Bring him home

Dead

The Yiling Patriarch was dead. 

Gone.

He fell off a cliff.

He died the way he lived.

Smiling. 

Wei Wuxian was dead. 

Not alive.

Wei Ying was dead. 

He was never coming back. 

Lan Zhan looked on. 

He was a broken man.

A shell. 

His love was dead.

His other half, his soul-mate. 

Gone. 

Lan Zhan felt betrayed. He was hurt beyond belief.

Nothing made him feel better. He went back to Cloud Recess.

He spent three years in isolation. 

He mourned. 

He never got to tell Wei Ying he loved him. 

The man was his everything, and he failed him.

His dreams were often visited by Wei Ying's hauntingly beautiful frame surrounded by thick black smoke. 

Every night he saw Wei Ying fall again. Saw the look of tortured pain as Jiang Cheng yelled. 

Watched the exact moment his loved slipped through his fingertips and fell. 

Every night he would wake up in a cold sweat calling out to Wei Ying. 

Lan Zhan gave no sign to anyone that he was broken. 

But his eyes. Oh, in his eyes, it was visible just how hurt he was. How deep the cut had gone. His love his one love. Gone forever

Only his brother and uncle knew what was truly wrong.

No one would have thought the Light bearing lord to care so profoundly over the Yiling Patriarch. 

Everyone else took him for being the Cold Hanguang-Jun. 

His brother Lan Xichen was worried. He had watched as everything had unraveled. He was still haunted by his brother's final broken cry of 'Wei Ying' at the first siege of the Burial Mounds.

Lan Xichen was not a rash person.

He was a twin jade of the Gusu-Lan Sect for crying out loud, but what he was about to ask his uncle was reckless. 

He could no longer stand the despair his brother was going through. It was killing Lan Zhan, eating away at his core. The boy barely ate or drank. He spent a lot of time, just walking. 

One time Lan Xichen followed him on one of these walks. He witnessed Lan Zhan turn around and cry out ' Wei Ying come back' It was heartwrenching. His cry was called out into the wind—an unheard cry.

Days went by, months, years.

But it did not change that fact that Wei Ying was dead.

Lan Xichen watched his brother begin to disinigrate before him. He was growing more distant. 

More cold.

Lan Xichen knew what was happening.

 Lan Zhan was dying. 

Wei Ying was dead.

It was killing Lan Zhan.

Lan Xichen was about to meddle. 

    " Uncle," Lan Xichen called as he entered his uncle's tea room.

    " Ah, Xichen, I was about to call for you," Sect leader Lan Qiren said, not looking up from pouring his tea. 

    " Uncle, I have a request," Lan Xichen said evenly, drawing in a deep breath knowing he would need it. His Uncle's sharp eyes shot up to meet Xichen's own.

    " A request," Sect leader Lan Qiren echoed, tugging at his goatee like he always did when he was thinking. Lan Xichen nods eyebrows drawn in. " What kind,"

    " It is for Wangji," Xichen hesitates. " We need to bring back Wei Ying," he finishes looking evenly at his uncle. 

    " Are you mad? The Yiling Patriarch is dead and good riddance. That boy was nothing but trouble," Sect leader Lan Quiren fumed, looking outraged at the mere thought.

    " He is not just the Yiling Patriarch Uncle he is Wei Wuxian, the love of Lan Zhan's life. If we do not, I fear Lan Zhan will not make it much longer. Uncle, please, I know it is much to ask," Xichen says, not backing down from his Uncle's cold stare. 

    "No," Is all Lan Quiren says his tone final. 

Lan Xichen Excuses himself, not wanting to anger his uncle anymore.

He encountered Lan Zhan on the way. 

    " Brother," Lan Zhan says with a bow. Lan Xichen responded to the formality with his bow. 

    " Lan Zhan, how are you," A shadow crossed Lan Zhan's face. It was dark; he looked pained.

    " Well," was the response he gave though Lan Xichen saw right through it. 

He saw the pain.

Lan Zhan was beginning to feel empty. There was a hole in his chest. He felt like he had lived a hundred lifetimes. 

No life time was worth living without Wei Ying.

His Wei Ying

He had no will to go on. 

Wei Ying was dead.

One year later.

Lan Zhan was dying.

He was on his death bed.

    " Uncle, it is now or never," Xichen said, his voice hard like stone. 

    " No, I will not do it," Lan Quiren said, a tone of finality to his voice. Xichen shook his head woefully.

   " Then you condemn him to death," Xichen said, leaving with a swosh of his white robes.

Lan Wangji was going to die. 

Lan Quiren sat silently; he did not know what to do. To bring back, the Yiling Patriarch was to dishonor his clan and to bring hate to them. But if he did not bring back the Yiling Patriarch, Lan Zhan would surely die.

That would not do. 

No, no Lan Zhan must live. 

No matter the cost. 

It was decided then. Wei Ying was to be brought back.

The Yiling Patriarch was to live again.