WangXian Forever Book 8

Chapter 13 Teleporting

It took them a few minutes to recover from Jez, the baby innocently smiling and cooing unintelligibly.

They decided to retreat to the Moon tree and its constantly fragrant air, and even though XiChen and Jiang Cheng had left the doors and all the windows open to try and air it out, Wei Ying knew that smell had the tendency to linger.

"We could go camping." XiChen was saying. "I've always enjoyed sleeping out under the stars."

"Have you?" Jiang Cheng murmured, liking this softer side to his husband. "It's a bit cold to sleep outside but I'll see what I can do."

"We might have no choice but to sleep away from Cloud Recesses tonight." Wei Ying was saying. "Unless we all teleport, and that might not be a bad idea." He was busy having his face caressed by the moon tree which was showing him particularly tender touches.

Lan Zhan was already frowning at it and trying not to.

"Where are you planning on going?" Hui Gai perked up immediately, interested.

"We're going to investigate that sleeping sickness which is spreading." Wei Ying informed him. They told him all about it.

"And it's not related to what's going on with you?" He looked doubtfully at Wei Ying.

"Wei Ying can wake up." Lan Zhan said, flatly.

"And I'm not dead yet." Wei Ying beamed, but Lan Zhan scowled at him, putting him in his place.

"What...? I can be happy about that, my love. I didn't mean to touch upon a sore point." He snuggled closer.

Both of them had given away the children they had been carrying, so now they could link fingers. And this made Lan Zhan feel so much better.

Jez let out a cry, and everyone stiffened, expecting another assault, but Hui Gai just grinned and vanished. He returned minutes later.

"I'll come with you." He flexed his fingers, itching to get a move on.

"Only if you want to." Wei Ying yawned and stood up. "I suppose we should make ready to go. Where's Jez?"

"Hungry." Hui Gai said proudly.

"Alright children, here's what we're going to do." Wei Ying crouched down to talk better to Rumi and Li XiWang. "We're going to drop you guys off to Grumple. We will come back before nightfall, so don't worry."

They looked incredibly disappointed.

"Why can't we come?" Li XiWang asked. "I'm sort of a doctor already."

"Grumple has missed you too. Plus if you ask nicely, he may take you to the library." Lan Zhan promised her. He even winked.

Wei Ying shivered at that, and then shook his head when Lan Zhan caught his eye. Whatever was between his husband and daughter, it was enough to convince her that this was a good course of action.

"We should drop off Little Li Li there too. Uncle should make good use of his time." XiChen said airily, as if that was a normal thing to say.

Jiang Cheng grinned and kissed his cheek.

"I'm going to miss this Truth Trap curse. You're too reticent it seems."

"I know I love you." XiChen pulled him in for a long and slightly dirty kiss. "Does that count?"

Wei Ying gagged noisily, but smiled when he was shoved by an otherwise occupied brother.

"Let's go." Lan Zhan was equally put off by that show of affection.

"You guys do it all the time. We feel the same way about you." Jiang Cheng defended himself. He smiled at his husband.

They made their way to the Elder's home.

Uncle Qiren was happy to see them, when they piled into his home.

"We're staying with you until they get back." Li XiWang told him loudly, while he hummed and hawwed.

"Even Little Li Li." XiChen told him, putting their daughter right into his arms.

"Grumple, can we please go and visit the library?" Li XiWang was saying, as they firmly closed his door behind them.

Wei Ying turned to Hui Gai.

"We may need help to teleport to the locations."

"PengYou! You know you can count on me!" He smiled innocently with all of his pointy teeth, licking his red lips.

Jiang Cheng shuddered. After all, he out of everyone had good cause to be wary of the Demon King.

"Where are we going first?" XiChen asked.

"Lui Xing. It is about ten miles from here." Wei Ying replied.

They all held hands and suddenly they were there, Lan Zhan and Wei Ying, XiChen and Jiang Cheng, and Hui Gai.

But before they took a single step forward, XiChen held his hand out and intercepted a golden butterfly messenger. He handed it to Jiang Cheng. "It's for you."

"I never get those any more." He lamented. "There's something so nice about getting a message, don't you think so?" He said to no one in particular.

Jiang Cheng was listening intently to the contents of his message.

Wei Ying watched the changing emotions on his face, from mild annoyance at being disturbed, to concern, to anger. His scowl deepened with the strength of his feelings until the clouds above his head were quite thick and dark.

"It doesn't look good, does it, PengYou?" Hui Gai had crossed his arms and leaned against his friend lightly.

Wei Ying had no idea he was mirroring his friend, both of them watching Jiang Cheng.

"What's up, Cheng Cheng?" Wei Ying asked him as soon as he had his attention.

"Do you remember that box we spoke about? The one in Lotus Pier?" Jiang Cheng offered.

"Yeah...? The one with old things in it?" Wei Ying said.

"That's the one. You know I sent Jin Ling and SiZhui to collect it?"

Wei Ying nodded.

"It turns out, they can't find it. The curator of the vault turned the whole place upside down, and even Feng Li Pao, my head disciple, remembered where it was, but he's at a loss as to where it could be."

"Just like that?" Wei Ying questioned.

"Just like that." Jiang Cheng confirmed.

"That's a real shame, Jiang Cheng because as you well know, I don't believe in coincidences." Wei Ying replied.

"I do know." Jiang Cheng told him. "And that means..."

"It was taken away on purpose." They both finished together.

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A/N

Dear Lovely readers,

This was going to be longer but I was hauled away to go and watch 27 Dresses. It's a rom-com and if you haven't watched it already, please do so. Some really funny laugh-out-loud moments in that one.

So until tomorrow, good night and sweet dreams, and think about why someone would want to steal a drawer of supposedly useless items, until now forgotten about and gathering dust...

Charlie.