The Child of Demonic Cultivation

Spring

WC: 987

Jin Ling searched for two days. He was the only one to look for Lan Tian as if none of the others ever cared at all. No one said a word to him when he asked if they knew something. They all either looked at him with pity or disgust but he still refused to believe it. He could save them. He was wrong before and he knew it. Jin Ling understood now, Lan Tian was sick and they didn't want to hurt him anymore. Both of them were wrong but Lan Tian just realized it sooner. He felt so many things, but most of all, he hated himself. How could he turn Lan Tian, leave them and yell at them in what could be their...final moments. He was so stupid, dumb, angry, petty and so much more but that didn't help the regret he felt growing in his stomach.

"Jin Ling, it's time to go back." Jiang Cheng ran up behind him, he too had been searching but for Jin Ling instead of Lan Tian. He too knew something he wasn't telling him and Jin Ling was painfully aware of it.

"I will not leave till I find them and tell them I'm sorry." Jin Ling was far past reason, his mind a jumbled mess or emotions gnawing at him from the inside out. "They have to be out there, whether they're alive or... I will find them. I have to."

Jiang Cheng pulled Jin Ling into his embrace. "Lan Sizhui found them. He has something to tell you, something for you."

Jin Ling felt his body give up on him. They were gone. Lan Tian was dead and probably died alone and hating him. It was all his fault. He hurt the one person who cared about him the most, or who used to care about him the most.

The trip back was long and mundane. Nothing stood out, nothing really existed anymore for all Jin Ling cared. He didn't deserve to enjoy or notice the green hue of the leaves, or the warm spring breeze, or was it fall? Jin Ling didn't know. It felt like fall, as if the Earth was dying with the person he loved. Nature was taunting him, threatening and foreshadowing the eternity of winter that he deserved to be trapped in. He would never experience summer again, because he refused to go through spring, not without Lan Tian.

As Jin Ling walked through the large grey doors and was met with the pitiful looks of the whole of Lotus Pier and its visitors, he felt nothing. He watched as Lan Sizhui, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian parted to reveal Lan Tian's limp figure lying on a stark white bed. Their eyes were closed and their body resting as if in an eternal slumber. Jin Ling began walking towards them, he vaguely noticed his black, grey and white surrounds. He originally imagined the room would be filled with Lan Tian's colors or the blue and white of their Sect. Regardless it made their red and black hair, and outfit standout more, complimenting their lightly tanned, grey skin.

"I'm sorry." He choked out dropping to his knees before their body. "I should have believed you, but you also shouldn't have left in the first place. We both made mistakes, so just please come back to me. We can be screw ups together, I promise."

Lan Sizhui put his hand on Jin Ling's shoulder glancing down his nose at him. "They never hated you or anything if that's what you're thinking."

"Where were they? I looked everywhere for Lan Tian." He glanced back up at Lan Sizhui.

The young man reached into his grey and white robe and pulled out a white envelope. "You were never going to find them. They planned everything. Don't worry, they weren't alone either." Lan Sizhui's voice broke for a moment before he regained his composure. "They passed in my arms. We planned it that way specifically for this reason. Lan Tian couldn't bare if you were the one that found them. It's why I told you not to go looking in the first place."

"Another stupid letter," Jin Ling smiled bitterly laughing to himself, "what's with you and letters? Why couldn't you just talk to me?"

"They passed last night. We must say goodbye to their body soon to make sure they can move on quickly. Hopefully," Lan Sizhui couldn't continue as his emotions began to mark his face.

"Hopefully," Wei Wuxian continued, "they will make someone else happy and bring light to the world in their next life."

"And we will all meet again in some other life time, there we will be happy and free." Lan Wangji also began to loose his composure as tears marked his face, "In that life, I will bring all the lessons I learned from this one and be a...better father. I will make sure all my children are loved and cared for equally. I will tell you all that you're enough and make sure to protect you from the mean world so you can live your best lives. And I will never burry my child again."

"Lan Zhan, it's not you're fault. We will all meet again someday I'm sure of it. Then you can show them how much they taught you. You are a wonderful father." Wei Wuxian was struggling to keep his face dry as the whole of Lotus Pier was crying with them.

That day was known by those who cared for Lan Tian as the day of unrelenting rain. It was on that warm, dry spring day that the strong felt weak and the emotionless felt broken. But the star that joined the sky that night shined brightly smiling to those below, telling them that they were okay. The star wasn't in pain anymore and it could watch over everyone properly now. It couldn't wait but also dreaded the day when it would be joined by dozens more.