Blood River

21. Group Hunt; Part Eight

"Fuqin."

Lan Wangji looked up from his work as his two sons walked into his office. Lan RuXue sat across from him, helping him with marking the students' papers from earlier this week, not paying the newcomers any mind as she kept doing her work, not even looking up or greeting her cousins.

It was already Friday, two days after Lan Wangji had announced they'd be leaving the cloud recesses.

Sizhui and Jingyi, along with all the Lan disciples, had taken to choosing partners as most of them didn't have roomates aside from the younger disciples and some non-clan members.

Sizhui and Jingyi decided to pair as they'd gone on a few nighthunts together before and knew how to back each other up as they had grown together for the most part.

Despite this, it took them two days to come to Wangji because Sizhui had been injured.. he hadn't broken anything, but even the cold pond couldn't ease the grave pain he felt after his fight with the Nie sect hier. Not only that, he still had a couple purple and red marks on his back, as well as an almost perfect imprint of Nie Yuèrú's right foot from where she'd kicked him.

He had skipped class for two days, and many were commenting on it. Despite this, Wangji said nothing, and neither did the culprit at that.

Lan Sizhui felt better now, still sore, but it was okay enough for him to walk without limping or having bad posture in trying to relief his pain.

Lan Jingyi, on the other hand, decided not to come to Wangji alone in the name of solidarity. When in truth, he just couldn't be in the same space as the man on his own, it made him extremely uneasy and he couldn't speak.

The two stood from their bows, both looking down, avoiding eye contact with the man who eyed them impatiently, they could feel his stare yet neither Sizhui or Jingyi said a thing, one too ashamed to speak and one unwilling to.

"I believe they're here to sign in their team?" RuXue spoke after noticing neither of them would. The older girl could feel the uneasiness the pair exuded, and could tell her uncle grew impatient with the passing second, hence why she took the advance. She also felt sympathy for the boys as she was the same when speaking to the sect leader.

Wangji observed the two for a bit more, expecting to hear something from their own mouths. When nothing came, he sighed and handed them a white envelope with the Lan Sect's drifting clouds on it. The man shook his head lightly, one could easily miss it if not paying attention - the boys were paying close attention though.

"Information on your case" Wangji informed dryly as ever, as Sizhui recieved the envelope with both hands, bowing again to the older. Jingyi bowed as well, before the two rushed to leave the office.

After shutting the door behind them the two faced each other, letting go of a breathe they didn't know they had been holding since before their trip, "How can Ruxue-Jie spend so much time with him..?" Jingyi questioned out loud beggining to walk away as he shook his head.

Recieving a light slap on the shoulder from his brother in response, oh yeah, no talking behind others back he reminded himself while rubbing the same shoulder dramatically even though it didn't hurt.

Lan Sizhui’s grip tightened around the envelope as he walked forward, eyes showing clear anoyance. His knuckles turning an eerie white as he and Jingyi made their way out of the libray pavilion, the older not giving the younger's shenanigans any mind as the younger tried to distract him.

The moment they were out of earshot, Sizhui exhaled deeply. “You need to watch your words,” he muttered, his voice thick with a mixture of exhaustion and lingering pain.