Black Greed

FORTY TWO

This mountain was once where her brothers and his classmates went to for night hunt.

And now, she'll step afoot on it to check up on her beloved nephew.

"What are you guys trying to catch here?" Wei MeiLan sighed.

"There's a rumor—"

"Rumors? Why you people rely on rumors? Does Lan Huan never gave you the information I give?"

"It's not that, ma'am," Lan SiZhui tried to reason out. "He gave the information to us—"

"But not everything? My brother will find out it sooner as soon as he stepped inside this mountain of what's the problem. Have you kids studied well?"

"We are studying—" Lan Jingyi tried to reason out but Lan SiZhui stopped him.

"It seems like we still need more experience, ma'am."

"If you want experience, stick with him and my brother," Wei MeiLan waved her hand towards Lan WangJi. "Actually, you should really stick up with the two of them in balance. My brother might feed you something that you won't be able to eat well."

"Your brother is dead already, right?" Lan Jingyi questioned.

"Nice try, but he's not dead. Well, his original physical body is gone but he's not dead," Wei MeiLan smirked. "Your Hanguang-Jun knows what I'm talking about."

"Anyway, let's—"

Wei MeiLan never managed to finish her words when she heard of quarrel near. All of them came up to see Jiang Wanyin and Jin Ling trying to beat up a person in black robes.

Lan WangJi released his Bichen and deflect the attack coming from Jiang Wanyin to defend the person.

"Who are you bullying, A'Cheng?" Wei MeiLan walked casually from behind of the Lan students. "Are you teaching our nephew to be a bully?"

"It's not like that! This man is insulting Jin Ling and defeat him with a forbidden style." Jiang Cheng reasoned out.

"Ho, is that so? If Jin Ling was defeat by a what? Do we need to back him up often?"

"Martial aunt, he called me—"

"Jin. Ru. Lan." Wei MeiLan sternly replied. "Did you or did not insulted this young man first? Your punishment will depend on your answer."

Some Lan students snickered at his name being called wholly by her, but stopped when both Lan WangJi and Wei MeiLan threw a glance on them.

"I did insulted him first..." Jin Ling murmured. "But—!"

"I don't want your reason," Wei MeiLan answered. "I didn't raised you to be disrespectful towards you paternal uncle. Regardless of his status, he's still a human being. Treating him such a way like that will return to you. Is this what you picked in LanLing? I should return you to my Valley to discipline you."

"Second sister—"

"Jin GuangYao won't disagree on me with this one, neither you," Wei MeiLan lifted her finger to shut them up. "I don't want my nephew to be a rude one like how his grandpa raised his own sons."

Wei MeiLan looked at Mo XuanYu who's Wei WuXian now. "Get up."

Surprised, Wei WuXian looked up and pointed at himself. "M-me?"

"No, I just asked the fallen tree to stand up," Some students laughed at her response. "Who else in here is here sitting at the ground?"

"Why are you always so harsh in me?" Wei WuXian stood up and cleaned his arms off.

"You're being an idiot," Wei MeiLan sighed. "You know what, just finish your work and go on your merry ways."

The group scattered but she stopped Jin Ling and Jiang Cheng. "A'Cheng, Xiao Ling."

Both of them stood stiffly and turned around. "I don't want you to put up these nets again, are we clear?"

"But—"

"Are. We. Clear?" She asked again that they nodded in answer. "These binding nets will teach you to be lazy. And I didn't raised you to be an arrogant rich young man but to be a humble one. WangJi need not to compensate on the destroyed nets, you need to learn your lesson."

"Why are siding on them?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"Do I look like in being biased here?" She asked back. "I'm trying to teach you a lesson. If Xiao Ling is learning these things back at LanLing, then I should hand him over to Grandmaster Sangren."

Jiang Cheng paled. He remembered what happened with his golden core and interaction with his martial sister's grandmaster

"We will continue this discussion later, especially you, Jin Ling. No buts."

Jin Ling decided to keep his mouth shut than getting reprimanded again in the crowd. His aunt can be too foul-mouthed when her emotions turned sour in some events. "Now, run along. And also you, A'Cheng. Don't bully other people so casually or I'll whip you too."

Wei MeiLan left the two and tried to check up on Mo XuanYu who's currently Wei WuXian, her brother, secretly before deciding of going back to her beloved place and stop gathering information so that they will be able to end this mess that's been plaguing almost everyone for almost two decades. All she needs to do is observe; her intervention can cause changes and misunderstanding thus her deciding to let everything follow it's natural cause. She had interfered more than once, and she doesn't know what will happen next if she does it again.

"Welcome back, brother. I hope you enjoy the thrill that was laid upon you and unveil what has transpired really. You're the only person who can solve it, and I'm sure you'll exceed my expectations of you." She said from a distance as not let him hear her before turning her back towards Wei WuXian and walked out of the mountain.

Now it's time for her to deal with other matters and try to clear up some distractions for his brother's adventure from his force summoning ritual.