Times Have Changed [MDZS]

Chapter 12: The Family of Three

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Chapter Twelve

“Wei Ying…”

“!!!” Panic and disbelief arises in Wei Wuxian’s heart the second Lan Wangji dropped those two words. It was as if he was hit by the strongest explosive, sending tremors in his head and leaving him with no words to utter.

It couldn’t be! What had gotten wrong for Lan Wangji to come up with a different idea? He was sure that he didn’t say anything that gave himself away. However, Lan Wangji’s eyes right now reflected the conviction that would never allow Wei Wuxian to believe that he only thought wrong, that Lan Wangji had not recognized him.

Wei Wuxian’s arms slightly tightened, causing the child in his hold to suddenly cry as though feeling the distress of his mother. This grabbed the attention of both adults, disturbing them from their current stalemate.

“A-A’Yuan!” Wei Wuxian worriedly exclaimed, swiftly letting go of Elder Heiying to rub his son’s back.

Lan Wangji’s eyebrows creased seeing how the person before him was restlessly cradling the child with her petite body. But his attention was quickly snatched by the object that rolled to the tip of his boots, a black dizi.

Lan Wangji picked up the flute, looking at it without saying a word. He remembered that the woman’s flute was still plain when they met in the foot of Mount Yiling. It was clearly the same flute, but now added with exquisitely carved strange incantations.

Lan Wangji shifted his gaze back to the mother and son duo with a face that still appeared relatively calm, but his hand tightening around the flute showed how he wasn’t completely unaffected by the current situation.

The woman had been distracted by the child’s cries. She was anxiously trying to coax her son and did not notice Lan Wangji’s extended arm handing back the black dizi. Lan Wangji could only retract his hand and stood next to them in silence.

A group of nosey passerbys noticed the situation on their side. Seeing a cold man unaffectedly looking at the distressed woman who was pitifully hugging her crying baby, they started chattering among themselves. Perhaps it was how subdued the Gusu people were or because they considered the man’s Gusu Lan cultivation robes, but no one tried to point their fingers or circle around the family. Nonetheless, the chattering was still there.

One passerby asked, “What’s happening here? The child cried so hard, it scared me to death!”

The matron beside him whispered, “Probably some callous head of the family scolding his wife and son.”

Someone was not even ashamed to make up a bended speculation out of what he had witnessed earlier, “That’s right, the wife was drinking tea upstairs when her husband demanded her to go down. It should be a case of a control freak husband.”

“How are you so sure that they are a family. The lady and the man look so young.”

The matron scoffed, “Can’t you see that they are cultivators? Their appearance might not be their actual age.”

“And I can clearly see that they are old enough for the coming of age ceremony!”

“That’s right! There’s no doubt that they are one family! Look at the child in that girl’s arms. The man is definitely the father. Their faces look as if they’re carved out of the same mold.”

Another passerby, maybe because he wasn’t Gusu’s local was courageous enough to speak loudly, “Someone was so heartless enough to scold his wife and son in the middle of the street?!”