Chapter 71: Jiang Yanli XV: 3

Two months later. Yunmeng.

After the Wen of Qishan came down in thunder and ruin, the Nightless City that had once blazed brightest of all dissolved in a single dawn, sinking into a deserted shell, and the great mass of cultivators, seeking new ground to gather on, scattered toward the fresh cities, the greatest currents of them flowing into Lanling, Yunmeng, Gusu, and Qinghe Town. Up and down the long avenues the crowds came and went, the disciples and pupils of the clans walking with swords at their belts, debating loudly the shape of the world as it stood now, every one of them flush with spirit and high feeling.

All at once the passers-by lowered their voices a fraction, and their eyes, as if by one accord, turned to the far end of the street.

There, pacing slowly toward them, came a young man in white with a forehead ribbon, a qin slung at his back and a sword at his side.

His face was of an exceeding, refined beauty, and yet something like the chill of frost and snow seemed to hang about his whole person. Long before he had drawn near, the cultivators of their own accord fell silent and paid him the courtesy of their fixed regard; the few with a little reputation found the nerve to step forward and salute, saying, 'Hanguang-jun.'

Lan Wangji inclined his head a fraction, returned the salute with meticulous care, and lingered not at all. The others dared not trouble him overmuch, and withdrew of their own will.

Just then, who would have thought it, a girl in bright-colored robes came toward him from the other direction wreathed in smiles, brushed past him in haste, and suddenly flung something against him.

With matchless quickness Lan Wangji caught the thing, and looking down found it to be a snow-white flower bud.

The bud was tender and fresh, still beaded with dew. Lan Wangji stood unmoving and silent, when another graceful figure came toward him and tossed up a small pale-blue blossom. It had been aimed at his chest, but went wide and struck his shoulder instead, and Lan Wangji caught that too; when he turned his gaze, the girl gave a giggle and, with no trace of shyness, covered her face and fled.

The third time it was a small girl with her hair done in twin loops, who came skipping along with both arms wrapped around a spray of flowering branches studded with scattered red buds, threw it against his chest, and turned and ran.

Once, then again, then a third time, until Lan Wangji had caught a great armful of flowers and branches of every color and stood expressionless in the middle of the street. The cultivators who knew Hanguang-jun wanted to laugh and dared not, putting on solemn faces while their eyes drifted helplessly toward him; the common folk who did not know him had already begun to point and whisper. Lan Wangji was bent in thought when his hair grew faintly heavy; he raised a hand, and a pink peony in fullest bloom had come to rest, neither too far nor too near, just at his temple.

From the upper story of a tall building came a voice brimming with laughter: 'Lan Zhan — ah, no, Hanguang-jun. What a coincidence!'

Lan Wangji looked up and saw the pavilion and its galleries, the gauze curtains drifting. A long, slender figure in black lounged against the vermilion-lacquered balcony rail, one hand let down to dangle, and in that hand a delicate jar of black pottery, its bright red tassel half looped over his arm, half swaying idly in the air.

At the sight of that face of Wei Wuxian's, the young men of the great clans who had been looking on all wore very strange expressions. Everyone had long known that the Yiling Patriarch and Hanguang-jun were on poor terms — even fighting side by side, on the same line in the Sunshot Campaign, they had bickered more than once — and not knowing what new business this might be, they could not even keep up the pretense of reserve now, and stared all the harder at the two of them.

Lan Wangji did not, as they had guessed he would, turn coldly on his heel and leave; he only said, 'It is you.'

Wei Wuxian said, 'It's me! Who else would do something this pointless. What brings you to Yunmeng, of all places? If you're not in a hurry, come up and have a cup?'

Several girls crowded in around him, jostling against the balcony rail and calling down through their laughter, 'Yes, gongzi, come up and have a cup!'

These were the very girls who had pelted him with flowers a moment ago, and at whose direction they had done it needed no saying.

Lan Wangji lowered his head and turned to go. Wei Wuxian, finding he could not be teased, was not surprised; he clicked his tongue, slid down off the rail, tilted his head back, and took a swallow from the jar. Who would have thought that, a moment later, a tread came up the stairs, neither light nor heavy, neither slow nor quick.

Lan Wangji climbed steadily up and came in through the curtain, the strung beads chiming, each clear note like a measure of music.

He set down on the little table the armful of flowers that had struck him, and said, 'Your flowers.'

Wei Wuxian sprawled across the little table and said, 'No need to thank me, I'm giving them to you. They're your flowers now.'

Lan Wangji said, 'Why.'

Wei Wuxian said, 'No reason. I just wanted to see how you'd react to something like that.'

Lan Wangji said, 'Pointless.'

Wei Wuxian said, 'It is pointless. Otherwise I wouldn't have been bored enough to call you up here — hey, hey, hey, don't go, you've come all this way, won't you have a couple of cups before you leave?'

Lan Wangji said, 'Wine is forbidden.'

Wei Wuxian said, 'I know your clan forbids wine. But this isn't Cloud Recesses. A couple of cups won't matter.'

The girls at once brought out fresh cups, filled them, and pushed them over beside the heap of flowers. Lan Wangji still showed no sign of sitting, and yet seemed no more inclined to leave.

Wei Wuxian said, 'It's rare for you to come to Yunmeng. Won't you really taste the good wine here? Though, fine as it is, it can't match your Gusu's Emperor's Smile — truly the rarest beauty among wines. Next time I get the chance to visit your Gusu, I'll hide away eight or ten jars of it and drink my fill in one go. What's the matter with you, anyway — there's a seat, and you won't take it, you'd rather stand. Sit.'

The girls all chimed in, 'Sit!' 'Sit, won't you!'

Lan Wangji's pale eyes looked the girls over coldly in all their studied loveliness, and then his gaze settled on the flute at Wei Wuxian's waist, black and gleaming from end to end, tied with a red tassel. He seemed to be lowering his head in thought, weighing his words. Seeing it, Wei Wuxian raised one brow, having a fair idea of what he was about to say.

Sure enough, Lan Wangji said slowly, 'You should not keep company with the not-living, day in and day out.'

The smiles on the faces of the girls who had been clustering around Wei Wuxian vanished in an instant.

The gauze curtains stirred, now and then veiling the sunlight, and the chamber went bright and dim by turns. Seen now, their snow-white faces seemed somehow too white, drained of all color, looking almost a bruised gray, and their eyes were fixed unblinking on Lan Wangji, breeding from nothing a deep and creeping chill.

Wei Wuxian raised a hand and waved them aside, shook his head, and said, 'Lan Zhan, the older you get the duller you grow. You're so young — you're not eighty — why must you always copy your uncle, forever stiff and proper and itching to lecture people?'

Lan Wangji turned and took a step toward him, saying, 'Wei Ying. You should come back to Gusu with me after all.'

'…' Wei Wuxian said, 'I haven't heard that one in a very long time. The Sunshot Campaign is over and done; I thought you'd given up on it ages ago.'

Lan Wangji said, 'At the Baifeng Mountain Hunt last time — did you sense any sign of it.'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Sign of what?'

Lan Wangji said, 'Loss of control.'

Wei Wuxian said, 'You mean nearly coming to blows with Jin Zixuan? I think you've got it wrong. I've always wanted to fight Jin Zixuan the moment I lay eyes on him.'

Lan Wangji said, 'And the words you said afterward.'

Wei Wuxian said, 'What words? I say so much every day, I forgot two months ago a long time back.'

Lan Wangji looked at him, and seemed to see at a glance that he was only fobbing him off; he drew a breath and said, 'Wei Ying.'

Stubbornly he said, 'The Ghostly Path harms the body, and harms the temper of the heart.'

Wei Wuxian seemed to have a bit of a headache, and said helplessly, 'Lan Zhan, you… I've heard these few lines enough times, haven't you said them enough? You say it harms the body — I'm perfectly fine now. You say it harms the heart — but I haven't turned into much of a madman either.'

Lan Wangji said, 'Even now it is not too late. Wait until the day you are past all remedy of regret—'

Before he could finish, Wei Wuxian's expression shifted and he shot to his feet, saying, 'Lan Zhan!'

The girls behind him had, without anyone noticing, come to have a red light in every pair of eyes. Wei Wuxian said, 'Don't move, you lot.'

So they bowed their heads and drew back, though they still kept their eyes fixed dead on Lan Wangji. Wei Wuxian said to him, 'So. I don't believe I'll be past all remedy of regret, but I don't like it either when people casually predict for me how I'll turn out.'

After a silence, Lan Wangji said, 'I have been discourteous.'

Wei Wuxian said, 'It's all right. Still, it seems I really shouldn't have invited you up. Today the presumption was mine.'

Lan Wangji said, 'It was not.'

Wei Wuxian smiled faintly and said, courteously, 'Is that so. Good, if it wasn't.'

He drained the remaining half-cup in one go and said, 'But whatever the case, thank you all the same. I'll take it that you were concerned for me.'

Wei Wuxian waved a hand and said, 'Then I won't keep Hanguang-jun any longer. Until fate brings us round again.'

When Wei Wuxian got back to Lotus Pier, Jiang Cheng was polishing his sword; he lifted his eyes a moment and said, 'You're back?'

Wei Wuxian said, 'I'm back.'

Jiang Cheng said, 'A face full of bad luck. Don't tell me you ran into Jin Zixuan?'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Worse than running into Jin Zixuan. Guess who.'

Jiang Cheng said, 'Give me a hint.'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Wants to lock me up.'

Jiang Cheng frowned and said, 'Lan Wangji? What's he doing in Yunmeng?'

Wei Wuxian said, 'No idea. Wandering around the streets — come to find someone, I suppose. He hadn't brought this up in ages after the Sunshot Campaign, and now he's started again.'

Jiang Cheng said, 'Who told you to call out to him first.'

Wei Wuxian said, 'How do you know I called out to him first?'

Jiang Cheng said, 'Do you even need to ask? When is it ever otherwise? You're a strange one. Every single time you part on bad terms, and yet every single time you go tirelessly out of your way to make a nuisance of yourself to him. Why?'

Wei Wuxian thought about it and said, 'Chalk it up to boredom?'

Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes, thinking 'so you do know,' and moved his gaze back to the sword. Wei Wuxian said, 'How many times a day do you polish that sword?'

Jiang Cheng said, 'Three. And yours? How long has it gone unpolished?'

Wei Wuxian took a pear, bit into it, and said, 'Tossed in my room. Once a month is plenty.'

Jiang Cheng said, 'From now on, at big occasions like a hunt or a discussion conference, don't go without your sword again. You're handing people ready-made grounds to say you've no upbringing, no proper example.'

Wei Wuxian said, 'You know perfectly well, the thing I hate most is being forced. The more you push me the less I want to do it. I won't carry a sword — and what can anyone do about it?'

Jiang Cheng shot him a sidelong glare. Wei Wuxian went on, 'Besides, I don't want to be dragged off by a pack of strangers to spar and trade pointers. My sword has to draw blood when it leaves the sheath — unless you hand me two men to kill, no one need think of bothering me. Simpler not to bring it at all and be done with it. Buys me some peace.'

Jiang Cheng said, 'Weren't you the one who used to love showing off his swordwork in front of people?'

Wei Wuxian said, 'That was when I was a child. Who stays a child forever.'

Jiang Cheng gave a snort of a laugh and said, 'Fine, no sword, it makes no difference. But from now on stop provoking Jin Zixuan — he's Jin Guangshan's only son, after all, and one day he'll be sect leader of the Lanling Jin. If you raise a hand against him, what am I, the sect leader here, supposed to do? Fight him alongside you? Or punish you?'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Isn't there a Jin Guangyao now as well? Jin Guangyao is far easier on the eye than he is.'

Jiang Cheng finished polishing the sword, studied it a while, and only then slid Sandu home into its sheath, saying, 'What good is being easy on the eye. However easy on the eye, however clever, he can only ever be a retainer who sees guests in and out; that's where his life stops, no further. He's no match for Jin Zixuan.'

Hearing the tone of him, which sounded oddly like real esteem for Jin Zixuan, Wei Wuxian said, 'Jiang Cheng, answer me honestly — what do you mean by all this? Last time you went out of your way to bring shijie along; you can't really be thinking of having shijie and him…?'

Jiang Cheng said, 'It's not out of the question.'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Not out of the question? Have you forgotten what he did in Langya, and you tell me it's not out of the question?'

Jiang Cheng said, 'He's probably come to regret it.'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Who cares whether he regrets it — knowing he was wrong means we have to forgive him? Look at the kind of man his father is; there's no telling he won't turn out the very same wretched way, fooling around chasing women the whole world over. Shijie, with him? Could you stand it?'

Jiang Cheng said grimly, 'He wouldn't dare!'

He paused, glanced at him, and added, 'Still, whether he's forgiven isn't yours to decide. What's to be done, when our sister likes him?'

Wei Wuxian was struck dumb on the spot. After a long while he forced out a single line: 'Why on earth, of all people, this one…'

He threw the pear aside and said, 'Where's shijie?'

Jiang Cheng said, 'No idea. The same few places as ever. If she's not in the kitchen, she's in her room, and if not that, the ancestral hall. Where else would she be.'

Wei Wuxian left the Sword-Testing Hall and went first to the kitchen, where half a pot of soup sat warming hot over the fire and no one was about. Then to Jiang Yanli's room — not there either. At last to the ancestral hall, and there, sure enough, she was.

Jiang Yanli knelt in the ancestral hall, wiping the spirit tablets of her father and mother and murmuring softly all the while. Wei Wuxian poked his head in and said, 'Shijie? Chatting with Uncle Jiang and Madam Yu again?'

Jiang Yanli said gently, 'None of you ever come, so it falls to me.'

Wei Wuxian came in, sat down beside her, and joined in wiping the tablets along with her.

Jiang Yanli glanced at him and said, 'A-Xian, why are you looking at me like that? Is there something you want to tell me?'

Wei Wuxian said with a laugh, 'Nothing at all. I just came in to roll around.'

And saying so he really did roll about on the floor, and Jiang Yanli asked, 'Xianxian, how old are you?'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Three years old.'

Seeing he had coaxed a laugh from Jiang Yanli, only then did he sit up, think a moment, and say after all, 'Shijie, there's something I want to ask you.'

Jiang Yanli said, 'Ask away.'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Why does a person come to like another person? I mean that kind of liking.'

Jiang Yanli was faintly taken aback, and asked curiously, 'Why are you asking me this? Have you come to like someone? What sort of girl is she?'

Wei Wuxian said, 'No one. I won't like anyone. At least I won't like anyone too much. Isn't that just yoking the plough to your own neck and handing over the reins?'

Jiang Yanli said, 'Three's a bit much. Let's say one year old.'

Wei Wuxian said, 'No, I'm three! Three-year-old Xianxian is hungry! What now!'

Jiang Yanli said, laughing, 'There's soup in the kitchen, go drink it. I wonder if Xianxian can even reach the stove?'

'Can't reach it — but if shijie picks me up, I can reach—' Wei Wuxian was right in the middle of his nonsense when Jiang Cheng happened to step into the ancestral hall, and hearing it spat out, 'Talking that rot again! This sect leader has ladled yours out and set it outside, so kneel down quick, give your thanks, and then get out and go drink your soup.'

Wei Wuxian scampered out for a look, came doubling back, and said, 'Jiang Cheng, what's the meaning of this — where are the ribs?'

Jiang Cheng said, 'Eaten. There's only lotus root left. Take it or leave it.'

Wei Wuxian jabbed an elbow at him: 'Spit the ribs back out!'

Jiang Cheng said, 'Spit them out, fine — if you've got the nerve I'll spit them out and you eat them down!'

Hearing the two of them start in again, Jiang Yanli said hurriedly, 'All right, now — grown men squabbling over a few ribs. I'll just make another pot…'

Of all things, Wei Wuxian loved the lotus root and rib soup Jiang Yanli stewed best.

Beyond its truly fresh and savory taste, it was because he always remembered how it had been the first time he tasted it.

In those days, Wei Wuxian had only just been picked up from Yiling by Jiang Fengmian not long before. The moment he stepped through the gate and saw a spirited little young master leading a few puppies at a run back and forth across the training ground, he clapped both hands over his face, let out a wail, and burst into howling tears, clinging to Jiang Fengmian the whole day long and refusing by any means to come down. By the next day, those few puppies Jiang Cheng was raising had been given away to others.

This set Jiang Cheng off into a great fit of weeping, and though Jiang Fengmian comforted him with soft, kindly words and bade the two of them 'be good friends,' he refused to speak to Wei Wuxian. Several days passed and Jiang Cheng's stance softened a little; thinking to strike while the iron was hot, Jiang Fengmian had Wei Wuxian share a room with him, hoping the two might grow closer.

Jiang Cheng, awkward and grudging, had been on the very point of agreeing — but the trouble was that Jiang Fengmian, in a moment of good cheer, lifted Wei Wuxian up and set him to sit on his arm. Watching this, Jiang Cheng went rigid all over. Madam Yu gave a cold laugh on the spot and swept off in a flick of her sleeve. Because husband and wife each had pressing matters and went out in haste, there was no time for further quarrel between them.

That very night, Jiang Cheng shut Wei Wuxian out, refusing to let him in.

Wei Wuxian knocked at the door and said, 'Shidi, shidi, let me in, I want to sleep.'

Inside the room, Jiang Cheng set his back against the door and shouted, 'Who's your shidi! Give me back Feifei, give me back Moli, give me back Xiao-Ai!'

Feifei, Moli, and Xiao-Ai were the dogs he had kept before. Wei Wuxian knew it was because of himself that Jiang Fengmian had sent them away, and said in a low voice, 'I'm sorry. But… but I really am so afraid of them…'

In Jiang Cheng's memory, all the times Jiang Fengmian had ever picked him up came to no more than five, and each one had been enough to make him glad for months on end. A foul knot of feeling sat stoppered in his chest with no way out, his whole heart full of why him, why him, why him, when suddenly he saw that the room which had been his alone now held a set of bedding that was not his, and that knot of resentment and grievance rushed all at once to his head, driving him to gather up Wei Wuxian's mat and quilt. Wei Wuxian had kept his pitiful watch by the door for ages when the door abruptly opened, and before his face could brighten with joy he was struck near flat onto his back by the heap of things hurled out in one go. The wooden door slammed shut again, and Jiang Cheng called from within, 'Go sleep somewhere else! This is my room! Even my room you want to take from me?!'

Wei Wuxian, in those days, had no understanding at all of what Jiang Cheng was angry about; he stood blinking and said, 'I didn't take it. It was Uncle Jiang who told me to room with you.'

The moment Jiang Cheng heard him bring up his father again, as if deliberately flaunting it, his eyes went red around the rims and he shouted, 'Get away! Let me see you again and I'll call a pack of dogs to bite you!'

Wei Wuxian stood at the door, and hearing of dogs being called to bite him, a wave of fear rose in him; wringing his hands, he said quickly, 'I'll go, I'll go, don't call the dogs!'

Dragging the mat and quilt that had been flung out after him, he sprinted off down the long gallery. He had not been long at the Lotus Pier, and dared not yet go leaping and clambering about everywhere; all day he kept obediently to the few spots Jiang Fengmian had told him to stay in, knowing neither the paths nor the rooms, and least of all daring to knock on any door Suibian, terrified of startling someone out of a dream. After thinking a while he went to a windless corner of the wooden gallery, spread out his mat, and lay down right there. But the longer he lay, the louder Jiang Cheng's words — ‘I'll call a pack of dogs to bite you’ — rang in his mind; the more Wei Wuxian dwelt on it the more frightened he grew, burrowing into the quilt and tossing back and forth, hearing in every rustle of wind and grass a pack of dogs creeping quietly into a ring around him. After a spell of struggling he decided he could not stay in that place, and springing up, he rolled the mat, folded the quilt, and fled the Lotus Pier.

He ran panting a good while in the night wind, and seeing a tree, scrambled up it without a second thought, hugging the trunk with hands and feet alike; only when it felt high enough did his heart settle a little. He had clung there he knew not how long when, all at once, Wei Wuxian heard someone far off calling his name in a soft, drawn-out voice. The voice came nearer and nearer, and before long a girl in white appeared beneath the tree, a lantern in her hand.

Wei Wuxian recognized her as Jiang Cheng's elder sister and kept silent, hoping she would not find him out. But who would have thought — Jiang Yanli said, 'Is that A-Ying? What are you doing up there?'

Wei Wuxian went on keeping silent. Jiang Yanli raised the lantern and said, 'I can see you. Your shoe has fallen down under the tree.'

Wei Wuxian glanced down at his own left foot, and only then cried out in alarm, 'My shoe!'

Jiang Yanli said, 'Come down. Let's go back.'

Wei Wuxian said, 'I… I won't come down. There are dogs.'

Jiang Yanli said, 'That was A-Cheng tricking you. There are no dogs. You've nowhere to sit; your arms will go sore in a moment and you'll fall.'

Say what she would, Wei Wuxian only clung to the trunk and would not come down, and Jiang Yanli, afraid he might fall, set the lantern beneath the tree and stood there with both hands held out to catch him, not daring to leave. The standoff lasted about the burning of one stick of incense before Wei Wuxian's arms gave out at last; he let go of the trunk and dropped. Jiang Yanli rushed to catch him, but Wei Wuxian still hit the ground with a thud, rolled a few turns, and clutched his leg, howling, 'My leg's broken!'

Jiang Yanli soothed him: 'It's not broken, and likely not even fractured. Does it hurt very much? It's all right, don't move, I'll carry you back.'

Wei Wuxian, still fretting over the dogs, said through his sniffling sobs, 'The dogs… are the dogs coming…'

Jiang Yanli promised him over and over, 'They aren't. If there are dogs I'll chase them off for you.' She picked up Wei Wuxian's shoe from under the tree and said, 'Why did your shoe fall off? Doesn't it fit?'

Holding back the tears the pain had brought, Wei Wuxian said hastily, 'No, it fits fine.'

In truth it did not fit; it was a good deal too big. But it was the first new pair of shoes Jiang Fengmian had bought him, and Wei Wuxian, ashamed to trouble him for another pair, had not said it was too large. Jiang Yanli helped him put the shoe back on, pinched the sunken toe of it, and said, 'It is a bit big. We'll alter it for you when we get back.'

Hearing this, Wei Wuxian felt somehow that he had done something wrong again, and a small uneasiness stirred in him.

Living under another's roof, what one fears most is being a burden.

Jiang Yanli took him up on her back and walked toward home, one step deep and one step shallow, saying as she went, 'A-Ying, whatever A-Cheng said to you just now, don't hold it against him. His temper's no good, and he so often plays all alone at home; those few puppies were his favorite things, and now Father's given them away, and his heart aches. The truth is, having someone more to keep him company makes him very glad. When you ran off and didn't come back for so long, he was afraid something had happened to you, and rushed to shake me awake — that's why I came out to look.'

Jiang Yanli was in truth only two or three years older than he was — twelve or thirteen at the time, plainly a child herself, and yet she spoke so naturally, like a little grown-up, coaxing him all the while. Her frame was thin and small, very frail, and she had little strength; now and then she would sway, and have to stop and hitch Wei Wuxian's legs higher to keep him from sliding down. And yet, lying against her back, Wei Wuxian felt an Anxin beyond all compare — more at ease, more safely held, than even when he had ridden in the cradle of Jiang Fengmian's arms.

All at once a low, sobbing cry came drifting on the night wind. Jiang Yanli started with fright and said, 'What's that sound? Did you hear it?'

Wei Wuxian pointed and said, 'I heard it — it's coming from that pit over there!'

The two of them rounded to the edge of the pit and warily craned to look down. A small figure lay sprawled at the bottom, and when it lifted its face, the mud caked all over it was furrowed by two tracks of tears, and it gave a choking cry: '…Sister!'

Jiang Yanli let out a breath and said, 'A-Cheng, didn't I tell you to call others to come out and look together?'

Jiang Cheng only shook his head. After Jiang Yanli left, he had waited a while, too restless to sit or stand, and simply chased out after her himself. But running too fast, and forgetting his lantern besides, he had taken a fall along the way, tumbled to the bottom of a pit, and split his head open as well.

Jiang Yanli reached down, pulled her brother out of the pit, drew out her handkerchief, and pressed it to his unceasingly bleeding forehead. Jiang Cheng, spirits sunk low, stole a peek at Wei Wuxian with his dark eyes. Jiang Yanli said, 'Isn't there something you haven't said to A-Ying?'

Jiang Cheng, pressing the handkerchief to his forehead, said low, '…I'm sorry.'

Jiang Yanli said, 'And in a while you'll help A-Ying carry his mat and quilt back, all right?'

Jiang Cheng sniffed and said, 'I already carried them back…'

Both of them had hurt their legs and could not walk, and Lotus Pier was still some distance off, so Jiang Yanli had no choice but to carry one on her back and hold one in her arms. Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng both wrapped their arms about her neck, and a few steps in she was already worn out and panting, saying, 'What am I to do with the two of you.'

With tears still glistening in both their eyes, the two of them, aggrieved, drew their arms tighter still about her neck.

In the end she ferried her two younger brothers back to Lotus Pier, a step and a stop and a step, woke the physician softly, and asked him to bind and tend Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng. Afterward she said sorry and thank you several times over and saw the physician back. Jiang Cheng watched Wei Wuxian's foot, his face tense. If the other disciples or the household servants learned of this, and word reached Jiang Fengmian's ear — if Jiang Fengmian knew he had thrown Wei Wuxian's mat out and hurt his leg into the bargain — he would surely like him even less. This was also why, just now, he had only dared chase out alone and not dared tell anyone. Seeing how worried he looked, Wei Wuxian volunteered, 'Don't fret, I won't tell Uncle Jiang. I'll say I suddenly took it into my head to climb a tree at night, and that's how I got hurt.'

At this Jiang Cheng let out a breath and swore, 'You needn't fret either — from now on, whenever I see a dog, I'll chase it off for you!'

Seeing the two of them clear the air at last, Jiang Yanli said happily, 'That's just how it should be.'

They had been at it the better part of the night, and the two boys had grown hungry. So Jiang Yanli went off to the kitchen, busied herself a while up on her tiptoes, and warmed each of them a bowl of lotus root and rib soup.

Its fragrance wound itself about his heart, and to this day has never faded.

Wei Wuxian crouched in the courtyard, set his emptied bowl down on the ground, gazed a while at the thinly scattered stars of the night sky, and smiled faintly.

Running into Lan Wangji on the streets of Yunmeng today had suddenly called up a great many things from his years of study at Cloud Recesses.

On a passing impulse he had called out to Lan Wangji, meaning at first to steer the talk that way as well. But Lan Wangji had reminded him that everything had long since ceased to be what it was in those days.

And yet, so long as he came back to Lotus Pier, back to the side of the Jiang sister and brother, he could keep up the illusion that nothing at all had changed.

All at once Wei Wuxian wanted to go and find that tree he had clung to all those years ago.

He rose to his feet and walked out toward the gates of Lotus Pier, the disciples along the way bowing and nodding to him in respectful salute. They were all unfamiliar faces; the shidi he had known, who would no more walk properly than a pack of monkeys, the household servants who would pull faces and refuse to bow in earnest — not a single one of them was left.

Crossing the training ground and stepping out the main gate of Lotus Pier, one came onto a broad, open wharf. By day or by night, there were always food peddlers on the wharf. Oil crackled in a pan, the fragrance spilling out on every side, and Wei Wuxian could not help walking over, saying with a smile, 'You've been generous with the fillings today.'

The peddler said, also smiling, 'Will Young Master Wei have one? Count this one as on me, no need to put it on the tab.'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Go on then. Put it on the tab all the same.'

Beside this peddler crouched a figure caked all over in filth, who, before Wei Wuxian drew near, sat hugging his knees and shivering, seeming both cold and worn out. Only when Wei Wuxian had said a couple of words did the man suddenly lift his head.

Wei Wuxian's eyes widened slightly, and he said, 'You?!'