CH 57 – Time is like a river
(A/N I will be busy for a few weeks so unable to update. I will be back as soon as I can with the next chapters of the story as soon as I can, as I am on the homewards stretch now and have an idea how I am going to end it. Also in my profile I have some ideas for my next story, please feel free to look and give me your opinions. TY)
The morning sun shone into the JingShi through the windows that Lan Zhan must have opened when he got up to go to his meeting with Lan XiChen. Wei Ying scrunched up his eyes against the light not wanting to rise from the bed. His body ached from their ….exercise….last night. He didn't know if he was getting softer as he got older or if Lan Zhan was getting rougher, but he always seemed to be more sore now after their lovemaking than he was in his youth. Debating inwardly for a moment if pulling the covers over his head and closing his eyes would let him get back to sleep, before finally giving up and/pulling his groaning muscles out of the warm bed he moved behind bathing screen and began washing up for the day. Maybe if he had chance he would go down to the cold pool and try and soothe some of these sore muscles, not that it would help much as Lan Zhan would probably just make them sore again tonight.
Since Lan QiRen's death a few years ago, himself and Lan Zhan had become busier than ever it seemed. Lan QiRen had never been Wei Ying's favourite person but the two had learned to get along over the years in something like companionable limits…...meaning they could be companionable as long as the time they spent together was kept limited. However even Wei Ying had been saddened when the Elder Lan, who despite his grumpiness and love of punishing others, had always treated Wei Ying as a member of the family, had passed away. The sad truth was that despite going into seclusion time and time again to recover, after suffering from the illness Jin GuangYao had let loose on the cultivation population nearly a decade ago, he had never quite recovered fully.
No one, Wei Ying and Lan Zhan included, had been able to figure out why the very young and elderly cultivators were still being affected by the aftermath of the poison. The consensus from the healers of the five high Sects seemed to be simple in it's awfulness. The physical bodies of the elderly cultivators were no longer able to stand the strain it took to heal the golden core 100%. For the young cultivators the problem seemed to be the other way around however, the physical body was strong enough however the golden core had been damaged as it was attacked when not fully formed. Ergo the majority of the younger generation now had weaker cores than the generation immediately preceding it, and significantly weaker than those of Wei Ying and Lan Zhan's generation. It seemed that youngsters like Jin Ling and SiZhui who had just reached adulthood at the time had missed loosing their potential power by a matter of months, or weeks in some cases.
With the loss of Lan QiRen, Lan XiChen had been approached to join the Elders of the Sect. He of course had agreed, leaving Lan Zhan to take over the job of Sect Leader. It had taken Wei Ying many months of persuasion to get Lan Zhan to agree to give up his title of Chief Cultivator. Wei Ying had thought it would be common sense that Lan Zhan couldn't do both jobs and be both places at once, but as usual his stubborn husband had other ideas. Lan Zhan's annoying sense of duty and never going back on his word, which was normally one of the things that Wei Ying loved, had gotten so under his skin that the two had fought three nights in a row until Wei Ying had declared he was going to move out of the house for a while and go stay somewhere else. It had been an empty threat of course as he had had no intentions of leaving his husband alone in their home just so he could work MORE while unsupervised. However the threat worked. The next day Lan Zhan had called a meeting of all the Sects to announce he was stepping down.
There had been the expected polite arguments from the lesser Sects who only knew that having a Chief Cultivator with HanGuang Jun's reputation was good for the whole society, without really knowing who the man was. There had been more robust arguments from the more middle ranked Sects who had been involved in both Jin GuanYao's upheavals and hunts of Wei Ying, so now didn't really dare to speak one word against the Lan Clan. Especially when the Lan involved was Lan Zhan and his husband who they had hunted twice and managed to kill once. The only real, true opposition to Lan Zhan stepping down though had come from the Castes of Jiang, Nie and Jin. This opposition though had been easily turned to agreement with simple logic that now Lan Zhan was a Sect Leader he wouldn't have time to help everyone as he had been doing. Eventually Lan Zhan and Wei Ying had risen from their spot on the dais, bowed to those assembled and left the assembly for the last time.
If anything since Lan Zhan's stepping down from the Chief Cultivator and stepping up as Sect Leader, this had gotten busier for them both. As the spouse of the Chief Cultivator Wei Ying hadn't been expected to do much more than turn up at meetings, eat, drink, look handsome and occasionally speak. However as the spouse of a Sect Leader he was expected to actually help with the running of the Sect…..in other words he was expected to actually do work. Splashing a few handfuls of the cold water onto his face to wake himself up and snap him out of his reverie, Wei Ying towelled himself down before moving over to the bed to get dressed. He was happy that both the twin jades were making time to spend with each other now but the selfish part of him wished he had never given them the idea. He liked it when he was the only person in his husbands eyes and mind, and felt a little jealous even sharing him with his own brother, also the fact that he had come up with the idea of the two of them playing go while he looked over the days work seemed strangely….adult of him.
Eventually getting himself out of the JingShi, probably later than he should have done, and into the Sect Leaders office. Wei Ying sat down at his desk looking in horror at the mountains of papers he still had to wade through. When Lan Zhan had taken up the role of Sect Leader he had had a second desk placed in the office for Wei Ying so the two could work together. Although Wei Ying had thought that his usually honest husband had ulterior motives the fifth time Lan Zhan had come over to 'help' him with something and ended up groping him under the desk.
Already in the office, and not seemingly bothered at all by the paperwork everywhere, stood SiZhui. A glass of warm tea was on the desk which Wei Ying gladly accepted before opening his mouth to speak.
'Morning A-Yuan'
'Morning Baba' SiZhui responded, the childish term sounded a bit silly coming out of his adult mouth but they were both used to it. 'I have looked over some of the paperwork and stacked it according to the themes to make it easier for you. Most of it though seems to be for you and father about my ceremony in a few days, so I have put that on your desk as I thought you would like to read it.'
'My A-Yuan knows me best' Wei Ying said with a grin as he put his tea down and picked up the first scroll from the pile SiZhui had indicated.
SiZhui had only just caught himself from saying 'yes I know you very well baba, you like to do as little work as possible and even then only the fun stuff.' but instead had just nodded his head politely and waited for Wei Ying to pick up a scroll from the pile right in front of him on the desk. As per usual Wei Ying ignored the pile in the most important spot on the desk, meaning it needed to be looked at right away, and reached straight for the notes on the upcoming ceremony. SiZhui tried not to sigh and gave a small cough as he had seen his father do many times when trying to reign in his baba's more wayward antics. Wei Ying looked up from the scroll he had just opened, as if a little surprised to see his son still stood there.
'You want to speak to me about something else?…' Wei Ying asked half lowering the scroll….'Maybe you want some advise on how to woo your Susu…'
'No Baba!' SiZhui blurted out before the older man got it into his head to give him any tips on dating his girlfriend. After all his parents were great at most things, but where their collective brainpower seemed to collapse was on the subject of relationships. It had taken them one of his fathers 16 years of pinning and the other dying for them to get together, not something he wished to emulate. 'I was simply going to tell you that the smaller pile in front of you need looking into first'
Wei Ying pulled a face that resembled a five year old taking medicine before he nodded and put his first scroll back down and picking one up from the actual work pile. SiZhui nodded back to his baba before excusing himself to go and teach the young disciples their lessons, he made it as far as the doors before he burst out laughing. Well life was never boring with his baba around that was for sure.
Lan Zhan arrived in the office an hour later having won one game of go, lost one and drawn at the third. He was feeling quite relaxed when he walked into the room only to find Wei Ying sat at his desk holding a scroll upside down, apparently trying to read it. Lan Zhan narrowed his eyebrows a little at the odd scene, or maybe not too odd considering who was doing it, and walked over to his husbands desk. Wei Ying must have been engrossed in something has he didn't even look up as he approached, leaving Lan Zhan no option but to loudly clear his throat.
That got his husbands attention and Wei Ying's eyes soon moved away from the scroll and looked up at him. Recognising who was standing over him Wei Ying's eyes went from dull and bored to lit up and excited in a second.
'Lan Zhan!' Wei Ying exclaimed as if he hadn't seen his husband a few hours ago.
Lan Zhan had hoped to get straight on with his own work but found he had to ask the question.
'Wei Ying why are you reading the scroll upside down?'
Wei Ying let out a 'humffff' before responding in voice loaded with conviction.
'Well whoever wrote this wasn't making sense with it the right way around, so I thought I would try it upside down!'
Lan Zhan tried, unsuccessfully, not to grin at the ridiculous logic.
'You're laughing at me!' Wei Ying whined.
'Just a little.' Lan Zhan replied honestly. /
Wei Ying let out another 'humfff' as Lan Zhan took the scroll out of his husbands hands, turned it the right way up, and began to read. After a moments silence Lan Zhan looked down and nodded slightly.
'You are right the arguments in here are completely illogical. I will respond back to it and ask for an argument that is well reasoned and argued.'
With that Lan Zhan walked the few paces to his own desk, sat down and began to write. Nothing was ever said between the two men again about Wei Ying and the upside down scroll.