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

47: Shallow Love

"Wei-xiong, delighted to have you back!"

"Nie-xiong, ah, Nie-xiong," Wei Wuxian hugged him and patted his back. "Grandma wanted me to thank you for tossing Jiuyue into the fire that night, or things wouldn't have worked out," he chuckled.

"Baoshan Sanren? Why, it's an honour for me to have her gratitude! Oh, and this beautiful lady must be Cangse Sanren?" Nie Huaisang bowed to the young woman standing beside Wei Wuxian.

Cangse laughed. "Little Sang, if I may call you that, you're as naughty as your father! I'm your friend's mother! No flirting with me!"

"Ah? Auntie! I was speaking facts! OW! Xuanji!"

Chen Xuanji shook her head, rubbing the hand with which she smacked her husband's head on her robe. "See? Your head's hard as rock. Cangse Sanren," Chen Xuanji bowed.

"Nah, what Sanren? I'm Auntie to both of you. Now then, where's my niece?" 

**********

"Meimei!" Wei Wuxian ran into the cell.

Wei Xiaolian lay on the cold rock floor, pale and unconscious.

"Nie-xiong, what happened?"

"Trauma. She loved her husband too much. We found her hiding somewhere nearby in the woods. She'd seen her husband burning alive and passed out from the trauma. Been comatose for the past few days."

Wei Wuxian picked his sister up in his arms. No chains or shackles were there to resist her because she was too lifeless to resist imprisonment. "Mama?"

Cangse Sanren nodded. "We'll take her back. Treat her in Yuanhua's Hall."

Lan Wangji watched as Wei Wuxian walked out of the cell with his sister in his arms. Wei Ying wouldn't let him carry her no matter how heavy she was because he didn't want his Lan Zhan carrying any woman. Not even a sister-in-law. And Lan Zhan knew it well, so he silently watched.

"Wei-xiong, what are you going to do with her?"

"I found a way to let her fall back into the right path."

"Really, Wuxian-gege?" Xuanji beamed. "That's great! What is it?"

Wei Ying sighed. "Memory-erasing spell." 

**********

Jiang Cheng pulled a chair from nearby and sat facing Lan Huan. "You'll stay put?"

"Mn," Lan Xichen nodded. Jiang Cheng was avoiding his eyes, not even glancing at his face.

So he didn't see the slight smile on Xichen's painfully happy visage.

Jiang Cheng waved his hand to retreat Zidian and gently removed belt, outer robe, inner robe and undershirt, pushing them all off his shoulders and onto the bed, baring his chest. He stared at the wound for a while.

Only now did he see the teeth marks at the centre of the ring of purplish-blue. Gulping, he daubed his fingers in the paste. I don't need to know, I don't care. I don't need to know, I don't care. I don't need to know, I don't care. He dabbed the paste on the leftmost edge of the wound.

Xichen hissed.

"Does it hurt?"

"N– No..."

"See? Liar," Jiang Cheng shook his head and made his application more gentle, softly tracing his fingers along the bite mark. "Tell me if it hurts."

Xichen hissing lightly as the spicy paste sank into the bite mark made Wanyin flinch. Somehow, Jiang Cheng was wincing harder than Lan Huan was, and Xichen smiled wider at that. "No, your fingers are soft, tender touch doesn't hurt."