Chapter Text
All cultivators dedicated to their cultivation will face Heavenly Tribulations on their journey to attain immortality, great uncle Qiren once told Mingyue and his sister. Heavenly Tribulations in great uncle’s stories were grand battles against demons, resentful spirits, or cultivators who had strayed from the righteous path, so it was those kinds of tribulations that often became Mingyue’s reference for his day-dreaming themes.
As he grew with his dearest sister, and later with the twin demon he called didi and meimei…. Not for the first time, Lan Mingyue wondered whether his Heavenly Tribulation was starting the day he was blessed to be the eldest of such troublesome siblings. ( The younger set of twins, his didi and meimei, has shown signs they are to be a set of hellions, what with A-Feng has started hanging around in the forge and laboratory - much to Uncle Wuxian joy and everyone’s horror - and his sweet meimei A-Xue showing talent in handling and directing little ones in classes… and in doing her biddings ).
… Maybe if he just closed his eyes, he could will himself back - away - from what feels like the start of another sequence of problems in his life. This time by the courtesy of his Uncle Wuxian and twin sister.
Eyes closed, with no intention to rise from his laying on the ground position, Mingyue could hear Yingyue making increasingly distressed squeals as she took account of their surroundings. This means his guess that they are not where they were supposed to be is quite possibly true. Which is alarming because the array Uncle Wuxian and Yingyue tested should not bring them to another place .
It should just bring the burnt cauldron of congee Uncle Wuxian and Yingyue made, to a state of perfectly edible congee or any other state when the congee should still be edible. Notice that the subject the array should affect is the congee, not two human beings.
Is he panicking? Does his family have a history of panic attacks? It sure feels like he’s going to have one right now. Because no matter how hard he tries, Mingyue cannot shake the feelings of wrong, the air doesn’t smell right, and the land doesn’t feel right! Ai Heavens, he is starting to feel light-headed.
A nudge on his shoulder brought Mingyue out of his effort to dissociate himself from this horrible reality. He swats that offending shoulder-nudging foot.
“ Ge , get up!” Yingyue pulled at his arm trying to bring him up. He’s so tired, Heavens have mercy… “Come on! I don’t think the array worked as it should be.”
That’s it, she said it out loud. She had harshly brought reality crashing down on both of them. Mingyue opened his eyes, looking dead-eyed at his beloved sister. “You think so? Thank you for confirming my suspicion. Now please let this Ge rest here until you figure out how to solve this problem.”
“Song -ge I’m being serious!” Oh, and I’m not? “Look, my house is gone ! The lining of the trees is closer than it should be!” Yingyue pointed out while still holding on to Mingyue’s limp form from his arm.
Groaning, Mingyue reluctantly got back on his feet and looked around, confirming Yingyue’s distressed observation. The lining of the trees is not only closer, but the trees themselves are also denser and the grass that grows here is sure to have never been trimmed. No signs of his sister's secluded private residence with its little pond and pavilion.
No signs of rambunctious Uncle Wuxian anywhere either.
Ai , this is distressing.
Take a deep calming breath in four counts. Mama’s voice came to his mind. Hold it in seven counts…. Then exhale in eight counts. Slowly A-Song. Relax your muscles as you exhale.
He has to be calm and sharp now. No time for panicking when Yingyue is still looking around the clearing with wild eyes and slowly starting to hyperventilate.
“Aiya A-Hua, come match your breathing with me,” Holding her shoulders gently to be used as an anchor, Mingyue made sure his younger twin held eye contact with him. “Slowly, like Mama teaches us… come on.”
As Yingyue’s breathing slows to a normal pace, Mingyue gather what information they have about their situation. Given the absence of Yingyue’s dwelling, it is clear that they are not at the location of Uncle Wuxian’s array testing site, which was in Yingyue’s front yard. So the array transports them to other locations. Strange though, because this is Yingyue’s clearing unless Cloud Recesses has an identical cliff side and rock formations as the one in this area. Gone also the protective barrier around this site that their Baba placed… which brings Mingyue to another, even less savoury, conclusion. The array transports them to another time.
“Well, forgive this Ge for his crass language, but Uncle Wuxian and you fucked up , I think.”
=
When looking back to this moment later, Mingyue was quite impressed with how quickly he and Yingyue processed their stress and made something of a next-step plan. That they have somehow moved through time is agreed by both of them. The next questions naturally are: did they move forward or backwards, and how long has passed between this present time and their original time?
“Should we alert the clan to our situation?” Yingyue wondered aloud. She’s been walking around the clearing for some time now, needing to be in motion as was her wont when she’s occupied with her thoughts. “I’m quite sure we moved backwards in time, however far back in time we are. There were no signs of human disturbance in this area. No remains of building foundations or any development. And this area was untouched until shugong placed a land marker the day we were born to mark the area of our future house…” Yingyue stopped, kicking a stone lodged into the soil. The chunk, chunk, chunk sounds every impact made is distracting. “...nor marker here, so I did not think we even exist in this present time. Then... no, it will be alarming to the Clan to find two people claiming to be part of the Clan and part of the main family, without any identification other than the main families’ ribbons and tokens.” The stone dislodged, it flew and hit the earth with a final, sad chunk . She sighed heavily and finally stopped moving.
Mingyue runs his hands along the fabric of his robe. The robe is more elaborate than what he usually wears daily, the cool silk it was made creates a soothing feeling when touched. Mama insisted that morning that he should take more care of his appearance for the day as the Sect’s Heir, because of the visiting Sect Leaders He and Yang. After Baba has done parading him, Mingyue fled the meeting of Sect Leaders to find his twin conducting experiments with Uncle Wuxian.
“Then you proposed that we…. What? Sneak around to gather information about the present time?” He gestured to his side, a silent request so his sister would take a seat next to him and stop her distracting movement… to no avail. She has started pacing around again. “You think we can sneak around a clan of cultivators? I’m not rejecting your suggestion. What you said is true and wise. Mama also did not outright tell Baba of her origin even when she became his senior aide.”
That their Mama hailed from somewhere not from any land they knew about is known to both of them, what with the strange objects Mama kept (on that one chest in her and Baba’s bedroom. The one that little Mingyue and Yingyue - then A-Song and A-Hua - are not permitted to open without Mama’s supervision because some of the items are ‘delicate and irreplaceable’. It became a favourite game of theirs for some time, a competition on who can touch the chest without getting caught. Mama moved the hiding place of the chest around the room making it even more challenging for the twins.) and the bedtime stories no one ever heard before (One of these stories caused a ruckus once in the creche as one little Lan Jie was found by the supervisor of the creche kissing frogs. Lan Jie calmly explained that she was trying to figure out which frog is a heavenly prince under a curse. Lan Jie thankfully didn’t hold any grudges against the twins for telling her such a preposterous tale). But both Mama and Baba never really told them about their past. What they know about the Sunshot Campaign - the time they met - they only heard from the teachers as a part of their history lessons and snippets from others in their parents’ generations.
The tale of how their parents came to know, and love, each other mainly came from - strangely - Uncle Wuxian. Of course, because the source is Uncle Wuxian the stories came unprompted and sporadic. That Mama hailed not from this time came to Mingyue and Yingyue knowledge when they overheard Uncle Wuxian drilling Mama on this special device from the future that she used to store foods for a long time using freezing temperatures all the time. Yingyue wrote down the snippets of information and made it her mission to validate and arrange them chronologically. An ongoing mission that will remain ongoing for a long time it seems, because their main sources are suspiciously avoidant in clarifying the details.
If Mama is that cautious about revealing her origin, then Mingyue supposes it is wise to follow her path.
“If we are to sneak around, we need a plan, or at least specific destinations.”
Yingyue tilted her head, thinking. “We can check certain areas to have a better grasp of the time we are in now. There’s no record of a bunny enclosure in Cloud Recesses until Uncle Wangji made one near the Jingshi.” She raised a finger, then a second and a third. “Then there’s grandfather’s seclusion house and grandmother’s cottage. Both areas can give us sufficient clues to plan our next move.”
Yingyue’s plan is certainly safer than his instinct just to find the current version of their parents ( if they were here ) and beg for their help. “We are to dodge the night patrol, then. We are nearing dinner time right now I guess, and the patrol should start by the time we are halfway to either location.” Rubbing his hand, and praying to any Heavenly Beings watching them right now, Mingyue took a determined step towards the path leading to the ( supposed to be ) residential area. “Come then, let’s not dawdle.”
=
The path leading to the family's main residential area is still there. Not in the form of proper stone steps that were built when Yingyue chose this cliff on the east side of the mountain as the location of her dwelling, so there were instances of both of them almost slipping on the dirt path. ( “It would certainly be faster if we slid down this path!” He joked, attempting to ease the tension. The answering giggles from Yingyue were slightly hysterical that Mingyue refrain from edging his sister towards a Qi deviation).
By the time they reach the path towards their late grandmother’s cottage, the bell tolls signalling the end of dinnertime and the Lan sect to prepare for bedtime. They hasten their steps upwards, not wanting to attract the patrol’s attention with their light-coloured robes fluttering around in the dark.
They arrived at the clearing housing an empty cottage. Both of them cannot sense a presence inside the cottage, but still, to be sure, Yingyue steps onto the porch and knocks on the door.
“The cottage is here, but no grandmother.” Mingyue sighed. “So Baba and Uncle Wangji should be around here somewhere.”
Yingyue opened the cottage door, examining the room inside. “This place has been neglected for some time,” Yingyue added, noticing the thick layer of dust everywhere. “There’s nothing here that can give us a clue. Let’s go to grandfather’s place.”
They took a shortcut through the dense trees and a small stream between the clearings of their grandparents’ dwellings. The dirt path connecting the two clearings is known only to the Lan Family and select serves. It was used to help deliver food to both dwellings easily, but more or less abandoned after the passing of both dwellings’ occupants. Mingyue and Yingyue found out about the path after Shugong frantically looked for them during one of the twins’ grand adventures ( they were supposed to be playing in the bunny meadow, but little Yingyue got bored and went to a higher place to look for the dragon…. In short, Mingyue wanted it to be known that he followed his sister to the higher clearing to protect her. ).
Letting Yingyue walk at the front while he watched the path behind and the sky above. Nearing the edge of the clearing, the babbling stream continues onto the backyard of their grandfather’s seclusion house. The streams originated from the highest Waterhead on the mountain, making the stream here the clearest and feeding directly to the male cold spring. Mingyue always thought it was such a shame that such melancholic locations were the first places the water met as they flow, but immediately in his head a voice suspiciously sounding like both shugong and Uncle Wangji reminded him to not entertain nonsensical thoughts .
“Grandfather died during the burning by the Wens right?” Yingyue asked not far ahead as she seemed to have already reached the edge of the clearing. Before Mingyue could answer her, she shakily added, “ Ge , I think we moved more than ten years into the past.”
Finally reaching his sister, Mingyue could see a simple house surrounded by trees.
As Sect’s Heir, Mingyue has been training to quickly adapt to turns of events and divergences from the original plan. To ensure the action plan produces the best outcome, one should address all the relevant evidence and withhold subjective opinions ( response rather than react ).
Here are his observations: One is the existence of this seclusion house. Two, the house is occupied by someone, judging from the faint candlelight from the window.
=
Response rather than react. Tension in the abdominal area and difficulty breathing are the most common signs of emotional distress.
This is not the time to be distressed! Come on Yingyue, think!
“Regroup.” Her brother said, slightly choked. He cleared his throat, took her arm, and led them back toward grandmother’s cottage. “Let’s regroup. To the cottage. It’s empty, we can rest there and make another plan.”
What retorts she had died when she spotted a faint light at the end of the dirt path. She pulled Mingyue back.
“Back, back! Someone’s heading here!”
The both of them tried to not run and not make a sound at the same time. Tearing silently as they possibly could through the clearing, looking around frantically for a place to hide because the lantern light is following them!
Mingyue groaned in frustration ( and Yingyue, by instinct, kicked him in warning, which made him whimper in pain. Sorry Ge.) , and pulled her behind the slightly unkempt bushes adorning the back porch and the side of the building.
With both of them crouching as low as possible, it was quite a hassle for both of them to be able to take a peek from the side of the building. Being the closest to the edge, Mingyue took upon the task.
From where she is crouching, Yingyue can see the glow of the lantern closing in, holding, then getting fainter, slowly showing the holder of the lantern moving to the front porch of the house.
As the glow of light went from the back of the house, Mingyue turned back to Yingyue. His face paled as he mouthed, “ Shugong ”, to her.
Again, before she could give a response, they heard a slight knock on the house’s door.
“This is shufu , Xichen, do not be alarmed. I came to check on the area.”
Shock. Horror. The twins looked back at each other. Their father is the occupant of this house. The house where their grandfather was supposed to be in seclusion and burned to his death. What? What?
A moment, then another, wearier, voice answered. “Is there a problem, shufu ?” A light, but oddly weary chuckle follows. “It seems everyone is determined to make sure my seclusion is not secluded .”
A scoff from shugong . “If Wangji and Wei Wuxian’s visit displeased you, I can ban them from disturbing you from now on.”
“No, I don’t mean that…” An even wearier sigh. “There’s no need, shufu . I suppose everything is in order?”
The old Lan teacher hummed. “Hm… a false alarm it seems. I will ask the night patrol to report as they finish their round. Goodnight Xichen.”
They heard their father wish shugong a restful night as the elder teacher leaves the clearing through the proper path that should lead him back to the inner clan residence. The twins wait with bated breath until shugong ’s steps grew fainter before slowly standing up.
“That was close,” Mingyue whispered. “Come, let’s go back to the cottage.”
They keep their steps light while making their way to the side path.
Alas, they are not even fifteen yet - junior disciples just entering the nascent soul stage, trying to run away from a cultivator far beyond their level in cultivation. It must be by chance and pure luck they managed to move around undetected by anyone until now. Eventually, they should know their luck will run out.
A sword glare hit the ground in front of Mingyue, who yelped and jumped back hitting Yingyue. They tumbled to the ground like jesters they must look like to the other cultivator.
“Here are our intruders. I suppose I must commend your success in hiding from an Elder and groups of senior disciples patrol.” A man’s voice remarked dryly.
Yingyue rolled around, pushing Mingyue’s form from on top of her, to face the Lan Sect leader, Lan Xichen walking leisurely towards them.
Strange how this man wears their father’s face but still looked like a stranger because Yingyue has never seen Baba’s face so cold and closed off. Instinct urged her to draw her sword to defend herself. Yingyue held back because, their father or not, this Lan Xichen is still Lan Xichen, therefore , a family . Her head reels with the amount of information and emotional processing it undergoes in such a short moment.
This is her worst-case scenario come true.
Lan Xichen ( Her mind still screaming ‘Not Baba! Not Baba! ) is close enough now that he could touch Mingyue ( Her brother put himself in front of her while obviously shaking from head to toe. ) with the tip of his sword should he hold Shuoyue out, but he stopped.
Actually, he froze. That was when Yingyue realize there was a flash of light from the moonlight reflecting on the silver cloud medallion on Mingyue’s ribbon. The outer-clan disciples all wear plain white ribbons as a sign of their adherence to Lan’s principle of regulating oneself, while the inner-clan disciples - all of whom are part of the Lan family - wear cloud-patterned white ribbons. Only the immediate family of the sect leader wear ribbons with medallions.
Did she think it would be their advantage if they were identified as part of the main family? Never. If she knew the Lan way of thinking ( which she knew very well, especially with most of the Elders ) is that the initial reaction would be confusion and distrusts, which would lead to anger, and then to an act of hostile interrogation.
At least Shuoyue is nowhere to be seen. But Lan Xichen’s glare did harden. “Please remain calm, I will not harm you both, but I must ask you two to come with me.”