Another New Year had arrived. Hua Cheng, Xie Lian, and Hua Yuan spent it together with Wei Wuxian and the others at the Cloud Recesses, just as they had in previous years, except this time He Xuan had joined them as well. The people of the Gusu Lan Clan were long accustomed to this, and no one dared to say another word of complaint. Laughter and chatter filled the Jingshi, Liancheng Courtyard, and Nianju. Lan Jingyi had already reached his Guanli ceremony of coming of age. Every time he had a break from his duties, the morning light would find him sprinting toward Nianju, and he would not return to his own quarters until close to the hour of Hai. Had Zewu-Jun not forbidden it, he would have gladly moved right into Nianju to play and frolic with Lan Sizhui and the others every single day.
By now, not only the Gusu Lan Clan but the entire cultivation world was well aware of an unwritten rule. The Cloud Recesses was bound by countless strict regulations, but the Jingshi, Nianju, and Liancheng Courtyard were absolute havens of freedom. Not only were sect rules ignored there, but Hanguang-Jun, who had always been the very embodiment of elegance and propriety, even took the lead in breaking them. As for Lan Qiren, who viewed the sect rules as the foundational bedrock of the Lan Clan, he simply turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to it all.
On the twenty-sixth day of the twelfth month, Jiang Cheng, Jin Ling, and Nie Huaisang came to the Cloud Recesses to offer their year-end farewel…
Chapter 153