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

10: Beautiful Pattern Of Green

"A-Zhan... how much longer..." Wei Ying groaned and whined, hanging onto Lan Zhan's sleeve.

"Just a bit more."

"Haaaaaaaaah?" Wei Ying moaned.

Jiang Meilien laughed. "Susu wants to go on Lil' Apple? I've been riding all the way..."

"No, no, climbing up this hill will be tiring to you, Little Lien, it's fine," Wei Wuxian quickly straightened himself up and plodded on strongly. Lan Wangji smiled at his immediate change in demeanour. He looked into the distance and nodded. "We're here."

"Hm?" Meilien looked around. "Shushu, where are we?"

"Isn't this...?" Wei Wuxian's face gradually blossomed into a smile. "A-Zhan, you're such a darling!"

Lan Zhan smiled back warmly.

Wei Wuxian hugged him and gave him a quick smooch on the lips before skipping away across the hilltop. "Hello, hello, helloooo!" He waved his hands excitedly in the air.

Jiang Meilien hopped down from Lil' Apple and watched, curious, as a young girl several years older than her run to Wei Wuxian. "Master Wei!"

"Hello, little one!"

"Mother, Mother! Master Wei's here!"

"Goodness," the mother, the old lady who had treated Wei Wuxian long ago once, and who Wei Wuxian had saved years back, beamed as she walked out of her humble home. "Master Wei! Am I delighted to see you!" 

"Hello, Mother," Wei Wuxian smiled and bowed to her before laughing and hugging the little girl. Though, she wasn't a little girl anymore. Probably nearing twenty! "A-Zhan was bringing me on a surprise trip and I was so tired I didn't even realise he'd brought me to Qilian Peak! Glad to meet you two again!"

"Ah, Yin Yue Xian's here, too," the young daughter bowed low to the man in white walking to them. Lan Wangji inclined his head to both mother and daughter.

"Hello, there, Mei," the girl waved to Meilien. "Master Wei has a daughter?" She smiled.

Meilien shook her head, not shy nor arrogant, just not the sort to speak to people unless introduced.

Wei Wuxian chuckled. "No, little one, that's my brother's daughter. She's my brother's and A-Zhan's brother's daughter. Jiang Meilien."

"Sect Leader Jiang's and Zewu-Jun's daughter?" The mother asked.

"Mother, that's Lianhua Meiren," the girl beamed. "Lianhua Meiren, honoured to meet you," she bowed.

"Ah?" Meilien quickly held her elbows. "Please, don't, you're older than me."

"Age is one thing, respect is another," the girl replied.

Meilien blushed. "Still, no need. So you're the Jie and Auntie who helped Susu when he came here earlier? Susu told me of you. Happy to see you too," Meilien bowed to them.

The mother smiled. "Courteous and certain, a kinder Jiang than her father, I see," she laughed.

"Mother," Wei Wuxian laughed with her. "You're still mad at my brother?"

"Sect Leader Jiang should have treated you better, Master Wei, and I won't take that back."

Jiang Meilien blinked in confusion for some time before slowly nodding when she understood what the old lady was talking about. She pursed her lips and looked down at her feet, guilty and ashamed, feeling for her father.

"But I guess you two have reconciled?" The old lady looked at Wei Wuxian.

"Mother, I never was angry with him. Never broke ties with him. Defecting from the sect, yes I did that. But I never defected from brotherhood."