❃ 𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 ❃

🔹𝕿𝖍𝖎𝖗𝖙𝖞 𝕱𝖎𝖛𝖊🔹

Days passed and it was already the third day of Lan Wangji in Lotus Pier.

Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian were now currently sitting under a tree on the training ground.

Lotus Pier's training grounds spread out behind the residential area. Even at a distance, Lan Wangji could see groups of students practicing swordplay. Unlike in the Cloud Recesses, where all disciples wore similar robes, the ones here wore a variety of colors, though all of them were a shade of purple. Only Wei Wuxian wore black.

Wei Wuxian was laughing heavily and sat up. "Jiang Cheng said he was practicing archery today. I was going to show him how it's done. Will you come along?"

Lan Wangji hesitated, then opened his eyes and nodded. He did not want to be a third person while the siblings were together. By now, Lan Wangji knew that, the relationship between Wei Wuxian and Jiang was not as simple as it seemed.

Lan Wangji had heard some stories of their childhood from Jiang Yanli and he knew much.

 Jiang Fengmian is Jiang Cheng's father, yet, Jiang Cheng had a strained relationship. Ever since childhood, Jiang Cheng had been rather uptight and irascible, like his mother, and struggled to change despite Jiang Fengmian's attempts to teach him. Thus, Jiang Cheng had believed that his father does not like him.

By the time Jiang Cheng was 9 or 10 , Jiang Fengmian had held him less than five times, but held Wei Wuxian once, a few days after he had been brought to Lotus Pier. Although Jiang Fengmian had attempted to comfort Jiang Cheng gently when his dogs were given away, Jiang Cheng had not found it helpful. Jiang Cheng takes this as evidence of Jiang Fengmian's favoritism of Wei Wuxian, thinking that his father does not like him, an insecurity that had lasted into adulthood.

Lan Wangji now understood why Jiang Cheng had fumed when Wei Wuxian had asked if he was jealous that day ok the docks. Now that he think back on it, Wei Wuxian must be more careful around Jiang Cheng so that he does not end triggering his wounds more. And that was the only reason why he accepted to go with Wei Wuxian so that he could keep an eye on them.

As they passed the training fields, junior disciples called out to him: "Wei-xiong!" Lan Wangji knew that Wei Wuxian allowed his contemporaries to address him like that, but he was surprised to see juniors hardly ten years old using it so casually. Nearly everyone in Gusu addressed Lan Wangji by his courtesy name. Several of the juniors scampered over, surrounding them and asking that Wei Wuxian produce his sword.

"Ah, not today," Wei Wuxian said. "I am going to meet Jiang Cheng."

"Then how about you ask your husband to duel with us?" A junior asked.

At first, when Wei Wuxian had Lan Wangji to the juniors, they had been surprised. An impressed murmuring had gone up in the crowd and half of them had disbelief written on their faces. But when Wei Wuxian had brought them back to their senses asking they to bow down, the juniors had bowed to him.

"He had come all the way here to spend time with me, how can i leave him here with you?" Wei Wuxian said.

"Wei Xiong, are you going to shoot arrows with Young Master Jiang?" Another junior disciple asked.

"Yes." Wei Wuxian affirmed.

"We'll shoot with you!" The juniors cried.

"Fine, fine, fine. Lan Zhan, you don't mind, do you?" Wei Wuxian asked, nudging Lan Wangji's shoulders.

"I do not." Lan Wangji confirmed.

"Come on, then, let's get going."

Wei Wuxian let out a breath and continued walking, toward the other side of training ground where the archery targets were already set up.

"Ah—Lan Zhan!" Wei Wuxian said, walking beside him. Lan Wangji could hear the excited chatter of the juniors following behind them. "Sorry, Lan Zhan. Your skills are pretty famous around here. There's no way I can tell them not to come."

"It doesn't matter," Wangji said.

Jiang Cheng was already on the archery field, bow drawn. Just as he was about to release it, Wei Wuxian shouted, "Jiang Cheng! You'll never believe who's here." Jiang Cheng missed the target and whipped around.

"Wei Wuxian! How many times do I have to—Lan Wangji? What are you doing here?" Jiang Cheng questioned.

Before Lan Wangji could answer, Wei Wuxian said, "I brought him along with me."

"Of course! You don't have to say. I already knew that you would bring him. I just pretended to be surprised so that you would be fooled into thinking that I was surprised to see him." Jiang Cheng scoffed.

"Hmph, I don't care either way!"

In spite of Jiang Cheng's harsh tone, Wei Wuxian's mood stayed high. "Since you didn't bring your bow, Lan Zhan, you can borrow mine."

"Why would he want to borrow yours?" Jiang Cheng said. "We have plenty of spares."

"Mine's nicer than any of those. You'd give a practice bow to him? He is my husband!" Wei Wuxian cried.

Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes, pretending to have not heard anything.

From the top of a pile of what he presumed were practice bows, Lan Wangji selected one and drew the string.

"You see? He chose mine anyway," Wei Wuxian said with a note of pride. Jiang Cheng made a disbelieving noise.

Wei Ying armed himself with one of the practice bows. His skill with one made up for it being a well-worn piece of equipment. He outperformed Jiang Cheng to such a degree, Lan Wangji was really shocked. His form was elegant, honed by years of practice. Lan Wangji was as speechless as he'd been during the water ghoul hunt.

The juniors who had come along to watch praised Wei Wuxian's efforts, which left Jiang Cheng scowling. He drew his bow again and this time managed to hit the target. He was not poorly trained by any means, but he lacked discipline if all it took was a few arrows from his shixiong to ruin his focus.

"Ah, thank you, thank you," Wei Wuxian was saying to his admirers, "but wait until you see Lan Zhan. He's the best archer from all of our sects. Lan Zhan, show them!"

Lan Wangji flushed red at Wei Wuxian's comment. And he had been red ever since he married Wei Wuxian!

His husband had done nothing but mane him blush all day and night, not missing a single second!