When We Were Young || A WangXian Fanfiction

Age 4 (cont.)

As soon as we arrived back at Cloud Recesses, I ran up to my Gege, Lan Xichen. "Gege, you won't believe what happened!" I said excitedly. Gege smiled. "What?" "When I went down to the city with Uncle, I became friends with this really nice boy! He's from the Jiang Sect." I said. Just then, I heard a snort from behind me. Instantly, Gege and I whirled around to face three boys.

"You made a friend? You must be dreaming. Who would want to be friends with a shrimp like you?" one of them said. My face turned hot, and my smile disappeared. Those three boys were all 3 years older than me, and they loved picking on me. Gege placed his hand on my shoulder.

"Lan Fanxing,  Lan Cheng, Lan Peixin. What do you want with my little brother?" Lan Fanxing, the one who had previously spoken, snorted. "He's obviously lying. Who would want to be friends with this rascal? All he does is study, and he thinks he's so smart." My cheeks flushed. I would play if you guys would let me, I said internally. Gege sighed. "Lan Zhan lets go." He grabbed my hand and dragged me in the opposite direction towards his room.

After Gege shut the door tightly behind us, I let out a frustrated wail. "It's not fair! Just because Uncle is stricter towards me for studies doesn't mean I'm a brat! Why can't everyone be like that Wei Ying. How come he doesn't judge me?" Gege kneeled down beside me. "It seems like this Wei Ying person left a deep influence on you. Tell me more about him." I took a deep breath. 

"I don't really know either...we only talked for about 5 minutes. But he wanted to be friends with me. Unlike everyone else." I sighed. "I don't think I'll ever see him again though." Gege patted me on my back. "I'm sure Uncle would be willing to arrange something." I looked at him hopefully. "Really?" Gege shrugged. "Maybe." I smiled at him. "Gege, do you have a lot of friends?" Gege sighed. "Like you, I have some friends outside of Cloud Recesses, such as Nie Mingjue. But other than him, not really." I tugged on Gege's sleeve. "When was the last time you saw him?" Gege scrunched up his eyebrows. "Maybe...a year or two ago?" I looked at him in horror. "We should ask Uncle to arrange something! Besides, I heard that Mingjue has a little brother named Huaisang." Gege nodded. "That is true. I'll go ask Uncle."

Uncle let us go to Qinghe, but before we did so, we had to bring dozens of scrolls to study with them. I was really excited. When we arrived, two kids ran out to greet us; one who looked as he was my age and another that looked like Gege's height. The shorter one came up to me.

"Are you Lan Zhan? I'm Huaisang. Let's go play!" he said, dragging me by my hand. Startled, I drew my hand back. "Now? Already? What about our brothers? And my scrolls?" Huaisang snorted. "Who cares about studying? You're here to play with me!" I frowned. How could someone disrespect studies like this? I shook my head. "Uncle said we had to study together first before we could play." Huaisang sighed. "But he's not here. He'll never know!" I shook my head again. "I can't..." Suddenly, Mingjue came up to us. "Huaisang, we requested for Lan Zhan to study with you for a while. When you are older, I am sending you to Cloud Recesses to study! Might as well get used to their study methods now. Huaisang looked at his Gege in horror. "But...but..." "No buts! All you do is paint in your room. You need to find something more useful to do in your life. Cloud Recesses has one of the best schools. Lan Zhan can show you some study material. Then you can go play." Huaisang sighed. "Okay..." he grumbled, dragging me to his room.

As soon as I took out the first scroll, Huaisang looked at it in shock. "What is all this?" I looked at him in curiosity. "It's one of the most basic and easiest scrolls. We studied them when we are 3." Huaisang stared at me. "When you were 3?! I don't understand half the concepts on this thing!" I frowned again. "That's not good. Here, I can teach you."

After what felt like hours of explaining to Huaisang, we finally finished the first scroll. I was so tired. Huaisang dragged me onto my feet. "There, we finished the scroll! Now lets go play!" I grumbled. This kid only cares about playing and doesn't care about academics at all.  I hope Wei Ying isn't like this. I sighed. "Okay, you can take me wherever you want." 

Huaisang dragged me all over Qinghe. By the end, I was so tired. "That was fun!" Huaisang giggled. I sighed. All I wanted to do was sleep. "You should come again!" Huaisang said enthusiastically. "Just don't bring any scrolls. Please. I hate studying." I glanced at him. He's too playful I thought. Who doesn't like studying scrolls? 

"Maybe," I said. "I don't know-" Just then, my Gege and his Gege came into the room. "Lan Zhan, it's time to go." I sighed in relief. Finally! Huaisang is nice, but he talks too much, is far too energetic, and hates studying. "Goodbye, Nie Huaisang and Nie Mingjue. Maybe we'll see each other again." Huaisang waved. "Byebye!" 

As we headed back towards Cloud Recesses, I let out a huge sigh. Gege caught this, and looked at me. "Did you not like Huaisang?" I shook my head. "He's a nice person, but overly energetic. And he didn't understand most the concepts on the beginner scroll. I..." I paused. "I would rather see Wei Ying again."