Wei Ying liked going for walks.

The problem was, these days he was feeling tired, and yet because it was spring outside the Jingshi and he had never been one for staying indoors, his restlessness was growing.

And the other problem, the one Lan Zhan was avoiding talking to him about was also preying on his mind. He just had to find a way to get Lan Zhan to agree.

Lan Zhan...his wonderfully sweet husband who had resorted to bringing back work to their home so they could still be together, was currently sitting at their table and signing off on documents.

Wei Ying was watching him from their bed, lying down.

This, he could hate with a passion.

Beds were either for sleeping in or...other stuff. But lying down and doing absolutely nothing was possibly the worst waste of time in his book.

Lan Zhan called it resting, but Wei Ying had plenty of other names to call it, dying-of-boredom being the least colourful.

"Do you sometimes feel like...I dunno...like something is going to happen?" He asked, absent-mindedly.

He was flat on his back with his eyes closed, hands clasped and resting behind his head, while one leg lay over his other, kind of lolling around.

A warm hand was placed on his forehead almost immediately.

Silver eyes snapped open to look into worried golden ones, eyes which straight up flickered with something...before the shutters came down. Lan Zhan was a master of hiding his thoughts, and Wei Ying didn’t want to go looking into places that wished to be kept hidden, otherwise he would have used their mental connection before.

"I've been begging for your attention all this time...and all it took was a random comment?" He whispered.

"Wei Ying has all of my attention, all of the time...he does not have to beg in this..." implying that Lan Zhan liked it when he begged for other stuff. "How are you feeling?"

His deep baritone never failed to make Wei Ying shiver.

"I'm alright...just bored out of my mind."

To prove it, Wei Ying quick as a snake, curled his arms around Lan Zhan’s neck and brought their lips together.

Searching, exposing, looking for all the places that made Wei Ying sigh into his mouth, when Lan Zhan could believe that this...this was everything. Kissing his husband meant more to him than anything else, hands down.

This gentle affection, the love that could not be contained spilled out of both of them, nurturing and wholesome like a warm blanket. Again and again their lips met in the sweetest of kisses, a sugar high that could not be found anywhere else.

Lan Zhan breathed in deeply, trying not to let that stale tang cause his features to change, but he really wanted the old simple lotus flower smell to return...not this unfresh and cloying scent, the one that reminded him that there was something wrong with his Wei Ying.

It wasn’t fair...whatever this was.

It weighed upon his heart like a stone, at the back of his every thought like a shadow, black and foreboding.

All he could do was stay helplessly by Wei Ying’s side and watch his condition deteriorate, day by day. Wei Ying was staying awake for only around eight hours now, and not all of them by day. But lately, this lethargy was taking its toll on him, making him think up other types of talismans to escape from his boredom.

"Can we go for a walk?" Wei Ying said, when their lips parted.

He looked dazed and well-kissed.

"Mn." Lan Zhan fetched their coats.

Springtime in Gusu was still chilly and not exactly that different from winter time temperature wise. He held it open for Wei Ying, kissing the bare skin of his neck after moving his hair out of the way. He turned Wei Ying around and fastened each button methodically and systematically.

Wei Ying cupped his face and kissed him again, smiling softly.

"Lan Zhan...my love...you look after this husband so well."

"Mn. My husband. My Wei Ying." Lan Zhan wrapped his arms around his body, holding him close.

"Yours." Wei Ying agreed, smiling into his neck. "As you are mine."

He yelped as Lan Zhan picked him up.

"Lan Zhaaan! What are you doing? I thought we said it was a walk?!!" He cried out.

"Mn. We are walking. Besides, Wei Ying promised." Lan Zhan sounded way too happy about this.

"No...I meant walking as in both of us walking. As in using our legs..." He tried to glare but it was useless against the pout.

Lan Zhan had perfected that particular secret weapon.

"Fine, fine..." He grumbled. "Fresh air is fresh air..."

The breeze was colder than he thought and he snuggled closer to his husband as they walked. The early morning dew had frozen into crunchy frost, yet Lan Zhan walked sure footedly towards the moon tree in Uncle Qiren’s front yard.

They were just about to sit down on the bench when a disciple came speed-walking towards them.

Wei Ying recognised the panic in his body language and held on to Lan Zhan, simultaneously dying of embarrassment and curiosity because why was this kid so worried?

"Um...there's a guest at the gates and Zewu-Jun...Zewu-Jun..he's otherwise indisposed." The poor kid looked between both of them, wilting under the thunderous glare of the sun that was Hanguang-Jun.

Lan Zhan loathed interruptions.

More so when they took him away from his Wei Ying.

"Very well. I shall be there shortly." He bit out, turning around, clearly wanting to return to the Jingshi.

"My love!" Wei Ying whined.

He couldn’t believe it!

Was Lan Zhan really going to take him back?

Wei Ying thought all his effort had been in vain. His first step to getting Lan Zhan more accustomed to going out with him had just met a brick wall.

"Mn?" Lan Zhan knew exactly what Wei Ying was going to say and the answer was going to have to be a no.

Which he hated.

To deny Wei Ying anything was like cutting off a limb.

"I've got an idea." Wei Ying was ever so grateful for his fast thinking head.

"No." Lan Zhan told him, marching back.

"But you haven't even heard it yet!" Wei Ying wailed dramatically, kicking his feet.

Lan Zhan sighed.

And stopped.

He waited.

Wei Ying, sensing impending victory, beamed at him, fluttering his eyelashes.

Not fair...Lan Zhan’s thoughts had taken a nosedive.

Wei Ying giggled. And winked.

Four attacks on his heart! How could Lan Zhan resist now?

"What if you let me rest on the bench, just there?" Wei Ying pointed at it enthusiastically. "I promise I won't move."

Lan Zhan scowled at the bench.

If the strength of his glares could spit fire, that bench would have been a pile of ashes from just that.

Wei Ying put his finger under Lan Zhan’s chin, returning his intense gaze back to him. Those golden eyes were worried.

"I'm going to be just fine, my love. You'll see. I'll be waiting right here, and I'm pretty sure you're not going to be long, right?" Wei Ying kissed those pretty lips once more, sealing his promise.

Lan Zhan kissed him back, walking towards the bench again. Wei Ying was melting against a hard chest, powerless to resist this exciting connection. Lan Zhan’s kisses were an intoxication stronger than the best jar of Emperor's Smile, and Wei Ying was drunk on this simple joy.

Lan Zhan made him stand while he cleaned the bench of any remaining frost, then he produced two blankets and put one down for Wei Ying to sit upon, and the second one he wrapped around his Wei Ying, tucking it around his neck like a cocoon.

Wei Ying felt like a wriggly worm.

But he sat on the bench obediently and looked up at his reluctant-to-leave husband, giving him a winning smile.

"Gonna be just fine." He reassured him.

Sometimes he wondered if this reassurance that he was exuding with such confidence really was that effective, because Lan Zhan looked like he was seconds from grabbing him and running back into the Jingshi.

"Hanguang-Jun..." the clearly novice disciple repeated, in an attempt to hurry him.

"Punishment, write out the rules three hundred times." He said frostily.

"My love..." Wei Ying whispered, feeling terribly guilty now.

He glanced at the pale-faced disciple, now trembling.

"It is a lesson he will not forget." Lan Zhan, satisfied with how he had kept Wei Ying warm and safe from the elements, kissed the top of his head and walked away, not looking back.

The disciple slunk away in misery.

As soon as he was alone, Wei Ying relaxed and leaned back, making a note to talk to Lan Zhan about the severity of his punishments, later.

He breathed in deeply, feeling the healing fragrance of the moon tree descend all around him. She caressed his face with a leafy branch, and he smiled revelling in her nurture.

All of that was disturbed by a none-too-subtle thud next to him.

Wei Ying opened his eyes to see an excited JingYi sitting right next to him. His arms were trapped otherwise they would have been thrown around this third unofficial son with abandon.

JingYi luckily knew already what he wished for, because he flung his arms around Wei Ying’s body, hugging him tightly.

"How are you, my boy?" Wei Ying asked him, anxious for news.

"Really good." JingYi eyed him up. "Better than you, by the looks of it." He added, honestly.

"I don't look that bad!" Wei Ying protested, laughing.

"You think so but the last time I saw you and him," He jerked his head towards where Lan Zhan had gone before, "you looked different." He came closer and took a deep whiff. "And you smell different too."

"I smell different? How so?" Wei Ying wriggled closer, for body heat and just because he wasn't used to sitting so far away from anyone.

"I don't know...you know when bananas are ripe...like too ripe? You're looking at them thinking, I'll eat them soon, and that changes to, I'll eat them now, but yours is, I-wished-I'd-eaten-them-before..." He wrinkled his nose, trying not to be openly put off.

"Oh." Wei Ying was a little bit dismayed. Lan Zhan hadn't said anything at all...

"By the way...um..." JingYi blushed like a ripe strawberry.

This was far more entertaining.

Wei Ying observed him like a hungry rabbit with his first carrot of the day.

"I'm getting married...Zhitiao...and I...we're getting married!" He announced, his eyes shining with excitement.

With great difficulty because Lan Zhan did not do anything by half measures, Wei Ying managed to disengage from the warm blanket and really hugged JingYi now, his face too, filled with joy.

"That's great news." He said, ruffling JingYi's hair. "When?"

"Not too sure...you know what women are like!" He beamed and sprinted away.

Just then, the doors of the nearest house opened and Uncle Qiren came out.

Wei Ying glanced in the direction of the most outspoken disciple's exit with a fond smile; since JingYi had an excellent intuition and had left just in time...

*******

A/N

Thank you, thank you, thank you, dear lovely readers!

You make me smile and laugh every day and thanks so much for the fantastic response to this book. You are all wonderful and I love you very much.

I hope lots of chocolate comes your way today, and enjoy this longer chapter...

Charlie.