Dark Knight | WangXian Novel

38: Mysterious Murder

"Look, he really did go for something. You just stay put here, okay?"

Where exactly is 'here' in the first place? He looked around to find himself seated in the second bed of the Lan doctor's private, secluded ward. And on the first... lay a fatigued, pale-as-snow Lan Xichen.

"X– Xichen-ge?"

"Shh," Yanli kept a finger to his lips.

"Hm?"

She winked and pointed quietly to the side of Xichen's bed. There, on a wobbly stool, sat the usually strong, proud and never-too-caring Jiang sect heir, tightly holding Lan Xichen's injured hand to his face, lips on the bandage around his palm, sobbing silently.

A-Cheng? Why's he crying?

Oh– Ooooh... I see...

Hah! At long last, my ship worked, I guess, he chuckled to himself and nodded to Yanli. No wonder Shijie was whispering all this time.

Still... I can't bear to see him crying. Let's liven the mood up a bit, haha.

"Well, well, look who's the lost puppy now."

"Oh, sh– shut up." Jiang Wanyin rubbed his face on his sleeve, quickly dropped Xichen's hand to the bedside and turned around, face full of pretend indifference.

But of course, the damp marks of tears shed over days were unremovable.

"Yo, whatcha weeping for? It's alright, he'll be fine."

"It's all my fault," Jiang Cheng looked down at his feet. "I didn't know he got whipped, I didn't know you were captured..."

"Wait WHAT? Xichen-ge got whipped? WHEN?"

"You didn't know?" Jiang Yanli asked.

"Guess I was already down in the cavern then–" he started shivering unconsciously, sudden images of flames popping up in his head.

"Hey, it's okay," Yanli hugged him tight. "Why do you keep...?"

"I... guess it's a new post-traumatic fear... first dogs, now fire."

"Oh. Hm... think of little Yuan."

"A... A-Yuan..." Wei Ying squeezed his eyes shut. The instant the flames filled up his mind, he let the picture of teeth white as ice and a smile bright as sunshine warm his soul, letting it wrap him up in comfort. The flames gradually faded into the beautiful magnolia flowers strewn all over his Jingshi's backyard, and there sat A-Yuan playing amidst them, beaming at him.

"Diedie, look! Fwowers!"

No more fire. Only fwowers.

"Mm. Thanks, Shijie, lot better now."

"That's my XianXian," Yanli patted his back. "Do that whenever you feel scared again."

"Erm, wait, where was I? About Xichen-ge. Why was he whipped? When? Who?"

Jiang Cheng gulped and clenched his fists, gripping his robes tighter. "All my freaking fault, goddammit..."

"A-Cheng," Yanli sighed. "Let him cry, he hasn't stopped no matter what I do for the past two days now... A-Xian, it was Shifu. Shifu had noticed Xichen-ge starting to slack in work and seeming weak in body and mind ever since A-Cheng left. Wangji told me Shifu had been warning Xichen-ge against even daring to think about A-Cheng. But then over two weeks later, Shifu found him having tea with a purple hair ribbon in his hand..."

"Just for a bloody RIBBON?" Wei Wuxian banged his fist on the bed.

"Shh, you don't want to wake him up, do you? Well, yes. That's the reason. When Wangji found him, he had already received twenty-one out of twenty-three whips. He got Xichen-ge home and treated him, but then next morning, they got news of you vanishing..."