Exposition dump time! Surprisingly, this chapter isn't even as long as the previous one, which is wild to me. At least, by word-count standards.
I end up mixing a lot of lore from like all of the variations of MDZS because...they all blurred together while I was writing this. Like did that happen in the donghua? The manhua? The live-action? The original book? I try to follow primarily the book, but when I'm stuck for a plot, I end up being unable to decide which adaptation I like best and here we are. Meh, it's fun.
Lan Qiren and the elders became busy properly dealing with the Waterborne Abyss. They couldn't just drive it away, as the Wen Clan had, and killing it wasn't as easy as just diving in and stabbing.
The head of the Lan Clan had been in secluded cultivation for years, and so Lan Qiren was in charge of the matter. Lectures became shorter and shorter, some days even skipped entirely.
It occurred to Fu Xuanming that she had never seen Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji's father. Honestly, she had thought Lan Qiren was the Sect Leader, with all of the affairs he tended to, but no, Qingheng-jun was very much alive — just very often in seclusion or too busy for pleasantries. Even Lan Xichen had time to escape his studies and duties to interact with others, but perhaps that would change when he eventually took over as head of the clan. It was well known that their mother had passed away nearly ten years ago. How old would they have been? Lan Wangji was younger, so he would have been five? Six? Lan Xichen hadn't been much older, but at that age, a few years made all the difference.
Lan Wangji had stopped going to classes. Lan Qiren had indicated it was so that his favorite pupil wouldn't be corrupted further by Wei Wuxian. A part of it might have been Fu Xuanming's fault, but she had apologized for the stabbing incident! Lan Wangji was still difficult to read, but he had seemed to accept her apology…or maybe he was too distracted by the rabbits Wei Wuxian had left him.
In reality, Lan Wangji had probably volunteered to stop going to classes on his own, and Lan Qiren had been overjoyed at the proposition, making his own assumptions. Lan Wangji spent half his days tending to his new bunnies.
With nothing else to do, Fu Xuanming had snuck from the Righteousness Room to the Tranquility Room and found Lan Wangji trying to clean a spilled inkstone. His face was held in its natural state, but the way his eyes moved and his fast but relatively normal pacing — he was rather distressed.
Fu Xuanming revealed herself by grabbing the pair of rabbits and tightening her hold when they tried to struggle free. "Look at how bad you've both been. And after Lan Wangji agreed to take you in as well!"
She searched around and found a large enough box meant to hold extra bed sheets. Leaving only one final sheet at the bottom, she trapped the rabbits within and then went out to grab some food for them.
"You should put them in here overnight, but during the day, you have to let them roam free."
Lan Wangji had finally managed to clean the spilled ink, tossing out a ruined scroll. "Will they…return?"
Fu Xuanming was slightly startled. He admitted what was bothering him? And something so simple, too. Something so basic that you could hardly do anything about it.
"What do you guys think?"
The rabbits stared up at her at the sound of her voice, but returned to their chewing moments later.
Fu Xuanming waved for Lan Wangji to approach. "Over here."
Lan Wangji was not used to following orders so ineloquent from someone like Fu Xuanming. But after a moment's hesitation, he complied. Upon seeing him, the two rabbits began pawing at the side of the wooden box, up on their hind legs, trying to reach him.
"Yes, I think they will return." Fu Xuanming lifted them up and headed outside to set them in the rock garden. Lan Wangji followed on instinct, without needing to be told.
The rabbits were wary of the new environment at first, but soon enough, the more excitable one wandered off and began exploring. It wasn't long before the other rabbit followed, now on the hunt to rejoin its companion.
"You should give them names. That's the first step in any responsible pet owner's routine."
Lan Wangji contemplated this.
The second rabbit was searching around, when the first jumped out of the bush to ambush it. The two began a small, fluffy scuffle, rolling around in the grass.
Fu Xuanming giggled. "That one was taught by A-Ying, certainly! Hey, that's what we should call him! Little A-Ying. Or maybe, A-Wu, so Wei Ying doesn't get confused. We call him A-Xian, so he would never know if we used the 'Wu' of Wuxian. He'd laugh if he heard you named a rabbit after him, and you would get all embarrassed! Though I suppose A-Wu is a funny name. Just the name 'No'. Ha ha ha ha! On second thought, it fits him."
Lan Wangji's face remained stoic, perhaps even tightening in frustration that she was right. "I will name them later," he dismissed, and returned to his work in the Tranquility Room.
Playing with rabbits was not how Fu Xuanming intended to spend her day. However, once she sat down, she could not find the energy to stand up.
Lan Wangji was summoned away for more duties, and Fu Xuanming promised the rabbits would be there when he returned. She wasn't sure why he was worried; they were already trying to follow him. The excitable one, who Fu Xuanming was now unofficially naming A-Wu, was particularly slippery. While the calm rabbit, who was now to be known as A-Ji (as in Wangji) was patient and stayed put, the moment Fu Xuanming was busy hunting down A-Wu, he too almost escaped!
Luckily, A-Ji was more interested in wrestling A-Wu to get him to stay, so she ended up keeping them together and feeding them more lettuce. It seemed to endear them further to her presence, even if their loyalties seemed permanently fixated on Lan Wangji.
"Fu-gongzi," Lan Xichen called.
She quickly dropped the rabbits, where she was holding them by the ears, and they scampered into the brush. "A-Huan — Lan Xichen!"
She had been busy thinking up names for new rabbits when they inevitably brought more to the Cloud Recesses. A-Huan would obviously be a good name for one that resembled Lan-Xichen.
They could name one after Jiang Cheng, like A-Wan from Wanyin. Rare was it that Wei Wuxian or Fu Xuanming called him by his courtesy name. Jiang Yanli would love one named after her too. They could get another pair and name them A-Yan and A-Yin! Perfect.
"Wei Wuxian has gotten into a rather unfortunate situation," Lan Xichen was saying.
Fu Xuanming asked, incredulous, "More unfortunate than normal?"
Lan Xichen's frown was very serious. "He began a fight with the young master Jin Zixuan, of the Jin Clan of Lanling."
Fu Xuanming's brow crunched. She immediately stood at attention. "Why?"
Lan Xichen shook his head. "I am not privy to the reasoning. But as I understand it, he was provoked."
She scoffed. "Of course. That Jin Zixuan…insufferable peacock!"
Lan Xichen's darkened expression was alleviated in favor of a confused tilt of his head. "You have ill favor towards him?"
Fu Xuanming nodded, gravely. "You must know that he is engaged to my shijie, Jiang Yanli. All because their mothers were friends and betrothed them long ago. He could care less about her, and loathes the Jiang Clan for forcing him into such an arrangement. A-Xian's temperament has garnered no favors, clearly. It would be a simple matter to hate the sparkling peacock, always acting radiant and above everyone else, but he would also go so far as to insult A-Li. That is the only reason Wei Wuxian would risk picking a fight. Jin Zixuan has never hidden his disdain for being tied to someone 'unremarkable.' As if he deserved better! My shijie deserves far better than him!"
Besides Fu Lianmin, Jiang Yanli was the strongest woman Fu Xuanming knew. Though she was not a cultivator, she was able to handle three brothers and a younger sister — having a brother like Jiang Cheng, a shidi like Wei Wuxian, a shidi (though only by disguise, since in reality Fu Xuanming was older than she claimed) like Fu Xuanming, and a shimei like Fu Lianmin. She could quell any argument they began, even managing to placate Madam Yu at times. She was an excellent cook, and had bonded with Fu Lianmin when they'd first come to the Lotus Pier, finally giving her a normal female friend to bond with after so many years of strife.
Wei Wuxian said that Jiang Yanli had made his own acceptance into the Jiang Clan go smoothly. He owed Jiang Yanli so much, and Fu Xuanming was no different. They would defend her in a heartbeat from a pompous ass like Jin Zixuan, who only ever scowled at the mention of her name.
"I…understand," Lan Xichen said. He shook his head and was back to smiling! This man, honestly. Did he enjoy watching Fu Xuanming rant? Wasn't talking behind someone's back another rule-breaker here in the Cloud Recesses? "Jiang Fengmian and Jin Guangshan have been summoned. There is a high likelihood…they may agree to rescind the engagement."
Breaking off an engagement…? Sure, Wei Wuxian and Fu Xuanming had spent nights scheming up ways to make it happen, but ultimately they never went through with any of it. One way or another, ending an engagement between two prominent clans was never a good thing.
Jin Guangshan had only been going along with what his wife, Madam Jin, had wanted, but if Jiang Fengmian was convinced to break things off, Jin Guangshan wouldn't be fighting against the tide. Madam Yu would be furious, however. Though it was Wei Wuxian who might have been the catalyst, ultimately, it wasn't entirely his fault that the pair were incompatible. But she would blame him all the same. Just another reason to hate Wei Wuxian, claim he brought ruin to the Jiang Clan of Yunmeng.
"Is Jiang Cheng involved?" Fu Xuanming asked.
"No. He was kept out of the scuffle, it seems."
She nodded. Wei Wuxian must have kept him out of it. Jiang Cheng was determined to work extra hard to save face for the Jiang Clan, with Wei Wuxian's very name tarnishing their reputation, but he would have jumped in to help Wei Wuxian rip that peacock to shreds if he insulted Jiang Yanli. She hoped Wei Wuxian had at least ruined that pretty face he was so proud of.
"Lan Wangji is in charge of making sure Wei Wuxian remains kneeling."
"So that's where he went earlier?"
Lan Xichen nodded. "Somehow, Wei-gongzi managed to upset him again."
Fu Xuanming was brought to laughter once more. "A-Xian must have tricked him into thinking he was remorseful, then laughed in his face! Ah, it sounds very like him."
"Indeed it does," Lan Xichen said, with a matching smile.
Wei Wuxian's return to Yunmeng was unceremonious. Out of the…well, not expected but intended time of one year meant to be studying in Gusu, Wei Wuxian had lasted only three months.
Without him around, the Cloud Recesses was too quiet. The remaining disciples were no longer bold enough to sneak around so brazenly, only occasionally indulging in various tiny acts that were not so complex as to require a dashing scheme to pull off. Lan Qiren looked like a drowning man that had finally been granted a breath of fresh air.
He nearly had a heart attack when he found Fu Xuanming in the Library Pavilion, transcribing new music while doing handstands. He had immediately apprehended her, which was primarily so easy because she was stunned as well.
She could barely contain her laughter when Lan Xichen came rushing (as fast as one was allowed to rush when there was a rule against hurrying) in and began explaining to Lan Qiren why she had not been completely kicked out of the Cloud Recesses after the fight with Lan Wangji that had drawn blood.
Lan Xichen had not told anyone except Lan Wangji that she was still here!
She had not visited Jiang Cheng since the night where Wei Wuxian had helped her recover blood, and even then, the boys had not interacted with her. Lan Xichen had not confined her to the Righteousness Room, but it was heavily implied to have been the safest place for her — and where no one would bother her, and she could bother no one else in turn. Feeling guilty for pushing the brothers so far, she had stayed out of trouble for the next few days, only visiting her sister and Wei Wuxian whenever he was sneaking out as well.
Who would have thought Lan Xichen had been keeping her like some dirty secret?! Lan Qiren had already been worried that Lan Wangji was being corrupted by the pair of Yunmeng troublemakers, but Lan Xichen too? Unthinkable!
When Lan Xichen finally returned to pick her up from kneeling in front of the Wall of Discipline, he actually looked exhausted. Still smiling all the same, but weary.
"I'm probably in trouble, huh? You shouldn't have dragged yourself into this."
Lan Xichen assured her, "You are in no trouble. Shufu has been properly convinced that my tutelage has made significant progress in your temperment. The very fact that he had not known of your presence is proof that you have caused no mischief in the intervening days. Therefore, you are allowed to remain so long as it is under my supervision."
Fu Xuanming hung her head. "You make it sound like I am a pet. Lan Wangji is keeping rabbits, you are keeping me! Am I but a rabbit to you?!"
Lan Xichen's smile broadened, but he swallowed down his laughter. "Come along now. I will feed you lettuce for supper."
"Zewu-jun, this is animal cruelty!"
As they returned to the Righteousness Room, Lan Xichen also spoke to her of Fu Lianmin. Lan Qiren had, of course, threatened her sister on the promise of good behavior. Lan Xichen had argued such a point in the same way Fu Xuanming had; it was not right to punish another for crimes not their own. Fu Lianmin herself would be fine, thanks to Lan Xichen.
"Is there anything you want me to tell her when I inform her of the situation?"
"No need. I will tell her myself."
He chuckled. "Yes, I forgot you are very well able to meet her."
"Speaking of meeting her, you seemed rather flustered to know I could," Fu Xuanming said, reaching up to poke his flawless face. "Or was it just that you finally realized how gorgeous I am in any form? All I did was put my hair down." That and a light illusion, but it hadn't been that drastic. "I bet you could be dolled up as a woman too, with a face like that."
Lan Xichen cleared his throat. "Is that common practice in Yunmeng? Disguising as the opposing sex?"
She flicked her finger dismissively. "No. It's rather just me. A-Xian would never be able to manage it, with a face like a gremlin and a smile like a demon."
"Mm. I understand why a man would attempt to disguise as a woman, but would it work so well in the opposite direction?"
"Sure, if you work hard enough. Many female cultivators are looked down upon. I don't know if you can understand, but men will always take ideas from a woman and filter them through a sieve. They will think, 'She is only a woman, after all. Prone to emotions and outbursts. Too caring in some cases, mad and heartless in others. They can never be as accomplished as men, and if they are, it was most certainly because they had help from one!' Cultivators like my shimei must be everything at once — strong and unwavering in body and mind, yet also obedient and meek. She must be an excellent cook and be prepared for motherhood, but she must also work twice as hard to slay ghosts and monsters without others claiming 'She could not have done it on her own, certainly!' It sickens me to think about, but I can't simply beat the world into submission, so I try not to think so hard."
Lan Xichen was doing that smile again, where he seemed to enjoy watching Fu Xuanming become unhinged and simply speak her mind.
Fu Xuanming had a theory that Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji, who had been burdened by thousands of restricted rules during their whole childhood, never had any time to be…well, children. They had never gotten to run around, shouting at the top of their lungs, laughing when they were happy, crying or whining when they were sad. As such, they enjoyed watching Wei Wuxian and Fu Xuanming acting like children — or at least, with a similar mindset.
The point of being a kid was to try everything. You were learning how the world worked, after all. At the most basic level, you tried new things, witnessed the result, and discovered cause and effect. Sometimes one could only learn how much it hurt to fall by hitting the ground.
For these two, however, they had been told everything. Lan Qiren and the Lan Clan had all the rules to life written down somewhere, and if it wasn't written down, it was spoken in a lecture. You could be the smartest person in the world, but a description of a scenario never compared to the life experience. You could be told not to fall a hundred times before you finally trusted the advice, or you could break your leg and know to never fall again.
That was only for childhood, of course. Children healed faster, grew stronger, took all the most important lessons learned during that delicate period, and used that to survive to adulthood. At adulthood, you could then allow the books to teach you. Someone else probably learned a lesson first-hand during their messy childhood and now could teach others that lesson.
It was a lot more complicated for children to trust an adult's experience over their own. All children saw were themselves, so if it hadn't happened to them, could it really be true?
Lan Xichen had probably never been able to just think of himself. Lan Wangji, maybe. In his smallest circle of confidants, Lan Wangji being selfish could be worrying about himself, his brother, his father, and his uncle.
But Lan Xichen? He was the eldest son to Sect Leader Lan. Whether he liked it or not, there was no way for him to not live with the burden of his entire sect on his shoulders. He had to worry about cultivators, sure, but also the common people they protected. He was not alone, certainly. But that was so much weight for one man to bear. Bearing it all with a smile.
That constant, ever present smile.
She knew she had a bad feeling about that smile ever since she first saw it. Maybe it was not malice that his smile hid beneath the surface. Not pain he inflicted on others, but pain he inflicted on himself. She was starting to hate his smile, but only when he was using it as a mask. She was learning to tell the difference, just like Lan Wangji had different types of scowls.
"Fu-gongzi?"
She had been staring. "Yes, you could make a beautiful woman!" Fu Xuanming concluded.
Lan Xichen sighed, turning his face away. "Maybe…some other time."
"Why are you here?"
Fu Xuanming had just been peacefully shooting arrows into her fifteenth target. While the killing of animals was forbidden in the Cloud Recesses, killing trees was not treated the same way. So long as she planted new seeds to replace the old, she was allowed to chop them down in moderation.
One tree could be sliced down the trunk and branches into dozens of tiny targets if she controlled the thickness. Sandbags were all well and good, but too bulky and messy. Wooden targets could be broken down into timber afterwards.
"I'm shooting here," she said to the group of Lan Clan disciples.
"Your pardon, Fu Xuanming-daozhang," one of the boys said, bowing. "We only ask because we hoped to use the shooting range as well."
"I'm not stopping you."
The boys shuffled nervously, each one of them not wanting to be the first one to speak.
"Your pardon," the first boy repeated, still bowing. He was going to get stuck in that position, "but it is made rather difficult to use the archery grounds when you have scattered targets in all directions."
"Your arrows will fly in all directions, preventing us from using the basic range," another agreed.
They were clearly working to avoid anything that would be considered "clamor" or asking for a fight. Indeed Fu Xuanming had been standing in the center of the archery range, using the empty area to shoot over two dozen targets at a minimum. All that was left was to figure out how to make moving targets and she'd have the perfect training grounds. Back at the Lotus Pier, Wei Wuxian would tie a target to a string and begin swinging it around while evading, and he for her as well. Comparably, Gusu didn't seem to have such advancements.
"I will leave it to you, then."
The disciples seemed relieved that it had been so easy. The famous Fu Xuanming, known for a reign of terror accompanying Wei Wuxian, seemed to have been reigned in by Lan Xichen — especially without Wei Wuxian there to back him up! As expected of their future clan leader.
Fu Xuanming swallowed the urge to stay and shoot to her heart's content. Lan Xichen would put himself between her and any punishments that came her way, and she was tired of all the blows he kept taking in the eyes of the elders. One of the strict rules: "Do not conspire with evil". To Lan Qiren, she and Wei Wuxian were the closest thing to evil that the cultivation world had ever seen — rightfully so — and they had latched onto his prized Twin Jades!
"Leave what to whom?"
"Zewu-jun." The disciples all spoke and bowed in unison. Everyone except Fu Xuanming, who was long since done with being overly respectful to Lan Xichen.
"I see you've improved the archery field, Fu-gongzi. I've long since been considering a means of challenging the students, but I'm not the creative type."
Fu Xuanming shook her head. "Thank you Lan-xiansheng, but this isn't my best work. I just used what I had."
"Are the archery fields in Yunmeng more advanced?"
"Not the archery fields specifically. The boys at the Lotus Pier prefer to shoot down kites. However, the Cloud Recesses have poor winds; if they had any breeze, the clouds here would long since be dispersed."
Lan Xichen laughed. "True enough! Let me show you the archery range Wangji and I use; it should be more to your liking."
The disciples witnessed the conversation in awe, but no one was bold enough to make comments as Fu Xuanming followed Lan Xichen down the mountain paths.
"They didn't want me there to show them up," Fu Xuanming noted.
"You are rather advanced. If Wei-gongzi were still here, you both would have long since outgrown the regular training field. I would hazard a guess that the two of you had outgrown it before you ever stepped foot in the Cloud Recesses."
"Stationary targets that close are good for beginners, when you are just learning to hold a bow straight. But cultivators must have more difficult tasks if they wish to be challenged into improvement."
"I agree. Wangji and I outgrew the archery fields years ago as well. Come see how we have coped."
Lan Xichen guided her up a path, passing a few other cultivators who stepped aside to bow, but who continued to give Fu Xuanming the same glares as always. Lan Xichen's considerable favor had only seemed to make her reputation worse. She was behaving herself, and people seemed to hate her more! Unbelievable. People were so hard to please.
When the lack of people began to draw her notice, she realized Lan Xichen must have taken her to another secluded area specific to the Lan Clan elders and higher-ups. No wonder she had received a new round of glares.
The sound of a bowstring snapping drew her attention. Lan Wangji was a marvel in action. He moved like the wind, jumping from perch to perch while firing arrows.
Tied to a network of trees and inserted posts were targets on strings. Using his guqin strings, Lan Wangji occasionally pulled one taut and played a single note. All of the targets were hit with a burst of spiritual energy and began whirling around from the force, and then he drew his bow to shoot as many as he could before the effect wore off. The strings were made with varying sizes to adjust their rotation speed, and some were hung so that they coiled over and around branches and tree trunks and properly carved poles — causing the lengths to vary even while in motion.
Lan Xichen smiled and moved to sit at a guqin, already set up at the edge of the training grounds. He plucked the strings and began playing, causing the targets to each be under his direct control.
Lan Wangji spared him barely a moment's glance before renewing his efforts, now focusing hard to hit targets that seemed to be alive. The brothers were essentially facing off against one another, Lan Xichen manipulating dozens of targets to all move independently just by playing a few notes, and Lan Wangji having to find where Lan Xichen's focus wavered or predict his actions in order to strike true.
A greater challenge indeed!
Fu Xuanming's fingers itched to draw, her eyes following the manic scene just barely. She spotted a rack with fresh quivers of arrows ready and waiting.
Lan Xichen laughed as he ran his fingers along all seven strings. "Go on then!"
More targets dropped into view, and with another few notes, all the targets Lan Wangji had hit were sliced down to make room for another round. Fu Xuanming immediately exchanged her near-empty quiver for a fresh one and jumped into the fray.
She wasn't like Lan Wangji only in the sense that she didn't have a golden core. She had to focus on moving using the winds and her own strength. Lan Xichen seemed to notice this, as her movements varied greatly from the brother he was so used to training with.
Cultivators could bend the aim of their arrows with enough practice, and Fu Xuanming could simply control the winds to manipulate an arrow mid-flight. But using the winds for the arrows and for her own movement was taxing in power and concentration. It was brilliant.
Lan Xichen was learning too. Where her first dozen arrows hit the mark, the targets began to learn her methods and began avoiding her better and better. The flurry of notes from the guqin was the only thing that allowed Fu Xuanming to predict what Lan Xichen was commanding the tagrets to do, and so by learning his song, she could better keep up with his pace.
At some point, Lan Wangji had joined his brother and left all the targets to her. The targets were strung up using powerful golden guqin strings, so there was no shooting to cut them down, even if she managed to hit the mark. Still, she accidentally dislodged a couple of them each time she missed, and so took them as free shots.
By the time she was out of arrows, she was also out of breath.
She landed on the forest floor, breathing hard and smiling wide. Lan Xichen had a mirrored expression, and even Lan Wangji's neutral face seemed slightly less icy than normal.
Lan Xichen was clapping as he exclaimed, "Excellent! What a good showing — and for your first time as well!"
If one looked at the targets alone without context, they would see a whole mess of skimmed, off-center, lopsided, and broken shots. Madam Yu would have her holding weights for hours for such a demonstration.
But Lan Xichen looked at her like she had won an archery competition grand enough for all the clans to see! Admittedly, if all the other clans had an archery competition like this, they would be impressed by anyone who could hit the mark more than once or twice.
Never in Yunmeng could she have imagined using a guqin for such a thing, but in retrospect, it was genius. She wondered if the same feat could be accomplished with a flute; Wei Wuxian was learning to play, after all, and rather good at it too. Fu Xuanming had no spiritual power, and even her unique abilities would have never been able to replicate such a specific display of power.
"Xiongzhang, you have finished for the day?" Lan Wangji asked.
"Yes. Shufu tells me the plans regarding the Waterborne Abyss are proceeding."
Lan Wangji only replied with a curt, "Mn."
But Lan Xichen seemed to have received an entire paragraph of information from him in that one word. "Yes. I'm sorry for bringing him here without your consultation. We can go tomorrow."
Fu Xuanming asked, "Go where?"
Lan Xichen seemed to brighten at being able to answer. "We were hoping to pick some loquats up from Caiyi Town. Wangji has been ever so eager to try some."
"Has he now?" She could guess where Lan Wangji had gotten the idea.
"Yes, he's been so eager to try all manner of new things. I have wanted to pick some lotus seed pods myself."
"Mn." Lan Wangji didn't outwardly protest to his brother sharing his…sudden new interests, but Fu Xuanming could tell he was uncomfortable. In his Wangji kind of way.
"You can have someone bring them up to you, no?" Fu Xuanming pressed, trying and failing to contain her smile.
"Oh, but are they not better with stems?"
She chuckled now, managing to at least contain her bubbling laughter. "They are indeed! But they can only be consumed when ripe, and they are not in season right now. You should visit the Lotus Pier during the summer. You can pay to pick lotus seed pods, but A-Xian never has any money, so he gets a beating from the farmer when he's caught stealing! It's not just lotus seeds either. He simply takes what he wants at a whim, and everyone sends the bill to the Jiang Clan. He can drink ten jugs of liquor and you could hardly call him tipsy — on the outside, anyway. He will munch down on anything he's hungry for, practically an endless void. And don't get me started on his cooking! He could cook fine if only he didn't require three bottles' worth of spice for every meal! That isn't to say he hasn't burnt through a pan before, but that was only once."
Lan Xichen was holding back a snicker with every new fact about Wei Wuxian, but soon Lan Wangji had had enough and retreated without a word.
Fu Xuanming spotted a small fluffy companion emerge from the undergrowth and join him. The boisterous one, A-Wu, had managed to follow Lan Wangji even here!
Lan Wangji hung his bow and quiver at the racks and then knelt to scoop up the rabbit, silently going about his business as if it was the most normal thing in the world. He had barely made it up the hill before he knelt again and then continued. A-Ji must have finally caught up.
Lan Xichen was practically glowing. "He's so happy these days. It's a rather big relief."
Happy. This seemed more like ambivalence at best, but perhaps that was happy for Lan Wangji. "Was he worse, before we came to the Cloud Recesses?"
"Yes." Lan Xichen's smile lost a bit of its shine. "Wangji has been rather closed off since…since our mother passed."
"That was…a while ago, yes? All this time…?"
Lan Xichen sighed, "He has been very lonely. Before Wei-gongzi, the only one who had ever teased him like that — without fear or shame or hesitancy, but with kindness and genuine care — was our mother. He was the same back then; the more you teased him, the more he clammed up and the sourer his face got. Even so, I knew he spent everyday waiting for the time he got to see her. We both did."
"She sounds lovely."
His smile grew even sadder somehow. "We were only allowed to see her once a month. Wangji looked forward to that day, I knew. So did I."
"Once a month? Was she…sick?" It was well known that Madam Lan had passed away, but the cause of her passing wasn't so widespread. It was speculated that her entire life, she had been frail from illness — although there were further rumors that there was some bigger reason for her always hiding away.
Lan Xichen shook his head, still staring over the hill where Lan Wangji had disappeared. "Our mother…for reasons I may never know, she killed one of our father's mentors."
Fu Xuanming couldn't help her staring. "Before…they married? Or after?"
"Before. But for my father, it had been love at first sight, even if that love was not reciprocated. Going against the clan, he married her to save her life, and brought her here to Gusu. My mother was confined within a nameless little cottage. Once they were united, they were torn apart, each forced into their seclusion. Rather, he forced himself to be apart from her. So you see, my father married her to save her life, and then —"
"Punished himself. Is that why Lan Qiren is so…strict on you both?"
Lan Xichen's laughter was filled with so much pain, Fu Xuanming almost stumbled from the ache in her heart. It was like a punch to the sternum. "Strict. That is a word for it. My father went against the elders, who were furious, but they had also watched him grow up. All they could do was keep the secret and hint that the mistress of the Lan Clan of Gusu had an unmentionable illness and was thus indisposed to host guests. When Wangji and I were born, they immediately removed us to be put in the care of others."
"Once a month," Fu Xuanming repeated.
"When we were old enough, we were handed over to our shufu to be taught and raised. As you know, he is…frank and upright by nature. My mother's crimes caused my father to destroy his own life, and so he came to particularly loathe those who behaved with such disregard."
"You were punished for something that was never your fault." A stern shufu, strict teachings, mountains of books. No matter how tired or weary they were, they had to keep their young backs straight and be the most exemplary juniors in the family, role models in the eyes of others. They were forbidden from growing up alongside their closest kin, unable to horse around in their father's arms or cuddled and spoiled by their mother's embrace. They had clearly done nothing wrong, and yet…
"Punished," Lan Xichen repeated, and said nothing more.
Lan Xichen turned away and began retreating, lacking any of his normal mannerisms. Fu Xuanming watched him reach up to wipe his face, just before he had managed to escape out of her line of sight. Fu Xuanming just stood there, for a long time, letting him go.
Lan Xichen stood under the icy falls, deep in meditation. His eyes only opened when he heard the water shift, and the ripples of a body wading into the pool.
The springs of the Lan Clan were rather beautiful, but Fu Xuanming couldn't imagine enjoying it here while shivering so hard. She quickly ducked down to sink her shoulders beneath the surface, and waved her arms back and forth to get them used to the temperature. It was night time, too. If she froze to death, she would blame Lan Xichen for sure.
Wading closer to Lan Xichen, she explained, "I never did take up your offer, Huan-xiansheng."
Lan Xichen's face seemed to pinken, but it was hard to tell under the crescent moon and the light mist from the falls. He still didn't seem used to her using the "xiansheng" title, but for all intents and purposes, she was technically under his tutelage, and so the name fit. Lan Qiren was the one everyone referred to as "xiansheng" here in the Cloud Recesses, but Fu Xuanming thought Lan Xichen deserved it more. Because they were in a rather informal location with a more unique relationship between them, she also tried using his birth name just to establish familiarity.
Fu Xuanming continued, "I was rather rude to you last time I was here. For that, I am sorry. But in my defense, you can't just drop an unconscious man into an ice-bath and not expect him to fight for his life! Not all of us grew up with such…ahem, magnificent springs."
It was times like these that she missed Yunmeng, where you could simply dive off the pier and swim wherever you were going if your boat was not fast enough. The waters were cool, but it felt nice on a warm summer's day. For cultivators especially — cultivators like Wei Wuxian, anyway — it was indeed very efficient when you were an expert swimmer.
"My apologies, for that," Lan Xichen said weakly.
"I accept your apology." She crossed her arms, splashing some of the water across her neck and chin. "Just don't do it again. With me or anyone else you might think to bring here."
Lan Xichen finally seemed to relax. "I don't plan to bring anyone else anytime soon. That was…a unique situation."
She sat up. "Should I not be here? I'm in no need of recovery."
"You can stay. I invited you once, and you are henceforth welcome until I rescind my permissions."
Lan Xichen made no comments on how Fu Xuanming did not remove any of her robes, simply wading in fully-dressed. Likewise, Fu Xuanming made no comments about Lan Xichen being stripped from the waist-up. The one thing he had not removed above his hips was his headband, the cloud-patterned tassels floating along the surface of the water in the opposite direction of the falls. The ends, further down, had sunk beneath the small waves.
Fu Xuanming recalled, "Lan Qiren nearly lost his head when he found out you were hiding me."
"I was not hiding you," Lan Xichen protested, but he had a guilty smile on his face now, and forcefully turned away to try and hide it. "I was simply…taking precautions. It was a means of stirring a minimum amount of trouble, and causing Shufu less stress while he was occupied by other pressing matters."
"Certainly," Fu Xuanming agreed without complaint. "That story about your mother…you weren't supposed to tell anyone, were you?"
Lan Xichen lifted a fist from the water, and forced out a cough. "No, I should not have. It's a…it's a rather important secret. Forgive me. I seem to be losing myself again and again."
"I'm not the one you should be asking for forgiveness. But hey, I won't tell if you don't. I think your uncle really will lose his head if he finds out."
"I can't disagree."
Fu Xuanming shook her head. "At any rate, you owe me nothing. If anything, I should be the one apologizing to you over and over."
Lan Xichen insisted, "My actions are my own, and so too are yours with you."
"However frustrating. You don't need to take responsibility for me," she reminded him, for what felt like the tenth time.
But Lan Xichen just insisted, "I want to. That is simply my choice."
"Because you're just that…kind." It was like she was testing the word on her tongue for the first time, trying to extrapolate some other meaning.
Lan Xichen's smile was now smug. "The kind that seems to upset you?"
Fu Xuanming huffed and turned her head away, "Not so much anymore. I've grown accustomed to it."
"That's good. You should learn that you can receive kindness without expecting anything in return."
"That's not how I work, you know that." She grit her teeth, building her courage, and then said, "Jin Guangshan."
"Pardon?"
"Fu Yao's…Fu Lianmin's father is Jin Guangshan. Our mother was Lang Ying of the Lang Clan of Yong'an."
Lan Xichen immediately recognized, "Yong'an…"
Yong'an was indeed close to the Jiang Clan of Yunmeng, in relative terms, but not close enough that the territory would be under their protection. A great deal of the Wen Clan's efforts to expand involved spreading out and overtaking smaller clans across the land. Their goal was to surround the bigger clans, to then claim that they already held the majority in any given area, and to use all the people they had absorbed into their clan to create a seemingly endless army to intimidate others. Lan Xichen himself had been forced to discuss the movement of the Wen Clan and their accomplishments with the other clan elders, and the potential dangers to the Cloud Recesses if things continued on like this.
Every now and then, word of a war with local small clans resisting reached the far reaches of the cultivation world. Yong'an wasn't considered a prominent clan by any means, but it was notable enough for their inventors, carpenters, and scholars. If they didn't surrender to the Wen Clan, it was more than reasonable that their archives and inventors would be subdued by force. The scars on Fu Xuanming's body had to have come from the conflict that had ended her former clan, as did her many issues with trust.
Jin Guangshan was known to have sired countless bastard children, and yet he had never recognized a single one. If Fu Xuanming and Fu Lianmin had been naïve and foolish enough to try going to the Jin Clan for aid…well even if it wasn't the first thing to have destroyed her trust, it certainly would have shattered whatever remained of it.
Lan Xichen asked, "Jin Zixuan?"
She nodded. "Don't get me wrong, even without the Jin Clan relations, I'd still think he was a peacock. If I had been there, that boy wouldn't have made it out alive. To hear he was engaged to Jiang Yanli was not a problem before I met the mongrel. Shijie looks at him with such compassion and love in her heart, and he will barely spare her a glance in return. I don't know the true nature of my mother and Jin Guangshan's relationship — she never indicated anything was wrong, but nor did she loudly proclaim anything that had happened. If it had been consensual, why would she not want to announce a child to unite our little Lang Clan with the Jin Clan of Lanling?"
"And Fu Lianmin," Lan Xichen ventured, "wishes to return to the Jin Clan, yet she cannot."
Fu Xuanming inclined her head, then rolled her shoulders until something popped. "Jin Guangshan, if he did take her unwillingly or not, made my mother's husband very mad. First, he had to tolerate that his wife fell in love with a servant and treated me and my father very well. Then, she had another relationship with a greater sect leader. This was a rather major development. To fall for a servant was her folly, perhaps, but to fall for the head of a prominent clan was surely a blow to his own ego. Not only did he need to tolerate being the partner of the true Lang Clan Sect Leader, but his wife was supposedly as promiscuous as all the foul-tongued men of the world claim from their sex. He took these grievances out on me and my father, until one day our sect was destroyed and subjugated by the Wen Clan of Qishan."
Lan Xichen ventured a guess, "The Lang Clan would not have been so easy to subdue. They were very hard workers, with inventions at the height of advancement."
"We were well-defended against the Wens," Fu Xuanming agreed. "Yong'an has a repository of knowledge gathered from across the world, wherever its people have traveled. While it's not an organized archive, it would have been dangerous for anyone to get their hands on. Thus, we were well aware of ambitious threats."
Lan Xichen didn't know a great deal about the Lang Clan's technology personally, but he did know that no one had been bold enough to launch a siege on Yong'an for centuries. Gunpowder, mechanical traps, transportation — the kinds of things that the common people could use, rather than only the chosen gifted who were destined for greatness in cultivation clans. The foundations of their clan had been built upon the motto "To Save the Common People."
"Ultimately, it was Lord Lang who gave them Yong'an," Fu Xuanming sighed. "The last words I remember hearing from him were to ensure our deaths were painful. You wouldn't have believed it, if you had known him. He was all smiles and sunshine, a man who dedicated himself to loving children that weren't even his — until he could plot his revenge. It wasn't a quick siege, and even once he had Yong'an under his control, he and the Wens beside him tortured every person that had survived and surrendered. They refused to use their technology for the Wens' benefit, to make more efficient killing machines. My mother was in charge of the clan, so she locked away all of the more dangerous texts in a vault that can only be unlocked by her bloodline."
"That is why Fu Yao managed to survive."
Fu Xuanming lifted her hand above the water to begin drawing shapes on its surface. Her gaze was distant, her expression completely blank. "It was my birthday. My father had a hell of a time getting me to fall asleep that night. He promised there would be presents in the morning. I woke in the middle of the siege. My father was taken by the Wens for experimentation, because he was special. Lord Lang hated him anyway, and was happy to abruptly rip him away from his family. He was gone before I even knew what was happening, or why. My mother was tortured by her husband for days. He…held a grudge for sleeping with other men and producing children, while having none with him, so…yeah. Fu Yao was too young to understand most of it…but she knew it was horrible. The only reason my mother didn't fight back for as long as she did was to ensure Fu Yao's safety. Mine too, I suppose. Her loyal followers managed to get us out, but they were lost one by one. The Wens wanted me because of what I inherited from my father, Lord Lang wanted Fu Yao for what she inherited from our mother. I tried leaving her behind, to draw away those who hunted us, but Fu Yao always managed to find a way to stay with me regardless."
"She is loyal, your sister," Lan Xichen said.
Fu Xuanming almost managed a single, small smile. "She's very good. I tried to find my father, at one point. It was too late. I ended up captured because of it, but I managed to escape. After that, I didn't leave Fu Yao anymore. How many years was it? A decade? It felt like longer. I'm surprised they didn't get tired of hunting me, but my escape must have been a great offense. Eventually, we ended up in the Jiang Clan, where Madam Yu made sure they lost our scent. I got good at hiding from cultivators. I got better at fighting hounds. Wei Wuxian will say I saved his life from some hounds, when we met. He's a silly guy."
Silly. Laughter. Smiles.
He was all smiles.
Lan Xichen wasn't smiling now. Just the thought of trying to cheer Fu Xuanming with one made him ache inside. "What…happened to…?"
"Lord Lang? I don't know. I don't care. I think he must have bargained for a position in the Wen Clan. Doesn't matter much, anymore. I never want to hear about him again. If he lives, I will kill him one day. If he ends up dead from joining a clan who couldn't give a damn about him, then so be it. He wanted us dead — we're reminders of his own inadequacy. Maybe he thinks we are dead."
Little care for her own pain, always wearing robes like the dead. 'Killing walking corpses and lingering spirits is one thing, but killing living people is…different. Harder. It sticks with you. You can never go back.'
Lan Xichen seemed to feel the need to remind her, "You didn't die, though. You are here."
"I am," she agreed. "I couldn't, for the life of me, tell you why. But I am alive. My mother's most loyal servants gave us a way out, an escape. I don't think there's anyone left."
"Your…your mother's husband," Lan Xichen said, after careful consideration, "did he smile at you very often?"
Fu Xuanming lifted her head. She seemed to want to reach for the moon's light above, letting the pale beams dance along her fingers. "All the time. Whether it was nurturing us or beating us. He would yell at Fu Yao when she was just an infant who couldn't possibly know better when she was crying. One moment a gentle father, the next a man shouting with a bellow that seemed infused with all the spiritual energy in his golden core. He never cared for the Lang Clan, and so he left their remnants in Yong'an to fend for themselves. I like to imagine he had an embarrassing death, tripping on his own shoelaces and falling on his sword. Or perhaps squeezed to death by a yao beast while taking a shit in the woods. It's the sort of death he deserves."
"Fu-gongzi…" Lan Xichen didn't finish.
She turned to look back at him and urged him to speak, "What?"
Lan Xichen seemed to turn over multiple responses in his mind. Then, he stepped forward just a single pace and said in earnest, "You have been very strong for a very long time, haven't you?"
Fu Xuanming felt the urge to step back, but refrained at the last moment. Lan Xichen's eyes were darker than Lan Wangji's, so why did they somehow seem brighter? At a loss for how to respond, she simply said, "You have told me the secrets of your past, I have told you the secrets of mine. Now, we're even, Zewu-jun."
"Huan."
"Hm?"
He tilted his head. "You used my birth name before."
She had. "I suppose I did."
"I don't mind, if you're worried."
"I wasn't worried." Not very much, anyway.
Lan Xichen's smile was smaller, like he was trying to be cute and restrained rather than openly cheerful or even comforting. There was no hidden sadness or sympathy, no underlying emotion or secret motive. He just seemed to be smiling because he couldn't help it. "I like it. Wei-gongzi has called Wangji by his birth name without reserve, and yet you haven't called me Huan since we met. It was a nice surprise."
Fu Xuanming also realized she had used "xiansheng", which in addition to being a respectful address to men or a term for a teacher, it could also be considered a more intimate address from wives to husbands. It didn't have to have that connotation though! "Lan-xiansheng" always referred to Lan Qiren, here in the Cloud Recesses. Was that why Lan Xichen was still caught off guard when she called him xiansheng?
"You prefer Huan-xiansheng?" she asked.
With little shame, he confessed, "I do. But I suppose it's too personal for formal use. Just another reason for Shufu to loathe you." Lan Xichen finally stepped back, and the water seemed to grow colder even just one step away. "I told you before that it has been a long time since I've had…anyone who would call me by my birth name. Wangji and I have become rather untouchable by polite society, because Shufu would seek to keep us from all forces that might corrupt. He would seclude us from the secular world as a whole, if he could."
Fu Xuanming followed, "He didn't want you to love the wrong person, like your father."
"We've always been afraid, on some level," he confessed, "of becoming like our father. Of being considered deviant, and especially about loving the wrong person. Loving into ruin." Lan Xichen's helpless smile had now been burdened by his sorrow once more. He was still smiling, though. "Wei-gongzi was the first one to not be deterred by Wangji's…distant persona."
"Most think you would make more relationships than your didi, seeing as you're rather sociable by comparison."
"Most would think that, yes. Friends are easy to make, and yet…you are not wrong to live your life fearing all smiles. As I grow and find myself pulled into the many clan politics, I find myself constantly wondering if the smiles I see are fake, just to appease me. I wonder if we are all just wearing fake smiles, if our clans are truly friends, or merely saving face and following traditions made generations ago. Do my smiles sometimes feel fake?"
Fu Xuanming would have once given him a very honest answer without hesitation. Now, while she still admitted the truth, she felt a small hint of guilt when she did. "Yes. No one can be perfect at all times. I kept waiting to see when you would show your true face, but it was always right in front of me. You have different smiles, even if they can all be called smiles. Like how you can read Lan Wangji, I'm learning that there's a way to read you as well."
He chuckled. "All my secrets will be yours, before long."
She leaned back in the water and began to float on the surface. Their voices were slightly muffled by the water in her ears. "You shouldn't fret about it. With my way of life, you'll soon have all of mine in return."
Lan Xichen insisted, "I have told you from the beginning, you owe me nothing in return for that which I offer freely."
"Then consider it me offering freely as well. And if you suspect ulterior motives, well…I won't confirm nor deny."
Lan Xichen shifted, and soon he was lying in the cold springs as well. She could feel him slowly drifting past. "Do you plan to return to Yunmeng at the end of the year?"
"I will follow A-Yao wherever she may go. If she wishes to continue studying at Gusu, then I will stay, but I think she definitely likes the Lotus Pier more. No offense."
"None taken. You will always be loyal to your home."
"If ever there is a place I can bring myself to call home, perhaps I will find myself loyal, indeed."
After that, the two of them soaked in silence. Fu Xuanming closed her eyes, letting herself hear only the low rumble of the waterfall tickling the pool. Gusu was indeed a beautiful place. Yunmeng may not have been her original home, but maybe it could be called so now. Thinking of her days playing instruments, stubbornly refusing to learn how to read, and how the fun of the special Twin Jade archery range…she could almost imagine making this place her home too.
Water shifted harshly, and Fu Xuanming was swept up into a strong grip. Wasn't this familiar? But this time, she was not fighting back. Lan Xichen had scooped her up abruptly and forced their movement through the water to dodge a large projectile that had crashed into the spring.
Her eyes snapped open, and she realized a few hours must have passed, based on the movement of the moon. She must have fallen asleep.
Lan Xichen held her tightly and pushed to the edge of the springs where he could set her on solid ground. While he snatched up his robe and tried to tidy himself, Fu Xuanming took in the situation. The thing that had attacked them…a corpse!
A fierce corpse had made its way all the way up to the springs? That shouldn't be possible. It was the very reason they were both unarmed.
Fu Xuanming couldn't help feeling a wave of anger, seeing it floating and flailing, clearly unable to properly steady itself in the water. It was not a water ghost, but it had attacked without caring about the terrain. Now its disgusting form was tainting this pure place.
"Da-mei. Get it out."
The small ghost emerged from Fu Xuanming with a dutiful, "Yes jiejie!"
She floated across the water, and the corpse immediately took notice. Its random flailing turned to deliberate movements, fleeing as fast as its undead limbs could manage. When it got caught on the edge of the springs, unable to pull itself up, Da-mei reached out and lifted it by the ragged collar, floating up just enough to toss it a good distance away.
"Shall I subjugate or eliminate, Xuxu?" Da-mei asked, cracking her little ghostly knuckles. It was purely for show; she was not going to punch anything.
"Do you sense anymore in the area?"
"Around seven seven in total along the mountain."
"Round them up with the other cultivators."
Da-mei puffed out her cheeks in disappointment, but complied nonetheless. She helped the corpse to its feet and forced it to walk back up the mountain path while she floated behind.
Fu Xuanming sighed and rose to follow along, before realizing she was soaking wet and should probably dry off first. She held up a hand seal to summon a warm wind, and with an extra puff from her skin itself, the remaining water was immediately ejected by force in all directions.
Once dry, she stepped forward to follow Da-mei, but something caught on her sleeve.
"Wait."
Fu Xuanming felt a wave of dread wash over her. She had completely forgotten Lan Xichen was here!
It took her a moment to gather the courage to turn around. Lan Xichen was not smiling, which was almost a relief. Water droplets fell across his face, and his hair stuck to his skin in clumps. His eyes were like polished jewels in the moonlight.
"You…" he began. "Can…you dry me as well?"
Lan Xichen's smile had returned. It reached his eyes.
Fu Xuanming felt incredulous. "That's it?"
He nodded, holding up a finger to explain, "I've wanted to see how you do it since the first time I saw it."
The first time he had brought her here. She hadn't worried about it because even if Lan Xichen tried to explain it, there was nothing really out of the ordinary. There were plenty of other special things to exist in the cultivation world, and there was no way for him to know that her power did not come from a golden core.
After a moment, Fu Xuanming held up her hand again and dried him in a similar manner. Lan Xichen's hair was whipped around, only held down by his headband rather than tied up like Fu Xuanming's. He seemed tickled by the winds, breaking out into laughter as his robe and hair went flying in all directions. Fu Xuanming didn't think she'd ever seen him laugh with the whole of his chest like that. Laughing too hard was against the rules, after all, if it caused a ruckus. But Lan Xichen's laughter could hardly be called a ruckus. If anything, it was a work of art.
Her eyes widened as she realized she'd used too much force, and his headband was dislodged from the strong puff of air. She reached out and snatched it before the winds could steal it away. It was thrown back in the direction of the water pool, and the slippery rocks nearly caused her to fall back in. A steady arm grasped her before she could lose her balance, pulling her back the way she'd come until she hit a solid chest. When she looked up, Lan Xichen was smiling down at her, his hair a bit of a windblown mess, but nothing that could mar his natural beauty.
He also had no headband. Because it was in her hand.
"Gah! I'm sorry!"
Her voice cracked back to its normal pitch as she freed herself from his grasp and moved to return the headband. However she couldn't quite decide if she wanted to put it in his hand or just return it to his head herself, and so in the ensuing conflict with herself, she ended up smacking him in the eye. Smacking was not the right word. She had practically back-handed him with her knuckles aimed right at the socket!
Someone, please kill her now.
The shame almost hit her as hard as the freezing water, because now both of them had ended up stumbling back into the cold springs, one of them half blind and the other clinging desperately to a headband while simultaneously trying to get rid of it.
The two of them gasped for air as they managed to straighten up. The cold springs weren't deep enough that they would drown, but it certainly wasn't ideal to unexpectedly fall in with a shout that expelled all the air from your lungs.
Lan Xichen was still cradling his eye as Fu Xuanming quickly tried to slide his headband back into place. The knot in the back hadn't come loose, so all she had to do was slide it over. It wasn't proper, seeing as he usually tucked some of his hair around it, but it was better than nothing!
She then forced his hand aside and pressed her own palm over his eye, sending a wave of healing magic into it, accompanied by a dull glow in her palm.
Lan Xichen's hands moved back up to his headband now that they were free, and he undid the knot so he could retie it into place. "This is the second time you've blinded me. We shouldn't make this a tradition in the cold springs."
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" When her healing had finished, she removed her palm and leaned close to study his eye. The dilation was fine, no scratches or tears. "Can you see okay? Eyes are rather sensitive in that the smallest detail must be paid careful mind when healing, lest I ruin your vision forever!"
Lan Xichen swapped between opening and closing each eye, back and forth. "It's fine. I can see you with perfect clarity."
"You're not hurt anywhere else, are you? Did you scuff your knee or twist your ankle or —?"
"I am fine," he repeated. "Though your efforts drying us appear to have been wasted."
She lowered her head and released a small groan. "This has been one disaster after another. I truly am a bad luck charm. Your shufu is right, you shouldn't be hanging around me, lest I really do take your eye one day!"
He had finished retying his headband and moved to climb out of the spring. He offered a hand to help haul her free as well, this time mindful of his footing. The two of them backed a distance away from the spring this time, and Lan Xichen placed a steadying hand on his headband to keep it in place while Fu Xuanming dried them.
"Xuxu, the corpses are being detained by the cultivators. They went all bong, bing, bang! And then do, dee, dum, and a little ooo, wee, ooh."
She turned back to Da-mei with a sigh. The ghost child was hovering at her eye level, so she didn't have to bend down to meet her. "That is good. They play instruments to subjugate and fight here. Isn't that fun?"
Da-mei nodded. She gripped her stuffed animal now and squeezed it against her cheek on impulse. "Jiejie has been having so much fun without me. It's so unfair!"
"It's not unfair," Fu Xuanming dismissed. "Now away with you. We can play later."
At the promise of play, the young ghost girl perked up and then vanished.
"You didn't need to speak to her so harshly," Lan Xichen said.
"She is a stubborn child with thick skin; she will live. Well, she is dead, so I suppose she won't."
Lan Xichen's earlier laughter peaked through again, a helpless giggle in the back of his throat. Instead of asking any of the normal questions one in his position should be asking, like the hopeless fool he was, he just said, "She seems happy, even though she is dead. Is that because of you?"
"Who knows why she's always so happy? Da-mei grows ever more confusing each year."
"How is she the first yet your younger sister?" Lan Xichen held up his fingers, as though he could simply count to make sense of the answer.
Fu Xuanming explained, "She died young, so she was the first, but compared to me now, she is younger. In any case, Da-mei is her only name, and she quite likes it. If it does not make sense, she may like it even more. She likes to confuse people. Let's go. We should check how those corpses made it this far up the mountain into Gusu."
"They were most likely brought here from a recent Night Hunt for the students to practice their Inquiry. I'm sure the others will sort it out." Lan Xichen stretched his arms above his head, and it occurred to Fu Xuanming how tired he looked.
Understandable. A full day of training, then he had come to the springs and spoke with Fu Xuanming into hai time and beyond. Thinking back, had he been awake the whole time Fu Xuanming had been sleeping in the springs? Or had he simply reacted that fast to the sound of a corpse? Either way…had he been still keeping guard over her even while trying to rest?
"You should go rest before you get sick."
He didn't argue, but still added, "You should rest as well."
"I'm rested enough. I'm used to going without sleep most nights. I'll stand guard in case another corpse tries to ambush us."
"I appreciate it. To the Righteousness Room, then?" Lan Xichen held out his hand, as if he was going to formally escort her to some fancy event.
How had the Righteousness Room somehow become her room? It was supposed to be Lan Xichen's personal room for his studies and rest, just like Lan Wangji's Tranquility Room. He was often off tending to his own duties as the future leader of the clan, and if he wanted to, he had access to the Wintry Room where his father resided. It was best for him to at least stay in his personal residence, since he wouldn't have to travel far for his hai-mao rest schedule.
However, more often than not, he was joining her in the Righteousness Room for meals or because he claimed it was a superior place to get work done. Fu Xuanming hardly found that being in her presence was preferable to seclusion, but then Lan Xichen was a weird man.
She would not know if he sometimes went to the Righteousness Room without her, nor if he sometimes ended up spending the night there, because during the dark hours Fu Xuanming was the one off somewhere else. She never even slept there in the first place. If she did somehow manage to fall asleep, it was always in an unconventional place like a tree by the archery range or a roof on one of the buildings. The roof of the Righteousness Room was more likely to make her drowsy than the bed.
She smacked his hand away, flustered, and led the way. "Hurry along, Huan-xiansheng, or I'll leave you behind!"