Chapter Text
He started noticing the strangeness already in Caiyi town. Wei Wuxian was hopping from vendor to vendor, trying out foods and looking for trinkets to bring back to the Cloud Recesses for Lan Wangji, when he realized that many of the seller girls were flirting with him.
As a general rule, this did not happen nowadays. Not after a year living side by side with his Hanguang-jun, whose glares had become somewhat infamous towards anyone who might try their luck. It wasn’t like Lan Wangji would have done anything to anyone who said these types of harmless compliments, but the look was so freezing, no one ever dared to try it again after experiencing it once.
Yet, somehow, the ladies had become braver than anyone Wei Wuxian had ever known, seemingly overnight.
He answered their teasing smiles in turn, but did of course mention that he was married.
“Oh? Young master has a wife?” asked one of the seller girls, handing him the meat he had paid for.
“What are you saying, meimei?” he laughed. “If only Hanguang-jun himself could hear you calling him my wife!”
“Hanguang-jun?” The woman guffawed. “Young master is truly shameless for making a joke like that!”
Wei Wuxian answered her laughter with another smile, though a bit confused one. Had this seller not just two days ago seen him plaster himself to Lan Wangji’s side, cooing at him for looking so handsome?
With a wave of his hand, Wei Wuxian started heading back to the Cloud Recesses, eager to share the strangeness with his husband. Perhaps it would lead to another one of their everydays, since Lan Wangji did have a tendency to drink vinegar about these things.
Wei Wuxian’s neck was already mottled with the marks of the last round, given to him just that morning. Sometimes his Hanguang-jun was more beast than a man.
Up the mountain, the guards gave him confused looks as he marched in with the jade token, flashing them his usual grin. At this point, the strange feeling intensified. A thread of something being off-balance, like nothing of the reactions people were giving him today seemed right.
Within the Cloud Recesses, he was given more curious looks, people pausing a bit to stare at him as he walked by. With each look, the gut feeling of something being amiss intensified.
No one here paid him any attention usually, nowadays. The Lan sect had grown used to him, much in the way one grew used to an invasive auntie. A necessary evil you could not avoid.
This type of reaction to his presence was unorthodox. Many of the cultivators he was passing stared at him either blankly or in confusion. Wei Wuxian looked at himself, up and down, to see if something was out of place.
Sure, perhaps he hadn’t covered the love bites on his neck too well, but surely that shouldn’t have caused such a reaction, especially when this was something so completely normal of him. Other than that, his robes were as they always were, a red robe and the black one over it. It wasn’t unseemly enough to cause the looks.
Then, he was stopped by a familiar voice.
“Excuse me.” He could recognize the polite cadence of Lan Sizhui’s voice without even turning around. “Is Master perhaps lost?”
With a surprised laugh, Wei Wuxian faced the junior, the words to continue the joke already on his tongue.
He froze when he saw the expression on that face. Lan Sizhui, and with him, Lan Jingyi, had their faces molded into careful yet polite neutrality. The warm smile that reached Lan Sizhui’s eyes, the one reserved for him and Lan Wangji, was not there.
Instead, it seemed as if the two of them were looking at a stranger. Lan Jingyi’s eyebrows were slightly raised, as if to ask, who are you and what are you doing here?
In confusion, Wei Wuxian looked back at them.
Something was wrong. Something was very clearly wrong.
“Is this a joke?” he asked, uncharacteristically serious. People had stopped around them to follow the interaction, as if it was something unusual.
Lan Sizhui blinked at him in uncertainty. “I’m afraid I don’t understand…”
Wei Wuxian, for a moment, could only stare. The Lans were not people inclined to do practical jokes. His Sizhui, who was raised by Lan Wangji into a kind, considerate young man, would not join a joke like this even if one had been planned.
Lan Sizhui met his eyes without a hint of recognition, only the layer of politeness on his face.
“You don’t recognize me?” Wei Wuxian asked, still. He felt he needed the confirmation, even when his gut was already telling him the answer.
The boy blushed slightly at this, taking an apologetic tone as he said, “I fear I do not recall a time we have been introduced. I apologize if this has been the case.”
“I haven’t met him,” Lan Jingyi whispered to Lan Sizhui, elbowing his side.
Wei Wuxian took another look at the others around them, and at that moment realized that this was the reception an unknown person might have when marching into the Cloud Recesses uninvited with a jade token. The curious, baffled looks.
Furthermore, now that he was thinking about it, hadn’t the sellers in Caiyi town also treated him in a way that told nothing of their familiarity with each other? They had flirted with him.
Wei Wuxian’s heart stuttered, as certain fear started to set in.
Something had happened. Something, that made the entire Lan sect look at him like a stranger. A curse, a spell, something. Between the time he had left the mountain in the morning and the time it took for him to come back, something had changed.
He swallowed dryly. Lan Sizhui did not know him. Lan Jingyi did not know him.
He needed to find –
“Hanguang-jun!” Lan Sizhui said, immediately bowing.
Wei Wuxian could not remember a time of such dread filling him at the moment of hearing that name. In the past years, that name had only brought him comfort, a sense of safety. Lan Wangji’s arrival meant loving embrace and soft words.
Yet, the fear had indeed set in. He could not help himself, could not prevent his body from turning towards the north like a compass. Towards Hanguang-jun, Lan Wangji, Lan Zhan. His husband.
Standing there, several steps away, and holding himself still and self-contained. In his light eyes, the distance reserved for people he did not hold close.
Lan Wangji met his eyes with no familiarity, none of the softening they usually had when looking at Wei Wuxian. His face was even, undisturbed, and did not reveal a single emotion. Indifferent.
Wei Wuxian’s heart could have stopped at this moment. He felt like time had slowed down around him, turned into something sluggish and heavy. It felt like waking up from a dream to realize you were experiencing another one, a nightmare.
Lan Zhan, was at the tip of his tongue. He could not open his mouth.
“Hanguang-jun, do you know him?” Lan Jingyi asked, breaking the silence.
Lan Wangji’s eyes flitted easily away from Wei Wuxian to the junior, before giving a slight shake of his head.
Wei Wuxian snapped out of it. He hid his suddenly so very shaky hands behind his back, gripping them tightly. Something had happened, which meant someone had done something to make it happen. So, Wei Wuxian would do what he always did. He would solve it.
He couldn’t lose his head right now.
Clearing his throat, he plastered on a smile, for once in his life feeling the muscles on his face fighting this. “What kind of a question is that? Would someone like Hanguang-jun know someone like me?”
“Well, master, we don’t actually know who –“ Lan Sizhui started, but Wei Wuxian continued on as if he hadn’t heard.
“But what I came to ask, rather, is whether you know the Yiling Patriarch!”
This was followed by a long, stunned silence. Then,
“Of course we know the Yiling Patriarch!” Lan Jingyi said. “Did you really come to our sect only to ask a ridiculous question like that?”
Wei Wuxian wasn’t paying attention to him, rather just watching Lan Wangji. His stomach turned as he realized there was no reaction again, nothing to even hint at recognition.
The beloved face was still, only revealing a hint of surprise at such a question.
“Wei Wuxian, Wei Ying?” Wei Wuxian asked. “Do you know where he is?”
“What do you mean, ‘where he is’? He’s dead!”
No reaction. No sign of caring one way or the other. Wei Wuxian swallowed, then smiled.
“I think he’s mad,” someone whispered to another person.
“That’s right, I’m out of my mind, aren’t I?” Wei Wuxian mused. “Who wouldn’t know the Yiling Patriarch is dead? But – Hanguang-jun, one more thing.”
Lan Wangji’s eyes moved back to him from where they had been giving a silent look to the person talking unkindly about him. It had not been the heated, Do not insult my husband. Rather, it had been Lan Wangji’s natural tendency towards showing courtesy to a stranger. Speaking ill of others was forbidden.
Now, he looked at Wei Wuxian with an expectant face.
“Do you know this song?” Wei Wuxian asked, and then started whistling the tune of their song. The one Lan Wangji had made for him. For them.
The one that brought recognition back that first time.
Yet, this time, the distance stayed. Lan Wangji watched him impassively, until Wei Wuxian finished.
The others, too shocked at this odd show, did not react. Lan Wangji only shook his head again. Wei Wuxian’s heart felt like it might start bleeding.
So, Lan Wangji did not know him. He did not know him at all. And neither did the others.
They knew of Wei Wuxian, and they knew he was dead, but they didn’t know this person he was right now, nor the one he was before.
That was it, then. Wei Wuxian nodded in thought. He did not know what had happened, but at least he had the rough image of the damage done. Someone hated him still, he realized. Someone hated him enough to do this.
This, being something so grand it could not have been handled by any simple curse. It must have essentially removed the personal memories of Wei Wuxian from the minds of all the people he’d seen so far. Otherwise, if it had only been about them forgetting him coming back to life, Lan Wangji would have reacted. He would have recognized him.
Then, what should he do now? He would fix it, of course, but the amount of people who had a grudge against him still could not have been that low. And then, he did not know how large the effect was.
Had Jiang Cheng forgotten him? Jin Ling? It was clear that the people of the Cloud Recesses had no recollection of him. And it could not have been about familiarity or pleasant feelings, either, since he was certain that not all the people in the Lan sect felt fond of him, nor did the sellers in Caiyi town know him intimately.
He needed to make sure, then. He needed to see if the others had been affected too. That came first, and then he would have to find out what had happened. Who had happened.
He looked at Lan Wangji, his husband, and wanted to reach out. Hours before, he had been in his embrace. Hours before, he had been held close and loved.
Now, Lan Wangji only looked at him, waiting for him to say something.
He cleared his throat again, trying to move past the lump formed within. “Hm, no? What a shame. I guess I’ll be going, then.”
The juniors let out outraged noises. “What? That’s it?”
“This is the reason you marched in here?” Lan Jingyi asked.
Wei Wuxian couldn’t look at Lan Wangji anymore. He bowed before sending the kids a smile, and started walking off.
The stares followed him. One of them, the gaze of the pale brown eyes.
-
He did not go further than Caiyi town. He knew he would have to go back. When he’d visited the town that morning, he had not taken Suibian with him, and traveling long distances without it would have been too much. Even with it, making travel would be exhausting. His golden core had grown noticeably due to the heavy regime of dual cultivation his husband had put him through for the past year, but it was not nearly the same as having his earlier one.
He mostly relied on the ghostly path, still. He had his flute hanging on his waist, always ready to defend himself with. Often he did not have to. Not when he had Lan Wangji there, his steady presence by his side, always prepared to be the person to catch him.
Wei Wuxian remembered the freezing distance between them today, and suddenly felt the need to think about other things.
He would need his sword, and perhaps a change of clothes. He had drawn more money with his jade token recently, which was good, because it meant he did not need to steal Lan Wangji’s money purse. He would like to leave without much hassle.
The faster he would solve this, the faster he would be back to being allowed to steal Lan Wangji’s money right under his nose.
Once it came the time he knew Lan Wangji would be eating dinner with his uncle and brother, Wei Wuxian headed back to the Cloud Recesses. He knew how to sneak in and out – he had known how to do so when he had been barely sixteen, so doing it as an adult with a jade token was laughably easy.
Wei Wuxian did not laugh.
He sneaked his way into the Jingshi, and did not allow himself the moment to feel the heartbreak. This was not the time. He ignored the bed, the one that Lan Wangji had made and left spotless. He ignored the signs of his own life there, and did not wonder what Lan Wangji would make of them.
He grabbed a qiankun bag and stuffed a couple of his own robes in. For a moment, he wondered if he should take one of Lan Wangji’s. He’d often accidentally put on Lan Wangji’s white under robe instead of his own one, and had to roll up the sleeves, because he was too lazy to change.
Deciding against it, he moved to grab the sword from under the bed where it had slid after he had attempted to balance it on his palm and then gotten distracted when Lan Wangji started changing.
He had not managed to pull it out before he noticed the shift in the air, and with the reflexes of two lives lived, he managed to just barely dodge the sword that swung at him from the side. He danced away from the threat, slipping the qiankun bag into his sleeve.
Lan Wangji had come home early, it seemed. Wei Wuxian held up his hands, a sign of surrender.
There was a cold, angry look in Lan Wangji’s eyes that would have thrilled Wei Wuxian had things not been the way they were. Was this the way Lan Wangji had looked at him back then, when they had first met? He could not recall.
“Ahaha, no need to point that thing at me,” Wei Wuxian said quickly, flashing Lan Wangji a placating smile that did nothing to ease the other’s anger. “I was only here to pick up my sword.”
“Lying is forbidden,” Lan Wangji said, and the predictability of it made fondness flare in Wei Wuxian’s heart.
“Hanguang-jun, I am not lying,” Wei Wuxian insisted. “It is under your bed. You can check.”
Lan Wangji looked at him with cold suspicion. “Why would it be under my bed?”
“Somebody put it there,” Wei Wuxian said. “It doesn’t matter. Ah, Hanguang-jun, if you only just let me pick up my sword, I will leave.”
Bichen still pointed at him, Lan Wangji let his eyes wander over the room. Nothing was out of the place it had been before he left. Wei Wuxian knew he seemed like a thief at this moment, but Lan Wangji could clearly tell nothing had been stolen. So far.
Then, the man nodded towards his bed, a clear permission. Wei Wuxian lowered himself enough to kick the sword out from the side, and as it came out, Lan Wangji stopped it with his own white boot. As he did this, his eyes scanned over Wei Wuxian’s form, halting a moment at his waist. A hint of a line appeared between his brows.
“It’s sealed,” Wei Wuxian said then. “I am the only person able to unsheathe it.”
Lan Wangji tossed it up with his boot and caught it in the hand not holding Bichen. He then glanced at the sword, clearly thinking about something for a moment. Then, he turned back to Wei Wuxian.
“You will get it,” Lan Wangji stated calmly, “after a punishment for trespassing.”
Wei Wuxian sighed, an ache in his chest. He really had wanted to avoid this type of confrontation with Lan Wangji.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Hanguang-jun,” Wei Wuxian said, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “You can punish me all you want later, but right now, I have more important things to take care of.”
The expression on Lan Wangji’s face did not change, but Wei Wuxian knew it was displeasure he could see in his eyes. The man only pointed Bichen at him, as if trying to remind Wei Wuxian of the power imbalance.
The thing was, Lan Wangji might have been the most skilled cultivator alive. Yet, he was married to a man of equal skills, who knew him so very well.
Wei Wuxian dropped to the floor, and as Lan Wangji, in his surprise, leaned closer, Wei Wuxian threw a talisman at him. It barely passed the slightly delayed swing of Lan Wangji’s sword, and landed squarely on his chest.
As the first one had succeeded, Wei Wuxian threw more of them at him, as many as he could. He knew they would not slow down Lan Wangji for long, but they had to be enough. Under the power of at least ten of them, Lan Wangji fell to his knees, shock coloring his features.
Wei Wuxian grabbed his sword and was already planning to run out as fast as he could, but then he saw that Lan Wangji’s headband was just a tad crooked. Heart aching, Wei Wuxian reached out his hand to right it.
Lan Wangji’s expression at this was murderous. Struggling to work against the talismans, and then his assailant did such a shameless thing – it was no wonder Lan Wangji looked outraged.
“I can’t leave you so unseemly,” Wei Wuxian said softly, flashing him a smile. “Try to be understanding, Hanguang-jun. You’ll forgive me later.”
And with that, Wei Wuxian ran. He knew he had probably only minutes before Lan Wangji would tear up those talismans, and at that point, there was very little Wei Wuxian could do without involving the ghostly path.
The thought of this Lan Wangji’s reaction to that frightened him enough for him to make sure to disappear before anyone else could notice he had ever been there.
-
He could not sleep that night, so he made travel. Lanling was closer, so that was his destination. He needed to see Jin Ling, if only to confirm his worst fear. After that, all that was left was Jiang Cheng, and he –
Well. He needed not think about it.
There was a gnawing coldness within him, the shock of the day finally setting in fully. That Lan Wangji was not here. That Lan Wangji did not remember him. That he could not share this feeling with anyone.
There was no room for him to feel hopeless, though. Letting the emotions wash over him was fine, but not holding on to it was essential. He would not let his husband down like this. He would not let the fear spill over.
So he flew, hours upon hours, privately aching in his heart despite willing himself not to. And he traveled until he got so exhausted that the sword started wobbling under him. Then, he landed in the middle of a forest and found a tree to sleep on.
Pressing himself against the trunk of the tree, he imagined Lan Wangji’s arms around him. It would be hard to fall asleep without it. Almost impossible.
He was exhausted enough, after all, that at some point he did indeed fall asleep.
-
In the past year, he had not visited Lanling too many times. Neither Lan Wangji nor him were inclined towards politics, and it wasn’t like many of the sect leaders were still eager to have him around. No matter how much he had done to reveal the crimes of Jin Guangyao, the previous deeds of the Yiling Patriarch could not be forgotten.
Still, there had been a long while when he could barely hear his own name in the gossip, replaced by the late Jin sect leader. The new common enemy.
He wondered how the rumors went now, when no one remembered him personally. Was there another story completely? One with less details and somehow even more imagination?
His thoughts strayed towards Lan Wangji, as he climbed the steps of the Koi Tower. How Lan Wangji now felt whenever he heard about the Yiling Patriarch. In the past, Lan Wangji had loved him through all of those stages, from their teen years to the resurrection. Now, if he could not remember Wei Wuxian as what he had been, would he feel disgusted hearing that gossip, those rumors?
Would Lan Wangji believe what he heard?
Well, it did not matter. Wei Wuxian would return Lan Wangji’s memory.
At the end, he was stopped by the guards. This would have likely happened in any case, whether they recognized who he was or not. This time, though, they took a small moment to stare at him before one of them opened his mouth.
“Mo Xuanyu? Aren’t you supposed to be dead?”
Wei Wuxian blinked. So they thought he was Mo Xuanyu, not Wei Wuxian. Either these guys were the last people in the entire world to know the Yiling Patriarch had taken over Mo Xuanyu’s body, or they as well had forgotten.
“Do I look dead to you?” asked Wei Wuxian. He knew the reason Mo Xuanyu had been kicked out initially. Anyone thinking he was that guy would likely feel disgusted, and not at all inclined to allow him back inside the sect’s premises.
Jin Ling likely did not remember him either, if this was the reaction he was getting now. The exhaustion was twisting his insides with the disappointment.
Had they believed Mo Xuanyu had perished with the rest of the Mo family?
His question was ignored. “What are you doing here? Nobody is going to take you back, so don’t even try it!”
Wei Wuxian glanced behind them, at the closed doors. Would it matter, going in to make sure? Then again, if even the guards thought he was Mo Xuanyu, was there a chance it was a different case for other people?
No, Wei Wuxian was pretty sure the thing – whatever it was that had happened – was affecting everyone.
He scratched his cheek. “Well, I guess there’s no helping it, then.”
The guards frowned at this, but Wei Wuxian just waved and started walking back down, the steps before him feeling endless.
“W-what?” asked one of the guards, but neither of them tried to stop him as he went. They had likely expected some sort of an argument or a plea. Wei Wuxian was too old for that.
So he walked down, wondering if it would even be worth it to travel all the way to Yunmeng for Jiang Cheng. They hadn’t seen each other in months, now, neither of them willing to endure more of the pained awkwardness.
Jiang Cheng had likely forgotten as well, and wasn’t that a thought? Where would all that anger go, if not towards Wei Wuxian? How would Jiang Cheng’s life look, without him as the target of his ire?
He thought about Lan Wangji, again. Lan Wangji, who no doubt was living his peaceful life in the Cloud Recesses, unburdened by the memories of their past. At this time, Lan Wangji was likely helping the juniors train.
Wei Wuxian’s hand twitched by his side. He needed to find a place to sit down and think of a plan. There had to be a clue there somewhere, something that would direct him towards the solution.
Again, he was aware of the empty space next to him, where Lan Wangji would have normally been. The steady presence of him, the absolute unwavering comfort. He imagined resting his head against that shoulder. The best place to think.
Instead, he grabbed his coin purse and headed towards a part of Lanling city he knew had a bunch of reasonably priced inns.
He didn’t know how long it would take for him to figure it out, so the best move was to be careful with his money.
-
The room he got was on the smaller side in an inn that felt a bit out of place in Lanling, where the style trended towards extravagance. Wei Wuxian had gotten used to the better rooms, having traveled with Lan Wangji, but he had not forgotten what it was like to survive with less.
He’d once slept on a rock, surrounded by resentment and corpses. At least this place had a bed.
He had sat at the table with some cheap wine, pondering in the silence of the room. He was not one to get defeatist at a hopeless situation. After all, if there was something his prior sect had taught him, it was to attempt the impossible.
What he needed right now was information. Who disliked him enough to do a thing like this? And who had the access to a power like this? If it was a curse, it was a curse stronger than anything Wei Wuxian had heard of before.
He mulled this in his mind, pouring himself another cup of wine from the jar. He missed Emperor’s smile. It had been a day and a half, and he already missed it desperately.
It was when he poured his third cup that someone knocked on the door.
A bit surprised, Wei Wuxian got up. He did not recall having asked for anything, and there certainly couldn’t have been anyone who wanted to talk to him. Nobody remembered him. Then, it must have been the innkeepers in need of something.
He opened the door, and immediately froze.
Lan Wangji was standing there, expression icy, pointing Bichen at him. Wei Wuxian’s body relaxed for a fraction of a second, the conditioned reaction to Lan Wangji’s proximity, before his brain turned on and he stepped back into the room.
“Hanguang-jun,” he said, forcing his face into a smile. Terribly, a part of him was relieved to see Lan Wangji again. That part of him had missed him each second they had been apart. “To what do I owe the honor? Surely you didn’t track me down just because I trespassed?”
It wouldn’t have made sense, if he did. The Lans would have likely been on the lookout for the person having trespassed, but for Lan Wangji himself to go after the culprit was a bit much, considering his golden core was weak enough for other people to manage, as far as they knew.
Still, Lan Wangji backed him into the room, looking like he was measuring Wei Wuxian up. And then, the eyes lingered for a second too long on Chenqing.
“You must come back to Gusu with me,” Lan Wangji ordered.
Wei Wuxian wanted to laugh. Words like those from Hanguang-jun’s mouth brought back many memories. Then again, this time Wei Wuxian was fairly certain Lan Wangji did not want to bring him back to protect him.
“Aren’t you being a bit too extreme? I only went to your Jingshi for a bit to get my sword. I was only getting back what is mine. Don’t be unreasonable, now, Hanguang-jun.”
Lan Wangji only regarded him coldly. Wei Wuxian backed further into the room. He knew the talisman trick would not work twice with Lan Wangji, and he really was not eager to start a real fight with him.
Then, his third option was a classic one. It had worked in his first life to make Lan Wangji flustered, and it had worked in this life before the memory problem.
Wei Wuxian relaxed himself and flashed a grin, taking a teasing tone to his voice. “Lan Zhan, could it be? Did you fall in love with me after only just seeing me once? Do you intend to bring me back to Gusu to wed me?”
Lan Wangji’s eyes widened a fraction in shock, before the glare in his eyes turned colder. “Pathetic.”
“How should I take this, then? Hanguang-jun is showing so much unwarranted interest in me. Isn’t it natural to make this assumption?”
Wei Wuxian winked, and Lan Wangji’s hold on his sword tightened, before the man pushed it forward. Wei Wuxian stepped out of the way fast, hand falling on his flute. It seemed this did not go unnoticed, as his husband immediately advanced towards him.
“Do not,” came the command, and Wei Wuxian pursed his lips.
“It’s a harmless flute,” he said to Lan Wangji, blinking innocently. “Hanguang-jun may have such high cultivation that a spiritual weapon is a threat, but surely you can sense that my cultivation is very weak in comparison?”
“That,” Lan Wangji said, pointing Bichen at Wei Wuxian chest, “is Chenqing.”
Back finally hitting the wall, Wei Wuxian blinked in surprise. This wasn’t good. “You recognize it?”
He was given another cold look, as Lan Wangji looked at him.
“Wei Wuxian’s dizi,” the man said, nodding towards the flute, then towards Suibian by Wei Wuxian’s hip. “Wei Wuxian’s sword.”
Ah. Of course. Lan Wangji might not have had personal memories of Wei Wuxian, but famous swords and spiritual weapons had always been known by people. And Lan Wangji, being the observant person that he was, had taken notice of his.
Wei Wuxian wanted to cry at his own stupidity, at the situation, at Lan Wangji’s cold looks. Instead, he sighed.
“Hanguang-jun, I really don’t want to fight with you,” he said. “There’s no need to make this more difficult. I’ll stay out of trouble, how about that, huh?”
“If you do not want to fight,” Lan Wangji only said, “then come with me to the Cloud Recesses.”
Unyielding, as always. Wei Wuxian had always found this quality in him equally delightful as well as infuriating. Currently, it was mainly the latter.
“For what reason? For public execution?” Wei Wuxian kept his light tone as he tried to think of a way out of this.
Lan Wangji’s lips thinned, but he did not respond. Perhaps because the question was ridiculous, perhaps because that was an actual possibility. If people knew of all the people he had killed back then, still. If these crimes were inexcusable to Lan Wangji.
“I’m not Wei Wuxian,” Wei Wuxian said, then. A last ditch effort. “I’m…my name is Mo Xuanyu. I – I came into possession of Wei Wuxian’s flute and sword, but I am not him.”
This, at least, seemed to give Lan Wangji a pause. He regarded Wei Wuxian with slightly narrowed eyes, his mind fast at work trying to decipher the truth of the words.
Wei Wuxian calmed himself, relaxing against the wall. Alright. This was the way forward, then.
“You can take the flute and the sword, if you must, but there’s no need to bring me with you,” he said.
Lan Wangji, face still unreadable, inclined his head. “Hand them over.”
While it pained him greatly to do so, Wei Wuxian did. He held one hand up in the air while he handed Lan Wangji Chenqing, and after that, Suibian. Lan Wangji held them both in the hand not gripping Bichen.
Now unarmed, Wei Wuxian spread his hands at his husband.
“There you go. I’m practically on the level of a non-cultivator, now,” he said. “Is there a reason to point the sword at me, still?”
“Mn,” Lan Wangji said, clearly having made up his mind long before Wei Wuxian had disarmed himself. “You will come with me.”
Wei Wuxian was not surprised, but it was still disappointing to hear. He didn’t have the time for this, for all the nonsense that the Lan sect would no doubt throw his way. Lan Qiren would definitely make him have a taste of the discipline plank, at the very least.
And if they still believed he was the Yiling Patriarch, well…
Wei Wuxian was led to the door by the point of Lan Wangji’s sword. He moved silently, thinking of ways to escape during their way back to Gusu.
He did not expect Lan Wangji to break the silence while they were descending the stairs.
“How did you travel to Lanling?” the man asked.
“Huh?”
“You claim you are not Wei Wuxian,” Lan Wangji stated evenly. “You also said the sword is sealed.”
Oh. Wei Wuxian wanted to curse himself – he had all but confessed, back in the Jingshi. There was no way he could have made the journey to Lanling without a sword, and the one he had in his possession was Wei Wuxian’s sealed sword. Only Wei Wuxian could pull it out. Only Wei Wuxian could have flown to Lanling with it.
He had only meant to assure Lan Wangji he was not stealing the sword, and by revealing its sealed status, had fallen into the same trap he had back then, with Jin Guangyao.
He did not answer Lan Wangji. He had a feeling there was no talking his way out of this one.
The other people in the inn started paying attention to them, when they got downstairs. A Lan sect cultivator having someone at a sword point was likely not a sight many around had seen before, especially when the cultivator looked like Hanguang-jun.
The result was immediate whispering and raised eyebrows.
“Are we going to fly to Gusu?” Wei Wuxian asked Lan Wangji, as if the other people did not exist.
“Mn.”
“Are you going to tie me up?” he asked then.
Lan Wangji did not answer this time. He likely had been planning on it. Wei Wuxian couldn’t imagine Lan Wangji feeling very comfortable with having a stranger so close to him, especially someone as notorious as him.
At least I’m used to him tying me up, Wei Wuxian thought to himself.
He thought about multiple plans, then. Making a run for it would only end up in him being tied up faster, and trying to stage a hostage situation would probably not be worth the bad impression of him it would leave on Lan Wangji.
He glanced around once more, at the room full of staring people, when his eyes caught something in the window at the back. A figure.
Oh. He stopped, eyes widening. Before Lan Wangji could realize what he was doing, Wei Wuxian mouthed at the person on the other side of the window, HELP!
Frowning, Lan Wangji turned to look at the window as well, though the figure had already disappeared.
For a moment, Wei Wuxian stayed where he was, staring at that side of the inn. Hoping he hadn’t imagined what he’d seen, heart beating painfully in expectation. He couldn’t go to Gusu Lan, not right now, especially not for the reason Lan Wangji was taking him there.
“What –?” Lan Wangji started, when multiple things happened consecutively.
Hanguang-jun’s eyes widened, and he swirled around to stop the object that had been thrown at him with immeasurable force. Wei Wuxian did not stay to look what it had been – he took the moment of distraction and bolted, making his way towards the door.
Then, shouts.
“Is that –?”
“The ghost general!” someone cried in fear.
Wei Wuxian glanced behind himself as he heard the sounds of fight, the crashing of furniture and people’s screams. Wen Ning was focused on fighting Lan Wangji. Wei Wuxian had no time to stop and worry about it, about Lan Wangji’s safety, nor that of Wen Ning’s. He needed to get out of there.
He made it outside, then a block away. He ran, ran, faster than he had in a long time, and hoped that his friend would be able to escape from Lan Wangji after the distraction he had provided.
So Wei Wuxian ran until he made it to the forest, and then he ran until he was so out of breath he could have vomited. Then, he knelt on the ground, gasping for breath, tears stinging in his eyes.
He had escaped, but he didn’t have his flute, nor his sword.
But at least, at the very least, he had a person who remembered him. Wen Ning.
-