Come Back to Gusu

21. You can't give up now.

The fourth month's dual cultivation was as useless as the first three.

Wei WuXian packed up his belongings and returned to Yunmeng.

Lan WangJi was forbidden to follow.

"You are needed here, Didi," Lan XiChen pleaded. "Your duties are to this Sect. You can continue to assist in his healing with Wen Daifu, but...."

"I understand," Lan WangJi acknowledged.

~*~

Six more months passed before something changed: Lan WangJi yelped when Wei WuXian shoved what little qi he possessed into his friend's body. It stung, much like a branch whipping into one's chest.

Wei Qing nodded happily until she took Wei WuXian's wrist to see his progress.

They had failed again.

~*~

Wei WuXian sent letters the following month declining any more sessions. Lan WangJi read his letter a dozen times, not comprehending any of the words. Or, rather, not wanting to comprehend any of the words.

You can't give up now. I've been hurting you month after month, making you hide away in your head for days on end. And you give up the first time you cause me a small sting? It means what we've been doing is working! I accepted that dual cultivating would hurt me, too. I will not allow you to decide my pain is not worth you gaining a Core.

~*~

The Phoenix Hunt was to be an annual event. Lan WangJi reluctantly accepted the invitation. Wei WuXian would be there; he apparently spent all of his free time in Koi Tower with Jin Xiao Furen and the baby.

Lan WangJi hated Koi Tower. Between the drunken buffoons posturing and strutting and the ever present gold glittering, he was developing a massive headache. "I don't drink," he reminded the idiot currently shoving a wine cup in his face at the evening banquet. He had spent most of the Hunt searching for Wei Ying only to find out the other man had spent the entire Hunt in the observation towers with Jin Xiao Furen.

"You're being rude!" yelled the idiot. "I offered you a toast, hiccup! You must drink. Polite. You Lan are supposed to be polite!"

At least that's what Lan WangJi thought the idiot was saying. He was slurring his words pretty heavily, so maybe....

Then a man in dingy white stood on the dais before Jin GuangShan and held up a small silver box with both hands. "I have the Yin Tiger Seal!"

Lan WangJi's eyes riveted on the item. Wei Ying's box that he put his Seal in last year. How did this person get it? He recognized the cultivator: Su She. We deactivated his token when he betrayed the Sect. We banned him from the grounds even before he started his own clan. So how did he get it? He wanted to ask his brother, but didn't want to call too much attention to their Sect.

"You found my Yin Tiger Seal?" Wei WuXian pushed his way up to the dais. "Excellent! I'll take it, then."

"Not so fast," Jin GuangShan snatched the box from Su MinShan. "We should see if the Seal is in the box first, right?"

"Sure." Wei WuXian grinned. But even from where Lan WangJi was sitting, it wasn't a 'pleased' grin. It was a 'you're not getting away with this' grin. "Where did you find it?" he asked Su MinShan politely. Wei Ying has truly grown up. He's learned patience when faced with an obvious theft?

"A friend of mine found it and gave it to me," the clan leader hedged. The man was a traitor to the GusuLan, but not a complete idiot. He wouldn't easily admit to stealing anything from Lan XiChen's rooms.