I don't see enough of this ship, your welcome
"Your alcohol tolerance is terrible. Zizhen, let's keep drinking!"
"Zizhen has returned to Baling. I'm Lan Sizhui."
"Oh, Lan Sizhui. That annoying guy who is a stickler for the rules."
Nobody around him noticed, but Lan Sizhui gripped his chopsticks harder than necessary, the grains of rice becoming mush with the added pressure on the wood. After what he had said and done not much earlier, Jin Ling really had some guts to talk that way about him. All it took was for Lan Jingyi to leave them alone for the time necessary to relieve himself, and Jin Ling had acted out.
The alcohol he had previously gulped down had probably enabled that sort of behavior, so Lan Sizhui knew that he couldn't fault the Jin heir much other than indulging in drinking. Not when Lan Jingyi himself had disobeyed the rules of their sect on the subject, leaving Lan Sizhui to be the only responsible one for the evening, sipping his tea quietly.
After Lan Jingyi had left, Jin Ling slid around the table, moving closer to him. There was a light shade of pink dusting his cheeks, his nose looking adorable in that hue as he propped his chin on one hand, not dissimilar to a cat pretending to be resting before jumping to attack its prey.
In fact, his other hand was otherwise busy, trapping the tip of Lan Sizhui's ponytail between his fingers and rolling it around them in a possessive manner. Lan Sizhui hoped with all his might that Jin Ling wouldn't notice the blush that had spread on his cheeks at that.
"Lan Sizhui, you're a cute one," with a bit of a drawl, Jin Ling had brought the captured hair to his face, burying his nose in it. Actually, his forehead ribbon was also in our dear Jin Ling's possession.
A shiver run down Lan Sizhui's back. "So cute... I think we should kiss."
Somehow the two things were consequential in Jin Ling's mind, the confidence in it not making him falter at all, not even for a second.
For all his smoothness though, Lan Sizhui knew that he could not give credit to his words, no matter how interesting the proposition could have been, had Jin Ling been sober instead. "Young master Jin, you're intoxicated."
At Lan Sizhui's apparent rebuttal, Jin Ling dropped the silky bundle of hair, his shoulders straightening.
"Wha- what's that supposed to mean?!" The whiny tone of it made Lan Sizhui smile behind his cup of tea. With slow movements, he put it down in favour of continuing his dinner, the rice white and fragrant in the bowl he picked up. As he admired the grains, Lan Sizhui answered. "You're drunk young master Jin, and I can not agree to your proposal. It would be like taking advantage of you. That much is against the Lan sect rules. More so, Lan members should refrain from sharing such acts outside of the bond with their cultivation partner, according to the rules."
At a loss of words to such a reply, Jin Ling's face darkened a bit, his lips turning downward. Lan Sizhui could see all the hard work he was doing in trying to absorb the whole explanation, the long moments of silence needed to take it all in, until his eyebrows relaxed when he finally registered that Lan Sizhui had not outwardly said no to him.
So much for being a brilliant young master, Lan Sizhui thought remarking how alcohol was really portentous in fogging the mind. There was another question ready to bloom on the tip of Jin Ling's tongue, but Lan Jingyi was returning towards their table, his steps more open and loud than what the rules prescribed. A grimace on his face and Jin Ling scuttered back to his place before he could be discovered hitting on one of the Lan pupils by the other, obnoxious one.
Lan Sizhui kept eating his rice in silence while the other two fell into their usual banter, made even louder by the much alcohol they had consumed. And kept drinking. More and more...
It would have been a lie to say that Lan Sizhui had not been very much upset - and maybe disappointed - at Jin Ling's comment about his proper conduct. Sizhui never lied, but also he didn't want to confirm that quip, his eyes glued on the smirk that Jin Ling was trying to hide behind the black bottle of wine in his hand. Jin Ling was definitely mocking him now!
Thankfully Lan Jingyi jumped up to be the peacekeeper for once.
It didn't last long. Soon after, Hanguang-jun and Senior Mo arrived and all hell broke loose. Lan Sizhui only hoped that Jin Ling would remember his words, after his hangover passed the next day.
