The meaning of protecting you with my life

Jiang Yanli joins her brothers

Jiang Yanli was standing next to her father on the deck of a small boat which they used to go to the to a nearby town in. She had seen the hair pin which her father picked up for her mother instead of her broken one and she was sure that she would like it. Now only if she would also say it aloud; her father and mother had not had enough communication between them which often caused misunderstandings and arguments. Sadly, those often affected Jiang Cheng or Wei Wuxian.

She knew her parents loved each other, if only they could learn how to express it, everyone would have been much happier. When she had been younger, she tried to talk to her parents but she had only been told that she had been too young to understand. Now, she did not try anymore to come to them this openly, instead, she was supporting them from afar. Just like for this trip when she offered to accompany her father because she knew he had been upset.

The trip lasted a week and gradually, her father was becoming happier and he was even looking forwards to giving the hair pin to her mother. Jiang Yanli could not be sure if it was because of something she had said while trying to persuade him or if he just forgot the previous argument with her mother and was about to give her another chance, again. In the end, it did not matter, she was just happy about it.

Suddenly, she thought she heard familiar voices from quite far away. She shook her head slightly, what would her brothers do this far up stream when they usually went swimming and picking lotus seeds downstream?

But then there was another shout, even more urgent then the previous one and Jiang Yanli was sure that it belonged to Wei Wuxian. It could be that they could not wait and decided to come meet her and her father on their way back. However, the voices were not excited or welcoming, they seemed full of urgency and distressed. Had something perhaps happened in Lotus Pier while they had been gone?

She started worrying at once; looking around to see where the voices were coming from. Far and wide there was nothing aside for a small boat steadily making its was upstream, slowly advancing against the current. When she looked closer, she saw that no one was steering it. What was happening? Why was the boat sailing on its own?

The voices of her brothers became even louder and seemingly more desperate. She looked at her father and alerted him: "Father, I thing A-Cheng and A-Xian are on that boat."

It looked like her father had already heard the voices as well because he swiftly turned around and ordered for their boat to approach the other quickly. It took another several minutes for the boats to finally meet, all the while, Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian were calling for them and if Jiang Yanli did not know any better, she would have believed that they had been crying from how hoarse their voices seemed.

When the boats finally locked to each other, she quickly jumped over the small railing and kneeled beside her brothers. Her worry spiked even more when she saw they were sitting on the boat's bottom, both looking somewhat battered, their eyes red and tied back to back with Zidian. Jiang Cheng had a few dried patches on his cheeks and she could tell he had indeed been crying. Wei Wuxian on the other hand had dried blood on his chin and was clutching the front of his robes as if he was in pain.

The boys looked very distressed and Jiang Yanli could not wait to learn what had happened. Because something must had happened at Lotus Pier or her mother would not have tied her brothers with her spiritual weapon and sent them away.

Her father must have reached a similar conclusion because he was way ahead of her, already asking with worry in his tone: "A-Cheng, A-Ying, what happened? Why are you bound with Zidian?"

When neither of them seemed about to reply, Jiang Yanli asked, trying her best to keep her voice from breaking: "Where is mother? Why did she tie you like this?"

Finally, Jiang Cheng pleaded, visibly relieved they had been found but close to tears nevertheless: "Father, let us go, please, take Zidian away."

Jiang Yanli was not sure that her father would be able to do that, she had never seen him wield the Purple lightning whip and she was afraid that because of his tense relationship with his wife, he would not be recognized as its master.

Once again, her father was of the same mind: "It is Zidian, it needs to recognize me as its master, I am not sure I can do anything for you. I am afraid it would not let me..."

Despite his words, he reached out his hand and did not even get to finish his sentence when Zidian was already moving, regaining its ring form and settling itself on the Yunmeng Jiang sect leader's finger. No one seemed more surprised by the spiritual weapon's behaviour than her father himself, it seemed.

And Jiang Yanli had to ask herself whether it was because he had never tried to wield Zidian or because he had tried and failed in the past. Nevertheless, it was a clear sign that her mother loved her father deeply and was trusting him enough to let him handle her spiritual weapon, after all, for her, it was like a sword for another cultivator, something only she and a handful of other people she permitted to could even touch. She hoped that her father would understand this as well and treat it as a precious love confession from her mother's part.

Once free, her brothers quickly got up, interrupting her thoughts and attracting her father's attention away from staring at Zidian in utter disbelief.

"Sister, Father, the Wens barged into our home. They came prepared. Mother is fighting them as we speak. We need to hurry back and help her. She was fighting the Core Melting Hand, if he manages to touch her only once, she would lose her golden core! Let us go back and join her!" Jiang Cheng all but begged.

It surprised her that Wei Wuxian did not say a word and was only nodding to his brother's words. He must have been shaken, just like her. She knew the reputation of Wen Zhuliu and she was now fearing for her mother's life. She looked urgently at her father and joined her voice to Jiang Cheng's: "Father, let us go back. Quickly."

However, her father only looked at all of them in turn and then pushed her towards her brothers. Jiang Yanli was baffled, she did not understand why her father would do that. They were going back together to help her mother, right?

Apparently no since the next second, Zidian turned into the Purple lightning whip again and wrapped itself around all their chests. The three of them were now tied together, unable to move. Jiang Yanli quickly shook away her shock and begged her father to let them go, just as did her youngest brother.

Surprisingly, she registered in the corner of her mind which had not been completely overtaken by worry, Wei Wuxian did not say a word. For a split second, she wondered why that was, but she let it go soon enough, there were more urgent matters to care about now.

She begged desperately, she did not want their family to separate. Who knew if they would even see each other alive ever again. But her father seemed adamant as he told them to not come back to Lotus Pier and to go to Meishan instead.