Taking roots after the misty rain

Ch-27

"Lan Xiansheng, Sect Leader and Lady of the Jiang Sect seek an audience." A servant announced. 

"Jiang Sect? Quick, bring them to the Main Hall." Lan Qiren instructed. 

"Shi." The servant bowed and left the room.

Lan Qiren walked to Main Hall as rapidly as the rules permit him to. 

"Jiang Zongzhu, may I know the reason for your visit today?" He asked. 

"Lan Xiansheng, we have found a cure for the victims of the Biling Lake." Jiang Fengmian presented a pair of yellow talismans. Lan Qiren took them, hesitant to use them upon his precious nephews. 

"Lan Xiansheng, they work. Jiang Shushu has used them to cure my siblings and I." Wei Wuxian stepped forward to dispel his doubts. 

"I see. Jiang Zongzhu, I shall trust you in this matter." Lan Qiren then handed the talismans back to Jiang Fengmian who held onto them firmly as he was led to the chamber where the Twin Jades of the Lan Sect lay insensate. He swiftly activated the talismans and a glow shrouded the two teens briefly. 

"Now, we wait for them to wake up." He announced. 

Back in the Main Hall, Yu Ziyuan explained the situation to Lan Qiren. The latter was shaken by how deep Jin Guangshan's schemes went. What he had first thought to be just a spiteful action done by a petty man, was actually part of a sinister plan that had been designed to torture the children of the very man who had saved his son's life. And what was his reason? Rejection by a married woman. To take such a trivial and shameful matter to such levels, just what else was this Jin Guangshan capable of?

When Jiang Fengmian arrived, Lan Qiren immediately offered him a seat near him and began to deliberate upon the urgent matter of getting back his niece-in-law. 

"These talismans won't be enough to make Jin Guangshan give up Wei Chi." Jiang Fengmian stated. 

Lan Qiren despised scheming, but as a de-facto sect leader for nearly two decades, he had seen his fair share of schemes to know why, no matter how much he disliked them, the world would be a worse place without some of them. 

"His sole legitimate son's life is tied to her. Of course he won't make it easy for us to get her back." Yu Ziyuan agreed. 

"We have but a month until Jin Zixuan comes of age. After that, Zixian will inevitably be in mortal peril if she remained in the Jin Sect for even a minute. Lan Xiansheng, if we reveal the engagement contract, then there is nothing that can compel the Jin Sect to return her. The betrothal must remain a secret at all costs." 

"May I know," An unfamiliar voice rang out from the entrance, "Whose betrothal are we exactly speaking of?" 

Everyone turned to look at the speaker's face. The three teens did not recognize this man, but their elders knew him all too well. 

"Qing Heng Jun." "Xiong Zhang." 

The trio looked at each other and then at that man with shock evident in their eyes. Qing Heng Jun hadn't broken his seclusion for twenty years. And now, he was standing right in front of them. 

"Xiong Zhang, how come you are here?" Lan Qiren asked. 

"The time felt right for me to break my seclusion." He answered calmly, "And thank goodness I did so, else I might have never known what was happening to my family until it would have been too late. Qiren, who is getting married?" 

Qing Heng Jun was nothing more than a figurehead and it was no secret. He never stepped out of his room for any reason. Now, his sudden appearance here was unexpected, to say the least.