Live Again, Love Anew

Chapter 2- Nightly Visits

Summary

They go back to Gusu, something happens to Lan Zhan, and Wei Ying meets someone.

Beginning Note

My timeline and basis for events will come from many different sources. The drama, book, and anime will be my main sources. I have not watched the drama, but I have read enough fics that I might unconsciously use events from that timeline even if I haven't ever watched it.

I also gave Lan Zhan's parents actual names. I went to a baby names website and just chose what sounded good, so please don't @ me.

Wei Wuxian

"Well, let's find your uncle and brother, shall we?" Wei Wuxian throws over his shoulder as he turns to give Lan Zhan some privacy to fix his robes. Wei Wuxian may be a kid, but he can show some propriety. Speaking of...

"Ah, Lan Zhan, wait." Lan Zhan stops fixing his robes and turns his attention back to Wei Wuxian. "We can't just walk back to your uncle with giant seals on our chests, can we?"

Understanding what Wei Wuxian means, Lan Zhan pulls his robes aside again. Wei Wuxian steps closer to the other boy and writes a few more characters around the seal. After the last one is in place, the seal fades away, leaving unmarred, porcelain skin behind. Humming his success, he repeats the process on his own chest, making his own seal disappear, or rather, become invisible.

"The seal still works." Wei Wuxian says as he starts fixing his robes again, not that there's much to fix. 'Robes' is a generous name for the rags hanging off his bony frame. "I just made it invisible. If I nullify the topmost character, it will become visible again, in case we need to change the seal or something. Then I just rewrite the character, and it becomes invisible again. It won't be able to be sensed by any cultivators, no matter how strong, and only me and you will be able to nullify it. You have to know the original character placement to nullify it, and that's pretty hard if the character you're looking for is invisible." He turns back to Lan Zhan to see him immaculately dressed once again. "I'll teach you the proper seal later, just in case you need to work on the seal without me there. It might be risky, but you'll just have to do it yourself in an emergency."

Lan Zhan turns and leads them out of the alley and back into the crowded streets of Yiling. The further they walk, the harder the nostalgia hits. Wei Wuxian has a bad memory, he knows that, but the sights, sounds, smells, they all bring about the strangest sense of deja vu. He knows he's seen all this before, but he can't actively remember any of it.

Even more jarring, is the fact that he lived here for the last few months of his life (previous life?). The images overlap and merge, forming an amalgam of sights and sounds, neither image quite the same, yet sharing enough similarities that it's familiar all the same. And seeing all of this from a viewpoint as tall as most people's legs is even more jarring.

"Lan Zhan!" Wei Wuxian suddenly exclaims. His hold on Lan Zhan's sleeve pulls the other boy to a stop as he asks, "How old are we? I know we're little kids, but you know how my memory is..." He gives the other boy a sheepish smile.

Lan Zhan takes a moment to think. "I turned five last winter. It is summer now."

" Five !?" Wei Wuxian exclaims. "I knew I was young, but not this young." He mutters.

Lan Zhan's eyes suddenly widen. "Five..." He whispers. "My mother-" He cuts himself off, and Wei Wuxian can't help but wonder.

"Lan Zhan's mom?" He gently coaxes. "What is it about your mom, Lan Zhan?"

Wei Wuxian finds golden eyes fixed on his as Lan Zhan says in the smallest voice imaginable, "We can save her." Wei Wuxian feels his breath hitch. "My mother... does not- will not- see my next birthday." Wei Wuxian notices that he doesn't directly say she died, but it's obvious why she wasn't able to see him on his sixth birthday. "Wei Ying! We have to-" Lan Zhan says desperately, almost in tears.