Hua Xianle

Chapter 22:

In all his fifteen years of life, Lan Wangji had never felt so excited about the opening of the Gusu Lan guest lectures. That was because this year, his friends were all of age to attend. For an entire year, he would have unfettered access to all of his closest companions and would be able to share his home with them, including Hua Ying.

Normally, rogue cultivators were not invited to be guest disciples, a rule implemented several years ago for reasons Wangji could not recall easily. However, both Wangji and Xichen had asked their father to extend Hua Ying an invitation to stay.

Upon receiving the invitation, Hua Ying had been more than a little skeptical about attending. While he was no longer as shy and prone to panic attacks as he had once been, Xianle still had moments where he would get overwhelmed by large crowds. Lan Zhan knew this, having witnessed it once during a shopping trip in Qinghe. Several women had swarmed him, pestering his A-Ying with questions until he was curled in on himself, covering his ears and whimpering. Lan Zhan had to spend around 15 minutes to completely calm him down while Nie Huaisang glared daggers at those ladies.

Thankfully, Hua Ying did not allow his anxiety to deter him from attending. He asked his fathers, who both seemed happy about the idea. They thought it would be good for him to interact with other people his age and expand his group of friends. They had conditions, of course. Specifically, they wanted Gu Zi to also be given an invitation, so Hua Ying could have someone with him at all times should he require assistance.

The condition was more than agreeable to Qinghen-jun, who was happy to take on another mind eager to learn. Madame Lan even made sure to arrange the guest quarters so that Hua Ying and Gu Zi would be sharing their room, with Nie Huaisang right next door, ensuring the two would have a neighbor who could properly accommodate them. She even made sure Jin Zixuan’s room was also nearby, just in case.

Lan Zhan wanted to join his friends in the guest quarters but was unfortunately turned down. He already had his own quarters, and it would be highly inappropriate for the Second Young Master of Lan to bed with the guests. Luckily, he could at least commiserate with Mianmian, who was stuck staying with the girls in their separate guest pavilion. Even worse, she had been unfortunately bunked with Jiang-guniang.

Still, even with these minor issues, Lan Zhan was still excited about the lectures. Everyone would be coming either today or tomorrow, just in time for the welcome ceremony. Everyone, including his Fuqin and Xiongzhang, was hard at work with the final preparations. His Shufu was going over his lesson plans, as he was to be their teacher for the duration of the lectures. This just left Lan Zhan with his role as the disciplinarian to make sure everything ran smoothly.

He had to make sure everything was perfect for his A-Ying.

…

The Jiang siblings arrived in Caiyi Town early in the afternoon with a few disciples in tow. Both Wanyin and Yanli were exhausted after spending several hours on a boat to get there, as neither of them had cores strong enough to ride their swords that far. Unfortunately, this delay meant that by the time they reached Caiyi town, all of the inns were completely booked.

It took them hours to find an inn that seemed empty, which only worsened Wanyin’s mood. It reached its boiling point when the clerk at the inn refused to serve them.

“I apologize, Gongzi, but the whole inn was already booked earlier by the Jins. Not a single room was left available. They’ve also settled all the payments already, so I can’t let you book in unless you talk to Young Master Jin about it.”

Hearing this, Jiang Cheng stormed out of the inn, his knuckles white on his sword as he spat on the ground. 

‘That goddamn peacock! Booking the whole inn when he only needs a few of these rooms! Is he bringing the whole Lanling Jin with him?!’