awashlogs | Event Twenty-Five.

[ He laughs, merrily. ]

Thirteen years! Hahaha! What a long time. Alas, it's no wonder your Hanguang-Jun doesn't recognize you, Sizhui. You would have been just a toddler, last time he laid eyes on you!

[ He reaches out, to pat the boy on the shoulder. ]

What did I say? Upstream! Very far upstream, past so many villages, into the next county and beyond!

[ It's a small, shift, really. But the way Wei Ying stills for a moment makes him move a tiny bit closer to him, even as a chill runs down his own spine. Thirteen years without him. This is what he has ahead of him when he returns home.

But that does not stop him from watching the junior's expression. The confusion, the faint hurt that ripples the gentle expression. Lan Sizhui looks like he has taken a lot after Elder Brother, but something about him, especially when his face is going between expressions...

(Who would expect more than politeness of him?

Other than...

Wangji's eyes dart towards Wei Ying, then return to the youth. Just a toddler...) ]

When I came to Chroma, I had just entered into the seclusion. You would, indeed, have been very young.

[ He hesitates a moment. Then phrases the question so that if the answer is negative, if his faint suspicion is wrong, it will not be upsetting for Wei Ying. He thinks. Not immediately - he is clever, and he can put things together quite well, if he decides to focus on something. ]

Was I... the person to take care of you, growing up?

[A toddler? So... Lan WangJi didn't remember him. Well, didn't know him]

Very far upstream.

[It was hard to hear that they were from so far of points on this metaphorical river that WangJi didn't know him. It made sense based on what Senior Mo had said, but that didn't make it easier]

For three years, when you weren't able, ZeWu-Jun would look after me. But when you were and there after, it was HanGuang-Jun.

[ As soon as the words, "you would have been just a toddler," leave his lips, wheels in his mind unconsciously turn. Lan Zhan's reaction, as well as Lan Sizhui's make clear what he'd never dared to hope. His hand comes up and grips the back of Lan Zhan's arm. His heart is pounding; it's hard to breathe.

In an unnaturally light voice, with his expression schooled but for very bright eyes, he asks: ]

Sizhui, do you remember anything from when you were very young? Did you ever... did you ever live outside of Gusu?

[ Wangji was going to ask for the full verification, next, but it doesn't seem necessary right now, not really. Because Wei Ying knows him well enough to realize - there couldn't have been another boy who would fit all the information - age, upbringing. The timing just couldn't work, not with the state Wangji had been in.

And then there is the grip on his arm, and Wangji leans ever so slightly close. He doesn't have the answer to that question. A-Yuan had been very weak, fevered, when he brought him to the Cloud Recesses. Not yet awake by the time Wangji showed up in Chroma.

And...

Especially because he doesn't know, he can't shield either of them from the possible hurt.

He is close to Wei Ying, and when he looks at Lan Sizhui, his eyes no longer hold the wariness to a stranger. He might not know the young man he has become. But his affection for the child he used to be is genuine. ]

Mn. [ Slight incline of the head, to confirm to Sizhui that the answer is to him, and it is up to Sizhui alone whether and how to answer it. ]

[SiZhui might have been still looked sad about all this if he couldn't see the change in WangJi's eyes. They weren't strangers anymore to him and it make him smile even at the question]

I don't know. I don't remember much from before HanGuang-Jun entered seclusion, but I must have at some point; the juniors at the time and those my own age didn't know who I was at first.

[He remembered that clearly, but never really thought much about it at three. He still hadn't thought about it, but when asked if he had lived elsewhere it seemed to make sense]

[ His expression doesn't change, but the light in his eyes does seem to dim. Of course, he wouldn't remember. And it would be cruel to remind the boy, too.
The Wens were reviled. His whole family was murdered. Better for the boy to believe himself a Lan, through and through. ]

[ Brightly: ]

It's normal not to remember things from when you were that young. Don't worry about it!

[ But there is one piece of the information he can't hide, not here. He exhales. ]

Sizhui, there is something I need to tell you. You're going to find out eventually, and I'd rather you heard it from me. You see, I'm not Mo Xuanyu. He was an unfortunate man who sacrificed his soul and his body upon me, in a forbidden ceremony.

[ He lets go of Lan Zhan's arm, and steps a little apart from them both, in case the boy's reaction is... not good. ]

I never intended to come back, but I didn't have a choice. I'm Wei Wuxian.

Edited 2019-07-12 16:37 (UTC)

[ Wangji lets out a soft breath, his eyes turning to look at Wei Ying. To capture all of the reactions and, yes, he can see it - the stillness, fingers tightening around his arm, and then the steeling himself and the pushing forward of the cheer.

He can't make this different. And as he only knew a little bit of how things had been, he can't volunteer to fill in the missing memory, not really.

Then comes information that he suspected the general shape of, but didn't know before this. Mo Xuanyu. He knew that Wei Ying did not willingly posses the body - from having been in it - and even more than that, he knew that Wei Ying wouldn't. Though to hear the words said still... aches, deep and dark. That the brightest person, the one who started out loving life so much, would have preferred to stay dead because the world broke him down that badly.

Because they, even Wangji in his misguided doubts, broke him down that badly.

Wei Ying steps away, but Wangji steps up until he is next to him again, shoulder to shoulder. He cannot imagine Sizhui being horrified at the revelation. Not if he has raised him. But even so, Wei Ying is not alone. And neither is... ]

Sizhui. It is true.

[ Soft and calm. He doesn't know the future him, the him that A-Yuan knows. But this is how he is now. (He wants to say A-Yuan, too. But he knows that will be a knife in Wei Ying's heart that he can spare him.) ]

[SiZhui was quiet for a long moment hearing that information looking from the man that he knew as Mo XuanYu, not actually Mo XuanYu, and the man he knew as his father and back again]

Wei... WuXian? As in the Yiling Patriarch?

[His mind was processing this new information with what he knew to be true since the Mo Village]

[What happened next really was a testament to how well WangJi had taught this junior. SiZhui suddenly stepped forward, taking WuXian's hands. He didn't look angry though; he was actually smiling rather brightly]

I knew it! I knew there was something! That explains the corpses fighting at Mo Village and that explains why you were able to summon a fierce corpse like the Ghost General so easily!

Edited (missing a word) 2019-07-12 17:05 (UTC)

[ When Lan Zhan steps up next to him, shoulder-to-shoulder, his heart is already in this throat. Isn't this what he's always yearned for, someone to stand next to him, steadfast, no matter what? And then, when the boy catches his hands and smiles at him, it's almost more than he can bear. ]

[ .......and then............... as if in slow motion................. Lan Sizhui's words trickle through to his consciousness. ]

The Ghost General?

[ His voice is barely above a whisper. Wen Ning, the boy's own cousin. His ashes had been scattered at the Nightless City, before thousands of cultivators. He turns and catches Lan Zhan's eyes. He'd been there. He'd seen it, too. ]

That is... that's impossible.

[ With the first words, Wangji looks over at Wei Ying almost fondly. (For him.) What have you been getting up to--

Then his face whips back to the junior at the mention of Wen Ning. He can feel Wei Ying's eyes on him and meets them, nodding slightly, expression - well, most people would think it's resorted back to blank. But it is rather uncertain, instead. He remembers talking with Wen Qing and Wen Ning as they were going to turn themselves in. He remembers leaving, to go to the Burial mound (he found it empty of the one he was looking for already), and hearing about the Ghost General massacring cultivators at Coi Tower.

Killing people of Wangji's own sect.

It didn't make sense at the time. Wen Ning had not seemed anywhere close to losing control. He'd thought, perhaps seeing his sister--

He breathes out softly. ]

Are you certain? [ He knows the junior is not lying. He wouldn't. Not to a senior of the Sect - and not to someone he was looking as Sizhui was looking at him just now. But... ]

We were told. [ Slowly. Carefully. Yes, he is aware of the relationship, even if Sizhui is not. ] That his ashes were scattered. Before my seclusion.

[ When did his hand come to rest against - support, if need be - the man beside him? He's not sure. It doesn't matter.

There is a chill churning deep inside his stomach, suddenly.

If the information about that was false. What had happened to Wen Ning for thirteen years?

And why would the LanlingJin sect do that? ]

[He could see the surprise on both of their faces, but his conviction of what he saw did not fade]

I am certain. Twice I have seen him. The first was on Dafan Mountain where Senior... Senior Wei summoned him to help with a statue that had come alive and was provoked by Jin Ling. Senior cultivators identified him as well. And then the second was in Yi City where he...

[He paused for only a brief moment. Perhaps dealing with one shocking turn of events at a time was better]

Where he was fighting with another fierce corpse.

[ Lan Zhan's expression... of course he would dislike all mention of Wen Ning, who had lost control and killed so many of his fellow sect members. In fact, couldn't Lan Zhan lay all of the fault for what happened at Wen Ning's feet? He'd killed Jin Zixuan, which had led to Wen Qing and Wen Ning giving themselves up, and then everything after that... ]

[ And then Lan Sizhui explains... ]

[ Probably the most important question about all this is, what fierce corpse could stand up to Wen Ning? What fierce corpse couldn't he himself control? But what stands out the most is that Jin Ling is... ]

Did... did he survive? Jin Ling, is he all right?

[ did Wen Ning actually save the boy, or.... ]

[ Wei Ying, please. Wangji is right there and withholding neither his presence nor his touch. He knows the man's excitement will likely soon make him to move, but Wangji is here now, while he can stand (more or less) still.

Wangji doesn't even try to ask his own questions. Not now. He can see that Wei Ying's mind is spinning of in an entirely different direction, and that is all right. They are very, very far from where they can do anything about any of this. And...

Of course his shijie's son is important to Wei Ying. How could it be otherwise? ]

Yes, of course. He was unharmed. The Ghost General arrived right before it was about to attack him and took the statue's head clean off and destroyed it. It was really quite impressive.

He was also alive and well with us in Yi City. Jin Ling.

[In case there was any chance of mistaking his comment for the Ghost General...]

[ A tight knot wound up in his heart starts to ease. If Wen Ning had killed the son just like the father, he's not sure what he would have done. His sins are manifold; in a sense, what's one more? But the idea that his sister's only child might have died at his hands, too....

Because everything Wen Ning did, or will do as a fierce corpse, is his fault.

He exhales. None of that happened. Moreover, one Lan is holding his hands, another is standing next to him, supporting him. From being tied in knots, his heart now seems suddenly too full, nearly overflowing. ]

My goodness! Haha! It sounds like you've had some adventures!

[ He squeezes Lan Sizhui's hands and lets them go. And then he wheels away from both of them, folding his hands behind his head. ]

Sounds like we've met up no fewer than three times! What a set of coincidences! Hahaha! It seems we just can't stop meeting each other, isn't that funny?

[ He's starting to chatter because, right now, he's starting to turn into a bit of a mess. The future, until now, was this formless array of possibilities. Things he hoped for, things he didn't want to think about, now are sliding into sharp relief. There's a question on the tip of his tongue, one he wants to know, and doesn't. ]

What's in Yi City, anything interesting?

[ Wangji lets him go. He folds his hands inside his sleeves and watches him calmly. He knows Wei Ying is better than a few moments ago, but he's still... not quite right. Then again, after so much information, who would be?

(Wangji himself...

He has a lot to think about.) ]

... do you wish for food? Or tea?

[ They are standing outside, and while not much is bothering Wangji himself right now, neither of the other two's cultivation is at his level. Yet. He thinks this a fair question, asked discreetly enough to be ignored if the information of the future is more important, for now. ]

Yes, we have had quite a few of those and we've learned so much.

We have met three times, Senior Wei. After Dafan Mountain and encountering Sect Leader Jiang, HanGuang-Jun brought you back to the Cloud Recesses. Since then, you and HanGuang-Jun have been traveling together to try and learn more about the arm.

Yi City is quite a long story. [Just because there is so much to explain] I think, yes, some food and tea would be good while I make sure I do not leave anything out.

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