The Troublemaker Trio (Xicheng)

Chapter 11: Taking the Blame

Wei Wuxian had been at it again. On top of Lan Qiren's desk was a piece of paper. As he looked over it he looked as though he would pop one of the veins on his forehead. His face went tomato red. He grabbed the paper in his right hand and shouted.

"Who did this?" What he held up was a poorly drawn portrait of a man with a red wrinkly nose, big bushy eyebrows, and a long black goatee. It was clearly trying to make a mockery out of Lan Qiren. But the question had been rhetorical.

Although no one had seen the crime occur, the identity of the culprit was evident. Why couldn't his brother break the rules in a way no one would notice? Was he trying to get caught? No wonder those stupid rumors of him intentionally trying to get punished had spread. But that didn't mean Jiang Cheng would just let it continue, there needed to be an end to all the gossip.

"I did it" Jiang Cheng said, standing up from his desk. Lan Qiren's death glare was quickly directed his way. Luckily Jiang Cheng was used to such glares, his mother's was far worse than what the Lan could manage.

"Young master Jiang?" He didn't seem quite convinced.

"I thought it would be funny. But I now see the errors of my ways" Jiang Cheng bowed to his angry teacher. Making a conscious decision to smile as he did.

"You think this is funny? After class go write the Gusu rules." He said firmly. "To think that they can't teach proper manners in Yunmeng" he huffed. Jiang Cheng was upset at the comment. But he held it in because it seemed like Lan Qiren had forgotten to punish the real culprit.

No detention for Wei Wuxian meant no Lan Wangji for Wei Wuxian. That had been Jiang Cheng's plan. Even if he hadn't succeeded in taking the punishment in his brother's stead people might've started spreading rumors about Jiang Cheng's incorrect admission of guilt. That's the thing about gossip. As soon as it's old news, no one cares about it. If you want one rumor to go away, simply start a new one.

After class Jiang Cheng obediently went to the library pavilion. But to his surprise it's not the younger Jade of Lan who's there to greet him but the older one.

"Zewu-jun" Jiang Cheng bowed.

"Young master Jiang, I was surprised to hear that you were the one responsible for interrupting today's lesson. Please sit down" he gestured to a desk already prepared with writing equipment.

"A-ah. yes." Jiang Cheng had nothing more to say. How could he explain his reasoning for doing such a thing as mocking Lan Qiren. Lan Xichen sat down at a desk opposite him and started doing his own work.

"I was less surprised when Wangji reported that young master Wei was the real person behind it." Lan Xichen continued.

"What?" Despite knowing he was responsible, not even Jiang Cheng had seen Wei Wuxian do it, and he had stuck very close to his brother all morning. How come Lan Wangji had managed to see it? Either way this meant Wei Wuxian was in trouble. But given that Lan Xichen was the one responsible for handling today's punishments it wasn't all bad. There still wouldn't be any chance for the two to meet.

Only one problem. His brother wasn't here. Was he skipping his punishment? Jiang Cheng looked around, but sure enough, his brother was nowhere to be seen. He swore under his breath, if he wasn't punished by the Lans he would certainly be punished whenever he showed his face in front of his brother again. Lan Xichen who managed to overhear the Jiang's mumbling spoke up

"If you're wondering about young master Wei, he's having his punishment elsewhere. My brother has come up with a rather... inventive way of punishing him"

So after all this, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji still ended up together. What a waste. But it wasn't like he could rescind his confession. He had still lied, the Lan's would punish him regardless. And so he started copying the rules one by one.

Alcohol is prohibited. An obvious one, Yunmeng had a similar rule for younger disciples. A rule both him and his brother had broken, multiple times.

Do not rise after 5AM. Uck, one of the worst rules. It was far too early. In fact he was still tired from having to rise so early and waking his brother wasn't easy either.

Take the straight path. How was that any different from Stay on the righteous path? Sometimes it felt like the Lans had simply made up new rules to reach the 3000 rule count, but the next one didn't seem as unreasonable.

Do not disrespect the elder. This was one of the many rules his brother had broken today, by pulling his stunt in class.

Disturbing female cultivators is prohibited. Where even where the female cultivators? Besides the female guest cultivators who sometimes took Lan Qiren's classes with them, Jiang Cheng hadn't even seen them.

"How come you took the blame for something your brother had done?" Lan Xichen asked, his eyes not lifting from the paper in front of him. It wasn't like Jiang Cheng could tell Zewu-jun about the rumors which were floating around. Being a Lan, he was probably unaware and Jiang Cheng would rather keep him that way. The less people who knew about it the better.

"Don't repeat offenders get a worse punishment?" Jiang Cheng simply asked, diverting attention away from himself.

"Perhaps, but is it not important for repeat offenders to learn their lesson?" Wei Wuxian would never learn, he was a hopeless case. Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes. His gaze ended up on Lan Xichen as he elegantly wrote large sweeping letters on the paper in front of him.

His hands moved like the calm waves on the water of Lotus Pier. How Jiang Cheng couldn't wait to get home. Couldn't wait for Wei Wuxian to get home. Where if he got into trouble it could be hidden from view, so as to not hurt the Jiang clan's reputation. So far he had gotten caught more times than days they had stayed in the cloud recesses.

"Young master Jiang?" Lan Xichen asked, having caught Jiang Cheng staring at him. Quickly averting his eyes Jiang Cheng went back to copying the rules. After a couple of very uneventful hours Jiang Cheng was eventually let go.

The following days the rumors were as strong as ever and so Jiang Cheng needed to change his strategy. If he couldn't take the blame then he needed to make sure there was no blame to begin with. It might not be possible to stop Wei Wuxian from causing trouble, Jiang Cheng had already tried to do that for over a decade, but he might be able to cover his brother's tracks.