Lan WangJi left a moon-shaped opening on the round pie, “Now, you do not have to pay either.”
Wei WuXian, “Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!”
He finished in a couple of bites and scrunched the paper into a ball, tossing it in his hand as he looked around, “There aren’t many vendors left. Back then, no matter how late it was, this place was crammed with vendors, selling all kinds of food, because many people in Lotus Pier came out for late night snacks. There were also many boats, maybe even more than your Caiyi Town.” He continued, “It’s much fewer now. Lan Zhan, you came here too late. You weren’t here when it was at it was at its liveliest.”
Lan WangJi, “It is not late.”
Wei WuXian grinned, “When we were studying at the Cloud Recesses, I asked you so many times to come play at Yunmeng, and you always ignored me. I should’ve been more forceful and dragged you over. Why are you so slow? It doesn’t taste good?”
Lan WangJi, “Speech is forbidden when dining.”
He’d always chewed slowly when he was eating. If he had to talk, he made sure that there was no food in his mouth. Wei WuXian, “Then I won’t talk with you. You can eat. I thought you didn’t like it and that you could give me whatever you didn’t finish.”
Lan WangJi turned to the vendor, “Another one please.”
In the end, after Wei WuXian finished all three pies, Lan WangJi was still nibbling on his first one. Wei WuXian had already led him further and further away from Lotus Pier. On the way, he pointed at this and that for him to see.
He really wanted to show Lan WangJi all the places where he grew up at, played at, and fooled around at, tell him about the troubles he stirred up, the fights he fought, the pheasants he caught, and then examine the slight changes in Lan WangJi’s expression, eagerly expecting his every reaction.
Wei WuXian, “Lan Zhan! Look at me, look at the tree.”
Lan WangJi finished his pie as well. He folded the paper into a neat little square and held it in his hand as he looked toward Wei WuXian’s direction. It was only the average tree. The trunk stood straight and the branches fanned out. It should be a few decades old. Wei WuXian stood below the tree and walked around it a couple of times, slapping the trunk, “I’ve climbed this tree before.”
Lan WangJi, “You have climbed every single tree on our way here.”
Wei WuXian, “But this one’s different! This was the first one I climbed after I came to Lotus Pier. I climbed it in the middle of the night. My shijie came out to search for me, holding a lantern. She was scared I’d fall down the tree, so she prepared to catch me on the ground. But what could she catch with her thin little arms? And so I still broke one of my legs.”
Looking at his legs, Lan WangJi asked, “Why did you climb the tree at night?”
Wei WuXian bent down in laughter, “There’s no why. You know. I love fooling around outside at night. Haha.”
Chapter 87: Loyalty—Part Nine
Translated by K of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
As Wei WuXian spoke, he grabbed two branches and started to climb up the trunk of the tree. With great ease, he leaped up until he reached an area near the top. Wei WuXian finally stopped, “Hm, it should be about here.”
He buried his face inside a cluster of thick leaves and only looked down after a long while. His voice was high, tinged with laughter, “Back then, it felt so scarily high, but looking at it now, it really wasn’t that high.”
The instant he wrapped his arms around the tree, Wei WuXian’s eyes had warmed. When he looked down, his sight was already blurred.
Lan WangJi was standing right beneath the tree, looking at him with his chin raised. He was clothed in white as well. He didn’t hold a lantern, but moonlight glided down his body, almost enveloping him in a soft halo, making him seem so bright. He looked up at the top of the tree with a dedicated expression. He seemed to have walked a few steps closer, almost as if to stretch his arms out.
All of a sudden, an abnormally strong impulse surged into Wei WuXian’s mind.
He wanted to fall down again, just like back then.
A voice inside of him said, If he catches me, I’ll…
At this point where he thought ‘I’ll’, Wei WuXian let go. Seeing that he fell out of the tree without any warning, Lan WangJi’s eyes immediately widened. He shot forward just in time to catch Wei WuXian, or one might say, be caught by Wei WuXian.
Lan WangJi’s figure was slender. He seemed to be quite the scholarly young master, but his power wasn’t to be disregarded. Not only was his arm strength shocking, his lower body was steady too. But, after all, it was a grown man who jumped from the tree, so although he caught Wei WuXian, he staggered slightly, walking a step backward. Immediately, however, he steadied himself. Just as he was about to let go of Wei WuXian, he realized that Wei WuXian’s arms were tightly wrapped around his neck, preventing him from moving in the slightest.
He couldn’t see Wei WuXian’s face. Wei WuXian couldn’t see his face either, but he didn’t need to. When he closed his eyes, all he breathed in was the cold sandalwood on Lan WangJi’s body.
His voice was hoarse, “Thank you.”
He wasn’t scared of falling. All these years, he’d fallen many times. But falling on the ground still hurt, after all. If someone was there to catch him, it’d be more than wonderful.
Hearing Wei WuXian thank him, Lan WangJi’s body seemed to freeze for a second. The hand that was about to be laid on Wei WuXian’s back paused before it returned.
After a moment of silence, Lan WangJi responded, “You are welcome.”
With a long time of hugging, Wei WuXian finally parted with him. Standing with his back straight as ever, he spoke as though nothing happened, “Let’s go back!”
Lan WangJi, “No more reminiscing?”
Wei WuXian, “Yes, more reminiscing! But there’s nothing to see if we walk farther out. It’d be the wilderness there, and we’ve seen enough of that in the past few days. Let’s go back to Lotus Pier. I’ll take you to see the last place.”
The two returned to the dock and entered the gates of Lotus Pier once again. They walked across the training field. As they passed by an ornate little building, Wei WuXian stopped and took a few more looks. His expression seemed different. Lan WangJi asked, “What is wrong?”
Wei WuXian shook his head, “Nothing. The place I lived in used to be here. Now it’s gone. It really was torn down. All of these are new.”
They passed by the layers of buildings and arrived at a quiet place in the depths of Lotus Pier, in front of a black eight-cornered palace. As if scared that he’d startle someone, Wei WuXian gently pushed the doors open and walked inside. Before the palace neatly lay rows and rows of tablets.
It was the YunmengJiang Sect’s ancestral hall.
He found a hassock and kneeled down. Taking three of the incense sticks in the container, he ignited them with the candlelight and stuck them into the bronze tripod in front of the tablets. He prostrated three times to two of the tablets, and turned to Lan WangJi, “I used to come here a lot.”
Lan WangJi had on an expression of understanding, “Kneeling as punishment?”
Wei WuXian mused, “How did you know? That’s right. Madam Yu punished me almost every day.”