Letting go of self-restraint 5 - Great happiness in a small package

Chapter 42

"Huisang, that is enough. We need to be responsible, Wuxian and Wangji are both counting on us." Lan Xichen told him and then stood up to go check on A-Yuan who was sleeping in the next room over.

Nie Huisang only sighed and leaned onto the low table for some support. He had hoped that he could convince Lan Xichen to be a little laid back today as they were essentially on a trip. However, it seemed like the Gusu Lan sect leader was taking the duty of keeping A-Yuan save seriously. "Not that I do not too," pouted the Qinghe Nie sect heir internally, "I have taken all the precautions so I can now allow myself to relax. I have even managed to get Xichen a little drunk..."

Suddenly, Nie Huisang's blood run cold when he heard a sharp intake of breath and Lan Xichen calling him in what sounded like panic. Since he was in the child's room, it could have only had one explanation, something must have happened to A-Yuan. The Omega shot to his feet and practically run to see what had scared his lover so much. He was preparing for the worst.

He had however not been prepared for what he saw. The cot into which he had put A-Yuan to sleep was empty and a window near it was open, letting cold night air enter the room. There was an ice-cold feeling of regret and shame washing over him, instantly sobering him up. Had he not secured the room enough? Or had something or someone gotten over his guards? And most importantly, where was A-Yuan now? He was sure that window had been closed when he had put the toddler to bed.

"I should have never suggested to Xichen to start drinking and making out. We should have kept both eyes on A-Yuan at all times, just how Brother Wei asked up to do. It is all my fault that we have lost sight of him now... How will we ever explain it if something happened to him? Brother Wei will never forgive us and he will also probably never want to leave the Jingshi again. If he does not do something really stupid once he finds out about this..."

Nie Huisang caught himself panicking and he instantly started breathing deeply, making sure to debate with himself while using rational arguments. It would not help if both him and Lan Xichen were useless due to their fear for the currently missing toddler. Finding him should be their immediate priority, not imagining the worst-case scenarios. There would be enough time to play the blame game once they have found the child, hopefully safe and sound.

Calm now, Nie Huisang looked around and finally fully analysed the situation. Nothing inside the room seemed to be damaged or destroyed and the door to the hallway was still closed, that was good, it meant that there had not been any violence going on, at least not one which would be blatantly clear. The wards and arrays were all intact, no resentful creature or energy should have gotten in. The window also seemed to have been opened from the inside, the handle was turned to downwards position, as if the toddler had been playing with it and accidently tugged on it, it was close enough to the cot to reach.

Luckily, the room was on the ground level of the inn so even if A-Yuan had somehow managed to fall out of the window, he would not have been hurt badly. Though, they had not heard him screaming or crying at all which was somewhat worrisome but not bad in the end, even A-Yuan cried when he scraped his knee. There was only a grassy and a not so well taken care of courtyard behind the inn so he should not have been harmed if he had fallen out of the window.

All in all, Nie Huisang came up with only two options: either the toddler was playing hide and seek with them and was still inside the room, or he had gotten out by himself. This helped him relax further. At least now he knew with certainty that this was only a child's ingenuity and not a kidnapping or an attack.

He was silently scolding himself for not counting with further security measures to stop a child's curiosity: "I have only thought about outside threats when I was setting up the room. I would have never imagined that a child as young as A-Yuan could wake up in the middle of the night and get bored.

Perhaps he had even been trying to get to us because he did not like being left alone and accidentally opened the window while searching for a way out of the cot? I knew A-Yuan is a bright child, but I have overlooked it. I still have much to learn when it comes to child care it would seem. And I have even only stuck the talisman to monitor him on the bed, not on his clothes as Brother Wei always does.

Those were my mistakes really. And now look what I have caused. Xichen is out of his mind with worry, and surely Brother Wei and Lan Wangji will be too once they will get here... There is not time for regrets though, only for action. We need to find A-Yuan as soon as possible, before he hurts himself or someone actually kidnaps him."

As such, Nie Huisang took another steadying breath and went up to Lan Xichen. He put a hand on his shoulder to attract his attention. When it did not work and Lan Xichen only continued staring at the empty cot, he turned him around, not unkindly, and obliged him to look into his eyes: "Xichen, everything will be fine. He must have gotten out all on his own, there is no other explanation as no wards are broken. Now, we will look for him. And we will find him."

Afterwards, everything happened really quickly. Lan Xichen managed to get a hold of himself, at least for the moment, and they started searching. First, they turned the room itself upside down, even going as far as looking into the chest for change of clothes and under the matrass. When A-Yuan was still nowhere to be found, Nie Huisang and Lan Xichen had to accept the hard truth that he had indeed fallen out of the window and was now wandering outside in the courtyard.

They searched there as well, with no better luck. All that Nie Huisang found was A-Yuan's small night outer robe just outside of the open window. It must have gotten stuck on a piece of a bush and the toddler must have somehow wriggled his way out of it. He was truly clever this A-Yuan. However, that posed a different problem, now even with the talisman that Wei Wuxian had on him, they would not be able to track the child down. Nie Huisang was currently holding the second part of the talisman in his hand.

When the room and the courtyard had turned out to be just a waste of time, Nie Huisang had to agree with Lan Xichen that the only other alternative could be that someone had kidnapped A-Yuan. The chances of him getting over the shoulder-high fence were very minimal. The Gusu Lan sect leader had already asked outside of the inn as well, with no results. No one had seen a small child walking around all alone.

It was time to accept that they had lost track of him and had to inform his parents. If they already did not know about the fact that their child has gone missing. After all, with how anxiously Wei Wuxian always listened to everything which was happening around the second part of the talisman he was carrying with him, he must have heard everything.

Nie Huisang turned to Lan Xichen with a serious expression: "A-Chen, there is no other choice, we have to let Brother Wei and Lan Wangji know about this and call for help."

The Gusu Lan sect leader nodded and took out a signal flare that every member of every sect always had for emergencies. They looked at each other and then went their separate ways, Lan Xichen to call upon all the cultivation clans and Nie Huisang to alarm his network of spies. They had to find A-Yuan at all costs.