A Ghost of Snow

22. The World is Upside-down

It had been three months since Baixue appeared and Wei Wuxian came to live in Cloud Recesses.

To the outside world, there wasn't much change in these three months, Cloud Recesses was as quiet as it had been before the arrival of the Yiling Patriarch and  the young lady. But to the Lan disciples, it wasn't really the same as before. First, the Lanshi seemed to have been acquired by Wei Wuxian. The man never left the room, even his meals were being delivered to him by none other than Hanguang-Jun. Second, Hanguang-Jun looked more like Wei Wuxian's personal assistant than a young master of a prominent clan. He prepared baths for the patriarch, he delivered his meals, fed him; sometimes he would even cook. Second, their Clan Leader, Zewu-Jun spent most of his time training this new young lady, who looked unnaturally similar to the Yiling Patriarch but had the emotional range of Hanguang-Jun, some would even say she far surpassed him in looking cold. His smile somehow, was getting even warmer. Third, although, it was still the fall season, they found themselves experiencing bouts of snow every now and then, which they eventually learnt was the young lady's doing, albeit unintentionally. Fourth, their Grandmaster, Lan Qiren, was overlooking the rules here and there, to accommodate the demonic cultivator.

Everything in the cultivation world might have been just the usual, but inside the Cloud Recesses, the world was turning upside-down.

Wei Wuxian had indeed made Lanshi his abode, burying himself under a load of books and parchment. He refused to go out, he didn't return to the Jingshi even when it was time to sleep. Sleep at nine, huh, he wouldn't sleep at all if Lan Wangji didn't practically drag him to bed. When it had just been a week of Wei Wuxian holing up in the Lanshi, Lan Qiren had offered to install a bed for him right there, so he could rest but the patriarch had adamantly refused saying, "You don't have to go through all that trouble. I am fine."

When even after a month nothing changed, Lan Qiren took the liberty to do whatever he wanted, saying that it was his home and if Wei Wuxian was to stay under his roof, he would have to listen to him and follow his rules, which had instantly shut the younger up and thus, there was now a bed and cabinet installed in the Lanshi.

There was also another matter that there was this child, who could even make Hanguang-Jun's eyes go all soft and warm. From what they heard, this child was a Wen, but he was so adorable clinging to people's legs here and there. When he had first hugged the Grandmaster's leg, everyone's breath was caught and they were sure that even though he was just a child, he was going to be punished but to their surprise, something completely opposite happened, Lan Qiren only ruffled his hair and the child let him go. And it has been a routine since then. From what they observed, Wei Wuxian, Hanguang-Jun, Zewu-Jun, Lan Qiren and even the frosty young lady doted on this child and rightfully so, he was a dear.

*****

Lan Qiren was sitting at his desk, sipping tea when his nephews came looking for him. It was Lan Xichen who broke the silence after they were done with the tea, "Uncle, Wangji and I are here to talk about Young Master Wei."

"What about him? Did he cause any trouble?", Lan Qiren questioned.

"No, it's just that-", Lan Xichen probably didn't have the right words to put it politely, so he stopped to think.

Lan Wangji looked at his brother before referring to his Uncle, "It has been three months, Wei Ying hasn't found a solution yet, he even refuses to eat now, just snaps if I try to drag him away to sleep. With what he previously told us about Young Lady Baixue, I wonder if he can find anything in the library. My brother and I are here to ask your permission to access the forbidden section."

Lan Qiren stiffened, the forbidden section of the library was off-limits to even most of the Lan disciples, to let an outsider, a demonic cultivator at that have access would be scandalous. The sort of information that was stored in there, in the wrong hands, would be a disaster, but what Wangji said made sense. He recalled what Wei Wuxian had said earlier.

"Her condition is similar to that of Wen Ning."

"You mean, she is a corpse?", Lan Xichen had asked incredulously, mirroring the expression of Wangji and himself. To which he had laughed in their faces before continuing, "Not quite. What I mean is that what I did with him was somewhat similar to what Baoshan Sanren did to her. He is a fierce corpse because I raised his body from the dead before calling upon his consciousness. What was done to her is literally the vice-versa. How she managed to bind her soul to me without me being in the vicinity is still beyond me though. Unlike Wen Ning who functions on resentful energy, she purely works on spiritual energy but she doesn't have a golden core like cultivators, since her body wasn't born but created using a medium. To inculcate the human attributes, a massive amount of spiritual energy was used. Uhm, to put it simply, the spiritual energy she has does not have a center in her body, it cannot be blocked, to keep it at bay, my grandmaster used an incantation."

"What incantation? How did you even find out all this?", Lan Qiren was perplexed by the sheer amount of details that Wei Wuxian gave. It was like, he knew all about the methods of the immortal.

"The jewel on her forehead, if you look closely, you can see that it actually is a talisman to keep the energy from exploding, just like the ones that I used on Wen Ning. Other than that, the two are completely different, for example, she does need food to survive, and is capable of having human emotions. As for how I know, Master Lan, I researched long and hard when I promised Wen Qing to bring her brother back.", he had only smiled, but Lan Qiren could see that it wasn't a happy one, it didn't really reach his eyes. Lan Qiren wondered what lengths would this young man go to only to fulfill a promise.

Coming back to the present, he sighed. Maybe, he will just help the boy, this one time. He was about to give his permission, when Wei Wuxian burst in through the doors, like a maniac, " I figured it out. I figured it out. Lan Zhan, I finally figured it out."