#and panicked because lanling is pretty homophobic tbh

[stiltonbasket]

this is my own little indulgent headcanon for my daydream universe in which the universe you've created heavily features in, but what are your thoughts with chunyang falling in love with the reincarnation of wen qing or even just another woman? maybe its bc im gay but even tho i love jz/jyl i think jyl should have gotten to be with a lovely young lady. and the line about "i'd like to choose [who i marry]" makes me go *thinking emoji*. idk if its ur thing but i would die if u wrote smth for this

I could not stop thinking about this, so have a little au with fem!jin hong! <3

__

To his most esteemed Excellency…

“Chun-bao?”

Considering the decade of close friendship between our clans…

“Hm?”

“Is everything all right?” Wei Shuilan asks, poking her younger sister in the shoulder. “You’ve been staring at that letter for the past five minutes.”

And the closeness of age between my son Zhang Xiting and your daughter, the second Young Mistress Wei--

“Oh, it’s just--just a petition for Father. I’m sorting them out so he knows which ones to look at first when he comes home.”

...I would be most honored if you would consider his suit when the time is right for Wei Chunyang-xiaojie to be married. 

--

Even though Wei Chunyang and all four of her siblings have long since grown old enough to move out of their parents’ house, the whole family still eats meals together in the jingshi at least four times a week. The whole family includes Jingyi, of course, since he was part of the family even before he and Chunyang’s xiongzhang decided to adopt a son together, and her Yu-gege’s own husband and son. Her sister Shuilan is here, too, since she and Chunyang still live with their A-Die and Fuqin, and sometimes Xichen-bobo or one of their more distant cousins comes along, too. 

Today, the cousin in question is Rulan-ge’s daughter, Jin Hong. She was Wei Chunyang’s best friend growing up, since the two of them are the same age, but they drifted apart as they grew older--out of no fault on either of their parts, but because of circumstance. Jin Hong rarely has the time to leave the Jinlintai or answer Chunyang’s letters, and Chunyang never had the chance to go to school with her because she studies the dao of healing cultivation like her Uncle Xichen, while Jin Hong follows the jiandao. 

These days, Chunyang doesn’t really know what to say to her on the rare occasions their paths do cross, which is why she only gives Jin Hong a close-lipped smile and slides into her usual seat at A-Die’s right when lunchtime rolls around. 

“Jin Hong,” she says, inclining her head as A-Die (doting as ever, just like Papa) fills up her plate with soft white rice, and adds a little bowl of her favorite spicy noodles on the side. “It’s lovely to see you again!”

And confusing, Chunyang doesn’t add. But there’s not much talking at meals anyway, because her brother-in-law Nie Zhuyan (who managed to woo her brother Lan Yu after five long years of courtship, even though Lan Yu didn’t know he was being courted for the first four years, eleven months, and twenty-seven days) is more of a stickler for the sect precepts than the rest of the family, out of the fear that he might offend Papa by accident. 

A-Die is enough conversation for the whole table, though, and there is plenty of laughter--both his and Yu-gege’s, and then everyone else’s, which is why Chunyang could probably have chosen a better time to tell her parents about Zhoushan Zhang’s request for her hand in marriage. 

“They what?” A-Die gasps, overturning his cup of tea. Xiongzhang gives him a handkerchief, but he looks as worried as A-Die and Papa do when he turns around to stare at her. “You can’t get married! You’re only twenty-one! You’re a baby!”

“She’s of age,” Shuilan-jie points out, in a vain effort to distract everyone from the rivalry-slash-courtship-slash-bitter enmity thing she has going on with one of the sect’s best music teachers, Lan Fang, who spends all his time writing sad love songs for her and crying every time she tells him she hates him. “She can get married if she wants to, right?”

“If she wants to, then certainly,” Papa says, trying to sound like he isn’t fretting. “But that is not your elders’ place to decide, Chun-bao, and certainly not Zhoushan Zhang’s. Do you know the young master they offered?”

“No,” she admits. Zhang Xiting attended the Lan sect lectures when she was around fifteen, but Chunyang only ever met him at the opening and closing ceremonies because her classes were in the physicians’ compound with her uncle. “I was going to write back this afternoon with a rejection, actually.”

Across from her, Jin Hong’s shoulders relax a little. 

“Ah, that’s good,” A-Die sighs, patting her hand. “I knew we were going to have to think about this sometime, of course, but you really are too young! Look, even your jiejie isn’t married yet.”

Wei Shuilan looks so offended that Jingyi-ge starts choking in an attempt to hide his laughter. “I’m never going to get married. A-Chun doesn’t have to wait for me.”

“I meant that Chunyang should follow your example, A-Lan. Marriage is overrated.”

Nie Zhuyan gives A-Die an incredulous sort of stare. “But father-in-law, you’re happily married! And so am I. Being wed is wonderful!”

“Not for my baby girls,” A-Die counters, while Lan Yu covers his face with his sleeve to hide his blush. “Where in the world am I supposed to find a man worthy of A-Lan, hm? Or a nice young master for my sweet little Chun-bao? I don’t believe they exist, so they’re going to be good little radishes and stay with their poor old A-Die until he dies.”

“Wei Ying,” Father says, clearly pained by even the thought of A-Die dying. “Do not say such things.”

I don’t want to marry any young master, Chunyang thinks, as Yu-gege starts teasing Shuilan about Lan Fang again. I just want to stay here, with my parents. 

(She doesn’t think of warm orange fur, or a pair of laughing golden eyes, or the countless letters to Lanling Jin that her once-best friend never answered.

It’s better this way, after all.)