Hanguangjun- The Waiting

Old Flame

Chenqing or Old Flame, as Ian had always referred to, had a soul of its own. It had called out to the three-year-old in him when he didn't know music. He was drawn to music from that moment onwards. Even as he lay banged up on a hospital bed in a strange country among stranger people, Ian sought comfort in the music that flowed from the di zi.

As he played the second tune the door to his room opened and a man rushed in followed by his doctor. Ian stopped playing and turned to them realizing the error of his ways. His heart thumped in his chest and sweat covered his forehead despite the blasting air conditioning.

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize that I was disturbing others. " He said, putting Chenqing down beside him, looking from one face to the other for any sign of aggression.

The man Stopped in his step and looked towards Yangyang. Before him sat Ian with his tousled black hair, chiseled jawline, frowning forehead and chaotic grey eyes. The man smiled and shook his head! "Please continue. Your music is having a great healing effect on the patients here. This is the Lan Institute after all. We practice music therapy all the time but your playing is a thing apart!" The man said.

Ian smiled, wiping his sweat. "Honestly you're not the first to say it but I don't understand. I am not a therapist. I play what I like. " He said humbly as his heart calmed down.

The man nodded and took a few steps towards Ian and asked in a hushed tone, "Are you a cultivator too? "

"Father, wait, what are you doing" Lan Yangyang suddenly objected.

"You said that he is Hanguangjun's acquaintance, " The man reminded his daughter.

"Cultivation, are you referring to spiritual cultivation? I am no monk, if that's what you are asking, " Ian replied. "By the way, who is Han Guang Jun? " He asked.

Lan Zouchen turned to his daughter for help. "That's how I call... Lan Zhan, " She hesitated. "It's a childhood name. I pretended that I was Wonder Woman, a great Amazonion warrior, and he was always the Light Bearing Lord, an immortal cultivator. It was our thing. " Yangyang fibbed.

"Oh. I'm Rorschach. You know from Watchmen. I don't know if you ever had Watchmen in Suzhou" Ian mentioned.

"No, no, I saw the movie. But wasn't Rorschach kind of like a gray character? " Yangyang commented.

"I was eleven at the time the movie released. I had just started making sense of the world and that movie made a tonne of sense to me. It's better than an imaginary world where the grass never dies and leaves never fall, " Ian explained.

Yanyang nodded. "Oh 对了, This is my father Lan Zouchen. He is the resident cardiologist and Chairman of this hospital, " She replied.

"The Lan Institute actually has a rule. Patients are required to sleep by nine pm. But today no one was able to sleep for some reason. Your music put them to sleep though. So I will make an exception for you. If you want you can play your di zi a bit more. But you body needs rest to heal. Xiao Zhan won't be happy with us if his guest overexerts himself, " Zouchen explained.

Ian smiled widely. "I am not a guest. I am just a random injured man that your Hanguangjun picked up and is playing good Samaritan to, " Ian explained.

Yangyang and Zouchen looked at each other. Then as suddenly as they arrived they left. Ian was left confused. He turned to his old flame and picked up another tune.

"If it's not the playing could it be the instrument" Yangyang asked her father.

"It's definitely the playing. I don't care how much this man denies, he has powers. He may not have Zhan Shushu's capabilities but he is no ordinary person" Zhouchen told his daughter.

In the confines of his room Ian looked at his Old Flame. As long as it remained in his hands he felt at peace. When he was diagnosed with anxiety and depression in school, his parents had been vehemently against him getting any counseling. That's when Ian had turned to Chenqing.

All the while Hanguangjun battled the Yin energy emanating from the Stygian Yin Seal. The Yin seal absorbed energy from the world and emanated it as a  blue black plasma around itself. The orb grew larger by the day. Tentacles of Yin energy whipped out of it at random like solar flares bursting out of the sun during a cosmic storm.

Hanguangjun stood with Bichen in hand, deflecting the tentacles that threatened to spread out. He had been doing it for years and yet the Orb grew larger, the core grew more deadly.

The basement to the Lan Institute had been lined with lead, the temperature inside regulated to sub zero. Frost lined his forehead where sweat had frozen. Ice crystals dotted his lashes blurring his vision. The cold cave under the Lan mountains were warmer but more effective in curbing the yin energy.

A blast of Yin energy assaulted Lan Zhan. His Bichen flew to a corner of the room opposite him. As Lan Zhan tried to crawl to his tried and tested sword his phone rang. It was Yang yang.

Before Lan Zhan had an opportunity to speak anything she spoke up. "Put the phone on speaker mode, " She instructed.

Lan Zhan was taken aback and dis as per the instruction when flute music flowed in. As soon as the music started the orb of energy quietened down. The storm ceased and the Yin seal pulsed intermittently like the purring kitten.

Lan Zhan recorded the call and put it on loop. He then picked up Bichen and sheathed it. As the music continued to play the Yin energy emulated the tone, pulsating in a steady beat. Lan Zhan bowed down and took a deep breath. Then opened the door and left. He was going to get some sleep in a long time, he reckoned. But before hitting bed he wanted to check up on someone.

Ian Wei lay in his bed, eyes closed, breathing irregularly. "Can't sleep? " Lan Zhan asked, peeking in.

Ian opened his eyes suddenly, startled from his thoughts! "Lan Zhan", he called out.

Lan Zhan stepped inside. " Do you need anything? " He asked.

"I could do with some company. " Ian said.

"You should sleep, " Lan Zhan urged.

"Then sleep with me. I get anxious when alone in new places, " Ian explained.

Lan Zhan nodded. He went to the corner where a couch lay and plopped on it closing his eyes. His legs hung off the edge and his head rested at an awkward angle. "I'll stay with you, "he promised.

" Won't do. You'll get a back pain if you stay like that. Hop over. We can share the bed. We're both lean . It shouldn't be a problem, " Ian suggested.

Lan Zhan bent his head and stared at Ian for a while, waiting for the punchline but the joke never came. Lan Zhan suddenly realized that the Wei Ying he knew and the Ian Wei of today might have the same soul but they are different people.

Ian scuttled to a side, wincing as his leg rubbed against the sheet. Lan Zhan carefully lay beside him, turning to face Ian. Then he closed his eyes and was immediately asleep.

Ian looked and Lan Zhan and smiled. He was a kind and beautiful man. His calmness soothed Ian's nerves. If Lan Zhan were a few years older perhaps they could be great friends, perhaps more than friends. With that thought Ian closed his eyes and slept peacefully, dreaming of light eyes and pale clouds and happiness.