This is a very unhappy and very sick toddler! She has a seizure on his way back to Gusu - short - another when he gets there - longer -

He is really not in remotely good shape himself. 

He half-collapses when he reaches Cloud Recesses. It's all he can do to press A-Yuan on his brother before passing out. 

Well on the one hand this is really not great but, on the other hand, Wangji is back and alive and this is really so much better than he was afraid of. 

It is blatantly obvious that both his brother and the child need a healer. He has absolutely no idea where this baby came from (aside from...one possibility...which is intensely disturbing on multiple levels) but anything that keeps his brother from haring off to get himself killed in the most dramatic and romantic way possible is a good thing. He hands them both over to the healers and quietly frets. 

Baby remains very sick for a while - but eventually her fever breaks, and she settles into a somewhat more restful sleep.

Wangji wakes, in the Jingshi, with Brother hovering over him. He is no longer delirious, but of course his back isn't in much better condition, and he had made it significantly worse by haring off to the Burial Mounds like that. 

"Where is A-Yuan?" are the first words out of his mouth. 

"A-Yuan is the child you brought back with you?" 

"Yes." 

"She's with the healers." 

"Mn." 

"Who is she, Wangji?" 

He hadn't really considered what to say about that. The truth is, of course, completely out of the question. Even if Uncle and the Elders didn't demand her death for the sin of being born a Wen, there was no way Uncle would allow him to adopt Wei Wuxian's child. 

Well, he didn't intend to give them a choice. 

"She is mine." 

Brother raises an eyebrow at him. He simply gazes back, unmoved and unmoving. He does not blame Brother for allowing him to be whipped; Brother is a sect leader, with responsibilities beyond his younger brother, and Wangji had hurt thirty-three elders of their sect. 

But nor does he regret standing between Wei Ying and harm. Nor will he relent in the case of this child, all that is left of him in the world and an innocent in her own right. 

Eventually Brother sighs and stands. "Lan Yuan, then. I'll tell Uncle, but don't be surprised if he comes to talk to you." 

"Mn." 

When A-Yuan wakes up properly, she's:

a) confused

b) groggy

c) still achy

and

d) very very UPSET.

She's not sure where she is, but someone's definitely missing and something's definitely wrong and she's gonna cry about this!!!

One of the healers notices she's awake and comes over to see what the trouble is. 

She! Doesn't! Know!

(Her brain feels like soggy overheated mush. There is definitely some person who is missing though. Her... Daddy? Maybe? That seems like a word for a person she could be missing.)

...Daddy!!!!!! WHERE!!!!

The healer has been informed that Lan Wangji showed up with a child he was claiming was his, having aggravated his injuries terribly. She had no idea what was going on, but it wasn't really any of her business, and anyway, gossip was forbidden in the Cloud Recesses.

"Your father is resting in his own room. He's injured. If I take you to him, can you avoid jostling him or doing anything that might aggravate his wounds?"

"...Yes." It's very important she see daddy. It's also very important daddy not hurt.

The healer brings her to the Jingshi. 

"A-Yuan," Wangji breathes when he sees her. 

She's really confused! She doesn't remember what daddy looks like but she thought maybe it was different. More smiling? But that name feels right...

"Daddy???" she asks.

A look of pain crosses his face. 

"Come here, A-Yuan," he murmurs. 

She toddles over, brow furrowed, and stares in concern at her maybe-daddy.

He gestures for the healer to leave, insistently, until she does. 

"What do you remember?" he asks A-Yuan. 

...She's pretty sure there was another daddy? But she can't remember the word for when you're supposed to have two of something and instead you have one of something and the world is not being nice and giving you the second thing. Words are dumb. People should just know everything she knows, and it's super frustrating when they seem to not know really obvious things, like whatever she's thinking.

Her head hurts.

"...Two daddies?" she settles on, rubbing at her cheek in a vague attempt to get her forehead to stop doing the hurting thing. Then, something about that - she brightens up. "Butterflies! Daddy smiled."

He nods. 

"You must never tell anyone else about your--your other father," he tells her quietly. "He--he died. And if people knew you were his, you would not be safe."

...Oh. That is BAD.

She tears up, but nods.

"He loved you very much. He hid you away so that you would be safe. I found you, and brought you here. I--I do not know when I will be able to get out of bed on my own again. I am sorry." 

She thinks very seriously.

"Kiss it better?"

"I am sorry. I think it is probably too severe for kisses to fix." 

That is VERY BAD. Ouchies should not be too bad for kisses!!!

She huffs and sits down.

Very carefully, moving slowly to avoid aggravating his injuries, he raises a hand to pet her hair and begins humming quietly. 

She sniffles and cries and hugs herself and then gradually starts humming too. It's a nice song. She likes songs.

"His name was Wei Wuxian. You will hear people say terrible things about him. Do not listen to them. But do not let them know." 

(People should not be mean to any daddy.)

"Why???"

"He did things which made many people angry."

"Why?"

"Because people become angry when they are frightened, and people are frightened by what they don't understand." 

She bites her lip, absorbing this, then rubs at her eyes again. They itch.

He pets her some more, then gently tugs her up onto the bed. 

She climbs up, very careful not to touch him too much since he's hurt, finding a clear place to flop out and quietly cry.

He pets her and hums some more. 

She interrupts some of her crying to hum with him, and eventually calms down enough to drop back off to sleep.

He keeps petting her. 

Brother comes in while she's asleep. Wangji continues petting the sleeping child, waiting for his brother to speak. 

"The healers say she is doing better," Brother says. 

"Good." 

"They have no idea what to make of her origins." 

"Mn."

"Wangji..."

"She is mine." 

"I understand that, brother."

"Does Uncle?" 

"..." 

"She is mine. That is all anyone needs to know." 

"...I'd like to meet her properly. Is it alright if I stay for a while, in case she wakes?" 

"Mn."

Eventually she wakes up. Groggily and reluctantly and still achy from her fever, but - she's awake.

She makes a muffled, curious noise.

"A-Yuan," he murmurs softly. 

"Daddy?" she asks, opening her eyes and glancing around.

There is an unfamiliar man sitting nearby who greatly resembles Wangji. 

"This is my elder brother, Lan Xichen." 

"...Uncle?" she asks after a moment spent searching for the right word.

He smiles at her. "Hello, A-Yuan." 

She smiles back, slowly. "Hello!"

"Are you feeling better?" 

"Yeah." Pause. "Daddy's hurt."

"...Yes. He is." 

"Is bad."

"Yes. It's upsetting." 

She nods, slowly. "Why is daddy hurt?"

"...Your daddy broke some very important rules. The laws of the sect demanded that he be punished." 

...What.

That's BAD. Punishing laws are BAD.

Her face scrunches up.

"I hurt people, A-Yuan. Elders of the sect." 

"...Should not hurt daddy."

"That's very filial of you, A-Yuan." 

Huff. "I'll protect daddy."

"I love my brother very much, so that makes me very happy." 

...Okay he's an acceptable uncle. Even if he clearly didn't stop daddy getting hurt.

"Good."

"Do you want to come see the bunnies, A-Yuan?"

She glances at daddy, unsure if she should leave him while he's hurt, since she's pretty sure there's no bunnies in this room.

He gives her a permissive nod. 

"Okay."

He takes her out to a field that contains an entire hutch full of soft adorable rabbits. 

Okay these are VERY good bunnies! Soft!!!

He shows her how to make the bunnies like her, sitting still or moving slowly enough not to frighten them and offering them treats. 

This is less fun that kitties, but still pretty interesting. Sitting still is new.

And the bunnies are VERY soft. 

They don't claw her when she pokes their bellies, either!

They do not! 

"I think they like you." 

"I like them!"

"I'm glad." 

She pats him, flopping a bit. "Good uncle."

"Thank you!"

Heee.

She passes a very happy bit with the bunnies, though she's soon getting a weird sort of restless-tired.

"Are you getting tired, A-Yuan?"

"...I guess."

He picks her up to carry her back to the Jingshi. 

She bounces around the room a bit when she gets there, to get her jitters out, then climbs back into bed with daddy, falling asleep rather quickly.

Wangji cuddles her insofar as his injuries allow and talks quietly with his brother. 

The next day her uncle wants to bathe her and dress her in tiny little Lan robes. 

This seems SUSPICIOUS.

She'll allow it, though, because he is a good uncle, even if water is highly suspicious and the robes are weird and new and not her old robes.

"Bathing is important because otherwise you will get very dirty and you can get sick," he explains as he washes her. 

Hmmmmm yes that seems reasonable. She doesn't like being sick.

The little Lan robes are, in fact, not her old robes, but they are prettier and softer and fit her better. 

Hmmmmm. Softness is good. They still need to be tested for how well they enable tree climbing, though.

Her uncle will take her outside and supervise while she attempts to climb a tree, then. 

The robes don't hinder her movements at all. 

She is very good at tree climbing! And laughs a lot when branches shake under her, or when she slips, or when she looks around.

"Please be careful," he says when she slips, "if anything happened to you, your father would be very upset, and you only just recovered from a very severe fever." 

"Okay..."

"Thank you."

Eventually she gets tired of climbing trees, and wants to go back to daddy.

Her father is reading something, but he puts it down to pay attention to her as soon as the door opens. 

She climbs up, glancing at his book, and waits for uncle to leave - a bit impatiently, but she does wait.

He does. 

To daddy, "I want a story."

Oh he just bets Wei Ying was great at stories. He is so much worse at words. 

Oh well. He is not going to disappoint this child more than the minimum guaranteed by the fact that he is not Wei Ying. 

"What kind of story?"

"About you and other daddy." She doesn't remember a lot, which is - bad. She doesn't like it.

"Alright," he says, and tells her about the first time he and Wei Ying met, when the latter was sneaking jars of Emperor's Smile into the Cloud Recesses and they dueled about it. 

She giggles, enjoying the story. "Silly daddies," is her judgement.

"Silly?"

"Fighting about rules."

She is so much like Wei Ying and it makes his heart ache. 

"I thought that rules were more important than they are, back then. Deliberately and flagrantly breaking the rules like that seemed unthinkable to me." 

Very gentle hug.

Hug. Pat. "Rules are usually there for a reason. Following them most of the time is a good idea. But there are things important enough to break the rules for, and I didn't understand that." 

"...Rules are silly."

"Your other father thought so too." 

More gentle hugging.

"Rules do have reasons. A rule against loud noises prevents those who are meditating from being disrupted by the sound. A rule against running decreases the risk of accidental injury and facilitates a peaceful atmosphere. But the rules that some people need stifle others." 

She makes a dubious face about this. Other people having different needs is a really big thought.

"When I told you to tell no one who your other father was, that was a rule. That rule is because you would not be safe if the truth about you were known to the wrong people. If you break that rule casually, people will hurt you. But if you find someone you can really trust, who you really want to truly understand you, then breaking the rule would be the right choice." 

Slowly: "...Okay."

"Thank you." That was SO MANY WORDS AUGH maybe he can just cuddle her silently for a while. 

She has acquired many things to think, and is okay cuddling quietly! And then sleeping. (It was a good bedtime story, after all.)

Oh good. 

Lan Wangji continues to be unable to get out of bed. Her uncle wants to put her in classes with the other children her age. 

She's more excited about the 'children her age' part than the 'classes' part. Why can't daddy just tell her everything, since he knows everything???

Oh no that's so cute. 

"Some things can't be learned just by being told them. Writing, for example, or meditation, or martial arts; you have to practice those things."

"...Okay. Martial arts first?"

"We only have so many teachers, so you have to learn with the other children, and right now the children are learning to write." 

"I guess. I like stories."

"Stories are wonderful," he agrees. 

He brings her to the classroom, where she is introduced to the teacher and the other children, most of whom are also surnamed Lan. She is given a baby-sized brush and set to learning to read and write. 

This is soooooooooooo tedious. She amuses herself by being as creative as she can with the brush strokes, as long as the final result's still readable (it's not readable to anyone but her). She likes reading, though, except for all the memorization parts.

The teacher chides her lightly on her penmanship but don't seem to have any idea she's doing it on purpose. 

Maybe she can. Trick teachers??? This seems like it might be entertaining. More entertaining than copying the same thing over and over at least.

The teacher seems to have no idea a small child would want to trick them about their penmanship! This makes them much easier to trick. 

Heeeeeeeeee.

Then she won't be disrupted in drawing animals and plants shaped in a vague impression of words! This swoosh can be a FLOWER and that figure is a HORSE with a HAT...

The teacher thinks her handwriting is HORRIBLE but she's progressing acceptably on reading. 

It's actually a lot easier to remember 'horse with hat' than 'collection of swooshes' and now writing is FUN, so she's practicing lots, so she's going really quickly on reading!

(Also being HORRIBLE is really funny to her for some reason.)

Her father continues to be stuck in bed. He's not especially happy about it. He'd like to hear how she's doing in classes. 

She chatters really excitedly about noticing shapes in words! And how she's drawing art words and the teacher thinks she just has bad penmanship so she's TRICKING her teacher!

She wants to make some art for daddy's walls!!! Being stuck in bed staring at the same walls sounds horrible. She's also learning to read, so she can read him so many stories now! Some of the stories are dumb, though, and should be changed, but she can read the written version first then the better version?

He's very pleased with her using shapes to learn to read and ruffles her hair affectionately about tricking the teacher. 

He would absolutely love if she made art for his walls and told him stories. He will listen to all the versions of the stories.

Yay!

She draws the prettiest art next time she gets enough paper to practice a few different copies, including Fun Art Words. And stories! This one is about a very filial rabbit but it'd be cooler if it was about a rabbit with very sharp teeth, and this other one about the same rabbit having more adventures should have the restless dead in it and the rabbit should have a sword...

She also after some thought makes up a story about two rabbits who can't have children pulling up a turnip from their garden, but actually it's a baby!!! The baby rabbit has a SWORD and goes on COOL ADVENTURES where vague things happen.

"Mm. Not a turnip. A radish." 

"Okay! A radish baby then! Radish rabbit baby..." She giggles.

"Your other father used to bury you up to your neck in the dirt and say you were a radish." 

Awwwwwwwww!!!

She laughs and gently hugs his leg.

"Best radish!"

"Yes. You are the best of all radishes." 

Happy snuggle. "Best daddy!" Pause. Thoughtful face. "Tied with other daddy."

He is pretty sure she is only saying that because she can't remember Wei Ying, who was obviously better. But: "Thank you." 

He is incredibly pleased with all her art and has Xichen attach all of it to the walls since he can't reach. 

He thinks she should probably learn to write words so other people can read them at some point. She can practice in the Jingshi if she doesn't want her teacher to know she can. 

Hmmmmm.

Well, maybe she can write her stories down for daddy. Then he can have them even when she's in class!

That would make him very very happy. 

!! Good!!

She spends some of the time she's hanging out in his room practicing her writing properly, then, until it's good enough he can read it consistently. She also makes up more stories. She's going to have SO MANY to write.

He adores reading and listening to her stories, listening with laser focus to absolutely everything she has to say. He can't go outside with her, tragically, but he can make Brother take her to see the bunnies and climb trees and so on when even the martial arts classes aren't enough to bleed off her energy. 

She has SO MUCH energy. This is a good choice.

She's also very reckless with injury. (She can JUMP from TREES. And also sprint everywhere!)

She damn near gives him a heart attack the first time she jumps out of a tree. He is so incredibly looking forward to when Wangji can do this HIMSELF. 

The first time she encounters Lan Qiren, she is sprinting an everywhere when she crosses his path.

He fixes her with a firm stare. "Running is forbidden." 

She stares back at him.

"I'm not running," she says, after a pause. "I'm sprinting."

"Ah. Sprinting is a kind of running. Now you know." 

And then he sweeps off. 

Her uncle catches up with her a moment after Lan Qiren is out of sight. 

"There you are," he says, scooping her up. 

She turns from sticking out her tongue at random guy's back to smiling at her uncle. "I'm here!"

He carries her back to the jingshi and leaves her with Wangji before heading off to deal with important sect leader business. 

She tells daddy all about her day! She found a cool rock (presented here out of a pocket), and jumped off a tree, and ran a bunch, and met a weird guy who told her sprinting is a type of running and running is forbidden...

Any heart attacks he may have about her jumping out of trees he keeps strictly internal. Her cool rock is very cool. Probably she should be very very VERY careful about making sure she has a place to land if she is going to be jumping out of any trees so she doesn't break her leg. His leg was broken once and it was Very Not Fun. 

Sprinting is a kind of running and running is strictly speaking forbidden, she should probably be more careful not to get caught. Which weird guy was this?

She'll be SUPER careful, promise.

And he didn't say his name but she can describe him. And secret running sounds fun!

"That sounds like Lan Qiren." 

"Who's he?"

"My uncle. He teaches older students." 

"Is he always no fun?"

"Yes." 

"Awww."

"He is very strict. Be especially careful about not being caught breaking rules if he is present." 

"So I gotta trick him really hard?"

"Yes. If necessary. It is probably better to avoid him." 

"Okay. Why?"

"He hated your other father." 

"...Oh." She pouts. "But... No one knows?"

"No one knows. But you are very like your other father, and even if the truth doesn't occur to my uncle, if he realizes how like your father you are he may come to dislike you over it, and make your life more difficult."

"Oh." She thinks very hard about this. "...That's mean."

"Yes." 

He carefully tugs her in to his arms to hug her. 

Hug!!!

"Being mean should be forbidden," she grumps.

"It is difficult to say what is mean well enough to forbid it." 

"Huh." She puzzles over this for a bit. Being mean seems like a pretty obvious kind of thing to her.

Cuddle cuddle. "I love you. I will do everything I can to protect you. Whether it is from broken legs or mean great-uncles." 

Cuddles! "I wanna protect you too."

"I am glad. But right now you are still learning almost everything. If you focus on learning now, you'll be better able to protect people when you're older and more skilled." 

Hmmmmm. That is disappointingly logical.

He strives not to be disappointing in any other way. 

Her teachers continue to be satisfied with her progress in reading and to badger her into please at least be legible in her handwriting even if she can't manage presentable. She advances in her tiny child martial arts/phys ed classes. They begin to instruct the children in meditation. 

Her handwriting remains absolutely artistically terrible, unless she's writing stories for daddy.

She likes meditating! She likes it best if she's also moving, or if she's staring at something interesting, or if she's listening to music, or if she's balancing somewhere weird, but it's fun in general. Her head gets floaty whenever she manages to get all the crowding out of it. (She has a lot of thoughts, usually, all tripping over each other. They're all neat thoughts but they make her head very heavy.)

Her father is very proud, and badgers his brother into helping him shift into a position where he can play his guqin for her. 

!!! Pretty!!!

He can't do it as often as he'd like, because Brother is only so badgerable when it comes to being careful of his wounds, but he does it as often as he can. He continues listening to everything she says with rapt attention; he puts all her art on the walls and hides her stories when he's not reading them so that a healer who barges in unannounced won't realize she can write readably and inform her teachers. 

He doles out stories of her other father when she asks for them. The story of how he acted up in class and was assigned to copy the rules for punishment, with Wangji supervising, and he constantly prodded Wangji for attention instead of doing his assigned copying, even drawing a picture of Wangji with a flower in his hair. (He kept the picture. He tells A-Yuan where to find it, so she can see.) The story of how he got in a fight with another student because said student was being mean to his absent sister, and was ultimately expelled for punching him in the face. 

The story of how he gave Wangji the first two bunnies as a goodbye present. 

She loves the stories. She's delighted by the picture of daddy with a flower in his hair, and quasi-secretly figures out how to make an origami flower like the one other daddy drew, so daddy can always have flowers. Other daddy defending his sister is good, too.

Learning the bunnies are from other daddy makes her like them even more.

She wants to know everything about all the songs, too!

This one is "Inquiry." This one is "Rest." This one is "Clarity." He teaches her their uses in cultivation. Others have more mundane origins. 

She likes all the songs! Though songs that do cool magic things are really really interesting.

(He does not tell her that he tries to call her other father's spirit when he plays Inquiry, and he has never responded. She doesn't need that.) 

Her teachers continue to praise her progress in reading, martial arts, and meditation and despair over her handwriting. 

They begin formally learning the three thousand and some odd rules of the Lan Sect.

The rules are so boring. She mostly just ignores them - unless someone tries really hard to get her to obey all the rules.

If her teachers catch her breaking the rules they will definitely try to get her to stop that! In the form of assigning copying the rules as punishment. 

That's a really silly punishment and not actually all that effective on her. She does scribble for a bit, sometimes, but her handwriting's so atrocious it's impossible to tell if she's drawing or copying.

As long as she has the right number of characters she can get away with this with no more than the typical clucking over her penmanship.

She mostly has the right number of characters. (She's very annoyed about the copying, and complains about it to daddy.)

Her daddy pets her and tells her she's following a tradition started by her other father of doing other things when you are supposed to be copying the rules and has she considered humorous subversions.

That sounds fun!

One of the other children also frequently  has copying. His handwriting is almost as bad as hers.

She's been having trouble making friends properly. That deters her zero from smiling at the other kid and trying to chatter with him whenever they both have copying!

The teacher supervising them attempts to shush them but by the third time the two of them have copying together he's given up as long as they chatter quietly and don't stop writing. 

"I don't know why the teachers always say your handwriting's bad, I think it's really pretty," he says.

"Thanks! They can't read it, so they think it's no good."

"Can you read it?"

"Yeah. Just fine."

"Why can't they?"

"I think they're not looking if it's too weird."

"Can I see?"

"Yeah!" She pushes her sheet over.

The boy studies the characters but hasn't worked out what any of them are besides "pretty" by the time the teacher scolds her to go back to writing instead of showing off what she's already written. 

Huff. (She writes a bit more.)

"Well, they are pretty. I'm Lan Jingyi, what's your name?"

"I'm Lan Yuan!"

He grins at her before ducking over his paper again when the teacher shoots him a look. 

Having a buddy makes copying so much better.

Eventually they're done copying and he asks if she wants to play with him. 

"Yeah!!!"

He brings her back to his parents' rooms and shows her his toys. 

Oooo. Toys are fun! She wants to play games and make up stories with them.

Okay! 

She has so many story ideas! (And isn't used to having friends, so might need some push back to let him take turns helping with stories.)

He will push back by interrupting her current story with a toy he declares to be a HORRIBLE FIERCE CORPSE YAARGH

Hah! (She's pretty receptive to that.) THIS toy is the AWESOME BUNNY WARRIOR Bun Yuan! Who beats up fierce corpses with her musical sword!

OH YEAH well SECRETLY this fierce corpse is THE GHOST GENERAL HIMSELF, TAKE THAT. 

Hmmmmm that is very tough. Bun Yuan is in Serious Trouble now! She runs away from the ghost general LOTS and then plays a SECRET SONG that tames him!!!

NU-UH. ONLY YILING LAOZU COULD EVER CONTROL THE GHOST GENERAL. 

Well CLEARLY that was because of SECRET SONGS which Bun Yuan knows!!!

Ooooooh. How did Bun Yuan learn the secret songs?

That stumps her for a few seconds. (She's not supposed to say other daddy is her daddy but maybe he can be Bun Yuan's daddy??? Hm there's no adults around, and she's pretty sure it's only adults and tattlers who Should Not Know, and Bun Yuan isn't actually her and Lan Jingyi is definitely not a tattler.)

Dramatic stage whisper: Yiling Laozu carved Bun Yuan out of a radish, and sang the songs to her! It's a very big secret!

WHOAH. 

Heeeeeeeeee.

Probably all these other toys will notice something up with the SECRET SONGS though...

Nah. There are lots of secret songs, probably they assume it's just a Bun clan secret. But she'll have to be careful about the Ghost General because if anyone notices she's controlling him, SANDU SHENGSHOU will come for her!!!!!

She's gonna have to HIDE the Ghost General then! (She puts a pillow over the toy.)

Clever! 

The toys she rescued from the Ghost General will shower her with gifts and acclaim!

She laughs and preens.

"You're good at stories!" she says, happily.

"Thanks! You are too!" 

"We should play together more!"

"Yeah!"

"I gotta go tell daddy about my day soon though. Play tomorrow?"

"Okay!" 

Hug!

!!! Ee hug! He hugs back enthusiastically. 

Heee!!!

She likes hugging! Eventually, though, it is, actually, time for her to leave. She heads off with a wave and a skip in her step.

Lan Wangji is reading one of her stories when she comes in. 

Good! She gently scooches up on the bed and waits for him to stop reading.

He puts the papers down and hugs her carefully. 

Hug!

"I made a friend!"

"That's wonderful. Who?"

"Lan Jingyi! He thinks my handwriting is pretty. He's really good at stories!"

"I'm very glad to hear that." 

"I should bring him here tomorrow!"

"Alright." 

Happy snuggle.

She chatters a bit more, but falls asleep soon enough.

Mm. 

The next day she doesn't have copying after classes but Jingyi still does; he was caught running in the halls. 

She waits for him outside the library, at first meditating then following a butterfly around.

When he emerges, he runs over to her, clearly having learned nothing from his punishment but thankfully not spotted by anyone who cares, although he does accidentally startle the butterfly away. 

"Hi!"

"Hi!!!!" She approves of not learning things from punishments, fortunately!

"Whatcha doing?"

"I was looking at a butterfly while I waited for you!"

"Oh." He looks around for the butterfly and spots it, now well out of reach. "I'm here now!"

"Yeah! We should play more. And I can introduce you to daddy!"

"Okay! What do you wanna play?"

"Hmmmm... We can... Play music, or stories, or art? Or go outside and play tag after you meet daddy!"

"What's tag?"

"Chase each other around! Like if you're a fierce corpse and I'm a cultivator!"

"Running isn't allowed!" He considers this. "Okay! That sounds fun!"

She giggles. "Maybe you can shamble instead! Be a walking corpse!"

"No way! If I'm gonna be a corpse, it'd have to be a really cool one!"

"Okay! The coolest corpse."

"Raar! I'm Wen Ning!" he says, and lunges at her. 

She laughs and runs away, leading him into the best secret running paths.

She's gonna be Bun Yuan (who doesn't have her music sword, so can't play her secret songs, so has to actually Properly Fight)!

He chases her gleefully, eventually managing to slap a hand against her shoulder. 

Oh no she's CAUGHT!

...What happens when you get CAUGHT.

"Uh, uh, now you're a fierce corpse too!"

"But then who do we chase?"

"...I dunno." He sits down and puts his head in his hands, contemplating this. 

"Maybe... I should chase you now?"

"Okay!"

He gets up and runs away. 

She laughs and then remembers she's a fierce corpse and starts chasing him with a roar.

"Eeeeeek!" he cries out, laughing, and runs faster. 

Heeeeeeeeee.

She chases him through the various back paths!

Eventually she catches him and he stumbles to a stop and sits down, giggling. 

She giggles, flopping next to him. "That was fun!"

"Yeah!" 

"I like playing with you."

"I like playing with you too!" 

Heeeeeeeeeeee.

"We should go meet daddy now!" she says after a moment's thought.

"Okay!" 

He looks around, realizing for the first time that he isn't actually sure which way to go to get back to the Cloud Recesses. 

...HMMMMMMMM. She's not sure either. Explore?

...Okay. 

He's kind of scared, he's never been this lost before, but he's trying really really hard to be brave as they try to find their way back.

She tells him stories as they walk to help distract him. (She's pretty much zero scared; this just seems like an Adventure.)

Eventually they make their way to the edge of the forest and the Cloud Recesses. It's nowhere near where they left from but at least now they know where they are. 

Good!!!

She leads him back to her daddy's rooms.

He stops when he sees where she's leading him. 

"Your dad is Hanguang-jun?" he asks, awestruck. 

"Yeah!"

"Whoah..." 

He starts following her again, wide-eyed. 

"He's not scary," she explains, leading the rest of the way. "He's my daddy! Though he is also super cool."

"He's a big hero who fought in the Sunshot Campaign and goes where the chaos is! He's amazing! I can't believe he's your dad." 

Heeeee. Her dad does so many cool things.

"Yeah! He's a good dad."

"Everyone says he's in seclusion right now for some reason." 

"He got hurt really bad. He's resting."

"Ohh," he says, nodding. He knows that sometimes people get hurt on night-hunts, and even the best cultivators can end up fighting creatures that are strong enough to really hurt them before they go down. 

"So it's important not to jump on him, and he can't leave bed..."

"I wouldn't jump on Hanguang-jun!!!"

She snickers. "I would! If he wasn't hurt."

"That's different, he's not my dad."

She nods, considering this. "I don't think he'd get you in trouble, though, for anything. He's nice."

He looks dubious. "But he's a grownup." 

Serious nod. "But he's a nice grownup!"

"He's important! He's the Sect Leader's brother and he's Lan Qiren's nephew and he's Hanguang-jun and more important people always get you in more trouble if you break the rules in front of them."

Hmmm. That's a very big thought.

"He might for the really big rules? But he says some rules should be broken sometimes. I don't think he meant just by me."

He looks even more awestruck at this. "Really?"

"Yeah! I think he got so awesome he got wise and noticed some rules are silly!"

"Wow." 

They reach the Jingshi. 

She runs inside.

"Daddy! I brought my friend!"

He smiles and holds out an arm for hug. 

Gentle hug!

Jingyi steps in nervously and bows. 

"Hello, Hanguang-jun." 

"You must be Lan Jingyi." 

"Yes, Hanguang-jun." 

"A-Yuan has told me about you." 

"I'm honored, Hanguang-jun."

"We pretended to be fierce corpses today!" she says, brightly. "Lan Jingyi is really really fast!"

"Are you." 

"I guess so, Hanguang-jun." 

"You were running with A-Yuan."

"...Yes, Hanguang-jun." 

"Mn. Be careful."

"...Yes, Hanguang-jun!"

Whisper to Jingyi: "Told you he's cool!"

Jingyi nods shyly, starstruck. 

Heh.

She hugs daddy again, then says, "We're gonna play more now!"

"Have fun. Be careful." 

"We will!!!"

"You have the coolest dad ever," he tells her when they've left. 

"I do."

"What do you wanna play now?"

Hm... Stories?

Okay! This story is about a cultivator who is a fox and has a sword made of, uh, BLOOD. 

Ooooooo!!!

Blood sword is SO COOL. Bun Yuan wants to know where the fox cultivator got his sword!

He...made it? Out of the blood of, uh, an eagle yao he killed. 

Oooo.

He and Bun Yuan should team up!

Okay! If he and Bun Yuan are going to team up they'll have to find something REALLY STRONG to fight though or it'll just be overkill. 

HMMMM.

Maybe the fierce corpse of the XUANWU of SLAUGHTER. (Which has the COOLEST name.)

OH WOW YEAH. 

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

This is a huge challenge, even for them!

Yeah it super is! The Xuanwu of Slaughter is MIGHTY and TERRIBLE and its breath reeks of a thousand rotting corpses!!!

Especially since it's a corpse itself now! It's SUPER ANGRY!

It's so angry! Yaaaaaaaaah! It's gonna rampage all over the place!

Then they'll have to STOP IT!

But how???

Bun Yuan can play music to distract it!

Ooh, okay, and then the fox can cut its head off with the blood sword!

Yeah!!! But the Xuanwu might not go down that easily...

Now there is a HEADLESS RAMPAGING XUANWU. And it can't even hear the distracting music anymore!!!

Terrible! They need to trap it! Maybe they can trip it up...

Fox Cultivator will use the blood from the Xuanwu's fresh victims to make a BLOOD ROPE to tie around its feet!

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

While it's tied up, she cuts off its legs!

Now Xuanwu can't run around trampling people, but it can still whip them with its tail!

Well, if Xuanwu can't trample people, they can back up, and attack it from far off!

Fox Cultivator shoots BLOOD ARROWS at it!

Bun Yuan uses... Chord assassination technique! (She heard about that for the first time today. It sounded Super cool.)

But how? She plays music using her sword, not a guqin. 

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

She adapts it to her sword!

How does she do that? Swords aren't bendy like guqin strings! 

...Except for BLOOD SWORDS. 

Maybe she suggests it to Fox Cultivator!

YEAH! FWOOSH!

FWOOSH!!! The Xuanwu dies! (Again).

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

HEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

ALL the people in the whole cultivator world throw them SO MANY parties!

Wow! All of them? They'll have to go so many places to go to all the parties!

That's why there's a bunch of parties! They're gonna get to see ALL the places!

Okay! They'll go to Yunmeng, and Qinghe, and Lanling, and...and all the places where there are smaller sects. 

They can ask daddy to tell them some stories about all the places! He's been everywhere, after all.

They can just do that?

Yeah!

Oh gosh. Okay. 

Back to the Jingshi, then!

He trails after her, still visibly awestruck. 

She asks daddy to tell her about all the places cultivator clans live!

There are a lot of those; he's sure he doesn't actually know all of them. But he can tell them about the ones he does know, sure. 

That's okay! (They'll have to explore all the ones he doesn't know later, then!)

Mn. 

Hug?

Hug. 

"What's wrong?"

"I do not like being unable to leave my bed." 

Hugs!!! "I wouldn't like it either."

"This will never happen to you." 

"Shouldn't've happened to you."

"I knew what would happen when I acted, and I do not regret my actions." 

Hugs hugs hugs. "They shouldn't've hurt you."

"Many things are not as they should be. This is not the one I would first choose to alter." 

"If I gotta be careful then so do you," she says after some thought.

"I will be careful." 

Hug. "You better."

"Mn. I promise." 

"Thanks."

"You are welcome." Cuddlepet. 

Snugs!

She and Lan Jingyi keep playing over the next while, splitting their time between classes, goofing off, copying (or fake not copying, as the case may be) rules, and continuing the adventures of Bun Yuan and Fox Cultivator. Lan Yuan has fun mixing in historic and creative elements, with no particular care about what's actually possible or realistic. (She also has so much fun running around, and decides the obvious solution to 'they sometimes get lost running around in less traversed places' is to get lost TONS and learn all the paths.)

Jingyi is somewhat less enthusiastic about the getting lost tons part but is excited about the learning all the paths part! He learns to read A-Yuan's pretty handwriting and starts incorporating bits of it into his own, to the teachers' frustration. 

Spreading the Bad Handwriting is really hilarious for some reason!

(She gets better - when making art for daddy - at making art-words that're also readable by people not familiar with her system.)

Her art words are beautiful and he loves them. 

He gets better. Very slowly, but he does get better