"But Master, Huli's too........ useless," Xiao Xiang reminded. "A good-for-nothing like her can't summon the Qiong Qi, let alone cooperate with him, and then go around manipulating so many demonic beasts! Impossible. She's useless. There's no way she's skilled enough to do something like all that."

"I don't know anyone else, Xiangxiang. The demon has to be someone at least close to your level."

"And how is SHE supposed to be at MY level?" Xiao Xiang huffed.

"Then what do you say? Who is it?"

"Perhaps someone else who has almost as much strength as I hold among demons... but someone I don't know? Strange... Master, allow me to look up on this back home. I'll get back to you right after I find something."

"Then thank you."

"Should I inform LanGui and Hei'An too? Might do with their help."

"Do it."

"See you, Master, everyone," she waved and disappeared.

"Susu, why don't you go on a night hunt and try tracking down the person when you sense them there?"

"But they won't come if they know I'm coming..."

"Then do it spontaneously!" Lan Xichen nodded. "Qiang-Er and Wen Ning will come with Wangji on a night hunt, tonight or whenever possible, soon. You hide in the shadows and search for the presence. See if you can find them."

"Tonight?" Wei Wuxian turned to his husband.

"Mn." We might come across Rulan too, see how he's doing.

Ah right, Rulan's coming here tonight right? Good, we'll get to meet him, Wei Wuxian conveyed back and nodded to him. 

**********

Lan Sizhui hummed to himself as he shut the doors to his room and looked around it. He had just returned home from dinner. He began rushing around, fixing things, making the bed, clearing the table, arranging the tea set for the sixth time that day, checking the stack of books on the table, reserved for later use, for the eleventh time. Once he was satisfied with the tidiness of his room, he began pacing up and down, patting his pillow arrangement on the bed at the end of each lap. Anxious, anticipating, excited, not really delighted because he didn't know what to expect.

Who knew if he'd even come? He was always so introverted, insular, bottling everything up inside, didn't want anyone to worry, didn't want to be a trouble, didn't want to harm Sizhui. What if he didn't come?

Never mind, I'll stay here until the night ends.

Tap! Tap! Rrrrap! Light knocks sounded on the doors. Sizhui ran to the door, took a deep breath and opened it wide. "A-Ling!"

"Sizhui," Jin Ling nodded curtly.

Lan Sizhui's arms opened wide and circled around, and Jin Ling opened his mouth to protest. But then instead of hugging him, Sizhui wrapped his arms around the little girl in Rulan's arms and picked her up onto his shoulder. "There you are, XiaXia!" 

Jin Ling smirked bitterly, disgruntled. 

"Goo!" Jin Mingxia squealed in delight at meeting her favourite person.

Sizhui poked her nose. "Boop!"

She burst into giggles and shrieks of glee.

"Aren't you the most cheerful little creature," Lan Sizhui chuckled and walked into his home. Seated on the bed, he rocked her back and forth. "A-Ling, there's a cup of tea for you to freshen up, I'm assuming you came straight after work, no rest?"

"Mn, busy with building a tavern for the Jins to enjoy in, where we burnt down the brothel," Jin Ling nodded and sat at the table, picking up the teacup Sizhui had left for him and sipping on it. Indeed, it was refreshing and relieving, and his exhausted soul livened up a bit. His hand traced the stack of books beside him on the table and he looked up at the man seated on the bed. "Sizhui, all of these books.........?"

"For you," Sizhui answered, twirling Mingxia's hair in his fingers while she played with his robes' collar.

Jin Ling picked up the first book on top and flipped through it. "Hm?" He cocked an eyebrow.

"Cultivation practices. To help you with controlling your wolf spirit, and the demonic energy that comes with it."

"Where on earth did you get all these? I've never seen books on such strong demon-control before in the library here!"

"Forbidden Section."

"AH?"

"What?" Sizhui grinned. "I'm the Sect Leader, can't I go to my own library as I please?"

"Sizhui... does Father know?"

"He's the one who suggested half the books in that stack."

"Oh..." Jin Ling nodded slowly. "Thank you guys. I'll take these home and check them all out. Thanks."

"Mn," Sizhui nodded.

"I'll get going," Jin Ling stood up and walked to the door.

"Leave Suihua here, don't want it left lying around in the forest to be snatched away.."

"Mn. A-Xia," Rulan walked over to the bed, bent down to the level of Sizhui's arms and kissed her forehead. "Be good while I'm gone. No pestering Sizhui, alright?"

"Goo!" She shrieked in reply.

Jin Rulan walked back to the door. "Oh, for your information should she be blabbering gibberish when with you," Jin Ling turned around. "She says Boo when she wants to play some game, Goo when she's saying yes, and Dada if she's asking for me. If she's pointing at something and saying Ga-ga-ga, then she wants that thing."

"Noted," Sizhui nodded. "And milk? Don't worry, I've got a whole jar ready."

"Thank you, Sizhui. Milk... eh, what does she say..." Jin Ling scratched his head with the hilt of Suihua, pondering. "Ahhh right! Jingyi, that idiot, showed her a milk jug once and said 'Moo!' As in the cows' sound. And now she calls it Moo-Moo."

"Hahahaha, sweet! Okay, roger that! You get back safely."

"Mn," Jin Ling walked out and shut the doors behind him.

"Well, well, well, just the two of us eh, XiaXia?"

Mingxia gazed up at him, fiery honey-golden eyes round and curious, staring at something.

"Hm? What, something's on my face?" He laughed.

"En, en!" She mouthed something and raised her chubby hands, compressing and releasing.

"What is it?"

"Ga ga ga ga ga..."

"Huh?" Sizhui bent his face down, thinking she wanted to grab his cheeks like she did to Jingyi sometime back. But instead, her little round fingers hooked around the white ribbon wrapping his forehead.

"Boo! Ga ga!" She cooed, tugging at it.

"Oh, you want to play with it?" Sizhui laughed. "You know, if your Grandpa Wuxian head of that 'ga ga' he'll totally agree, saying 'your silly Lan headband really is gaga!'" Sizhui laughed, beaming at her. "There you go," he tugged it off and dumped it on her hands. "Didn't get to give this to your father yet, might as well give it to you," he grinned. 

**********

Wei Wuxian stealthily treaded through the woods, watching from a distance the faint trail of crushed grass, a sign of the path Lan Wangji, Wen Ning and Lan Qiang had gone in. After having walked a short distance through the forest, Wei Wuxian sensed someone behind him and drew out Suibian, slashing at the intruder.

Clash!

"Haha, going to kill your own mother, are you?"

"Mama!" Wei Wuxian quickly put Suibian back in its sheath. "I'm so sorry! I thought you were the enemy, I'm so terribly sorry!"

"It's fine, hush! You don't shout when you're in stealth mode!" She grinned. "So whatcha tracking? Spying on your husband because he's out with another woman? Mind you, she's his sister, and with her husband!"

"Aish, Mama!" Wei Wuxian blushed. "I'm not as stupidly jealous as A-Zhan gets! He's jealous of Xiaolian, but I love Qiang-Er myself! He's just a crazy fuddy-duddy! No, I'm following them because someone else might be pursuing them."

"Ohhhh I see," Cangse Sanren beamed. "I'm up for a mystery-solving ride, too, only if I won't be bothering you...?"

"No, Mama won't, but........."

"The enemy you're looking for is a demon?"

"Ah? How do you... oh, I keep forgetting you can read minds, haha. Okay then, Mama. Together," he raised his fist, clenched and horizontal.

Cangse Sanren beamed at him, bumping her fist with his. "Together," she whispered and the two began walking soundlessly down the trail.

"Isn't their pace slowing?" She pointed to the increasing closeness of the footsteps on the dewy grass.

"Mn. They must have sensed something. Mama, stick close," Wei Wuxian clenched his sword and treaded on.

Cangse Sanren smiled behind his back, smiling at his caring for her.

He really was a lot like his father.

Pale hands shot up to signal her to stop walking and he kept a finger to his lips. Cangse Sanren didn't need his signals to know what was going on, she could read his thoughts to perfection. She looked right up into the rightmost tree, and squinted her silver eyes to peek through the rays of moonlight peeking through the leaves to see something rustling up the canopy.

That something suddenly leapt out of the tree onto the next tree and kept sprinting on, leapfrogging like a monkey dashing through branches. The creature stuck to the topmost branches, such that the lower twigs hid its view from those below. It didn't seem to care about being noticed, simply running for its life.

Wei Wuxian watched closely and his mother quickly pointed her sword to a treetop, on which the beast had stopped to take a breath.

The smallest flaxen tuft of the pointy end of a tail was faintly visible peeking through the leaves.

Just then, Wei Wuxian unsheathed Suibian and sliced it across the air, not up at the tree where the tail's end hung, but at the shrubbery in front of him, inside which yet another creature was moving. He pointed his sword into the thicket, taking aim, ready to cut into its bone.

"Grrrrr..."

"A wolf?" Cangse gripped her sword, when two black ears and red eyes peeped out of the shrubs at Wei Wuxian, baring its teeth. "Is that a snarl or....... Why do I feel like the wolf's grinning at you?"

"Mama can read animal's minds? Try this one," Wei Wuxian laughed, taking back his sword and letting the wolf walk out towards them.

"Why if it isn't my little grandson!" Cangse exclaimed. "But... Rulan... a wolf?"

"Long story short, Little Rulan's a werewolf now thanks to a fight with a real wolf."

"I see. Anyone else knows?"

Wei Wuxian waved to Jin Ling and indicated him to transform back. "Xichen-ge, A-Cheng, Sizhui, Yiyi, Xiyi, Zizhen, Xiuying, myself, A-Zhan, and Grandma. Ten people."

"Mother?" Cangse Sanren gasped. "How come I don't know then?"

"We tried keeping it to as few as we could. Mama..."

"Of course, I'm unfazed, and vow to not spill a word. Rulan, transform to your human form."

The wolf shook its head furiously.

"Why not?"

It walked closer and tugged on Wei Wuxian's black outer robe.

"Oh, he wants you to keep the robe ready," Cangse nudged him.

Wei Wuxian pulled off his black cloak and held it up and open. The wolf hid behind the coat and metamorphosed in a black flash into a naked Jin Rulan who was thankfully well hidden behind the black robe into which he sank and Wei Wuxian wrapped it around him. "I didn't know this!"

"Daddy's lucky you've at least got that cloth," Jin Ling grinned, voice hoarse, mouth covered in blood.

Cangse Sanren frowned. "Rulan..."

"Grandma, sorry for the fright, I just had a deer..." Jin Ling shuddered, spitting out the prey's blood in his mouth. "Hate this..."

"Hey, hey, no upset face. Now tell me why you found us here?" Wei Wuxian patted his shoulder.

"I found something, came chasing after it. Oh right, I still have to find it..."

Wei Wuxian looked up at the treetop. "It's gone... must be somewhere down the path, we need to catch up with Darling."

"Father's here? Daddy, don't leave them alone, the thing's up to no good."

"What was it?"

"A f–"

"AAAAAAAARGH!" A scream rang through the woods.

"Qiang-Er!" Wei Wuxian shouted.

"Auntie's here, too? Not good, not good, she doesn't tolerate women!"

"Who, Little Rulan?" Wei Wuxian turned to find his black cloak lying on the grass. "Little Rulan!"

A tall and furry black wolf could just be seen disappearing into the distance.

"Let's go!" Cangse Sanren grabbed his hand and they ran after Jin Ling.