everyone. There were no fearful inhales or quaky legs upon seeing horned men and women in different stages of being a scaly lizard or glimmering fish. Wei Wuxian could see that all of them were happy to find a human who could see them without disgust and the twinge of nostalgia they shared amongst themselves.
Some days, he really hopes that he knew how he could break this goddamned curse.
The answer was there. But it was the processes of getting to it that was hard.
Even Wen Qing seemed less hostile towards Lan Wangji as they were near the end of the dinner. All of them charmed by how gentle this new figure was. At least, Wei Wuxian definitely was charmed. And not only by how he treated his family but by how gorgeous he still managed to look even under the scant lighting in the cave.
However, no one predicted Uncle Four to crack open his infamous fruit alcohol. Wei Wuxian has no idea when he’d harvested the fruits to actually make the infusion and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to know. Wen Qing was predictably unhappy as Uncle Four went around pouring them all a cup.
“It’s a celebration!” he squawked when Wei Wuxian chided him.
They had given up quickly though and Wei Wuxian made sure to tease Lan Wangji when he declined the drink at the same time, he replaced the drink with water. Taking his own cup to down it only to taste water wasn’t the finest moment of genius in his life.
Whipping his head to look at Lan Wangji and warn him before it got too late, Wei Wuxian was greeted with a very displeased looking Lan Wangji who was glaring at the cup as if it had done a personal offence. Oh, Wei Wuxian was going to get killed for getting their guest drunk, wasn’t he?
Looking to his other side, he wasn’t surprised to find Wen Qing, already tipsy no doubt, was chiding Aunty Mei for one thing or another. Rolling his eyes fondly at them, Wei Wuxian turned to Lan Wangji again only to find the man with his eyes closed and listing sideways. He caught the poor drunk just before he fell onto poor A-Yuan and Granny.
“Oh! What is wrong with him?” Granny whispered, placing a concerned hand over Lan Wangji’s shoulder. A-Yuan had stopped chewing at his spoon was looking at the new man draped over Wei Wuxian’s side with shiny eyes.
“He accidently drank some alcohol,” Wei Wuxian muttered, gingerly putting an arm around Lan Wangji’s form to prop him up properly only for his head to lay on his shoulder again. “It really was an accident.”
Granny looks unconvinced and Wei Wuxian has to bite back a whine that would only half serve the purpose of defending himself. “Take him to rest then,” she says instead, giving him her “strict granny face” that Wen Qing loves to imitate. It was much, much scarier on this old woman though.
“Yes, ma’am.” Hauling up to his feet with Lan Wangji scooped into his arms. It draws the entire table’s attention and Wei Wuxian fumbles to make an excuse. “Um, he’s tired. I’ll just bring him to one of the cottages so he can sleep.”
Wen Qing sees through him, of course, but is kind enough to not scold him in front of them. “There is one empty. You know where it is?”
“Of course, Qing-jie, I built it!” he scoffs only take some steps back when she almost pinches his fur out. “Have a good night, all! I’ll join you in a bit!”
Famous last words, it seems. Because Wei Wuxian, in fact, does not return.
Lan Wangji wakes up about half way to the said cottage. Under the moonlight, his golden eyes almost gleam and Wei Wuxian really wonders if this man is purely human or if he has some of those angel blood in his ancestry.
“Wei Ying?” he mutters and Wei Wuxian pauses with a hum. “Why-why am I flying?”
That startles a laugh out of him and he has to muffle it into his shoulder. “Oh, Lan Zhan! You’re so funny.” When he gets a confused blink in return, Wei Wuxian sighs. “You are not flying, Lan Zhan. You feel asleep after a cup. I didn’t know Lan-gege was such a light weight!”
“Where are the others?” Lan Wangji asks, looking around and tilting his head to look behind him, head hanging over Wei Wuxian’s forearms. “Why is the world upside down?”
“Oh, Lan Zhan. You’re not sober, are you?” Amusement and fondness curl around his throat and Wei Wuxian has to smother a laugh again when all he gets is a very unimpressed glare.
“Of course, I am sober.”
“All drunks say they are sober.” Wei Wuxian smirks. “Can you walk, Lan Zhan? If I put you down?”
Lan Wangji stares at him, looking at him with a very serious face. He really was considering it very deeply and Wei Wuxian can feel the ache in his belly from trying to laugh worsen. “No. Keep carrying me.”
“Oho! Lan Zhan is so bossy!” Wei Wuxian teases, leaning close just because he can but then his breath hitches when Lan Wangji does not move back, instead the man just stares deep into his eyes and Wei Wuxian suddenly feels very, very exposed.
“Can Wei Ying take me somewhere?”
Moving back, Wei Wuxian clears his throat and stares at the sky instead. That was much safer for his sanity than pretty young men who were drunk and just annoyingly perfect. “Where?”
“I want to buy something,” Lan Wangji says, his hand having managed to tangle with Wei Wuxian’s fur growing down his chin. “It is very important.”
“Lan Zhan, it’s past sleep time. Everyone of the shops is closed.” Wei Wuxian looks down only to meet the sad turn of Lan Wangji’s lips and he feels like a bastard already. “You can go there tomorrow.”
“Will Wei Ying come with me?”
“What? No! How can I come down when I look like this?”
“Look like what?” Lan Wangji asks, genuinely concerned as his eyes dart across Wei Wuxian’s entire face and neck and shoulders.
“I look like a beast, Lan Zhan. My curse will make everyone want to run away because of my form.”
Lan Wangji frowns and then he’s struggling. Wei Wuxian almost drops him once before he gently sets the man down on his feet but then his hand is snagged and he’d being dragged away.
“Hey! Where are we going?” he shouts only to have Lan Wangji ignore him. It was as if he’d grown deaf. “Lan Zhan!”
They don’t stop the trek though and Wei Wuxian has no idea where they are going. But Lan Wangji’s head turns left and right, agitated as if he was looking for something. Seeing that they have been in this mindless search for about twenty minutes, he drags Lan Wangji to a stop.
“Lan Zhan, look at me,” he urges and Lan Wangji huffs before looking up. ears red, eyes shining and skin almost glowing. Wei Wuxian has no idea what he’s done to have met someone like this. “What are you looking for?”
“A mirror,” he admits, looking away, clearly embarrassed.
“A mirror for what?”
“To show Wei Ying he is pretty.”
That-that was something he’d never expected to come across. There must have been some misunderstanding. Because how can someone ever look at Wei Wuxian and the first word that comes to them is pretty.
“What?” There is something boiling inside him. Hot. Sticky. Disbelief.
“Nothing,” Lan Wangji mutters, ducking his head but not hiding the very red ears. It does nothing to supress the rising fire inside him.
“That’s not fair, Lan Zhan!” he whines, reaching over with a hand to gently push at his shoulder. Wei Wuxian’s fingers were growing thicker and looking more like meaty paws than anything.
They were running out of time. The moment was suddenly so much more precious.
“Nothing is fair.” Lan Wangji looks up at him. “It is not fair that you were cursed.”
That fire has now risen up to his chest and clogs his airways. Everything feels like he is waking in a dream. Is it really possible to love someone in pieces? Because, Wei Wuxian doesn’t know the whole Lan Wangji, but these pieces he shows him is just too hard to resist cherishing. There is this burning urge to gather them all up and place them, piece by piece, against his own body. Every minute they spent together will only bring in more pieces to fit together the puzzle.
But that’s the extend of it, though.
Pieces. Lan Wangji, for him, will always remain in pieces. The limited time of this curse will not spare him of that.
“Hey, Lan Zhan?” he says, looking at those earnest face that looks too sober but the way Lan Wangji’s hands are curled around his sleeves, like a child does, is too obvious of a sign that he is anything but in a normal state. “Do you want to know about my curse?”
Lan Wangji frowns for a moment before his face glows with understanding. A nod and a smile later, Wei Wuxian has sat Lan Wangji down on the cold cottage floors to set the sail of his curse.
“So, there was this war going on against Wen Ruohan and the entire cultivation world hates anyone under the name of Wen. These people were part of it—”
“But they are innocent!” Lan Wangji’s eyes have started to droop but now they are alert but barely clinging on. Wei Wuxian knows that he won’t remember a word of this the next day and he’s grateful for it.
“Yes. But at that time, hatred was too strong and blinding. I couldn’t just stand by, could I? So, I rescued them and fled here.” Wei Wuxian laughs humourlessly, not meeting the intense gaze against his eyes. “But the world wasn’t happy. The cultivators banned together to find the only witch, Baoshan Sanren.”
“Did she agree to curse you?”
“She did. I don’t know why, but she did. However, surprise of the life, I am her student’s child. She took pity on me.”
“But—”
“Ah, Lan Zhan, let me finish. The original plan was to curse us all and then when the time for the curse ended, we all would die. That was unless you break the curse before the time limit.” Lan Wangji frowned but he didn’t interrupt, for which Wei Wuxian was grateful.
“Anyways, so I asked, no, I begged her to make the curse so that it was only me who would die instead of the whole lot of dying. No one knows that part, of course, except you. So, Lan Zhan, you have to promise me you’ll never tell them about it, alright?”
But when Wei Wuxian locks their eyes together, there is a sobriety so strong in that gaze, he feels ice slip down to his stomach. Lan Wangji’s hands are still trembling but the hope is bleak now.
“What if the curse is broken, Wei Ying?” he asks and somehow, Wei Wuxian is compelled to answer.
“If anyone other than family is willing to dedicate themselves to me. Someone who will do anything to save me.” It’s a mere whisper. “They should never know about this condition. It should be purely because they want to help me.”
When he looks up again, Lan Wangji has listed sideways, asleep on the floorboards. Relief and grief fill him in equal measures and Wei Wuxian is so tempted to just make Lan Wangji leave just so that he won’t suffer anymore. He was the only person who could break this curse but then Wei Wuxian was hopeless. No matter how charming he must be, he was still this monster.
Who wants to save a monster?
Lan Wangji returns a month after. This time he has brought someone else with him. They look exactly the same, next to each other, were it not for the stark differences in their expressions.
Everyone was convinced they were brothers and it was conformed when Lan Wangji introduced Lan Xichen. But what came next would never have been predictable.
“He has learnt about curses. Perhaps he can help break yours?”
The cold finger that slithers down his spine is much worse than it was last night. It felt like all his hopes and aspirations were dissolving in front of his feet.
“Wen Ning, why don’t you bring Young Master Lan here for some tea. Please entertain him, guys, I need to talk to Lan Zhan.” Wei Wuxian doesn’t wait for a reply before he is gently plucking Lan Wangji’s wrist from his side and dragging them away to a secluded place. He ignores the burning gaze Lan Xichen leaves behind.
After walking away and towards their dead field where their food should have thrived, Wei Wuxian pulls them to a stop. Lan Wangji’s hand hesitates before it leaves Wei Wuxian’s grip. Taking a deep breath and steadying his brain is a bit hard because there are so many thoughts that run around in his mind. But after a few moments of silence have passed, he speaks.
“What were you thinking, Lan Zhan? You don’t know even know anything about the curse, do you?”
Lan Wangji is frowning. “I just wanted to help Wei Ying and the Wens. And it is because I do not know anything about the curse, I brought my brother along.”
Wei Wuxian pinches the bridge of his nose to stop whatever tears he wants to cry, because of frustration or dumb happiness he does not know. “Lan Zhan, that night, when you were drunk—” he breaks off, not looking at Lan Wangji as he soldiers on after a deep breath. “—did remember anything?”
“I only remember drinking something bitter and then I woke up in the cottage.”
“Are you saying the truth, Lan Zhan? Are you really, really not lying?” Wei Wuxian can feel the hope build inside him but he has no idea if this is truly what he deserves. After all, he only has another three days before the curse is to break. And there is no way Lan Xichen can figure out the conditions of this curse without Wei Wuxian saying anything. It is a lost cause really.
“Lying is forbidden,” Lan Wangji promptly says, giving him the most earnest look. “Wei Ying, do you believe me?”
“I do.” Wei Wuxian nods. “But there is no help your brother can give me.”
“Why not?”
“Then I will have to tell him about the conditions but if I do, I will die.” Lan Wangji looks horrified. “It’s alright, Lan Zhan. I promise you that in a few days everything will be alright.”
“Why?”
“Because in a few days, the time for the curse will be up.”
“Does that mean I can see you in human form?”
Wei Wuxian opens his mouth. But he really doesn’t know if, after he dies, his body will transform back to human. However, there is a light in Lan Wangji’s eyes and he can only seem to say, “Yes.”
Lan Xichen doesn’t leave even after Wei Wuxian explains the situation, in the cover of his cave. The others have taken to entertaining Lan Wangji while he had taken the man away. This man was wise, Wei Wuxian knew, because the moment he was done with his argument, Lan Xichen’s eyes were glinting.
“I know you are suspicious,” he says. “But I want you to make sure that Lan Wangji does not change his mind from his hope.”
“Why, might I ask, Young Master Wei?”
“Because we care about him. Just as much as he does us.” A sigh escapes him. It feel good to confess but Wei Wuxian wishes there was no tone of sadness that slipped into it.
“Ah,” Lan Xichen says, looking a bit troubled. “It is because he cares about you, Young Master, that he wants to help.”
“And I said there is nothing he can do to break it.”
“I see.” Lan Xichen smiles even though it doesn’t reach his eyes and Wei Wuxian feels a bit guilty.
There is no doubt that Lan Wangji cares. But the idea that he could care for Wei Wuxian in a level to break it seems a bit too improbable even for him. It is for sure that he will never forget Lan Wangji’s kindness.
“Will you be returning to the dinner hall?” Lan Xichen asks when silence has started to become too suffocating.
“No. But can you tell Lan Zhan to come over here before he leaves? I want to ask him something.”
“Yes. I will. Thank you.”
Wei Wuxian smiles and watches as Lan Xichen bows and then walks away. Taking a deep breath and stilling the storm in his mind, Wei Wuxian turns carefully and walks over to the little chest he keeps next to the rocky bed he has not used in weeks. Taking it out and opening it is made difficult with the long claws but he manages. Carefully grinning the ink and then dipping his brush in it, Wei Wuxian starts to write, very careful of not snapping it with his force.
After he’s done, it takes only a while to enchant a bit of Qi to form a protection talisman that will keep the letter safe from opening for another three years.
When Lan Wangji visits him, some hours after, he is careful in handling the letter Wei Wuxian hands him. All he gets is a confused face that stares at him with all the desperation of a child.
“Don’t look like that,” Wei Wuxian says, chuckling. “It’s just a letter. It’s enchanted to not open for another three days. When the time comes, please follow the instructions in it.”
“Why? Is it some trouble?” Lan Wangji asks, eyes sharpening and Wei Wuxian knew this man was smart but maybe he’d doubted the extent of his wit.
“Ah, Lan Zhan. There is nothing to worry! I promise!” He raises three fingers up in a salute, his middle finger tapping against his temple. It prods that gaping hole in his chest where once his family sat and now there is only blurry memories of it, trying to stitch the gap up in vain.
Lan Wangji still looks unconvinced but he doesn’t prod more. Tucking the letter inside his sleeve for safe keeping, he turns to Wei Wuxian once again with something akin to anticipation.
“Do you need me for anything else?” he asks, eyes flickering around Wei Wuxian’s face.
“Um, no?” Wei Wuxian feels heat furl inside him when Lan Wangji looks down, shoulder curving down just a bit. “But! I would love to just talk to you!” It’s very satisfying to watch Lan Wangji look up again, a small smile alight on his lips.
“What does Wei Ying wish to know?”
“You know, I haven’t seen the outside world for so long. Why don’t you tell me about it?”
Lan Wangji is silent for a bit, looking at him intently but thoughts far away. After a bit of time has passed, he asks, “Does Wei Ying wish to see the world? I can take you on Bichen.”
“Aw, Lan Zhan! Warn a guy, will you?” Wei Wuxian clutches at his aching heat as he grins at Lan Wangji. “That’s very sweet of you, Lan Zhan. But I don’t think your poor sword can bear me.”
“Mn,” he hums, clearly displeased at the notion. “Then, I will wait till your curse is broken.”
“Ah.” Wei Wuxian feels like crying. “I will wait for that day too, Lan Zhan. But for now, just tell me what it is like out there.”
Lan Wangji stares at the letter decorating his bland beside table. The incense puffs out the usual sandalwood smell but somehow it leaves a sour after-taste in Lan Wangji’s mouth. Something doesn’t feel right.
The way Wei Ying’s eyes looked so sad and how his laugh was just a bit too forced. The way everyone looked so happy to see Lan Xichen except Wei Wuxian who looked just a tad too small for his big beastly frame.
Sighing in frustration, Lan Wangji looked outside the window to the full moon glittering in the sky, stars dotting around it. It has been a day since the letter has first touched his skin now it was just another day for the spell to break so he could finally read it. The Sigil on the paper was something Lan Wangji had never seen before; most probably one of the genius discoveries made by Wei Wuxian himself, so he had no idea how to break this one to read it.
The idea was frustrating and Lan Wangji’s patience was growing thinner, the warning bells inside his mind starting to flare as every zhi passed by and everything seemed too slow. Sighing, Lan Wangji decided to fall asleep anyways. That, at least, is easy; his Lan training indoctrinated deep enough to let sleep claim him without much struggle.
It was the day.
Wei Wuxian wakes up to his family smiling and laughing. It had rained that early morning time when they were all asleep. It wasn’t enough to sustain any crops but it was a sign that the drought was coming to an end. They feasted on Lan Wangji’s produce and even buried some food on the soil to appease whatever Goddess Granny insisted needed pleasing.
A-Yuan was happy and so was everyone. Easily chattering away. Wen Qing looked calm, that eternal tenseness around her eyes loosening and Wen Ning was smiling more than he usually did. This time, neither sibling broke out in protest when Uncle Four broke open one of his ancient jars of wines during lunch.
All the time, Wei Wuxian felt his stomach sinking deeper and deeper. And with it came the realisation that his would be the last time he’d see them. That this time next day they might be mourning for him. Maybe they will hate him for hiding this lie. But he rejoiced in the fact that, even though he may never see it, he can at least rest easy with the knowledge that they will return to being human and re-enter the life they once lived.
A-Yuan could become a grown man and live his own life. Granny can live her rest of the days in the sunny cottage she always dreamed of, finally spinning again to make handloom clothes. Uncles can go back to farming and bantering as they sell their produce and the Aunties can go back to hackling wares in the market and gossip with everyone they meet. Wen Qing can become a doctor in town and no one would think she or Wen Ning was related to Wen Ruohan. Wen Ning can grow up to be an educated man. He could join a sect and make them all proud as a scholar.
Wei Wuxian knew this weight was not from the fear of death. It was just grief of knowing that the world would go without him.
It was terrifying, to be left back. To stay stagnant as everyone continued without him.
“You’re so tense,” Wen Qing mutters as she joins him.
“I’m just worried about nothing,” he says, ignoring the weird look she sends him. “Isn’t the moon so bright? So beautiful.”
“What are you doing here at this hour anyways? The dinner is cooling already.” Wen Qing huffs when Wei Wuxian ignores her. He really wants to answer but suddenly he really wants to see Lan Wangji one last time. The moment it strikes haishi, the curse would nullify.
“Do you think Lan Zhan will visit us?” he muses, looking at Wen Qing and tries to ink up the last dregs of her face’s details. He needs to plead with the Heavenly Ruler up there to let these people into heaven, he has a feeling they will be very specific about how they look.
“You’re so in love, it stinks.”
“I’m not in love, Qing-jie!” he protests only for Wen Qing to grimace and makes a face. “And I’m sure even if I did, he wouldn’t respond to it.”
“He came here with food every two weeks.”
“Because he is righteous like that!”
“He could have ignored you after the first few times he knew we were no threat.”
“I told you—”
“A-Xian,” she cuts in and Wei Wuxian is teleported back to decades ago when those words were said by a kind voice and purple hands. “We are not blind. You weren’t there to see how he kept looking at you whenever you talked to someone else. How he talked about you and smiled when we told him your embarrassing stories.”
“What are you trying to prove, jiejie?” Wei Wuxian looks back to the moon again.
It was now only a few more minutes now. He was already aware of how Wen Qing’s fur was shortening, her horns slowly disappearing and how her tail was shedding scales that fell onto the ground in silence. But she was not aware of it at all because instead of caring for herself, here she was, staring at Wei Wuxian with a desperate look.
“Most of the curses in those old stories are broken by true love,” Wen Qing says, swallowing thickly. “Can’t this be like that too?”
“Ah, Qing-jie, that is not possible, is it? True love only happens to those who deserve it.”
Suddenly, Wen Qing was frowning, staring at her feet and shortened nails digging into her palm to no longer prick blood now. She seemed human again and Wei Wuxian stepped away from the cave, ignoring the startled look on Wen Qing as she stared at him once again.
“Why can’t you see how good you are for us, Wei Wuxian?” she whispers and Wei Wuxian pauses before taking another step back.
The cave erupts with ruckus just as he steps fully under the moon. Wen Qing’s eyes widen as everyone rushes outside, holding horns and scales that flow out of their cupped hands even when they look an amusing mix between hope and fear. Wei Wuxian smiles and claps his hands, claws clicking together. Then a dozen pair of eyes are on him. A-Yuan looks like a two-year-old now. No more fur and scales and Granny is crying even as her scales shatter onto the floor.
“Everyone,” he says. “Thank you for making me happy all these years.”
Wen Qing is the first to react even as Wen Ning grip her hand. She takes two steps back and disbalances when she realises, she no longer has a tail. Her eyes are wide when they stare at Wei Wuxian, tears gathering. “Wei Wuxian. What are you doing? What is the meaning of this?”
Pain shoot through his body but he refuses to collapse; instead, he stands strong and smiles even when his throat closes up. “The curse is broken, jiejie. Please be happy for me.” Then everything goes blurry. Suddenly there are a cacophony of voices in his ears and then rough hands are grabbing at his body. Faces blend into each other on his vision. A-Yuan is crying somewhere and Uncle Six is cursing somewhere else.
But before his world goes dark, there are smooth, soft hands that touch his face and gold swims clearly into his vision. “Lan Zhan,” he croaks. “Thank you.”
Heaven was not supposed to be a bedroom. Not according to the many books written by sages who claimed to have met with God and seen heaven. Or maybe they were all just lying bags of human flesh and heaven is actually just a wide bedroom with a open window letting in the sweet perfume of gentians nearly overpowering the sandal incense burning away somewhere.
“Wei Ying?”
Was there an angel for his service too?
“Wei Ying?” that voice said again and Wei Wuxian finally blinked his open just a bit more. Realisation sank in that the voice was not a stranger’s voice. Jerking up, his head nearly collided with something and Wei Wuxian couldn’t help but think that he felt shorter and less heavy.
Lifting his hands up to rub at his face, Wei Wuxian turned to his side and saw someone who he thought he’d never see again in his whole life. “Lan Zhan? Did you die too?” he asked, panicking now. Oh, hell, he’ll need to speak with God and sent Lan Wangji right back!
“Wei Ying! We are not dead!” Lan Wangji says, hands pushing at his shoulders when he starts to get off the bed.
That gives Wei Wuxian pause. “What? But the curse—”
“Wei Ying.” Lan Wangji sighs and this might sound weird, but Wei Wuxian quite enjoys Lan Wangji calling his name again and again. “The curse broke. You are alive.”
“The curse—the curse broke?” His tone gets all high and whiny and Wei Wuxian really should stop being so stupid. “What do you mean by the curse—”
Lan Wangji cuts him off (Again! So rude!) by grabbing at his arm and shoving Wei Wuxian’s…very human hands before his face. “Oh.” He feels really dumb and also a bit numb. “That’s why it didn’t feel so ruff.”
“Yes.” Lan Wangji is smiling that small smile again and Wei Wuxian is almost convinced this is heaven anyways. “You are really beautiful, Wei Ying.”
“Lan Zhan! Warn a guy!”
Alright. He was definitely not dead because he could feel the way his heart sped up and heat flared in his stomach to burn everything on its way.
“Lan Zhan,” he calls when both of them have come down from the giddy high of being idiots. Lan Wangji has not let go of his hands yet. “Where are the others? Are they safe?”
“They are. You are in Gusu, in my sect residence, Cloud Recesses. My brother and I brought you here after the curse broke.”
“How long?”
“Two days. Wei Ying was healing and the others were getting used to being human again.”
Swallowing thickly, Wei Wuxian turns to link their gazes again. “Lan Zhan, how did you know about it? Did you break the sigil?”
“No. It broke on its own at xushi. We rushed over after I read your letter.” Lan Wangji looks down. “I really want to help you, Wei Ying. Not because I feel pity. I—”
“Shh, Lan Zhan,” he says, eyes hot. “Say no more. We will talk about this later. I do believe we have people who are waiting for some news.”
One incense stick of shouting, A-Yuan sticking to his leg, Wen Ning’s puppy look, Wen Qing’s weak hits, Granny’s gentle chiding and a lot of crying later, Wei Wuxian was exhausted.
“You idiot,” Wen Qing mutters once more, her hand digging into his skin and Wei Wuxian stops murmuring soothing things into Wen Ning’s hair and patting A-Yuan who has lodged himself on Wei Wuxian’s lap.
“You said, Qing-jie,” he teases. “It worked out for the best, didn’t it? We can all finally live out our lives again! As humans!”
The Uncles cheer and the Aunties laugh even the Wen siblings give out a smile all the while A-Yuan gives a sleepy murmur to join in their celebration before he dozes of again. It was a good day and Wei Wuxian wonders what good he did to be able to witness this once again.
“I’m so glad I met Lan Zhan,” he says when no one but Wen Ning is listening. “Without him, I’d be not here.”
“Young Master Wei?” Wen Ning calls and he turns to smile at him. “Did you thank Second Young Master Lan yet?”
“Oh, shit,” Wei Wuxian curses, astounded by his own idiocy. “A-Ning, take A-Yuan, I have a Lan to find.” He gently lifts A-Yuan from his lap to deposit on the boy before he’s up and running out of the tea room and into the cold of the Cloud Recesses.
The white robes he’s wearing is strange against his skin and everything tickles without fur to protect him from the cold. It has been so long since he lived in the muted stench of the Burial Mounds, the fresh air here is like a strike against his lungs. Breath stuttering, Wei Wuxian stares as he starts to mindlessly pace the hallways. Wen Qing had warned him about running when he first came to meet them with Lan Wangji beside him. But then the man had left and they had all collapsed into one big teary mess.
Now, Wei Wuxian was just looking at the clear sky, the muted whispers of springs somewhere, the scent of flowering trees and the tranquil peace of a residence. Everything was so new and Wei Wuxian felt so out of place. He felt like running away or burrowing here forever; he wasn’t sure what to choose.
Just as he turns another bend of the hallway, a young Lan disciple, proper headband and starched white uniform in place, nearly bumps into him.
“I am sorry, Young Master!” he says and Wei Wuxian almost laughs at the adorable twitch in his nose.
“It is no worry, young man!” he says and almost retracts when the disciple looks at him and recognition flutters over his face. “Can you, um, direct me to where Lan Wangji might be?”
“Oh!” the disciple mutters and looks down to his feet. “He is in the Jingshi. Just go straight down the hallway and turn left to enter his private quarters.”
“Thank you, young man!” he chirps before he’s rushing off. There is a pair of eyes that burn into his back but Wei Wuxian knows that this would be on the list of the multitudes of things he will have to grow used to again. He felt like an imposter, somehow.
“Lan Zhan!” Wei Wuxian greets when the door slides apart to reveal a well-rested Lan Wangji.
“Wei Ying, come inside.” He opens the door wides and Wei Wuxian steps inside. He knew he’d slept here for the past two days in his temporary coma but it felt so much different now under the morning light. Especially when Lan Wangji was standing in the middle of the huge room, looking like he belonged here.
“Lan Zhan, I haven’t thanked you yet, have I?” he says, voice low and mellow while never disconnecting his eyes from Lan Wangji’s.
“There is not need for thanks,” he replies and Wei Wuxian feels his throat constrict more as he steps closer.
“Of course, there is. Without you, I wouldn’t be alive.”
Lan Wangji is silent for a bit before he dips his head, ears red. “I am glad then.” He pauses and looks up, a feeble courage painted onto his face. “I am glad Wei Ying is alive.”
“I am glad I’m alive too.