His Excellency: The Untamed

23. A Curse For a Curse

Lan Zhan watched Wei Ying sleeping across from him, heart heavy at having ever considered Wei Ying guilty. Last night Wei Ying slept in the bed across from him. Despite Wei Ying's insistence to sleep in the workroom, he refused. The thought that he had wanted Wei Ying to move out of his sight when he first lost his memories horrified him. His desire to be close burned within. If he had wrapped them up for so long, he could do so a bit more. So, Lan Zhan lay there on his side, looking at Wei Ying, laying to his side. Both of them faced each other.

"Lan Zhan close your eyes or else I might slip into your bed and there is no knowing what might happen next."

So Lan Zhan closed his eyes and went to sleep with the sheer force of practice. He heard Wei Ying sigh before he slipped deeper, "you are putting Lan's habits to good use."

That night, his dreams were all over the place, from burial mounds to the cliff's edge, from Jingshi to Deng shi. He woke up with practice too and lowered the wards.

In the morning's first set of affairs, he sent the junior who brought him breakfast running to fetch his brother. He wanted to update his brother first thing. As he waited, he updated the Account of Attack, naming the resent incident as Memory Curse on Lan Ribbon. His brother arrived while he was still writing.

"Wangji did you remember something?"

"Everything but last year and little more."

"Are you alright?"

"Wei Ying guided memories through empathy."

"A double link is dangerous, if one of you came back before the other, the other could forever be lost."

"No. Not a double empathy." his brother sighed at his answer, "I sense there is more." 

His brother knew him too well, "It was too much for the mind so the next series of events we looked at through Wei Ying's memories."

"So, now you know everything." his brother concluded.

He shook his head, "until Wei Ying went back into his body. The pain shocked us out of empathy." He lied about the last part but his brother let him. He didn't want his brother to know that it did get dangerous in the end.

"I should be able to fill you in on the next events regarding Master Mo. As for your personal matter, you will have to remember on your own."

Wei Ying stirred at the voices in the next room. Usually, he would go right back to sleep but having slept earlier than his usual self, he was awake.

"What are you going to do?" Zewu Jun was talking to Lan Zhan.

"Set up a trap." Lan Zhan's simple answer did not let him get back to sleep.

Wei Ying left the bed at Lan Zhan's words, calling him out, "don't you dare think of being bait, or else I will immobilize you unless you change your mind."

Lan Zhan smiled slightly and he lost his train of thought.

"Hey, Mister. What are you smiling at?" he pointed a finger at Lan Zhan as he settled at the table.

"This will be bait." Lan Zhan placed the piece of Yin iron on the table. He understood the plan instantly. Lan Wangji saw Wei Ying's uneasiness as Wei Ying leaned away but his accusing smile did not move, "Gooood plan."

ZeWu Jun looked between them as Lan Zhan pulled out the drawing of the amulet.

"Master Mo thinks the amulet is made from the power of the Yin iron piece but it was directly made from the Yin iron sword."

"What is Yin iron sword?" ZeWu Jun asked, a bit concerned.

"The yin energy is opposite and equal to the Yang creature, the source of burial mounds."