Beautiful (Between a rock and a hard place 2)

Chapter 9

Luckily, it only took Jiang Wanyin ten days to stop monitoring his brother like a hawk and only come to the Library pavilion occasionally, just as he had done before Wei Ying's supposed sickness. Thought it took the Yunmeng Jiang sect head disciple another four to actually stop being overly polite and cautions and slowly slip into their previous routine.

Well, not exactly, to Lan Wangji's extreme disappointment. He refused to go to the back mountains again and their shared kisses were only ever brief and fearful on Wei Ying's side. It was clear that he was still very much scared of Jiang Wanyin but he continued to refuse to explain anything to Lan Wangji. The Second Jade quickly forgave him, satisfied by their stolen sweet moments. He was overexcited that his loved one was no longer saying no to him.

That did not mean however that Lan Wangji was satisfied with their current situation, not by far that was. He still wanted to hide Wei Ying away and protect him, to have this beautiful creature all to himself and to never let any harm caused by Jiang Wanyin or anyone else to befall him. He was only holding himself back by sheer willpower and the knowledge that Lan Xichen was coming back this evening and that he would finally be able to ask for proper help for his beloved.

His brother would know how to navigate the waters of inter-sect politics and how not to cause a scandal. Lan Wangji had come to the realization that Lan Xichen had been correct when he had warned about accusing a sect heir of a crime in his letter. Hopefully, he would be able to figure something out and Lan Wangji would be able to keep Wei Ying by his side officially.

Under the circumstances, his expectations grew and when he was finally able to go see Lan Xichen, he was hoping for a miracle. Maybe his brother had even already planned everything and he would be able to spirit Wei Ying away this very evening. He had already prepared things in the Jingshi and was looking forward to the first night spend together with the Yunmeng Jiang sect head disciple.

And with these expectations, he entered Lan Xichen's quarters, eagerly expecting to be told to just go fetch Wei Ying and let Lan Xichen deal with everything.

That was why he could barely hide his disappointment when Lan Xichen greeted him calmly and asked him what was it he came to discuss with him this early after his return. Lan Wangji stood there baffled for almost a minute, he could not understand that his brother did not already guess why he was there. All his hopes were crumbling in front of his eyes and it took everything he got to keep his expression perfectly neutral as always.

He did not want Lan Xichen to see to which extend he was shocked, disappointed and angry. He did not even know himself where all these emotions were coming from. He felt completely overwhelmed which was not something he was used to experiencing. However, after Wei Ying's arrival to the Cloud Recesses, it was becoming an often seen occurrence.

Lan Wangji opened his mouth once, then twice, still, no words were coming out. He looked at Lan Xichen with despair clear in his eyes. It only took a second to his brother to finally realize what the topic weighing on Lan Wangji's heart was. Lan Xichen's expression softened as he gestured towards the low table where sat an already prepared tea pot. Lan Wangji staggered towards the table like in a dream while his brother went to fetch another tea cup.

Once they were both sitting with a cup of steaming tea in front of them, Lan Xichen smiled at him kindly – it infuriated Lan Wangji even more that his brother could not tell just how urgent the situation was – and started talking: "Wangji, I can see you did not let go of the situation with Young Master Wei as I have advised. You are on edge, have you tried meditating in the Cold Spring? That always helps me to clear my head."

"Brother," Lan Wangji could not wait any more. Although Lan Xichen was trying to disregard the problem and have him think things through, there was no time for that. Even at the moment, Jiang Wanyin could be doing something terrible to Wei Ying behind their back. "How can we help Wei Ying?"

Lan Xichen sighed and became visibly bothered by the situation. He answered to Lan Wangji only reluctantly, still clearly trying to make light of everything: "Wangji, I am sure you have seen something but do you have any definite proof? I have seen Young Master Wei today upon my return and he did not seem any different than he had had when he had come to join the guest lectures. He was together with Young Master Jiang I but had not noticed anything odd between them. They looked like a pair of siblings to me, one with a good relationship at that.

And they seemed to have established a friendship with Nie Huisang as well. That is good, I have been worried that he would be feeling left out since he is a little older than all of you and because he had already been here for the lectures last year while the rest of the guest disciples are newcomers.

Are you sure you have not been imagining things? Perhaps you have just gotten too sensitive and the genes which are running in our family had taken the best of you. After all, our father had acted rash and had married and imprisoned our mother because he wanted to protect her."

Lan Wangji scowled. It was beside the point bringing their deceased mother into this. He was not like their father at all. He did not want to imprison Wei Ying and let him rot in the Jingshi until he would die out of heartbreak and loneliness. No, he wanted to have Wei Ying for himself and for them to live together forever, to cultivate to immortality and not have anyone step in between them.

Lan Xichen seemed to have realized he had overstepped. He must have also seen Lan Wangji's dissatisfied expression because he quickly proceeded to reassure: "I am sorry, Wangji, I should not have mentioned our parents. You are your own person and I trust you will take good decisions; we would not want to have another scandal like in the past after all.

As to what concerns Young Master Wei, I can promise you I will keep an eye on him from now on. If there would be anything wrong between him and Young Master Jiang, I will act immediately. I assure you of that. And if you will find any tangible proof in the meantime, you can come to me and we can talk about it more. For now, please do not do anything reckless, especially not while the guest disciples and heirs from other sects are here."

Lan Xichen stopped talking and lifted his cup of tea to his lips. Lan Wangji understood that this was everything he would get from him, his brother was done with the matter it seemed and was apparently not opened to a prolonged discussion on the subject. Well, so much for Lan Wangji's hopes that Lan Xichen would help.

He rose from the table, bowed to his brother and left his quarters without a word. He could understand that the position of the Gusu Lan sect in the cultivation world had been stained ever since the scandal with their parents but that did not mean they could not act to protect Wei Ying. At least he did not think that.

As he was returning to the Jingshi and the cold wind was slowly cooling his anger and disappointment, he could even see the rational thinking behind Lan Xichen's decision. It was true that he was mostly acting up on his hunch and a few not too clear signs which he could not even prove existed. It however did nothing to calm his worries for his beloved.

He could at least console himself with his brother's promise to look out for anything unusual. Lan Xichen was very observant, he would surely catch on those small signs as well in no time. And then he would have nothing left but to act and help Wei Ying. If he would however not decide to act in a week's time, Lan Wangji was determined to go against him and save Wei Ying on his own, sect politics and reputation be damned.