Drunken Mistake

DM 42

Back in Cloud Recesses, Wei Wuxian steeled himself, heart pounding with a mixture of anticipation and dread. To his right stood Xue Yang, who, despite his usual insouciance, seemed tense; to his left, Lan Qiren's presence was equally solemn, each of them bracing for what lay beyond the door to the Jingshi's basement. A thin morning light slipped across the ground, softening the sharp lines of the silent corridors but unable to touch the shadows in Wei Wuxian's mind.

Lan Qiren's voice was a murmur. "We should have called Dr. Luo."
"Mianmian jie doesn't need to be here for this." Wei Wuxian's voice was hushed but determined, almost as if he were speaking to himself. "Ji ge taught me self-acceptance. I have nothing to fear."
Xue Yang scoffed, his expression twisting with barely contained bitterness. "That worthless piece of trash should be the one standing beside you. Not me."
Wei Wuxian turned, meeting Xue Yang's harsh gaze with surprising softness. "A'Yang, who says Ji ge has to be the hero? Maybe he's the one who needs saving this time. Just because he's bold and I'm not doesn't make him stronger." His voice was resolute yet gentle, a surprising calm echoing in his words.
Xue Yang blinked, then let out a low, amused chuckle. "Well, look at you, coming along all wise and fearless. If this is what you're like when you're being A'Ying... no wonder Wangji was taken with you."
The unexpected praise brought a flush to Wei Wuxian's cheeks, though his gaze remained fixed on the door, hesitating. With a sigh, Lan Qiren reached over and gave it a nudge, letting a sliver of morning light spill into the basement's murky interior.
Wei Wuxian inhaled sharply and stepped inside, only to stumble slightly as the air hit him—a stale, abandoned smell that carried years of silence. He felt a pang of surprise at the room's size, once looming large in his memories but now almost ordinary, stripped of the furniture and mementos that had once filled every corner. Dust floated lazily in the sunbeam piercing the darkness, settling over the bare floor like a blanket, undisturbed for too long.
"No one's been here since Huan-ge left?" Wei Wuxian asked, voice barely above a whisper as he looked around the emptied room.
Lan Qiren nodded, the lines on his face etched deeper with a quiet sorrow. "He hasn't stayed overnight in years. His residence isn't far from here; he left not long after you did."
Wei Wuxian's gaze lingered on the vacant spaces where memories used to linger. "Who lives here now?"
"No one. The Jingshi belongs to Lan Wangji. My parents gave it to his mother when she came to Cloud Recesses. Hanshi, the older residence, will pass to Lan Huan in my absence."
Wei Wuxian turned slowly, his voice low. "Could I stay here, then?"
Lan Qiren faltered, eyes softening. "I thought you'd want to live with me." A flicker of hurt crossed his face, his voice barely audible.
Wei Wuxian smiled gently, reaching to place a hand on Lan Qiren's shoulder. "I do. But you could let Lan Zhan know that someone wants to rent his place. Your A'Ying wants to rent this place. This is only an excuse—for you to tell Lan Wangji that I'm here. That his Ying'er is back. I need him to see the truth."
But before Lan Qiren could respond, Xue Yang's voice cut through the quiet. "No need." He had slipped into the basement unnoticed, a smirk playing on his lips. "Wangji just called me. I think he tried tracking the call, but it's no use—I have a satellite phone. The signal bounced too many places to follow."
Wei Wuxian's heart skipped a beat, his voice barely steady. "What does he want?"
Xue Yang crossed his arms, an amused glint in his eyes. "He wants to meet you. Says the divorce papers need revising before they're finalized. He's set a meeting in a week at his office. And he wants me to bring you."
Wei Wuxian's hand fell to his side as he looked toward the door, sunlight spilling in just enough to chase the shadows out of the basement but not enough to banish them entirely from his heart.Wei Wuxian's eyes widened, his voice catching slightly. "He knows you're with me?"
Xue Yang gave a shrug, nonchalant but laced with tension. "It's not rocket science. We both vanished from Beijing at the same time, and Wen Qing spotted us together at the hospital," he replied. "Besides... I already resigned from Y-Tech."
Wei Wuxian spun around, incredulous. "You did what? Why on earth would you do something that reckless?"
Xue Yang's expression hardened, a flicker of bitterness slipping through his guarded exterior. "I had to leave Beijing, too. There's someone there... someone I can't be near without losing my sanity."
Wei Wuxian's face softened, though a wry smile tugged at his lips. "Well, too bad for you. He's coming to Suzhou."
Xue Yang's brows furrowed. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm moving Wei Software to Jiangsu. Naturally, anyone who wants to keep their position will need to relocate."
Xue Yang shot him a look, surprise flashing across his face. "You already knew about us? How?"
Wei Wuxian raised an eyebrow. "You're an open book when your guard's down, though it doesn't happen often."
A quiet chuckle escaped Lan Qiren, who had been standing nearby, still focused on his son. "Are you sure you're alright here?"
Wei Wuxian gave him a reassuring nod. "Yes, Baba. I'm not forcing myself. Knowing Lan Zhan and my Ji ge are one and the same... I want to be here, to cherish what we had."
As Lan Qiren nodded thoughtfully, Wei Wuxian's gaze drifted to Xue Yang, noticing how his posture tightened, and his eyes darkened whenever a certain name was mentioned—or left unmentioned. His fingers twitched subtly, and his gaze would flicker whenever someone else entered the room. Wei Wuxian had seen it before in himself, in the way he couldn't help but listen for news of his Ji ge. But what held Xue Yang back from his own object of longing?
They emerged from the basement, the door locking behind them with a soft click, as if sealing away fragments of the past. The silence that followed was heavy, yet there was so much unspoken that lingered in the air, words coiled on their tongues.
"So... everyone's coming to Suzhou?" Xue Yang finally broke the silence, his tone edged with resignation.
Wei Wuxian nodded. "Yangyang will stay back in Beijing until the end of the school year, mostly because of Zizhen. We'll have a few months to get Wei Software's Suzhou branch set up. After that, we'll decide whether to shut down the Beijing office or keep it as a Northern maintenance point."
Xue Yang shook his head, looking away. "I can't be part of this."
Wei Wuxian frowned, studying his friend. "Why not? If you're done with Y-Tech, come join Wei Software. I'll even keep you in your old post, though the salary won't exactly match a global firm's."
Xue Yang's gaze drifted back, his voice low. "What's his post?"
Wei Wuxian smiled knowingly, sensing the subject. "He's the Programming Head."
"It's not fair," Xue Yang murmured, his jaw tightening. "He's been with you longer, he's older... He should be my boss, not the other way around."
"Xingchen isn't one for titles. He'll give credit where it's due, you know that. What are you really afraid of?" Wei Wuxian pressed gently.
Xue Yang hesitated, a rare flash of vulnerability breaking through. "Song Lan."
Wei Wuxian blinked, confused. "Song Lan? Lawyer Song? What does he have to do with this?"
"Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan... they were together in college," Xue Yang explained, his voice barely above a whisper. "But something happened, something that drove Song Lan away. They broke up, and Song Lan isolated himself. Xingchen never moved on. Now... it seems like they're trying to fix things."
Wei Wuxian's eyebrows shot up, surprise dancing in his eyes. "I had no idea. And you're just going to watch while your love story gets erased before it's even started?"
Xue Yang looked down, the corners of his mouth tugged into a painful half-smile. "I don't have much of a choice. The reason they broke up... was me."
Wei Wuxian gaped. "You? But that was over a decade ago. Xingchen's older than me, maybe even older than Nie Mingjue. You were probably just a kid back then."
Xue Yang's eyes drifted, filled with shadows of things unsaid. "Age doesn't erase damage, Wei Wuxian. Not when the scars run deep."The dim hallway seemed to narrow as Xue Yang's voice dropped, his eyes gleaming with a mixture of bitterness and something unreadable.
"Did Wangji ever tell you how we met?" he asked, his tone clipped, as though each word pulled him back to a place he'd rather not revisit.
Wei Ying shook his head, intrigued and uneasy. A flicker of interest and confusion flashed in his gaze, as if he sensed he was about to cross into unfamiliar territory, a place where dark memories lay hidden.
Xue Yang's gaze turned distant, his voice lowering to a conspiratorial murmur. "Lan Wangji was the youngest in his class—fifteen and already considered a prodigy. He was accepted into the Software Engineering department at Beijing University, and when he got there, he wasn't just a student. He became... a tool of the administration."
Wei Ying's brows furrowed as Xue Yang continued, his words edged with a grim satisfaction. "A group of hackers had surfaced, making noise. They were clever, bold—breaking into government accounts, moving funds like they were shifting sand, and dropping everything offshore, out of sight. No one knew where the money was going. Projects got cancelled, departments suddenly lost funding... People lost everything overnight."
Xue Yang's voice became harder, and Wei Ying could feel the tension mounting. "They assigned Lan Wangji to track down the culprits. He was relentless, too talented for his age, and by the time he finally managed to crack through, the damage was done. Some of those who lost everything couldn't face it. They chose the only escape they had left." Xue Yang's voice went softer, almost bitter. "One of them was Song Lan's father."
Wei Ying's face went pale, the words sinking in like a stone dropped into dark water. "And Song Lan?"
"His father's death destroyed him. The company was gone, the debts were insurmountable. Song Lan had to shoulder all the responsibility himself," Xue Yang continued, his gaze shadowed. "The strain killed his relationship with Xiao Xingchen, too. That single mission of Lan Wangji's pulled Song Lan's world apart."
Wei Ying swallowed, his voice barely a whisper. "What does this have to do with you?"
A faint, grim smile pulled at Xue Yang's lips. "When Lan Wangji investigated, he found something strange—a signature in the code that was... unique. A kind of digital fingerprint that wasn't meant to be there. But he traced it, following it through cyber shadows and dead ends, until he found me."
Wei Ying's breath hitched as Xue Yang continued, his voice laced with something dark and almost hypnotic. "He tracked me to a dingy gaming room in the slums, where I was hidden behind a screen name, thinking I was untouchable. He made contact online, pretending to be a friend—a kindred soul. He told me stories about his regrets, about the mistakes he'd made, about the family law punishments he endured, and the guilt he carried."
Wei Ying's chest tightened. He could feel the weight of the past pressing down on him as Xue Yang continued, his voice hoarse with long-buried regret. "I trusted him. I told him everything. But what I didn't know was that he already knew. He knew I was the hacker. And I... I was eleven years old. They promised me justice, a way to avenge all of us who'd been evicted from that orphanage and left with nowhere to go."
Wei Ying's eyes widened. "You... you were the hacker?"
Xue Yang's voice grew colder, like a dark confession rising from the depths. "The only hacker. I had no idea I'd become a murderer. Those 'crimes' they wanted me to commit... they were supposed to be retribution, a means to survive. But I was just a pawn, doing the dirty work for a group of extremists."
The silence grew heavy, pressing in around them. Wei Ying's mind spun, reeling at the realization of how Xue Yang's life had been molded by the invisible hands of people who'd twisted his innocence into something unspeakable.
Xue Yang clenched his jaw, voice tight. "Lan Wangji convinced me to gather intel on the group, to turn myself in. I had to choose: either give back every yuan or rot in a cell. They offered counseling, three years of it, as part of my sentence."
"And Lan Wangji?" Wei Ying asked, his voice breaking through the silence like a whisper in the dark.
"When my time was up, he was waiting. He took me in, my... legal guardian." Xue Yang's voice softened, though a bitter smile tugged at his lips. "That's when we founded Y-Tech. A prodigy and an ex-con. We made a strange pair, but together, we built something... something out of all that chaos."
A chill lingered in the air as Wei Ying took in the gravity of what Xue Yang had revealed.

A/N How could Xue Yang be a white character? He had to be grey. Of course he had to have grey shades. Now how is Wei Wuxian supposed to react? 

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