Chapter 88: Loyal Heart, Part Nineteen 10

Jiang Cheng was accusing him, and against that he had nothing to say in his own defense; but he could not bear to hear Lan Wangji spoken to with such venom. Wei Wuxian said, 'Jiang Cheng, listen to yourself, to the things you're saying. Are they fit to be heard at all? Don't forget who you are. You're the head of a house, for all that, and to stand before the spirit tablets of Uncle Jiang and the rest and insult a renowned gentleman of the great clans — where is your breeding, where are your manners?'

His real intent had been to remind Jiang Cheng to keep at least some measure of respect for Lan Wangji; but Jiang Cheng was the most sensitive of men, and in these words he caught a faint implication that he was unfit to be head of the house. At once a black look climbed up his face, until he seemed oddly to resemble Madam Yu in her fury. He said sharply, 'And who is it standing before my parents' spirit tablets insulting them? I'll ask the two of you to be clear about whose ground this is. It was bad enough outside, the two of you pawing and clinging without a shred of decency — don't carry your carrying-on into my family's ancestral hall, before my parents' spirits! They watched you grow up, for what it's worth. I'm ashamed on your behalf!'

Never for a moment had he expected so sudden and heavy a blow; shaken and furious both, Wei Wuxian burst out, 'Shut your mouth!'

Jiang Cheng jabbed a finger toward the outside. 'You want to carry on, go carry on out there — under a tree, on a boat, however you please, embracing or whatever else! Get out of my house, get out of my sight!'

At the words 'under a tree' something lurched in Wei Wuxian's chest: could Jiang Cheng have seen the moment he threw himself into Lan Wangji's arms?

His guess was right. Jiang Cheng had indeed gone out himself to look for Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji. He had followed the direction a dock peddler pointed him, and some faint voice in his heart seemed to tell him which way Wei Wuxian would surely go; he searched a while and caught up with them. Only to come, of all things, upon the sight of Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji locked tight in each other's arms beneath a tree, unwilling for the longest time to part.

Jiang Cheng broke out in gooseflesh on the spot.

Spiteful as he had once been in his guesses about Lan Wangji and the original owner of Mo Xuanyu's body, that had been only an attack meant to mortify Wei Wuxian, never a real suspicion. It had never crossed his mind that Wei Wuxian might truly have some murky entanglement with a man; after all they had grown up together, and Wei Wuxian had never shown the slightest interest in that direction, having always been wildly fond of pretty young women. As for Lan Wangji, it was less likely still — famous for his cold, ascetic heart, he had seemed to want neither men nor women.

But this way of embracing was, by any reckoning, not normal — certainly nothing like ordinary friends, or brothers. He thought back at once: ever since Wei Wuxian's return he had clung to Lan Wangji like glue, and Lan Wangji's manner toward Wei Wuxian was utterly unlike what it had been in their former life. Almost instantly he was certain the two of them truly were that sort of thing to each other. He could not turn back, yet he had no wish to come out and exchange a single word with either of them, so he kept himself hidden and followed; and every gesture, every glance that passed between them inevitably soured in his eyes. For a moment the disbelief, the strangeness, and a faint nausea piled together in his heart until they actually outweighed his hatred. It was only when Wei Wuxian led Lan Wangji into the ancestral hall that the long-suppressed fury woke again and swallowed his reason and his manners whole.

Wei Wuxian, holding something hard down, said, 'Jiang Wanyin, you... apologize. Now.' [Jiang Wanyin is Jiang Cheng's courtesy name.]

Jiang Cheng said, all cold mockery, 'Apologize? Apologize for what? For walking in on your little affair?'

Wei Wuxian said furiously, 'Hanguang-jun is nothing more than my friend — what do you imagine is between us! I'm warning you, apologize now, and don't make me hit you!'

At that, Lan Wangji's expression stiffened. Jiang Cheng gave a sneering laugh. 'Then I've truly never seen such “friends” before. You're warning me? With what? If either of you had a shred of shame, neither would have come to a place like this—'

Wei Wuxian saw the change in Lan Wangji's expression and thought him cut by Jiang Cheng's words, and he began to shake all over with rage. He dared not dwell on what Lan Wangji must be feeling after an insult like this; the fury leapt up in his heart, his head went hot, and with a flick of his hand he sent a Paper Talisman flying. 'Have you had enough!'

The Paper Talisman flew fast and vicious, striking Jiang Cheng's right shoulder and bursting with a roar that sent him staggering. Jiang Cheng had not reckoned on Wei Wuxian suddenly striking, and his own Spiritual Power was not yet fully recovered, so the blow landed square; blood showed at his shoulder, and a flash of disbelief crossed his face. Then Zidian shot from between his fingers, crackling and lashing out wildly. Bichen left its sheath and turned the blow aside. The three of them grappled before the ancestral hall, the veins standing red in Jiang Cheng's eyes as he snarled, 'Fine! You want to fight, then fight! As if I'm afraid of the two of you!'

But after a few wild exchanges Wei Wuxian came to himself with a start: this was the Yunmeng Jiang Clan Ancestral Hall, where only moments before he had knelt and prayed to Jiang Fengmian and his wife for their protection — and now, before their very eyes, he was attacking their son alongside Lan Wangji!

As though a cold waterfall had crashed down on his head, his vision flickered bright and dark. Lan Wangji glanced at him and spun round to seize his shoulders. Jiang Cheng's face changed too; he checked his whip, his eyes wavering, his look gone wary. Lan Wangji said, 'Wei Ying?!'

That low voice droned and rang on in Wei Wuxian's ears without ceasing, until he half wondered whether his hearing had failed him. 'What is it?' he said.

He felt something creep down his face, and raising a hand to touch it, he came away with a palm full of crimson. Along with wave upon wave of dizziness, the blood went on sliding from his mouth and nose, dripping down to the ground.

This time, at last, it was no pretense.

Clinging to the crook of Lan Wangji's arm to keep himself upright, Wei Wuxian saw that the white robe Lan Wangji had only just changed into was stained red again with his blood, and without meaning to he reached out to wipe at it, fretting at the worst possible moment: I've dirtied his clothes again.

Lan Wangji said, 'Are you all right?!'

Wei Wuxian answered something else entirely: 'Lan Zhan... let's go.'

Go now.

Never to come back again.

Lan Wangji said, 'All right.'

He had no intention now of tangling further with Jiang Cheng; without a word he hoisted Wei Wuxian onto his back and made to leave. Jiang Cheng was startled and suspicious both — startled by the sudden, ghastly sight of Wei Wuxian bleeding from every orifice, suspicious that this was a trick of Wei Wuxian's to slip away, since in the past Wei Wuxian had often used just such a ploy for his mischief. Seeing the two of them about to go, he said, 'Hold it!'

Lan Wangji said furiously, 'Out of my way!'

And with the word came Bichen, its aura turned all at once to raging fury; a streak of Zidian wound out to meet it, and the two divine blades clashed with a long, ear-splitting shriek. Shaken by that long cry, as though a guttering candle-flame had at last been snuffed, Wei Wuxian felt his head split with pain; his eyes closed, and his head drooped down. Feeling the weight settle on his shoulder, Lan Wangji withdrew at once from the fray to check his breathing; with its master no longer lending it force, Bichen faltered, and Zidian's attack pressed forward at once. Jiang Cheng had no wish to truly wound Lan Wangji and pulled the whip back at once — but it looked as though he would be too late. At that very moment a figure leapt down from the side and threw itself between the two.

Jiang Cheng fixed his eyes on the intruder who had cut in so suddenly, and found it was none other than Wen Ning. Rage flared in him at once. 'Who let you come into Lotus Pier? How dare you!'

The others he could just barely endure, but this Wen dog, who with one blow of his hand had pierced Jin Zixuan through the heart and destroyed his sister's happiness and her very life — him he could not endure at all. The mere sight of him roused the urge to kill and be done. And still he dared set foot on the inner ground of Lotus Pier — truly he was courting death!

Out of these two deaths and a host of other reasons, Wen Ning carried guilt in his heart, and so he had always held a certain dread of Jiang Cheng, instinctively keeping out of his path; yet now he stood before Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, facing Jiang Cheng head-on, and took the savage lash of the whip — a fearsome scorched welt crawling across his chest — without flinching.

Having found that Wei Wuxian had merely fainted, worn to the bone and overcome by the rush of his own anger, Lan Wangji turned his gaze away at last. He saw that Wen Ning held something in his hands, holding it out before Jiang Cheng. The Zidian at Jiang Cheng's right hand blazed so bright it had nearly gone white, mounting as high as the killing intent in his heart; in the extremity of his rage he laughed. 'What do you think you're doing?'

The thing was none other than Wei Wuxian's sword, Suibian. All along the way Wei Wuxian had found it a nuisance to carry and kept tossing it aside, until in the end he threw it to Wen Ning to keep. Wen Ning held it up. 'Draw it.'

His tone was resolute, his gaze steady — nothing at all like his usual dazed, vacant manner.

Jiang Cheng said, 'I'm warning you — if you don't want your bones ground to powder and your ashes scattered a second time, then take your feet off the soil of Lotus Pier this instant and get out!'

Wen Ning all but drove the hilt into his chest, his voice rising as he cried, 'Do it — draw!'

A surge of agitated fury went through Jiang Cheng, his heart pounding for no reason; and then, as though some unseen hand moved him, he actually did as Wen Ning said — his left hand closed on the hilt of Suibian, and he pulled with all his strength.

A blade snow-white to the point of dazzling slid free of its plain, ancient sheath!

Jiang Cheng stared down at the gleaming sword in his hand, and it was a good while before he came back to himself.

This sword was Suibian. It was Wei Wuxian's sword. After the Siege of the Burial Mounds it had been kept by the people of the Lanling Jin Clan as a trophy of war. Long ago it had undergone Sword Sealing of its own accord, and of everyone who had seen it since, not one had been able to draw it from its sheath.

So why had he drawn it? Could the Sword Sealing have been lifted?

Wen Ning said, 'The Sword Sealing has not been lifted! Even now it is still sealed. If you sheathe it again and let someone else try to draw it, whoever it is, no one will get it out.'

Confusion filled both Jiang Cheng's mind and his face. 'Then why can I draw it?'

Wen Ning said, 'Because this sword has taken you for Young Master Wei.'

Lan Wangji, with the now-senseless Wei Wuxian on his back, rose to his feet.

Jiang Cheng said sharply, 'What do you mean, taken me for Wei Wuxian? Taken me how! Why me?!'

Wen Ning said, more sharply still, 'Because the Golden Core circulating Spiritual Power inside your body right now — it is his!'