I'll Fix Everything | Wangxian

Chapter eighteen

<3 hahah kill me <3

Wei Ying's family and friends screamed in their heartache alongside Wei's as they watched him shake under what had happened.

His lifeless eyes continued to shed tears, unfocused, they looked at the cave wall as he lay unmoved in the position he had been pinned in, sobbing softly.

Yanli wailed her throat sore as her little brother blinked repeatedly, trying to regain reality.

Once he could finally feel again, Wei Ying lifted a hand to the bite marks on his neck and whimpered, breath hitching, he fell limp once more as if giving up.

Yanli screamed.

Her brother looked dead.

***

Wei Ying broke empathy and turned, tears running down his cheeks, "Shije..." He called, his voice strained as Jiang Yanli hyperventilated, crying harder than she had when her parents died and her clan burned.

Yanli yanked him into her chest making him flinch, hugging him tightly and crying loudly into his hair, "A-Xian!!" She wailed, shoulders bouncing, "Xianxian!"

Wei Ying grit his teeth for courage as he pulled away, subconsciously stretching his neck where the bite marks once here, "Shije..." He murmured, lips trembling, "Breathe, Shije please..."

Yanli clenched her fists, taking deep breaths in and out, she took Wei Ying's hands and squeezed then, "Xianxian you've suffered so greatly! You're so brave Xianxian I love you!" She wailed harshly, barely coherent just losing her mind in misery.

She had failed so badly to protect her brother that he had given away his golden core and wound up in the Burial Mounds and knowing it and seeing it was killing her.

Wei Ying's bottom lip bobbled, "Just breathe Shije..." He smiled softly even if he was shaking, guiding Jiang Cheng to continue to calm Yanli down once she was no longer hyperventilating.

Leaving the bed, Wei Ying again scratched at his neck as if the bites were still there and took a breath. It was absolutely harrowing to relive these moments.

Leaning against the door, Wei Ying brought his hands to his chest, placing them over each other, he closed his eyes and breathed as deeply as he could feeling as if there were bugs beneath his skin.

Lan Zhan gulped, shaken from seeing himself as such a monster, "Wei Ying..." He called softly, "Are you okay?"

Wei Ying's eyes remained closed as he shook his head, "No." He replied honestly, continuing to thaw from his memories.

Lan Xichen sniffed before suddenly leaving the bed and making his way to the boy, hugging him when he reached, "You're more than enough for my brother... you're perfect and I wouldn't want anybody else for him."

Wei Ying froze for a moment, his hand awkwardly hovering before he began to sob, hugging Lan Xichen back, "Thank you..." He whispered, hiccuping, he let out a loud breath and clutched Lan Xichen's broad arms.

A few minutes later when Wei Ying was able to continue empathy, they gathered in a large circle on the floor but this time, Wei Ying's hands were joined with Lan Wangji and Wen Qing.

It was difficult to see the Burial Mounds at its worst, having her near him helped him remember it at its best.

The memory appeared and they saw Wei Ying sitting awkwardly against a wall, legs sprawled in strange ways.

The resentful energy was still repairing him but there'd been a lot of damage and it took time, but, he could at least sit down as lopsided as he may be, standing however was out of the question.

But he was hungry.

He was so fucking hungry.

He had never been so hungry. Not that he could remember anyway, his time on the streets was pretty harrowing but there was always at least scraps, here, there was absolutely nothing. It seems after so long of having a golden core, hunger pains are difficult to get accustomed to again.

Jiang Cheng sniffed.

He had crawled around for days looking for food, he had eaten the grass which was beyond dead, he had almost gone for tree bark, he had scavenged for bugs but found nothing.

Wei Ying lay on the ground, eyes fluttering tiredly.

He felt so fatigued.

And he was so hungry...

Looking around, Wei Ying whimpered and set his eyes on a rotting corpse-

-The memory went dark, "You don't need to see that." Wei Ying cut through, but it didn't stop the shocked whimpers and heavy, sad sighs.

When the memory began again, Wei Ying looked thinner than he was before, if that was possible. He was the definition of skin and bone, his pale complexion stretching across his bones looking ready to tear.

Around his mouth was blood, likely from coughing it up and perhaps ingesting it along with corpses, his hair was tangled and matted and his lips, white and chapped.

To sum it up, he looked like a dead man walking and in more ways than one, he was.

This time, however, he was walking around which meant it was likely weeks and weeks later, and he had a flute in hand.

Loud screams filled the air, constant, loud screams

-Zewu-Jun winced, "Master-Wei, what are those screams?"

-Wei Ying sighed, "It was never silent in the Burial Mounds."

Wei Ying meditated, absentmindedly carving at his flute as he did and thanking the Lan lectures (as boring as they had been) for their music teachings and techniques.

If he was going to live, he'd have to fight but without a golden core, the only road left for him is this one.

It's a lonely... narrow road.

But he has no choice but to walk it, unless he wants to die here.

The only way to leave the Burial Mounds is to... well never truly leave it...

Wei Wuxian will carry this mountain of corpses for the rest of his life. It'll haunt his dreams and follow him in his wake.

But for his family, evidently, he'd do anything.

Wei Ying waved away a slither of resentful energy as it approached him, not even sparing it a glance, he continued to work.

Grandmaster Qiren watching didn't know how to feel. Demonic cultivation is a one-way road, it was unorthodox, evil!

But Wei Wuxian had no other options, and he wasn't evil!

If what Lan Qiren had seen said anything, it was that Wei Wuxian was the best of them all.

The man sighed lightly, Wei Wuxian was unarguably a pure soul with nothing but good intentions and love and goodness, so how is he to face this?

It didn't matter.

This time around, Wei Wuxian wouldn't be walking this path alone.