Fluffy WangXian Oneshots Book Two

Come Back To Gusu With Me Part 4

Wei Ying looks around the sparse, tidy room, and once again, he's surprised to feel relieved. There is just a bed with a folded blanket on the mattress, a pillow, and a small, low table. A trunk on one side to put his belongings and a privacy screen for when he bathes. A chamberpot in the corner completes the setup, and Wei Ying might have considered the lack of frivolities as a casualty of the past war, but he knows the Lans are simplistic by nature. This room would have looked the same even if they weren't rebuilding and recovering from a tragedy. Tonight, he is grateful for being allowed to just rest.

He hadn't realised how much he avoided being in his room in Lotus Pier. It wasn't just the clutter, the papers everywhere, and his usual messiness; it was the constant reminders of everything he had lost in the past few years. Suibian flung in a distant corner out of petulance that he can't use it any more, and because he can't show his true emotions outside of those four walls, the roof of his room acting like a roof on his feelings. His bow and arrows are now rendered useless for killing anything on a night hunt, just for show to hit the target dead centre and pretend that he doesn't miss it.

This place is new, and it feels like a fresh start.

It reminds him of himself, back when he was fifteen and full of fresh ideas, when waking up meant being excited for the day to come. Full of new discoveries, learning new skills and practising them, taking apart a problem and fixing it. Here, he's reminded of who he used to be.

The Lans want to help him, and after what XiChen-Ge did for him tonight, Wei Ying can sense a spark of hope growing in his heart. What if they're right? What if they really can help him? The thought of being able to put down the burden of being the best at everything so that no one underestimates the Jiang Sect is a happy relief. He knows that he is Jiang Cheng's only shield now, against corruption and those who would take advantage of the Sect and its leader's presumed inexperience.

Jiang Fengmian used to say that there were always two sides to any story. So far, Wei Ying had felt affronted by the Lans suggesting their endeavour to cleanse him of resentment energy be kept under wraps, like a dirty secret hidden and not talked about. But now that he's here, the clean, crisp mountain air has brought about a change in his thinking, too. Isn't it a good thing that no one knows he is here? It takes the pressure off his shoulders about everything.

The Cloud Recesses is naturally warded against resentment energy. As long as they play their restorative music every day, the spiritual energy that feeds the dragon lines embedded in the mountain itself will continue to protect those that reside within its boundaries. The upside of that is Wei Ying feeling a little lighter as soon as they stepped past the Ivory Pillars.

He shrugs off his outer robes and flings himself onto the bed, tired from the day. As soon as his head hits the pillow, he's out like a light.

*******************

XiChen, whilst walking towards the Jingshi, thinks about the best way of approaching the news: how to tell Lan WangJi that his one and only crush, the love of his life, the boy he is completely enamoured by, is in the Cloud Recesses? And by the way, according to their uncle, he's not allowed to go and see him immediately as he wants to, but if they play the game right, then by exercising caution right now, Lan WangJi should be able to go visit him later.

XiChen is NOT looking forward to having this conversation.

But his role as Sect Leader has afforded him many insights on how to head off a problem before it becomes one, and what he's doing now is damage control. WangJi will thank him when he's had a chance to get over his many, many feelings about Wei WuXian being so close. Maybe.

He hears WangJi before the Jingshi comes into view. He's playing that song again, the one he thinks XiChen doesn't know about. The one is so full of yearning and pining and sadness, and if only WangJi played it a little higher, it would change from depressing into something hopeful and uplifting instead. Just one scale higher, WangJi!