Heavy minutes of silence pass as Cangse Sanren reads through first, the Kill list, and next, the list of events. Then, she passes both back to her husband for Wei Changze to read.

She thinks for a moment and then fixes an intense gaze at Lan Qiren, all signs of mirth gone from her face.

"First of all, tell me where the children were when each of these deaths occurred?"

Lan Qiren has to think back. "Sect Leader Yao died at the banquet in front of everyone. The children were seated in the centre along with other children of their age. Similar setting when Jin-Zhongzhu died, except they were sitting right behind myself and A-Huan. The Jiangs and Wen Xu passed away in their own rooms while we were sleeping in our own quarters, and besides, I doubt the kids could have sufficiently navigated the labyrinthine corridors of that palace by themselves.

"When Wen Ruohan died, and of course, Wen Zhuliu was next to him, I had to leave WangJi in the kitchen, and Wei Ying wasn't there, then. But when I returned, they were both waiting for me. The nanny was by herself when Wen Chao died."

"Aha!" She crows.

"That does not explain the last two people. Who are Su MinShan and Wang Lingjiao?" Uncle Qiren snaps. "It does not matter that the children have solid alibis for when these deaths happened, and you are willfully missing the point!"

"Am I?" Cangse Sanren has never looked so formidable before. "That kill list could have been written after the fact, I mean, you know how children can be with their active imaginations."

"Do not try to brush this under the proverbial carpet, Cangse Sanren!" Lan Qiren is vibrating with the force of his emotions.

"Ah, sorry, Qiren, I do not mean to. I was checking on how, without this list, whether or not anyone would think about accusing our babies of anything. The truth is, I'm in awe. If it's real, and if this list of events is real, then there's definitely something fishy going on, but even you have to admit it, it's genius!" She bends uncomfortably to kiss both Wei Ying and Lan Zhan on the top of their heads.

Then she picks Wei Ying up and seats him right next to Lan Zhan, staring at both of them. Lan Zhan pulls Wei Ying closer and keeps an arm around him, even though it doesn't reach far. With his free hand, he clasps their palms together and takes a deep breath.

Now it's showtime.

These people are part of his family, and they may or may not understand, but he's going to try.

"Don't they look adorable? Qiren, I don't know how you can think these two could harm a fly!" Cangse Sanren sighs, smiling at them full of love.

"I think you're right, Lan Zhan. We have to tell them the truth." Wei Ying says, with enough solemnity in his voice for the adults to gape at him. He has purposefully not used 'Wan Zhan'. His pronunciation is perfect.

"Mn." Lan Zhan kisses his temple and fortifies his determination. Then, addressing everyone in the room, he says, "You might not believe us, but we're going to tell you everything." His eyes catch on Lan Huan, who hasn't stopped staring back at him.

"Start at the beginning, then," Lan Qiren tells them. Under the table, he reaches across to take Lan Huan's hand, covering it with his own tightly.

"Can I go first?" Wei Ying asks Lan Zhan. There's so many emotions whirling around in his beautiful starlight silver eyes.

Whatever he's going to say, there's no doubt in Lan Zhan's mind that it is going to be painful for everyone. But it must be done.

"Mn." He leans his head on Wei Ying's tiny shoulder, pulling himself even closer. He can hear Wei Ying's heart beating fast like a tribal drum, thrumming in his chest close to Lan Zhan's ear.

"In that last lifetime, my first memories were of riding in your arms, Mama, and Baba holding the reins of our donkey as we travelled. I don't know where we were going, but you said something funny and Mama laughed." Wei Ying looks at his father. "But that's all I had. I remember waking up in that inn, and you never came back. Mama, you gave me your ribbon because I wouldn't let you go on that night hunt. I cried and cried, and you said to Baba that it was unusual for me.

"The innkeeper only let me stay one more night and then kicked me out. I had nowhere to go and I was so hungry. The dogs were the worst, because they were hungry, too. Sometimes, people were kind and gave me a steamed bun or a dumpling, but for the most part, none of the merchants liked having a dirty kid with tattered robes hanging around. But I got really fast at dodging their kicks!" He says brightly.

Wei Ying is looking at his hands and doesn't see the tears in his parents' eyes. Even Lan Qiren is moved by his words.

"We left you with money..." Cangse Sanren whispers, reaching out to him.

Wei Ying leans forward and wipes under her eyes, smiling anyway. His ShiJie, in that past life, had told him that he was born with a smiling face, no matter what he had to endure. He decides not to go into details then, because he doesn't want his mother to cry. His story isn't a pleasant one, and no doubt that it's going to get worse, but he will try and save her from what he can.

"What little there was should have lasted you the week," Wei Changze says, devastated.

"That innkeeper is hardly a scrupulous man. I think he would have seen an opportunity and taken it." Lan Qiren strokes his whiskers thoughtfully.

"Go on, my love. Even if it's hard, we should know what it was like for you. That is our penance for leaving you the way we did. I hope you know that it was never intentionally done." Cangse Sanren tries to smile at her dear, brave little boy.

"Mama...no. I know you didn't mean to!" Wei Ying scoots over to hug her neck tightly. "There are some good memories, too."

She hugs his little body back, feeling grateful that he's not skinny now, that his chubbiness is still there. But in that last life, with no one to care for her sweet, precious boy, how had he survived?

The tears fell anyway.

Wei Changze comes to sit on the bed next to them, holding them both tight in a fierce hug.

"In that reality, we couldn't have this," he whispers into Cangse Sanren's hair.

He stays there with his arm around her, even when Wei Ying goes back to sitting next to Lan Zhan.

"Winters were the worst. At night, there was only me and the dogs, and they left me alone if I had no food to give them. Not gonna lie, I hate dogs even in this life." He shrugs to himself. "One night, I found some straw and I tied it around each bundle. One was Mama, one was Baba and I had a tiny bit left to make me. I was sitting in an alley on the ground, talking to you when this kid came along. He was beautiful-" Wei Ying gasps, looking at Lan Zhan. "That was you! You gave me a drum to play with! And I was so happy!"

Lan Zhan is shocked.

He remembers what a cold day that had been. Shufu had taken him and A-Huan to Caiyi Town for his birthday and told him to choose a present. That evening, he had gotten lost somehow and seen a little boy, just like himself, hidden away in that dirty alley. He had wondered where the boy's parents were, and it was so obvious that this little kid had nothing.

But when he smiled?

He had the whole world, right there.

It was an impulse to reward him then, to give him something of himself.

Eventually, his uncle and brother had found him, but now he wishes things had been different.

"I should have brought you to Shufu," Lan Zhan says quietly. "That was my mistake. Shufu told me off for losing my birthday gift and I had to write lines for punishment."

"Lan Zhan...it's okay. That was one of my best memories. I got to see the most beautiful boy in the world." Wei Ying gives him a warm hug.

"What happened to you after that, A-Ying?" Cangse Sanren asks him, not bothering to wipe her face now.

"Jiang-Shushu came and found me one day. I think I was about eight or nine years old. I was looking among the scraps of vegetables thrown out for not being good enough to sell, and there were plenty. The dogs only came after me if I had meat. I learned that much pretty fast, let me tell you!"

"WHAT? It took that slimy bastard three years? Three years to find you?" Cangse Sanren looks disgusted by that.

"Do not call him Shushu." It's the only thing Wei Changze mutters, looking thunderously angry.

Wei Ying moves ahead quickly. "He told me that he had two children I could play with and as much food as I wanted. I was ready to go with him even if he hadn't said that much. When we got to Lotus Pier, Madam Yu wasn't there, otherwise I might not have stayed. But Jiang Cheng had his puppies and I was terrified of them.

"He was upset because Jiang Shu-, I mean, Jiang Fengmian made him give them up. We were sharing rooms and he got so upset with me that he threw out my blanket and the new robes I had been given. I ran away because he said he didn't want a brother, he wanted Little Princess, Jasmine and Love back instead. He was always crap at naming pets." Wei Ying shudders, looking up.

Everyone, including Lan Zhan, looks angry about what he just said. Uh oh...

"But ShiJie came to find me. I had climbed up a tree so Jiang Cheng's dogs couldn't get me, and then I couldn't climb down again, even when she told me it was safe. I fell and hurt my ankle and she had to carry me on her back. We found Jiang Cheng sitting in a ditch, crying. He was so scared for me, but I made it better by promising him that I wouldn't snitch about him to Jiang Fengmian." He looks up and finds that it isn't much better; now they're angry AND sad.

"Uh, so things were a bit better. But Madam Yu hated me on sight. She made me kneel in their ancestral hall often, sometimes using Zidian and-"

"Wait a fucking minute!" Cangse Sanren shouts. "Are you telling me that witch whipped you? With her spiritual weapon, no less? That fucking cunt! How dare she? If she wasn't bloody dead now, she would be in a heartbeat!" She turns to Wei Changze. "Let me get off the bed, I need to walk this off!"

She whisks off the blankets and begins to pace while everyone watches her worriedly. "Carry on," she tells Wei Ying.

"ShiJie's golden core never developed as much as they wanted, and I got mine soon after. But I had to hide it because Madam Yu was always comparing me to Jiang Cheng and I didn't want to make things worse. He would have noticed if I started meditating, so I had to do it while practising the sword forms, or any repetitive motions, and then I figured out that I could slip into meditation doing pretty much anything. That made my golden core develop so much faster, and I was trying to hide it from the rest of them!" Wei Ying laughs at the irony.

"They should have encouraged you, they should have praised you!" Cangse Sanren spits out. "Why did Madam Yu hate you so much?"

"There were rumours that Wei Ying was the result of a union between his mother and Jiang Fengmian," Lan Zhan tells them, when it looks like Wei Ying is struggling with the truth.

Cangse Sanren feels sick. She stares at her husband, who looks similarly disgusted at the thought.

"I would never," she whispers, thinking back to why they left Lotus Pier in this lifetime.

"I know." Wei Changze draws her into his arms and makes her sit down carefully. Even while they're sitting next to each other, he doesn't stop holding her close.

"So...that was my life at Lotus Pier. They made me Head Disciple and told me that my place was always going to be beside Jiang Cheng, that I would be his subordinate and we would run Lotus Pier together." He doesn't tell them how he had to protect his shidis and shimeis from the wrath of Madam Yu, how he would take the blame if anyone screwed up and save them from regular beatings.

No one needs to know that.

But when he looks into pale golden eyes, he knows Lan Zhan suspects it, that Wei Ying isn't telling them everything. He can't, because this is already upsetting to his parents and he doesn't want to make it worse. Please don't ask me, he says silently with his eyes, hoping Lan Zhan will understand.

Lan Zhan is visibly upset by this but he nods discreetly.

Now, it's his turn.

"Cloud Recesses held its guest lectures when I turned fifteen. I met Wei Ying when I was returning from a night hunt with a few disciples. We were bringing back a puppet, one of Wen Ruohan's creations. The Jiangs had forgotten their invitation in Caiyi Town, and I refused them entry."

"You were such a fuddy-duddy back then!" Wei Ying grins at him, and all Lan Zhan can see is that youthful face with his beautiful smile, carefully dismantling the wall Lan Zhan had built around himself, one brick at a time.

"I had to go back to Caiyi Town to get the invitation, and I managed to pick up some Emperor's Smile on my way back. It was famous enough that everyone in Yunmeng had encouraged me to try it, and I wasn't going to miss my chance!" Wei Ying giggles. He knows what's coming next, and it's one of his fondest memories of the stern and serious teenager, ready to discipline Wei Ying at the first transgression.

"I caught him climbing the wall over Cloud Recesses after dismantling the complex wards at the Ivory pillars. After curfew." Lan Zhan can't help smiling at the memory.

"Alcohol is strictly prohibited in Cloud Recesses!" Both Wei Ying and Lan Qiren say, at the same time.

Then they look at each other in shock.

Wei Ying breaks into nervous giggles. "To be fair, I didn't know that at the time! It was my first time visiting the Cloud Recesses. And after I climbed onto the roof, I was just getting my bearings and seeing where I was, when I felt a presence watching me. It was Lan Zhan!"

"I had never seen someone so...objectively against rules before. We ended up sparring across the roofs and Wei Ying didn't unsheathe Suibian once!" Lan Zhan's voice is full of pride, that memory earning a special place in his heart and mind. He hopes to never forget the exhilarating fight, the realisation that came afterwards of meeting his match, and the frustration that it was THIS boy who had stolen his heart.

"Suibian?" Cangse Sanren asks them.

"When I first got my sword, Jiang Fengmian asked me what I wanted to name it. I tried many different names out, but none seemed to fit, and so I told him to write whatever. He took that literally." Wei Ying explains.

"I brought him to where Uncle and Xiongzhang were investigating the puppet, and Wei Ying had some interesting ideas about the case. However, our daily interactions increased because Wei Ying found the lessons boring and back then, Shufu didn't like him. In fact, Shufu kept singling him out and then finding any excuse to punish him. Wei Ying must have written the rules out in excess of three hundred times." Lan Zhan does not care that he's outing his uncle for his harsh treatment of Wei Ying.

"Qiren, why would you have done that?" Cangse Sanren asks him, tongue in cheek.

"I do not know, but my guess would be repeat offences and a refusal to adhere to the rules." Lan Qiren is embarrassed but that's the truth.

"Lan Zhan had shown me the Wall of Discipline, and it had three thousand rules written in short form, back then." Wei Ying says proudly.

"And Wei Ying only learned them so he could figure out all the loopholes." Lan Zhan replies, making Cangse Sanren throw back her head and cackle.

"Three thousand rules, huh? How many does it have now?" She inquires.

"Just over two thousand." Lan Qiren doesn't bother with an explanation.

"Actually, Shifu did me a favour. The month that I spent copying out the rules became my favourite, because I got to spend time with Lan Zhan in the library. I didn't know it then, but he was really special to me. I always wanted his attention and I wanted to be around him all the time. But if I'd have known our time was going to be so short, maybe I would have done some things differently. For example, when we went with XiChen-Ge to rid Biling Lake of water ghouls, we should have let Su MinShan drown." Wei Ying taps his nose thoughtfully. "I wonder where he is? Or maybe things might be different now that so many people have died, people he was tied to."

"Mn. If someone called Su MinShan applies to join the Lan Sect, he should be denied." Lan Zhan says fiercely.

"Hold on, there's too much to sort through." Cangse Sanren says, mentally sifting through everything Wei Ying just said. "First explain about the water ghouls. That should have been easy to deal with."

"Well, yeah, except it wasn't just water ghouls. The Wens had driven a Waterborne Abyss down the river from Qishan down to Caiyi Town, and hundreds of fishermen were drowning, seasoned swimmers, even people taking the ferry across the water. No one was safe. We didn't realise what it was until it was too late, and we had to retreat. Lan Zhan threw Bichen into the water to kill off a ghoul, and Su MinShan thought he could copy him. But unlike him, Lan Zhan knew how to call his sword back. So when everyone got on their swords to evacuate the boats because they were being smashed to pieces by whatever was in the water, Su MinShan couldn't escape and both Wen Ning and I had to be rescued by Lan Zhan.

"That summer, I made friends with Wen Ning and Wen Qing. They were supposed to spy on the Cloud Recesses for their Uncle, Wen Ruohan, because he was holding the Dafan Wen section of their family as hostages. We didn't know that at the time.

"Also, one time after being punished, XiChen-Ge told me to soak in the Cold Pond to heal faster. The punishment was justified then because I got Lan Zhan drunk, but in my defence, I had no idea he was such a lightweight. Moving on..." Wei Ying ignores the glare from Lan Qiren who doesn't say anything, but his disapproval is a thick wave reaching towards him.

"What did the Wen siblings hope to find out?" Wei Changze asks him.

"Oh, they were looking for information about the Yin Iron. See, when Lan Zhan and I were in the Cold Pond, we got sucked into the secret caves within, and there was an ivory jade guqin, an old family relic belonging to Lan Yi, the only lady cultivator of the Lan Sect. The guqin sent out waves of the Chord Assassination Technique and attacked me, until Lan Zhan saved me with Bichen. We figured out that, because the bunnies wore little headbands, and Lan Zhan was wearing his, the guqin recognised him as being a member of the Lan Sect. But it didn't know me and saw me as a threat. Lan Zhan saved me again by wrapping his headband around my wrist and-"

"WangJi!"

"A-Zhan!"

Both Lan Qiren and Lan Huan look horrified.

"What?" Wei Ying stares at both of them before turning to an embarrassed Lan Zhan, whose ears are very pink and he's refusing to look at Wei Ying.

"A-Ying, WangJi knows what he did, even if it was done to protect you." Lan Qiren tells him sternly. "WangJi, explain to A-Ying what our headbands mean."

"He already told me when he was drunk," Wei Ying continues, without thinking about his next words, "He said only family members, one's partner, and one's children can touch it."

"Right." Cangse Sanren says, as the realisation dawns on her.

"What?" Wei Ying is still confused.

"Say that last sentence again in your head, but slowly," she tells him, grinning at the expression on his face.

Wei Ying does as he's told, screwing up his face as he repeats the words. And then, he gets it.

The blush on his face doesn't stop him from giving a hard jab to Lan Zhan's arm.

"We got married? In that Cave? And you never said anything?" his voice is getting higher and higher.

"Wei Ying, I apologise for not telling you about the Handfasting. But I do not feel sorry it happened. I know it was probably one-sided, on my part, but I do not feel any regret."

Wei Ying surprises everyone by leaning forward and kissing his cheek.

"It's okay, sweetheart. I know why you did it. But in this life, you have to do better."

"Mn. I promise," Lan Zhan bows with his head, looking at Wei Ying like he's something special, someone unique, and precious to him.

Cangse Sanren clears her throat in a most unladylike manner. "What do you know about the Yin Iron? Qiren seems to be cautious about it."

Wei Ying returns his attention back to them. "Well, as I was saying, when Xue Chonghai created the formidable weapon of the Yin Iron, he lost himself to demonic cultivation. It took the four major sects to wrestle it out of his control and destroy it, but they could only split it up into pieces. One was given to Wen Ruohan to keep safe, one given to the Lan Sect to suppress, one given to the Damsel of Annual Blossoms in Tanzhou, and we think Xue Yang's ancestors might have saved him a piece. There's a fifth piece, but no one needs to trouble themselves about that one."

"How do you know all this?" Lan Qiren asks them, feeling weak. Of all the ways this evening could go, he never expected it to take this direction.

These children know more about the Yin Iron than he does! How is that even possible?

"Qiren, if there was any doubt that they're telling the truth, it should be gone by now," Cangse Sanren tells him gently. "Let's let them tell us everything in their own way."

Lan Qiren nods silently.

"Lan Yi told us that her powers were waning as the Yin Iron gained strength. She didn't know why we were both called to her aid, but that now she was giving us the Yin Iron piece to find the others before Wen Ruohan could get his fingers on them, and if he did, then he would try to control the whole of the Cultivation world. She entrusted it to us to keep it safe, telling us that it would automatically lead us to the other pieces. She gave us her blessings and then somehow, we found ourselves outside of the cave." Lan Zhan says, and he's interrupted by Wei Ying giggling.

"Sorry, just that when we came out, we sort of fell and I was on top of him, and well, I guess you had to be there." Wei Ying ends up blushing hard, falling silent.

"Our quest took us to the dancing statue temple in Dafan mountain, Tanzhou, and then we heard of strange goings on at the Chang mansion. People said it was haunted, so we went to investigate. We found Xue Yang, along with Song Zichen and Xiao XingChen, and there was a fight, and we searched him for the Yin Iron but he must have hidden it elsewhere because he was clean. He was brought to the Unclean Realm for justice because he had massacred the Chang family. Nie MingJue was leading the Sect then, because in a fight with Wen Ruohan, his father's sabre was destroyed and the remaining resentment energy caused him a qi deviation, killing him."

"Hey, Lan Zhan, do you think we saved Nie MingJue's father as well? Just by taking out Wen Ruohan?" Wei Ying asks him curiously.

"Mn, it is possible." Lan Zhan continues with the story of their past lives. "I left Wei Ying in the Unclean Realm because he and Jiang WanYin were returning to Lotus Pier and there was a rumour that Wen Xu had attacked Cloud Recesses. But along the way, I was ambushed by Wen Chao and his soldiers, who overpowered me and took the piece of Yin Iron I had. Since he had gone to the Damsel of Annual Blossoms before us, he had two pieces of the Yin Iron to add to the one his father already owned. He left me alive because he knew what his brother was going to do.

"Wen Xu burnt down most of Cloud Recesses including our library. Shufu, you had preserved the rarer books by sending them away with Xiongzhang, so he wasn't here when the Wens attacked out of the blue. Shufu made everyone retreat into the secret caves by the Cold Pond, but Wen Xu was smarter and he managed to catch some disciples. One of them was Su MinShan, and he betrayed all of us by giving up confidential information so that Wen Xu could enter. I had to come out and fight, and then I was outnumbered. They took me prisoner and brought me to Nightless City."

Wei Ying takes over. "The Wens sent missives to all the major clans. They were already eating up the smaller ones that couldn't fight back and padding his already formidable army. But now Wen Ruohan was asking for all the sects to send their heirs and head disciples to Qishan, for an indoctrination period. Nobody could refuse because it meant pissing off a powerful man who ran an even more powerful Sect.

"Jiang Cheng and I went, we met Lan Zhan there, as well as Nie Huaisang and the Peacock with Mianmian. Wen Chao was running that farce, pretending to lord it over us when really, he was holding us hostages for his father, so no one would have the guts to stand up to him. His mistress was a cheap woman called Wang Lingjiao. She was jealous and power-hungry, and she made us participate in a night hunt on Muxi mountain. We had no swords because Wen Chao had confiscated them, and yet we were supposed to fight some mythical beasts."

"Wei Ying did not tell them about the night spent in the dungeon," Lan Zhan reminds him.

But Wei Ying had purposefully not mentioned it, seeing as it would further distress his parents.

"I heard there was a hound, one of the beasts they used for night hunting, locked inside with him." Lan Zhan's not holding back. "They never fed him, either."

Cangse Sanren looks as if she might cry again.

"Anyway, we found a cave on Muxi Mountain." Wei Ying quickly speeds through what happened there, and how Wen Chao had run away, blocking the cave entrance and cutting the ropes so they would not be able to climb out. He doesn't tell them about the sword he found inside the Tortoise of slaughter but he tells them of his fever and of Lan Zhan singing to him.

They share soft smiles, lost in the moment.

"Then what happened?" Cangse Sanren impatiently points to one of the statements on Lan Zhan's list of events. "How did Lotus Pier come under fire?"

"Wei Ying. Please, do not leave anything out, this time." Lan Zhan tells him. "They need to know."

Wei Ying squeezes their hands together, feeling unmoored. "But Lan Zhan..." his eyes flicker towards his parents, who are waiting a little impatiently for him to continue, and then further to where a young boy is staring back at them as if they are strange beings, not from his world at all. Finally, he looks at Lan Qiren.

"Why do you hesitate?" Lan Qiren asks him.

This moment feels surreal, as if he's talking to an older soul, a person with so much more life experience than himself, and as if Lan Qiren is on the cusp of learning something momentous, something so incredible that, on any other night, he might not have believed it. So he whispers the words and allows only curiosity to paint them.

"I am afraid that by telling you everything, it will serve no purpose other than to hurt you." Wei Ying replies.

There's a great wisdom in his eyes, because he knows what he hesitates to tell them; he knows what impact it will have on them as a whole, and individually.

"A-Ying, listen to me." Cangse Sanren reaches over to take his free hand, tiny and golden in her paler, softer one. "Answer me this: did you go through whatever it is you're not telling us?"

Wei Ying nods. He's never been able to skirt around the truth with his Mama.

"Then we want to know. Our mistake in thinking we could go on a night hunt that was clearly out of our league despite our cultivation, led to you living a different life than the one we're all a part of now. As part of our regret, and our atonement, and our absolution, we want to know what you had to endure. Trust me when I say that you will be healing yourself as well. The things you find difficult to talk about, those are what you must try doubly hard to expel from your heart. It's like taking a splinter or a thorn out from your skin and letting it heal properly. Do you understand?" She brings his chubby little hand up to her soft mouth and kisses it warmly. "If I could, I would have saved you from every hurt, every unkind word spoken to your face. Every beating." She's openly weeping now. "I cannot stand the thought of anyone hurting my sweet, innocent boy."

"Xingan..." Wei Changze brings her into his embrace, uncaring that there are others here, clearly comfortable enough with what he has to do, which is comforting his family. Over her shoulder, he smiles at Wei Ying. "A-Ying, we need this as much as you do. Please tell us everything."

"Alright, Baba." He closes his eyes and leans on Lan Zhan's shoulder now, needing his strength to go on.

He tells them of waking up in Lotus Pier, of Jiang Fengmian and his siblings urging him to eat even when Madam Yu comes along spewing out her ugly words like noxious gases from an active volcano, and then bringing the news that Sect Leader Yao had come for aid. He tells them of how hard he tried to make Jiang Cheng feel better, that he had proposed a moniker for the two of them, saying that so what if Gusu had the Twin Jades of Cloud Recesses? They could be the Twin Prides of Yunmeng and be equally outstanding.

Wei Ying tells them of training his shidis and shimeis by taking them out to shoot kites, and of Wang Lingjiao appearing with a few soldiers, of demanding retribution for a slight to the Wen sect; one of the kites had a round painted monster, and she claimed it was the sun of the Wen Sect. Then he falters, squeezing his eyes tightly shut as if to block out his fear and pain of what happened next.

"Wang Lingjiao said Wen Chao wanted my right hand as a price to pay for me intentionally humiliating him in Qishan during the indoctrination camp. She told Madam Yu to whip me, and she did."

"How many times?" Cangse Sanren asks him.

Wei Ying opens his eyes and looks at her. She appears outwardly calm, but her dark eyes are on fire.

"Twenty," Wei Ying tells her. This is so uncomfortable for him.

Next to him, Lan Zhan is rigid, hatred for Madam Yu making his feelings roll out from him in waves of anger at the injustice of it all, how much Wei Ying suffered, surrounded by people who couldn't care less about him.

"But then Wang Lingjiao made a mistake. She told Madam Yu that she would be making serious changes to Lotus Pier soon, because Wen Ruohan intended to make it into a supervisory office. Madam Yu lost her composure and attacked her instead, but then Wen Zhuliu entered and a fierce fight broke out between the two of them, giving Wang Lingjiao the opportunity to go outside and release a signal flare.

"Wen Chao came with a sea of soldiers on boats and his onslaught took down the defences of Lotus Pier. They burned their way in, and fighting was brutal, but Madam Yu took a chance to get us out of there. She took us to a hidden pier where emergency boats were always kept and then she shoved me inside it. She hugged Jiang Cheng and told him to stay away, or find his father and then return. Then she made me promise to protect him, saying I owed the Jiang Sect for giving me a life, for providing for me, and that I was to protect Jiang Cheng with everything I had."

"Bitch! Where was Jiang Fengmian? And Jiang YanLi?" Cangse Sanren's voice comes out hoarse from suppressing her tears.

"Jiang Fengmian was called away to Lanling, and ShiJie went with him."

"What happened next?" Lan Qiren urges. His eyes are gritty from exhaustion but he feels he must know. Resting is out of the question until he does.

"Madam Yu tied us with Zidian and expressly forbid it to release us until we were a sufficient distance away. Then she sent forth her spiritual energy to push us out into the river currents.

"It was a shichen later that we encountered Jiang Fengmian sailing back on his barge. Once he was made aware of the situation, he tied Jiang YanLi to us and forbade us to return. We cried and pleaded, but he wouldn't be swayed. Then he told me to look after Jiang Cheng and ShiJie. That was the last time I saw him alive. He and a few Jiang disciples took to their swords to fly back to Lotus Pier while the barge followed them on the water.

"When we reached a quieter part of the river, we hid the boat and made ShiJie wait under the cover of trees. Jiang Cheng wanted to go back, and I thought we might be able to save people if it wasn't too late." Wei Ying sighs heavily, his eyes seeing those same disturbing images from before in his mind. "Lotus Pier was a bright inferno, a massive candle in the darkness of night, and the smell of blood and ashes hit us first.

"We crept up towards the roof of a building flanking the Swords Hall and looked down on pools of blood and piles of bodies. All of my shidis and shimeis, everyone I had trained with, played with, jumped into the water and swam with, dead. And then we saw Wen Chao with his bitch of a mistress, shamelessly cavorting on Jiang Fengmian's throne, while Wen Zhuliu stood to attention. They had already put up those hateful banners of the Wen Sect insignia, the sun emblem flapping in the wind.

"I've...I've never seen such destruction. Such a waste of life." Wei Ying blinks as he feels warm thumbs wiping under his eyes. He wasn't even aware he was crying. "Then we saw them. Jiang Fengmian and Madam Yu, both of them with huge gaping bloody wounds on their stomachs, sure evidence that Core-Melting Hand had finished them off. Jiang Cheng made a noise, and we had to run for it. He fought me all the way, even as the Heavens opened, but I couldn't let him go back. I made my promises so long ago, and the only ones who could have released me from my debt were lying cold and dead back from where we came from.

"The rain...that's what I remember the most. Hard pelting rain, and as we ran with no shelter, Jiang Cheng turned on me. He threw me to the ground and I let him, because neither of us could believe his parents, such strong, formidable cultivators, were dead, just like that! But then...then, he tried to strangle me. I think I passed out, and all I could hear was his mother's words, telling me it was my fault that the Wens had attacked Lotus Pier, it was my fault for provoking Wen Chao into killing Jiang Cheng's parents."

Cangse Sanren makes a rude noise. "I never thought to question Yu ZiYuan's intelligence before, but this goes beyond common sense! If the Wens had already attacked and burned down Cloud Recesses, of course they were coming for the Jiangs next. Only a blind idiot wouldn't see the pattern!"

"It is basic military strategy to take out your enemies one by one. What was Jin GuangShan doing, while all this was happening?" Wei Changze asks them.

"Promising help and hiding behind his piles of gold." Lan Zhan answers him. "Please continue." He says this quietly to Wei Ying.

Lan Zhan has never heard the full story before and he wants to know exactly what happened to Wei Ying during the time they were separated. He gets the feeling that this might be his only chance to know, because of Wei Ying's infallible desire not to inflict any unnecessary pain on anyone. His candidness now is a one time deal, and Lan Zhan is paying attention.

"Eventually, we made our way back to where ShiJie was waiting for us. Jiang Cheng was in a state of shock so he couldn't speak, and I had to tell her what we found in Lotus Pier. But being in the rain, it gave her a fever. We were still on the run from the Wens who were actively searching for us, putting up a reward for anyone with information. We had to disguise ourselves, hide their purple robes and my black ones. Jiang Cheng and I, we always carried spare robes on night hunts with us, so it wasn't too difficult. But ShiJie always had a weak constitution and she needed medicine. We all needed to rest, so we bought a room at an inn.

"I went out to get us some food and medicine for ShiJie, and the town centre was flooded with red and white robed Wen soldiers on the lookout for us. I hid under an umbrella and I was about to draw my sword because I could feel them closing in, when there was a shout and the soldiers left me. When I got back to our room, ShiJie was asleep and Jiang Cheng was gone.

"I fed some of the medicine to ShiJie and then went to look for the innkeeper. I made him promise that his wife would look after ShiJie after he said that soldiers had taken Jiang Cheng away. I knew I'd have to go back to Lotus Pier then, but I didn't want to leave my sister. I had no choice, though.

"It took me until nightfall to get myself home. I promised myself that I would go in and out, and get back to ShiJie but it was hard. The patrols were all over Lotus Pier, an infestation that was out of control. I had to hide myself, and then, I grabbed the first soldier I saw, wanting to interrogate him for information. It turned out to be Wen Ning."

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

A/N

Dear Beautiful Readers,

I kept trying to find a place to stop without ruining the flow and then the word count was getting out of control and I didn't want to leave you all without an update. I'm trying to rush through the explanation without it feeling like one, so please let me know what you think.

It's nearly 7K already, and that's like a oneshot story already😅!

Happy Thursday everyone!

It's raining in London and my favourite kind of weather.

All my love,

Charlie

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