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15 - Gay Panic

A few months have passed and Wei Ying has gone back to Lotus Pier. When he left, I noticed he was a little reluctant to leave. It was as if there was dread in his eyes. If he told me anything about how he was treated at Yunmeng, and it turned out to have been terrible, my Shufu and brother wouldn't have allowed it without a thorough investigation of the matter. But, Wei Ying said nothing.

Though Wei Ying asked if we could search for what is to be called, Yin Iron, together. I told him the archery competition would come first and then I was to go search. He told me to promise to let him come. I didn't say yes or no. I didn't even respond honestly.

But at the archery competition, I had almost lost my self-restraint and snapped. It was all because Wei Ying did something that infuriated me, but also I shouldn't have been infuriated by. I secretly loved him, but the moment he had my forehead ribbon in his hand, I almost lost it.

The forehead ribbon of the GusuLan Sect means to "regulate oneself." The founder of the GusuLan Sect, Lan An, had said that one can only let go of all regulations when they are with the one they love and cherish. So, the message that has been passed down the generations is that our sect's forehead ribbon is a special object that is very, very personal and sensitive. One cannot easily give another permission to touch it, one cannot take it off as they please, it is prohibited. Only your fated partner and children can touch it.

So what happened?

And why did I get infuriated?

If anything, why did Wei Ying have to be in public to just take it?

Does he even know what he just did?

At Qishan, the Wen Sect held a grand Discussion Conference. The conference was to last for seven days. Each of the seven days' entertainment had been planned to be different. One of those days involved an archery competition. Any disciples younger than twenty were to enter the hunting grounds. Of the more than a thousand life-sized paper mannequin targets, only one hundred were possessed by fierce spirits. If one shot the wrong target, they were out at once. One could only stay in the competition if they continuously shot correct paper mannequins that held evil spirits in them. In the end, the disciples were ranked by who shot the most, who shot with highest accuracy, and so on.

At the competition, I wore a red round-collar robe with sleeves that had tight openings and a belt of nine golden rings. This was the uniform attire of all of the juniors who came to the Qishan Discussion Conference. I was carrying my GusuLan Sect bow and a bundle of arrows with white-feathered fletchings. I brushed my slender fingers past the string like it was that of a guqin.

"Hey! Wangji-xiong, it's you!" My ears perked up at the voice, but I pretended as if I didn't hear. It was a fairly loud area at the moment as it was.

After a few more minutes, the barrier to the grounds was lifted, and the competition began. The competition ground was large, surrounded by thick trees and Rocks. During the competition, my brother was not that far away from me as we liked to work together. Every now and then, we would cross paths with Wen Chao. Competing with Wen Chao was very unpleasant during the competition. He had a habit of stealing others' prey and looked smug as hell for that. It was irritating, but no one complained.

During our hunting, Xiongzhang and I happened to run into Wei Ying having a dispute with Wen Chao. Wei Ying and I saw as Wen Chao missed a target and instead of red this time the flare for Wen Sect was grey, marking him disqualified. One of the disciples snickered at that which enraged Wen Chao. He lined up another shot despite the flare being grey at the disciple who snickered.

Wei Ying didn't hesitate for another moment to call him out on his behavior, "Second Young Master Wen, are you eyes not working? You are out, the flare went grey," he said waving his hand toward the grey flare that was now fading.

"What did you say?!" Wen Chao said through his clenched teeth.

"Whoever missed the target is disqualified." Wei Ying said again, knowing very well that it would irritate him.

"Yeah, that was the rule. Is the Second Young master breaking the rules set forward by his own sect?" Another disciple sneered.

"I don't follow the rules! I am the Rules!" Wen Chao spat as his face turned red and ugly.

Jiang Wanyin grimaced, opened his mouth but then closed it again with a sigh he said "this guy is unreasonable, Why bother setting up the rules if you won't follow them yourself"

A disciple of Baling Ouyang Sect replied "he thinks he is above the rules just because he is a Wen."

Wen Chao became furious from hearing that, so he fired an arrow toward the disciple. Wei Ying didn't waste any time to throw a shield talisman, nearly blocking the arrow from embedding itself into the disciples chest.

Wen Chao lined another arrow but due to some miscalculation it went wide. I saw that Wei Wei was about to throw himself in the path of the flying arrow so I acted fast with no hesitation. I quickly raised my bow and shot the arrow, it then intercepted the arrow Wei Ying was going to take, breaking it into two parts, nearly curving upward and hitting its target. The broken arrow fell onto the ground disqualifying its owner. Wei Ying grinned as everyone watched in awe, their jaws hitting the ground. To have that much control on a weapon that was not spiritual was otherworldly.

Second Young master Lan was truly worth all the praises.

"Good one, Lan Zhan!" Wei Ying called, eyes twinkling and a grin adorned his face as I landed gracefully not a hair out of place.

Wen Chao took a step back unconsciously and then spit, "You people!". Before throwing his bow and walking toward god knows where.

After Wen Chao left Wei Ying turned toward me, "Lan Zhan, that was a very good shot. But you still won't be able to beat the YunmengJiang sect scored."

"Mnn," I made out as there was really nothing to say. As I turned to leave Wei Ying spoke again.

"Lan Zhan, Your forehead ribbon is crooked."

I refused to believe his nonsense as I released an arrow to a target, I then replied without even turning around, "Ridiculous."

Wei Ying argued back, "It's true! It really is crooked. Just watch if you don't believe me. Let me straighten it up for you."

Before I could even react or even consider was was happening, I felt him grabbing at the ribbon's tail that kept on fluttering in front of his eyes. I then felt him tug at it but, since the forehead ribbon was already slightly askew, and a bit loose, now that he pulled on it, it fell from my forehead at once. I felt rage raise inside of me as I clenched my hand hard around the bow, giving out a shiver. I managed to turn around after quite a long while. Slowly, my eyes finally locked into Wei Ying's.

He was still holding the soft ribbon in his hand, "I'm sorry. It wasn't on purpose. Here, you can tie it up again."

I felt the anger inside of me increasing rapidly. I wouldn't have cared so much if we were not so public, but this was too far. As I clenched my arrow, veins climbed over the back of my hand. I was so angry that my body was almost shaking. I saw him squeeze the ribbon out of nerves. He looked frightened by my anger, which he should be. The fact that my self-restraint is lasting this long is amazing as it is. Shocked that he dared to squeeze it, I snatched the forehead ribbon from his hands as fast as I could.

Xiongzhang acted quickly and put his arm around me, "it was an accident, calm down, okay."

After glowering at him one last time, I turned around and walked alone toward the outside of the range. In the end, the results were announced with Wei Ying coming first, I came second, Xiongzhang came in third, Jin Zixuan fourth and Jiang Wanyin was fifth. Though I left early, Xiongzhang told me the results later, and it was also said that Wen Ruohan was obviously not happy with the result as he stood up and left after the results were announced.

It took me almost the rest of the day to quench my anger. I even went to meditate in the cold spring to help me calm down. I was there an hour before feeling good enough to leave. I wasn't really mad he held the ribbon, I was mad that it happened in such a public setting. I had hid the fact that I was a cut-sleeve for so long, and when he did that, I felt my whole world just got exposed. I wasn't reading for anyone to know that side of me yet, as I was still trying to come to terms with it. No matter how much I love Wei Ying, I was just furious that it happened then.