#and then they never speak of any of it again even though lan xichen has to physically control the fact that he's having a Stroke

[eleanorfenyxwrites]

The Man From Y.I.L.I.N.G.

Chapter 3: "A Rough Day All Around"

There's some research for this chapter as well that I'll post about in about half an hour after this like the last. Remember, if you want to see the footnotes integrated into the fic directly, that's how it's structured over on AO3 😌 (I worked very hard on formatting those and I'm very proud, can you tell?)

--//--

LANE CRAWFORD LUXURY DEPARTMENT STORE — HONG KONG

“I don’t understand.”

Jin Guangyao keeps a sigh tucked in his chest, but only because Lan Xichen has been nothing but extremely nice to him, even when he’d been under extreme stress and they’d both thought they’d never see each other again anyway. But this is also at least the fifth time he’s said he doesn’t understand just this afternoon alone, and Jin Guangyao’s patience for people (even very nice, extremely handsome people) is not as infinite as it seems.

“Which part?”

Lan Xichen looks up at him from where he’s been staring down at himself, dressed in new suit (without a single cardigan in sight, thank you very much) and standing on a little round platform in front of a three-paneled mirror to see himself from several angles. Around them a few shopgirls bustle to and fro finding ever-more pieces to bring for Lan Xichen to try on at Jin Guangyao’s direction, and for the past few hours he’s been trying not to feel any sort of particular way about the fact that Lan Xichen always thanks them softly with kind smiles (even though he also clearly wishes they would stop bringing him clothing he doesn’t seem to like).

“Ah…I realize I have been repeating myself, I apologize,” he demurs. Jin Guangyao raises an eyebrow (people never apologize, and certainly not to him). “It’s just that…the Jin have really decided to ally with the Wen? Openly?”

“For now, at least. Yes.”

“Mm.” Lan Xichen turns back to the mirror; in the left-hand reflection Jin Guangyao can see he looks…conflicted.

“It just doesn’t seem very likely, you must understand. And I must say I still don’t see exactly how I fit into all of this; my family has been involved in very little save rebuilding our home since just after the war.”

Jin Guangyao, who has definitely explained Lan Xichen’s role in all of this at least twice since he retrieved the man from Mo Xuanyu at the harbor this morning, leans back into his chair and crosses one leg over the other, the movement masking the little sigh he can no longer care about keeping contained.

“I know it seems unlikely, and I admit I was as surprised as you. However, that is what’s happened, which should give you an indication of just how important it is that we find your brother and stop the Yiling Laozu’s plans. As for how you fit into it — you say you haven’t seen him in years, but Lan Wangji is still your brother, and you’re our best hope of getting to him quickly, especially if he’s in danger. You’re also our best hope of speaking to your uncle, who is notoriously difficult to reach but has been seen in contact with the Jiang, who we think may have been secretly helping the Yiling Laozu in much more than just the capture of your brother. You’ll be able to help us find out for certain, and in doing so find your brother, get him to safety, and prevent the nuclear death of the planet. Everybody wins.”

Lan Xichen blinks at him a few times in the mirror, perhaps ever so slightly overwhelmed. To be fair, he supposes it’s not every day a former scholar turned music teacher is asked to commit espionage amongst his own family in order to prevent an all-out international nuclear war. It must be quite a bit to take in.

Lan Xichen blinks furiously as he tugs too hard at the lapels of the suit jacket Jin Guangyao had chosen for him as if he can’t get it to settle correctly on his (surprisingly) broad shoulders. “And when this is over?” he asks as he fusses. “Am I to hide again? I made a decent life for myself out of necessity in Yunping, but I have no interest in going back behind that Wall, not even for my own safety. Will you show me my family after so long only to force me away from them again after I’ve served your father’s purposes?”

For a moment, Jin Guangyao marvels at how similar he would have been to Lan Xichen if they’d only met a few years earlier. How much he would once have given (has given, is giving) in order to not have to be parted from his family, no matter the circumstances. He isn’t sure how happy it makes him any longer, but he’s in too deep now to be comfortable with thinking about that too hard.

“You’re the lynchpin in this whole plan,” Jin Guangyao says to cover his momentary (and throughly unwelcome) introspection. His eyes flicker over to Nie Mingjue just stepping into the luxurious private consultation area they’re currently occupying and he spares a thought to acknowledge, with a sense of foreboding, that this is most likely about to go downhill quicker than he can prevent it, but ultimately keeps his focus on the conversation at hand. “Without you, our hands would be tied. When this is over, you won’t have to go anywhere you don’t want to. I promise.”

“My man would never wear that.”

Jin Guangyao lets out another sigh, perfectly audible this time, and covers his eyes to allow himself a moment or two to lament his…partner’s (ugh) shattering lack of tact when Lan Xichen is clearly two seconds away from bolting right out the door to begin with.

“Your man?” Lan Xichen repeats, affronted. “A-Yao, what is he doing here?”

“As we were just discussing — we are working with the Wens.” Jin Guangyao dares to open his eyes to find Nie Mingjue standing too close to Lan Xichen (read: looming over him), eyes burning in that eerily intense way he seems to look at anybody and anything in his way. “More specifically Wen Ruohan’s pet giant, the Red Blade himself.”

Nie Mingjue ignores him in favor of looking Lan Xichen up and down in a way that makes the man’s ears turn bright red even as his expression twists up into deeper offense at being so clearly found wanting by the time Nie Mingjue’s gaze is once again on his face.

“And why did he call me his man?”

“Because I am now your fiancé.”

Jin Guangyao has a warning smile on his face that many marks have seen in their final moments on this earth, but Nie Mingjue just raises an eyebrow back at him in a silent challenge he obviously knows Jin Guangyao is in no position to rise to. Lan Xichen glances between the two of them sharply before he laughs a hollow sort of disbelieving thing and takes a step back, hands raised to shoulder height in surrender, or perhaps refusal.

“No. Absolutely not. No, no-no,” he says, still laughing, still smiling but seeming more…hysterical than any flavor of amused. He shrugs off the suit jacket Jin Guangyao had put him in and takes the (incredibly expensive) watch off his wrist with enough vigor that Jin Guangyao nearly winces for the sake of the leather wristband. He lets both of them drop unceremoniously to the floor, whips his tie off with a yank and the whisper-soft slither of silk against starched cotton to drop it on the unoccupied loveseat in the seating area Jin Guangyao has been lounging in — and heads straight for the door.

“Oh well done,” Jin Guangyao drawls as he stands from his velvet armchair and buttons his jacket on his way across the consultation area. “Stay here, I’ll bring him back.” He swats Nie Mingjue’s chest on his way past him to follow Lan Xichen’s path out to the street.

Lan Xichen mercifully hasn’t gone far on those long legs of his, just down to the curb to stand with his hands on his hips as he stares down at his feet and takes a few deep, too-fast breaths. Jin Guangyao feels a slight pang of pity. He’s aware that this isn’t an easy task they’ve set for him, but he’s maybe grown a bit too used to doing what needs to be done, no matter the personal cost to himself. Lan Xichen’s perfectly understandable reactions are a decent reminder that what they do every day is…stressful, to say the least.

“Huan-ge,” he calls, hoping the use of the too-familiar nickname will help startle his companion out of his frustration. “I can explain.”

Lan Xichen looks up from his study of the pavement (or perhaps the designer shoes Jin Guangyao had selected for him) to stare him down instead, his gaze a desperate challenge, as if whatever Jin Guangyao says to soothe him will be the only thing that he can stand to hear.

“The engagement is just your cover. He’s an architect who’s been commissioned to design a new resort for Wen Ruohan’s favorites back in Qishan. Wen Ruohan has a fondness for old-world grandeur and would like to send your man in there to study the remaining traditional structures in Yiling for the project. Mingjue has also secured permission to bring along his fiancé —” Jin Guangyao gestures at Lan Xichen in a way that also encompasses the very nice suit Jin Guangyao is attempting to get him to accept “— and of course while everyone conveniently happens to be in the same area you would want to introduce him to your Uncle Qiren, who you haven’t seen in such a long time.”

Lan Xichen’s gaze doesn’t waver but it does…soften ever so slightly, though it’s clear he’s still not thrilled about any of this. Not that Jin Guangyao would expect him to be, either. It’s not like he’d be jumping at the chance to call Nie Mingjue his fiancé if their positions were reversed, no matter what it would net him in the end.

“And your cover? You’re coming as well, are you not?”

“Ah of course —— Meng Yao, arts and antiquities dealer,” Jin Guangyao replies with a sweeping gesture at himself and a pasted-on smile, though a tiny part of him is genuinely pleased that Lan Xichen sort of seems like he’s hoping Jin Guangyao will be tagging along. “The Jiang siblings have managed to establish one of the best collections in China in the years they’ve been busy rebuilding their fortune, and I’d like to take a look at it. They’re currently in Yiling paying a visit to some of their waterfront shipping and storage facilities, so I’ll be looking to get in contact with them there when they’re not so busy as they are in Yunmeng.”

Lan Xichen takes a deep breath in and looks away, glancing across the street to watch the rest of the world pass them by for a long moment before he meets Jin Guangyao’s eyes again.

“You are asking quite a lot of me,” he says quietly, achingly earnest. Jin Guangyao can count the number of people capable of softening his heart on one hand; he’s not entirely sure how he feels about Lan Xichen adding himself to the list so easily.

“It’ll be alright,” he reassures with a softness he hasn’t heard from himself in…quite some time. “You’ll do fine, I know it.”

Lan Xichen takes another deep breath in, flicks another quick glance at the rest of the street, and then he nods and gestures for Jin Guangyao to return inside ahead of him so he can hold the door. Jin Guangyao feels completely and utterly normal about even that small glimpse of chivalry being aimed at him, of all people.

The soft feeling lasts approximately forty-two seconds by his estimation, right until they make it back to the little private alcove to find Nie Mingjue surrounded by all three shopgirls assigned to help them, each of them holding out various pieces so clearly out of Lan Xichen’s comfort zone that Jin Guangyao wonders who the hell Nie Mingjue thinks he’s shopping for.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Jin Guangyao demands. No one looks intimidated by the ice in his voice, and normally that just wouldn’t do. Unfortunately, this is not exactly the sort of situation where he can justify pulling out a knife for an extra bit of intimidation, so he just bites the inside of his cheek and keeps his most dangerous smile in place with military precision.

Nie Mingjue doesn’t look up from the fitted qipao-inspired blouse he’s studying as he remarks, casually as you please, “Your taste is terrible, I’ll take over from here.”

“My taste is fine,” Jin Guangyao argues, ignoring the fact that if he has to argue it out loud that would typically imply the opposite. Nie Mingjue is just trying to irritate him, and damn him it’s working. “Who will ever believe that  a Lan has decided to experiment with pushing the boundaries of acceptable fashion? Especially Xichen, whose wardrobe consists entirely of standard issue trousers and cardigans?”

Nie Mingjue lays the shirt back down across one girl’s arms and turns to the next in line to pick up the matching trousers she’s holding, soft flowing things in pastel blue with a structured, fitted waist, strong front pleats that disappear into the soft fall of extra fabric just above the knee, and fashionably modern, geometric blocks of white over the deep hip pockets. It’s a jarring mix of old and new, and Jin Guangyao turns to gauge Lan Xichen’s reaction only to be dismayed to find him looking intrigued — a far cry from how uncomfortable he’d looked in Jin Guangyao’s choices.

Fucking bastard. (Nie Mingjue, not Lan Xichen.) (He’s already unfortunately endeared enough to Lan Xichen that he doesn’t actually want to think unkind things about him, which means it’s already far too late and Lan Xichen has no choice but to be added to the extremely short list of people Jin Guangyao would genuinely protect with his life.)

(Nie Mingjue is not on the list and is therefore free game to be the subject of whatever vitriol Jin Guangyao pleases.)

Nie Mingjue collects both the trousers and blouse to push them into Lan Xichen’s unresisting arms, his assessing gaze intense enough that Lan Xichen takes what looks like an automatic step back for a bit of space.

“Go put these on and come back, I’ll have accessories for you.”

Lan Xichen looks only mildly less put-out than before, but he does as he’s instructed and disappears into the curtained changing room without further complaint.

“What are you doing? I had everything handled,” Jin Guangyao grouses the moment they’re alone, snagging a string of pearls off a tray from the last girl’s arms to go over them with a critical eye, though he replaces the strand when he spots an imperfection in one just to the left of the center.

“You’re dressing him like an American.”

“And what’s so bad about that?” Jin Guangyao pins a smile in place and fixes Nie Mingjue with a look that he can only hope feels like he’s burning a hole through the man’s ridiculously thick skull.

Nie Mingjue looks down his nose at him like he’s a piece of gum on the sole of his Italian leather wingtips. “We are not American.”

“And that for some reason precludes a well-to-do, well-traveled ‘couple’ such as yourselves from dressing in the latest American fashions? Theirs is inspired by ours anyway!”

Nie Mingjue glares at him outright this time in the way his face always sort of looks, though Jin Guangyao will reluctantly acknowledge that he can read a hint of disdain in his general air of pissiness as well. How unfortunate, that he’s already reached the point of being able to translate the brute’s stupid face. Horrible, all of this is just the worst thing to happen to him — and he’s including the war and Italian prison in that list!

“The Americans copy the Europeans first and foremost, and not particularly well. Xichen should be dressed in the latest fashions here if he’s on my arm, I’ve never sold myself to the West and my partner should dress to reflect that. Besides — I can afford the best for my fiancé, he won’t need to be confined to your boring cheap suits with a disgustingly expensive watch to signal your ‘wealth’. Go do something else useless, I’ll dress him myself or else no one would ever believe we are engaged.”

Jin Guangyao, naturally, bristles at such a rude dismissal and soundly refuses to obey it. Nie Mingjue shoots him another dirty look, but then he’s too busy looking through the next round of accessories the shop attendants have brought them to make too much noise about Jin Guangyao sticking annoyingly close to his side to pass comment on whatever he damn well pleases, thank you very much.

“That doesn’t match,” he points out when Nie Mingjue has a leather belt stretched across his palms, examining the finish of it and the style of the buckle. (It’s at least an appropriately pale shade of tan, but he will not be acknowledging his lukewarm approval out loud, thank you very much.) Jin Guangyao sees a muscle in Nie Mingjue’s jaw jump and smirks to himself, adding a tally to his own column on the mental scoreboard he’s running.

“It does not have to match. It’s a complementary accessory and will match the others, not the entire outfit. Your dull monochromes look ridiculous and unimaginative, a wealthy creative’s fiancé would never be so…pedestrian.”

“Oh good lord,” Lan Xichen sighs. Jin Guangyao turns sharply to take a look at him and he will not admit that the qipao-inspired set is actually…lovely. Really lovely. How unfair. “You two are ridiculous, it’s a belt!”

“Clothes make or break a disguise, particularly where we’re going. It matters,” Nie Mingjue dismisses his protest with a wave of one enormous hand. He selects the belt, a set of leather suspenders, a watch, a necklace (not the flawed pearls), and a set of (admittedly tasteful) clip earrings from the tray held out to him by the shopgirl before he turns to put it all on Lan Xichen with brusque efficiency. If he sees the way Lan Xichen’s ears turn pink to be manhandled so casually he makes no acknowledgment of it (a good thing, considering how easily spooked Lan Xichen still seems to be).

“Where are we going, exactly? I know Yiling, but…where?” Lan Xichen asks as he fiddles with the unfamiliar weight of one of the earrings, very pointedly looking up and away from where Nie Mingjue has a hand half-in his trousers to button the suspenders to the inner lining of the waistband. Jin Guangyao wonders if it’s weird for him to be fighting a bitter battle against the urge to bite Nie Mingjue’s fingers clean off. Preferably while they’re still offending the sanctity of Lan Xichen’s narrow waist.

To distract himself from the uncomfortably vivid thought, he replies, “There is an extremely exclusive boating event being hosted by the Jiang siblings on the stretch of river between Yunmeng and Yiling, high society invitees only. Your uncle will have no choice but to attend considering his presence in Yiling isn’t a secret, so we must also go. We expect there will be no reason your uncle won’t invite you and your new fiancé as well once he’s made aware that you’re in the city.”

“My uncle has never been a man for social engagement no matter the pressures of others, particularly not those engagements that are a blatant excuse to get drunk in the middle of the day. What makes you so certain that he will break his decades-long habits to attend?”

“The little snake has good informants,” Nie Mingjue replies (it’s the first halfway-positive thing he’s said about the Jins, so of course it had to also be half-insult) and leans back to look Lan Xichen over again, now that he seems to be finished barreling right through any concept of boundaries or personal space. Jin Guangyao hates that Lan Xichen looks stunning, his already-slender waist made even trimmer by the deeply flared cut of his trousers, his broad shoulders somehow both softened and accentuated by the purely-decorative suspenders (there’s no way those trousers are sliding down when they’re that snug around his hips).

Nie Mingjue turns to look back at Jin Guangyao over his shoulder after a moment with an eyebrow raised as if to say, See? I fucking told you so. What he actually says is, “He looks better like this, even someone as tasteless as you must see it. I don’t think we’ll be needing you at all,” which is really just the same thing in a different flavor, the bastard.

Jin Guangyao fights back another urge to bite him and smiles instead.

“I’ll leave you to it, then. See you both in Yiling,” he says in parting with a half-bow and a step back towards the door. Lan Xichen looks briefly like he wants to say something, but Jin Guangyao turns on his heel to get out of there before he can. He’s got a flight to catch in his father’s private jet, and because Mo Xuanyu loves him, when Jin Guangyao arrives at the tarmac just off the harbor he’s greeted with a little bottle of the most expensive rice wine Jin Guangshan’s bottomless coffers can buy first, and a verbal greeting second.

“You look tired, Yao-ge,” Mo Xuanyu says as he gets settled in up in the cockpit and Jin Guangyao sinks gratefully into the buttery soft leather seat nearest the galley so they can chat over the ‘com.

“You always say that,” he reminds his brother. Jin Guangyao promptly decides to forgo propriety in favor of drinking a few sips of his wine straight from the bottle; it’s not as if Mo Xuanyu cares about propriety anyway, and they’re the only ones here.

“It’s true every time, too. Seatbelt, ge.”

Jin Guangyao does as he’s asked with a heavy sigh and another swig of his wine, barely registering the sound of Mo Xuanyu rattling off their call sign to air traffic control and requesting clearance for their chosen route back to the Mainland. He closes his eyes as Mo Xuanyu begins taxiing down the runway, the high roar of the engines a comforting background noise that lulls him to sleep before they’ve even taken off.

-... .-. . .- -.-

Nie Mingjue runs a critical eye over Lan Xichen one more time before he steps in closer to turn him in a slow circle with guiding hands around his waist, which the man submits to with a hint of reluctance. Nie Mingjue generously decides not to comment on the fact that he still looks a little..warm around the tips of his ears.

“Much better,” he says, and he means it. Jin Guangyao seems to have a typical Jin’s horrendous taste (the ‘it doesn’t matter what something looks like so long as it’s expensive’ kind of taste – Nie Mingjue strongly disagrees), but he was easy enough to get rid of, so at least Lan Xichen won’t look like a complete travesty. “Yes, I like this,” he adds once Lan Xichen is facing him again, clearly more comfortable in this outfit than the first, though he seems to be trying very hard to act like he’s not. “But it’s missing…” Nie Mingjue digs into his pocket for the diamond ring he’d picked up from a high-end jeweler down the street before he’d joined the others. He drops it into Lan Xichen’s palm, his fingers curled around the fine bones of his wrist easily overlapping each other, and he catches a flinch of defiance on Lan Xichen’s handsome face before he resigns himself to the inevitable.

“Now we are engaged,” he says for good measure, and he doesn’t miss the way Lan Xichen’s gaze flickers to the door for a split second before he looks up at him again, apparently at least willing to play along for now.

“Congratulations,” one of the shopgirls offers from where she’s waiting beside the dais in the middle of the paneled mirrors to see if they need anything else. Nie Mingjue is startled into smiling ever so slightly at her boldness as he turns to glance down at her, nearly two full heads shorter than him.

“Thank you,” he smirks as out of the corner of his eye he sees Lan Xichen slip the ring onto the third finger of his left hand.

... -.-. . -. . / -... .-. . .- -.-

监理处 LUXURY RESORT — YILING

There is, in Yiling, precisely one area where a Wen agent can reasonably be assured that they’re safe enough from attracting unwanted attention.

Or at least that was the case in the years before the Yiling Laozu decided to claim the city for his own.

The old Wen Supervisory Office — now turned luxury hotel and frequented mostly by Wens in name or allegiance — sits just beyond the fringes of the oldest district that has become the Yiling Laozu’s main stomping ground, though the entire city is naturally under his purview. No matter how many times Nie Mingjue tells Wen Ruohan that his last ‘stronghold’ in Yiling is no longer much of a haven, though, his boss never knows how to listen. These days Nie Mingjue tends to keep the reminder that he knows more than a thing or two about defense and battle lines behind his teeth in favor of avoiding punishment as he goes along with whatever stupid outdated scheme Wen Ruohan cooks up, considering he can fight his way out of any trouble easily enough anyway.

But being able to fight his own way out of trouble doesn’t help him feel any less protective of Lan Xichen at his side as they stride into the lobby of the resort, a porter carting their bags in behind them. All it takes is one sharp glance from a couple of hard-looking men (lounging like the apex predators they are in a plush seating area to the left of the doors) for him to loop an arm around Lan Xichen’s silk-clad waist to keep him close and make it clear to anyone watching that he’s not the easy target he may seem to be.

“Mingjue?” Lan Xichen asks, and at least he’s sensible enough to keep his voice down as they don’t break their stride across the lavishly decorated lobby. (Nie Mingjue remains convinced that it’s only thanks to the strength of both Wen Ruohan’s and the Yiling Laozu’s violent reputations that the place hasn’t been burnt to the ground by an angry mob yet in the name of Revolution.)

“Not here.”

Lan Xichen’s tendency to dig his heels in has apparently been left with his old clothes in the department store back in Hong Kong; he simply tucks himself closer with a stealthy glance around the lobby and lets himself be shepherded up to the check-in counter without a fuss.

The clerk they approach in the last spot at the end is one that Nie Mingjue knows from previous assignments, though he hadn’t heard that she’d been moved to Yiling. He supposes he’s not the only piece on Wen Ruohan’s chessboard, so he simply offers her a nod that she returns with a perfectly bland smile and, wisely, no use of his name while he begins checking them in, not with so many curious ears around.

“Welcome to the Supervisory Hotel, sir. You and your fiancé—” great, so everyone’s been briefed then. Nie Mingjue wishes he could roll his eyes without risking their cover “—have been put in suite 191 for your stay. Is there anything else we can do for you?”

“Our bags to our room and a breakfast order placed for the morning, early as you can: one of everything on the menu and a few pots of tea — jasmine, green, and black.”

“Yes sir. Enjoy your evening.”

Nie Mingjue offers another nod and Lan Xichen murmurs a smiling, “Thank you, guniang,” at his side, unfailingly polite in a way that sort of makes Nie Mingjue’s skin crawl, though he’s learning quickly that he’s just genuinely like that. He hadn’t known that people could be so purposefully polite without any ulterior motive, but here they are.

He hands Lan Xichen one room key and pockets his own while the porter sorts out their bags and steers Lan Xichen around to head back down the length of the lobby — and mere yards from the doors they pass Jin Guangyao just arriving, his gaze flicking to them briefly as they approach. Nie Mingjue, naturally, gives him no more attention that he would anyone else in this lobby, but he feels Lan Xichen perk up where he’s still tucked up against his side. 

It’s the only warning he gets before Lan Xichen says (thankfully quietly), “A-Yao?”

Jin Guangyao, for all that Nie Mingjue really wants nothing to do with him, is…alright fine, he’s good at what he does. He doesn’t even spare them a second glance as he saunters right past them into the lion’s den between the atrium and the check-in desk with his head held high, but Lan Xichen actually turns in his arms to watch him until Nie Mingjue jostles him a little more abruptly than necessary to get his attention back where it belongs.

Lan Xichen thankfully faces forward again and doesn’t say anything else, though he radiates displeasure at his side. His hope that the one-sided exchange was too quick to catch unwanted attention is quickly dashed; just as they reach the entryway Nie Mingjue feels more than sees the men who’d watched them enter stand up, and as he pushes through the glass-and-gold doors out into the evening air he resigns himself to the fact that Lan Xichen is apparently someone who’s going to make his job harder than it needs to be, that’s just all there is to it.

He ignores the tingle at the back of his neck from their new hangers-on in favor of leading Lan Xichen down the front steps of the resort and across the street into the bustling warren of the city; hopefully the crowds will buy them some breathing room.

Yiling is a thriving city, in its own right. It lacks the polish and grandeur of Lanling or Qishan, the (former) steady industrial thrum of centuries of mining and smithcraft in Qinghe, or the hustle and bustle of the waterway trade in Yunmeng, but there’s still an undeniable spark to it, a life that hurries on around them in rhythms they don’t quite fit into as the outsiders that they are. Nie Mingjue releases Lan Xichen’s waist in favor of taking him by the hand to better navigate the narrow, crowded alleyways and streets bustling with evening activity on the way to their destination, and though Lan Xichen follows along willingly it only takes a few turns before he gives Nie Mingjue’s hand a curious little tug.

“Mingjue wait — where are we going?”

Nie Mingjue glances back at him just in time to tug him close to keep him from getting run over by a cyclist carting a massive basket overflowing with some crop he can’t identify in the low light. Lan Xichen stumbles ever so slightly and catches himself with both hands on Nie Mingjue’s chest as the cyclist passes them by with the low whizz of his narrow tires. When Nie Mingjue glances down at his hands with a pointed raise of one eyebrow Lan Xichen looks slightly abashed…but he doesn’t seem in a hurry to remove them, either. That’s fair enough, he supposes, considering he’d had his hands stuck under the waist of Lan Xichen’s trousers just a few hours ago. Turnabout’s fair play and all that.

Considering Lan Xichen seems content to stay where he is, Nie Mingjue does his level best to not be distracted by the way Lan Xichen is only a few inches shorter than him (a comfortable height for kissing, his traitorous mind notes) as he finally answers the man’s question. “We’re going where any architect visiting Yiling would go: to see the sights.” 

“Mn.” Lan Xichen glances around at the thoroughly unimpressive alleyway they’re standing in and gives Nie Mingjue a look that somehow manages to convey how little he thinks of these particular ‘sights’, but there’s a tiny hint of a smile hovering at the corner of his lips that Nie Mingjue has to put genuine effort into not returning. That’s..new.

“Not these sights. Other ones. Better ones.”

Lan Xichen hums again, definitely amused this time, and slides his hands ever so slightly up Nie Mingjue’s chest towards his shoulders. He can’t help but notice that Lan Xichen is actually smiling now, a gentle thing that somehow lights up his whole face.

Nie Mingjue reminds himself very forcefully that he doesn’t actually care if they have a nice time tonight; it’s not a date, it’s reconnaissance. Because they are on a mission and mere days ago Lan Xichen was his mark, not his..accomplice. For lack of a better word. (Lan Xichen’s hands [and his face and his waist and his general everything] are too distracting for him to think of anything better.)

“Mingjue?”

“Hm?”

“I believe if we wish to see anything worthwhile before it grows too late we may actually need to…keep walking.”

Nie Mingjue does not flush, his neck just suddenly gets a little warm under the high collar of his sweater. He steps back out of Lan Xichen’s too-close proximity and straightens out his ubiquitous leather jacket as if the other man’s light touch on his shoulders could be enough to ruck it up out of line. Lan Xichen’s hand is warm in his as he continues the way they’d been going, heading for the blaze of lights at the opposite end of the alley. His hand is unfairly pleasant to hold, and Nie Mingjue lets himself indulge in focusing mostly on that sensation of it for the length of time it takes them to get to the next street, where he actually has to pay attention in order to take a route that he hopes will buy them some extra time before their pursuers catch up to them.

The route takes them to a public garden just inside the gates of the oldest district of the city, tucked neatly between the main thoroughfare full of cyclists and a few honking cars and a tea house at the other end closing down for the evening. Lit with strand after strand of red-papered lanterns, the park is arranged pleasantly around a large pond in the center, large enough for an arched bridge to curve over it and reflect off the still water in a perfect mirror. The water is broken up in places by patches of nodding lotus flowers just beginning to sink back into the water for the night, their petals closed tightly.

“Ahh I see,” Lan Xichen hums as they come to a stop at the fence that borders the pedestrian path. At Nie Mingjue’s questioning glance he gestures towards the glinting reflections of warm lamplight and wooden beams in the water as he clarifies, with a smile, “The sights. This is lovely.”

Nie Mingjue’s criteria are more about finding safe public spaces where they can’t be easily cornered while they get some of the lay of the land of the Yiling Laozu’s territory, but that doesn’t sound like the sort of thing that will keep Lan Xichen happy enough to keep playing his part as well as he has been while they’ve been walking, so he just nods and looks back out at the water.

“Well, Mr Architect…” Lan Xichen begins with a sharp hint of teasing in his voice, well-hidden but dangerous all the same. “You seem like a..thorough man, I’m sure you’ve done your homework. Is there anything you can tell me about this place?”

Nie Mingjue, who knows fuck-all about architecture and has very little interest in learning, naturally replies, “Of course there is.” Lan Xichen looks up at him with bemused challenge in his eyes.

“Oh?” He releases Nie Mingjue’s hand to turn his back on the pond and lean elegantly against the fence, open and expectant. He gestures with both hands spread on either side of his hips and a tilt of his head. “Go on, then.”

Nie Mingjue breathes through a sudden memory of similar sensations of any potential story being wiped suddenly clean from his mind anytime A-Sang would plead for one at bedtime as a child. The association is unexpected, and extremely unwelcome in his current circumstances.

“The bridge was constructed in…1723.” Lan Xichen raises his eyebrows and smiles like he can tell Nie Mingjue is 100% pulling this out of his ass, but that’s not nearly enough to make him stop. “Credited to two Qishan Wen architects..actually built by a Qinghe Nie.” 

Lan Xichen’s smile turns openly indulgent, but Nie Mingjue is in too deep now to let him win. Lan Xichen pushes off the fence to start walking towards the bridge in question and Nie Mingjue follows a few paces behind as he continues. “Yes, a Qinghe Nie architect named…” Nie Mingjue scrambles to think of a name, but he’s never been good at this game and so he forces himself not to wince around the ache of his father’s memory as his clumsy tongue offers up, “Fengyi.”

At least there’s no hint of recognition in the relaxed slope of Lan Xichen’s shoulders as he wanders onto the bridge, long strides eating up the distance between the first few planks embedded in the footpath and the high center arch of it easily. Nie Mingjue stays at the bank of the pond, leaning against the first post of the bridge’s railing as he watches Lan Xichen reach the peak and begin to lean over further than Nie Mingjue is strictly comfortable with to look down into the water. He scrambles to think of the next thing to say; maybe if the story is interesting enough Lan Xichen will stop doing things that make his adrenaline spike. 

“And of course Fengyi had…a son…uh..Huaisang. A-Sang loved art and architecture so much he inspired his father to build beautiful things.” Fuck why is he thinking about A-Sang now?! It’s all Jin Guangyao’s fault for bringing him up as his trump card the other day in the cafe, he decides, and thus channels his anger and hurt in the appropriate direction. Lan Xichen turns his head to look over at him, his face expectant, from where he’s bent over and leaning out so far over the railing his heels have popped up off the surface of the bridge.

“Unfortunately he had to..send his son away in the middle of construction as Yiling wasn’t a safe place for someone like his son to be. After that, Nie Fengyi decided to build everything in the park exactly how his son would like, in his honor, so that Huaisang could visit and see everything that had been built just for him once Yiling was safe.”

“That’s quite a large project. The construction must have taken a long time,” Lan Xichen muses.

“Well, naturally Nie Fengyi was a talented architect, he could handle taking on so much work. Why do you say so?”

“Because there’s a plaque up here that says the bridge was finished in 1938.”

Ah.

Nie Mingjue is very glad of the distance between them and that the hazy glow of lantern light is the only thing illuminating him — his face is definitely red, but Lan Xichen doesn’t need to know that. He’s already gloating enough as it is considering his smirk is visible even from here.

“Well. As I said. Yiling was dangerous at the time, and there would have been…Fires. Yes. A fire that destroyed the original bridge a century after it was constructed, so it had to be rebuilt.”

“And the re-construction took another…hundred odd years or so?”

Nie Mingjue wracks his brain for another plausible explanation as he stalls with a short, “No–” that is promptly interrupted by the quiet evening shattering around the spitting rumble of a motorbike that pulls into the park.

“Evening, Big Red. Huan-ge,” Jin Guangyao greets when he’s ground to a stop mere inches from Nie Mingjue’s foot. Nie Mingjue glances sharply around at the park’s few other patrons to make sure none of them are paying them any undue amount of attention.

“You are not supposed to acknowledge us in public,” he snaps, eyes still scanning though he sees Jin Guangyao shrug and smirk at him in his peripherals.

“And you are already being followed.”

Nie Mingjue notes the way Lan Xichen’s head snaps towards them again, his posture straightening (thank god) and his expression slipping towards concern as he looks between them.

“I know. The two men from the lobby, both early-30’s, one in a leather jacket and one in a black suit. Which is why you should leave.”

Lan Xichen comes down from the bridge again to drift close enough to hear them properly, arms crossed over his chest as he glances surreptitiously at their immediate surroundings.

“They went the long way around to the other side of the park when you came in. I imagine they’ll be waiting for you when you leave,” Jin Guangyao tells them, still arrogant as all Jins are as he leans on his motorbike and acts like he isn’t actively making the situation worse simply by being here.

Nie Mingjue stops his scanning to glare at Jin Guangyao instead, his jaw tensing with a click as his fingers start to twinge, the precursor to the shaking that will start any moment.

“I’ll handle them.”

“‘Handle’,” Jin Guangyao muses, sounding bored. A moment later he turns a saccharine smile on Nie Mingjue, tight enough that those damn dimples of his pop deep shadows in his cheeks. “By ‘handle’ I’m assuming you mean in the ‘I’m a completely normal architect showing his fiancé around town, please god don’t hurt me’ way. Because that’s what you are, and naturally you’ll be scared, and it’s in your best interests to act like it?”

“‘Scared’?” Nie Mingjue nearly spits back. A man from Qinghe is not scared of a couple of goons who think they can pull one over on him. Especially not when that man has been Wen Ruohan’s unwilling right hand for almost half his life, with every ounce of violence the honor entails.

Lan Xichen’s mellow voice is enough to snap him back from the lapping edge of his rage when he steps a touch closer and asks, “What exactly is going on?”

Jin Guangyao’s haughty expression smooths out into something noticeably softer even in the low lantern-light when his eyes flicker over to Lan Xichen. Nie Mingjue breathes through the familiar anger coursing through him that clouds his ability to think as clearly as he needs to while Jin Guangyao explains. “You’re being tested. Someone” — his tone and raised eyebrow implies they all know who — “wants to make sure your fiancé here is really an architect, and not a highly trained secret agent. A trained secret agent like Wen Ruohan’s precious Red Blade, for instance.”

Nie Mingjue gnashes his teeth around the blatant disregard for discretion and takes a step away from Lan Xichen’s side to better loom over Jin Guangyao on his stupid fucking motorbike, sitting there calm and collected like he isn’t actively putting everything they’re working on in jeopardy.

“I said I’ll handle it!”

“I think you should do as he says, Mingjue,” Lan Xichen murmurs as he lays a lightly restraining hand on his arm.

Jin Guangyao gives Nie Mingjue a scathing up-and-down glance, lingering a moment too long on his trembling fist at his side, before he shrugs and starts the bike up again with a splutter of the engine that settles into a rumbling purr.

“Alright then, off you go. Just remember — try to take it like a good boy,” he smirks with a fucking wink. Nie Mingjue is going to throttle him, no alliance with the Jin is worth this indignity, nuclear death of everyone on the planet be damned.

“This is not the Nie way,” he snaps for good measure, but all he gets for it is Lan Xichen’s hand slipping into his to squeeze it tightly in silent reproach and Jin Guangyao offering another dimpled smile before he zips away into the night, out of the park and onto the street to disappear quickly in the bustling evening traffic. Nie Mingjue watches him go for a long moment before he turns and stalks off towards the other side of the park, his ‘fiancé’ in tow. Lan Xichen wisely stays silent as they continue on their way, all hints of teasing gone.

He stays close to Nie Mingjue’s side as they cross through the park and exit on the other side, deeper now in the oldest part of the city and surrounded on all sides by tall, narrow buildings casting deep shadows, everything seeming to have been designed specifically to lean in over the street to better block out the sallow glow of the only nearby street lamps…all the way at the next junction some two blocks away.

Nie Mingjue slows his steps and reaches down to slide Lan Xichen’s hand up from where it’s tangled with his to tuck it in the crook of his elbow instead so that he’s free to ball that hand up into a fist against his sternum, making sure they look like any regular couple out for a stroll. It’s not ideal, but his body can’t help but prepare for the fight he knows he could win upon spotting a couple shadowed figures waiting for them tucked just inside an alley between two shops, dark and closed up for the night. Lan Xichen’s grip hardens on his arm, but Nie Mingjue has no intention of letting him get hurt, even should he have no choice but to let things escalate.

Adrenaline courses through him at the idea of getting to bash a couple heads in after the last few days he’s had as he leads Lan Xichen down the street, his gaze trained straight ahead like he can’t tell they’ve just passed right by their tail.

“Hey, nice shoes,” one of them calls out, oily slick from the shadows and punctuated with a little giggle that raises the hair on the back of his neck. 

Nie Mingjue doesn’t break stride as he replies with a brusque, “Thank you,” and gives Lan Xichen’s hand on his elbow a reassuring squeeze.

They’ve just made it past the porch the second man is lounging on when he adds, gruffer than his companion, “Maybe you should give those to me, ah?”

Nie Mingjue — ignoring the way Lan Xichen’s restraining grip on his arm is now tight enough that his hand is starting to tingle from the lack of blood flow to it — slows to a stop to lean back far enough around Lan Xichen to look down his nose at the second man’s dangling legs. He slaps a smirk on his lips and makes sure the innuendo is crystal clear when he replies, “I think your feet are..a little too small.”

He lets Lan Xichen coax him a few steps forward again with surreptitious tugs on his arm, but they’ve only gone that far before the first man speaks up again, closer behind them than he’d been before.

“Give me some cash for dinner, then? Looks like you’ve got plenty of it to spare.”

Nie Mingjue breaks Lan Xichen’s grip and they turn in unison to face him. He clenches his newly freed hand down by his hip, but Lan Xichen is already there, grabbing his arm again and putting the hand not crushing his elbow on his chest to get his attention.

“Darling.” Something about that low, tense murmur snaps Nie Mingjue’s full attention to him, where he finds Lan Xichen far too close and looking up at him with clear censure in his eyes. Do what we discussed, his gaze seems to warn as he adds, “Give him enough for dinner, hm?”

Nie Mingjue could lay these two idiots out flat in less time than it takes to pull his wallet out, but for Lan Xichen’s sake (and Lan Xichen’s sake alone, he doesn’t care what Jin Guangyao thinks he should do) he does the latter. He fishes his wallet from his pocket to pull a handful of notes free, the paper crinkling in his grasp (the smiles of the workers on the front of the bills feel like they’re mocking him) as he passes them to the oily one in the leather jacket. The man takes the cash with a grin wide enough it looks near manic — and reaches across Lan Xichen to slip Nie Mingjue’s entire wallet free from his hand as well.

Lan Xichen’s hand on his chest is the only thing that keeps him from snapping a fist across the space between them to knock the guy out cold for daring to push his luck like this.

“Enjoy your dinner,” he says instead with a tight, threatening smile. Lan Xichen gives his chest a little pat before they turn back around to continue on their way —

But the one in the suit is blocking their path with an ugly smirk on his lips, and Nie Mingjue’s senses shift abruptly into high alert before he’s even consciously noted the clean metal ssnik of a well-oiled blade flicking open behind them. He wraps his arm around Lan Xichen’s waist to shield his more vulnerable organs, his grip steady as they look over their shoulders in sync to gauge the threat.

“Nice watch,” Leather Jacket smirks, twirling his long glinting knife between clever fingers.

No.

No no no! This is fucking insane, Nie Mingjue is not giving his father’s watch to a miserable little cretin he could snap in half like a toothpick! Any Nie (or Wen) knows how to fight, he isn’t special or even unusual; it wouldn’t be noteworthy at all if he landed these two in the hospital for accosting him and his fiancé after dark!

“Ge,” Lan Xichen breathes, another warning, more urgent this time (though he’s pretty sure it’ll sound like fear to their attackers). This is getting more ridiculous by the second — they could already be on their way without the need for any tension at all if Jin Guangyao had just agreed to let Nie Mingjue handle this. “Give him the watch.”

“The ring, too.”

“I beg your pardon?” Lan Xichen asks, sounding so affronted all the sudden that Nie Mingjue wonders if he might end up throwing a punch instead.

Leather Jacket shrugs and uses the knife to point at Lan Xichen’s left hand resting over Nie Mingjue’s curled around his waist. “It’s a nice rock. I want it.”

“Hm.” Lan Xichen releases him long enough to work the diamond off his finger with an indignant huff, and Nie Mingjue doesn’t miss the way Leather Jacket’s hand wraps far too familiarly around Lan Xichen’s graceful fingers when he takes the ring from him, the leer on his face distinctly predatory. Assessing. 

“The watch,” Black Suit reminds him, as if Nie Mingjue could have forgotten in the last thirty seconds.

“The watch!” Leather Jacket snaps — and slaps him across the face.

There is a ringing in his ears, loud enough to drown out everything else in the world. He blinks against it and tries to center himself with a desperation born entirely out of needing to remain present for Lan Xichen’s sake, but the ringing has absolutely nothing to do with the force of the slap and everything to do with the memories rising to the front of his mind too sharp, too loud.

A moment after he’s dragged his thoughts back to the present, Black Suit reaches out to strike him across the other cheek, snapping his head back towards Leather Jacket. His vision dims with the force of his heartbeat thundering in his ears, fury doing its best to work its way past his self-control.

“Mingjue.” Lan Xichen’s sharp call cuts through the ringing in his head. “Give him the watch.”

It takes a few tries to get his shaking fingers to close around the tongue of the wristband threaded through itself, but he eventually manages it and holds his one and only sentimental possession out to Leather Jacket, who snatches it away with another toothy grin before he hawks up a quick glob of spit that lands right where Nie Mingjue’s cheek is still smarting from the first blow.

Nie Mingjue punches him in the throat, his hand a blur as he closes the distance between them with virtually no sense of satisfaction.

“Mingjue!!” Lan Xichen yelps as he hurries to step in front of him, both hands on his chest again as Black Suit hurries around them to tug his buddy up off the ground and away from where Nie Mingjue is seething, the edges of his vision turning a hazy red with the strength of it. “Calm down! That’s enough.”

He can’t take his eyes off his father’s watch in Leather Jacket’s half-gloved hand as the pair make their escape back down the alley and disappear from sight. His stomach twists with the piece of himself that he just allowed to be torn away. His hands are too hard, too bruising on Lan Xichen’s hips as he just barely manages not to shove the man out of his way to give chase. It takes a few long moments, he’s not exactly sure how long, before he becomes aware of another set of footsteps approaching them at a leisurely pace from an alleyway between two buildings.

“You’re not very good at this whole ‘subtlety’ thing, are you?” Jin Guangyao drawls from the shadows.

“A-Yao,” Lan Xichen cautions but Nie Mingjue is already rounding on his new target, eyes flashing as he stalks forward.

“That man just stole my father’s watch.” It’s not enough, it doesn’t even begin to cover the cavern yawning suddenly in his chest, but Nie Mingjue isn’t the most eloquent man even at the best of times, which this is certainly not.

“Yes, I saw. And aren’t you supposed to be an architect?”

“Yes, and a Wen architect would fight back! A Wen agent would kill them! But do I need to remind you that I am neither?!”

“Yes yes, you’re a Nie, I know, we’ve been over this already,” Jin Guangyao waves his anger away with a flick of his wrist, though as keyed up as he is Nie Mingjue can’t help but notice with a hunter’s eye that he drifts a few steps out of his range in Lan Xichen’s direction, where the man has stepped away to sit on the steps of the nearest shop to put his head down on his knees and breathe. “You’re still not exactly known for your even temper, whether you’re Wen or Nie or whatever. Forgive me for being surprised that you seem to have actually thought this through.”

Nie Mingjue wouldn’t be surprised if the pop in his jaw is actually cracking enamel with the force of how hard he’s clenching his teeth to keep his voice down as he spits, “Let’s finish what we started —”

“Don’t!” Lan Xichen’s aggravated bark catches both of their attentions; Nie Mingjue darts another glance his way to find he’s sat up and is now glaring at both of them; it sits strangely on his face. He stands after a moment to stomp closer, clearly at his limit for the second time today. “I was under the impression that you two are supposed to be protecting me, so why am I the one who has to get in the middle and play mediator?”

This close Nie Mingjue can see something else lurking under his irritation but he’s not exactly in a position to suss out what it may be, nor do they have the time for him to try. Instead, he takes a deep breath to try to force his anger back down where it can’t hurt anything. As satisfying as it would likely be, laying Jin Guangyao out flat with a few solid punches won’t help anything now, and he doesn’t want to hurt Lan Xichen, which leaves him without a target to take it out on anyway. Better to let it simmer instead until he can unleash it at just the right moment.

“If you both cannot begin acting like you know what you’re meant to be doing here, I’m leaving. You said it yourself this morning that this plan won’t work without me — act like it.”

Nie Mingjue is left blinking in the wake of his scolding, nonplussed, and when he glances down at Jin Guangyao he finds the other man looks equally as gobsmacked.

“Is it weird that I like him angry?” Jin Guangyao mutters out of the corner of his mouth. Lan Xichen visibly collects himself with a tug on the leather suspenders Nie Mingjue had put on him and a hitch of his trousers to re-settle them after his little breathing exercise on the stoop.

“Don’t talk to me,” Nie Mingjue mutters back before he stalks forward to snag Lan Xichen’s hand and lead him back to the hotel. They’ve had a long day and, as he’d expected, Lan Xichen allows himself to be towed along without complaint.

If Jin Guangyao knows what’s good for him, he’ll take a different route back to his own room and leave them alone for the rest of the night, at the very least.

[rayan12sworld]

The fanfics, we all want to tell lan xichen that wei ying isn't a mistake

Like how can wei ying be your brother's mistake when your brother didn't even confessed his feelings untill the very ending in wei ying's life

And it was right after his shijie death

Enough!

By:Jeeny271196

Summary:

Wei WuXian had enough of them blaming him for everything. Or say Wei WuXian snapped out!

Wei WuXian reacted differently after Lan Xichen blaming him for Lan Wangji's suffering at guangying temple. Which changed lot of things.

Chapter:5/?

Words:12,484

Status:ongoing

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💙Wei Ying Was Not A "MISTAKE"

By:Jeeny271196

Summary:

Most of FF shows how pitiful Lan XiChen is,

Showing that he was the biggest WanXian Shipper, A good brother, how kind he was, etc etc.

Deliberately ignoring his flaws.

The mistakes committed by him, knowingly or unknowingly.

This FF is short of Lan XiChen and Lan Sect Critical.

Let Lan WangJi SpeakUp for Once.

Chapter :1/1

Words:16,636

Status:Completed

I'm sorry, I forgot, this is no more Lan An's Lan Sect. there is a new tradition in this sect. 'Spouse does not count as part of the family.' First, my mother never counted as family and now my own spouse." They both stare at wangji as though they saw a ghost, Lan Qiren's face went red "Wangji!!!" he shouted. Lan Wanji stare indifferently at Lan Qiren, "not today Uncle! I kept silent for my whole life. Today is my day to speak. By the way, Shouting is forbidden, But again if Grandmaster Lan Shouts, throw things at the guest disciple, has Prejudice toward a dead woman, has presumption towards the very same woman's son who was an orphan at the mare age of four, it's completely alright. But if my Wei Ying Laughs loudly and plays some harmless, childish pranks. he commits a grave crime" "Hypocrites" Lan Qiren was struck dumb, unable to speak anything.

~~~

"WangJi, don't be cruel to your brother. He is already suffering." "I'm doing the same what he did to my Wei Ying." Wangji told with indifference.

~~~

I Want You to Look In my Eyes Sect Leader Lan!" Lan XiChen looks at him. In his bloodshot eyes. Lan WangJi continue again looking straight into his eyes, "People call me Hanguang-Jun, Light Bearer. That means I do not have a light of my own. Just like Moon Depends on Sun for its shine, I depend on Wei Ying For Light." "Such a Pure soul, such selfless and Righteous being, who fought till the end, who walked in the fire to do the right thing. Who did not draw himself in grudges and hatred, who is Innocent just like a child, who doesn't have any envy towards anyone, who is actually free from worldly affairs. Only Knowing that such a person exists somewhere is an achievement in life." "I must have performed so many good deeds in my previous lives, that I got a chance to fall in love with such a person" "A Person whom I referrer Heaven's gift to me, you dare to call him My mistake??"

~~

He took out the jade token, "I defect myself from gusu lan. I finally took the hint that we are unwanted here." Lan Qiren was horrified, "WangJi you are not thinking properly. This is your home. Who said you are unwanted?" "Wall of your sect said we are unwanted. Do not interact with my family." "We have suffered enough. My husband still can't sleep at night because of nightmares. From the age of four, he never got home. I thought I will make cloud recesses his home. I was wrong. Now I will build a home for him on my own. He sacrificed enough for the cultivation world who never acknowledge his sacrifices. Now it is time to live for each other." He looks at them for the last time, "One Last Advice, stop being a hypocrite, you used all inventions of Wei Ying, and shamelessly wrote on the wall do not interact with him. If you hate him that much why not discard all his inventions, all his research regarding resentful beings??" "Remember, I'm not Qigheng-Jun, I will not Confine my spouse nor myself. I will burn down this whole place if you dare to harm him physically or emotionally. I am not as forgiving as Wei Ying nor I'm selfless like him. I will not think twice before firing this whole world to save Wei Ying. Once I failed, not again, never again."

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💠💙When has silence saved anyone?

By:Vrishchika

Summary:

Wei Wuxian accidentally lets it slip that Lan Xichen called him Lan Wangji's only mistake. Neither his husband nor his son are happy about it.

Chapter:1/1

Words:6,051

Status:completed

Wei Ying hesitates and presses a kiss to his cheek in silent apology. His voice is low and blank as he recounts the remainder of the conversation, "The way he looked and talked to you when he saved you, even someone who was blind or deaf could perceive his feelings. That was why my uncle was so -. Wangji was a model for the disciples when he was young, and a prominent cultivator when he grew up. He had been honest, righteous, and immaculate—you were the only mistake he made." Wangji's fingers dig into Wei Ying's arms with bruising strength. "And you say you do not know. After you returned, how did you pester him and confess to him? Every night, you had to… And you say you do not know? If you did not know, why did you do such things?" Wei Ying huffs a laugh, "I really wanted to go back in time to kill myself-" Wangji freezes. "Really, your brother set me straight. Without him, who knows-" "Be silent." Wei Ying stills, turning to him with concerned eyes. Wangji's thoughts roar like fire from one edge of his mind to another, eliminating all measures of restraint. He doesn't know the right words, the proper method to express his fury and disgust. Wei Ying knows him well now and remains silent, just pressing light kisses to his chest, his hand rubbing Wangji's arm soothingly. "Which is why you were so insistent on declaring yourself immediately," Wangji observes. He cherishes the words Wei Ying spoke back then but… thinking about what his husband had to endure to reach his resolve is unbearable. Wangji had been willing to be patient. He was content to wait until Wei Ying understood his own heart. Wei Ying deserved gentleness. Xiongzhang had, again, decided to meddle where his interference had been unnecessary. Selfish. So selfish. His brother forced that realization through pain. He had trapped Wei Ying, broken him down, and blamed him for the audacity of not returning Wangji's feelings immediately. He had implied that Wei Ying was inferior, that he was undeserving, that he was Wangji's mistake. Wangji can't bear the thought. He curls around Wei Ying and feels the agony of it tear his heart apart. Their love, the most noble emotion Wangji has ever felt, was declared a mistake. His heart, his very life, the freedom that he breathes every day, the warmth that sinks deep into his bones, the love in precious grey eyes, the heat that he burrows into every night… All a mistake.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

💠💙break

By:justdoityoufucker (orphan_account)

Summary:

Wen Ning doesn’t hear everything, not at first. He can tell that Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao are speaking, within the temple complex, but he cannot get the specifics of what the men are saying until he presses himself closer to the rear walls.

-

Or, Wen Ning listens in.

Chapter:1/1

Words:3,535

Status:completed

[spoiler-alert-andabunchofnumbers]

Not to mention Jin Ling then trying to turn all of his hatred onto Wen Ning afterwards. He's a kid who's been reminded of his parents' deaths with every breath he takes, only having stories about them and being fed Jiang Cheng's unhinged hatred for all the love that was lost. If Wei Wuxian turned out to not be the monster he thought he was, then he...he has to hate someone else!

But then Wen Ning turns out to be even MORE gentle than Wei Wuxian, filled with guilt for what happened, flinging himself in front of Lan Sizhui and saying "I won't fight back, get your anger out on me if it'll put you at ease!"

That scene had me crying too yo. Everyone rallies behind Lan Sizhui and calls Jin Ling out for being too aggressive - no one takes his side, no one understands how much he's been affected by his life. Jiang Cheng's solution is to tell him to get angry, but now that's just turned all of his peers against him and calling him violent and unreasonable. So he just breaks down sobbing saying "Yes, I'm a horrible person!" even though NONE of what happened is his fault and he has a right to be angry and trying to find an outlet for his emotion. He just doesn't know HOW. No one ever taught him, everyone ridicules him for crying and distances themselves from his anger. People treat him delicately yet say he needs to toughen up.

I think the worst part is that Wei Wuxian's first scathing (accidental) comment, "Your mother never taught you any manners" is kinda really true. He never had a mother to teach him to express himself, to support him and be vulnerable with him. We joke about how many uncles Jin Ling has but I mean how many AUNTS does he have? How many mother figures does he have? Qin Su is basically traumatized by the death of Jin Rusong so is maybe not the motherly type. Nie Huisang, Lan Xichen, Jiang Cheng - unmarried, unmarried, unmarried.

Wei Wuxian is really the first one to A: tell Jin Ling to get over himself and doesn't treat him like some untouchable young master who no one has the right to lord over, B: openly admits when he's sorry and apologizes and teaches Jin Ling the concept of emotional vulnerability, C: stands by Jin Ling's side to teach him to be himself rather than scolding or threatening or guilting him to fit in better. The fact that Wei Wuxian is NOT a woman may even be better because Jin Ling is seeing that men don't have to fit into the unyielding mold of tough guys but can still have fun without being a pushover.

Jin Ling is such a tragedy because there really is no one left to blame. It's not that easy. Wei Wuxian and Wen Ning are responsible, but they're not maniacal villains laughing at the top of a mountain without a care in the world for the consequences. They cared, they had family who were lost, they suffered before and don't want anyone to suffer again - they hate themselves just as much for their part in what happened.

Even Jin Guangyao is such a complicated case for Jin Ling. It's the uncle who was always nice to him, who gave him his spirit dog, who was always putting on a smile. In comparison to Jiang Cheng, Jin Guangyao was a lifeline. And then Jin Guangyao turns out to be a villain who doesn't bat an eye at killing and threatening...but who also didn't WANT these bad things to be "necessary." He too was wronged by the world and lashed out at its unfairness.

This fifteen year old kid has gone through so much, simultaneously pampered into a spoiled brat and utterly isolated from his peers, filled with vengeance for his entire life but also trying to love and be loved. He learned from Jiang Cheng to pretend to be above it all, and he learned from Jin Guangyao to be kind and forgive, but all of it was lies and unhealthy coping. Jiang Cheng essentially taught him to argue with anyone who disagrees with him or looks down on him to assert his dominance, and Jin Guangyao taught him to suppress his desire to speak his mind and never start fights because of etiquette and self-preservation - to the point that he rejects who he is and wants to be.

At this age, Jin Ling's already having to learn the lesson that everyone's going to be throwing opinions around, no one is perfect, you can't easily sort people into categories. In the end, he can take advice from others, but it's up to him to make the choice of who he wants to be. And he's learned that unrelenting resentment makes for an easy path to walk in life, but it's not actually how life works. The cultivation world can turn on someone they worshipped unconditionally. That included Wei Wuxian, that included Jin Guangyao, and even to an extent Jin Ling himself.

He has to take over the Jin Clan after all these scandals and atrocities, but he's become the kind of kid who will answer an insignificant man's plea for help, who is making friends who won't judge him and will stand by him even when he makes mistakes, and by the end of the story he's matured, yet also finally learned to be a kid. Nothing's perfect, none of the tragedies of the past can be reversed (and Jiang Cheng's still gonna get into fights whenever he accidentally runs into Wen Ning), but at least now Jin Ling can choose how he decides to live, who he hates and who he forgives.

while reading the books, i remember wei wuxian’s relationship with jin ling hitting me especially hard. i was crying when the whole stabbing thing happened. but i truly adore what becomes of them and do you know why? because jin ling does something the others could never, something miraculous really––he actually unlearns the prejudice he’s been taught to hold against wei wuxian. he meets wwx, full of disdain, slowly learning about who wwx really is and it has nothing to do with wwx’s outward appearance. and when the truth is revealed, the internal warring for jin ling is plainly portrayed and even if he does give in to a hate intermingled with grief that he has internalised towards this one entity (wei wuxian was never a person in his mind, just the ‘killer’ of his parents, a phantom, before the events of the book happened), you can tell his heart has already turned, that it will keep turning and that’s what happens. you have jin ling, an orphaned child, who hated someone whom his mother loved dearly, because that man caused his parents’ death but it is such a commendable thing that wei wuxian was able to create a space in jin ling’s heart and jin ling was able to accept it. it’s the way both jin ling & jiang cheng blame the death of their parents on wwx but only the former was able to see wei wuxian clearly and actually forge a bond of love with him.

it’s the fact that if ANYONE in this story can actually rightfully hold a grudge against wei wuxian, it’s jin ling, but instead this teenager decides that wei wuxian is much too good and that having him as an uncle is lovely, after all.

[gayestgayao3]

Little Xiuying in Caiyi Town

Chapter 3

That night Lan Wangji finished his rounds in a daze. His thoughts ringing loudly in his head. He almost didn't remember how he had gotten into his own bed. But surely he must have followed his routine because he had woken as he always had, in the Jingshi before the sun had risen.

He could almost convince himself that the events of the night before had not occurred. That Nie Huaisang had not told him that Wei Ying was behaving for someone else. That he was not preoccupied with a girl.

He had never changed his behavior for any other disciple. Not even when chastised. He was equally as tactile, talkative and generally friendly with those he was acquainted with. During break periods he would speak with -and touch- an assortment of people. Among those being Jiang Wanyin, Nie Huaisang, Wen Qionglin, Wen Qing and Luo Qingyang. Excluding himself except for moments in which Lan Wangji was spotted by him. He had always thought that it wasn't possible for Wei Ying to think of him as anything but an acquaintance because he was treated just the same as everyone else.

He wondered what she was like to have captured his attention and changed his behavior. Was she kind and quiet or just as energetic as Wei Ying? Or did she have a harsh personality like Jiang Wanyin? She was definitely nothing like him. Wei Ying would not want someone so boring even if he was agreeable to having him as an acquaintance.

But what was Wei Ying like with her? Was he the same as always or was he sweet? Was his mischief tempered by affection? Was he just as quick to touch and tease or was he shy and sweet? Would he be shy to hold her hand or even kiss?

Would they go farther than kiss?

He quickly became incensed by his own thoughts -both by jealousy and anger at himself for the impropriety- and made to hurry on with his day.

He met up with Xiongzhang for their daily meditation and sword practice. They sat across from each other, both in lotus position. He regulated his breathing and failed to clear his mind. He tried again this time attempting to focus on the sensations of his body. But for the first time since he had begun to meditate, he failed. He huffed in irritation and Lan Xichen helpfully cut the session short for an earlier beginning in sword training.

After a while of sparring absentmindedly he was bested. Sweaty and frustrated he wiped a hand down his face.

There was concern on xiongzhang's face as he asked, "Wangji, has something occurred? I haven't bested you so easily since you were small."

Unable to deny that something was going on but unable to articulate what exactly, he answered, "Mn."

After a moment of silence in which he studied his face he asked, "Does this have something to do with Wei-gongzi?"

He nodded in affirmative. "Wei Ying, is behaving himself but… because of that he has stopped spending time with me. I feel as if I wish for him to break the rules again." He admitted guiltily.

"Well, why not just tell him about what's bothering you?" He assumed xiongzhang had read something in his expression because he backpedaled and instead suggested, "Or maybe not even that, perhaps just ask him to spend a bit of time outside of a setting in which you are overseeing his punishment?"

"Will try. I do not know if he will want to."

"Oh, didi. I'm sure he will! He was always trailing behind you after his punishment anyways. I fail to see why he wouldn't want to spend some time with you now."

Even though he had only confided that he had felt a bit abandoned it was like he could finally breathe past his own worries. With his problems partially solved, he and Xichen attempted their routines again and Wangji had bested him in turn.

While they had sheathed their blades Xiongzhang told him. "Alright, Wangji. Now you seem to be doing better! Ah, and remember to speak with shufu before class. He mentioned he wanted to speak with you about something."

"Mn."

They parted ways and began the rest of their preparations for the day.

He had arrived to class a bit early as always but instead of moving to claim his seat he instead made his way to the front where Shufu was seated.

He looked up as he approached, "Ah, Wangji. Good, good. I'm sure Xichen has told you I wished to speak with you, yes?"

"Yes, shufu."

"Alright, then after class has ended please send in Wei Wuxian. I wish to clear up some misunderstandings on my behalf."

A bit skeptical, he replied, "Wei Ying has behaved himself as of late." He had first felt as if shufu's punishments were a bit heavy handed when it came to Wei Ying but said nothing as he trusted him to be able to correct himself but if he could not he would remind him now.

"Yes, of course I know that." He looked up at him and shook his head. "I do know, Wangji. It's exactly as I said,I will clear up what I have misunderstood about the boy and make amends. These past five days have led me to believe there was… some miscommunication of sorts. I admit I may have… overreacted to the resemblance he has to his mother. I see now that there's more of his father in him than I thought. I will make this right."

"Of course, shufu." And he did believe him. It was forbidden to lie and because… though there was still a bit wrong with what he had said he hoped that in speaking with Wei Ying he would see.

He walked back to his desk and sat down. He arranged his desk to his liking, -his brushes clean and neatly ordered beside his inkwell and fresh sheaves of parchment- as he did before every class began. Then as students began to file in he discreetly kept an eye out for Wei Ying.

He was in the back, flanked by Nie Huaisang and Jiang Wanyin. He smiled as always, lips parted and wavy hair tied up in his red ribbon with messy strands framing his face but he was quiet as he entered -as he had been for the past few days-.

His eyes met Wei Ying's lovely shining silver and he sent a wink Lan Wangji's way before sinking down beside him. His ears went hot and his heart raced as he turned away. It pleased him more than he had ever thought his teasing would. It was as if whatever -whoever- was distracting him was no longer keeping him from teasing Wangji any longer.

The entire class he diligently made notes and it seemed as if Wei Ying were doing the same. He spared the boy beside him fleeting glances that sometimes had their eyes meeting. Each and every time it happened Wei Ying would smile at him… and from those glances Wangji also saw him bite his lip or fidget with his hands as if he were fighting a larger body movement.

How he longed to see if he would cease his wiggling if he held him. Or if he would freeze upon having a kiss placed upon his beauty mark.

Soon the class ended and it was time to pass on shufu's message.

-

"Wei Ying!" He heard Lan Zhan call for him, as he was walking away from the Lanshi.

Recently he had felt as if he had neglected his friends but Xiuying's device was just so interesting! It was supposed to record sound and light. It etched it into a gem like thing that was created from the vast amount of spiritual energy that was supposed to be poured into it. He couldn't really mess with the sight capturing aspect as it didn't completely rely on talismans and was partially mechanical. If he wanted to know how it worked or improve it he would have to research in depth or contact someone who specialized in such a thing. The sound capture theory it operated on was okay but also relied on a large amount of spiritual energy. It should have sent out pulses of energy that recorded the waves sound made so it was also accurate to the way sound traveled distances.

It had been very inefficient before he'd gotten his hands on it though. All he had to do was fiddle with the output amount therefore reducing the amount that had to be put in. And also reduce the size of the gem that was being created because apparently the creator thought that the bigger the gem the more impressive it was even at the cost of efficiency.

"Lan Zhan! Sorry! I didn't mean to ignore you, I was just thinking about something interesting. What was it that you needed? Hm?"

"Shufu would like to speak with you." He said, looking down into his eyes. Lan Zhan's eyes were such a nice gold color and his lashes too were quite lovely.

Then he blinked and realized.

"Aaaah, Lan Zhan! You know I've been a good boy these days! Why does your Shufu even want to see me?!" He asked slightly offended that even faced by his recent adherence to the rules he had still found fault in him.

Wei Wuxian inched closer and closer to him. He laid his head on his shoulder as he said, "He's such a meanie to me Lan Zhan, so unfair!" He looked up at him and batted his eyes.

He hoped the old man hadn't caught him taking notes on an entirely different topic during class. While working on his new project he had discovered that keeping half an ear out for the goings on in class and simply writing about whatever he wanted to instead was a much better way of spending his time instead of skipping or offending the Lan clan with his insolent answers. As he had been finished with modifying the thing about two days ago he had been writing about his discovery with the jewelry box and how it recorded sound and how such a thing could be replicated with sight but not both at the same time.

Lan Zhan looked back impassively and would likely scold him any minu-

"Mn. Shufu was unfair. He will apologize."

"Yeah, yea- uh. What? Lan Zhan, I was just kidding! That's just how adults and teachers are! If anything I'm the one that should be apologizing."

"Mn. Both Wei Ying and shufu would do well to apologize."

"Laaaan Zhaaaan! Are you teasing me?! I should just find out what he wants if you're gonna be like that."

Lan Zhan shook his head and led him back into the classroom. His shufu was still seated at the front, grading their assignments. Lan Qiren looked up as he noticed them stop at his desk.

"Ah, Wei Wuxian." He greeted. "Thank you Wangji, you may be dismissed." After a moment Lan Zhan where in he glanced at him, he then nodded and left -probably to do whatever it was he did when not punishing trouble makers-.

"Take a seat, Wei Wuxian."

"Okaaay." He agreed warily as he sat across from him.

"There's no need to be so cautious. I am aware that you have behaved yourself well in these past few days-"

"-Right? I haven't given you any reason to punish me. So pleeeaaase-"

"-In fact I believe I owe you an apology." He continued without pausing due to his interruption.

"What? Lan Zhan was serious! You really meant to apologize!?"

Lan Qiren's mustache twitched and he shot him glare.

"Yes, and if you would cease your interruptions I would be able to finish explaining myself."

At that Wei Wuxian sat at attention and shut his mouth. He nodded vigorously to indicate that he should go on.

He huffed. "I apologize Wei Wuxian. I punished you unfairly because of your resemblance to your mothers behavior while she also studied here. And while you were unruly and rude there are multiple steps I should have taken before such a punishment and for that I am also sorry. Also seeing as you were not alone in your transgressions you should have been punished alongside Nie Huaisang."

Astounded, he froze. Taking everything in, he studied the old man. From his salt and pepper hair styled neatly into his modest guan to his expression that was -seemingly- sincere. "May I ask a question?"

He nodded, "of course, as long as it is appropriate to answer I shall."

"Why did I remind you of my mother?" He blurted against his good sense.

Lan Qiren sighed and closed his eyes, before proceeding with what he wanted to say, "When your mother studied here I was also head of discipline. As was her nature she often broke rules and pulled pranks. Most, I will admit, were in good humor but there were times she went too far. One of those moments I believe was when she shaved my beard. Before hand she had only seen me in passing or when I repremanded her. It seemed she took offense and had seen my older brother earlier. He had no beard and she told me I would look prettier without one. Later that night she broke past the wards in my chamber and well, the rest is self explanatory. At the time I was quite vain and hated being compared to my sibling. Her actions and words hurt me quite disproportionately and while we weren't friends I hadn't thought that I was reviled quite so much. Though this retelling might not justify my overreaction I hope you understand that while some may think your jokes are funny others may be hurt by them. So, please weigh the weight of your words and actions thoroughly."

Struck speechless both by the new more in depth look into his mother and by his honesty, he simply nodded.

"And while I expect you have heard many tales of your parents, I would be open to sharing more with you another time. Simply know that while your mothers actions did hurt at the time I also don't wish to poison your view of her. She grew into a good woman and cultivator, her actions then were nothing more than those of the child she was and simply not weighing the consequences of her actions. If you would like I would invite you to tea to discuss more at a later time but I must take my leave now as I have other duties."

"Ah, wait! I also… I'm sorry Lan Xiasheng. I was rude and I should have respected the rules of your home or enquired when I didn't know them. I thought you would be the same as all adults but now that you have apologized I see that I have misunderstood you. This one apologizes sincerely."

He nodded in return, "this elder accepts your apology."

They both rose at the same time but Wei Wuxian waited for his teacher to step out from behind his desk and followed behind him. Lan Qiren looked over his shoulder briefly and nodded once at him in farewell.

He stood there for a moment, in shock.

An adult had never seen fit to apologize to him! Even -especially- when they were in the wrong!

"Wei Ying?"

"Ah!" He whipped around at the call of his name. "Lan zhan! Where did you come from?! You startled me!"

"I waited here."

"Oh."

"Mn."

"Were you worried about me?" He half teased, genuinely touched but also unwilling to let an opportunity to poke fun at Lan Zhan go by. And with that Lan Zhan had a familiar scowl on his face.

Wei Wuxian as always saw fit to pester him with conversation. At some point they had begun walking. He had no idea as to what he was doing that involved going in the same direction as him but all he knew was that they ended up at the same place, the guest dorms. In front of his room to be exact.

"Wait." Lan Zhan said just before he could enter his dorm. "Would Wei Ying be amenable to spending time together?"

"Huh? Like, right now?" It had gotten to be about early evening and with the odd day that he had, he felt that hanging out with him at this point was going to be bad for his heart. He had no idea as to why he felt that way, he just did but he wasn't in the habit of ignoring his instincts.

"In the future. If not now."

"Wow! It looks like hanging out with me is really popular right now! Did you miss me so much you just had to ask? Don't be embarrassed Lan Zhan! I missed you too! Anyway… if you'd like we can hang out after class? If that works with you?"

"Mn. I will also be free tomorrow."

"Oh. I'm sorry Lan Zhan. I have a prior commitment tomorrow. But I'll definitely hang out with you the day after?" If he didn't know better he would have said Lan Zhan was disappointed.

"Mn. That is fine, would the morning work for you?"

"Sure! I won't have anything to do until later that afternoon."

"Mn. Goodbye, Wei Ying" he said, almost sounding tender. But that was impossible, why would he be tender to him?

Regardless he was suddenly flushed to his cheeks as he weakly said, "Bye Lan Zhan."

Then he departed, leaving him staring at the graceful line of his retreating back. Once he was out of sight he entered the dorm and slumped against the wall with a sigh, his heart racing for no reason

"Bad for my heart, I swear." He muttered to himself.

Abruptly, someone knocked at the door. Startled, he jumped as he felt the movement.

He swung the door open quickly in a panic only then to have to catch it to prevent it from slamming against the wall.

"Uh, hello? What can I do for you?" He asked the bewildered Lan disciple.

He looked like he was attempting to school his features into something that didn't show just how distasteful he found Wei Wuxian.

"Here. This came in for you at the gates." The man shoved the arm holding the envelope out at him.

He gently took it from him and opened it. He eyed the Lan that was oddly still standing in his doorway and read on. Apparently, it was a formal invitation to tea for the next day at little Cai Xiuying's. It was going to be his meimei, her older sister and her mother. Great now he definitely needed to get his act together and hopefully impress some guardians.

"Well? What does it say?"

Caught off guard he answered against his common sense.

"It's just a tea invite. Nothing special."

"Oh. Is that all?" He asked in a weirdly dissatisfied voice.

"Uh… yeah?"

The man rolled his eyes and without even saying goodbye he left.

He stood at the entrance with the door a jar for a couple long minutes wondering what the odds were of the entire day being a dream. First Lan Xiansheng apologizes, then Lan Zhan tells him he wants to spend time with him and finally this weirdo Lan disciple that rolls his eyes at him?

"What's wrong with you now?" Jiang Cheng asked as he walked past him into the dorm.

"Nothing… I'm just having a weird day."

"What, like when Lan Xiansheng asked you to stay after?"

"Well… yeah that a bit."

"Then hurry up, spill."

"First there was that thing with Lan Xiansheng. That was super weird, he apologized y'know."

"To who?! You?"

"Yeah, me. And then Lan Zhan walked with me here and asked me to hang out!"

"What the…I thought he hated you?"

"Me too! I guess this new behaving thing is really working out!"

"You idiot. You would know that if you had even tried behaving back home."

"Haha… um, yeah." He replied a bit awkwardly, instead of getting into the fact that Yu-furen would punish him no matter what. So he had figured he would just do what he wanted instead of getting yelled at for no reason, he would give her one.

"Come on idiot. Do you even know what the homework is?"

The rest of that day despite all of the weirdness was well spent with Jiang Cheng. Doing the responsible thing for once and finishing their assignments. Nie Huaisang even brought them some snacks later in the night in exchange for letting him sleep on their floor. For some reason, that was something the older man wanted. Wei Wuxian didn't question it. Night came quickly and somehow all of them got to bed at a somewhat reasonable time.

The next day all three woke up with atrocious bed heads and had a late breakfast of the leftover snacks still in the room. It was probably unsanitary but the food in the room had nothing on the food he used to eat while he was on the streets. Back then he hadn't even had a golden core to fight off any illnesses he might have gotten. He doubted he'd get sick from it anyway.

But Jiang Cheng… eh, it would be good for his immune system.

Huaisang bid them goodbye in favor of painting some scene he had found some time ago that he finally found the motivation to paint. Jiang Cheng decided to spend his time writing to shijie.

Now that the scheduled time to meet his meimei in her home was nearing he nervously got dressed in his newest red and black ensemble, eager to make a good impression on the child's family. He carefully packed the jewelry box in his qiankun bag, his coin purse and the gift he had gotten for Cai-furen who he was going to greet at their home.

He walked along the direct path to the gates of Cloud Recesses and exited. This time he took his sword directly to the Cai estate after walking farther down the mountain as polite society dictated. Personally he didn't understand as to why it was rude to mount his sword where the guards could see but as always most rules eluded him.

The time passed quickly and with the occasional bird doing a double take at a human up in the sky beside them giving him a good chuckle. In time the familiar forest path that he had walked last time gave way to the wider path just before the estate.

He landed in front of the same guards he had met last time just swiftly enough that he had seen their awestruck faces. He gave a little laugh as he put Suibian away.

"What? A little sword flight is enough to render you both speechless? Remind me to watch myself around you two or risk over inflating my ego."

Embarrassed, they both flushed red and greeted him.

"Ah it's just a formality but you did receive the invitation they sent out right?"

"Yep! I've got it right here!" He handed it over to the taller guard and he passed it to the little guy who broke out a small letter opener and peeled the wax seal off.

"Wow! Is there a reason you guys do that or…?"

"Uh, yeah. We're supposed to peel the wax off of invitations once you're here to indicate that the visit has already occurred and to prevent re-use. Ah, y'know security stuff." The shorter man said a bit shyly. He handed the invite back and both guards ushered him inside.

Just after the gate there was an awaiting Xiuying.

"Wuxian-ge!" She cheered, a smile lighting up her face when she saw him.

"Xiuying meimei!" He called back, smiling just as brightly. "How have you been since I last saw you?"

"Pretty good now that you're visiting me! How are you?"

He spoke to her at length about what improvements he'd made to her spiritual device and how it had taken him three days to fix it into something functional. Her eyes had sparkled admiringly and he preened under her amazement at his description of what it now produced.

"That's soooo cool! But I asked about how you are, y'know how you feel? I'll ask you again tomorrow when we follow Bai Bingwen around too, okay? So think about it." She told him in a slightly commanding tone.

Generally when people had given him a task and asked him how he was they wanted to know about how the task went, not about how he felt. He shrugged and decided that Xiuying was just a little bit weird, but in a pleasant way.

"Anyway, it turns out my a-niang and jiejie already know who you are. They definitely like you already, so just be yourself and you'll be fine."

"Okay, then…" he answered, slightly confused at how the conversation went but It was quite sweet of her to try and reassure him. She definitely didn't know just how obnoxious he could be so he steeled himself to be polite and well mannered, as if he were speaking with civilian gentry on a mission.

As they entered he reached into his qiankun pouch for the gift and got ready to present it to Cai-furen.

"Greetings, I am Wei Ying, courtesy name Wuxian." He saluted.

"Pleased to meet you Wei-gongzi. I am Cai Bo, please address me as Cai-furen." She looked like a poised and elegant mistress of the house. Her hair was medium brown and her eyes were quite intense to look at. With her sharp features she reminded him of the ever competent Yu-furen. Slightly intimidated, he swallowed and smiled politely.

"Hello Wei-gongzi, I am Cai Daiyu. You may refer to me as Cai-guniang seeing as you refer to my meimei as meimei also." She smirked.

So this was the older sister. In the opposite effect that her mother had, she only reminded him of his shijie in the way that all older siblings loved teasing. She was also quite young, probably twelve or thirteen and while she shared features with Xiuying most of the baby fat had begun to melt off and only appeared when the girl smiled.

"Jiejie! Don't tease him, he's nervous! Be kind!"

Embarrassed, his face flushed a bit but he laughed good naturedly. "It's fine, Xiuying. What kind of man would I be if I couldn't take a bit of good natured teasing? Ah and here is my gift as thanks for welcoming me into your home." He handed the box over. "It's a bit of incense. Its scent is sweet and mild so it's good for burning all day but also has mild medicinal properties that are known to help clear airways and help with congestion."

They expressed their thanks and ushered them further into their home. The rest of their tea time went in much the same way. However, their mother only participated sparsely and only watched them interact for the most part. Later into the afternoon as Xiuying was getting ready to go spy on her betrothed, Cai-furen spoke to him as Wei Wuxian waited.

"I can see that my girls are very fond of you." A bit worried about what was to come, he braced himself to be told to stay away from her family as Yu-furen had before. However that wasn't what happened at all, "I can also see that you are a good boy and I trust you to be their friend and chosen gege. As such it would please me if you were to call me ayi."

She smiled as she said it and it completely transformed her face. Her shrewd and clever eyes softened with fondness and though her smile wasn't large, the small upturned corners of her lips were enough to blind someone. Stupefied at the matronly energy being exuded toward him, he could only nod.

After Xiuying had finished getting dressed -in a slightly less opulent coat than when he met her- they made their way to Caiyi Town to stalk the bastard that was her fiance. Of course he couldn't let a little girl do all the hard work when he was there, so he ended up lugging the jewelry box around as they searched. So that they would be ready to capture his misdeeds at any moment.

"Wuxian-ge?"

"Yes? You have a question, meimei?"

"How do you know you have feelings for someone?" She asked a pensive look on her face. Which was adorable, really, but both of them being in the bushes beside her betrothed's favorite tea house wasn't the most conductive for conversion. Especially if she was asking because she'd decided that she actually liked this fucker.

"Ah, uh. Well, that's a difficult question."

It wasn't that he had never thought someone was beautiful or even flirted with the odd girl or two it was just that he thought the feeling of 'like' should be deeper than that.

"You haven't ever like liked someone, have you?" She asked in narrow eyed suspicion.

"No, no. I have, I'm just having a hard time thinking of how to explain it to you." His thoughts raced for someone to base what it would be like to have romantic feelings for.

He thought of Lan Zhan -for some reason- so he just ran with it.

"Your heart should race at the sight of them. Either in excitment or because of their beauty alright not because you fear them or are intimidated, okay. Or at least not completely. Uhm, They should captivate you no matter what they’re doing. Like scolding you or walking or sword forms. The most irrelevant details of their person become the most facsinating thing in the world. The exact color of their eyes, the number of eyelashes they have. The way their accent sounds when they speak your name." The molten gold of his eyes, the flex of his fingers as they wrapped around his sword hilt and look of Lan Zhan's lips around his name when he was angry flashed before his eyes. "You crave their attention like a staved man craves a bao fallen to the floor.”

“Wow, Wuixian-ge, that sounds so… romantic." she breathed dreamily, her head resting on her knees from where she crouched.

He snapped out of whatever revelry he had entered, abruptly. His face scorching hot he coughed lightly. "I imagine that these feelings vary from person to person so, uh, take my words with a grain of salt perhaps?"

Her head snapped to attention, a group of people exiting the establishment.

“Look, it's him! Come on! Get ready!" She pointed out the short young man in the center. He looked to be around Wei Wuxians age. He was unremarkable with an average face and a snooty air about him.

They got to their feet and followed him as soon as he’d passed their bush and he activated the device -which had been previously charged for efficiency-.

They captured each and every uninspired insult he spread from the markets to the residential areas. He made Xuiying cover her ears more than once as the jokes among the bastard’s crowd became more disgusting or his insults unpalatable. He was truly someone repulsive.

Absorbed in their task they didn’t notice they were hungry until their stomachs growled. Sheepishly, they finished up and carefully packed it away. Both abandoned the group without anyone the wiser.

-

"Let's hurry! Today the chefs have prepared a larger spread because they heard you were coming! We must get there before my didi gets all of the good stuff!"

"Oh? A didi? What's he like?" He asked as they walked up the path to the estate.

"He's ten and a boy aaand the heir."

"Is that all? What about his personality? What does he like?"

"Um. Well, I guess he likes all the normal boy things like swords and such. Honestly, besides my niang and baba he doesn't spend much time with family. But I don't think he doesn't like us I just think he's busy with heir stuff."

That was a little sad. He couldn't imagine Jiang Cheng not having at least a little time to spend with he and shijie.

"But it's okay! I'm sure when he's older he'll make time to spend with us." She tried to cheer him up at the sight of his face.

Contrary to Xiuying, he thought that maybe Jiang Cheng might not have that same time to spend with them when he got older and took over the sect.

They once again got to the gates but instead of stopping him they simply let him go ahead seeing as he was with their guniang. This time as he entered there was no one to greet him but Xiuying insisted they continue to the dining room instead of waiting.

They entered. There were still servants rushing about and setting plates in their places. One particularly young man froze in place as he was setting down what looked like a delicious pile of braised pork.

"Come on, set it down! It's just Cai er-guniang! She always gets here early, get a move on now boy!" A plump woman wearing a servant's uniform called while carrying two trays on each arm, two resting on her palms and another two on her forearms. It was quite an impressive sight.

"Ah! I forgot to ask! Wuxian-ge are you okay with them continuing to work around us while we sit?"

"Of course it's fine. We're the ones that are early." He reassured her. "Pardon us, we're early, is it alright if we sit?" He addressed the room at large.

"Yes, yes it's fine just take a seat!" The same woman from before answered from her place farther down the room.

So they sat and to his slight embarrassment Xiuying grabbed food from a passing plate with her chopsticks and plopped it right in her mouth.

"Xiuying!" The name passed his lips, the gentle scolding surprising even himself. Heedlessly, he finished, "At least wait for everything to be set down! And wait to be served!" He whispered beside her.

"Mmp?" She swallowed and set her chopsticks down. "Okaaay." She pouted.

It was then that Cai-furen appeared.

As if by magic and her presence alone every servant had disappeared with everything put in its place. He hoped that she hadn't heard him scold her daughter, however lightly that it was.

"That was impressive. Every time I've scolded her about it she refuses to listen." Cai-furen said amused. With his hopes dashed and face feeling warm an attendant began distributing portions of food to their plates

"Also your baba and didi will be dining with us today a-Ying, just so you know." She informed her daughter in what seemed like a carefully neutral voice compared to the lightly playful voice he had heard from her before. The address of endearment also caught him off guard, bringing forth a wisp of a feeling of nostalgia. Perhaps from when his parents also called him a-Ying.

The girl in question made a face but smoothed her expression soon enough. As he doubted that such an expression was made by his meimei at the mention of her little brother, he began to think about her father.

He had assumed because she called her father by such an affectionate title that she must have been very fond of him but from the look of it that wasn't true. A bit apprehensive now he steeled himself for the possibility of a strained or awkward dinner.

[unfamd]

i strongly believe that in any universe modern or otherwise lwj uses lan xichen as a kind of confessional like a catholic priest. he literally comes into lan xichen's room at four pm precisely because that's the scheduled time that he allows himself to share an Emotion with his brother and sits down and says in a distinctly monotone yet perfectly recognisably anguished tone 'brother i have sinned' and lan xichen sighs very quietly because he doesn't want to hurt his brother's feelings and puts down his pen and says 'is this about wei wuxian' very gently and Lan Wangji is like 'mn' because it has never once Not been about wei wuxian. and then he says something that is Kind Of Weird, But Still Not A Sin like 'he fell asleep when we were studying and i watched his ribcage moving up and down for thirty eight minutes until he choked on nothing and woke himself up; am i evil' and once again lan xichen will kind of not-sigh in a way that makes it very obvious that in all other ways except physical he Is, Indeed, Sighing and has to reassure the most rigidly distraught younger brother in the history of mankind that what he is suffering from is in fact a malady known colloquially as a crush

[drwcn]

okay more emperor!jc au [1-8]

I never said this au was in-character, and I also never promised not to make an au largely inspired by the idea what if the essence of advisor!mcs possessed adhd!wwx and what if tsundere energy of petulant!jc possessed the social station of himbo!xjy

9. politics is to regent!wwx as demonic cultivation is to canon!wwx

WWX *wakes up from a fever and sees XXC*: 师叔，您怎么来了？夷陵出事了？！（Shishu...what are you doing here? Did something happen in Yiling?）

XXC *holding a bowl of foul medicine*: 傻小子，都病成这样了我能不来吗。是不是江晚吟那个不争气的小皇帝又气你了。夷陵那边好的很，有阿菁呢，乱不了。（Silly boy, how could I not come when you're so ill? Was it that useless little emperor Jiang Wanyin giving you grief again? All is well in Yiling. A-Qing is there, nothing will dare cause trouble.)

——

WWW *coughs coughs coughs* I'm fine, I have schemes to plan for A-Cheng. I'll have Jin Guangshan checkmated in no less than -

LWJ *spoon feeds him porridge and chicken from a jade bowl*: You're sleep deprived, malnourished, and dehydrated. Shut up.

10. Chenqing as eunuch-in-chief scares everyone

Raven hair and coal-black eyes, Chen-gongong is the most beautiful man in the entire palace - well, he would be, if that pale bloodless frozen face of his would stop being so deathlike. Chenqing is slim and tall and speaks in a hushed tenor tone that strikes the fear of the reaper into the heart of men and women alike.

Nobody knows when or how Chenqing became an eunuch, only that Lord Protector Wei Wuxian brought Chenqing in when he became Regent. Some say Chenqing was already an eunuch before, some say he willingly became one to continue serving Wei Wuxian within the palace.

Truth is: Chenqing was an orphan that Cangse took in when she was the master of Yiling. WWX grows up with Chenqing and knows Chenqing has suffered mutilations at the hands of human traffickers. It's not clear if Cangse taught Chenqing some forbidden pugilist knowledge.

Chenqing knows everything about everyone in the palace. That's why his sleeves are so wide, they're full of secrets.

Chenqing is no less deadly than Suibian when it comes to the art of killing, even though General Sui is the Commander of the Imperial Guards.

No eunuch, handmaid or guard dare whisper what they all suspect - Chen-gongong and Sui-tongling are lovers.

WWX is too busy to care that his right and left hand men are boning.

11. Lan Xichen is the Deputy Imperial Tutor, meaning he is in charge of Jiang Cheng's education growing up.

Recall JC is 8 years WWX's junior and 10 years JYL's junior. LXC is 5 years WWX's senior which makes him 13 years older than JC. When JC became emperor at age 12, LXC was already 25.

LXC's life is incredibly difficult. JFM handpicked him to teach young JC before he died.

It's hard to be the teacher of a boy who's technically in charge of you and the rest of the nation.

Imagine the parent-teacher interview nights with Regent!WWX and Imperial Tutor!LXC

JC's half-brothers (JFM had concubines): Huangxiong called me a bitch JC: *unrepentant* Motherfucker doesn't start with a B. WWX: ............ LXC: .............

12. Imperial Guard!He Ning (Wen Ning) is tall and quiet and an excellent fighter. His little brother (sister) He Qing (Wen Qing) is smol and angy, can't fight but will stab you with a needle if necessary

WWX: I think...you rather despise His Majesty

WN: I dare not, Lord Regent. But chen only has one little sister. She's my world. His Majesty can have any woman in the world, so why can't he spare He Qing? She would be much happier and freer without him.

WWX: .....Fine, fine, I'll find him an empress. The Dowager has been making noise for months now. I'll find him an empress.

Meanwhile

15 yro crossdressing!WQ who is very confused why a royal prince keeps bothering her at work. She's never met the young emperor in any official capacity.

JC lies about his identity and passes himself off as another one of his royal brothers.

WQ grinding herbs diligently while JC sits and stares at her with a blush.

JC thinks 'I might be gay' bc he doesn't know WQ is a girl.

13. After Qin Su and Meng Yao's secret comes to light, to preserve the dignity of the royal family, Empress Qin Su "volunteered" to leave the palace and spend the rest of her days praying for the soul of her deceased son and for the nation at an esteemed Buddhist temple.

[previously]

Her son, who died several hours after birth from congenital defects, was recorded as JC's first son, and first prince.

Dowager Empress Yu Ziyuan ordered Meng Yao be killed. Meng Yao was privately executed...except he wasn't. Wei Wuxian arranged for him to be brought to Yiling. He's living a good life now. Lan Xichen writes to him.

14. Wen Ruohan is very pleased with the son Jiang Yanli gave him.

After Jiang Fengmian married Jiang Yanli off to tribal warlord!Wen Ruohan, she made the best of her circumstances.

Though WRH has other concubines/slave girls, JYL is the only legal wife, in place of his first legal wife who died many years ago.

WRH is twenty five years JYL's senior, and already has two sons by his first wife. WC is the same age as JYL while WX is two years older. While WRH is alive, WX and WC have no choice but to respect their stepmother, bc their father absolutely does not tolerate insubordination.

WY is born within a year of the marriage and soon becomes WRH's favourite child.

——

WRH launches a campaign against country when JC is 21 years old and has only been officially emperor for about a year (WWX ended his regency when JC turned 20).

The war starts off bloody - JC doesn't sleep for days. WWX and LWJ are unreachable since they've gone off on an early retirement trip through the mountains. Somehow JC holds his own for months. Things take a turn for the better.

WY is 15 years old and leading a division by himself for the first time. WRH is very proud of him. WY is very talented, but WC and WX sabotage him and get him captured by JC's armies and stealing WY's victory for themselves.

WWX and LWJ are on their way back to the capital when they encounter the squadron that captured WY. WY: Kill me. I will not be your hostage against my father. WWX: Xiao-wangzi - little prince - you know the common tongue? WY: My a-niang was from the empire. WWX: ... a-niang? *sudden realization*

Half the court wants to use WY as a bargaining chip to negotiate a ceasefire against WRH and the other half wants to execute the little foreign prince to show WRH who's boss.

Suddenly, just as the Jiang empire seems to be turning tides, WRH dies. Stroke -rumour has it.

Now that there's no longer any reason to appease WRH, the court wants WY dead, regardless of who his mother is. Politics is brutal that way.

to be continued...

[robininthelabyrinth]

For a prompt, what if Wen Xu arrives to burn down the Cloud Recesses while everyone is studying there

Home Alone - ao3

“All right,” Wei Wuxian said, when Lan Qiren announced that the Cloud Recesses would be imminently under attack by Wen Xu and the Wen sect armies, the calm in his monotone voice belied by the wrinkle of concern in his forehead. “We’re going to make that bastard wish he’d never been born, right?”

He was speaking lightly, as he always did, trying to make those around him feel more comfortable, braver, less afraid – his was the language of confidence and arrogance, of never backing down, and he didn’t know how else to speak.

He didn’t mean anything in particular by it, or at least not more than he usually did.

He wasn’t expecting Lan Qiren to look at him and say, “If you have any ideas, now is the time to contribute them.”

-

“So what exactly do you do again?” Wei Wuxian asked, following the older Lan sect disciple around – at least, the man was dressed like a Lan sect disciple, and with a forehead ribbon suggesting that he shared blood with the main clan, too, but Wei Wuxian wasn’t so sure he really was one.

“I blow stuff up, usually,” Lan Yueheng said cheerfully.

That was why Wei Wuxian had doubts.

The man was practically skipping. There was no way he was a Lan.

“Shishu is an alchemist,” Lan Wangji said. His hands were folded behind his back, as always, and he looked tense as might be expected, what with an imminent attack on his home by a colossal army intent on ravaging and destroying everything in its path – but the way he looked at Lan Yueheng was unaccountably fond, as if he were someone he was close to. Wei Wuxian hadn’t known there was anyone other than Lan Qiren or Lan Xichen that Lan Wangji was close to. He was oddly jealous. “Not always successfully.”

“Hey, at blowing things up, I am the most successful!” Lan Yueheng grinned. A moment later, though, the grin faded, and he looked anxious. “Wangji, are you sure you won’t go with your brother?”

“Brother will protect the sect books,” Lan Wangji said solemnly. “I will stay here to defend the sect and the guest disciples.”

Wei Wuxian appreciated that, being one of said guest disciples.

Anyway, it made sense. Lan Qiren had seriously considered trying to send them away with Lan Xichen, saying that their lives were more important than some extra books – other Lan elders hadn’t necessarily agreed, judging by their expressions – but regretfully concluded that adding more people to Lan Xichen’s escape route would do nothing but reveal its existence, dooming all of them.

So they’d split up: Lan Xichen, heading out virtually alone with the most precious Lan sect books, and all the rest of them here to try to resist as much as they could – even Lan Wangji.

Lan Yueheng didn’t try to argue with Lan Wangji, only sighed, sounding as though he’d expected nothing less from him and had only felt the need to make a token protest before accepting it as inevitable. It seemed he really was close to Lan Wangji.

Yeah, Wei Wuxian was definitely jealous.

“All right, then,” Lan Yueheng said, shaking his head and resuming his cheer. “Blowing things up in self-defense plan it is! You’re both talented in music, right?”

“What does music have to do with explosions?” Wei Wuxian asked.

-

The answer, apparently, was a lot – at least when you were an experimental alchemist in a musically inclined sect and you’d developed a way to trigger explosions via certain combinations of musical notes.

-

“So, did you know that Teacher Lan was scary?” Wei Wuxian asked Jiang Cheng, who’d finally returned from helping get all the elderly and children and civilians to evacuate – and refusing to join them, of course, even though he was entitled to go in order to preserve his life, being the heir of a sect and all that, completely typical Jiang Cheng – and was now pacing around, eager for a fight.

“Just because he punished you a few times doesn’t make him scary,” Jiang Cheng said.

“No, it doesn’t,” Wei Wuxian agreed. “You know what does make him scary? Playing music that makes his opponents try to cut their own necks.”

“…what?”

“Apparently he gets really upset when you mess with his students,” Wei Wuxian said wisely.

Unlike Jiang Cheng, he’d had time to adjust to the concept of Lan Qiren being terrifying: they were on the fifth wave of scouts, and this set wasn’t doing any better than the first four, not even when they’d realized it would be better if they stopped their ears with wax before approaching.

That’d only made Lan Qiren shift tactics – and songs.

Some of which had an even wider area of impact.

“Wei Wuxian,” Jiang Cheng said, looking at him suspiciously. “What did you do?”

“I convinced Teacher Lan that guerrilla warfare that destroyed as much of the enemy as possible would be more effective than just trying to defend the sect’s territory, since that was clearly a lost cause,” Wei Wuxian said promptly. “He agreed, but said that he could only do so much since he wasn’t a very good sword fighter. And then I asked him if he knew anything else that could be used as an attack and he said ‘no’ and then he said ‘well, I suppose’ and then he listed off a few things that – according to him – aren’t meant to be used in warfare but, and this is a direct quote, ‘could be put to a destructive use if one so wished it’.”

“And we now ‘so wish it’?”

“Yup. Oh, and watch out for anything that has a Lan sect cloud with a three-looped circle carved into the side of it, and I do mean anything– those explode.”

“Of course they do.”

“Hey! For once it has nothing to do with me!”

-

“I thought you said he said he was bad at swordfighting,” Jiang Cheng said suspiciously.

Wei Wuxian held out his hands helplessly in a ‘don’t look at me’ gesture, trying to defend himself from a sharp and pointy elbow to the side while also not pulling his eyes away from the ongoing battlefield for even a single moment.

“Shufu considers himself to be of average skill at the sword,” Lan Wangji said in the peaceable tone of someone who had been taught the basics of swordfighting by the person in question. The basics of really awesome swordfighting. “His real strength is in music, as you’ve seen.”

“I get that, really, I do, his music is terrifying,” Wei Wuxian said, and meant it completely. Between the two, he’d rather go up against Lan Qiren with a sword, where he’d at least be able to make a decent showing of himself before getting chopped to bits by the man’s fluid and almost seemingly delicate style that was nevertheless highly effective at skewering Wen sect disciples left and right; it would be better than with music, where he might as well just cut his own throat or strangle himself with guqin strings now to save Lan Qiren’s fingers the trouble. “But Jiang Cheng’s still right, okay – why in the world does he consider that to be ‘average’? Who is he comparing himself to?”

Lan Wangji considered the question for a long moment, then finally said: “A statistical outlier.”

-

“I wish we had aerial attacks we could use against the Wen sect’s swords,” Wei Wuxian said wistfully, and next to him Jiang Cheng nodded with a sight of longing – it was so frustrating seeing more and more Wen sect soldiers arriving in groups, like flocks of birds that started to fill the skies because they couldn’t be so easily shot down. “But if we try anything, they’ll just shield against us.”

“Teacher Lan said we can’t use spiritual energy against them, since we’d lose,” Jiang Cheng said, and as much as they all regretted it, Lan Qiren was probably right: they might be better trained than the Wen sect soldiers, might be better cultivators and stronger in spiritual energy individually, but they were young and immature, and at a serious numerical disadvantage.

It would be far too easy for the flying cultivators to stop their flying just long enough to set up a defensive array, block whatever spiritual attack they sent out, and then keep going to find and stab them before they’d even recovered from the energy expenditure.

“I didn’t mean spiritual energy,” Wei Wuxian grumbled. “I just meant, you know, like the explosives we’ve laid in all over the ground – something like that. If we could attach those to something…”

“I don’t think we have anything that flies anyway,” Lan Yueheng said regretfully.

“You have lanterns, don’t you?” Nie Huaisang said, and everyone turned to look at him. “Fill them with something that explodes when disturbed and send them floating into the air. Better yet, write ‘peace’ on the side of them to make it look like you’re making some sort of meaningful gesture designed to shame them. The Wen sect won’t be able to resist kicking them aside as an insult, and that’ll trigger them.”

They all stared at him.

He shrugged.

“We have a lot of defenses set up against invasion, at home,” he said. “And not always the budget to pay for anything fancy, so we’ve come up with some slightly more unorthodox ideas, too.”

“It’s a really good idea,” Wei Wuxian said, suddenly focused on the hitherto ignored Nie Huaisang. Clearly he’d made a tactical error, thinking of himself as the only person who knew how to get up to tricks. “Do you have any other ideas like that?”

Nie Huaisang smiled.

-

“Teacher Lan, I have an idea,” Wei Wuxian said, inserting himself briefly into the clearing near the Lan sect gate where Lan Qiren was sitting to rest in preparation for the Wen sect’s next attack. “But you’re going to hate it.”

“You may proceed,” Lan Qiren said, not looking up.

“Wait,” Wei Wuxian said, blinking. “Really? You’re not even going to ask what it is? Or why you’d hate it so much?”

“There is no time for that,” Lan Qiren said, and finally spared him a glance. He looked tired. “Things will get worse very soon.”

“But we’re winning!”

“No,” Lan Qiren said, shaking out his fingers – even despite occasionally alternating to using the sword when necessary, he’d played his guqin to the point of drawing blood and breaking nails, and was continuing despite everyone pleading with him to stop and swap out for someone else for a while. He’d said that there was no one else on his level, and he was probably right, but still, surely, just for a little… “We are surviving. Do not mistake the two.”

-

“Okay, so,” Wei Wuxian said, rubbing his hands together. “Resentful energy –”

“No,” Lan Wangji said.

-

“Thanks,” Wei Wuxian said to Jin Zixuan, who’d probably just saved his life by stabbing a Wen sect cultivator in the back right before the man had been able to stop Wei Wuxian from activating another series of explosions. “I guess I owe you one?”

“Don’t mention it,” Jin Zixuan said. “How else can I help?”

“I don’t know,” Wei Wuxian said, scratching his head and thinking about Nie Huaisang as precedent. There wasn’t time for schoolyard rivalries right now. “Do you have anything really unexpected that could be used to hurt people? Be creative – they’re guarded against all the usual defenses, so the weirder the better, anything goes. I won’t judge.”

Jin Zixuan thought about it. “I’m pretty sure I have a drug that puts people to sleep?”

“…why do you have something like that?”

Jin Zixuna grimaced. “My father gave it to me along with another one that he said not to use in excess, though I don’t actually know what that one does because that was about when my mom ran in and started throwing things at him. I can’t throw it away because it was a gift from my father, but I put it as deep into my bags as I could so that I’d never have to see or touch it. Ever.”

Wei Wuxian’s nose wrinkled. He’d never before felt pity for Jin Zixuan, but having to put up with Jin Guangshan on a regular basis was pretty bad – much less owing him filial piety.

No wonder Jin Zixuan was so twitchy all the time.

“Okay, so one sleep drug and one…uh…”

“Enhancement. Presumably. Can we throw it at the other side? Maybe turn it into incense and make smoke-bombs or something?”

“You know what,” Wei Wuxian said. “Why not? If nothing else, it’d be distracting, right?”

-

“This doesn’t feel honorable,” Jiang Cheng said, watching the fun. They’d raided the Lan sect’s medicine cabinets and kitchens for other noxious and irritating substances that might make for good smoke-bombs – Jiang Cheng himself had even located a whole patch of something not unlike poison ivy that had been quickly repurposed for the cause. “Strictly speaking.”

“Honor’s overrated,” Wei Wuxian said. “Making the Wen bastards pay for attacking Lan Zhan’s home is what’s important.”

Lan Wangji didn’t smile, exactly, but Wei Wuxian took his expression as a win regardless.

-

It turned out that music could also make plants grow really fast.

According to Lan Qiren, the spell ruined the plants’ nutritional value and made them basically useless.

Well.

Useless if your goal was eating them, anyway.

(First they could grow under their enemies’ feet and attack them, roots and vines twining around them to strangle them, and then they could be used up in the smoke-bombs – two for the price of one!)

-

“Are you sure about not doing the whole resentful energy thing?”

“Wei Wuxian,” Jiang Cheng said. “No.”

-

“Hey, Wei-xiong, do you have or can you create any more papermen?” Jin Zixuan asked.

“Yes, sure, plenty,” Wei Wuxian said. He’d like to say that he’d known he’d one day need such a skill, and that that was why he’d learned the trick so thoroughly, but that was a complete lie. “Why?”

“Nie-xiong, Jiang-xiong and I are going to use them to make a shadow-play to lure a bunch of Wen sect cultivators into another plant-and-explosives trap.”

“…that’s amazing, Jin-xiong,” Wei Wuxian said, marveling. “How do you even think of that?”

“Even I get into trouble sometimes,” Jin Zixuan said, and was startled into an unexpected smile when Jiang Cheng punched his shoulder approvingly.

-

Wei Wuxian was actually having a pretty good time with it all right up until the main force of the Wen sect decided to ignore all their traps and charge straight towards the classroom they’d fallen back to using as a headquarters, and then suddenly he wasn’t having a good time at all.

“Run,” Lan Qiren said, and put down his guqin, drawing his sword once more.

“But we can fight!” Jiang Cheng argued.

“Run.”

“Shufu –”

“Run.”

They ran.

-

“If you don’t come out, I’m going to make him pay,” Wen Xu called.

His fingers were knotted in Lan Qiren’s hair, pulling their teacher’s head back to show how his face was covered in blood, how it was seeping out through his mouth and nose, how one of his eyes was badly bruised and swollen from having been beaten down by sheer force of numbers.

Lan Qiren had made them pay dearly for their efforts to bring him down –

But there were just so many of them.

“How dare he,” Jiang Cheng hissed. “He was once one of Teacher Lan’s students, too!”

Wei Wuxian was holding Lan Wangji back, but only barely; his fingers were starting to go numb from the sheer effort of it. If Jin Zixuan and Jiang Cheng weren’t there to help him hold him down, Lan Wangji would have already given away their position, rushing out to make some futile gesture in his overwhelming rage. Wei Wuxian was focusing with all his being on how much he had to stop Lan Wangji from doing something like that, because if he wasn’t, if he let himself think about anything else for even a single moment, he’d have also run out there, sword drawn, without so much as a care – he hadn’t realized he’d be so angry over it, so furious, so betrayed and horrified by Wen Xu’s cruelty.

Prior to today, he wouldn’t have said he even liked Lan Qiren!

“My students are not so foolish as to fall for so obvious a scheme as that,” Lan Qiren said, his tone as monotonous as it ever was during his lectures – for the briefest moment, Wei Wuxian felt that he was dreaming, that he had merely dreamt everything that had happened: surely it was still yesterday, with Lan Qiren standing tall, safe and healthy, at the front of the classroom, lecturing about one of the Lan sect rules…which one had it been? Shoulder the weight of morality? Have a strong will and anything can be achieved? Be mighty, and others will die for you?

Do not break faith?

Somehow, despite everything that had happened, Lan Qiren’s eyes curved ever so slightly.

“Present company excluded, of course.”

Wen Xu threw him down to the ground, mouth twisting and teeth gnashing with offended anger.

“Beat him,” he ordered his men. “Make it hurt. I want him screaming – let’s see how his precious students like that. Or maybe it’s just that they don’t care?”

-

“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji said, eyes red with unshed tears and barely swallowed rage. “Tell me your idea about resentful energy.”

-

“Perhaps,” Lan Qiren said, then paused briefly to cough up some blood. His voice, when he resumed speaking, was hoarse. “Perhaps I should have reviewed your idea more closely when you first proposed it.”

“Possibly,” Wei Wuxian said, offering up some cloth to help wipe away the blood. Lan Wangji was busy bandaging his uncle’s injuries up, while Jiang Cheng, Jin Zixuan, and Nie Huaisang hovered by the door, only barely pretending to be keeping a lookout the way they were supposed to. “In my defense, I didn’t quite expect…that.”

Everyone politely did not ask him to elaborate.

The effects had been…well, it turned out using resentful energy the way Wei Wuxian had thought was possible, to say the least, and also that they’d taken down an awful lot of Wen sect soldiers in their defensive efforts.

“You will all have been affected by the resentful energy you used to summon the corpses,” Lan Qiren said. “Although the method you devised appears to avoid the most immediate consequences, which – let me remind you – include qi deviation and death in some instances, there is always the possibility that it has left traces of resentful energy within your meridians. If it is allowed to build up, it will escalate into a backlash that would rip your body and soul to pieces. There are spells and songs that can help clear your spirits and ease the effects.”

“Nie Huaisang has been playing some of them for us, since he can’t fight,” Lan Wangji said. “Nie sect ones – they’re…uh, not especially calming, more of a cleanse-by-force thing, but they seem to be working.”

Jiang Cheng nodded. “We’ll listen to any others that you’d like, Teacher Lan,” he said, anxious, and the rest of them nodded. “Just say which ones. If there’s any array or anything – or if you want us to write an essay about why using resentful energy is dangerous and wrong –”

Even Wei Wuxian nodded at that – even Nie Huaisang nodded, and he hated essays more than anything.

Lan Qiren huffed lightly. “Now you’re all so obedient.”

They all bowed their heads.

“…you did a good job,” Lan Qiren finally said, and they all looked up to stare at him. “You rescued me and repelled the Wen sect, however temporarily. Even though you used demonic cultivation, which is forbidden, you did not purposefully disturb graves, and you can make recompense to the spirits later. It was well done, and I thank you for it.”

He noticed that they were gaping and frowned at them.

“What have I taught you?” he scolded, and he sounded enough like he normally did that Wei Wuxian had the sudden urge to burst into totally inexplicable tears. “The preservation of human life is the priority, always. Why is this a surprise?”

“Shufu is right,” Lan Wangji said, and there was something of peace and calm in his eyes, the foundation of his world steady and unfaltering – he was almost glowing with it, satisfied and happy, and he was so utterly beautiful in Wei Wuxian’s eyes that it was almost blinding. “We acknowledge Teacher’s words.”

“We acknowledge Teacher’s words,” everyone else quickly agreed.

Lan Qiren shook his head, nodding in appreciation. “What is your next step now?” he asked. “The Wen sect was only repulsed, not defeated. They will not be gone long – they are already regrouping outside our gate, and this time they will be prepared for the effects of your demonic cultivation. In the end, they still have the advantage of numbers.”

“I don’t think we got as far as that in our plan,” Wei Wuxian said, rubbing the back of his head.

His thinking had mostly stopped at get Teacher Lan back and make them pay. He was pretty sure the same was true for Lan Wangji, and probably all the rest of the, too.

“Maybe you didn’t,” Nie Huaisang said with a sniff, and damnit, Wei Wuxian really needed to stop underestimating him just because he was a bad cultivator and a bit empty-headed. “I, on the other hand, sent a message back to my da-ge way back when this first started, and he should be here very soon with an army of his own.”

-

There were those in the Jiang sect that liked to mock the Nie sect as being unduly paranoid, always preparing for war and speaking grimly of its inevitability, always training their disciples and soldiers as if each one of them would need to fight five or ten of the enemy at once.

If Wei Wuxian ever met any of those people ever again, he was going to punch them in the face.

“Just be sure to get your sect ready when you get back,” Nie Mingjue advised them all grimly when it was all done and Wen Xu’s head was stuck on a pike at the entrance to the Cloud Recesses as a warning. The Nie sect’s forces were smaller than the Wen sect’s invasion force, but their people were better trained; even after flying all the way from Qinghe, they’d come down on the remaining invasion force like a hammer. “This isn’t over, not by a long shot.”

“We understand. There is still war to come.”

“Not just war, but uneven and unbalanced war, and not in our favor,” Nie Mingjue said heavily. “Understand that even with this loss, the forces of all the cultivation world put together can’t match up to the armies under Wen Ruohan’s command.”

“Actually,” Lan Qiren said, and gave all of his students a pointed look, probably on account of the fact that they all still owed him the essay they'd promised to write, “I think you’ll find that there’s something more that we can add…”

[guqin-and-flute]

there is a curse on the family of Lan

it’s a secret, and it affects the sons, mostly the first born

they are cursed two fold 

1) those they love in any way will suffer horribly

2) they will have loving hearts

the second sons sometimes fall victim to the first, but it isn’t a surety

brothers cannot be fatal victims of each others curses, for you must still have loved ones in order to curse them

(a terrible trick)

there is no story as to where this curse came from, who or what has done this because neither xichen nor wangji can find it anywhere in the library--but perhaps that’s because it is a secret of the main bloodline 

and xichen is certain of its truth. its potency

he knows his mother had suffered because of his father’s curse

qingheng-jun had locked himself away so that it wouldn’t be so, so it wouldn’t take his children, his wife

it didn’t work

their uncle knows the nature of this curse, has raised them apart from family, the clan

they have titles, formidable reputations as a barrier to familiarity

xichen cultivates detachment, a smile as a shield, propriety as a table to sit across, decorum and elegance a fence 

(it hurts too much to be cruel, though he knows this is crueler. how selfish he is being)

wangji cultivates a chilly glare, a coldness. it comes across as haughty. he does nothing to mitigate this

no one reaches out to him, and so there is not danger, if he indeed harbors this curse. it is what he wants

(so he says. xichen knows how lonely he is)

xichen is polite and filial but distant. his smile is a veil. there are no cracks in him for anything to seep in or out

the perfect son. the perfect brother. the perfect nephew. he never demands time or attention. he studies hard. he speaks only when spoken to

it works

until he meets mingjue

the boy is bright and sharp and dazzling and xichen feels his heart throb

(do not, do not, do not. he is kind but he is not yours, he cannot be)

xichen will be polite and careful

minjue is curious and friendly, inviting him for company again and again

(it is so tempting. he should not. he cannot)

again and again, xichen politely refuses. he knows the blight that he is.

(until...until...)

xichen begs him to forget it--a night lying under the stars, a swim in the back woods

he begs mingjue to leave him alone because he can feel his heart warming and blooming like an aching flower

(no no no no no)

‘i can't love you,’ he begs, ‘not as a friend or brother or companion or lover, it’s forbidden, i can’t i can’t’

mingjue sees his fear, his tears

holds him

kisses his hair

xichen cries harder for his curse will accept that love and care and reflect it back horribly distorted

mingjue assures him he doesn’t believe in such curses when the confession is gasped into his chest

(he does not love him, he does not love him, he does not love him)

mingjue’s mothers both die the next week. a night hunting accident

xichen cannot leave bed when he hears the news

two more mothers gone, killed by his treacherous heart

he still remembers his own with such aching fondness (he’s allowed, now, she is beyond the reach of his stain. he cannot hurt her anymore. he can love the dead)

(if only he had stayed away, if only he hadn’t snuck into the jingshi, just to see her, just to see...if only she hadn’t invited him in so warmly, loved him so fiercely. she knew, she knew why would she....)

voice rough with grief, mingjue insists that it is not his fault

mingjue has no idea 

xichen will not see him again. will not let him kiss him again

mingjue accepts and stays by his side after he returns to the cloud recesses for education after the funeral

xichen is weak. he can’t send him away. he warms him too much

(it can’t be love)

xichen visits his father for advice

his father is distant and polite--another adult. not a parent. a man in a room he has never visited.

xichen does not love him and he has never been so relieved

they speak, calmly, about being a first son

they do nothing to endear themselves to one another. it is safe and smooth and cool as a porcelain wall. frictionless. perfect nothingness

‘it will only hurt them,’ his father says, evenly. distantly. ‘it is your duty and your burden. i am sorry it has come to you. i wish you had been a daughter.’

‘that is very kind,’ xichen answers, patient and mild, because it is

his father’s mouth tugs the smallest smile

(how lonely he must be here. how cold.)

that frightful ember lights in the depths of xichen’s heart at the thought

horrified, he rises and leaves without a bow

fleeing

(you cannot run from what’s inside you)

he is in control

(he does not love him, he does not love him, he does not love him)

a month later has his father fading away, a withering illness

xichen has been so incredibly selfish

when he dies, uncle is so dispassionate and distant that xichen could hug him--he holds himself apart. let’s xichen save him

because xichen does not love him. uncle makes it easy for him

(he cannot think about this for too long, he cannot do this again)

(but suffering doesn’t just mean dying. uncle has lost his brother. did his father love his brother, xichen has to wonder? did his love hurt him first?)

(did his father love him?)

mingjue holds him as he shakes, and feels and misses the father that he never could have because he’s allowed, now

his father is beyond pain

mingjue strokes his hair and kisses his temple

and xichen wishes he was strong enough to send him away, wishes he could hate him for being so easy to love because he’s trying, he’s trying so hard

2 months later mingjue’s father dies

what must happen happens

mingjue must leave immediately to assume the mantle of clan leader 

xichen is so relieved that he cries and cries and wangji sits with him and xichen loves and loves and loves him because he is allowed to, because his care won’t hurt him

(this is the one relief of the curse, that he is allowed a little brother)

wangji doesn’t say anything, but lets him hold his hand as he sobs himself sick

‘thank you, wangji. thank you, thank you’

and they both know what he means

but neither have ever been able to bring themselves to say such dangerous words aloud, even to the other

[bloody-bee-tea]

Mingcheng Week 2022 Day 3 - Regret

Nie Mingjue is very proud of the control he has. Without it Baxia would go rampant every other day, Nie Mingjue knows it, but his control also comes in handy in different life situations.

He hasn’t strangled Jin Guangshan yet, nor Jin Guangyao, and Nie Mingjue thinks that’s deserving of some pride.

He hates the moments when he loses his control, mostly during qi deviations, but he knows that those instances are completely out of his control, so he doesn’t beat himself up over it.

Right now, though, he doesn’t have an excuse.

There is no explanation for why he stepped forward and kissed Jiang Cheng. Why he is still kissing Jiang Cheng.

Nie Mingjue has lost complete and utter control over himself and he can’t even find it in him to stop. Instead he kisses Jiang Cheng again and again, like he has wanted to do for so long.

He only stops when Jiang Cheng makes a sound in his throat that feels like a bucket of cold water has been upended over Nie Mingjue. He wrenches himself away from Jiang Cheng—and it’s harder than it has any right to be—and the implication of what he did hits him full force.

He just kissed Jiang Cheng.

“I—” he starts, though he’s not sure what he’s going to say, so he trails off.

Nie Mingjue is still searching for words when Jiang Cheng blinks once, twice and then simply turns around on his heels and leaves the room.

The regret that slams into Nie Mingjue is instant and it’s enough to almost send him to his knees.

“What have I done?” he whispers to himself and he can’t believe he just lost control of himself like that.

He has always been so proud of himself that he never hurt anyone yet, not even during his qi deviations, and now he hurt the only person he truly cares about beyond Nie Huaisang and Lan Xichen.

He just took something from Jiang Cheng and going by his response it was not freely given.

Nie Mingjue wants to hit something, wants to slam his fist into the next wall, and only the thought that he has already hurt Jiang Cheng beyond belief with his actions stops him.

It wouldn’t do to hurt Jiang Cheng’s home as well.

Nie Mingjue scrubs a hand over his face, the regret still putting a sour taste on his tongue, and he wonders where they will go from here.

It’s clear to him that he just lost Jiang Cheng—and rightfully so, with what he did—and the thought makes his heart stumble painfully.

Nie Mingjue has been in love with Jiang Cheng since the Sunshot Campaign and he doesn’t understand how he could lose control like this after all this time. There is no excuse for it; it’s not his first visit to Lotus Pier, it’s not the first time he has been alone with Jiang Cheng and it’s certainly not the first time Jiang Cheng smiled at him.

There is simply no good explanation for it, and Nie Mingjue feels like that only makes it worse. There wasn’t even a trigger and that means he can never trust himself again.

“Zongzhu, I—” a disciple suddenly says as she steps into the room, but she falls silent when she sees that Jiang Cheng is no longer there. “Where is Jiang-zongzhu?” she asks, her eyes already narrowed at Nie Mingjue.

“He left,” Nie Mingjue rasps out and then bows to her. “Please tell him that I’m—” he wants to say sorry but it doesn’t feel like enough, doesn’t feel like it could even begin to put everything right.

“I will take my leave,” Nie Mingjue says instead. “Please reassure him that I will not return unless he asks me to.”

It feels like the least he can do, to stay away from Jiang Cheng until the other man wants to see him again, if that case should ever happen.

“What did you do?” the disciple asks, her voice noticeably colder and Nie Mingjue shrugs helplessly.

“Something I shouldn’t have,” he finally whispers and he was not prepared for how fast she suddenly moves, but the next thing he knows, her sword is at his throat.

“Did you hurt him?” she asks, her voice dangerously low and Nie Mingjue keeps himself completely still.

“I think so, yes,” he mumbles, afraid to speak too loudly in case the movement makes her sword bite into his throat.

“Then you will leave,” she tells him, almost sweetly now, and Nie Mingjue has to admit that he hasn’t been this afraid of someone in ages.

He absolutely believes that she is going to kill him should she find out what he did to Jiang Cheng.

“You will leave and you will stay the hell away from him. And if you don’t, if you show your face here again, if you dare to hurt him again, you will be a dead man.”

Nie Mingjue swallows at her words, and just like he thought her sword bites into his throat. The pain is minimal but it’s the least he deserves.

“Understood,” he gets out and despite everything he is beyond glad to see that Jiang Cheng has good people at his side.

“Then scram,” she tells him, finally taking the sword away from his throat and Nie Mingjue should be offended by her behaviour but instead he bows deeply to her.

“If you think he wants to hear it, tell him I’m sorry, please,” he says, even though it’s still no excuse.

It’s not like there could ever be an excuse for kissing someone against their will.

“We’ll see about that,” she haughtily tells him, and Nie Mingjue supposes that’s the best he can hope for.

He bows to her again and just in that moment the door opens a second time and in steps Jiang Cheng.

“Zongzhu,” the disciple says, her sword still in her hand and Jiang Cheng narrows his eyes at her.

“What is going on here?”

“I am leaving,” Nie Mingjue says, not daring to come out of his bow and meet Jiang Cheng’s eyes. “Words cannot express how sorry I am,” he still forces himself to say. “Rest assured that I won’t be back until you explicitly ask me to.”

“Like hell you will,” Jiang Cheng snaps and Nie Mingjue flinches at his words.

“Zongzhu,” the disciple starts but Jiang Cheng cuts her off.

“If that is his blood on your blade, then we will talk later,” he tells her and now Nie Mingjue finally comes out of his bow.

“Please do not punish her. She was justified in her actions.”

“I doubt that,” Jiang Cheng says, his eyes falling to the no doubt shallow cut on Nie Mingjue’s throat. “Leave now.”

“I will,” Nie Mingjue says exactly at the same time the disciple says it and Jiang Cheng narrows his eyes at Nie Mingjue.

“You are going to stay,” he tells him and of course Nie Mingjue nods.

He’ll do anything Jiang Cheng says, in an attempt to make up for what he did.

“Zongzhu, Nie-zongzhu,” the disciple says but her tone is still as frosty as before.

Jiang Cheng watches her leave before he turns to Nie Mingjue.

“I’m sorry about her,” he says. “She’s my second in command and she can get a little bit overprotective.”

“No need to apologize. It’s good that you have loyal people like that,” Nie Mingjue says, unable to meet Jiang Cheng’s eyes.

He wonders if Jiang Cheng is going to yell at him, or if he’s simply going to tell him to get out and never come back but in the end it doesn’t matter. He’ll take whatever Jiang Cheng deems an appropriate punishment for his actions.

“You’re bleeding,” Jiang Cheng mutters, already reaching for a handkerchief but when he steps forward Nie Mingjue moves back.

“That’s alright,” he says. “It’s just a shallow cut, there’s no need to concern yourself with something like this, Jiang-zongzhu.”

“Mingjue, what the hell,” Jiang Cheng breathes out and moves forward so fast that Nie Mingjue doesn’t have time to step back. “Just let me clean it.”

Nie Mingjue can do nothing but obediently tilt his head back to give Jiang Cheng easier access to the wound.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I don’t know what came over me, but please rest assured that it won’t happen again,” Nie Mingjue can’t help but to say as Jiang Cheng dabs at his throat.

“Shut up,” Jiang Cheng snaps at him and Nie Mingjue snaps his mouth closed.

If Jiang Cheng doesn’t want to hear him speak then he won’t.

“Mingjue, I—”

Nie Mingjue doesn’t dare to look but he’s reasonably sure that Jiang Cheng is no longer cleaning the cut, but instead resting his hands on his chest and he doesn’t know what to think of that at all.

“I’m sorry,” Nie Mingjue whispers yet again and Jiang Cheng takes a deep breath.

“Will you stop saying that, for heaven’s sake,” Jiang Cheng groans out.

Nie Mingjue shakes his head as he takes a step back, making Jiang Cheng’s hands fall away from his chest.

“No. Never. Because I am so incredibly sorry. I never meant to—” he takes a deep breath and scrubs a hand over his face.

“I love you,” Jiang Cheng suddenly says and Nie Mingjue freezes.

“What?” he whispers and finally looks at Jiang Cheng.

It seems like now it’s Jiang Cheng who can’t meet his gaze, but Nie Mingjue is fascinated by the light blush on his cheeks and it’s a sight he surely will never tire of.

“I’ve been in love for you for a very long time,” Jiang Cheng admits, his hands nervously playing with the handkerchief. “So when you kissed me, I just—I didn’t deal well with it. I’ve wanted that for so long and I just—I didn’t know what to do with that. Leaving seemed like the safer option.”

“You love me,” Nie Mingjue repeats, his heartbeat tentatively taking up speed as the words truly sink in. “You are in love with me.”

“Stop saying it!” Jiang Cheng hisses at him, now definitely red in the face and Nie Mingjue laughs.

“Never. Say it again?”

“No,” Jiang Cheng says, sticking his chin out. “Not before I hear you say it. Or isn’t that why you kissed me?”

There’s a hint of uncertainty in his voice, and that is something that Nie Mingjue cannot allow at all.

“Of course I love you. I wouldn’t kiss you if I didn’t,” Nie Mingjue immediately reassures him, taking a step forward and pulling Jiang Cheng close with a hand on his hip. “I love you,” he whispers into the space between them and when Jiang Cheng raises his head a little bit, Nie Mingjue doesn’t hesitate.

This kiss might even be better than the first one, because at least now Nie Mingjue knows that Jiang Cheng wants it as well.

“I apologize for my second,” Jiang Cheng says when they part, his fingers drifting over Nie Mingjue’s throat again. “I’ll talk to her.”

“No need,” Nie Mingjue reassures him and captures his hand to kiss his fingers. “She thought I hurt you, so there’s nothing to hold against her. I’m glad you have her.”

“She overreacted,” Jiang Cheng sighs out.

“She thought I hurt you,” Nie Mingjue reiterates. “If I thought someone hurt you, I would have done way worse. Hell, I would have cut myself if I thought it would make it up to you.”

“Mingjue,” Jiang Cheng whispers, his eyes wide. “You didn’t hurt me.”

“But I thought I did. I thought I took something you were unwilling to give. Her reaction was mild in comparison to what I deserve for that.”

“It was willingly given,” Jiang Cheng softly says and Nie Mingjue pulls him into a hug.

“And I will forever be grateful for that,” he mumbles into Jiang Cheng’s hair, the stress and worry finally falling off him.

“If you still want to make up for it, though, you can do so with more kisses,” Jiang Cheng shyly says into his shoulder and Nie Mingjue allows himself to smile.

“I will want to make up for that for the rest of my life,” he promises Jiang Cheng and pushes Jiang Cheng just far enough away to get started on that immediately.

If kissing Jiang Cheng is his punishment, then Nie Mingjue will gladly take it. And going by the smile that curves Jiang Cheng’s lips as Nie Mingjue kisses him, he is just as glad.

Link to my ko-fi

[plan-d-to-i]

Just another post to justify JC ignoring life debts toward the Wen Siblings. Funny enough, this person thought WQ would achieve anything by voice her disagreement with WRH becoming the overlord. Or they thought WQ would totally be fine to go against WRH publicly (then again by helping WWX and JC, she and WN did go against WRH in secret and NMJ didn't know that because the ungrateful grape didn't bother to explain how he and WWX owned them).

And hey, so follow this person's logic, because WQ kicked JC and WWX out, so JC didn't own WQ that much (even though she let them stay for three days, took care of their wounds and didn't rat JC and WWX out to WC). Cool, but what about WN? He is the reason JC still alive and be able to retrieve his parents' bodies to do his filial duty. If that life debt is still small for this person to deem not worth for gratitude, then next time if anyone ever offer these types of helps to this person and JC, they shouldn't accept them.

I'm sorry this person and even NMJ are so stupid and insensitive to unable to imagine how dangerous it is for people who live under a tyrant regime to even do a tiny act of protests. Like they expected people to forfeit their lives and families to go against the regime that would wipe them out easily.

I'm almost impressed by how effectively they miss the actual message of the story Re: indiscriminate mass revenge against people is not simpatico...🥲. Bc by their logic killing Granny Wen and A Yuan is fine eh- bc Wens. NMJ is a hothead and he generally has the most extreme opinions.

I think ppl often forget too that Lan Xichen speaking up means something. It means something because The Cloud Recesses were burned down by the Wens. His father died because of them. He and his brother almost died as well, and they were never the recipients of their aid as jiang cheng was.

But above all WWX's words are the most meaningful.

"Wei WuXian, “Did I say something wrong? Forcing living people to be bait and beating them up whenever they refused to obey—is this any different from what the QishanWen Sect does?”

Another guest cultivator stood up, “Of course it’s different. The Wen-dogs did all kinds of evil. To arrive at such an end is only karma for them. We only avenged a tooth for a tooth, letting them taste the fruit that they themselves had sown. What’s wrong with this?”

Wei WuXian, “Take revenge on the ones who bite you. Wen Ning doesn't have blood on his hands. Don’t tell me that you find them guilty by association?”

and

Wei WuXian grinned, “Oh. The Wen-dogs did all kinds of evil, so anyone whose surname is Wen can be killed? That’s not it, is it? Many of the clans who defected from the Wen Sect are quite well-off right now, aren’t they? In this hall, isn’t there a few sect leaders from clans that used to be under the Wen Sect’s wing?”

As the sect leaders saw that he recognized them, their expressions changed at once. Wei WuXian continued, “Since anyone whose surname is Wen can be used an outlet of anger as one pleases, no matter if they’re innocent or not, does it mean that it’s fine even if I kill all of them right now?”

How do people not understand that MXTX had the mc say all of this to point out ppl's hypocrisy. To point out how their kind of thinking is wrong?

Back to that post: "Like what could Wen Qing and Wen Ning possibly have don't to cancel out the Wen Sect's huge responsibility for the massacre of the Jiang Sect" ... 🌝... yes, see this would be the moment for jiang cheng to open his mouth and explain how they were not involved in what happened at LP other than to save his sorry ass.

Love how they cut off the most relevant quotes about WQ too :

I’m the office leader of Yiling, but I was ordered to take the position. I’m a medic, an apothecary, I’ve never killed anyone, much less touched the blood of the Jiang Sect.”

It was true. Nobody had heard of any lives lost by Wen Qing’s hands. There were always many cases that people wanted her to take over. It was because Wen Qing was one of the Wen Sect’s people whose way of doing things was actually normal. At times she could even put in a few good words for people in front of Wen RuoHan. Her reputation had always been good.

and

Although the pack of herbs smacked right onto Wen Ning, he spoke happily, “The medicine that my sister prepared will definitely turn out good. Hundreds of times better than mine. It’ll be good for sure.”

Wei WuXian finally felt relief, “Thank you.”

He understood the fact that one of these siblings deciding to turn a blind eye to them and the other deciding to outright help them meant that they were placing themselves in extreme danger. Just as Wen Qing said, if Wen Chao truly wanted to kill anyone, it was unlikely for Wen Qing to be able to stop him. Perhaps she’d be affected as well. After all, children of others could never compare to children of one’s own.

and instead went w : "She herself is aware of her choice when she tries to kick Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian out so as to not get Wen Ning and their house in trouble." Hm... yes she's aware, exactly, AND SHE DOESN'T KICK JIANG CHENG AND WEI WUXIAN OUT. THAT'S THE FUCKING POINT. ( Φ ω Φ )

[ibijau]

Xisang Week 2021 Day 1 : Sunshot / childhood

Wei Wuxian stares at the two boys in front of him, before turning his gaze toward his husband who appears just as puzzled as him.

“I think it was a curse maybe,” says the older boy, who Wei Wuxian recognises, but refuses to name because if he calls him by name, then this whole madness is real and he doesn’t want to deal with that when he hasn't even had breakfast yet. “I mean, it’s got to be. Oh, da-ge is going to be furious that I got in trouble again…”

There go Wei Wuxian’s efforts to not think of that teenager as Nie Huaisang, and any hopes of using this situation to have some fun. Nie Huaisang looks so damn worried about his brother, and though Wei Wuxian isn’t sure where the two of them stand at the moment, he’s cruel enough to say anything about Nie Mingjue. 

“Hey, Nie-xiong, just what do you remember exactly?”

Nie Huaisang, whose attention was mostly on Lan Wangji, turns to look at Wei Wuxian and wrinkles his nose.

“I should be home,” he explains. “I’d gone back there after that awful Wen camp. Then we got the news, about Yunmeng, and da-ge said he’s going to send me to Gusu so I can stay safe. There’s going to be a war for sure this time. But I don’t know why I’m here already!” Nie Huaisang whines. “I haven’t even started packing! And everything is weird! I don’t know you, and I’m not sure I know him!”

‘Him’ in this case refers to the child currently clinging to Nie Huaisang’s neck. He’s probably a little old to be carried in anyone’s arms, least of all Nie Huaisang’s who isn’t exactly a very strong looking person. Looks can be deceiving though. Nie Huaisang doesn’t appear bothered by the weight of that Lan boy, even though he’s been holding the child in his arms since the moment Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji discovered them wandering around the Hanshi.

Wei Wuxian has never met that person at that age of course, but he can risk an educated guess, especially with the way Lan Wangji stares at that child.

“And what about you then?” Wei Wuxian asks the little boy. “What do you remember, Lan gongzi?”

The child stares at Lan Wangji in silence, his dark eyes burning with anger.

“He looks like Father,” Lan Xichen says, pointing an accusing finger at his brother.

Having never meant the previous sect leader, Wei Wuxian can’t say if that’s true or not. What he can say is that the accusation hits Lan Wangji hard, who turns a shade or two paler.

“He’s not your father,” Wei Wuxian quickly says.

Lan Xichen tilts his head, frowning.

“He’s not,” he concedes. “But he looks like him,” he insists, before falling silent again, hiding his face in the crook of Nie Huaisang’s neck.

Considering the sort of person Nie Huaisang was around the time of the Sunshot Campaign, Wei Wuxian is surprised by how well he’s handling this whole thing. He would have expected Nie Huaisang to have started crying already, but instead he seems focused on soothing the little boy in his arms.

Funny, really. As adults, Nie Huaisang and Lan Xichen aren’t really on speaking terms, as far as Wei Wuxian knows. Nie Huaisang had only come to the Cloud Recesses to talk with Lan Qiren about some sect business, making it clear that he had no wish to even acknowledge that Lan Xichen still exists, a feeling that appeared more than mutual.

And now, Nie Huaisang is holding Lan Xichen like he’s something precious, keeping him close and rubbing his back to comfort him. Earlier, when Lan Wangji offered to take the child from him, Nie Huaisang refused to let go of a little boy who'd gone tense with fear in his arms, claiming he really doesn't mind the weight.

“He told me earlier that his mother died last night,” Nie Huaisang explains when Wei Wuxian stares too long.

Lan Wangji, already hit hard by everything that’s happening, startles as he hears that. Wei Wuxian quickly takes his wrist to ground him.

“Then he must be about nine,” Wei Wuxian remarks, looking at the little boy who says nothing and only clings tighter to Nie Huaisang. “Poor Xichen-da-ge, not a very pleasant moment of his life to be sent back to. Not that it must be nice for you either, Nie-xiong.”

“Don’t call me that, you’re too old to call me that!” Nie Huaisang complains. “I’m not an ancestor like you! You’re even older than my da-ge! And anyway, I don’t even know you! I can tell that’s Wangji-xiong when he’s old, but you’re not someone I know, so don’t act like we're friends!”

“Ah, right,” Wei Wuxian says, motioning at his face. “Funny story, that. Or not so funny actually, so let’s keep it for later. Well, Nie-gongzi then, do you have any idea what might have happened?”

“No. I told you, last I remember I was with my da-ge, and there was going to be a war, and I was scared because Jiang-xiong and Wei-xiong are dead, and da-ge too might die, and then I’d be sect leader and that’s awful! Then I went to bed, and I woke up in this house I don’t know, with jars of wine on the ground, and everything smelling weird. Like incense, but also not?”

That, at last, feels like a clue Wei Wuxian can use. It is rather odd for any alcohol to be present inside the Cloud Recesses. They do keep some around for high ranking guests, and of course he has his personal stash hidden inside the Jingshi, but usually that’s it. He’s certainly never heard of Lan Xichen drinking. And even if he were to indulge, why do it with Nie Huaisang of all people, who at this point is probably the closest thing to an enemy that Lan Xichen is ever going to get?

The incense thing is weird too. Some sects like to experiment with different types, but the Lan sect tends to favour sandalwood and doesn’t stray much from that. Nie Huaisang would know that, having studied there several years in a row, which is probably why that particular detail struck him, just as it strikes Wei Wuxian.

This whole situation really is odd, and Wei Wuxian hopes it can be solved quickly, because it won’t go unnoticed for long that the leaders of two great sects are suddenly unavailable at the same time.

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed, Episode 26, part two

(Masterpost) (Other Canary Stuff)

Warning! Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Content note: This episode has a lot of lightning, but this post does not have lightning flashes--I’m using mostly stills for those parts, or I’ve snipped out the unfriendly frames before giffing.

Qing-Jie

Having successfully ruined Jin Guangshan’s party plan to get the Yin Tiger seal, Wei Wuxian dashes off to tell Wen Qing where her brother is. She hops up to hit the road with him, but then sorta-faints because she’s starving. In a rare moment of tenderness between these two, he catches her and gently sits her down again. 

Normally they’re busy out-toughing each other, both before and after this moment, but right now Wen Qing is openly vulnerable. Wei Wuxian responds to that, predictably, with all of his kindness and with his usual slew of unwise, impossible-to-keep promises.

As she eats the bread he’s brought her--a parallel to an important piece of bread in his early life--he says they have to believe in Wen Ning’s survival. Cut to: Wen Ning, not surviving. 

I mean, yes, yes, he’s only mostly dead, but he’s never going to be fully alive again, so.  

24 Hour Party People

Back at the party, Jin Guangyao, deliberately, I think, goes to offer his pops a drink while his pops is still super furious and looking for someone to take it out on. The servant lady is like, better you than me, pal, and helps JGY get his drink ready. Pops, predictably, knocks the drink onto Jin Guangyao.

(more behind the cut)

Lan Xichen is standing by with a hanky and a face full of worry. Lan Xichen is so Lanny that he thinks JGY needs to go change clothes after getting clear alcohol spilled on him, rather than just letting it evaporate and smelling pleasantly of booze for the rest of the evening like a normal party guest. 

JGY launches into a criticism of Wei Wuxian, which Lan Wangji listens to very carefully, frowning. Lan Xichen, Nie Huasang and Jiang Cheng listen as well, and don’t speak up. 

A Clear Conscience

Then Lan Wangji *literally* steps out of his brother’s shadow, and speaks in defense of Wei Wuxian. This right here is Lan Wangji’s turning point, as far as I’m concerned. Xichen is gazing at JGY, totally on board with JGY’s spin of the situation, and his shadow falls away from Lan Wangji’s face as LWJ steps forward.

Lan Wangji says, isn’t what WWX said true? JGY puts on his customer service smile and says that the truth isn’t something you’re supposed to go around saying out loud. 

I’d like to say this is what’s wrong with cultivator society but this is really a universal human thing; every society has rules about upsetting the social order, and they are very frequently at odds with basic compassion and morality. 

Nie Huaisang and Jiang Cheng stay silent but Lan Xichen goes and throws Wei Wuxian under the bus carriage, saying his character has changed. 

Lan Wangji nods decisively at this, and bows to Lan Xichen, silently asking permission to follow Wei Wuxian. Lan Xichen grants permission, telling Lan Wangji to do his best. Lan Xichen probably thinks he and Lan Wangji are in agreement, in this moment, but that nod of Lan Wangji’s was nothing of the kind.

That nod was Lan Wangji agreeing with himself; he is going to try to bring Wei Wuxian back but he is also going to listen to him.  Meanwhile Lan Xichen is tying himself in knots to appease Jin Guangyao. The divergence between the brothers will just grow, from this point onwards.

Lan Wangji leaves to go follow his boyfriend conscience, while Jiang Cheng continues to silently listen to the commentary of others, and gets so mad he crushes a wine cup.

It Was A Dark and Stormy Night.

Wen Qing and Wei Wuxian arrive at the prison camp, and the first person they encounter is Granny, with a defaced Wen Banner in her hand and Wen Yuan on her back. 

Whenever I read a meta or a fic that talks about how the juniors are so sweet partly because they are “untouched by the war” I want to point to this moment. A-Yuan endures an absolute truckload of war trauma by the time he’s four years old, and while Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji both deserve a lot of credit for saving him at great risk to themselves, Granny and Uncle Four are the first heroes of A-Yuan’s story. His kind, mellow personality has a lot in common with theirs. 

This is followed by an eternity of Wen Qing running around asking if anyone’s seen her brother. Eventually Wei Wuxian gets tired of this and gathers the guards together, threatening them with Chenqing. 

He doesn’t need to play it; just holding it up has every Jin dude instantly kneeling and scared. 

The guards send him and Wen Qing go to a giant field of corpses, where Wen Qing runs around checking to see if any of them is her brother. Wei Wuxian starts off kind of detached and angry, but eventually snaps out of it, tucks away his flute and starts helping her to search. 

Wen Qing finds Wen Ning, mostly-dead with a lure flag speared into his belly. Wei Wuxian grimly takes in the situation from across the field of corpses. 

When he arrives at Wen Qing’s side he sees this talisman in Wen Ning’s hand. 

This is the talisman that Wei Wuxian made for Wen Ning back in Gusu summer school, before the war. It’s the one that Wen Ning was wearing at his waist when they met up after the massacre of Lotus Pier. It’s supposed to literally protect Wen Ning from having his spiritual consciousness snatched, as well as being a symbol of Wei Wuxian’s sense of responsibility for, and affection for, Wen Ning. 

Wei Wuxian, understandably, loses his shit at this point. Less understandably, he is about to decide that the best way to express his sorrow and rage is to re-animate the corpse of his friend, right in front of the corpse’s sister. Like, seriously, dude. Dude. 

Ghost General

This super-questionable decision leads to one of the most badass sequences in the show, which is unfortunately chock full of lightning flashes, so not everyone can watch it. Wei Wuxian and his flute and swirls of resentful energy come marching out of the darkness of the corpse field, back to the guards. 

The guards have decided to slaughter all of the prisoners and then run away, which would be a good plan except they should really have skipped right to the running away part of things. When Wei Wuxian accuses them of killing the prisoner in the corpse field, they claim that the Wens have a habit of falling off of a hill and dying. Wei Wuxian can relate. 

At this point Wei Wuxian summons up Wen Ning 2.0, ultra badass edition, who comes flying through the air with his odd, straight-armed fighting stance and cool solid-black eyes and rock-and-roll hair. 

Soundtrack: *Four Sticks*

Wen Ning proceeds to whale on the guards and scare the shit out of his relatives.

Then Wen Qing shows up and begs Wei Wuxian to stop. She explains that Wen Ning is only mostly dead. Like, if he was fully dead would she be okay with this? 

Wei Wuxian tries to reel Wen Ning in and realizes that he is not actually in control of Wen Ning. Ok, see, right from the first day of Wen Ning 2.0, WWX is aware that his control is iffy. Why does he think he’s going to be able to control him later? 

Anyway, this is where we learn Wen Ning’s grown-up name is Wen Qionglin. Wei Wuxian yells this name, and Wen Ning looks up like a cat hearing the “food noise,” and then proceeds to get control of himself. 

This is such a nice symbolic moment, that will be replayed later in the temple, when Wen Ning saves Jin Ling from Baxia. 

Wen Ning has a remote-code-execution OS vulnerability throughout the story; his soul is at risk of being stolen, and he is magically controlled by Wei Wuxian, Xue Yang, Su She, and Baxia.  Meanwhile Wen Qing, Wei Wuxian, and random kids on the street mostly treat him as a child, despite his clear adult capabilities. Wen Ning’s journey in The Untamed is at least partly about asserting his full adulthood, and his ability to overcome magical control is directly connected to that journey.  

After getting Wen Ning to chill, Wei Wuxian calls the floating resentful energy back into his own body, which looks about as comfortable as swallowing a burp. 

On the plus side, apparently resentful energy keeps your hair dry even when it’s raining.

Wei Wuxian should take a page from the guards’ book and slaughter all the Jin witnesses to this situation, but he decides to be the better person and let them live. They go running off down the road, where they encounter Lan Wangji and give him the 411, saying that Wei Wuxian resurrected dead people.

Meanwhile Wei Wuxian collects Wen Qing--half-fainted, again, in an echo of the start of their journey--and collects the Dafan Mountain Wen group, who are hiding, wisely. When they see Wen Ning, Uncle Four and some others start to freak out, but Wei Wuxian tells them that fierce corpses are cool, and they all grab horses and mount up.

Where Are You Going?

Lan Wangji is waiting for them, nonconfrontationally indulging in some visual poetry while he waits. 

In a show where every prop is exquisitely, carefully designed to enhance our understanding character, his Gusu-toned umbrella reveals surprising red and yellow threads woven in, right above his eye line as he looks at Wei Wuxian. 

Wei Wuxian speaks first, saying “you came to stop me?” Lan Wangji doesn’t answer, but asks him where he’s going. Then Lan Wangji warns him that he’s about to abandon orthodoxy forever, if he follows through. 

Wei Wuxian challenges this idea of orthodoxy, asking if Lan Wangji remembers the promise they made together, back in Gusu. It’s worth noting that they both appear to think of it as a co-promise, even though Lan Wangji didn’t speak aloud at the time. 

The conversation will continue in the next episode, because what’s better than a rainy romantic cliffhanger?

Soundtrack: Four Sticks by Led Zeppelin

[kurowrites]

Can I give you 2 prompts for wangxian fics? 1: meddling Xichen (to ship) + jealous lwj + oblivious wwx and 2: kissing practice + childhood friends + caught red handed by lan qiren. Thank you so much! I love your modern au fics.

I am relatively sure that this is NOT what you wanted, but you know, something something beggars something. ;) Once it had been planted in my mind, I had to do it.

---

Lan Wangji was aware that due to his distant nature and his courtesy name, some people falsely assumed that he was blind to all worldly concerns around him.

This was, however, a completely wrong conclusion. He was very much aware of what was happening around him. Just as much as he was aware that this supposed ‘conference’ that they were all attending was little more than a shoddily hidden marriage market.

Which would have been fine, it was not like Lan Wangji did not see the necessity to build stronger ties between the sects. It was not his place to judge such things, and, after all, marriage was a necessity to sustain a stable society. He might not approve of the vulgarity of some of the participants of this conference, but he did not deny the necessity of such an event, however impractical and distasteful it might be to him, personally.  

However.

Why Lan Xichen, his own brother, seemed to have made a very strong connection with Wei Wuxian at this conference, was completely beyond him.

Out of all possible matches, Lan Xichen seemed to favour Wei Wuxian over anyone else!

Lan Wangji was unable to make sense of it, no matter how long he considered the case before him.

A marriage between them would not only be questionable in terms of inter-sect politics, he also doubted that their wildly different personalities would be a good foundation for a successful marriage. Lan Xichen should be perfectly aware of these things, and yet, he seemed to prefer Wei Wuxian’s company to that of anyone else.

And Wei Wuxian… Lan Wangji did not want to make unfounded assumptions, but aiming for a sect leader seemed to be reaching very high for someone in his position. Especially when there were other suitable matches to be made that were much closer to his own age and status. Such an attempt was sure to incur the displeasure of all other major sects, and several minor ones, too.

He considered bringing the evils of such an unsuitable match to his brother’s attention, but he did not want to hurt his brother’s feelings, and Lan Wangji knew that no matter how carefully he chose his words, they would end up sounding petty and biased.

His brother knew very well how he felt about Wei Wuxian. He had been a witness to more than one fight between Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian, and yet he seemed to have decided on Wei Wuxian without hesitation. None of Lan Wangji’s words would be able to change his choice now, he was sure.

It was just.

The thought of having someone like Wei Wuxian as his brother-in-law was unbearable. Loud and obnoxious and infuriating, how could his brother bear the presence of a person like that? And even worse, bring such a person to Cloud Recesses?

Perhaps, after the marriage, Lan Wangji would be allowed to go into seclusion for a while, in order to work on his cultivation in silence and contemplation. Once Wei Wuxian was installed at Cloud Recesses, there would be an end to all peace, that he was sure of.

He tried to make peace with that thought, and redoubled his own efforts to evade all the potential marriage partners and their families that seemed to have set their sight on him. As the second son of a prestigious sect, he had proven to be rather more popular on a marriage market like this than he had wished for, and by now, he sincerely regretted letting his brother convince him to accompany him to this sham of a conference.

He was determined not to accidentally fall into an engagement, and planned to leave the conference as the same staunch bachelor he had been before.

 “Lan Zhan!” came the loud voice that Lan Wangji would have preferred not to hear right now, or ever again.

One moment later, Wei Wuxian bumped into his shoulder.

“Ayoo,” he said once he had glanced into Lan Wangji’s face. “Someone is grumpy today. Are you getting tired of being hounded by pretty girls? You should be happy! You can pick any girl you like, they’re basically throwing themselves at your feet!”

If Lan Wangji had less self-possession, he might have felt tempted to strangle Wei Wuxian right there and then. Alas, he was in control of his emotions, and so he only levelled Wei Wuxian with a disapproving glare.

He did not want anyone to throw themselves at your feet. He did not want to get married. He did not care for pretty girls.

Wei Wuxian seemed to take his quelling glare as encouragement, and laughed heartily.

“I see, Hanguang-jun does not approve!” he teased. “There is no one good enough for Lan Zhan, after all!”

Lan Wangji wondered about that particular remark, because Wei Wuxian obviously believed himself to be good enough for Lan Xichen, who arguably was above Lan Wangji in dignity and respect. Lan Wangji was only the second son.

But perhaps Wei Wuxian was teasing him, alluding to his taciturn and forbidding nature. That made more sense. After all, Lan Wangji’s brother was the more friendly and approachable one between the two of them, no competition at all.

It needed far more than a gentle smile to impress Lan Wangji.

Wei Wuxian rambled on about all the dramatic scenes he had witnessed during the conference, the little jealousies that had been happening among those that were looking for a marriage partner in order to secure the status of their sect.

Lan Wangji did not really care about these things, but he let Wei Wuxian talk nonetheless, content to listen as long as he was not required to speak.

“Seriously though, Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian ended his excursion. “You don’t have your eye on anyone? Come on, tell me! I’m not going to tattle! I’ll help you!”

That was precisely not what Lan Wangji wanted, and the last thing he needed was ‘help’ from Wei Wuxian, of all people. So he tightly closed his lips, and walked faster. Unfortunately, Wei Wuxian was almost as tall as him, and so he easily kept pace with Lan Wangji easily.

“Lan Zhaaaaan, come on, don’t be so stubborn,” Wei Wuxian pouted, swishing his ponytail back and forth in disappointment. “I’m trying to be supportive.”

“Wei Ying had better mind his own business,” Lan Wangji said curtly.

“Wei Ying has no business to mind,” Wei Wuxian whined, his pout growing impossibly more pronounced.

“What were you discussing with my brother, then?” Lan Wangji asked impatiently.

He regretted his words as soon as they had left his mouth.

“Oh, you saw that?” Wei Wuxian replied, perking up immediately. “Xichen-ge has been trying to convince me to come to Cloud Recesses again, to study some more or something. I wonder why he’s so insistent on it, I wasn’t that bad of a student, was I? I shouldn’t need special education!”

Lan Wangji looked at Wei Wuxian in surprise, but there was no impish glint in his eye, and no mischievous smile on his lips. Wei Wuxian was entirely serious.

“Brother asked you to come study at Cloud Recesses again?” Lan Wangji asked.

“Yeah,” Wei Wuxian agreed. “Though I’m not sure why he would ask. I feel Lan Qiren will have a qi deviation if I visit a second time.”

Lan Wangji needed a moment to process this new information.

Apparently, Lan Xichen had invited Wei Wuxian to Gusu. But there seemed to have been made no promise of marriage, or Wei Wuxian was expertly deceiving him on that account.

But there was no real reason for Wei Wuxian to be deceptive. On the contrary, Wei Wuxian would probably enjoy to lord an engagement to his brother of Lan Wangji with gusto.

Which meant that his brother had never made an offer. And yet, he had invited Wei Wuxian to Gusu.

He had invited Wei Wuxian to Gusu.

Deliberately.

Without making an offer of marriage.

Lan Wangji froze for a moment and gripped Bichen, considering.

He looked at Wei Wuxian, who looked back at him with a half-smile on his face, evidently confused about Lan Wangji’s strange reaction to his words.

Oh, it was starting to make sense now.

It was all clear.

He was going to have to commit fratricide.

“But, you know,” Wei Wuxian said, now smiling fully, clearly unaware of Lan Wangji’s dark, dark thoughts.

“If Lan Zhan asks me, I will come.”

[ouyangzizhensdad]

Do you think LWJ took the advantage of being a Young Master of a prominent clan to publicly display the people he hates? (We know who that is) I saw someone claim about it and It's haunting my head.

Hi anon,

I’ll start first by saying that I think the novel does, to a degree, understand that there are people who have, to use Bourdieu’s terms, forms of ‘capitals’ that others do not and integrate that into the narrative and character dynamics. LWJ has not only capital due to his position as a gongzi and the son of a Leader (then later, as heir-in-line) to one of the prominent clans, but also due to his stellar reputation and fighting abilities (and to a degree, the fact he is a man). All this allows him to have a wider range of actions that are considered ‘acceptable/legitimate’ versus another person with different or lesser forms of capital--think for instance of the reaction and consequences when LWJ challenges what powerful men are saying (making up) about WWX versus when daughter-of-a-servant MianMian does the same. However, I find it weird to frame that as LWJ “getting away” with something--with his character, it’s more like he is able to have an opinion or stand up against injustices with less chances of getting punished and ridiculed for it.

Now, if it is about Jiang Cheng, it is kind of a myopic argument to be saying that LWJ “gets away” with “publicly hating JC”. First because by that point JC is technically even higher in the social hierarchy, being a literal Sect Leader. But it’s also weird to phrase this as “publicly hating JC”: LWJ is not running around badmouthing JC or the Jiang sect--the pettiest we see him is when he doesn’t silence LJY when he engages in gossip about JC. Instead we see LWJ standing up against JC when the situation calls for it, which is not the same. Of course, as JC does, it can be considered as an inherent ‘insult’ since it makes JC ‘lose face’ but I think there is a difference. And it’s not like JC does not get away with being impolite towards LWJ and the Lan sect, something we see at Dafan Mountain.

We know with the MXY altercation that JC was ready to kill him on sight for using modao (”Do you have any last words?”/“Break his legs? Haven’t I told you? If you see this sort of evil and crooked practice, kill the cultivator and feed him to your dogs!”). After LWJ intercepts, we have this exchange showing JC being impolite to a degree that prompts LJY to call him out for it, only bringing more disrespect for the Lans from JC:

He raised one brow and spoke, “Hanguang-Jun, you sure live up to your reputation of ‘being wherever the chaos is’. So, you had time to come to this remote area today?” [..] Right now, Jiang Cheng really didn’t seem too polite as he said the words in such a tone. Even the juniors who came following Lan Wangji did not seem comfortable hearing it.

Lan Jingyi spoke straightforwardly, “Isn’t Jiang-zongzhu here as well?”

Jiang Cheng replied grimly, “Tsk, do you really think that you should butt in when your seniors are conversing? The GusuLan Sect has always been known for its respectful conduct. Is this really how it teaches its disciples?”

It is imo more true to say that, due to LWJ’s higher and respected position in society, JC is not able to use his usual means of responding to someone challenging his decisions and thus making him lose face.This is again something we see during this altercation.

LWJ silences JL after he dismisses his mistreatment of other cultivators with the deity-binding nets. LWJ destroys the entirety of the diety-binding nets JC and JL were using to give JL an advantage over the other cultivators competing, something they were only able to do because of the Jiang and Jin sects considerable power and wealth. Is it daring of LWJ? Sure. Would he be able to do so without consequences if he was someone else? Probably unlikely, especially when we’re talking about JC. But is that ‘getting away’ with something? It’s literally the opposite scenario: LWJ is using his own status and capital to make it so that JL (and JC) are not getting away with what they are doing (although there are, in actuality, no consequences for their behaviours; they are just forced to give up on JL’s unfair advantages. Hell, LWJ even offers to pay for the nets he destroys, which I guess can also be taken as a baller move). What’s more, the novel even takes the time to point out that, if LWJ were not such a strong cultivator, JC might have pushed aside the risks of offending LXC and physically confronted him (let’s appreciate how this also serves as well-integrated exposition for their weapons).

Jin Ling’s grim expression was exactly the same as his uncle’s, “What can I do? It was their own fault for stepping into the traps. I’ll solve everything after I finish capturing the prey.”

Lan Wangji frowned. Jin Ling was about to speak again, but he suddenly realized that, shockingly, he could neither open his mouth nor make any sounds.

[...]

The man spoke in a low voice, “Not long ago, a blue sword flew over and destroyed the deity-binding nets that you had set up.”

Jiang Cheng glanced at Lan Wangji harshly, his displease plastered all over his face, “How many were broken?”

[...]

Although four hundred deity-binding nets were a whopping price, it wasn’t too much for the YunmengJiang Sect. Nonetheless, losing the nets were a small matter, but losing face was not. With Lan Wangji’s actions, Jiang Cheng felt a whirlpool of anger at the bottom of his heart, rising higher by every second. He narrowed his eyes, his left hand casually stroking the ring on his right hand’s index finger.

[...]

However, after stroking it for a while, Jiang Cheng compelled himself to restrain his hostility.

Although he was displeased, as the leader of a sect, he needed to take more things into consideration, which meant that he couldn’t be as impulsive as Jin Ling. After the fall of the QingheNie Sect, among the Three Great Sects, the LanlingJin Sect and the GusuLan Sect were quite close due to the personal relationship between the two leaders. By leading the YunmengJiang Sect alone, he was already in an isolated situation among the three. Hanguang-Jun, or Lan Wangji, was quite a prestigious cultivator, while his elder brother Zewu-Jun, or Lan Xichen, was the leader of the GusuLan Sect. The two brothers had always been on good terms with each other. It was best to not openly dispute with Lan Wangji.

Also, Jiang Cheng’s sword, “Sandu (三毒, Sāndú),” had never made actual contact with Lan Wangji’s sword, “Bichen,” and it was not yet decidable whose hands would the deer die on. Although he owned the powerful ring, “Zidian (紫电 Zǐdiàn),” a family heirloom of his, Lan Wangji’s guqin, “Wangji”, was also known for its abilities. The thing that Jiang Cheng hated the most was to be disadvantageous during a fight. Without complete confidence in his success, he would not consider fighting with Lan Wangji.

Now if it is about Su She, again what does LWJ truly do?

He silences him in the Demon-slaughtering cave? Although we’d be hard-pressed to believe LWJ respects Su She after what he’s seen him do in the Xuanwu Cave, the guy is literally trying to get everyone there killed and being a smartass to WWX while at it. And if it had been extremely disrespectful of him, LQR could have lifted the spell--something once again that the novel points out. When it dissolves into a game of calling out between the MolingSu sect and the GusuLan sect, LWJ does not say anything, even if, as LJY points out, Su She was imitating him. It’s only when WWX starts going that LWJ takes part by acquiescing to the truths WWX lays out (which are, yes, damning for the Su She and the MolingSu sect). But again, there are layers to what WWX is doing: he’s not only trying to expose what is going on, but anger Su She into revealing he still has his spiritual powers as proof of what he has worked out. So while WWX and LWJ are being by some measures disrespectful, there is a point to how they are going at it.

Touching his chin, he grinned, “Well I was worried that you’d get mad if I asked him too many things in front of you, wasn’t I? But since you’ve told me to ask him already, I’ll go ahead and ask. Lan Zhan?”

Lan Wangji, “Mn.”

Wei Wuxian, “The MolingSu Sect was a sect that branched off from the GusuLan Sect, right?”

Lan Wangji, “Mn.”

Wei Wuxian, “Although it branched off, the MolingSu Sect’s techniques still used the GusuLan Sect’s techniques ‘as reference’, right?”

Lan Wangji, “Yes.”

Wei Wuxian, “One of the GusuLan Sect’s techniques, the Sound of Vanquish, has the effect of exorcising evil. Amongst them, the seven-stringed guqin was the most powerful, and so there is the greatest number of people who cultivate through the guqin. The MolingSu Sect did the same, and the guqin is the most common in their sect as well, is that correct?”

Lan Wangji, “That is correct.”

Wei Wuxian, “Although the MolingSu Sect’s leader left the GusuLan Sect with knowledge of its techniques when he founded his own sect, is own guqin skills weren’t anything special, and the disciples he taught often make many mistakes too, right?”

Lan Wangji answered with honesty, “Yes.”

Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji went on back and forth, speaking as though nobody was around. More and more people realized that they weren’t only mocking Su She, but rather taking something apart. Thus, they began to listen more carefully.

Next, Wei Wuxian slowed down, “… And that means, even when a section of the battle melodies that the MolingSu Sect played when killing corpses on Mass Grave Hill was wrong, the GusuLan Sect wouldn’t find it unusual, and only think that they made a mistake because of their inferior techniques and remembered the sheet music wrong, not taking the time to notice whether it was an accidental mistake or a mistake on purpose. Is this the case?”

Hearing the last question, Su She’s pupils shrunk. The hand he placed on the hilt of his sword was suddenly lined with veins. The blade of the sword was already half-an-inch unsheathed. On the other hand, Lan Wangji lifted his eyes at the same time. Both Wei Wuxian and he saw the sense of understanding in each other’s eyes.

He stated one word at a time, “This is the case.”

Su She unsheathed his sword with a clang. Wei Wuxian moved the blade of the sword to the side with two fingers and smiled, “What are you doing? Don’t forget. You’ve lost all your spiritual powers. Would threatening me like this do anything?”

Sword raised in his hand, Su She could neither attack nor put it down. He clenched his teeth, “Aiming at me for so long—just what are you trying to imply?”

As much as we love to talk about LWJ’s hidden sass and pettiness, he does not seem to ever be disrespectful without a reason, and it’s usually in the process of standing up for others. Reading his character as an illustration of a man in a position of privilege and power getting away with things is a little bit of a reach--particularly when JC is literally right there. 

[nillegible]

the JGY amnesia Fic

[AN: Someday I will come up with decent titles for my fics... but not now XD I hope you like this fic, the premise is that the issue with XY and NMJ happens before JZX’s death, and so the argument and the stairs moves up in the timeline! And JGY hits his head and gets TV-show amnesia, and remembers no one, not even himself, but is otherwise his sharp, suspicious self...]

He wakes up sure that he is dying, nothing else could hurt so sharp, agonizing pain radiating out from the back of his head, stabbing sharply every time he is swung, and he forces his eyes open. The light burns, but he can make out an earth green and brown collar, and a strong jawline. He is being carried by this man.

He doesn’t know who this is, but he feels… safe. Even though every step this man takes makes his eyes water.

He blacks out.

*

His name is Jin Guangyao. It rolls smoothly off his tongue, but sits wrongly in his mind. “Temporary amnesia,” the doctor had informed him, when Jin Guangyao could not tell him the answers to any pf his questions; not his name, or the date, or where they were.

A fancy young master in white-and-gold robes, who introduces himself as Jin Zixuan, is the one who sits by his side and tells Jin Guangyao the basics of his life. There is such an obvious lack of detail that it leaves him intrigued. And Jin Zixuan looks ashamed when Jin Guangyao asked if he was Jin Zixuan’s uncle. “No, I’m your older brother,” he says. “We… we share a birthday, but you’re a day younger.”

Jin Guangyao watches him for a moment, and wonders at the source of his brother’s shame. “I’m a bastard, aren’t I?” he asks.

“My father legitimized you!” Jin Zixuan protests. “You’re my brother.”

Jin Guangyao smiles at him. This man is clearly naïve, but has no ill-intent. The man who had named Jin Guangyao Jin Guangyao, however? He is yet to ascertain that.

*

Jin Guangyao’s memory doesn’t return within the first week. With his head injury healed, though, he’s allowed to leave the infirmary which allows him to collect a lot more useful data.

There is a lot of work piled up in his room. Disorganized, as if someone had gone through it to take the important paperwork to work on while he is <infirm>. That he was assigned so much work that was non-essential makes him wonder if he was actually pretty low on the social ladder, here. He goes through all of them anyway, most of it is useful information, painting a picture of Jin sect’s activities, and the sorts of projects that they allow to drag on for weeks. Jin Guangyao has left meticulous notes in a separate notebook about how to put everything into a more sensible order. That such reworking was required

His accessories, or lack-there-of, are even more enlightening. There’s also a scholarly-sort of hat, and only a few cheap hair ribbons. Nothing at all like the intricate jade hairpins or crowns with intricate metalwork and precious stones that Jin Zixuan and Jin Zixun wore daily.

Jin Guangyao’s place here is… obvious.

He wonders who the man who had picked him up after his injury, was. No one tells him, not even Jin Zixuan, he just pats Jin Guangyao’s hand and says, “Don’t worry, you’re safe now.” The implications of that are obvious, of course, that the stranger was the one who had hurt him. And yet it’s a subject no one speaks of, of how Jin Guangyao had fallen down the thousand steps of Koi Tower, and he hadn’t asked after the first two times. He stays wary, watching everyone. Someone had tried to kill him, and he doesn’t even remember which of his acquaintances might want him dead.

*

Lan Xichen arrives two days after his release from the infirmary, Lan-Zongzhu, according to everyone else. He’s beautiful, the most beautiful person that Jin Guangyao has ever seen. Since he remembers all of a week, this doesn’t sound like a compliment, but Jin Guangyao could probably search for decades and not find anyone more beautiful. It would not be fair.

They have tea together, after Lan Xichen – “Call me er-ge, you are my sworn brother, A-Yao,” – has checked him over worriedly, and checked his meridians, and pressed his fingertips gently to the back of Jin Guangyao’s head, to where his head injury had been, and ascertained that he truly is well.

“They did not tell me you were injured,” he says. “Da-ge had to, and this is the week of new students for the summer lectures, I could not leave. Jin Zixuan promised me you were well, though,” he says. Sincerity shines through him, and Jin Guangyao wonders what on earth he, an unwelcome child in his own family, could have done to make this man care for him.

So he asks.

Lan Xichen describes a heroic young man, who gave him shelter when he needed it most, who had smiled and laughed at him, and helped him with chores he could not do, and gave him the strength to fight a war. Lan Xichen tells him that this kind young man had gone into a war that did not affect him, only to help, that he had turned spy against a raging mad man, and finally taken off his head.

“So that is why my father took me in,” says Jin Guangyao. There’s a flicker of pain on Lan Xichen’s face as Jin Guangyao tells him what he’s surmised about how he’s treated here. “Did you know?” asks Jin Guangyao.

“I suspected,” Lan Xichen says softly. “But you were too proud to tell me. You insisted you were happy here. I visited when I could, but I never… I’m so sorry.”

Jin Guangyao reaches out to pat Lan Xichen’s hand, it feels so familiar, even if Jin Guangyao can’t remember doing it before. He must have, Lan Xichen’s sad face cannot be borne. “I’m sure I didn’t want to bother you, er-ge. You’re overworking yourself even now.” The signs are there, even behind his flawless composure. “You look so tired.”

“I had to come,” says Lan Xichen. “I was so scared that you…” He trails off, then turns his hand, holding onto him tightly. “If you don’t remember your place at Koi tower, do you want to return with me until your memory recovers? We’re still reconstructing, but Cloud Rececsses is still an excellent place to ”

“This Jin Guangyao is honoured, but what if it doesn’t?” asks Jin Guangyao practically. “I can’t just leave my home like that.” More quietly, he adds, “There must have been some reason I didn’t leave before.”

“You never said, exactly, but I believe it was because of your mother,” says Lan Xichen. “She wished that you would gain your father’s recognition, and a place at Koi Tower.”

“Do you know anything about her?” Jin Guangyao is not an idiot, he knows from the snide remarks, the way that people try not to touch him that he is of low birth, that his mother’s occupation was. That. He wonders if Lan Xichen will lie to him.

“She was an educated woman,” he says. “A renowned beauty. You’ve told me that you take after her, in many ways. She was skilled in the arts. She never taught you art but she was your master in calligraphy and music. She loved you very much and wanted you to have a good education because she knew… she knew that A-Yao is so incredibly smart and destined for greater things.” He squeezes Jin Guangyao’s hand. “Her life was not easy. She suffered, but she loved you. She would be proud of you, to know how much you achieved.”

It should matter, it does matter, Jin Guangyao’s heart squeezes, but it is from sympathy for what Lan Xichen is feeling. The dark honey-gold eyes are bright with tears. Clearly Jin Guangyao had loved her very much, before. But Jin Guangyao cannot find in him any love for a woman that Jin Guangyao cannot imagine. A woman with his face, a prostitute, but educated, talented. And ambitious to have Jin Guangshan’s son.

“My father did not take her in, I gather?”

“He did not. She died of illness shortly before I met you.”

“Thank you for telling me,” says Jin Guangyao.

*

Lan Xichen stays an entire afternoon, and readies himself to leave at dusk. Jin Guangyao accompanies him to the sky-pavilion on Koi Tower that the Jin disciples use to take off from.

There’s a last nagging question that Jin Guangyao hadn’t managed to slide into the conversation, as it meandered into cultivation theory and Jin Guangyao and Lan Xichen had tried to piece out some kind of pattern in what kinds of cultivation knowledge he had retained, and what he had forgotten. It had been an interesting exercise.

“Er-ge, before you go,” says Jin Guangyao. He looks around cautiously, but no one is near enough to overhear. “You’re older than Jin Zixuan, aren’t you?” he asks, and Lan Xichen nods. “So our da-ge… you never said. Is he… did he die during the war?”

“No!” cries Lan Xichen. “A-Yao no, he’s not. He’s fine, he just could not find time to visit.”

Lie.

It’s the first time Lan Xichen has lied to him today, but Jin Guangyao is certain of it.

“No one talks about him, and I couldn’t find any letters from him. I did find a few of yours. No one even says his name. Who is he?”

“Nie Mingjue,” says Lan Xichen, sounding defeated. “Of course you would think to ask, but his name is Nie Mingjue.”

Everything falls into place. Jin Guangyao has seen some Nie disciple couriers on their way to private meetings with his father and the Jin council of elders. Hard faced and angry looking, they kept to themselves and departed the moment they could, without staying for a meal or entertainment.

“You think he pushed me down the stairs,” says Jin Guangyao.

“No,” says Lan Xichen. “We know he did. He kicked you down the stairs. He–”

“And you believe that?” asks Jin Guangyao.

“Of course I do,” says Lan Xichen. “Da-ge was the one who told me. I knew that things were difficult between the two of you, recently, but I had not imagined… It does not matter, we are looking through the records now, so that you can be free of your vows to him, and even if we can’t find something, he won’t visit Koi Tower again, Jin-zongzhu has forbidden it.”

“Oh,” says Jin Guangyao, mind whirring. “Okay then.”

“Is A-Yao afraid we’re covering something up?” asks Lan Xichen. Jin Guangyao is not sure what gave it away, he thought he’d kept his face smooth.

“Naturally I trust er-ge,” he says, smiling up at him. “I just remember him, vaguely. He picked me up. He saved me.”

It’s Jin Guangyao’s first memory, pained and fragmented though it is.

“He did take you up to the infirmary right after,” Lan Xichen agrees. He looks faintly puzzled, like he’s not sure why that matters to Jin Guangyao.

“I understand,” says Jin Guangyao. “Nie-zongzhu would of course regret his action after his moment of anger.”

“He does,” Lan Xichen assures him. “You should write to him, if you are willing to accept his apologies, but Da-ge is terribly sorry.”

“Thank you er-ge, I will,” Jin Guangyao promises. The relief on Lan Xichen’s face is too pure for this world.

He waves goodbye after Lan Xichen takes off, and steps back into the maze of Koi Tower, mulling over all the new knowledge that Lan Xichen had brought with him. He was right, he should write to Nie Mingjue.

But after some more research.

What could they have possibly quarrelled about so badly?

Jin Guangyao makes his way back to his rooms, keeping his face expressionless at the gilded opulence and overt unfriendliness of his home. He doesn’t understand his past self at all.

Why does he still live here, where he’s so clearly unwanted?

Why did he even care for the acknowledgement of Jin Guangshan, who from even just Jin Guangyao’s few interactions this week and the gossip he’s picked up, is a selfish, disgusting pervert who wouldn’t spit on Jin Guangyao if he was on fire.

Just because his mother wanted him to?

She was a good woman, he hears again, in Lan Xichen’s sincere voice. But Jin Guangyao doesn’t get it. She had to have been a fool, to believe in Jin Guangshan, or terribly cold and cruel to send him to Jin Guangshan knowing exactly what kind of derision would await him here. He is a war hero, and yet he’s treated like a servant.

Jin Guangyao is in the mood to be charitable, so he picks the former.

He still doesn’t know why he stayed.

[You can now read part 2 here!]

[eleanorfenyxwrites]

@evilteddybear requested: I always love a LWJ/WWX fic where the sect leaders, especially Lan Xichen, Nie Mingjue, and Lan Qiren, come to the Burial Mounds and see what it's like before attacking, try to negotiate.

Thanks for the request (and your patience in seeing it filled), hope you like it!

[Masterpost] [Ao3]

--

“Xiongzhang.”

“Wangji. I don’t like it any more than you do but it’s going to be the best solution for everyone.”

The weight of his brother’s glare is nearly a physical blow but Lan Xichen is used to it and stands firm. It helps that he can distract himself from the heat of it by focusing on the long trek down to the bottom of the staircase of Jinlintai. With Jin Guangyao busy for the afternoon Lan Xichen had offered to take Lan Wangji into the city for the day, though now he’s wondering just why he had though that would be a good idea in the first place. Now at least, he supposes, they have the excuse of going off to purchase paper fine enough to be suitable for an invitation for Wei Wuxian to attend his nephew’s one-month celebration.

“I will take him the letter myself,” Lan Wangji states, voice pitched low and steady. Though it’s an obstinate, unmovable tone that Lan Xichen has heard far too many times before, he can’t help but feel that it’s his duty to put up at least something of a token argument. He can never seem to argue with anyone but Lan Wangji, but even then he almost always ends up bowing out as gracefully as he can under the strength of his headstrong brother’s will.

“Wangji, it’s not safe…”

“Wei Ying will not hurt me.”

“I didn’t say that he would.”

“The Wens are not a threat.”

Lan Xichen sighs heavily and pauses as they reach a landing to close his eyes against the inevitability of his little brother getting to have his way. He always has until the day Wei Wuxian left with his band of Wens, and Lan Wangji has been doggedly pursuing him – whether Wei Wuxian is aware of it or not – ever since. He’s never done well with not getting precisely what he wants when he wants it, and Lan Xichen adores his brother and the fact that he’s grown up being given what few things he has wanted without much thought. However in this moment, for this situation, he can’t help but privately wish deep down that his brother knew how to practice the same sacrifice that Lan Xichen himself makes when it comes to those he wishes to protect.

“If you doubt me you may come with me.”

“Wangji-“ Lan Xichen cuts off with another sigh as his brother simply walks away, his piece said and his interest in the conversation clearly exhausted. They both know very well that he’ll do what he wants, and Lan Xichen will allow it. Which is why, in the end, it’s no surprise at all that Lan Wangji makes his way to Yiling with his invitation tucked safely in a qiankun pouch, nor is it particularly surprising that Lan Xichen has accepted Lan Wangji’s sort-of-bluff of an invitation to go with him. What isa surprise is that Nie Mingjue had elected to join them when he’d caught wind of where they were going and why.

“Mingjue,” Lan Xichen attempts to soothe now as the man in question paces back and forth in the confines of their room. In the interest of keeping the peace he had taken it upon himself to make sure that Lan Wangji got to have his own space, but any notions that Lan Xichen may have had about utilizing the relative privacy this arrangement affords to Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue have so far borne no fruit whatsoever. “I warned you that this would be a matter of patience, you didn’t have to come with us.”

“What? And let you both walk into the lion’s den? Of course I had to come.”

“Wangji and I are far from helpless, Mingjue, and he is certain that Wei Wuxian won’t harm us.”

“He’s the only one.”

“He’s not, I-“

“Xichen I will walk all the way back to Qinghe right now if you can honestly tell me that you’re completely and utterly certain that Wei Wuxian won’t hurt anybody!”

Xichen lets out an uncharacteristically audible sigh at that and fixes Nie Mingjue with one of his Looks that always make the man cave. “Even if I could meet those terms I wouldn’t want you to go back to Qinghe. It’s been too long since we’ve seen each other.”

“Can we stay on task here?”

“We are. We are waiting for someone to leave the Burial Mounds so that we may approach them in town rather than appearing threatening by attempting to infiltrate their settlement on the mountain. There is nothing to do now but be patient. What about our current activities are not on task?”

“We need to use this time to strategize. Plan. Things may go wrong. We may need to protect Wangji, he may need to protect either of us. We don’t know what we’re in for.”

“Mingjue.”

“Xichen.”

“This is not a battle, nor a war. We are approaching a young man – a young man Wangji trusts - who hasn’t done anything dangerous in a year so that we may invite him to a family event. Please sit down and relax.”

Nie Mingjue finally stops his pacing to turn a betrayed glare on Lan Xichen, but as with Lan Wangji he’s well used to absorbing Nie Mingjue’s frustration and neutralizing it with the soft, reassuring lines of his smile. Nie Mingjue has never been able to stay angry with him – or even near him – for longer than a few heartbeats anyway, and Lan Xichen watches the tension bleed from his broad shoulders with his next blustering exhale.

“Wangji believes that our presence may alarm the inhabitants of the Burial Mounds should we be allowed to enter their wards. You will need to remain calm in such a case so that we can show that we bear them no ill will.”

“Speak for yourself,” Nie Mingjue grumbles and Lan Xichen’s heart aches a bit for Nie Mingjue, so level-headed when it matters but so hot-headed when it shouldn’t. Nie Mingjue meets his gaze and then groans, covering his face with both hands and tipping his head back a bit as he says, slightly muffled, “Don’t give me that look, Xichen, that’s not fair. How do you always know how to get your way?!”

“It would be significantly harder to have my way if you didn’t know in your heart that I’m right. This is a delicate situation, Mingjue, we can’t let past anger cloud our judgement now. Wangji has been here before and he says that what’s going on here isn’t what everyone says it is. We’re only here to keep him safe on his errand and see things for ourselves, alright? Now is not the time to declare the continuation of Jin Guangshan’s blood feud with the Wens.”

“Yes, fine, fine! I’ll keep my thoughts to myself.”

“And no glaring.”

“Xichen!” Nie Mingjue manages an affronted look for only a scant moment before it too fades into grumbling acquiescence as he resumes his pacing. “Fine. As little glaring as I can manage.”

“Thank you.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I love you.”

“Xichen!” Lan Xichen laughs softly to see Nie Mingjue’s blush overtakes his handsome features, turning his entire face a lovely shade of red as he splutters his way through returning the infrequently-expressed sentiment and accepts kisses that thoroughly distract him from any lingering anger.

It takes two full days of waiting before Wangji suddenly stands and strides off right in the middle of their morning meal. The behavior is so unusual that Lan Xichen is instantly worried, though as he stands to follow – with Nie Mingjue hot on their heels – he relaxes ever so slightly to see that Lan Wangji is heading straight for a young man Lan Xichen recognizes dimly as Wen Qionglin. He reaches out instinctively to rest a restraining hand on Nie Mingjue’s arm when he feels the man tense next to him, but though the Ghost General looks a little wary upon spotting Lan Wangji he doesn’t look hostile. In fact, he looks as timid and soft-spoken as he had when Lan Xichen had seen him during the lectures in Cloud Recesses. The only hint that he can see that something is different than it was then is the pallor to his skin and, just barely visible through the curtain of his mostly-unbound hair, thin spiderwebs of black cracks on his neck that creep up towards the underside of his jaw.

It takes some convincing from Lan Wangji before Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue are allowed to approach, and then further convincing from Lan Xichen before Wen Ning agrees to let them all come up the mountain. He takes the invitation Lan Wangji presents with gentle, steady hands and holds it as gingerly as one would expect someone to hold little Jin Ling himself, and once again Lan Xichen finds his heart aching – this time for the cruelty of the world that always seems to touch the gentlest of souls.

The trek up the mountain is slow and hot, but the further they get from the town the colder things get. The sensation of the sun on his skin is still there, but it somehow brings him no warmth. The shade cast by the twisting, barren limbs of the trees seems wan and thin, and yet the chill he feels in their shadows reaches into his bones with clawed fingers of dread. The soil becomes loose and dusty under their feet and before too much longer he can feel resentful energy crawling along his skin, seeking weakness. That sensation, at least, passes almost as soon as he notices it and he realizes they must have passed through the wards. Things grow, if possible, even more gray and sere from then onwards, though by the time he can begin to hear sounds besides the wind through dead, hollow trees there are a few with some life in them. A few gnarled leaves on some of the branches in the underbrush, a few trees bearing small fruits.

They pass the first field for planting before they see anyone to till it, though the next field has a figure bent to their task. They sit up straight to watch them pass and Wen Ning offers a little wave to the figure who nods back, wariness etched into every line of their posture. Lan Xichen chances a glance at Lan Wangji to find him facing staunchly ahead, fist held behind his back and his eyes glued to the invitation in Wen Ning’s hand.

“Wei-gongzi should be tending to his field this time of day,” Wen Ning says in his typical soft stammer as they approach what seems to be the heart of the settlement. There are more people around now, all going about various agrarian tasks with varying degrees of vigor. Lan Xichen is about to ask what he means by field when he looks ahead again and spots it, shocking in the gray landscape around them – a bright green space dotted with soft pink petals, and a man in shades of black and grey bent over it with his trousers rolled up to the knee.

It’s clear that Lan Wangji is aching to go to him but they’re stopped before they can go any further by a small young woman suddenly in their way, her feet planted and her arms crossed over her chest.

“Wen-guniang,” Lan Wangji greets with a salute as Wen Ning offers a quiet, “Jie..”

“A-Ning. What are they doing here?”

There’s a beat of silence that Lan Xichen abruptly realizes it’s his responsibility to fill, despite this being Lan Wangji’s errand.

“Wen-guniang,” he greets with a salute of his own that Nie Mingjue copies at his side a beat later. “Wangji has an invitation to extend to Wei Wuxian, and Nie-zongzhu and I agreed to accompany him.”

“An invitation?” At her prompting, Wen Ning hurries to hold out the document itself for her to take, which she does with another skeptical glance at the three of them before she opens it to read the contents. Lan Xichen watches her face for some sort of reaction to the news that Wei Wuxian is invited to Jinlintai, but if she has any sort of feeling about it she does an admirable job of hiding it.

“Wei Wuxian!” she calls without looking away from them. Lan Wangji’s spine stiffens and goes miraculously straighter, as if Wei Wuxian’s name alone is enough to electrify. The man in question waves a mud-stained hand in their general direction without turning around.

“What is it, Wen Qing? A-Yuan is playing with Popo right now.”

Lan Xichen glances up at Nie Mingjue at that with a question in his expression though he knows Nie Mingjue likely doesn’t understand that any better than he does. Nie Mingjue isn’t even looking at him anyway, as it turns out. Instead he’s looking around what they can see from where they are – a crumbling stone structure built into the side of the mountain. Crude wooden huts made from the subpar lumber available in the twisting dead forest around them. Tired farmers in clothes that look one hard winter away from falling apart. And over it all the pall of death and decay that’s inescapable in the midst of a field that had once been, as the name suggests, nothing but a hill of bones and restless spirits.

“You have…guests.”

Lan Xichen looks ahead again in time to catch Wei Wuxian whipping around so quickly he nearly falls off his perch at the edge of his ‘field’ of lotuses, thriving right there in the middle of the Burial Mounds, against all odds.

“Lan Zhan!” he squeaks, looking utterly shocked to see Lan Wangji, let alone him or Nie Mingjue. “What are you-“

“Rich-gege!!!” A tiny voice suddenly cries and Lan Xichen is startled to see a small blur come running from the direction of one of the other fields to plaster itself against Lan Wangji’s leg.

“Hello A-Yuan,” he says softly, almost too softly for Lan Xichen to hear, and he drops his hand down from behind his back to pet the top of the boy’s head, smoothing flyaway hairs back from his little face.

“A child, Mingjue,” he whispers, though the volume can’t hide his horror. This is the ‘band of Wen rebels’ the Jin Sect is so afraid of? This is who remains as the target of their revenge and hatred?

“I see him,” Mingjue replies quietly, jaw working with a little flutter of the muscles in his cheek. “I see them.”

“Rich-gege Xian-gege said you wouldn’t come back but you did!! Pick up, please!”

Lan Xichen wonders if it’s possible for his eyes to go any wider as Lan Wangji reaches down without hesitation to curl his hands under A-Yuan’s reaching arms and, heft him up onto his hip where the boy promptly clings and lays his head down, seemingly content to hug and be held.

“Lan Zhan what are you – what are you all doing here?” Wei Wuxian tries again as he stumbles out of the mud of his pond to traipse across the space between them, cleaning his hands rather ineffectually on his robes hiked up around his hips. When he draws level with Wen Qing she holds the invitation out to him with a look in her eyes that Lan Xichen can’t quite decipher. It’s the first time she’s taken her eyes off of them since she had intercepted them, and Lan Xichen is a little embarrassed to realize he’s relieved to no longer be the subject of her sharp attention.

“They brought you this. You can go see your sister.”

“What?!” Wei Wuxian scrambles to open the letter, eyes flying across the page as he reads whatever it was Lan Wangji had written – knowing him it’s probably as bare-bones as possible, conveying only the necessary information and nothing else. It doesn’t take him long at all to look back up from the page with suspiciously shining eyes. “Is this real?”

“Mn. It was agreed upon.”

“Jiang Cheng agreed to this? And Jin Zixuan?”

“Mn.”

For an alarming moment Wei Wuxian looks like he’s in desperate need of a place to sit, but he rallies quickly and all of a sudden his smile is absolutely blinding, the way it had been once when he’d been a younger, much more carefree teenager coming to study in Gusu. When his smiles had turned Lan Wangji’s ears red and made him glare daggers through whatever poor wall or floor or passing disciple happened to be in his line of sight.

“Oh. Oh wait come in, come in, you’re making everybody nervous out here,” he says with a laugh that doesn’t sound..entirely genuine, but another glance around the settlement proves that he’s got a point. The Wens are all watching them now, tasks forgotten in the need to watch for approaching danger. “Lan Zhan sorry about A-Yuan, he probably won’t be willing to let go for a while.”

“No need.”

“Aiyah. Fine, fine. Come in. Wen Qing and Wen Ning, you too. Come on, let’s go,” he says and just like that Lan Xichen realizes with amusement that they’re all being shepherded into…a cave. It’s a spacious cave, the dilapidated remains of the palace built into the mountain, but it is still effectively a cave. There are tables set up in what’s clearly a communal dining area and Wei Wuxian bustles ahead of them to swipe some accumulated dirt from a couple of the benches before gesturing for them to sit.

“Ah Zewu-Jun, Chifeng-Zun, apologies for my manners,” Wei Wuxian says with a salute for both of them that Lan Xichen is quick to smile away. “We’re not exactly ah…equipped for visitors such as yourselves, I’m sure you understand.”

Lan Xichen takes a seat at the table between Nie Mingjue and Lan Wangji, who has now transferred the child clinging to him to his lap where the boy sits looking at the two strangers to him with wide, curious eyes.

“Xian-gege, Rich-gege brought friends this time,” he observes and earns himself an affectionate ruffle of his hair from Wei Wuxian.

“He did! And they’re very important friends so behave for Rich-gege, alright?”

“A-Yuan is better behaved than you are, Wei Wuxian,” Wen Qing retorts in what Lan Xichen is sure is meant to be their usual banter, though it comes out flat and, if he’s not mistaken, too stressed for the joke to properly land. Wei Wuxian doesn’t seem to notice, or if he does then he is still adept at charging through any sort of tension with his usual charm.

“So rude, Wen Qing, we have guests,” he says with a little flourish as he finally takes his robes down from where they’re hitched up and pats them into place where they belong. It becomes even more apparent how threadbare they are with the full length of them on display. He sits down quickly enough and the Wen siblings move to stand behind him, arms crossed protectively over their chests though rather than looking intimidating, as he’s sure other people would find them, to Lan Xichen they just look…afraid.

“Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan says softly, and though Lan Xichen knows his brother well enough to know that there’s a whole thought tucked into those two words, he doesn’t know them well enough to know what those thoughts are. And that is strangely disconcerting, to realize that there’s an entire facet of his brother that he doesn’t understand anymore.

“Lan Zhan, not that I’m not pleased to see you, of course you know I am. But why are you here?” Lan Wangji flicks his gaze towards the invitation now stowed safely in the front of Wei Wuxian’s robes and the man rests a hand gently over it, though his resolved expression doesn’t waver. “This could have been delivered by post, or by messenger. The townspeople know Wen Ning, they would have gotten it to him if you had left it for us. Why did you come here in person? And - no offense Zewu-Jun, Chifeng-Zun, but..why are you part of this too?”

“Wei-gongzi,” Wen Ning speaks up softly, surprising everyone else in the room. “I don’t think you’ll be safe in Jinlintai.” It’s something of a non-sequitur but somehow the thoughts must be connected, and Wei Wuxian muster understand how they are judging by the way his entire demeanor changes into something much more alert.

Lan Xichen sighs softly as Wei Wuxian’s sharp gaze fixes on them, but it’s Nie Mingjue who speaks up first.

“Jin Guangshan wants your amulet.” It’s bold and barefaced in the way that Nies tend to be and though Lan Xichen is used to it, it still makes him feel a bit squirmy and anxious in the pit of his stomach to hear something so unpleasant laid out so plainly. Not that he’ll ever let it show, of course.

“Well he can’t have it. Next.”

“He thinks the Wens here are dangerous.”

“Clearly we’re not. Wen Qing, Wen Ning, and I are the only cultivators here. Besides, we’re barely feeding ourselves, let alone preparing to take on the Jins. Next.”

“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji cuts in, and this agonized tone, at least, Lan Xichen recognizes.

He interrupts before they can begin any sort of argument. “Wei-gongzi. During the discussion of whether or not you should be present for Jin Ling’s celebration, Jin Guangshan presented concerns about both the amulet and Wen-gongzi. You can’t deny that these are valid concerns for those whom you consider to be enemies.”

“I don’t have enemies unless they make themselves my enemy,” Wei Wuxian shoots back, all trace of boyish excitement gone from his face now. “None of you were there that night in Qiongqi Pass. Did any of you even visit the work camps Jin Guangshan put the Wens in? Did you see, with your own eyes, the field of corpses they created because they knew that the cultivation world would turn a blind eye?” There’s ringing silence for a moment before he repeats his demand. “Did you?!”

“Wei Wuxian,” Wen Qing warns, low and quiet.

“If Jin Guangshan is so bored of watching over Lanling and sending his cultivators to protect the interests of his own Sect then by all means, create an enemy of me. I knew what I was doing when I took these people away and brought them here. I know what people say of me, and of the Wens, do you think I don’t? Words are nothing. Fear is nothing. But if someone acts against me and those I’m sworn to protect, can I not defend myself? Can I not defend them?!”

Lan Xichen curls his hands into slow fists on his knees under the edge of the table as Wei Wuxian makes a wild gesture in the general direction of the rest of the settlement, beginning to look desperate as he works himself up.

“You saw them with your own eyes. They’re just farmers, they’re just regular people, the kind that we’re supposed to protect! Popo plays with A-Yuan to keep him occupied while we work in the fields and Fourth Uncle makes wine from the fruit that grows here and everyone here is just trying to survive, yet you would rather see them all dead for the sin of having once been related to a man who has already been killed for his crimes?”

“Xian-gege,” A-Yuan says softly from his perch in Lan Wangji’s lap. Lan Xichen turns an agonized glance on him to find him reaching out for Wei Wuxian with one chubby little hand, his eyes still wide though now it’s with something like concern rather than the curiosity of before.

“A-Ning, take A-Yuan back to Popo,” Wen Qing instructs. Her brother obeys with a nod, reaching down for A-Yuan even as the boy tries to cling to Lan Wangji.

“Want to stay with Rich-gege!”

“I will come find you soon, A-Yuan,” Lan Wangji promises with something fierce and immovable in his eyes. “Go with Wen Ning.”

There’s a quick flutter of activity as the child allows himself to be carried away, and as Lan Wangji shifts his weight to get comfortable again Lan Xichen doesn’t miss the way he subtly positions himself a little closer to Wei Wuxian. It’s hardly noticeable, but it puts him on the same half of the table as Wei Wuxian and Wen Qing still standing behind his shoulder, and when Lan Xichen meets his brother’s eyes he knows precisely whose side he will stand on should it come to that.

He desperately hopes that it won’t.

“This invitation to Jin Ling’s celebration is a trap, isn’t it?” Wei Wuxian asks and unlike the boyish cheerfulness of before, or the anger of mere moments ago, his tone is now as cold and blank as the stones outside.

“No,” Lan Xichen protests, though it’s undercut significantly by Lan Wangji replying with a simultaneous (and much more convincing), “Yes.”

“Lan Zhan?”

“Jin Guangshan wants the amulet. He knows you will not miss a chance to see your family. He will demand you hand over your amulet and Wen Ning to show that you are no longer a threat to him, and if you refuse I do not know what he will do.”

“He just wants to destroy the amulet and the…weapon,” Nie Mingjue cuts in, gruff and clearly unhappy with the way things are going but it is, surprisingly, Wen Qing who rises to meet him.

“You can’t seriously tell me you buy that? That a man like Jin Guangshan can be handed something powerful and decide, out of the goodness of his heart, to get rid of it,” she snaps, eyes once again cutting and her hands clutched in her sleeves where her arms are crossed. “And that ‘weapon’ is my brother, who, in case you haven’t seen, is in full control of himself and his thoughts. He counts as one of us, and destroying him now would be to finish the murder that those guards at the work camp didn’t finish.”

An uncomfortable silence drops in the wake of her anger and in it Wei Wuxian rises slowly from the table to stand next to Wen Qing, his arms crossed over his chest as well. Lan Xichen can’t help but flick a cautious glance at the hand closest to the flute tucked into his belt but at least for the moment it doesn’t seem like he’ll be reaching for it.

“If you’ve come as nothing more than Jin Guangshan’s messengers then I’m taking you right back down the mountain, one way or another. I’m protecting these people, and that is not up for negotiation. You can tell Jin Guangshan that yourself.”

“Wei Ying-“

“Lan Zhan this isn’t directed at you. It’s them.”

Lan Xichen blinks slowly as he realizes that Lan Wangji’s subtle positioning hadn’t gone unnoticed by Wei Wuxian after all. Or, he supposes, it’s equally likely that Wei Wuxian simply trusts Lan Wangji. Despite their differences, their arguments, it’s possible that Wei Wuxian sees now how ardently Lan Wangji wants him to be safe. How far it seems he’s willing to go to ensure it.

“So what’s the deal, if we leave you keep Wangji here as leverage?” Nie Mingjue barks. Lan Xichen’s eyes go wide as he abruptly realizes he’s lost all control of this conversation and it is heading in a dangerous direction much more quickly than he could have expected.

“Lan Zhan is free to come and go as he pleases, he won’t hurt us. He allowed you to come here with him this time so I assume he trusts you to do the same. But if seeing the truth is going to do absolutely nothing to change what you want and what you’ll help Jin Guangshan accomplish in wiping the Wens off the face of the earth then we’re done here, and you will not be welcome back.”

Lan Xichen can’t deny the dread settling thick and heavy in the pit of his stomach, and only a small portion of it has to do with the resentful energy in the air. Wei Wuxian has proven himself time and time again as a formidable opponent, and while Lan Xichen doesn’t think that it’s necessary to see him as an enemy he knows that the majority of the cultivation world would disagree. It’s plain to see, though, that even should that be the case there’s no force on earth that could turn him aside from the path he’s on. He said it himself – his purpose now is to protect the Wens, and if the cultivation world sees that as a reason for him to die alongside them then he will.

“We’ll help you,” he promises. Rash, perhaps. Uncharacteristically sudden of him, perhaps. But it’s actually not really, in the end. Lan Wangji has been worried about Wei Wuxian ever since that banquet in Jinlintai and his disappearance with the Wens later the same night, and so Lan Xichen has been worried about his brother since the same moment. And not only that, but he still remembers Wei Wuxian as he had once been. Where now it seems everyone wants to paint him as a devil, as an evil mastermind, as a cruel and power-hungry tyrant amassing an army of the dead, all Lan Xichen can see is a young man whose heart has always been kind, who cultivates with evil things he can’t understand but who’s using it to keep a group of helpless people safe. It is not such a sudden change of heart for him to wish to see everyone around him treated well and fairly.

“Xichen,” Nie Mingjue says, startled by his declaration, but Lan Xichen puts a hand on his knee beneath the table, a silent promise to explain himself later.

“We’ll help you. The Lan Sect. What do you need?”

Wei Wuxian is staring at him, mouth hanging open rather comically, and so it’s Wen Qing who speaks up after a moment though Lan Xichen can see in her eyes that she doesn’t trust him yet.

“Food. Blankets for A-Yuan and for the elderly at least. And we want to be left alone.”

“These are the only demands you have?”

“What else could you possibly offer us, Zewu-Jun?”

“Fertile land,” Lan Wangji supplies, eyes beginning to alight with the first dangerous edges of hope. “Protection. Homes.”

“In Gusu?” Wei Wuxian cuts in to ask. There’s weight behind that question, a hostility, but when Lan Wangji looks at him all Lan Xichen can see is his desperation.

I want to bring a man to Cloud Recesses, his brother’s voice echoes softly in the back of his mind. Bring him there and keep him safe.

“It would not have to be permanent, necessarily,” Lan Xichen supplies, hand tensing a little more on Nie Mingjue’s knee when he feels the man shift restlessly beside him. “But it could be. None of this should have happened to you and your family, Wen-guniang. Will you allow the Gusu Lan to begin attempting to make reparations?”

Wei Wuxian and Wen Qing look at each other but whatever passes between them in their glances is beyond Lan Xichen’s comprehension.

“I will think about it,” she replies after a moment and Wei Wuxian turns on his heel to put his back to the rest of them, effectively hiding whatever expression he makes in response. “Come back in three days.”

It’s a clear dismissal and so Lan Xichen stands, Nie Mingjue at his side. Lan Wangji doesn’t move, his eyes fixed firmly on Wei Wuxian’s back, but he doesn’t seem to be included in the dismissal anyway. Wen Qing simply leads them to the doorway again where Wen Ning is standing patiently on the steps outside, likely to keep any eavesdroppers away.

“We’re escorting Zewu-Jun and Chifeng-Zun back to town,” she informs him and he falls in quickly at her side.

“Where is Lan-er-gongzi?” Wen Ning asks with a concerned glance over his shoulder. “Is he alright?”

“He’s fine. He and Wei Wuxian might finally be ready to stop acting like they don’t want to be together,” she replies so flippantly that Lan Xichen is suddenly grateful for Nie Mingjue’s hand at his elbow as he stumbles ever so slightly on the uneven terrain in response.

“O-oh,” Wen Ning stammers out and Lan Xichen is abruptly sure that if it were still possible he would be blushing. “Well that’s nice I suppose. Is Wei-gongzi going to go to Jin Ling’s one-month and see his sister?”

Wen Qing glances back at them at that, though what she’s measuring them for Lan Xichen isn’t exactly sure. “Whose idea was it to have him there?” she asks with a raised eyebrow.

“Wangji’s.”

“Oh yes then I daresay he’ll go no matter if it’s a trap or not,” she remarks so dryly that she actually gets a chuckle out of Nie Mingjue, which is startling to say the least. Lan Xichen looks at him, trying to gauge what he’s thinking, but he’s got his expression carefully locked into stern, unreadable lines. They continue on in silence down the mountain and back to their inn in the town. Only when the Wen siblings have departed and he and Nie Mingjue have retired to their rooms does he unbend enough for Lan Xichen to see that he’s deep in thought.

“Do you think Jin Guangshan truly means to destroy the amulet?” Nie Mingjue finally asks when Lan Xichen has waited him out long enough for him to speak his mind.

“In all honesty no, I do not. At least not right away, and power corrupts. We already know he is a man of vices, it’s no secret that power is one of them.”

“Can you really offer the Wens land and protection without consulting anyone else? The elders, your uncle?”

“It will have to go through more official channels I suppose to actually begin the movement – we’ll need to send resources to keep them clothed and fed while travelling and cultivators to keep them safe, after all. But yes, that is something I can offer them. I will make my case to the elders with what we saw here today, Wangji is my witness, and you could be too. They’re nothing but humble citizens who simply bear the curse of an unfortunate name through no fault of their own. So many Wens have already paid the ultimate price for what Wen Ruohan has done. There’s nothing and nobody in this last remaining group to be so afraid of that they must be eliminated. The only part that should worry the rest of the sects is that Wei Wuxian is at the helm, but their fear of him is slightly misguided as well. I believe once Uncle and the rest of the elders know the truth they will allow such peaceful people to live and work in Gusu.”

“Hm. Well alright then, the Nie will support you.”

That pulls Lan Xichen up short and he stares at Nie Mingjue with undisguised shock. Nie Mingjue at first only raises an eyebrow at him, but after another moment he exhales sharply and shakes his head as if bedeviled by a fly.

“I still don’t like the Wens but I can’t in good conscience lead them to the slaughter. If you want to protect them, then protect them. And I’ll protect you. Maybe we can finally take Jin Guangshan down a notch or two in the process, I definitely won’t be opposed. Nor do I think Jiang Wanyin will take much issue with it either, not if it can get him his brother back. And we already know Jiang Yanli will support anything that repairs Wei Wuxian’s reputation, and Jin Zixuan will support anything that makes Jiang Yanli happy. I’d say the winds are in our favor if we act too quickly for Jin Guangshan to counter it.”

Lan Xichen can still only blink as Nie Mingjue finally cracks his expression to smile ever so slightly and offer him a wink.

“You should have agreed to strategize with me days ago, none of this would have been so surprising, I thought it may become an option. Now it’s just up to Wangji to talk Wei Wuxian and Wen Qing into agreeing.”

“I believe he will find it in himself to be persuasive, and Wen Qing at least is quite sensible. I believe she understands their position well and knows that it is not sustainable for much longer. Or that even if it were, it would be better if their people could get the care and treatment they need to thrive, not just to survive. I believe they’ll agree.”

“Well we’ll just have to wait and see.”

Lan Wangji doesn’t return once during the three days Wen Qing asked for them to wait. On the morning of the fourth day Wen Ning returns for them to bring them back up the mountain where they find Lan Wangji kneeling in the dirt with A-Yuan perched happily in his lap chattering away to Wei Wuxian, who is sitting far closer than necessary to listen as the rest of the Wens bustle around them, hurrying from field to field at a much quicker pace than mere days ago. Wen Qing meets them again at the entrance to the main clearing, arms once again crossed over her chest as she eyes them up like a hawk studying its prey.

“We accept. We’ll all come to Gusu with everything we can carry to start things anew.”

And just like that Lan Xichen gains a new branch of his family in the most unlikely of places.