WangXian Forever Book 8

Chapter 36 Cocoon

XiChen stood up immediately.

"What's wrong?" He demanded. He tried not to sound upset and instead convey reassurance to the distressed man, but the hours of the day were catching up to him.

"Y-you h-have to c-come and s-see for y-yourself! Please!" The disciple bowed, but just barely.

"Alright, I am coming with you. Where are we going?" He moved past Jiang Cheng to follow him.

Jiang Cheng stood up and took his hand.

"Maybe I can help you." He murmured.

"The J-jingshi..." the disciple stuttered.

That's when everyone stared at him.

Everything else he was saying, was garbled and unintelligible.

XiChen was past caring now, he dragged Jiang Cheng with him, ignoring the fact that both Baoshan Sanren and the Soothsayer were following them closely behind.

So many frantic thoughts were running through their minds; Jiang Cheng was wondering what new disaster had his brother brought upon them now, and was it another new talisman? While XiChen thought of Wei Ying too, how tired he had looked just before they had left them that evening. He hoped Wei Ying was alright...

The disciple was muttering words like, "had to go inside" and "No choice", but as they neared the Jingshi, they saw that the door was wide open.

"Tell me we're not going to see something shameless..." Jiang Cheng groaned.

XiChen flashed him a quick grin, hoping that was all it was going to be.

But none of them were prepared for what they saw.

The bed where the couple would normally sleep had a huge cocoon made from silk woven around two bodies, which had to have been Lan WangJi and Wei WuXian. Just their basic form was visible, and the fact that their faces were together, joined in an eternal kiss. Curled around each other they formed a circle of white, and now they were covered in gossamer threads, whispy and fragile-looking.

Some kind of movement was happening under the surface of the silk, and their faces were becoming more and more obscure.

"Is that...are those worms?" Jiang Cheng was the first to recover from his shock, and he was horrified.

"Where?" XiChen was in a state of disbelief.

Jiang Cheng pointed, and called upon Zidian, fully intending to use her on the mass in the centre of the bed.

But the Soothsayer laid a hand on his shoulder, stopping him.

"Not every situation calls for violence, Young Master." He said quietly.

"I agree." Baoshan Sanren stepped forward. "Where did the insects come from?" She looked around the room and spotted the black lacquered box immediately.

She picked it up and examined it carefully, noting the strange markings on it.

"Where did this come from?" She asked, sharply.

"I do not know." XiChen realised that his inability to provide answers for her was lowering her opinion of him every time...but there was nothing he could do about that.

"My brother brought back numerous items from their travels, on many occasions. It's impossible to keep track on what came from where." Jiang Cheng replied in defense of his husband.

She declined to answer, studying the markings engraved on the box with renewed interest.

"You should find some way of contacting the dragons...especially the one who gave him the dragon's pearls...if you can." The Soothsayer said, enigmatically.

"Why?" XiChen asked.

"You mean Shen Ling? What's he got to do with all of this?" Jiang Cheng asked, too tired to even scowl.

"The Young Master has had many dealings with the dragon, has he not?"

"Yes...the first time they met, the dragon mistook him for an enemy and attacked him, leaving four scars on his back, which the dragon licked and made into golden scales." XiChen told them.

"He's very fortunate...but he needs a little more luck, if I'm not mistaken." The Soothsayer replied. "Call the dragon now."

"What about Suanni?" Jiang Cheng muttered. "He's the most dragon of them all...I vote for him."

"Didn't A-Xian have a little golden bell? To summon him with?" XiChen tried to remember back. "That day on the beach...he had asked A-Xian why he had called himself and then he was shocked and pleased when A-Xian said he just missed him."

"Just like that idiot to say something crazy like that!" Jiang Cheng turned to look at the two forms, scarcely visible now.

Those worms were working so fast!

"Call both of them." Baoshan Sanren said, putting down the box at last.

"What a great idea." XiChen supported her, and she just rolled her eyes.

"Did you find anything on the box?" The Soothsayer asked her, taking it from her when she offered it.

He looked at it closely too, before handing it back when he was satisfied.

"Nothing for sure but I'm halfway convinced that those are the Celestial Worms." She tapped her nose. "But what I don't get is, how did they get here?"

XiChen had grabbed Lan Zhan’s white robes and was shaking them until a qiankun pouch fell out.

He glanced at Jiang Cheng thoughtfully.

"A-Xian always gave WangJi things to store for him. Maybe the bell is in here?" He said, tipping the contents onto the little table.

"And if you want to call Shen Ling, why not ask his babysitter? Lan JingYi visits with the babies often, right?" Jiang Cheng suddenly said, voicing his thoughts.

"That might be the first sensible thing you've said today." Baoshan Sanren told him. She turned to the shaking disciple who had brought them there in the first place. "Go and find Lan JingYi." She barked.

"What if he's asleep?" The disciple, in a rare place of asking a stupid question.

"Then wake him up!" She snapped.

The poor disciple ran for it, breaking several rules altogether.

XiChen was going through the items in the pouch carefully because there were a lot of things.

"There it is!" Jiang Cheng pounced, and pulled it from the rubble of discarded things.

He rang it and frowned when there was no noise. So he did it again. Three more times.

"I think it's broken."

They put everything back exactly as they had found it.

Lan JingYi burst into the room, robes askew and headband crooked.

"What's going on?"