I will take care of you, I promise (Between a rock and a hard place 3)

Chapter 18

"Wei Ying was raped."

Those words were echoing in Lan Xichen's head as he turned on his heel after seeing his brother close the door of the seclusion house and he was all but running back to his quarters, back to Wei Wuxian. He had to make sure himself that the Yunmeng Jiang sect head disciple was now fine and that he was safe back in his room. He had to make sure that Jiang Wanyin would never get anywhere close to him again. He had failed in the past, but he would not anymore.

His mind was a mess. He could not understand how such a thing could have happened in the Cloud Recesses without anyone knowing anything. He did not get how would anyone be able to commit such an atrocious act. How could someone as well brought up and cultivated as Jiang Wanyin do something like that to his own brother, albeit an adoptive one.

He did not know what he should do now. All his past plans were crumbling like houses built out of playing cards under a storms. He had wanted to make Wei Wuxian forget about how bad Lan Wangji had been to him but it seemed like that was not needed anymore, the Yunmeng Jiang sect head disciple was apparently actually pretty comfortable with having Lan Wangji around. He had wanted to take Wei Wuxian for himself and love him carefully and sweetly as he deserved after such an experience as being tied up to a bed. But it seemed like he would not be able to do that either since Wei Wuxian would probably not want anything to do with someone who had failed to notice his pain and let him be assaulted in the worst way possible.

Now all that Lan Xichen had left was to take care of Wei Wuxian and never let him go back to his family, to the hands of his abusers. It was not clear just yet if this had been just a one-time occurrence or if Jiang Wanyin had been abusing his brother for a long time. It was also not known to him if the rest of the Yunmeng Jiang clan knew about this. However, he was determined to shield Wei Wuxian from all of this. He would make him forget his adoptive family and look only at him.

He would also deal with the political side of matter on his own, no need to trouble the Yunmeng Jiang sect head disciple with that. He would go talk to his uncle and have Jiang Wanyin expelled from the Cloud Recesses for ever. That way, he would not be able to land a hand on Wei Wuxian ever again. Lan Xichen would also make sure that the Yunmeng Jiang sect heir would be punished for his deeds and that his reputation would be ruined. Yes, he would take revenge for Wei Wuxian.

He finally reached his quarters and burst the door open, not patient or collected enough to open it normally. His eyes immediately darted to the bed where he had left the sleeping Yunmeng Jiang sect disciple. It had only been about four to five hours since he had left, for searching in the back mountains had taken a lot of time and he was silently cursing his ancestors for building so many seclusion houses and so far apart one from another. It was now almost dinner time.

The first thing he noticed was that the bed was empty. That could not have meant anything at all, Wei Wuxian could have just went to the bathroom or he could have been perhaps reading a book in the second room, or be doing basically anything very safe and normal. Lan Xichen however had a bad feeling. The numbing medicine clearly only acted for two or three hours before its effects dissipated. By now, Wei Wuxian was probably not drunk on it anymore and was able to move normally, was able to leave the First Jade's rooms.

Just to be sure, Lan Xichen quickly searched all the other rooms, even the storage room, to see if Wei Wuxian was not in one of them. The looming dread in his guts was growing by the second and it was getting hard for him to breathe. The Yunmeng Jiang sect head disciple was nowhere to be found.

Lan Xichen returned to the main room and stared at the bed. It was only now that he saw that Wei Wuxian's robes which he had made the servants bring from his rooms were missing. He should have noticed sooner; it would have been a sure-telling sign that his guest had left. Now, where could he have gone?

Lan Xichen did not want to even think about the possibility that Wei Wuxian had not left of his own accord. No, surely he had just gone back to his own room, that must have been it.

Once again, Lan Xichen was running through the Cloud Recesses. His destination this time was the guest disciples' housing. It seemed to have been so far away and anything could be happening to Wei Wuxian while Lan Xichen was not able to keep an eye on him. It was truly mortifying.

The thoughts he had been fighting all this while had finally wormed themselves into his heart and he was scared that perhaps Wei Wuxian had been taken away by Jiang Wanyin. No matter how much he was trying to calm himself down and think rationally, Jiang Wanyin would not have surely come to Lan Xichen's quarters just like that and would not have kidnapped his own brother, he could not help himself but to be beside himself with worry.

There was an ever worse realization looming over him. Lan Wangji had asked him at the beginning of the guest lectures to change Wei Wuxian's room. Lan Xichen was now cursing himself for being blind and inconsiderate, until now the Yunmeng Jiang sect siblings were still sharing a room. Even if Wei Wuxian had gone back by himself, he would have inevitably ended up in the hands of his assailant.

Lan Xichen did not mind any curious and surprised glances he was receiving as he was running through the hallways of the house where male guest disciples lived. He knew where the rooms of the Yunmeng Jiang sect disciples were and he was heading to them without looking left or right.

After three tries and scaring the living light of a few boys in purple robes, he finally found the correct room. He did not know if he should be happy or unhappy that he found only Jiang Wanyin inside of it. There were no traces of Wei Wuxian anywhere around the premises.

The Yunmeng Jiang sect heir was surprised by his abrupt arrival but he seemed to have quickly composed himself. He faced Lan Xichen with a courteous smile and bowed politely: "Zewu-Jun, what can I do for you? I am resting in my room as you have advised this morning. Can I ask how Wei Wuxian is doing in your care?"

Lan Xichen's heart skipped a beat and then calmed down almost instantly. Although he still did not know where exactly the Yunmeng Jiang sect head disciple could be, he was positive that Jiang Wanyin did not know anything about his whereabouts either. That was reassuring.

He nodded his head in greeting and responded just as politely, keeping all his emotions in check: "Young Master Jiang, I just came to see how you are doing. If you feel any better now, perhaps you would like to join the other disciples for dinner?"

He did not wait for a response to his words. He knew that he would not be able to be so polite to such a terrible person like Jiang Wanyin for another second but he could not reveal everything just yet, it could put Wei Wuxian in danger. He turned on his heel and he was speed walking out of the guest disciples' house.

If Wei Wuxian had not returned to his own room, then there was only one person who would be able to help Lan Xichen locate the boy. And that person would be Lan Qiren. Lan Xichen went to find his uncle. 

Well, and this is it for the third part of this series. Thank you for staying with me until here, you are true heroes :) If you feel like it, I would be happy to hear what you thought about this whole story.

The next part will be coming out hopefully soon. Can you guess who will be the main protagonist? Of course it will be our good (very bad) uncle Lan Qiren. He had not been too nice in the canon but do not blame me if I want to make him even more unreasonable. As I said in the beginning, this series is going to be dark all the way until the hopeful ending :)