For some reason, Wei Wuxian felt guilty tonight and didn't dare to sleep on the couch with Lan Wangji as usual. He sat on the floor and spent the whole night there. He didn't know when he fell asleep leaning against the wooden couch. He was in a daze until the morning, when he felt someone gently pick him up and lay him flat on the couch. Wei Wuxian forced himself to open his eyes, and Lan Wangji's cold face came into view.

He suddenly regained some clarity and called out, "Lan Zhan."

Lan Wangji responded with a “hmm”. Wei Wuxian asked again, “Are you awake or drunk now?”

Lan Wangji said, “Awake.”

Wei WuXian said: “Oh…it’s the morning hour.”

Lan Wangji wakes up at this time every day, so Wei Wuxian can judge the time without looking at the sky outside the window. He picked up Wei Wuxian's wrists, and there were several blood-red marks on both wrists. Lan Wangji took out a small light green porcelain bottle from his sleeve and bent down to apply medicine to him. The delicate ointment immediately felt cool wherever it was applied. Wei Wuxian narrowed his eyes and said, "It hurts... Hanguang-jun, you are so rude when you are drunk."

Lan Wangji didn't even raise his eyes and said, "It's your own fault."

Wei WuXian's heart sank for a moment, and he said, "Lan Zhan, what did you do after you got drunk? You really don't remember, right?"

Lan Wangji said: “I don’t remember.”

Wei WuXian thought, “He probably doesn’t remember. Otherwise he would have gotten so angry that he would have skinned me alive.”

He was both glad that Lan Wangji didn't remember, and a little bit sorry that he didn't remember. It was as if he had secretly done something bad, eaten something secretly, and hid in a corner alone and laughed secretly without anyone noticing, but he also felt sorry that no one shared his secret joy. Involuntarily, his eyes stared at Lan Wangji's lips again.

Although the corners of his mouth never curl up, they look soft, and they are indeed soft.

Wei WuXian bit his lip unconsciously and began to daydream again: "The Gusu Lan Clan's upbringing is so strict, and Lan Zhan is completely unromantic. He must have never kissed a girl before. What should I do now? I've won the first place. Should I tell him? Will he be angry and cry when he knows? Well, maybe he would when he was a child, but probably not now. And he's like a wooden monk. Maybe he has never thought about that... No! Last time when he was drunk, I asked him 'Do you have someone you like?' He answered 'Yes'. Maybe he has kissed someone a long time ago? But with Lan Zhan's restrained personality, he must have acted out of emotion but stopped at courtesy. Most likely he has never kissed, and he certainly hasn't even held hands. Come to think of it, maybe he didn't understand what kind of 'like' I was asking about at the time..."

After Lan Wangji finished applying the medicine to Wei Wuxian, someone knocked on the door gently. After three knocks, Lan Sizhui's voice came: "Hanguang-jun, everyone is up. Are you leaving?"

Lan Wangji said, “Wait downstairs.”

After leaving the city, they were about to go their separate ways at the gate. The children of the famous families were just familiar faces, and they would visit each other when they held a grand gathering for leisurely discussions. However, in the past few days, they had experienced the cat corpse incident together, and spent a thrilling day and night in a foggy ghost town together. They had also burned paper money together, drank wine together, quarreled together, and cursed together. They had become very familiar with each other. When they were about to leave, they were reluctant to leave. They dragged their feet at the gate of the city, agreeing on when to come to my house for leisurely discussions and when to go to your territory for night hunting. Lan Wangji did not urge them, and let them talk about this and that, standing under a tree in silence. The fairy was stared at by him, and did not dare to scream or run around. She could only shrink under the tree, looking eagerly at Jin Ling, her tail wagging.

While Lan Wangji was staring at the fairy, Wei Wuxian put his arm around Jin Ling’s shoulders and walked a distance away.

Mo Xuanyu is one of Jin Guangshan's illegitimate children, and the half-brother of Jin Zixuan and Jin Guangyao. So in terms of blood relationship, he can be regarded as Jin Ling's uncle, and he can naturally admonish him in the tone of an elder. He walked and said, "Don't quarrel with your uncle when you go back. Listen to him. Be careful in the future and don't go out hunting alone at night."

Although Jin Ling was born into a noble family, rumors never let anyone go. As an orphan, he was inevitably eager to succeed and prove himself. Wei Wuxian added, "You are only a teenager? The nobles of your age have never hunted any extraordinary monsters, so why are you so eager to get ahead?"

Jin Ling said sullenly, "My uncle and younger uncle were also in their teens when they became famous."

Wei WuXian thought, “How can it be the same? Back then, the Qishan Wen Clan was putting pressure on people, and people were in a state of panic. If they didn’t train and fight hard, no one knew if they would be the next unlucky one. In the Sun Shooting Campaign, it didn’t matter whether you were a teenager or something. Now that the situation is stable and everyone is settled, the atmosphere is naturally not that tense, and of course people are not training so hard anymore. There’s no need to do that.”

Jin Ling added: "Even Wei Ying was only a teenager when he killed the Slaughtering Black Tortoise. If he could do it, why can't I?"

When Wei WuXian heard his last name and the last word together, he felt a chill run down his spine. He shook off the goosebumps with great difficulty and said, “Did he kill him? Wasn’t it Han Guang-Jun who killed him?”

Hearing him mention Lan Wangji, Jin Ling gave him an ambiguous look, wanting to say something, but forced himself to hold it back, and said, "You and Han Guang-jun... forget it. This is your own business. Anyway, I don't want to care about you at all. If you like to be gay, then go ahead and be gay. This disease cannot be cured."

Wei WuXian said, “How can this be called a disease?” He laughed in his heart, “He thought I was shamelessly pestering Lan Zhan?!”

Jin Ling added, "I already know the meaning of the Gusu Lan clan's headband. Since that's the case, you should stay with Han Guang-jun. Even if you're gay, you should be clean and don't mess with other men, especially those from our family! Otherwise, don't blame me for being rude to you."

The "our family" he mentioned includes both the Lanling Jin Clan and the Yunmeng Jiang Clan. It seems that their tolerance for gay men has increased. As long as they don't go after his family, they can just ignore it. Wei Wuxian said, "You kid! What do you mean by provoking other men? You're making me look like a fool. Headband? What's the meaning of the Gusu Lan Clan's headband?"

Jin Ling said, "Don't give me that! Don't get carried away. I don't want to talk about this anymore. Are you Wei Ying?"

At the end of the three sentences, he suddenly threw out a sentence that was so direct that it caught everyone off guard. Wei WuXian calmly replied, "Do you think I look like you?"

Jin Ling was silent for a while, then he blew a short whistle and said, "Fairy!"

When the master called her name, the fairy swung her tongue and ran over on all fours. Wei Wuxian ran away: "Talk nicely, why are you letting the dog go!"

Jin Ling said: "Humph! Goodbye!"

After he said goodbye, he headed towards Lanling in a heroic and high-spirited manner. It seemed that he still did not dare to go back to Yunmeng Lotus Pier to see Jiang Cheng. The children of other families also went home in twos and threes in different directions. In the end, only Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji, and several young people from the Lan family were left.

As they walked, several of the younger generations couldn't help themselves and kept looking back. Lan Jingyi didn't say anything, but his face was empty and full of reluctance. He asked, "Where are we going next?"

Lan Sizhui asked, "Zewu Jun is currently hunting at night in Tanzhou. Should we go directly back to the Cloud Recesses, or go there to meet him?"

Lan Wangji said, “Meet up in Tanzhou.”

Wei WuXian said, “That’s great. Maybe I can help in some way. Anyway, I don’t know where to go next to find my good brother’s head.”

The two of them walked in front, and the other boys followed far behind. After walking for a while, Lan Wangji said, "Jiang Cheng knows who you are."

Wei WuXian sat on the donkey, letting Little Apple walk slowly, and said, “Yes, I know. But what does it matter if I know? He can’t produce any evidence.”

Offering a body is different from taking over a body, and there is no trace to trace. Jiang Cheng only judged it based on Wei Wuxian's expression after seeing the dog. But firstly, Jiang Cheng never told anyone that Wei Wuxian was afraid of dogs. Secondly, people who are not very familiar with him cannot make a conclusion about his expression and reaction, and cannot provide any ironclad evidence. Even if Jiang Cheng now posts notices everywhere to announce that the Yiling Patriarch Wei Wuxian is a coward when seeing a dog, it is estimated that everyone will only think that the Three Poison Masters have been chasing the Yiling Patriarch for many years but always caught the wrong person, so he finally went crazy.

Wei WuXian said: “So I’m really curious. How did you recognize me?”

Lan Wangji said calmly: "I am also curious why your memory is so bad."

A few days ago, they arrived in Tanzhou, but before they met up with Lan Xichen, they passed by a garden. Seeing that the garden was huge, magnificent, and unattended, the younger generation could not help but go in to explore. As long as it was not against the family precepts and rules, Lan Wangji would never stop them, so they went in. There were stone pavilions, stone railings, stone tables, and stone benches in the garden for people to enjoy the flowers and the moon. However, after years of rain and wind, a corner of the pavilion was missing, and two stone benches fell down. There were no flowers in the garden, only dead branches and fallen leaves. This garden has been abandoned for many years.

After the youngsters had walked around the garden with great interest, Lan Sizhui asked, "Is this the flower girl's garden?"

Lan Jingyi was stunned and said, "Flower girl? Who is that? Does this garden have an owner? Why does it look so shabby? No one has taken care of it for a long time."

Flowers that bloom for a short period of time and are in season are called Shihua. There are many varieties with different colors, and the whole garden is filled with fragrance when they bloom. Hearing this name, Wei Wuxian's heart moved and he remembered something. Lan Sizhui stroked the pillar of the stone pavilion, thought for a moment, and said: "If I remember correctly, it should be this. This garden was once very famous. I read about it in a book, "The Soul of the Shihua Girl". It says that there is a flower garden in Tanzhou, and there is a girl in the flower garden. If you recite a poem under the moon, if the poem is good, you will be given a Shihua flower, which will not wither for three years and the fragrance will last forever. If the poem is not good or there is a mistake in the recitation, the girl will suddenly appear, hold the flower and throw it in your face, and then disappear."

Lan Jingyi said, "If you recite a poem wrong, she will hit you in the face with a flower? The flower should not have thorns, otherwise if I try, I will definitely get stabbed in the face and bleed. What kind of monster is this?"

Lan Sizhui said, "It's probably not a monster, it's more like a spirit. Legend has it that the earliest owner of the flower garden was a poet who planted these flowers himself, made flowers his friends, and recited poems here every day. The flowers in the garden were influenced by the fragrance of books and poetry, and condensed into a spirit, which turned into a flower-growing girl. When outsiders come here and recite a good poem, she will be reminded of the person who planted them, and she will be happy to give them a flower. If the poem is not good, she will come out from the flowers and hit the person's head and face with the flowers. The person who is hit will faint, and when he wakes up, he will find that he has been thrown out of the garden. More than a decade ago, there was an endless stream of people coming to this garden."

Wei WuXian said, “Elegant, elegant. But there won’t be such things as books in the Gusu Lan Clan’s library. SiZhui, tell me honestly, what book are you reading and who showed it to you.”

Lan Sizhui blushed and went to see Lan Wangji secretly, worried about being punished. Lan Jingyi asked, "Is the flower girl very beautiful? Otherwise, why would so many people come?"

Seeing that Lan Wangji had no intention of blaming him, Lan Sizhui secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and then smiled and replied, "She should be very beautiful. After all, she is such an elegant spirit, and is the result of such beautiful things. But in fact, no one has ever seen the flower girl's face clearly. After all, even if you can't write poetry, it's not difficult to recite one or two poems, so most people received flowers from the flower girl. Even if someone occasionally recited the wrong poem and was beaten, they would faint immediately and never get to see it. But... there is only one exception."

Another teenager asked, "Which one?"

Wei WuXian coughed lightly.

Lan Sizhui said, "The Yiling Patriarch Wei Wuxian."

Wei WuXian coughed again and said, “Well, why is it him again? Can’t we talk about something else?”

No one paid any attention to him. Lan Jingyi waved his hands and said worriedly, "Don't make a fuss! What happened to Wei Wuxian? What did this big devil do again? Did he forcefully capture the flower girl?"

Lan Sizhui said, “That’s not the case. However, in order to see the flower girl’s face clearly, he came all the way from Yunmeng to Tanzhou. When he came to this garden, he would deliberately recite the wrong poem every time, which made the flower girl angry and hit him with flowers, and then throw him out. After he woke up, he crawled back in and continued to recite the wrong poem loudly. He repeated this more than twenty times, and finally saw the flower girl’s face clearly. He went out and praised her to everyone. But the flower girl was also mad at him, and she never came out for a long time. When she saw him enter, flowers would rain down and hit him, which was more bizarre than a bizarre sight…”

All the young men laughed and said, “Wei Wuxian is such an annoying person!”

"Why are you so boring!"

Wei WuXian stroked his chin and said, “What’s so boring about this! Who hasn’t done one or two things like this when they were young? By the way, why do people even know about this? And they even write it down in a book. This is really boring.”

Lan Wangji looked at him, his face expressionless but his eyes sparkled with a strange light, as if he was making fun of him. Wei Wuxian thought to himself, "Hey, Lan Zhan actually had the nerve to laugh at me. I know at least eight of your embarrassing moments when you were young. Sooner or later, I will tell these kids about it and destroy the image of Han Guangjun that they think is pure, sacred and inviolable. Just wait."

He said, "You kids, your minds are not calm and your thoughts are not clear. You must be reading miscellaneous books every day instead of concentrating on cultivation. Go back and ask Han Guang-jun to punish you to copy the family rules ten times."

The young men were horrified: "Standing upside down and copying it ten times?!"

Wei WuXian was also startled and looked at Lan WangJi: “Your family’s punishment for copying is to stand upside down? That’s too harsh.”

Lan Wangji said calmly, "If it's just copying as punishment, there will always be people who don't learn the lesson. If they stand upside down, they will remember it deeply and can practice."

Wei Wuxian was naturally the one who didn’t learn his lesson. He pretended not to understand and turned around to be thankful that he was not asked to copy it while standing upside down.

A group of young men were very excited to listen to the story, and decided to camp in the garden tonight. Camping is a common thing during night hunting, so they picked up dead branches and leaves and made a bonfire. Lan Wangji went out to patrol to ensure the safety of the area and set up a formation to prevent midnight attacks. Wei Wuxian stretched his legs and sat by the fire. Seeing that Lan Wangji finally left, he had a chance to answer his questions, and said, "By the way, let me ask a question. What is the meaning of your headband?"

When this was mentioned, the faces of the young men suddenly changed, and they all began to stammer. Wei Wuxian's heart suddenly skipped a beat, and his heart began to pound.

Lan Sizhui asked carefully: "Senior, don't you know?"

Wei WuXian said, “If I knew that, would I still ask? Do I look like such a boring person?”

Lan Jingyi muttered, “Very similar… After all, you can even trick us into lining up to watch something like that…” Wei Wuxian stirred up sparks with a branch and said, “Didn’t I do that to help you train well and break through? It’s obviously very useful. Remember my words, and you will benefit greatly from them in the future.”

Lan Sizhui seemed to be considering his words, and after a long pause, he said, "It is like this. The headband of the Gusu Lan Clan means 'self-discipline'. Senior, you know this, right?"

Wei WuXian said, “I know. And then?”

Lan Sizhui continued, "And Lan An, the founder of the Gusu Lan family, once said that only in front of the destined person or the person you love, you don't have to follow any rules. So, the lesson passed down from generation to generation is that, uh, our family's headband is a very, very personal and sensitive precious thing. Except for yourself, no one else can touch it casually, you can't take it off casually, and you can't tie it on others. This is a taboo. Well, only, only..."

There is only what, no need to say.

Beside the campfire, the young and tender faces turned red, and Lan Sizhui could not continue.

Wei Wuxian felt that more than half of the blood in his body rushed to his head.

This headband, this headband, this this this——

The meaning of this headband is quite heavy!

He suddenly felt the need for fresh air, so he stood up and rushed out. He held onto a dead tree and managed to steady himself. He thought to himself, "…Oh my god! What have I done?"

In Qishan, Wen Clan held a grand gathering of hundreds of scholars. The meeting lasted for seven days, and the entertainment activities were different every day. One of the days was an archery competition.

The rules of the competition are that young men from each family who are not yet twenty years old enter the arena to compete. Among more than a thousand life-size, nimble paper targets, only a hundred are attached with evil spirits. If you shoot a wrong one, you must leave the arena immediately. Only by continuously hitting the correct paper figures with evil spirits can you stay in the arena. Finally, the calculation is made to see who hits the most and is the most accurate, and they are ranked in order.

In such an occasion, Wei Wuxian would of course participate as one of the contestants of the Yunmeng Jiang Clan. Before the competition, he had listened to the debates of various schools for the whole morning, and his head was dizzy. Only after he put on his bow and arrows did he finally feel a little more energetic. While walking to the hunting ground while yawning, he glanced and suddenly saw a handsome young man with a powdered face and a cold face beside him. He was wearing a red round-necked robe, a nine-ring belt, and very narrow sleeves. This was the uniform dress for the younger generation of the Qishan Hundred Schools of Thought, and he wore it very well. Three points of elegance, three points of heroism, and ten points of handsomeness added up to a bright look.

The young man was carrying a bunch of arrows with snow-white tail feathers on his back, and was testing his bow. His slender fingers plucked the bowstring, producing a sound like the strings of a harp, pleasant and powerful.

Wei Wuxian found the boy familiar. After thinking for a while, he slapped his thigh and greeted him cheerfully: "Hey! Isn't this Brother Wangji?"

At that time, more than a year had passed since Wei Wuxian studied in the Cloud Recesses and was sent back to Yunmeng. After he returned to Yunmeng, he told people about his experiences in Gusu, including a lot of remarks such as how Lan Wangji's face was handsome but how rigid and boring it was. Not long after, he forgot about these days and continued to surf the lake and run wild in the mountains. Before, he had only seen Lan Wangji in plain clothes like the Gusu Lan family's "sackcloth and mourning", but he had never seen him in such a bright and eye-catching outfit, coupled with Lan Wangji's overly beautiful face, and when they met again suddenly, he was blinded for a moment and could not recognize him immediately.

Over there, Lan Wangji finished testing the bow and turned to leave. Wei Wuxian was annoyed and said to Jiang Cheng, "You ignored me again. Hey."

Jiang Cheng glanced at him coldly, not intending to pay any attention. There were more than 20 entrances to the shooting range, each with a different entrance. When Lan Wangji walked to the entrance of the Gusu Lan Clan, Wei Wuxian slipped past first. When Lan Wangji moved sideways, he also moved sideways; when Lan Wangji moved, he also moved. In short, he was blocking him from leaving.

Finally, Lan Wangji stood still, raised his head slightly, and said solemnly: "Excuse me."

Wei WuXian asked, “Are you willing to pay attention to me? Were you pretending not to know me, or were you pretending not to hear me?”

Not far away, the young men from other families were looking at this place, some were surprised, some were laughing. Jiang Cheng smacked his lips impatiently, put on his back the arrow and went to another entrance.

Lan Wangji raised his eyelids coldly and repeated, "Excuse me."

Wei Wuxian smiled, raised his eyebrows, and turned sideways. The archway at the entrance was narrow, so Lan Wangji had to stick close to him to pass by. When he entered, Wei Wuxian called out from behind him, "Lan Zhan, your headband is crooked."

The children of noble families all paid great attention to their appearance, especially the Gusu Lan Clan. Upon hearing this, Lan Wangji raised his hand to help without hesitation, but the headband was clearly worn properly. He turned around and cast a bad look at Wei Wuxian, who had already laughed and turned to the entrance of the Yunmeng Jiang Clan.

After the competition officially started, many noble family members were forced to leave the competition because they accidentally shot ordinary paper figures. Wei Wuxian shot arrows one by one, very slowly, but never missed. In a short while, 17 or 18 arrows were gone from the quiver. He was just about to try to shoot with his backhand, when suddenly, something floated to his face.

This thing was light and soft, and it tickled Wei Wuxian's cheeks like a strand of flying catkins. He turned around and saw that Lan Wangji had walked near him without him noticing, with his back to him, and was drawing a bow at a paper mannequin.

The streamer of the headband fluttered in the wind, gently brushing Wei Wuxian's face.

He narrowed his eyes and said, "Brother Wangji!"

Lan Wangji pulled the bow to its full length like a full moon, paused for a moment, and then asked, "What is it?"

Wei WuXian said, “Your headband is crooked.”

This time, Lan Wangji no longer believed him. He shot out an arrow and blurted out two words without even turning his head: "Boring."

Wei WuXian said, “This time it’s real! It’s really crooked. If you don’t believe me, just look and I’ll straighten it for you.”

He did what he said, grabbing the headband that was floating in front of him. But the bad thing was that he was a jerk, and he was used to pulling the braids of the girls in Yunmeng, so he wanted to pull the strips in his hands, so he pulled without thinking. Who knew that the headband was slightly crooked and loose, and it slipped off Lan Wangji's forehead when he pulled it.

Lan Wangji's hand holding the bow trembled immediately.

After a long while, he turned his head stiffly and turned his gaze very slowly to Wei Wuxian.

Wei WuXian still held the soft headband in his hand and said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do that. Here, tie it again.”

Lan Wangji’s expression was extremely grim.

There was a dark aura between his brows, veins popped out on the back of his hand holding the bow, and he looked like he was shaking with anger. Wei Wuxian saw that his eyes seemed to be bloodshot, and couldn't help but pinch the headband, thinking: "What I tore off was indeed a headband, not some part of his body, right?"

Seeing that he still dared to pinch her, Lan Wangji snatched the headband from his hand.

As soon as he took it, Wei Wuxian let go. The other disciples of the Lan family stopped shooting arrows and gathered around. Lan Xichen put his arm around his brother's shoulders and whispered something to the silent Lan Wangji. The others also had serious faces, as if they were facing a great enemy. They shook their heads while talking and looked at Wei Wuxian with strange and ambiguous eyes.

Wei Wuxian only heard vague words like "accident", "no need to be angry", "don't care", "man", "house rules", and so on, and became more and more confused. Lan Wangji glared at him fiercely, turned around and walked out of the venue.

Jiang Cheng came over and said, "What did you do again? Didn't I tell you not to flirt with him? You won't be happy until you find death."

Wei WuXian spread his hands and said, “I told him his headband was crooked. I lied to him the first time, but the second time was real. He didn’t believe me and got angry. I didn’t pull his headband off on purpose, so why do you think he was so angry? He even refused to participate in the competition.”

Jiang Cheng mocked, "Of course it's because you particularly annoy him!"

The arrows behind him were almost shot out, and seeing this, Wei Wuxian also began to exert his strength.

He had never thought about this in detail over the years. He had suspected that the headband had some special meaning to the Lan family, but after the competition, he had forgotten about it. Now that he thought about it, he wondered what the other Lan family members looked at him with.

When a rascal forcibly took off his headband in front of a large crowd, Lan Zhan didn’t shoot him to death on the spot—his self-restraint is so good! He is indeed Han Guang-jun!!!

And if you think about it carefully, after coming back, he seems to have touched Lan Wangji's headband more than once!!!

Lan Jingyi asked in confusion: "Why is he walking around there alone? Can't he sit still after eating too much?"

Another young man said: "His face is also changing from red to green... Did he eat something bad..."

"We didn't eat anything... Is it because of the meaning of the headband? There's no need to be so excited. It seems that he is really obsessed with Han Guang-jun. Look how happy he is..."

Wei Wuxian walked around a bunch of dead flowers for more than fifty times before he managed to calm down. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry when he heard the last sentence. At this moment, he suddenly heard the sound of dead leaves being crushed behind him.

Judging from the footsteps, it wasn't a child. It must be Lan Wangji coming back. Wei Wuxian quickly adjusted his expression and turned around. He saw a black figure standing in the shadow of a dead tree not far behind him.

The figure was tall, upright and imposing.

Just missing a head.