A Phoenix Rising - An Untamed Story (Book 1 In Series)

Chapter 35

Lan SiZhui spent the rest of the year finishing up his studies in Cloud Recesses. He went on night hunts with his friends, visited Jin Ling in Koi Tower, helped his fathers with the children, and spent a lot of time wondering why he felt so unsettled.

Some of this had to be attributed to OuYang XiaoDan; she attended her three months of studying in Cloud Recesses, and every spare moment was spent following him. If Rule Number One of brotherhood meant that he was not allowed to see her as anything other than cute, Rule Number Two had to be 'you're not allowed to kiss your brothers' sisters'. And oh how he wanted to kiss her! His lust became so hard to disguise that he begged his father for permission to move into the Jingshi. At least there he had the privacy that when his desires became too great, he could take care of them without shaming himself in front of his roommates.

After turning eighteen, he expected to be told to swear to Cloud Recesses. But his uncle refused to make him choose between the Sect he grew up in and his fathers' new Sect. To placate the Elders who made their displeasure at this favoritism known, he spent most of his time on night hunts and running errands for his uncle. He made frequent trips to Sanctuary to see his family, but those trips just made the unsettling feeling worse.

There was something wrong with his fathers. Most of the time Baba was his normal, happy self. But sometimes... the smile slipped.... When that happened, Father would take him away to their room, and they would do... whatever it was they did to bring back the smiles. But then Father's eyes would look sad for a few days. He didn't understand it, and both parents denied there was anything wrong.

He spent most of his time during the next year at Koi Tower. The rebuilding of the buildings was done, but the rebuilding of the Sect had barely started. After the massive betrayals and subsequent executions of the men and women who plotted or participated in the assault on Wei WuXian and his family, Jin RuLan found himself pretty much alone in his position as Sect leader. The core of the Sect had been rotting from the inside out since before the SunShot Campaign; Jun GuangShan and Jin GuangYao had simply been the external representations of that rot. Since Lan SiZhui had been, and technically still was, Lan XiChen's heir, he had been taught Sect leadership from an early age. The two cousins worked hard trying to bring the LanLingJin back to a fraction of its former glory.

Right after he turned twenty, Jiang WanYin apparently decided Lan Sizhui had had enough time loafing around Koi Tower and called him to Lotus Pier to work. The young man found himself under the tutelage of his aunt, who was pregnant, and so found himself weeding the gardens while she watched. Or pounding dried herbs in the dispensary under her direction. As the months progressed, he learned how to make medicine for various ailments. And one night, in early summer, he found himself feeling both horrified and amazed as he assisted the midwife while Wen Qing struggled to give birth. Holding the slippery newborn in his arms and carefully washing away the fluids on its body, he felt that the unsettled feeling that had followed him around for the past three years was completely gone. So when his aunt was feeling better a few days later, he knelt before her and begged to become her disciple.

A month later, his newest cousin was almost on a regular eating and sleeping schedule, and his aunt resumed some of her medical research. She informed Lan SiZhui that their most pressing concern was helping his Aunt MeiLi get pregnant. Uncle XiChen needed an heir of his own body, especially since his current heir was learning to be a doctor... But the paralysis prevented them from being intimate. And what followed was the most embarrassing series of lectures in his life.

He had thought Father taking him to view the pornographic novels in the library and the subsequent conversation about refraining from the activities that directly led to potential pregnancies until after marriage was embarrassing. He had also thought that Baba telling him to take himself in hand instead of kissing XiaoDan was embarrassing. (Although the part about the massage oil turned out to be quite useful.) Those embarrassing moments paled in comparison to sitting before QingJie while she gave anatomical lectures, complete with detailed drawings and diagrams, on what exactly happened between men and women in order for a woman to become pregnant.