Chapter 3: Chapter II: Wei Lan II

There is something… disturbing, about being in the wake of an Emperor's travel. Something that does not lend the mind rest, a certain presence that raises every hackle a woman has, every ounce of instinct for self-preservation, the mind and body in agreement: It is dangerous ground to tread.

 

Being in the presence of one is infinitely worse, and Wèi Lan had learned long ago it is only the higher that one rises, the more capable she is in understanding the true magnitude of a cultivator in the Emperor Realm.

 

So much so, that in that moment, Wèi Lan would have gladly traded places with Qián Ai, her inability to sense Qi a downright blessing in disguise.

 

Odder still, was the fact her mother had followed etiquette and hadn't teleported inside the room, nor had she opened the door herself, two things she was clearly capable of doing and had done in front of Wèi Lan countless times.

 

It was clear her mother respected Qián Ai far more than she did her own daughter.

 

Noticing Wèi Lan shying away from the door, Qián Ai became fraught with worry, her mind going a mile a minute as she fought to calm herself. If even Wèi Lan, daughter of the Wèi Sect, found the person on the other side of the door unsettling, then this lowly one surely didn't really stand much of a chance.

 

If she was being brutally honest with herself, then there really wasn't any difference to her between a cultivator on the First Step of the Foundational Realm as opposed to one on the Ninth Step of the Emperor Realm. Both could kill her with ease, and if she had survived it thus far, then surely she would survive another day.

 

Yes, she would do all that she could to save her son, and if that meant she would die today, then she would do it with dignity, knowing she faced death after she had done everything in her power to protect her only child.

 

Serene at the thought, as if framing it in such a way washed away all her worry and pain, Qián Ai seeked Wèi Lan's permission before she moved and opened the door. Only to gasp at the beautiful woman standing before her, one she had seen only furtive glimpses of prior, in her work inside the Wèi Sect's Main Branch.

The woman before her was none other than Wèi Chan, Matriarch of the Wèi Sect.

 

Ai fainted.

~~~~~

"Ms Lan? Did my mother do something wrong?" Qián Ru asked her, having awoken from the sheer presence of her mother inside his home.

 

And then Wèi Chan did something that had left her daughter speechless, eyes bulging in disbelief.

 

She had apologized to Qián Ai for it!

 

As if the two were no less than close friends, and Wèi Chan had inconvenienced her by stopping by.

 

Qián Ai had not been able to comprehend it and slipped into unconsciousness once again.

 

Wèi Lan had not been able to comprehend it and wished she could have done so as well.

 

But something told her her mother wouldn't have caught her as she did Qián Ai, the two now conversing in Ai's bedroom in tones low enough Lan had a hard time trying to figure out what they were saying.

 

She supposed the only reason Wèi Chan hadn't excluded her entirely from the conversation was so that Ru wouldn't fret, the boy listening to every sound and rustle to come out of that room as if it was Divinty's Breath, and that she ought to thank her mother for it.

 

The realization left a bitter taste inside Wèi Lan's mouth, one she was sure would endure well into the night.

 

"Ms Lan!" Ru rebuked, hitting her, and Lan was proud to note a hint of Qi in his punch, one that reminded her of her reason for being here.

 

"No, Ru." she sighed, turning to face him. "Your mother is not in trouble. My mother just wanted to have a little chat with her." And judging by the presence of both Lù Xiu and Shěn Song outside, it is one pertaining to everyone in the city.

 

"Oh. Well, I guess I don't mind waiting for them to finish so that I could hear my story. But only if they finish quick!" Ru stipulated, acting with all the self-assurance of a magnanimous king now that he understood his mother wasn't in any danger.

 

Even he had felt something the first time Wèi Chan had laid her eyes on him. A certain kinship and something else, something he was far too young to comprehend.

 

Lan, curse her weeping heart, realized that Ru expected his mother to read to him after she finished speaking with her mother, and after an already gruelling day and fainting twice, Wèi Lan doubted Qián Ai would be in any position to read to her son. So she moved to assist the poor woman, incapable of understanding how someone like Ai, an outcast without a drop of Qi to her name, handled the veritable monster that was Qián Ru.

 

"Why don't I read to you instead? I doubt your mother, after the day she's had, will have the mental capacity to even think, let alone read out loud to you."

 

Noticing his hesitation, Lan pressed on, adamant Ai would get her sleep after talking to her mother. She knew by firsthand experience what an exacting toll it had on a person, and that wasn't even getting into Qián Ai's peculiar condition.

 

"Oh, I could do all the voices as well, if you want. Just tell me where you are in your book." she added, looking about her as she tried to spot said book.

 

Perhaps if she could start reading, Qián Ru will have no choice but to listen to her.

 

"Umm, Ms Lan, don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think you can tell a story well. Not like my mother does at least. She is the best! Also, what's a book?"

 

That last part stumped her more than anything else, the realization that Qián Ai hadn't been reading out loud to her son but instead had been recounting by heart tales she remembered from her previous life driving it far out of her purview.

 

She knew many childhood fables, some of them even concerning the situation at hand.

 

Unfortunately, she knew exactly zero of them to a degree she could narrate them by heart.

 

Perhaps sensing her discomfort, Qián Ru moved to hug her, his eyes spelling his distraught state.

 

"I didn't mean it! I didn't mean it!"

 

"Huh?"

 

"Ms Lan can do whatever she wants, and this Ru would thank her for it!" he begged her, unshed tears glistening in his eyes.

 

"Oh, Ru, it's nothing like that. Forgive me, but I just don't know any story good enough to tell it word for word. And I doubt my mother would allow me to instruct you with anything less than perfection."

 

"Oh." was all Ru could say, still flustered.

 

Now visibly shy, the boy looked around the room, unable to meet Wèi Lan's amused gaze as he ever so subtly distanced himself away from her.

 

A deed Wèi Lan had a hard time accepting, the gentle warmth of the boy sitting next to her a quiet balm to her aching soul.

 

"What about her?" he said, pointing at the wall. "Do you think she knows a story by heart?"

 

You are reading story Ruminations of a Troubled Mind at novel35.com

It was only when she looked at where he was pointing that Wèi Lan realized he was pointing in none other than Lù Xiu's direction, the wall between them having no bearing on his ability to see her.

 

A fact that startled her.

 

"You can see her?"

 

"You can't?" he replied, puzzled.

 

"If I may ask, what is it exactly that you see?"

 

"Umm, a light. Like a candle. Oh, and she's waiving at me." he gleefully uttered and waived back.

 

In an instant, the room housed another woman, one that made Wèi Lan jump in fear, the tall voluptuous figure before her one she did not know by sight, rather by sense, the oppressive, maddening aura surrounding her a trait of one in her cultivation realm.

 

The Renegade Realm.

 

Wèi Lan did everything that she could not to cower, aware her mother was but a few feet away and she represented the Wèi Sect in this interaction.

 

But it was all for naught, the foreboding sense of the second most powerful cultivator in the city indomitable in its breadth, a nagging ache beginning from her temples and spreading across her body at the mere presence of one such as her.

 

If Lù Xiu wanted, she would be torn apart, molecule by molecule, faster than even her mother could save her.

 

"Would you like "Bamboo and the Turtle" or "A Tale of Four Dragons", Little Tyger?" Lù Xiu, Matriarch of the Lù Sect, asked Ru, completely ignoring her, much to her relief.

 

Qián Ru, the audacious fool, actually seemed to be considering it, his lips twisted in agitation, as if both choices did not meet his criteria.

 

"I already heard those. What about "The Ape Sun Wu Kung"? Mother says we'll start that one next week."

 

Wèi Lan was sure Lù Xiu would grow enraged at her choices being questioned, aware the full fury of a Renegade could be invoked simply with a wrong look, and shuffled closer to Ru, hoping the split second it would take for Xiu to kill her would give her mother enough time to intervene.

 

Instead, Lù Xiu merely smiled at him, her eyes flashing dangerously with ill-concealed need, before it too vanished, replaced with a calm exterior that spoke ill for the future of the Wèi Sect.

 

"Of course." she said, and sat down, beginning a tale as old as time.

 

"Far, far away to the East, in the midst of the Great Sea, there is an island called the Mountain of Flowers and Fruits…"

 

~~~~~

It did not take long for Qián Ru to sink into slumber once again, the soft tones of Lù Xiu almost sending Wèi Lan to sleep. He had had a long day, full of mock battles, trials and tribulations, and it was only to be expected from one as young as him.

 

Nevertheless, a part of Lan still ached at being left alone to fend for herself in front of the bona fide dragon that was Lù Xiu, a cultivator on the Eighth Step of the Renegade Realm.

 

"Curse you for being so lucky." Lù Xiu whispered as she looked at the sleeping form of Qián Ru, her tone as light as a feather's touch.

 

But while her tone was soft, the underlying venom was absolute, a seething pit of toxins and poisons that would have doubtlessly risen up and killed her were they not trapped in the civility enforced by a male cultivator.

 

By Qián Ru.

 

Wèi Lan was sure of it.

 

It made her reconsider the time it would take for Lù Xiu to delete her entirely from existence, the macabre thought the only one fitting the current atmosphere.

 

"Tyger Tyger, burning bright,

In the forests of the night;

What immortal hand or eye,

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?"

 

It was her mother who spoke those words, almost reverential in intensity as she looked down at the sleeping form of Qián Ru, mirroring her greatest foe in that aspect, her sudden appearance prompting an icy sneer from the Renegade sitting across from her.

 

"So, you've noticed it too, dog. Well, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but this one is not a true-born Tyger. It is obvious if one who knows where to look. A mangy mutt masquerading in noble clothes, that is all he is." Lù Xiu bit, her disdain palpable.

 

But even Wèi Lan thought the lady doth protest too much, her mother, Wèi Chan, not even deigning to respond, her eyes solely on Qián Ru.

 

"I want complete control of the Shenzhen Tournament for the next decade! As well as tariff exemptions and a writ naming me sole owner of every Spirit Beast in the region in the Spirit Realm or lower." Lù Xiu declared in barely repressed anger.

 

"Deal."

 

"And weekly access to him. One can never know he won't change his mind once he grows out of his youthful exuberance."

 

"I will grant you annual access."

 

"Monthly."

 

"Bi-annual. Take it or leave it."

 

"I'll take it." Lù Xiu whispered in begrudging acceptance.

 

If Wèi Lan weren't so tired and emotionally drained from being in the presence of not one but two powerful cultivators all evening, she would have undoubtedly laughed at such a display, an Emperor and Renegade haggling in quiet whispers inside the small home of a social pariah, as if no better than fisherwomen out on the docks.

 

Instead, all Wèi Lan could feel was deep-seated unease, an instinctual understanding she did not know what had just transpired and had no hopes of ever learning of it.

 

It was a turn of events that frankly left Wèi Lan baffled, the only glimmer of hope inside the gloom the smile her mother sent her.

 

She did not think she ever saw something so genuine gracing her mother's face before, the victorious grin lighting the entire room in its joy.

 

She hoped it was all worth it.

You can find story with these keywords: Ruminations of a Troubled Mind, Read Ruminations of a Troubled Mind, Ruminations of a Troubled Mind novel, Ruminations of a Troubled Mind book, Ruminations of a Troubled Mind story, Ruminations of a Troubled Mind full, Ruminations of a Troubled Mind Latest Chapter