Dark Knight | WangXian Novel

10: Married To My Nemesis

"A-Xian! There you are!"

"Hey, what's wrong? You look... dead..."

"On the inside," Wei Wuxian sighed and sat down beside them at the lunch table.

"Eh? Why's that?"

"A-Xian, what's wrong?" Yanli kept her hand on top of his, squeezing it for encouragement.

"Oh, nothing, Shijie."

"You can't fool us."

"Really! It's nothing. If anything, you'll get to know soon, so don't worry."

"We would appreciate hearing it from you, you know, rather than getting someone else to tell us what happened to our own brother," Jiang Cheng sulked.

"Look, I just don't want to talk about it. I'm truly sorry, Shijie, A-Cheng. Trust me, I'm fine though," he nodded to them and picked up his chopsticks to eat up the spicy noodles.

Jiang Cheng shrugged to his worried sister and gobbled down his own food, while Yanli stared at Wuxian. She could see the nervousness pulsing through his veins, but could also sense the obstinate resolve radiating from his determined silver eyes that avoided her gaze, so she sighed and returned to her own meal. 

**********

Madam Yu ushered the three children into the Main Hall and checked on their attire hurriedly. "Let's see... A-Li... good, wonderful."

Jiang Yanli smiled at her.

"A-Cheng, can't you straighten that hair ornament, look at it, all tilted like a broken tower!"

"Yes, A-Niang," Jiang Cheng nodded, blushing with embarrassment because he had had a brawl with Wei Wuxian on the way here, hence the untidy robes. He brushed down his gleaming robes and fixed his hair.

"There, better," Yu Ziyuan nodded. "Wei Ying?"

"Madam Yu?"

Ziyuan looked up and down him, checking every last detail far more specifically than she had for her own son. Without a word to him, she walked closer and fixed his robes herself, adjusting the belt, untangling the tassel on the Clarity Bell, neatly patting the hems of the collar of the Jiang hanfu. "Hair ribbon?" Her cold voice was as sharp as ever. 

"Check," Wei Wuxian held up the ribbon behind his hair.

"Do we have time.....?" She wondered aloud, turning behind to see if her husband had come in with the guests already. "No, not here yet. Turn around," she ordered. 

Jiang Yanli and Jiang Wanyin were more than stupefied! Their mother was actually making Wei Wuxian's dress herself? What? And now she was... doing his hair? What in the world happened to their anti-Wei Ying mother?

Wei Wuxian smiled subtly and let Yu Ziyuan untie his rough ponytail, loosen his hair and rustle it up to appear fuller. She then collected two locks of hair, one from behind each ear, and brought them together at his nape, tying them together with the red hair ribbon. She patted down the hair and ruffled it. Wei Wuxian spun back to face her.

Black hair floating behind his back, loose and long, red hair ribbon intertwining and fluttering in the draught that sneaked in through the door and windows... He looked breathtaking. Right then, in the moment, he rivalled his Shijie in beauty!

Well, at least now I know why he was ranked fourth, even above A-Cheng, on the list of Best-Looking Cultivators, Yu Ziyuan sighed and nodded. "There, all set, all of you," she nodded to them all. "Now then, this meeting might not be as short. But it's not formal. All casual. Just the Jin and Lan sects. All friends, so remember to be courteous, but not curt, understood?" She asked, sharp tone commanding and domineering.