sakura petals ; mo dao zu shi **HIATUS**

021. the husband has arrived! fashionably late ;)

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As though somebody had dumped a bucket of cold water over his head, the curvature of Wei Wuxian's smile froze at once.

Standing below the dead tree, the tall figure faced Wei Wuxian. If a head sat atop his neck, he'd be staring silently at Wei Wuxian for sure.

By the bonfire, the juniors of the Lan Clan saw the shadow as well. Each of them felt their hair stand up. With widened eyes, they reached for their swords at once. Wei Wuxian put his pointer finger in front of his lips and softly shushed them.

He shook his head, then looked at them with a look that firmly said 'no'. Seeing this, Lan Sizhui noiselessly pushed back Lan Jingyi's half-unsheathed sword. Lan Liang had to admit. He was pretty scared. They were so unprepared for something like this! Both his mother and uncle were out! What rotten timing!

The headless man reached for the tree trunk beside him and felt it for a while, as if he was thinking or trying to figure out what it was.

He walked a small step forward. Wei Wuxian could finally see most of his body.

A burial robe hung over the man, somewhat tattered. It was indeed the one that the torso buried in the Chang Clan's cemetery had been wearing.

And by the man's feet, a pile of shreds was scattered on the ground, Wei Wuxian could tell that this was a couple of torn up Qiankun Pouches.

Wei Wuxian finally pieced together what had happened. And now that he thought about it, after he and Lan Wangji entered Yi City, so many things had happened that they hadn't played Rest for almost more than two days. During the time that they spent travelling, they only barely managed to suppress the parts again. Yet, since all limbs of the corpse had been collected already, the attraction between each part multiplied. Perhaps they had felt one anothers resentful energy and their desire to be put back together grew, now that Lan Wangji was out patrolling, they hurriedly rolled off to the side, barged out of the Qiankun Pouches that had once bound them, and pieced into a corpse themselves.

Unfortunately, the corpse still lacked one part. One of the most important parts might Wei Wuxian add. He would know too.

The headless man put his hands to his neck, feeling the clean, crimson cut at his throat. After he had been at it for quite some time and still couldn't find the object that was supposed to be there, as though enraged by such a fact, he suddenly slammed his palm into the tree beside him.

With a crack, the trunk broke at once. 'Just like A-Hua...' Wei Wuxian commented silently. 'What a temper!' He shivered at the thought of her ever finding out he had such thoughts about her.

Lan Jingyi held his sword horizontally in front of his body. "W-what sort of monster is this?!" He stammered.

"You haven't been reviewing the basics, have you? What's a monster? This is obviously a corpse, categorized as the ghoul type. How can it be a monster?" Wei Wuxian asked, speaking in a slightly chiding tone.