An Almost Lan

Chapter 16

A/N: AU and OOC, just a reminder.

Thank you for your votes and comments, they really encourage me!

Thanks to @CALActorsTypist on Twitter for editing this, remaining errors are all mine.

Life at Bryanston School was very different from his life back home and yet, very much alike. The routine there was different for sure, but the fact that he spent most of his time awake either studying or around horses was pretty much the same minus the soul-crushing solitude.

Having Xue Yang as his roommate had made a world of difference in terms of what his family life had been in the last year, for example. The fucker was very amusing, even if it pained Wei Ying to admit it. He had very... peculiar ideas about just everything and anything, but even against his own good judgment Wei Ying had to admit Xue Yang was right about many things.

Xue Yang was... an atypical character. He liked to show the world a facade of an uninterested bastard, but in reality, he cared... a lot, about many things, horses being one of those things. Wei Ying was another.

At first, being immersed in a mindless routine full of chores, homework and training had been overwhelming, then it became... heaven. He could put his mind off things. Of course, he kept in touch with most of his family. Aunty Yu was adamant on him keeping in touch with his therapist, so she facilitated weekly on-line meetings with his therapist in Shanghai on weekends. Those were, naturally, a pain in the ass due to the time difference, but still they helped him... a lot.

A-Li and he scheduled a video call every week, but they spoke almost on a daily basis on the phone at odd hours. They only respected their respective classes and Wei Ying's training time, but when one of them was pulling an all-nighter for exams and preparation of projects, they would call one another. He was most grateful for seeing his sister's sweet face and talking to her regularly. Their conversations were mostly fine, except for both of them carefully avoiding a certain topic... to name a certain person in their online meetings.

Jiang Cheng, bless his soul, kept a constant flow of news about his life and his uncle and aunt's, religiously. He also developed a fixation on courting death. He endeavored to take candid photos of Yinzhu and Jinzhu, selecting the funny or embarrassing ones and transforming them into memes. Once a week, he received the latest news from home including these memes which never failed to cheer him up. They were both playing with fire, if any of the sisters ever learned about it, they would have their tails for sure. Those two truly scared him for some unidentifiable reason.

Lan Huan always kept him updated about his life at the university and asked constant questions about his life in the UK. Lan Huan would always be his older brother, but their conversations were not the same, they lacked the carefree feeling they used to have when they could talk about anything. Now, there were topics that couldn't be touched because they could both get hurt and it pained him, both of them really.

Uncle Qiren remained his first and foremost supporter in his jumping career, he even attended a couple of his competitions when business took him to the UK and his agenda allowed it. They exchanged emails almost every day and Wei Ying would always go to him for advice about his training, always taking into account his opinion, but deep down he could feel the pain they both felt at the situation like a thrum, like a constant ache that never went away.

But life went on, he had to go on with his own life, otherwise he would go mad. So mindless tasks in his routine became his solace. His teammates were kind and welcoming and after a month, he felt one of them, part of the Bryanston's gang as they referred to the jumping team.