紫莲花/Zǐ liánhuā/ Purple Lotus

Chapter 1

It was one of those cool days in autumn, the wind blew gently bringing a fragrance of lotus. Lan XiChen looked up from the book he was reading. The wind was chilly, but with it carried the scent of Xichen's favorite flower-the lotus. How he came to love this flower? It was all thanks to one person.

YunmengJiang Sect-Sect Leader Jiang WanYin.

Their acquaintance began almost two decades ago, but their moments together were only brief that one could count on their fingers. They barely talked to each other for more than an hour.

He remembered the first time he saw Jiang WanYin. It was early morning of the start of spring, at the front gate of Cloud Recesses, under the green shade of a hundred years old white cherry tree. Lan XiChen-being the next Sect Leader- was tasked with greeting new students who would undergo a year of training at the Cloud Recesses. Waves of students slowly appeared at the bottom of the stairs, chatters quickly filled the sky with refreshing noises that Cloud Recesses would never usually allow. However, today was an exception. Lan XiChen looked at the wave of students, gently nodded his head and greeted them as they passed by.

The students ceremoniously bowed their heads to him, exchanged a few introduction words as they hurried along. Being older than the rest of them by a few years, Lan XiChen was already well known throughout the cultivation world as ZeWu-Jun, most of the young cultivators of their generation at least heard about him-the GusuLan Sect next leader. Him however, feeling embarrassed that he did not know any of them until they introduced which sect they came from. He wasn't a social man, not back then at least.

He closed his eyes briefly, running through the welcoming speech inside his mind once more time. It was his first time to make a speech in front of others so he could not help but feeling slightly nervous. A good practice that necessary for a future sect leader-his uncle told him.

"YunMengJiang Sect, Jiang WanYin."

A sound of a chiming bell resounded in his ears and a voice came after. He shot his eyes opened, thinking how impolite of him to just lost in his own daze and made the young student waited for who knew how long. Instinctively, he lowered his head to return the courtesy with another bow. His eyes landed on the purple tassel as he slowly moved his eyes upwards. On the waist of this boy, hung a silver bell in the shape of nine petals lotus. His black hair, tied neatly together on top of his head. His big almond eyes and thin eyebrows ignited with the vigorous energy of a boy his age, but held back by a composed look of respect. He was a boy with well taught manners.

"GusuLan Sect, Lan XiChen."

The boy bowed down once again and quickly ran after his friends. A big mischievous smile spread across his face. XiChen locked his eyes onto the violet figure that disappeared after entering the gate, his daze suddenly came back full force. He might be wrong, but...there was a soft, lingering fragrance of lotus in the air? How could there be lotus flower all the way up here at this season?

Most of the time that they ran into each other after that, they were brief. Jiang Cheng smiled and frowned the most when he was around Wei WuXian. And Wei WuXian always found new amusement around Lan WangJi-his baby brother. He dragged him into one trouble to the next, and Jiang Cheng always stuck around to clean up his shi-xiong's mess. One time, XiChen found him copying the rules in place of Wei WuXian at the Library Pavilion. The young boy kept on throwing cursed words at Wei WuXian that XiChen would rather not recall about it. Despite all that, his hands still moved non-stop on the stack of white papers. A few hours later, XiChen passed by the Library, and to his surprise, the violet figure still at the same position as when he left. Except the head was flat against the table. Quietly opened the door to the Library, XiChen made his way towards the sleeping boy whose fingers still closed loosely around the brush. He didn't know, this boy when asleep would have such a peaceful expression.