An Almost Lan

Chapter 1

A/N: I'm back! This is a WangXian multichaptered story. We're here for a long run, since this is a slow burn, with emphasis on SLOW. I have written 10 chapters already so there's no need to fear about weekly updates (on Thursdays as always).

Warnings: OOC and AU.

Thanks to: @JJSin2020, @SourLovesweet and the lovely CALActorsTypist on Twitter for editing this chapter.

Surprise! No songs this time.

Yu Ziyuan was not an optimistic person. In fact, she'd always thought optimistic people were sentimental fools so out of touch with reality that she kind of pitied them. So when some of those well intended souls approached her after her husband's funeral to tell her that 'Every cloud has a silver lining' or 'only God knows why these things happen' she just wanted to scream.

Becoming a widow a couple of weeks shy of her fortieth birthday had never been her plan. It had been so unexpected that she had yet to process that her life and her children's lives had changed for good. Her late husband, Jiang Fengmian was perfectly healthy, but a drunk driver happened to crash into him and he died after two days in the hospital.

His last words had been, unsurprisingly for Wei Ying. He had begged her on his deathbed to take care of the child and she had made a promise she fully intended to fulfill. His lack of care about the fate of his own children didn't surprise her anymore, it just filled her with sadness and resignation. Even in death, he disregarded her and their children to a point that was offensive.

There had been a time when she had resented that poor kid, and she perceived she was slowly becoming an abusive bitch. Wei Ying, of course, noticed, but he was not the only one affected by her inability to cope with the situation, her own children were affected as well, slowly creating a chasm among them that was disintegrating her family little by little.

The notion that her family dynamic was toxic took her by surprise, but once she was fully aware of it, she sought a way to change it. The first step was to dissipate her doubts about Wei Ying's paternity. Every time she would bring the topic up to her husband, he tried to pacify her and dismissed her concerns, but she observed that he never ever denied he was the kid's father.

Taking matters in her own hands she came up with a plan. She asked for the children's pediatrician's collaboration and ordered a DNA test for the three of them, behind her husband's back of course. The results were conclusive, Jiang Yanli and Jiang Cheng were related to each other, Wei Ying wasn't. It was as simple as that, and yet her husband never took a clear stand on it.

She suspected that he refused to accept the reality: he was not Wei Ying's father. Maybe, he had wished he were and he'd rather cling to that fantasy than accept the truth, but she didn't have time to discuss that topic with him. She had planned to talk to him about getting therapy, because that was not healthy for him or for the family in general. His denial had deeply wounded Wei Ying and even then he refused to give up his delusion. And then he died. Unfinished business didn't even begin to cover what was left unresolved between them.

Her train of thought was interrupted by Wen Ruohan. The man approached her like a shark that had just smelt blood, circling her subtly, patiently waiting for his chance to attack. His smooth movement to approach her alerted Jinzhu, who was officially her personal assistant, making her glide to her side under the guise of bringing her tea. Of course, she never dismissed her so Wen Rouhan was never left alone with her.

"Madam Yu," he bowed slightly, "my condolences," the glint in his eyes showed that he didn't feel an ounce of sympathy for her situation. In fact, he seemed to be savoring the moment.