Translated by K of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Lan WangJi gladly accepted his exaggerated praise. He opened Wei WuXian’s sleeves and poured all of the stolen jujubes inside, saying, “For you. All for you.”
Wei WuXian cooperated, “Thank you.”
Yet, Lan WangJi suddenly let go. With a flick of his sleeve, all of the jujubes fell out, rolling onto the ground. Wei WuXian immediately bent down to pick them up, but there were too many. Lan WangJi, “Not anymore.”
He also grabbed the hen under Wei WuXian’s left arm, carrying one in each of his hands. Wei WuXian tugged the tail of his forehead ribbon and pulled him back, “You were just fine a second ago. Why are you mad again?”
Lan WangJi’s eyes swept over him, “Do not pull.”
From what it sounded like, his tone wasn’t too happy. It almost sounded like a warning. Wei WuXian couldn’t help but let go. Lan WangJi looked down and moved both of the two astonished hens to his left hand before he could use his right hand to straighten out his hair and forehead ribbon.
Wei WuXian thought, He never stopped no matter how I played with his forehead ribbon, in the past. Is he really mad today?
He felt he really needed to remediate a bit, pointing at the hens, “Forget about the jujubes. Give this to me. Didn’t you say you’d give it to me?”
Lan WangJi looked up and looked him down in an inspecting way. Wei WuXian said sincerely, “Please. I really want it. Give it to me.”
Hearing this, Lan WangJi turned his eyes downward. He only handed the hen back to him after a long while. Wei WuXian accepted it. He took out a jujube, wiped it on the cloth at his chest, and crunched down, thinking if Lan Zhan wanted to play, he should just play with him, “What are we doing next?”
The two arrived at a wall. Lan WangJi looked left and right. After making sure that nobody was around, he unsheathed Bichen from his waist. With a few swings, glaring blue light flashed by, leaving behind a row of tall characters. Wei WuXian went forth and looked. There were five words—‘Lan WangJi has been here’.
“…”
Lan WangJi unsheathed Bichen and admired his masterpiece. Despite him being drunk right now, his handwriting was still an extremely proper script. He nodded, as though quite satisfied with it. After a moment of thought, he reached out again. This time, it wasn’t to write, but rather to draw. A few glares of the sword zipped across, and the small portrait of two kissing figures appeared on the wall. The precision of the lines and the obscenity of the content was enough to make Wei WuXian slap his own forehead.
Stealing from everywhere, making a mess, writing and drawing inappropriate things… This time, he was sure—Lan WangJi really was repeating the things he said. He couldn’t be wrong. Even the content of the graffiti was the same!
He didn’t know what to make of this, But these are all things I did when I was twelve or thirteen!
Lan WangJi got more into the mood the more he drew. It wasn’t even enough after he drew over the entire wall. He had to go on the other side and continue. Watching how the content of his drawing became stranger and stranger, Wei WuXian felt sorry for Bichen as he thought, I’ll definitely have to cross out Lan WangJi’s name from this wall. I can’t possibly let others know who did this. No, no, how about I cross out the entire wall instead.
After a hard struggle, Wei WuXian finally dragged Lan WangJi back to the inn. He gave both of the hens to the owner, saying that they found them on their way. He went upstairs, shut the door, and turned around. Back when they were outside, he couldn’t see clearly because of the darkness of the night, but now that they were inside, with the lamplight, he could see that feathers, leaves, and the white dust of wall plaster was all over Lan WangJi, from his clothes, to his face, to his hair. He really didn’t look his back.
Wei WuXian swept them off of him as he laughed, “You’re so dirty!”
Lan WangJi, “Wash my face.”
The first time he was drunk, Wei WuXian washed his face for him, and Lan WangJi seemed as if he liked it a lot. Of course, this time, he asked for it on his own. Wei WuXian wanted to do it for him in the first place, but now that he was already like this, simply washing his face wouldn’t be enough at all. And so, he asked, “How about I just help you bathe instead?”
Hearing this, Lan WangJi widened his eyes slightly. Wei WuXian examined his expression carefully, “Do you want it?
Lan WangJi immediately nodded, “Yes.”
Wei WuXian thought, Lan Zhan really does like to be clean. I’ll just get the bathwater for him. I’ll let him do the rest on his own.
All of the workers in the inn were women. Of course Wei WuXian wouldn’t make them do work that was too difficult. And so, he reminded Lan WangJi to sit properly in the room. He himself went downstairs, boiled water, and carried them up one bucket at a time, filling the entire tub. He tried the temperature of the water. Just as he turned around, wanting to tell Lan WangJi to take off his clothes, he saw that Lan WangJi had already stripped on his own.
The two of them had long since seen each other unclothed before in the Cloud Recesses’ cold spring, but back then, both of the two were boys without a single sideways thought. When he ran into Lan WangJi taking a bath, he didn’t have any other ideas either, and during both those two times, more than half of Lan WangJi’s body was buried underwater. And so, suddenly seeing such an uncovered HanGuang-Jun… It was needless to say that Wei WuXian received quite a big shock.
At the moment, he didn’t even know whether he should follow his heart and look as much as he wanted or find something with which to cover up Lan WangJi and pretend to be a decent person. His scalp tingled. He couldn’t help but walk backwards, but as he walked back, Lan WangJi continued to walk forward. Wei WuXian had already backed away to a corner of the wall. He couldn’t hide at all, and could only braven up as he watched Lan WangJi approach him expressionlessly.
The distinct Adam’s Apple, fair-colored skin, and smooth, aesthetic muscles flashed before his eyes so clearly that he didn’t even dare look at them straight, eyes averting slightly. He swallowed unconsciously, somehow feeling a bit parched. Wei WuXian clenched his teeth. Just as he wanted to say something, Lan WangJi suddenly reached out and tore his sash belt into half.
His face was still all serious, but his movements were extremely rough. Wei WuXian never expected that he’d do such a thing. He jumped from the shock, blurting, “Stop, stop! I won’t bathe! I won’t be bathing! You can go.”
Lan WangJi frowned. Wei WuXian, “You can bathe first. I like, uh, bigger tubs. It’s a bit hard to fit two people inside this one.”
Lan WangJi glanced at the tub with indifference. After he confirmed that it wasn’t big enough, he finally settled. Slowly, he found his way into the tub, sinking down and enveloping himself in the hot water.
Wei WuXian let out a sigh of relief, “Then take your time bathing. I’ll be outside.” As he finished, he was about to leave and get some fresh air to calm himself when he suddenly heard a splash. He turned around and looked, “Why did you come out again?!”
Lan WangJi’s face was cold, “Not bathing anymore.”
Wei WuXian, “Why not? It’s so dirty if you don’t bathe.”
Lan WangJi seemed quite grumpy. He didn’t say why either, and only walked towards the screen to put on the clothes he’d taken off. Wei WuXian quickly went back. He had an idea of what the reason was, “Do you want me to help you bathe?”
Lan WangJi looked down. He neither confirmed nor denied it.
Looking at him, Wei WuXian felt a place in his heart go soft, At most, I’ll just wipe him a couple of times. I won’t do anything else at all.
And so, he dragged Lan WangJi towards the tub, “Fine, I’ll help you bathe. Come here.”
Lan WangJi was finally dragged back by him. He sunk into the water again. Wei WuXian also rolled up his sleeves and walked towards the tub.
Lan WangJi’s skin was extremely fair. His long hair gleamed darkly, drifting on the surface of the water. For a second, amid the whirling steam, he seemed like an Immortal of ice and snow immersed in one of the Heaven’s springs. Wei WuXian felt that it was quite a shame. The scenery would be much better if he found some petals for Lan WangJi and sprinkle them on the water. He took up the wooden spoon inside the tub.
Thin streaks of water poured down Lan WangJi’s head. Since Lan WangJi had been staring at Wei WuXian without a single blink, Wei WuXian was worried the water might drip into his eyes and make him feel uncomfortable, “Close your eyes.”
Lan WangJi didn’t listen to him. His eyes were still glued to Wei WuXian as though he was scared that if he blinked once, Wei WuXian might have run away. Wei WuXian reached out to shut his eyes, and he buried the lower half of his face into the water, letting out a series of bubbles. Wei WuXian laughed as he lightly pinched his cheek, “Er-Gege, how old are you?”
He grabbed the soap and cloth from the side, and wiped from Lan WangJi’s face downwards. As he wiped away, his movements suddenly paused.
Back then, Lan WangJi took off his hair tie and forehead ribbon on his own. His hair fell and covered his upper body. But now, after he moved Lan WangJi’s wet, black hair behind his shoulder and began to wipe his chest, the thirty-or-so discipline whip marks and the brand at his chest could be seen with clarity.
Wei WuXian took the cloth and moved to his back.
The whip marks climbed from Lan WangJi’s back all the way to his chest, shoulders, arms, sprawling across the smooth, white skin. These almost hideous scars, whether dark or light, destroyed what could be called the perfect male body.
After staring at him for a silent while, Wei WuXian dipped the cloth in water and traced the marks that the discipline whip left. He was extremely gentle, as if he didn’t want to hurt Lan WangJi, but these were old wounds already. It was long since past the time at which they hurt the most. And even if they were fresh scars, with Lan WangJi’s personality, he’d definitely hold it in no matter how much pain he was in, not letting out a single sound, a single sign of weakness.
Wei WuXian really wanted to use this opportunity to ask him just how in the world did these scars happen. In the GusuLan Sect, the only people with the right to punish Lan WangJi like this were Lan XiChen and Lan QiRen. Just what did he do for his brother, the one closest to him, or his uncle, the one who single-handedly brought him up and took pride in him so much, to do such a cruel deed?
And the QishanWen Sect’s brand that he’d never seen.
And yet, the words were already at his mouth, but he still suppressed them. If Lan WangJi didn’t want to tell him, he wouldn’t ask. Even though Lan WangJi would lose all his memory after he was sober, the fact that he was willing to drink in front of Wei WuXian meant that he trusted him. If he used this to obtain the secrets and private matters that Lan WangJi didn’t want others to know about, wouldn’t it be an extremely cheap act?
Wei WuXian got him drunk and spent almost half the night mulling over the matter, but he still didn’t get any answers. It wasn’t that he forgot. He’d always held in the back of his mind that he gave wine to Lan WangJi just to ask him, “HanGuang-Jun, just what do you think of me?” But every time it was close, he’d find some reason to blur things over, like not being so eager and asking after he played with him for long enough, like not being so casual and asking after they sat down properly… But even with all these excuses, the real reason that he dragged it until now was probably that he feared.
He was scared that he’d hear an answer different from what he hoped for.
Lan WangJi’s arms had been folded on the edge of the tub, but he suddenly turned around. Wei WuXian finally noticed that as he scrubbed him, his mind began to roam around and he didn’t move for a long time, making the snowy skin on Lan WangJi’s back so red that it seemed like someone had beat him up. He stopped at once, “Sorry, I was spacing out. Does it hurt?”
Even after his back was rubbed so hard by Wei WuXian, Lan WangJi still didn’t say anything, only shaking his hand. Seeing how he looked, all quiet and obedient, sitting in the tub, Wei WuXian felt quite sorry. Curving his finger, he was about to go for his chin again. But before his arm was even fully stretched out, Lan WangJi suddenly grabbed his wrist.