Past is set in stone, only your feelings may change

Sect swap

When Wei Wuxian woke up, he was in a strange new place. He was looking up at the ceiling and did not recognize it, then he turned his head and inspected the whole room, he did not know it either. But he guessed he must have been somewhere in the Cloud Recesses because he had been all but dragged there before he passed out in exhaustion.

He got up and found his robes neatly folded next to his bed, that was good, he had no intention of walking around – even only inside this one room if it would be proved that he was actually imprisoned here as Wei Wuxian feared – only in his inner robe. He was greatly surprised when the door gave way as soon as he checked if he could open it and revealed a familiar view of the Cloud Recesses. Apparently, he was in the Jingshi, Lan Zhan's personal residence.

That baffled him to no end. He had been sure that when he has said he found Lan Zhan attractive to disgust both the man in question and Jiang Cheng, to convince them to let him go, he should have been thrown away with some peppery comments about him being a cut sleeve. He had counted on using Mo Xuanyu's reputation to help him escape.

However, that seemed to not have been what had actually happened. He would have never imagined that Lan Zhan would actually swing this way. No, it was literally impossible; no the Lan Zhan who had gotten so angry once upon he time when Wei Wuxian had shown him a cut sleeve porn book. So he must have taken him back to the Cloud Recesses to protect him from Jiang Cheng.

Wei Wuxian breathed out a sigh of relief. Since he was not imprisoned, his identity of the Yiling Patriarch remained a secret. That was good. But he knew that it would not last for long. He needed to leave the Cloud Recesses as soon as possible. He could not put Lan Zhan in trouble with the other sects for hiding him. And especially with his own sect who would surely punish their second young master if they discovered he was associating with evil.

Wei Wuxian headed deeper into the back mountains, away from any prying eyes. He needed some time to think.

He remembered that there was a barrier around the whole Cloud Recesses and that it worked both ways: no one uninvited could enter but also no one who had not been given permission could leave. He needed the Gusu Lan sect's entry token to get past it.

He recalled a little wistfully how he had once broken through the said barrier with a help of a talisman he himself had invented. At that time, it had been only too easy. But he guessed that the Gusu Lan sect had learned their lesson and had reinforced the barrier. So, even if he had any spiritual energy to activate the said talisman again, he would not be able to pass. Using resentful energy would be a sure way to hell, everyone would immediately recognize him.

So, the only way for him was to actually steal a jade token from someone and use it to go through the barrier. The question was where was he going to find a disciple whose token he could use?

Luck was on his side for once and he stopped and hid behind a bush when he realized he had wandered to the Cold spring and that there was just the disciple he needed soaking there, their back turned to him. This was the perfect opportunity. He did not wait for anything and proceeded to steal – not steal, that would be bad, he would just borrow it for the time being – the jade token.

He did not even know what had happened, but suddenly, Lan Zhan was standing in front of him with the said jade token in his hand. Instead of scolding him, he even gave him the token? Wei Wuxian was beyond confused. What was going on?

"You can keep it," Lan Zhan told him and turned away.

Wei Wuxian stared at his back. He could surely not keep it! Only the members of the Gusu Lan sect were entitled to one of the jade tokens!

"Lan Zhan!" he whined internally.