Chapter 53, Fifty-Three

Chapter Summary: He said, "You kids, your minds are restless and your concentration is unclear. You must be reading all sorts of random books every day, not focusing on your cultivation. Go back and exercise..."

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He said, “You bunch of kids, your minds are not calm and your intentions are not clear. You must be reading all sorts of books every day instead of focusing on your cultivation. Go back and tell Hanguang-jun to punish you by making you copy the family precepts ten times.”

The teenagers were horrified: "You have to copy it ten times while standing upside down?!"

Wei Wuxian was also shocked and looked at Lan Wangji: "Does your family now punish students by making them copy texts upside down? That's too harsh."

Lan Wangji said, "Just punishing someone by copying lines won't teach them a lesson."

Everyone: ...!!!

What the hell?! Now the Lan Clan not only wants to copy their family precepts, but they want to copy them upside down?!

Some elders from the four major families raised their hands to pat the heads of their younger relatives, sighing deeply in their hearts, "Children, you're going to suffer a lot in the future."

They were so engrossed in the story that they decided to spend the night in the Shi Garden. Camping in the wild was common for night hunters; they gathered twigs and leaves, piling them up to build a campfire. Lan Wangji went out to patrol the area, checking for any unusual activity. Wei Wuxian, sitting by the fire, finally had a chance to ask, "By the way, what's the meaning behind your family's headbands?"

Upon hearing this, the boys' expressions suddenly changed, and they all began to stammer.

Lan Sizhui asked cautiously, "Young Master Mo, don't you know?"

Wei Wuxian said, "If I already knew, would I be asking? Do I look like such a boring person?"

Lan Jingyi muttered, "Then you'd better not know."

Lan Sizhui seemed to be considering his words, and after a long pause, he said, "It's like this. The headband of the Gusu Lan Clan symbolizes 'self-discipline,' you know that, right?"

Wei Wuxian asked, "You know?"

Lan Sizhui continued, "And Lan An, the founding ancestor of the Gusu Lan Clan, said that only in the presence of one's destined person, one's beloved, can one be free from any constraints. Therefore, the Lan Clan's headband, throughout history, has been something that no one but the person themselves can touch, remove, or tie on another person. This is a taboo. Um, only, only..."

There's nothing more to say.

Beside the campfire, these young and innocent faces turned completely red, and Lan Sizhui couldn't continue speaking.

Wei Wuxian felt as if more than half of the blood in his body rushed to his head.

This headband, this headband, this this this—

The meaning behind this forehead ribbon is quite heavy!

He suddenly felt an intense need for fresh air, jumped up, and dashed outside, thinking, "...What have I done?! What has he done?!"

Lan Qiren: ...

Ever since he saw Wei Wuxian, his expression hadn't recovered. Now, looking left and right, he had nothing at hand and couldn't do anything. He could only glare angrily at Wei Wuxian, wondering what this guy had done to his precious nephew.

Wei Wuxian awkwardly touched his nose, feeling that if the rest of him were released, Old Master Lan would eat him alive.

Back in Qishan, the Wen family held a grand gathering of a hundred schools of thought for intellectual discussions. The gathering lasted for seven days, and the entertainment activities were different every day. One of the days was an archery competition.

Of the more than one thousand life-sized, agile paper targets, only one hundred were imbued with malevolent spirits. Young boys from various families, not yet of age, entered the arena to compete. If they shot the wrong target, they had to leave the arena. Only by continuously hitting the correct paper targets imbued with malevolent spirits could they remain in the arena. At the end, the winners were counted for the most and most accurate hits.

More than a year had passed since Wei Wuxian had studied at Cloud Recesses and was sent back to Yunmeng. After returning to Yunmeng, he told people how rigid and boring Lan Wangji was, but soon he put those days behind him and continued to frolic on the lake and run wild in the mountains.

He had listened to the debates all morning, leaving him dizzy and disoriented. Only after picking up his bow and arrows did he regain some focus. A casual glance caught sight of a handsome young man beside him, his face as white as powder and his demeanor as cold as ice. He wore a bright red round-necked robe with a nine-ringed belt and narrow sleeves. This was the uniform for the younger generation at the Qishan Hundred Schools Discussion Conference, but he wore it exceptionally well, exuding three parts elegance, three parts heroic spirit, and the remaining four parts pure handsomeness, making him a striking sight.

The young man carried a bundle of arrows with snow-white fletching on his back, head bowed as he tested his bow. His slender fingers plucked the bowstring, producing a sound like a harp string, melodious yet powerful.

A group of people exclaimed, "Wow, this young man is... really handsome!"

Wei Wuxian thought the young man looked familiar, then after a moment's thought, he slapped his thigh and excitedly greeted him, "Hey, isn't this Brother Wangji?"

Lan Wangji tested the bow and then turned to leave.

Wei Wuxian, feeling rebuffed again, said to Jiang Cheng, "You're ignoring me again. Heh."

The shooting range had over twenty entrances, each different for its respective clan. When Lan Wangji reached the entrance for the Gusu Lan Clan, Wei Wuxian slipped past him first. Lan Wangji moved aside, and Wei Wuxian moved aside too; Lan Wangji took a step, and Wei Wuxian moved aside as well. In short, he blocked Wei Wuxian's path.

Finally, Lan Wangji stopped in his tracks, raised his head slightly, and solemnly said, "Excuse me."

Wei Wuxian said, "So you're finally talking to me? Were you pretending not to know me, or pretending not to hear me?"

Not far away, the young men from other families were all watching, some curious, some laughing. Jiang Cheng clicked his tongue impatiently, slung his arrows over his shoulder, and went to another entrance.

Lan Wangji coldly raised his eyelids and repeated, "Excuse me."

Wei Wuxian smiled, raised an eyebrow, and turned to the side. The archway at the entrance was narrow, and Lan Wangji had to brush past him. After he entered, Wei Wuxian called out from behind him, "Lan Zhan, your forehead ribbon is crooked."

Young masters of noble families pay great attention to their appearance, especially those from the Gusu Lan Clan. Upon hearing this, Lan Wangji raised his hand to help without hesitation. However, the forehead ribbon was clearly worn properly. He turned around, his gaze unfriendly towards Wei Wuxian, who had already laughed heartily and headed towards the entrance of the Yunmeng Jiang Clan.

Everyone: ...

Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes: "Look at you, you love to provoke others. It would be strange if people even bothered with you."

Wei Wuxian snorted, grabbed Lan Wangji's arm with both hands, and pleaded for comfort with a tearful expression.

Lan Wangji affectionately patted Wei Wuxian's head.

Lan Qiren looked at Tianying with suspicion, then looked at Wei Wuxian, who was acting coquettishly, with a look of doubt: Could this be it?

After the competition officially began, many young masters from noble families were forced to leave the arena because they accidentally shot ordinary paper figures. Wei Wuxian shot arrows one after another, slowly but without missing a single one. In no time, he had used up seventeen or eighteen arrows in his quiver. Suddenly, something floated onto his face, tickling his cheek. He turned around and saw that Lan Wangji had unknowingly moved to his vicinity, his back to him, and was drawing his bow to shoot a paper figure.

The ribbon of his forehead band fluttered in the wind, gently brushing against Wei Wuxian's face. He said, "Brother Wangji!"

Lan Wangji drew the bowstring taut and asked, "What is it?"

Wei Wuxian said, "Your forehead ribbon is crooked."

This time, Lan Wangji no longer believed him. He fired an arrow and, without turning his head, uttered two words: "Boring."

Wei Wuxian said, "This time it's for real! It's really crooked. If you don't believe me, watch me straighten it for you."

Without hesitation, he grabbed the headband that was fluttering in front of him. Unfortunately, he had a restless hand; he was used to pulling the braids of the girls in Yunmeng, and whenever he grabbed something stringy, he wanted to tug at it. This time, he did it again. However, the headband was already slightly crooked and loose, and when he pulled, it slipped off Lan Wangji's forehead.

In an instant, Lan Wangji's hand holding the bow trembled. After a long while, he stiffly turned his head, his gaze slowly shifting to Wei Wuxian.

Lan Qiren shuddered, pointing at Wei Wuxian with trembling anger: You…

Lan Xichen, standing beside him, glanced helplessly at Wei Wuxian and sighed deeply.

Wuxian, can you take it easy? You keep pushing your uncle's limits, aren't you afraid you won't be able to get out of this Heavenly Realm Gate?

Wei Wuxian, still holding the snow-white headband, said, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. Please tie it back on."

Lan Wangji's expression was extremely unpleasant.

A dark aura seemed to shroud his forehead, the veins on the back of his hand gripping the bow bulged, and he looked like he was about to tremble with rage. Wei Wuxian noticed that his eyes seemed to be bloodshot, and couldn't help but pinch the headband, thinking to himself, "What I tore off was indeed a headband, not some part of his body, was it?"

Seeing that he still dared to pinch it, Lan Wangji suddenly snatched the headband from his hand.

As soon as he snatched it, Wei Wuxian let go. Several other disciples of the Lan Clan stopped firing arrows and gathered around, whispering something to the silent Lan Wangji, shaking their heads as they spoke, and giving Wei Wuxian strange, unreadable looks.

Wei Wuxian only heard indistinct words like "don't worry about it," "accident," "don't take it seriously," "no need to be angry," and "man," which made him even more confused. Lan Wangji glared at him fiercely, turned around, and walked straight out of the arena.

Jiang Cheng walked over and said, "What have you done now? Didn't I tell you not to flirt with him? You won't be happy unless you're looking for trouble."

Wei Wuxian spread his hands and said, "I lied to him the first time I said his headband was crooked, but I meant it the second time. He didn't believe me and got angry. I didn't pull off his headband on purpose, so why do you think he was so angry? He even stopped participating in the competition."

Jiang Cheng said, "Who knows? Maybe it's because you're particularly annoying!"

He had almost run out of arrows, and seeing this, Wei Wuxian also began to exert his strength.

He hadn't given this much thought over the years. He hadn't entirely ignored the possibility that the forehead ribbon held any special meaning for the Lan family, but after the competition, he'd simply put it out of his mind. Now, thinking back, he wondered what kind of looks the other Lan family members had given him—

In front of everyone, a brat forcibly removed his headband, and Lan Zhan didn't even stab him to death on the spot—his self-restraint is terrifyingly good!!!

Upon hearing this, Jiang Cheng also remembered, and immediately glared at Wei Wuxian: "You know you weren't killed, it's a miracle you're still alive today!"

Wei Wuxian subconsciously pursed his lips and continued to cling to Lan Wangji: "Lan Zhan, look, I was prescient enough to pull off your headband first, so you can't avoid me anymore, hehehe."

Lan Wangji: "Hmm." I should thank myself for my good upbringing since childhood.

Everyone: ...Ugh, she's about to conceive. This couple is disgusting.

Lan Jingyi asked in confusion, "What's he doing pacing around there all by himself? Has he eaten too much and can't sit still?"

Another boy said, "His face is turning red and green all the time... Did he eat something bad...?"

Wei Wuxian walked around a clump of withered flowers more than fifty times before calming down. He said to himself, "Wei Wuxian, it's truly a great fortune that you lived so long instead of dying in your teens! But, has Lan Zhan's headband never been taken off by anyone else? Has no one else touched it? Only me..."

Thinking of this, he suddenly heard the sound of withered leaves being crushed behind him.

Judging from the footsteps, it wasn't a child; it must be Lan Wangji returning. Wei Wuxian pondered how to verify if it was indeed so. As he turned around, he saw a black figure standing not far behind him, in the shadow of a dead tree.

The figure was tall, upright, and imposing.

It's just missing a head.

At first, everyone thought: ...These kids are so adorably silly.

Until they saw the figure in the shadows, everyone exclaimed: ...Ah!! A ghost!!

Especially Nie Huaisang: "Aaaaaah!!! Mom! Niangui, can you please stop making this sound like a horror movie all the time?!"

Nie Mingjue: ...

As if a bucket of cold water had been poured over his head, the smile that had inadvertently appeared on Wei Wuxian's lips froze.

The tall figure stood beneath the withered tree, facing this direction. If he had a head on his neck, it would be silently gazing at Wei Wuxian.

Over by the campfire, the younger members of the Lan family also saw the figure. Their hair stood on end, and they stared wide-eyed, ready to draw their swords. Wei Wuxian put his index finger to his lips and gently shushed him.

He gestured to everyone with his eyes that it was "not allowed," and shook his head. Seeing this, Lan Sizhui quietly pushed the longsword that Lan Jingyi had drawn halfway out of its sheath back into place.

The headless man reached out and touched the tree trunk beside him, stroking it for a while, as if he was thinking about something, or as if he was trying to confirm what it was.

He took a small step forward, and Wei Wuxian could see most of his body clearly.

The headless man was wearing a shroud, slightly tattered. It was the same shroud they had worn on the torso they had dug out of the Chang family cemetery.

At the headless man's feet lay a pile of fragments. They were barely recognizable as several broken seals of evil spirits.

Wei Wuxian thought to himself, "I was careless; I actually let my good brother fight it out on his own!"

Everyone: ...

I'm sorry, but I just can't feel afraid when I see Wei Wuxian.

Nie Mingjue: Am I wrong for saving you trouble? It's just... a little scary.