Fluffy WangXian Oneshots Book Two

The Voice of the Soul Part 4

Chorus

Friday evening after school, Wen Chao makes his move.

It has been a peaceful week, and Lan Zhan has been floating on a cloud of a new discovery: Rock music.

After that Sunday afternoon, Wei Ying took him to eat pancakes and then they went home. Wei Ying left soon afterwards, saying he was going to go back to the arcade for more practice. But he didn't forget about Lan Zhan's hug.

And Lan Zhan?

Lan Zhan needed to go and lie down after that. His mind was buzzing with this new revelation of a different type of music that had invaded his body and mind, and he didn't even realise when he fell asleep.

On Monday morning, he takes his mother's guqin and goes outside to play. The ugly cover under his hands reminds him of his earlier life, before he ever met Wei Ying, and Lan Zhan hasn't played this instrument in months, but today his fingers are itching to do it.

He runs through the exercises that his mother had taught him as usual, and it's both calming and soothing. He hadn't been able to play it for so long, scared it was going to make him miss his mother even more. But today, it feels rejuvenating. He's happy, he realises, and he wants her to know.

He wants the world to know it.

He plays the first chords of a new melody as it takes shape in his mind, and by breakfast time, he has the skeleton of a new song at his fingertips.

****************

Something has also changed with Wei Ying, too.

He finds a way to be with Lan Zhan even more, and they're never alone. Either Huaisang or Jiang Cheng are always around him, even if Wei Ying isn't with him, on the rare occasion, and Lan Zhan only realises why, on the Friday evening.

He and Wei Ying are walking through the park after school, and there's a shout. Suddenly, they're surrounded by eight students.

And Wen Chao.

He saunters up to them, chewing on a toothpick which he flings at Lan Zhan and follows it up with a punch, but Lan Zhan blocks it and grabs his fist.

"Don't tell me you're actually going to fight me?" Wen Chao says mockingly. "Isn't it against the rules?"

"Mn. But, we're not on school property now, are we?" Lan Zhan says, before squeezing so hard that Wen Chao screams.

In the end, the fight happens, and the police are involved. All the students are escorted to the police station, and their parents and in both Wei Ying's and Lan Zhan's case, their guardians are called.

All the students are grounded and there's talk of expulsions. But then, on Monday morning, a video is sent to the police and the High school principal, and then things change.

Wen Chao is expelled from their school.

The other seven students are suspended for a month, and Wei Ying and Lan Zhan are suspended for two weeks, because even if it was self defence and Wen Chao threw the first punch, they were still involved and the school wants to make an example out of them.

On Monday morning, Lan Zhan is grounded and in disgrace still, confined to his room when there is a knock on his door just after eleven o'clock.

Both XiChen and Uncle Qiren walk in, the latter looking rather grim as if he had swallowed a toad. A slimy one at that.

"The school remains unchanged on the status of your suspension," Uncle Qiren says quietly, but his dark eyes are smouldering with anger, "even in the face of insurmountable proof. I don't understand what they want! If a member of my family is attacked, I expect them to defend themselves, and you did so admirably. Even that boy, your friend." Uncle Qiren makes a face as if the toad he swallowed is protesting somewhere in between his throat and his belly.