You wake up. Someone has taken the bloody robes away. Even after a bath, your hands still feel grimy.
You dispatch an investigation team. You take care of the day to day concerns that have piled up. You answer letters.
You do all of this with Jin Ling napping across your lap, as usual. The boy has another inkstain on his fingers. They only let you take him away from Lanling because Qin Su is busy with her own baby. Jin Rusong will be the heir now, which leaves Jin Ling free to become just another of the cousins, if he wants.
But that's a decision for when he's old enough to understand it. For now, you scoop up your very yellow, slightly sleepy nephew, and call your work finished for the day. The questions sitting in the back of your head won't be silent.
You put Jin Ling down for his nap and make your way to the medical pavilion. One of the private rooms has been set up for the boy, who is laid out on the bed, in a thin medical robe and with a blanket tucked around him.
His breathing is shallower than you think it should be, for the amount of effort it seems to be taking for his chest to rise and fall. There's a grimace of pain on his face even in the deep medical sleep.
His hair is just as vividly red as it was yesterday. You'd half-convinced yourself it was the adrenaline that made it seem so, but here you are, in the light of day.
It reminds you suddenly, sharply, of waiting for... Of waiting after the xuanwu cave, except this time you don't have a sister to wait with you or Lan Wangji hovering around the bed in spite of his own injuries.
It isn't even the same room, not really, even it it's in the same location. As priorities go, redecorating the medical facilities to match your memories has been very low. You've had the artisans at work on the parts of Lotus Pier that people outside of the sect will see.
You must have been standing there a while. Shen Xingqiu has walked up beside you, still looking tired, but not as tired as you feel, looking at her patient.
"If he lives," she says, "what will you do with him?"
Normally, you wouldn't let your doubts surface. But she's been with you since the Sunshot Campaign, a doctor from a minor sect on the border with Qinghe who took the chance when she saw it.
(She isn't the doctor you wanted for the sect, but you won't hold that against her.)
"I haven't gotten that far," you admit.
"You may want to think about it," she says. "Ideally before Sect Leader Lan gets here."
"Sect Leader Lan - you wrote to Zewu-jun? Without informing me?" you say, sharp anger all through your shoulders.
"You told me to do whatever I could," she replies. It's only when it comes to her patients that Shen Xingqiu is this firm, and you do vaguely recall saying something like that. "Healing music will improve his chances, if Sect Leader Lan agrees to come."
It's a big if, and no one outside of the Lan Sect knows the reason. You've guessed it has something to do with why Lan Wangji has been in seclusion for two years, but you can't be sure of more than that. Still, if there's anything that would spur Lan Xichen to leave Cloud Recesses these days, it's the chance for lives to be saved.
"Fine," you say. "Tell me immediately if you get a reply. I'll warn the staff to set up a room."
Or rather, you'll tell Zhi Huanchen, who has been handling that sort of thing for the last two years, and he'll see it done. It doesn't matter. It'll get done.
You leave only because you have to prepare to receive another sect leader, and not without a final glance at the boy, just to be sure he's still breathing.
no subject
You dispatch an investigation team. You take care of the day to day concerns that have piled up. You answer letters.
You do all of this with Jin Ling napping across your lap, as usual. The boy has another inkstain on his fingers. They only let you take him away from Lanling because Qin Su is busy with her own baby. Jin Rusong will be the heir now, which leaves Jin Ling free to become just another of the cousins, if he wants.
But that's a decision for when he's old enough to understand it. For now, you scoop up your very yellow, slightly sleepy nephew, and call your work finished for the day. The questions sitting in the back of your head won't be silent.
You put Jin Ling down for his nap and make your way to the medical pavilion. One of the private rooms has been set up for the boy, who is laid out on the bed, in a thin medical robe and with a blanket tucked around him.
His breathing is shallower than you think it should be, for the amount of effort it seems to be taking for his chest to rise and fall. There's a grimace of pain on his face even in the deep medical sleep.
His hair is just as vividly red as it was yesterday. You'd half-convinced yourself it was the adrenaline that made it seem so, but here you are, in the light of day.
It reminds you suddenly, sharply, of waiting for... Of waiting after the xuanwu cave, except this time you don't have a sister to wait with you or Lan Wangji hovering around the bed in spite of his own injuries.
It isn't even the same room, not really, even it it's in the same location. As priorities go, redecorating the medical facilities to match your memories has been very low. You've had the artisans at work on the parts of Lotus Pier that people outside of the sect will see.
You must have been standing there a while. Shen Xingqiu has walked up beside you, still looking tired, but not as tired as you feel, looking at her patient.
"If he lives," she says, "what will you do with him?"
Normally, you wouldn't let your doubts surface. But she's been with you since the Sunshot Campaign, a doctor from a minor sect on the border with Qinghe who took the chance when she saw it.
(She isn't the doctor you wanted for the sect, but you won't hold that against her.)
"I haven't gotten that far," you admit.
"You may want to think about it," she says. "Ideally before Sect Leader Lan gets here."
"Sect Leader Lan - you wrote to Zewu-jun? Without informing me?" you say, sharp anger all through your shoulders.
"You told me to do whatever I could," she replies. It's only when it comes to her patients that Shen Xingqiu is this firm, and you do vaguely recall saying something like that. "Healing music will improve his chances, if Sect Leader Lan agrees to come."
It's a big if, and no one outside of the Lan Sect knows the reason. You've guessed it has something to do with why Lan Wangji has been in seclusion for two years, but you can't be sure of more than that. Still, if there's anything that would spur Lan Xichen to leave Cloud Recesses these days, it's the chance for lives to be saved.
"Fine," you say. "Tell me immediately if you get a reply. I'll warn the staff to set up a room."
Or rather, you'll tell Zhi Huanchen, who has been handling that sort of thing for the last two years, and he'll see it done. It doesn't matter. It'll get done.
You leave only because you have to prepare to receive another sect leader, and not without a final glance at the boy, just to be sure he's still breathing.