Chapter Text
The situation in the sea was different during the day compared to at night.
The long stretch of water body was stunning, full of sparkles, reflecting the sunlight during the day, yet at night it'd transform into a large expanse of a bottomless abyss.
Once the sun set down, the sea water turned into an endless nightmare, darkness all around.
Wei Wuxian opened his eyes and felt his lungs could no longer sustain a long-term diving. He'd lost the sense of time and was no longer aware of how much he'd spent in the sea or how long he'd been meditating underwater. The suffocating pressure wrapped around every fiber of his muscles and squeezed his internal organs. Wei Wuxian quickly swam upward, resurfacing. He moved in seconds, and not long after, a loud splash was heard in the quiet sea.
For a while, he felt like he was floating in cloud nine, lightheaded. After filling his lungs once again with fresh air, Wei Wuxian gradually eased up. The moment he regained his senses, he finally started to pay attention to his surroundings. Above him, a large swath of clouds hung in the sky. He couldn't determine what time was it from the Moon's angle, or judging North or West from the Stars' placement either.
Wei Wuxian looked around, frowning, feeling that it'd be rather troublesome to find the way back to the small island.
Just when he was thinking about how to get back, suddenly he felt something warm trickling through his lips. The sensation was particularly noticeable since his body was freezing cold after being soaked in the water for hours. Wei Wuxian felt his entire face ache, his head dizzy, and the pain in his ears was even more biting. He understood at once, it must have been due to his hasty upward diving just now.
Sighing, he thought, God must have been punishing him for doing something behind Lan Xichen's back.
He took advantage of Lan Xichen's dazed state to go to the sea on his own. Mainly, because Wei Wuxian was about to experiment on his recent discovery in his GuiDao. Even if Lan Xichen was quite tactful, but after all, he was also Lan Qiren's beloved nephew and disciple. His disapproval of GuiDao shouldn't be less than that of his Uncle or his younger brother. At least, Wei Wuxian should have known some tact and not dangle in front of his face while experimenting with his Cultivation Path.
A few years ago, Wei Wuxian fished out the rusted Iron Sword from the bottom of Xuanwu Lake. Of course, he couldn't have found it by diligently digging piece by piece of the Lake bed and overturning the-who knew how many meters of mud there, just to find a single Iron Sword. His method was to guide the Resentful Energy itself to bring the Sword to him. It's basically the same essence as, if he were to unlock GusuLan Sect's MingShi building that couldn't be opened from outside, by manipulating the Resentful Energy to open a way for him.
Spiritual Energy is Qi, and Resentful Energy is also Qi. Spiritual Energy could be used to split mountains and divide the sea, so why couldn't Resentful Energy?
---He spoke back then toward Lan Qiren when he had yet even pondered how to control the said energy.
So now that he was able to manage the Resentful Energy, and was also coincidentally living near the sea, Wei Wuxian thought it'd be a waste not to experiment it further!
His experiment was successful, but he failed to find a way home.
At this time, Wei Wuxian finally realized that he truly was left defenseless.
No ChenQing on his hand. No YinHuFu in his chest pocket. No stacks of Talismans on his sleeves. Not even money.
Forget about the last thing, but Wei Wuxian felt like he'd been jolted awake. He'd been living so carelessly these past few months. His sense of danger had started to rust. He'd stupidly left YinHuFu on his discarded robes with ChenQing placed on top. If Lan Xichen were to pack up all of their stuff, steal both his weapons, and run away back home right now, Wei Wuxian wouldn't even have a corner to cry. He would be left without even a clean pant to cover his butt much less a handkerchief to dry his tears.
Speaking about Lan Xichen, he couldn't help but tilt his head upward, and sighed when he still couldn't see the moon.
If it's past Haishi, Lan Xichen probably had gone to sleep as usual.
Before his nosebleed started to color the sea red, Wei Wuxian hurriedly washed the blood and pinched the bridge of his nose gently. Coincidentally, during his miscellaneous thinking just now, he'd also found a way to go back. Speaking about his weapon, he was very familiar with YinHuFu, and within a radius of several miles, there should be no source of Resentful Energy stronger than the artifact. To put it in another way, if he were to tie his soul to a Fierce Corpse, they could locate him even from hundreds of miles away and hear his command. Using this similar system of how Resentful Energy worked, Wei Wuxian too, could locate anything with a considerable amount of Resentful Energy within a certain radius if he were to close his eyes and concentrate.
However, Wei Wuxian was too lazy to swim on his own. Besides, it's far colder being blown in a cold wind compared to being soaked in water. With this consideration, he decided to dive one more time, and let the Resentful Energy circulating in the sea pull him toward his target.
From ancient times to the present, the Sea was the largest mass grave where various people died in many kinds of death. The Resentment buried under the sea bed was no less than that of Burial Mound. Of course, there's a difference. Just like the contaminant in the sea was diluted, the Resentment in the Sea was also dispersed thinly due to the massive area of the water body.
The Sea itself was a blessed place. In Taoism, if Kunlun Mountain was the source of all Qi, then the Sea contained the Life Force of all things, a purification symbol. Under normal conditions, the water body could hardly be contaminated by Resentful Energy. No matter how many people died in the Sea, they wouldn't form any kind of Waterborne Abyss. Resentful Energy was there but it's severely disintegrated.
Wei Wuxian tried to dive and carefully resurface several times to adjust his body, finally, he took a deep breath and dove, letting himself float underwater.
He was concentrating his consciousness on locating YinHuFu, and in his trance, he felt his body being pulled upward by a strong force.
At first, he thought it was the Resentful Energy pulling him, yet when he felt himself being carefully guided to resurface, he knew that it wasn't.
He struggled to free himself yet the force entangling him remained strong. Gradually, Wei Wuxian realized it was actually a person hugging his waist to swim upward.
As soon as he hit the water surface, Wei Wuxian quickly gasped for breath.
He opened his eyes, and as expected, Lan Xichen was quietly gasping for air in front of him.
"Zewu-Jun?" Wei Wuxian coughed for a while, and asked him with a hoarse voice, "Why are you here? What's the matter?"
Lan Xichen still hadn't let go of his grasp around Wei Wuxian's waist. His eyes were faint, but for some reason, Wei Wuxian could see an undercurrent beneath. He said quietly, "It is past Haishi."
Wei Wuxian blinked. "Huh?"
"---And you haven't gone back."
With this, Lan Xichen pulled him closer to his body. Exerting his muscles, he leaped out of the water and landed on Shuoyue hovering nearby. Soon, the warm blue light of the Sword flickered across the darkness of the Eastern Sea.
Wei Wuxian shivered slightly from the cold wind, and the person holding him seemed to notice. Not long after, he felt Lan Xichen's soaking wet robes dried up, including Wei Wuxian's pants. After drying their clothes with Spiritual Energy, Lan Xichen gently pushed Wei Wuxian's head to be buried further in his embrace, enveloped thoroughly in his large outer robes.
When they arrived back at the cabin, Lan Xichen told him to hurry and soak in the warm bath. Wei Wuxian glanced at the top of the cabinet and saw his discarded robes being folded neatly, along with ChenQing on top. On the table inside, he saw two portions of dinner untouched.
For some reason, he felt guilty.
He'd told Lan Xichen not to wait for him for lunch, yet he ended up losing the sense of time and skipped even dinner.
As he soaked himself in the tub, Wei Wuxian suddenly raised a question, "How did you find me?"
Lan Xichen was sitting in front of a table, reading a book, waiting for him to finish his bath. He didn't turn his head to look at Wei Wuxian, but replied, "I heard your resurfacing splash."
"Resurfacing splash? How is that possi-, Oh...you, then you..." Wei Wuxian's words trailed off. "...You were there on the sea for a long time?"
Lan Xichen turned his head this time. He stood up, put his book back on the small shelf, and walked toward Wei Wuxian. Dipping his finger into the bath water, instead of answering, he said, "The water has gone cold. Go and dress up. Let's eat."
They ate their late dinner in silence. Later, they washed the used utensils similarly in silence. They also went to bed in silence.
Silently, Lan Xichen repeated his previous routine of rolling a Zongzi. Wrapping Wei Wuxian into a thick blanket and silently embracing him with his arms and legs. Wei Wuxian finally couldn't stand it any longer and wriggled from under the blanket cocoon. Unfortunately, the arms and legs trapping him under were too strong. For some time, Wei Wuxian twisted back and forth and ended up looking like a wriggling Seaweed he saw on the coral reef instead.
"Zewu-Jun, what's the matter with wrapping me like this again?"
Lan Xichen let his eyes open in a slit. He said, "Did you not say yesterday that in this posture maybe you can interfere in my dream and meet with the Fairy?"
"Uh..." Wei Wuxian stopped his struggle and thought, well, Lan Xichen was right.
But it's still suffocating being wrapped tightly this way. He complained, "Zewu-Jun, at least, don't strangle me so tightly. If I pass out from Asphyxia, I won't be able to see the Fairy, no?"
Lan Xichen kept quiet. His hold loosened a bit. Wei Wuxian was about to close his eyes and start sleeping, yet he suddenly heard Lan Xichen whisper softly, "...Wei-Gongzi, let's build a small canoe tomorrow."
Wei Wuxian was half asleep and mumblingly replied, "Ummhh? Okay, let's build one. Do you want to play in a boat?"
A few minutes passed, and Lan Xichen had yet to reply. Wei Wuxian almost fell asleep, but at this time. Lan Xichen whispered to him once again, "...Um. Next time, if you want to go to the sea, just tell me. I won't follow you, but I will wait for you nearby in the canoe. Otherwise, I won't feel at ease, worrying about your whereabouts."
He sighed softly, brushing the fallen hair around Wei Wuxian's temple and tucking it behind his ear.
The scene inside the cabin was peacefully quiet.
Outside, the wind blew strongly, and the pitter-patter of raindrops started to be heard, hitting the roof of their small house, or hitting the surface of the artificial small stream near Lan Xichen's painting gazebo.
Tonight was cloudy, and it's just a matter of time before the rain began to fall.
Fortunately, the person he'd been anxiously searching for in the sea had safely been tucked under the blanket in his arms.
In the quiet of the night, Wei Wuxian's eyes snapped open. The pair of dark pupils stared blankly at the wooden roof. He turned his head slightly and silently watched Lan Xichen whose breathing had slowed down in his sleep.
He didn't know how long he stared at Lan Xichen. At some point, his eyelashes gradually curled downward, following the eyelids to shut. Wei Wuxian scooted closer to Lan Xichen, pressing his temple to the person beside him, murmuring softly, "The closer the heads, the easier would dream be connected."
It was unknown who was he making up an excuse for.