Chapter 6

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Part of being a Sect Leader, albeit an acting Sect leader, is watching out for signs that are going to help you somehow.

Lan Qiren has had to learn this the hardest way, because Fate had a lot of things in store for him, and he wasn't in on the secret. People have come and gone from his life like petals on the wind, here today and gone tomorrow, and he has had to accept it without agreeing to any of it.

First, his parents passed away, suddenly and in their sleep, and it was a little anticlimactic then, because the glory and honour that Lan Qiren had grown up listening to stories about, was nowhere to be seen. One day, his parents were there, and then the next day, they weren't. It was jarring not to see them, the way they fit around each other like puzzle pieces, fitting so perfectly together that he hadn't been able to see the joins.

And yet life had continued much the same, in spite of the huge cavity in his world.

But it would be okay, right?

He had his older brother, and everything was going to be fine. They had each other, and that's all they needed.

But one night, one awful night that changed the lives of four people forever, things happened that would have the impact of a star colliding with the earth, in his world. A seemingly normal night hunt that ended tragically with the death of his teacher, and a culprit that was judged and sentenced and married, all within a few hours, and then his beloved Xiongzhang went into permanent seclusion.

Now, Lan Qiren had a new sister-in-bond and his brother, who had such a shining, glory-filled future ahead of him, vanished from the Sect, leaving him in charge.

Overnight, Lan Qiren had to abandon his own hopes and dreams for the good of the Sect. They had grown up learning that the Sect was their responsibility, and that all would look towards them as shining beacons of Truth and Justice and the Way of the Righteous Sword. Those lessons, he had assumed then, were more for his brother than for himself, so Lan Qiren had paid the least amount of attention to the teachings. His teacher, ironically the one who ended up dying by the hand of his brand-new sister-in-bond, had called him out for his distraction and explained that even if he thought nobody would pay attention to him or his deeds, told him in no uncertain terms that people would never, ever stop comparing him to his brother because it was human nature to do so.

Lan Qiren hadn't ever thought about it like that.

His brother was his brother, and that was that. Achieving excellence was an ingrained habit, not a competition to him, and therefore he could support his brother by standing behind him. Being in the shadows of the person he loved the most in the world was easy. But stepping out from the darkness into the light was a significant difference and he hated it with a passion.

Sect duties were appallingly boring and mundane, leaving him exhausted as he was tossed out to sea without a harbour in sight. He had to learn how to talk to his elders and have diplomacy in his veins instead of the love he had nurtured for musical Cultivation. He had to waste time meeting with idiots who used the wrong hole for talking, and instead of improving his Golden core, he had to work on his patience instead.

Gone was the peaceful drinking of tea, a routine he loved since he started doing it by imbibing meditation towards each part of the ceremony, a worship of the soul that was embodied by the Universe - instead of waiting for it to steep, he was chugging it down like an afterthought, his hand cramping at the hundreds of letters that needed to be sent to all and sundry, while his mind completed the puzzles of seating arrangements so that warring factions were placed as far as possible away from each other, while his supporters remained the closest.

He had to endure the underlying view that every single senior to himself, and even some of those that were younger in age to him but had met his brother, thought Lan Qiren was doomed to failure, having no experience or prior knowledge of how to be a Sect leader. "He's only the second son," Lan Qiren heard, a whispering canvas to the words they painted out loud, a criticism that they had already applied without giving him a chance to rectify it at all. Despite the rules that clearly stated gossiping was forbidden, that assumptions were negative, didn't stop anyone from doing it.

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