Uncle Qiren still scoops up both WangJi and Wei Ying at the top of the stairs leading down the mountain from Cloud Recesses.

"It will be faster," he says, excusing his behaviour upon seeing Lan Zhan's mutinous glare at the indignity of being carried like a child.

His expression makes Wei Ying giggle, and it is turned down a notch or two. Lan Huan is right next to them, hiding a smile as they descend. His attention is split between carefully navigating the sometimes steep steps, and talking to the Lan Clan Head Disciple, Lan Jingshu. They are only a few years apart and the older boy has attended many more conferences than Lan Huan, making him an expert that must be milked of his experience until Lan Huan is satisfied that all of his requests for information have been met with detail.

Everyone in Caiyi Town is entranced by their arrival and immediately stop whatever they're doing to watch as the White robed group of powerful cultivators walk by, emanating peace and confidence with a celestial air. It helps that they have descended from a high place, cementing their hierarchy in this society.

Caiyi Town falls under the guardianship of the Lan Clan, and they uphold their duty of making sure the townsfolk are happy and safe. It is because of this symbiotic relationship that many people come forward and present Lan Qiren with gifts. These range from presents to the Lan Clan as a whole, and individual gifts for the two heirs.

Wei Ying is genuinely happy to see that Lan Zhan and XiChen-Ge are being recognised for their heritage, but also celebrated for their sense of duty and filial piety. Wei Ying appreciates every acknowledgement because he knows what they went through in that past life, especially throughout the Sunshot Campaign. Not one person was left unaffected in that Great War.

"Does it feel strange to you, knowing what you know is to come?" Wei Ying whispers to Lan Zhan as they follow Lan Qiren through the people-lined streets. "That they're being so kind?"

"Mn. It is becoming difficult to differentiate between the two lifetimes. The one we know, and this one. Already things are different." Lan Zhan whispers back.

"What's different?" Wei Ying wants to know.

"I do not remember attending a conference, much less one held at Nightless City. But perhaps our arrival in this timeline is akin to casting a different stone into calm waters. There will still be ripples from the initial event, but there may be more than before, affecting a larger group of people. It still remains to be seen what we shall find in Yiling." Lan Zhan purses his lips, looking far older than his mere six years of age.

Wei Ying squeezes their hands together, giving him quiet support and encouragement.

"I'm just glad you wrote everything down," he whispers back. "Otherwise we could have forgotten important events or people, and that would have been just tragic!"

"Mn."

The crowds of people wave and cheer as they leave Caiyi Town, almost an hour later.

"I know you said not to say thank you, but I'm still grateful about you suggesting to Old Man Lan that I don't like travelling by sword any more. You were right, the nightmares have been so vivid that I would have been terrified of flying." Wei Ying tells him quietly.

They have to be careful now in what they discuss, having lost the buffer of external noises from the people urging them on from Caiyi Town. It's so much quieter now, with only the swaying trees for company, with their newly formed buds and the rustling grasses at their feet as their robes make swishing sounds while they walk through them.

Spring is truly in the air, warmer down here than up in the cooler mountains from where they've come, and it's not long before a plethora of white handkerchiefs come out to wipe sweaty foreheads.

Golden chaffinches and black-and-white magpies chirp and cackle, but aside from their avian friends, the Lans make a point of travelling in silence. This means that conversations between the murder babies have to be limited.

Mindful of their young entourage, the adults take many breaks in between, but even so, they reach Yiling in the late afternoon.

Almost immediately, Lan Qiren is approached by a group of farmers requesting his help. There have been nightly attacks on their fields by a gang of fierce corpses and they report that nothing is being done by either the Nie Sect, nor the Wens, both of whom reside on the periphery of the area on either opposite side. When Lan Qiren voices his surprise at that, the farmers admit that they haven't actually informed the Nies about their problem; they were thinking about it when they saw the Lan Sect, and decided to approach them instead.

Lan Qiren divides the group into three parts.

One group of able-bodied, experienced cultivators are to accompany him, while another group of ten disciples are to head into the forest and set up camp. This leaves the children, fifteen of them, and the rest of the adults making up another fifteen people to supervise them.

"You may explore Yiling until the evening, and gather information. See if there has been anything unusual happening lately," Lan Qiren advises. "Show the children around and split up if you have to, in order not to draw attention to yourselves. Report back to me when we return. We can meet at the camping site."

Lan Qiren is mostly worried about what his friends have told him a few days ago, about seeing increased activity regarding night creatures and fierce corpses. If he finds enough evidence of this, it might be worth bringing it up at the conference. He hasn't got high hopes of receiving aid from Wen Ruohan, given the neglect he's bestowed upon these lands, but it's worth a shot to remind everyone why they do what they do. After all, what is the point of being a cultivator if not to help the common people?

Then he crouches in front of Lan Zhan and Wei Ying, trying not to smile at their joined hands. "Boys, you are to listen to Lan Huan and stay with him," he says sternly. He waits for them to nod, noting the sparkle of mischief in silver eyes smiling innocently back at him. "Lan Huan, take this and buy them anything they want. And yourself." He hands over a pouch of silver pieces. That, if nothing else, will keep them out of trouble.

Then he takes his group and marches away, following the farmers that need their help.

*****************

"Wow!" Wei Ying mutters under his breath.

They're standing under a massive magnolia tree, waiting for Lan Huan to finish his conversation with another young man, talking about sword forms and which of them are superior. But he's lost interest in that ages ago, and is instead watching the Lan contingent making hardly any progress in their open and honest attempts at covert intelligence. They're actually going around and directly asking strangers if they've seen anything weird lately, as you do.

They're met with suspicious glances and people hurrying away from them as if they're passing on the plague instead of trying to help.

"Do you remember when this was us?" he whispers to Lan Zhan, trying not to laugh too hard. "You suggested doing the same thing."

"Mn." Lan Zhan gives him a withering look. "Wei Ying's idea was to buy wine and bribe the waiter."

"Which way was more effective? If you want information, you have to blend in." And with that, Wei Ying grabs Lan Zhan and Lan Huan, tearing the latter away from his pointless conversation, towards a stall selling bags of candy. "We can't exactly buy wine at our age," he whispers conspiringly, "but this is age appropriate." He makes a bemused Lan Huan buy them three bags of candy.

"Make sure you share," Lan Huan says, before he returns to his friend waiting under the tree, to resume his dull entertainment.

"Don't worry, Huan-Ge!" Wei Ying says brightly, "We'll stay right here."

"Mn," Lan Zhan endorses their behaviour, sighing with relief when they're believed by a distracted child himself. He waits until Lan Huan is out of earshot before turning to Wei Ying. "What are we going to do? Bribe children for information?" He sounds incredibly sceptical.

Wei Ying laughs breezily and tugs him into the mouth of the adjacent alley.

On first glance, it appears empty, but then they spot movements around a discarded cart littered with rotten vegetables and rubbish. The entire alley isn't the cleanest, but Wei Ying instinctively remembers that it might prove to be the best place for a little espionage. Street kids are the smartest, he thinks, seeing two pairs of dirty bare feet huddling in amongst the waste. One pair is definitely slightly bigger than the other.

Wei Ying's own booted foot accidentally kicks a stone out of the way, and both he and Lan Zhan see the feet retract even further under the cart.

"Hello?" He calls out cautiously.

No one is prepared for the owners of the feet to show themselves, and especially not brandishing a sharp-looking knife.

It's a boy and a girl, neither much older than either Wei Ying or Lan Zhan, but these two are definitely a hundred times more threatening. The boy has jaded eyes, any innocence that might have once inhabited them having bled away by the cruelty of living on the streets.

Wei Ying remembers countless beatings at the hands of merchants tired of seeing his hungry face, or his outstretched little hands begging for a bite to eat. Anything to stifle the deadly pangs of his stomach already shrinking in on itself most painfully.

"What do you want?" Snarls the boy, his messy hair gnarled and twisted around his head, his face grubby with the dust of the street. He's tugging the girl behind himself protectively.

She has the strangest eyes, all white, and yet Wei Ying gets the feeling she can see very well. It's in how she's pointedly staring at her own feet, unlike a real blind person, who would be staring at the source of the sound. Her own instincts should be guiding her awareness towards the danger, not away from it.

Both are dressed in simple clothes, earth-worn robes of browns and greys, tattered around the edges and tied with simple cotton sashes.

From the moment a threat presented itself, Lan Zhan had pushed Wei Ying behind him, but Wei Ying is not the sort of person to stand aside while facing off against an unknown danger. So he tucks his chin over Lan Zhan's shoulder, watching the other two children with interest.

"We want information, if you have it," he says to them without any fear.

"What information?" The grubby little boy looks even more fierce, now readying himself to attack. "You're from the Cultivation sects, aren't you?" He looks like he's going to spit at them.

Lan Zhan wants Bichen. Now.

The tension is climbing between them, and if it isn't dispelled soon, someone is going to get hurt.

"When did you last eat?" Wei Ying changes tactics, hoping to win his trust. The boy is the key. He knows better than trying to say anything to the girl.

"Why do you care? I bet you get to eat good food every day. Why are you concerning yourselves with the likes of us? Why don't you go away?" He looks incredibly angry now, and a little scared.

"Lan Zhan, do you trust me?" Wei Ying asks him, his breath warm on Lan Zhan's cheek, and he knows immediately that he'll hate whatever Wei Ying wants to do.

"Mn." His mouth talks before his brain has a chance.

Wei Ying gives him a quick kiss on his soft skin, and now Lan Zhan doesn't care about much else.

"Then follow my lead." And with that, he steps away from Lan Zhan and towards the two children.

"Don't come any closer!" The boy yells, stepping back.

"We don't want to hurt you. I'm just giving you some sweets," Wei Ying says, leaving one of the bags on the floor between them and stepping back behind Lan Zhan as if he had never left, which is great because Lan Zhan's heart was ready to climb out of his chest and do the fighting for both of them, Bichen or not.

"In fact, we don't even want the information any more," Wei Ying says, keeping his voice neutral and calm.

"You're lying!" The boy says, only now his voice is wavering. His dark eyes are darting longingly towards the bag of candy on the floor.

"Wei Ying is right. Information is secondary. Will you trust us to wait here? We will get you real food." Lan Zhan says suddenly, dead against leaving Wei Ying alone here to watch them.

But instead of one of them going to fetch money from Huan-Ge, it can just as easily be both of them.

"Lan Zhan, what are you doing?" Wei Ying demands, looking confused.

"Wei Ying was a street child himself. We should do this. Shufu said we must not let go of our values. He also said we must uphold justice and help the weak."

"Who're you calling weak?" The boy yells again, a comical outrage on his face.

Wei Ying can't help himself; he's gone all soft for Lan Zhan wanting to help these two, and he really wants to hug him, but it's the fear of the knife in his back that stops him.

"We should get more money from Ge." Lan Zhan says, before turning to the now confused street children. "Wait here. We are coming back." Then he takes Wei Ying's hand and they run back to Lan Huan, who hands them a few pieces of silver absentmindedly, still talking to his friend.

Then the two kids hit up the rice and dumpling stall, getting two generous portions. The merchants do not refuse, eyeing up their expensive robes with interest, and Lan Zhan's glare says it all as he hands over the money.

When they return to the alley, the boy is still guarding the little girl, and the candy is gone.

"Here," Wei Ying says, marching right up to them and handing the food over.

Everyone else is too shocked to stop him, (or hurt him), and two very hungry stomachs rumble loudly.

Wei Ying doesn't hang around, he goes back to Lan Zhan. "Maybe we should try someone else," he says, getting ready to lead Lan Zhan out of the alley.

"Wait!" the boy calls out from behind them.

They turn around.

He hasn't started eating yet, but thankfully, the knife has gone.

"Why did you help us, then?" He's lost the defensive sneer; he just sounds confused now.

"Well, you needed the food more than we wanted the information," Wei Ying shrugs. "So it's okay. You should eat it while it's hot."

"Mn. Healthier than the candy," Lan Zhan adds, sternly. In his little body, with a serious look on his face and that demanding tone, it would be funny if he didn't mean every word.

"Do...do you want it back then?" the boy asks uncertainly.

"No, we have some more," Wei Ying says, holding up the remaining two bags. They've got enough money to buy more candy should they need it, with money left over from the second of Lan Huan's handout.

"Oh..." the boy looks really interested now. "Then, what do you want to know?"

"You'll help us?" Lan Zhan asks him dubiously.

"For another bag of candy, yeah!" the kid sticks his chin out defiantly.

"Alright. But we can wait until you finish eating," Wei Ying insists. He climbs onto the lower bit of the cart and sits with his legs swinging off the edge. It smells a bit, but he doesn't mind.

Lan Zhan still doesn't trust the two street kids, so he makes sure to stand between them and his Wei Ying. He still hasn't forgotten the lovely kiss Wei Ying gave him, albeit in a platonic way, and it's enough to fill him up with sparkling bubbles of joy.

The two children eat fast, as those who fear food being snatched away from them often do, taking every single opportunity given to them. They wipe their hands on their clothes and now less wary, they turn to Wei Ying.

"Who are you, and what do you want to know?" the boy demands.

"My name is Wei Ying, and this is Lan Zhan. We're here on behalf of the Lan Sect but we're not staying long. Our Shufu said to find out if anything weird is happening in the area, and if there's anything we can do to help. We have to report back to him this evening," Wei Ying explains truthfully. "What's your name? Who are you both, and how did you end up here?"

"Well, hello, Wei Ying," the boy says shrewdly, nodding at Lan Zhan. "This is A-Qing, and my name is Xue Yang. Pleased to make your acquaintance." And they both bow.