Hello! Do you think lwj believed wwx will come back someday since he kept emperor's smile in his room it kinda makes sense or maybe it was his way of feeling close to wwx since wwx loved it so much and also how they met the first time?
Hello again! Good question, how Lan Wangji coped during the 13 years Wei Wuxian was dead is left up to interpretation. It has long been a subject of intense speculation in the fandom and has given rise to some popular fanon trends such as “Inquiry for 13 years, waiting for one who will not return” and Lan Wangji’s reputation of being “wherever the chaos is” coming from his search for Wei Wuxian. While these are certainly romantic ideas, I personally feel that they tend to undermine Lan Wangji’s character. Before being the love interest to the main character, he is a fully-fledged character in his own right, one who is defined by his pursuit of righteousness. So the way I see it, he did not set out to look for Wei Wuxian or his soul. He carried on being Hanguang-Jun, this outstanding and high-principled cultivator who would accept any request of help no matter how lowly just because that’s the right thing to do. The second season of the donghua also indicates that he went on a quest for justice by investigating past events in order to clear Wei Wuxian’s name. That’s a proactive approach befitting a man of action like him.
We know from the novel how Lan Wangji coped with grief when his mother died (ch.64). At first, he sat waiting in front of his mother’s cottage door, being too young to comprehend that his mother was no longer there to open that door. Even after he understood that his mother was truly gone, he kept returning to her door month after month. My personal view is that he dealt with Wei Wuxian’s death similarly, by mourning deeply, of course. He was in seclusion when he learnt the news and he would have had next to nothing but the occasional visits of his brother to distract him from that grief. (Interesting tidbit: in ancient China, as a testament of filial piety, those close to the deceased had to observe a number of rituals that included the restriction of participating in social activities during the mourning period. The longest mourning period of three years (三年之丧) was reserved to the closest relationships in the Confucian system: grieving a ruler, a parent or a spouse. Not directly related but interesting parallel).
The complex funeral system in China reflects the cultural tendency to process grief through rituals. Lan Wangji must have had rituals of his own to honour the memory of those he cherished. We know for instance that he left a vase with lotus pods at his mother’s cottage doorstep after coming back from his trip in the extra Lotus Pods (ch.125). We also know that despite his austere habits, he can be quite the hoarder and has kept close to him a number of keepsakes related to Wei Wuxian (Mianmian’s pouch, a peony preserved as a bookmark). The donghua has Lan Wangjj picking up bamboo flute crafting and stashes them away in the Jingshi cache along with the Emperor Smile’s jars. In my opinion, these jars are just one more manifestation of his desire to feel close to the person he lost by surrounding himself with tokens that act as reminders that this person once existed even though he does not entertain the hope to see them again.
