Mo Lai had a difficult life, she had been born to a rich master and a servant to his house in an affair, her mother had died during her birth and her father had left her with the other servants to raise, she was treated like the second lady of the house or as a servant depending on her father's mood.
Then she had caught the eye of the Jin sect leader, and he had rushed into her life like a warrior come to save her from all hardships, and he had for a short time.
Then he had left, without giving her a proper farewell. Her father had called her ruined goods and had banished her to a shack on the border of his lands, then she had found out she was with child and sent a letter to Jin Guangshan to tell him of the news.
He never replied, and now her bastard son was six years old and Mo Lai was heartbroken from the betrayal of what she had believed was a righteous man. She had only been given two things from her affair with Jin Guangshan, her son, and miraculously enough a golden core.
She had been at her half sister's mercy for five years after the mysterious death of their father, and now it seemed to be her turn.
Mo Daiyu, the mistress of Mo village, was kneeling over her with her hands wrapped around her throat cutting off her air supply, Mo Lai had been starved for many years always giving as much of the little food they were given to her son in hopes that he would grow strong and prove himself to the world and pull her out of disgrace.
She was far to weak from starvation to fight against Mo Daiyu's strength, but then she remembered a spell she had seen in one of Jin Guangshan's books she had seen, what she had been able to understand from her very limited schooling was that it would give your body to a soul that you called on in return for your soul being shattered, and a favor.
She twisted her fingers into the complicated signs that had been sketched in the book and pulled on every crumb of resentment she felt for the world around her, and called on the only spurt she believed would understand her hate of being family to someone when useful then hated the next second for being the child of a servant.
"Wei Wuxain." She breathed, using the last of her air to send her plea past the veil. 'Save my son.' She demands from the pit of her soul as she dies.
Wei Ying woke to the feeling of a small hand on his arm and the call of a child's voice. "Mama, wake up."
Wei Ying groaned he didn't want to wake up, his throat hurt and he feels like he hasn't slept in years.
"Mama, up. Mama told A-Yu that A-Yu needs a bath today." The child said again.
Wei Ying cracked his eyes open and took a look around, he was in an unfamiliar room. And when he looked towards where the child's voice was he didn't recognize who it could be.
"Ahhh, A-Yu?" Wei Ying said, his throat hurt even worse and his voice was oddly feminine even with how scratchy it was.
The child who looks oddly like he did nods, his large round eyes fixed on Wei Ying's face, searching for something that Wei Ying couldn't understand.
"What is mama's name?" He forces past the pain.
"A-Yu's mama is Mo Lai. But you aren't mama, who are you?" The child says firmly, Wei Ying is surprised that the child knows that he is not his mother.
"Ah, I was Wei Wuxain." Wei Ying answers, he sits up and looks down at himself to assess the state of his body and his mind stalls.
"Mama?" A-Yu breaks him from the blank state of his mind.
"Oh Hua Cheng!" Wei Ying yelps. "I was a man, I was born a man, I died a man, why am I a woman?"
He scrambles from the bed in a rush to get to the bowl of water across the room, the reflection that stares back at him is that of a very pretty woman, all long black silky hair and round gray eyes. She has many of his features just softened into a delicate female form. Then he notices the hand shaped bruises wrapped around his -her- throat and everything snaps into place.
"A-Yu, I am your new mama, go pack your things. We are leaving, I promise I will explain everything later." Wei Ying tells the small boy, he -she- needs to get them away from Mo Lai's murder.
A-Yu bolts out of the room with a skip in his step, whoever killed Mo Lai must abuse A-Yu as well. With a sigh Wei Ying starts pulling open trunks and throwing all the robes on the bed along with anything of value. When she finds a trunk that holds small bags and delicate jewelry she quickly pulls all the bags out, and drops to sit on the floor to make them into Qiankun bags for easier travel.
One of the bags when it was turned over has a small pearl button fall out of it, Wei Ying stares at it in disgust, he now knows who the father of A-Yu is, and now the monster of a man will not get his hands on a brilliant child.
The bags are finished quickly, and Wei Ying starts to fill them quickly, she leaves four of them on the floor for A-Yu to fill when he returns.
"Mama, I have my trunk." A-Yu calls from the door.
"Ah, good. Put everything from the trunk into those bags." Wei Ying tells the boy and points to the four Qiankun bags on the floor still.
She is quick to finish shoving the last of the jewelry into a bag when she catches sight of a large satchel that hangs by the door of the room, you can't put a Qiankun bag into a Qiankun bag. She had originally thought that she would have to tie them all onto her belt but was happy to see that she could just put them into an ordinary bag.
Wei Ying had left out a set of light gray set of three layered robes that were of a coarser weave than all the others to put on over her under robe that Mo Lai had died in, she wasn't ready to look at her naked body even if she was already calling herself female in her mind. Quickly pulling on the robes, Wei Ying looks at the progress A-Yu has made.
"Ah, good. Let's go then." She says when she sees that the trunk A-Yu had pulled into the room is empty.
"Mama, should we go to the treasury?" A-Yu asks, it's an innocent question but it makes Wei Ying smirk.
"Lead the way." She says with a dark chuckle as she drops the two Qiankun bags full of A-Yu's things and keeps the empty two in her free hand.
Wei Ying had been on the road with her new son for two weeks when she ran into the first cultivator, it was a Nei cultivator that was hunting the same fierce ghost that she was.
"Ah!" Wei Ying screamed in fright at the giant man who had swung his saber at the ghost just as Wei Ying had finished playing Rest on the dizi she had bought at the first village they had stopped in out of Mo village.
The Nei gave a shout of shock as well as he unbalanced himself enough to fall on his back and miss cutting off Wei Ying's head.
"Master Nei!" She yelps in worry as his saber cuts a clean line into his thigh from his fall and the momentum of his swing combined.
Wei Ying drops to her knees beside him and pulls out the medical herbs she had been collecting on her travels, she had been forced to use empathy with Wen Quin so they could work together to improve healing arts so now she had all the knowledge that her adopted sister had. She is fast to rip open the pants and robe the man wears to get a better look at the cut before she starts to pack in the cut with the herbs as she crushes them and feeds small amounts of her qi into the cut.
"Be more aware." She snaps at the man, channeling her inner Quin-jie.
"Y-yes mistress." The Nei stutters, Wei Ying huffs, who knew being a fierce female turned men into scared children.
Wei Ying ties a strip of clean bandage around the wound and slaps the man's shoulder before she stands and brushes off the grass from her robes.
"Ah, this one owes the mistress a debt, if the mistress would be willing to come to the unclean realm for a reward." The Nei says, looking a little dazed.
"We will pick up my son first." Wei Ying demands as an agreement, and spins on her toes letting her robes flare around herself dramatically to head back to the inn she had left A-Yu in.
The trip to the unclean realm is much shorter than Wei Ying had thought it would be, she is thankful though, A-Yu needs some food, a bath, and most importantly some sleep.
The Nei cultivator knocks on a door and opens it after a rough grunt is given to grant enterince. Wei Ying pauses as she hears the guqin being played, most of the song sounded like Cleansing but the last three bars are different and give a sense of disquiet.
"Sect leader Nei, I have returned. The night hunt was finished before I had arrived, I had almost lopped off this woman's head because I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings. I was injured by my own carelessness and she treated the wound. I would like to offer her and her son sanctuary for a short time so they do not need to pay for lodging." The cultivator says as he bows to Nei Mingjue.
"Do as you wish, leave them here to speak. Jin Guangyao leave." He barks at his subordinate and the golden robed man playing the song that had Wei Ying's Qi screaming.
Wei Ying bows deeply to the Nei sect leader, she had admired the man before he had turned against Wei Ying believing the Jin without any proof.
"Sect leader Nei, this one is Mo Ying, I am a wandering cultivator. I travel with my son Mo Xuanyu. This one thanks you for offering lodging to us and promises we will be gone in a few days." Wei Ying says to the frowning Nei Mingjue.
"Nei Mingjue. You are welcome to stay as long as you need for treating my cousin after he foolishly injured himself." The sect leader growls.
"Thank you sect leader. If I may ask?" Wei Ying bites her lip a little in fear that her question is going to cause problems.
Nei Mingjue waves his hand in acceptance.
"Why was the Jin cultivator playing a song of turmoil?" She asks slowly, speaking carefully to not make the sect leader fly into a rage and qi deviate.
"That son of a whore!" Nei Mingjue thunders as his face turns purple in his anger.
Wei Ying pulls his bamboo dizi from the belt of his robe and quickly starts to play Cleansing properly with more qi than is necessary put into the notes. Nei Mingjue's face turns back into a safe color as he is but with the calming effects of the song played properly.
"Oh." The sect leader says in wonder as the music washes over him. "Can you play for me until I have contacted the Lan? And then play the song you heard the bastard play for them?" He asks as his shoulders slump a little from the song.
Wei Ying nods as she keeps playing, she's pulled back on the amount of qi that she is putting into the notes so she can go a little longer. She had been lucky that Mo Lai had a golden core that was fairly good sized, nowhere what hers had been before she had given it to Jiang Cheng but she had found out she was only twenty having given birth to A-Yu at the age of fourteen.
It took a week of waiting before both Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji arrived.
Wei Ying had been playing Cleansing in Nei Mingjue's office with Nei Huaisang and her A-Yu sitting on the other side of the office soaking in the calm that the song provided when the two Lan's had entered the office.
"Xichen, Wangji, sit." Nei Mingjue demanded in his usual way.
"Dage, you sent a missive saying that something had happened and I was needed urgently?" The elder Lan asked.
"Yes. The woman playing is Mo Ying, the boy is her son Mo Xuanyu. They saved my cousin from his own stupidity a week ago." The Nei sect leader introduced them.
"When Mo Ying arrived Meng Yao was playing for me, but then she asked why he was playing a song of turmoil. Then she started playing this song that actually made me feel much better. In a moment both myself and the other two will leave so she can play the song that Meng Yao was playing, I want answers." He spoke louder than he had all week, he was angry but not constantly on the edge of blind rage.
Both Lan looked like they had been slapped by a dead fish, their eyes wide and lips parted in shock.
Nei Mingjue stood and gestured for his brother and Wei Ying's son to follow him from the room, once the door was closed Wei Ying stopped playing and looked the twin Jade's dead in the eye.
"I may have only met sect leader Nei, but if you taught this song to the man who played it I will not allow you to leave." She drew a talisman in the air and three it at the door to lock the two men in with her, then she drew two more and push them at the brothers.
"You are locked in this room with me, you are also bound to your chairs with a talisman that forces you to only speak the truth." She told them with her face a mask of cold indifference.
Bringing her Dizi up to her lips again, Wei Ying played the song she had heard on her arrival. Both Lan's looked disterbed that she was playing this specific song.
"Stop, please stop." Lan Xichen called, Wei Ying did as he asked and stopped playing.
"Who taught the Jin cultivator to play the guqin?" She asked sharply.
"I did." Lan Xichen answered.
"What did you teach him?" Wei Ying asked again, her voice sharper than before.
"Cleansing." Lan Xichen answered, his face was ashen.
"How could he have learned the songs of turmoil if you did not teach him?" Wei Ying asked, this was important, someone was trying to kill a sect leader.
"I gave him access to the forbidden texts." Lan Xichen whispered.
"Were either you in on his plan to slowly assistante sect leader Nei?" This question was asked with more anger behind it.
"No." Lan Wangji answers simply.
"I would never, I love Mingjue!" Lan Xichen screams, then he pales at what he had admitted.
"Good." Wei Ying chirps and cancels the energy she had put into the talismans she had drawn.
She stands and gives the two brothers a shallow bowl, then opens the door before taking her seat again. This time A-Yu sits in her lap and she hugs him close.
"The Lan are at fault for the Jin knowing the song, but they were not the ones to teach it." Wei Ying says simply, leaving it to Lan Xichen to explain.
"A-Yao…" he chokes out and stops, then takes a deep breath and starts again. "Jin Guangyao asked me to teach him Cleansing so he could help dage, I saw no harm in teaching him, I taught him the correct song. That is not how the Lan are at fault."
Lan Xichen takes a stuttering breath. "I gave him a jade token that gave him access to everything the sect leader could access. He learned the song from our forbidden texts, that is how the Lan, specifically me, are at fault."
Lan Xichen drops to his knees, at this point he is sobbing and pressing his forehead into the floor kowtowing and apologizing.
"Get up Xichen." Nei Mingjue says calmly.
They have to wait for the Lan sect leader to calm himself and sit back in his chair.
"This one has a question that is bugging her." Wei Ying says and then waits for acknowledgement.
"Speak." Nei Mingjue grunts.
"Ah, if this is the actions of the Jin, what else have they lied about?" She pauses for a moment then pushes on. "Wei Wuxain for example, did anyone actually investigate his 'army' or did you simply trust the word of someone else?"
"Wei Ying had no army." Lan Wangji snapped at her with a glare.
"I am not saying he did." She snapped back with the same amount of venom in her voice. "I am asking who actually saw the Wen living on that mountain?"
"I did, all elderly, one child, only Wen Quin had a core, and Wen Ning had his consciousness." Lan Wangji told her, not that she needed to be told. "Told brother, told uncle, they believed Jin Guangyao."
Lan Xichen flinched next to Lan Wangji, his eyes were downcast and he looked like his entire world was crumbling around him.
"Wangji." He says, then he stops himself after he makes eye contact with his brother.
"No, they killed my zhiji. You had me whipped thirty-three times. You almost gave A-Yuan to the Jin. You didn't believe me." Lan Wangji is yelling by the end of his sentence, he stands and walks out of Nei Mingjue's office radiating cold fury.
"Ah, well that's our que." Wei Ying says as she stands holding a sleeping A-Yu in her arms and making pointed eye contact with Nei Huaisang.
The small group of three exit the office quietly leaving the sworn brothers to fix their own mess.
Wei Ying knew she was too curious for her own good. After she had left A-Yu in the room that had been provided for them she went looking for the younger Lan.
"Second master Lan." She called when she finally spotted him in the garden.
The only reaction to her call was the fist held behind his back tightening. Wei Ying did as she usually would have and ignored the signs of his anger.
"I wish to ask you about A-Yuan, who is that?" She asks, she's pretty sure it's her little radish but wanted confirmation.
"A-Yuan is my son." He tells her in a bland voice.
"You saved him?" Wei Ying whispers.
Lan Wangji's head snaps to look at her, his golden eyes are cold but he scans her face. He must have seen something in her expression or eyes, his own flashed in surprise and bewilderment.
"Wei Ying." He says and the hand that was holding the hilt of his sword cupped the side of her face.
"Lan Zhan." She whispered back, and nuzzled into the palm of his hand.
"Come back to Gusu with me." He demands.
