The next day:

Wangji woke up at the usual Gusu wake-up time.

He shivered gently and sat up.

Yingyue however was still curled up beside him, sleeping like a rock.

He gently shook her.

"Yingyue, little one, it's time to get up," he said as softly as he could.

"Five more minutes a-niang" she said sleepily, rolling over and shoving her face into his robes.

"Yingyue you need-" Wangji quickly cut himself off as he quickly got off the bed and promptly threw up into the pristine white snow.

Yingyue held him as he hacked and spluttered.

She gently rubbed his back and stroked his hair.

"Thank you" he said gratefully.

"No problem," she smiled, "I did the same when you were pregnant with my younger sister."

"A-niang, you want to go search for a-die's original body right?" Yingyue said after a while of silence.

"Yes, I do but I will have to wait until my seclusion is over" Wangji replied sadly.

"I can teleport us out of the cave and we can go searching a-niang don't worry!" Yingyue said grinning mischievously.

Wangji turned to her shocked.

"You can to do that with two people?" He asked curiously.

Just how powerful was she?

"Yeah I can!! So let's go!!"

She immediately grabbed hold of Wangji's wrist.

"I advise holding your breath," she grinned as the world dissolved around them.

The world came together again to reveal he was at the burial mounds!

"I suppose we should start our search here," Wangji declared.

"Yeah we should, but let's stick together!" Yingyue said, clutching onto the back of his robes.

Wangji just sighed fondly at her.

He felt so close to her even though they only met yesterday.

Probably his future parental instincts kicking in, he decided.

They wandered through the destroyed place, wooden beams scattered, dust flying around and getting into their eyes.

There was an air of sadness around the place.

Yingyue suddenly ran away dragging him with her.

"Yingyue what is it?" He asked worriedly.

"This cave! My older brother told me you found him in this cave!"

"I'm sorry?" He gasped.

Yingyue didn't answer and just continued to drag him further into the cave.

His eyes fell upon a little figure, lying unconscious against the large rock in the center of the cave.

He immediately ran over to the figure.

Getting a closer look, he sucked in a sharp breath.

It was little A-Yuan, the boy who Wei Ying was so fond of.

He pressed his hand against the child's forehead and realised he was burning up!

He had a fever!

He scooped A-Yuan up in his arms and turned to Yingyue.

"We must get back to the cave, we will come back to look further, but we must look after A-Yuan now" he announced.

Yingyue just nodded, grabbed his hand and the world dissolved again.

Wangji quickly set A-Yuan down on the bed.

Yingyue appeared beside him with a bowl of water.

She also grabbed a cloth out of her pouch.

Wangji soaked up the cloth and gently washed A-Yuan's face.

He sat down beside and Yingyue did the same.

"Ge-ge looks cute as a child" she mused.

Wangji raised an eyebrow at her.

"WHAT! He looks like a stoic statue in the future!" She said, holding her hands up.

Once I'm out of seclusion I'll adopt him and make sure he's safe, he decided.

❤️💛🧡💚💙💜