The tale of the fox and the dragon egg

Chapter 65 - A Day of memory

In the playful fight, both of them missed the look Wei Ying sent to Jiang Cheng, one the clan leader avoided with his life on the line. But as the fox twisted around in his laughing tirade, they quickly jumped to attention again.

"Ahahahaha! Yes, Jiang Cheng, you surely were still young back then! Ahahaha!"

"Shut it", the clan leader grumbled under his breath and turned his body to the side. The children were still able to see the embarrassed red hue on his cheeks regardless.

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The next five days passed by in a blur.

Most of the time was spent by Wei Ying fretting over A-Yuan, who had been sleeping for the first three and bedridden, but slowly awake for the last two days. Although the little one almost had a qi deviation befre, he recovered fairly well, especially in comparison to Nie Mingjue. Mostly because A-Yuan was a strong child, with two parents that kept his balance in check and a healthy mind.

Wen Ning took a little longer than him. Taking back a soul into his own body, a body that was not used to taking a hold of such an important thing, made it hard to get used to it. He needed much more regulation and meditation, physical exercise as well. When Wei Ying asked him, Wen Ning would describe it as strange. As if his body was weighting but energized so much more, with his thoughts being so light that he found himself amazed.

Jiang Cheng came to check up on Lan Yuan sometimes, or more so Wei Ying, who had been loosing sleep after the almost qi deviation of his son. Once, even Lan Zhan couldn't bring him to sleep, before Jiang Cheng jumped in and threatened to knock him out for good.

It worked at least.

More so with Jin Ling, who tattled to his uncle about the fox. A traitor, a betrayal that Wei Ying claimed hurt him more than anything else, but when even Lan Zhan was on his side, not to talk about Wen Ning, Wei Ying could only cave in. Not that Jin Ling ever left Lan Yuan's side if he didn't have to.

It was surprising that he was almost as worried about the sleeping dragon child as Wei Ying, so much so that Lan Zhan was the one that shooed him out of the room on some days. And the moment little Lan Yuan woke up, the golden boy came running like no other.

It was heart-warming for Wei Ying to see. The thought that the little boy had more and more people to protect him, because even the stoic Jiang Cheng began to become grumpy when A-Yuan behaved like his mother and didn't want to fall asleep, made him relieved for the future. Sleeping times in Lotus Pier were different from Cloud Recesses, but Lan Zhan followed the deeply engraved habits regardless and made sure Lan Yuan as well. After smothering Wei Ying with kisses, of course.

Five days later, Lan Yuan was good enough to take a little trip outside and Wei Ying jumped at the opportunity.

There was something he had always dreamed about, something he needed to do with Lan Zhan and A-Yuan present. And that was visiting the lake.

When he thought about how he himself had played and swam in the water there in the past, he always wanted A-Yuan to do the same. In the lake of his home back in his youth.

And that's how he found himself here, laying on a more than sunny day in the sand at the lake. Lan Zhan was sitting right beside him, all proper and without fault and Wei Ying laughed about his pose every time he got the chance.

He would have liked Wen Ning to be here as well, but he could understand that the phoenix wanted to minimize the chance to be near the water right now. Instead, he had favoured a nice long flight through the sky with his newfound freedom and Wei Ying wouldn't be the one to hold him back.