Who You Are Book 2

Chapter 69 - Yunping City

With an almost insatiable force, Wei Wuxian picked as many lotus seeds as he could. There was almost no room on the boat left to put their feet, all three of them sitting amid mountains of green lotus seed pods. When the skin was torn off, the creamy green seeds could be seen hidden right inside the brown, puffy coats. Dig them out, peel the coats off, and there were the seeds, soft and snowy. They had a refreshingly sweet taste. Even the centers were made of watery greens, not at all bitter.

Wen Ning continued to peel the seed pods, sitting at the front of the boat. Lan WangJi stopped only after he peeled two. As he saw Wen Ning pass them the peeled seeds, he shook his head and let him give them to Wei Wuxian. Alone, Wei Wuxian finished the entire boat. They finally arrived at the docks of Yunping City after being afloat for another three or four hours.

...

"You think you are enough?" Lan Xichen asked teasing Wuxian.

"I love lotus seeds okay. One could never have enough," Wuxian told him, "there would be times when I would go with Shijie to pick lotus pods. I'd eat a good amount but then I'd also make wine as well."

"A'Xian can eat a lot of lotus seeds if he wants," Yanli said.

"Looks like he ate the entire lake," Lan Xichen teased more.

"Shut it," Wuxian said, "I did not."

Lan Xichen chuckled at him making Wuxian pout and huff in defeat, "Don't pout, Wangji will snatch that lip of yours," Xichen said.

"I don't care," Wuxian said still pouting as he turned around and shoved his face into the crook of Wangji's neck.

"Xiongzhang, don't tease him right now, he's fairly moody today," Wangji told him as he tried to comfort Wuxian.

"Can you blame him?" Wen Qing asked, "not only is he pregnant, so the hormones aren't helping, but he has been stressed out a lot already today because of Jiang Cheng and Yu Ziyuan."

Wangji nodded as he wrapped his arms firmly around Wuxian and just gently played with his hair and rubbed his back.

...

The shallow regions of the docks were cramped with small fishing boats. A few groups of women were gathered on the stone stairs before the waters, washing clothes. Shirtless boys with tanned skin dove and swam around the edge of the river.

Suddenly, a ferry slowly drifted over. One person was at the end of the boat, head hanging low, but the two young men inside both had striking looks. The man sitting at the front was dressed in snow white, carrying a most ethereal air while the grinning youth right beside him had quite a pretty face as well. People rarely saw such figures on a daily basis, so everyone widened their eyes and stared as hard as they could. A few of the boys swimming in the river gathered toward them like fish. Around seven or eight heads bobbed up and down beside the ferry.

Wei Wuxian, "If I may ask, is Yunping City here?"

A girl washing clothes by the river blushed, "Yes, it is."

Wei Wuxian, "We're here. Let's go."

The ferry docked. Lan Wangji was the first to stand up. After he was on land, he turned around and helped Wei Wuxian up. Both of the two had gotten off already, yet Wen Ning was still on the boat, unable to move an inch. The swimming boys watched as he looked down and said nothing, strange marks crawling up his neck across his pale cheeks. They found him strange, but felt amused instead of scared. Over ten pairs of hands clung onto the boat and shook without stop, so hard that Wen Ning almost couldn't steady himself.