“My leg is broken!”
Jiang Yanli comforted him. “There, there. It’s not broken. It shouldn’t be sprained, either. Does it hurt? It’s all right. Don’t move. I’ll carry you back on my back.”
Still thinking about the dogs, Wei Wuxian whimpered. “The dogs…are they here…?”
“No. If they come, I’ll chase them away for you,” Jiang Yanli reassured him again, then collected Wei Wuxian’s shoe from under the tree. “Why did your shoe fall off? Do they not fit?”
Wei Wuxian held back his tears of pain and hurriedly shook his head. “No, they fit.”
In truth, they didn’t. They were a few sizes too big. But they were the first pair of shoes Jiang Fengmian had bought him and Wei Wuxian was too embarrassed to make him go to the trouble of buying another pair, so he didn’t mention that they were too big. Jiang Yanli helped him put on his shoes, then pressed down on the deflated tips.
“Well now, they are a little too big. I’ll alter them for you when we get back.”
This made Wei Wuxian uneasy to hear. He kept feeling like he’d done something wrong again. The most fearful thing about living under someone else’s roof was imposing on and inconveniencing one’s hosts.
Jiang Yanli hoisted him onto her back and hobbled her way home.
“A-Ying, no matter what A-Cheng said to you earlier, don’t hold it against him. He has a bad temper, and he’s usually playing all by himself at home. He loved those little puppies, so it broke his heart when daddy sent them away. He’s actually happy there’s now someone here to keep him company. You didn’t come back after you ran off, and he was worried something had happened to you, so he rushed to my room to shake me awake. That’s why I knew to come out looking for you.”
Jiang Yanli was only two or three years older than him at the time, making her about twelve or thirteen. She was clearly still a child herself, but she spoke as naturally as a little grown-up as she continued her efforts to comfort Wei Wuxian. She was petite, slim and delicate, and not very strong, causing her to occasionally stumble and have to stop to rearrange her grip on Wei Wuxian’s legs to keep him from sliding down as she carried him along. But Wei Wuxian felt incomparably safe as he lay on her back, even more so than when he sat on Jiang Fengmian’s arm.
All of a sudden, the sound of sobbing wafted to their ears, sailing on the night breeze. Jiang Yanli jolted with fright.
“What’s that sound? Did you hear that?”
Wei Wuxian pointed. “I heard it. It came from that pit!”
The two headed over to the pit and very cautiously craned their necks to look inside. A small figure was lying prone at the bottom. When he looked up, two streaks of tears stood out starkly on his otherwise mud-covered face.
“…Jiejie!” he sobbed.
Jiang Yanli breathed a sigh of relief. “A-Cheng, didn’t I tell you to call everyone so we could all search together?”
Jiang Cheng merely shook his head. He had waited for a while after Jiang Yanli left but couldn’t sit still and chased after her. But he hurried too carelessly, and he’d forgotten to bring along a lantern. Subsequently, he tripped midway through the journey and fell into a pit, scraping his head in the process.
Jiang Yanli pulled her younger brother out of the pit, then fished out her handkerchief and pressed it to his incessantly bleeding forehead. Jiang Cheng’s expression was dispirited as he sneaked a peek at Wei Wuxian with his dark-colored eyes.
“Is there something you haven’t said yet to Wei Ying?” Jiang Yanli prompted.
With the handkerchief pressed to his forehead, Jiang Cheng muttered, “…I’m sorry.”
“Help A-Ying take his mat and blanket back inside later, all right?” Jiang Yanli prompted further.
Jiang Cheng sniffled. “I already brought them back in.”
Both of them had injured their legs and couldn’t walk, and they were still a good distance away from Lotus Pier. With no other options, Jiang Yanli had to carry one on her back and the other in her arms. Both Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng wrapped their arms around her neck. After only a few steps, she was so tired, she was panting hard.
“What am I to do with you two…?”
With tears still in their eyes, they pitifully hugged her neck even tighter.
In the end, she carried both her little brothers back to Lotus Pier, one step at a time. She gently woke up the physician to request that he bandage and treat Wei Wuxian’s and Jiang Cheng’s injuries, then sent him back after giving him profuse apologies and thanks.
As he looked at Wei Wuxian’s leg, Jiang Cheng seemed nervous. If the other sect disciples or servants were to find out about this matter, and if it made its way to Jiang Fengmian’s ears… If Jiang Fengmian learned that Jiang Cheng had thrown out Wei Wuxian’s mat and even made him hurt his leg, he’d definitely dislike Jiang Cheng even more. That was also why he hadn’t dared tell anyone else earlier but chased after them himself.
Seeing how worried Jiang Cheng looked, Wei Wuxian took the initiative to reassure him. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell Jiang-shushu. This all happened because I had the sudden urge to go tree-climbing at night. That’s how I got hurt.”
Jiang Cheng breathed a sigh of relief at this. “You don’t have to worry either,” he vowed. “I’ll help you chase away any dog we see from now on!”
Seeing them finally clear the air between them, Jiang Yanli happily said, “That’s the way it should be.”
After half a night of torment, both of them were hungry, so Jiang Yanli went to the kitchen and bustled around on tiptoe to warm a bowl of lotus root pork ribs soup for each of them.
The aroma lingered in Wei Wuxian’s heart, never dissipating even to this day.
Now, he squatted in the courtyard and set the empty bowl on the ground. He gazed at the starry night sky for a while and smiled. His chance encounter with Lan Wangji on the streets of Yunmeng today had reminded him of many things that had happened back when he studied at the Cloud Recesses. He’d called out to Lan Wangji on a whim, initially thinking of leading the conversation in that direction, but Lan Wangji had reminded him that nothing was the same as it had been back then.
But he only needed to return to Lotus Pier, to the Jiang siblings, to have the illusion that nothing had changed at all.
Wei Wuxian suddenly felt the urge to find the tree he’d climbed back then.
He stood up and made his way out of Lotus Pier’s grounds. The sect disciples he came across along the way bowed and nodded their heads at him respectfully. They were all unfamiliar faces. The ones he was familiar with—the shidi who were like a bunch of monkeys refusing to walk properly and the servants who would make funny faces and didn’t bow properly—were all long gone.
Past the drilling grounds and beyond Lotus Pier’s main gate was a wide and spacious dock. Regardless of the time of day, there were always vendors selling food here. A pot sizzled with oil, and aromas filled the air. Wei Wuxian couldn’t help but walk over and comment with a smile.
“Plenty of stuff today, huh?”
The vendor, too, said with a smile, “Wei-gongzi, want some? Consider it a gift from me. No need to put it on the tab.”
“Sure, I’ll take it,” Wei Wuxian accepted. “But put it on my tab, as usual.”
There was a person squatting beside the vendor, filthy from head to toe. Before Wei Wuxian approached, she was hugging her knees and shivering as though cold and exhausted. When she heard Wei Wuxian speak, however, her head abruptly shot up.
Wei Wuxian’s eyes widened.
“It’s you?!”