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The annual Cultivation Conference was being held at Ouyang Manor, which meant that Ouyang Zizhen’s father had been putting even more pressure than usual on his son but luckily, Ouyang Zizhen could count on his friends to support him during that terrible ordeal.
If he was being honest with himself, Lan Sizhui had to admit that he had come to hate these yearly conferences. The different sect leaders spent most of their time bickering or trying to prove that their sect was the absolute best and no problems were ever being solved. Lan Sizhui would have achieved more by going night-hunting. At least when he was traveling around, Lan Sizhui was actively helping people.
The only bright side of this Cultivation Conference was seeing Ouyang Zizhen and Jin Ling again and getting to spend time with them. Any occasion to reunite with his dear friends was a joyous one for Lan Sizhui.
The Cultivation Conference passed too slowly and too rapidly all at once. The discussions seemed endless but Lan Sizhui loved seeing Jin Ling getting more comfortable in his role as sect leader. Lan Sizhui could tell that Jin Ling’s image as sect leader had greatly improved in the past few years and he was now well respected by the older sect leaders.
As the Cultivation Conference was drawing to a close and people were starting to make their way out of Ouyang Manor, Lan Sizhui suddenly realized that Lan Jingyi was nowhere in sight. Lan Sizhui said goodbye to Ouyang Zizhen and Jin Ling, promising to write to them both very soon, and went out in search of his missing friend.
“Jingyi!” Lan Sizhui exclaimed when he finally caught sight of him. “I’ve been looking all over for you! What are you doing here?”
Lan Jingyi was standing under a blooming plum tree in the garden of Ouyang Manor, looking far into the distance. He turned to Lan Sizhui with a dazed look on his face. It looked like his friend was not seeing him at all.
“I think I’ve just met my soulmate,” Lan Jingyi whispered in awe.
Lan Sizhui stared at his friend and then looked around to catch a glimpse of the soulmate in question but no one was in sight.
“That’s great, Jingyi” Lan Sizhui said. The truth was he did not know how to react. “Huh, what’s her name?”
“A-Li,” Lan Jingyi said.
Lan Sizhui sighed. “What about her surname? What Sect is she from?”
Lan Jingyi simply shrugged.
“How can you even tell she’s your soulmate?” Lan Sizhui exclaimed, growing more and more anxious as the conversation went on.
“It feels like I’ve known her my whole life,” Lan Jingyi said.
Lan Sizhui did a very poor job of concealing his surprise.
“But you’ve just met her!” he pointed out. “You don’t even know her full name!”
However, Lan Jingyi did not seem to understand his friend’s concern. He was simply too far gone to see past the girl’s pretty face.
“You know what they say about white heads and canopies,” Lan Jingyi simply said, nodding his head very seriously.
“…”
Sizhui was struck speechless. He had not been expecting that type of well-thought answer from Lan Jingyi.
Sizhui sighed and grabbed Lan Jingyi’s arm. “Come on, Hanguang-Jun must be looking for us. We should go.”
ooo
If Lan Sizhui thought that was the last of it, he was sorely mistaken. It seemed like Lan Jingyi had completely lost it. He spent the next few days in a daze, alternating between perfect happiness and extreme misery. Lan Sizhui has rarely seen his friend behaving in such a way and he was growing more and more concerned as time passed.
One evening, Lan Sizhui found Lan Jingyi sitting on the steps in front of the dormitories. A few empty bottle of liquor were scattered on the ground and the bottle in his hands seemed to be empty as well.
Lan Sizhui sighed and put his hand on Lan Jingyi shoulder comfortingly.
“Jingyi, you should go to bed,” he said quietly.
Lan Jingyi did not even glance his way. Instead, he stared mournfully at the bright full moon.
“The lone goose flies upwards to the moon shores,” he quoted.
Despite his characteristic boundless patience, Lan Sizhui almost rolled his eyes. Deep down, he found Lan Jingyi’s reaction to be disproportionate. His friend was acting as though he had just lost his wife of twenty years and not some random girl he had met only by chance. Lan Sizhui could not understand it.
Lan Sizhui grabbed Lan Jingyi under the armpits and lifted him up with a grunt. Lan Jingyi swayed on his feet and went completely limp against Lan Sizhui, as though his legs had suddenly decided to stop supporting him. Lan Sizhui dragged him inside and gently deposited him on his bed. Then, he sat down and wrote a very long letter to Ouyang Zizhen.
ooo
Lan Sizhui could not help but gasp out lout as he read Ouyang Zizhen’s letter. Truth be told, when he had written to Ouyang Zizhen regarding Lan Jingyi’s mysterious soulmate, Lan Sizhui had not been expecting much. He had certainly not been expecting Ouyang Zizhen to know exactly who the girl was and for his friend to suggest helping them reunite. Lan Sizhui had long known that both Lan Jingyi and Ouyang Zizhen were simply too romantic for their own good but he had not been expecting such a twist.
Convincing Lan Jingyi to stop feeling sorry for himself long enough to take a trip to Ouyang territory had not been an easy task. Ouyang Zizhen had devised a plan to get the two lovers reunited and had enlisted Lan Sizhui’s help to carry it out. All Lan Sizhui had to do was convince Lan Jingyi to go on a night-hunt with Lan Sizhui and Ouyang Zizhen. Easier said than done.
After much coxing, Lan Jingyi had finally agreed to go out with his two friends. What Lan Jingyi did not know yet was that the three of them were not going to night-hunt at all. Instead, Lan Sizhui brought Lan Jingyi to an inn. They sat down at a table and waited for Ouyang Zizhen.
Lan Sizhui was closely watching Lan Jingyi and he did not miss the baffled look on his friend’s face when he caught sight of the two persons entering the inn.
Lan Sizhui glanced at the girl standing next to Ouyang Zizhen. She was wearing an expensive-looking blue dress and half of her hair had been raised into an extravagant bun held together with a gold pin. Despite her appearance and the obvious fact that her family was rich, she did not seem to be a haughty young woman. On the contrary, one could clearly see the kindness in her eyes.
Lan Sizhui finally understood how Lan Jingyi could have fallen so deeply in love with the girl after only one conversation. And judging by the look of wonder on Lan Jingyi’s face, his feelings had not changed at all since the two had first met a few weeks prior.
Lan Jingyi’s eyes stayed fixed on the girl as she approached their table, closely following behind Ouyang Zizhen.
“Meimei,” Ouyang Zizhen said once they reached the table. “This is Lan Jingyi. Jingyi, this is my sister, Ouyang Li.”
Lan Sizhui covered his mouth with his sleeve to hide his smile. Lan Jingyi looked like someone had slapped him across the face. He kept glancing between Ouyang Zizhen and Ouyang Li, speechless.
Lan Sizhui got up and gestured to the girl to sit down. “We’ll let you two get better acquainted.”
Lan Sizhui and Ouyang Zizhen sat down at a table near the entrance from where they had a good view of Lan Jingyi and Ouyand Li. Lan Jingyi seemed to have gotten over the shock at last and the two had started conversing quietly, most certainly sharing their surprise and joy at seeing each other again. From what Ouyang Zizhen had told Lan Sizhui in his letter, his sister had been just as heartbroken as Lan Jingyi, although she did not have the luxury to voice her grief out loud like Lan Jingyi had. After all, the girl’s father had promised her hand to Yan Renyu, heir to the Yan Clan.
A waiter brought Lan Sizhui and Ouyang Zizhen a fresh pot of tea and the two friends fell into a pleasant conversation. Even if they had seen each other recently and had been exchanging regular letters, they still had a lot to talk about.
“Are they still talking?” Ouyang Zizhen asked after a while, glancing over his shoulder at his sister and best friend.
Lan Sizhui glanced across the room. “Not talking,” he said quietly. “They’re simply… staring at each other.”
Ouyang Zizhen craned his neck to get a better look and realized that Lan Jingyi and Ouyang Li were gazing longingly into each other’s eyes.
Ouyang Zizhen sighed and turned his attention back to Lan Sizhui. “They are so adorable.”
“I’ve never seen Jingyi act like this,” Lan Sizhui said.
“Me neither. Was he really reciting poetry?”
Lan Sizhui nodded. “Yes. It was kind of sad to be honest.”
Ouyang Zizhen sighed again. “I’ll have to convince my father to break off A-Li’s engagement. That won’t be easy.”
“I’m sure your father will understand.”
Ouyang Zizhen snorted unkindly and Lan Sizhui knew that he was thinking about his own beloved and their forbidden love.
“It was really nice of you to help them reunite,” Lan Sizhui told him. “You’re a good friend, Zizhen. And a good brother.”
Ouyang Zizhen nodded. He was deep in thought, trying to think of a way to convince his father to break off Ouyang Li’s engagement.
“I’ll write to Rulan,” he said finally. “He’ll probably think of something. We should meet up soon,” he added. “It’s been too long since the four of us went night-hunting together.”
Lan Sizhui was about to respond when he caught sight of Lan Jingyi and Ouyang Li getting up and walking towards their table.
“Ge,” Ouyang Li said, standing tall and proud besides Lan Jingyi. “We want to get married.”
Lan Sizhui’s eyes widened in shock. He had been expecting it but to hear it was still surprising. Ouyang Zizhen however did not seem surprised at all. He only sighed and glanced at his sister.
“You are aware of course that you are engaged to Yan Renyu,” he reminded her sternly.
Ouyang Li looked down and nodded sadly. She made for a pitiful sight.
Lan Jingyi looked at his friend pleadingly. “Zizhen, please.”
Ouyang Zizhen closed his eyes for a second and sighed. “I’ll talk to father.”
His sister’s blinding smile in that moment was well worth it.
ooo
As Ouyang Zizhen had thought, Jin Ling had come up with a solution to their predicament. Objectively, Lan Jingyi was a far better match than Yan Renyu and Sect Leader Ouyang would understand it immediately. The fact that Lan Jingyi was related to Zewu-Jun was an important selling point because the Ouyang Clan would be able to count on the support of the Lan Clan. Jin Ling made a point of telling Ouyang Zizhen not to tell his father that his sister was in love. His father would not care about such trivial feelings.
Ouyang Zizhen smiled as he read his friend’s letter. No matter how much Lan Jingyi loved to tease their friend and call him a young mistress, Jin Ling had all the qualities of a great sect leader. He was smarter than people gave him credit for. He was cunning but without being dishonest and Ouyang Zizhen counted himself lucky to be Jin Ling’s friend.
ooo
Sect Leader Ouyang was secretly impressed and flattered to see a delegation from the Lan Clan, headed by both Zewu-Jun and Hunguang-Jun bring in chests after chests of gold and fabrics. An alliance with the Lan Clan would bring more prestige to his sect than an alliance with the Yan Clan ever could.
Ouyang Zizhen caught the eyes of Lan Jingyi. He could clearly see that his friend was nervous about his proposal being refused and Ouyang Zizhen tried to reassure him with a smile. After all, Ouyang Zizhen’s father was bound to accept; otherwise he would not have taken Ouyang Zizhen’s advice and broken off Ouyang Li’s engagement to Yan Renyu.
When his mother had died, Ouyang Zizhen had been too young to understand what loosing a mother would mean but he had known in his heart that from that moment forward he would be the one taking care of his younger sister. Nothing was more important than her happiness.