He Smells Good

Notice

I'm currently editing this story so that it won't really have a deep plot and just mostly WangXian moments since, looking back at the "plot outlines" I made, the supposed plot is just made up of scenarios I smooshed together into one story lmao. I'll be making a different story from this with a teeny bit difference soon (not now cuz school ;w;) I haven't released the edits yet tho but here is what the next chapter's supposed to be. I stopped writing it cuz I realized that the plot's been stuck for literally 30 chaps already and that ain't good XDD

[!Sneak peek time!]

Lan XiChen lifted his head from his nearly emptied plate and placed his chopsticks down, looking over to the youth sitting on the square table across him eating unusually small bites and poking at his food from time to time. Ever since he returned from his visit to Ouyang Clan, it was always as if his soul had headed elsewhere, leaving his body and turning it into a useless bag of meat. He would often look dazed, his head lost high up in the pleasures of the Ninth Heavens. Call his name three times and he still wouldn't respond.

Since young, Lan XiChen, the one considered to have the closest relationship with Lan WangJi, wasn't ever able to successfully read his brother's thoughts, not even once. Although they could sometimes make out some of his simple emotions like joy or sadness after a hellish time spent observing, they were never able to discern the contents of his head in the end.

Worried that his brother might be shouldering some troubles all by himself, he finally decided to call him in a manner as quiet as possible. "WangJi."

Today was Gusu Lan's Sect Banquet. It wasn't to start until another five minutes yet the banquet hall was already neatly filled, not a single one late. Despite it being a Sect Banquet, it didn't have the grand and festive atmosphere every banquet was expected to have. It instead looked more like a gathering to lament someone's passing. They never once thought twice about not sparing any effort in doing anything that had a hint of extravagance; there were no sword dancing performances, flower and fan dances, or even dazzling decors in sight.

At most, they at least took a couple of White Sails from the south to adorn the corners of the room and match their flowy white curtains fluttering in the chilly wind that entered the vertical windows left open. Aside from that, the silver-colored patterns twisting around the walls like vines were similarly eye-catching.

Not to mention, the attendees didn't exude any joyful airs and kept their stoic faces as if it was another regular day. Laughter was nonexistent in the bamboo pavilion large enough for its many disciples to sit comfortably. Everything was engulfed in silence, no one spoke. They spent the supposedly merry occasion in the dead air. Aside from disciples greeting the pair of brothers each seated a little further away from a rectangular table's side and juniors saluting their seniors, they didn't speak anymore.

It was completely unlike the rest of the famous sects' banquets wherein invitations weren't even handed out and the nearby villagers would come and go as they like, bringing whoever they desired to and sitting wherever they wanted on the dozens of heavy tables of the highest quality that has a length that could hold an entire family of two. There would be a couple of reserved tables for certain people of high standings and similar backgrounds, but they would spare a few more to welcome those citizens. They made use of this chance to showcase their riches.

Gusu Lan's Sect Banquet, on the other hand, was humbly held in the utmost simplicity. Ordinary wooden tables that already had meals prepared in portions that would make sure not a single scrap of crumb would be wasted, contrary to those sects that didn't hesitate to bring their kitchens outside for the fear that their guests would go hungry despite the many layers of food towering over each other and inviting its disciples only.