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The Lost Lotus

Chapter 7: Knives, gossip and memories

Summary:

short chapter and Lan Xichen appears briefly

Notes:

the knife that appears in the chapter is a kriss, a knife with a wavy blade originating of Malaysia.
Sorry for the language mistake ^_^"

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

The boy tossed and turned in bed for the umpteenth time, a cold sweat beading on his forehead, his hair sticking to his face.

He wasn't awake, but his dreams were anything but pleasant.

His feet hurt, but they had two taotie on their heels and he had no intention of slowing his pace.

"I said let go of me, you bastard!"

The boy in his arms struggled in an attempt to break free, but a wounded rogue cultivator could do nothing against the strength of Lan's arm.

Huan tried to reason with him, ignoring the blood spreading across his tunic where the beast had bitten him. "Shui-Gongzi, please, if you don't . . .”

But the boy simply wasn't listening to him. "I don't give a shit what he told you! I'm not leaving my mother alone!"

There was something behind the bite in that voice, a desperation so familiar to Lan XiChen's heart that he almost let go.

"If you really want to pay off your debt get my son out of here!"

Huan tightened his grip on the young man's slim waist. No he couldn't just let down the woman who had save his life.

It was at that moment that a chilling roar ripped through the air behind them, the sickening sound of torn flesh following soon after.

"A-Niang!"

His eyes snapped open to the cloud-carved ceiling beams. Lan XiChen stood still, counting the seconds it took for his breathing to normalize.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. . .

He got out of bed with a sigh and went to the basin to rinse his face, his gaze meeting his rippling reflection on the water.

It had been almost two years since that disastrous hunt, yet Lan Huan still had nightmares .

He reached for the small bottle of medicine he had been preparing every night on his desk lately for nights like that, but in doing so his eyes fell on that particular drawer.

He hadn't opened that drawer in two years, yet that night something pricked him incessantly, like an itch he couldn't reach.

He drank the liquid down in one gulp and reached out his hand hesitantly, almost as if the handle of the cabinet might bite him.

The sliding of the wood was deafening in the religious silence of Cloud Recesses, even the night noises were muffled into a distant noise. The sealed drawer held an ornate, sealed box, inside was the weapon that had given him the ugly scar on the palm of his right hand.

He removed the seal and gently picked up the weapon. At first he had wanted to take a new scabbard, but the particular shape of the blade, wavy and wide at the base, had made it practically impossible, he had to settle for restoring it: he had mounted a pearl in the empty housing of the handle and replaced the frayed and dirty tassel with one of blue silk.

He traced with a finger the figure of the snake engraved on the blade.

It had happened so quickly. . .

Huan closed his eyes.

The knife fell into the grass stained with blood.

"Don't come near me!" growled the young man as if he was about to maul him.

Lan Huan would have let him if it would have done any good.

He didn't move away; XiChen stood silently watching over the woman's pyre until the embers were extinguished.

He had tried to take the boy under Gusu Lan's wing, but the rogue cultivator told him to mind his own business. He didn't want to leave him alone, but there was a limit to what he could do or say to convince him.

And as if he didn't feel enough blame the worst had come, Lan XiChen couldn't get the boy out of his head, the memory of those burning eyes looking at him with hatred was haunting him. Maybe those nightmares was the price he had to pay, maybe it was just his guilt or even the recent anniversary of the event.

Whatever it was, he simply wanted to see him again, if only to make sure he was okay.

He sighed for the umpteenth time too soon and put the knife back, hoping that in addition to the weapon he could lock up his turbulent thoughts as well.

He changed into a clean robe and returned to bed, he wanted to try and get some rest at least.

After all, the visiting students would be arriving in a few days.

§

"You really haven't noticed yet?" asked Ru-shimei one afternoon as they were gorging on spicy tanghulu.

"About what?" asked Wei WuXian as he savored the candied fruit. If the bad reputation of Cloud Recesses' cuisine was deserved he wanted to get his fill of real food.

"Probably of the fact that Sect Leader and Madam Yu are constantly comparing us," Shui Cheng replied too quietly as he bit into the snack.

 Wei WuXian almost choked.

"What?!"

His fellow disciples cast knowing glances at each other, the sweets momentarily forgotten as Shui Cheng continued to speak.

"They're playing my pupil is better than yours," he licked his sugar-stained fingers with furrowed brows.

"You can't be serious," Wei WuXian wanted so much to laugh at it as a bad joke, but now that it had been pointed out to him, he began to take situations and words out of context and reviewing them came the absurd conclusion. In his defense, Madam Yu never played favorites, so the subtle way she seemed to approve of Shui Cheng's abilities had gone almost unnoticed. Like that time when she had corrected his sword form while meanwhile listing how good it was in certain places or that time when Wei WuXian had managed to shoot an arrow at kites an inch above his friend and Uncle Jiang had said that the younger ones should take an example from him or that time again that . . 

Wei WuXian slapped a hand to his forehead. "Fuck."

"Yeah," was all Ru-shimei could say.

 "If they weren't the leaders of one of the four great sects, you'd think they were a couple of provincial about to get divorced."

"Shui-shixiong!"

"What? You're not going to tell me I'm not right?"

"Well . . . I'm not saying no, but you shouldn't talk like that with the gossip going around."

"What gossip?" ask Shui Cheng and Wei Ying in chorus, their heads tilted in the same direction, and Wei WuXian nearly diverted the conversation.

Seriously, sometimes their synchronicity was almost disturbing.

"Well . . . it's those gossips only . . ." her voice trailed off and Wei WuXian instantly knew what he meant. He felt irritation make his hands itch to slap someone's mouth. Why was it so hard for people to believe in selfless actions? A man and a woman couldn't be friends without people automatically assuming they were fucking?

He was his father's son, Madam Yu had made sure to remind him of that.

Shui Cheng looked really pissed off. "So what?" he chewed noisily on the last piece of candy fruit, it almost sounded like a threat. "It's nothing new, or are you telling me that they've put out yet another absurd and more interesting variant?"

Ru-shimei, who loved gossip suddenly looked uncomfortable. "Th. . .they say that the Sect Leader is not the only one in Lotus Pier who has brought a bastard under his roof."

Wei WuXian didn't look at Shui Cheng, he didn't, but it was really hard to ignore the implication or the awkward silence that came next.

Well, Wei Ying knew that Madam Yu loved her husband in spite of the bitterness and arguments, and even if that love was reduced to sharp shards capable only of drawing blood, Wei WuXian was sure that the woman would never stoop to seeking comfort in someone else's arms.

Or have an illegitimate child in the first place, not with the callous questions about why they simply hadn't had any more children since Jiang Cheng.

And then there's the other detail that no one considers, the one that gives Wei WuXian a migraine as much as he thinks about it.

Shui Cheng and Jiang Cheng are the same age, born just a few days apart.

But people didn't know any of this, all they saw was a little boy with the same slender figure as Madam Yu, the same beauty made of sharp edges armed with words that could cut a hair in three.

He would really like to exchange a few words with the person who was spreading those rumors, but he didn't exactly have any convincing arguments, not after Madam Yu had given his friend a courtesy name at least.

But Shui Cheng suddenly laughs, cutting the threads of tension between them.

"Yes of course, and they also say a dragon dwells in the lake. Shall we go hunt it down?"

The air erupted with laughter and more jokes followed, the previous topic drowned under sugar and avalanches of snacks that would ruin their appetite before dinner.

But when it's just the two of them, sitting on the ghostly haunted pier of a living person with a jar of Lotus Wind between them, only then did Wei WuXian venture to ask.

"Have you ever thought about it? About what Ru-shimei said I mean."

Shui Cheng sneered and shook his head as if exasperated.

"It's my father I'm looking for, if I  still have one. I already had a mother."

"Yes but . .”

Maybe she wasn't really your mother, he didn't say it, couldn't say it, not after learning how she died. He wanted to slap himself in the face just for the thought, but his eyes couldn't help but look at his friend's profile and trace all those details that had sparked the gossip, from Madam Yu's sharp face with prominent cheekbones to the almond-shaped eyes that were the same gray streaked with blue as Uncle Jiang's.

Maybe it was just his selfish wish, but the further he went, the more that suspicion became conjecture, and from the conjecture came a theory that made more sense every day.

"Shui Cheng,"

"What?" His friend turned and the blue pearl glowed in the light of the full moon, the silver tassel swinging over his shoulder.

"Listen, I think . ." he stammered, swallowing hard, unable to find the words.

No you don't, you're wrong, whispered something in his head as the pearl on his earring shone again.

Shui Cheng meanwhile looked confused. "You think what?"

Wei WuXian gasped like a fish, the words were on the tip of his tongue again, but they slipped away into the opalescent glint that whispered: You're wrong, it's not true, you saw wrong, look away.

Forget!

Wei WuXian forgot what he meant, the feeling that it was really something important made his head spin. He took his forehead in one hand, shaking his head and blinking as if he was stunned.

"Hey . . .Wei WuXian what's wrong with you?" asked his friend worriedly, grabbing his shoulder, the wine jar lying abandoned on the boards.

Wei WuXian tried to let out a laugh that he didn't really hear as something urgent screamed at him that something was wrong, he just didn't know what.

"It's okay, it's just a headache, I must be really drunk this time."

Shui Cheng rolled his eyes in exasperation. Obviously the idiot would drink like he couldn't sneak a couple of cans into Cloud Recesses. The boy stood up dusting off his clothes and picking up the empty jar, extending a hand to Wei WuXian.

"Come on, let's go to sleep or I'll end up having to kick you out of bed as usual."

Wei WuXian grabbed the hand with a mock pout on his lips. "Shui-di! Don't you have any pity for your poor Wei-shixiong!"

"Meat thieves deserve no pity," he replied laconically as Wei WuXian put an arm around his shoulders.

"I did not steal the meat! You're the one who discarded it!"

"You! Thief and a liar too!"

They continued to bicker like that most of the way back, the subject of earlier momentarily set aside.

Well. . .thought Wei WuXian, if he had forgotten it, it must not really matter.

Right?

Notes:

Yes I'm back earlier, this is because due to problem I could not participate in the contest. Anyway. . .Hi! How are you doing? I hope everyone is doing well and that you enjoyed the chapter. Sorry for not responding to comments, but know that I adore you all and thank you for all the Kudos received while I was inactive.
PS:I know, I promised you a full chapter of Cloud Recesses, but halfway through I realized I needed a transitional chapter