Fated (Wangxian)

#17#

“Is this- Are we in the era of the Xiang Kingdom’s downfall?!

Are we in the past? A time about three centuries ago?!” Lan Xichen gasped in shock and disbelief while examining the famous fine engravings on various stone sculptures, royal city gates, gold coins, carriages, even simple potteries and small wooden toys which he tried but failed to pick up or touch with his hands.

"Wangji, something isn't right. We are definitely in the past but somehow, it looks like we don't exist here...See, my hands, they aren't able to hold or even touch anything.

They are passing through the walls as if it's not even here. We are in the past merely as soul energies but why are- "

“Ying’er!” Lan Zhan cried out, at once running towards his one year old tiny Yingying who didn’t have bunny ears or tail in this world, and was giggling brightly and blissfully, playing with a few wooden toys and tiny rattle drum while sitting inside the royal carriage, in the warm lap of a royal luxuriously dressed beautiful, soft smiling woman and a royal, proud, and strict looking man with gentle yet determined eyes carrying an unquestionable aura of a King.

“Wangji, wait!” Lan Xichen called but even before he could actually stop his baby brother from chasing after the royal carriage and reunite with his Wei Ying, their surroundings changed and soon, Lan Zhan and Xichen found themselves standing inside the royal palace, overhearing a serious, heated argument between the King and his ministers.

The ministers who were trying to put the blame for unpredictable drought, death of farmers because of unknown illnesses and poor health and rapidly declining royal treasury on the birth stars of the Royal Prince Ying. Not just blamed but even demanded him to be sent to exile in an isolated temple, far away from the Xiang Kingdom, for an indefinite period of time to please the gods and save the kingdom from this calamity.

“Royal Prince Ying?! Is it... could this be the past life of- of Wei gongzi? Does it mean he's the brave lone prince of the fallen kingdom of Xiang who had to sacrifice his life to restore the peace and save the world from ire of gods?!” Lan Xichen whispered to himself as he focused on the scene unfolding in front of his eyes while recalling the history of the Royal Prince Ying, when suddenly he heard his enraged baby brother exclaim, “No! It’s not his fault! How can they blame an innocent one year old child for something that isn’t even his fault much less in his control and are even sending him to exile!”

While the King tried his best to dodge the obvious attempts of his corrupted ministers’ manipulations and save his sweet and precious son’s life from his enemies and ministers’ colluded traps and schemes, Lan Xichen was having a hard time trying to comfort his baby brother, making him understand that it's all in the past and no matter what he says or do in this time, nothing can be changed, when their surroundings changed again...

Standing in the middle of a gloomy dark, closed room reeking with the smell of stale blood, dirt and faeces, echoing with suppressed cries and sniffles of a barely covered, weak, and starving three-year-old child who was unable to protect himself from the rodents biting his soft skin, Lan Zhan and Xichen’s eyes widened in horror and disbelief, their erratically beating hearts burned with an uncontrollable fury at the ministers who trapped the Royal Prince Ying in such- inhumane condition, and probably for over two years now in the name of being exiled in a far off temple, to please the gods!

Their surroundings kept on changing as they watched how the Royal Prince Ying was able to escape from the dark prison like temple, how he'd made his way back to his Royal Palace, only to witness his whole world falling apart when his baba and mama were killed right in front of his eyes by the proud King of a neighbouring kingdom.

They saw him getting captured again, getting blamed for his parents’ death, the downfall of the Xiang Kingdom all because he escaped from the temple where he was supposed to be in exile and saw him getting thrown down the high cliff, in hopes of getting rid of the curse that Royal Prince Ying brought upon the world... because of his birth.

Prince Ying didn’t die. As a child who has lost his parents, lost his home and everything he ever loved and cared for, Royal Prince Ying lost his smile as well along with the shine of his silver eyes and started to live on the streets that once belonged to his own Xiang kingdom.

Even at the tender age of six years, he was well aware of his earlier life, his new identity and the people.. who still saw him as a bane, a walking menace and treated him like dirt.

Cursing him, his pathetic life at every opportunity they got, beating him and throwing him far away harshly... even when Prince Ying accidentally went a little closer to them.

And finally, Lan Zhan and Lan Xichen saw the reason why they were pulled into this time to watch the unbearable and heartbreaking life of Wei Wuxian

Inside the Royal Carriage of the new King, they saw themselves, their own younger selves sitting quietly with an aura of the unmistakable royalty!

Carrying a soft, polite but fake smile on their faces that dropped, watching a rich merchant blaming and beating a six-year-old fragile boy for coming in front of him and jinxing his entire day, they watched an eleven-year-old Xichen and a stoic nine-year-old little Wangji stepping out of their carriage, punishing the merchant with the true authority, dismissing the crowd with their threatening cold glares and then doing something beyond everyone’s imagination...

They saw little Wangji going down on his knees, looking at his elder brother defiantly, grumbling and acting like a spoilt child, asking his permission to bring the injured fallen prince back to the same royal palace that was once his home.

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