Wild Creatures

Chapter 60

Three hours in, Lan Zhan stops them working when he hears Wei Ying's stomach making noises which it shouldn't be.

He looks pointedly at Baoshan Sanren, who sighs and rings a bell.

It's a stroppy looking Xiao XingChen who enters the library, and then he actually rolls his eyes when she tells him to bring food.

"What would you like to eat?" Baoshan Sanren asks Wei Ying.

"His favourite restaurant is the Green Dragon. They make an extra spicy dumpling and noodle combo, and if they haven't got that, then their Hotpot Special. Extra spicy." Lan Zhan smirks at the silent outrage on Xiao XingChen's face. "Please." Lan Zhan adds it like a slap.

No one says anything else until he turns around and leaves.

"Um, sorry about that, Grandma. Lan Zhan's still sore about er, Uncle XingChen taking me away. On Tuesday." Wei Ying clarifies to his grandmother, while Lan Zhan carries on looking smug. "He can be a bit petty sometimes, don't mind him."

"Oh, don't worry about it." Baoshan Sanren dismisses it with a wave of her hand. "XingChen can be a little bitch too, sometimes. Comes from living in each other's pockets and probably a case of blue balls."

Wei Ying choked on air.

Lan Zhan looked like he was getting ideas...

"Why did you do that? You know I've never eaten anything from that place!" Wei Ying whisper-shouted at Lan Zhan, who refused to do anything other than shrug.

Grandmother threw back her head and laughed.

Forty minutes later, Xiao XingChen returned with Wei Ying's order, putting it down harder than necessary on the side table, and scowling at Lan Zhan, who wore the most serene expression on his usually stoic face.

"Thank you so much!" Wei Ying immediately stands up, ready to go investigate the food.

Lan Zhan also gets up and makes him sit down first, by the little coffee table, and then he brings the takeout bags closer. He opens up the containers of food and their space is immediately fragrant with spices, garlic and pork.

Xiao XingChen takes a seat on the other side of Baoshan Sanren, looking through the papers she's been arranging in neat, tidy piles. He lets out a low whistle of surprised approval.

"Is this...?" He glances between the grandmother and the grandson.

"Yep. All of this is Wei Ying," she tells him. "We've gotten through two and a half boxes so far."

"But we still don't know about the locket." Lan Zhan points out. "Grandfather hasn't mentioned it at all."

"I remember when he gave it to my daughter. She was only eight, and as mischievous as they come, but that night, it was as if she knew that was the last time she was going to see her father. She hugged him tightly and wouldn't let go, not until he slipped this around her neck as a gift, and told her to keep it safe." Baoshan Sanren sniffed.

Lan Zhan knew how she felt.

The inability to cry was something so precious forever stolen from them. It was a build up of emotions like a volcano getting ready to spew forth all its anger, all its ash and hatred against the world in a much anticipated outpouring, only to have its fire stolen by water being poured down its throat. The sudden drowning of all those feelings still buried inside was one of intense suffocation.

That's what it felt like to not be able to cry.

In some ways, it was worse than when Lan Zhan hadn't been able to go outside, having been robbed of the sunlight.