Bridging the gap | Wangxian | ON HOLD

Chapter 5

From then on Wei Ying busied himself with preparations. He barely left his room for weeks and constantly looked tired. Wen Qing felt helpless to intervene as she knew it was an important moment for him and every time got annoyed or worried she would reflect on how she would act if their roles were reversed and she was going to see Wen Ning.

Finally, with just a few days before they needed to leave, Wei Ying's loud, boisterous laughter could be heard over the village. Above, soaring through the sky was Wei Ying but he had wings? What? It was well known to the Wen's that nothing was impossible for Wei Wuxian (he had brought their young master back from the dead after all) but they all stared in wonder at the sight whilst Wen Qing chuckled unsurprised.

Wei Ying rather glamourlessly hurled himself back to the ground and landed with a thud as A-Yuan ran into his arms.

"A-Yuan, you genius! I've done it! Baba really will fly to see his sister!" He brightly exclaimed.

The little boy in his arms just giggled and fussed at the huge feathered appendages now extending from his Baba's shoulder blades.

Wei Ying soon showed the villagers the talisman that he had created that allowed him to fly and let A-Yuan have a go under strict supervision. He felt that if he managed to injure A-Yuan, Wen Qing would mince him up and attack him with her needles so that he would be unable to go to his nephew's one month celebration and he really didn't want that to happen. After a couple of days practice, the trio had pretty much achieved a basic mastery of flying and even began to mess around and invent new games. 

The final thing they had to do before leaving was buy some good quality robes. Whilst the Wen remnants were no longer dirt poor, they lived quite a frugal lifestyle, making use of scraps and creating no waste. This in turn had allowed them to accumulate some funds. Wei Ying felt kind of bad spending the money on such a trivial thing but he was repeatedly reassured by the villagers that it was their wish as well. They wanted to see him happy to repay him for his efforts and anyway, even if they did use the money personally, they had nothing to spend it on anyway. So the three men journeyed into town.

It was A-Yuan's first time ever being in a place filled with such expensive and extravagant fabrics and Wei Ying laughed as he watched the cute child on sensory overload. He brought himself a handsome ebony robe accented with crimson as he knew black had always been becoming of him. Then he found A-Yuan a cute little robe that slowly faded from black at the top to white at the bottom and was tastefully covered in little gold speckles. He made a note to put a dirt repelling charm on it before he let the child wear it around or else the white skirts would soon become a rather dingy brown. Finally, he found a grey robe for Wen Ning with little gold accents that close up could be seen to be embroidered with little plants. He also got matching black boots for them all and some hair accessories. A new red ribbon for himself, a little gold coloured bird hairpin for his son and a new ribbon for Wen Ning. Before the trio left, they also went to a gift shop where A-Yuan chose a perfect little tassel to gift his cousin.

Happy with their shopping, they returned to the village and helped with preparations. Wei Ying reestablished all of the borders to protect against any unwanted guests while they were gone. He couldn't live with himself if someone managed to attack the Wen's whilst he was away so he took every precaution, even blocking out Lan Zhan and Yanli - the two outliers to his previous barrier. The villagers had a great, joyous feast before retiring to bed early for the night. 

Early the next morning just past the crack of dawn, the village was already awake and in action. Wei Ying dressed himself and A-Yuan before styling his son's hair into a cute half-up hairstyle with little braids. Seeing Wen Ning's saddened expression he also combed through the man's hair and gently styled it. He felt bad that since his 'reincarnation' of sorts, the younger Wen's stiffer form hadn't been able to style his hair as nicely as in the past. 

When the three emerged from Wei Ying's quarters, the waiting crowd of Wen's all wowed in surprise. The three looked stunning in their new clothes and Wei Ying's beaming expression wiped any doubts from the others. Wen Qing was ready with a filled Qiankun pouch and respectfully sent them all off on their way. Watching as they disappeared into the distance.