First Meeting

"Where do you suppose we end up next?" I asked Xiongzhang.

"I am not sure," he answered, "If there is anything of importance to be seen, then that is where we will go next."

I nodded and turned to Nuwa. We both told her that we were ready to move forward.

~*FlashBack*~

Xiongzhang and I found ourselves standing in the center of Caiyi Town. It was nice to see such a familiar sight, but then wondered why they were back in Gusu.

"Why are we here? What year is it?" I asked.

"I am not sure, we might have skipped all the way to the time the clans came to Cloud Recesses to study," Xiongzhang answered.

Just as I was going to say something, I heard a familiar female voice speaking, "A'Xian, we have arrived!" 

I turned to see Jiang Yanli and Jiang Wanyin standing on a dock looking down at a boat seeing Wei Ying asleep. I just smiled a little at the sight of him looking peaceful. 

"Wei Wuxian, You better wake up or I'll send the dogs after you!" Jiang Wanyin said in a mocking kind of manner. 

"Dog!" Wei Ying sat up with a frightened look on his face.

"Don't make jokes like that," Yanli said scolding Wanyin.

"It is the only way to get him to wake up," Wanyin argued.

"There are other ways," She told him as Wei Ying got out of the boat and stood beside them.

"I know he is joking," Wei Ying said, "If he keeps making those jokes, I will just tell Uncle Jiang about that time he went to a brothel and-"

Wanyin put his hand over Wei Ying's mouth, "Okay, I won't make that joke again," he said and leaned closer to Wei Ying, "You promised to never bring that up again."

"Well, let's see you try to make that joke again," Wei Ying told him and started walking through town.

"I am curious now, what did he do?" Xiongzhang asked out loud. 

"Really?" I asked as we followed behind the three siblings.

"Kind of," He answered.

We approached an inn and the keeper was telling them that someone had booked the entire inn so the three could not rest and freshen up before heading to Cloud Recesses.

"Is there really nothing you can do?" Wei Ying asked, "Can you spare a room for a few hours just long enough for us to rest?"

"You will have to ask the young man who booked all the rooms," The inn keeper stated. 

"Maybe we should just find somewhere else," Yanli suggested.

"Where? Every other inn is full as well," Wanyin argued.

We then watched disciples from the Jin clan enter the inn and make there way upstairs to there rooms. I guess it was the Jin clan to have booked the inn. We watched Wei Ying trying to flirt with MianMian to help them in getting a room for a few hours and it worked only for them to get kicked out ten to fifteen minutes later by Jin Zixuan. So they did manage to get into their proper Gusu guest robes and head over to Cloud Recesses. I did, however, see Jiang Wanyin drop the invitation which caused the incident later on that night, which I am sure we are going to watch.

Xiongzhang and I followed behind as they reached the gates of Cloud Recesses, "Do I really need a reminder how this went?" I asked myself, without realizing I said that out loud.

"I would like to see how this went, after all, Wuxian did manage to break our ward, I'd like to see how he did it," Xiongzhang stated, "Plus it's your first meeting."

Which was exactly why I did not want a repeat, Xiongzhang is going to see me get flustered I am sure, maybe even call me out about the invitation thing. We watched as Wei Ying tried to convince the person at the gate to get the sect leader to approve their entry due to losing the the invitation. He said they will have to wait until they switch guards. 

I soon watched myself appear not long after their conversation. I caught sight of Wei Ying staring at me when his eyes spotted me. He looked mesmerized as if he had seen the best thing he had ever. We watched as I had a conversation with guard at the gate about the situation and then the disciple being carried on a stretcher.

"How do you think he ended?" Wanyin asked Wei Ying in a whisper.

"He doesn't seem dead. He was just cast by some sort of wicked sorcery," He told his brother. 

My brother and I watched as I turned to see who made that informative comment, I stood there for a moment just staring at Wei Ying. I remember thinking about how beautiful the man looked and how flustered I was for having those thoughts at that time.

"Looks to me that you could not keep your eyes off Wuxian," Xiongzhang teased. 

"Lan er Gongzi," Wanyin said before I could speak to my brother, "I am Jiang Wanyin, and my sister, Jiang Yanli from Yunmeng Jiang Clan. This is also my brother Wei Wuxian. It is a pleasure to meet you."

"Flatterer," I mumbled. Xiongzhang could only let out a small chuckle as we continued to observe.

"We had lost our invitation on the way to Cloud Recesses and we were hoping you could help us out," Wanyin said calmly.

"No invitation, no entry," Was all I said. 

"Lan er Gongzi, we really did lose our invitation, can you please help us out. You don't need to be so rigid," Wei Ying interjected.

"No invitation, no entry," I repeated.

"What do you expect us to do then?" Wei Ying asked.

"Go find your invitation and come back," I told him.

"Caiyi Town is twenty minutes from here and it the sun will be setting soon," Wei Ying said, "Can you Plea- mmm, mmmm," Wei Ying was cut off by me using the Silence spell and I walked off inside.

"Oh Wangji," Brother said letting out a sigh.

"I know," I said with my head down, "Not the best first meeting."

He shook his head and could only laugh remember the situation that he just witnessed. Time skipped forward and it was now dark and of course, past curfew. My brother and I saw Wei Ying approach the front gate looking around for his siblings, as he had actually gone back to town to look for the invitation. Of course, there were two bottles of Emperor's Smile in one hand and his sword in the other. We were curious as to how Wei Ying broke the ward, as Uncle had said it was a very strong ward. 

"Odd, no guards?" He asked out loud and walk forward only to bump into the ward, "Of course."

We watched as cast a talisman and tossed it toward the ward leaving a small opening for him to step through. My brother and I stood there in disbelief. His talismans were that strong to break a ward. I needed to know just how smart this man was in terms of creating talismans, I was really impressed. We followed him and stood in the main court yard. I saw myself standing on a watch tower looking up at the moon. I then watched as I turned to see Wei Ying climb up the roof. 

"Wei Ying," I said with a sigh, "Oh how I missed your antics."

My brother actually agreed with me. Seeing Wei Ying being mischievous and showing his heart warming smile was something that we both missed dearly. It broke us when we saw him slowly falling apart and losing his way in the darkness. Xiongzhang could only shake his head while also having an amused look on his face as he watch the two of us fight. 

"He never unsheathed his sword," I told Xiongzhang as we watched, "All he did was block. It amazed me that he kept up so well. I always wondered how he would be if he actually took out his sword."

"I bet he is very strong," Brother said, "He was ranked number four of the prominent cultivators."

"I wonder if he really should be ranked fourth?" I questioned, "He should be higher."

"Do you think he was a better swordsman than you?" Brother asked.

"I don't know," I said, "We never had a sword to sword spar."

"From seeing this, I would say you both are well matched," he told me.

Later, we watched Uncle, Xiongzhang, and I talk to Wei Ying about breaking rules and then the whole deal with the puppet. Everything was as we remembered it to be. So we questioned where would go next.