Live Again, Love Anew

Chapter 23- Confessions

Summary

Lan Yue tells some news to the boys. Wei Ying comes up with a solution.

Beginning Note

PLEASE READ

Just some house-keeping things for the note today, but they're very important.

So, a couple of you guys have commented on Lan Yi and the cave Wei Ying and Lan Zhan stumble into when they get the first piece of Yin metal or Yin iron.

In my story, I am going to have Lan Yi and the cave, which I will probably call the Cold Pond Cave or Cold Cave or something like that. But I will NOT have the Yin metal or iron. I will be going down the route where Wei Ying made his Stygian Tiger seal with the sword from the Xuanwu cave. Yes, Lan Yi is still in the cave, but I will have her there for other plot points other than the Yin metal.

This won't be relevant for a long while yet, but a lot of you guys were commenting on it, so I just wanted to clarify now.

Sorry for the long note. Enjoy the chapter!

Lan Yue

When Lan Yue hears a knock on her window three days later, she feels dread. She doesn't know whether it's because she has to tell someone, because since that day she hasn't spoken to anyone, not even her husband, or whether the dread stems from having to tell her son and the bright boy that she can tentatively admit she loves just as much as any of her children, even if two of them are more energy than physical form.

She had sent a note to the boys using the talisman A-Ying taught her, but she had said the news wasn't urgent. She didn't want the boys to worry, but she wanted them to know she had something to say.

The knock comes again and she shuffles over to unlock it, realizing her hands are shaking. She fists them in her robes and smiles as the bright boy clambers over the sill and refrains from face planting only because of her cautious, still shaking hands.

The boy frowns and looks to her with knowing eyes before the expression washes from his face and a beaming smile replaces it. She stands stock still as the bright boy calls out to her son with a voice full of life and cheer, and if she hadn't seen his expression as it was seconds before, she would never have been able to guess that the boy had been anything but joyful and carefree.

(In the back of her mind she wonders when in his past life he was forced to learn how to fake a smile. How to hide that anything was wrong. How to lull those who were watching and listening into a fake sense of calm and peace.)

Her son climbs in after the other boy with what she now can recognize as years of training and grooming at the hands of Could Recesses and all its thousands of rules. Her son is the moon where A-Ying is the sun. A-Ying is bright and loud and demands attention wherever he goes, because no one can not see the sun where it shines high in the sky. Her son, her A-Zhan, is the moon. The opposite of the sun in every way; Quiet and calm, showing its true self only when the awareness of the world is focused on other things, waxing and waning to a song only known to itself.

"Hey, Lan Zhan." A-Ying prompts. "Could you go and make some tea?" Lan Yue looks at the cups sitting on a table across the room, and sure enough, she forgot to make tea. She opens her mouth to protest but pauses. A-Zhan's golden eyes rove from her to A-Ying before he meets A-Ying's eyes. A wordless exchange passes. A-Zhan doesn't leave. A-Ying sighs before smiling, genuinely this time, because even his eyes are smiling now, and waves a hand. A-Zhan's posture softens, and with a last look to his mother and friend, he leaves the room, the cups going with him.

A-Ying turns to her as soon as he's gone from view, his footsteps mere whispers from the other side of the house.

"What's wrong?" He asks softly. "Did something happen? Do you want Lan Zhan here? Or do you want to tell Lan Zhan instead of me? He'll tell me later, but you might be more comfortable telling your son instead of some random kid."