Who You Are

Chapter 73 - A Whip's Aftermath

A man laid on a wooden platform bed, silent, alone... bleeding. His punishment for defending his most precious treasure was thirty-three discipline marks meted out across his back. Thirty-three permanent whip lines for thirty-three elders he had grievously injured with purpose and intent.

He had no regrets for his actions and would gladly repeat them just to keep him safe. Well, as safe as one could keep a delirious demonic cultivator that had killed almost three-thousand cultivators in grief and madness.

Laying on his stomach in his Jingshi, he sighed before grimacing in pain. The marks would heal but the lines would be forever etched into his back as a permanent reminder for what others consider to be a sin. A weaker man would've already died from such a harsh punishment. Lan Zhan was not one of them. This would take three years to heal, every movement would bring pain that not even the strongest medicine could numb.

The door to his Jingshi opened, revealing a man, slightly older and almost identical in appearance that wasn't smiling. His older brother, Lan Xichen wasn't smiling was the first thing he noticed, the second thing was his eyes were avoiding his. There were very few times his brother's face was as stoic as his own. Always wearing a gentle smile with twinkling eyes, a mischievous nature hidden in those depths.

He knelt down on the floor, just a couple feet away from the prone bleeding figure laying on the bed. His eyes slowly raised to meet the younger brother he knew so well.

"Ge," Wangji said quietly, "the twins?"

"They are at my place," he answered calmly, "I have a healer from the infirmary watching over them while I'm here with you."

"I want them here," Lan Wangji demanded.

"You are too weak to-"

"I want my sons, here!" He yelled at Xichen interrupting him, "you have no idea how important they are to me!"

Xichen wasn't expecting his brother to lash out like that, especially after being whipped, he has little energy to really move.

"I can bring them here, but you should recover. I can look after them in the meantime."

"Ge, do you believe in male pregnancies?" Lan Zhan asked.

"I've heard of them, it's extremely rare. Only certain people carry that gene," Lan Xichen answered.

"Wei Ying was one of them," Lan Zhan told him, "so I want my sons here, with me!"

Xichen sat there wide eyed and in shock. It made a little more sense all of a sudden. Wangji had such an attachment to those boys, and the resemblance between the twins and Wangji, were all there. It also came across Lan Xichen's mind that he and Wei Ying had been intimate... which means his brother's love for Wei Ying was a lot more then he could ever possible think.

"So, you are saying they are your and Wei Wuxian's sons?" Xichen asked, "why did you lie and say you adopted them?"

"For the twins safety... Wei Ying had them and I brought them here that same day... and not long after, he died... he only saw his babies once for maybe an hour at most... if anyone knew they were Wei Ying's, they could be a huge target... especially since people hated him so much.."

"And people assuming them to be Wens are also not safe either," Lan Xichen said, understanding his brother's worry, "I promise you, I will help you look after them, and I will bring them here so you can see them, but you have to recover... for them..."

"I know," Lan Zhan said as tears fell down his face, "Wei Ying, the last few things he said to me... he said he isn't worthy of being the boy's father. That the boys can do much better without him..."

"That isn't true," Lan Xichen said, "I wanted to help him too... you and I both tried... we knew that he was innocent. Others didn't believe so... if people knew of his core, he would probably have been saved. They twins deserve to have both of their parents... for Wei Wuxian to believe he is unworthy, it's heartbreaking."

"I tried," Wangji cried more, "the Yin Hu Fu, once it was destroyed, his body couldn't hold on anymore... it was being held together by the resentful energy of the Yin Hu Fu. Now gone, even if he didn't jump, he would have still died... more slowly and more painfully."

"It will be alright," Lan Xichen said trying to comfort his little brother, "try to calm down. Let me apply this medicine and I will go get your sons...I just have one condition."

"Hmm?"

"I have to stay here with you until you are recovered enough to handle yourself on your own. If you want the boys here, I want to be here to help," he told Wangji.

"Okay," Wangji agreed, "about the twins. Could you not tell Shufu about how they are related to him?"

"I will keep it between us," Lan Xichen said as he applied medicine, "other do not need to know their origins... when the time is right, we can talk to Shufu."

"Tha-nk, yo-u," Wangji said as he winced in pain from the applied medicine.

"I know it hurts, but try to bare with it," Xichen told him, trying to calm him.

After getting Wangji as comfortable as he could, Xichen left to go gather some of his things and the twins. While away, he had someone bring another bed to Jingshi. Xichen returned with both of the twins in his arms. Seeing his brother with them, Wangji could no longer lay down. He very slowly sat up as Xichen laid them down on the bed beside him.

Seeing them, Wangji sighed in relief.

...

Wei Ying cooed at the sight of his seeing boys as young infants on the screen, "seeing those two cute faces, it'd light my mood as well," Wei Ying said.

"Baba!" Jingyi and Sizhui said together.

"They are beautiful boys, A'Xian," Yanli said.

"You can thank Lan Zhan for that, he is more beautiful then I am," Wei Ying stated.

"No, Wei Ying is," Lan Zhan protected.

"Lan Zhan!"

"Wei Ying!"

"Lan Zhan!"

"Hey! You're both beautiful okay!" Wen Qing spat, "cut it out...you can go flirt later."

"Oh, I'm sure we will," Wei Ying said with a wink.

Lan Zhan's ears turned red from that subtle flirtatious wink. He knows what Wei Ying wants...and he will get it...later.

😉