Chapter Text
Marching through the bustling Yunmeng market, two pairs of white boots stride along the worn path. The taller young man keeps a slight lift to his mouth, while his -shorter, but still fairly tall- counterpart looks on with a disinterested gaze and downturned lips. They leave dust in their wake. Wei Ying saw the duo enter the market, and has not lost sight of them since.
Patience, he reminds himself. The men in white continue down the main road, not noticing the lanky shadow following them.
Wei Ying waits until the men stop to talk to one of the merchants before deciding to make a move. Patience. It was easy to swipe the bag off of the nicer looking tall man’s belt as he wasn’t looking. Grinning, Wei Ying swiftly turns around with the hefty bag and attempts to slide back into the crowd before being noticed.
Before he was even able to get to the other side of the road, a hand latched onto his bicep, the grip steady but bruising.
“Excuse me!?” Wei Ying yelped, not appreciating the way this person was handling him.
Sure, as a kid who grew up on the streets he’s had his fair share of being pushed around, but he can pass for a full-fledged adult now!
The person who grabbed him started pulling him back in the direction he had just come from, not giving Wei Ying a second to think. Within seconds, Wei Ying was deposited right in front of the man he had stolen from.
“Hello, Xiansheng,” the taller man smiles, “I’m Lan Huan, courtesy name Lan Xichen, of the Gusu Lan Clan. My Didi said you may have taken something of mine?” Wei Ying refused to bow to the man. He could tell the duo were from a rich sect just by the way the taller man spoke, which was not good, yet he would not bow to them. The thought of cultivators brought back memories best left buried, and a smoky taste in his mouth.
“Did you lose it? Because I don’t have anything,” Wei Ying says, grinning, gaze not quite meeting the other man. He would not dare to look the man in the eyes. The one who brought the thief to the smiling man stays silent, but huffs in anger.
The smiling man tries again, “Ah,” he hums, “You don't?”
Wei Ying shakes his head, clutching the stolen item to his chest, wishing his ribs would open his hollow lungs and allow him to stash the bag inside.
“If I see what you lost, I’ll make sure to tell you. As you can see, though, I must be going. I have somewhere important to be, and if I’m late, surely the people I’m meeting will have my head. You know how it is,” Wei Ying lies.
“Hands,” the younger man states. Though it seemed as if the smiling man, Lan Xichen, was trying to go about the whole ordeal in a civil manner, the other man seemed to have had enough. The bag was quickly snatched out of Wei Ying’s grasp, then given back to its rightful owner.
“Hey! That’s mine!” Wei Ying cries, “Give it back!” Lan Xichen grimaces at the loud man’s words.
“Not yours.” The younger man glares, blocking Wei Ying’s sight of Lan Xichen.
“And who are you to tell me that, huh? You think you can just steal my things!?” Wei Ying knows he doesn’t own the coin bag, and that he won’t get too far with these men.
The younger, frustrated-looking man states, “I am Lan Wangji.”
Wei Ying huffs, rolling his eyes, “Well, Lan Wangji, it was very rude of you to drag me by the arm all the way over here and then take my things.”
Instead of saying anything, Lan Wangji partially unsheathes his sword.
“Wangji” Lan Xichen grits through his teeth, still smiling.
Wei Ying breaks out into a nervous grin, the sword still ready to strike him down, “You know what? I don’t really care about that bag of mine anyways, you can have it.” He whips around and walks away, back towards the side of the road he was on when Lan Wangji grabbed him.
Once he sees the two Cultivators leave, he groans. He almost had it. Sitting down in an alley near where he had been caught, Wei Ying curls up near a pile of rubbish. That bag definitely had enough to pay for a new winter robe. Maybe even enough for some food. Wei Ying watches the sky, the puffy white clouds, and tries finding shapes in them.
Impossibly fluffy white bunnies float by, wandering through the never ending sea of sky. Wei Ying imagines himself among those bunnies, lying on a soft blanket in a meadow, comfortable.
Soon, the comfort of his own imagination lulls him to sleep.
---
Waking up at dawn with a sore back was not one of the best things to happen, but it was commonplace for someone like Wei Ying. He scolds himself for falling asleep so close to a main road, especially after getting caught in the same area the day before. Sighing, the young man stretches his limbs before standing up.
He speaks to himself, a habit formed after years of being alone on the streets of Yunmeng, “All you have to do today is find something to eat, A-Ying, that’s it. No trying to steal from rich Cultivators anymore.”
It’s not ideal, begging on the dirt road, just asking for someone to hit you. Wei Ying knows how that goes, and can still feel it. He takes a different approach today, going up to a merchant's stall.
“Hello, Xiaojie. I was wondering about the prices of these fine products today?” Wei Ying does his best at buttering the merchants up beforehand.
“Ah, Xiansheng, the prices differ. What item are you interested in?”
Wei Ying picks up a package of Lotus Seeds, “These look very good.”
The woman smiles, “That would equal four coins, do you want to buy it?”
“Yes, please. Let me grab my money bag.” Wei Ying feigns patting around his belt for a money pouch, “Oh, forgive me, I seem to have dropped it. Is there any other way I could get these?”
The easy going attitude of the woman before melts quickly, “I’m afraid not. Please return the Lotus Seeds, Xiansheng.”
It’s not looking good for him. Wei Ying quickly mutters an apology to the woman before quickly darting away from the stall, pouch of Lotus Seeds in hand. She shouts after him, but Wei Ying could care less. That is, until he hears the thunder of paws on the road behind him. Dogs.
Wei Ying yelps, before sending his malnourished body into overdrive. He cuts around corners, dives into alleys. He feels something wet fall onto his ankles, the dogs are getting closer. Biting, scratching, barking. The dogs almost have him, and Wei Ying is running out of steam. He hasn’t had a full stomach in years, and his body has degraded.
It takes turning a corner too fast for him to twist his ankle, body skidding to a halt against the gravelly dirt road. Knobby elbows and knees scrape against the ground, as Wei Ying scrambles to get up, to get away.
It’s too late- the dogs are upon his defenseless form.
“Stop- get off!!” Wei Ying cries, the feeling of the dog's dull canines pushing into his skin taking over. They pull and allow their teeth to sink in deeper and deeper, tearing into muscle.
He quickly shoves a handful of the Lotus Seeds into his mouth. If he’s going to get beaten for this, he’s going to make the most of it.
A shadow falls over Wei Ying and the dogs on top of him, and then the weight of the dogs is lifted after a stern command for them to leave. Gentle, aged hands wrap around the uninjured parts of Wei Ying’s arms, and open the defensive position Wei Ying was in, uncovering his tear and snot-stained face.
“The dogs are gone, Xiao Huozi. Are you okay?” the older man asks.
Wei Ying sniffs, before wiping the snot onto his own sleeve, his mouth still full of the stolen Lotus Seeds, and nods.
Wei Ying has been caught too many times for stealing in the past few weeks, and he does not need this man to know why the dogs were chasing him.
The man stays silent, letting Wei Ying scamper away. Though, Wei Ying doesn’t get too far before feeling his ankle crunch and the ground rush up towards his face.
The impact of the ground never comes, though, and instead Wei Ying lands in someone's arms. He swallows the Lotus Seeds in a large gulp.
“You,” The person says. Though singular words are usually not appropriate for full sentences, this person seems to make it work.
“Ah, so sorry, so sorry! I didn’t mean-” Wei Ying pauses. He quickly looks at the person who caught him before flinching away. The man from the day before was staring back at him. The one who caught him and forced him to return the bag of coins he had stolen from the smiling man. Lan Wangji. Though, Wei Ying can see that he’s not as tall as he remembered. Wei Ying comes up to his brow line.
“Oh.” That is all he says, when face to face yet again. All he can say. The man looks at him with a slight sadness in his eyes, lips pulled into a forever frown. His jaw is wound tightly, and Wei Ying can almost hear his teeth gritting against one another.
The old man walks over to Wei Ying and his captor, a grim look on his face.
“Shushu,” the man says, bowing, and forcing Wei Ying to bow with him, being as he is the only thing keeping the injured man upright.
“Lan Wangji, please take this man back to the inn and get him cleaned up,” the man says. Instead of speaking, Lan Wangji nods with a hum, and all but carries Wei Ying down the street to a nice looking inn. Wei Ying shifts all his weight onto the silent man, lest the ankle he rolled and then broke decides to give out once again. The man makes a point to not touch the torn skin covering his arms, the flesh and muscle out in the open.
The two make it to a door, and Lan Wangji knocks a specific beat.
“Come in,” a familiar voice says. The door is opened, and the smiling man Wei Ying stole from the day before is sitting at a table in a small bedroom, writing something on paper. He sets his brush down elegantly, and places his hands in his lap.
“Xiansheng, we meet again. Please, sit down. I’ll ask for a healer.” Wei Ying grimaces while Lan Wangji brings him further into the room, sitting him on a bed that looks untouched.
“I’m okay, really.” He really wasn’t, what with the fleshy torn up arms of his, the throbbing ankle, and the raw elbows and knees. But Wei Ying knows that these men will expect some sort of payment from him, and there is nothing to his name at the moment. The smiling man, Lan Xichen, leaves anyway.
Looking around the room, Wei Ying sees the table in the middle of the bedroom is filled with small stacks of paper, and the bed he is sitting in to the left is the only other furnishing to the room.
Wei Ying can feel Lan Wangji’s steady gaze inspecting his injuries from afar. The quiet man has placed himself with his back to the wall at the edge of the bed. Wei Ying could find no flaws in the man’s posture.
Wei Ying turns his grimace into a smile, “Like what you see?” Lan Wangji does not respond, instead opting to frown at Wei Ying’s pitiful form. Lan Xichen, the man Wei Ying stole from, quietly enters the room with someone at his heels. A healer, presumably. Wei Ying looks down at his bloody and bitten hands, wringing them together. The healer sets a bag on the bed, pulling a chair from the table in the middle of the room in front of Wei Ying, and sitting gracefully.
“This is our family healer, Bian Que. She is going to clean your wounds and check for infection, if that is okay for you. She may ask you a few questions as well,” Lan Xichen smiles. Wei Ying glances at Lan Wangji at the edge of the bed before warily meeting gazes with the healer. She asks him his name, to which he responds truthfully. She asks for his age, and he tells her he doesn’t remember. That it’s been at least fifteen seasons since he was with his mother. She cleans his wounds, as expected, and sutures the gaping ones closed. She disinfects the bites and claw marks with herbs, and splints his ankle.
As what seems to be a small act of kindness, she also washes the crusted dirt from his knees and elbows, and scrubs his hands clean.
After she leaves, Wei Ying is left in the room, cleaner than he’s been in over a decade.
“Uh, thank you for… this,” Wei Ying starts, “I’m afraid I have no way to pay you back, though, and I really must be going.” Lan Xichen frowns from his spot at the table. We Ying knows there is nowhere he has to be, and that the two Cultivators in front of him can easily assume the same. He also knows that the men must be expecting some sort of payment. Payment Wei Ying does not have the expenses for. Before anyone can say anything else, there is a knock on the door, and the older man who stopped the dogs walked in.
He tells Wei Ying his name, Lan Qiren, the Grandmaster of the Gusu Lan Clan. That the other two men, Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji, are his nephews. He says he wants to take Wei Ying back. Wei Ying tells him he won’t be of much help, that he can barely even support his own weight. Lan Qiren says he doesn’t expect anything more than Wei Ying’s presence. It was worrying, truly, just how quickly Wei Ying agreed to be taken away from the only place he has ever known and into the house of some rich cultivators. But what else was there left for him on these crowded, dirty streets?