WangXian Forever Book 9: The Flower Demon

Chapter 2 Bedtime

It had been an ordinary evening.

Tonight, they had eaten together with their children. Most evenings were usually this calm and stress free; sometimes the children would go and eat with their cousin Li Li in the Hanshi with Uncle XiChen and Uncle Cheng.

But tonight, they were a family doing normal things.

After the meal, Lan Zhan and Li XiWang had played a few scores on their guqins and entertained the other two. Wei Ying had joined in with his dizi when they were melodies he recognised and Rumi sat in his lap, quietly watching and listening.

Wei Ying thought he was an unusually silent person. Children around the age of six - because they really were guessing at his age - were generally much noisier, given their inquisitive natures.

Wei Ying knew for a fact that when he was a child, if he had a question, he asked it, because how else was he supposed to learn? Even Madam Yu’s scowling frowns had done little to deter him. If anything, it just made him more determined to find out, even if he had to lower his voice.

Rumi was...content.

That was the first thing.

The second thing was, in spite of his non verbal personality, he was an expert at making himself be understood, using only the bare minimum of words and that, if only he had failed to get his meaning across via actions. And if he was forced to verbalise anything, he had proved remarkably adept at choosing the correct words to suit his message...and in that respect, Wei Ying thought he resembled Lan Zhan the most.

Li XiWang was flourishing in her studies and had no more problems at school or in the classrooms. Rumi would patiently sit next to her, and Wei Ying hoped he was learning something because the child had not shown any signs of whether he liked going to school or not, and Wei Ying privately thought his presence had deterred the children who had previously bullied Li XiWang.

He thought back to when WuPo the witch in that remote village had kidnapped Rumi and Li XiWang; it was Rumi who had ripped out the witch's throat, thereby saving himself and his sister.

Rumi was someone who should never be underestimated, in Wei Ying's opinion.

Soon, it was time for bed.

Tonight's story was about a monkey and a crocodile who were best friends.

"The monkey lived on a date tree, and every evening he would bring a handful of dates to his friend to taste. They would talk about the things that friends talked about and spend the time singing songs. The crocodile was happy that he had such a good friend in the monkey, and the monkey was glad of the company." Wei Ying told them, sitting on one edge of their bed.

Rumi would inevitably climb into Li XiWang's bed at some point in the night, so now no one stopped him from climbing in her bed from the start of bedtime.

"One day, the crocodile took some dates back to his wife to taste. She loved the taste and asked for more. The following night, the crocodile informed his friend, the monkey, that his wife wanted more dates, and the monkey proudly went to pick more for her." Lan Zhan added, sitting on the other side.

"After a few days of eating dates, the crocodile's wife had an idea. She said to her husband, "if the monkey eats this many dates daily, how sweet must his heart be? Why don't you invite him to dinner and bring him here? Then we can eat him." She was very confident of this and managed to persuade her husband. The crocodile went back the next day and invited the monkey to dinner. When it was time for them to leave, the monkey began riding on the back of the crocodile, and they were about halfway there, when the crocodile felt bad.

"The monkey was so trusting by coming immediately when invited, so he decided to tell the monkey the real reason behind his invitation for the evening meal. He said, "actually, my wife has invited you for dinner because she says if you eat dates all day long, your heart must be so sweet, sweeter than any dates on the tree." The monkey was frightened by this and wondered how to get out of this sticky situation." Wei Ying smiled at the children's serious expressions as he told them this story.

This was the best part of the evening in his opinion. He loved watching their reactions to the many stories that he and Lan Zhan told them. And as with most of their tales, there was always a hidden message which the children loved to guess about.

"Then what happened?" Li XiWang asked, her big burgundy eyes round with fear for the poor trapped monkey.

Rumi tugged on his sleeve impatiently.

"The monkey was very clever, and he thought quickly as all monkeys do. He smiled, hiding his fear. "Why didn't you say so?" He demanded urgently. "You should have said when you came to collect me!" He wailed. "Why?" The crocodile hesitated, slowing down. "I don't carry my heart with me! I keep it hanging on the tallest branch of the date tree. Take me back now, and we'll go get it." The monkey replied, in distress. The crocodile smiled and thought what a great friend he had. He immediately turned around and swam back to the tree. The monkey leapt up into the tree and stayed there."

"Monkey, come down! Bring your heart!" The crocodile shouted at him. "Stupid crocodile! How dare you try to trick me? Of course my heart isn't up here, but now you have destroyed our friendship forever! I never want to see you ever again!" The monkey shouted back. And then he picked the hardest, driest dates he could find and began pelting the crocodile. The crocodile realised his mistake and began to apologise, but the monkey wasn't having any of it. Finally, the crocodile went away, and Monkey knew he could never trust anything the crocodile told him from now on. The End." Wei Ying bent and kissed first Rumi's forehead and then Li XiWang's. "Good night, my babies. Sweet dreams and let's meet in the morning."

Lan Zhan tucked them in, also kissing them goodnight. Then he offered Wei Ying his hand and they blew out all the candles except for one. They closed the door and retired to their own bed.

"Wei Ying knows the best stories." Lan Zhan said, taking off his outer robes.

He came and helped Wei Ying take his off as well.

"Why do people lie, Lan Zhan?" Wei Ying asked, instead. He seemed genuinely distressed. His eyes were unfocused and staring into the distance.

"Because they don't know any better." Lan Zhan replied, bringing him into the circle of his arms. "There is always a price to be paid for deceit."

"I know...I mean...well, I guess little white lies are fine...if they don't hurt anyone. But you know when people lie about important stuff? I just don't get it." Wei Ying wasn't quite sure why he was so affected by his own story...but his mind had gone back to that night in Guanyin temple, when Jin Guanyao had admitted to spreading lies about Wei Ying, for no other reason than that it was convenient. Mostly because he had been in the wrong place at the right time.

"Mn." Lan Zhan rubbed his back, soothingly.

He had no answers for Wei Ying, except that some people were rotten vegetables and there wasn't any real reason to explain their actions.

Wei Ying was tired now, and even though he wasn't given any solace, he felt marginally better. Lan Zhan kissed his forehead and helped him get under the covers.

He yawned.

Lan Zhan kissed his forehead warmly and blew out the candles with a wave of his hand.

"Goodnight, Wei Ying."

"Goodnight, Lan Zhan." Wei Ying snuggled closer, closing his eyes.

Lan Zhan breathed in the comforting scent of lotus flowers, and fell asleep to the sound of Wei Ying's heart beating.

The best rhythm, to him.

Wei Ying smiled, falling into a deep sleep.

And then, the dream began.