Wei Ying pales, gulping loudly.
"Let me handle this," Lan Zhan whispers so that only Wei Ying can hear him.
He puts Wei Ying down gently and then bows to Cangse Sanren. Wei Ying copies him, and that has his mother narrowing her eyes at them both.
"Do you know that your uncle has Cloud Recesses turned upside down, looking for you two?" She motions them towards her, looking around furtively. "Where have you been? And what will I know?"
"We went to look for bunnies," Lan Zhan answers truthfully, because while they made zero effort to do that, he had been hoping to see some wild ones, "And A-Yi, Wei Ying thinks you will know that we bunked off classes."
"Hmm, he's right," she waggles a finger at them in mock sternness. "A child can never hide anything from his parents, mark my words. But, while I'm all for taking a day off now and then, the truth is, you both worried a lot of people. Why do you think I'm here? I'm not even allowed to get out of bed these days, and to be honest, I don't like doing it," she chuckles, drawing a talisman in the air.
They watch as the paper turns into a butterfly and flies out of the open window.
"Now, quickly take off your boots and your outer robes, and get into bed. I'm going to help you avoid punishment. Hurry, because my guess is you have two minutes tops before the rescue squad gets here." Cangse Sanren waits until they get into bed and then she musses up their hair and sits down next to them. She arranges the blankets to look as if the boys have been sleeping here since the morning.
She even starts a countdown out loud, and it makes Wei Ying giggle because he knows how naughty she's being. She smiles down at both of them.
"Three, two, one!" Her relaxed expression vanishes as the doors of the Hanshi are thrown wide open, and both Wei Changze and Lan Qiren enter, followed by Lan Huan.
"WangJi!"
"A-Ying!"
The older men cry out, rushing towards the bed, and seeing their worried expressions, Wei Ying feels terrible that they did that. His bottom lip wobbles, and against his will, tears flood his eyes.
"Now, now, calm down, everyone. This has just been a simple misunderstanding," Cangse Sanren says, giving the two youngsters a sly wink.
"WangJi, where were you? Why didn't you attend class today?" Lan Qiren looks down at both of the boys, who are practically babies in his eyes.
It melts his heart that Wei Ying is desperately trying not to cry.
"Just tell us the truth and you won't get into any trouble," Wei Changze encourages them, and Lan Qiren shoots him a disbelieving look.
"I can't believe you didn't see them in the bed, Qiren!" Cangse Sanren speaks up. "They're right there. Did you look at the bed, even?"
"No..."
The tables have turned, and Lan Qiren is frowning, thinking back to that morning. Had he checked the bed? He'd seen the neatly stacked dishes on the tray and assumed the children had left.
"They look like they just woke up," Cangse Sanren coos at them and Wei Ying crawls over to her, wanting to be cuddled. She's a strong woman because she grabs both boys and hugs them, unable to fit both in her lap.
"Well, then, that's quite funny, Qiren," Wei Changze snickers. "No wonder we couldn't find them anywhere. To think all of that could have been avoided if one had just...I don't know...looked around?"
Cangse Sanren chokes back a laugh and winks at him.
"I bet they're ready for dinner, huh? I sure am. Boys, do you wanna have dinner with me?"
