Drunken Mistake

DM 40

Back in Beijing

The dining room was silent but tense, the soft clink of Mo Xuanyu's chopsticks against his plate the only sound interrupting the thick, uneasy stillness. His eyebrows knit together, eyes darting across the table to Lan Wangji, whose gaze was steady, unwavering, and yet, somehow, hollow, as though fixed on something far beyond the walls surrounding them.
"Wangji," Mo Xuanyu's voice broke, a whiny tremor slipping into his words. "Why can't you let it go? Wei Wuxian left according to his contract. He even signed the divorce papers. As soon as Wen Chao and I get divorced, we can get the certificate." His voice grew sharper, the impatience breaking through the pleading facade.
Lan Wangji remained unmoved, his expression carved from marble, untouched by Xuanyu's wheedling. "I promised to take care of you, to give you a home. I didn't ask you to climb into my bed." His eyes softened, if only faintly, at the mention of someone else. "That will always remain A'Xian's place. I tore up the divorce papers."
Xuanyu's spoon clattered onto his plate, forgotten. His eyes, wide and almost frantic, darted over Lan Wangji's face, searching for some hint of insincerity. "What? But... but what for? Come on, Wangji. Don't you love me? I know you've longed for me all this time. Why don't you make me yours?"
A flicker of something crossed Lan Wangji's face, something hard, something akin to pity and regret. "Do you even know what you're saying?" he asked, his voice low, a rumble that seemed to echo with layers of unspoken guilt. "We are both married to different people. And I am a legal counsel. I never said that I loved you."
Xuanyu's face dropped, but Lan Wangji pressed on, his words heavy, falling like stones. "I didn't know what love was when we met. I was just a teenager, confused and grappling with my own body and emotions. I saw you—weak, vulnerable—and I used you. I hurt you. And I... I'm sorry for it. But you weren't love, Xuanyu. You were an escape, a path I stumbled down before I knew where I was going. I hurt you so deeply that you... you shut down memories, locked parts of yourself away." His eyes drifted downward, as though to shield Xuanyu from the rawness of his gaze.
Xuanyu's hand flew to his mouth, his eyes wide with horror, or confusion—or perhaps both. "What are you talking about?" he whispered, the tremor in his voice now one of shock rather than seduction.
"A'Xian is the one I love, Ying'er. He has always been the one. I know I owe you—I took your innocence. But you took mine too, Xuanyu. And it wasn't out of love, only lust. Unchecked, impulsive, and consuming lust. I never thought it could destroy a person like it did with you and me. Now, I understand what love is because of A'Xian. I know how gentle, how deeply rooted it is. It's not something you can mistake for anything else." Lan Wangji's jaw tightened, his hands clenched into fists. "You don't remember, do you?" he murmured. "You were there, too, caught in that same destructive storm, lost between hormones and medication. I can barely recall what happened myself—I was drugged, Xuanyu. Your word stands against mine."
Mo Xuanyu looked as though he'd been punched in the gut, his body stiffening as he absorbed the confession. His eyes bore into Lan Wangji. "You built Y-Tech. Named it 'Y'... all for a guilt you don't even remember?" he whispered.
Lan Wangji nodded, his face etched with a strange calmness, as if each word he spoke carved away the weight he'd carried for years. "It's yours. I've already begun transferring Y-Tech and Y-Properties to you. The moment your divorce is final, they're yours. All of it, as compensation." He exhaled softly, his gaze drifting around the room before settling on Xuanyu, firm but almost kind. "Isn't that enough? I was fourteen, Xuanyu. We both were adolescents, stumbling blindly, victims of something we could never have understood. But now I know love. Real love, and it belongs to A'Xian. It will only ever belong to A'Xian."
He watched as Mo Xuanyu sank into his chair, his expression one of empty acceptance. Silence filled the room, heavier now than ever, and the two sat on opposite sides of a chasm that had always existed between them.Mo Xuanyu sat motionless, his face pale, as if the very air around him had thickened into something heavy and suffocating. His hand gripped the edge of the table in front of him, knuckles turning white, but he barely noticed. His voice, when he spoke, was raw, trembling with a mixture of disbelief and something darker, something brittle, as he repeated, "A'Yao said that Ying'er is your white moonlight. You couldn't get emotionally involved with anyone because of him." The words fell from his mouth like shards of glass, each one painful to utter, as though they were tearing him open from the inside.
A deep, uncomfortable silence hung between them. Mo Xuanyu's gaze turned unfocused, as if he were no longer in the room with Lan Wangji but trapped somewhere in the past, somewhere cold and distant. His lips barely moved, but his words carried an unmistakable weight: "Guilt... regret... shame... and A'Xian, he... he took it all from me." He swallowed hard, his throat tightening as he reached for a memory too painful to hold onto.
Lan Wangji's eyes flickered, his lips parting to speak, but the words caught in his throat. He hesitated, as though testing the waters of this unfamiliar revelation. "Wait... what did you say? Meng Yao told you? Ying'er... but that's your childhood name!" His voice cracked slightly, unable to mask the confusion and sudden tension that surged through him.
Mo Xuanyu's chest rose and fell with shallow breaths, and in the dim light, his eyes shimmered with something between sorrow and exhaustion. His hands trembled as he wiped at his face, a bitter smile forming, though it didn't reach his eyes. "I love you," he whispered, his voice breaking into pieces, "I love you more than I can say. From the moment we met, I've been obsessed with you. I didn't know how to make you see me, how to make you care. And then... then I met Meng Yao. He had a way of making things happen, and I followed him blindly, like a fool." The confession hung in the air, raw and unrefined.
Lan Wangji furrowed his brow, his gaze flickering between confusion and suspicion. "Wait, your ex-boyfriend told you how to attract my attention?" His voice was edged with disbelief, the very notion making him uncomfortable.
Mo Xuanyu's laugh was bitter, short, as he shook his head. "Meng Yao was never my ex-boyfriend. He's my half-brother. We share the same father." The words seemed to fall heavily between them, each syllable carrying a deep and painful truth.
Lan Wangji's brows knitted together as he recalled a troubling detail. "But didn't Meng Yao make a public statement claiming to be a son of Jin Guanshan?" He spoke with the clarity of someone trying to piece together an incomplete puzzle.
Mo Xuanyu nodded slowly, his eyes glazed over, a distant look settling in. "He had to. DNA evidence. But I... I was accepted by my father when I was only ten. He made sure I was cared for, took care of all my expenses. He did everything for me." Mo Xuanyu's voice faltered as he glanced down at his hands. "I wasn't a good student. I didn't have the means to pay for my education, so my father covered my tuition through my uncle."
Lan Wangji's eyes softened as he processed the meaning of Mo Xuanyu's words, the weight of the revelations beginning to sink in. "You were never an orphan. You were never the son of Cangse Sanren. You were never my Ying'er," he murmured, as though the truth had finally unraveled itself in front of him.
Mo Xuanyu's heart seemed to sink deeper into the ground, the weight of his own confession pressing down on him. "I'm sorry. Meng Yao knew about your Ying'er—knew how much you meant to me. He used that, manipulated me. He told me to let it slip... that my childhood name was Ying'er, that I'd lived in a foster home in Suzhou, and that the memories were so painful that I had shut them away." His eyes dropped to the floor, his voice barely a whisper. "He wanted you to show interest. But you didn't. You stayed away. And I... I couldn't understand why."
The silence between them thickened once again. Lan Wangji's face was unreadable as he sat down slowly in front of Mo Xuanyu. He inhaled deeply, each word coming slow, deliberate. "Knowing that you were Ying'er and that you liked me... it was a contradiction I wasn't ready to face." He paused, almost as if he were lost in the realization. "I thought you would be angry with me, venting all the hurt from your past. But instead, you showed me devotion. That... that terrified me. Because I realized you'd forgotten everything. You didn't remember what I had done. And that meant... anything I said or did could trigger those memories. I couldn't risk losing you again."
Mo Xuanyu's eyes closed, as if in pain, the weight of his regrets crashing down on him. "I tried to wait for you," he admitted softly. "But I couldn't. So I... I started seeing someone else. A neighbor's daughter. She was just a distraction, someone to fill the gap. But Meng Yao... he made a deal with my father. If he could bring down the Wens, my father would acknowledge him. I owed him for what he told me about Ying'er. So... I married Wen Chao to get close to the Wens. I did it for Meng Yao."
Lan Wangji's gaze hardened. "Everything was a plan?" His voice was tight, the betrayal slicing through him.
"I tried to stop it," Mo Xuanyu whispered, his voice ragged with the weight of his guilt. "Wen Chao and I were never really together. I drugged him... pretended... I wanted you to be my first. I even tried to drug you. But Wei Wuxian took you away before I could... before I could do anything." His confession hung heavy in the air.
Lan Wangji's face remained unreadable, though his eyes narrowed, as if trying to comprehend the depths of what Mo Xuanyu had done. "So that was you," he said softly, the realization settling in. He paused, then asked, "What does Meng Yao want now? After everything... what does he want in return?"
Mo Xuanyu's shoulders sagged with a sigh. "He wants shares in Y-Tech," he murmured, his voice a hollow echo.
Lan Wangji's eyes narrowed, his expression turning cold. "You slipped up," he said, his tone final. "Neither of you will get anything from me." He stood, his gaze never leaving Mo Xuanyu. "Clear out the guest room. Now."
"Lan Wangji, please don't do this," Mo Xuanyu begged, his voice rising in desperation. "I have nowhere to go. Jin Guanshan will cast me out once the divorce happens. Meng Yao will destroy me if he finds out I told you everything. He's already planning to kill Jin Zixuan for the property, and he'll kill me too. Please... please, Hanguangjun, protect me." His eyes pleaded, raw and vulnerable.
Lan Wangji's expression softened for a fleeting moment before hardening again. "I'll arrange for you to go abroad. After that, I don't want to hear from you ever again," he said, his voice leaving no room for argument.
Mo Xuanyu nodded, his head bowing in silent agreement, the weight of his own decisions sinking deep into his chest.

A/N Do vote and comment. It was a marathon today. I may be taking a break for the weekend, or may be not. Anyways, see you on the other side. Do vote and comment.