Never Let You Go, Again

20: Finding His Love

"Wei Ying!"

"Didi, wake up!"

"Daddy?"

Words buzzed through Wei Wuxian's ears, muddling his sleeping brain. Wei Wuxian winced. Why were they shouting? Can't they shut up? Who were they? He wondered, squeezing his eyes in confusion and anger.

And amidst all those voices came two soft voices: soft and calming, but nightmarish to him.

"A-Xian?" Deep red scattered across his black vision. Blood.

"A-Ying?" A pale white back half covered by the bubbling cold springs. Lines criss-crossed across the jade-like skin. Thirty-three unmistakable, unforgettable whip scars.

Blood. Scars. All because of him.

The voices and the sights filled his mind as he began to twist, writhing from left to right, mumbling one word: "Stop!" But the memories wouldn't listen.

No, he had to wake up. He had to find him.

"LAN ZHAN!"

Wei Wuxian sat up on the bed, screaming his beloved's name. But he received no reply. Beads of sweat and tears blended, glistened, as they streamed down his frightfully white face.

"Didi!" Xichen slumped on the bed next to him, before pulling him into his chest. "Didi, please calm down. Wangji wouldn't want to see you like this."

"Then he shouldn't have left."

The children stared, never having seen such a distraught Daddy. Sizhui walked over and took his father's hand. "Daddy... please..."

"A-Yuan," Wei Wuxian mumbled, stroking his son's head, slowly softening and becoming tranquil. "Gege, why are you here? Why am I here?" Again? For the second time today, Wei Wuxian remembered falling unconscious in one place and waking up in the Jingshi.

"Didi, Jingyi came to tell us you fainted at their place. It must have been out of shock."

Wei Wuxian nodded. "Gege..." Wei Wuxian didn't know how to ask.

Xichen tilted his head. "What is it, Didi?"

"Ge, why didn't he come back?" Wei Wuxian spit it out as fast as he could, praying desperately not to hear the worst.

"Wangji, he was... Didi, he's alive, I can assure you. We don't know where he is. Wanyin said Wangji went missing."

Xichen gulped, waiting for a response.

"What the hell was Jiang Cheng doing at the time?"

"Didi, the group had split up. Wanyin and Wangji had left the seniors somewhere around the outskirts of the forest, while they walked into the jungle and onto the hills. There, the two had split up again."

"And when I went to the top of this hill we had agreed to meet up within four hours, he wasn't there. We combed the hills to no gain!" Jiang Cheng explained, marching into the room.

"And you didn't find him? Anywhere?" Wei Wuxian's voice was fading into a whisper.

"A-Xian," Jiang Cheng said, walking towards the head of the bed. "We will find him, we promise. He couldn't have gone far."

No, he didn't go anywhere. Wei Wuxian felt it in his gut, and in every bone and drop of blood. He was taken. By who? How? Where? He'd have to wait for these people to leave to do anything.

"Ge, A-Cheng, it's fine. There's nothing I can do?" He asked, round eyes gleaming with sorrow.

Xichen sighed. After exchanging a glance with Jiang Wanyin, he spoke, "Di, you need to rest."