To be honest, Lan Wangji isn't quite sure what he is expecting from his question either. There had been so many questions he had wanted to ask, had tried to ask over the years only to be met with a deafening silence. Yet with Wei Ying actually here, they all seem strangely far away, inconsequential. But he has lived with that desperation and confusion for too long to know what else to do.
The why, the how of his return... The idea that the Yiling Laozu had performed one last malicious trick, one more act of wickedness, to die only to rise from hell like all his monsters and creations, had spread like wildfire across the cultivation world. And it had been a hope impossible to resist. The ray of sunlight shining on a man trapped in a deep pit. He had fought for that hope like his life depended on it. Had fought his elders for it. He bears the scars of that hope. To hear it denied so simply by Wei Ying himself--
It's less of a shock than it should be. In a way, he's always known. He had seen him on that cliff, had been the only one who did, unlike all those cultivators wallowing in greed and licentious horror stories. Wei Ying had never intended to come back. He had seen it in his eyes, had heard it in his voice when he had asked him to let him go--
The painful memory is interrupted by the conclusion Wei Ying seems to arrive at. A mistake...? How could this be a mistake? Does he think whatever brought him here was a fluke, or worse, that it was wrong? He barely even hears the rest, that Wei Ying doesn't mind being back. This, being reunited, having another chance, it can't be-- This time Lan Wangji doesn't resist his impulse and closes his hand firmly around Wei Ying's wrist. "Not a mistake," he says with an almost desperate surety, and then words fail him for the rest. But his eyes are shining far too brightly in the gloom of the cave.
no subject
The why, the how of his return... The idea that the Yiling Laozu had performed one last malicious trick, one more act of wickedness, to die only to rise from hell like all his monsters and creations, had spread like wildfire across the cultivation world. And it had been a hope impossible to resist. The ray of sunlight shining on a man trapped in a deep pit. He had fought for that hope like his life depended on it. Had fought his elders for it. He bears the scars of that hope. To hear it denied so simply by Wei Ying himself--
It's less of a shock than it should be. In a way, he's always known. He had seen him on that cliff, had been the only one who did, unlike all those cultivators wallowing in greed and licentious horror stories. Wei Ying had never intended to come back. He had seen it in his eyes, had heard it in his voice when he had asked him to let him go--
The painful memory is interrupted by the conclusion Wei Ying seems to arrive at. A mistake...? How could this be a mistake? Does he think whatever brought him here was a fluke, or worse, that it was wrong? He barely even hears the rest, that Wei Ying doesn't mind being back. This, being reunited, having another chance, it can't be-- This time Lan Wangji doesn't resist his impulse and closes his hand firmly around Wei Ying's wrist. "Not a mistake," he says with an almost desperate surety, and then words fail him for the rest. But his eyes are shining far too brightly in the gloom of the cave.