6 a.m in the morning.

Yu ZiYuan was meditating when Jin Ling woke up as well. He yawned and spoke, "Good morning."

Yu ZiYuan smiled at him, "Good morning."

Jin Ling was still yawning, "When did you get up?"
"Just fifteen minutes ago."

Jin Ling yawned again, "Alright. I will get ready." Yu ZiYuan smiled, "Sure. I am ready to go."

Jin Ling got up and freshen himself out. He was a bit nervous, but not that worried. After all, he had a variety of connections with Cloud Recesses even without his identity as Young Master Jin.

Yu ZiYuan packed her own books up and looked at Jin Ling, "Ready?"
"Yep. Let's go."

Two figures walked towards the classroom together.

The first class was, unexpectedly, talisman class. Jin Ling made a sick face when he heard it, because he knew who was going to teach them about talismans.

Yu ZiYuan was rather surprised about it and asked, "What happened?"
"The first class is talisman class."
"And?"
"And? Shijie, don't you know? The best person suited to teach us about talismans is no other than Wei WuXian. He is an expert in talismans."

Yu ZiYuan's eyes widened. But of course, there was nothing to be surprised at. Wei WuXian had invented a whole another path of cultivation. So this much was nothing. She smiled, "Is there anything wrong with that?"
"I am worried about the class is all. He is gonna make a mess of things."

Yu ZiYuan didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

There was a melodic laughter and a cheerful, "Good morning, students. Ahhhh, it sure is early. I am still sleepy. I will never take the first class ever again. Anyways."

Jin Ling deadpanned, "See what I meant."

Yu ZiYuan could only smile awkwardly.

Wei WuXian came in and spoke, "Let us sit down. As you probably know, I am Wei WuXian. And I will be teaching you about talismans, spells and arrays."

Yu ZiYuan carefully listened. They were all skills that required to have no spiritual energy. If one knew how to activate it, then an ordinary man could activate these. Only high class spells, like the Lan silencing spell, required high practice and expertise. Sometimes they were even related to the clan.

Her mind started running in various directions.

'So, he started using resettlement energy, after being thrown into the burial mounds. The Wens threw him in there. That much is known by all. But what isn't known is, why he abandoned the orthodox path and invented demonic cultivation. Expertise in talismans, spells and arrays, skills that don't require spiritual energy.'

Suddenly something clicked in her mind.

'Not using spiritual energy, controlling resentment energy. Wei WuXian was always proud of his cultivation. He wouldn't abandon the use of spiritual energy so easily. He must have been forced to practice demonic cultivation to survive. In order to survive in the burial mounds, he had to control resentment energy.'

This was a wild theory, but it was quite possible.

'Did the resentment affect his core somehow? A Qi deviation? Or maybe...no...did Wen ZhuLiu melt his core? That would make sense. Without his golden core, he wouldn't be able to practice cultivation. But then...why wouldn't he tell anyone about it? If his core was simply crushed by Wen ZhuLiu, then there is no reason to hide it. There must have been a valid reason as to why he didn't reveal it even after being condemned for so long. If he just said that he didn't have a golden core, many would have understood his reason. Wei WuXian knows how to hide dark secrets extremely well, especially regarding himself.'

She instantly regretted that thinking. Because there was a never a sign of the verbal and physical abuse that the Jiang family had given to him on his face. Whenever he met someone, he was always smiling brightly. Granted, Yu ZiYuan never hit him more than once or twice except for the time Wang LingJiao came, that was still abuse. And it could not be justified. And there was a fact that Jiang FengMian never did anything about it.

Sigh. As much as Yu ZiYuan loved the man, she had to admit, he was also a horrible parent. They were both horrible parents. They didn't know how to take out their frustrations, and they took it out on children instead of talking it out or properly confront the problems.

Her hands tightened around her lapels. She took deep breaths to clear her mind from the guilt and think clearly.

'If he is hiding something so well, there must be a reason. Even more so, that reason revolves around the Jiang sect. He didn't have a golden core back then, and there was a reason as to why he couldn't reveal it to the whole world. What can it be? Just what is so incredibly important that he would rather be condemned by the world than reveal it? Wait a minute. He could have just lied about Wen ZhuLiu crushing his core if there was another reason. Why didn't he even lie about it? He is good at lying. Unless...he was dreading of someone somehow finding the truth?'

"Xiao Guniang, what are you thinking about so deeply from the beginning of the class?" Wei WuXian's voice rang out.

Yu ZiYuan snapped out of her stupor and looked at him.

This was stupid. She had completely forgotten that she was not Yu ZiYuan right now in front of others, but Xiao MingYu, and that she was now in the guest lectures of Cloud Recesses.

Yu ZiYuan smiled awkwardly, "It is nothing, Wei Laoshi."
"Tsk, come on. You think I wouldn't understand who isn't paying attention to class? You are talking to the expert of not paying attention to classes." He smiled smugly as if it was something to be proud of.

Jin Ling facepalmed. Some ended up 'pfft'-ing out a laugh.

Yu ZiYuan was quite distressed, "Ah really, Wei Loashi. It is nothing."

Wei WuXian raised an eyebrow, "Really? So what am I teaching right now?"

Yu ZiYuan was at a loss for words. She suddenly started looking for clues. She then saw the picture of a binding array and immediately recognised it. After all, underneath that petite girl was a veteran warrior.

She spoke confidently, "Spirit binding arrays."

Wei WuXian suddenly stilled.

That tone, that aura.

He was left speechless for a split second.

That petite little girl, reminded her of a woman who was such a tiger, even the real tigers were afraid of her. Such was her might, the world named her 'Violet Spider'.

Wei WuXian quickly composed himself and smiled, "Ah, I see. So you are good at understanding things from your surroundings. Good."
"..."

Yu ZiYuan made a defeated face that screamed 'You still don't believe me?'
Wei WuXian laughed, "Don't give me that look. Of course I don't believe you were paying attention that time. Now class, let us begin learning about these arrays."

Yu ZiYuan sat down. However, she didn't miss the way Wei WuXian stilled for a moment after she answered.

'I have to be careful. It's unlikely, but this is Wei WuXian, someone who was summoned the same way I have been. He might figure out that I am not actually Xiao MingYu."

The rest of the class was...eventful but educative.

Wei WuXian, no matter how weirdly he taught, had very good teaching methods. Yu ZiYuan was impressed.

After the bell rang announcing lunch time, Jin Ling and Yu ZiYuan went to the dining hall to get food.

...The food was as bland as she remembered.

'Ugh. Seriously, when are they ever gonna cook some good food instead of tasteless shit like these?'
Jin Ling suddenly brought something out.
It was a bottle.

Yu ZiYuan eyes the bottle, "Spices?"
"Yeah...I bought some just because of this occasion. These foods are so damn bland."

Yu ZiYuan smirked, "Attaboy."
Jin Ling grinned. They added the spice in their food secretly and started eating.

It was nothing too special, but at least now the food was bearable.

After lunch, class went upto afternoon.

Yu ZiYuan had been bored to death. These were things she all studied before. Granted, there were some new things, like the spirit attraction flag, or the compass of evil, but other than those few things, the whole class was boring to her.

She sighed.

It was not that she was not used to it, but even so, classes in Cloud Recesses were especially boring.

Maybe it was because of the environment.

_______________________

A few days went by like this. Yu ZiYuan, now when she was bored, thought about other things and process information.

She figured out somethings out in these days.

One: Wei WuXian was still using demonic cultivation. Which meant that the actual owner of the body possessed a very weak core. And Wei WuXian didn't bother cultivating much as Mo XuanYu was already in his twenties. Although she was not sure about this part. Maybe he did cultivate, but just didn't show it.

Two: Lan WangJi had changed, a lot. He was wiser and his words had a lot more weight than it had before. That much was very obvious because he was the Second Jade of Gusu, but even so, he was respected like a very elderly person, which was good.

Three: Jin Ling had affections for Wei WuXian. And likewise Wei WuXian also had affections for Jin Ling, but because of their past, they couldn't get past the barrier of their relations and be more open with each other. Wei WuXian couldn't mention Jin Ling as his nephew, nor could Jin Ling call Wei WuXian Dajiu.

Four: Jiang Cheng and Wei WuXian had practically become strangers. The relation between the two of them was worse than Yu ZiYuan had imagined. It was upsetting, all the more so because she knew her attitude towards them was a part of it.

Five: Not all Wens were bad. There were some who were forced to work under Wen Ruohan.

Six: All arrays, spells and talismans that needed blood were invented by Wei WuXian. Most of them were dark in attribute and had something to do with either resentment or corpses.

There were two things she still couldn't figure out.

One was the catalyst of Wei WuXian and Jiang Cheng's broken relation, and the other was why Wei WuXian had kept his core being missing a secret.

She also wanted to know more about how Wen Ning came to be, but that could wait. Current problems were top priority.

With these thoughts, each day, she gathered more information and figured out more things.

She had to know the situation if she wanted to patch things up here.

She hoped that she could heal the unhealed scars of the past, even if just a little bit.

But one day, Wei WuXian came in and grinned, "Pack up children. We are going hunting."

Oh...so this time there was going to be practical experience.
_______________________

A/N: Camellia represents healing.