Lan Wangji said to Wei Wuxian, “Wait for me.”

Wei WuXian asked, “How about I go in with you?”

Shaking his head, Lan Wangji said, "If you go in, he'll be even angrier."

Wei WuXian thought about it and thought, yes, Lan QiRen looked like a candle in the wind having a heart attack when he saw him, and was breathing more heavily than usual, so he should be kind and teach him not to see it and not be upset.

Lan Wangji looked at him, as if he was about to speak, and Wei Wuxian immediately said, “Okay, I get it. Don’t walk too fast, don’t make noise, don’t do anything, right? Don’t worry, I will be very careful when I come back with you this time, and I will not break any of the rules on your family’s discipline stone. I will try my best.”

Lan Wangji said without hesitation: "It's okay. Even if I make a mistake..."

Wei WuXian asked perceptively, “Hmm?”

Lan Wangji seemed to realize that what he had just said was not right. He turned his head away for a moment before turning back and said solemnly, "...No."

Wei WuXian asked blankly, “What did you just say you committed?”

Lan Wangji knew he was asking knowingly, so he repeated with a straight face, "Wait for me outside."

Wei WuXian waved his hand and said, “Just wait, why are you so fierce? I’ll go play with your rabbit.”

So Lan Wangji went to meet Lan Qiren alone, spitting all over the place, while Wei Wuxian was dragged along by Little Apple. Little Apple seemed to be particularly excited since entering the Cloud Recesses, and was full of energy. Wei Wuxian couldn't hold it back, and it was dragged to the lush green grass.

More than a hundred fat snowballs were quietly gathered in the grass, their pink three-petal mouths tucking and occasionally shaking their long ears, which were pink. Little Apple raised her head and squeezed into the middle of them, finding her own place. Wei Wuxian squatted on the ground, grabbed a rabbit, and scratched its belly while thinking: "Were there so many when I came last time? Is this a male or a female? Oh... a male."

Thinking of this, Wei Wuxian realized that he had never noticed whether Xiaopingguo was a woman or a man. So he couldn't help but glance over there. But before he could take a closer look, he heard a noise and turned back to check.

A petite girl carrying a small basket was wondering whether she should step forward. When she saw Wei Wuxian suddenly turn around and look at her, she was at a loss for a moment and her face turned red with shame.

The girl was wearing the school uniform of the Gusu Lan Clan, and a plain white headband without any cloud pattern. Wei Wuxian thought to himself, "This is incredible! I ran into a living person!"

This is a female cultivator. A female cultivator from the Gusu Lan clan.

Gusu Lan Clan is a family known for its rigidity. It goes without saying that there are rules such as the difference between men and women and the prohibition of close contact between men and women. They have been repeating these rules to their disciples since childhood. The study and rest areas for male and female practitioners are strictly separated. They never cross the line and rarely run out of their own areas. Even when going out for night hunting, men and women are basically separated. Either all men or all women, generally there is no situation where men and women are mixed together. It is so rigid that it is outrageous. When Wei Wuxian was studying in the Cloud Recesses, he basically never saw any girls here. He was deeply skeptical about whether there were really female practitioners in the Cloud Recesses. A few times, he seemed to hear the sound of female practitioners reading. Curious, he wanted to chase and see, but he was immediately discovered by the sharp-eyed and sharp-eared patrol disciples, who called Lan Wangji. After a few times, Wei Wuxian's enthusiasm was exhausted and he didn't want to explore anymore.

But now, it was the first time that he encountered a living female cultivator in the Cloud Recesses. A living female cultivator!

Wei Wuxian straightened up all of a sudden, his eyes sparkling. He was about to walk over when Xiaopingguo stood up, almost knocking him aside and rushing to the girl's side.

Wei WuXian: “?”

When it came to the girl's side, it lowered its head obediently and offered its donkey head and ears to her hands.

Wei WuXian: “???”

The girl blushed as she looked at Wei Wuxian, stunned for a moment, not knowing what to say. Wei Wuxian narrowed his eyes and felt vaguely that she looked familiar. After a moment, he suddenly remembered that this was the round-faced girl he had met on the road after leaving Mojiazhuang and had briefly met several times in Dafan Mountain.

Even if it was a completely unfamiliar woman, he could immediately chat with her with a smile, not to mention a girl with a good personality whom he had met several times before? He immediately waved at her and said, "It's you!"

The girl was obviously impressed by him, whether she washed her face or not. She hesitated for a while, twisted her hands holding the basket, and said in a muffled voice: "It's me..."

Wei WuXian threw away the rabbit he had touched to determine its gender, and with his hands behind his back, he took two steps towards her. He glanced at the carrots and vegetables in her basket and smiled, “Come and feed the rabbit?”

The girl nodded. Lan Wangji was not around, so Wei Wuxian had nothing to do. He became interested and asked, "Do you want me to help?"

The girl didn't know what to do, so she nodded. Wei Wuxian took out a carrot, and the two of them squatted on the grass. Little Apple put her head into the basket and searched for an apple, but didn't find one. She reluctantly took out a carrot and nibbled on it.

The carrots in the basket were very fresh. Wei WuXian bit off a piece of them first, then put them to the rabbits and asked, "Have you been feeding these rabbits?"

The girl said, “No… I just came to feed them recently… When Han Guangjun was here, it was Han Guangjun who took care of them. When he was not here, it was Master Lan Sizhui and the others who took care of them. If they were not here either, then we would come and help…”

Wei WuXian thought, “How does Lan Zhan feed rabbits? How old was he when he started raising them? Did he also come here with a small basket like this?”

After dispelling some overly cute images from his mind, Wei WuXian asked again, "Are you a disciple of the Gusu Lan Clan now?"

The girl said shyly, "Yeah."

Wei WuXian said, “Gusu Lan Clan is doing well. When did it happen?”

The girl stroked the white, furry rabbit and said, "Not long after the incident at Mount Dafan..."

At this moment, they both heard the faint sound of boots stepping on the green grass. Wei Wuxian turned around and saw that Lan Wangji was walking towards them.

The girl was flustered for a moment, then immediately stood up and saluted respectfully, "Han Guangjun."

Lan Wangji nodded slightly, but Wei Wuxian was still sitting on the grass, looking at him with a smile. The girl seemed to be very afraid of Lan Wangji - it was normal, there was no one of the young people of this age who was not afraid of Lan Wangji. She hurriedly picked up her skirt and ran away, and Wei Wuxian called out several times from behind: "Girl, little sister! Your basket! Hey, Little Apple! Little Apple, come back! Why are you running after me! Little Apple!"

No one or donkey was stopped by his call, so Wei Wuxian could only move the few remaining radishes in the basket and said to Lan Wangji: "Lan Zhan, you scared her away."

If Lan Wangji didn't want others to hear his footsteps, why would he let two people hear them?

Wei WuXian chuckled and handed him a carrot, saying, “Do you want to eat it? You feed the rabbit and I’ll feed you.”

“…” Lan Wangji looked down at him and said, “Get up.”

Wei WuXian threw the carrot back, stretched out a hand lazily, and said, “Pull me.”

After a pause, Lan Wangji reached out to pull him, but Wei Wuxian suddenly exerted force with his hands and pulled him back.

The territory was occupied by strange people. A group of rabbits ran around the two people stacked on the ground aimlessly as if they were facing a great enemy. The ones that were particularly familiar with Lan Wangji actually stood up and lay on him, as if they were worried about why their master suddenly fell down. Lan Wangji gently drove them away and said calmly: "Cloud Recesses, the seventh rule of the Shi family rules is not to disturb female cultivators."

Wei WuXian said, “You said it would be okay if I violated it.”

Lan Wangji said, “I didn’t.”

Wei WuXian asked, “Why are you like this? If you didn’t finish what you said, it’s the same as not saying it at all? Where is HanGuangJun, who is always true to his word and always keeps his word?”

Lan Wangji said, "'Everyday.'"

Wei WuXian stroked his face and said with pity, “Did your uncle scold you just now? Tell me now, so that I can feel sorry for you.”

The topic change was so abrupt and deliberate, Lan Wangji did not expose it and said, "No."

Wei WuXian asked, “Really? Then what did he tell you?”

Lan Wangji hugged him calmly and said, "Nothing serious. It's not easy to get together. We'll have a family dinner tomorrow."

Wei WuXian smiled and said, “Family dinner? Fine, fine, I will definitely behave well and will not embarrass you.” Suddenly thinking of Lan XiChen, he asked, “Where’s your brother?”

After a moment of silence, Lan Wangji said, "I'll go see him later."

Zewu Jun has been in seclusion all day recently, so Lan Wangji must have gone to have a long talk with him. Wei Wuxian put his arm around Lan Wangji and patted his back gently. After a while, he said, "Speaking of which, why didn't I see Sizhui and the others when I came back this time?"

If it were any other day, this group of youngsters would have gathered around the mountain gate with a lot of chatter. When he mentioned Sizhui and the others, Lan Wangji's brows relaxed slightly and he said, "I'll take you to see them."

When he brought Wei Wuxian to find Lan Sizhui, Lan Jingyi and the others, the younger generation did nothing except shout a few times in joy. It's not that they didn't want to do more, but they really couldn't.

More than a dozen people stood upside down under the eaves. Each of them took off their outer robes and wore snow-white light clothes. They stood upside down with their heads down and their feet up. On the ground in front of them were several sheets of white paper and a square of ink. They supported themselves with their left hands and held a pen in their right hands, struggling to write dense black characters on the paper.

Because they couldn't let their headbands fall to the ground, they were all sweating and biting the ends of their headbands, so they couldn't speak. The so-called "shouting a few times" was just a whimpering with bright eyes. Looking at these trembling and shaky bodies, Wei Wuxian said, "Why do you have to stand upside down?"

Lan Wangji said, “I will be punished.”

Wei WuXian said, “I know they are being punished. I saw that what they copied was the Lan family precepts. I can recite the “Etiquette Chapter” by heart. What did they do to be punished?”

Lan Wangji said calmly, "If you don't return to the Cloud Recesses after the stipulated time limit, then you will be punished."

Wei WuXian: “Oh.”

Lan Wangji: "Night hunting with the Ghost General."

Wei WuXian: “Hey! You guys are really brave.”

Lan Wangji said, “It’s the third time.”

Wei WuXian stroked his chin, thinking that if that was the case, then no wonder Lan QiRen, who hated evil, punished them like this. Just doing handstand as punishment was easy enough.

He squatted in front of Lan Sizhui and said, "Sizhui, why does the stack in front of you seem so thick? Is it my illusion?"

Lan Sizhui said: "No..."

Lan Wangji said, "He took the lead."

Wei Wuxian wanted to pat Lan Sizhui’s shoulder, but he didn’t know where to start. He paused, put his hand down, patted it from bottom to top, and said with understanding: “I knew it.”

After walking in front of the group of young men, glancing at them and briefly examining them, Lan Wangji said to Lan Jingyi, "Words. Not proper."

Lan Jingyi bit his forehead bandage and said tearfully, "Yes, Hanguang-jun. I'll re-copy this one."

The others who were not called out had passed the inspection and breathed a sigh of relief. The two left the corridor. Wei Wuxian recalled the difficult time when he was punished to copy. He felt a sense of sympathy and said, "It's hard enough to maintain this posture. I may not be able to write even if you ask me to stand upside down. Even if I sit down, I may not be able to write properly."

Lan Wangji glanced at him and said, "Indeed."

Wei WuXian knew that he was also thinking about the days when he was forced to copy as punishment, so he asked, “Was it the same when you were punished to copy as a child?”

Lan Wangji said, “Never.”

Come to think of it. Lan Wangji has been a role model among the children of aristocratic families since he was young. His every word and action is as if measured with a ruler and is incomparable. How could he make a mistake? If he doesn't make a mistake, how could he be punished?

Wei WuXian laughed and said, “I thought that’s how you developed your terrifying arm strength.”

Lan Wangji said, "No punishment. But that's how I trained myself."

Wei WuXian asked curiously, “If you’re not being punished, then why are you doing a handstand?”

Lan Wangji said without looking away, "You can calm down."

Wei WuXian leaned close to his ear and asked with a raised voice, “What on earth could have disturbed the heart of the cold-as-ice Han Guang-Jun?”

Lan Wangji looked at him and said nothing. Wei Wuxian was pleased and said, “According to what you said, you have been training your arm strength like this since you were a child. Does that mean you can do anything while standing upside down?”

Lan Wangji said, “Yeah.”

Seeing that he lowered his eyes and seemed to be answering in a somewhat shy manner, Wei WuXian became even more open-mouthed and said, “Can you do it backwards, too?”

Lan Wangji said, “Try it.”

Wei WuXian: “Hahahahahahaha…what did you say?”

Lan Wangji: “Let’s try it tonight.”

Wei WuXian: “…”