Wild Creatures

Chapter 73

Wei Ying's eyes widen, and somehow, Lan Zhan just knows. He stands up fluidly, and hauls Wei Ying up too, just as easily. Wei Ying pulls him to the counter where his mother's phone rests.

Wei Ying watches Lan Zhan as his pale, elegant fingers trace the keys on the denim blue phone. He feels just as charged with anticipation as Lan Zhan must be feeling, and so he comes around Lan Zhan to wrap his arms around his waist from behind.

There's only the slightest tremble before Lan Zhan opens it to contacts.

There are only four numbers:

Qingheng-Jun
Lan Qiren
Cangse Sanren
Fei Lang (Da Tuzi)

There are unread messages on all of them, except Uncle Qiren.

"I want XiChen. To be with me, when we listen to these." Lan Zhan says, realising the little icon next to the notification meant a voice recording.

"Whatever you want, my love." Wei Ying presses a warm kiss at the base of his neck, noticing that his hair really seemed to be longer at the back.

But this was neither the time nor the place to say anything, so he made a mental note to bring it up at another time.

Lan Zhan wraps the cord around the phone, switching it off to preserve the battery.

In many ways, Wei Ying can understand the delay. It's a lot to process, that Lan Zhan will get to hear his mother's voice again, and so soon. Wei Ying had felt the same way, and it was the main reason why he hadn't blasted through the book his mother had written for him, like a New York best seller.

It was like facing a tidal wave armed with just a plexiglass barrier; once that barrier fell, one risked being drowned by their own feelings, and wasn't it better to drill a tiny hole in the glass instead? Surely easier to cope with a trickle rather than a deluge.

They make their way back to where the children are, listening to their muffled shrieks of laughter.

"She only had four people on her list." Wei Ying says, tentatively.

He's wholly unprepared for Lan Zhan to whirl on him, wrapping him up in a tight hug, more for himself than Wei Ying at the moment.

If Lan Zhan needs him to be strong, then that's what Wei Ying is going to do. His arms are already holding onto Lan Zhan's body, and that's when he realises that Lan Zhan is trembling.

"Sweetheart, I'm here for you. Let it out," Wei Ying whispers.

Lan Zhan is really trying, but the tears won't come. His eyes hurt from the strain of forcing them, and the frustration is real.

He's such a strong man, and to see him like this brings tears to Wei Ying's eyes instead. Each tremor makes him feel regret that Lan Zhan cannot cry, and that this ability has been taken away from him, completely against his will.

Sometimes Lan Zhan wishes he could have been as loquacious as his brother, or even Wei Ying, the way both of them have never had a problem expressing themselves verbally.

After that incident in the hospital, when Lan Zhan had suffered a seizure and consequently hadn't spoken because of his trauma, he had always been extra cautious when voicing his thoughts, and picking out sentences which used less words on purpose. Even now, there were days when he felt less like talking, and more when he had to force himself to be more vocal.

Though it was only now, he was looking back on those days as if they belonged in the past. He hadn't thought about his silences, preferred or otherwise, ever since he opened his eyes after Wei Ying found him.