Fluffy WangXian Oneshots Book Two

Tied To The Ocean Part 1

The sun is warm on Lan Zhan’s back as he holds onto XiChen's hand, walking in front of his mother and their Uncle. He can hear them talking about something important, like all adults are prone to do, but his six year old self knows enough not to interrupt.

He can still listen, though.

“I do not understand why you had to move all the way out here,” Lan Qiren grumbles. “Suzhou is two hours away and you can travel back here whenever the whim strikes. You did not need to move here.”

“Relocating here has been…a welcome change. I feel reconnected to the earth in a spiritual way, and it is good for me.”

“But what about the boys?”

“You know why I cannot stay there,” Madam Lan insists. “And you are not to tell your brother where I am. As for the boys, well, they can stay here for the summer months when he's gone, and he won't be any the wiser.”

“I will not tell him,” Lan Qiren agrees, “but-”

“But nothing, Qiren!” Madam Lan exclaims, annoyed at him now. “Listen to me. I feel like this place…it has called me here for a reason. My mother used to say, ‘Salt is in our blood, in our sweat, and in our tears. We are tied to the ocean’. I do not want to hear another word about it now.”

She runs ahead, light footed and with an ease of movement that Lan Zhan rarely sees except when she's weeding or gardening in the extensive acres behind the Lan Manor. But his mother is no longer going to live with them now. She has come to live here, in this little seaside town, two hours away from home. It has been hard for Lan Zhan to understand why.

Their mother has chosen to live apart from them, and he thinks it must be something they have done, or perhaps it was their father, but he's hardly ever around and when he is, the arguing is endless.

Today is an exciting day for Lan Zhan. He has been promised to be shown something extraordinary, something so big that it might be scary, but XiChen says he will protect him. Lan Zhan trusts XiChen, and he knows his older brother never breaks his promises.

They climb over the last of the golden dunes, the thick and heavy sand going into his shoes, and Lan Zhan doesn't like that part very much, but he can hear something.

It's like the wind but as if it was singing to him. The breeze carries the sound of the waves as they whisper and retreat off the shore, and suddenly, there it is.

The sea.

So much water that Lan Zhan has nothing he can compare it to. The little swimming pool in his hometown used to be the biggest body of water in Lan Zhan’s mind, but now he can see that this ocean has no limits. He shields his eyes with his pudgy little hands and stares out, far away into the glittering horizon, the golden sunshine making the waters appear like rippling orange juice.

“A-Zhan! A-Huan! Come and dip your feet!” Their mother shouts, ignoring Lan Qiren's grimace of disapproval at her loudness.

Uncle Qiren spreads out a blanket big enough for the four of them and starts to inflate the floaters, the swimming aids that their mother acquired especially for Lan Zhan. XiChen can swim already, and soon, Lan Zhan will be just as good as him.

He does not mind having the swimming aids because they're shaped like a bunny. It's a white donut ring with pink floppy ears and a plastic fluffy tail and Lan Zhan can't wait to use it. He knows how to float already, but XiChen told him the sea isn't like a swimming pool. It can be dangerous.

His mother is dipping her feet in the water and she squeals, splashing and kicking her feet as Lan Zhan hurries to her side.

“A-Zhan! It's so cold!” She shivers, still laughing like she used to with her head thrown back.