-chapter 1-
-betrayal to justice-
-12 years ago.-
Lan wangji felt.. betrayed.
draped on the cold wooden floor, the eyes failing him and belittling him. He tried his most hardest to not let a single tear leave his eyes but he reluctantly fails, ending up sobbing silently, gripping his sleeves tightly as a habit and coping. Unwillingly he tried sitting back up, his usual clan white robes folded neatly. As for his inner robes, he wore it so messily it was dropping down his shoulders, showing a newly burnt chest with the wen clan's flag sign.
His attention was strapped back to reality as He heard footsteps and tidied himself, throwing away those impure suicidal thoughts as he composed himself
The footsteps stopped behind him as he felt a warm hand hold his shoulder and gently shaking it. "Wangji.." lan xichen started "shufu requires your presence in the library pavilion, I came here to try and pick you up" lan xichen said, wangji didn't reply with words but he made a hand gesture that he doesn't want xichen to escort him because he can do it himself. Though xichen was contemplating, He left either way after a while of contemplating on whether he should listen to him or not.
Lan wangji stood still like a statue. His eyes was not gleaming with the same joy he always held, pitifully.
He stood there for a while, looking at every single pathway he and wei wuxian stepped foot on, hearing his own echoing laughter, his chest tightened. He felt a hole dug itself out of his heart. The trouble maker he was, lan wangji jumped on atop of the walls and stood there as the captivating and breathtaking view of the sunset casted upon before him. After a mild hesitation, He stepped foot Infront of him, fleeing cloud recesses. He closed his eyes, taking in the cold atmosphere of his home.
He slowly stepped foot down the door, leaving cloud recesses officially. He wanted to crush his pitiful heart for Aching so much but can you blame the poor Lan for feeling such unbearable pain? Who knew, love can strike harder than the strikes of the disciplinary whip. It didn't take long before he started running, the sound of shuffling robes were dimly heard, it was barely audible to the human ear.
He choked on his tears, but didn't bother to take notice of it either, mounting on bichen before taking one last glance at his home and leaving.
Lan wangji soon arrived at burial mounds, not taking notice on when he planned of getting here. He didn't speak since he didn't want to waste a breath in talking to himself. He entered the rotted and dead quiet place with a hint of nostalgia and deja Vu. Lan wangji continued walking and walking at the dead of night, it was.. oddly quiet since usually his walks would be accompanied with his talking mind but now since his mind was blank, what was there to talk about. It was quiet.. until he heard the faint sounds of cries of a child. He immediately heard the cries of the kid and head for the sounds, who knew his already drained heart would be smashed into pieces once more after founding a shard of memory before his cold body.
Wen yuan, the son of wei wuxian was left here to die at burial mounds, with nothing to eat and with a fever. Just how long was this child here for? when he took notice of the injuries the boy held, shuffling through his clothed bag and sleeves, he gave him a steamed bun and treated his wounds. It's been a while after wei wuxian's death so how was this kid even alive.
Wangji looked around for any remnants but most of it was burned. going deeper into the cave, wangji took a-yuan inside and made him a straw mat for him to lay on on the rock.
Wangji cursed to himself, though he felt a minor headache for a split second, it ceased after hearing the cries of a-yuan once more and making the headache dissipate.
Wangji took a piece of his sleeve off, walking over to a small dirty little pond inside the cave and filtering a bit of it. He took the ripped sleeve and damped it into the cold water, walking towards a-yuan once more and covering his forehead with it. Upon hearing the child's whimpers he took out his guqin, thinking yuan was having a nightmare he played a soothing and calming melody to ease his mind from the bad nightmares.
He walked out the cave but came back in with his clothed bag and placed it on a rock that was flat to serve as a table. He had a few things to serve importance, and he pulled out a pouch with a few medical herbs in it to treat wounds. It was used a while earlier to treat wen yuan's wounds
He went out to go to the nearby burned down village that used to be the wen's before they all perished, wen yuan being an exception. He searched the small farm and found leftover veggies and goods he could use. He searched all individual broken down houses and found a few items that were good to be used as such, farming tools, seeds, pots, and some straws. He was surprised to know these were still good for using, but didn't complain.
He gathered a few of the burned planks and wood from the houses to use as a burner for the fire.
As he came back to the cave he saw wen yuan looking around confusingly, as if he was in a dream until he took notice of lan wangji at the entrance. He tilted his head and smiled bright "a-niang!" Wen yuan said, Lan wangji flinched and sighed "mn."
He walked up to wen yuan and took off the cloth on his forehead to check if he still has a fever so he can change the cloth again. Thankfully, he didn't. Wen yuan cut off the man's trance with a question that Lan wangji can't bear to answer. "Where's a-die?" Wen yuan asked innocently.
Wangji's breath hitched, he didn't know how to answer. He looked around hoping to find a good excuse but..was the excuse even in the cave with him? He grumbled before saying "he'll be back.." with the most pained voice a person can hear from Lan wangji himself. Wen yuan despite being 5 understood it and why he acted like that.
-PRESENT TIME.-
"A-niang." A boy with black and blue robes softly said, walking into a cave that looked like it was made for a god to sleep in, pure beauty with the clearest waters, softest grass and much more. The sounds of clanging can be heard as the black-blue robed boy walked towards the inner sides of the cave.
"A-niang?" The boy called out again. "Sizhui. You're here." A man spoke up, wen sizhui hummed softly and smiled as he saw his father sitting still on a rock while meditating. He was glad he wasn't the type to use demonic cultivation nonetheless the situations. back when wen sizhui was 6, his father had always started acting up and then he caught him doing some so he asked curiously. Only then he found out about demonic cultivation and now his father wanted to follow the path, wen sizhui didn't know why and what it was that made him walk that path.
Wen sizhui ended up following his father's footsteps and resulted in demonic cultivation. But wen sizhui of course had to learn the basics in cultivation first before demonic cultivation, his father had to teach him how to suppress it if you were slowly going out of control. Thus it led to both of them going through a 2 hour meditation at the start of the day or at the end.
"What is it that you need." The man called out once more. He had his hair tied up into a pony tail and as well wearing black and blue robes, he had a mouth veil on that covered half his face unfortunately, well that is until he took it off we can finally see what he looks like.
Lan wangji, looked at wen sizhui with a hint of curiosity on what the young man wanted and wen sizhui took in a very deep breath.
"A-niang, I know how you..have a bad past with the world outside, and how you're known to be likely feared and sometimes looked down upon.." he started. "B-but please let me go on a nighthunt just this once!!! I'll wear my mouth veil, I promise! I won't use demonic cultivation i really promise! Please let me go a-niang!!" Wen sizhui begged and begged without hearing his own father's agreement.
"You can go." He said in a cold voice, not bothering to say no once "a-niang p- wait, really?.." sizhui paused and smiled brightly "thank you thank you thank you a-niang..!!!!!" Sizhui hugged him tightly and a faint smile was drawn upon the older man's lips, sizhui bowed down and took his leave after gathering his combat items. A bow and arrows, a few talismans and his sword xiāosàn.
He left burial mounds a while after and lan wangji sighed, he really did resemble after the rule breaking idiot he is hoping to see once more. He stood up and walked to the stone table where he looked down a moment later.
Several hours later
"Thank you so much I thought I was going to get my arm cut off!!!!!!" A young youth at the age of 18 said, the said youth wearing a headband. He was frantically Bowing down while another youth besides him scoffed in annoyance "just say your incompetent to even BE a lan!!!!" He shot at him.
Sizhui stared at the scene while the 2 youths began to bicker, not taking notice of him walking away from them. The Lan youth noticed him walking away and frantically tried to avert the topic "hey, I have never seen you before I any night hunts, are you perhaps new to the location or? Just a different sect?" Said the Lan youth. "I don't belong in any sect. Nor do I have a clan. My clan went instinct years ago." Sizhui spoke calmly yet his voice gave off a hint of 'stop invading my privacy' but it seems like the Jin youth only caught onto it and the other continued to press on.
"What's your name?" He asked. Sizhui turned around to face the 2 and spoke "yang sizhui." He replied "yang?" The Jin youth replied. "It's not my actual last name, it's just a last name I took in a few years ago."
"So..a family name?" Sizhui shook his head but before he could answer the Jin youth hit the other's head to stop him from stepping up further into the line of space. "Dumbass no, it means he probably doesn't have a last name so he took in the last name of someone who took care of him!!! SOMEONE. NOT FAMILY." the youth shouted "that's the same thing!!!" Sizhui sighed and heard rustling behind him, he upped up his guard and unsheathed his sword, pulling out a burning talisman and throwing it at the crowds of bushes where it was burned down by the talisman sent its way.
A bunch of corpses were heard screeching, it was low but now audible since the few things that were covering their sounds were turned to nothing but ashes left by the talisman. Wei Sizhui groaned and ran atop of the trees as the other 2 youths unsheathed their swords, sizhui ended up using his bow only to realize he was out of arrows, a great way to muddle this up ain't it. He thought as he rolled his eyes.
He ran back to where the other 2 were, approaching the Jin from behind and snatching 5 arrows before shooting it all at the corpses, slowing them down. "Hey what gives!?" The Jin said annoyingly to which he wasn't given a response, then did he finally pushed the thought away and his attention back to the corpse situation.
He noticed how the corpses were gradually getting more and more larger in terms of numbers. They were all surrounding them and sizhui didn't have a choice, running behind the 2 clueless boys he elbowed and kicked their neck's pressure point to which ended up getting the boys to faint. Sizhui pulled out his Xiao, jìniàn
TO BE CONTINUED.
2034 words