Growing Pains from Growing Family (Xicheng)

Chapter 60: Lan Ru

A/N: Happy Birthday Jiang Cheng! Here's an extra chapter for you all to celebrate.

Once Lan Xichen had made it down to the holding cell it was unsurprisingly empty. The lock, which had been picked, laid on the floor in front of an open cell door. Inside the cell, written in the dirt floor was the name Ru. So he still wasn't talking, huh?

With the guard outside the small basement it wasn't like the escapee could have made it far. Perhaps hoping that the guard would take part in a frantic search he had hidden to later sneak away when the coast was clear. Only there weren't a lot of places to hide in such a cramped space.

In the corner was a small cupboard made for cleaning supplies, it was small but not so small that you couldn't fit a man inside. And with the broom placed outside of its designated spot to make extra room inside it wasn't hard to imagine that a person could fit inside the cupboard.

But after that day's events Lan Xichen was taking no risks assuming who was inside, keeping his hand firmly on Shuoyue's hilt he opened the door and to his surprise he found not only one white-clad man, but two. With their arms and legs all jumbled together to fit inside the tiny space was his nephew, and in his arms with his back facing sect leader Lan was a man dressed up in the Lan sect's robes. He even had his own headband wrapped around his forehead.

"Lan Sizhui... is this who I think it is?" Lan Xichen interrogated his nephew.

"Yeah..." the Lan reluctantly answered, he knew he was in trouble. But that didn't make him lighten the grip he had around the second white-clad man's back. He held onto him just as tightly as before.

"Is he your friend? I haven't heard of a 'Lan Ru' before. He got bored and ran off during the ceremony and wandered off didn't he?" Lan Xichen tsked with feigned disapproval. "Irresponsible. Lan Sizhui, you know better than to try and avoid proper punishment like this. Shame on you." The Lan lowered his head in shame, which only meant that he had his head burrowed into his companion's shoulder.

"I'm sorry uncle. I-I..." Lan Sizhui started, but it wasn't like Lan Xichen was actually mad. There was no need for these apologies. Neither of them had done anything they hadn't been allowed to do, though trying to sneak his companion out of the holding cell instead of going to talk to his uncle about it was a rather foolish choice.

"No speaking back to me. We will have a proper talk tomorrow and we'll discuss your punishment then, I just can't deal with this tonight. You two both live outside of Lotus Pier don't you?" Lan Xichen asked, fully knowing the answer.

"Yes, we'll be heading out soon. We won't cause any more trouble. Promise." Lan Sizhui said, hoping that would be it. Him and his friend could head home and that would be the end of it all.

"I don't think so. We still can't be sure on who's out there, lurking. You two are staying in Lotus Pier tonight. Here's the key to my room, it's the one next to sect leader Jiang's. I'm sure you'll be able to find it on your own." Though Lan Xichen hadn't even stepped foot inside the room. He'd really only been provided his own room so that Jiang Cheng would be able to claim that they lived in separate rooms in case he got too embarrassed about the fact that they didn't. "It's not like I'm going to need it since I'll be spending the night in the infirmary looking after my husband. If I am being honest, I'm not very happy about needing to leave him to go check up on one of my disciples for misbehaving. But you're a lucky man Lan Ru, if it wasn't for the doctor telling me that Jiang Cheng is doing fine, and will recover within a day or two, your punishment for separating me from my husband at a time like this would be much harsher."

Lan Ru's shoulders dropped in relief at the word of sect leader Jiang being safe. He wasn't being very stealthy, but then again neither was Lan Xichen. He'd never be this lax with the regulations if it wasn't for trusting both of the two men.

"I'll let the guards know that you are free to go. Stay out of trouble you two." Lan Xichen spoke before making his way back to his husband's side. Those two could handle themselves on their own. If Lan Yuan was willing to go as far as to share his spare headband, he would surely be capable of sharing a room.

Returning to the infirmary he heard Jiang Cheng hysterically cry out his nephew's name over and over again. "Jin Ling! Jin Ling! Jin Ling!". Running as fast as he could Lan Xichen made it right in time to find Zidian break down the infirmary door with a loud bang. Several of the infirmary staff were attempting to keep him back. He, as a patient, should stay put and rest. But the sect leader had no intentions of doing so. He happily clawed, kicked, and screamed to regain his freedom.

"Wanyin!?" Lan Xichen exclaimed.

"Lan Huan! Have they found him? My boy!?" Jiang Cheng frantically shouted back at him. For all he knew Jin Ling could be laying injured in the woods, bleeding out after having been attacked by that maniac.

"Yes, don't worry. Jin Rulan is fine. He is safe." Lan Xichen cooed at him as he approached. Sensing that sect leader Lan would be far more likely to convince their sect leader to return to his bed than their efforts of dragging him back were, the Jiangs stopped their fighting and took a step back to let the two husbands solve things on their own.

"Yeah? Are you sure? He's safe?" Jiang Cheng asked, wanting to hear it yet again. But his body had already slumped together from exhaustion. It was already a struggle to fight against the serum his doctor had injecting him with and the adrenaline coursing through his veins could only last him so long.

"Yes I'm absolutely positive, there's nothing for you to worry about. He is alright. Everyone is alright. There's nothing more for you to do, your brother Yao is taking care of everything, all you have to do is get back to bed and rest up, okay?" Jiang Cheng tiredly nodded his head with the last amount of energy he had. He might have been able to make it out of bed, but he had no way of making it back. And so Lan Huan bent down to carefully pick up his exhausted husband in order to put him to bed, something he'd gotten quite used to doing at this point.