Who You Are

Chapter 88 - Scars

Wei Wuxian walked through the winding paths from memory, and soon found the cold spring, situated at a quiet and obscure place. In the Cloud Recesses, there was a cold spring with a lot of miraculous effects, for the male cultivators to use. It was said to be able to calm down one's heart, clear one's mind, quench one's fire, and so on.

There was a set of white clothes on top of the white rocks behind the crisscrossed eupatorium grasses, meaning that someone had already came. The set of white clothes was folded extremely neat, almost making one's hair rise. It looked like a snow-white piece of tofu—even the forehead ribbon was folded without any creases.

Wei Wuxian stepped over the bushes of eupatorium grasses, his gaze passed over the spring, and suddenly halted. The water in the cold spring was freezing. Unlike a hot spring, there wasn't any vapour to shroud one's eyes, so it was possible to take a clear look at the upper half of the person in the spring who stood with his back to him. The person in the spring was quite tall. His skin was fair and his hair was black, wet and gathered to one side. The lines which outlined his waist and back were smooth, graceful yet holding strength. In simpler terms, he was a beauty.

However, Wei Wuxian was definitely not stunned and unable to avert his gaze because he was looking at a bathing beauty. No matter how beautiful he was, he wouldn't actually be attracted to men. Really, it was the things on the person's back that made him unable to avert his gaze.

There were dozens of intersecting scars. They were the scars from a discipline whip. In the different sects, there was a type of discipline whip to punish disciples of that sect who made significant mistakes. After the torture, the scars would never disappear. Although Wei Wuxian had never been hit by a discipline whip before, Jiang Cheng had been. Even after desperately trying, he couldn't make the disgracing imprint fade one bit. This was why Wei Wuxian would never misremember scars like this.

The amount of scars on this person's back accumulated thirty at the least. Just what sort of monstrous crime did he commit for him to be whipped so many times? If it really was a monstrous crime, why didn't they kill him?

At the moment, the person in the spring turned around. Beneath his collarbone and near his heart, there was a clear sear. Seeing the sear, Wei Wuxian's shock instantly reached its highest peak. He decided to take a risk and step out of the bushes. He quickly walked forward until he reached the edge of the cold spring.

"Who is there?" The man said turning his attention to the person who disturbed his time in the spring. His sword became unsheathed and it pointed right at Wei Wuxian's throat.

Recognizing the sword to be Bichen, Wei Wuxian spoke, "I didn't realize that the person was Hanguang Jun...are you really going to kill me a second time?"

Lan Wangji froze at the sight of Wei Wuxian. His blood was now the same temperature as the cold spring...freezing. He nearly pierced the man he loves, in the throat. He relaxed and put Bichen back in his sheathe. Lan Wangji walked over to his robes and climbed out of the water, dressing as he does. Wei Wuxian wasn't phased by how Lan Wangji's body looked, he had seen it once before...though he had become more muscular over time, and his friend between his legs seemed to be bigger then he remembers.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know anyone was here," Wei Wuxian said, "I didn't mean to scare you."

Such sincereness coming out of Wei Wuxian was something Lan Wangji wasn't quite expecting. He was expecting him to be teased by Wei Wuxian, not gain an apology for bothering him.

"It's alright," Lan Wangji told him, "you finally woke up."

"I've been up for some time..." Wei Wuxian began, "the scars on your back...they are because of me, aren't they?"