Red Rose [Never Let You Go, Again Book 3]

26: Shifu's Changing

"Wait, what! Shifu just agreed?" Wei Wuxian dropped the spinach he'd brought to his mouth.

"Wei Ying, no shouting," Lan Qiren spoke from his seat at the Lunch Hall.

"But, Shifu... Wow, Shifu, you're getting cooler!" He beamed.

"Shifu's always cool!" Lan Hao grinned from down below.

"Stop buttering your Shifu up," Elder Ning laughed from the side. "Ever since you were caught sending letters to the Nie boy, you're clinging onto him too much, eh?"

"Elder Ning!" Lan Hao exclaimed before looking down into his bowl of vegetable soup, too red-faced to face the other grinning Lans.

"Aish, Elder Ning, he's nineteen, now!" Wei Wuxian chuckled. "He may write all the letters he likes! And it's just normal letters! Right, Lan Hao?" He winked.

Lan Hao silently nibbled on his greens.

Shaking his head, Wei Wuxian turned back to the Elders. "Anyways, where were we? Ah yes. Qiang-Er, you mean Shifu accepted you two?"

"Mn."

"A-Ning, what did you do to my Grumpy Shifu!"

Wen Ning, proudly sitting somewhere near where Lan Jingyi used to sit, smiled. "Shifu's understanding."

"Shufu is understanding," Lan Xichen nodded, thinking of Lan Qiren's acceptance of Xichen's betrothal to the YunmengJiang sect without a hint of anger.

Lan Qiren smiled and continued to eat his food.

"Darling, really?" Wei Ying leant in and whispered to his husband.

"I guess." Lan Wangji had had to go through a lot to make Qiren accept Wei Wuxian. But his brother and sister were having such a splendid time, he wasn't sure whether Qiren was the same Qiren anymore.

Even Lan Sizhui was pleased. Great, once A-Ling turns eighteen... I might be able to ask.

Wei Wuxian, however, was worried as much as Wangji was. Shifu's changing, he thought. Why? What's going on? From grumpy and homophobic to all-accepting? And he even smiles every now and then. Is he...? Wei Wuxian's eyes widened in horror. A-Zhan!

Mn?

Shifu... He's not planning on leaving us soon, right?

Lan Wangji almost dropped his spoon.

A-Zhan... He's changed a lot. Almost too much for me to be delighted about. Or maybe I'm overthinking, eh?

Lan Zhan sighed. Hopefully. 

**********

Wei Wuxian rolled around in the water, groaning. "Why did he have to leave? Sizhui's busy all the time, he's busier than gege was as Sect Leader! And Jin Ling hardly has time to come here because he's busier after the wedding made his sect famous! And now I'm all alone!"

"You've got me," Lan Wangji mumbled under his breath, sourly doubting his importance to Wei Wuxian relative to Lan Jingyi. Because Wei Ying had been moaning endlessly for an hour. 

"But– But– But– Argh! Back then, A-Yuan and Little Rulan will always be busy sect leaders and Yiyi would come to play with me! Where's my Yiyi now!" Wei Wuxian roared and moaned, flapping his tail in rage.

Lan Wangji shook his head to fling away the water. He was soaked through and through by now. "Jingyi will come back–"

"But in TWO WEEKS! That's the longest honeymoon ever!" Wei Wuxian roared.