Chapter 119: Extra Chapter Two: The Incense Burner 2

The next morning, for once, Wei Wuxian woke before Lan Wangji. All day long, both his legs trembled.

They dragged out the Mo Incense Burner again and turned it over and over in their hands; Wei Wuxian took it apart and put it back together exactly as it had been, yet never once managed to uncover the secret hidden inside it.

Wei Wuxian sat at the edge of the desk and said, brow furrowed in thought, 'It isn't the incense — then it can only be the burner, no question about it. This thing is truly remarkable. To be there in the flesh like that — even Empathy would barely match the effect. Has your Library Pavilion never recorded anything like it?'

Lan Wangji shook his head.

Since he shook his head, then there was truly no record of it from anyone before. Wei Wuxian said, 'Never mind. The burner's power has spent itself; better to put it away for now, lest someone touch it by mistake. If some master of artifice ever comes calling, we can bring it out and ask then.'

They both believed the burner's power had spent itself. Who could have known the matter would prove so contrary to expectation.

Deep in the night, after Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji had, as was their custom, brought down clouds and overturned rain together in the Jingshi, they sank into sleep side by side.

Not long after, he opened his eyes and found himself, of all things, lying once more beneath the magnolia tree outside the Library Pavilion.

Sunlight slipped through the flowering branches and scattered across his face; Wei Wuxian narrowed his eyes, raised a hand to shade them, and sat up by slow degrees.

This time, though, Lan Wangji was no longer beside him.

Wei Wuxian cupped his right hand to his lips and called out, 'Lan Zhan!'

No one answered. Wei Wuxian thought it strange. 'So the burner's power hasn't run out after all. But where has Lan Zhan gone? Could it be that I alone am caught in the residue of its magic?'

Before the magnolia tree ran a path of white stone, and a scattering of Gusu Lan Clan disciples in white robes and forehead ribbons passed by in twos and threes with books in hand, seemingly on their way to morning lessons; not one spared Wei Wuxian a glance, for still they could not see him. He turned up into the Library Pavilion and cast a look around — Lan Wangji was not inside, neither the grown one nor the young one — so he came back down the stairs and began to wander aimlessly through the Cloud Recesses.

Before long, he faintly caught the low voices of two youths in conversation. Drawing nearer, he found one of them oddly familiar: '...no one has ever kept such creatures within the Cloud Recesses before. To do so is against the rules.'

After a moment's silence, the other youth said in a muffled voice, 'I know. But... I have already given my promise, and I cannot break faith.'

Something stirred in Wei Wuxian's heart, and he peered over in secret. Sure enough, the two standing in conversation on a patch of green lawn were Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji.

It was springtime, and the breeze came in waves; the youthful Twin Jades of Lan were like flawless jade reflected in a mirror, each clad in white as pure as snow, broad sleeves and forehead ribbons drifting, a picture come to life. This Lan Wangji too looked all of fifteen or sixteen, his brow faintly knit as though some worry weighed upon him. In his arms he held a white rabbit whose pink nose twitched, and at his feet was another, long ears upright, standing erect to paw at his boot as though it meant to climb.

Lan Xichen said, 'A boy's idle jest between friends — how can that count as a solemn promise? Is this truly the reason?'

Lan Wangji lowered his eyes and said nothing.

Lan Xichen said with a smile, 'Very well. But should Uncle ever ask, you must explain yourself to him properly. These past days you have spent rather too much time on them.'

Lan Wangji nodded gravely. 'Thank you, gege.' After a pause, he added, '...It will not affect my studies.'

Lan Xichen said, 'I know you would never let it, Wangji. Still — you must on no account tell Uncle who it was that gave them to you to keep. Otherwise he will fly into a rage and, come what may, make you send them away.'

At this, Lan Wangji seemed to draw the rabbit in his arms a little closer. Lan Xichen smiled, raised a hand to tease the white rabbit's pink nose with his fingertip, and went leisurely on his way.

After he had gone, Lan Wangji stood a while as if lost in thought, the white rabbit flicking its ears now and then in the crook of his arm, the very picture of contentment. The one at his feet pawed more and more insistently; Lan Wangji glanced down, bent, and gathered it up as well, settling both rabbits into the crook of his arm and stroking them lightly, his hands moving with a gentleness wholly at odds with his expression.

Wei Wuxian watched until he could bear the itch no longer and stepped out from behind the tree, meaning to draw closer to the little Lan Wangji. To his surprise, the rabbit slipped from Lan Wangji's grasp, the aura about him changed all at once, and he whipped around — but the instant he saw who had come, the gaze that had gone cold froze in place. '...You?!'

He was startled; Wei Wuxian more so. 'You can see me?' he marveled.

Now this was truly strange. By rights, a person within a dream should not be able to see him at all. Yet Lan Wangji was still watching him fixedly. 'Of course I can see you. You are... Wei Ying?'

The young man before him looked past twenty, surely older than fifteen, and yet he wore the very same face as Wei Wuxian. Lan Wangji could not place who he was and was on his guard; had he been wearing his sword just then, Bichen would likely have left its scabbard already. Wei Wuxian, quick as ever, at once put on a serious face. 'It's me!'

At such an answer, Lan Wangji's expression grew warier still, and he even fell back two steps. Wei Wuxian, wearing the look and tone of a man wounded, said, 'Lan Zhan, I went through untold hardship to come back and find you — how can you treat me like this?'

Lan Wangji said, 'You... are truly Wei Ying?'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Naturally.'

Lan Wangji said, 'Then why is your face different?'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Ah, that's a long story. The truth is this — I really am Wei Wuxian, only the Wei Wuxian of seven years from now. The future me found a most remarkable treasure that can travel through time and return to the past; I was studying it carefully when I happened to brush against it by accident, and here I am, back again!'

The tale was so absurd it bordered on child's play. Lan Wangji said coldly, 'How will you prove it?'

Wei Wuxian said, 'How would you like me to prove it? I know everything about you. Those rabbits you were just holding, and the one at your feet — weren't they my gift? You took them so unwillingly back then, and now that your gege says you can't keep them, you don't want to give them up. Grown fond of them, have you?'

At this, Lan Wangji's expression shifted faintly; he made to speak, then held back. 'I...'

Wei Wuxian took two more steps toward him, spread his arms wide, and said with a beaming smile, 'What's the matter? Shy?'

Seeing how strangely he behaved, Lan Wangji braced as if against a mortal foe, his whole face wary, and retreated several steps in a row. It had been a long while since Wei Wuxian had seen Lan Wangji carry on with him like this, and inwardly he was doubled over laughing, though outwardly he feigned offense. 'What's this supposed to mean? What are you running from? Why, Lan Zhan, you — ten years married to me and you turn your face and won't know me!'

At those words, Lan Wangji's handsome face, cold and pure as ice and snow, cracked in an instant.

He said, 'You... and I?'

'...Ten years?'

'...Married?!'

Six words, broken out in halting, stumbling pieces before they were all spoken. Wei Wuxian, as though struck by sudden revelation, said, 'Oh, I forgot — you don't know any of it yet. Counting the time, it seems we've only just met not long ago? Have I only just left the Cloud Recesses? No matter — I'll tell you quietly in advance: in a few years more, we two will become cultivation partners.'

Lan Wangji said, '...Cultivation partners?'

Heedless of whether his lie held any holes, Wei Wuxian said with smug delight, 'That's right! The kind that dual-cultivate every single day. Three matchmakers and six gifts, a proper wedding rite — we even bowed to heaven and earth together.'

Lan Wangji was so angry his chest rose and fell faintly; after a long moment, a few words burst out between his teeth. '...Utter nonsense!'

Wei Wuxian said, 'It's no nonsense at all! When you sleep you like to hold me so tight I can't move; every time you kiss me it lasts an age, and when we part you like to give me a little bite — oh, and another thing, you...'

From the words 'hold me so tight' onward, Lan Wangji's expression had become unbearable to watch, growing more violent the further it went; he looked as though he would gladly cover his own ears to shut out such filthy talk, and struck out with a palm. 'Utter nonsense!'

Wei Wuxian slipped aside and dodged. 'Utter nonsense again — find a new phrase! Besides, how do you know it's nonsense? Are you saying you're not like that?'

Lan Wangji said, word by word, 'I... have never kissed anyone... so how could I know what I... like in such a moment!'

Wei Wuxian thought it over. 'Fair enough — at your age you've never kissed a soul, so of course you don't know what you like when you do. Why not give it a try right now?'

'...' Lan Wangji was so incensed he forgot even to summon the disciples to seize this suspicious stranger, striking out again and again, going straight for the pulse points at his wrist. But he was young in years yet, and Wei Wuxian was far quicker; he dodged with ease and to spare, found an opening, and pinched a certain spot on Lan Wangji's arm. As Lan Wangji's movement stalled, Wei Wuxian seized the chance and kissed him on the cheek.

'...'

Once the kiss was done, Wei Wuxian let go of Lan Wangji's arm and released his hold. But Lan Wangji had frozen where he stood, unable to come back to himself for a long while, his whole person gone blank.

'Hahahahahahahaha...'

Wei Wuxian laughed himself awake out of the dream.

He laughed so hard he nearly rolled off the bed — saved only by Lan Wangji's arm clamped about his waist all the while. Laughing so, he was still shaking all over after he woke, and shook so much that Lan Wangji too stirred from deep sleep, and the two of them sat up together.

Lan Wangji lowered his head, raised a hand to press lightly at his temple, and said, 'Just now, I...'

Wei Wuxian carried it on for him. 'Just now — did you have a dream, where you were fifteen and met the twenty-something me?'

'...' Lan Wangji gazed at him steadily. 'That burner.'

Wei Wuxian nodded. 'I thought I was the one more deeply caught in the burner's residue, that's why I went into the dream. Who'd have guessed it was you, more deeply caught all along.'

What set this night apart from the last was that the young Lan Zhan in the dream just now had been Lan Wangji's very own self made over.

A dreamer seldom knows he is dreaming, and so the Lan Wangji within truly believed himself only fifteen. It had begun as a proper, sober dream — morning reading, a stroll, the keeping of rabbits — until Wei Wuxian slipped in to make mischief and stumbled upon him, and once caught, the poor youth was teased without mercy.

Wei Wuxian said, 'I can't take it, Lan Zhan — the way you clutched those rabbits and wouldn't let go, terrified your gege and uncle wouldn't let you keep them, I love you to death. Hahahahaha...'

Lan Wangji said helplessly, '...It is deep in the night. Let your laughter not disturb others.'

Wei Wuxian said, 'As if we're ever so quiet ourselves? Why did you have to wake so early? Sleep in a little longer next time and I'd have given the little Second Young Master Lan an education, hahahahahaha...'

Lan Wangji watched him roll and tumble at his side, and in the end said nothing — then suddenly reached out, pinned Wei Wuxian down in one motion, and bore down over him.

The two of them supposed that after this second night the burner's magic would surely have dispersed at last. Who could have known that on the third night, Wei Wuxian woke once more inside Lan Wangji's dream.

Clad in black, he walked at his leisure along the white stone path of the Cloud Recesses, Chenqing's red tassel swaying with each step, and before long a clear chorus of recitation drifted over.

It came from the direction of the Orchid Room. Wei Wuxian sauntered openly to its threshold, and sure enough saw several Lan disciples at their evening reading within; Lan Qiren was not there, and the one charged with supervision was, again, Lan Wangji.

The Lan Wangji of tonight's dream still wore a youthful look, though about the age Wei Wuxian had seen him in the Tortoise of Slaughter Cave Depths — seventeen or eighteen or so, his features fine and graceful, already bearing the air of a noted gentleman, yet still touched with the green unripeness of youth. He sat upright before the hall, wholly absorbed. When someone struck a difficulty in his reading and came forward to ask, he gave it but a faint glance and could resolve it on the instant, his solemn manner standing in sharp contrast to that unripe air.

Wei Wuxian leaned aslant against a pillar outside the Orchid Room, watched a while, then without a sound leapt up to the eaves and brought Chenqing to his lips.

Within the Orchid Room, Lan Wangji gave a slight start. One of the youths asked, 'Young Master, what is it?'

Lan Wangji said, 'Who is playing a flute at this hour?'

The youths exchanged baffled glances. After a moment, one said, 'We heard no flute?'

At this, Lan Wangji's expression turned grave; he rose, took up his sword, and stepped out the door — just as Wei Wuxian put away his flute, sprang into the air, and landed light and nimble upon another stretch of eaves.

Sensing the disturbance, Lan Wangji called out in a low, sharp voice, 'Who goes there!'

Two clear, ringing whistles slid out from beneath Wei Wuxian's tongue, his voice already a hundred feet off, and he laughed, 'Your husband!'

Hearing that voice, Lan Wangji's face changed, and he said uncertainly, 'Wei Ying?'

Wei Wuxian gave no answer; Lan Wangji drew Bichen from his back and gave chase. After a few sweeping leaps, Wei Wuxian had alighted upon the high outer wall of the Cloud Recesses, rising to his feet on a stretch of dark tile. Lan Wangji came down less than two zhang across from him, Bichen held aslant in hand, forehead ribbon and sleeves and skirts whipping fiercely in the night wind, an immortal's air about him.

Wei Wuxian clasped his hands behind him and smiled. 'What handsome skill, what a handsome man! In such a scene, were there but one more handsome flask of Emperor's Smile, it would be perfect through and through.'

Lan Wangji gazed at him steadily, then after a long moment said, 'Wei Ying, you come uninvited, calling on the Cloud Recesses by night. What is your purpose?'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Guess?'

Lan Wangji had never had patience for this game of you-guess-I-guess. 'Tiresome!'

...

After a long, obedient spell of being held, Wei Wuxian said in a rasping voice, '...It hurts...'

After the second time, Lan Wangji recovered some measure of calm and clarity, and pressing down over him, said with a touch of helpless awkwardness, 'You... where does it hurt?'

Wei Wuxian: '...'

He could hardly say where it hurt, so he only murmured, 'Lan Zhan, kiss me more, quickly — it hurts...'

Seeing him with lashes lowered, curled into himself, looking so meek and docile against all his usual nature, a faint flush of pink rose on Lan Wangji's pale earlobes, and he held him tightly as bidden and began to kiss him with tenderness.

It was a kiss tender and fine in the extreme, and as their lips parted, Lan Wangji bit lightly at Wei Wuxian's lower lip. Just as Wei Wuxian had said — he did have this small little habit.

And then the two of them woke together.

Lying on the wooden bed in the Jingshi, the two of them gazed at each other open-eyed a while, and Lan Wangji pulled Wei Wuxian into his arms again in one motion.

Held in his embrace and kissed for a good long while, Wei Wuxian, sated through and through, said with eyes half-shut, 'Lan Zhan... let me ask you something. Every time you carry on like this — is it that you want me to bear you a little Young Master Lan?'

His teasing in the dream had backfired into a thorough undoing, and now, waking to face this proper, self-possessed Lan Wangji, he could not help running his mouth all over again. Only Lan Wangji was no longer so easily nettled as in those early years, and merely said placidly, 'How could you bear one.'

Wei Wuxian stirred his aching, slack arms and pillowed his head upon them. 'Aye, well — if I could, I daresay the Cloud Recesses would be turned upside down by now.'

Lan Wangji fell silent, no telling what he was thinking. Wei Wuxian cocked up one leg and said with a grin, 'Shy again? Or are you really...' — before he could finish, he suddenly felt Lan Wangji give him a slap from behind, neither light nor hard, and Wei Wuxian nearly rolled off the bed. 'What are you doing!!!'

Lan Wangji said without a change of expression, 'Seeing how your injury fares.'

Wei Wuxian scrambled up in a roll, heedless of his trembling legs. 'No need! Lan Zhan, I've taken good note of what fine things you did in that dream — no one has ever treated me like that, not once in all my life! Mark my words, you're not allowed to hit me! Especially not on the...!!'

Lan Wangji drew him back to the bed. 'I won't. Rest.'

Having his promise, Wei Wuxian set his heart at ease. 'Hanguang-jun, you've said it.'

Lan Wangji said, 'Mm.'

Worn out over three nights, with wave upon wave of drowsiness welling up, Wei Wuxian could carry on no longer. He nestled back into Lan Wangji's arms and muttered, 'The nerve of it — no one's ever treated me like that in all my life...'

Lan Wangji stroked his hair, kissed him on the forehead, shook his head, and smiled.