Lan WangJi said to Wei Wuxian, “Wait for me.”

“Do you want me to go in with you?” asked Wei Wuxian.

Shaking his head, Lan Wangji said, “If you go in, he’ll be even more furious.”

Wei Wuxian thought for a minute, and agreed. Whenever Lan Qiren sees him now, he [acquires something like a heart disease] and can barely even breathe through his indignation, practically wheezing every time Wei Wuxian was around. It was probably for the best for Wei Wuxian to behave himself and stay out of Lan Qiren’s sight.

Lan Wangji looked at and him and was about to say something before Wei Wuxian quickly said, “All right, I know. Don’t run around, don’t make a racket, don’t etc etc etc, right? Don’t worry; coming back here with you this time I’m going to make sure to be careful about everything. I won’t break a single rule on that family rock of yours. I’ll do my best.”

Lan Wangji blurted, “It’s fine. Even if you broke-” he suddenly trailed off.

Wei Wuxian [leaned forward], “Yeah?”

Lan Wangji realized that what he’d been about to say would have been highly improper, and quickly turned his head, turned it back, and said, rather gravely, “…Nothing.”

Wei Wuxian said, blankly, “You were just about to say even if I broke… what?”

Lan Wangji knew Wei Wuxian was asking a question to which he already knew the answer, and frowned, repeating, “Wait for me outside.”

Wei Wuxian waved his hand and said, “All right, I’ll wait, you don’t have to be so pissy about it. I’m going to go play with your rabbits.”

Thus, Lan Wangji went by himself to meet the flying spittle of Lan Qiren, while Wei Wuxian ran crazily around with Little Apple. Little Apple seemed especially happy ever since they returned to the Cloud Recesses, shaking with excitement from head to toe, so much so that Wei Wuxian could barely catch him. In the end, Wei Wuxian left him alone on a nice, juicy patch of grass.

On that field of grass, there were more than a hundred balls of fat white fluff, amidst stalks of triplet-petaled pink flowers [which occasionally shook out long ears of white pollen]. Little Apple nosed around and found his little niche among the flowers. Wei Wuxian squatted and reached out with his hand, easily catching a rabbit. While scratching its stomach, he said heartily, “There weren’t this many rabbits the last time I came here, were there? Are you a male or a female? Uh… you’re male.”

In that vein, Wuxian realized that he’d never thought about whether or not Little Apple was male or female.  Thus, he couldn’t help glancing in that direction. But before he could find out, he suddenly heard movement behind him, and turned around.

A young, dainty girl holding a basket, upon seeing Wei Wuxian suddenly turn to look at her, faltered in her step and blushed deeply.

This girl was wearing a robe of the Gusu Sect’s design, her outfit completed with a neatly tied unembroidered Gusu headband on her head.

Wei Wuxian exclaimed, “Well, I’ll be! I’ve met a living woman here!”

She was a student. She was [an advanced student of] the Gusu Sect.

The Gusu Sect was famous for its strict, stubborn teachings regarding the relationships between men and women; men and women were not allowed to touch each other when they exchanged things, and the rest can go unsaid. Since childhood, they would have had Buddhist chants recited in their ears over ten thousand times. Boys and girls’ study and rest areas were kept strictly separate; they were forbidden to set even a foot into the others’ territory, and very few would ever dare venture out of their prescribed ranges. Even men and women who came from outside Gusu were kept apart. It was either all male, or all female. There was rarely ever any occasion that called to mix up the men and the women of even the same profession. The rules were inflexible to the point of making one want to pull out all of one’s hairs. During the time that Wei Wuxian studied here, playing hooky, he’d pretty much never met any girl. He’d wondered if girls even existed in the Cloud Recesses. Once or twice he’d thought he’d heard the voices of girls studying, and was driven by curiosity to find them, but was caught by sharp-eyed sharp-eared patrol who called for Lan Wangji. [From then on, Wei Wuxian got sidetracked by his passion and hobby to exhaust the heck out of Lan Wangji, and never really got the chance to explore again.]

But today, he really got to meet an actual living, breathing, female student in the Cloud Recesses! A living! Female student!

Wei Wuxian suddenly stood up, eyes bright and alight. Just as he was about to walk over, overcome with impulse, Little Apple stood up and rushed to the girl’s side, nearly knocking him over.

Wei Wuxian was confused.

Little Apple stood by her side, head inclined, nudging her hand with his head and ears.

Wei Wuxian was extremely confused.

The girl, face red, looked blankly at Wei Wuxian for a moment, not knowing what to say. Wei Wuxian squinted, realizing the girl looked vaguely familiar. Then he suddenly remembered – wasn’t this girl the same girl he’d met at the Mo family mansion as he’d rushed out on top of Little Apple, and then later met again at Da Fan Mountain? The girl with the round face?

Even if she were definitely the Mo girl, he could still strike up a lively conversation with her, [as she wasn’t a girl with a bad heart]. All of a sudden, she waved her hand, and said, “Ah! It’s you!”

Clearly, the girl also had a strong impression of him, whether or not he’d washed his face. In a sudden shy fit, she twisted the strands of the basket and said, “Yes, it’s me…”

Wei Wuxian [threw away the rabbit he’d been groping and set his hands out to search for rabbits of the opposite sex], and walked towards her. He peered into her basket full of carrots and Chinese cabbages. “Are you here to feed rabbits?”

The girl nodded. Since Lan Wangji wasn’t around, and he was bored, and his interest was piqued, he said, “Do you want any help?”

The girl didn’t know in what way he would help, but ultimately nodded. Wei Wuxian took out a carrot from her basket, and both of them squatted down on the ground. Little Apple stuck his head in the basket and rummaged around, didn’t find an apple, and so reluctantly picked up a carrot with his mouth and chewed morosely.

The carrots in the basket were extremely fresh. Wei Wuxian bit off a carrot himself and then fed the piece to a rabbit. He asked, “These rabbits, you always feed them?”

The girl said, “No… I only recently started feeding them. When Han Guang Jun is here, he takes care of them. When he’s not around, then Young Master Lan SiZhui looks after them. If he’s not here, then I come here to help.”

“How does Lan Zhan feed the rabbits? How old was he when he started raising rabbits? Does he also come around holding a basket like you do…?” To break up that image in his head, which was overly, illegally cute, Wei Wuxian changed the topic. “So are you a disciple of the Gusu Sect?”

The girl shyly said, “Mm.”

“Gusu Sect’s pretty good. Since when?”

Stroking the white fur of a rabbit, the girl said, “Not shortly after the event on Da Fan Mountain…”

At this time, the two of them heard the soft footsteps of boots on grass. Wei Wuxian turned around and saw, as he expected, Lan Wangji walking towards them.

The girl gathered herself in a flurry, standing up quickly and greeted him with the utmost respect. “Han Guang Jun.”

Lan Wangji nodded his head slightly. Wei Wuxian still sat on the ground, smiling at him. The girl was seemed as though she was afraid of how Lan Wangji [would react], to see a junior of Mo Xuan Yu and her age show such disrespect to Lan Wangji by sitting and smiling in front of his senior with no fear on his face. She hurriedly picked up her dress and fled. We Wuxian called out to her a few times, “Lady! Miss! Your basket! Hey, Little Apple! Little Apple, get back here! What are you doing, going with her! Little Apple!”

As he wasn’t able to call back neither person nor mule, Wei Wuxian could only prod at what was left of the carrots in the basket, and said to Lan Wangji, “Lan Zhan, you scared her away.”

If Lan Wangji didn’t want anybody to hear his footsteps, nobody would hear them. Why did he make it so two people could hear him coming?

Wei Wuxian, mirth on his face, produced a carrot and asked, “You want to eat it? You come to feed the rabbits, I come to feed you.”

Lan Wangji looked down at him. “Get up.”

Wei Wuxian threw the carrot behind him and lazily stuck a hand out at him. “Pull me up.”

After a moment, Lan Wangji gave a hand to pull him up, but who knew Wei Wuxian would suddenly twist his arm with sudden strength and pull Lan Wangji down to the ground instead.

Having their territory taken over by strangers, a gang of rabbits prepared for battle, randomly piling around the two and running here and there. [The few that were familiar with Lan Wangji] pounced on his body, anxious and concerned about why their master had suddenly fallen down. Lan Wangji quietly told them to move, and said calmly, to Wei Wuxian, “Rule number seven of the Cloud Recesses: don’t bother the female students.”

Wei Wuxian replied, “You said it didn’t matter if I broke any rules.”

Lan Wangji said, “No I didn’t.”

“Why are you being like this? Just because you didn’t finish your sentence back then means that you never said it? What happened to the Han Guang Jun who took his own words more seriously than anybody else?”

Lang Wangji said, “[Right here.]”

Wei Wuxian stroked his face, his voice tender, “Did your master scold you back there? [Let me worry over you a little].”

Letting him deliberately change the subject, Lan Wangji answered, “No.”

“Really? Then what did he say?”

Lan Wangji said, without batting an eye, “Nothing. [It’s just difficult business], planning the family dinner tomorrow.”

Wei Wuxian laughed. “Family dinner? Very good, I’ll be sure to be on my best behaviour and not ruin your reputation.” Suddenly thinking of Lan Xichen, he asked, “What about your brother?”

Silent for a moment, Lan Wangji said, “I’m meeting him in a little while.”

ZeWu Jun had closed himself off in Buddhist seclusion all day long, and Lan Wangji [needed to go have a heart-to-heart talk with him]. Wei Wuxian embraced him, patting him softly on the back. Staying like this for a while, he said, “Speaking of which, how come, having been back here for so long now, we haven’t met the young ones?”

The young ones [had gotten up early in the morning to go to the foot of the mountain]. Hearing him mention them, Lan Wangji relaxed his countenance and said, “I’ll take you to meet them.”

He brought Wei Wuxian with him and found Lan Sizhui, [Lan Jingyi, and all the others,]. When they saw Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian, the boys all made some noises in excitement, but restrained themselves from doing anything more because they couldn’t.

There were about seventeen of them, evenly hand-standing around the edge of the veranda. Each of them had their outer robes off, wearing a white shirt, head inclined, legs up in the air, white paper in front of them and a small slab of ink next to them. Their left hands were braced on the ground, their right hands held a brush, struggling to write on papers already dense with black characters.

Because their white headbands could not touch the ground, with faces full of sweat, they bit the ends of the headband, and so couldn’t speak either. So they made no [legible] sound, and could only express their excitement through their eyes. Seeing all of these trembling bodies, Wei Wuxian exclaimed, “[What are they doing, doing handstands like this?]”

Lan Wangji answered, “To be punished.”

Wei Wuxian said, “I know this is punishment. I can see what they’re writing – they’re the Lan Sect’s family rules. Just what have they done to be punished?”

Lan Wangji answered, in a flat voice, “If they exceed the time limit to copy these down, they’re not allowed to return to the Cloud Recesses.”

Wei Wuxian said, “Uh huh.”

Lan Wangji said, “Night hunting with the Ghost General.”

Wei Wuxian exclaimed, “What!! You guys have balls.”

Lan Wangji said, “This is the third time.”

Wei Wuxian rubbed his chin. [He’d never thought someone like Lan Qiren would punish them like this. To make them handstand  and copy the rules at the same time – Wei Wuxian had gotten off with very light punishments in comparison.]

Squatting before Lan Sizhui, Wei Wuxian said, “Hey Sizhui, how come this stack of papers before you looks particularly thick? Am I imagining things?”

Lan Sizhui said, “No…”

Lan Wangji said, “He was the leader.”

Wei Wuxian wanted to pat his shoulder, but seeing there was no place to put his hand, paused for a moment, and patted his shoulder up from below, saying, “I understand.”

Walking around the young disciples and examining their work, Lan Wangji said to Lan Jingyi, “This word. Incorrect.”

Jingyi said, rather tearfully, still biting on his headband, “Yes sir, Han Guang Jun. I’ll redo it.”

As he didn’t pick on anybody else, it meant that they had all passed for now, and one by one let out a relieved sigh. As the two of them left [the promenade], Wei Wuxian recalled the times he’d been the punished troublemaker and felt great sympathy for them. “Just doing a handstand like that is hard. If you’d made me do a handstand with my arm braced on the floor like that, I couldn’t guarantee I’d be able to copy anything, much less write those words properly.”

Lan Wangji looked at him. “You’re right.”

Wei Wuxian knew he was also recalling those days, and asked, “Did you get punished like this too when you were young and got in trouble?”

Lan Wangji said, “Never.”

It was probably true. Ever since he was a child, Lan Wangji was the Gusu Sect’s model student, his every word and action meeting all expectations and more, so how could he possibly do have done anything wrong? Since he couldn’t do anything wrong, he was probably never punished too.

Wei Wuxian smiled and said, “Damn. And here I thought that scary strength you have in your arm was acquired from that sort of punishment.”

Lan Wangji said, “I didn’t break any rules. But I did get my arm strength from doing exactly that.”

“If you didn’t have to do that out of punishment, then why the hell would you practice that on your own?”

“To meditate,” he said solemnly.

Wei Wuxian leaned close to his ear. “[Why did you need to meditate? What could possibly have been ruining the peaceful mind of such a cold, icy-mannered master like Han Guang Jun?]”

Lan Wangji looked at him but didn’t say anything. Feeling rather proud of himself, Wei Wuxian said, “As you said before, you practiced your arm strength like this since you were young. Then, could you do a handstand in that position and basically do anything?”

“Mm.”

Meeting his eyes, [Wei Wuxian pictured something that made him feel rather shy and lose control over his mouth], and he said, “Then… can you do a handstand and do me?”

Lan Wangji said, “Let’s try.”

“Ahahahaha…ahaha…. uh, what?”

“Let’s try. Tonight.”

“…”