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They had been woefully unprepared for the night hunt. One moment Lan Wangji had been unsheathing Bichen, preparing to defend himself against the two approaching yaoguai and then the next something had reached up from the ground, clawing at him, and before he knew it he was on his back, staring breathlessly at the darkening sky.
"Lan Zhan!"
He blinked and Wei Ying was there, red eyed and wild in a way he hadn't been in since he'd come back to life. Feeling oddly detached, he watched as Wei Ying's hands scrabbled wildly, pressing against wounds, tying bandages, alighting signal flares, drawing and activating talismans, all while whistling an eerie violent and familiar tune.
There were too many creatures and Lan Wangji tried to move, to protect Wei Ying, but even the slightest movement caused a fiery pain to shoot through his body. "Wei Ying," he gasped out in warning but he couldn't get enough breath to make himself heard. Resentful energy surged around him but he could no longer see what was happening. Someone was yelling. Something screamed. It was so cold. So dark. He was fading, and he soon lost the fight to stay conscious.
He woke to a world of pain.
It was familiar, although also different, but it took him quite some time to figure out why, that he wasn't on his stomach with his back bloodied and torn. Eventually the pain receded enough to pinpoint where it originated, his legs and left side, and it was only then that he remembered, like a bolt out of the blue—
"Wei Ying!"
His shout was followed by numerous people talking over one another, talking to him. Someone was giving him qi. Hands pushed him back on the bed when he tried to sit up. Everything was loud and bright. Xiongzhang was there. Shufu too possibly? He did not hear Wei Ying's voice. Where was Wei Ying? He opened his mouth, intending to ask after his husband, but medicine was poured down his throat before he could speak and soon he was asleep again.
The next thing he was aware of was Liebing's notes flowing over him. As Healing trailed off he opened his eyes and Xiongzhang's face came into focus.
"Wangji." The stark look of relief was tangible and impossible to miss but there was something else there as well tempering it. Lan Wangji recognized it, the wrinkled forehead, thinness to his lips and tension to his frame, meant it was his Sect Leader at his bedside, rather than his brother, and he had bad news to share.
"My zhiji is dead." It was not a question, but rather a statement.
"Yes. Wangji, I am so sorry." They sat in silence for several moments before Xichen spoke again, "We arrived too late, he had already…. Ah. It was…. Do you wish to hear the details?"
"No."
Xiongzhang nodded, unsurprised. "If that changes just ask, but for now, rest. You were gravely injured, even with a golden core as strong as yours it will take some time to recover." He began playing Healing and Lan Wangji let its tune lull him back to sleep.
It was three long, trying days before he was strong enough to return to the Jingshi and that was only allowed since he agreed to not only be carried there but to stay in bed for as long as Lan-daifu thought it necessary.
Being home was… hard.
It was empty in a way he now found unnerving.
Wei Ying had always been larger than life, wonderfully filling the empty spaces in Lan Wangji's heart and home. Spaces he hadn't even known had existed until Wei Ying cheerfully shoved his way into them. Spaces that were now so glaringly, painfully, empty again.
Early into his recovery he was rarely alone—Sizhui was there so often, he'd all but moved in and Shufu, Xiongzhang, and Lan Jingyi were frequent visitors as well—but he was still so very, very lonely. Hiding such feelings away, he did his best to follow Lan-daifu's orders; he slept a lot, took whatever medicines were offered to him and meditated whenever possible.
When he was finally strong enough to sit unaided he asked for his guqin. He played Inquiry for hours and tried to convince himself Wei Ying's lack of a response was a good thing as it implied he was at peace, but each time it went unanswered his heart broke just a tiny bit more. Wei Ying was gone. Again.
Months passed. With the help of a walking stick he began hobbling about, first just within the Jingshi but before long he was able to manage Cloud Recesses' paths as well. Stairs were still an issue, but he was determined, and eventually he was able to descend down into the library's forbidden section.
It had been Wei Ying who had found the tome originally and noticed the dual way of reading it which had cleverly hidden information about numerous powerful arrays within its pages. "Lan Zhan," he'd exclaimed, his eyes bright with wonder, "This is amazing! Doesn't this look like this could be a time travel array?"
The page in question had been plopped down in front of him without explaining how to read the concealed information, resulting in Wei Ying laughing at his befuddled expression as he read what, for all intents and purposes, appeared to be a poem about laundry and the removal of stains. After having his fun, he showed Lan Wangji the second, and frankly ingenious, way to view the text.
"Possibly. It speaks of an array that 'enables one to remove the regret that stains one's heart caused by straying from their fated path.' It could affect, by erasing or altering, one's memories of the moment as well."
"Hmmmm," Wei Ying scrunched his nose and rubbed it as he pondered Lan Wangji's words. "Or maybe it really is just a poem about how to clean your clothes."
"Or maybe it really is just a poem about how to clean your clothes," he agreed.
Wei Ying had sighed and looked so dejected that Lan Wangji kissed him then and there. Things had gotten a little heated after that and all in all he considered himself lucky that no one ventured into that section of the library and discovered them.
Hampered by his need for frequent rest it took a while to find the tome again. Security measures should have ensured he was unable to remove it from the premises without triggering an alarm but years earlier Wei Ying had created a special qiankun pouch stitched with talismans created for such a purpose so all he had to do was slip it inside and then tuck the pouch into his robes and then slowly make his way back to the Jingshi.
Studying its secrets, however, took some time.
The seasons passed.
Finally, the time came. The first new moon of spring happily coincided with a cultivation conference, meaning Xiongzhang, Sizhui and many disciples would be away. As it was being held in Lotus Pier, no one suspected anything when he declared he would not attend. Although he had finally completely healed, he and Jiang Wanyin's relationship had always been frosty. Neither his marriage to Wei Ying, nor Wei Ying's death, had changed that.
The array took hours to prepare.
Activating it was easy.
When its blinding light faded, however, instead of finding himself at the beginning of that disastrous night hunt as he expected he found himself at the edge of the Burial Mounds, watching Wei Ying swing a young A-Yuan into his arms, saying, "A-Yuan, this Gege already has food waiting for him at his home. He won't be staying."
"But I heard a secret earlier. They said there was lots of good food today."
"A-Yuan." This time he heard the tone for what it was, exhaustion tempered with resignation. Wei Ying wasn't chiding A-Yuan; he'd known that Lan Wangji wouldn't stay, that he and the Wens were on their own. He might not have been certain, but he'd probably suspected the settlement was a temporary one, that the Clans would eventually come for them. He looked so tired. So drawn.
This was his second chance, their second chance. He could stay on his fated path and remove the stain of regret from his heart.
When Wei Ying turned to him, instead of saying he was leaving, he said, "I would love to stay and eat with you."
Wei Ying's resulting smile was like the sun, bursting through the clouds, warming everything it touched.