The hand that Lan WangJi held the bow with immediately gave out a shiver.
He only managed to turn around after quite a long while. Slowly, his eyes finally locked into Wei WuXian’s.
Wei WuXian was still holding the soft ribbon in his hand, “I’m sorry. It wasn’t on purpose. Here, you can tie it up again.”
Lan WangJi’s expression was darker than ever.
It almost seemed as if a cloud of black fog hovered over his face. As he clenched his arrow, veins climbed over the back of his hand. He appeared so angry that his body was almost shaking. Seeing that even his eyes looked bloodshot, Wei WuXian couldn’t help but squeeze the forehead ribbon, Am I sure that the thing I pulled off is a forehead ribbon and not some part of his body?
Shocked that he dared to squeeze it, Lan WangJi snatched the forehead ribbon from his hands as fast as he could.
Wei WuXian let go the moment he snatched it. The rest of the Lan Sect’s disciples ceased with their attacks as well, and everyone came over. Arm around his younger brother, Lan XiChen talked to the unspeaking Lan WangJi in a low voice. All of the others seemed similarly serious, as though they were facing a powerful enemy. They shook their heads as they spoke, glancing at Wei WuXian with odd, indescribable looks on their faces.
Wei WuXian only heard a few vague terms, such as “accident”, “calm down”, “no need to worry”, “a man”, “the sect rules”, and so on. He felt even more confused. After glowering at him one last time, Lan WangJi turned around and walked alone toward the outside of the range.
Jiang Cheng came over and asked, “What did you do, this time? Didn’t I tell you not to tease him? Your day just won’t be complete unless you dig your own grave at least once, huh?”
Wei WuXian shrugged, “I said that his forehead ribbon was crooked. I was tricking him the first time but the second time was real. He didn’t believe me and got mad. I didn’t pull off his forehead ribbon on purpose. Why do you think he’s so angry? He’s not even participating in the contest anymore.”
Jiang Cheng mocked, “Isn’t it clear? It’s because he especially hates you!”
The arrows behind him were almost all gone. Seeing this, Wei WuXian got to work as well.
Throughout all these years, he never really paid much attention to this incident. In the beginning, he actually did doubt that the forehead ribbon held a special meaning to the Lan Clan. After the competition, though, he forgot all about it. Now that he thought about how the other disciples of the Lan Sect looked at him…
With his forehead ribbon taken off by a brat without any consent or whatsoever in front of everyone’s eyes, Lan Zhan managed to hold himself back from shooting Wei WuXian to death right then, right there—people with good manners were so scary!!! He was indeed worthy of the title HanGuang-Jun!!!
And, thinking about it some more, Wei WuXian realized that he touched Lan WangJi’s forehead ribbon more than just once after the incident!!!
Lan JingYi puzzled, “What is he doing, walking here and there like that? Did he eat too much?”
Another boy added, “And his face is switching between red and green… Is it something that that he ate?”
“We did not eat anything special in particular… Is it because of the forehead ribbon’s meaning? He seems a bit too excited. It seems like he really loves HanGuang-Jun a lot. Look at how happy he is…”
Wei WuXian finally managed to calm down after walking around a bush of withered flowers for about fifty times. Hearing that last sentence, he was between laughter and tears. Suddenly, he heard the noise of somebody stepping on dried leaves behind him.
From the sound of the footsteps, he could tell that it wasn’t a child. Lan WangJi had probably come back. Quickly adjusting his facial expressions, Wei WuXian turned around to see a black figure standing within the shadow of a dead tree nearby.
The figure was quite tall, quite straight, quite dignified.
It was missing a head, though.
Chapter 46 Guile—Part One
As though somebody dumped a bucket of cold water over his head, the curvature of Wei WuXian’s smile froze at once.
Standing below the dead tree, the tall figure faced Wei WuXian. If a head sat atop his neck, he’d be staring silently at Wei WuXian for sure.
By the bonfire, the juniors of the Lan Sect saw the shadow as well. Each of them felt their hair stand up. With widened eyes, they went for their swords at once. Wei WuXian put his pointer finger in front of his lips and softly shushed them.
He shook his head, then looked at them with eyes that said “no”. Seeing this, Lan SiZhui noiselessly pushed back Lan SiZhui’s half-unsheathed sword.
The headless man reached for the tree trunk beside him and felt it for a while, as if he was thinking or trying to figure out what it was.
He walked a small step forward. Wei WuXian could finally see most of his body.
A burial robe hung over the man, somewhat tattered. It was indeed the one that the torso buried in the Chang Clan’s cemetery had been wearing.
And, by the man’s feet, a pile of shreds lay scattered on the ground. Wei WuXian could tell that this was a couple of torn-up Qiankun Pouches.
Wei WuXian, My mistake. It seems that our dear friend has pieced himself together!
Now that he thought about it, after he and Lan WangJi entered Yi City, so many things had happened that they hadn’t played Rest for almost more than two days. During the time that they spent travelling, they only barely managed to suppress the parts again. Yet, since all limbs of the corpse had been collected already, the attraction between each part multiplied. Perhaps they had felt one another’s resentful energy and their desire to be put back together grew, now that Lan WangJi was out patrolling, they hurriedly rolled off to the side, barged out of the Qiankun Pouches that had bound them, and pieced into a corpse by themselves.
Unfortunately, however, the corpse still lacked a part. One most important part.
The headless man put a hands to his neck, feeling the clean, crimson cut at his throat. After he had been at it for quite some time and still couldn’t find the object that was supposed to be there, as though enraged by such a fact, he suddenly slammed his palm into the tree beside him!
With a crack, the trunk broke at once. Wei WuXian commented in silence, What a temper!
Lan JingYi held his sword horizontally in front of his body and stammered, “W-what sort of monster is this?”
Wei WuXian, “You haven’t been reviewing the basics, have you? What’s a monster? This is obviously a corpse, categorized as the ghoul type. How can it be a monster?”
Lan SiZhui whispered, “Senior, you… you are talking so loudly. What if he hears you?”
Wei WuXian, “It’s alright. I suddenly realized that it’d be fine no matter how loud we talk. Because he doesn’t have a head, he doesn’t have eyes or ears, which means that he can’t see or hear anything. If you don’t believe me, give him a shout.”
Lan JingYi was curious, “Really? Let me try.”
After he spoke, he indeed shouted a couple of times. As soon as he had finished, the headless man spun around and walked in the direction of the Lan Sect’s juniors.
The boys could almost feel their souls escaping their bodies. Lan JingYi wailed, “But you said that it would be alright!”