The first time was the most difficult.
Instead of waking up to the usual clatter of noises that comes with living smack dab in the middle of Lanling or the slobber of Fairy's saliva, he awoke to a traditional alarm clock followed by a man in red bursting him and shoving eggs into his mouth.
"A-Yuan! Good Morning! Ah? What's with that look? Oh the eggs? Don't worry Don't worry Lan Zhan made them. Jingyi said he'll be a bit late and to head on to school without him. Don't wanna break your perfect attendance!" Jin Ling was not making the bewildered expression due to the eggs. He was making it due to the long hair the man had.
"Wait Wait Wait Wait! Who's A-Yuan? Who's Jingyi and Lan Zhan?? Where am I?" The man stared with a blank expression for a good ten seconds before bursting into another fit of laughter.
"Did you hit your head yesterday? You are A-Yuan silly boy. Come on come on, Lan Qiren is gonna have my head if his beloved grandnephew is late."
"Wait I'm not—" What he assumed to be the front door opened, the man in red bolted down the hallway.
"Lan Zhan! I didn't give you a goodbye kiss yet!"
Okay.... weird ass dream..
Jin Ling looked around the room, it was very simple and didn't include too many decorations. Tucked away in a medium sized drawer was multiple of the same uniform. His brow twitched. There were so many layers!
A long sleeve button up shirt , pale blue sweater with a white blazer and white trousers. It looked like he as supposed to wear another jacket on top of it all. And then.. And then..
In the desk mirror was a unfairly handsome teenager. Gentle eyes. Snow White skin. Even his bed head was somehow neat. Speaking of his bed head... Why the hell was his hair so long?! It was longer than most girls' he knew.
What a strange dream.
Jin Ling let out a sigh deciding to go with it. He'll ultimately wake up anyways.
-
When he showed up to what he assumed to be his school in the dream he was surprised by the amount of stares he got. Was it because he was late? In his defense he always got driven to school and didn't have to walk so far.
"D-Detention!"The teacher finally managed to sputter out. Everyone in the room seemed bewildered but the teacher took the cake. He looked like he just saw the dead come back to life. Was he Lan Qiren?
"What?! Just for being late?!"
"Lan Yuan! Do you know which school rules you broke??"
"No, not really."
"No Tardiness. No talking back to your elders. No raising your voice on campus. Hair must be tied up out of the way. Any family rule must be—" The man's face became sickly pale. "Where's your ribbon?! That's the first rule!"
And that's how the Jin Ling found himself getting lectured for the next hour in a manner that rivaled Uncle Jiang's. He really wanted to wake up soon.
-
"How was school today?" The man in red who he had confirmed to be called Wei Ying otherwise known as one of the adoptive parents asked. The small family of three was eating dinner that had the option of being either bland or hellfire spicy. On the other end of the table sat the two men. The one with a forehead ribbon was Lan Zhan and the other adoptive parent.
"Wei Ying, No talking while—"
"It was fucking bullshit." The two stared at him wide eyed. "What? It was. The teacher called on me every time no one knew the answer. I'm not some prodigy. If the class doesn't know why would I know??" Jin Ling vented, playing with his food.
"You... You cussed..."
"I'm not on campus grounds so what if I cussed."
"You never cussed."
"Okay, the dream gets weirder... I didn't even know my brain could conjure something like this up." Jin Ling commented, slapping his head a few times to see if he could wake up. He did not.
"A-Yuan are you sick? Should I call the doctor over? Hey Wait where are you going??"
"Sleep." The school in the dream was so much harder than Jinlin Academy. Weren't they in the countryside? So why were they doing collage level courses?? It was just a dream but Jin Ling wanted to just pass out for the next twelve hours.
-
"Yesterday I did what?!?!?!" The other students looked over at Jin Ling's raise in volume. Ouyang Zizhen let out a sigh.
"You forgot what classes you had, spoke perfect English, answered multiple collage level questions, aced the pop quiz with flying colors and then completely forgot about archery practice only to repeatedly miss the targets." Jin Ling felt his eye twitch. Was last night's dream not actually a dream? No it can't be, he was someone else completely. It's not like he was gonna have the same dream again—
-
The 'dream' happened again. And again.
When he got a reply after the fourth switch did he finally realize it wasn't a dream. He was actually switching places with this other person. This other... inhumanly perfect...
Life really wasn't fair.
The rules he got from Lan Yuan were difficult. Like everything else in the older boy's life.
•Follow all Lan family rules(I have the rules written down in the blue notebook on my desk)
•Refer to family members by the formal title
•Show up to all lessons on time
•Don't ignore Jingyi
•Be polite to everyone
•Study properly
It didn't seem so bad at first but then he looked through the rulebook. F-Four Thousand family rules?!?! Most of the school rules were just the easier version of the Lan Family rules. Just to add insult to injury it turned out Lan Yuan had a different lesson after school everyday of the week. The exception was the weekends which he learned from Jingyi was when Lan Yuan studied. Did this guy ever take a break?!
Lan Yuan he... He really worked hard to be as close to perfect as he could be. He was kinda jealous. To have that kind of motivation, not for yourself but for others. Jin Ling always did whatever he wanted for himself. He didn't care what other people thought.
But Lan Yuan.. His priorities were always other people. Following the Family rules to a teen to make his family proud, Being polite and kind to others so they would feel wanted and happy, Studying hard and taking an absurd amount of extracurricular lessons to be enough for others to lean on for support.
He couldn't help it. Between the complaints and arguing... He really liked Lan Yuan.
-
"A-Yuan, Are you ready yet?" In the living room waiting was Lan Yuan's father and uncle. According to the note Sizhui left for him, before every new year he, his father, and uncle would go to the family shrine to leave incense and a offering.
This year they brought Emperor Smile.
"A-Yuan. Do you know why we don't let anyone else touch our ribbons?" Lan Huan asked when the trio sat down for lunch.
"It's because.." He was Jin Ling! Jin! How would he know what the Lan ribbon meant.
Lan Huan smiled. Does he know about the switches? "It's because it's sacred, only meant for those you hold closest to your heart. Like your fated one or family members. I hope whoever you give your ribbon to in the future will be someone of that criteria."
"I hope so too." Jin Ling wondered. Who would be Lan Yuan's fates one. Probably someone gentle, kind, a natural beauty.
Someone not like Jin Ling.
-
Lan Yuan tried to set him up on a date, He didn't go.
January 28
I set you up on a date on A-Jing. It's 1PM at the park across from school. Don't be late!
Lan Yuan had included some tips to make it a successful date but Jin Ling didn't read them. He didn't need them cause he didn't want to have a successful date with A-Jing.
By the time the date is finished you should be able to see the comet in the sky. It'll be at it's brightest tonight so even the city lights can't outshine it.
"What comet?" Jin Ling reread Lan Yuan's entries. Quite a few of them lamented over the city lights blocking out the comet. What comet? Strange comment.
Jin Ling dialed Lan Yuan's number. He'll rather argue with him than go on some stupid date.
The number you are trying to reach is out of range or turned off.
He'll have to try again later. Or just tell Lan Yuan he didn't go next switch.
But the switches stopped.
-
It had been a few weeks since the switches stopped. None of his calls or texts have reached Lan Yuan.
"A-Ling, where would you like to go for the break?" Where would he like to go? Qinghe? Taishan? There was somewhere else he wanted to go more.
"Gusu. I want to go to Gusu."
-
"I'm surprised you want to go to Gusu. You don't want to go to Yunmeng like we usually do?" His mother commented on the car ride to Gusu. Uncle Jiang was staring out the window refusing to look at anyone else.
"Yunmeng's better than Gusu." Jiang Cheng finally commented. "At least there HE didn't marry off only to die."
"A-Cheng!"
"What? If Wei Ying didn't marry that asshole Lan Zhan, he would've been in Yunmeng and ALIVE." Jin Ling froze hearing those two names. Wei Ying... Lan Zhan... Lan...
"Uncle, How did he die?"
"Who? Wei Ying? The comet crashed into the town he was in three years ago. Wiped out the entire Lan family and their spouses. Why? Did you know someone from there?" The entire Lan family... Three years ago... Lan Yuan... But a few weeks ago Lan Yuan set him up on a date and wrote entries in his diary.
Jin Ling hurriedly pulled out his phone opening the digital diary. They were still there. They were still—
The entries. The characters bugged out, glitching till eventually.
"They're gone....."
"A-Ling what's wrong?"
"Where...Where are the records for who lived there located?"
-
Jin Ling frantically thumbed through the records of the people who died from the comet. His parents and uncle by his side worriedly watching.
Lan Yuan... Lan Yuan... Lan Yuan... Please... Don't be listed... Don't be—
Jin Ling's heart stopped.
Lan Jingyi | 17
Jingyi... he's gone... dead... and a few names down the page was—
Tears ran down Jin Ling's face.
Lan Yuan | 17
"No...... it's fake...." Jin Ling sobbed. The wretched noise coming from the teenager was more than enough for Yanli to pull him close into a hug. Hiccups and cries ripped from her son's throat, his shoulders rising and falling with rapid succession. His right hand gripped the white cloud patterned ribbon wrapped his left wrist desperately, like it was the only thing holding him together.
——————————————
Hey guess whaaaatt? This is gonna be a three parter instead. I actually finished the final part. It'll be up tomorrow( ̀⌄ ́)
