The Troublemaker Trio (Xicheng)

Chapter 20: Trouble in Caiyi Town

Days passed. It wasn't all that hard to avoid Jiang Wanyin. In practice at least. The threat of being sent to Qinghe was enough to quelch the need to go see him or to go outside at all. He couldn't risk being forced to travel to Qinghe, didn't want to be further away from the Jiang.

It had become part of the Lan's daily routine to look out his window whenever the trio walked to and from class. Jiang Wanyin's brother and Huaisang had been taking great care to ensure he hadn't overheard any of the rumors. It was impressive how long they had managed considering how widespread it had gotten. Though at this point he had found out. They couldn't keep it a secret from him forever.

Since he wasn't able to meet the man himself he had talked to Huaisang a couple of times, pretending to be checking in on him when the person he was actually curious about was the Jiang. Young master Jiang hadn't taken the news about the rumors well, though he was putting on a brave face in public.

Looking at him now his head was held high but his eyes weren't as bright as before. Lan Xichen would give anything to see him smiling again. But there wasn't much he could do, being locked up and unable to meet with him. He couldn't even help him indirectly as it could lead to the rumors getting worse.

As they walked out of view another man dressed in white came walking towards Lan Xichen's door, in his arms was a massive stack of paper, so large Lan Xichen couldn't even see his face. But he knew who it was, even despite the fact that it wasn't time for them to meet yet, they usually met after class ended for the day.

knock knock.

"Come in uncle"

"You were looking out the window?" he asked accusatively. Spotting Jiang Wanyin on his way here had set him off. What if the Jiang had spotted his nephew? Or even worse, what if someone else had seen Jiang Wanyin spotting this nephew? Lan Qiren was overreacting.

"Who else but you would come here to visit me?" He looked over at the stack of papers that his uncle had offloaded on a nearby table. "What is all that for?" His uncle did usually bring work for him to do, but this looked like almost a week's worth, something must've happened.

"There is an emergency happening in Caiyi Town and I will need to travel there immediately. You're temporarily allowed to leave to find Lan Wangji" Lan Qiren mumbled something about not being able to find him and being stressed out about needing to depart as soon as possible.

"Don't worry uncle, we will sort it out" he gave him what was meant to be a comforting smile, but his uncle was not in a state to be calmed down. He also didn't have time to stay and so the still upset Lan Qiren rushed back out the door, heading off towards the entrance of the cloud recesses.

Skimming through the papers Lan Xichen determined that he indeed would need Lan Wangji's assistance considering the large amount of work which needed to be done before their uncle's return. Most of the documents had to do with Caiyi Town and was probably a result of whatever emergency was going on there.

Going outside for the first time in almost a week Lan Xichen took a deep breath of fresh air before going to look for his brother. There was a good reason for his uncle not finding Lan Wangji. He wasn't at home or the library pavilion. Going to the classroom Lan Qiren normally lectured in, it was also empty. Which wasn't all that surprising since he wasn't holding class today.

But that left Lan Huan with no clue of where his brother might be. There was only one thing left for him to do. To start asking passersby if they had seen him.