Who You Are Book 2

Chapter 42 - The Collection of Turmoil

As they went out of the house, Wei Wuxian was somewhat surprised. It was a secluded little cottage within some hidden corner of the Cloud Recesses. The Lan Sect's residence was inside of the mountains. In its bounds, pines grew endlessly. Most of the plants were trees and grasses. It wasn't that there were no flowers, but that the flowers were mostly pure, elegant varieties like magnolia, gardenia, and white chrysanthemum, and even then only as rare, decorative glimpses. Yet, the area before this house was filled with purple gentians. The buds were small while the color was brilliant, gaining the love of whoever passed.

Under the light, it seemed to glow softly, as beautiful as a dream, an illusion. Wei Wuxian knew that this place was definitely different from the rest. However, he only had time to have an overall glance at it. It was already past nine. Most of the people within the Cloud Recesses had rested long ago. It was extremely quiet. Not a single person passed their way as Lan Xichen led them to the Library Pavilion.

The Cloud Recesses had once been burnt down by a fire. The Library Pavilion wasn't the Library Pavilion from back then. However, after it had been rebuilt, the interior setup was no different from the previous one. They had even planted another magnolia tree outside of the the pavilion.

After the three walked inside, Wei Wuxian suspected, "Sect Leader Lan, would we be able to find the source of the melody here?"

Lan Xichen, "Not here."

He walked before a row of books, lowered himself, and flipped over one of the mats on the ground before he took off a piece of wooden board, "We would be able to here."

Below the wooden board was a secret door.

Lan Wangji, "The room of forbidden books."

Under the door was a flight of stairs over fifty steps low. The three walked down one by one. What came into Wei Wuxian's eyes was a wide, dry underground room made of stone. The sound of footsteps echoed emptily. Rows and rows of bookshelves stood within the room. Books sparsely rested along the shelves. They were covered in dust, as though nobody had flipped through them in a long time.

Lan Xichen led them to one of the bookshelves, "This section is all books of strange songs."

...

Lan Qiren just grumbled nonsense under his breath at the sight of Wei Wuxian in a place where non-Lan's are strictly forbidden from. There was also the fact that Wangji went in as well. Like he could do anything anyway. It was to help gather evidence for proof of Jin Guangyao. Though they now saw it compared to then, at the time, circumstances would all them to search for clues.

Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji noticed their uncle's complexion was a bit off. They knew he would be fine as it was in the past, but it was still disheartening to see him a bit upset.

..

There was a desk in the room and only one paper lamp on the desk. Lan Wangji took from the shelves a writing brush and paper that hadn't been used in years. He wrote down by memory three copies of the melody's score. The three of them sat around the desk and got to work.

Each was responsible for a few dozens of books. They compared the melody to scores copied down onto the books, book by book, page by page, searching for parts that matched. However, four hours had passed, and none of the three found a score that was the same as the melody. This meant that they didn't find its source.

Wei Wuxian scanned the scores as quick as he could, thinking to himself, Maybe even the song section of the Lan Sect's room of forbidden books don't have the melody? But that's impossible. If even the Lan Sect didn't collect it, other places wouldn't have either. Would it be that Jin Guangyao created such a remarkable song himself? If so, then it'd be a pain. The only way to verify that something is wrong with the song would be to get someone to listen to this song for months to experiment. But even though he's clever, he never had a solid foundation. He couldn't be so clever as to be able to create...