Chapter 2

'Wei Wuxian! Wei Wuxian! Your time is up.'

'Wei Wuxian! Return to the dead!'

"Die! Die! Die! Die!'

'Wei Wuxian!'

The Yiling Patriarch sat bolt upright. His forehead was matted with sweat and his cold hands gripped his blankets. His body was still quaking from the nightmares and the whispers that followed him wherever he went.

By the time he was bathed, dressed and ready for breakfast, his mood had improved a little. He greeted everyone with a smile, snuck into the kitchens and even managed to steal some food. It was all fun and games until he ran into Jiang Cheng.

"What – I mean, why do you look so sick?" He snapped.

He probably didn't mean to say it that way but over the years, it had become his habit. He found it better dealing with his emotions. Besides, why should he show such concern to Wei Wuxian.

"Sick? What makes you think I look sick? Oh wait, it won't be surprising that I look sick after having to suffer your rude hospitality."

"Oh so 'rude hospitality' is it? Then maybe you should go back to your beloved Gusu. They will probably give you all the warmth."

"Gusu is not beloved. My beloved is in Gusu." Wei Wuxian grinned and then offered a wink for emphasis. In return, Jiang Cheng just grimaced then rolled his eyes. "And yes I will go back but not until I fully enjoy my time in Yunmeng. Besides, you haven't even smiled yet, A-Cheng!"

Jiang Cheng's eyes widened almost comically as he heard that form of address.

"You –" He began but Wei Wuxian quickly bolted, leaving him with no choice but to run after him.

Then the chase that followed had them jumping over wooden bridges, rooftops of pavilions, dodging unsuspecting disciples, until finally Jiang Cheng caught up with him. After he was done smacking his annoying ex martial brother (thankfully without the help of Zidian), they realized they'd ended up in the area outside the living quarters. Panting Wei Wuxian flopped down and the Sect Leader couldn't help but feel amused.

"Tired already?"

"Yes Sect Leader Jiang, this is what happens when you run without a golden core." Wei Wuxian smiled. He had tried for an offhand comment but Jiang Cheng looked away. So he quickly gave him a friendly shove. "Oi, there's no need to look so uncomfortable. I was just joking!"

"Are you sure you're not sick?"

"Of course I'm not. If I were sick, would I have run so much?" Wei Wuxian countered.

The reasoning seemed flawless to Jiang Cheng but something felt off. Something was there that was not right and Wei Wuxian was keeping it from him. But before he could come up with a suitable response, a disciple ran up to them.

"Clan Leader Jiang, Master Wei – Clan Leader Lan and Hanguang Jun have arrived. They wish to see you. We have asked them to wait in the main hall."

Both of them looked at each other in utter bewilderment. Then Jiang Cheng spoke, "Looks like your beloved can't stay in Gusu."

For once the ever eloquent cultivator had no response.

…

"You go ahead. I'll join you later." Wei Wuxian said as he nudged Jiang Cheng towards the hall.

But Jiang Cheng glared at him. "What do you think you're doing? The Twin Jades of the Gusu Lan Clan are here for you, not me. Why should I deal with them alone?"

"Aiyo, Jiang Cheng, aren't you the Clan Leader? So if guests come to Lotus Pier, it is your duty to receive them. I'm not really required. If they ask for me, you can tell them you have no idea. Besides, I did remember that I have some important work to attend to."

Before Jiang Cheng could stop him, he was already off. Sighing, the helpless Clan Leader made his way towards the main hall.

When he entered, the two brothers turned to address him. After a formal greeting during which Jiang Cheng noted that this time the two Lan brothers were actually wearing complimenting outfits of blue and white, it was Lan Xichen who spoke first.

"Sect Leader Jiang, we're very sorry to disturb you. I'm sure you must be rather surprised by this sudden and uninformed visit. I hope you're not too offended."

When Jiang Cheng replied in the negative and assured him that it was fine, Lan Xichen continued, "Actually the matter is very small. My brother here was –" he paused, throwing a quick glance at Lan Wangji, "– very unsettled by the fact that Master Wei hasn't sent a single message to him since he left for Lotus Pier. It made him anxious and so he wished to check on him."

"With all due respect Clan Leader Lan, but why does Hanguang-Jun feel so anxious? Surely he doesn't think Wei Wuxian is suffering at Lotus Pier…?"

Jiang Cheng hadn't meant to be so sarcastic, but sometimes it really annoyed him to see how smitten his brother and Hanguang Jun were. Besides now that he had accepted Wei Wuxian in Lotus Pier, it was a matter of pride. He couldn't just let other clan members come and question him about the safety of his guests.

"Clan Leader Jiang, I just wish to see him once." It was Lan Wangji who spoke this time.

"Well, unfortunately although he was with me earlier, he apparently left to attend to some work. It was almost as soon as he heard you had come. Strange, isn't it? He has been looking sick since he has arrived from Gusu."

Some part of him wondered if this was a smart move but the other part just wanted to get an expression from Lan Wangji. If this man really had something to do with Wei Wuxian's sickness then he was not going to remain silent.

"Sick?" Lan Wangji's eyes had widened a little. Jiang Cheng only glared in response.

'Master Wei what have you done?' Lan Xichen wondered as he watched the scene unfold in front of him. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and silently prayed for a miracle.

The way this conversation was going, he could easily tell that any moment these two were going to be pointing their swords at each other.

It was exactly what ended up happening.

When Wei Wuxian arrived, he found himself taking in a very unexpected scenario – Jiang Cheng stood in a fighting stance, his sword unsheathed and pointing towards Lan Wangji, who matched his position but his sword was very close to his opponent's throat.

Lan Xichen stood in the middle, trying to separate them. Suddenly, he wished he hadn't left Jiang Cheng to deal with The Twin Jades of Lan.

"I left you for a few minutes and you're already at each other's throats? I certainly do have an interesting family!" He said as he climbed the steps of the main hall. "Greetings Zewu-Jun, I brought sweets!"

The reaction was almost instant. Both the cultivators looked at each other, then slowly lowered their swords. Lan Xichen locked eyes with his brother-in-law and sighed.

"Jin Ling! Sizhui! Jingyi! Come on in!" Wei Wuxian called, turning briefly to look at the gate where the juniors were standing previously unnoticed.

They shuffled in when they heard him call. Then the Yiling Patriarch did a big show of slowly unwrapping the packages and offering everyone sweets. All throughout this exchange, he deliberately avoided any eye contact with his cultivation partner.

"Where were you?" It was Jiang Cheng who posed the million dollar question.

"I went to buy sweets of course. Then I saw Sizhui and Jingyi at the gates, so I went to fetch Jin Ling. Didn't know you had the ability to start a fight in the meantime."

"Master Wei, Wangji just wished to see you. It's good you came on time and prevented the duel." Lan Xichen offered his trademark peace maker smile.

The smile was really enough to make anyone obey him, but today Wei Wuxian couldn't afford to do that. He needed to push Lan Wangji away, make him realize that maybe they weren't really made for each other.

"See me? But I clearly asked him to give me some space. Lan Zhan, you say you love me, don't you?" He paused and finally looked over at the person in question. "How is that possible if you cannot even respect my wishes? It was a pretty small one after all."

"Wei Ying?"

"Love and respect must go together. If you love someone then you must also respect them."

"Wei Ying…"

"What is love without respect? Lan Wangji, I clearly asked you not to follow me here. Yet that is exactly what you do?"

Everyone's gazes seemed to be transfixed on the duo now.

Jiang Cheng quietly shuffled over to Lan Xichen and whispered, "Clan Leader Lan, what is going on? It's not like him to be rude to Hanguang Jun."

"Has he not told you anything at all? Have you noticed anything?"

"Told me what?" Now Jiang Cheng was really curious. Something was really not adding up. "Is there something wrong between them?"

"No. Maybe you should ask him yourself. He will give you a better explanation."

"Come to think of it, Wei Wuxian has been acting weird lately. The last few days he hasn't been eating much. Once or twice I caught him talking to himself. He even looks very pale and thin. But when I tried to question him about it, he brushed it off."

He paused and then looked back at the scene. Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian were still staring at each other but something had changed in the former's stance. He looked more subdued, possibly tired – no, no! Hurt.

Jiang Cheng had never thought that his brother had the power to make Hanguang-Jun look like a kicked puppy. Yet the scene reminded him of a distant memory. Something of this sort had happened before.

"Oh no!" he muttered softly.

Lan Xichen looked over at his counterpart with surprise. He was already not having a good day and top of that he was left alone with Jiang Cheng, who could be so difficult to deal with. Now Wei Wuxian was insulting his brother, which wasn't really acceptable but if he intervened, Wangji wouldn't like it.

Besides, knowing his brother-in-law, Lan Xichen had a fair idea as to why he was insulting his own cultivation partner in front of everybody. As if all this was not enough, Jiang Cheng looked like he had realized something.

"Clan Leader Lan, this is not a small matter. If what I'm thinking is correct, then this idiot is definitely up to something!"

"Clan Leader Jiang?" Lan Xichen knitted his brows together.

"Wei Wuxian has only once spoken to Hanguang-Jun in this manner and that was when –" he paused and took a deep breath. "– when he returned from the Burial Mounds…"

Meanwhile, the Juniors had rarely ever found themselves in a more awkward position. Honestly, when Sizhui had begged Lan Xichen to let him accompany them, his main wish had been to meet up with Wei Wuxian and show him the talisman he'd been practising. He had finally perfected it and he knew that Senior Wei would be very happy. It was definitely a pleasure learning from him and even if the man didn't fit in at Gusu, Sizhui appreciated his skills as a teacher.

But then Jingyi had popped up and had pleaded with Zewu-Jun to let him come. Sizhui had been very bewildered to see him. Later his cousin had told him that he just wanted to get out of Gusu to relax a little. Something told him though that his cousin wasn't being honest. He'd decided to let it slide.

Upon arriving at Lotus Pier, he and Jingyi had decided to wait outside and let the elders finish their work. The two had then proceeded to look around a little but it had been barely ten minutes when they had run into Senior Wei.

"You two are here as well?"

Senior Wei looked as cheerful as usual, but Sizhui noticed the black circles under his eyes almost immediately. 'Senior Wei must be sleep deprived. But then why does he look so thin?'

"The last time we met him, Jin Ling had challenged me to an archery competition at Lotus Pier. I'm just here for that," Jingyi piped up.

'And there we go! So this was all about Jin Ling.' Sizhui thought with a sigh. But then Senior Wei began laughing.

"So you want to defeat Jin Ling in an archery competition on his home turf? Are you sure you can do it, Jingyi?" he asked, a smirk plastered over his face.

Jingyi looked like his pride had been hurt and Sizhui couldn't help but cringe.

"Are you saying that we Lan sect disciples can't defeat Mistress Jin in an archery competition? Senior Wei, you really underestimate our archery skills."

"Hmm… Sure. I would be very glad if you prove me wrong. Good Luck to you! Wait here, I'll go fetch him."

With that, he'd disappeared and appeared another ten minutes later with a rather disgruntled Jin Ling in tow. Sizhui immediately greeted him with respect since now he was officially a Clan Leader. Although striking conversation with him was out of the question, he still attempted to

inquire about his health. It had obviously not gone well, but before Jingyi could make some snarky remark, Senior Wei had wisely herded them towards the gates of the main hall.

Now however, he was absolutely regretting his decision of coming here. In all these past few months, never once had he seen Senior Wei say such hurtful things to Hanguang-Jun. It was painful to watch. Even more so because of Hanguang-Jun's wounded look.

Growing up under his care, he had learned to understand his father-figure's moods. It may not be as refined as Zewu-Jun's understanding of him but he knew enough.

"Sizhui, maybe we should just head over to the archery competition areas directly," Jingyi whispered in his ear, and when Sizhui gave him a distressed look, he added, "What? I just meant that dealing with the Mistress is better than watching Senior Wei obliterate Hanguang-Jun. I would've spoken up but –"

"No, please don't do that. Zewu-Jun is here too. Let's leave matters in his hands."

Sizhui knew that it was against the Lan sect rules to interrupt people like that. However sometimes it was best to cut off Jingyi's reasoning. They were about to leave when Clan Leader Jiang's sudden interruption made them freeze.

"Wei Wuxian, what are you up to now?"

His question had been loud and clear for everyone present in the room to hear. Wei Wuxian who was now struggling to hold himself together, looked at his brother confused. He had hoped to spend the day wandering around the city. Instead the day had so far turned out to be unexpectedly draining – emotionally as well as physically. He felt light headed and weak. Now if anything more sprung up, he wasn't sure if he would be able to face it.

"Jiang Cheng, stay out of this. It's between me and Lan Zhan."

"You know what I'm talking about perfectly well. At first I was doubtful but now I firmly believe that this has in fact got nothing to do with Hanguang-Jun." Jiang Cheng had fixed his gaze on Wei Wuxian with an intensity of a hundred lightning bolts.

The statement seemed to confuse Lan Wangji even more. The Yiling Patriarch on the other hand locked eyes with Lan Xichen who shook his head in response. Unfortunately, Lan Wangji had caught that exchange.

"Brother knows about it?"

Lan Xichen didn't respond, just looked away. Wei Wuxian could practically hear the alarm bells ringing now. If he didn't do something now, all his efforts would be in vain…

Vain? All of it is in vain, Wei Wuxian… you cannot run from your fate…

You do not belong here…

Let go, Wei Wuxian, let go…

The sudden onslaught of voices made him stagger a little. It was rather shocking to see how quickly his health had deteriorated since morning. Now he was barely holding himself together. Some part of him was aware that people were calling out to him, that his Lan Zhan had strode forward in order to support him, but it was getting almost impossible to push past that pain. He closed his eyes as if willing away the whole situation.

Then just like that – it stopped. Yet again, the sudden absence of voices in his head made him lose balance. This time though, he fell to his knees.

Lan Wangji, who had been holding his arm, got pulled down too. Realizing this, Wei Wuxian immediately pulled away.

It was then that it dawned on him, the reason for the sudden disappearance of the voices. He could still hear the soft, familiar melody being played on the flute, the very tune he'd been practising at Gusu. The thought made him look up.

"So you are really sick?" Jiang Cheng stepped forward.

Lan Xichen who had lowered his flute, now sent it back from where it was summoned, then joined his Yunmeng counterpart.

"Wei Ying? Is that why you spent time with Brother?" Lan Wangji, who seemed to have regained his composure, spoke with a tone of neutrality.

It made Wei Wuxian wince and close his eyes again. Although the voices had receded, the weakness and the throbbing ache had not. It was a Herculean effort to get up and stand on his own two feet. But once he had, he knew that the explanation on his part was inevitable.

Quickly launching into the story, he avoided looking at his audience. He wasn't going to break down now. It would be way too much of an emotional burden, that he doubted he could carry right now. When he was done, everyone was silent.

"Wangji, I'm sorry. I should've been honest with you. Are you upset?" Lan Xichen began as if trying to break the ice.

From the silence that followed, Wei Wuxian could tell even without looking that Lan Wangji had not replied. He badly wanted to look at him, but something told him it won't be a good idea.

"Jiang Cheng, have you found your answer now?" Wei Wuxian asked, turning to look at the person in question, his voice steady even though he was practically swaying on his feet. With his head pounding, he could barely see clearly but to hell with it!

He wasn't going down without a fight...

Jiang Cheng had really planned on saying something to tease Wei Wuxian and break the tension in the room, but he never got the chance. At that moment, Wei Wuxian collapsed. It was so sudden that nobody could react. Possibly out of some reflex action, Lan Wangji caught him in his arms before he hit the ground.

"Senior Wei!" Both the junior Lan disciples called out.

Jin Ling surged forward, looking a little worried. Jiang Cheng quickly exchanged glances with Lan Xichen and strode forward. Once they'd confirmed that he was not – well, that there was still hope, they decided to shift him back to his chamber.

Then a local healer was sent for and the corridor outside his room was cleared so as to avoid spread of gossip. Meanwhile, Lan Wangji had summoned his guqin and had begun playing some cleansing music.

The Juniors who had followed them to the room were soon asked to leave. Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen waited patiently.

"Clan Leader Jiang, I'm sorry. This whole situation could have been handled differently. I suppose our arrival has put you in an uncomfortable situation." Lan Xichen said with the utmost sincerity.

Jiang Cheng, who had been frowning and previously lost in thoughts, looked up.

"No, don't be sorry. In fact, I am grateful to you. If it weren't for your sudden arrival, then I would never have been able to make him tell the truth. He is stubborn and insists on trying to become a hero. He always wants to save others but while doing that he –" he shook his head, his voice a mixture of anger and worry.

Ever since the whole golden core sacrifice was revealed to him all those months back, he had been trying his best to put his life back together. Although his people were loyal to him and never explicitly said anything offensive, it was pretty much clear that they had newfound respect for Wei Wuxian.

As for him, he knew he owed him a lot. But it wasn't easy to simply forget everything and move on as Wei Wuxian had suggested. So, he tried expressing his pain through anger. Of course, that did not really go well. His disciples had now learnt how to read his moods – on bad days, they left him alone and on good days, well, they usually just left him alone.

When Wei Wuxian had suddenly sent him a message, Jiang Cheng was hesitant. After all, they hadn't spoken in all this time and now all of a sudden he wanted to come visit Lotus Pier? Then again, he could not blame him. Gusu was not the type of place he preferred and he was probably bored there.

Besides, some part of him missed that idiot even if he would never admit that to anyone. Now as he watched said idiot lying in a half dead state, the Clan Leader was not sure if he was ready to lose him once more…