Chapter Text
Wei Yuan hated that day for as long as he could remember, and at the same time waited impatiently for it. It was linked to two very contradictory events that took place on that day thirteen years ago. A happy event was his birthday, each of his family members that day allowed themselves to pamper the youngest of them and allow him to do whatever Yuan wanted. At first, he thought it was cool. He'd been treated like a prince all day, and his dad finished work early to spend as much time with him as possible. Besides, he did it as often as possible, not just on his birthday. Yuan was convinced that there was no better father than Wei Wuxian. But when the boy grew old enough to understand certain things, he realized that the day of his birth was also the day of his mother’s death. When he was a kid, he kept wondering why his mom didn't celebrate with him, why instead of wishing him wishes and kissing his cheeks like aunt Jiang Yanli always did, they went with dad to a big room filled with brown plaques and kneeling on their pillows in front of a plaque called Wei Qing, that was his mom's name, but mom was nowhere. She didn't give him a birthday present, put him to bed at night, make delicious breakfasts, or tell stories like other moms did.
Only later did he realize that his mother would never come, and the day of joy on which he came into the world was lined with sadness caused by her death. He always remembered how his A-Die radiant smile disappeared late in the evening when they went to bow in front of his mother’s name board, and when they left, Wei Wuxian tried to get back to entertaining his son again, but unfortunately he failed. Therefore, Yuan became accustomed to being put to bed by either Yanli aunt or Wei Wuxian's stepmother Yu Ziyuan. Wei Wuxian locked himself in his office and did not leave for the rest of the day. Once boy not sleep at night, he knew well that his father would be in his office, so he went down to him quietly so as not to wake his grandmother. But when he looked inside, he found Dad sitting at his desk, drinking straight from the bottle that weird juice that made the grown-ups strangely cheerful and loud. In this case, it didn't work because his A-Die was sitting sad, very sad, so much so that tears flowed down his cheeks.
Then A-Yuan decided he really didn't like his birthday. From that moment on, despite the efforts of family members, he did not enjoy any gifts, not the first bicycle he secretly dreamed of, not new cars or other toys. Though his eyes sparkled with happiness at first, it vanished the moment he looked at his father’s joyful face. He disappeared because he knew that the night they paid their respects to his dead mother, he would lock himself in his office and cry.
Everything changed on his tenth birthday. That day, as always, when he came home from school, he was greeted by the smiling faces of Jiang Yanli and his grandmother. They wished him all the best and to his misfortune, both women bent over to kiss his cheeks.
— Eww. Auntie, grandma. I'm a big boy, you don't have to kiss me.
- Oh, but we know that - Jiang Yanlii said with feigned seriousness - We just can’t resist kissing those chubby cheeks.
The older woman agreed, and seeing the look on her grandson’s face, she smiled tenderly and became serious.
- We have a present for you – she whispered, and seeing the boy’s gulp turn into sadness, she added – From now on, until your sixteenth birthday, one of us will give you a letter from your mother.
A-Yuan looked at them without understanding. A-Niang died a long time ago, how could she give him a present? And every year for six years.
Jiang Yanli explained to him that Wen Qing had written them before she died, and then handed him one red envelope. However, she insisted that she could not tell anyone about it, not even her father, and then told him to go to his room.
A-Niang’s letters were really amusing for A-Yuan. She wrote various interesting stories about what it was like to go to school with his A-Die and how he behaved when he found his first job. She often wrote questions to which the boy answered aloud, as if A-Niang spirit could hear them.
When he received another letter at the age of thirteen, he learned that there had once been a very important person in Wei Wuxian’s life that he had never told him about. A-Niang called him Lan Wangji, and most of her letters contained stories about the man who occupied an important place in his father’s life.
Lan Wangji was an old friend of Wei Wuxian. They met in student lectures at Gusu University. Lan Wangji was the director’s nephew, the complete opposite of Wuxian. They were like water and fire. Lan Wangji was calm and restrained, following each of the 3,000 rules enshrined in the status of the university, while Wei Wuxian...You can say that he also did them notoriously with the difference that he broke them practically every day. However, by some miracle, the two found a common language, and by the second year of their studies they were fused together. If you ever wanted to find Wei Wuxian, you had to ask if anyone had seen Lan Wangji, it was well known that where young Lan was, there was also Wei Wuxian.
Everyone wondered how it was possible for someone with the personality of Lan Wangji to endure the company of such a busy and unbridled boy as Wei Wuxian, especially since at first he openly despised his notorious rule-breaking and reported him to the principal himself to be expelled from college. Also on the other side, people wondered how someone like Wei Wuxian could cope with someone as boring as Lan Wangji. At the end of the first year, there was a rumor that the two must have fallen in love, because how else to explain the fact that these two separate elements had merged with each other and there were no serious consequences. But the rumor was quickly extinguished, because everyone knew the nature of Wei Wuxian, who was a notorious flirtatious, no one could really count the number of girls he was with, and even more unlikely to add up to the final number of college girls he was flirting with, so it was impossible for him to fall in love with a man overnight. Although Lan Wangji’s beauty beat all the schoolgirls on the head, he was still a man. After a while, everyone agreed that some miracle must have happened in nature, so that the two were true friends and did not kill each other, spending time together.
Yuan laughed out loud as he read one of the stories telling how a giant panic broke out in the school because they heard the two shouting at each other and declaring that they hated each other. The sensation was so great that it also worried Lan Qiren, which he hated Wei Wuxian like the worst plague, and tried to find out what had happened between them. Wei Wuxian’s half-brother, Jiang Cheng, also intervened, he just happened to have his own reasons, namely, he couldn’t stand for long the sight of Wei Wuxian following him around like a beaten dog and whining in his ear how angry and sad he was that Lan Zhan didn’t want to talk to him. However, when someone offered him an apology to the boy, he abruptly denied any interest in it, as he was not at fault. The truth came out only after two hours, during which all eyes of students and teachers were on the couple. As it turned out, Lan Wangji once dared to have a different opinion from Wei Wuxian, and the latter couldn’t stand it, which ended in a six-hour break in their friendship. This came to light as Lan Wangji was packing his belongings to spend the weekend away from the dormitory, and his kind-hearted roommate Nie Huaisang spread a rumor that Lan Wangji was leaving the university.
The fence within half an hour reached Wei Wuxian, who happened to be playing basketball with his teammates, just when he was about to make his final three-point shot. Hearing this, he dropped the ball and, unconcerned with the exhortations of his teammates, ran toward the parking lot, just as Lan Wangji was getting into his brother’s car. The entire school had a chance to see Wei Wuxian fall to his knees in front of him and, embracing him at the waist, began begging him not to leave.
- Wei Ying, get up - whispered Lan Wangji, and the tips of his ears blushed when he realized that everyone in the school was watching them. Was among the observers Lan Xichen’s older brother, which sit in the driver’s seat, who couldn’t help but giggle.
- I’m not getting up! – exclaimed Wei Wuxian, hugging himself more – I was wrong! Lan Wangji, Lan Zhan is always right, never wrong! I’m the stupid one! Don’t leave me alone! Don’t leave!
- Wei Ying, I am not leaving forever. I’ll be back on Monday, I told you, remember? I’m going home for the weekend.
And that’s when everyone realized that Wei Wuxian’s poor memory and his rather unhealthy association with Lan Wangji were not the best combination.
From all the stories written by his mother in the letter, A-Yuan could tell that they were really good friends who didn’t like being away from each other for too long. So why did the boy only learn about it from the letters? He knew his a-die friends very well, both from the university and from work. Why didn’t he meet Lan Wangji? Could it be that, by some miracle, this almost unbreakable thread has been broken?
He got the answer on his sixteenth birthday, along with a letter from his mother, which his grandmother handed to him as soon as he returned from school. With a gentle smile, she gave him a red envelope and, wishing him a happy birthday, kissed him gently on the cheek. A-Yuan thanked him and rushed quickly to his room to read his mother’s letter in the two hours that remained until his father’s return.
Hello, A-Yuan.
Happy sixteenth birthday. I can’t believe you are already so big. You you must be like your father, who can’t drive away his friends and a lot of girls from school.
A-Yuan blushed reading these words. He wasn’t entirely convinced of the sincerity of these words, because although he really resembled a father, his flirting skills and behavior reminded him very much of those of Lan Wangji, whom his mother had described to him in letters.
However, I hope your grandmother and uncles give you more discipline and you are not as scatterbrained as he is. I still can’t believe that he managed to finish school. And anyway, it’s a waste of ink and hand to write out all your father’s faults, but I hope you’re both well and don’t miss me so much.
Wei Yuan’s smile disappeared from his face. They both miss her a lot, although the boy’s longing was different, actually it’s hard to miss someone you haven’t even met. He was sad that his father would lock himself in his room again, get drunk and start crying.
I prefer to focus on something really important. Do you remember your father’s friend Lan Wangji, whom I told you about in previous letters? You’re probably wondering why you never met him, since they were so inseparable with your father. In this letter I would like to tell you about their last year at university, which they spent in two and how much my appearance, destroyed this relationship....