"SUSU!"

"Little Lien?" Wei Wuxian, who had been teaching archery to a bunch of Lans because Wen Ning, their usual archery teacher, was busy today, turned around. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, sorry, Susu, you're teaching... I'll get going," Meilien spun around and began dragging her feet away. The Lan children smiled and looked up at their teacher. Wei Ying winked just once. And they all ran to her.

"Lianhua Meiren, join us!"

All the young Lans were around her age, ranging from ten to twelve. "Ah? Is that alright? You guys are having a lesson, right?"

"Lianhua Meiren's a Lan now, too!" One little Lan girl cried and took her hand. "Come on!" She dragged her back to where they had been training and made her stand in front of their teacher.

Wei Wuxian cleared his throat. "Ahem, Jiang Meilien, welcome to the archery class. Your normal teacher is Wen Qionglin, but he's busy with Doctor Yuanhua today. So I'm in charge. Well? Shall we resume?" He looked around at the Lans. The Lan children looked between one another. No special treatment to his niece? Wei Wuxian really was a noble senior!

"Yes, Laoshi!" The Lan children nodded.

"Then... since you're all pretty confident with the bow and arrow now... how about we hold a little contest? Two teams. A and B. You six will be Team A, to my left. You seven, Team B, to my right. Jiang Meilien can join Team A. Seven versus seven, hm?"

"Yes, Laoshi," both the Lans and the Jiang girl nodded.

Wei Wuxian turned to Jiang Meilien while the Lan children split themselves up. "Jiang Meilien, how's your archery level?"

Jiang Meilien knew her uncle was in teacher mode so she played along. Plus, Wei Wuxian hadn't seen her archery skills yet. She was beyond glad to get the chance to impress him. "Fairly high. I could compete with them easily."

"Hm? Self-confident, I see, nice. But I can't put you with them without knowing how capable you are. Right, how has Jiang Baozhai ranked your archery?"

"Baozhai-shijie claimed mine to be exceptional."

"Then you really must be exceptional. Fine, I'll trust her word for now. Join Team A," Wei Ying waved his hand.

Jiang Meilien bowed and joined the team. The boredom and loneliness of having both her fathers gone off on a trip was wiped away by the fun her uncle was giving her.

And of course, all the gifts Lan Shushu was buying for her.

So she delightedly skipped over to the Team A children and waved to them. The children nodded back with their much more serene Lan demeanour, albeit happy that their new friend — who all the Lan sect was coming to love since the beginning of her stay — was here with them. They had heard a lot about Lianhua Meiren, about the amazing skills of the White Lotus, be it Zidian or Xinqing. They didn't know she was actually doing demonic cultivation, nobody did. But Meilien had, with the help of her Lan father, come to learn to control Xinqing such that she could use it as calmly and spiritually as Xichen used Liebing. So all was good for now.

"Ready?" Wei Wuxian shouted. He pointed to the targets a short distance away. "Those are your targets. There's five already set up. One member from each team will step forth and shoot one of those targets. Not the same, two separate. When the first round is done, we'll move the targets a foot back and try again. Over and over, until you can't reach the targets anymore. The last player who succeeded will win for their team. Oh, and also, only one try. Shoot, come back. If you miss," Wei Wuxian shrugged. "Can't help. Zero points. Understood?"

"Yes, Laoshi!"

"Then let's begin! Team A, send your first and Team B, yours!"

Both teams looked around and nudged forward the two standing right at the front of their teams. From Team B, it was a young Lan boy who was tall for his age and graceful in his poise. Archery postures were maintained elegantly, a true Lan.

From Team A... Fate you may call it, she preferred to call it Destiny. Jiang Meilien had been right at the front, observing the targets and wondering how long it would take for the game to stop if she started shooting. Susu will probably just have to give up halfway before the targets go to the clouds, she smirked like her Jiang father and pulled on the bowstring with firm confidence.

Wei Wuxian smirked as well when he saw her look of overbearing dominance over the taller boy. Neither lost, both hitting the target sharp at the centre. Wei Wuxian plucked out the arrows and called on the next two while the Lan boy and the Jiang heiress walked to the back of the readily formed queues.

The contest was tense at first. The fourteen children and their teacher stood on a low and partially flat-topped hill, with the targets moving further and further away from them. When he realised the targets were nearing the edge, Wei Wuxian made the children take a step back with each moving of the targets, thus maintaining distance. Jiang Meilien was, as expected, superb. But the Lans weren't second to her, either. All the way they held on, until the children stood at one end of the hilltop and the targets sat at the other, Wei Wuxian floating on Suibian behind the targets. Only the Lan boy from earlier stood at the front, waiting for his turn.

And of course, Jiang Meilien.

"Okay. Since we can't move away, I hope this will be the last. Come on!" Wei Wuxian clapped his hands. Both raised their bows, pulled their strings and flung their arrows at the far away targets.

To the Lan boy who had held on for so long, the targets were just too far away this time. Wei Wuxian was the size of his thumb, of course the targets were too far! His arrow just missed the targets, falling to the floor to the left of the aimed one.

But the second arrow pierced right into the centre effortlessly.

The Lans clapped merrily, in absolute awe at the amazing Lianhua Meiren. "White Lotus of the Jiang Sect reeky deserves her name!" The girls nodded with pride. So far, excellent female cultivators had been a rarity, slowly increasing in number with Chen Xuanji, Cangse Sanren, Lan Yi, Baoshan Sanren, Jin Xiyi and Lan Qiang. But this? This was a little girl who would be turning twelve only next week!

"Well done, Jiang Meilien, truly impressive!" Wei Ying clapped, smiling proudly but not saying anything more. "How far can you shoot?"

Jiang Meilien grinned. "I can shoot kites. Drawn out at full length of the string."

"Oh? Then..." Wei Wuxian waved his hand and rose a target to the air, shooting off on Suibian to a nearby hill and planting it there. The hill was almost a good visible kilometre away from where she was. "Shoot!" His voice boomed from there.

Jiang Meilien grinned smugly, took aim, and shot.

To perfection.

"Hurray!" The Lans cheered and hopped on their feet, forgetting all rules in the moment. Wei Wuxian smiled, brought the target back to where it stood before and spoke to the Lan children for a while before dismissing the class. Once the children had all gone, he turned to Meilien and winked.

Jiang Meilien nodded eagerly and raised her bow into the woods to her left, taking aim and shooting without warning at a tall tree.

Swish! Bichen flung it away.

"Hahahahahahahaha!" Wei Wuxian and Jiang Meilien roared with laughter. "Look who got caught!"

Lan Wangji crimsoned as he walked out from behind the tree, flew up the hill and landed beside them. "I saw Meilien coming here, wanted to see how she fared."

"Good, you being here would have scared the Lans to instant failure anyway," Wei Wuxian chuckled. "Well? What do you think of my student?"

"Jiang Wanyin's student."

"HEY!" Wei Wuxian punched his arm. "True, though. A-Cheng's really good at teaching archery. Teaching everything, I guess, how else could his sect be so great? And his heiress is living up to his name!" He ruffled the silver butterfleis dangling from Meilien's hairpin. "Well? Come on, comment!"

Lan Zhan turned to his niece, who was biting her lip in anticipation, and gripped her shoulder. "Wonderful."

"Ah?" She gasped. "Lan Shushu..."

"Really. Baozhai was right. Exceptional."

Wei Wuxian beamed at his husband's praise and nodded in agreement. "White Lotus of the YunmengJiang sect, Lianhua Meiren. Heir to the Jiangs. Heir to my path. You, you cheeky little girl," he pinched her cheeks, smiling when she giggled in glee. "You must be something of a Chosen One, really. Chosen for this. All of this. Come on, now. Aren't the three of us supposed to go on a trip?"

"Mn," Lan Zhan nodded, waving his hand to materialise a white bag. "Food and drinks for Meilien. Wine for you."

"Good," Wei Wuxian nodded.

"Clothes?" Meilien tilted her head. "Oh, Shushu, I left some on the shelf for you to add when packing up..."

"Mn, brought them. Got some for us, too. And a coat for you," he turned to his husband. "Since you'll be getting wet in the lake later."

"Hehe, Darling thinks so far for me!" Wei Wuxian pecked his cheek.

Jiang Meilien rolled her eyes with a sigh. "And I thought no Daddies and no Auntie Jiangs meant none of this," she shook her head.

"Eh? What's that?" Wei Wuxian asked, holding her hand and Lan Zhan's, walking to the gates. "I know gege and A-Cheng are always like this, but Little Zhai and QiaoQiao too?"

"Of course! Must be a Jiang thing," Meilien sighed. "Aunties, Daddy, Susu..." she sighed again.

"Hmph, let's see who'll beat us. After all, A-Xuan seems to be spending too much time at Lotus Pier," Wei Wuxian humped and stomped off out of the gates, leaving them behind.

A-Ying... She's still a child! Lan Wangji stifled a grin and took a blushing-but-confused Meilien's hand, guiding her out of Cloud Recesses. 

**********

Night had arrived and a lonely figure was stumbling through the woods, exhausted, exasperated, desperately trying to not see red wherever he walked. Blood dripped down the tip of his mouth, trickling down his bare chest. 

He had just transformed back and had found his clothes missing, ditched somewhere deeper in the woods. For now, he wrapped his outer cloak lying nearby around his lower half, knotting its sleeves around his waist as a makeshift belt. He had tried tying his long hair up in a top-knot, but his hands, sticky with crimson, had made it messier, rendering it untameable. Gritting his teeth at the musky scent all over him, he staggered across the forest towards the trickling sound of running water. There was a stream nearby, and he badly needed to wash himself.

Though he knew he could never wash off the sins staining his hands. Yes, hunting pheasants and eating meat was something he did everyday at his sect's banquets but...

Pouncing on animals? Eating raw flesh? Dripping with blood? Ripping the meat off the bones? Since when had he become this... savage?

He had turned into a monster. An uncontrollable monster.

What would they think if they knew...? 

He sighed as he tossed away his robe and dived into the water. Fluffy and frothy white was immediately blanketed in a sharp crimson, the pure waters of the cool stream twisting into a heinous and hateful red. A flawless reflection of the person swimming in its waters in a flustered frenzy.

An untamed beast in sheer turmoil. 

_________________________________________________________

A/N: A sneak peek at the life of the "Savage Wolf" because everyone's excited to know who it is. Though... hehe... cunning me didn't state who it was yet 😅🙃 

And to those who missed darling Meilien, voila! More Supergirl Meilien coming up next chapter coz the night hunt's gonna be wild! 

Hope life's going well for everyone! And thank you so much for being so supportive of this lazy-to-study A-Level student hehe ♥️♥️♥️♥️ Your wishes helped a lot UwU 

Sending hot chocolate, hugs, and bucketloads of love! 

Love y'all! ❤︎