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“I am going out, Uncle Jiang. I will be back later, okay?” Jin Ling called from the front door of his uncle’s house. He had the door open already and was ready to leave. He had waited until his uncle was in the kitchen and started cooking dinner. Jin Ling knew that once his uncle put on the apron he wore for cooking and his hands were dusted with flour, he wouldn’t be able to follow him out the door to stop him unless he wanted to be embarrassed in front of the neighbours. Besides that, an apron that had ‘Kiss The Cook’ printed on the front of it was a recipe for his uncle’s embarrassment. Plus, those white bunny slippers he wore around the house would really add the nail into his coffin. Who knew that those slippers that Jin Ling had gotten for his uncle for his last birthday would ever come in handy.
However, just as Jin Ling was convinced that his uncle didn’t hear him over the sound of his music playing as he made dumplings, Jin Ling was startled at the gruff sound of his uncle’s voice behind him. “Hold it right there, young man.” Jin Ling turned to see his uncle standing in the hallway, arms crossed and a matching tense frown on his face. Just as he predicted, his hands were still coated in flour and he was wearing his ridiculous apron along with those adorable bunny slippers. Jin Ling figured if he couldn’t convince his uncle to let him leave the house, he would be able to run away without his uncle following him at least. He would be able to deal with the punishment later.
“What?” Jin Ling asked, knowing that it was best to keep what he was going to say to a minimum. The crime show he watched on a regular basis repeatedly reiterated the point that a guilty person will often talk too much an expose himself. Jin Ling was going to be smart about this.
“Where are you going?” Jiang Cheng asked with narrowed eyes, already suspicious of him. Jin Ling tried to keep a calm exterior, but on the inside he was already freaking out. He hadn’t thought of a good alibi when he had planned to escape, believing that his plan to get out quickly would have sufficed. However, now that Jin Ling was being stared down by his uncle, he was worried for the repercussions that would come later on when he arrived home; especially if his uncle was foolish enough to chase him down the street in that ridiculous get up for all the neighbours to see. His uncle was terribly frightening after all, just shy of being as scary as his maternal grandmother, and Jin Ling wouldn’t hesitate to admit he was terrified of his uncle’s explosive anger.
“Uh.” Jin Ling started but immediately stopped himself. He had to come up with good excuse why he was going out that one, would not make his uncle angry and two, would hold over as a good excuse. “I am going to visit Uncle Wei. He said he would help me with an assignment for school.” Jin Ling spouted off, however, he wanted to smack himself in the head immediately afterwards. His uncle knew that if Jin Ling could help it, he would avoid spending time with his deranged uncle as much as possible. Family dinners were became less of a good time when Uncle Wei showed up and more of a circus spectacle. That fateful Christmas they have henceforth referred to as the ‘glitter incident’ is enough to send shivers down Jin Ling’s spine when he remembers what spending time with his uncle brings..
His uncle just lifted an inquisitive eyebrow. Jin Ling knew he wasn’t convinced. “Why would you go to that idiot for help with your assignment? Aren’t I good enough to help you?”
“A-Actually, I am just using Uncle Wei as an excuse. I really need help from Sizhui, but if I went to his house with the intention to just see Sizhui, Uncle Wei is sure to throw a fit at the fact that he is unloved.” Jin Ling supplied, hoping that Jiang Cheng would buy his lie. It wasn’t an unreasonable lie really. His cousin Lan Sizhui was a few years older than him and currently attending university, so Jin Ling would often ask for his help on certain subjects that he wasn’t doing well in.
However, as Jin Ling watched his uncle’s expression, he saw that his eyes squinted slightly in suspicion. That was not good news, Jin Ling concluded. He became convinced that his uncle knew something was wrong and Jin Ling prepared himself to be dragged back inside by his ear and scolded for the rest of the night. His uncle would call up his parents who were away for his father’s work function for a week and tattle on him for being a liar. He should have known that lying to his uncle was only going to bite him in the ass. Jin Ling knew he should have just gone with his first plan of climbing out an upstairs bedroom window instead, even if he was sure he would break his arm like how Lan Jingyi had done so a year prior when he tried to sneak out of his grandpa’s house.
He braced himself for his punishment when he was surprised by what his uncle said to him next. “Okay, have a good time.” Jin Ling could only blink in shock, sure that he just misheard what his uncle has said.
“What?” Jin Ling dumbly said in reaction before he could think it through.
“Make sure you don’t get back too late, okay? I will put your share of dinner in the fridge for you so you can have it if your uncle is cooking for dinner. Lan Wangji may be able to stomach that vile thing your Uncle Wei calls food, but if you do, you will get sick. Call me if he tries to force you to eat it, I will put him in his place.” Jiang Cheng said, already turning back into the kitchen so he could continue cooking dinner. Jin Ling just foolishly stood in the still opened doorway, shocked that his little lie was actually accepted by his always disgruntled uncle without further question.
Jiang Cheng popped his head around the corner suddenly as Jin Ling was still standing in the doorway and Jin Ling jumped in fright. “Are you going to leave? If you want to just stand there, close the door. You are letting in all of the cold air.” Jiang Cheng retreated back to the kitchen and Jin Ling simply stiffly turned around to walk outside. He gave the hallway a last glance over his shoulder to check that his uncle wasn’t actually waiting for him to step outside before he dragged him back in, but the hallway was still empty.
Jin Ling decided to enjoy his good fortune and didn’t hesitate again as closed the door behind him and ran down the front porch steps. He practically sprinted to the corner down the street where he could see Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi waiting for him. When they saw him approaching, Lan Jingyi waved his arms like a crazy person and shouted out his name. Jin Ling had to quicken his pace to their side and slap a hand over his friend’s big mouth.
“Be quiet will you?! I thought we were trying to be inconspicuous.” Jin Ling whispered, looking over his shoulders to make sure that none of the neighbours were watching them. When he confirmed that there were no witnesses, he removed his hand from Lan Jingyi’s mouth, taking care to wipe his hand on Lan Jingyi’s jacket while he was at it.
He turned to Lan Sizhui. “You got the tickets, yeah?” Lan Sizhui flashed him a smile and produced three tickets from his pocket for his two friends to see. They all smiled and stamped their feet in excitement and seeing the elusive tickets. A week ago, the three of them came to the knowledge that their favourite rock band was doing a spontaneous show in their town and all three of them vowed that they needed to go. However, the show was being held in a bar in that was a thirty minute drive away and located in a sketchy part of town that none of their guardians would ever allow them to visit: especially late at night. Therefore, they all made a pact to all sneak out and go to the show and come home before any of their guardians were any of the wiser.
In their heads, this sounded like a good, sound-proof plan, however in practice, things always don’t turn out how they are expected to. Oblivious to the unfortunate circumstances they were to experience later in the evening, all three boys excitedly piled into Lan Sizhui’s car so they could set off to the venue.
It was seventeen minutes past eleven and Jiang Cheng was starting to become worried. He had expected Jin Ling to be gone for a few hours at best, but his nephew had left more than five hours ago and he had received no word from him. He had repeatedly called and texted Jin Ling since nine o’clock, asking when he was going to get home, but there was radio silence from the young boy who was usually pretty responsive to messages. Jiang Cheng checked the time on his phone once again and found that only a minute had passed since he had last checked it.
“Screw it,” Jiang Cheng said to himself as he flicked through his contacts until he stopped on the contact listed as ‘Idiot Brother’ in his phone. He dialled the number and put his phone to his ear, waiting as the dial tone rang into his ear.
“Jiang Cheng! What’s up?!” Jiang Cheng’s eardrum was suddenly assaulted by Wei Wuxian’s shrill voice coming out of his phone. Jiang Cheng had to pull his phone away from his ear for a moment as he winced in pain before he put it back to rest against his other ear.
“Jeez, it is late at night, can’t you keep it down?” Jiang Cheng complained, already feeling a headache coming on that he usually got from talking to his adopted brother.
“Oh, sorry.” Wei Wuxian said then in a near whisper, he continued on. “What’s up, Jiang Cheng?” Jiang Cheng sighed, not wanting to deal with this on top of his M.I.A nephew.
“Can you tell Jin Ling that it is time to come home. It is getting pretty late.”
“Sure thing! But why can’t you?” Wei Wuxian asked in a confused manner. Jiang Cheng pinched the bridge of his nose with his forefinger and thumb as he considered all the possible ways he could murder Wei Wuxian and get away with it.
“He is not picking up his phone or responding to my texts. Look, can you just go tell him to get back here soon. Or better yet, I will come pick him up.” Jiang Cheng determinedly said as he stood up from his seat to go grab his shoes and car keys, all the while still on the phone with Wei Wuxian.
“That’s good and all, but if you can’t get through to him, what makes you think that my calls and texts will.” Jiang Cheng froze in place as he just picked up his keys, trying to process what Wei Wuxian had just said. Wei Wuxian just continued on, however. “Ah! Maybe he is angry with you and that is why he isn’t picking up. Did he run away from home again? What did you say to A-Ling to make him mad at you? Shijie trusted her beloved son to you and now you are meaning to tell me that he is missing? Next time, he is staying with me.”
Jiang Cheng had to rein in his anger at Wei Wuxian so he could focus on the problem at hand. “Just hold-up for a minute there, Wei Ying. Are you meaning to tell me that Jin Ling is not with you at the moment? He told me he was going over to your place for help on an assignment.”
“What do you mean? Of course he isn’t! I’ve been out all day today with Lan Zhan, we just got back home. No one has been home all day. Not even Sizhui is home at the mom- wait a second.” Wei Wuxian was silent for a moment on the other side of the phone as he thought through what Jiang Cheng had just said. Luckily, Jiang Cheng had the foresight to remove his phone from up against his ear and hold it far away from his ears. A second later, Wei Wuxian’s shrill voice could be heard through the speaker.
“Oh. My. God! Did Jin Ling lie to you, Jiang Cheng?” At his own revelation into the situation, Wei Wuxian burst out into hysterics for a good minute. Jiang Cheng simply just waited for Wei Wuxian to stop laughing before even attempting to continue with their conversation. Jiang Cheng tossed his keys back into the bowl where he fished them out and stormed back into the lounge room where he took up his post on the couch once again.
“I am going to break his legs when he gets back. Let’s see how he sneaks out after that when he can’t even walk.” Jiang Cheng grumbled, exhaustion making him slump further into the couch.
Wei Wuxian laughed again but when he didn’t hear Jiang Cheng laughing along with him, he grew apprehensive. “Uh, Jiang Cheng? You are not really going to break your own nephew’s legs, are you? I don’t think Shijie would want that.”
“That little shit decided that he was going to lie to me, so now he must deal with the consequences.” Jiang Cheng just ambiguously answered. On the other end of the call, Wei Wuxian nervously bit his lip, feeling suddenly guilty.
“I’m coming over, Jiang Cheng.” Wei Wuxian said. Jiang Cheng sprung up to sit upright, a frown marring his face.
“No you aren’t. Stay there. I don’t need help disciplining Jin Ling,” Jiang Cheng resolutely answered back, trying to take a firm tone in his voice as though that would stop Wei Wuxian from coming over.
“Well Jin Ling has dragged my good name into his lie, so I have every right to be there too,” Wei Wuxian chimed in.
“Wei Wuxian! Don’t you-”
“Don’t bother trying to lock me out, Jiang Cheng, I still have a spare key! Or otherwise, I will break in through your bedroom window again.”
“Wei Ying!,” Jiang Cheng tried again, but it was too late, all he could hear through his phone was the sound of the dial tone.
“I see you didn’t even bother with locking the door,” Wei Wuxian greeted as he found Jiang Cheng sitting on the couch.
“Wei Ying, what are you really doing here?,” Jiang Cheng couldn’t help but ask, already exhausted from needing to deal with his brother as well.
“Making sure you don’t break my nephew’s legs. I only have one nephew, so there are no backups if you do break this one. After all, if I don’t have A-Ling, who else other than my own son can I torment and embarrass.” Wei Wuxian sunk down onto the couch next to Jiang Cheng and hugged a throw pillow to his chest.
Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes. “You torment me all the time.”
“Your reactions aren’t as cute as they used to be when we were younger. Now you are just angry, you really should fix that.” Jiang Cheng didn’t hesitate to snatch the pillow that Wei Wuxian was clutching and proceed to beat him with it. Wei Wuxian curled up into a little ball and shrieked at Jiang Cheng to stop his assault with the pillow, but he only stopped once he felt that most of his reactionary anger was gone.
“Oh, I know! We can kill two birds with one stone,” Wei Wuxian began. “You can finally get around to finding yourself a partner, so you will not be forever alone and grumpy all the time. I will also have more nephews or nieces to torment as well just in case you do break Jin Ling. It’s a win-win for us all.” Wei Wuxian had to pause in telling Jiang Cheng his idea as he thought it over. “Well, except for Jin Ling who will be subject to a wheelchair.”
“Wei Ying!,” Jiang Cheng yelled.
“See there!” Wei Wuxian pointed at Jiang Cheng with an accusing finger. “That’s the anger I am talking about! Maybe even a cute honey won’t solve that issue, however,” he pouted.
Jiang Cheng clenched his teeth in annoyance. “Jin Ling is missing and you are just rambling.”
“Well...” Wei Wuxian stressed the word which made Jiang Cheng watched him out of the corner of his eye in suspicion. “I wouldn’t say he is missing per say,” he continued on.
Jiang Cheng let out a sigh as he mentally prepared himself for more of Wei Wuxian’s antics. “Don’t beat around the bush. Just tell me where he is.”
“Last week, I was kind of looking through Sizhui’s desk drawers for a stapler and came across some tickets for a rock show that is being held a few towns over. I am gonna take a guess and say he went along to it with A-Ling and Jingyi. If I remember correctly, the performance was tonight.” Jiang Cheng could feel his eye twitching in anger and he clenched his hands tightly to stop himself from laying his hands on Wei Wuxian.
“And why didn’t you think it was appropriate to tell me this information before hand?” Jiang Cheng hissed out and Wei Wuxian at least had the decency to look ashamed.
Wei Wuxian threw up his hands in a gesture of surrender as he explained himself. “I am trying to save Jin Ling from having broken legs! And besides, the children rarely ever do anything wrong. I have to let them misbehave first before I can punish them.”
Jiang Cheng let out a big sigh in stress and went back to pinching the bridge of his nose.“So let me get this straight. You knew the boys were going out late at night to a rock concert where they might be doing who knows what there, and you let them go simply because your child is too much of a godsend and you never get to scold him.”
Wei Wuxian’s expression lit up as Jiang Cheng hit the nail on the head.“Exactly! Now you are getting it, Jiang Cheng!”
“You are such an idiot!,” Jiang Cheng screamed, hitting Wei Wuxian over the head with the pillow again. He continued beating Wei Wuxian until the other man finally had enough and stood up from the couch to get away. Jiang Cheng was about to follow him but stopped when Wei Wuxian put his hands out to stave off the attack.
“I think that is hardly called for,” Wei Wuxian whined. “After all, you have to give the children an opportunity to make mistakes themselves so they learn the consequences of their actions.” Jiang Cheng wanted to hit him again at the sheer stupidity of the comments coming out of his mouth.
“You were such a troublesome child, but you never learnt anything from your mistakes,” Jiang Cheng argued.
“Ah, but the difference between them and me is that they are actually smart and will learn from their mistakes. Teenage years are the time for making mistakes after all,” Wei Wuxian argued as he bit his lip. He looked to Jiang Cheng, hoping that his brother would understand where he was coming from with his idea. The children should be able to learn from their mistakes after all, instead of coddled by their elders all of the time.
Jiang Cheng stood up and walked towards the front door.“I’m going to go pick up A-Ling. I will drive around all the streets until I find him if I have to.”
“No, wait!” Wei Wuxian jumped in front of Jiang Cheng with his arms spread wide, in hopes of stopping him. “I have a better idea!”
Jiang Cheng just shook his head in disbelief. “And what better idea could you possibly have?”
“Come help me bring your evil, swivel chairs into the lounge room quick!,” Wei Wuxian said and he ran out of the room in the direction of Jiang Cheng’s study.
Jin Ling felt both mentally and physically exhausted and honestly just wanted to go to bed. The three of them had originally planned to be back before midnight, but now it was nearly two o’clock in the morning and Jin Ling was honestly regretting the whole night. He never should have left without getting permission from his uncle, or letting at least one of their guardians know where they were.
The night started off well, the trio had joined the mosh pit in the crowd and enjoyed themselves for hours, dancing and singing along to one of their favourite bands. They had planned on leaving after a few hours, but the band had played encore after encore and they were all oblivious to the fact that it was already midnight when they finally stopped playing. When they had realised the time, they panicked and tried to make a quick getaway back home before they would get into serious trouble. However, an unexpected incident occurred that halted them for another hour: the police showed up.
Apparently, from what Jin Ling could make sense of the situation, the police had gotten an anonymous tip that someone at the venue was dealing out very serious and very illegal drugs. In order to find the person, the police had barred anyone from leaving the venue while they waited for the drug-sniffing dogs to arrive and search every individual person. Lan Jingyi, Lan Sizhui and Jin Ling had no choice but to wait it out while the police conducted their search, growing more anxious as the minutes ticked by. By the time that they were cleared to leave, it was a little past one in the morning. Now it was almost two, Jin Ling was sure his uncle was going to kill him.
Jin Ling was unsurprised to find that the front door to his uncle’s house was unlocked and the lights were still on. Knowing his uncle, he had probably worn the carpet down in the lounge room from all the nervous pacing he would have done whilst waiting up for him. Jin Ling could only hope that his punishment would be replacing that carpet and maybe and not something more grievous. Uncle Jiang always had the most creative punishments after all, Jin Ling thought to himself.
As he closed the front door behind him and walked to the lounge room where he expected to find his uncle waiting, he was instead surprised to find two chairs with their backs facing him in the middle of the room instead. These chairs were great, big black swivel chairs that his Uncle Wei had gifted to his Uncle Cheng when he had renovated the study room in his house. They were honestly ridiculous and were more so sitting in the middle of his uncle’s lounge room. Jin Ling had to wonder if his uncle was so overcome with worry that he started to rearrange his house as a means of stress relief.
However, Jin Ling was in for another surprise when suddenly the chair on the right turned around. Jin Ling met the clearly angry figure of his Uncle Jiang who was sat with his arms crossed over his chest and a stern look on his face. “Where were you?,” he asked with a guttural voice and Jin Ling could do little more than just stand there with comically wide blown eyes.
After a few seconds, Jin Ling seemed to recover from his shock and was able to find his voice. He knew that this was as good as anytime to come clean to his uncle and tell him the truth, but seeing his angry expression that seemed to scream ‘punishment’, Jin Ling could feel his resolve to be honest crumbling. “With Uncle Wei,” Jin Ling said before he had even had ample time to think about the implications of his lie.
“Wanna try again?,” Wei Wuxian asked as he turned around in his own swivel chair. If Jin Ling was shocked to see his uncle the first time around, he was even more shocked to see his Uncle Wei sitting in the other chair. Wei Wuxian had a maniacal smile on his face and his fingers were steepled together in front of his chin like he was some evil mastermind. Sitting on his lap was also… Jin Ling had to do a retake to make sure he wasn’t seeing things wrong, but after looking once again, Jin Ling could indeed confirm that one of his Uncle Jiang’s white bunny slippers was sat on his lap. Jin Ling was so confused about the slipper that he could focus on little else.
“Why do you have uncle’s bunny slipper on your lap?” Jin Ling blurted out.
“It’s my little evil cat minion! This was the best substitute for a white, evil cat that I could find on short notice,” Wei Wuxian answered as he stroked the floppy ears of the slipper.
“Just ignore him. Answer me, why are you home so late? Why did you lie to me about going over to your uncle’s house?” Under Jiang Cheng’s glare, Jin Ling felt extremely guilty and could feel all the fears he felt over the course of the night bubbling up to the surface. Therefore, Jin Ling couldn’t help the fact that his lip began to tremble and tears gathered in his eyes.
“I’m sorry, Uncle Jiang, I really am. I made a mistake,” Jin Ling began, pausing a moment so he could gather himself. “I really just wanted to go and see my favourite rock band perform, but it ended later than we realised it would and then we were made to stay when the police were searching for drugs.”
“Drugs?!” Both his uncles yelled in unison as they jumped up from their seats.
“I wasn’t involved! I swear! Someone just snuck them in. The police dealt with them,” Jin Ling said desperately. His uncles shared a brief look with each other that seemed to convey a whole conversation between them. His uncle Wei simply nodded after a few seconds and Jin Ling was confused as to what they could have possibly agreed on just with a simple glance. Afterwards, his Uncle Wei stepped forward to offer his nephew a pat on his shoulder in comfort.
“I’m going to go home and check on Sizhui. I will leave A-Ling to you, Jiang Cheng.” Wei Wuxian said to his brother. He then turned his attention to Jin Ling and reached out to wipe a few tears from his nephew’s eyes that were threatening to spill over. “Buck up kid. I will see you tomorrow, okay?,” Wei Wuxian murmured to Jin Ling before leaving through the front door so he could return home to deal with his own child.
“Jin Ling…” Jiang Cheng started, but was unsure where to take the conversation.
“I’m sorry, Uncle. I messed up,” Jin Ling could only answer as he listlessly stared at the floor, unable to bring himself to look at his uncle.
“Jin Ling...” Jiang Cheng tried again. He stepped forward and placed a hand on Jin Ling’s shoulder in hopes that it would comfort the disheartened boy. Suddenly, Wei Wuxian’s previous words about how children needed to learn for themselves popped into his mind.
“Yes?,” Jin Ling answered, trying to brace himself for the scolding that was inevitably about to happen.
“Next time you want to do something like this, just ask me. I will come along with you,” his uncle said instead.
“What?” Jin Ling could only dumbly ask in his moment of shock, confused as to why his uncle was offering to accompany him next time he wanted to do a reckless thing instead of threatening to ground him for eternity.
“I would rather know you are safe more than anything. Just don’t lie to me so I don’t know where you are. You had me seriously worried.” Jin Ling suddenly found himself wrapped up in his uncle’s embrace, his face pressed into his uncle’s shoulder. At first, Jin Ling was unsure what to do with his hands, but he eventually settled for wrapping them behind his uncle’s back and grabbing tight fistfuls of his shirt as he tried his best to hold his tears back.
“Okay,” Jin Ling managed to whisper out as he was still being hugged.
After a few minutes of remaining in his uncle’s embrace, his Uncle Jiang eventually withdrew from the hug and held him as arm’s length by both of his shoulders. “But if you do lie to me like that again, I will break both of your legs. Do I make myself clear? This is the only warning that you are getting.”
Jin Ling gulped in fear, not doubting for even one second he was bluffing. “Yes sir.”
“I hope you aren’t thinking that you are getting away with this without punishment, either. For the next week while your parents are gone, you are grounded. You also have to do a number of chores around the house as well.” Jiang Cheng raised an eyebrow as he waited for his nephew to respond.
Jin Ling just smiled softly. “Okay.”
“I’ll make you a deal though. If you behave during your punishment, I promise to keep your misbehaviour a secret from your parents.” Jiang Cheng offered a small smile to his nephew who suddenly looked like he had a twinkle in his eye
“Really?,” Jin Ling excitedly asked.
“Yeah.”
“Thanks, Uncle Jiang!” Jin Ling stepped forward and wrapped his arms around his uncle’s torso in a quick, three second hug before he withdrew again.
Jiang Cheng just mirthfully chuckled and ruffled his nephew’s hair. “Okay, okay. It is bedtime now.” Jin Ling nodded along in agreement and big his good nights to his uncle. As Jin Ling was making his way upstairs, he suddenly stopped halfway and bit his lip. He turned around and walked down a few stairs and leaned over the banister.
“Uncle Jiang?,” Jin Ling called out. Jiang Cheng was making his way back into the lounge room so he could turn off all the lights before they went to bed when he stopped and turned back around at the sound of his nephew calling his name.
“Yes?”
“I love you,” Jin Ling murmured out, a small blush staining his checks.
Jiang Cheng smiled at the sight. “I love you, too, kid.”
Lan Sizhui opened the front door to his house, not quite sure what would find on the other side. Even though he was a university student and was responsible for himself, his parents still worried over his safety often and had enforced a curfew for midnight. Lan Sizhui knew that they implemented the curfew for his own safety and their own peace of mind and at the moment, he felt like he had betrayed a sense of their trust by arriving home at two in the morning.
He didn’t know if his parents had waited up for him or were sound asleep, but he vowed that he shouldn’t be allowed to get away from this situation without some form of punishment. As the eldest out of the trio of his friends, he needed to take the most responsibility of what occurred tonight. He was also the one who procured the tickets, therefore he was the one who should be blamed for their late curfew. He hoped he could beg Jiang Cheng and Lan Qiren the following day to lessen their punishment on his friends and put more of the blame on him.
Lan Sizhui stepped inside and closed the door behind him. The house was dark except for the light that was spilling out of the kitchen and down the hallway. Lan Sizhui didn’t hesitate and made his way to the kitchen to meet his maker. Upon entering the kitchen, Lan Sizhui was greeted by the sight of his father sitting at the kitchen table sipping from a mug of warm milk. He lifted his gaze when he realised Lan Sizhui was home and standing in the doorway to the kitchen.
“I’m sorry that I have come home so late, Father. I don’t have a good excuse for why I am late either,” Lan Sizhui began, trying it best to keep his head lifted so he could meet his father’s gaze, despite his desire to pin his gaze to the floor in shame.
“Welcome home,” his father simply greeted in between sipping his milk. Lan Sizhui flinched at the brevity of his father’s words, almost wishing he would get the scolding his mother would give him.
“I will accept any punishment you deem fit for me. Would writing out the Lan family rules a hundred times be a good start?,” Lan Sizhui suggested, knowing it was a common practice of punishment for the Lan family children to memorise the family’s rules by writing them out. Even though Lan Sizhui knew he was deserving of punishment, he was already lamenting over his hand for how sore it was sure to be after he copied the family rules out a hundred times.
“Sizhui,” his father called out to him, thus snapping Lan Sizhui out from his own thoughts.
“Yes?”
“Next time, just call.” Lan Sizhui waited for his father to say something more, to scold him for staying out so late, but no other words came out of his father mouth.
“Okay,” Lan Sizhui eventually answered. Just then he noticed that there was a distinct lack of noise and chaos in the house. “Where’s mum?”
His father took another sip of his milk before answering. “At Jiang Cheng’s.”
Lan Sizhui had to raise an eyebrow at the unexpected answer. However, after thinking it through, there could only be be one reason his mother was over at his brother’s house. “Interrogating Jin Ling I presume?”
“Mnn,” his father answered. Lan Sizhui sighed and mentally sent his prayers to his cousin. He was sure to get a bigger scolding than what he had received from his father.
“He’s probably going to give me a mouthful tomorrow, isn’t he?,” Lan Sizhui asked with a sigh and a small frown. He didn’t even want to think about his mother’s reaction right now; he was far too tired.
“Most likely.”
Lan Sizhui just slightly shook his head in regret. He turned back to his father and bid him a good night instead, wanting nothing more than to curl up into his warm bed and sleep the rest of the night away. “I think I am going to head to bed before he gets home then.”
“We’ll talk more in the morning,” his father answered, and Lan Sizhui was suddenly aware that he wasn’t simply let off the hook from his father like he had previously presumed. It seemed that his father wanted to do a dual interrogation with his mother. Lan Sizhui gulped nervously.
“Good night, Dad,” Lan Sizhui weakly offered, as he turned away to walk back to his bedroom.
“Good night,” his father said in return.
As Lan Sizhui was walking away, a sudden thought occurred to him. He stopped in place and then turned on his heel so he could face his father once again.“Oh, and one last thing?”
“Mnn?”
“Are you waiting up this late for me to return home or are you waiting for mum instead?” Lan Sizhui couldn’t help but let a cheeky smile crawl across his face as he watched his father for any reaction. Lan Wangji just paused slightly as he went to take a sip out of his mug once again and met the gleeful eyes of his son over the edge of his mug.
“Couldn’t sleep,” he finally answered after a few seconds pause.
Lan Sizhui turned on his heel and walked back to his bedroom with a knowing smile on his lips. “If you say so, Dad,” he sing-songed as he went.
Later that night, when Lan Sizhui was settling into bed, he was aware of the front door opening and could hear his mother through the walls.
“Lan Zhan! Our precious boy was almost corrupted tonight! Sizhui?! You didn’t eat the drugs, right?!” Wei Wuxian dramatically screeched, but Lan Sizhui could feel himself slipping into slumber, unable to think clearly about what his mother was going on about. He would deal with his crazy mother in the morning.
Lan Jingyi was careful to open his window as silently as he could manage before he slowly slipped through it to land on his bed. Even in his sleep, his grandfather was always perceptive to the slightest of sounds. Making loud noises at any given time was not the way of the Lan family after all.
Lan Jingyi took care to make sure that closing his bedroom window didn’t make any noise that would wake his grandpa up. Once he was safely inside, Lan Jingyi fist pumped the air in celebration of being able to sneak back inside successfully without alerting his grandpa. Lan Jingyi was convinced that his grandpa would have gone to bed at nine pm sharp as does every night and would be none the wiser that he had only come back at two in the morning. He also wouldn’t have to know that his grandson had snuck in through his bedroom window again.
Lan Jingyi yawned, sleepy after such an eventful night. He stood up from his bed so he could go change into his pyjamas and go to sleep for the night. However, as Lan Jingyi stood up to fast, he suddenly lost his balance and fell against his desk that was against the wall. As he grabbed the desk to balance himself again, he was grateful that it had only made a small noise. Although, just as Lan Jingyi was counting his blessings that his misstep didn’t cause a louder noise, he noticed that the stack of books on the other end of his desk was wobbling. Lan Jingyi could do little more than just watch on helplessly as the books toppled to the floor in a loud bang. He winced at the loud sound and closed his eyes for the inevitable hell he was about to experience.
“LAN JINGYI!”