Back to the present (i.e. post-rebirth in Mo Xuanyu’s body) where Wei Wuxian’s true identity has been publicly revealed and Lan Wangji has taken him back to the Cloud Recesses to hide…
Lan Xichen drops big, fat hints to an oblivious Wei Wuxian.
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Ch. 64 | The manipulative melody.
Lan Xichen stooped down beside a thicket of gentian flowers and caressed the delicate petals while saying, ‘As a youth, my father once encountered my mother outside Gusu city while on his way back from a night hunt.’ He smiled slightly before adding, ‘They say it was love at first sight for him.’
Wei Wuxian also smiled briefly. ‘The passions of youth.’
Lan Xichen then said, ‘But this girl did not return his feelings. Moreover, she killed one of my father’s mentors.’
This was really beyond anything that he had imagined. Wei Wuxian was aware that it was very rude to probe but at the thought that this was Lan Wangji’s parents, still felt that he had to go into it. ‘Why?!’
Lan Xichen replied, ‘I don’t know, but I suppose it had just been a reckoning of old scores.’
Since it was inappropriate to probe further, Wei Wuxian thus suppressed his curiosity and asked, ‘Then… what happened after that?’
‘After that,’ Lan Xichen said, ‘my father came to know the truth and naturally was tormented by it. Despite struggling repeatedly with his conscience, he still brought the girl back here secretly; disregarded the objections of his clan and married her without telling anyone¹, then told everyone in the clan that this was his one and only wife and whoever wanted to kill her would have to go through him first.’
Wei Wuxian’s eyes widened.
¹ 一聲不響. If you’re not reading this chapter at hiding in plain sight, it has been stolen and reproduced by novelscraping sites.
Lan Xichen continued, ‘After the wedding ceremony, my father found a house and confined my mother within, then found another house and sequestered himself there. On the face of it, he had gone into seclusion but in reality, he was reflecting on his mistakes.’
He paused before asking, ‘Master Wei, do you understand why he did what he did?’
After a moment’s silence, Wei Wuxian said, ‘Since he was unable to forgive his mentor’s killer but was also unable to watch the woman whom he loved die, all he could do was to marry her to save her life, then force himself not to see her again.’
Lan Xichen questioned, ‘Then do you think he was right to do so?’
Wei Wuxian answered, ‘I don’t know.’
Lan Xichen looked faintly disappointed and queried, ‘Then what do you think would have been the right course of action?’
Wei Wuxian said again, ‘I don’t know.’
It was a while before Lan Xichen noted quietly, ‘In doing what he did, my father can be said to have acted recklessly. All the clan elders were extremely furious with him but because they had all watched him grow up, their hands were tied². They could only keep it a secret and hint to the outside world that the wife of the Gusu clan leader had an undisclosed malady and could not see anyone. It went on like this until Wangji and I were born. We were immediately sent away to be cared for by someone else. When we were a little older, we were handed over to our uncle to be educated.’
‘Uncle… has always been upright by nature. Since the affair with my mother had led my father to ruin his own life, Uncle especially hated those who conducted themselves improperly, so he took great pains when instructing Wangji and me and was also particularly strict with us. We could only see Mother once a month here, in this little house.’
² 无可奈何. Translation belongs to theresanother(DOT)wordpress(DOT)com.
Two young children who saw no one except their stern uncle the whole day. Their education had been strict and even when faced with piles of books, they still had had to force their little bodies to sit up straight, no matter how tired they were, and be the most outstanding disciples of their clan and role models to outsiders. They were not allowed to see their own parents throughout the year, and so could neither play with their father nor cuddle with their mother.
And yet they clearly had not done anything wrong.
Lan Xichen said, ‘Every time Wangji and I went to see her, not once did she complain about how dreary it was for her to be confined here and unable to take a step outside, but merely asked about our schoolwork. She especially enjoyed teasing Wangji but he’s the type who, the more you tease him, the more he refuses to talk and the more annoyed he looks. He’s always been like this since childhood.’
‘But,’ he chuckled, ‘although Wangji never said so, I knew he was always waiting eagerly for that day when we could see Mother. So was I.’
Wei Wuxian pictured a young Lan Wangji being hugged by his mother, and laughed as well at the image of the fair little face reddening. Before his laughter had died away however, Lan Xichen resumed: ‘But one day, Uncle suddenly told us that we did not need to go there any more.
Mother was no longer around.’
Wei Wuxian asked softly, ‘How old was Lan Zhan then?’
Lan Xichen replied, ‘Six years old.’
He added, ‘He was too young then to understand what “no longer around” meant. But no matter how others tried to console him or how Uncle berated him, he continued to come here every month and sit down on the verandah, waiting for someone to open the door. Even after he got a little older and understood that Mother would never come back nor would anyone ever open that door, he would still come here.’
Lan Xichen got to his feet, his dark eyes looking directly into Wei Wuxian’s as he said, ‘Wangji has always been as obstinate as a mule from a young age.’
There was a rustling of tree leaves while the thick clusters of gentian flowers in front of the house quivered in the breeze, profusive tokens of love. Wei Wuxian’s gaze fell on the small wooden verandah: he could picture the small child wearing a circlet, sitting upright in front of the house, waiting silently for that door to open.
He commented, ‘Madam Lan must have been a very gentle woman.’
Lan Xichen said, ‘The mother that I remember was indeed so. I don’t know why she did what she did back then and to be honest, I…’ he sighed heavily and confessed, ‘don’t want to know.’
(Xichen plays a melancholy tune on his flute, Broken Ice.)
A soft evening breeze caressed Lan Xichen’s dark hair and circlet, causing them to be slightly awry but the head of the Gusu Lan clan, ordinarily so particular about deportment, disregarded this completely and only lowered Broken Ice after he was done playing the tune.
He remarked, ‘Playing music is forbidden in the Cloud Recesses. I’ve flouted the rules repeatedly today and must appear quite ridiculous to you, Master Wei.’
Wei Wuxian responded, ‘This is nothing. Lord Zewu, have you forgotten that you’re looking at the one person who has broken the most rules…’
Lan Xichen smiled and confided, ‘The Gusu Lan clan has never divulged this unfortunate experience of mine and Wangji’s to the outside world and I should not have spoken of it to you either. I was rather impulsive because I suddenly felt like unburdening myself to someone tonight.’
Wei Wuxian replied, ‘Please set your mind at rest, Lord Zewu. I’m not the type to gossip³.’
³ 多嘴多舌. Please consider reading from hiding in plain sight rather than from novelscraping sites.
Lan Xichen observed, ‘Come to think of it, I doubt Wangji would keep anything from you.’
Wei Wuxian said, ‘If he’s unwilling to tell me, then I won’t ask.’
Lan Xichen commented, ‘But given Wangji’s disposition, how would he tell you anything unless you ask? There are some things that he wouldn’t tell you even if you did ask him.’
Wei Wuxian was just about to reply when he heard footsteps behind him. Turning round to look, he saw Lan Wangji walking over, bathed in moonlight. The latter was holding two rotund wine jars in his right hand, tamped down with bright red seals.
Wei Wuxian’s eyes lit up and he exclaimed, ‘Lord Hanguang, you are truly considerate!’
(Approx. 1318 | 1328 words)
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Translated and edited by 12
hiding in plain sight 