ATLAS [MDZS][TGCF] [WANGXIAN] [HUALIAN]

CH1

What Lan XiChen doesn't know is that Lan WangJi's desperation doesn't stop at playing Inquiry every day. As soon as his back is healed enough for him to leave the Cloud Recesses, he packs a bag and leaves. He's always gone where the trouble is; before, it was because he felt it was his duty. Now it's just because trouble means ghosts means maybe someone who'll have news of Wei WuXian. He starts eating downstairs when he stays the night at an inn, alone in a corner where he can hear all the conversations around him. He investigates every haunting he hears about, sits down with WangJi and asks the ghosts questions. Did you know him? Have you heard anything?

no, Wangji sings. no, no, i'm sorry.

Months pass like this. Finally the particularly-corporeal ghost of an archivist whose grave was disturbed looks at him with her chin in her hand and asks, "Why don't you ask the gods about it? One of them might know."

He blinks at her. He hadn't really considered the divine; he's prayed for Wei WuXian, of course he has, but it never occurred to him that perhaps he could ask for help. (It rarely occurs to him to ask for help.) He thanks the ghost for her advice and lays her to rest, and then he heads to the nearest temple. It's some local martial god, no one Lan WangJi's particularly heard of, but he lights incense and kneels before the statue anyway. He offers his respects like normal, and then he pauses. He isn't sure how to phrase what he wants. He realizes abruptly that so much of how he was taught to interact with gods is based in making demands, not asking questions. He settles on, "Please bless my efforts to find my friend," and leaves it at that.

That's the first time. He goes to more temples in the next month than he thinks he's visited in his entire life previously; in the months and years that follow, he realizes that there are literally hundreds of gods he's never, ever heard of, gods for regions he's never visited and activities he's never considered. None of them ever seem to respond to his prayers, but he keeps praying anyway, just in case. It's calming; and anyway it's interesting to see all the different gods and goddesses. He would have liked to have Wei WuXian's take on some of them. He loved — loves — everything about Wei WuXian, but visiting the temples makes him miss his friend's irreverent curiosity with a ferocity that makes his chest feel like it's caving in.

Four years after the siege at the Burial Mounds, Lan WangJi comes across a temple that he thinks would really have interested Wei WuXian. It's relatively small, all red imitation lacquer with black and silver detailing, and the god statue on the altar is strange and menacing in a way that Lan WangJi thinks would appeal to Wei WuXian. A sign outside informs Lan WangJi that the name of the god in question is Hua Cheng, a name that Lan WangJi has heard in passing but never investigated, and it's not really clear what he's the god of. The name is gentle, but the imagery in the temple is so violent that Lan WangJi thinks it must be something terrible, war or victory or whatever. Lan WangJi places an orange on the altar, lights incense, and kneels anyway. It's easy, now, to introduce himself and offer his thanks, and then to cut right to the chase: "I'm looking for news of my friend Wei WuXian. Please forgive my impertinence at asking after a dead man, and bless my efforts to find him."

"What, your friend is a ghost?" asks a voice behind him. Lan WangJi doesn't flinch, but it's a near thing; he'd been certain that he was alone in the temple.

He stays bowed, not wanting to rise before the incense is burned, but he answers, "No. I don't think so."

The stranger walks lazily to his side and squats in front of the altar to look at him. Lan WangJi doesn't mind the disrespect towards himself, but it's awfully bold to be so rude to a god in the god's own temple. "So then why should there be news of him?" the stranger asks.