Unruly (Between a rock and a hard place 4)

Chapter 1

Lan Qiren was sitting in his study and he was scowling into the cup of his morning tea, his correspondence completely forgotten on the side. By all means, he should have been catching up on his sect leader duties for he had been neglecting them because of being busy with teaching the guest lectures. However, he could not concentrate at all. His thoughts were constantly going back to the latest matter involving Wei Wuxian.

He should have never allowed the boy to study in the Cloud Recesses, but he had not known he would be coming. After the death of Cangse Sanren and Wei Changze, he had of course heard that their child had been taken in by the Yunmeng Jiang sect, but he had never expected him to become the head disciple and be sent to study together with the young masters and maidens. If he had known in advance, he would have explicitly forbidden him to come.

He had heard about all the trouble Wei Wuxian had been causing in Lotus Pier and he had been sure he was just like his mother, untamed, mischievous and incorrigible. Once the boy had stepped inside the barrier surrounding the Cloud Recesses, Lan Qiren had not ceased to confirm his suspicions almost every single day.

The boy was way too wild and had no respect for the rules no matter how often Lan Qiren had assigned him to copy them. He had even told Lan Wangji, the strictest disciple and the best abider of the rules the Gusu Lan sect had, to supervise him. He had hoped that his nephew would be able to restrain Wei Wuxian if not outright discourage him from causing trouble. After all, who would want to spend all their free time being punished in the Library pavilion?

However, it had not worked as he had expected. On the contrary; Wei Wuxian had somehow managed to worm his deceptive ways into not only Lan Wangji's but also Lan Xichen's hearts in a way that Lan Qiren had feared the most. His perfectly brought up nephews were now becoming rebellious and they started to go against him more and more often. They were defiant as never before. And it was all because of the influence of Wei Wuxian, Lan Qiren did not doubt that.

Even when he had resolved to punishing the boy by beatings, nothing changed, it only drove the edge between him and his nephews all that deeper as they both came to him to request he would be more lenient with the Yunmeng Jiang sect head disciple.

And to top it all off, now it seemed like Wei Wuxian had mysteriously fallen ill – Lan Qiren was certain that he was only skipping classes but lacked evidence upon which he would be able to evict the boy from the Cloud Recesses –, for the second time at that!

He had been angry the first time Jiang Wanyin had come to tell him that his brother had been ill and would not have been able to attend classes for three days. But at least the Yunmeng Jiang sect heir had come to the lectures as per usual. Wei Wuxian had also not been causing any trouble during that time so it had actually been quite a pleasant situation for Lan Qiren.

He had only been angry that Jiang Wanyin had refused to take his brother to the infirmary so his illness could be confirmed. If he had indeed been sick at all, that was. Lan Qiren had not believed this even for a second. Then again, if the boy would have actually fallen ill during the lectures, it would have been the duty of the Gusu Lan sect to provide all the necessary medical care. They could not have any rumours flying around that they were not taking care of the guest disciples.

This second time though, Lan Qiren's patience was truly running short. It was precisely because it was the second time in such a short period of time. Either Wei Wuxian, who must have been the master mind behind this all, had been so enamoured by his first success that he was getting more shameless and wanted to skip even more classes, or, and it was worrying Lan Qiren a little bit, he was truly ill and his symptoms had returned because he had not seen a doctor last time.

To make matters worse, it was Lan Wangji who was supposedly taking care of him now and was missing lectures as well. Lan Xichen had been trying to reassure him that he would ask his brother about Wei Wuxian's current condition, but there was too little information for Lan Qiren's taste. It seemed like he would have to go see for himself.

He would have to go visit Lan Wangji in the Jingshi because, supposedly, it was there that Wei Wuxian had been taken for his recovery. Lan Qiren could not understand why he would need to go there if he could have very well stayed in his own room. He also suspected something to not be right with having Lan Wangji take care of him instead of Jiang Wanyin. Even if healing music was necessary, surely his nephew could have just gone to Wei Wuxian's room for a visit. Or even better, the boy should have been taken to the infirmary in the first place and then, there would be nothing for Lan Qiren to worry about.

Like this though, everything was becoming more and more suspicious by the hour. Especially with how close had Wei Wuxian become with Lan Wangji. Even if Lan Qiren wanted to refuse the idea and not believe that his perfect younger nephew would associate himself with the catastrophe that was the Yunmeng Jiang sect head disciple, their actions had been speaking for themselves.

Whenever Lan Qiren saw the two of them outside of the punishments, Wei Wuxian had always been all but glued to Lan Wangji's side, pestering him and hindering him in his studies. What however worried him even more was the fact that Lan Wangji apparently did not know how to refuse Wei Wuxian's attention and how to resist him. Lan Qiren would have to do something about this.

He put his cup of now cold tea back onto the table and stood up. He started walking around his study nervously. This was the third day from the moment he had been told by Lan Xichen that Wei Wuxian was ill. He was really becoming restless.

That was it, he decided in the end, he would go to the Jingshi personally just after the lectures would be finished for the day today. With this decision, his mind calmed down instantly, although some suspicions and worries still remained.

Just as he was getting ready to go to the dining hall and eat his breakfast, someone was knocking at his door. Lan Qiren went to the door, asking himself who could be in such a hurry this early in the morning.