Pov LXC

I walked towards MingJue and Meng Yao. I greeted them respectively. I had a slight smile as I bowed to the latter. I had been worried about him, especially since our last meeting a month ago. During this one, he had shared with me his concern. He felt he was being watched. I told him to go back, but he said he had one last thing to do before, one last piece of information to check.

He came back, but the return did not seem to be the easiest way, considering the wounds and bruises on his face. He waved back at me. I interrupted his gesture by taking his hands in mine, then lifted his chin to get a closer look at his injuries.

"Meng Yao, what happened? How did you do this to yourself?"

"Lan Gongzi, it's nothing. I just had to struggle a bit to leave Qishan. But I can assure you that no one could have stopped me. I had important information to share with you!"

MingJue motioned for us to sit down. We took our places around the table and our host pushed a cup of tea in front of each of us after serving it. We thanked him with a slight nod. He then spoke up.

"Meng Yao, speak, we are listening."

Meng Yao put down his cup. He seemed to think for a moment and then addressed us.

"Clan Chief, Lan Xichen, as I told you a month ago, I had to find out the truth of a piece of information I had gathered under the cover of secrecy from someone close to Wen Ruohan.

Namely, that he would be ready to use all the power of the Iron Yin. But he was still missing an element. Or more exactly, a person who had what he needed. But it seems that this person was inaccessible for a while.

One week ago, Xue Yang arrived in Qishan with an unknown artifact. After that, he disappeared. He came back with a prisoner whom he was in charge of making talk.

"Do you know if he succeeded?" asked MingJue. Meng Yao shook his head from side to side.

"I don't know. He was locked up in Qingdao. I wanted to arrive before you left on your mission but I was too late, you were already on your way and about to attack! I have only one hope, that you found him and got him out of there!

"We did find a prisoner who was tortured by Xue Yang..." I began.

"Is he alive?" I smiled at his eagerness.

"Yes, but he is unconscious at the moment. But... he's not the only person we found! Or more exactly who found us!"

"What do you mean Lan Gongzi?"

"The prisoner we freed, ... is my brother Wangji and the one who helped us get him out is ... Wei Wuxian!"

"Lan Wangji? Wei Wuxian? But both of them died 3 years ago !!!! How is that possible?"

"It seems that they come to us from another world very different from ours. Wei Wuxian is as we once knew him in YunShen Buzhi's time. He does not seem to be hostile to us. But he is very protective of Wangji.

"And Lan Wangji, how is he?"

"As I told you, he is unconscious. We'll have to wait for him to wake up. But it might take a while. According to Song Chang some of his injuries are extremely serious!".

"I assume you've interviewed Wei Wuxian? What did he tell you?

MingJue and I looked at each other. Could we tell him that in their world, he had murdered Nie MingJue? And that he was not a very respectable person? Did he know that he was the son of Jin GuangShan? I decided to choose my words carefully? Meng Yao was intelligent, much more than normal! This was what made him the best spy in the resistance against the Wen clan. He could discover the truth through what we didn't tell him!

"In their world, all the clans revolted and the Wen clan was defeated. But we don't know exactly when or how; they live in peace. Wei Wuxian lives in Gusu and is a teacher in YunShen Buzhi. The Lan and Jiang clans still exist and Jiang Sheng and my uncle QiRen are alive. From seeing him fight in QingDao, we can tell you that he is very powerful and masters a strange spirit magic."

"Powerful how?"

"As powerful as Wen Ruohan, I would say. Except that the head of the Wen clan uses Yin Iron and Wei Wuxian just seems to use .... his flute!".

"His flute?...and his sword?"

"That's what surprised me, he doesn't carry one! Just a flute as black as the darkness and the spirits it controls!"

Meng Yao frowned and seemed to think.

"Could it be that he has an amulet on him, like the Iron Yin? And that he didn't show it to you?"

"It's possible. Now that you make me think about it, he mentioned an amulet, what did he call it? ... the Yin Hufu?".

"Yin Hufu...Iron Yin...do you think Lan Gongzi that the 2 are related to each other...given the similarity of their names?"

"It's possible ...."

I looked at Meng Yao. He had immediately pointed out a truth that we might have missed!

What could the Lan Wangji who was lying in my tent possibly know, that Wen Ruohan would send his damned soul to kidnap him to another world? Had he spoken? Had he revealed the secret he held?

What about Wei Wuxian? I knew the secret of their relationship and I understood his anger and despair! His feelings made him unpredictable. At first sight, Wangji was the only person able to control him. However, it seemed that he accepted a number of things from me. In his world, my other self must have had a good relationship with him. It was up to me to take advantage of that and make sure it was good in our world.

I looked back at Meng Yao. My eyes fell on the wounds on his face. He didn't seem to have healed them, perhaps he had more...

"Meng Yao, you need to rest and especially bandage your wounds" then turning to MingJue.

"Da-ge, I'll take care of him. I suggest that we meet later, when our "guests" are awake or at least Wei Wuxian.

I stood up and motioned to Meng Yao to follow me. We bowed to MingJue and left him. I led Meng Yao to my tent.

"Brother, I'm going to see a doctor..."

"Come in and sit down! I will take care of your wounds myself. I know you, it's not true, you won't go to anyone!"

Meng Yao gave me a small embarrassed smile! He knew I was right. He walked in and went to sit on the bed. I looked at what I could use to treat him. MingJue had really thought of everything! That night when he had my tent ready, he'd packed it with everything I could possibly need after our secret mission, including a medicine chest! I took it and a bowl of clear water. I put them on the small table by the bed. With a towel, I began to clean his face. He closed his eyes. I loved taking care of him! He had not had an easy life! Son of a prostitute, illegitimate child never recognized by his father, he had to struggle to learn to use the powers of his golden core! If I could bring him a little sweetness in his life of violence, deceit and hatred, then I was happy.

The sweet smile I loved so much came to her lips. When I finished cleaning his face, I smeared a healing ointment on each wound. I noticed that he also had some on the neck.

"Take off your tunic, I can't reach the wound on your neck!

"It's nothing, don't worry!" He was hiding something from me.

"Meng Yao, take off your tunic, that's an order!"

He hesitated and resigned himself to slide it off his shoulders. I understood why he had not wanted to undress in front of me!

His chest and back bore innumerable blue or purplish red marks! They were not wounds from fighting, or at least not the same kind. I felt the red in my face as I realized what this meant.

I hurried to tend to his wound. When I finished, he put his tunic back on. He kept his eyes down.

"You're not asking me any questions," he asked.

"No, but if you want to talk to me about it, I'll listen" He looked me straight in the eyes.

"Brother, you know what I do. You know that I have to get information. To do that, I am sometimes forced to do things that make me ashamed!"

"But this !!!!" I thought I could control myself, but I had just failed.

"Don't tell me that a woman made those marks on you!

"No, it's not!"

"Meng Yao, you don't have to do this!"

"Xichen, I get my information this way, using my body! I thought you understood that by now!"

"Does MingJue know?"

"Yes, it is even him who advised me to play my natural charms. At first with women. Then I realized that I was also to the taste of some men close to Wen Ruohan. Since all these years, I have built up a certain reputation. Getting into their beds allowed me to enter their lives and discover their secrets.

"I think I'll need some time...".

"I know you are disappointed in me, I am an aberration with unnatural morals!

"Don't say that! You know very well that it is not what I think!

"Then what do you think of my behavior?".

"I..."

I didn't know what to say to him, first Wei Wuxian revealing to me that he was my brother's husband and now Meng Yao telling me that he was using his body to get information by sneaking into other men's beds! This was way too much and in too short a time!!!

"See! I was right!".

Meng Yao got up and left my tent, with a blank look and a low head.

Did I really not know what he was doing and how he got his information?

Or had I never wanted to face this truth?

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)