Savage Wolf, Lotus Heart [Never Let You Go, Again: Book 4]

9: I Trust You

"Susu, where are we headed to?"

"Hm..." Wei Ying turned to her and shrugged. "Ask Shushu. Even I have no idea."

"Shushu?" Meilien turned to Lan Wangji standing beside her Susu.

"You'll see," Wangji nodded and walked on silently.

"Aish, Lan Zhan, can't we just shoot off there on sword?"

"No," Lan Wangji shook his head. "We'll take our time. Rarely get the chance."

"Yay!" Meilien clapped. "I thought the same! And I never get to go on trips, unless it's a sect conference with Daddy," Meilien skipped. "Susu, let's play!"

"Oh? Want to race me?"

"Not fair, not fair! Susu's double my height!"

"Then what?"

Jiang Meilien pouted. "Hmmm, what do we do? We're on the move... can't play tag or hopscotch... ah? What do we do?"

"Practise," Lan Wangji answered, still stoically looking ahead. "Compete and train."

"Eh? What are you saying, A-Zhan?" Wei Wuxian tugged on his sleeve.

"You can practise talismans and archery on the forest around us," Lan Zhan explained.

"Eyyyyy, excellent idea!" Wei Ying snapped his fingers. "Then we'll start with archery?"

"Susu, I just did archery! Let's do our talismans!"

"Spiritual or demonic, Little Lien?"

"You can do demonic since this area is isolated," Lan Zhan cut in again.

"Okay!" Jiang Meilien gripped the reins. "Susu, do I need to get down from Lil' Apple?"

Lil' Apple stopped on his tracks, twisting his neck to look at Meilien.

"Oh wow, looks like Lil' Apple likes you a lot, Little Lien!" Wei Wuxian laughed. "Then you stay on him, shoot talismans from there. We'll start with fire–"

"Susu, we'll set the woods on fire."

"Oh..." Wei Wuxian sulked. "Would have been a bit fun but never mind. Then what's next? Wards?"

"Try out fire, it's fine," Lan Zhan nodded.

"See?" Wei Wuxian beamed and shot his hand out, red sheet of paper at the ready.

"Hey, cheating!" Meilien shouted and pulled out her own talisman paper.

Grinning to each other, both wiggled their fingertips over their papers, drawing out the spell, with the usual strokes of evil at the edges, and watching the ends catch fire. Whizz! Both talismans were shot into the distance at nearly the same speed, striking two adjacent trees, Meilien's two seconds slower than Wuxian's.

The minute the trees caught fire, Wei Wuxian high-fived Jiang Meilien, who was frowning despite the glee. Her Lan father's seriousness was rubbing off on her chaotic Jiang self.

Lan Wangji waved his hand and washed the trees with ice-cold energy, dismissing the crimson flames immediately. Unlike a usual fire talisman, one with demonic energy was harder to erase, harder to dismiss. Clearly, only a spiritual Immortal could manage to do that.

"Five of each of five talismans! Fire, protection wards, evil-summoning, immobilising, paper mannequin-activating, okay?" Wei Wuxian listed.

"I'm up for it, Susu!" Meilien cheerfully grinned and pulled out the next talisman paper.