Soul bound Strangers

20. The meeting

"What made you a coward?" 

Madam Yu, against Wei ying's protest to meet her, made him agree to talk to her in private like she had told him the previous day. 

"What do you want?" Wei ying wasn't rude but he wasn't easy to talk with either. 

"Since you don't wish to talk about your cowardly act, let's talk about the present. What is inside your little brain?" 

"Don't act like you care about me. I am here for my son." 

"Oh.. do you think you could have gotten anywhere near JiXian if it was not for the Jiang sect's relation to the Lan sect?  Don't you also agree that JiXian would have been kept as a Lan heir without any connection to the Jiang sect or you in particular, if our sect had broken all ties with the chief sect?" 

Of course this was something Wei ying was well aware of. If the Jiang sect had severed their ties with the chief sect when he disappeared, by the rules that were implemented by the chief sect, no matter what their relation is, Wei ying or the Jiang couple couldn't have had a chance to meet JiXian in their lifetimes. The Jiang sect indeed stood by JiXian as a family. 

"You gave up on me!" Wei ying chose to divert the topic as he realized that he was not going to be on the winning side. 

"You gave up on us first. Didn't you? You gave up on us when you decided that we cannot help you. You gave up on us when you chose to leave us!" 

Wei ying for the first time in his life, stood there like a log, unable to answer. 

'Mother knows the reason!!!?' 

"I think I didn't care for you enough. If not, you would have trusted me. I don't know and I'm unable to figure out what made you leave." 

"I decided to sever ties thinking not to make you run far from us. If going away was the only option you had, I wanted to make things easier for you." 

Madam Yu's voice was soulless as she said the things that she had kept in for so long. Once again, Wei ying had to agree. Thinking back, if the Jiang sect hadn't severed ties, he would have crossed a few more countries to hide from them. 

"You didn't come in search of me." After a long time, as if complaining, Wei ying commented. 

"It's just that you didn't know." Madam Yu said with a smile. 

"!!?" Wei ying was clueless. 

"I am not going to force you to tell me your problems. I want you to know that I am your mother and I always will stand for you. But, you should know that you have wronged your husband." 

"Initially, when you left, I doubted him. But I was utterly wrong. That man, I saw him becoming nothing but a living dead due to your absence.

It's a long story" She sighed. 

"Anyways, since you are here, I want my A'xian back, not this guy who acts terribly." 

Wei ying forced a smile as he hasn't decided to stay in cloud recesses forever. He didn't know how his mother would react, if he were to say that. 

"Do you trust Wangji?" 

"I do." Wei ying answered before Madam Yu finished her question. 

"Your past actions tell me that you don't trust him enough to share your problems. By having all the problems to yourself, you are hurting him by not trusting him" 

'knock' 'knock' 

"This child..I get exactly thirty minutes to talk to my son?" Madam Yu said, looking at the door. Since she wanted to talk to Wei ying in private, Lan zhan was asked to wait outside. The agreed time was half an hour and Lan zhan knocked the door sharp after thirty minutes. 

"About your question earlier, who do you think made you go to the Gu manor?"

Madam Yu whispered the words while hugging Wei ying. She opened the door and left while Wei ying was still thinking about what she said. 

"Are you alright?" Lan zhan looked at the confused face, waiting for the answer. 

"En?" 

'What did she mean by that?' 

'Isn't it the old man who sent me there?' 

'the bitter medicine too????' 

"Lan zhan, who was the other person who visited the Gu manor with you and the disciples?" 

"Madam Jiang" 

Wei ying remembered the day he visited, when he heard someone asking to leave a seat for Madam. He had wrongly interpreted it to be Lan zhan's new suitor, when the incident took place. 

He also remembered the previous night at the old couple's house when someone fed him medicine during sleep. 

'No wonder it felt so familiar' 

'Yet here I was fighting with her saying she didn't come for me.' Wei ying pouted thinking how stupid he was. 

Wei ying still had many things that he was curious about, but he put them aside. In front of him was his husband, his mind in a dilemma whether he could ask or not. 

Wei ying could feel it. He didn't give Lan zhan the space to ask him any questions. He felt how it must be for Lan zhan now. 

The same feeling that he used to have during the beginning of their married life, the times he had tried to talk about the old fox to Lan zhan, the doubts he had had about whether he should tell him or not etc. 

'Of course I trust Lan zhan. Should I tell him about his Uncle?' 

Lan zhan waved his hand in front of Wei ying's eyes, to bring him back to reality. It has been quite a few minutes since Wei ying had been looking at him without responding to him. 

'knock' 'knock' 

"Wangji" 

Xichen was knocking on the door, looking for his brother. Apparently there was an issue between two small cultivation sects regarding the boundaries of their region. The presence of chief cultivator was required by the sect leaders. 

"It might take two days to travel back and forth. Don't worry, I will be there to look after Wuxian and JiXian." 

Lan zhan who used to look forward to meeting people and solving their issues, glanced back at the closed jingshi door, his heart not having a single bit of interest in leaving now. He didn't know what he was afraid of. About whether Wei ying will be safe without him or whether Wei ying would be still there when he returns.