Lotus Flower

Weather is finally warming up

Lan Qiren was sitting in the infirmary in the Cloud Recesses and he was watching the unmoving figure of a young man on the sick bed. The boy – since in his eyes, Wei Wuxian was still so young he could be called a boy, just like his younger nephew – was very pale and his chest was barely rising and falling. His skin had a very unhealthy taint to it as well. All in all, Wei Wuxian did not look far from being dead.

According to the head healer's words, he truly was very close to the point of no return. He had refused to be examined as the rest of the Wen remnants and had endure until he could not. It had actually been lucky that Lan Qiren had decided to check on him when he had had. Only a few hours later, and it would have been too late to do anything.

Indeed, Wei Wuxian had apparently been starving himself even here in the Cloud Recesses. One of the uncles from the Wen remnants had confirmed Lan Qiren's fears. Apparently, Wei Wuxian would give almost all his rations to A-Yuan and would go hungry unless someone forced him to eat. They had thought he would stop doing that in the Cloud Recesses since there was no need for that, there was enough food to go around for everyone. No one was left hungry anymore.

Well, except for Wei Wuxian that was. Lan Qiren was really curious why would the boy do that to himself. Why would he still give A-Yuan all his food even thought it was not necessary anymore. Then again, he could guess. If it had already become a habit, Wei Wuxian would need to break out of it. And with the way he had shut himself in his room, he was far from that.

This was another mystery to Lan Qiren. He wondered why would the demonic cultivator not let even a bit of sunlight into his room and why would he just stay there in the first place. Could it be because he still thought that he was here as a prisoner? Had Lan Qiren not cleared this up with him even back in the Burial Mounds?

He was ashamed of himself. He had been interacting with the Wen remnants quite a bit but he had never thought about going to see Wei Wuxian. He had several reasons for that. He knew he was just a big coward but he really could not help himself.

He was still having a hard time with convincing himself that Wei Wuxian had changed, that he was not that troublesome teenager who had once upon the time studied in the Cloud Recesses and sowed chaos wherever he went. It had not even been that long ago, but to Lan Qiren, it seemed like ages. He had not liked the boy back then either. Although he could no deny him his brilliance and intelligence, his ideas sounded to him like abominations, who ever heard about using resentful energy casually as spiritual one?

Lan Qiren scoffed to himself. He had judged Wei Wuxian on this point back then and now he had to admit that the boy had actually made it work. However, there was a violent backslash, that much was evident, only, Wei Wuxian managed to keep the damage to himself, he had never endangered anyone else. He had picked up demonic cultivation out of sheer necessity and it was only now that Lan Qiren saw how far he was willing to go.

Once upon a time, Lan Qiren would have thought that Wei Wuxian had tried to stubbornly prove his own point and embarrass Lan Qiren in the process. Not anymore though. This was not something that even someone like Wei Wuxian would do just like that. This was changing one's life, and not for the better if Lan Qiren could judge from what he had already seen. It had all been out of sheer necessity as he had realized only too late.

Without a golden core, there was no other way for Wei Wuxian to protect those he held dear. And thinking back, Lan Qiren could not really pinpoint any moment that Wei Wuxian hurt anyone without being provoked first. It had always been the cultivation world who had not come to accept him for his unorthodox path of cultivation. It had always been Lan Qiren who had been blind. It was not Wei Wuxian's fault at all.

It had been Lan Qiren who refused to listen to his younger nephew and even punished him for speaking up. Even worse, when he had seen that Lan Wangji had saved Wei Wuxian and stood up to the elders – for a righteous cause of protecting an innocent, it was only now that Lan Qiren understood this – he had ordered to scar him for life. Even until now, Lan Wangji had yet to recover and he could barely move despite the fact that he was let out of his seclusion and was now being treated by all the most prominent healers the Gusu Lan sect had to offer.