WangXian Forever 7

Chapter 161 Comfort

It started snowing heavily when they left the library.

"I don't think you boys should attempt to fly home in this weather." Wei Ying called out to them, as they ran alongside Lan Zhan’s fast pace.

He was still insisting on carrying Wei Ying and Wei Ying was fast losing patience with him, but every time he objected, he was reminded of his promise. He'd just have to be more careful when speaking to someone who remembered everything.

"Why don't we have dinner together at the Jingshi? It'll give us a chance to catch up." He had to shout the last bit, as the wind was so severe, it stole his breath away.

The Jingshi was a little bit out of the way but they reached there in not too bad a state, shaking off their coats before entering. The food was already inside waiting for them and Lan Zhan insisted on going to get more portions.

SiZhui went with him.

And for once, Lan Zhan did not stop him.

They couldn't talk properly while the storm raged, but it quietened down to a softly whispering snowfall on their way back, and that's when SiZhui took his chance.

Lan Zhan had already placed heating talismans on the food trays, when they had exited the kitchens.

"Father...how is Father Wei really?" SiZhui asked, as soon as he was able. "He likes to give everyone a watery version...but I know you'll tell me the truth."

"Mn." Lan Zhan thought about what to tell him. "It seems to be bad...but he's not taking it like that. We visited the healers today."

"That must have been fun." SiZhui smiled at his long-suffering father, who had to put up with a terrible patient at the best of times.

"Mn."

"What did they say?"

"Will let us know in a few days. Until then, we have to keep an eye on him. How many hours he sleeps and such."

"What do you think it is? And why is only he affected? When did it start?" SiZhui didn't mean to have his words spill out like that. But a worry had wormed its way into his heart and taken root, and he couldn’t let it go. "You don't think it's related to the sleeping sickness that's spreading...do you?"

Lan Zhan thought about it.

"No. This is...different." He patiently explained everything he knew about it, why he thought it differed from the other more rampant one, and talking in a low voice,  answering his every question until they were back at the Jingshi. Before they went inside, he stopped SiZhui with a hand on his shoulder.

"SiZhui...I will not say it is nothing to worry about..."

SiZhui took the trays from him and put them down. Then he hugged his father tightly.

"I neglected to ask how you are, father." SiZhui was reminded of the countless times when as a child, his father would hold him tightly and they would go to sleep together.

Sometimes he would wake to a cold spot in the bed next to him and he knew his father was close by, playing a familiar melody on his guqin...calling out to a single person. As he got older and learned the arts, the musical scores that the Lan Clan specialised in, he began to realise how deeply his father was affected.

Days turned into weeks and months, and then suddenly years had gone by...but Lan Zhan never stopped reaching out.

Every single night.

"This time...I will not let him go alone." Lan Zhan said, almost to himself.

SiZhui was already crying by now, the magnitude of what his father had told him finally being done processing. If they didn't find a cure for his father and soon, he was going to lose both of them.