Everyday means everyday: Untamed fanfiction

Chapter 7: Jiang Cheng

"What the hell," he mutters loudly.

"Young Master Wei? May I come in?" Wei WuXian turns his attention away from his flute and towards the door.

"Zewu-jun? Yes, of course." And the door opens.

"Jiang Cheng-, I mean Clan Leader Jiang seemed...upset and angry when he left. I asked him about how it went, but he only muttered 'no' and then said he was tired before hurrying off." Wei WuXian sighs softly.

"I don't want to talk about it," he says firmly, but politely.

"Young Master Wei, what's going on with ChenQing?" The Lan Clan Leader had finally noticed the unusual amount of resentful energy around the ghost flute.

"I'm not sure...it's not me. It's being weird," Wei WuXian mutters, trying not to show that the increasing amount of black smoke was starting to make him feel dizzy and breathe heavier. He backs away from the flute as the smoke starts creeping towards him. However Lan Xichen's keen eyes notice his discomfort and he pulls out Liebing, playing a few notes of 'Song Of Clarity'. The smoke retreats slowly before it gets absorbed back into the flute. Only then did Wei WuXian finally feel relaxed again.

"Lan Zhan told me that...the resentful energy in ChenQing might try to overwhelm me. It's never happened to me over the years though. Perhaps it is because I was injured and I'm using most of my spiritual energy for healing rather than cleansing the resentful energy out of it. Or using demonic cultivation with a weak core makes it more likely for the resentful energy to control me instead of the other way around."
"Perhaps. But your core is not strong enough to cleanse out that resentful energy, right?"

"I have not used ChenQing to control puppets in a very long time. Why would it suddenly react like that?" Wei WuXian had never felt worried about using his flute before. Before his untimely death, he had been quite arrogant and confident in his use of demonic cultivation with ChenQing. At that time, he didn't even have a core, much less a weak one.

"Perhaps that is something to worry about for another day. Young Master Wei, did Clan Leader Jiang say something to you? Or did you say something to him?" There was genuine concern in Lan Xichen's eyes, but Wei WuXian really did not feel like talking about what went on between him and his brother and how badly downhill the conversation had gone.

"We both said things we didn't mean. One thing led to another," Wei WuXian answers dryly.

"And what are you planning on saying once you see each other again," Xichen asks gently. The two of them move over to sit at the table to talk face to face.

"If we see each other again. Will he ever want to see me again? After what happened today?" Wei WuXian's voice was growing bitter, but he did his best to maintain his manners in front of the clan leader.

"Young Master Wei..., I'm sure he will. But what about you? Do you wish for him to see you again? Or rather do you want to see him again?"
"Of course I do...," Wei WuXian whispers. "I just want everything to be okay between us again. What would Shijie think...if she was alive today to see us still fighting after seventeen years?" Lan Xichen was quiet. Jiang Yanli had always been the peacekeeper between the two brothers when they got into arguments. She was gone now and not only that, Jiang Cheng had lived sixteen years thinking that Wei WuXian had been partially responsible for her death, the only blood family he had left after the Wens had slaughtered his parents and annihilated the Jiang clan. He had hated and blamed him for all the lives that were lost that year. Sixteen years of hate and blame could not be erased that easily, even if he knew his brother was not guilty of those deaths now.

"We all figured out the truth behind those deaths last year. Yet, I had a feeling that wouldn't be enough to clear up everything between us." Wei WuXian twirls his flute moodily, his fingers lingering on the lotus tassel longingly.