even after thirteen years, i still love you | MDZS

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Weiying closed his eyes, maybe, maybe, maybe, it was out of good will??

Lanzhan, as if sending Weiying's frustration, finished the questions off for him.

"Was he called Jiang at any point?"

"Yes yes, the cultivators referred to him as the Jiang lad."

"Did he-"

"Lanzhan, there's no point in asking more. Jiang Cheng is the only person out there who matches all the descriptions."

The room went silent.

Lanzhan bit down his lips, nervously looking at Weiying, as if waiting for some kind of reaction- anger? frustration? sadness?

The old woman broke the silence, unaware of the ongoing tension that she broke just moments ago. 

"Do you guys...know this person?"

Both of them nodded in response, before sighing. Lanzhan spoke up for the both of them, excusing themselves from the residence. 

When they stepped out into the open field, Lanzhan looked in Weiying's direction, waiting for an order of some sort. When there was nothing in response, Lanzhan spoke up, "Do you want to head towards Lotus Pier?"

And once again, in silence, Weiying nodded. There were too many things going through his mind for him to speak, and answer to Lanzhan.

***********

On feet, it took the two of them a little under two days to reach the pier that would take them to their destination. On water, it was another night. Over the period of the three days, the total word count between them was under one hundred. Good mornings and good nights made up twelve, and the remaining were words out of natural instinct. 

Still, for someone like Lanzhan who never really did talk much, he didn't mind. Similarly, for someone like Weiying who thought nothing but assumptions about the matter, he didn't mind either. So, silence it was. 

When the two of them finally stepped foot onto Weiying's once-home, Lanzhan once again, looked at Weiying for an instruction of some sort. Weiying took in the fresh scent of the lotus and the familiar familial feeling. He was brought back to the more innocent times when the most of his worries were Madame Yu getting mad and punishing him. 

Feeling Lanzhan's stare on him, Weiying turned his head and smiled, before hesitantly stepping forward to greet the disciples of Yumeng Jiang Sect and alert them of his intention to meet with Jiang Cheng. 

For Jiang Cheng, unexpected visitors were one thing that annoyed him, but those two visitors were truly another sight and worry for Jiang Cheng to see. Unaware of the information Weiying and Lanzhan had uncovered a few days ago, Jiang Cheng greeted them with a joking stern face. 

"Wei Wuxian, you really do have the guts to come back here again huh don't you", whilst patting him on the back. When Weiying simply smiled and asked to have a talk with him, that was when Jiang Cheng seemed to notice the severity and gravity of the situation. 

Gloomily, he led them into the main hosting room of Lotus Pier, sitting them down at one of the smaller tables. While he didn't have sufficient time to prepare tea, he did get servants to bring out wine, Weiying's favourite beverage. 

However, when Weiying didn't take a sip of it, but instead, began asking questions directly, Jiang Cheng felt chills through him.

"Jiang Cheng"

"Mn?"

"I have many things I want to ask you and many things that I want myself to be wrong in and many things that I hope I was just lied to about."

Jiang Cheng's face went grim, slightly, he had a slight feeling he knew what was going on, "You guys....went to that town with the pink sky?"

"Yeah, we did"

"You guys tried to investigate the cause of why the colour was red?"

"Yeah, we did"

For a bystander like Lanzhan, it seemed more like Weiying was the one being interrogated had he not known the back story behind this mystery. 

Lanzhan, "Jiang Cheng, I think you should give us an explanation"

"How did you guys find out it was me?"

"We asked around, a lot"

"Okay well, if I were to start on this story, I think we have to start with after Wei Wuxian first died."

It was a sour topic for Jiang Cheng, having always regretted his action that day, but with Weiying and Lanzhan on his tail about the truth that day, he had no choice but to give them a full explanation.

"...I wasn't the happiest after what happened, especially as days past by. I felt that the guilt kept eating me up day by day so I did some stupid and terrible. The thing is, after you destroyed one half of your Stygian Tiger Seal, Jin Guangyao wasn't the first one to snatch the other half. Someone from our- my sect was found holding it in his hands, even after he died. I hadn't realised until we took all the dead corpses of our sect back and properly had them buried. When I saw the Stygian Tiger Seal sitting in his hands, I felt that the right thing to do would have been to destroy it right then and there, but the problem is,  I didn't. I felt that Chenqing and the Stygian Tiger Seal were the only things I had of you left so I kept it until..."

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one chapter left! do you guys think you can guess the ending?

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