Work Text:
How It All Happened
When the curse latched itself on Wei Wuxian, he immediately knew that he had made a mistake. Usually he doesn’t mind making mistakes, because he believes that it is an important part of education. Or so he would have told the juniors.
In this particular case, he had no idea how the curse would have affected him. Which was why he had considered it a serious mistake. The curse had taken its toll on a few victims already. The first victim had turned old, twenty years older than his original age. It would not have been much of a problem, except that the victim was already 70 years old. He succumbed to old age and passed away.
The second victim had turned five years younger, from his original age of ten. He was sick, and at five years old, his immune system was not that strong. He became sicker and sicker before succumbing to his illness.
The third victim turned ten years older. He was already 50 years old, and within an hour he turned 60. He was still alive though, but his energy level was much lower and he wasn’t able to work at his farm as he used to.
The victims came from two different villages, and the village heads had both sent their letters to Gusu Lan Sect, as it was the nearest sect to their area. Wei Wuxian was there when Lan Wangji opened the letters, and had decided that this would be an interesting case to investigate. He was absolutely correct on that front. He had also overestimated himself.
The investigating team consisted of Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi, with Wen Ning tagging along. Hanguang-Jun had been tied up with sect duties and was unable to join them. Along the way to get there, they met with Ouyang Zizhen at Caiyi town, who was there coincidentally to buy some supplies. Those supplies could have been bought in Baling, but Wei Wuxian chose not to question the young man’s choices in life. As they were half way towards the village, they stopped for a break at a town, and Jin Ling happened to be eating at the same restaurant that they had walked in. Wei Wuxian looked at Lan Jingyi’s surprised face and thought that this kid needs more training if he wants to be an actor.
The six of them had arrived at their destination quite late in the afternoon, and stayed the night at an inn. The next day, they decided to split into two teams, to visit both villages at the same time. Lan Sizhui and Ouyang Zizhen went with Wen Ning, while Wei Wuxian had the wonderful opportunity to bond with his favorite nephew, Jin Ling, and his favorite guinea pig, Lan Jingyi. They were all his ducklings, but Lan Jingyi did not mind testing any of his talismans at all, so he was his favorite testing subject.
They had noted that all the victims were male. The ages they were cursed to did not seem to have a pattern. They met the village head and walked over to the latest victim’s house.
“Mr. Dou here had been quite healthy, although about ten years older. He was taking the situation quite well, but he lived as a farmer, so of course that had affected his livelihood.” The village head explained as they were reaching the victim’s house.
Mr. Dou was already waiting for them at the veranda outside the farmhouse. The village head introduced them to him and he looked visibly relieved.
“Please! Mr. Lan! I will give you anything you wish from me! Help me to lift this curse please!” The man pleaded, his hands clasped together. He tried to get down on his knees but was stopped by Wei Wuxian.
“Please, Mr. Dou! You do not need to kneel before me! Also, my name is Wei.”
“Ah, I thought you were Hanguang-Jun’s husband…”The man looked at him with wide eyes. He could see Jin Ling and Lan Jingyi snickering with the corner of his eyes.
Wei Wuxian cleared his throat and slightly blushed. Wouldn’t that make me Lan-furen, instead? At least this man didn’t know that I’m Yiling Laozu. “Well, yes, but you can call me Wei Wuxian, it’s fine.” He seated himself across the table from Mr. Dou. “Can you tell us where you had been before you were cursed? Did you do anything unusual?”
Mr. Dou shook his head. “Just my usual farming chores, Mr. Wei.” He looked into the distance and considered. “Watered all the plants, fed all the animals. I started planting at a new plot further at the back. Went to look for some fire wood in the afternoon.”
“You were by yourself?”
“I have workers helping me. When I went looking for the firewood, I was with my son.”
“That was the last thing you did, right? Before you were struck with the curse?”
“Yes. Half a shichen after we came back, I felt intense pain and fainted. My son laid me on my bed and went looking for a healer. When they came back, I had turned into this.” He gestured to his aged body.
“Was anyone with you at that time?”
“No… my wife and other children were at the well, washing up the farm equipment.”
“Interesting. Can you show us the area that you went to? For the firewood?”
“Of course. It’s not too far from here.”
They followed the farmer into the woods behind his farm, walking down a well-trodden path. They soon came into a clearing in the woods. There were several tree stumps of felled trees, and a few stacks of firewood that had already been chopped.
As soon as they got there, Wei Wuxian could sense the resentment energy coming out in waves.
Huh, something is here. And it is not happy.
He noticed several paths coming out of the clearing, some well-used, others, almost overgrown with bushes.
“You are not the only one who used this area?”
“No, Mr. Wei, several other villagers also came here to chop down the trees.”
“This area… was recently cleared?”
“Yes, sir, about three months ago. Maybe four.”
“And those paths…lead to where?” Wei Wuxian indicated towards the other paths.
“They lead to other farms, some will take you to the next village.”
Interesting. I wonder if the other victims were here too.
They looked around the area, looking for something out of place. Jin Ling stood in front of a path that was almost closed by the bushes growing on either side. “You know, if Fairy was here, she could have helped me sniffing around.”
“Don’t you dare! Do you want to be killed by Hanguang-Jun?” Lan Jingyi prodded his shoulder lightly with the handle of his sword.
“He wouldn’t kill me. His spouse would be devastated.” He replied smugly. Lan Jingyi rolled his eyes.
“Of course, little Mistress.” He walked away before Jin Ling could poke him with his sword handle.
“Why are you standing there? Jin Ling?” Wei Wuxian asked from the other side of the clearing.
“Wei Wuxian! Come and have a look! This path feels off, somehow.” His nephew answered.
As Wei Wuxian got nearer, the resentment energy felt stronger. Jin Ling was right. Something did not feel right about this particular path. He wondered if his nephew had inherited some sort of internal sense of danger from his Jiang bloodline.
“Mr. Dou, did you went through this path that day?” He turned to the old man.
Mr. Dou wrinkled his brow. “Now that you mention it… I did…” He walked slowly towards them. “I saw a pheasant between the trees while I was resting from chopping the woods. I thought maybe I could hunt it down. I followed the pheasant down that path. Didn’t managed to catch the bird though, it flew away.”
Wei Wuxian looked at his juniors. “Let’s go.”
They walked down the path, pushing away the branches of the low-growing bushes in the way. After walking for a short while, they came upon a huge tree.
Jin Ling looked up towards the top of the tree. “Wow…this tree is huge… it must be hundreds of years old.” Wei Wuxian started walking around the tree, with Lan Jingyi following behind him. The tree was so big that they lost sight of Jin Ling and Mr. Dou when they were on the opposite side of the tree.
Lan Jingyi shuddered. Wei Wuxian looked at him and nodded. “I know.” He spoke with a low voice. “I can sense the resentment around the tree, it is quite strong.” Cultivators, especially high level ones, would have definitely sensed it. But for commoners like Mr. Dou, he would not feel much.
“Mr. Dou, do you remember if you did anything while you were here?”
The old man shook his head. “No, Mr. Wei. I admired the tree, like Jin Gongzi here. Walked around it. Realized that I had lost the pheasant, and then I walked back to the clearing to pack up and go home.”
“Did you touched the tree?”
“Well, yes… you know, to admire it. It was so large and old, I was awe-struck, you know?”
“Hmm…Mr. Dou, I need you to remember carefully…. Did you say anything while you were here?”
“Ah… no.”
“Think again, Mr. Dou.”
“Ah…” He looked to the ground. “I think I might have said… this tree will give a lot of firewood. You know, because it is so big.” At least he looked sorry when he said that.
There it is. There is something guarding this tree and you have offended it.
Jin Ling and Lan Jingyi looked at each other. They had come to the same conclusion as Wei Wuxian as well.
“Jin Ling, help Mr. Dou to go back and rest at home.”
“What? Why me?”
“You are strongest here.”
Jin Ling had no choice but to do as he was told. Surely he would not admit that Lan Jingyi was stronger than him! The two of them walked slowly back down the path.
Lan Jingyi whispered loudly to Wei Wuxian. “Wei-qianbei! What can we do? How do we appease this spirit?”
“We need to get A-Yuan here. He could play his guqin and see if the tree spirit would respond back.”
They heard some voices coming from the clearing area. Wei Wuxian looked at the boy. “Do you think that’s him? I wouldn’t be surprised if he arrived at the clearing from the other paths.”
Lan Jingyi nodded. “Let me check, Wei-qianbei! I will bring him here.” He walked quickly through the overgrown path, back towards the wood chopping area.
Wei Wuxian turned back to the tree and came face to face with a beautiful woman. He jumped back in surprise.
“Guniang!” He quickly bowed and saluted the lady. She was extremely pretty, wearing a dark purple robe.
“What… are… you… doing… here?” She responded, in a loud whisper. She spoke each word slowly, as if she hadn’t used the words for a long time.
“Guniang, I meant you no harm. We were simply checking the cause of a curse that had been affecting some villagers around here.”
The lady gave a hard look, but did not respond.
“Please, Guniang, they meant no harm to you. Please lift back the curse.”
“No…harm!” She whispered back in anger. Clearly Wei Wuxian had the wrong things. “You…are.. just… like… them!” Her eyes flashed.
“No! No! Perhaps they had misspoken! I… Please, Guniang, calm down. We can discuss this slowly.” Wei Wuxian held up both his hands. This spirit seemed to be very sensitive and suspicious. She might not had seen anyone for a very long time. They should have brought a female disciple with them here.
“Wei-qianbei!” Wei Wuxian heard Lan Jingyi’s voice and turned around to see him and Ouyang Zizhen coming back. He quickly turned around toward the lady, afraid that these two newcomers might frighten her even more. But the lady was gone.
“Aiyah! Where did she go?” He quickly ran around the tree, but saw no one. His heart sunk. He did not have a good feeling about this.
“Wei-qianbei! What happened?” Ouyang Zizhen asked. “I came here with the second victim’s brother. He said the boy had been playing around this area before he was cursed.”
Wei Wuxian nodded. “Mm. We think it might be caused by the spirit guarding this huge tree. Perhaps they had threatened to do something to the tree… even as a joke. But the spirit seemed to be a wary one. Maybe she thought she just wanted to protect the tree.”
Lan Jingyi looked at him in alarm. “Wait… what happened while I was away?”
“The spirit appeared. Just before you came here, she vanished.”
“So how do we call her back?” Lan Jingyi cradled his sword. “Can we ask her to lift the curse?”
“We’ll get A-Yuan to try summoning her. He’s not here?”
Lan Jingyi shook his head. “No. Let’s go back to the inn and wait for him. Maybe he’s done with his investigation and is waiting for us there.”
Ouyang Zizhen elbowed him. “You’re just hungry for lunch.”
“Well, I am, but there’s nothing we can do here anyway.”
“Jingyi’s right. Let’s go back first to meet with the others. There must be a way to appease a tree-spirit.”
.
When they arrived at the inn, they ordered the food for lunch while waiting for Lan Sizhui. He arrived not long after that.
“Apologies, everyone, I was detained by a family that needed help fixing their broken wheel.” He took his seat. Wen Ning did not join them, he usually didn’t join them for meals when they were out in public; the fact that he didn’t join them eating looked too strange. Lan Jingyi put a bowl of rice in front of him. Ouyang Zizhen passed him a bowl of soup. “I went to the first victim’s house with Uncle Ning. The victim was helping his son to gather some firewood. His son said he lost sight of his father for a while, but then he came out of the woods, and he looked fine. They went back home and his father went to sleep. Not long after that they discovered his father’s condition.”
“Hmm, it is as we expected. He must had somehow met the tree spirit and offended it too.” Wei Wuxian sipped the soup in his bowl. Lan Jingyi looked at him curiously.
“Wei-qianbei…are you all right?” Lan Jingyi peered at him closely. Lan Jingyi had always been an observant young man. And others usually had to suffer his observations.
“Uh…fine…why did you asked?” He looked back at the boy.
“You’re sweating.”
“He’s always sweating when he eats his spicy food!” Jin Ling pointed at the chili oil bowl on the table his with his chin.
“No…this is different.” Lan Jingyi looked at him closely.
All right, he might have felt a little achy in his muscles. But this was normal! This body of Mo Xuanyu was still trying to build up muscles!
“I’m really fine!” He looked at A-Yuan, but he could see even his own son looked a little worried.
“Baba, why don’t you take a rest first? I’ve brought a few books with me. After eating, we can sit down together and check if there’s a way to appease a tree spirit.”
“Jin Ling, help me to drag him to the room. Zizhen, it’s your turn to pay.” Lan Jingyi stood up and put his hand around one of Wei Wuxian’s arms.
Jin Ling rolled his eyes and sighed. “Come on, old man.”
“Really, I’m fine, boys!” Wei Wuxian tried to reassure them, but oh, his legs seemed extra heavy now. He felt so tired.
He didn’t know how they got to his room, but soon he was on his bed, Jingyi had taken off his boots, he felt immensely exhausted, and fell asleep.
.
The group gathered in their shared room. They had chosen a large room with four beds (Jin Ling paid for the rooms) and sat at the big table in the middle of the room.
“Okay, I’m pretty sure Wei-qianbei had been hit by the curse too.” Lan Jingyi started the discussion.
Ouyang Zizhen nodded. “Mm! Mo Xuanyu’s body might not be strong, but he certainly wasn’t this weak! He barely did anything this morning!”
“Typical Wei Wuxian. My Jiujiu had warned me about this! He always got into trouble effortlessly.” Jin Ling wrinkled his brows while pouring the tea.
“He said there was a beautiful woman at the tree, but we didn’t see anyone. So the tree spirit had appeared only for him.” Lan Jingyi ignored Jin Ling’s comments.
“What do you think will happen to him? Will he get older or younger?” Ouyang Zizhen looked at them, worried.
“It could be either way. The previous victims…” Lan Jingyi tried to remember.
Ouyang Zizhen nodded. “First victim, older. Second victim, younger. Third victim, older. So if he is the fourth victim, he might be younger! Although there is no obvious pattern on how many years they got older or younger.” He looked at Jin Ling. “How old is Mo Xuanyu, again?”
“We are all 20 years old…Jin Ling is 19. Was Mo Xuanyu six or seven years older than you? So… 25?26?” Lan Jingyi pointed to Jin Ling. He nodded in response.
“But Baba only came back a year ago… so if he was younger by 10 years … would he die? Or would he be 16? Wow, even younger than us?” Lan Sizhui’s mouth was gaping.
“It’ll be the age of his body, or his soul?” Lan Jingyi tapped his chin. “What an interesting problem.”
“It’s just like Wei Wuxian, to get involved in these kinds of things!” Jin Ling pulled at his hair. “Why can’t I just have normal uncles like other people?”
Lan Jingyi nodded his head towards Lan Sizhui’s direction. “His uncle is an undead corpse.”
Jin Ling tossed a peanut towards him. “You know what I meant!”
“Should we get a healer for Wei-qianbei?” Ouyang Zizhen said, accepting the tea cup from Lan Sizhui. He tapped his fingers on the teacup nervously. “Guys, what if he was like, twenty years younger? Hanguang-Jun would be upset!”
All of them looked at each other in bewilderment. “Let’s hope he just turned a few years younger.” Lan Sizhui tried to calm them all down.
“Hanguang-Jun won’t kill us, right? I’m the only male heir of my family.” Ouyang Zizhen looked at Lan Sizhui nervously.
“Of course not! We didn’t do anything!” Lan Jingyi shouted at him.
“I wished I hadn’t separated from you guys earlier…” Lan Sizhui looked at his tea miserably. “Should we send a missive to Hanguang-Jun? Or bring Baba back to him?”
“It’s easier for him to come to us.” Jin Ling said, taking out his butterfly talisman from his robes and handing it over to Lan Sizhui. Lan Sizhui took it with thanks and went to his bed. He activated the talisman and spoke softly, but the rest of them could still catch some of his words - “Baba caught a curse” …“A-die, please…”… “If you are not too busy”. They knew Hanguang-Jun would come anyway, anytime Lan Sizhui calls for him.
Lan Jingyi rummaged inside Lan Sizhui’s qiankun bag and pulled out several scrolls. “Better start studying.” The other boys took the scrolls and began going through the texts. The talisman in Lan Sizhui’s hand turned into a golden butterfly and flew away.
He gave a sigh and went out of the room to the check on Wei Wuxian in the next room. His father was shivering so he piled some blankets on him.
“Baba? Can you hear me?” His father did not answered, although his shivering had lessened.
“If you need anything, just call me, okay? I will be in the next room. I’ll come and check on you again.”
.
As expected, after half a shichen, Lan Jingyi was asleep on the table, his head on the scroll he was reading. Jin Ling was nodding off, but kept the brave effort of going through his third scroll. Ouyang Zizhen was taking notes on the side, the only one still diligently reading. Lan Sizhui himself had zoned out a while ago, too worried about his father. He knew even if his A-die received the butterfly and left immediately, he would still arrive by the evening.
“Zizhen.” He called out softly.
“Hm?” Ouyang Zizhen didn’t look up from his writing.
“How long had it been?”
“You mean, since we put Wei-qianbei on the bed? Slightly more than half a shichen.”
“How long did it took for the previous victims to turn?” Jin Ling asked sleepily.
“Half a shichen. That was what most of the family members said.”
“We should go check on him now.”
Ouyang Zizhen nodded. “Let’s go.”
“I should inform my Jiujiu on this, shouldn’t I? Let me send him a butterfly.” Jin Ling took a talisman from his robe.
“Okay, we’ll go first.” Lan Sizhui led the way to the next room, Ouyang Zizhen and Lan Jingyi, rubbing his face, following after.
Ouyang Zizhen opened the door slowly and peeked in. “Wei-qianbei…” He stopped. There was a man sitting on the bed. It wasn’t Mo Xuanyu. Well, it wasn’t the Wei-qianbei he used to see.
The man put both his feet down by the bedside and rubbed his face. All three of them trooped into the room. “Wei-qianbei…”
When the man looked up, Ouyang Zizhen’s jaws dropped. This is definitely not the face that he was used to. This man was beautiful. Very, very handsome, and yet beautiful at the same time. Mo Xuanyu’s face had been cute, and pretty, for a man. But this man in front of them was gorgeous. How was it possible for a man to be so good-looking? The world is really unfair.
“Who are you..?” The words left his mouth without thinking.
“Ah..? My ducklings? What happened?” The voice was different too, deeper, but the tone, the inflection in his voice, the fondness, was clear. This must be Wei-qianbei.
“Xian…Xian-gege...” They all turned to look at Lan Sizhui. He had tears in his eyes.
Lan Sizhui ran towards the man and hugged him. The tears flowed down his cheeks. The man patted his back fondly.
Ouyang Zizhen and Lan Jingyi looked at each other in bewilderment. What is happening? Is this..? All this while, Wei-qianbei had insisted that Yiling Laozu was a very handsome man, and Ouyang Zizhen had taken that to be kind of a joke. He had never been so wrong.
Lan Sizhui wiped his eyes and smiled. “Come, Baba, you have to see!” He pulled the man’s hand and dragged him to the mirror in the room.
Ouyang Zizhen and Lan Jingyi looked at the man in surprise. When he stood, he was so tall. Almost as tall as Hanguang-Jun! And his body… he was thin, but there were definitely muscles under the robes straining over him. He looked into the mirror and shouted out in surprise. Then he looked down at his body, realizing for the first time that he looked different than he used to.
“A-Yuan!” He looked at Lan Sizhui with wide eyes. Lan Sizhui nodded his head with excitement and laughed.
“Baba! It was your body when you were a youth!”
Ouyang Zizhen and Lan Jingyi looked at each other, and they could both see the envy in the other’s eyes. They were in their youth, and did not have the kind of muscles the Yiling Laozu and Hanguang-Jun had. Ouyang Zizhen stared at Wei-qianbei’s face. The straight nose, the charming smile, that amazing jawline, the twinkling eyes… even the mole under his lips. How could anyone resist the magnetic pull of this face? Hanguang-Jun was beautiful like a full moon glowing in the night, and this man was beautiful as a sunshine shining brightly on a blue sky. No wonder Hanguang-Jun had fallen for this man since they were teenagers.
The door opened and Jin Ling and Wen Ning walked in. They both stopped in their tracks and stared at the man.
Wen Ning opened his mouth in astonishment. “Wei…Wei-gongzi?!”
He had immediately recognized him, Lan Jingyi noticed. “Is this… is this Yiling Laozu?” He pointed a finger at Wei-qianbei.
Wei Wuxian laughed out loud. “Well, I guess you can say that, my favorite guinea pig! “He looked down to his arms. “The last time I had this body, I was definitely called that!”
Jin Ling still had not stopped staring. “I… I informed Jiujiu that you had been cursed. I think he was night hunting not far from here too.”
Wei Wuxian looked at him and sighed. “He’ll lecture me about this, I’m sure.”
“Wei-gongzi, you should get some new clothes, this one hardly fits you anymore.”
“Hmm, you’re right, Wen Ning! Boys, let’s go shopping! Jin Ling, don’t forget your purse!”
“I’m not paying for your clothes!”
“Sure, sure, I’ll just ask the tailor for a loan, then!”
“Ugh! Why do you have to keep embarrassing me!”
.
As they walked down the street, Ouyang Zizhen couldn’t help noticing. All the ladies kept glancing at them, or rather, at Wei Wuxian. With his height, he could hardly go unnoticed. Ouyang Zizhen had been out with Hanguang-Jun before, following behind him, and had seen the kind of stares from women and men alike. But this was very different. Unlike Hanguang-Jun, Wei Wuxian gave his smiles freely. He greeted the ladies selling by the roadside, praising and flattering them. As a result, the sellers gave them free samples of their wares – all sorts of food and trinkets. ‘Beauty can really feed the stomach’, Ouyang Zizhen thought, as Wei-qianbei passed him a red bean bun that a lady just passed to him. He’s already holding a cup of warm soymilk in his other hand. He sighed internally. If Hanguang-Jun were to do the same, surely the town would be in chaos. Perhaps it’s a good thing that Hanguang-Jun always had a stoic, unsmiling face.
They waited near the entrance of the tailor shop, as the shop was too small to fit all of them in it. The tailor did have several ready-made robes of Wei-Wuxian’s height. He told his assistant to go to the store at the back to fetch them. “Get my Baba to help you to carry them out.”
The tailor set out some stools for them to sit while waiting. Wie Wuxian walked around the shop, looking at the robes hung by the wall. Soon, the assistant and an older man, clearly the tailor’s father, came back with several robes. As soon as the old man saw Wei Wuxian, he dropped the clothes he was carrying.
“Yi…Yiling Laozu..!” The old man looked at Wei Wuxian in horror. Wei Wuxian himself was taken aback, he did not expect to be recognized upon sight, after all this time.
“Baba!” the tailor collected the robes and held his father. “Are you all right?” He turned to look at Wei Wuxian in disbelief.
The old man went down to his knees. “Yiling Laozu! Please don’t harm us! We thank you for saving us from the Wens!” He made to kowtow in front of him.
“Please! Stop that!” Wei Wuxian responded in panic, and quickly held up the old man. ”Uncle, that was a long time ago.”
The old man stood up again, but he was still slightly shivering. The tailor looked at Wei Wuxian with admiring eyes. “So you are the Yiling Laozu! I’ve heard so much about you growing up!”
The juniors looked at each other. This was the first time they met someone that not only recognized Yiling Laozu on sight, but was also outright scared of him. And then seeing another person with clear admiration for the legendary Yiling Laozu. It was like seeing the things they learned in History lessons come to life.
“Maybe we don’t appreciate Wei-qianbei enough...” Ouyang Zizhen said to his friends. His friends nodded their heads, taking in the sight before them.
“I never thought just a sight of someone can send you on your knees with fear. Wei-qianbei was truly someone.” Lan Jingyi agreed.
“I wish I had known earlier that my parents were not killed by Yiling Laozu.” Jin Ling whispered aloud. The others patted and squeezed his shoulders.
The tailor insisted on giving all the robes for free, with a jade tag attached to the belt, so that everyone knew the clothes were from the shop. Wei-qianbei, being shameless as usual, laughed and accepted all of it, after declining them initially.
.
“I’m hungry! It felt like I haven’t eaten for days!” Wei-qianbei put his hand around Lan Sizhui’s shoulders. He looked at the juniors fondly. “Shall we go for an afternoon tea?”
“I’m still full from all the free snacks we got just now…” Ouyang Zizhen rubbed his stomach.
“Let’s go, Wei-qianbei!” Lan Jingyi was clearly enjoying all the attention they were getting.
“WEI WUXIAN!”
They were just a few steps away from the restaurant when they heard a shout. They froze, familiar with the voice that shouted the name. Sometimes Jiang-zongzhu would join their nighthunts too, to watch over Jin Ling. They all turned to see Sect Leader Jiang coming towards them, with several Jiang disciples following from behind.
“Ah, Jiang Cheng!” Wei Wuxian gave an uneasy laugh. He rubbed his head. “You’re here too! Do you want to join me for tea?”
“You idiot! Jin Ling said you had been latched with a curse! What have you done this time!”
“Uh… there was a tree spirit…”
Jiang-zongzhu glared at him, if it’s possible to glare even fiercer than he usually did. “You could have sent word if you needed help! What did the spirit do to you?!”
“Um...” Wei Wuxian looked down.
“Jiujiu…” Jin Ling tried to interrupt.
“Jiang-zongzhu…that...”
Jiang Wangyin turned towards the juniors. “Well? What happened to him?”
Jin Ling shouted to his uncle with annoyance. “Jiujiu! You’re not looking!”
Jiang Wangyin scowled. “What am I supposed to be looking at?”
“Wei Wuxian!” “Yiling Laozu!” The juniors all answered at the same time.
“Of course he’s Wei Wuxian! You think I didn’t know how my brother looked like?”
“Jiujiu!” All of them pointed towards Wei-qianbei. “Look at him!”
Jiang-zongzhu turned to look at Wei-qianbei again. His face suddenly changed. “Wei…Wei Wuxian!” There was a journey going through his face. There was anger, and then confusion, and then the recognition setting in, and finally, sadness. He looked at his brother, and tears started welling up in his eyes.
To the surprise of everyone around, Jiang-zongzhu grabbed Wei-qianbei and hugged him. They didn’t say a word, just hugged each other. After a while, they let go of each other. Wei-qianbei still looked sad. Jiang-zongzhu boxed his shoulder and turned towards the restaurant. “Come on, let’s go eat. Tell me how you ended up like this, you idiot.”
.
Once they were done eating, they walked back to the inn. The sun would set in half a shichen, so they decided to visit the tree spirit tomorrow morning instead. The inn they were staying in were already full though, so Jiang-zongzhu and his disciples had to look for another inn. When he heard that Hanguang-Jun was probably already on his way there, he looked at Wei Wuxian up and down. “Yeah, I definitely don’t want to be in the same inn as you are tonight.”
“Jiang Cheng!”
The Jiang Sect Leader walked away without looking back. The Jiang disciples looked sorry to leave.
After cleaning themselves up, they ordered for dinner to be sent to the large room and had their dinner together.
“Wei-qianbei, how about your golden core? Do you still have Mo Xuanyu’s?” Lan Jingyi asked after the dinner dishes were all eaten up. They still had desserts to enjoy though, given complimentary of the innkeeper’s daughter, after Wei Wuxian had complimented her hair accessories. She had blushed deeply when hearing that, and told them she would sent them a special dessert dish.
Jin Ling had rolled his eyes, and spoke up loudly, “Do you think his husband would mind?” He was quickly elbowed by Ouyang Zizhen and Lan Jingyi. “You idiot, shut up!” “We’re taking advantage of Wei-qianbei’s good looks here!”
And to be honest, since this change, Ouyang Zizhen had not been able to tear his eyes away from Wei-qianbei. Number four on the Most Eligible Bachelors List? He should have been number one! Or share the second spot with Hanguang-Jun!
“Yes, surprisingly, my core was still Mo Xuanyu’s.”
“This is really a strange curse.” Lan Sizhui looked at his father, fondly but also with confusion on his face.
As they were passing the dessert bowls around, there was a knock on the room’s door. Lan Sizhui went to answer it.
“A-die! You’re here!”
They all turned to see Hanguang-Jun striding into the room. “My apologies, there were some businesses I had to attend to before I could come here.” He stopped in his tracks when he saw his husband.
“Lan Zhan!” Wei Wuxian waved cheerfully to his husband. He stood up from the table and showed off himself.
“Wei…Ying…” Hanguang-Jun was clearly astounded. “What…what happened?”
“Baba was hit by the curse of a tree spirit and turned younger. Apparently this was how he used to look like..?”
“Mn.” Hanguang-Jun’s eyes were still on Wei Wuxian, unblinking. “Many years ago.” To their surprise, there were tears welling up in his eyes too.
Jin Ling turned to Ouyang Zizhen. “Really? Again? Why do they all reacted like this?”
“Maybe they miss the Yiling Laozu, after all.“ He answered.
As Wei-qianbei stood in front of Hanguang-Jun, they could see how they were almost at the same height, Hanguang-Jun being slightly taller. It certainly was very different than their height difference before. With Hanguang-Jun’s straight back and the Yiling laozu’s teasing demeanor, it was a very captivating sight. Wei-qianbei peered closely at Hanguang-Jun’s face, who had seem to be frozen since he walked in. It was like they were young men all over again.
Ouyang Zizhen put his chin on his hands and beheld the sight. “No wonder Hanguang-Jun fell for Wei-qianbei back then… Wei-qianbei was so handsome.”
“You can’t tell me that maidens all over were not affected by these two..” Lan Jingyi joined in.
“My friends… These are my parents.” Lan Sizhui looked at them both.
Jin Ling scowled. “They are my uncles, I guess..?” He stabbed his spoon into his pudding.
Wei-qianbei winked. “Lan Zhan, you still remember me like this, right?”
“Wei Ying.” Hanguang-Jun raised his hand and slowly traced Wei-qianbei’s jawline.
“It’s me, Lan Zhan!”
“Wei Ying.” Hanguang-Jun’s eyes were still wet.
The juniors were looking at each other, feeling like they were intruding in a private scene between two lovers. “Hanguang-Jun are just going to keep calling Wei-qianbei’s name?“ Lan Jingyi whispered. “Should we just leave the room?” Ouyang Zizhen whispered back.
“This is our room!” Jin Ling hissed. He took the pudding bowl in front of Lan Sizhui and Wei-qianbei’s.
“Wei-qianbei! Hanguang-Jun! Why don’t you have the desserts in your room?”
They both turned towards the juniors, as if just realizing they were there too. The sight of these two beautiful men were just too much for Ouyang Zizhen. He sighed. He’s going to commission a painter to capture these two together.
“Lan Zhan… I have an idea to discuss with you in my room.” Wei-qianbei’s hand rubbed the shoulder of his husband. “Why don’t continue the discussion there? Are you hungry?”
Hanguang-Jun gave him a smoldering look. “Mn. Yes. But not for food.”
Ouyang Zizhen was sure that Wei-qianbei was the most shameless man he had ever met, but even that turned the most shameless man’s face red.
“Come, come, let’s appease your hunger. You haven’t seen me for two whole days!” He grabbed Hanguang-Jun’s hand towards the door. “Besides, this Yiling Laozu body is still a virgin!”
Jin Ling placed both his hands over his ears. “Argghh! I didn’t need to hear that!”
“Come on, Jin Ling, you will be married soon, you’re already of age.” Lan Jingyi laughed at him.
“Shut up!!!” He shouted in response.
Lan Sizhui was rummaging inside his qiankun bag. “Jingyi, do you have the silencing talisman? We need to place it over their door, quick! Otherwise we’ll have to apologize to the entire inn!”
.
The next day, they made their way towards the tree. The juniors had found a scroll that had suggested a few ways to appease a tree spirit.
When they reached the tree, Hanguang-Jun took out his guqin and played to summon the tree spirit. She did not reappeared, but answered all his questions. It was as they had suspected: the spirit heard those people talking and had perceived them as threats to the huge tree’s safety. The tree had been growing there for more than a hundred years with no disturbance. The recent wood cutting activities had caused the tree to be discovered and their peace was disrupted.
They made the offerings to appease the tree spirit. Then they set up a boundary around the tree, so that no one could approach the tree, except for strong cultivators. Common people would not be able to come close to the tree. The tree spirit seemed to be happy with this arrangement.
They pleaded for the curse to be lifted back. The tree spirit remained silent…and then promised that she would do it. They gave a collective sigh of relief, and went back to the inn, very comforted that the farmer would be all right again. As for the Yiling Laozu... Hanguang-Jun gave his husband that intense look again, and they hurried back to their room. The juniors decided that it’s a good day to walk around the town for a shichen or two.
.
Two weeks after the incident, Wei Wuxian was walking around a lake town, not too far from Gusu. He had accompanied Lan Sizhui and Wen Ning on a night hunt at the lake, hunting down some water demons. Hanguang-Jun was meeting several village heads nearby and had promised to meet with them at this town today at noon.
Now that they had successfully spent the morning getting rid of the demons, they decided to take a walk through the town’s market to do some shopping to reward themselves. Wei Wuxian saw a tall figure dressed in light blue in the distance, coming towards them. After the curse had been lifted, he had returned to Mo Xuanyu’s body, and their height difference was obvious again. He kind of missed how he could stare at his husband at the same eye level.
“Get your protection talisman by Yiling Laozu! Guaranteed to keep away bad spirits and bad luck!”
Wei Wuxian looked around the marketplace. Are there still people who dared to sell these scam products under his name??!
He walked towards the direction of the peddler and finally found the scoundrel, standing in front of a creek, with a small table full of various items.
“Good morning, sir! Are you looking for anything specific? I have so many things here that could help you! Tell me, what is the problem that you are facing!” The peddler was eager to please. “Look, talismans written by the Yiling Laozu himself! To ward away evil spirits!”
Wei Wuxian took one of the talismans placed on the table. “This is rubbish.. this talisman won’t be good for anything! What a waste of talisman paper!”
“Don’t say what you don’t understand, sir! How about these portraits of Yiling Laozu? They will scare the ghosts away! Let me tell you, I have recently received a new version of the portraits! They are even more effective now!”
“A new version?”
“Yes, sir! Would you like to see them?”
“I want to see them.” A deep voice came from behind Wei Wuxian. He turned around to see his husband standing there, with a serious face as usual.
The peddler took out a thin stack of papers from a basket under the table. “Here you go, sir! Look! The artist told me that he saw the Yiling Laozu recently, and the portrait now had been updated!”
Sure enough, the portrait showed Wei Wuxian when he was hit with the curse two weeks ago. Wei Wuxian laughed out loud. “Lan Zhan! When do you think the artist managed to see me? I mean, the Yiling Laozu?”
“How many of these portraits do you have, Laoban?” Lan Wangji asked the peddler.
“I only have twenty, sir! I wasn’t sure if people will like this new version!”
“I’ll buy all of them.”
“Lan Zhan!”
“Do you know where the artist live?” Lan Wangji ignored his husband. He looked at the peddler with a stern face.
“Uh… why did you ask, sir?” He took a step back.
“Mn... Maybe I will pay him a visit.”
“No… no, do you mean to harm him, sir? You can’t do that! He’s my only source for these new portraits!”
“I won’t harm him. Just his brushes.”
The peddler squawked and hopped behind. “Please sir! Please don’t do that!” He took another step behind again, out of fear, and fell into the creek.
Lan Wangji left a silver piece on the table and took all of the portraits with him. “Come, Wei Ying, I’m sure A-Yuan will be looking for us.”
“Lan Zhan! You’re being ridiculous!”
“Mn.” They started walking away from the stall, ignoring the commotion caused by the peddler struggling in the shallow creek.
“Are you seriously going to find that artist?” Wei Wuxian tugged at Lan Wangji’s sleeve.
His husband gave him a mysterious half-smile.
