Wei WuXian slapped the surface of the water, “Now, you’re being boring again. Really. There are lots of benefits if you become friends with me.”
Lan WangJi, “For example?”
Wei WuXian swam near the edge of the spring, and leaned back with his arms on the blue rocks, “I’m always really loyal towards my friends. For example, I’d definitely let you be the first person to look at new porn that I get hold of… Hey, hey, come back! It’s fine if you don’t look at them. Have you been to Yunmeng? Yunmeng is really fun. Yunmeng’s food is also good. I don’t know if it’s Gusu’s or the Cloud Recess’s problem, but the food in your sect are so bad. If you come to Lotus Pier, you can eat lots of delicious food. I can take you to pick lotus seed pods and water chestnuts. Lan Zhan, do you wanna come?”
Lan WangJi, “No.”
Wei WuXian, “Don’t answer everything with negative words. You sound so uncaring; girls won’t like it. Let me tell you—the girls in Yunmeng look very pretty, different from the sort of pretty in Gusu.” He winked his left eye at Lan in a proud way, “You sure you don’t wanna come?”
Lan WangJi hesitated, but still replied, “No…”
Wei WuXian, “Rejecting me without giving me any respect—aren’t you scared that I’d conveniently take away your clothes when I leave?”
Lan WangJi, “Get lost!!!”
After Lan QiRen left Qinghe and returned to Gusu, he didn’t make Wei WuXian go to the Library Pavilion to copy the Lan Sect’s sect rules again, but simply gave him a harsh scolding in front of everyone. Without the parts where he quoted ancient scriptures, it all boiled down to how he had never seen someone so unruly and shameless before, so please get lost, as soon and as far as possible. Please don’t go near the other pupils, and especially refrain from tainting his favorite one—Lan WangJi.
As he scolded, Wei WuXian only grinned while listening, feeling no humiliation or anger at all. Immediately after Lan QiRen left, Wei WuXian sat down and spoke to Jiang Cheng, “Don’t you think that it’s a bit too late, telling me to get lost now? He only told me to get lost after I finished tainting his person. It’s too late!”
The waterborne abyss in Caiyi Town created a great deal of trouble for the GusuLan Sect. It was impossible to completely destroy it, and the Lan Sect couldn’t chase it to somewhere else like the Wen Sect did. The sect leader of the Lan Sect was in secluded meditation most of the time, so Lan QiRen used all of his energy on this matter. With the lessons becoming shorter and shorter, Wei WuXian’s time spent with his friends in the mountains became longer and longer.
Today, Wei WuXian intended on going outside with a group of seven or eight people again. As they passed the Lan Sect’s Library Pavilion, he looked through the drape of magnolia branches, and he could just about see Lan WangJi sitting alone by the window.
Nie HuaiSang spoke in a puzzled tone, “Is he looking at us? That’s strange. We didn’t make too much noise, so why does he still look at us like that?”
Wei WuXian, “He’s probably thinking of how to find faults with us.”
Jiang Cheng interrupted, “Wrong. Not ‘us’, but ‘me’. I think the only person he’s watching is you.”
Wei WuXian, “Heh. Just let him wait. I’ll deal with him after I get back.”
Jiang Cheng, “Don’t you dislike how he’s boring and how he’s not fun? Then, you should stop teasing him. This is like pulling whiskers from a tiger’s mouth—stop looking for your own death.”
Wei WuXian replied, “No. It’s exceptionally fun, precisely because of how a living person can be so not fun.”
They only returned to the Cloud Recesses when the time almost reached noon. Lan WangJi sat before the desk, organizing the stack of paper which he wrote on, as heard a creaking noise coming from the window. He looked up to see someone hop inside.
Wei WuXian came up by climbing the magnolia tree outside of the Library Pavilion. His face was beaming, “Lan Zhan, I’m back! Did you miss me? Huh? Without me copying texts for these past few days?”
Lan WangJi seemed like an old monk in a state of meditation, seeing everything as nothing. He even continued to organize the pile of books with a numb expression. Wei WuXian deliberately misinterpreted his silence, “I know, even if you don’t say it, that you definitely missed me. Or else, earlier on, why did you look at me through the window?”
Lan WangJi immediately shot him a glance, his eyes full of silent accusations. Wei WuXian sat atop the windowsill, “Look at you, rising to the bait after just a few sentences. You’re so easy to catch. This way, you won’t be able to maintain your composure.”
Lan WangJi, “You, leave.”
Wei WuXian, “If I don’t leave, will you throw me down?”
Looking at Lan WangJi’s face, Wei WuXian suspected that if he spoke one more sentence, Lan WangJi would really abandon the small amount of self-restraint he had left and nail him onto the window at once. Wei WuXian quickly added, “Don’t be so scary! I’m here to apologize by giving you a present.”
Lan WangJi refused at once, without thinking twice about it, “No.”
Wei WuXian, “Are you sure?” Seeing that a guarded look leaked from Lan WangJi’s eyes, he fished out two rabbits from his arms, as if he was performing a magic trick. As he held onto them by their ears, it seemed like he was holding two round, chubby snowballs. The snowballs even kicked their legs around. He lifted them in front of Lan WangJi’s eyes, “It’s actually quite strange here. There aren’t any pheasants, but there are lots of wild rabbits. They aren’t even scared of people. What do you think? Aren’t they fat? Do you want them?”
Lan WangJi stared at him indifferently.
Wei WuXian, “Fine. If you don’t want them, I’m gonna give them to other people. We aren’t having much flavors in our mouths, anyways.”
After he heard the last sentence, Lan WangJi spoke, “Stop.”
Wei WuXian extended his arms, “I’m not going anywhere.”
Lan WangJi, “Who are you giving them to?”
Wei WuXian answered, “I’m gonna give them to whoever’s good at roasting rabbit meat.”
Lan WangJi, “Killing is forbidden in the Cloud Recesses. It is the third rule on the Wall of Rules.”
Wei WuXian, “Fine, then. I’ll go down the mountain, kill it outside, and then bring it back to roast it. You don’t want it, anyway, so why do you care so much about it?”
“…” Lan WangJi spoke one word at a time, “Give. It. To. me.”
Wei WuXian grinned on the windowsill, “Now you want it? Look at you—you’re always like this.”
Both of these rabbits were chubby and round, appearing to two balls made of fluffy snowflakes. One had bleary eyes, and lay on its stomach, remaining motionless even after a long while. As it chewed on the lettuce, its pink mouth moved in a leisurely manner. The other one seemed as if it was actually a cricket, constantly hopping up and down. It played around with its companion, wriggling and leaping nonstop. Wei WuXian tossed over a few pieces of lettuce which he took out of nowhere. He suddenly called, “Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan!”