The Tainted Jade of Gusu

Chapter 14: A Wedding of Convenience

"What is a Wedding? " little Yuan stared at Lan Wangji with large, innocent eyes. 

"A wedding is where two grown up people who love each other, promise to be with each other for the rest of their lives." Lan Wangji explained patiently. 

Little Yuan held up both his hands, pleading with Lan Wangji to pick him up. Lan Wangji carefully bent down a little and scooped the little boy up in his arms.

"Did you have a wedding?" Little Yuan threw his arms around Lan Wangji's neck and asked him innocently. And this question seemed to open a floodgate of memories for Lan Wangji.

The archery competition at Qishan was in progress. Both he and Wei Wuxian were clad in archers' robes provided by the Wen clan of Qishan, robes that were vibrant red. It was amidst the hordes of cultivators trying to slaughter the beasts released by the Wens that Wei Wuxian had teased him, and in course of his playful nudgings, he had accidentally clasped an end of Lan Wangji's forehead ribbon, and pulled it loose.

No matter how hard Lan Wangji had tried to wipe out the memory of Wei Wuxian, standing in vibrant red, clutching Wangji's sacred forehead ribbon in his fist, it had stayed imprinted in his head.

He remembered the cave of the Xuanwu, the snake-headed turtle monster in whose residence the Wens of Qishan had left the disciples of all the other clans to die alone. He and Wei Wuxian had not only managed to get all the others to safety, but also had been forced to stay back to slaughter the beast. Wei Wuxian had been concerned about Lan Wangji's broken leg that had been bitten by the Xuanwu, and in an attempt to bandage the leg, he had unceremoniously tugged off Lan Wangji's forehead ribbon to secure the bandage on Lan Wangji's injured leg.

And he remembered the night at Yiling when it rained. His senses were clouded and he had been terrified of losing his grip on Wei Wuxian, who had already become the much feared Yiling Laozu. He had reached out with his entire self, and Wei Wuxian had accepted him, all of him that night. The forehead ribbon had been discarded on the ground with the rest of the clothes.

Wei Wuxian had pulled off his forehead ribbon several times. And the only one who had the right to unfasten the forehead ribbon of a Lan was their significant other.

Lan Wangji closed his eyes and heaved a sigh. Finally, he managed to say, "I don't know. Maybe."

Little Yuan frowned.

 "How can someone not know if they had a wedding?"

Lan Wangji stopped amidst the field of gentians and cast his gaze around, remembering the fleeting memories of his mother being confined in a chamber surrounded by the same blue and purple blossoms lazed past him.

"The luckiest and the extremely unlucky ones know," he said, "but the unluckiest ones don't."

After Lan Wangji had dropped little Yuan at the disciples' residence, he walked back to the Jingshi. He took off his pristine white boots as well as the outermost robe and sprawled on his bed.

The circular casement by the door was slightly ajar,   just enough to offer Lan  Wangji a glimpse of the magnolia tree in full bloom. The skies were clouded, even though it wasn't monsoon yet. Lan Wangji cast his gaze towards the overcast sky, and heaved a silent sigh.

Summer rains never last for long. By afternoon, the wind started blowing with a startling fierceness, and the skies rumbled as streaks of whitish blue light crisscrossed the darkness into a million fragments. Then came the rain. 

At first, it dripped in the form of a few drops pitter pattering on the leaves of the tall trees. Then it poured forth with such force that all the Lans who had gathered in the Orchid pavilion for the imminent wedding were forced to take temporary shelter in the Orchid Room right next to it, putting the wedding preparations of their sect leader in a state of temporary hiatus.