Solstice Souls Book 2: Black Fire, White Flame

Sugar and Salt

Lan Zhan's POV

Dread fills Lan Zhan and he shivers with a cold fear.

He's not scared of what the clan Elder is saying, but he's terrified because she thinks it's true. That her children have gone missing and it has something to do with him.

"Look!" Her husband shakes a fist in his direction, "he's trembling because he knows we're on to him and his terrible game! What have you done with our children? Are you not ashamed to stand there and say nothing?"

"STOP!" Wei Ying yells at them.

Lan Zhan hates this. He doesn't like loud noises, and the shouting isn't helping.

"I can vouch for Lan Zhan. He slept next to me all night!"

Lan Zhan doesn't miss the fact that Wei Ying uses his birth name on purpose, because saying the title he earned through countless night hunts will only make this worse. To them, Hanguang-Jun is a butcher.

Lan Zhan cannot even think of saying that last word out loud.

To him, it represents a lack of kindness, of having no mercy as a way of earning a living.

Only Wei Ying's hand wrapped firmly around his wrist is keeping him there, keeping him grounded.

"The key word there is 'slept'! Can you not hear yourself, Young Master Wei?" The Elder looks cruel, his face hard and unmovable.

"I would ask the same of you, Elder? Since when does the Wei Clan make accusations without proof? If you don't trust me, then what about our Sect Leaders? Both my parents, Wei Changze and Cangse Sanren, daughter of the Celestial Immortal, my grandmother, Baoshan Sanren, approve of Lan Zhan, Second Jade of Gusu." Wei Ying sounds so sure, so honest, that Lan Zhan is blinking back tears.

"And wait till I tell my parents how you welcomed my fiance, and a guest to our home! I can't believe you people!" Wei Ying's frustration is clear. "Let's find your children first, then we can clear up this misunderstanding."

"That's easy, just ask him!" The lady Elder snapped, venom spurting from her eyes, dark with rage.

Was this how Wei Ying felt? When similar accusations were thoughtlessly thrown at him in Cloud Recesses?

"I have a better idea. Let's find the children who are missing and ask them! That should be proof enough, and I want a suitable punishment in place for when I'm proven right!" Wei Ying adds, though he's not joking at all.

It is not the time or the place, but Lan Zhan has to stop himself from grabbing Wei Ying again and kissing him for everything. Not only is he defending him, but Wei Ying looks so hot right now, it's not even funny.

His legs are apart, Chenqing hanging from his trim waist belt, hair tied up in his usual ponytail, and such a fierce expression on his normal smiling face, robes swishing with the slightest of movement. His left brow is quirked up in a challenge towards the Elders, daring them to refute his statement.

One of them steps forward, a thin frown on her face. She is perhaps a little softer-looking than the others, right now.

"Agreed. The usual?"

"No. Not this time." Wei Ying's smirk says it all, and the Elders look at each other's faces, for the first time questioning themselves.

Their doubts are written all over their faces.

"Since all of you are accusing my man of doing something utterly despicable, the punishment must suit the crime. And, it should be applied to all of you. After all, isn't that one of the reasons why you joined the Wei Clan in the first place? Because this clan believes in fairness? To give everyone a voice?" Wei Ying bites his bottom lip. "If all of you are standing together in this ridiculous belief, then all you must suffer the same fate."