After bit of anticipation, they were presented in front of a lady.

The lady looked elegant in every angle. She was beautifully dressed in a white han-fu with accents of pink, her silvery white hair tied up and decorated with a buyao. She looked as if she was a golden pheonix in a field of cherry blossoms.

Even though Lan Wangji had never seen her before, he could exactly make our who it was. He clasped his hands together, giving a deep bow. "Grandmaster Baoshan."

The lady didn't look displeased, nor angry, just a bit suspicious. Gently yet, she asked, "Who are you, Young master? And how must you find me here?" Lady Baoshan doesn't ask for what they come.

"This one is Lan Wangji, from Gusu Lan sect. I found out about you through my ancestor, Grandmaster Lan Yi, your old friend."

The lady smiled a smile as warm as the evening. It's humourous, how the same evening could seem pleasant and warm to most but cold and dull to the lesser others. "I see, child. I only now notice your forehead ribbon."

Master Baoshan invites them inside their little settlement. The place is wonderful. They had fields of different food grains and vegetables. Inside was so much happier. There were people who worked in the farms, joking and laughing amongst each other. The schwing chorus of the swords being heard at a distance. Little children running around in the meadows.

They wouldn't look around though. For people in melancholy would never be able to see the joy of life like this, in its simplicity.

Lady Baoshan took them inside a warm chamber where she served them some plain tea. The grandmaster took a glanced at Wei Wuxian. Wei Ying looked more dead than alive. His hollow eyes fixed on the ground. They were like marbles that young kids play with ─ shiny and pretty but lifeless and hollow inside.

"Lan Wangji, what is up with your companion." She inquired. Lan Wangji looked beside him, and bit his tongue.

"I..."

"I am the reason we are here, grandmaster Baoshan." Wei Ying spoke for the first time, probably in days. His eyes were still bowed down. His voice was dry and raspy. "You must have heard of the Yiling Patriarch. That one is myself, Wei Wuxian."

Wei Wuxian thought that telling his title was enough explanation to be given. But it seemed not. For a person like Baoshan Sanren, who was so isolated from the outer world that the rumour neither reached her, nor affected her.

"Yiling Patriarch? What sorta rubbish title is that? Are you some sorcerer of sorts?" Lady Baoshan half-ly laughed. "Say, what do you need? Have you created some sorta problem? Do you need me to come solve it?"

Wei Wuxian was surprised that someone in this cruel world still hasn't heard of what a monster he was. "Not a problem. Many of them." He says, his eyebrows forming a tension at their mean as he remembered. "I do not want to live anymore. I wanna die." He said. His eyes were wet now.

Baoshan's half mocking face now turned into a concerned one. "Dear, are you alright? You... You want to die for a few mischiefs?" The lady couldn't believe, what a young man, probably still in his teens with such fragile features, do something so awful that he feels like taking a death penalty over himself.

"Mischief is too small of a word." Wei Wuxian said. His fist clenched over the fabric of his robes. "I have done crimes. I have caused massacres, killed a lot of people, got my work done in an unorthodox manner. I am not a human, i am a monster."

And despite the weight of Wei Ying's words, his tone was low. Lan Wangji found it almost irritating, unbearable, as if someone was controlling his Wei Ying's mind
It was not far from the truth either, because Wei Wuxian only spoke what others have always said about him. "Grandmaster, we came here for ... For the spirit-lifting procedure. If you please permit us."

"What did you say your name again?"

"Wei Wuxian."

"Wei? Wei of which family? Which sect do you belong to?"

"As of the moment, none. I have no family, nor a sect."

"Who are your parents?"

"They are dead."

"What's your birth name?"

"Wei Ying."

"Look up at me." Lady Baoshan said. It couldn't possibly be true, right? This child isn't who she thinks it is, right?

Right then, disturbing through the dense pensive atmosphere, a beautiful middle-aged woman came into the room. "Baoshan-Ma, dinner is ready! Are you joining yet?" Then seeing the silhouettes of two guests, she added, "Oh, are we having guests? Should add more plates."

Bewildered, Lady Baoshan looked at the woman, and then at Wei Ying, then again at the woman, and back at Wei Ying. "C-cangse..."

The two faces were indeed too similar. When the name hit Wei Wuxian's ear, he looked up, and back at where the woman stood. Then he turned back at the grandmaster and asked, "Grandmaster, pardon me, what name did you just call?"

Lady Baoshan sighed. "A-se, come and sit here." She said, as the woman came to sit beside them. "Young master, what are your parents names?" She asked to Wei Wuxian.

In shock and fright, Wei Wuxian replied, "Wei Changze, my father, and Wanderer Cangse, my mother."

────────

Wei Wuxian sat on one said, tears continuously flowing down his cheeks, but not a sound out of his mouth. Fists clutched, nails digging through his palm till the were cutting through blood vessels, and sitting clamped on the seat provided to him, so not taking a lot of space to himself. He felt like he was choking on his own breath. He looked down, unable to meet anyone's eyes.

Opposite to him, sat a middle aged couple. The man held his wife as the latter wept slowly. Both wanted to reach out to the little boy sitting in front of him, but afraid to do so in fear of scaring the already traumatised kid. The man, Wei Changze, couraged to speak, "Ying-Er."

The boy put his palms over his ears, pressing tightly. "No, stop! Don't call me that! My parents died years ago! You are liars! Not my parents! Not a-niang or a-die!" He shouted. "Die! Die! I wanna die! Kill me! Lan zhan! Why is it taking so long!?"

Lan Wangji, who was sitting diagonal to him tried to reach out, but was stopped by Lady Baoshan, the eldest, and the only one with no tears in her eyes. He looked at Wei Wuxian in worry.

Lady Cangse hid her face in her husband's shoulders and started weeping. "Changze, my son... My poor son, Changze, save him!" She whispered to her husband. The scene was tragic.

It was pouring outside. The sound of heavy raindrops hitting the hard ground could be heard through the walls. The thunders roared. The lightening made it seem as bright as a day for a fraction of second.

Lady Baoshan decided to take charge.

The lady got up from her place and walked to Wei Wuxian. She kept a hand on his shaky shoulder and said, "Wei Wuxian, do... do you want to hold the soul lifting ceremony tomorrow? It's a little late now, you could spend the night and then we could go about it in the morning."

Hearing the word soul-lifting, Lady Cangse and Wei Changze got alert. "S-Soul-lifting?"

But on the other hand, Wei Wuxian just shook his head, "Not later. Right now."

Lady Baoshan sighed to herself. She slowly stroked his head, as she met the parents' gaze. "Let's prepare then."

I am crying, are you? ARE YOU!?!?