TFOD Chapter 16

Wei Wuxian was a person who was very good at finding things to amuse himself, and particularly skilled at finding joy amidst suffering. Since there was nothing else to play with, he could only play with Lan Wangji. He said, “Brother Wangji.”

Lan Wangji remained unmoved.

Wei Wuxian said, “Wangji.”

It was as if he hadn’t heard a thing.

Wei Wuxian: “Lan Wangji.”

Wei Wuxian: “Lan Zhan!”

Lan Wangji finally stopped writing, his gaze coldly lifting to look at him. Wei Wuxian shrank back, raising his hands in a defensive gesture, “Don’t look at me like that. I called you Wangji and you didn’t respond, so I had to call you by your name. If you’re unhappy, you can call me by my name back.”

Lan Wangji said, “Put your leg down.”

Wei Wuxian’s sitting posture was extremely improper. He was leaning to one side, propping himself up with one leg. Seeing that he had finally managed to get Lan Wangji to speak, he felt a surge of secret joy, like seeing the sun after the clouds had parted. He obediently put his leg down, but his upper body unknowingly leaned closer again, his arm pressing on the desk, still in an unseemly posture. He said seriously, “Lan Zhan, I have a question for you. Do you—do you really dislike me?”

Lan Wangji lowered his eyes, his eyelashes casting faint shadows on his jade-like cheeks. Wei Wuxian hastily said, “Hey, don’t do that. You said a couple of words and then you’re ignoring me again. I want to admit my mistakes to you, and apologize. Look at me.”

After a pause, he said, “You won’t look at me? Okay, then I’ll say it myself. That night, I was wrong. It was my fault. I shouldn’t have climbed over the wall, shouldn’t have drunk alcohol, and shouldn’t have fought with you. But I swear! I wasn’t trying to provoke you on purpose, I really didn’t look at your family rules. The Jiang family’s rules are all just spoken, not written down at all. Otherwise, I definitely wouldn’t have.” He definitely wouldn’t have finished that jar of Emperor’s Smile in front of him, he would have secretly taken it back to his room, drank it every day, shared it with everyone, and drank his fill.

Wei Wuxian continued, “And let’s talk reasonably, who attacked first? It was you. If you hadn’t moved first, we could have talked things out properly, and made things clear. But when someone hits me, I have no choice but to hit back. It’s not entirely my fault. Lan Zhan, are you listening? Look at me. Young Master Lan?” He snapped his fingers, “Second Brother Lan, please do me a favor, look at me.”

Lan Wangji didn’t even raise his eyes, “Copy it one more time.”

Wei Wuxian’s body immediately slumped, “Don’t be like that. I was wrong.”

Lan Wangji ruthlessly exposed him, “You have no remorse at all.”

Wei Wuxian said without any dignity, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. You can make me say it as many times as you want. I’ll even say it on my knees.”

Lan Wangji put down his pen. Wei Wuxian thought he had finally reached his limit and was about to beat him, and he was planning to throw him a smiling face, but then he suddenly realized that his upper and lower lips seemed to be glued together, and he couldn’t smile.

His expression changed drastically, and he struggled to say, “Mmm? Mmmm!”

Lan Wangji closed his eyes, lightly exhaled a breath, opened his eyes again, and was once more in a state of calm, picking up his pen again, as if nothing had happened. Wei Wuxian had heard of the hateful Lan family’s silencing technique, and he didn’t believe in it at all. But after messing around for a long time, his lips were all red from rubbing, and no matter what he did, he couldn’t open his mouth. So he took a piece of paper and wrote something on it with lightning speed, throwing it over. Lan Wangji glanced at it and said, “Boring,” and crumpled it into a ball and threw it away.

Wei Wuxian was so angry that he rolled on the mat, got up, wrote another piece, and slapped it in front of Lan Wangji. It was again crumpled into a ball and thrown away.

The silencing technique was only lifted after he finished copying. The next day when he came to the library, all the crumpled paper balls that had been thrown on the floor the day before had been picked up.

Wei Wuxian always forgot the pain as soon as the wound healed. Having just suffered from being silenced the day before, he sat for a little while and his mouth started to itch again. He was not afraid of death, and after just saying two sentences, he was silenced again. Since he couldn’t speak, he scribbled on the paper, stuffed it over to Lan Wangji’s side, and it was once more crumpled into a ball and thrown to the ground. The third day was the same.

Having been silenced so many times, on the last day of his confinement, Wei Wuxian was different to Lan Wangji.

Ever since he arrived in Gusu, his sword was always thrown around, never properly carried. Today, he took it out and slapped it down beside his desk. Even more, he abandoned his usual persistent harassment of Lan Wangji. He didn’t say a word and started writing as soon as he sat down, being obedient to the point of being strange.

Lan Wangji had no reason to silence him, and instead, looked at him a few more times, as if he didn’t believe that he had suddenly become so honest. Sure enough, after sitting for a short time, Wei Wuxian relapsed, sending a piece of paper over, signaling for him to look at it.

Lan Wangji thought it would be more random nonsense, but out of some unknown impulse, he glanced at it. It was a portrait of a person, sitting upright, reading quietly by the window. The eyebrows and expression were lifelike, and it was him.

Seeing that he didn’t immediately look away, Wei Wuxian’s lips curled up and he raised an eyebrow at him and winked. No words were needed, the meaning was obvious: Does it look like me? Is it good?

Lan Wangji slowly said, “If you have this free time, don’t go copying books, but go drawing instead. I think you will never be unconfined.”

Wei Wuxian blew on the still wet ink, and said nonchalantly, “I’ve already finished copying, I won’t be coming tomorrow!”

Lan Wangji’s slender fingers, which were resting on the slightly yellowed scroll, seemed to pause for a moment before he turned to the next page, not even silencing him. Seeing that he couldn’t provoke him, Wei Wuxian lightly tossed the drawing and said, “I give it to you.”

The drawing was thrown onto the mat, and Lan Wangji had no intention of picking it up. These past few days, all the papers that Wei Wuxian had written to curse him, flatter him, apologize to him, beg him for forgiveness, or casually scribbled on, were all treated the same way. He was used to it and didn’t care. He suddenly said, “I forgot, I need to add something for you.”

After speaking, he picked up the paper and a pen, added two strokes, looked at the picture, then looked at the real person, and collapsed on the floor laughing. Lan Wangji put down the scroll and glanced at it. He had added a flower to his own sideburn in the picture.

His lips seemed to twitch. Wei Wuxian got up and exclaimed, “‘Boring,’ right? I knew you were going to say boring. Can you change the word? Or add a few more words?”

Lan Wangji said coldly, “Extremely boring.”

Wei Wuxian clapped his hands, “You actually added two words. Thanks!”

Lan Wangji averted his gaze, picked up the book that had been placed on the table, and reopened it. After only taking one glance at it, he threw it out as if he had been licked by a flame.

He had originally been reading a Buddhist scripture, but when he just opened it, what he saw was a scene filled with nude figures entwined, completely inappropriate. The one he had been reading had been swapped with a spring palace picture book disguised as a Buddhist scripture.

Without even having to think, he knew who was responsible for this. It must be that person who took the chance to swap it when he was distracted by the drawing. Moreover, Wei Wuxian didn’t even try to hide it, laughing wildly while slamming the table, “Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!”

The book was thrown on the ground. Lan Wangji, as if avoiding a snake or scorpion, instantly retreated to a corner of the library, roaring in extreme anger, “Wei Ying—!”

Wei Wuxian laughed so hard he almost rolled under the desk, and with great difficulty, he raised his hand, “Here! I’m here!”

Lan Wangji swiftly drew Sweep Away the Dust. Since they had met, Wei Wuxian had never seen him this distraught. He hastily grabbed his own sword, revealing three inches of the blade as a warning, “Manner! Second Young Master Lan! Watch your manner! I also brought my sword today. Do you want your library if we fight?” He had long expected that Lan Wangji would get angry out of embarrassment, so he had brought his sword with him for self-defense, to avoid being accidentally stabbed to death by Lan Wangji in a fit of rage. Lan Wangji pointed the sword at him, his light colored eyes almost spitting fire, “What kind of person are you!”

Wei Wuxian said, “What kind of person can I be? A man!”

Lan Wangji rebuked him, “Shameless!”

Wei Wuxian said, “Do you have to be ashamed of this? Don’t tell me you’ve never seen anything like this before. I don’t believe it.”

Lan Wangji’s weakness was that he didn’t know how to swear. After a long time of holding back, he raised his sword and pointed it at him, his face full of frost, “You get out. We’ll fight.”

Wei Wuxian shook his head repeatedly, acting obedient, “No fighting, no fighting. Don’t you know, Young Master Lan? Private fights are forbidden in the Cloud Recesses.” He wanted to pick up the book that had been thrown out, but Lan Wangji stepped in and grabbed it first. Wei Wuxian’s mind raced. He guessed that he was going to take this evidence and report him, so he deliberately said, “What are you grabbing? I thought you weren’t going to look at it. Are you going to look at it again? Actually, there’s no need to grab it to read it, I borrowed it for you to look at. If you look at my spring palace picture book, then you’re my friend. We can continue to communicate, there’s more…”

Lan Wangji’s whole face turned white. He said each word individually, “I. Will. Not. Read.”

Wei Wuxian continued to distort right and wrong, “If you won’t read it, then why did you snatch it? To keep it for yourself? That won’t do. I borrowed it from someone too, you have to return it after you finish reading it… Hey, hey, hey, don’t come over, you’re too close, I’m so nervous. Let’s talk. You don’t want to hand it in, do you? Hand it in to who? Hand it in to the old… hand it to your uncle? Second Young Master Lan, can this sort of thing be shown to an elder of the clan? He’ll definitely suspect that you looked at it yourself first, and your skin is so thin, wouldn’t you die of embarrassment…”

Lan Wangji poured his spiritual energy into his right hand, and the book was torn into millions of pieces, falling from the air like snowflakes. Seeing that he had successfully provoked him into destroying the evidence, Wei Wuxian was relieved. He feigned regret, “What a waste of resources!” He picked up a piece of paper that had fallen onto his hair, and showed it to Lan Wangji, who was pale with anger, “Lan Zhan, you are good at everything, but you just like to throw things around. Tell me, how many paper balls have you thrown on the ground these past few days? Today you are not satisfied with throwing paper balls, you’re playing with tearing paper. You tore it, you clean it up yourself. I won’t care.” Of course, he never had.

Lan Wangji endured it and endured it, finally unable to bear it anymore. He yelled angrily, “Get out!”

Wei Wuxian said, “So this is the Lan Zhan. It’s said that you are a bright gentleman, a jewel illuminating the world, the most knowledgeable and proper, but it turns out you are just like this. Don’t you know that Cloud Recesses forbids loud noises? And you actually told me to ‘get out’. Is this the first time you used that word to someone…” Lan Wangji lunged at him with his sword. Wei Wuxian hastily jumped onto the windowsill, “If I get out, I get out. I am the best at getting out. No need to send me off!”

He jumped out of the library, laughing like a madman, crashing through the trees, where a group of people was already waiting for him. Nie Huaisang said, “How was it? Did he look at it? What was his expression?”

Wei Wuxian said, “What expression? Hey! He yelled so loud just now, didn’t you hear it?”

Nie Huaisang was full of admiration, “I heard it, he told you to get out! Brother Wei, this is the first time I heard Lan Wangji tell someone to ‘get out’! How did you do it?”

Wei Wuxian was full of pride, “Rejoice and congratulate! Today, I helped him break this restriction. You all see, the cultivation and family training that everyone praises about Second Young Master Lan, are completely useless in front of me.”

Jiang Cheng cursed with a dark face, “What are you so proud of! What is there to be proud of in being told to get out? It’s truly embarrassing to our family!”

Wei Wuxian said, “I sincerely wanted to apologize to him, but he just ignored me. He silenced me for so many days. So what if I tease him a bit? I kindly sent a book for him to read. It’s a pity about Brother Huaisang’s precious spring palace picture book. I hadn’t finished reading it, it was so exciting! Lan Zhan is truly an unromantic person, I gave it to him and he wasn’t even happy. What a waste of that face.”

Nie Huaisang said, “It’s not a pity! I have as many as you want.”

Jiang Cheng sneered, “You’ve offended both Lan Wangji and Lan Qiren completely, you can just wait to die tomorrow! No one will collect your corpse for you.”

Wei Wuxian waved his hand, and went to hook his arm over Jiang Cheng’s shoulder, “Don’t worry so much. Tease him first and then worry about it. You’ve collected my corpse so many times, one more time won’t make a difference.”

Jiang Cheng kicked him away, “Get lost, get lost! Next time you do something like this, don’t let me know! And don’t call me to watch!”