Chapter Text
Of course they'd get caught in the rain. Jin Ling shouldn't have been surprised. Worst of all, he was with none other than Lan Jingyi. Jin Ling had agreed to go on this night hunt with his friends, but he didn't expect to have to split into pairs. He was paired with Lan Jingyi, because of course he was, while Ouyang Zizhen went with Lan Sizhui.
He wanted to curse fate for making him pair up with Jingyi. He also wanted to curse Zizhen, for suggesting that he and Jingyi get paired up together. As if his crush on the Lan wasn't hard enough to hide!
They were currently on their way back to the inn they were staying at, when an argument had started up. Of all the things to argue about, Jingyi didn't expect to argue about who had the better teacher. "Hanguang-Jun is a WAY better teacher!" Jingyi shouted, making Jin Ling frown. "As if! Jiujiu is way better!" He shouted back.
"Sect Leader Jiang isn't as strong as Hanguang-Jun!" Jingyi said, smirking. Jin Ling glared hard at him. "He's stronger than Hanguang-Jun!" He claimed. This argument went on for a while, until it shifted to an argument about each other.
"Well at least I don't get into trouble like you do!" Jin Ling said, crossing his arms. Jingyi frowned at him. "At least I know the meaning of hard work! I bet Sect Leader Jiang makes leading a sect a whole lot easier for you!" He said. Both had stopped to argue, despite the rain, and Jingyi crossed his arms.
Jin Ling was pissed at that point. Sure, his jiujiu had offered to help out, but Jin Ling always refused. He KNOWS the meaning of hard work, thank you very much. "I KNOW the meaning of hard work! You wouldn't last a day in my shoes!" Jin Ling shouted. Jingyi laughed. "Oh yeah? And you think you could last a day in mine? AS IF!" He shouted back.
"Why don't we test that, hm?" A voice from above asked. Both boys looked up, and saw a woman sitting on a tree branch, smiling down at them while swinging her legs idly. She looked like a rogue cultivator. "Who are you?" Jin Ling asked.
The girl grinned at them, and gave them a small wave. "You can call me Rogue." She told them. She hopped down off the tree and made her way over to them. "You both say that the other won't last a day in the other's shoes, correct? Well, why don't we see how true that is? Only, lets make it last longer than a day." She said.
Before ether of them could say anything else, Rogue had already managed to put a curse on both of them. When the smoke cleared, they noticed they saw that nothing had happened. "Whatever you did, I don't think it worked." Jin Ling said, crossing his arms.
Rogue smiled at them both, before skipping away. "Oh but it did. Give it time. Have fun boys~" She told them, giggling as she left. Both Jingyi and Jin Ling stared at her as she left, before looking back at each other. "Well that was weird." Jingyi said, leaving to head back to the inn. Jin Ling followed. "Weird is an understatement." He told Jingyi.
When they got back to the inn, Zizhen and Sizhui were already there, waiting for them inside. They all cleaned themselves up, and went to their rooms for the night after saying goodnight to each other.
Jin Ling sighed and changed into his sleeping robes, leaving Suihua close by just in case. He kept thinking about the rogue cultivator, and whatever curse was inflicted on him and Jingyi. He was honestly worried it wasn't a dud, but they could figure it out later. He was tired, and wanted to sleep. So, he laid down in bed and covered up, letting himself drift off to sleep.
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When morning came, Jin Ling heard a knock at the door. He groaned and put a pillow over his head, wanting to sleep a little longer. "Jingyi, it's me, can I come in?" Sizhui asked from behind the door. Wait, did he say Jingyi? Jin Ling shot up out of bed and went to the closest mirror he could find. Sure enough, Jingyi's face stared back at him. This was NOT his body!
His eyes went wide and he screamed while stumbling back, landing on the floor. "Jingyi?!" Sizhui's voice was heard, before the door suddenly flew open. Sizhui ran to him and crouched next to him, a worried look on his face. "Jingyi? What's wrong? Are you hurt?" He asked, looking for injuries.
Jin Ling shook his head. "No, no i'm fine, I-" He started to say, but was interrupted by scream. It didn't take long before Jin Ling saw Jingyi, who was in his body, came running in. "I HAVE JIN LING'S FACE!" Jingyi shouted, running to the mirror and looking at his reflection, touching his face. Sizhui blinked and opened his mouth to say something, but Zizhen came running in.
"Sizhui, I think we have a problem." Zizhen told him. Sizhui looked at him and nodded. "I see that." He told him, standing up and helping Jin Ling stand up. "It looks like you two switched bodies." He told Jingyi and Jin Ling.
"It was that rogue cultivator me and Jin Ling met! She did this to us!" Jingyi said, touching his forehead a little. "It feels weird not having my forehead ribbon on..." He mumbled. Sizhui went and pat his friend's shoulder in silent comfort. "Baba will know how to fix this." He told them. Zizhen smiled and nodded. "Yeah! I bet he knows all kinds of curses, and how to break them!" He said, then realized something.
"Hey, Jingyi, if Jin Ling is in your body, does that mean you still have to touch your forehead ribbon, or does your body have to do it?" He asked. Jingyi almost went pale at the realization, and he didn't know how to answer. Luckily, Sizhui knew how to answer. "As long as Jingyi's body is touching it, i'm sure it's fine." He explained.
Jin Ling looked at Jingyi's forehead ribbon, staring at it for a while. He knew how important those forehead ribbons were to Lan's, and it didn't feel right touching it without permission. "Jin Ling, this is the part where you put it on." Zizhen said, making Jin Ling glare at him. "I-it's fine Jin Ling, it's technically my body touching it anyway, so it's fine." Jingyi told him.
That made him feel a little better, at least. Not that he'd admit it out loud. Taking a deep breath, he sighed as he picked up Jingyi's forehead ribbon, tying it around his forehead and making sure it was straight. "There. Lets get ready to go." He said.
Everyone went back to their rooms to changed, then left for Cloud Recesses, where Wei Wuxian was, no doubt. He found it weird, being in Jingyi's body. He had tried VERY hard not to look while he was changing. It was a miracle his robes weren't messy.
As they flew to Cloud Recesses on their swords, Jin Ling prayed that his Da-jiu would know how to fix this.