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quazartranslates · 4 years ago

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Welcome to the Nightmare Game - CH137 (Extra)

**This is an edited machine translation. For more information, please [click here]**

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Chapter 137: Extra

Introduction to Extra: When a high school student idol girl encounters an exorcist of the Holy See who transferred to her school, the original scientific world seems to suddenly become unscientific...

Beautiful idol girl: A lovely and beautiful girl like me, of course, only likes handsome girls!

Handsome girl: Hmm!

Agent: Excuse me?

　　&&&

Note: This story is an AU (Alternative Universe) story, that is, a parallel universe, not a story within the same timeline as the main text. There is no Nightmare Game in this story. Everyone is living in modern times, including fantastic creatures such as supernatural ghosts, demons, and blood cults, but they are not widely known. The story involves the locations and characters from the Castle Cry copy, but it is different from the story in the text. Please refer to the text.

Genders are different, genders are different, and genders are different (important things are said three times). Because of gender differences and different experiences growing up, the characters are slightly different from the text.

Qi Leren entered the entertainment industry from an early age while attending high school, filming and singing, and was a famous idol and beautiful girl; Ning Zhou is the royal elder sister* mixed-race exorcist who transferred from abroad for some reason.

*{E/N: yujie, like the Japanese onee-sama character type}

　　&&&

The sunshine outside the window was too good, and there wasn’t even a cloud in the blue sky.

Qi Leren looked out of the window with her cheeks propped up, a little absent-minded.

The teacher was giving a lecture on the podium and the students around her were all keeping their heads down and taking notes carefully. Qi Leren’s eyes quietly drifted to the black-haired and blue-eyed student by the window. She sat upright and looked at the teacher on the podium, looking serious and earnest.

Her blue eyes were really beautiful.

Qi Leren's thoughts suddenly returned to the day a month ago.

On that day, she’d flown back to X City overnight the previous night. It was already after midnight when she’d gotten home, so she’d unfortunately overslept the next day and rushed into the lecture building as the school bell rang. Although the school was tolerant of her frequent leave, Qi Leren didn't want to be treated specially because of her idol status, so she would try her best to observe the school rules.

The bell was drawing to a close, and she was still a corridor away from the classroom. Qi Leren ran at the speed of the 800-meter women's champion in the school sports meet. As she ran, she thought she might not be late this time. As a result, at the corner at the end of the corridor, she ran head-on into someone.

"Ow!" The bump was really strong. Qi Leren raised her head angrily, covering her nose, and glared at the person.

The blue-eyed girl who was hit: "...Sorry."

Who is this? I've never seen her before. Is she wearing fashion contact lenses? So tall and beautiful!

Qi Leren stared at the person and for a long time she apologized until the class teacher coughed: "I'm sorry, I ran into you, I'm sorry!"

The class teacher accompanying the blue-eyed girl smiled and said, "Xiao-Qi, what are you hurrying for?"

Qi Leren immediately wore a bitter expression: "...Sorry teacher, I'm late."

"It doesn't matter, you’re busy with your work, the teacher understands it, go back to the classroom quickly," the teacher in charge said, taking the two people with her to the classroom.

Qi Leren walked on the left side of the head teacher and slowed down after two steps. She secretly looked at the girl walking on the right side of the head teacher. She looked only ahead of her, and she could see that her facial features were more three-dimensional than the average person. With those sapphire eyes, Qi Leren boldly guessed that she should be mixed-race.

"Hey hey, I’m Qi Leren, what's your name? Why haven't I seen you before? Did you transfer to this school?" Qi Leren put on her trademark smile photogenic smile and smiled sweetly at her, and spoke without any of her idol baggage.

The blue-eyed girl gave her a look, turned her face quickly, and fell silent.

Qi Leren, who’d failed to strike up a conversation, froze for a second. What? Someone ignored her? This was not scientific!

Qi Leren debuted at the age of seven, playing the sister of the self-improving poor hero in a drama set in the Republic of China. Because the story required crying from beginning to end, crying deeply and emotionally, and because of her lovable role and outstanding acting skills, she played the clever and poor little girl vividly and immediately became the little daughter in the eyes of the aunties and became a national sweetheart.

Since then, Qi Leren, who was still a young girl, relied on her mother's contacts as an actress and her own outstanding acting skills - and probably also her well-proportioned face - and after ten years, her development route had been well planned by the management company. From the age of thirteen, she had changed from the role of poor and lovely sister and daughter to the route of a youth idol and beautiful girl, acting on one hand and singing on the other, busy enough that she needed 48 hours per day. If it wasn't for her mother's insistence that she should continue her studies and at least finish college, she probably wouldn't even have the chance to experience normal school life.

It can be imagined that the campus life of this popular idol, this beautiful girl, was full of stars, yet Qi Leren had never met anyone who was nice to her.

To paraphrase the lines of the hero of her recent idol drama: Very good, woman, you have successfully caught my attention!

"Ning Zhou is a new transfer student. She was in Italy before, and her Chinese isn’t very good. Xiao-Qi, you should help her more and let her integrate into the group as soon as possible," the teacher in charge said.

"Oh, no problem, leave it to me!" Qi Leren smartly saluted the class teacher, which attracted the class teacher's tight smile.

The girl named Ning Zhou unnaturally turned away from her gaze, staying silent as she looked at the distant scenery.

It had been a month, and she was still like this.

Qi Leren, who was pulled away from her memories, sighed softly and looked at Ning Zhou with increasingly melancholy eyes.

Ning Zhou was really beautiful and cold, and she exuded an aura of staying away from strangers. Qi Leren heard that her classmates would also talk about her privately, saying that she wasn’t easy to get along with, and the amount of time she normally took as leave was comparable to Qi Leren.

Hey, why was she so cold? She had spoken up many times explicitly and implicitly, but Ning Zhou always ended the conversation with a "hm" which made the idol girl frustrated. If it weren't for Ning Zhou's eyes that were clear of disgust, she would have almost thought Ning Zhou really hated her.

Qi Leren was resting on her arm and looking sideways at Ning Zhou. The side of her face seemed to be glowing in the warm sunshine. It was really beautiful...

Suddenly Ning Zhou turned to look up, and Qi Leren who was peeking was caught red-handed as their eyes collided in the air... What happened with ordinary people? Were they embarrassed and looked away? Qi Leren didn't. She kept her head pillowed on her arm and smiled generously at Ning Zhou, especially sweetly.

Ning Zhou quickly withdrew her sight, not looking out the window.

In the warm sunshine, her earlobe was red.

Qi Leren blinked and repeatedly confirmed that she was not mistaken.

So, in fact, Ning Zhou wasn’t cold but just shy? Qi Leren was stunned by this idea and screamed in her heart for a long time, Ning Zhou! Lovely! She's shy! Super cute!

Qi Leren's heart was filled with an unprecedented impulse. She should try harder to strike up a conversation with Ning Zhou and make good friends with her! The kind where she could bury herself in her breasts!

When the bell rang, Qi Leren immediately sat up straight, and the students around them stood up and walked around the classroom. Several nice classmates gathered around Qi Leren and chatted with her twitteringly.

"Qi Leren, I heard that you’re going to release a single again. Have you recorded it?"

"When will your new show be released?"

"Qi Leren, help me ask Su Ying for a signature! The news said that you’ll be acting in that show, right!"

"Are XX and XXX really in love? I think it’s all just a rumor!"

All kinds of questions surrounded Qi Leren, these curious baby girls racing against time to inquire about the entertainment industry. Qi Leren patiently answered them one by one, and some inconvenient words had to be vaguely taken out. Fortunately, the girls were just curious, not asking why. Compared with them, it was obvious that the students in other classes and even other grades outside the window gave her a headache. If she wanted to go out to the toilet now, she couldn't do it without two students because she would be overwhelmed by the crowd...

This was also the trouble of being a popular and beautiful idol girl.

Until after school in the afternoon, Qi Leren didn't find a chance to get closer to Ning Zhou. She walked too fast. Qi Leren didn't find a chance to leave school with her, so she had to instead leave the school with several girls. In the afternoon, the driver who was in charge of picking her up asked for leave. She thought about whether to take a taxi home or to walk home. After thinking about it, the school wasn’t far from home anyway. It was currently rush hour, so the road would be too blocked. It was better to walk.

So Qi Leren put on a mask and walked towards home with her school bags.

Since the beginning of primary school, Qi Leren had had only a handful of opportunities to go home by herself. She looked at the cars blocking the street from one end to the other and the motorbikes occupying the sidewalk, gave an annoyed tut, and turned her head and walked into the alley.

Through this alley, one could reach the neighbourhood her house was in. Qi Leren was happily humming the tune of her upcoming single that she would be shooting the music video for tomorrow...

At dusk, the orange-red light fell on the corner of the lane, which shrouded the scenery in a decadent golden splendor. A cold wind blew, and the coolness was a little unsettling. Qi Leren instinctively had a feeling of foreboding. She hesitantly stopped and looked around - the sunset’s sudden dimness was only caused by the shadow of a building, and everything seemed ordinary.

The exit was just ahead. With an uneasiness in her heart, Qi Leren strode forward.

There was a cold wind, and the wind mixed with the foul smell and decay. Qi Leren held her breath and took three steps in two strides, but the accident did not let her go. Just less than ten meters away from the corner, the golden sunset was suddenly swallowed up by a strange darkness, and Qileren stopped suddenly and looked ahead in amazement.

The residential buildings on both sides of the alley echoed with the shrill cries of crows, and the daylight around her suddenly darkened as if she had stepped into an instant night. Qi Leren looked back in panic, but the road that she had originally come from had been submerged in the darkness.

What was happening? Was this some strange joke?

Qi Leren panicked and took out her cellphone to make a call. As soon as she unlocked it, there was no signal at all!

Qi Lered was flustered, using her cellphone to illuminate ahead as she walked faster and faster, but no matter how far she went, there was no end to the road ahead. Only the light of the cellphone illuminated a small section of the concrete ahead, and there was a mottled blood on the ground...

There was a strange movement in the darkness ahead. Qi Leren stopped and looked toward it with bated breath. The flashlight lit up the darkness. In this faint light, there was a rickety and distorted shadow coming towards her, step by step, slowly and heavy, as if a cold corpse had been forcibly fished out of the morgue was posing strangely and stumbling forward.

It entered the range of the flashlight’s beam and Qi Leren breathed in a gasp - Was that alive? The limbs were stiff, the skin was gray, and the eyes were glowing red. It paused for a second, its head lowered, and the red eyes looked straight in Qi Leren’s direction.

The next moment, it opened its closed mouth, showing a whole row of sharp teeth, and growled at her!

Qi Leren gave a cry and ran away. She bet that hadn’t tried so hard when she’d ran 800 meters in the school sports meet, but even still the monster that had suddenly become agile got closer and closer as it chased her, and with a swoop forward it grabbed Qi Leren's calf.

"Ah-" Qi Leren fell to the ground, and the monster opened its mouth and bit her throat.

At this critical juncture, Qi Leren, who had closed her eyes tightly, heard a gunshot, but the expected pain did not come. She opened her eyes carefully. The monster holding her down was covered with frost and the cold seeped into her body. She shivered, struggling out of the monster's hold by rolling and crawling, brushing the dirt off her clothes while looking in all directions for the source of the gunshot.

The darkness around her was fading gradually and the sunset came back from the end of the world, spilling its afterglow on the earth.

And in the direction of the sunset, there was a tall and slender figure with a silver shotgun pistol in her hand, looking at her from a distance.

That figure...

Qi Leren suddenly opened her eyes wide and ran to her without thinking. The girl took a step back and seemed to want to leave, but Qi Leren had already cried her name: "Ning Zhou! Wait!"

Ning Zhou didn't go away after all. Instead, she was pulled by the arm by Qi Leren: "What happened just now? What was that monster?"

"...Low-level magic," Ning Zhou said, and went to the monster who had been shot dead by her gun. She bent over to check it and confirmed that it was dead. Then she took out a bottle of a liquid flashing with silver luster from her bag and dumped it on the body. The body instantly turned into black and dissipated in the air.

Qi Leren was still immersed in the absurdity of the thrilling adventure just now, and her mind was full of strange questions. However, when Ning Zhou was about to leave, she quickly caught up and held onto her: "Don't go, where did that monster come from? Why did it suddenly get dark just now? What’s the silver liquid in your bottle? Corpse water? Who the hell are you? Certainly not an ordinary person?"

Ning Zhou, whose arm was being clung to, looked at the curious girl with a depressed face. At that time, she didn't know what to do. She could tell her, of course, but it would hurt her, involving her in something she couldn’t escape from... What should she do?

"Oh, please talk to me, I'm scared to death, can you walk me back? My house is just a little way away, it’s very close! Just be good enough to walk me there." Seeing that Ningzhou seemed to be shaken, Qi Leren immediately switched to acting mode and watched Ning Zhou, trying to impress this mysterious transfer student with what are known as "puppy eyes".

"...Let's go," Ning Zhou gave in.

Qi Leren silently made a victory gesture in her heart and took Ning Zhou's arm happily and naturally - at that moment, she felt Ning Zhou stiffen: "Thank you for saving me, Ning Zhou, you’re so handsome! I upgrade you to my goddess!"

And then? Then she succeeded in seeing Ning Zhou's ears turn red again.

It's so lovely, Qi Leren chuckled in her heart.

On the way home, Qi Leren played the rare dead-end part of the idol beautiful girl and pulled a lot of information out of Ning Zhou's mouth, which was sparing in words and inaccurate in pronunciation. What had happened just now was she had walked into the Nightmare World at dusk, a projection of the real world that existed in hell. Whenever night fell its power would become strong, and occasionally someone would go into the Nightmare World and be attacked by monsters.

She also learned that Ning Zhou is not from Italy, but from the Vatican. The Vatican was not only responsible for religious beliefs as she had imagined. There was also a very complex and huge underground Holy See beneath the surface. Since the Middle Ages, they had fought with the dark forces. Exorcists were not simply characters in novels and movies, but really existed.

At this moment, the person whose arm she was holding was an exorcist of the Holy See.

It sounded really cool. It sounded cooler than an idol girl!

On the short walk home, Qi Leren's worldview had been scrubbed clean. Sadly, she still wanted to continue to be washed, but she had already returned to her doorstep. Still holding onto the girl: "Eat with me, my parents aren’t at home these days. I have no appetite when I eat alone, and I’ve lost a few pounds!"

Saying this, Qi Leren pinched her arm and looked at Ning Zhou pitifully.

Ning Zhou compromised again.

Qi Leren felt that she had found the trick to deal with Ning Zhou, she just had to play up this charm and act as the cute coquettish girl. Ning Zhou was shy and soft-hearted, and had no idea what to do with this kind of girl.

"Let me see what's in the refrigerator. When the auntie comes to clean the house in the morning, she leaves something for me to eat later. I just take it out and heat it up at night." Qi Leren opened the refrigerator and studied it for a while. She smiled back and reported the name of the dishes present. "...What would you like to eat?"

"Whatever."

"There’s no food called whatever! I’ll tell you what, shall I make you spaghetti and steak? I'm good at that! Okay, it's a deal! Go and do some homework and I'll cook." Qi Leren kicked Ning Zhou out of the kitchen, turned on the stereo, and played the songs off her last album, which were all youthful and relaxed and made people feel happy when they listened to them - although Qi Leren was not interested in her own songs at all. When she heard the melody, she would recall collapsing while singing and having to leave the recording studio to vomit, but out of some unspeakably subtle mood, she especially wanted to play it in front of Ning Zhou now.

This careful choice really caught Ning Zhou's attention. She picked up the album case that Qi Leren "inadvertently" put on the coffee table. The girl on the cover was wearing a sailor suit and full of energy, with her hair that was tied into a pair of ponytails floating up as she jumped. Her pitiable and lovely drooping eyes became glowing because of her happy smile.

Ning Zhou looked at it for a long time, but she didn't even notice that Qi Leren, who was busy in the kitchen, looked back at her frequently. She picked up the remote control and turned on the TV. The image of the song’s music video immediately appeared in front of her eyes. The girl wearing sportswear in the music video was participating in a sports meet and fell down as she ran, suffering from a cold sweat, but stood up stubbornly and limped to the end regardless of her bleeding knee.

That stubborn and tough look... Ning Zhou's heart was suddenly hit, and then she woke up. It was just a music video.

When she looked into the kitchen, she happened to collide with Qi Leren who was secretly peeking at her. Their eyes were separated by the transparent glass door. Caught red handed, Qi Leren covered her eyes with one hand. After a long time, she opened the glass door and blushed and as she said, "That music video was shot blindly! I didn't fall when I was running. Last year I won the 800-meter women's championship in the school sports meet!"

Of course, winning the championship was due to the fact that special sports students couldn't participate in the school sports meet.

At the sports meet, Qi Leren was photographed from beginning to end and made headlines with her win of the 800-meter championship, so when this music video came out, it was ridiculed in good faith - Le-mei, you won this 800-meter championship by beating the previous player, right?

Qi Leren really wanted to promote herself in front of Ning Zhou. It was naturally a bit depressing to be seen in the music video, and for Ning Zhou to take it so seriously...

Inexplicably ashamed and resentful Qi Leren pulled Ning Zhou away from watching the TV: "Give me a hand, you cook the spaghetti and I'll make the steak! If you don’t know how, I can teach you."

So one person's kitchen became two people’s, and the sunset outside the window stretched the shadows of the two people until they collided with each other unconsciously. When an elbow touched another person, the two people would stiffen and casually pretend it hadn’t happened.

The living room outside the kitchen echoed with the familiar melody, full of youth and love.

After dinner, Qi Leren invited Ning Zhou to work on homework together. Whenever she did homework, she always complained that she could earn money to support herself yet she still had to study hard and do homework. With how often she took leave, it wasn’t easy to stay in the middle ranking. The price was that she often had to study hard on the set with her textbooks, and she was so tired that she would never get up until she was hungry in the afternoon.

When doing homework, Qi Leren's mouth didn't stop. She talked to Ning Zhou who didn’t say a word. Ning Zhou said too little, and she was almost always chattering: "My mother has been very busy recently. She’s the busiest person in my family. It’s normal for her to fly to three cities in a day on press tours when a movie’s released. She acts so tired even at her age. I think she’ll struggle until she’s 80 years old. My dad’s fine, he isn’t too busy working at the university. I don’t see him very often, even though we’re his wife and daughter. When my mother’s resting, he is not busy. I really want to cover over his face." At some point, Qi Leren casually asked, "Where are your parents? Did they come to X City with you?"

Ning Zhou's writing hand kept moving as she said faintly, "They’ve passed away."

"Ah..." Qi Leren froze, "I'm sorry..."

Ning Zhou stopped writing and looked up at her: "It doesn't matter, it’s been a long time."

Her blue eyes were so calm, almost empty, as if talking about something irrelevant, but… why did she feel sad?

No, you haven't let it go at all, Qi Leren retorted in her heart. You’re obviously sad, but you don't want to admit it. Do you feel that you’re weak? It’s lovely that people have such strong emotions. They laugh when they’re happy, cry when they’re sad, and pursue bravely when they like someone. Because of these feelings, people are able to become real.

A bell came from somewhere far away. Qi Leren took a look at the time, strengthened her heart to keep Ning Zhou here, and pretended to learn the time casually as she said, "Ah, it's late, why do you have to leave? I am alone at home, and with what happened before... I’m a little scared." With that, Qi Leren blushed and asked, "Can you stay with me?"

In the face of such a person, such a request, Ning Zhou couldn't refuse. Receiving a positive answer, Qi Leren happily went to help her find a change of clothes: "I haven't worn these pajamas yet, the underwear is new, a toothbrush and towel are ready, and I put them in the bathroom on the second floor. I’ll go wash on the first floor."

Finished saying that, Qi Leren trotted down the stairs, brushed her teeth and washed her face quickly, and took a bath while humming. After washing, she looked at herself in front of the mirror for a while. After hesitating repeatedly, she picked up a bottle of girls’ perfume with a fresh scent from the washstand, sprayed it twice in the air, and then walked through the mist.

Qi Leren, who walked out of the bathroom, also sniffed her body nervously. It was light, and it wasn’t obvious after being mixed with shower gel. It should be... It should seem quite natural.

The fragrant Qi Leren walked to the piano in the living room, pressed it twice, then sat down and played the piano skillfully.

Ning Zhou, who had finished washing, came down the curved staircase. Qi Leren looked up at her and smiled as she said, "I'll sing you the song from my new single."

Ning Zhou nodded silently.

Qi Leren coughed twice: "This song ‘I like you’ is dedicated to the goddess Ning Zhou who is willing to accompany me through this frightening night. Your blue eyes are as beautiful as sapphires, I like them very much.

"Everything became incredible, I fell in love with you at first sight, and the world was instantly sweet. Your smile and your voice linger in my mind. My eyes only follow you in the crowd, and my first love suddenly comes... I want to take you out of your lonely world, I want to accompany you to see all the beautiful sights, and I am inseparable from you from now on... La la la la, just like you so much, la la la la, I like you."

In the brightly lit living room, the girl who played the piano and sang presented her a song with countless sweet smiles. When being watched by brown eyes, the heart always lost its rhythm, and the heat surging in her chest was so strange and difficult to control. She was afraid of this uncontrollable thing, but she just wanted to let it go.

As she finished playing, Qi Leren looked at her eagerly: "Is it good?"

Ning Zhou hard nodded her head.

So Qi Leren smiled: "I hoped you’d like it! When I have a new song next time, I’ll sing it to you again!"

Ning Zhou looked at her deeply, and her deep blue eyes seemed to become gentle under the light.

Qi Leren, who despite not having a teacher had learned how to pick up a hot chick, jumped with excitement and tried to calm down, saying, "It's late, let's go to sleep."

With this said, she took Ning Zhou to the bedroom: "My bed’s quite big, it’s no problem for two people to sleep in it. If you’re not used to it, we can each have a quilt."

Anyway, there was no such option as sleeping next door.

Ning Zhou was not used to it. Girls here went to the toilet in droves and walked in the street hand in hand. Kissing and touching were commonplace. When she first came, she thought the girls here were all gay, but later found out that this was a difference of national customs.

"My friends have told me about having sleepovers with their girlfriends, but I entered the entertainment industry too early and the agents are very strict, and I haven’t had any friends close enough to sleep with." Qi Leren seemed to be a little hesitant to look at Ning Zhou, and quickly tried to act cute to disguise it. "I’ll definitely have nightmares tonight..."

Ning Zhou compromised again, and she found herself frustrated that she was always easily persuaded in matters relating with Qi Leren, without any bottom line.

Qi Leren, successful in being allowed to share the same bed as the goddess, got under the quilt and snickered, so happy that she couldn't wait to roll a few times in bed. But in the face of the goddess, she had to be careful and reserved!

The dim bedside lamp lit up this square inch. Qi Leren got out from under the blanket and leaned against the pillow. She looked at Ning Zhou sideways and said with a smile, "Let's chat."

"..." They had agreed to go to bed since it was late. Ning Zhou felt unbearable condescension, but nodded her head.

Qi Leren was quite good at chatting. She couldn't help it, it was also the actor's professional quality to be eloquent. Otherwise, they would be tongue-tied when being interviewed by reporters and the other party will be embarrassed. When she was on talk shows, the atmosphere would be stagnant, and the lethality of the silence would be huge.

Seeing that the goddess agreed, Qi Leren chatted with her in a garrulous way, getting closer and closer, and in the end she had cocked her head and leaned on the other's shoulder to show her her photos.

"This photo was taken when I was seven years old. At that time, I cried and didn't want to go to school. My mother threatened to make me go to her film set with her if I didn't go to school. Every day, I had to crawl in the mud and hang from a wire. I cried and said that I would rather go to the shoot, so my mother took me to her film studio to teach me a lesson. At that time, she was filming a drama set in the Republic of China. It was scary watching them shoot a war scene. I was scared. I thought that the actor brother was really dead and started crying. The director of the studio next door had just come to chat with an old friend, looked at me crying pitifully, and said that the actress who was meant to play the little girl next door had broken her leg and couldn't come, and he discussed with my mother whether he could borrow me the show. At that time, I was so naive that I thought I really didn't have to go to school anymore if I did it, so I happily went away with the director and embarked on the road of no return. The worst thing is that I have to go to school while I’m shooting a show. If I don't do well on an exam, I have to ask my tutor to make up the missed lessons! It’s mad, there’s no humanity." Qi Leren chattered at Ning Zhou, talking about her mother and making angry gesticulations as she went on.

From the tip of her nose came the sweet smell of girls, mixed with shower gel and an unknown fragrance, which was pure and fresh and sweet. Ning Zhou, who was almost never so close to anyone, instinctively felt her body stiffen and repeatedly stressed to herself that she was harmless, that she needn’t be so on guard or have to fight back. On several occasions, her line of sight had habitually fallen on her slender neck, which was so soft that a gentle push would be enough to stop her from ever singing well again. It turned out that she was flawed, and she didn't have any precautions about showing them. This naive innocence made Ning Zhou anxious and subconsciously worried.

"...And you? What was it like when you were a child?" Qi Leren asked in a low voice, she was a little uneasy for fear that such a question would be too abrupt, but she couldn't help but want to know more about Ning Zhou.

That isn’t a happy memory, she doesn't want to know, Ning Zhou thought.

She didn't want to know of the endless bloody killings at the border between the Nightmare World and the human world, and what it was like to hunt demons alone at the border of hell since the age of thirteen, and she didn't want to know how painful it was when she ran out of food and fell into the demon forest and her intestines slipped out of an abdominal wound. Even when they were sitting side by side, the worlds they lived in were never the same.

She didn't want her to see the filth and darkness hidden behind the peaceful world.

Ning Zhou was silent for too long, and Qi Leren lowered his eyes in frustration and realized that her questions had troubled Ning Zhou: "I'm sorry... I'm too curious..."

"When I was thirteen years old, I went to the Vatican..." Ning Zhou interrupted her apology and said quietly, "I’ve never seen my father. After my mother died that year, I had no other relatives who could serve as guardians. Her friends followed her will and sent me to the Vatican, where a senior who respected her was my guardian.

"Living in the Vatican was very happy. I’ve learned a lot of things and I am determined to be an exorcist like my mother, fighting demons hidden in the dark. In recent years, the scope of the Nightmare World is expanding, and the number of demon attacks around the world is increasing... I was commissioned by a descendent of a German noble to investigate the history of his past relative who had lived in China with her family."

Ning Zhou saw Qi Leren looking eagerly at her and wanting to hear more, so she talked about some modified hunting demons. Qi Leren listened to her carefully. Ning Zhou said many words very carefully, with a little accent, but it sounded so lovely to Qi Leren. The more she listened, the more absorbed she became, and when she heard some thrilling thing she would gasp and hold Ning Zhou's hand nervously.

The girl's hand was small and soft, and the veins were clear. She found that Ning Zhou's hand was different from hers. She took her palm and looked left and right. She also curiously touched the thin veins that ran from her palm to her wrist, and touched Ning Zhou's left hand. There was a scar in the center that looked like a thorn, and she said with distress: "This must have been painful."

The palm of her hand felt crisp and numb, and Ning Zhou breathed slowly and withdrew her hand quietly: "It's time to sleep."

Qi Leren was a little regretful but she had to turn off the lights, depressed at the thought of having to shoot the music video tomorrow on her day off classes.

The room was dark and the balcony off the bedroom was open. The wind blew in from outside the screen window, together with the moonlight. Qi Leren lowered her breathing and listened carefully. She couldn't hear Ning Zhou's breathing at such a close distance. If it wasn't for the other person's temperature, she wouldn't even feel someone sleeping beside her.

The hand hidden under the quilt sneaked over and grabbed Ning Zhou's hand. She looked at her with her tilted face that was turned away from the moonlight. Her facial features were immersed in the darkness, yet her sapphire eyes were shining.

A smile appeared on Qi Leren’s moonlit face. She held Ning Zhou's hand, leaned over, and kissed her on the cheek: "Thank you for saving me today. Goodnight, Ning Zhou."

It was too close. When she had neared, Ning Zhou had almost turned over and stopped her, but the sweet smell of the girl puzzled her and she didn't move until her soft lips pressed to her cheek.

Qi Leren, who had kissed the goddess, lied back, and the quilt covered the lower half of her face, which also covered her hand clutching Ning Zhou’s.

Strange joy and pain haunted her at the same time. In such a complicated mood, she breathed another person's breath and gradually fell asleep.

The night was silent and long, but Qi Leren, who had always slept well, suddenly woke up. She hesitated, rubbed her eyes, and got out of bed to go to the toilet without realizing that she was the only one in the big bed.

When she walked to the bathroom, she looked at the mirror with a yawn. She looked sleepy in her reflection. Just when she was about to go out of the bathroom, she suddenly looked back with a start - the toothbrush cup on the washstand wasn’t hers!

The sleepiness was washed away at once and Qi Leren recalled, because the bathroom on the second floor had been lent to Ning Zhou, she had moved her things to the bathroom on the first floor, but... Where was Ning Zhou?!

Qi Leren ran out of the bathroom, shouting Ning Zhou's name and searching everywhere. There was no one in the bedroom, no one in the bathroom downstairs, no one in the living room, no one anywhere! A slipper fell off as she ran and Qi Leren suddenly thought of something, running to look at the shoe cabinet by the front door with one foot bare - Ning Zhou's shoes were gone.

She was gone?

Qi Leren sat down in front of the piano, angry and wronged. Why did Ning Zhou quietly leave in the middle of the night without saying a word? Why?

Maybe it was something urgent, Qi Leren thought sullenly, picked up the slippers she had dropped as she ran, and walked slowly back to her bedroom.

Once again back to the warm bed, Qi Leren sleeplessly rolled back and forth. When she was finished shooting the music video tomorrow, she would have to ask Ning Zhou.

Suddenly, an idea came to Qi Leren’s mind: Wait, was it because she snored and grinded her teeth when she slept, so Ning Zhou left because she couldn’t bear it?

Qi Leren held her face on both hands, like the frightened figure in "The Scream". After all that effort to convince the goddess to sleep in the same bed as her, she had made it unbearable for her to stay!

Qi Leren, who was on the verge of collapse, tearfully wanted to pick up her cellphone and turn on the camera. She wanted to record herself sleeping. How could a beautiful girl who was an idol sleep so badly? No, she refused!

With the cellphone set to record, Qi Leren lied back in bed, pulled the quilt up to cover half of her face, and the moonlight outside the balcony window was still clear. She still remembered that she had looked at Ning Zhou's face against the moonlight a few hours ago, and she was so curious about her, but when the tip of the iceberg of her past was uncovered, she couldn't help but feel distressed for her. She knew that the past Ning Zhou had told her of had been modified. She was not as relaxed and happy as she’d said. When she approached her, the stiff and cold alertness of her body could not deceive people.

Qi Leren didn't know what kind of experiences would make her develop these habits. Unlike her, this little princess who was brought up in the greenhouse from childhood and grew up like a star, Ning Zhou's wounds, cold eyes, and precise marksmanship... All the details implied that she is not a person of that world at all.

But so what? Couldn't different people be friends? She just liked Ningzhou, loved her dearly, and wanted to make her happy. She wanted to give her the most beautiful songs and show her all the bright, warm, and happy feelings. As long as she could get a little bit of happiness and a little bit of the world under the sun, she would feel it was worthwhile.

Since childhood, Qi Leren had received a lot of love. Now she wanted to give her love to Ning Zhou. She wanted her to feel that being loved was a very happy thing.

Thinking about this, sleepiness surged up again, and Qi Leren yawned and glanced at the moonlight on the balcony before closing his eyes.

When she was beginning to drift, Qi Leren felt that there seemed to be some movement by the bed. She opened her eyes in a daze and saw Ning Zhou lying down softly with her back to her.

"Where have you been?" Qi Leren murmured dreamily.

"...The bathroom."

Liar.

Qi Leren suddenly woke up, but she didn't open her mouth to confront her. Instead, she pretended to answer in a daze, stretched out her hand and continued to close her eyes. She could smell that the shower gel on Ning Zhou's body had changed, which wasn’t the smell of her family's shower gel.

Recalling the scene in which she had shot and killed the monster in the Nightmare World at dusk, Qi Leren knew her whereabouts well.

The fragrance couldn’t deceive her of the smell of iron and blood it masked.

Let's not expose her, Qi Leren thought. She took Ningzhou's hand and interlocked their fingers. Either way, this time she won't loosen her hand again.

When she was about to fall into a deep sleep again, Qi Leren felt vaguely as if someone had leaned over and said something to her, but she was too tired to fully register it before she lost consciousness.

Ning Zhou should have gotten up at dawn, but her hand was clasped tightly. As soon as she turned her face she could see Qi Leren sleeping soundly, with long eyelashes, red cheeks, and slightly open lips. What do you think is so lovely about me? Ning Zhou watched quietly for a long time, letting the sun rise higher and higher.

There was the sound of opening the door downstairs and someone came in. Ning Zhou, who had excellent five senses, frowned. These were a woman's footsteps. Was it Qi Leren's mother? Was it better for her to avoid them?

But Qi Leren also said that it was normal for girls here to sleep together...

The bedroom door was pushed open rudely and the woman with slender eyebrows and a good figure stood outside the open door and angrily knocked on it: "What time is it, is your cellphone not on, do you remember that you have to go shoot the music video today? Hurry and get up!"

Chen Baiqi, the agent who killed people in Qi Leren's family*, was about to rush in and pull her up. But when she looked at it from a distance, there were two people in the bed!

*{E/N: metaphorically, in case that wasn’t clear}　　

At this moment, Chen Baiqi, a senior agent, was about to collapse: Qi Leren! Do you still remember that you’re an idol acting as a role model for young and beautiful girls? Why is there a wild man! You can't fall in love before changing your image! How have you already developed to this step!

The "wild man" sat up from the bed and looked at Chen Baiqi coldly.

Oh, it's not a wild man. That's great... Like hell! Who is this woman!

With her hair a mess, Qi Leren yawned as she sat up in bed, looked back at Ning Zhou, and kissed her on the cheek naturally: "Good morning, Ning Zhou."

Chen Baiqi: "..."

"Oh, Chen-jie, this is my classmate. I’m a little scared of sleeping alone, so I let her accompany me," Qi Leren talked nonsense without a hint of shame.

"...Hehe." Chen Baiqi thought: Don't smile, your parents aren’t home half the time. How did you sleep before?

The girl named Ning Zhou nodded to her and went to wash up. Qi Leren took Chen Baiqi to the bathroom downstairs and explained the situation to her while brushing her teeth and washing her face. Paranormal, met yesterday, couldn't be spoken of. She had to say that there had been a small incident with a mugger as she had been walking home yesterday, and she was just saved by her classmate Ning Zhou. Since she was a little afraid, she had asked her to please stay for one night.

Chen Baiqi was skeptical but she couldn't say anything, so she let her quickly wash up so they could go to the studio.

Qi Leren remembered that her cellphone was recording her last night, and it should have automatically shut down when the battery had been depleted. No wonder Chen Baiqi came to her house in such a hurry to catch her in person.

After washing, Qi Leren, who had forgotten to eat breakfast, told Ning Zhou that there was food in the refrigerator. The auntie will come to clean up later and she could leave a note for her. She should just say what she wanted for the evening.

Ning Zhou had the illusion that she lived here.

After telling Qi Leren that she had something to go do, Qi Leren let out a "oh" in frustration and reluctantly followed Chen Baiqi to get in the car that would drive them to the shooting location.

Chen Baiqi inquired about Ning Zhou from beginning to end along the way, and Qi Leren said all the things that should be said, but didn't say a word that shouldn't be said. Chen Baiqi's intuition was that Ning Zhou wasn't so simple, but without evidence she couldn't rashly make Qi Leren stay away from her.

Finally, she sighed: "Your identity is unusual. You should be very careful when making friends. If you meet someone with ulterior motives who enters your room, secretly films you, eavesdrops on you, and reveals your privacy to the media, it will be a great blow to your image, especially as your current image is very sensitive to negative news."

Qi Leren knew that Chen Baiqi is good for her and obediently listened to her instructions.

"Although your last transformation was very successful and you got rid of the image of a little girl, this transformation is the key. If you can't jump out of the image of a young girl now, your journey will only get narrower and narrower. You’ll find that as you grow older you’ll be hired for fewer and fewer roles, and there are always young new faces to replace you. The audience doesn't want to see a 30-year-old actress playing a 17- or 18-year-old girl. Your mother's train of thought is very clear, she will take the time to find a drama for you where she can play mother and daughter with you - your mother also fights for you, she never promised to play such an age-exposing role before - this stunt can drive your popularity, if you play well, you’ll play the leading role in the next show, and when the small screen stands firm, it will develop like your mother to the big screen. The company is already discussing your new image and route. When you go to college it will begin, and then you won’t be as leisurely as you are now." Chen Baiqi couldn't help rubbing her temples when she thought of how busy she would be in the future.

"I’ll try my best, Chen-jie, thank you for taking so much trouble for me." Qi Leren cleverly said that although she was the one standing in front of the audience, there were countless people worried about her behind the scenes/ She had gone too far today and Chen Baiqi had helped her block trouble she didn’t know about.

It wasn’t easy to be an actress. Qi Leren looked at the passing scenery outside the window and sighed softly.

But it was no harder than being an exorcist. As Qi Leren thought again, she couldn't help smiling at the thought of Ning Zhou. They would have many opportunities to get along with each other in the future.

-----

Editor’s Notes: To be continued...? (don’t hold your breath)

Phew, this was a longer chapter than I remembered, but this completely caps off Nightmare Game part 1! I have one more little bonus of funny things from the mtl, which can be found [here] if you’re interested.

Thank you once again to everyone for reading and I’ll see you again in part 2! :)

-----

[<<< Previous Chapter | Table of Contents ]

#Welcome to the Nightmare Game #欢迎来到噩梦游戏

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rosethornewrites · 4 years ago

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Fic: this body yet survives, ch. 7

Relationship: Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn

Characters: Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī, Lán Huàn | Lán Xīchén, Lán Qǐrén, Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Jiāng Chéng | Jiāng Wǎnyín, Jiāng Yànlí

Tags: No War AU, Recovery, Trauma, Dissociation, Courtship, Courting Rituals, Near Death Experiences, Attempted Murder, Eventual Happy Ending, Panic Attacks, Vomiting, Siblings, Protective Siblings, Soup, Triggers

Summary: Wei Ying has a panic attack upon waking. Jiang Wanyin makes an unpleasant discovery.

Notes: Life has been busy lately and it might take me longer to write. I get my second Pfizer shot on Wednesday, and I’m expecting it’ll make me useless for a couple days. It’s also nearing the end of the semester, so I’ll be busy with that, too.

Parts 1 & 2

Chapter 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

AO3 link

---------------

It took a few moments for Wangji to remember where he was when he woke, and then a moment more to place what had woken him before mao shi—quiet sobs and a soft voice murmuring soothingly.

He had taken the bedding on one side of the bed, and his eyes adjusted to the dark quickly. Wei Ying was curled against Jiang Yanli, who had taken the last shift. It was close enough to morning, then.

“We’re here, A-Xian, and you’re safe,” she whispered, then noticed him sit up. “He had a nightmare.”

Wangji wished his guqin was here instead of the jingshi, that he had asked xiongzhang to bring it last night, that he could play calming music for Wei Ying; instead he levered himself to sit on the bed and hummed ‘WangXian,’ hoping it would remind his zhiji he was loved.

Wei Ying’s trembling eased slowly, and Wangji kept his movements slow as he reached forward to take his hand, squeezing it lightly. He was relieved when Wei Ying squeezed back.

“S’going on?” Jiang Wanyin murmured blearily, sitting up.

To his credit, he immediately moved beside his sister when he realized the issue.

“Hey, hey,” he murmured, trying to be comforting, patting Wei Ying’s shoulder.

Initiating unexpected touch wasn’t the best idea for someone in the throes of a panic attack—Wei Ying couldn’t quite mask a flinch, and Jiang Wanyin’s hands fluttered in a helpless way before clutching the bedsheet hard enough his knuckles turned white.

Wangji continued to hum through it, not stopping even when his heart clenched at Wei Ying’s gasped apologies for the reaction.

“Not your fault,” Jiang Wanyin whispered insistently, clearly trying to keep his own reaction in check for fear of hurting his brother further.

“Not yours,” Wei Ying returned, equally insistent.

“Neither of yours,” Jiang Yanli cut in. “Neither of you should blame yourselves.”

Wei Ying’s breath hitched.

“I hate it,” he whispered. “I hate being afraid all the time. I hate that I can’t stop.”

Wangji couldn’t abide him blaming himself, and paused in humming, rubbing his thumb gently across the back of Wei Ying’s hand. .

“The past few days have been stressful. Too many events too quickly. Too overwhelming.”

“And some were unexpected,” Jiang Yanli added, clearly thinking of his talk with Madam Jin and the last minute ceremony.

“We should have just ditched the banquet,” Jiang Wanyin muttered. “The food sucked. A-Jie’s was better.”

Surprisingly, Wei Ying giggled at that, helpless in his laughter for nearly a minute.

“Jiejie’s food is way better,” he said when he caught his breath.

Wangji was relieved that his voice wasn’t tight and shaky anymore. The familiar joke among the Jiangs about Gusu Lan food, and particularly the food in the Cloud Recesses, had eased the panic attack.

Honestly, having enjoyed Jiang Yanli’s cooking, Wangji knew they had a point.

She reached forward and smoothed Wei Ying’s hair, down and mussed in a way that was unfairly attractive, then poured him a glass of water from the ewer the healer had brought before hai shi. He drank obediently, likely needing the hydration and something to rinse the taste of stale sick from his mouth.

When he finished the glass, she poured him another, and then maneuvered him until she could reach his hair. She carded through the tangles gently with her fingers before quickly braiding it and tying the end off with his red hair ribbon.

“How are you feeling, A-Xian?” she asked when she was done.

Wei Ying’s eyes had fallen shut during the process, and he hummed contentedly in response.

“Better,” he said after a moment.

He seemed to hesitate, as though he was about to say more.

“Wei Ying?” Wangji asked.

Wei Ying ducked his head and bit his lip.

“A bit hungry,” he admitted.

He knew Wei Ying often downplayed his needs, so Wangji translated that to mean he was very hungry.

“Well, you were sick,” Jiang Wanyin said, frowning. “It’s like you didn’t eat dinner, kind of.”

Jiang Yanli tutted softly.

“You’re still so thin, A-Xian. I can go ask the healer if they can provide something… Or I could go get something from our quarters.”

She started to rise but was stopped by Jiang Wanyin.

“I’ll go, a-jie. I wouldn’t want you to go alone in the dark, and one of us needs to chaperone.”

The Jiang sect heir turned to Wei Ying.

“I’ll stop by your rooms and grab fresh robes for you while I’m at it,” he said gruffly. “You were sick in those.”

Wei Ying smiled brightly, and Wangji wanted to thank Jiang Wanyin for bringing that light to the surface through his courtesy. If he did, it would undoubtedly fluster him, and he could almost see why his zhiji enjoyed teasing people so much, imagining it.

It was near enough to mao shi, and the purpose of Jiang Wanyin’s break of curfew was to help his brother and would be excused, so Wangji said nothing when he left.

Jiang Yanli fussed softly over Wei Ying after his departure, helping to straighten his sleep-skewed robes.

When he shifted on the bed, he nearly knocked Suibian off. Wangji kept the sword from falling and handed it to Wei Ying, who laid it against his thigh. The sword, he knew, was a comfort, despite having been made by the Jiang sect—it represented his ability to protect himself.

Wangji was content to watch Wei Ying as his sister doted on him, their gentle teasing—Xianxian is three; hmm, I think that’s too old—and the blessed calm that had found his beloved.

Jiang Wanyin’s expression, when he returned, was stormy. He placed a tray of fruits and osmanthus cakes on the end of the bed.

“A-Cheng?” Jiang Yanli asked.

He shook his head but looked at Wangji and gestured to the hall. Whatever had him troubled, he didn’t want to say in front of his siblings, which was immediately worrisome.

“Someone put lotuses in our rooms,” Jiang Wanyin said after the door was closed. “Ripped the petals off some and threw them all over.”

Rage filled him, icy and terrifying in what it might lead him to do.

This confirmed those delivered to Wei Ying’s quarters, the entire reason he had to spend the night in the infirmary due to the fear of qi deviation, the reason he was ill and had panic attacks… It had been intentional.

The culprit had likely expected them to take Wei Ying to the Jiang quarters in the morning, not expecting…

“I will wake shufu and xiongzhang,” he said, his voice more forceful than he meant it to be. “The mess will be removed.”

Jiang Wanyin let out a soft sigh, almost one of relief that it’d be handled immediately.

“I didn’t go to A-Xian’s quarters for fresh robes. And you might want to make sure they didn’t hit your jingshi.”

The rage he had felt dwarfed that which he felt now at the thought of his home being violated, the very place he had finally reached Wei Ying, whose well-being was now threatened by an unknown source.

That they had dared to harm Wei Ying… He knew not what he would do if he caught the betrayer.

“I will take care of it,” he said. “Protect Wei Ying.”

Jiang Wanyin blanched a bit, and he wondered briefly if his anger had shown in his face or voice, but he swept that aside, channeling his emotions into energy.

When Xichen answered his knock at the hanshi, the sleepiness fell from his expression immediately, and he knew his own expression revealed his turmoil.

“What happened, A-Zhan?”

It took him a moment to find his voice.

“Sabotage. Lotuses in the Jiang quarters.”

Xichen’s quick intake of air was almost a gasp, and he closed his eyes as he often did when emotionally overwhelmed.

“I will wake shufu,” xiongzhang said after a moment. “Please meet us there.”

Wangji tried to bow, but was kept from doing so by his brother, who instead pulled him into an embrace, one that left his eyes stinging embarrassingly, the emotions that were overcoming him threatening to escape in a way he didn’t want. If he gave in to it, he didn’t know if he would stop until all the grief and anger and helplessness he had felt over the last year was expelled.

It was a relief when Xichen released him.

“We will protect him, didi. We will make this right.”

He could only nod, turning to walk to the Jiang quarters, glad for the dark that hid the emotions he could feel roiling within him.

The Jiang quarters were worse than Jiang Wanyin had let on, though Wangji could now see the reason behind his near-wordless rage.

A large bouquet of lotus flowers dwarfed the table they had eaten at only hours before. Lotus blossoms were strewn about the room, petals on nearly every surface, and the smell was more than could be accounted for by the blossoms. It smelled as though far too much lotus incense had been burned. It was entirely possible the scent would prove difficult to remove, that the idea of Wei Ying staying with the Jiangs would now be impossible.

Knowing now how lotuses impacted Wei Ying, the smell made Wangji nauseous in sympathy. Had he come with them for breakfast in the morning to encounter this, after his own rooms had been similarly violated…

They had been here all evening, until shortly before curfew. This had been done after they left, purposefully.

Which made it clear neither this nor the bouquet left in Wei Ying’s quarters were innocent mistakes.

He dared not touch anything, lest he destroy evidence that might lead to a culprit.

Wangji felt the decorative silverwork on Bichen’s hilt start to cut into his fingers and forced himself to loosen his grip. He left the rooms, standing on the small patio, breathing in the cool night air and listening to the chirp of crickets in the dark until he felt some semblance of calm.

His uncle and brother arrived shortly thereafter, and the thunderous expression on shufu’s face told Wangji he had reached a similar conclusion.

“Wei Ying is being targeted,” he said, knowing it was unnecessary.

“Return to him, Wangji,” shufu ordered gently. “This will be investigated and dealt with, and he needs you more than we do.”

Truthfully, Wangji was grateful to leave it in their hands.

He felt as though he had been contaminated by the smell and stopped by the jingshi to change lest the odor upset Wei Ying. His home was undisturbed, and he was able to change without incident. He even ran his comb, scented with sandalwood, through his hair a few times to ensure it would replace any scent that had taken root there. He took Wangji with him when he left so he could play for Wei Ying.

He stopped by Wei Ying’s quarters on the way back to the infirmary and was relieved they had not been further adulterated. He selected a set of robes, one with some blue in them, then checked to be certain his hair oil had not been tampered with—still the scent of orange and cinnamon—before taking both it and the comb he had gifted with him.

Wei Ying’s smile was weak when he returned, his face lined with new tear-tracks, and the Jiang siblings were hovering over him. Jiang Wanyin had not kept the discovery from him, and though it hurt him to admit, it was the correct decision. As much as Wangji wished to protect him from this, Wei Ying deserved to know, to make his own decisions.

“Xiongzhang and shufu are investigating,” he told them as he hung Wei Ying’s fresh robes over a chair and set his guqin down.

He handed the comb and hair oil to Jiang Yanli, though he wished he could comb Wei Ying’s hair himself. It would be improperly intimate, and the courtship was important to show his value.

He did not offer platitudes, knowing it would not change the way any of them felt. That this had likely originated from his own sect rankled him, and even kowtowing didn’t feel like enough. Nothing felt like enough penance. He had been unaware of negative sentiment toward Wei Ying, had been blindsided by this act of violence against him, had failed him…

“It’s not your fault, Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying whispered, as though he could sense the guilt he felt.

His zhiji’s words, the love in his voice, saved him from the downward spiral of his thoughts. Wangji sat on the bed and took his hand.

Though he had not committed the crime, he felt responsible for his failure to protect Wei Ying again.

“We will be more vigilant,” he said, in lieu of worthless apologies.

Wei Ying offered a sad smile, then shifted closer and hugged him, leaning against his chest and tucking his forehead against his neck.

Wangji brought his arms around him, held him close, basked in the warmth of his presence, and was grateful when the Jiangs said nothing against it, allowing them this simple comfort.

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fwoopersongs · 4 years ago

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10 Artists, 10 Songs

(and bonus for some: the lines that reeled me in)

I was tagged by @thefeastandthefast and @fishylife - thanks guys!!! :D! this comes at a great time because I was just looking for some new song recs ~

The following are the top 10 that I’ve looped the most in 2021:

1. 张信哲 Jeff Chang - 《无别》 No Separation (an unexpected and beautiful MV; i’d listened to it many times without feeling anything - too distracted by the Tian Guan Ci Fu donghua opening visuals - and the line that caught me here actually did so because of this MV)

情丝挥剑缘份消失仍隐约 Emotions’ silken threads - a sword swung - affinity disappears, still, its shade remains. 有谁恋灭了明灯对残月 Who is yearning? Extinguish the lamp, face the waning moon.

2. Winky诗 - 《折扇》 Folding Fan (WOW this plays a mean game of whack-a-mole with all my top favourite tropes: sentient object descends to the mortal world witnessing history and people passing, entering their story, experiencing life)

与我共赴好人间 Together, let us leap forth into this good world, 流转他、她笔端 ensuring his, her inked words are carried on. 谁知道哪一句会千古吟传 Who knows which line may be sung throughout the ages?

3. Billy Boyd - The Last Goodbye (bringing back memories of my LOTR and The Hobbit days)

To these memories I will hold With your blessing I will go To turn at last to paths that lead home

4. 杨秉音 Yang Bin Ying - 《花满城》 Flowers Across the City (my absolute absolute top fav of the of Tian Guan Ci Fu OST soundtracks - and all OST tracks so far this year actually)

5. 二階堂和美 Kazumi Nikaido - 《いのちの記憶》 When I Look Back on This Life (theme song of studio ghibli film, the tale of princess kaguya. the version I watched was the DVD music video/end credits with chinese subs... they made me cry so bad omg)

6. 徐小凤 Paula Tsui - 《春夏秋冬》 Four Seasons (O.O my dad recced this to me like last week and it’s been STUCK in my head ever since... extra: Fei Yu Qing ver. in mandarin)

回头望昨天瞬息数十年 Looking back on yesterday, several decades have passed in the blink of an eye, 谁人曾带走一片叶 has anyone managed to bring along so much as a leaf when it was their time?

7. 金志文 Jin Zhiwen - 《出尘》 letting go (this song??????? it’s so sincere???? so gentle???? i love it VERY much - every line reaches the heart in its own way. it’s too difficult to pick a fav)

8. 五月天 Mayday - 《步步》 Step-by-Step (gixi stirred up my bbjx feels like two months ago and trapped me in this spiral. just THINKING of the line below brings tears to my eyes)

天空和我的中间 The Heavens and I, between us, 只剩倾盆的思念 there remains only this overwhelming longing.

9. 刘宇宁 Liu Yu Ning - 《天问》 Asking Heaven (the entire chorus is just permanently stuck in my head at this point lol someone please save meeeee)

10. 朱七 & 周深 Zhu Qi & Zhou Shen - 楼台 Butterfly Lovers (

我不知竟不知 (我不是) I did not know, did not know I am not 你是深闺中的女子 (藏在深闺中的女子) you are a girl dwelling in her inner rooms. this girl hidden away in her inner rooms.

Tagging @decrescendo, @beneaththebrim, @liuet, @youtiaoshutiao and anyone who is interested!!!!

#tagging games #i love doing these hahaha #i've got 11 technically but EH #whoops this was a bit longer than i intended

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queenpersephonesgarden · 5 years ago

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the heart wants what it does not have

Wangxian Week Day 1: Family

In the daylight the thought comes and goes, infrequent but so predictable it’s almost laughable.

There are times when he can ignore it, convince himself it was just nostalgia and old flights of fancy coming back to haunt him like lingering smoke from a bonfire. He gets better at not letting it sneak up out of nowhere to hit him unexpectedly, learns to anticipate it more often than not.

But it still stings, whether he expects it or not.

Jin Ling’s loud, cheeky banter with Jiang Cheng that echoes through whole rooms with both aggravation and affection so interwoven it is hard to tell apart.

Lan Sizhui’s quiet, respectful nod to Lan Zhan as he joins him for guqin practice every afternoon, his wide smile and Lan Zhan’s peaceful expression making for a perfect complement as they played.

Young married couples flitting through the streets of Caiyi with a small child in tow, both tiny hands clasped firmly by one hand of their mother and father as they are led wide-eyed in between stalls brimming with colorful toys and sweets.

Wei Wuxian sees these things, and he wants.

Can also be read on AO3

He wants so, so badly, half-formed dreams of a man leading a stubborn donkey along a winding road by the reins as his husband and child rode along after him, cheerful laughter ringing in the sunlight melting into the waking world to be splayed beneath his fingertips.

He could…. He could have that.

He could, if he would just open his mouth and ask for it.

Just having the option was enough to make him breathless, make his heart race like he’s run a thousand miles with still no end goal in sight.

Wei Wuxian watches a man on the side of the street scoop his daughter up and deposit her laughing into his wife’s arms, and wants.

“Lan Zhan!” he spins right around to face his husband determinedly.

Lan Zhan focuses on him instantly like he always does when Wei Wuxian opens his mouth, and he has to fight down the immediate flush that tries to crawl up his neck. “Lan Zhan, I’ve been thinking-”

The words are right there.

All that’s missing is a little one.

Such simple words, they’d been so easy to say before-

‘Wretched, ungrateful thing,’ some deep, insidious voice that he shamefully refuses to admit is just the slightest bit reminiscent of Madam Yu hisses in his ear. ‘You have so much more than Jiang Yanli, than Jin Zixuan, than all the Wens you let die, and still you dare wish for more?’

A bright flare of pain erupts in his heart, dulled only the slightest bit by time but no less agonizing. His eyes sting, but he refuses to let any tears truly form.

The vitriol isn’t anything he hasn’t thought of before, but it still manages to trap the words behind his teeth once more, grinning widely in the face of Lan Zhan’s questioning look when the silence stretches.

“Ah, it’s nothing. Nothing important!” For a moment he dares to think he may be able to get away with it, that it really will remain a subject to discuss in the distant nebulous future that he simply never has to bring up again.

But then he catches Lan Zhan’s lips pursing out of the corner of his eye, and he knows there’s no way they won’t talk about it now.

He manages to stall the conversation for the rest of the day, though he is self-aware enough to know this is only because Lan Zhan recognizes this as a subject best saved for the privacy of the Jingshi.

Still Wei Wuxian does everything he can think of to avoid the inevitable, taking extra long in the bath after dinner, scrubbing exaggeratedly at his skin until it’s worn pink and wrinkled from the water, all the while keeping up a stream of nonsense chatter as it comes to mind.

“-and the time delay could probably be extended if I added another stroke in the opposite direction-”

“Mn.”

“-I’ll have to ask A-Yuan and Lan Jingyi if they’d be willing to help me test it-”

“Mn.”

“-course, we’ll probably have to find a bigger target range this time in case it catches fire again-”

“Wei Ying.” A towel appears draped over the privacy screen, right where it normally would be if Wei Wuxian had not purposefully left it behind to be cause for a bit of distraction once he stepped out of the bath, dripping wet and naked with nothing to cover himself with.

Wei Wuxian grins sheepishly even as he sinks a bit lower into the lukewarm water. “Ah, gege is so attentive today,” he lets his voice go sly and teasing at the end. “But is he sure he wants his husband to cover up? I thought he might enjoy a little show once I finished-”

“Wei Ying. The water is going cold.” The man manages to radiate disapproval even without looking behind the screen.

The confident smirk he’d been trying for slid off of Wei Wuxian’s face like rainwater.

He wraps himself in the towel and empties the tub in silence, listening to the distant shuffling of footsteps and fabric as Lan Zhan readied for bed across the room. Wringing his hands while his husband changed felt too strange, too- too distant, and Wei Wuxian did not like it at all, so he clenched his fingers and circled around the privacy screen, padding across the room in determined silence.

The Jingshi feels simultaneously too large and too small for the quiet, the shadows at the corners of the room stretching into silent nothingness as his footsteps bring him to the bedroom.

Wei Wuxian finally slips into bed and feels more nervous than he has for a long time. It takes him one moment, two, before he can raise his eyes to his husband.

Lan Zhan’s gaze was unwavering. “You are unhappy.”

Sudden panic jolted Wei Wuxian into blurting out, “No! I’m never unhappy with you!”

Lan Zhan’s entire face softening infinitely at the quick rebuttal was so unexpectedly endearing Wei Wuxian couldn’t help smiling helplessly, nerves abruptly melting with the force of his joy. Winding his arms around Lan Zhan to press close as he whispered softly, “How could I ever be unhappy when er-gege loves me so much? When I love him so much?”

A shaky breath that could have been a laugh as arms wrapped around him in turn, before lips pressed softly to his temple. “You are… upset,” Lan Zhan gently corrects.

Wei Wuxian hummed noncommittally, then cringes guiltily when the arms around him tighten minutely.

“Not… exactly, but I guess I am, a little.”

“Why?”

Wei Wuxian sighed gustily, a great, explosive breath as the same want from the marketplace surged through his ribcage and rather impatiently forced its way out of his mouth:

“It’s just…. This is more than I could have ever asked for, in a life. You, and A-Yuan, and Jin Ling and all the other juniors, Lan Xichen; even Jiang Cheng when he’s in a good mood! We already have a wonderful family. I wouldn’t change it for anything! I just-!” Here he bit his lip hard, relieved that the tears from earlier don’t resurface even as his heart clenches painfully.

“I would- love, love to have another child with you. To raise one with you, properly this time. Not that A-Yuan isn’t proper! He’s the most Lan-ish Lan I’ve ever met! You did an amazing job with him! But- just-!”

“To raise them with me,” Lan Zhan said quietly, and Wei Wuxian bit his lip even harder.

Nodded fiercely with his eyes squeezed shut.

“How many?”

Wei Wuxian’s eyes popped open. “Hah?”

“How many would make you happy?”

Fond surprise lit up his heart, before exasperated amusement berated him for being surprised at all.

Wei Wuxian hummed in exaggerated thought, gaze fixed on a certain point on the ceiling and ignoring his husband’s steady gaze; he knows if he meets Lan Zhan’s earnest, determined gaze now, he’d likely start either laughing or crying.

“A dozen. No, two dozen. Boys with your eyes and my smile. Girls with steady calligraphy like yours and loud laughter like me. Uncouth hellions that run carelessly through the Cloud Recesses and give your uncle a few new gray hairs before he reaches seventy. Dozens and dozens of little ones to equal the horde of rabbits you have stashed away in the meadow.”

Grinning far too wide at the images his words painted across his mind, Wei Wuxian chanced a glance down at Lan Zhan’s face. “Aiyo, but too many at once would probably send your uncle into a qi deviation. I don’t think my happiness would be worth that.”

“Wei Ying deserves to be happy,” Lan Zhan says, matter of fact, and though Wei Wuxian had meant it to be a joke, Lan Zhan’s voice was so serious that suddenly Wei Wuxian’s eyes were stinging again.

“Lan Zhan. You know you can’t just suddenly say things like that!”

Lan Zhan huffs in amusement, and Wei Wuxian cannot resist hugging him again.

“Would… would raising a child with me make you happy?” he asks, just to be sure, because Lan Zhan is far too often in the habit of focusing on Wei Wuxian’s happiness before all else, and this was a bit too huge of a decision for just one of them to make.

There was no response for a long moment. Wei Wuxian reluctantly pulled back from the embrace, just enough to look at his husband’s face.

The small, awed smile lighting Lan Zhan’s face is utterly devastating.

Wei Wuxian’s jaw goes slack when Lan Zhan offers a wordless, joyful nod, and for a moment they’re both too overwhelmed for words, foreheads pressed together and breathing the same air in a different, softer quiet than before.

Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Silly imaginings of a little one with two parents and a donkey wandering the country no longer seem so silly.

It’s only a long time later that Lan Zhan’s eyes spark in the half-light, pale gold shining in a way that most people would believe to be far too devious a look for the illustrious Hanguang-jun to wear. The man who had married him knew him far too well to be surprised by it.

Wei Wuxian squinted in suspicion. “What is it?”

“Hmm.” Graceful fingers cupped Wei Wuxian’s jaw in a familiar soft gesture that had him instinctively, foolishly sliding his eyes shut at the painful warmth that touch awoke in his chest. “I was simply thinking that we should get started, then.”

Honest confusion made Wei Wuxian blink his eyes open and stare. “Hah? Started?”

Only the slightest tilt of Lan Zhan’s lips suggested his amusement when he said, “On the little ones. I’ve been led to believe they take time to make.”

Startled laughter burst out of Wei Wuxian’s mouth, only to be half muffled when Lan Zhan covered his lips insistently with his own. Still, even amidst such an onslaught of affection, Wei Wuxian felt the need to try and point out the obvious flaw in this logic. “Aha Lan Zhan, unlike most couples, we’re not going to be able to do this the old-fashioned way- ah! Ah!”

A/N: Mo Dao Zu Shi broke into my home and beat my writer’s block over the head with a mallet. It feels good to be back. ~Persephone

#Wangxian #Wei Wuxian #Wei Ying #Lan Wangji #Lan Zhan #Mo Dao Zu Shi #MDZS #MDZS fanfiction #my writing #Wangxian Week

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satonthelotuspier · 5 years ago

Text

How Shall We Stop Dreams - Part 9

Chapters 8 & 9 of How Shall We Stop Dreams, posted over the weekend on AO3. It’s all starting to happen.

As ever follow the link to AO3 for the full fic (link takes you to chapter 8) or the tag below for the other parts here on tumblr, whatever your poison may be.

CW for torture, though it’s not described in much detail.

Chapter 8 – The Wens Unmasked – Part 1

It was greatly against his nature to rush into situations; especially those where he knew they could make things worse. It was scant comfort to Lan Xichen at that moment, however, who merely wished to tear the Nightless City apart stone by stone to get to Jiang Wanyin.

He was entirely to blame for Jiang Wanyin being in danger now, and he wanted to act. If he hadn’t spent so much time away from those books for his own selfish reasons he would have made the revelations so much earlier, in time to stop the other from delivering himself into the hands of the Wens.

Lan Wangji returned to the dining hall, followed by several of the other cultivators who he had managed to locate. They had each gone to round up who they could with the intention of giving everyone the full story of what they had discovered, and sending them back to their own sects to warn against the Wens before enacting a rescue for the Jiang sect heir.

Lan Wangji moved to join him where he leaned against the pillar; he had been the first to return and had had time to brood while waiting for the others.

Lan Wangji paused in front of Lan Xichen and bowed.

“Xiongzhang, I beg you to return to Gusu. You are in grave danger, and you well know it”

Lan Xichen should have expected Lan Wangji to make his request again.

He understood how perilous the situation had become for him, knowing full well he would be a prize like no other to demons who fed on human emotion.

“I thank you for your concern, Wangji, but I will be staying. The man I love is trapped somewhere beneath this city, and I won’t be leaving without him. Even if I could leave the Purpose in your hands at this stage, I couldn’t desert Wanyin”

Lan Xichen doubted Wangji had expected any different response from him.

They didn’t have to wait much longer for Wei Wuxian and Luo Qingyang to return with the remaining cultivators.

“Zewu-jun, lets go” Wei Wuxian nodded, and Lan Xichen moved to stand in front of the small crowd.

“I’m sure by now many of you have your doubts and concerns over what the Wens hope to achieve in bringing us all here. My clan had the same misgivings, and we came intending to investigate what caused our nightmares and why the Wens were so eager to draw so many young cultivators to the Nightless City” Lan Xichen glanced around the faces of the others, trying to gauge how his words were being received. “We discovered the Wens are direct descendants of the Demon Sun Kings, we know they feed on human emotions. We also know they have a cultivating crystal that is feeding on the qi energy of cultivators that they take beneath the city to experiment on. You will have seen the results in your shidis and shimeis who were returned to you, drained, confused, and ill”

They must plan to expand their influence if they have decided to come out of the shadows now, knowing full well what was being done to our sect mates couldn’t remain unknown for long. They have played a long game, and it seems to be time for them to act. I urge you to leave Qishan immediately, return to your sects and warn them to prepare for what may come. We will be sending our disciples back to Gusu and advising our elders to waste no time in seeking to discuss preparations with the other sects as soon as they may. If you are able to warn your own clans and have them begin their own precautions it will ensure we aren’t taken by surprise” he tightened his fist around Shuoyue; he had warned the others now, what they did with his warning was their own business. His one thought now was Jiang Wanyin.

“Zewu-jun” Jin Zixuan halted him on his way to the door, “how much proof do we have, should our sects be loathe to act without it”

“None I can put into your hands at this time, Jin-gongzi. I hope the Lan’s reputation might help me. As such I can merely assure you I am perfectly convinced of the scenario I have presented, based on our observations and information found in the Wen library” he waved a hand at the nearby table where he had placed the books he and Jiang Wanyin had studied last night, and the notes both of them had made whilst reading, “You are welcome to assess them, or take them back to your father if you think it will help” Lan Xichen threw one final look around the assembled crowd, “Whether you believe me or not, please ensure you leave the Nightless City as a matter of urgency, I can assure you there’s no cure to be had here beyond stopping the Wen’s plans. And I expect to have kicked open a hornets nest in a very few hours, after which there will likely be no escape. Better safe than sorry” Lan Xichen left the hall.

***

“I’m coming with you” Luo Qingyang rushed to stand beside Wei Wuxian, who grimaced.

“Luo-guniang, you should be returning to your sect to warn them. You heard Zewu-jun. The smaller sects especially need to be prepared and ready to defend themselves to ensure you’re not overwhelmed if the Wens act”

“The Liu sect have very close ties to the Yi sect, and I’ve already asked Yi Wencheng to ensure the Lius are told of what’s happening” she pointed to a young man in dark robes who was talking with some of the other cultivators. “I’m part of this, and you will need all the help you can get to rescue Jiang-gongzi”

In the face of her determination there was nothing Wei Wuxian could add; he merely bowed his thanks at her offer to help.

They were joined by one of the Lan disciples, who bowed to Lan Wangji before speaking, “Hanguang-jun, Su-xiong seems to have disappeared. He was with us when we joined Zewu-jun”

There was the tiniest creasing of Lan Wangji’s brows, “Search the houses, if you cannot find him continue with the plan and leave for Gusu, Xiongzhang and I will continue the search”

“Yes” the disciples bowed again and left; the trio were just about to join them in leaving when Mo Xuanyu walked over. He looked pale.

“Is it true? Is Wen Ning...are the Wens demons?” he demanded of Wei Wuxian, and Wei Wuxian could only nod. “I thought...I saw he moved too quickly. I hoped it might just be the danger” he rubbed his face with both hands, then looked up, determination set in his eyes. “I’m coming with you” he repeated Luo Qingyang’s words, and Wei Wuxian waved his hands in denial.

“We’re going into the lair of the beast, Mo Xuanyu, to rescue Jiang Cheng. I can’t guarantee your safety down there” he reached into his robes and took out the letter he had hoped he would have chance to place into the younger man’s hands. “This is from Jiang Cheng’s father, Uncle Jiang has agreed to let you come to Yunmeng to be an outer disciple. Travel to Yunmeng and tell him what happened here. Tell him I’m trying my best to look after Jiang Cheng” he pressed the letter into Mo Xuanyu’s hands.

The younger man shuddered, looking at Wei Wuxian in disbelief, “Why would you do that?”

“Because you deserve a chance, and forgive me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think you want to go back to your home”

Mo Xuanyu snapped to attention, and bowed to Wei Wuxian; his hands shook, and Wei Wuxian caught him and pulled him up.

“Thank you for giving me this opportunity, I won’t disappoint Wei-shixiong. But I will be going with you. I need to see for myself” Mo Xuanyu assured him.

Wei Wuxian sighed, and turned to Lan Wangji, “Lan Zhan, do your magic mind thing and make them go” he said with a pout. But he knew Lan Wangji wouldn’t. Lan Wangji had explained to him the skill he used was a talent he had been born with, the thing that made his eyes glow gold, and was an ability to place a suggestion in someone’s thoughts and have them act on it, like how he had “suggested” the guard at the hospital entrance go to one of the other rooms and sleep, which had enabled them to access the caves and tunnels under the Nightless City.

“Wei Ying, it would be wrong to use it on an ally” Lan Wangji shook his head once, even though he was aware Wei Wuxian hadn’t asked in seriousness. “You should know how dangerous this will be, however, all of you. You may be captured or killed. Xiongzhang and I will do all we can to ensure we all walk out together, but I cannot promise”

“I know, Lan Zhan, but they have my brother, I’ll slay every Wen who comes to get to him” Wei Wuxian said, and Luo Qingyang nodded.

“It’s the right thing to do. I started this with you, I want to see it through” she added.

“And I must see the Wens unmasked as demons for myself” Mo Xuanyu said, clutching his sword.

Lan Wangji lowered his head in acknowledgement of the three, “Then we must join Xiongzhang now” and he lead them from the hall to meet up with Lan Xichen.

Chapter 9 – The Wens Unmasked - Part 2

They met Lan Xichen coming out of the lodgings the Two Jades had been assigned.

He eyed the additions to their group, but said nothing. He knew his brother enough to know Lan Wangji would have said everything needed to them; it was their own choice to face the danger.

“Xiongzhang” Lan Wangji said as they fell into step and headed from the guest lodging area towards the private clan areas of the city that the three had sneaked into the previous evening, “Su Minshan is missing”

Wei Wuxian saw Lan Xichen look at Lan Wangji, and something seemed to pass between them silently while they walked on without them missing a step.

“Wei-shixiong” Mo Xuanyu fell into step besides Wei Wuxian, who turned to give the younger man his attention. “Is Wen Ning…?” he didn’t seem to be able to finish the thought, but of course his meaning was clear enough.

“Yes, Wen Ning is probably half-demon. Ironically, if he wasn’t, you would be dead”

Mo Xuanyu nodded as if that thought had already occurred to him.

“Why did he save me?”

“I don’t know, perhaps it was because it was the right thing to do and he’s a kind young man” it was the only comment he could offer on the subject to Mo Xuanyu, he didn’t know himself. The fact still stood that Wen Ning had saved Mo Xuanyu’s life, and therefore, unless forced to act against him by circumstances or evidence, Wei Wuxian would assume he was a good person, demon or human.

***

The five moved through the Nightless City and into the walled off Clan areas. They admitted made their way through the back alleys towards Wen Qing’s hospital; but even so, the fact that they only encountered outer disciples, which meant Lan Zhan was able to deal with them easily, and without bloodshed, made Wei Wuxian’s scalp prickle.

He didn’t think the Wens were on their guard against anyone who may have caught on to their plans yet, but he couldn’t shake the feeling of unease. He didn’t really understand why, however, after all they had already sneaked through these streets once before, and again when they had returned to the surface last night, although they had had to hide in a deserted storage shed for a few hours on the way back to avoid the changing patrols and guard stations.

In hindsight Wei Wuxian wished dearly they’d chanced their luck and made a dash for it; if they had they would have been in time to stop Jiang Cheng from walking gamely into the Wen’s web.

Even in the hospital itself there was no more than the single guard sat at the entrance in the floorboards.

Once he had been dealt with in a similar fashion to the evening before they mounted the steps leading down into the rock bed beneath the city.

“I’m not experienced at sneaking into a secret lair” Mo Xuanyu said in a low voice, “but has this all seemed a little too easy?”

“Suspiciously so” Lan Xichen agreed, “Do not drop your guard for even a second, if I tell you to run, please listen”

Wei Wuxian kept his own council on that matter; if it came down to it he wouldn’t leave Jiang Cheng behind, whatever the Lans said to him. Jiang Cheng was his didi, his to protect and he had been doing a terrible job of it ever since they had come to the Nightless City.

As they moved deeper through the tunnels Shuoyue and Bichen unsheathed themselves an inch or so in perfect synchronisation.

Wei Wuxian was glad he didn’t stand on the opposite side of the Two Jades of Lan; their appearance alone was enough to strike fear into the heart of any enemy.

They moved in perfect harmony; their pure white robes; fair visages, set into identical looks of grim determination; and strong aura of implacable righteousness gave the impression of twin gods of vengeance come to earth to mete out divine retribution.

He loosened Suibian in it’s scabbard as he followed close behind the noiseless tread of the Two Jades.

The cloth scraps they’d left the night before were still visible where they’d placed them.

“Do we follow a different route and make straight for the cave floor or follow last night’s path and use the ledge to take stock of the situation first?” Luo Qingyang asked, her voice low.

“The ledge” Lan Wangji said firmly and they began following the miniscule scraps of pink under robe through the twists and turns of the labyrinthine tunnels.

Again, Wei Wuxian felt his scalp prickle in discomfort; he could just be overthinking, on account of his worry for Jiang Cheng, but it felt like this wasn’t the way they’d gone the previous night. Perhaps they should stop following their trail.

He voiced this to Lan Wangji, who agreed with a soft “Mn”

His fears were realised when the tunnel they followed didn’t branch off again, but kept dipping downwards, last night’s route had eventually begun to slope upwards a little.

“It feels like we’re being funnelled into a trap” Luo Qingyang muttered, a feeling Wei Wuxian shared with her.

Their path eventually led out onto the cavern floor, as they had all begun to expect by that point.

“Jiang Cheng” Wei Wuxian called in distress as his eyes alighted on the unconscious form of his adopted brother, tied at the wrists and hung from a hook suspended from the roof of the cavern. He didn’t even care that it was such an obvious trap that even a child could see it as he rushed forward, Lan Xichen matching him step for step across the cavern.

Lan Xichen caught Jiang Cheng around the waist, and lifted him up slightly. Wei Wuxian leapt up and caught hold of the chain with one hand, using the other to untangle the ropes from around the hook. Once Jiang Cheng was free, and carefully cradled in Lan Xichen’s arms he dropped back to the ground, and pressed in to check how Jiang Cheng was.

A small trickle of blood had escaped from his nose, but despite that and some bruising to his left cheekbone he didn’t seem to be too badly wounded. In fact a few seconds later he jerked back to consciousness, almost striking out at Lan Xichen with his still-bound hands. He realised who held him in time to pull his blow, however.

“Xichen, Wei Wuxian” there was a soft smile of relief that shaped his mouth, before he seemed to fully return to his senses and his face twisted into a look of panic.

“Get out of here” he struggled out of Lan Xichen’s arms and gave Wei Wuxian an almighty push back towards the tunnel where the other’s stood; Wei Wuxian felt himself be steadied by Lan Wangji. He was just about to shout at Jiang Cheng when the Wens spring their trap.

Now the prey had their teeth into their sweet little bait the cavern flooded with guards who surrounded the cultivators with their swords drawn. To the right, from another tunnel, a threesome walked into the cavern. One was the broad-shouldered demon they had seen in the cavern last night; the one who seemed to be the caretaker of the demonic crystal which he now held in his hands. The other two were Wen Ruohan, the Wen clan sect head, and Wen Xu, his eldest son.

Wei Wuxian sneered, “Thank you, Wen-zongzhu, for the welcoming committee. I don’t think we’ll stay for long though”

Wen Ruohan chuckled, sounding like an indulgent uncle, “Such a lively little golden core cultivator, I think the crystal will like you very much. Wen Zhuliu” Wen Ruohan waved an elegant hand lazily in Wei Wuxian’s direction.

“Zhao Zhuliu, the last scion of the Zhao dream demons, Jiang Wanyin was correct” Lan Xichen mused, and Wei Wuxian realised he was trying to draw the attention away from Wei Wuxian.

***

Jiang Cheng knew Lan Xichen spoke to play for time, to keep the Wen’s attention divided, but he had heard their foul plans while he had been strung from the iron hook like a piece of meat. He would rather die that let that vile crystal touch his brother.

Jiang Cheng turned to Lan Xichen in a move so fast it took everyone by surprise; he used the drawn Shuoyue to slice through the ropes still binding his wrists then gathered every scrap of concentration he could to focus his qi and send out his spiritual energy to yank the crystal out of Wen Zhuliu’s hands.

It was the oddest feeling, like his energy sank into the crystal and disappeared, and the crystal itself seemed to almost coo directly into his thoughts as it flew through the air towards him. He hadn’t initially intended to touch it, but it seemed to have a strong will of it’s own and it hit him in the centre of the chest, before dropping into his waiting palms.

He heard Lan Xichen’s warning, “Wanyin” a second before an enormous shock-wave of energy reverberated through the cavern; it’s origin was Jiang Cheng with the opaque in his hands; throwing every single person outwards and to the ground.

It whispered such seductive things in his thoughts, showed him how he could destroy the Wen guards with just a wave of his hand, how he could force Wen Ruohan down to his knees, how he could make Lan Xichen choose him above everything else in the world, how he could force Wei Wuxian into his shadow. Image after image flashed through his mind at the speed of thought, each designed to be more tempting than the last.

But the crystal didn’t know Jiang Cheng; the thoughts increasingly made him sick to his stomach and he tried to block them out, gathering his will as he threw the crystal to the ground.

He could give his brother one last gift to boost his chance of escape.

He gathered the last of his spiritual energy, managed to pick up three of the figures closest to the tunnel and threw them back down it, and with the very last tendrils of his qi, drew the sigils to form an energy barrier over the entrance. It would hold for a few minutes, keeping the Wens from following them directly.

His legs collapsed from underneath him but by now Lan Xichen was back by his side and caught him, lowering him gently to the cool, sandy floor of the cavern.

Blood flowed freely from his nose again, but he barely had the strength to even raise a hand to try to stem the flow. He felt a flood of qi trickle into his veins from Lan Xichen, who said his name over and over.

“I’m sorry, Xichen” his eyes flickered from those dark amber ones to Mo Xuanyu’s, who had been the unlucky fourth he just didn’t have the spiritual energy to save. The younger man had rushed over to Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen’s side when he had regained his feet and taken stock of what had happened. “I’m sorry Mo-xiong”

Lan Xichen soothed him with gentle noises, “You nearly killed yourself giving the others a fighting chance, Wanyin, you did well”

Jiang Cheng didn’t agree, but he finally had the energy to lift his head back and try to stem the flow of blood. Lan Xichen’s qi had mostly sealed the blood vessels and it had become a trickle in the interim.

“It’s alright, Jiang-xiong, I knew what the risks were when I agreed to come down here” he took one of Jiang Cheng’s hands and gave it a brief squeeze. Jiang Cheng found the gesture surprisingly comforting.

Wen Ruohan’s voice was strident and took their attention, “Catch them, I want them” he snarled, indicating the tunnel Luo Qingyang, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian had been thrown down.

A tentative voice sounded, “Respect, Wen-zongzhu, but may I suggest you have already won the prize” the voice was vaguely familiar to Jiang Cheng, ingratiating and servile though it was now.

Wen Ruohan stalked across the cavern to stand in front of the three trapped cultivators; his guards, some looking extremely dazed and confused, closed in around them.

Behind him, off to his side a little, in the snow-white mourning robes of the Lans, was Su Minshan.

“I must admit the Jiang heir is more than I ever hoped to find in a single cultivator” he reached out, as if to touch Jiang Cheng’s face, but Jiang Cheng caught Wen Ruohan’s wrist.

“Don’t lay your filthy hands on me” he snapped. He yelped as he was dragged to his feet with harsh hands. Lan Xichen and Mo Xuanyu were dealt with similarly. He had never learned when to shut his mouth though, “And you” he pointed a vengeful finger at Su She, “careful what you say, I’ll rip your tongue out and stab you through your treacherous heart. Be Righteous, what a fucking joke”

Su She barely spared him a glance, looking instead at Lan Xichen with something like a dangerous, predatory look in his dark eyes.

“May I present to you Zewu-jun, Lan Xichen, The First Jade of Lan, and the Lan Clan’s crowning glory. The first empath born to the Cloud Recesses for over eight hundred years”

“I’ll fucking kill you, snake” Jiang Cheng found a burst of energy, twisted free of the holding hands and launched himself at the traitorous Lan disciple, but he was caught again by incredibly strong, implacable hands. It was Wen Xu, who twisted his arms behind his back and held him still.

A look of pure, intense joy crossed the Wen sect leaders face as he contemplated the three captured cultivators in front of him.

“This is indeed beyond any prize I had ever hoped for when setting our plans into motion” he caught Jiang Cheng’s chin in his hand, fingers digging bruises, “A weapon of devastating potential” he tilted his head a little, and looked Jiang Cheng in the eyes, which burned with hatred and anger, “And such a delicious buffet all on your own, so stuffed full of quicksilver emotions, so nourishing” Wen Ruohan stepped back upon releasing Jiang Cheng, and moved to Lan Xichen.

Jiang Cheng had never seen the other so retiring; Lan Xichen tried to back away from the touch of the Wen sect leader, but he was held too firmly, and eventually he had no further room to retreat.

Wen Ruohan trailed a finger down his fair cheek, over his jaw and down the long, elegant line of his throat.

“So beautiful, a prize worth the winning, you’ll make such a darling little pet”

“Take your fucking hands away from him” Jiang Cheng snarled, even though he couldn’t shake the hold Wen Xu had on him even a little.

Wen Ruohan chuckled, back to his avuncular persona, “So much fire. So much ice. I’m going to have a lot of fun breaking you both to my will. And when I have, I will have gained so much for my time and care” he nodded once at Wen Xu.

His son forced Jiang Cheng to his knees and in a single, vicious move stamped on the back of his calf. The snap of Jiang Cheng’s shin bone was sickeningly loud in the echoing cavern, but it was immediately drowned out by his scream of pain.

With his arms suddenly released all he could do was stuff his knuckles into his mouth and bite down to stem the noise as wave after wave of intense pain washed over him.

At the snap a violent tremor had shaken Lan Xichen, who’s eyes had flashed golden, a shout of his own on his lips as his mental defences were smashed to pieces. The nearness of Jiang Cheng, his attachment to him, the intensity of the pain, and the demonic crystal which seeped through his walls all conjoined to break every safeguard he had built to protect himself.

An excited wave seemed to pass over the blood Wens in the cave at the sheer power of the emotion radiating from the Lan sect heir; Jiang Cheng’s pain channelled and amplified by Lan Xichen’s natural born curse, (for that was what Jiang Cheng considered his empathic ability) was heady stuff.

Jiang Cheng desperately tried to build walls of his own, to internalise the pain and shield Lan Xichen from it; but it was a futile effort under the intense onslaught.

“More than we could ever have hoped” there was a feral, excited tone in Wen Ruohan’s voice, and he closed his eyes briefly, before turning to the final member of their trio.

“And what do we have here?”

8 notes · View notes