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Chapter Text

Wei Wuxian opened his eyes. He blinked and frowned. After the darkness and the buffering feeling of the resentful energy of the Burial Mounds, he thought he wouldn’t do so ever again, at least not physically. But he had opened his eyes and he felt surprisingly alright. It reminded him of his first stay in the Burial Mounds, the one where he was disposed of by Wen Chao. That was not a great way to describe it. He actually felt better, physically and mentally. His body still ached, lingering resentful energy still doing its work. He was loath to disrupt the workings of the mountain range that became his home and shelter, his friend and confidant. The aches and pains, the restlessness he had felt before he tried to sacrifice himself, faded over time. The dark energy so different from the spiritual energy, but so similar in its own way, faded into the background as well. Lastly, it came to a rest. Wei Wuxian had no idea how much time had passed, had no idea how long he was unconscious, had only fuzzy memories at best. The mountain range helped him, the Burial Mounds told him the passage of time in its own way. All of the Wens were gone, nobody was left, no living thing came into the sealed and guarded cave.

The concept of time was strange for the Burial Mounds, different places of death sharing the same semiconscious state, but it hadn’t been a season. The Mounds were good with tracking those, the dropping and rising temperatures, the ebbing and flowing fluids of the spring tide and the summer drought, they all caused their own ways of death and the Mounds could track those. It knew itself covered in white and featherlight death from the skies, scorched dry from long-lasting bright obliteration, lashed from howling, biting destruction and raging devouring ruin, flooded from its own depths eradication. It knew how different types of naturally occurring deaths felt on its own stone and soil and it related those to the human that was understanding it. Wei Wuxian sighed, shifting slowly, readily accepting the dizziness and the helping tendrils of resentful energy reaching out to him, guiding him into an upright position. He was thankful to the Mounds, giving it all the kindness, acceptance and warmth it craved. He was just glad, that at least something in the world liked him enough to want him around. The energy around him must have picked up the stray thought, nothing he could or would prevent, as it rippled and changed.

The mountain range typically didn’t remember individuals all too well, the life of such small things as humans inconsequential in itself, but it remembered the bright and righteous resentment, anger, frustration, worry, hate and so much more glowing bright like the scorching dry obliteration it identified with the heat of flimmering air and cracking parched tissue. That were traces of spiritual energy, echoing around him and telling a story of a cultivator. A cultivator who didn’t suppress the resentfulness of the Burial Mounds and let it flow through his meridians. Even if only subconsciously, it was unique in its own way and the Mounds approved of this person. It let those energy echoes flow into Wei Wuxian, let him feel the things this person had felt at that moment. Inside this cave, the trace was strongest and had to originate from here.

Frustration, pain, hopelessness, determination, devotion, worry, fear, sadness... he couldn’t keep up. There was just too much. Too many emotions, all jumbling and clamoring around and into each other. He was pulled into a sensational Empathy, only the emotions, as the memories had already faded away. This mixture of emotions, until it all went still. The calm before the torrential flood poured from dark gray, almost black skies and whipped the earth alongside the howling, biting, devouring winds and flashes of bright, bright and deadly light. Then the emotions darkened. Betrayal, bright and sharp cut through, the flash before the thunder of rage, righteously bright and burning until the energy, the emotion was faded, exhaustion darkening and drowning the fire in its sorrow and helplessness. Whoever the person was, they lived. They were alive after protecting with bright, too-bright and strong spiritual energy. Protected something alongside the Mounds lending its own resentful energy to strengthen and protect this person. Wei Wuxian had the sinking feeling that this something, fading as the presence was depicted by the mixture of echoing lingering energy, was him. He couldn’t remember the time immediately to his unconsciousness, only that he experienced spiritual backlash from the destroyed Yin Tiger Tally. He could dimly remember the impression of bright cloth. Black pearl embedded in amber and white jade. He must have hallucinated the resemblance, a wish of a dying spirit. But the impression of the Burial Mounds depicted a yang-heavy cultivator, bright and righteous in a way the world in itself would never be. An impression he could only coincide with his hallucination of a man who hated him and wanted to bring him to justice in Gusu.

As far as mountain ranges could manage, this one was fairly amused after the heavy things were dealt with. Wei Wuxian was surprised that he wouldn’t find the chirping of a songbird strange in this strange mood the Mound was in. His eyes widened as he saw his reflection in a clear puddle. He felt the distant impression of layered heaviness, quickly fading. The Burial Mounds are a semiconscious guardian of the restless dead that still couldn’t pass on, had of course connection to time and probably dimensions as well. Maybe it had felt possibilities and acted on them, maybe it had seen what could have been, but it had changed the whole physical appearance of Wei Wuxian, giving him softer and younger features. He still looked good, really handsome even, but the years of fighting for survival with almost nothing to distract from his burden had left its mark. He looked like a softer, smaller, physically weaker version of himself as he was at 15 and instead of the boyish charm with mischievously twinkling eyes, he had a melancholy twinkle in them. He felt tired. His eyes showed the tiredness he felt.

„I don’t think you know what happened with A-Yuan, right?“, he asked. If the possibility was there, for his little radish to have survived, then he would be a really bad mother not to grasp at it. The mountain answered with a hurting tired echo of a too-small living energy being spirited away by an equally painfilled but differently hurt blazing sun of energy. Energy he could identify as the one trying to protect him. He had to go and find his radish. He had to go and thank this man, whoever it was. The Mounds accepted that and filled him with its energy, establishing something akin to a golden core, made from resentful energy and connecting him to the Burial Mounds. He was sure it would vanish over time, but at the moment it would function like his own core had, keeping him together, keeping his energy in one place and hidden from prying senses. He would be able to vanish from the cultivation world and he probably would as soon as he had confirmation of his son being safe and sound wherever he had ended up to be. To find him, he apparently had to go to Gusu and sneak into the Cloud Recesses, finding the man who hated him. He just hoped he would not be discovered.

On his way to Gusu, he passed a newly killed merchant who wanted revenge on the bandits killing him. Wei Wuxian helped him and was given the wares as a reward too, alongside the resentful energy he absorbed upon the vanishing of the ghost. It left him semidrunk on power and dizzy until he had meditated and integrated the new energy into his resentful core. The cosmetics were helpful though. He implored the spirits and ghosts of deceased woman for help in handling the paints and learned their skills in that regard. He never had cause to learn them, so he didn’t, but now he regretted not helping his sister with her preparations. She must have been stunning, with a little bit of black under her eyes and a smudge of red on her cheeks to make her natural beauty shine. She would have competed with the skies and she would probably have won. Still, he used the skills he learned to soften his appearance even more, accentuating his feminine features and delicate physique. His hair curled into lacious locks, tamed and orderly falling around his face and shoulder. That was not the strong point of his disguise. He had learned to act from various different ghosts of prostitutes, learning to act shy, demure, and obedient. He would act and speak softly, his personality would seem tame. He would need to find a way to nip his mischievous urges in the bud, as they could make the whole disguise fail. He looked different from himself before he destroyed the Tally, but he also had to act differently. He had to succeed in this or he would be discovered. And if he got discovered, it could harm his son and the man he himself had learned to love.

He loved a man who hated him, had loved him ever since their time in the Cloud Recesses and their innocent adventures. He wished those times back. It had seemed so easy back then, but it was not. Life was never easy and probably wouldn’t ever be. That was what made life so terrifyingly beautiful and Wei Wuxian appreciated it. He really did, even if the energy of the Burial Mounds twisted in something akin to disbelief. He shook his head, dispatching those thoughts and went to the entrance he had thought he would never pass again. Bowing to the disciples standing guard he told them that his father was a servant that once visited the Cloud Recesses. Since the last of his family had died and he found himself without a purpose in life, he had decided to follow the steps of his family and found himself here. He had of course no invitation, but maybe he could be let in as a candidate to become a servant of the great Lan sect of Gusu. After all, it would be an honor for him to be let inside to get a chance. The disciples bought his story, true in its chore and aspects, but still hiding his true intentions. They let him in and brought him to the Sect Leader, where he was interviewed on the rules and principles he would have to follow if he lived with them and worked for them. He knew them by heart after copying them so many times, so he answered every one of the questions, head lowered and voice soft. It somehow worked and maybe he had had luck, but he would thank the gods for their small blessings. From now on he was the servant Mìmì Cángshēn. A name that should have been suspicious but only brought a soft and warm smile of amusement.

Chapter Text

Wei Wuxian blended in seamlessly. His resentful chore was dwindling slowly, at a really slow pace, but he noticed it all the same. It was still enough to halt his aging after he got rejuvenated, but that would vanish sooner or later. He had seen his son, playing with other orphans of the war against the Wen’s. He was protected, guided and loved, Lan Zhan had made sure of that. Wei Wuxians son was provided for, cared for and would have a healthy and sure life full of people, who adored him, ahead of him. There was no place for his Xian-gege. He already had lost his memories of his former family and maybe that was for the better. He was content to leave them be, to vanish and go, but turmoil swept him away to the ancestral halls, away from the playing children.

He listened into hushed whisps of gossip the servants gave each other, rumors spreading faster than a Lan would have thought possible inside their own sect. The great Hánguāng-jūn is going to get punished, they whispered. The second Jade of Lan has fallen into the fangs of evil, they hushed. The young master is going to accept his punishment, they murmured. Hánguāng-jūn is to receive his punishment publicly, they muttered. The second master is to be whipped, they hissed softly. Wei Wuxian knew how much damage a whip could do, how much pain it would give. He had felt the bite of Zidian often enough to be drawn into the unfolding tragedy with his utmost sympathy.

The servants fell silent as soon as they reached the faintest hearing range of a cultivator, bowing demurely to not get chased away. Wei Wuxian followed them the whole time, listening in. Ignored, he managed to get into the Ancestral Hall, staying out of the way and controlling his breathing. The energy inside him coiled, the Burial Mounds recognizing the spiritual energy of the kneeling man. His robes had been stripped, the fabric bound to rip and tear from the disciple whip. It was easier to just have the man kneel without his robes, chest, back and arms exposed to the view of the public. The whole sect including every servant were here to witness this nauseating farce. Everyone that was, who was not a child or in charge of the kids.

He took a deep breath, burying the dark and condensing coiling whisps of resentment into his chore, swallowing the bile threatening to rise in his throat. It burned and left the taste of bitter ash. Hanguang-jun knelt in the center, no outward discomfort to be seen. He would never let them see how much he hated to be this exposed or this vulnerable. It was wrong and to see the elders gliding in on the only free side, almost vengeful in their own serene and impassive way, made it doubly wrong. Their eyes swept over the amassed sect, and then their leader spoke. He was a man of unremarkable stature, for a Lan that was, but his cultivation was quite strong as he still had the youthful air around himself. Not as strong as Lan Zhan, but strong. He also wore a bandage over his arm.

Furrowing his brows Wei Wuxian thought back to his own punishments, the over 3000 rules he had to copy. A punishment is to be just. A punishment is to be accepted. A punishment is between the wronged and the offender. A punishment is to be selected for the good of the offender. Wei Wuxian could not see any of those rules followed. Well the accepting he could see, the man of his heart was kneeling on the floor, head bowed, spine straight and accepted that he was going to be publicly lashed with the disciple whip. One lash for every elder he had fought in pursuing the evil the Yiling Patriarch brought.

Wei Wuxian didn’t feel strong enough to witness it, but he also couldn’t look away. It was like that one time as he was still a street child in Yiling. That time a dog had found the corpse of a street child Wei Wuxian had started to befriend. The nights and days prior had been freezing and he would have frozen himself if he hadn’t had his small golden chore to keep him alive and warm. The dog had stood over the corpse, growling and teeth gnashing, blood and clumps of torn flesh falling from his teeth as he opened his maw. Wei Wuxian had been frozen, his legs stiff and shaking, sweet cooling in waves on his trembling body. He had wanted to tear his eyes away, had wanted to run, but he couldn’t. His heart was rabbiting, beating frantic in a way it never had before, warmth had bloomed around him, only to freeze in bites of chill.

This scene, here and now, this would be the same, Wei Wuxian knew. He couldn’t hear the sentence, the reasoning for the way this humiliating thing would be made publicly. Arrogance, probably. Wei Wuxian at least would cite that if he would have to think about a way to justify a public lashing with a disciple whip. Head held high no sound came out of the proud man kneeling without his robes, the first lash blooming in spreading red over the white jade of his skin. Scarlet drops collected on the raised welt, hanging on the torn flesh and flowing like tears. Thiertytwo lashes to go.

Each lash connected with a sickening crackle and left with a soft whisper of tearing tissue. Scarlet tears painted the broken skin and flesh, the shredded muscles and sinews in blooming red, but no sound left the man. No breath hitched, no hiss, groan or moan escaped as the lashing went on. And his lack of reaction enraged the enforcer of the punishment. The muscles in the arm flexed with every stronger hit. Thirty-three in total that left the back a bloody mess of flesh. Muscles, tendons, flesh and skin, torn to pieces. That would take weeks to heal, and only if the cultivator had only those injuries. Internal injuries and damages to the organs notwithstanding and those were a real possibility with the heavy and hard whipping that was dealt.

He would need a helping hand, but he wouldn’t get one. He knew that the servants were chased away from him long before Wei Wuxian lost his core. He himself had been warned to leave the Jingshi and the second master Lan alone and to his own devices. The things that needed attention would be brought to the servants and only if he really didn’t have the time. Now they were told to let it be as was the agreement of the punishment. Only four people were allowed to visit Lan Wangji during his seclusion period of three years. His brother Lan Xichen, his uncle Lan Qiren, his son Lan Yuan and a servant, if the servant wouldn’t show himself and was willing.

The other servants were unsure as they would have to spend day and night outside of the Jingshi, in every weather, unless they had a task to tend to. And they weren’t allowed to be recognized or to speak about their task. It would send this servant into seclusion as well and that was something no servant wanted. So this task stayed up to be taken and somebody had to do it, or Lan Zhan wouldn’t recover as he should, so Wei Wuxian offered himself. It would be an honor for him to serve the great Hanguan-jun, to help him in his quest to find back to himself. He would take this as seriously as he never did anything else in his life. He owned the man a life debt. It was his actions that managed to give him the time buffer the Mounds needed to knit him together. It was his actions, bringing Wei Wuxian to the Burial Mounds, that made it possible for Wei Wuxian to survive the backlash of the resentful energy of the destroyed Yin Tiger Tally. He found Wei Wuxians son and brought him to safety, claimed him as his own to protect him and give him an opportunity to grow up in peace.

Every cultivator of the Lan sect had rudimental knowledge of healing and if the situation became dire, they would notice it and inform a trained healer, but it would leave the injuries to heal without guidance, without direction. A weaker man would have died during the punishment, and a more cowardly man would have begged for their death, but Lan Zhan was neither of those things. He was strong, proud and humble, accepting his potential mutilation as part of his punishment and a part of his trial. He probably thought that he had failed and accepted the pain for the rest of his life as part of his personal punishment. Wei Wuxian wasn’t going to have that. He was going to force proper healing on his zhiji and minimize the damage if he couldn’t get rid of it. He would be cared for as he deserved, regardless of the elders wishes.

Nobody but the master of a servant had a right to tell the servant what to do and at the moment, knowingly or not, he would be Lan Zhan’s servant. And he could be a good and proper servant and do his job. First, he needed a way to sneak in and assert the real damage to the back, arms and legs. This was the first priority on his agenda. Wei Wuxian had a life debt and he would pay it with devotion for the love and care for his son and with determination for the determination and steadfastness he had received.

He was clearer-headed now that the last remains of the Yin Tiger Tally’s energy had vanished. Now he could see how it had affected him and how his friend was only worried about him getting influenced by something that was hurting him. He should have known, they had been close after all. He had shown him his wardens and his son, something he wouldn’t have done with Jiang Cheng at the time. He would repay Lan Zhan for his sure kindness and steadfast friendship. That he owned him and that he would do.

Chapter Text

Lan Wangji didn’t know much about his first few days in secluded healing. His brother and uncle had been by, bringing his adopted son Lan Yuan with them. He was thankful that he was still allowed to see his son, even if only for short times as his son shouldn’t be tainted with the memories of his new father in pain and unable to even lift his arms. It always made the little sunshine sad. He hated it when the clouds would hide the sun of his son's happiness.

He loved the child, carefree and kind, almost always smiling and full of curious and friendly energy, it reminded him of the friend he had lost. Wei Ying was dead. Nothing of him had been found after Lan Wangji was taken with the elders. His cultivation had turned against him, had his body and soul vanished from everything trying to track him. He couldn’t think about that or his healing would be imparted. It would be a shame to make the matter even more of a burden for the servant he didn’t even know.

He had not met his designated servant who never showed himself to him as long as he was awake, but who had to be responsible for the soft and always clean sheets he was lying in, the cooling salve on his aching back and the bandage hiding the itch of threads through his body. Whoever that servant was, he knew some things about healing, some other things about seasoning a meal for a bedridden and sick patient who had no appetite or ability to stomage food. He was good in that way, taking the task with utmost seriousness, but always giving him something to be, although guiltily, amused over.

When he was tasked with fetching food for his visiting family he gave them personalized bowls of food, with their preferences and their needed diet in mind. Lan Wangji mostly had thick broths for the time his stomage was knitting itself together. A-Yuan had always something spicy-sweet on his plate, a novelty in the Cloud Recesses as it often was agreed that spices were a frivolous thing no one should need, but his son ate it, always with a smile and a content sight. He actually threw his first temper tantrum about his dessert being removed under the premise that it was too spicy.

It was not for the child, who ate it and smiled as bright as the sun. The servant gave Lan Xichen food that was of other distribution, more on the vegetable side and less on the rice, as the healers had prescribed. And he didn’t know why, but his uncle always got it somewhat over- or underseasoned. His quiet discontent always amused and soothed him as he guiltily noticed. It reminded him of times he was happy. It reminded him of dark robes with accentuated red and the faintest fragrance of lotus. Whoever that servant was, he was playing with fire to agitate the grandmaster of the Gusu Lan Sect and he did so with shocking regularity.

It was after his grace period was over and long before he was healed, so he had to sit with his healing body and maintain a proper pose. The fabric agitated the healing flesh that was not covered in bandages. The skin was sensitive, the nerves new and the sensations overwhelming. That the fabric caught on his scars didn’t help. It left him in a mood he didn’t know he could possess until all this mess started.

Before Wei Ying had tickled it out of him, he was not sure that he had emotions to the extent he now knew how to identify. The next morning, after he woke up, he noticed all his clothes being changed. The fabric was the finest he had ever seen and felt, gliding cool and soft over his sensible skin. He could feel the faint thrumming of the arrays woven into the fabric, could trace the neutral and changeable energy with his own and get a feel for the workings of those arrays. They were for protection, but what they protected, he didn’t know.

No malice came from his clothes and that he had had the impulse to check was a sure sign of him being distrustful of a man who managed to notice his discomfort and provide a solution. He ignored the voice that told him to be modest and not live leisurely. He also couldn’t ignore a thoughtful gift to him or disrespect the servant who provided it. And the servant had taken all his inner robes and changed them, leaving him no choice but to take the new robes and wear them.

He could feel the hidden arrays taking effect immediately, the overheated healing skin soothed, a slave applied to his wounds. It was not a robe, it was a bandage disguised as a robe to help him heal and minimize the damage of his punishment. It must have cost a fortune and the healers would love to have such an artefact. The robe seemed to notice his wounds and applied the right amount of salve, spreading it over his injuries and soothing them. He also noticed that it wouldn’t let anything unclean or dangerous touch it to an extent.

He was sure that it was not a permanent array and needed to be charged, but it used arrays of the original clan robes. They stayed pristine the whole time he wore them, even after he had to sit down in the grass around the Jingshi, overwhelmed by the pain he had felt. No grass stains, no speck of dirt clung to the fabric, leaving it the faintest clean blue. It tore as it caught on a nail after he had shakingly poured tea for himself. The broth didn’t reach him, repelled before it could even reach the fabric. All of his inner robes were like that, being exchanged with his old ones overnight. He also got sweets snuggled into the Jingshi, things he could give A-Yuan and things he himself liked. And they were always plentiful restocked, preserved in arrayed boxes, meals provided and stored in the same manner inside his kitchen.

„You’re doing well“, his brother commented one time, maybe a month after his punishment.

„Mn“, he answered, thinking about the robe that protected his still-healing flesh. He should show the servant gratitude and make him aware of how much it meant to him and how much it helped him. Maybe opening up would be an appropriate way? Or he could go into overachieving. He actually didn’t want to change his way around the servants, didn’t want them going into his home and changing things, but this one, he hadn’t even seen hair or robe. Maybe a smaller gesture, more suited to their standings, would be better. He was not sure that he could manage to open up. He had failed his person, so how could he think about opening up to a stranger when he didn’t even manage to do so to his only friend? He would try, but that was for A-Yuan, not for a stranger.

„You haven’t chased away the servant, have you? You are still too weak to handle all the additional tasks of a household.“

„Mn“, he gave the negative, his tone changing slightly, but his brother caught it and nodded in understanding.

„Ah, it must be because you didn’t chase the servant away. He came shortly before you received your punishment and was the one to take on the task. I’m not sure he knew that he would go into semi-seclusion himself, but he had not complained as of yet.“ His face must have done something as his brother continued. „You didn’t even know that we had a new servant. He managed to do all his householding tasks and to change your bandages without you noticing? I’m impressed.“

„Mn“, he replied slowly, trying to get over his non-verbal state. „Name.“

„He introduced himself as Mimi Cangshen. I’m not sure about it being his real name though. I think he may be from Yunmeng or Yiling, his dialect reminds me of those two places. But he has and uses a Gusu dialect as well“, his brother answered. He smiled in a soothing manner and continued. „He has no golden core and his qi is nearly untraceable, but he understands the way of cultivators and of us. We shouldn’t pry too deeply into his past life and respect his wishes.“

„Brother trusts him. Mimi Cangshen is good. I will keep Mimi Cangshen in my service after this“, Lan Wangji decided. His brother was visibly surprised, his eyes growing excessively wide and his smile slipping slightly. He caught himself quickly and they had a pleasant talk about his adopted son after that.

Chapter Text

In the first days, he had to sedate Lan Zhan to prevent him from waking up and agitating his fresh injuries. He cleaned the house with a thoroughness that bordered on obsessive. He wouldn’t live with the knowledge of being able to do something different and prevent unnecessary harm and pain, and not doing it. He observed the group of direct relatives when he wasn’t tasked to fetch their meals. The interaction between Lan Zhan and his older relatives had become strained in a way that was only noticeable if you knew how a family dynamic could be strained in a way that the people themselves wouldn’t notice.

Little Yuan on the other hand gave the bedridden patiant of Wei Wuxian a bout of joy and strength anytime he was allowed to accompany his uncle or great uncle. It warmed his heart to see his son being happy and carefree and giving his parent joy. It was such a sweet way of bringing pure joy and it overflowed Wei Wuxian's heart every time.

The joy only lasted up to the moment he had an unconscious Lan Zhan lying before him, his injuries exposed and ready to be treated. He cleaned the wound, making sure no old blood was clogging the wound, spreading antiseptic salves, and rebinding the bandages. He never showed himself to Lan Zhan, respecting his pride and privacy as best he could, and for once complying with the rules, but he knew he would get chased away the moment Lan Zhan was ready.

„Cangshen, could you fetch us lunch?“, Lan Xichen asked pleasantly. Wei Wuxian bowed to him and went on his way to fetch the meals for Lan Zhan's family. Finishing Lan Qiren's slightly too seasoned portion he thought about his son and the way he was refusing most of the Lan dishes he was offered. It was out of unsureness about things he didn’t know, without his parents around to help encourage him, but that couldn’t be all.

A-Yuan probably didn’t understand why he got unseasoned food and he was used to the spicy dishes the inhabitants of the Burial Mounds had adapted to eating. Maybe if he got a treat reminding him of his former home he would be able to be soothed into accepting the lightly seasoned dishes of the cloud recesses. They would help him get strong, he knew, but sweetening the child up to it wouldn’t hurt.

He took over one of the additional spaces inside the kitchen and prepared a quick dessert of fried ginger with honey. It wouldn’t be too spicy for the child, he had stomaged far worse on spice, and it would maybe remind him of Wen Qing and himself. Wei Wuxian didn’t want to interfere with the memory loss, but he wasn’t willing to let the subconscious memories fade.

Bringing the dishes to the Jingshi he knocked politely and stepped aside. He was out of sight but could see the meals being taken into the home of Lan Zhan. Lan Qiren's discontent ramblings of his incompetence and the quiet reprimands of Lan Xichen as he did a good job with everything else and would deserve praise and no reprimands soothed a petty little thing inside Wei Wuxian that was always ready to rear its head. Making the meals seasoning slightly to the side of over or underseasoned was an easy way to infuriate the grandmaster, but it wouldn’t hold any impact on his usual tasks.

He hadn’t expected his mild-mannered and shy son to make a ruckus and throw an outright temper tantrum he hadn’t been teased into, but it was a reassuring thing. A-Yuan tended to swallow his feelings most of the time if he felt wounded and wronged. Not that the wrongs a child perceived were always wrongs an adult would agree with, but this child was sensitive to the point where A-Yuan only threw tantrums if his emotions overflowed and he couldn’t hold them in or if he was completely safe.

To hear him throw such a tantrum because he wanted his sweetened ginger was a balm to worries Wei Wuxian had tried to bury deep under other things. It calmed his mind into thinking about a way to get his important project done in time. It would help Lan Zhan’s injuries without him being sedated longer than what was expected by the healers or the relatives.

The finest threads of the finest silk Wei Wuxian had ever felt, flowed through his fingers. He wove the threads and infused them with spiritual energy from the surrounding. It had the effect that the initial spiritual energy would be easily dispelled by the one claiming the end product and it would also mask the true qualities of the resulting garments for the time being. It also would charge the array he was going to stitch into the finished garment once he sewed the robes together.

If it worked as intended -and that was not a given as he was experimenting with untested talisman arrays and wove them into priceless garments he had made himself and gathered the resources for- this would be a revolution in treating long-term patients with complicated and long-lasting to permanent open injuries. It would provide a steady cleaning, and moderate protection, and would spread the salve, which was stored before being worn.

He knew as soon as he managed to finish it, he would have to make sure that Lan Zhan wore it, so he would have to misplace his usual underrobes. Still, it was a reward to see him wear it and move freely without added pain from inconsiderate elder people who still thought the punishment had been just. Maybe he would add a drop of chili oil to his usual overseasoning the next time he was tasked with fetching their meals.

It would be the kind of petty punishment that would make Lan Zhan roll his eyes if he wouldn’t be so dignified. He would tell him that it was pathetic and that one should not be petty. Wei Wuxian would pout and whine about how his uncle was treating him unfairly until he would be silenced by the Lan’s silencing spell and then he would give him his biggest saddest eyes until the hint of a smile echoed through the eyes and around Lan Zhan’s mouth. He would tease him as soon as the spell ran its course and got thrown out for it. At least it would be like that if they were the students of merely fifteen years of age, they had been. Now he would probably just throw him out.

The notice on the table surprised him when he opened the door far after the Lan’s bedtime. Curious he made sure that his master was fast asleep, then he sneaked to the table and looked at the things that were laid out. A small folded note with two pieces of silver and Lan Zhan’s personal jade token lay there. He took the note and turned it around to see his name sprawled out with perfect calligraphy, even if he could see the smallest irregularities. Lan Zhan’s hand must have been shaking as he wrote the characters. Curious he opened the note and felt his heart pounding. It had to be a trap, there couldn’t be another way.

„Mimi Cangshen. Bring me two jars of Emperor’s Smile until the day after tomorrow“ it read, and even as he turned and twisted the notice, it didn’t change. A direct order from someone, who until then had never acknowledged that he had a servant and had chased every other servant away. But if this was a trap, it would be a very weird one.

Lan Zhan had nothing to gain from tricking him like that and he was too good of a man to resort to such underhanded tactics. If he thought that his servant was to be punished, he would have made that clear to his brother and uncle. Wei Wuxian couldn’t deal with that, it made his head spin to be given such a tricky order. Not doing it could unbalance and even rebuke a delicate show of trust, but accepting it could be walking into a trap.

He had two days to decide what to do with the order, until then he would do his other tasks. He was silent and efficient, a shadow so quiet and fast, you could miss it even if awake. It was a talent most great servants of cultivators learned. The complete next day he went on with his tasks and pondered all the while what to do, knowing what he would do. He hoped that he had done everything he had to and was only easing the way for the final stretch of healing. After Lan Zhan was healed he had wanted to go away anyway. It was too much of a risk to stay here and get noticed. He had done what he came for anyway. He would make sure that everything was ready for his expulsion from the Cloud Recesses and would do what he was tasked to do.

He sneaked through the barrier, even after curfew, thanks to the token his master had lent him. And a loan it was, as it was the personal token of Lan Zhan, blessed with additional privileges he had earned and which had not been revoked as of yet. One of the privileges was unlimited access to all of the Cloud Recesses at any time. He was free to come and go, especially after he had finished his punishment in seclusion.

Seclusion didn’t mean to not come out of the house but to withdraw from other people. Members of the clan that went into seclusion were free to wander the grounds and the nearby nature but were expected to keep their distance if they found people that were not part of their agreed limited social circle. An allowance that was for the sake of relatives and spouses, not for the sake of the person going into seclusion.

That being said, Wei Wuxian mourned the easy access he hadn’t had when he was a teenager sneaking contraband into the sacred retreat of the Gusu Lan Sect and the Lan Clan. His experience with smuggling forbidden things from his teenage years and his nonexistent qi was making it far too easy and he got nervous all over. Maybe it had been a trap and Lan Zhan had seen through his disguise. That would be horrible. Still, he left the jars to be found the next morning and finished his daily tasks before going to bed himself.

Chapter Text

Wei Wuxian would normally not stay so near to the Jingshi. He would go and do his duties outside of the building and then he would go and go to bed. He never had so little sleep in his entire life and he knew if he missed more Wen Qing would come back only to scold him and possess needles to paralyze him. He missed her dearly, but that was a constant ache he knew how to deal with. Since the day prior he had a nervous uncertainty and a sense of uneasiness inside him that was solely the result of him sneaking Lan Zhan forbidden alcohol.

He had made sure that it wouldn’t interfere with the almost healed wounds on the back and wouldn’t interfere with any medication still in the system of the second Jade of Lan, but that didn’t mean that this would go smoothly. As far as Wei Wuxian knew, Lan Zhan had never tasted any alcohol in his entire life. Who knew what he would do with one sip? What he would do when he was drunk? Who knew what could happen?

He took a deep breath and concentrated on the sound of the breeze through the grass, the quiet buzzing of insect wings, and let go of his nervous worried energy. He knew he was working himself up. But who knew what could happen? A sudden thump echoed from inside the room, silence followed. Worried Wei Wuxian looked through the window and furrowed his brow.

A used cup lay on the ground, right beside the limp hand of the cultivator. His head had fallen forward onto the table, probably resulting in the sound that had startled Wei Wuxian. What was surprising was the fact that the jar had fallen to the ground, not breaking but spilling all its contents. As if there never had been any missing.

Lan Zhan had recovered from his drunken pass out in the meantime, had sat up, head still bowed to the table, and was now sobbing loudly, tears flowing unrestricted from his eyes, over his cheeks and along his nose, gathering on chin and nose, dripping in big drops and collecting where they landed. His eyes, ears and cheeks were red-rimmed and he mouthed something. Maybe he said it, but it got drowned out by his heaving sobs and quiet tone. It looked like he was repeating it.

Wei Wuxian stood silent guard outside, protecting Lan Zhan’s privacy and Lan Zhan himself, if he could. He was not prepared to see him clench his hands and rummage in a hidden compartment under a floorboard. He had to make sure to clean there too, the thing that got taken out was covered in fine dust. Dust that burned away as spiritual energy heated the brand from glowing orange into white. Wei Wuxian jumped through the window and threw himself forward, but he was not fast enough to prevent the brand from blooming into existence, marring the jaded skin of the great Hanguang-jun in the front as well. A brand Wei Wuxian recognized as the one he wore himself, a little thing that was not erased by the Burial Mounds messing with Wei Wuxian’s body.

„Hanguang-jun, please let me help you“, he begged softly, his voice shy and uncertain from the shock he felt. And he thought seeing the cruelty of the elders had been horrible, but this was cruelty from Lan Zhan against himself. He felt sick, but he had to be strong. He could be sick as soon as Lan Zhan’s new injury got treated.

„No!“ Wei Wuxian had not expected to get such a vehement answer. It was almost a shout and way too loud for the sensibilities of the Lan’s. That the man also turned away and crossed his arms made him almost adorable. It was almost like witnessing his A-Yuan having a temper tantrum. Maybe instead of reacting as he would with another drunk the approach he would use with the child would be better. At least he wanted to know and his first impulse had been to argue. He felt that would not help here and it would also not be something the shy man he played would do.

„Why?“, he asked instead, voice soft, warm, comforting.

„Don’t deserve!“

„You don’t deserve to get help?“, he asked to clarify and was heartbroken by the solemn nod he received. Drunk Lan Zhan was expressive in his emoting. At least until he caught himself and tried to suppress it. „Why don’t you deserve help?“

„I have failed“, he answered and started to shake from his increasingly strong sobs. „I have... failed. He is... gone! My fault!“

„I don’t think you can have failed.“

„Wei Ying’s dead!“, he shouted and went quiet because his shaking and sobbing made it impossible to say anything else. Helpless Wei Wuxian reached out and brushed over the arm, still knowing how much Lan Zhan had hated physical contact with strangers. A broken sound tore itself from the drunk and then he was clatching the servants' shoulders tightly.

Wei Wuxian could feel bruises forming under the tight grip, could feel the tears seeping into his clothes. Not knowing how to calm the other man down he slowly brought his hands up in a light embrace, firming it up as he wasn’t rebuked. He held the man, humming a comforting song he had in his head for years now. He somewhat knew that he was threatening his own cover, knew that the song was special and only a few knew about its existence, but this was important. Another torn sound escaped those lips, breath hiccuping and stuttering under the sobs. „I should have saved him. I should have protected him.“

„Hush now, Hanguan-jun. He wouldn’t want to see you like this“, Wei Wuxian mumbled, confused and torn about the way his death was causing this pain to bloom inside his friend. He was really too good, grieving for one who could not be saved and was the reason for his own downfall. He was just lucky that Lan Zhan was blackout drunk from one glass of wine and wouldn’t remember him, or this, come morning.

It made Wei Wuxian feel guilty too. His friend was actually grieving for him and went to measures he shouldn’t go to, because Wei Wuxian needed to be forgotten. He waited for the other man to fall asleep, the deep sleep of a drunk. He exposed the wound again, starting to clean it, spreading the healing salve he had prepared for refilling the special underrobes one last time and dressed the new wound. Finished with his patient, he took the writing utensils of his friend and wrote a short notice about the happenings of the evening.

He hadn’t been punished and after a week he started to relax, working on the instruments he had started to make. He had the hopes that a guqin, which would be Lan Zhans alone, would help his friend to strengthen his cultivation and he was almost finished. He had way too much time between his tasks and after months of caring for his friend and spending time alone, he had almost finished his project. Only the last adornments and decorations were missing. Then he could string the instrument with self-made spiritual silk threads of different strengths. They would be stronger, more resilient and would aid the musical cultivation.

His own flute was almost finished too. Chenqing had been taken by Jiang Cheng after the siege after all. And with his new flute, he could try to get a feel for the Lan’s musical cultivation as well and maybe he would be able to play the famous tunes, Calm, Healing and Rest and aid his friend in his recovery. But he had to finish Lan Zhan’s instrument first.

His friend would need it, to start playing Inquiry at its full potential and maybe, if he didn’t receive an answer, maybe then he would be able to start healing from his grief and overcome his thought obligation to Wei Wuxian. Maybe, and he ignored how his own eyes stung and his heart hurt to even think about it, maybe Lan Zhan would be able to forget about him fully. It would be safer and better for the greatest cultivator, their generation had to offer, and it would protect him against the cruelty of the world, if he would forget about a friendship he hadn’t had wanted in the first place.

As soon as he finished the instrument he let his hands caress the wood and the strings, listening to any imperfections he may could hear. The instrument had spirit, allowing him to do so because he was the builder, but he knew that the spirit inside the guqin knew he was not its master. It reminded him a bit of Bichen and Suibian, proud and loyal to their masters. It was ready to get to its master and it made it clear, energy softly pulsing with something akin to excitement. Wei Wuxian smiled and gave a last caress over the silver plate that would bear the name of the instrument as soon as it chose to accept a given offer. With a written note folded and tucked between the strings he lay the instrument on the ground before the door, wrapped two times, soft but firm and then he hid himself.

Chapter Text

Lan Wangji woke up with a softly pounding head. His core was already working on removing his headache, so he ignored it and instead took a deep breath. A stinging ache over his heart made itself known with the suddenly stronger inhale. The sting of his remorse, guilt and grief he knew all too well ever since his brother had told him that Wei Ying had died. But this was more physical. Blinking the blur away he took a look and tried to remember what could have happened.

His chest was bandaged, and the jars of Emperor Smile, his servant had brought him, had vanished. His rooms were as pristine as they were every morning, only a slip of paper laid folded and out of place on his nightstand. A flowing soft calligraphy, one he more often saw with the female disciples, addressed it to him. Sitting up fully he rubbed over his burning stinging eyes and took the note to read.

Hanguang-jun,
I have taken the liberty to clean up after you and treat your wound. Please don’t drink again if you are in a state to harm yourself. I’m sure whoever you are mourning wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself over them. Please find another outlet for your grief. Maybe try Inquiery, if I’m not overstepping my bounds by suggesting as much. You spilled one of the jars and I couldn’t save the contents, the second is under the loose floorboard. I hope you will forgive this one for his insolence in taking such actions on his own.
Drink lots of water and take it easy today
Your humble servant Mimi Cangshen

An almost fond smile tried to steal itself on his lips, a feeling he only had with his son and the parent his son had lost. It was an insolent note, a note of a servant questioning its master, but the greatest servants in history had no qualms about speaking up to their masters, as long as they were close enough. He was only glad that this servant was truly loyal. If not, he could have tried to trap him and could have brought him into an even thicker predicament. Letting the trapped air in his lungs flow out in a soft sound, he cleaned himself up as much as he was able to. He was following the advice of his servant and soon felt a lot better in the physical sense, but he had no instrument to play Inquiry upon. Tradition said that a cultivator of his sect had to find their instrument for the full potential of their cultivation to unfold. His instrument was a guqin, but he hadn’t found the right one up to this point. And to summon a spirit, he couldn’t use his inferior training instrument. Still, he tried it with his training instrument, spending the evening playing Inqiery.

He did that for a week, getting into a new routine, while his servant was away attending to other duties. That was why he was surprised by a knock on his door, two wraps, softly interrupting him in his warm-up play. The sound itself was firm in its softness, a quiet but persistent request for attention. He stood up, noting the almost completely gone pain in his back and the dulling physical ache in his chest area. He was healing far better than he thought, even with more attention and care to his wounds than he had thought he deserved or would get.

Opening the door he was surprised by not seeing anybody. Instead, he saw a beautiful guqin laying on the ground, silver plating on dark wood, silk threads already strung and a soft flowing and swinging pale blue tassel accentuating the darkness of the body. It was a master-crafted instrument, with a high spirit and without a name. Whoever made that instrument had enough experience with doing so to manage a feat of utmost difficulty.

Spirits born inside spiritual tools needed to be given a name, as soon as possible to strengthen their hold and connect them with this world. That’s why cultivators were asked to give their chosen names before a weapon was smithed, but this one hold an unnamed spirit, a feat only possible by masters of their crafts. This spirit would choose its own name and master. It would become one of the strongest tools the cultivation world had ever seen, only rivaled by similar tools. And with the right master, it would surpass every spiritual-infused guqin Lan Wangji had ever seen. This was a priceless tool one of a kind and it was laid down on his doorstep, a note tucked between the strings.

Hanguang-jun,
this guqin is a present to you. I hope you will become as good a team as the legendary duo of Hanguang-jun and Bichen. I hope to hear a lot of awed stories about the second Jade of Lan and his superior strong sword Bichen and his soft and soothing guqin whispered and spread through the folk high and low. I don’t know the name of the guqin, but I know it is yours. As soon as it’s spirit accepts it’s name it will emboss itself in the decorated silver plate. I hope this present is acceptable. I know a name is needed, but I couldn’t come up with a suitable one.
In humbly acceptance of any action taken by you
Your undeserving servant Mimi Cangshen

He saw the black hair and the pale gray robes of the servant behind a bush, but he didn’t acknowledge it. He just took the note, folded it back and took the instrument with him. Before the door closed he paused.

„Thank you. Lan Wangji“, he said, closing the door and stepping inside. Surprised by the surge of spiritual power in the guqin he looked down, eyes widening in bewilderment upon seeing the character of his courtesy name embossed into the silver plate. The spiritual instrument had chosen its name and it had done so in an almost ridiculous manner. It reminded him of the tale his friend had told him. How his sword Suibian had taken the name before it was smithed. How interesting to have such strong-willed spiritual tools in this generation. Maybe it meant something. Something deeper than the war against the Wen’s, something bigger.

Or it meant that he had been truly bound to his friend, a bond of equally matched individuals. Letting the grief and hurt wash over him, he sat down and prepared. Carefully playing the first notes he could feel the spirits' energy, and his own alongside it, vibrate with the notes. He played the first notes of a common folk song of gusu, a tale about a rabbit following the dragon into the mountains. It rang clear and strong through the Jingshi, vibrating in the air and filling the silence with soft notes. Satisfied he stilled the strings, giving the Jingshi the quiet back it was named for. His hands trembled softly as he used his spiritual energy to draw the first notes of Inquiry.

Wei Ying, are you there?
Where are you?
Please, answer
Please, come back.
I miss you.
I have taken A-Yuan.
A-Yuan is doing alright.
A-Yuan needs you.
I need you.
Please, Wei Ying.
Wei Ying...
I miss you...
I’m sorry.
I should have saved you.

He played those notes, made them into a call of grief and pain, of desperation and hopelessness, and played it every day, until it was broken by a single disruptive tone, freezing his hands on the strings of the guqin. Something had answered.

Chapter Text

Wei Wuxian was startled awake after he had gone to bed by a tugging sensation on his soul, trying to call him away. He resisted until it vanished and then he went to bed again. It came back the following night and from then on every night, always the same calling and tugging sensation on his soul. He was still sitting on the spot he had made for himself outside of the Jingshi, preparing his departure as the sensation came again.

He had run late, normally he would be in bed, but the garden had needed tending. It came with the sounds of Inquiry from the Jingshi, every note of the softly played guqin vibrating within him and then tugging on his soul. It was Lan Zhan calling for him and he had the opportunity to answer. He sat down, leaning on the wooden beam of the house, hidden from immediate view, and he hoped that he could follow the sensation without permanent consequences. Taking a last breath he closed his eyes and stopped resisting.

Wei Ying, are you there? He could understand the string notes he hadn’t been able to before. It was weird to leave his body without a medium to help him move, but he followed the music and soon was in the room of his friend. Where are you? Please, answer. Please, come back. I miss you. He couldn’t bear it anymore and put his soul on the strings, encasing the strings in his presence and letting his feelings answer. Only a soft note came out, a worried vibration of a string, but it froze the almost frantic playing. I’m here, Lan Zhan. I’m here.

Wei Ying! The answer was shakey and it vibrated with the agony of certainty and the onslaught of so many emotions, clear and unblurred from the Burial Mounds. Wei Wuxian also didn’t know how he would alleviate those heavy burdening emotions, but he would try. Lan Zhan deserved closure in any way Wei Wuxian could give it to him. And being his ghost friend, maybe it would help.

Lan Zhan... What’s wrong? he asked, worried for a friend, who never opened up about his feelings. He didn’t think he would receive an explanation, but the notes changed from the way they were played beforehand, meaning ringing clear.

Wei Ying... I miss you... I’m sorry. I should have saved you. I should have protected you.

None of that! He interrupted it, feeling the sharp twang of strained strings, and the way they bit into the playing fingers. He couldn’t see the guqin player, but he could feel the sensations of the guqin as he was connected with it. Wet pressure landing and wetness gliding over the wood. Was Lan Zhan crying? That would not do, he didn’t want to make his friend sad. Whatever you think, it is not your fault!

Wei Ying died! The tonnes were sharp, howling, the hands, not trembling, plucking the notes sharp and precise.

I did not! He protested hotly, calming down shortly after. It would not do to set his friend on a hunt for him. I did not die, but it has to stay a secret. I don’t expect you to tell a lie but don’t spread the word, please? I fear for the safety of you and A-Yuan.

I have taken A-Yuan. A-Yuan is doing alright. A-Yuan is missing you. Please, Wei Ying. The pleading in the end was, what got him to open up a bit. He was not sure it was a good idea, especially as he was sure it would hinder the progress of Lan Zhan getting over him. A part of him was oddly pleased about that.

I know. I am near you. I will keep watching over you. I hope you will continue to do alright. I miss you too. Tell me about what happened. He did not expect to get answers, but he did get them. Lan Zhan told him that A-Yuan was doing great, even if he lost most of his memories. He told Wei Wuxian about the elders, his punishment, and his foolish decision to try alcohol while grieving. He told him about his incapabilities and his guilt. Wei Wuxian tried to soothe the guilt, but he knew it was not enough and he accepted, resulting in him telling Lan Zhan some things of his own.

I woke up in the cave you must have left me. I don’t remember you being there, but I remember darkness and resentful energy reaching out for me. I remember being irritated by a light chasing the darkness and holding it away. That must have been you. I actually don’t remember anything more. There was darkness and the welcoming embrace of the Burial Mounds after I fell down the cliff. Then I woke up in a cave in the Burial Mounds. Thank you for staying with me. And sorry for all the grief I caused you before.

Wei Ying caused me no grief. My only grief is Wei Ying’s death.

Lan Zhan! His answering tone got translated into a perfectly annoying vibration of the strings. The still newly named Wangji responded in kind with an irritated flash of its own spiritual energy. I told you, I’m not dead. I am merely out of my body at the moment. I don’t know how. But I know I am not dead. If I wouldn’t be so worried about you I would tell you where I am. That reminds me! I should go! Wouldn’t want to die after you saved me and I told you I am not dead. That would be embarrassing.

Goodbye, Wei Ying.

Goodbye, Lan Zhan! He peeled himself from the guqin and let his soul snap back into his body. He took a deep breath, disoriented from all the senses suddenly coming back to him. To only be a wandering soul sure was a strange experience. He listened to the last notes of Wangji singing Rest then he stood silently and made his way to his own bed.

Time moved on, the seasons changed and they settled into a routine. Wei Wuxian would do his work and would not be seen, and if he was seen he was ignored. Lan Zhan would do what he had to do to train his cultivation and remain in seclusion and in the evenings he would play Inquiry. Wei Wuxian only answered those questioning tug at his soul if he was able to hear the music with his ears and sometimes he was too far away to listen to the first notes or he had things to attend to. But on the days he had the ability, he would answer and they would converse, the guqin singing deeply into the night, translating their words and feelings for any passerby to listen into. Nobody came by and if they did, they would have heard outrageous stories about Wei Wuxian's childhood and his first years of friendship with Lan Zhan.

Do you remember the cave under the cold spring? Wei Wuxian asked one night, using the lull in their conversation.

I do.

Do you remember Jiang Cheng's outrage about the way he found us after?

I do. Jiang Wanyin was most displeased.

Yes, he was! Wei Wuxian laughed, remembering the face his brother had made. He thought he had to protect my virtue.

Wei Ying is virtuous?

Lan Zhan! A delighted and outraged laugh escaped Wei Wuxian. He tried to sound hurt, but Wangji clearly translated his playful amusement. I am still a virgin!

Wei Ying is? I thought Wei Ying gave birth to A-Yuan! Lan Zhan joked. Wei Wuxian just hoped to see that someday. He was sure his insides would be a terrible mess of squeezy fluttering sensations and his heart would flutter like the wings of a hummingbird, but it must be a beautiful sight to behold.

I should have started to speak to you like that sooner. You are a delight! You told a joke! I‘m sure I’m not equipped to bear children. At least I was not the last time I checked. But even if, I never had sex. I told you that because it seemed funny to me at that time. And you got all flustered about the way I said that. I adopted him with the consent of his passed-away mother. She gave me her memories of giving birth to him and it was most unpleasant. She died during A-Yuan’s birth and possessing me helped her get closure.

Wei Ying did good!

Even risking myself? Ghostly possession is a threat to one's safety after all.

Wei Ying knew what to do. I miss Wei Ying.

Your Wei Ying misses his Lan Zhan too!

I need to sleep and you need to rest.

Good night Lan Zhan. Have good dreams!

Chapter Text

Wei Wuxian still had a smile on his lips. He was quick to hide it every time he came across one of the Lan elders who had whipped his Lan Zhan, but today was the day he had finally met his master of the past three years. He had waited at the door of the Jingshi, a light breakfast ready to give it personally, after three years of leaving it before the door, and he got the most surprised eyes he had ever seen in the aloof person he liked to call a friend. Lan Zhan had taken the meal and thanked him by name, well by his cover name, but it still set his insides into a squirming mess. Lan Zhan was so good, even remembering the name of a lowly servant he had no obligations to.

„It was this ones' pleasure, Lan Wangji“, he had replied, the name rolling off his tongue and shocking Lan Xichen into coughing. He of course had bowed and greeted the great Zewu-jun, but he still used Lan Zhan’s courtesy name. He was sure Lan Zhan was going to be questioned about it and he would tell his reasons, but Wei Wuxian had duties to do and places to be. He greeted the great grandmaster with a perfectly polite bow and went on his way to clean the old man's office. As he was now relieved of his duty to keep an eye out for Lan Zhan, he was back to other tasks as well, namely cleaning where it was needed and today was his day at the office and the lecture halls.

He completed his task and mixed up the scrolls a bit, nothing too serious, but he intentionally interchanged the material scrolls for different classes. He was sure the grandmaster would notice the mixed order they were in, the latest in the class itself, and it would annoy him to no end, but he wouldn’t be able to make Wei Wuxian pay for this. And that was Wei Wuxian's goal. He was going to make Lan Qiren’s life inconvenient, mixing up small things, ink running out a little faster than intended. Over-seasoning or under-seasoning his meals, it was the small things adding up, that would provide the best results and it would take time. But time was something Wei Wuxian had again and patience was something he had learned after he got his son and with the war against the Wen’s. It was no great feat to apply those to his ultimate revenge. His revenge would be a cumilation of all the small things the grandmaster would hate.

„Mimi Cangshen? Do you have a moment for me?“ Wei Wuxian turned at his cover name being called and smiled.

„I’ll always have time for Zewu-jun. What can this lowly one do for you?“, he asked, bowing deeply. He knew it made the sect leader uncomfortable, but it was worth it to see him squirm in discomfort. He, after all, had done nothing to protect his brother from an unjust punishment.

„Come with me?“ Curious Wei Wuxian followed Lan Xichen until he was in the kitchen and got poured a cup of tea. „I noticed Wangji and you getting close.“

„Lan Wangji and I have had our moments during his seclusion. Nothing against the rules or breaking his seclusion, but he was grateful to me and offered his name. I would not dishonor such trust and call him by something he doesn’t want me to call him“, Wei Wuxian replied with soft firmness.

„It was not a reprimand. I’m glad he found a friend in you. Wangji needs a friend who will stay at his side and protect him. I was just curious and a little concerned. He is my brother and he got his heart and trust broken once. I don’t want a repeat of that.“

„I understand. I have taken no offense, Zewu-jun.“

„You are doing a great job here and you are the only servant my brother has accepted. He personally asked me to let you stay his servant. That is why I have two offers to make to you. You can decide on either separately. Become my brothers' personal servant. And become my head servant“, Lan Xichen spoke softly. Wei Wuxian took a deep breath, his pulse jumping in his veins.

„This lowly one is honored, but I can’t take any of those offers. Lan Wangji wouldn’t want me to stay his servant.“

„Cangshen“, Lan Xichen answered firmly but kindly, his eyes melting the cold worry Wei Wuxian felt. „Wangji had asked for you to become his personal servant. You would be serving under him directly and you could choose to ignore tasks he hadn’t given you. You would have to travel with him if he said he’d need you, but that would be the most he could make you do away from here. As for me, I have a few servants, but I am in need of a servant, who could give them direction and could shape them up a bit. A head servant would help with that. I would be honored if you would become my head servant.“

„This one will become Lan Wangjis personal servant if he asks me myself. This one will become Zewu-jun's head servant if Zewu-jun can live with being second priority“, Wei Wuxian replied after thinking for a long time. Lan Xichen accepted the conditions with a graceful nod and smiled warmly.

„I had hoped that your first priority would be Wangji. Thank you Cangshen.“

„This one thanks Zewu-jun for the opportunity to prove myself.“ Wei Wuxian gave a last low bow and departed with a quiet excuse.

He hadn’t thought that Lan Zhan would actually seek him out and ask himself. It had taken a few days, but here he was, lifting his head after he got called from the second jade of Lan.

„Mimi Cangshen. My servant?“ The words were pressed and not in a full sentence, but Wei Wuxian knew his Lan Zhan had problems with that at times. He tilted his head, acting unsure about the meaning, but he nodded before the Lan could get unsure about himself.

„This one is honored to become Lan Wangjis' personal servant“, he answered with a respectful and honest bow. He could see the tension melting from his friend and felt his smile softening more.

That evening he expected the call of inquiry and followed immediately. He listened to the short tell about Lan Zhan’s day, feeling warm and satisfied to have brought such a soft playing.

Wei Ying, I have taken a personal servant. I hope to become friends with him. He is loyal. Lan Zhan played, a soft tremble from the strings.

I’m glad, Lan Zhan. You should have friends. You should be happy, Wei Wuxian replied. He could feel his melancholy and sorrow rise and affect the notes Wangji was playing. Lan Zhan noticed as well and disrupted the soft humming with his own question.

Wei Ying, what’s wrong?

Nothing is wrong, Lan Zhan, I just wish the situation was different and I could be with you. I miss you and A-Yuan very much. I don’t like the distance I have to keep to protect you two.

I don’t like it either. A-Yuan has lost his memory of his time before. I’m sorry.

Lan Zhan, there is nothing you could have done. A-Yuan had a high fever after a traumatic event. I’m glad our son has you and his new family.

I’m sorry...

Lan Zhan! Wei Wuxian interrupted vehemently. No ‚sorry‘ and no ‚thank you‘ is needed between us, alright? Tell me about something else that you want to tell.

I don’t know if you know it already, but it’s Gusus' year of inviting all the sects to a great discussion conference. Lan Zhan had changed the subject to something different and it changed the tone of their conversation again. All the other great sects have accepted the invitation. I’m not sure if your hiding will protect you from Jiang Wanyin.

Don’t worry about that, I came across your uncle and he hasn’t suspected a thing. My disguise is very good.

Have I seen Wei Ying without noticing? The question felt like a trap and Wei Wuxian hesitated. He could feel that his answer would be important and he didn’t want to hurt Lan Zhan. But he couldn’t risk his cover getting blown.

You have. I won’t tell you more, but I am always near Lan Zhan and Lan Yuan.

I don’t like the secrecy. Secrets should be forbidden!

Lan Zhan, I wished I could show myself, but it’s too dangerous. I love you both too much to risk your safety.

Wei Ying loves me?

Suddenly filled with terror he severed the connection and fled the vicinity. He hadn’t intended for that secret to spill. What if Lan Zhan felt disgusted by that? He couldn’t live a life away from his family and know they were hating him for being a cut sleeve. He shouldn’t have said that. Tomorrow he would see the damage he had done and he would try to reach out with his own soul. He would not, even if it was hard and made him nervous, make a joke out of his feelings. Lan Zhan deserved his honesty with that, even if it was the most terrifying thing Wei Wuxian would ever do.

Chapter Text

Wei Wuxian took a fortifying breath and settled under the window. A-Yuan had moved into the Jingshi to live with his father, but that would not interrupt the routine he and Lan Zhan developed. It was difficult to disconnect his soul from his body and if he hadn’t been as familiar with the short path he let his soul travel, he was sure he would have lost himself. Wangjis' spiritual energy called out to him, guiding his soul into enveloping the instrument. He thanked the instrument and tried to calm himself. It somewhat worked and he knew any longer and he would lose the courage he had.

Lan Zhan? His call vibrated around the unattended instrument. It took a while then he could feel Wangji being moved and put on the ground. Trembling fingers came to rest on the strings before they played.

Wei Ying? The question was unsure and loaded with feelings.

Yes, it is your Wei Ying. I’m sorry I left you so abruptly. I hadn’t intended to confess and I panicked after. Wei Wuxian explained and then forced himself to stop. The instrument wouldn’t thank him for jumbling its strings or even tying them together into thick knots.

Wei Ying, I love you too.

You do?

I do. I loved Wei Ying since I met Wei Ying and got to know him. I love Wei Ying.

Wei Ying loves Lan Zhan too. Now I want you to know where you can find me so we can say it to each other without the help of Wangji. Wei Wuxian knew he made his staying in hiding worse for them, but he couldn’t help himself. He felt honest tranquility fall over him, not unlike the time he was with Lan Wangji in the Cold Spring when they both were still students.

Wei Ying, may I introduce you to our son?

Lan Zhan... His safety? He was unsure, it was safest for them if nobody knew he lived. He knew his greatest weakness and soft spot and it were those two. Lan Zhan, he could trust with keeping the secret, at least as long as he didn’t know where Wei Wuxian was. He was not sure if it wouldn’t endanger A-Yuan to be aware of Wei Wuxians' existence.

Wei Ying has nothing to fear. I will protect our son.

Yes, introduce us. Wei Wuxian could not argue against such earnestness. It took some time, and then two new hands, smaller and unpractised lay on the strings.

Wei Ying, that is our son Lan Sizhui, Lan Yuan.

It’s my pleasure to meet you, Lan Sizhui. A-Yuan. I’m Wei Wuxian, Wei Ying. You may have heard of me as the Yiling Laozu. The emotions of the child trembled into the next notes. He was not playing himself, but Wangji translated his emotions.

Xian-gege! I remember you. You’re my mother!

I am, my little radish! I am so glad your father has found you! Be a good little radish and behave for your father.

I do! But... Zewu-jun told me that I’m adopted... And that a man isn’t able to bear children... Wei Wuxian knew where this question was leading. He let his carefree amusement shine through, no need to hide that from his little darling. 

That is true my little radish. Lan Zhan adopted you after our family died. I haven’t been able to be with you because my health was really bad. But I am watching over you now. And with the bearing of children, well. I may have not born you, but your mother did. She died in childbed after you were born and her last wish was to make sure you have a loving mother. I let her possess me and give me the memories she thought I needed. I love you my little radish and I would do anything for you.

I know, came the soft and trembling reply. I love you too, a-niang. I miss you. I know you can’t be with us, but I would love to get a hug from you.

As soon as possible. I promise. I will hug you as soon as you are safe or able to protect yourself. Until then, Lan Zhan can hug you for me.

It’s not the same! Sizhui replied, the pout resounding in the emotions and the music. No one can give me hugs like you.

I know! Be strong, my little radish. I come to you as soon as I can. Now be a good little Lan and go to sleep. Your classes should start soon as well.

I will tell you all about my classes!

And the bunnies! Wei Wuxian demanded, infected by the cheerful enthusiasm.

Bunnies? I don’t know anything about bunnies! Where are they?, Lan Yuan’s hands were separated from the strings.

Wei Ying! Lan Zhan budded in.

I know, no pets in the Cloud Recesses.

Good night.

Good night Lan Zhan, A-Yuan. I wish you sweet dreams!

A-niang! Wei Wuxian was surprised but full of giddy feelings. It had been a few days since he had the opportunity to react to Inquiry. Lan Zhan had kept him busy with secret preparations for the upcoming Discussion Conference. He didn’t trust the clans and Wei Wuxian could understand that, so he never mentioned anything about it. That Zewu-jun had incompetent servants was also not helping. Oh, they knew how to clean or cook, but they didn’t know how to care for the needs of a cultivator. He had to teach them how to balance the meals for different training exercises, how to be less disruptive in their care for the sleeping quarters and how to not offend the spiritual tools if they had to be moved during cleaning. He actually had to explain that a spiritual tool was not to be cleaned by a servant, even if they knew how to do that. Who had to explain such things to the servants of cultivators? He could feel his agitation bleed into Wangji and dismissed his thoughts.

A-Yuan, my little radish! You played all on your own!

A-die teached me. I want to learn to play so I can speak with you on my own! Then I can ask you all the questions A-die can’t and won’t answer!

Oh my little radish, don’t worry! I will answer every question you have.

I know! A little silence followed. Lan Zhan didn’t start a conversation of his own, just letting the silence stretch. The silence was broken as the fingers softly plucked the strings again, still thrumming with A-Yuan‘s feelings. Classes started today! Our teacher told us every rule again. All 4386 of them! A few are related to you, A-niang. ‚Wei Wuxian is forbidden to enter Cloud Recesses. It is forbidden to associate with Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxians' inventions are forbidden. Sightings of Wei Wuxian are to be reported. Acceptable actions are to be taken if confronted with Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian is forbidden to come near Lan Wangji.‘ Aside from being the Yiling Laozu, what did you do? It sounded personal.

Oh, my little radish. I was a guest disciple of the Gusu Lan Clan once upon a time. Your father can surely confirm it, but I was undisciplined and wild. That never changed, I just learned to redirect that energy into smaller things and to hide it better. But I was a wild student and your teacher Lan Qiren never managed to tame me. I also managed to inefct others with my rebellious spirit and I think he is still angry for the time I shaved his beard off.

You shaved the beard of Lan Qiren off? Jingyi will worship you! As soon as you are able to speak with us without Inquiry. He is afraid of ghosts. Wei Wuxian could feel the delighted giggle and asked about this Jingyi, directing his son away from the questions about the rules that were connected with him. He could also feel the exhaustion of an exciting day catching up and took control over Wangji, playing a soothing tune to lure his son into the embrace of sleep. He knew he had succeded as soon as all hands left the strings and he was left with the spirit of the instrument. He didn’t wait too long, then the long and elegant fingers were back, plucking a question of his presence.

Of course, I’m here. I have time today and my body is asleep and resting while we speak.

Wei Ying.

Lan Zhan, Wei Wuxian replied using a grating but low pitch to ensure that it would aggravate his Lan Zhan, but not wake their son. I can’t stop thinking about our teenage days. Do you remember the time I smuggled Emperor Smile into the Cloud Recesses and you were going to punish me for it because I broke curfew, accessed the Cloud Recesses from somewhere that was not the entry and I had brought alcohol?

Mn. I do. Every time.

I meant the one time I decided that it would be a good idea to make you break the rules too.

I do. I should have been punished.

No! It was my fault. I had thrown myself at you and held you as we fell, remember? There was nothing you could have done to prevent us from falling outside, Wei Wuxian protested. If he could he would have shaken his head, but as it was, he had to convey that with tone and feeling alone and hope it would be caught.

Wei Ying told me that, afterward. Wei Ying took my punishment on top of his own.

I did and I would again. It had been my fault. I disrupted your callings for Bichen.

Wei Ying was talented.

Not the point! Wei Ying likes to be flattered by his Lan Zhan, but my talents back then are not the point. I felt as if we understood each other afterwards, but then I lost my core and everything fell away again.

Wei Ying lost his core? Wei Wuxian could feel the protective rage and the pain in Lan Zhans' playing. He contemplated the merits of joking about it and let it fall away after a time.

I did, but I don’t want to speak about it. It’s getting late, you should go to sleep.

I will, good night, Wei Ying.

Good night, Lan Zhan.

Chapter Text

Lan Zhan, I wished I could show myself, but it’s too dangerous. I love you both too much to risk your safety. Lan Wangji did have trust in his guqin language and knew he hadn’t mistranslated the soft but urgent notes. Still, he was unsure about their meaning.

Wei Ying loves me? He was surprised at the soft backlash of a panicked broken connection with his spiritual power. Worried he went to bed, knowing Wei Ying wouldn’t answer until nightfall the next day at least.

He was distracted during the next day by helping Lan Yuan move into his room in the Jingshi. His servant was a delight to work alongside, not protesting a helping hand from him, but always making sure not to be a bother. And that he endured A-Yuan’s thousand questions and answered them with a smile was good. It made his heart clench, reminded of another black-haired man with a gentle and sweet smile or a grin as bright and warm as the glaring sun.

And just like that he was back on wondering about what Wei Ying meant by ‚love‘. The love of a friend? Or dare he hope for something more? It was already better than he had hoped. Lan Wangji knew he was sparse with his words and had made mistakes. His poor communication had led to Wei Ying being antagonized against him.

During the last preparations for bedtime, a questioning note rang out from his guqin. Wangji had enough spiritual energy of its own to support a few basic techniques or as it seemed a soul that knew what it wanted to do. And this soul was asking for him specifically. He finished his routine and tucked his son into bed, then he answered the Inquiry.

He and Wei Ying talked and confessed their mutual love for each other, but he knew that Wei Ying couldn’t come out of hiding. If that part was true and not an illusion of a soul not ready to go on. But he seemed to be near enough and present enough to react to things old and new in ways that didn’t feel echoed. There was a way to test his claim though and that way was stepping out of his room.

„A-Yuan“, he greeted and waited, still playing and conversing with Wei Ying.

„I’m sorry I break rules, but I can’t sleep. I see a red ribbon on black. Every time I close my eyes“, his son answered.

„That is alright. I do too. It must be from your mother“, he replied and waved his child over. Settling the small body on his lap he waited until the boy calmed down, then he explained to him that he would have to lightly settle his hand on the strings. From then on he was a translator to their conversation, listening with a smile. Wei Ying was alive. He was really there and actually living. He waited until the bunnies were mentioned. He had seen the exhaustion dragging at A-Yuan and it was time that the child would get sleep. That he also could remind Wei Ying about the rules like the old times and hearing his laugh was that smallest bit better. He wished his heart a good night and smiled at the return, then he went to bed, his son still cuddled into him.

It became a routine to allow A-Yuan to be part of their conversation. And some things, he told his son, he wouldn’t translate, so it was not a surprise for him when his son asked him to teach. They practiced his chosen words until he could play them in his sleep. It was a relaxing thing while he worked on the preparations for the upcoming Discussion Conference. That was also the topic he approached after his son had finally been tucked into bed, soothed by a lullaby from his mother. He smiled and closed the door, returning to Wei Ying and feeling relief upon hearing him.

Of course I’m here. I have time today and my body is asleep and resting while we speak.

Wei Ying, he replied exasperated.

Lan Zhan, the answering whine was low pitched, but still grateing. I can’t stop thinking about our teenage days. Do you remember the time I smuggled Emperor Smile into the Cloud Recesses and you were going to punish me for it, because I broke curfew, accessed the Cloud Recesses from somewhere that was not the entry and I had brought alcohol?

Mn. I do. Every time. And he did. His smile felt melancholy on his face, but he didn’t mind it without an audience to point it out. He also wouldn’t mind Wei Ying pointing it out, but that was because Wei Ying loved teasing him. And Wei Yings' teasing was always full of warmth and acceptance.

I meant the one time I decided that it would be a good idea to make you break the rules too. Wei Ying clarified to get his point across.

I do. He did. He had been angry with himself. He had been too distracted by the physical contact and the warmth he had felt from the arms encircling him, that he hadn’t been able to concentrate his qi. It always vanished. I should have been punished.

No! It was my fault. Wei Ying protested and then went on to explain. I had thrown myself at you and held you as we fell, remember? There was nothing you could have done to prevent us from falling outside.

Wei Ying told me that, afterward. Wei Ying took my punishment on top of his own. Lan Wangji could still see the welts of the hits with the tablet rising and burning a bright red on the pale but sunkissed skin. It had burned itself into his eyes. The punishment hadn’t been just, but that was when the first rules for interacting with Wei Ying were made. And his uncle is still holding a grudge against his love just for being the son of a former unpleasant acquaintance. And Wei Yings other actions after that.

I did and I would again. It had been my fault. I disrupted your callings for Bichen.

Wei Ying was talented. His praise led to Wangji making an interesting stuttering sound in response to Wei Yings' feelings. He had never heard a guqin make such a sound and he liked to ask anybody if they knew what it meant, but that would mean explaining how he had heard the sound. He still had to come up with a not-lie to explain Wangji without making Cangshen into a target for questions. It was clear that this masterpiece of an instrument was made with him in mind and a one-of-a-kind act of work, but that would not discourage his elders and they would demand answers and possibly an explanation of how he came by such a valuable tool.

Not the point! Wei Ying likes to be flattered by his Lan Zhan, but my talents back then are not the point. I felt as if we understood each other afterwards, but then I lost my core and everything fell away again.

Wei Ying lost his core? The notes were ringing with a higher pitch and a fast vibrating in the air. It took a bit of time for Lan Wangji to calm himself into stilling the raging emotions and the string of the instrument.

I did, but I don’t want to speak about it. The reply was soft, quiet and held sadness, pain and regret within itself. Lan Wangji wanted to ask questions, but he would not dishonor the honest replies he was getting. It was the first time Wei Ying trusted him with something serious out of his own will. And without the jokes and belittling demeanor. It’s getting late, you should go to sleep.

I will, good night, Wei Ying. Lan Wangji waited for the reply and then treated the instrument to ensure it would stay in good condition.

„Mimi Cangshen. Serve the Yunmeng Jiangs“, he ordered his servant. He had wanted to soften his request with more words, but they had lodged themselves in his throat. He turned his face and went to take his leave, but he got stopped by a soft snort so much like his Wei Yings, that he turned around to look at the soft face of his servant. A quiet mischief sparkled in the deep silver eyes he could see there. That couldn’t be, they couldn’t be here. Now he understood how he never noticed Wei Ying even if his friend and love told him he was there. He had changed his body completely, only his eyes remaining. And those were usually turned to the floor in bows or acted shyness.

„Of course Lan Wangji. This one will serve the sect leaders and the disciples of the Yunmeng Jiang sect. Anything else this humble one can do for you?“ he only could stare at those silver eyes, mischief not unlike in their teens sparkling in them, but also fondness, adoration, love, and devotion. Those eyes turned to a gray as soon as too much time had passed. „Lan Wangji, is everything alright? Anything I can or should do? Anything you need? Lan Wangji? Lan Zhan?“

„Wei Ying!“, Lan Wangji called as soon as he got called by his birth name. The call was quiet, easy to miss or dismiss, but the way those eyes widened and the face paled before a small tremor traveled through the smaller, petite body. A body he hadn’t had before but suited his nature better. It was the body of a caring individual and it hadn’t aged during the years Lan Wangji knew him.

„Lan Wangji, maybe, if this insolent one may be so bold, you should take a break and sit down? I could accompany you to the Jingshi.“ He nodded and went on his way, ready to talk to his Wei Ying. He should have known as soon as he heard the name of his servant. Mimi Cangshen, the hidden secret. A wordplay with a twist. They went to the Jingshi, but on his way there he decided not to ask and respect Wei Ying’s decision.

Chapter Text

Wei Wuxian was worried. Lan Zhan had recognized him and he followed his Lan Zhan to the Jingshi, following inside and just standing there. He was surprised by the silence and the absence of anger.

„Lan Zhan?“, he asked quietly, unsure for once. The eyes fixated on him, golden warmth burning in them, but different than in their youth. Less heated and more gentleness. At least for now. „I don’t know what you think and I kinda need to know that right now. Please talk to me. A bit at least?“

„Wei Ying“, he said and went silent again. „lying is forbidden in the Cloud Recesses.“

„That is what you are concerned with? I never lied!“, Wei Wuxian protested waving his arms around. He caught his undignified acting and clasped his hands in each other, letting them rest at an appropriate height before his stomach, bowing slightly. „I’m sorry I lied to you or that you think I did, but I really only did that to keep you and A-Yuan safe. I tried to stay away, to let you forget me, but then I worried about my son and the Mounds had urged me on to go here and as I came and watched my son settle in you got punished and then everything went out of control and...“

Lips connected with his, muffling his increasingly panicked rambling. Lips that were familiar in their insistence, in their strength. He had only been kissed once before, blindfolded, hands held over his head by a strong hand and heavy weight. Hands that felt like those capturing his cheeks, pulling him into the kiss, deepening the connection when the tongue plundered his mouth. He melted into the kiss, shivering from the pleasure and letting his weight be held by his love.

When the kiss ended he blinked his eyes open, looking at the melted dark eyes of his Lan Zhan, eyes he had seen so many times in their youth, where he couldn’t discern their meaning and mistook them for hatred. But nobody kissed with such passion and tenderness out of hatred. Passion, maybe, he could remember some kisses between Uncle Jiang and Madame Yu, but those weren’t as tender as this was. They at least didn’t look as tender as this kiss felt.

„Wei Ying!“ It was quiet, but full of command. A command to stay silent Wei Wuxian actually headed. Maybe it was because he had to get his bearings, maybe it was because he was too used to head orders since he became the servant of the Lans, but he obeyed the order. „Wei Ying. Stay!“

„Lan Zhan“, he whined, louder than Lan Zhan had been with his order and plea. „You know I can’t! I would love to, but I can’t. It’s too dangerous.“

„Stay.“ The plea was whispered into Wei Wuxian’s ear, hands holding onto his arms and hindering him from going. Taking a deep breath Wei Wuxian leaned into the grip, letting the tension holding him upright seep out of him.

„I’m not going to flee“, he promised quietly. „But I have to stay in hiding.“ A soft nod was all he needed to know it was accepted, the forehead of his love pressed against his shoulder. He carded his hands through the dark silky strands and hummed, nuzzling the neck.

„A-Die?“, A-Yuan called, his little face surprised and frowning. Wei Wuxian looked at his son and hid his face again. He and Lan Zhan have gone to their knees, still holding each other and exchanging soft murmurs and tender kisses. The look of Lan Zhan was not needed. Wei Wuxian already knew what he wanted to ask and nodded. He was worried and tensed up, but his Lan rubbed his back, conquering the tension with comfort.

„A-Yuan, come here. This is your mother“, he introduced the man in his arms. Wei Wuxian smiled brightly, trusting his instincts and just letting the last piece of tension seep out of him and with it his disguise as a demure servant. A bright smile, he hadn’t allowed on his lips for years now, burned into his cheeks. The boy looked unsure and unconvinced.

„My little radish, don’t you recognize your Xian-gege? Your Poor-gege? Your A-Niang?“, he teased with a big pout, letting his hair and the ends of his very short and normally hidden red hair ribbon fall over his shoulder. He watched satisfied as those innocent eyes widened and then glossed over, before he had a small child in his arms. Humming a comforting tune, composed around pieces of a melody he could remember hearing, he rubbed the back of the boy. He waited until the tears of his son dried and then went on and gave him a loving kiss on the forehead.

„A-Niang? I saw you so often, but you never told me“, he pouted finally, lips sticking out and arms crossed.

„Oh my little radish“, he sighted and cuddled the small body to himself. „I’m in hiding. Nobody is to know about my whereabouts. I am not asking you to break rules and lie, but don’t speak about it out of your own? Don’t tell anyone that isn’t asking outright that I’m here? And don’t show that I am more than the servant to your A-Die, alright?“

„Alright! Won’t talk about A-Niang! I Promise“, the boy finally said, his face scrunched up in displeasure.

You are really alright with serving the Yunmeng Delegation and all the other sect Leaders?, Lan Zhan asked with Inquiry. Wei Wuxian had proposed to speaking like that when Lan Zhan was overwhelmed with his words and couldn’t find them, but needed them. That he was enveloped in those strong arms and held securely to the chest of the guqin player before his soul went and merged with Wangji was only an added bonus.

I am! I have spoken with both your uncle and your brother in close proximity and they haven’t gotten any clue about me being the Yiling Laouzu. I would be surprised if my Shidi would catch on. Do you think they will have little A-Ling with them? I would love to see him.

Wei Ying, don’t change the subject. We need to speak about what you told me about your Golden Core. You lost it, but how? Lan Zhan’s question was decisive and brought shivers to Wei Wuxian’s very soul. He loved the stern love his heart gave freely to his family.

I know, your Wei Ying is sorry. It was shortly after the Lotus Pier burnt. Chengcheng went to get his revenge on his own, but got found by Wen Zhulio. You can imagine what happened then, right? The soft agreeing note that got played was all the encouragement that Wei Wuxian needed. Well, I knew that Jiang Cheng needed a core and I had spoken with Wen Qing and learned from her, so I knew about her theory that a transfer could be possible. maybe. I pleaded with her to do it with my core as it was safe from Zhulio. That bit is not important, but I know you want to know. I have only theories, but you know all the times I was tempted with useing resentful energy since we know each other? It left marks on my core and changed it beforehand. At least that is what Wen Qing and I gathered after analysing our observations. The end of the story is that Wen Qing transferred my core to Jiang Cheng and that I got captured as I was alone and still recovering from my lost core and the operation. That is how I ended up in the Burial Mounds the first time and how I actually learned to cultivate the ghost path. And that is why you guys found me three months later with Chenqing and a new cultivation technique.

Wei Ying was very brave and sacrificed a lot for his brother.

I sacrificed my sisters' husband and my sister, because I was too arrogant to admit that I was in over my head. And I was too proud to seek help. And I was too blind to see your intentions and feelings.

Wei Ying, come back to your body. It’s time to go to sleep.

Good Night, Lan Zhan. Until the conference ends we won’t be able to speak as Wei Ying and Lan Zhan with each other. I will be too busy to answer your Inquiry.

Good Night, Wei Ying. The notes rang with acceptance and love in the air. It was a caress of his soul and it made Wei Wuxian shiver as he opened his eyes, his soul shortly connected with Wangji and his own body.

Chapter Text

A sharp tug at the place, where his golden core had resided, brought his head up. Wei Wuxian’s eyes locked with those of his Shidi, before he lowered his eyes and bowed deeply. He could hear the lightning crackling and taste the electricity in the air, but he suppressed the shiver of instinctual fear. Jiang Cheng was temperamental, but he wouldn’t strike unprompted. At least not where it would shame his sect.

„Sect Leader Jiang, if you and your delegation could follow me? I will bring you to your rooms“, Wei Wuxian said quietly, politely and perfectly composed.

„First the women, then my disciples. You can sort my accommodations out, after my sect is situated!“ The barked order let some of the other servants jump, but Wei Wuxian just bowed deeply before he went and did as ordered.

First, he brought the female disciples and sect members to the right area and gave them over to one of the best female servants he knew. Then he brought the remaining disciples to the quarters, which were prepared for them. After he did that, he went and brought the sect leader to his personal quarters. He bowed deeply, ready to go on with his duties, but a hand closed around his forearm and tugged him inside the quarters.

„Sect Leader“, Wei Wuxian started to protest, but got a hand over his mouth and a vicious glare from Jiang Cheng that shut him up.

„Wei Wuxian! What are you doing? How are you alive? What are you doing?“, Jiang Cheng hissed and shook his head. „No, don’t explain. It would take too long. Are you safe?“

„M, mapfe“, Wei Wuxian answered muffled. The hand over his mouth fell away as if burned. „I’m safe. How did you find out?“

„Are you kidding?! You are my brother! Of course, I would recognize you!“ The roaring was silenced by a quickly thrown silencing talisman on every wall and a glare from Wei Wuxian.

„You, Lan Zhan and our son are the only people, who know that I am alive. My death is keeping you safe from the wrath of the other sects and rouge cultivators. It keeps Jin Ling safe.“ Jiang Cheng closed his mouth abruptly and waited, hands bunched up into fists and the fingers of his right hand playing with the ring that was Zidian in its resting form.

„You trust him? You really trust a Lan to accept your kind of cultivation? With you being alive? Did you forget which sects have tried to kill you?“, Jiang Cheng roared, purple lightning embracing his form.

„I did not forget. Listen, I don’t have the time right now. I will come back after all went to bed and then I will explain and answer every question you have. Honestly and without holding back“, Wei Wuxian promised.

„You better do as you say, or I will make you pay!“, Jiang Cheng threatened, mouth set into an unhappy line. Wei Wuxian felt his face softening and leaned into the personal space of his brother.

„I promise, I just have to do my duty as the head servant of the sect leader“, he explained and went to do just that. The sect leaders of the Jin and Nie sects were his personal duty to attend to as Zewu-Jun had ordered him, his best servant, to attend to them.

He took a deep breath and knocked in quick succession on the door to the chambers of sect leader Jiang. He had served the sect leaders and a few of the most respected elders over the welcoming feast and dinner. To the welcome surprise of everyone, there were a few alcoholic options from the different regions present, hand-selected by Wei Wuxian and brought into the kitchens under his strict guidance. Now he held a jar of one of Jiang Chengs' most beloved wines and waited to be let in.

„You actually came. Haven’t thought you would. It’s in the middle of the night“, the sect leader grumbled after he opened the door, stepping aside to let his brother in.

„I’m sorry to bother you at such a late hour, but my duties held me up. I brought wine“, Wei Wuxian said honestly, chewing his lip with nerves. The eyes of the other men narrowed then he let out a sigh and closed the door.

„Sit down. You‘re not my servant.“

„Jiang Cheng, I am your servant. Both my masters' orders make me your servant as long as you visit the Cloud Recesses“, Wei Wuxian countered, feeling mirth welling up and heeding the order of his Shidi.

„Wei Wuxian!“, growled the other, making a fist with his right hand and taking a deep breath. „We have more important stuff to speak about. My core reacted to you. Do you have any idea why it could have done so?“

„Ah, that is difficult. You have to promise me to hear me out and then to let me have a look, alright?“, Wei Wuxian asked of his brother. After his tense nod, he started to collect his own words and answered. „After your core was melted we went to the mountain to get you a new one. I told you it was because of Baoshan Sanren that you got a new core, but it was because of Wen Ning, Wen Qing and me. After you went up and had your blindfold secure on for the whole time you were sedated Wen Qing transplanted my core into you so that you can have a core to cultivate with. After the surgery, I got captured and thrown into the Burial Mounds. And the rest you know, sort of...“ He rubbed the back of his head. His nerves were climbing higher and higher waiting for a reaction from his brother. At last Jiang Cheng sighed and took a big gulp of the wine Wei Wuxian had brought with him.

„You wanted to examine me? Do it now“, Jiang Cheng spoke and observed Wei Wuxian coming to his side. „When have you learned to heal?“

„After you and Lan Zhan fought and ended in Ziwan during our guest lectures. I asked Wen Qing if she would teach me and she did. She never got to finish my training before she died, but I have all her memories about it in my head. Hm, just as I thought. I am still connected with the core. At the moment we have a kind of dual cultivation going.“

„I don’t want to dual cultivate with you! You’re my brother!“, Jiang Cheng screeched and scrambled away, knocking into furniture along his way. Wei Wuxian blinked and went over his observation before he broke out in helpless fits of laughter. „This is no matter to laugh about! We are brothers! We shouldn’t dual cultivate!“

„Sorry, sorry“, Wei Wuxian chuckled, holding his stomach and picking himself up from the floor he found himself on. „It’s just that your reaction to what I said was funny. You are right, we shouldn’t be cultivating like that. It should be your core and I am not sure it is wise or healthy to sustain a core from outside for so long. I actually am curious if that is why I felt so drained and destabilized. It couldn‘t all have been coming from the Yin Tiger Tally. Give me some time and I will sever the connection, alright?“

„No! You should have your core! What will you do without it? You know what resentful energy did with you!“ The protests were loud and made sense in a way, but Jiang Cheng didn’t know what Wei Wuxian knew.

„Without it, I would have died“, Wei Wuxian confessed quietly. „It kept me alive the first time I was thrown into the Mounds, made me eat anything available. The second time it actually gave me something similar to a golden core. A core full of resentful energy. Jiang Cheng, I am not sure that I am fully alive.“

„Alright. Are you sure you have the situation under control? Not like last time, but honestly?“

„I am Jiang Cheng. With full honesty, I am sure it is under my control and I don’t cultivate much anyway. I’m a servant here and that has its own set of duties.“

„Exectly why are you a servant here?“, Jiang Cheng required resigned, his posture on the floor looking defeated. He looked so young and lost, it broke Wei Wuxians' heart. Especially as he could see his brother's hurt in the way he wouldn’t look at him right now.

„I have a son and after I woke up he had vanished into thin air. I searched for him and found him here and decided to help his new father in any way I was able to. And I wasn’t sure I was welcome in Yungmeng anymore“, Wei Wuxian answered. His voice got even quieter with every reason he gave until it was a mere whisper of shame.

„Of course you are always welcome! You’re my brother!“

„I was not sure of that“, he replied after the outburst of his Shidi, head bowed slightly. He felt the tuck of Inquiry and staved it off, listening to his own inner clock and sighting. „I should go to bed. I have an early start tomorrow. Zewu-Jun and Lan Zhan want to get their breakfast at the same time as always and then I will have to sort out the breakfast for every other major sect leader and all of Yunmeng.“

„You stand up that early?“ Jiang Chengs' bewilderment was everything Wei Wuxian needed to fall into a pile of helpless laughter again. He’d forgotten how much he had missed that.

„I do! After three years of doing so, it got way too easy.“

Chapter Text

Lan Wangji observed Wie Ying the whole day. He knew something had gone wrong as soon as he heard Jiang Wanyin demanding that he would be last in being settled. His love had responded with grace and accommodated the order beautifully, heading on his way to settle the whole Yunmeng Jiang sect first and then accompanying the Sect Leader to his accommodations for his visit. Wei Ying was almost late to welcome Sect Leader Nie, his younger brother and heir, and the newly presented Sect Leader of Jinling Tai. He observed and felt pride but also churning unhappiness in his gut at the treatment Wei Ying had to endure in order to blend in as a servant. He was more than that and no servant should be treated as second place and an afterthought anyway.

Lan Wangji was busy with his own duties as heir of his sect and lost sight of his love during the day. The last he saw of him was, as he led the sworn brothers of Xichen to their accommodations. He was still giving company to the sect leader of the Jin sect as they all gathered for the great banquet. He could feel an unusual amusement crawl through him at the annoyance of his uncle, but Xichen was clan and sect leader and so he was to be referred to for the accommodations of the guests.

Still, it was a display of subtle power and wealth, subtle ways to show off the strengths of a sect with diminishing importance outside of ill rumors, to get the best quality wines of each region, tailored to the tastes of each sect and with enough variety to please almost every palate. The offerings on the banquet tables weren’t less diverse, tailored to make the guests feel welcome, relaxed and homey. And no one had anything to complain about the offered food and drinks. The mild and often vegetarian dishes favored by the Gusu Lan disciples stood side by side with richly flavored Jin dishes and the meat havey and smokey Nie dishes. Yunmeng spicy food stood side by side with sweet dishes made from honey, lotus seeds and fruits of every region. Every plate had a small impervious talisman paper stuck to it explaining the dish and its contents for those who didn’t like something or couldn’t tolerate a specific ingredient.

Xichen got all the praises such a subtle display of power and understanding deserved and Wangji was happy for him, but he also knew how much Wei Ying had worked for that and how little he would get of the praises. He also wouldn’t want the praise and would feel troubled if given, the heir of the Gusu sect reminded himself sternly.

„I heard you have accepted a servant at last, Lan-er-gege?“, a soft voice with a melodic thrill spoke right next to him. He hadn’t realized that the socializing phase of the evening left the seats beside him free and now it had been taken by Nie Huaisang. He knew speaking with him was a test of resolve and a trial in not breaking any rules just by proximity. He also knew that Wei Ying had been fast friends with the cultivator and would be happy for Lan Wangji to find the same friendship for himself.

„Mn“, he answered, hoping that the other man wasn’t too insulted by his non-verbal reaction.

„It's this one, right? What was his name?“, he asked, feigning to have forgotten. With a heavy sight, the antics will always be getting on his nerves, he turned his head. Nie Huaisang almost lay against him, head tilted up to him, face flirtatiously hidden behind a fan. He was just shy of touching Lan Wangji, but took great care to be always just shy of touching, never overly bothering even if he broke every other aspect of personal space. And Lan Wangji suddenly felt known and understood on a level he only ever felt with Wei Ying and Lan Xichen. Was this a good-with-people thing or a charisma thing? He didn’t know and he would have to ask about that, but he didn’t know who to ask. Probably Wei Ying. Wei Ying was his safest choice and the choice he would be the least embarrassed about.

„Mn, Mimi Cangshen“, he answered at last, gaining a pleased and shown smile. He was let behind the barrier of the fan and could see the clear and calculating look. It felt suddenly very important that he noticed this.

„I heard that Xian-gege’s body was never found. No summoning technique seems to work either. Tragic to see someone vanish into nothingness like this, right? Anyway...“, Nie Huaisang went on, not even waiting for the possibility of an answer, proofing again that Lan Wangji was seen and given the courtesy to uphold politeness without having to break any sect rules. Gossiping was not allowed, but nobody could fault a Lan for being spoken to. Only that listening to rumors could be punished, but nobody could prove that Lan Wangji had actually listened to anyone speaking to him. „Have you heard about the passing of Jin Guanshan? It's said, and not rebuffed by the Jin Sect, that he died in a brothel that caught fire. Rumor has it that it had to be the raging ghost of the Yiling Laozu. Of course that can’t be true, he wouldn’t have endangered the workers there with a fire, but it is truly fascinating what people come up with, you know?“

„Mn“, Lan Wangji agreed. He had heard about the passing of the former Jin Sect, hence the reason this Discussion Conference was so big and important for Xichen. It also doubled as a debut for Jin Guanyao, the now officially announced sect leader of the Jin Sect. It made the need to show such strength and understanding of the people all the more relevant as it also reflected on the Jin Sect. Reflecting on that he noticed something peculiar. Where the Jin Sect held the most luxurious banquets in general, they also tended to be rather suddenly over for most of the attendees as they tended to have too much alcohol. Here the alcohol was as splendidly served, but it didn’t catch on. Subtlety pulsing he got the answer and two surprises. An array was drawn on the ceiling to erase any poison ingested including the alcohol inside anybody in the room, explaining the lack of drunks.

The first surprise was an unpleasant one, his core reacted to the core in Jiang Wanyin letting him look in his direction with furrowed brows. Lan Wangji had known this was a distinct possibility, but he had hoped Wei Ying had lied about that. He felt pain for his love to have dealt with so much. The second surprise was the strength of the subtle pulsing core in Nie Huaisang. Lang Wangji always heard his brothers' amusement about the second young master of the Nie sect and his entertaining quarrels about Nie Huaisangs' laziness and his unwillingness to train with the saber. He himself had not seen the young master train with anything at all during his many guest lectures in the Cloud Recesses. Where does the strength of the core come from?

„It sure is a relief that Jin Guanyao leads the sect now. And only until his nephew is ready to follow in his footsteps as well. An honest change of pace for the sect, don’t you agree?“

„Mn“, he replied again, somewhat distracted.

„Mimi Cangshen sure is an observant one. And such knowledge about the different sects as well. No wonder he is the lead servant of your brother“, Nie Huaisang whispered, fanning himself lazily. „Maybe there is more to that? Or not! No! I didn’t think so! No need to become so scary, Hanguang-Jun! Your brother only has eyes for Da-ge and A-Yao. If there only was a way to have them be together as they want to be without them feeling as if they would leave their duties and abandon their positions.“

„Huaisang“, Lan Wangji replied after he got his protective furry under control. Wei Ying wouldn’t appreciate it anyway. „Brother should be aware of my unending help if he needs it.“

„That is the problem with older siblings, they won’t think about bothering their younger siblings with things like that if we don’t offer it. Whoops, I need to go! Greet Xian-gege for me, won’t you?“ He blinked after the fast retreating form of Nie Huaisang, skirting on the allowed side of the 'no running' rule and followed by his sect leader roaring about shameless displays and unwelcome advances. It was then, that the poison protection array finally deactivated its alcohol protection and let the people enjoy the effects of their alcohol, quickly descending into the chaos every dinner in a discussion conference turned into. But they had made progress beforehand, shortening the time it would need to get everyone involved in the actual themes and preventing the migraines many Lans and the unfortunate people from other sects that were staying sobber, suffered regularly. Wei Ying gave him a bright smile and a small nod, acknowledging him and his unasked question. He hoped Wei Ying was alright, but had to divert his attention as his brother sat down beside him, starting a conversation about Nie Huaisang and them becoming friends.

„Mn, he was a friend of Wei Ying. I want to honor that“, Lan Wangji replied and excused himself to get into bed at a time the rules dictated.

Chapter Text

Wei Wuxian knew he was going to bother his love with his late visit, but he needed it. And they had promised each other in passing that they would speak about the first day of the conference. Humming he finally slipped into the Jingshi, feeling immediately at home.

„Lan Zhan, are you still awake?“, he whispered into the darkness of the Jingshi. He got a tired answering hum and smiled to himself. Happy to have his love near, he went to the bedroom and leaned in the doorway.

„Wei Ying“, the other started blinking and sitting up.

„Oh, Lan Zhan“, the servant cooed and rushed to his love, kneeling down at his side. Because his love was bedraggled and tired and clearly just awoken, he was too cute to even consider the way his insides quivered with the rough tone. „I didn’t want to wake you.“

„Don’t mind“, Lan Zhan replied, covering a yawn. „Thought I would see you tomorrow at breakfast.“

„I’m sorry it took so long to come to you. Jiang Cheng recognized me. I am still connected to the golden core inside him, can you believe that? We were dual cultivating the whole time“, Wei Wuxian explained. He yelped as he suddenly had Lan Zhan biting his arm. Not hard enough to draw blood, but it was as painful as a horse's bite. „No, bad Lan Zhan! What are you? A dog?“

„Don’t like it“, the Lan cultivator mumbled petulantly. The adorable mannerisms and the slightly darker ear tips brought a laugh out of Wei Wuxian.

„I know, Jiang Cheng was horrified and demanded I change that as soon as possible. But I will need your help with that“, Wei Wuxian explained after he caught his breath from his sudden burst of giggles. „You will need to hold me down, while I cut myself open and sever the core from myself. No, we don’t go and claim it back as mine, it was a gift I gave freely and I don’t regret it.“

„Not his core“, Lan Zhan pouted. Then he furrowed his brows. „Jiang Wanyin was not the only one to recognize Wei Ying. Nie Huaisang sends his regards.“

„He recognized me? He is not as dumb as you all think him to be, but that‘s still impressive“, he marveled, pondering about the news. „Lan Zhan, what else did he discuss with you?“

„The rumors about the cause of death of the former Jin sect leader and the relationships my brother may or may not wish for“, Lan Zhan answered. „Wei Ying, I have questions. Is the knowledge of a person a good-with-people thing?“

„Where does this come from now?“, Wei Wuxian asked back, surprised by the direction their conversation took. „No, don’t be embarrassed, I’m just surprised. I think it is a mix of observation and empathy. Those are qualities that would get you into the ‚good-with-people‘ category. But you also need charisma to be good with people. Take Jiang Cheng as an example. He normally has a sound observation and can be charismatic if he needs to be, but he lacks a huge chunk of empathy. And your brother is oblivious about the things around him but still classifies as good-with-people. But both of them don’t know everyone you asked about. Jiang Cheng does have this sort of knowledge about me and Lan Xichen about you, but they get things wrong if Jiang Cheng is expected to interpret you and vice versa.“

„There is a personal component too“, Lan Zhan realized, nodding and furrowing his brows.

„Some are better and Huaisang did listen to me waxing on about you when we were teenagers. He is a good listener and he has great observational skills. He is easy to talk to and he is an easygoing person on the surface. All things that would help with getting to know somebody and his empathy helps implement his knowledge. Does this help?“, Wei Wuxian finished his little lecture, letting himself be pulled into an embrace and soft cuddles.

„It does. Wei Ying, would you ask your brother for help?“, Lan Zhan asked squeezing the servant a little more.

„It depends on the situation. He would be my sect leader if I was still part of the Jiang sect. And we have a complicated history of asking for help and showing weakness to each other. My Shijie on the other hand, I had asked her about anything she could possibly help me with.“

„But she was your older sibling. I specifically asked about your younger sibling“, Lan Zhan reminded him.

„And I said it is complicated. I hate to ask for help in the first place“, Wei Wuxian reminded solemnly, remembering how he sacrificed himself on his path of a single log bridge when he just could have asked for help. „If you ask me, if your brother would ask you for help, I also think it would depend. Would he think it would bother you or make you uncomfortable? Most older siblings wouldn’t want that and shoulder their problems alone.“

„Nie Huaisang said something like that.“

„Well, we established, that he is good with reading and knowing people for what they are and want. Do you think your brother would ask for the kind of help you discussed?“ Wei Wuxian could see his love thinking hard about the question until he finally shook his head. „That is what I actually thought too. If you want to do something about it, speak with him. Not about the possible relationship thing, but about taking some of the things on your own shoulders and lightening his load. If you really want to bug him and force your help, not that you should, but I know how stubborn your family can get...“ He shouted again, glad he one-sidedly soundproofed the room he and Lan Zhan were in. „Ow, don’t bite me! You’re not a dog! Lan Zhan!“

„Do not make fun of my family“, the other reprimanded.

„I was not, it’s a fact!“, Wei Wuxian deflected, shrieking and laughing when he was thrown onto the bed and bitten all over. The marks would be visible, but they were not painful. It took a while until they calmed down again.

„Alright, I yield!“, Wei Wuxian giggled, „But speak with your brother, if you want to share his work and lighten the load.“ He got an answering hum and could feel the other sagging into himself as the late night reminded him of the sleep he was missing. He wished the other a good night and closed his eyes, his own exhaustion dragging him into the arms of sleep.

„Lan Zhan, could you play Inquiry for me?“, Wei Wuxian asked, when he came into Jingshi the next evening.

„Mn“, his love answered and went to get his instrument. „Who do you want summoned?“

„Would you try Wen Ning? I want to check something I have heard recently.“

Lan Zhan hummed again, sitting down gracefully and starting the first notes of Inquiry. As it was not calling out for Wei Wuxian, he didn’t feel the pull and only had the unknown notes to guide his understanding. But he could see Lan Zhan starting to frown. Nodding he asked if he could try Wen Qing and they got a response this time around. He listened to the guqin’s music and the melodic quality the conversation had, opening his eyes when Rest was played to the last note.

„Wen Qing wishes to make it known, that you should take a break. She is worried about you. She furthermore has told me, that her brother was never burned, but remains chained under the Koi Tower“, Lan Zhan explained to Wei Wuxian.

„That is what I thought. I have found correspondence alluding to something like that in Jin Guanyaos' bags. I need to help Wen Ning.“

„I will help!“, Lan Zhan promised. It made Wei Wuxian all warm and fuzzy inside to have his love be supportive like that.

„Thank you“, he said earnestly.

„No need“, the Lan replied, elaborating shortly after to make his thoughts more known. „There is no need for ‚thank you‘s and ‚I’m sorry’s“

„I know“, Wei Wuxian replied and buried himself in the embrace of his love. „I love you.“

„I love you, Wei Ying“, Lan Zhan replied, giving Wei Wuxian a soft kiss on his head.

Chapter Text

The conference came to an end a few days later. Jiang Cheng sent his disciples away with the reason he had something to talk about with the Second Jade of Lan. That was how they found themselves inside the Jingshi. Wei Wuxian had actually been sent into a few free days to rest, after his work on the conference was finished and Lan Zhan was mostly left alone from his sect anyway.

„Explain it again?“, Lan Zhan requested, a small tremor visible in his hands.

„Aiyo, you don’t need to do that, if you‘re unsure“, Wei Wuxian tried to deflect. They had this discussion only half an hour before, but he was alright with repeating it. The glare he got from Lan Zhan and Jiang Cheng was very impressive. „Alright, no need to get so scary you guys. Lan Zhan will hold me down, while I sever the last connections I have with my core. After that, depending on what happens, he will make sure that the core is fully integrated into Jiang Cheng. We will probably need some medical help after that as well, that will also be Lan Zhan’s responsibility. You‘re sure, we don’t want to wait, until I have the thing with Wen Ning sorted out?“

„Mn. The sooner the better“, Lan Zhan answered, getting an agreeing nod from the Jiang sect leader.

„Alright. A-Yuan will be with Zewu-jun for the next few days, it should give us time to reorientate ourselves, after our dual cultivation is severed. Now that we all know what the plan is, we should start. Lan Zhan, where would you have me?“

„Here“, he said and opened his arms right where he was sitting on the floor. Nervously swallowing Wei Wuxian lay down on the floor and into the arms of his love. He let the embrace calm him and knew he was safe in this embrace. He listened until Jiang Cheng lay down on the floor as well, right beside them. Then he started to calm his breathing and his heartbeat, going into semi-meditation.

He searched for the qi still inside him and the connection it gave him to the core inside Jing Cheng. Carefully he coaxed them out of himself, bundling the qi-cluster into a little mess of a ball, inside himself. A last fortifying breath and then he used the resentful energy inside himself to cut himself open as cleanly as possible. He reached his hand inside himself, not caring about himself. He was screaming in agony and tears were flowing freely out of his eyes, but he closed his hand around the qi he was still connected to and took it out of himself.

Panting he gave Jiang Cheng a small cut with the resentful energy and reached out to shove the qi inside, but he could feel his strength leaving him. Lan Zhans hand was there, cradling the qi and supporting it with his own. It was warm and comforting, Wei Wuxian thought, his awareness slowly shrinking away due to the blood loss and exhaustion of the pain. He watched with blurry eyes as the golden energy with his signature red was slowly integrated inside Jiang Cheng, and got absorbed into the body. In a few weeks or months there shouldn’t be any residence of his signature left, the core now fully belonging to his shidi. Satisfied he let his eyes fall close.

He woke up to Inquiry being played. He had a headache, his mouth was fuzzy and his limbs were made more heavy by the lead he could feel. He felt as if he got run over by a dozen donkeys.

„You are awake“, Lan Zhan mumbled, helping him sit up and drink a bit of broth. It was the same kind of broth he had made for the other a long time ago.

„I am“, he told his love, leaning on the other and letting himself be supported. „I didn’t mean to fall unconscious and make you worry more.“

„I know. You explained it could be a possibility. How are you feeling?“

„As if I had too much wine and got run over by Nie Mingjue“, Wei Wuxian replied with a groan. „My throat is all scratchy and my nose is clogged up.“ He felt warmth flood his dormant meridians, soothing some of the aching he could feel inside of him. It was nice of Lan Zhan to soothe the mild inflammation of his meridians.

„You are developing a fever. It would be best if you rested more. Drink!“, Lan Zhan said at last, having laid his hand on Wei Wuxians forehead at last. He held a small cup of medicinal-smelling tea in front of Wei Wuxian who only scrunched up his nose, but drank it.

„Do you think I caught a cold through my exhaustion?“, he asked mildly amused by the whole concept. He hadn’t gotten a minor illness since he could remember. The last time his parents were probably still alive.

„Mn“, his love answered. Humming quietly a gusu lullaby with a soft cadence of the melody. Soothed and still exhausted Wei Wuxian fell asleep again, listening to the change to a song he knew was not known by the broader mass.

He actually had caught a cold and he was still shivering in the layers of robes he swaddled himself with, when a massenger falcon flew straight at him. Surprised he raised his arm to give a landing space. He cooed at the falcon who was nuzzling into his hand and chirping happily to see him. It was an impressive example of a saker falcon, wings tucked near to the body to better cuddle with the human still giving it scratches. Generally, it was seen as inconsiderate to let birds of prey into the Cloud Recesses, but this bird was an exception.

Wei Wuxian had found out why it was such a problem, after he had found himself near the bunny meadow one day, seeing the rabbits he had gifted to his love a long time ago. Animals were seldom attuned to cultivating animals in their vicinity, but this falcon was. It was cultivating itself and would adhere to the rules, if it got them explained. And it would prefer birds anyway, if Wei Wuxian remembered correctly.

Sighing he hoisted the messenger bird on his shoulder, letting his fingers dance over the small holster the bird was carrying on its bag. His eyes widened, when he came across a scar on the right wing, the bird biting in warning to be careful. A tender scar that had healed. Wei Wuxian definitely knew the bird and knew who trained it. Cooing soothingly he let his hand dance over the scar, clicking his tongue dissatisfied to feel the tissue tight from the cold.

„Don’t worry Baofeng, we will soften your scar and then you can fly even faster. What did Jiang Cheng send you here for anyway?“ The bird answered with soft nips on his ear and a shifting of the wings, drawing attention to the holster it was carrying again. Wei Wuxian chuckled and obediently freed the bird of its small load, opening the holster for two cylindrical objects to fall out. A scroll fell into his hands and a black flute he was all too familiar with.

Hey,

this is awkward I just wanted you to know, that I still consider you a brother part of Yunmeng Jiang. You should at least have the possibility to come back the moment you feel like it. I hope you will visit someday... Anyway. You will need your tools to actually cultivate anything and even if I can’t bring you your sword back, I can give you your demonic flute. And your stupid falcon. It won’t listen to anybody. It better brought the letter to you or I will break its wings!

Sect Leader Jiang

Jiang Wanyin

Jiang Cheng

He stored the letter inside his sleeve, smiling softly into the winter sun. He let his fingers dance over Chenqing, smiling when his fingers passed the bitemarks A-Yuan left while his teeth grew in. He could feel his eyes tearing up when he heard the clarity bell now attached to the flute, where once the Ying Tiger Tally hung. It gave a balance to the resentful energy still residing in Chenqing.

„You are cold“, Lan Zhan reprimanded and pulled him into his embrace, transferring warm qi into the meridians of Wei Wuxian. The other shivered and snuggled deeper into the warm embrace.

„Never knew the winters up here as so cold“, Wei Wuxian complained, taking one of his loves broad hands and softly directing it to the falcon on his lap. „This poor maiden here is also freezing, you should help her.“

„Mn. Would not be right to let her freeze“, Lan Zhan stated and directed his Qi carefully into the birds' scar tissue. All the while Wei Wuxian explained how he came into the pleasure of Baofengs' company. The poor bird had been injured as a chick during a night hunt Wei Wuxian led right after he came back from the Cloud Recesses. He had used his limited medical knowledge to nurture the chick back to health and then he proceeded to raise her and train her. Along the way, Baofeng had picked up cultivation and she was impressively strong for a few years of cultivation. The cultivation process of animals was slower than it was for humans.

The falcon chirped happily and let the qi sink into the tissue, directed by soft comments from Wei Wuxian to optimally soothe the scar tissue and lessen the discomfort. Then the hand was back on Wei Wuxian, laying over his abdomen and feeling the core of resentful energy the Burial Mounds had left inside. It also gave Wei Wuxian very inappropriate thoughts about the things he could probably do with his hand there and Lan Zhans qi surging through him from there. They were not so far into their relationship to even discuss such things and he was content to wait, but sometimes he wished and longed for the unrestrained and passionate feeling he had during his first kiss. He wished and dreamed that it was Lan Zhan who had taken his first kiss, but he never spoke of it.

Chapter Text

Wei Ying was attending to his duties, recovered after he had caught a cold in the wake of severing the connection to his core. He was still weak and shivered, swaddled in warm clothes as soon as he stepped outside the Jingshi and always returning similarly drowning in the warm fabrics. He was of course not the only servant who had to deal with the cold weather of Gusus winters, but he was the only one, who came from the temperate climates in the south.

This time he had returned with a falcon on his shoulder, happily chattering to the bird. The bird answered in kind, chirping and clicking with its beak. Sometimes it tugged at a strand of hair and made Wei Ying laugh freely.

„Lan Zhan, A-Yuan, may I introduce you to Baofeng? She is my messenger falcon. Baofeng, this are my son A-Yuan and my... husband?“, Wei Wuxian introduced them. Even with the questioning tone of his voice, Lan Wangjis' heart skipped a beat. That was how he agreed to the bird staying inside and getting treated to the qi treatment, without even reminding the smaller one of the 'no pets allowed' rule.

„Do you want to be my husband?“, he asked later in bed, cuddling his love near.

„Yeah“, Wei Ying answered. „Wanted to be that since we got married. I may have been unfaithful to you...“

„You were not“, Lan Wangji protested heatedly. Whatever Wei Ying thought, he was surely not unfaithful.

„But I was“, his husband replied, turning around and looking up at Lan Wangji. Heat had spread to Lan Wangjis' ears and his heart had skipped a beat or two. „I kissed someone that was not you.“

„You did?“, Lan Wangji asked, hurt and vinegar dripping from his voice. He was just glad his brother hadn’t been near to hear the tone.

„Yes, I did. It was during that stupid night hunt on Phoenix Mountain. Someone came and stole my first kiss, pressing me to the tree and all.“

„You haven’t been unfaithful. I was the one“, Lan Wangji admitted. He could feel his love growing very still in his arms before he relaxed and melted into the embrace.

„Lan Zhan, I know we have been taking it slow, but I need you“, Wei Ying finally whined.

„Wei Ying“, Lan Wangji answered, turning slightly to see the other better. He took his mouth, desperately drinking up the desperate and needy sounds of his love and causing more from the force of the kiss. Wei Ying gasped and made little noises in the back of his throat, his hands finding their way into Lan Wangjis' hair and clinging. A pleased hum vibrated deeply in the Lans lungs. He took the ribbon from his forehead, binding it securely around the wrist of his love, his husband. One end he bound around his own wrist, an echo of their handfasting before Lan Yin in the ice cave under the cold springs. He could see the silver eyes of Wei Ying getting misty, shining that much more in the light of the moon and gave him a soft kiss, full of love and devoid of horny desperation. A small sob caught in the throat of the smaller man and then the first tear rolled.

„Wei Ying?“, Lan Wangji asked, wiping the tear away with his thumb.

„It’s nothing, I’m just overwhelmed and happy“, the other answered through tears and sobs, smiling all the while. „No one, but you“

„Wei Ying is beautiful. No one, but you“, Lan Wangji echoed, resuming the kissing of his love. He started to bite Wei Ying, his own emotions and the dark storm inside himself spilling over and claiming what was his and had been his for so long.

He was surprised by the readiness the body under him displayed, Wei Ying sweetly yielding to the silent demands of Lan Zhan and submitting in a way he never had done before. It was a heady rush, making him want to mark the servant more, bite him, claim him, ruin him for everyone. Repeatedly. He was not sure if he said it out loud or if Wei Ying could read his thoughts, but he whimpered, teased and egged him on, giving permission and wanting these things as much as the other.

„Good Morning, Lan Zhan“, Wei Ying greeted with the first rays of the shining winter sun, giving him a soft kiss. Their wrists were still bound together, slightly twisted from sleep during the night and numbing uncomfortably and accordingly.

„Good morning, Wei Ying“, he greeted back, deepening the kiss with a content hum and started to undo his forehead ribbon.

„I wished I could wear a sign of our marriage, at least under all the clothes. I still can’t believe, that we are married“, Wei Ying said. Lan Wangjis' hands stilled and he left the forehead ribbon tied around his love's wrist. He stood up, after giving the bound wrist and his love a kiss each, going to his closet. After a little while he found what he was searching for. A finely made box of dark wood with a cloud pattern in a lighter wood. It was small, but it was precious.

„Wei Ying, do you know how many ribbons a Lan gets?“, Lan Wangji asked after he turned back around.

„Two are made for every Lan a replacement may be requested if the ribbon is destroyed. If the ribbon is destroyed by carelessness the Lan has to find his replacement on his own“, Wei Ying quoted from a book he must have read during his studies in the Cloud Recesses.

„Mn“, Lan Wangji answered. „Which of my ribbons would you like to wear?“

„Lan Zhan?“, his love asked confused. He waited patiently if the other would figure it out. He smiled when he saw the silver eyes widening.

„The one around my wrist?“, Wei Ying asked uncertainly. Lan Wangji just nodded, settling back on the bed and untying the marriage knot, rewrapping the ribbon until it was snug, but not uncomfortable, on the whole forearm, at last tying the knot to keep it in place. He watched his love's response, the trembling smile and the happy gleam of his silver eyes. Lan Wangji peppered the tied wrist, his husband's ribbon-adorned wrist, with featherlight soft kisses.

„Lan Zhan“, Wei Ying giggled in playful protest, squirming a little when Lan Wangji caught a ticklish spot. „Let me tie your ribbon, please?“

Lan Wangji stopped his ticklish kisses and took a deep breath. He made a noise of assent and turned around accordingly. Light fingers carded through his hair, combing some of the sleep-induced knots out, and then the ribbon made contact with Lan Wangji's forehead. The silk was never worn before, feeling foreign but right on his skin. He could feel the kisses his husband bestowed on his back and shoulders, the fine silvery scars visible there peppered with additional affection.

„Something is not right“, Wei Ying stated, when Lan Wangji was finally finished with getting ready for the day. Wei Ying had been out and about before, delivering breakfast to Xichen and bringing breakfast for Lan Wangji as well upon his return.

„This ribbon was never worn before. It was intended for my spouse“, Lan Wangji explained.

„That might be it. But it’s also something else“, Wei Ying responded, sighting and smiling. „I know the problem! The solution is easy! Wait.“

„Wei Ying“, Lan Wangji stated fondly, his eyes widening, when his wrist was captured in a red ribbon, tied as neatly as the one around his loves wrist.

„Here, now you also wear the sign of our marriage!“, Wei Ying stated, giving Lan Wangji a deep kiss.

„Wei Ying, your cover?“

„I will go and free Wen Ning. There won’t be a cover good enough to hide that.“ Lan Wangji would like to disagree, but he was glad his love was sure enough in their safety, that he felt free to go out of hiding.

„I will help“, Lan Wangji promised.

Chapter Text

Wei Wuxian was delighted. Not only was his marriage with Lan Zhan consummated, he also had it in himself to finally find the courage to break out of his hiding. It should start small, with little things, things that would add up and maybe ease the tension and transition. So he wore his husband's ribbon on his wrist, right over his skin, the sleeves of his robes wide enough to slip just so to give a peak of his ribbon. And A-Yuan has gotten permission to introduce his best friend to Wei Wuxian.

Lan Zhan wore his ribbon with grace and actually wore shorter underlayers to let the striking red shimmer through the last layer of white. A proud display of his marriage, he had said, giving Wei Wuxian one of the too-soft and light kisses. Wei Wuxian smiled upon the memory and served Lan Xichen and Lan Qiren their tea. It was steeped perfectly to Lan Xichen's liking, as was his duty.

„Thank you Cangshen“, Lan Xichen said, dismissing him with these few words as well. Bowing he went and attended his other duties and Baofeng. His messenger falcon had settled well and had grown a love for A-Yuan and Lan Zhan as well. Especially with the warm qi transfusions and massages for the stiff scar.

„Hello there, sweet Jiejie“, he greeted the falcon, chuckling when the falcon chirped back. Smiling he gave the falcon some of the meat he had with him, scratching the lady under her beak when she finished. „Would you take my letters to Huaisang and sect leader Jin Guanyao?“

The falcon fluffed up its plumage, resettling its wings and spreading them in the process. Wei Ying took it as the agreement it was and proceeded to put the holster on. This was a holster for two letters and equipped with all the needed talismans and inscribes it needed. The letters could only be taken out by those the letter was addressed to, and by whom it was written. Giving his lovely messenger a last scritch he let her fly, first to Nie Huaisang and then to Jin Guanyao. Maybe he wouldn’t have to make it into a situation to save Wen Ning.

„Lan Wangji, I brought the requested lunch“, Wei Wuxian called out, the courtesy name of his husband feeling foreign and wrong on his lips. He could see the minuscule tightening of his spouse's tendons, but they both did not acknowledge it. Lan Qiren was visiting with Elder Lan Cuowu. Lan Zhan and Wei Wuxian were not ready to confront this situation and reveal the true identity of the servant, so they played their roles. But they were loath to untie their marriage bands as well. He could see the mistrustful gazes of Lan Qiren, who had grown weary of his small mischief and the other elder, who didn’t look all too happy with the full recovery Lan Zhan had made.

„I take it, that this is the servant you have taken in?“, the elder asked, his disdain clear to hear.

„Mn, he did a perfect job. Our sect leader made him his lead servant“, Lan Zhan smoothly replied.

„Xichen has probably too much sympathy for the boy. He is soft like that“, Lan Qiren replied.

„Mn, Xiongdie may be sympathetic, but he values good work. It was Mimi Cangshen who made the suggestions and provided the recipes for the dishes“, Lan Zhan rebuffed.

„Yes, and it broke our rules and traditions. Alcohol in the Cloud Recesses. Killing! And to be proud and flaunt wealth“, the elder reprimanded.

„It was the decision of the Sect Leader“, Lan Zhan answered, setting his tea aside. Wei Wuxian took the hint and refilled it smoothly, reminding the guests of his presence within the Jingshi and that they are not to bad mouth their sect leader in front of anyone, and that gossip is forbidden. „As far as I know, a servant delegation was sent into Caiyi to get the different meats and no member of our sect drank the offered alcohol. The welcoming banquet and the talks during the following days were taken positively and it was the smoothest discussion conference without an actual leader since Wen Ruhan took the power of his sect and started to suppress the others.“

„What are rules for when they are not headed?“, the elder bemoaned. Unnecessary, Wei Wuxian wanted to reply but bit his tongue to swallow his comment.

„There should be the possibility for leeways and exceptions. Not every rule should apply riggedly in any situation. The world is not made to be sorted into black and white and the rules can’t apply to every situation equally“, Lan Zhan said softly. The elder made an undignified and disbelieving sound. Wei Wuxian clenched his hands around the container he was holding to get the snacks Lan Zhan and A-Yuan loved for their tea.

„Wangji“, Lan Qiren reprimanded his nephew, but no further action was taken for the moment. „Perhaps you would do good in rereading the rules of respect.“

„Do not disregard the younger“, Wei Wuxian chimed in, not able to keep his quiet anymore. He had always been better at handling slights against himself than slights against his loved ones.

„Do not disrespect the elder“, the grandmaster groused, his gaze a sharp warning.

„Do not argue with your family, for it doesn’t matter who wins“, Wei Wuxian countered. He had lived under every rule of the Lans and he was loath to just sit there and let his husband be shut up by his uncle.

„Teachers have extensive knowledge and are examples of moral integrity.“

„Nurture aspirations.“

„Maintain your own discipline“, Lan Quiren quoted

„Be strict with yourself.“

„Be just!“

„Morality is the priority!“, Wei Wuxian finally spat. Following was silence. Not for long as Wei Wuxian started to fill it before anyone could shake themselves out of the shock. „Arrogance is prohibited, have courage and knowledge, have courtesy and integrity, be compassionate, do not disregard the younger, do not neglect your own studies, do not argue with your family, for it doesn’t matter who wins. Destroy the five poisons, do not succumb to rage.“

„Be careful with your words!“, Lan Qiren snapped back. Wei Wuxians eyes flashed in anger, the resentment in his core shifting dissatisfied.

„Do not take your own words lightly“, was the reply to the interruption. „If others win over you, do not envy. Do not hold grudges. Do not make assumptions about others. Do not praise yourself and slander others. Do not take advantage of your position or connections to oppress others.“

„We never!“, Lan Cuowu interrupted, red in his face. „You are being unruly!“

„Am I? Do not forget the grace of the forefathers. Be loyal, filial, friendly and dutiful. I follow the teachings of your ancestors. Lan An was ready to go to any length for his love and his family. I am the same. I would go any length for those I am seeing as my own.“

„Cangshen“, Lan Zhan reminded, snapping Wei Wuxian back. He turned, looking into Lan Zhan's eyes. A silent question if he was sure, a promise to stand beside him. He took a deep breath, thought about the consequences and turned around to see the two elders of the clan and sect he had married into when he was fifteen and almost dying in an ice-covered cave under their sacred cold springs.

„I would suggest that you go. My husband wishes no harm coming to his family and I respect that. I‘m not good at letting go if something happens to my family, as you should be aware“, he spoke letting the servant glide from his shoulders, his eyes burning with the resentment rolling in his eyes.

„Wei Wuxian!“, Lan Qiren roard, silenced by the Gusu silence spell immediately.

„Do not be loud“, Lan Zhan said, releasing the spell at once.

„This is ridiculous. A marriage has to be announced.“

„It’s true“, Lan Zhan said calmly, drinking the tea his spouse had refilled.

„Lan Yi herself verified our handfasting. She accepted me as part of Gusu Lan“, Wei Wuxian added. He lowered his head when he got a hand on his wrist, a warning to behave himself.

„This is unacceptable. We will discuss this with the sect leader. Until there is a solution you are both declared in seclusion“, Lan Qiren decided. „A-Yuan will still be permitted to live here unhindered. For his sake.“

„I will still attend my duties until I am told otherwise!“, Wei Wuxian groused. He was surprised by the small acknowledging nod he got.

Chapter Text

Nie Huaisang,
I am sure the rumors have spread to you. The rumors fly as fast as your swiftest bird after all. I am sorry I haven’t told you about my survival and I am sorry I haven’t given you any indication. Lan Zhan has given me your regards and I wanted to give you mine as well.
Sadly this is not a letter for only reconciling. I need your help with a few things. I am sure you will have a favor in mind, I can do for you in return. At the moment my husband and I are in seclusion but the time is running. Wen Ning is held in the dungeons of Koi Tower and I’m not capable of reaching out to him. I am also worried about Suibian. Jiang Cheng had returned Chenqing to me, so there is no need to worry about her.
In friendship
Wei Wuxian

Wei-gongzi,
I am glad to hear from you. Without the cover of you being a servant. I must admit I am curious about how this happened. Would you indulge my curiosity? This is not the prize I claim for my help in rescuing and returning Wen Qionglin to you. I am not admitting it lightly and I will have to give you a talisman of my sect, to make sure you will not go around and tell everyone, what I will disclose for you now.
Our cultivation is volatile and we are prone to qi-diviation. That is why I didn’t want to train with the saber in the first place. My brother is struggling lately. His qi is unbalanced and he’s constantly on the verge of diviation. I have sent you coded copies of our cultivation techniques. Perhaps you will be able to break the cycle my ancestors have started. I would owe you a life debt. But I guess we are canceling each other's life debts when we help each other out.
I would suggest writing to the Jin sect leader. He is a decent guy and probably doesn’t know, what is going on in his dungeon. If he is not willing to release Wen Qionglin I will personally assist in any capacity you need.
In friendship
Nie Huaisang

Yao-ge,
I have informations for you. Wei Wuxian is alive and living well. I am sure you had your suspicions and were worried about Xichen-ge’s lead servant. A name as suspicious as ‚Hidden Secret‘ and he was so close to both of the Jades as well. I can lay your worries to rest. The servant is Wei Wuxian himself and he is the husband of Lan Wangji, so no need to worry there. I have given him the secrets of my clan, in hopes he will be able to save Da-ge.
Wei-gongzi actually reached out to me in matters of utmost concern. What did the former sect leader Jin Guanshan do? Wei-gongzi told me, that Wen Qionglin is kept in the dungeons of Koi Tower. To make matters worse did he not have any connection to him at all. I am not sure it is wise to let these matters remain as they are and I hope you will regard his concerns with the wisdom you were chosen for.
In concern
Nie Huaisang

Jin Guangyao,
I know I am not the person you want to hear from, but I have matters to bring to you. My brother Wen Ning and my sister Wen Qing sacrificed themselves to save their family. I know that Wen Qing is dead, she gave me a present as a farewell, but my brother did not die that day. I hope for your understanding that I want my brother back and as healthy as possible. Please release him as soon as possible.
With hope
Wei Wuxian

Wei Wuxian,
I got your and A-Sangs letters. I am sad to inform you that I have found your brother, but his consciousness is lost. I could release him, but he would be a problem when he starts rampaging through the lands. I have to inform you, that I am not willing to take this risk. I have to say, that I am glad that you live. A-Sang wrote me, that he gave you the secrets of his clan. He made you a member of the Nie’s with that, I hope you are aware.
I would like to ask a favor of you. My father was obsessed with the Yin Tiger Tally and wanted it for himself. He had a rogue cultivator who was obsessed with you and your new cultivation under his employment. They tried to make a replica of the tally and they had experimented on your brother. I would ask of you, that you help with that.
With Greetings
Sect Leader Jin Guangyao

Nie Huaisang,
thank you! I don’t know how I will ever repay my debt to you, but I will start with what you asked for me. You forgot to mention that you made me part of your clan. What are you planning?
Anyway, I have read through your material and would ask you and your brother to allow me a reading of your cultivation. I still remember that I helped you in your cultivation through the things you like. Maybe we could arrange a meeting between your brother and Lan Zhan’s brother? He probably won’t let me scan him though.
In friendship
Wei Wuxian

Jin Guangyao,
please don’t chain my brother down, because you fear what he may do. I‘ll still be able to control him and maybe I can restore his consciousness again. I don’t know how I feel about another cultivator who walks my path. It may seem arrogant, but I would prefer to be the only one and to let it fade away again after I die.
Lan Zhan told me about Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen. I hope they are alright. If you have any information about their whereabouts, I would love to have the chance to meet them. I think you may know, but my mother was a disciple of Baoshan Sanren as well and I would like to meet a shidi of her.
Release my brother and he will come to me without any casualties. No one will even know he was going through the area.
In hope
Wei Wuxian

Yao-ge,
I need your help. Wei-gongzi is willing to help Da-ge, but he needs qi-readings of him. And we both know Da-ge wouldn’t let him. How are we gonna get him to agree to medical treatment from Wei-gongzi? And I know he needs it.
In distress
Nie Huaisang

Wei Wuxian,
I have released Wen Qionglin. I hope that you are true to your word and will help with Xue Yang and Nie Mingjue. I am sure I don’t need to tell you how serious the situation is and how careful you need to treat this path. I will get Nie Mingjue to agree to a qi-reading from you.
Be true to your word.
Sect Leader Jin Guangyao

Chapter Text

Wei Wuxian rolled the last letter up and stowed it away. He had called for every undead affiliated and loyal to come to him to the border of Cloud Recesses wards. Wen Ning is under them, he knows, but he is not sure who else will be heading his call. They would still need a day or two until they arrived and he had promised his little radish some snacks for him and his friend. Wei Wuxian was excited for his son to have found a friend and he was glad his son was still allowed to have visitors.

Humming he made the last preparations for the snacks, some candied ginger in a separate bowl for himself and his son. He hummed the song his husband had written for him so long ago and sung in the cave of the Xuanwu. He jumped as he was suddenly grabbed and pressed against their table, a bite on his neck.

„Lan Zhan, you brute! Not now, A-Yuan and his friend are arriving any moment!“, he scolded his husband, a smile on his lips softening his ire-filled words. To soften it more he turned and kissed his love.

„Wanted a snack too“, Lan Zhan pouted into his ear, returning the kiss.

„I have made your favorite sweets. Take this box here“, Wei Wuxian replied, stretching and squealing when he was uplifted by his husband. He took the box and held it down for his husband to take, yelping with the bite to his backside.

„You are cruel, how will I be sitting properly when you mawl my ass all the time?“, Wei Wuxian asked, a playful anger in his voice. He loved his husband freely giving into his desires.

„You will not. And you like it“, Lan Zhan replied, sure in his reply. But he sat him down anyway. „Love you always.“

„You can’t just say that!“, Wei Wuxian whined, covering his fiercly flushing face with his hands.

„What can Hanguang-jun not say?“, a little voice chimed in.

„Jingyi!“, A-Yuan whined, covering his face in mortification. If it was because he had picked up the habit of mortification from displayed affection or because he was mortified by his friend's lack of manners was not to discern. Maybe a combination of both.

„Those most sincere words of his affection. My heart can’t handle it“, Wei Wuxian answered crouching down to be of the same height as the duckling. „And who are you?“

„I’m Jingyi, I’m Sizhuis friend!“, he exclaimed excitedly.

„It’s an honor. This one is Wei Ying, courtesy Wei Wuxian. I’m A-Yuan’s mother“, the servant introduced himself, bowing in the perfect courtesy.

„The honor is mine“, the little one replied, clumsily returning the bow.

„Can we draw something?“, A-Yuan asked excitedly.

„Of course, I just thought you would like something to eat first. You must be hungry after your day in classes.“

„I’m starving!“, the children replied, looking at each other and bursting into laughter. Wei Wuxian smiled, giving them the light lunch and the snacks he had prepared to eat.

„Wei Ying is a great mother“, Lan Zhan whispered into his ear after the kids had settled.

„Maybe you should make me pregnant. Then I would have more little radishes to spoil“, Wei Wuxian whispered back, leaning into his husband and giving him a quick kiss. „But only after the little ones are sleeping.“

„Mark your words“, Lan Zhan replied heatedly, settling on his desk to work. Wei Wuxian smiled content with the world, settling next to his husband with his own work. He was still only in the theory about the Nie Cultivation style and it was interesting. It reminded him of what he did with the Burial Mounds. The problem of the Nie cultivators probably lay with the missing consent of the qi and resentful energies inside the cores of the creatures.

„Something interesting?“, Lan Zhan asked after a while, nuzzling into the neck of Wei Wuxian.

„Absolutely. I will have to experiment and all, but I can’t tell you. Secrets of the Nie sect“, Wei Wuxian answered. He leaned into the embrace of his husband and hummed. „Say, Lan Zhan, can somebody be affiliated with more than one sect?“

„Mn. Most cultivators marrying from one sect into another are affiliated with both sects. Sometimes the children of such marriages are too, if the sect leaders agree. Jin Rulan is affiliated with Yunmeng Jiang and as of now the standing heir.“

„Eh, really?“, Wei Wuxian exclaimed in surprise. „But he can’t be the leader of both sects.“

„Mn“, Lan Zhan agreed. „Until one leader retires or dies he will be heir to both. Wei Ying?“

„Ah, Lan Zhan, it is nothing. I just realized that I’m now affiliated with three of the four great sects and the former Wen sect, if it should ever reform“, Wei Wuxian explained, kissing his husband.

„Wei Ying is welcome.“

„Well, I‘m not sure this is good. Jiang Cheng still doesn’t know about me being married to you. He could have objections.“

„Wei Ying is always welcome with the Lan sect“, Lan Zhan promised.

„‚Wei Wuxian is forbidden to enter Cloud Recesses. It is forbidden to associate with Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian's inventions are forbidden. Sightings of Wei Wuxian are to be reported. Acceptable actions are to be taken if confronted with Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian is forbidden to come near Lan Wangji‘“, Wei Wuxian quoted.

„‚A spouse should be loved. One is to be loyal to one's spouse. One should never mistreat their love. One should follow their heart in loves question‘“, Lan Zhan quoted back. „Wei Ying is my heart's desire.“

„Lan Zhan!“, Wei Wuxian exclaimed, burying his face in his hands and leaning on his love's breast. „You can’t just say such things!“

„A-Niang? Jingyi wants to know if he has to kick A-Die for making you uncomfortable“, A-Yuan chimed in, red as well, but vibrating from suppressed laughter.

„Ah no, little duckling, there is no need. My husband is just too cruel to me. He knows I can’t handle such love without a proper warning“, Wei Wuxian answered hurriedly. He didn’t want the kid to get the wrong idea after all. „And a kick would bruise. What will my most pretty husband do then? His jade white skin maltreated to a colorful bloom of blues and violets. No, we can’t let that happen. It would be a tragedy.“

„Wei Ying is wrong“, Lan Zhan countered. „Wei Ying is the most pretty.“

„Lan Zhan!“, Wei Wuxian shouted again, hitting at his husband playfully. „I said I needed proper warning. My heart really can’t take it. Here, feel, you did that to me!“ Laying Lan Zhan’s hand on his breast, right over his stuttering heart, he buried himself in the embrace of their love.

„Urgh, gross. Are they always like this?“, Jingyi asked A-Yuan.

„Yes, but they are in love with each other. A-Die was playing Inquiry for A-Niang every day for ages!“, the little radish replied. „Sometimes A-Niang would answer, but that had made A-Die more sad after.“

„Didn’t Laoshi tell us that only the spirits of the dead can answer Inquiry?“

„Mn, Wei Ying is special“, Lan Zhan explained patiently.

„Lan Zhan!“

„Are they really like that all the time?“

„You will get used to it. Just ignore them“, A-Yuan said wisely.

„Lan Zhan, did you hear that? Our little radish just admitted to ignoring us! What a tragedy. Whatever will we do now?“, Wei Wuxian exclaimed, letting himself fall backward. He trusted his husband to take his weight in his arms and to keep him from hitting the ground.

„Punishment must be given“, Lan Zhan exclaimed, face stoic and no hint of a smile. Only the mirth in his eyes and his light presence were indicators of his playfulness. Wei Wuxian smiled the smile of a predator and jumped on the two boys, tickling them until they pleaded for mercy. All the while Lan Zhan’s soft eyes were on them and a smile was present on his lips.

Chapter Text

Wei Wuxian hadn’t thought so many would head his call. He knew his kindness and warmth were greeted with loyalty, but he hadn’t thought that so many would come. He greeted the ghost brides he had enjoyed people-watching with, welcoming them back into his shadow and giggling at the gossip they were telling. They were enarmored with the polite fierce corpse his brother had become and they did love the little child ghoul.

Speaking of the little ghoul, he crouched down and cuddled it, looking it over for any wounds and smiling when he saw none. He hefted the undead toddler up into his arm and cooed when it tried to take his finger. Baobai was as hungry as always, but he hungered for things Wei Wuxian could understand. The toddler had starved after all. No food and no affection received in life. It didn’t understand to separate those two hungers after its death.

„No snapping at my fingers, little one. I will need them to tickle your tummy“, Wei Wuxian scolded lightly, tapping the tip of the ghoul's nose. It tried again to bite his finger, but it was slower than it could be, confused with the filling of his hunger without chewing on something. Searching over the crowd, he saw the undead he was originally searching for. He was still covered in chains, his hair wild and unkempt, but he was there.

„Wen Ning“, Wei Wuxian breathed, handing the ghoul toddler to another corpse. He closed the distance to his unresponsive brother, taking his head in his hand and pulling him close until their foreheads touched. A trembling breath escaped him, shakey with his released worry. His brother was back at his side, at last. Carding his hand through the black tangled trasses, moving over the scalp, his hand caught on something.

„Turn around, please“, Wei Wuxian asked of his brother. Unconscious as he was, he headed the soft order without thought, turning his back to the ghost path cultivator. Pulling the hair aside he could see the two needles lodged into the base of Wen Nings skull. Clicking his tongue in disapproval of the blunt method and that it was practiced on his brother, he gripped the needles and slowly pulled them out. He took the last of his resentful energy, emptying the core the burial mounds had gifted him, to repair the damage this practice had done.

„Wen Ning, wake up“, he whispered softly, smiling when the corpse before him went rigid and then turned around in confusion.

„Mas-master Wei!“, he called out. Wei Wuxian pulled an eyebrow up.

„Wen Ning, no need to be so formal. We‘re brothers, aren’t we?“ Wen Ning nodded shyly after he took a deep breath. He let his gaze travel up and down Wei Wuxian's form.

„You have changed“, he commented at last, still soft and unsure.

„And you haven’t“, Wei Wuxian retorted good-naturedly. „The Burial Mounds healed me after the massacre of the nightless city. I’m sorry I couldn’t save your family. But A-Yuan is alive and well!“

„A-Yuan? He lives?“, Wen Ning asked hopeful.

„He does, adopted by Hanguang-jun himself. I probably should introduce you to him. We consummated our marriage“, Wei Wuxian rambled on. He ended up telling Wen Ning about everything he missed during his stay in Koi Tower and how sorry he was for what happened to his brother. Late in the evening, he said his goodbyes, handing Baobai firmly to Wen Ning, who was not at risk of getting his hand taken off. They would do each other good.

„I don’t know, when I will be able to speak to you again. I did shuffle my work for today around after all. But I have a mission for you, if you are willing. There is a cultivator who tries to be my legacy. He tried to make a copy of the Yin Tiger Tally. I want you to look out for him and tell me where he is and how bad the situation is. Don’t involve yourself, if you can do that, but don’t hold back if you think you can intervene safely. Take care and be safe“, Wei Wuxian gave his order, dismissing his brother after some more words of love and affection and returning to his husband.

„You married without telling us and letting us be with you?“, one of his ghost maidens asked incredulously after he greeted his husband with a kiss.

„I married Lan Zhan before I ever went to the Burial Mounds!“, Wei Wuxian called back indignantly.

„Wei Ying?“, his husband asked concerned but bemused.

„Ah, only old acquaintances, my love“, Wei Wuxian answered, giving a second kiss to soothe the worry his husband carried. „You remember my ghost companions?“

„Mn, showered me in flowers“, Lan Zhan replied.

„Yes, those ghosts. They answered my call and I invited them back to the place they called their home. They better not interrupt our everyday, or I will banish them back to the place they had come from!“, he threatened half-heartedly. He wouldn’t do that and his husband knew it as well as the ghost companions he had.

„But master Wei!“, one of them called, voice high pitched and scandalized. „We‘re your gossip group!“

„Yes you are, but gossip is forbidden here. As well as demonic cultivation or ghost path cultivation“, Wei Wuxian explained and winced. „Uh, Lan Zhan? I sure hope nobody saw me use Chenqing and calling all the undead to me. It will only make your uncle more firm on his decision to throw me out or even kill me.“

„Mn, will protect Wei Ying“, Lan Zhan vowed, his gaze shifting to something hard and predatory in an instant. „Wei Ying still needs punishment.“

„Uh, Lan Zhan?“, Wei Wuxian asked nervously and took a step back, near the bed. The ghosts giggled, but were fading for the moment, knowing well, that their friend wouldn’t want them to hang around for the following events.

„Wei Ying“, his husband said again, calm and sure, before he exploded into movement. Wei Wuxian could only squeal and let his husband have his way with him to repent for breaking the rules.

„Is this your little radish you told Ning-er so much about? And he has such a cute friend! I could just take them and gopple them up, they‘re so sweet!“, Ai Sunshi cooed. Jingyi looked remarkably alarmed at the unnoticeable words the ghost had said.

„Wei-qianbei, you wouldn’t let her right?“, he asked with big fearful eyes.

„I wouldn’t little duckling. She‘s just teasing. But tell me, you can hear them?“, Wei Wuxian soothed immediately.

„I can. I thought I was the only one!“

„Excessive noise is forbidden“, Lan Zhan and A-Yuan cited simultaneously. A-Yuan beamed with the affection he got in the small head tilt and smile Lan Zhan gave him.

„Ah, but this is indeed a reason to be alarmed. After I started to hear the whispers, I thought I had lost my mind. Don’t worry too much Jingyi, most ghosts are a lot of bark and no bite“, Wei Wuxian promised.

„Alright!“, Jingyi called out determinedly, still too loudly for any respectable Lan. Ah, Wei Wuxian loved that kid. He was so happy for his little radish to have found a friend.

„If any of the ghosts make a problem for you, just tell me. I will have a few words with them“, Wei Wuxian added and smiled when it was accepted as well. He could live happily if the future stayed as his days were now. His ghost companions cooed and talked with each other about his love for his family, but he was content to let them have their fun with teasing him. He could appreciate the love shining in those around him, even if they teased him until he was red as a tomato.

Chapter Text

Lan Wangji was quite content with his life as of now. He had his Wei Ying at his side, made the long overdue announcement about their marriage to his Shufu and his son was happy. He could live with his husband now, his husband gone out of hiding, but still acting as a servant.

„Wei Ying“, he called as he saw the other man starting to cook, chattering away to his ghost friends.

„Lan Zhan“, his husband called back, interrupting himself in the middle of his sentence. He turned around, hands stilling shortly over the cutting board, until they resumed, much slower but without looking at the board. „What can I do for you?“

„You do not need to cook anymore“, he said glancing at the sharp knife still slicing into vegetables.

„I know. I want to do it. And honestly? After half a decade, you start to get into the habit. Oh, please Lan-er-gege, don’t make that face. I understand that you express your love with acts of service and you want to spoil me. I never got to spoil my loved ones as I wanted to, so please let me spoil you too?“, Wei Ying pleaded, his hands finally stillling and laying the knife down. He turned fully around and gave him the biggest pout he could muster. Growling deep within his throat Lan Wangji surged forward, capturing his love and kissing him deeply. Stepping back when he felt the pout melt into a contented sight.

„Mn“, he concluded, after he bit the plump lip. „Wei Ying can cook, but he has to let me care for him. Including cleansing.“

„A hard bargain you strike“, the younger man teased, playfully pretending to think about it. „I think I have to pass on the cleansing... Hanguang-jun! No! Set me down you brute!“

„I think I have to pass on setting Wei Ying down“, Lan Wangji imitated, his tone flat as always. Wei Ying stilled his wiggling on Lan Wangjis shoulder, shocked into stillness, then he burst into breathless laughter, wiggling worse with his helpless peals of joy. It was a soothing melody for Lan Wangji to hear this unrestrained joy and warmth.

„Lan Zhan, let me down, the cooking is not finished and A-Yuan wants to have a taste. It was something he remembered from before. You can play cleansing for me all you want. I’ll tell you, if it‘s uncomfortable.“

„Mn“, Lan Wangji appeased, setting his love down and giving him more kisses, peppering his face with them. „Would not want to disappoint A-Yuan.“

„Exactly“, the other beamed and turned back to cocking the dish, a soup of some kind, mumbling and humming under his breath all the while.

They indeed had a soup, a vegetarian and Gusu-influenced rendition of a Yunmeng specialty. They had lotus root soup with many vegetables and thin fried slices of tofu. The flavour was rich, but not too spicy and it tasted like home. He immediately loved the food and would never say anything about cooking and chores to Wei Ying again. Not if he risked never having a filling and satisfying taste of his Wei Ying’s love again. He gave his sincere gratitude and compliment and asked, his ears burning up, if he could have it again.

They spent their days like this, settling into domestic life while they waited for the decision of his shufu and brother. He hoped for acceptance, but he knew the elders would not accept it, unless Wei Ying stopped cultivating the ghost path. But that would mean stopping cultivation altogether and Lan Wangji was not sure, if he wanted that either. He knew Wei Ying would be sad to let nighthunts pass, just to be able to live beside his family. And he would worry himself sick, if he stayed back and let Lan Wangji go on his own night hunts.

Short of a miracle, and Wei Yings golden core returned, he was not sure they could have a really happy life here. Content they were, but his Wei Ying was full of worry and his own dark twisting thoughts. And they were not going down. Then there was the problem with the Elders. They probably would not have a problem with their ancestor-blessed wedding, if Wei Ying would be able to properly dual cultivate with Lan Wangji. As it was now, he could feel his qi trying to reach out, but only met dark, empty coldness. It recoiled from him, as well, likely the special kind of resentful energy his love cultivated.

That was until he felt something warm and light pierce through the cold shadow veil in his love, shocking and stilling in his movement of their lovemaking. It was the qi of his love. Pure. There. It was warm and golden and traveled thinly into his own meridians, intertwining with his own qi and further igniting the passion and love. He let it consume him, giving Wei Ying everything he had until they both lay in the bed, exhausted, bruised and sated.

„Lan Zhan, what made you so wild?“, Wei Ying asked after a very long while, still a little breathless. He could feel the smug satisfaction curling up inside him. He made his loves voice raspy and thin through hours of panting, moaning and screaming.

„Wei Ying“, he answered. Because it would not have needed the qi, the reach of the exchanged dual cultivation, for him to be unsatiable and unrestrained with his love.

„There has to be more to it. You mauled me all over!“, the younger exclaimed, palyful complaints all throughout. He had already confessed that he loved to be marked up and claimed like this. „Ah, don’t tell me. You are worried about tomorrow, right? If they don’t accept me within your sect, we could just go. I would probably need to nap Jingyi for A-Yuan, but I think his parents wouldn’t mind having him out of their hair. They love him, but he is as much Lan, as I am.“

„Mn“, he agreed to the last statement, still giving his love a stern look of disapproval.

„Don’t be like that Lan Zhan. I wouldn’t nap a child. Not unless it has nobody else. We could become rogue cultivators and visit all the time to let the kids grow up together. So don’t worry my love“, Wei Ying promised giving a sooth to a worry Lan Wangji had almost forgotten he had. And it was so simple, was it not? But maybe they would not have to lose the support of all the sects.

„Wei Ying. Yunmeng Jiang?“, he asked carefully.

„Oh, I hadn’t thought you would have wanted to be part of Jiang Chengs‘ sect. He can be a prick, to be honest. But he is a great leader of the sect and it‘s prospering under him. His temper could use some managing though, it can’t be healthy to be so angry all the time. Yeah, he would probably welcome us, not to live there as we are living here now, but as members of the sect, who go on nighthunts all the time“, Lan Wangji’s husband answered.

„Mn.“ Could it be, that Wei Ying had not noticed his own forming golden core, covered and protected as it was under all the resentful energy he still carried from the Burial Mounds? It was unlikely, a cultivator always noticed the forming of their core, but that would also need very strict training to achieve that with the late formation it had now. And that was nothing Lan Wangji had seen in Wei Ying. He was still carefree and never picked up training implements unless he was helping their radish and his friend. And still, that should not be enough to form a new core.

His wonderment was answered the next morning, Wei Ying having woken just before him and wrapping his arms around his abdomen.

„Lan Zhan, I think I may have cultivated a new core“, he whispered in wonderment, blinking back his surprise. Lan Wangji could still see the tears being swiped away by long dark lashes. He sat up, reaching for his husband and drawing him close, embracing his marvel of a spouse. He had cultivated a golden core by accident, with the everyday tasks of a servant.

„You have. It reached out to me. During our everyday yesterday“, Lan Wangji confirmed, letting his qi flow into his husband through his hand. As his hand was woven under Wei Yings, he could let his qi sink the shortest path to the new golden core, cradled in resentful energy for protection. „It is beautiful. It is a marvel. You are even more so.“

„Lan Zhan!“, Wei Ying complained, pouting sweetly while burrowing into the embrace and hiding his face. „You have to warn me before you say such things!“

„Will always say such things. Wei Ying deserves this!“, Lan Wangji promised, coaxing his lovely husband from his hiding place with butterfly-soft kisses.

Chapter Text

Still riding the joy of having a new functional core, which was filling him with warm life again, he almost skipped to the hall, where they would have the final discussion of Lan Zhan’s and his faith. Wei Wuxian was happy to have his core and the ability to draw Suibian again. His sword had been long enough forgotten and discarded, even after it returned strapped to the back of Wen Ning.

Finally standing up and readying himself for the meeting, he put on his best clothes, sewn by himself, with the claims of the sects that had already accepted him as part of their sect, as well as the sect he had married into and been adopted by, embroidered into the seams of his robes. Nie bulls alongside Jiang lotuses, Lan clouds and little suns of the Wen were showing proudly who he thought himself part of and who had claimed him. The black of his robes was not typical of the Lans, but the material was sheer silk and layered over each other to hide the slight translucence it had. Interwoven were talismans for protection and safety, to shield himself if anything goes wrong. He held Suibian in his hands, welcoming her back at his side and laughing, when she flooded him with her energy, excited to finally be back where she belonged. Wei Wuxian also tugged Chenqing in his sash and finished uplifting his hair into his signature ponytail.

„Lan Zhan, how do I look?“, he asked, giving a little twirl. He loved his husband's eyes on him and he wanted to hear his honest opinion. He also complimented his handsome perfect husband on his gorgeous looks.

„Wei Ying is as beautiful as the moon. Wei Ying is always as beautiful as he was when I first met him“, Lan Zhan replied, his voice the soft assurance of the truth in his words. It was too much for Wei Wuxians' heart, who made a pitiful whining sound and collapsed into his husbands' arms.

„Ayia, you shouldn’t tease me like that when your elders are coming soon“, he whined after he had managed to collect himself somewhat.

„Not teasing, just being honest“, Lan Zhan replied, giving him a soft kiss. They were too soon interrupted by a sharp clearing of a throat. Sighing Wei Wuxian wiggled out of the embrace, still too used to being a servant and maybe liking the possibility of rubbing it into those elders' faces as well.

„Sect leader Lan Xichen, grandmaster Lan Qiren, elder Lan Cuowu, an honor to get a meeting with you“, he bowed, just deeply enough to be appropriate for the spouse of a sect heir, not deep enough to be appropriate for a servant.

„Let’s not dwell on formalities“, Lan Cuowu rasped, annoyance deeply etched into his face. „We are very busy and here for a reason.“

„Of course elder Lan Cuowu. It would not do to inconvenience you“, he replied smoothly, bowing again and starting to serve the perfectly steeped tea. „We are here for the announcement of the decision regarding Lan Zhan’s marriage to me under the watch of Lan Yi, if I remember correctly.“

„That is right, Wei Wuxian“, Lan Xichen replied, his smile soft and genuine. „We could not decide as of yet. We would still need some information and a lookover from a healer for both of you.“

„I’m alright with a healer having a once over, after we had our conversation, sect leader“, Wei Wuxian replied and leaned softly on the shoulder of his husband. He gave support for his love, as his love was a support for him.

„What demonic cultivation did you use to survive?“, the elder cut into.

„Ah, I didn’t do anything. And no, I‘m not lying. The Burial Mounds are somewhat sentient and they like me, so they helped to heal me. They also altered my appearance because they thought it would be funny“, Wei Wuxian replied, cutting straight into the protests.

„Since when do you consummate your marriage“, Zewu-jun asked. It took a few questions both of them answering some, sometimes both the same if their differing experiences were needed. All the while Lan Qiren was silent and just watched the proceedings with sharp eyes and listened with even sharper ears.

Lan Tongqing, the head of the healing halls, arrived shortly after. She gave an encouraging smile and started to set her tools down.

„Since you consummated your marriage, I am right in the assumption you also dual cultivated?“, she asked, all business and no opinion either way. Wei Wuxian saw the ears of his love burn a deep crimson, stroking his hand through the dark silky hair and covering the ear tips in the process. He still answered the question with the ‚yes‘ it needed. „I will need to make a reading on your qi then. Especially with the new and dangerous cultivation of resentful energy Wei Wuxian has been practicing. Anything else I need to know?“

This time it was Lan Zhan’s place to give comfort with soft gestures. Wei Wuxian drank them up like the thirsty and withering plant he sometimes felt himself being. Still, he took a deep breath, ready to answer the question. „I had an experimental surgery a couple of years ago. My core was transplanted into my shidi, before I developed the ghost path to survive the Burial Mounds. My shidi and I were still connected and had a kind of dual cultivation until we severed the connection of his core with me a couple of months ago. I managed to cultivate a new core since then“, he explained, blending out the shocked gasps.

„We will start with the young master. It will be easier to determine the effects all of this had on him and then I will turn to you. Is this alright?“, she asked them, waiting for both their agreements and the agreement that they could go ahead under the watchful eyes of the sect leader and two of his elders.

Lan Zhan was of course alright and had managed to cultivate nearly into immortality during their time together. It was not much of a surprise for Wei Wuxian, his husband was amazing like that, but it saddened him to hear that. Someday he would leave his husband to mourn him all over again and this time he wouldn‘t be there to soothe the burn his death will cause.

He held his arm out, never flinching from the fingers laced with spiritual power. He hummed slightly to soothe himself and leaned into his husband for comfort. He didn’t know if he was comforting his husband for they would eventually lose each other again, or if he sought comfort from the thoughts he had and the feeling of foreign qi inside him. He had to soothe the resentment around his core actively to prevent a backlash and injury to the healer.

„I have some news. Your core is growing strong and fast, faster than I personally would like in a developing fledgling core. It is protected from a second layer of qi, which is only yin energy. Your cultivation is, for the moment at least, not harming your mind or body. I would recommend regular screenings to ensure it will stay like this. I don’t know, what will happen if you draw too much of your yin energy at once, but it will not harm you. As for your lifespan, I can’t say how this will affect it at all, but in some way, you will at least live longer than a non-cultivator. You should sleep and eat more though“, Lan Tongqing gave her final verdict.

„Thank you great healer“, Wei Wuxian said, bowing deeply in gratitude. „Would the notes my doctor made on her practices and my cultivation and the effects of it, help? I am sure I could get them.“

„It would“, she answered shortly, bowing as well and then walking out of the room and away at a brisk pace every healer learned to master.

„The healer has spoken“, Lan Qiren finally said. Wei Wuxian whipped back to his former teacher, critically watching him and narrowing his eyes in warning. He did not care about the opinion of this or any other man. But his husband would be hurt if his choices and love were not accepted by the man who raised him like a son.

„Wei Ying“, his husband said lowly, a warning and a reassurance in one. He took a deep breath and let the tension go again.

„I have no problem with your emergency wedding and Lan Yi approving of it. I still insist on a proper wedding. And we need to announce your survival to the whole of the cultivation world.“

„As the grandmaster and sect leader wish“, Wei Wuxian said, bowing deeply to show his gratitude once again, ignoring the seething elder who had no way of overpowering this decision.

Chapter Text

To all the clans and sects,
Gusu Lan has great news. Our second master Lan Wangji is engaged and set to marry in winter. We hope you are as happy for our second master, as we are. The ceremony will be held with selected guests, but the festivities will be held for a whole week. If you are willing to come, please send your regards and request and we will send you an invitation. Please remember that access to the Cloud Recesses is only granted to those belonging to the Lan sect and those with an invitation.
With blessings for the soon-to-be-wed,
Gusu Lan

Nie Huaisang,
I know that you probably know it already, but I wanted to tell you that I am marrying Lan Zhan. You and your brother are invited to the ceremony proper of course. I wish you safe travels and hope we can work on the thing you asked me about. I have ideas, but nothing I can start to work on without the readings.
In friendship
Wei Wuxian

Sect Leader Jin,
I hereby invite you to the wedding ceremony of my husband and me. Please take Jin Ling along with you, I would love to see my nephew and to introduce him to my son. I also wanted to thank you. Not only did you set Wen Ning free, but also gave him Suibian to be returned to me. I owe you for that. If there is a matter I can help you with, additionally to the matter of Xue Yang, please don’t hesitate to ask me.
In greeting
Wei Wuxian

Sect Leader Jiang
Jiang Cheng
Brother,
I understand what made your letter awkward. And I am sorry I haven‘t answered your letter. Baofeng brought your letter dutifully to me and is staying in Cloud Recessess with me. I am writing you to invite you and Jin Ling personally to the wedding ceremony. I wanted to tell you something and I will tell you this personally as well. Thank you. For returning Chenqing, for supporting me and for being by my side. I know that you tried to fight against the cultivators who attacked me in Nightless City and that you also tried to warn the Wen’s about their doom. And I’m sorry I couldn’t keep my promise. As far as I am concerned, I always considered myself a part of Yunmeng Jiang, even after we staged my defection and I stayed to protect the helpless Wens.
Anyway, I wanted to tell you, that I am grateful to have you in my life and that I regret not being there for you, when you needed me.
In love and affection.
Wei Wuxian

Wei-gonzi,
my brother and I will of course attend your wedding. And we will come early to help with the preparations. That should give us time to sort out Da-ge’s problem as well. I am excited about what will come of the wedding, if I think about the splendid conference banquet you organized. And the wedding has to be so much more. Please, Wei-gonzi, let me help in planning the wedding. I will never have the opportunity with Da-ge. He will complain that I will go overboard and make his future husbands uncomfortable.
In Excitement
Nie Huisang

Wei Wuxian,
there is no need to thank me for returning your possessions. I gave Wen Qionglin everything of yours still being in Carp Tower. I am sorry to tell you that your scripts and theories are all missing. My father took them to study them. Probably Xue Yang took them with him.
A-Ling is with his other uncle for the time being, but I guess he will come along with sect leader Jiang. I would like to come early, to help with the preparations and to get some personal matters settled.
In kind regards
Sect Leader Jin Guanyao

You Asshole!
Do you know how worried I was? I will break your legs as soon as I am in Caiyi! The last time I heard anything from you was shortly after the surgery and that you fell ill with a fever! And stop the bullshit about ‚thank you’s‘ and ‚sorry’s‘! I will come as soon as I can and I will prepare a wedding that only our Shijie had a better one! Of course, A-Ling will come with me. Then he can see for himself why I think he likes to dress as an idiot. Honestly. What is wrong with you?
Anyway. I will come in the last week of autumn and stay during the whole winter with you. My second in command is competent enough and your communication talismans help in emergencies.
I hope you are safe and happy, or I will break your fiances' arms.
Jiang Cheng

A-Cheng!
Lan Zhan has read your letter with me and he said, that he would not fight and bow to any punishment you have for him, if he truly hurts me in any way. I love you both, so please don‘t fight. And yes, my husband treats me right. He is outright spoiling me and our son. Oh, that reminds me, I will have to introduce you to my little radish.
To get to the serious matters. I do not know, if Wen Ning will make it to the ceremony, but I consider him my younger brother. I was not replacing you, don‘t worry and don‘t get all pouty angry with your little cheeks puffed up from drinking vinegar. He, Wen Qing and the rest of the Wen adopted me and became overprotective after I collapsed one too many times from exhaustion. Don’t worry, I‘m now regularly checked over by a healer.
I’m waiting for your arrival. I‘m sure A-Ling, A-Yuan and A-Yi will become fast friends and be the little terrors of Cloud Recessess.
With love
Wei Wuxian

Nie Huaisang,
please come as you see fit. Am I right in assuming that the sect leader Jin is in the Unclean Realms as well? Please relay my gratitude for the offered help in my wedding preparations. Jiang Cheng has decided to come in the last week of autumn and to help in the preparations as well. My invitation is now that you all come then as well. It would give your brother more time with his lovers and me more time to handle the problem of him and his lurking qi deviation.
And you could spend time with A-Cheng. I am sure you two miss each other.
In friendship
Wei Wuxian

Chapter Text

Wei Wuxian was nervous. He got Jingyi and A-Yuan with him and held their hands to make sure they would not get lost. It still was not helping his nervousness. Caiyi was a big city, far bigger than the little town at the foot of the Burial Mounds in Yilling could ever hope to be. And he had lost his little radish there once upon a time. But the kids were older now, not merely toddlers tagging along, but eight-year-olds who were attending the studies of the Lans. A loud ruckus caught his attention. He let go of the hands of his charges and caught the little boy running around and almost crashing into his legs. Wei Wuxian smiled as he saw the little golden robes of the boy, the vermilion mark on his forehead and his scowl, as he was lifted up. It reminded him of his own shidi.

„Aiyo, little one, why are you running around like that?“, he asked, grabbing the hand of Jingyi, before he could make a run for it. A mild warning in his eyes for his radish and he took the other hand of his best friend. Together they made their way.

„Let me down! My uncle will punish you! Who are you anyway?“, the little kid shouted, wiggling and struggling. It drew the attention of the passerby and more than one was frowning at him.

„I’m Wei Ying, courtesy Wuxian. Your uncle didn’t happen to be Jiang Cheng, courtesy Wanyin? The sect Leader of Yunmeng Jiang?“, Wei Wuxian answered, humming the song of clearity soothingly.

„He is. Why do you know my uncle?“

„I’m his brother. And you must be Jin Ling, courtesy Rulan, the son of my sister. You have her kind eyes.“

„You knew my parents?“, Jin Ling shouted excitedly. The smile of Wei Wuxian softened more, shifting the now placid child to a more comfortable position.

„I did. Your mother was my Shijie after all. She could make the best lotus root and pork rib soup I ever had. She was often overlooked, even from your father.“

„Really? I only ever hear them talk about her death during the tragedy of Nightless City. And how my father died in Qilongy Path. My father was praised for his honorable actions and his cultivation, but nobody can say anything else about my mother. Uncle always gets shouty and won’t tell me anything.“ Jin Ling looked up at him with big hopeful eyes.

„Really?“, Wei Wuxian gasped overacting to the delight of the kids. He had reached the inn he had promised Jiang Cheng they would meet at. Settling the kids down on the table he ordered meals for them and drinks and sent a messenger butterfly to inform his shidi about the whereabouts of their nephew. Jin Ling was nodding wildly, his ponytail whipping excitedly. A red hairband was fluttering in the air, wound tightly in the hair and hidden under the elaborate golden hairpiece.

„What a tragedy“, the adult continued, smiling. „I am not really surprised. Most people described your mother as unremarkable. They just never saw her stand up to her mother with a spine of steel, a blade-sharp smile of kindness and a few carefully chosen words. She may have been low in cultivation and always has been a little sickly, but she was still the daughter of Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan. Did you know she only needed a look to shut your uncle and me up?“

„Did she? My mother could shut Uncle Cheng up? With only a look?“, Jin Ling asked excitedly, cheering as he got answered with an indulgent nod. „She is so cool!“

„I tell you what. If A-Cheng is willing, I will ask my husband to play Inquiry. Or I’ll try to make at least one session of contact possible. But only if your uncle is amenable “, Wei Wuxian proposed.

„You’re fiance is not allowed to play Inquiry and disturb the rest of Shijie!“, a booming roar sounded from the entrance. Jin Ling turned to the noise like a moth to flame.

„A-Cheng, no need to shout like that. You are disturbing the other inhabitants of the inn. It’s unbecoming of a sect leader of one of the great sects. You could be mistaken as clan leader Yao“, Wei Wuxian scolded, ignoring the indignified splutter of his Shidi. Then his ears picked up the soft cling-click of bells attached to a collar and a soft panting. He could feel himself tremble and the resentful energy inside him coiled in response to the sounds a dog with an owner made. He took a shaking breath, trying to calm his nerves. Then he heard the soft whine of a puppy.

Trembling he found himself on the other side of the inn, his son and his charge pressed tightly to himself. He was ready to protect them if necessary. His eyes caught sight of the puppy. Small, chubby, big clumsy paws and big soulful eyes, its ears pointed, its pelt grey and black. The fur was thick and the tail was wagging in excitement. It made a high-pitched bark.

„You are still so terrified of dogs. Now you’re the one to make a scene. Let me get the dog into our room, then I will join you“, Jiang Cheng sighed, tugging the lead and making his way to the stairs, making soft cooing noises so the attention of the puppy would stay with him.

„Why are you afraid of Little Fairy?“, Jin Ling asked, as soon as they sat back down on their table. He could feel his hackles rise with the visitor's amusement on his expense. He was not exactly mad at them, but he was embarrassed by his reaction. He still could feel the phantom of sharp teeth ripping into his leg.

„It’s not just Little Fairy. It’s all dogs. The smaller the worse. I had a bad experience with them when I was a little kid. A little younger than you are“, Wei Wuxian explained shortly, then he took a deep breath and smiled. The last of his tension and his fear bleeding out of him.

„What did you idiot do with the kids, while I searched the city?“, Jiang Cheng asked and flopped down against his side. The shoulder bump was soft for a cultivator, but it had had him sprawling the last time he got one. It felt right to not fly into the table with the soft bump from a brother to soften the seemingly harsh words.

„I took A-Ling with me and came here right away. I told him about Shijie. I was just offering to let my husband ask for her to come, if she is willing. It would not be disturbing the rest of her at all. She would not come, if it would bother her. She is no restless spirit after all. It would not work if she is not willing“, Wei Wuxian rebuffed. „My husband would not do that.“

„You refer to your fiance as your husband. Do you have no shame at all?“, his brother spoke again. It was the same anger that spoke of worry and care. It warmed Wei Wuxian to see him change the topic so suddenly to something he was far more comfortable discussing as well.

„Actually, we are married already“, Wei Wuxian said, laughing awkwardly and rubbing his hand in his hair. „We are married since we were studying in the Cloud Recesses. You remember our tied wrists when you found us after we had vanished for a whole day?“

„I knew I should have fought harder. He took your honor and never considered how this would affect you!“, Jiang Cheng roused, only stopping when Wei Wuxian's hand lay down on his arm. A soft laugh made them aware of the newcomers, who were going to them and settling near them. Two Nie’s and a Jin. Jin Ling excitedly jumped up and ran to his other uncle. An Uncle holding a smaller child in his arms and looking exhausted.

„I am not sure I have really seen you beforehand, but I think you may have changed?“, the exhausted sect leader opened the discussion.

„That I have“, Wei Wuxian said, full of joy, his eyes not leaving the toddler in the arms of Jin Guanyao. „The Burial Mounds have a sense of humor. Or they thought my appearance now more fitting. I’m not really sure.“

„You look remarkably alike to the Child A-Yao is caring for“, Nie Mingjue observed, his head tilted. „You don’t have fathered any children, have you?“

„Uhm, no?“, the mother of a son of his own answered. „I only have my son A-Yuan. My little radish is the only child as of now.“

„A-niang? Can we have dessert? And Ling wants to try one of my favourit sweets“, A-Yuan butted into the discussion. Wei Wuxian shook his head, laughing and pulled some of the candid ginger from his sleeve. „You can have a piece each. But dessert has to wait until we have finished our meal. Your father would be gross with us otherwise.“

„Alright!“, A-Yuan shouted, wincing when he noticed his volume and directly apologizing for the noise. Shaking his head he handed the candy over, watching the children eat it and enjoying the sharp but sweet flavor.

„So, what is the plan regarding the wedding? You are wedded already from what you told me“, Jiang Cheng brought them on trek.

„Grandmaster Lan wants to see his nephew marry. At least one of his nephews should be married where he can see it and he is not sure if Zewu-jun is going to marry at all. That‘s at least the official stuff. And, of course, to make the declaration, that I’m officially bound and tamed.“

„What do you suspect?“, Nie Huaisang asked.

„The elders still have a grudge against Lan Zhan for standing against them and then healing the punishment as well as he had. They probably want to prove me unacceptable to marry into Gusu or unfaithful. So the wedding has to go by without a hitch“, he explained, turning around to the fussing toddler. Jin Guanyao looked helpless with the toddler wiggling and whining in his lap and deeply exhausted. Wei Wuxian smiled and plucked the toddler from his carer's lap, looking it square in the eye. „What can this humble one do for you?“

„Itchy!“, the toddler complained and wiggled again. Wei Wuxian tilted his head and blinked to the child, before he took him outside to deal with the problem the toddler had. Joking and tickling the child until it was docile and laughed.

„They look like father and son“, Nie Huaisang commented.

„More like mother and son“, his brother rebuffed, his voice more gentle than it would have been in other circumstances.

„We need to make the wedding a success. And he will adopt the child, am I right?“, Jiang Cheng bemoaned. Wei Wuxian couldn’t hear the reply, but he hoped he could adopt the child, if his carer didn’t mind.

Chapter Text

The sect leaders and some of the best friends of his husband have arrived in his home. His husband had asked him, if he would be amenable to adopt a second son and he was, as long as it would make his Wei Ying happy. He was less amenable to all the ruckus their guests made to top their ideas for the wedding. He had noticed that between Nie Huaisang, Jin Guanyao, Xichen and Jiang Wanyin he had no say in the matter of his own wedding. He excused himself and searched for his husband and sect leader Nie.

He found them in the Ziwan, behind a heavily warded privacy screen. Before he could come anywhere near his husband's head popped out, hair in a messy ponytail and ink smudged on a cheek. He knew his husband could get overexcited and he ended up messy more often than not as a result. It was an endearing sight.

„Lan Zhan!“, his husband greeted, all excitement, joy and love, vibrating with his emotions and smiling blindingly. „Wait a moment, please?“

„Mn“, he replied, tilting his head in acceptance. He didn’t have to wait long and his husband was excitedly waving to him to come behind the privacy screen.

„Nie Mingjue has given his permission to disclose his sect secrets to you as we need your help to cure him. They absorb the resentful energy of the things they kill into their sabers. It makes them stronger, but more temperamental until they can’t handle them anymore and the resentment overwhelms them. I need you to clean all the resentment out of Nie Mingjues meridians and Qi-paths. All the resentment, while I work with Baxia to ensure it won’t come to this point again. I’m not sure your sect can keep this cultivation up, it’s too much of a health issue. Or you need to change the fundamentals of it. Resentful energy is dangerous when not handled properly“, Wei Ying explained and then sternly scolded. It was endearing and made Lan Wangji smile. His husband did catch the soft tilt of his lips and cooed, teasing him until his ears were flushed with heat and Wei Ying was laughing.

„Wei Ying did good. Wei Ying is good. Love Wei Ying“, he replied, smugly observing how his husband melted in a playful distressed pile of delighted bashfulness and leaned into him to hide his flushing face and calm his rabbiting heart. He ignored the admonishments that he could not just say stuff like this and waited for his love to find his composure again. He did observe Nie Mingjue, did see the complicated expression in his eyes melt away as his husband was as ridiculous as he ever was. The last doubts about his husband's practices were not melted, but the doubts about his temperament were.

„Enough shitchat. We have a sect leader to heal!“, his husband proclaimed and clapped his hands, ending his bout of playfulness. It reminded Lan Wangji of a red-wearing doctor who had commended him to sit still while Wei Ying watched over her shoulders, helping her treat the injuries he had sustained in a fight he had not wanted to engage in. „Lan Zhan, start the purgeing process. I would recommend the cleansing through yang-heavy dual cultivation as well during that, but I don’t want my husband sitting and playing for you, while you fuck with his brother. Don’t look at me like that, Lan Zhan. Start playing, it won’t end today and as soon as Jin Guanyao has recovered he can start to do your part. Cleansing, not Eradication. And calming as well. You all will need that.“

Lan Wangji sat down and started playing, adjusting the spiritual power in the tones to the specifics his husband told him and then played those two songs on repeat. Nie Mingjue was stoically silent and meditated, hurrying the process along as much as he could. Once satisfied with their behavior his husband smiled at him, giving him a simple nod, activated a talisman and took Baxia with him as he went.

It took a few days of this arrangement, but then Jin Guanyao was with them, playing his own guqin and learning the scores. He played with as much spiritual energy as he had, but his guqin was not good enough to support his play. He could see his husband's frustration until he had an idea. To test his theory he took his flute, not Chenqing, but another one he claimed to have made during Lan Wangji's seclusion and played the scores.

„You can play the dizi as well, right?“, he asked the sect leader of the Jins. The sect leader nodded somewhat overwhelmed, but accepted the flute thrusted into his hands. It was a spiritual tool brimming with the yang energy of their surroundings. „You can keep this dizi. Its name is Mirenhua. It will make your cultivation stronger and more effective. Your guqin is not sufficiently supporting you.“

„Thank you, Wei-gongzi“, the sect leader replied, bowing deeply.

„Aiyo, there is no need for this. You don’t need to be formal with me. I think we are family. With me adopting your youngest brother and you being one of the lovers of my brother-in-law. Now get back to playing and we will see, if we can heal Mingjue before the rush of preperations starts “, Lan Wangji's husband replied and smiled.

„Again! This time I will monitor his qi as well!“, he commanded and Lan Wangji started playing Wangji while Mirenhua sang along. Whatever his love had read in the qi of sect leader Nie, he was satisfied with their progress.

Lan Wangji was sweped away from his duty to play the guqin, his brother and Jin Guanyao now working toghether in the Hanshi to cleanse the last of resentment from Nie Mingjue. He himself has taken to the task of nurishing the golden core and purging the violent resentful energy his husband was regularly flooded with while he cleaned the blade from its resentment. But that was not the thing he should be thinking about right now. Nie Huaisang had taken him from his path and commanded him to follow. He begrudgingly let himself be led through his own home. A soundles sigh left him when he saw all the servants ready to follow Huaisangs commands.

„We will start with measurements“, he anounced and then it was a hell of being prodded and asked to try different robes with different cuttings and different shades of red. He was pretty sure they were all the same, but if he would voice that, it would probably get him into a lecture about why this shade of red was different. His husband would have more patience for this sort of thing, but he would be no less uncomfortable.

He nearly broke a few rules, when he was saved at last, by a servant rushing in and providing two sets of robes. One was perfectly cut to fit his husband, which he could see immediately, the other one was perfectly fit for himself and he was ushered to try them on immediatley. They had the perfect cut and perfect measurements, the fabric was rich and luxurious and the color was perfect for wedding robes. He loved them immediately and couldn’t wait to see his husband in the matching set, but it did not quell his ire about the stress of the time before.

Nie Huaisang had an incling to notice his ire and was quickly assureing him, that he would not need to try on any more robes and that this set was perfect. He hadn’t known that there were perfect robes made for him and his husband already. And he learned his husband already had this procedure and blew up when he was asked for the cut one too many times, claiming he could produce the perfect robes for himself and his husband within a day. Feeling the fine weave of the fabric he recognised the soft patterns of talisman arrays. Arrays to protect the fabric, but the array itself he knew. He had worne robes with these talisman arrays for months after all.

Smiling he let his ire die down and humend his understanding, thanking Nie Huaisang for his work and his dedication to the happy marriage of him and his husband. It seemed his husband had his own ideas about what preparations he could make. He was happy to see that and let the rush of the preparations wash over him, waiting for the day he could marry his husband again.

Chapter Text

Wei Wuxian sighed frustratedly. He carded his hand through his messy hair. The hairband holding his ponytail together had fallen off and was not to be found easily. He would search for it when he was not suppressing the raging wrath of a saber. He took another deep breath, his eyes going over the array surrounding the saber again, making sure it was still in working order before he took Chenqing to his lips and started to play a tune to coax the rabid resentful energy out of the saber. It gnawed and gnashed, lashing out at everything in the surrounding area and trying to slice him up, but his frantic-sounding playing disoriented the energy and weakened it to the point he could start to smooth it out and absorb it. It would be a great resource for resentment to the layer he was surrounding his golden core with, but it was so volatile and needed a great burst of yang energy to make it docile. Luckily Wei Wuxian had Lan Zhan and their everyday for that.

It hurts! Set us free! Please let us go! You hurt us! The voices of the energy shouted, whispered and pleaded, a cacophony of noise he had learned to listen to. He knew they tried to lure him into a false step, but they tried it again and again. One final shrill note and the resentment separated from the blade completely, the saber lashing out as his source of power was ripped from it. Wei Wuxian immediately changed the melody to something slow and low, gentle and calmly soothing the resentment of the energy as well as the ire of the saber. The saber was loyal to its master and didn’t want him to get hurt, but it also didn’t understand, that its current state was hurting its master.

Panting Wei Wuxian leaned against a tree, catching his breath and wiping away the blood from his nose. It was exhausting to do that, but it proved effective almost immediately. The spirit of the saber was a little clearer and less aggressive, less inclined to shed blood. Waiting until he had recovered enough, Wei Wuxian monitored the saber and started anew. It was a draining procedure and it was making him weaker than he would have allowed himself to get in an environment he didn’t feel safe in, but it was so incredibly rewarding to see the effects his actions had. He was helping in cleaning and healing master and blade.

He hummed thoughtfully. He had sent the servant away, carrying the robes he had made the night before. He wouldn’t want to suspect his husband to the treatment of fashion talk and choices from Nie Huaisang only to have the decision fall on another day, because the exact right thing was not to be found. He himself could live with such talk, unless it starts to repeat itself for the third time. He may had exploded a bit too harshly thought. The saber was almost finished in being cleansed, but his own qi and energy were ruffled and wild for the time being. It had affected his temper once again. He promised himself he would not do that again, but he would give an alternative for future generations.

He wrapped at the door of the Hanshi, loath to barge into the abode of Zewu-jun, where he was working together with Jin Guanyao on cleaning the last clinging remains of resentful energy out of Nie Mingjues system. He waited a few minutes then the door opened. The first jade of Lan looked as bedraggled as he had expected, but it still made him smile and want to tease. He didn’t tease though, he was here as a healer after all. He took the offered wrist of the sect leader and let spiritual energy pass through, probing slightly to gauge the level of physical and spiritual exhaustion and then he let a sliver of his own resentment slide in, satisfied with the immediate reaction of the others qi. He did the same with the other two sect leaders and nodded in satisfaction.

„I would say you are clean enough. You all have traces of resentful energy with you, but that is not uncommon. Your cores have it balanced and handled and no resentful energy is not healthy as well“, Wei Wuxian declared, clapping his hands together. „Baxia will be ready in the next few days, when I have cleaned the last of the resentment. This means we can start on a new cultivation method for your sabers. I have made an array that will only allow energy to be absorbed, that won’t harm your golden cores more than they were harmed already. It should be enough for your disciples who are too far along with your current cultivation techniques to change it. For the rest, I would advise to cultivate the way Nie Huaisang is cultivating. And no, I don’t want to hear any disbelieving comments on that. Chifeng-zun, you will need to learn this too, so you won’t get your health as bad as it was.“

„Thank you, Wei Wuxian“, he said, bowing deep in gratitude. Flustered he halted the bow and righted the master of Baxia, giving warning looks to Jin Guanyao and Zewu-jun not to do that as well.

„There is no need for that, Nie Mingjue. I am happy to help the loved ones of my friends and family. Of course I help. And in a way, it was my duty too. Huaisang made me a member of your clan, after all. It is my duty, to help my sect leader.“

„Master Wei is too humble. He did not only help our Chifeng-zun, he also adopted my little brother and is willing to raise him.“

„Master Wei also took care of my brother in his time of need and only helped where he was wronged. We are indebted to you for your continued kindness after our mistakes“, Lan Xichen added, bowing as well.

„Don’t thank me“, Wei Wuxian replied and squirmed a little awkwardly. „It’s nothing. I also remember you three helping me. Zewu-jun, you took me in, after I had lost everything. Lianfang-zun, you returned what you could to me and returned my brother A-Ning to me. Chifeng-zun, I can remember you trying to demand a fair trial for me and the Wen’s instead of the siege. I can also remember almost no one of your sect being present in the siege. For that, this one is thanking you.“

„There is no need for that“, they protested immediately, furrowing their brows when he gave them his mischievous smile and a raised eyebrow.

„We were led into his trap“, Jin Guanyao chuckled and spoke out what the rest thought. „I can respect your wish to let this matter rest.“

„Thank you“, Wei Wuxian smiled and turned around. He had places to be and things to do after all. „You are free to carry on with the dual cultivation. It also strengthens all cores involved and lets the underdeveloped ones grow rapidly to the strength the strongest has.“

He was wandering the grounds of the cloud recesses, his new son in his arms and his little radish at his side. He was drinking the quiet calm in, cultivating his own core and strengthening it with the tranquil joy of the nature around him. He closed his eyes when he let his children play, joyfully enjoying the fluffy companions in the clearing. They had become even bolder after they recognized Baofeng as a friend and ally, an ally ready to soar into the path of any predator and defend the rabbits. As thanks the bird was allowed to cuddle up to the fluffy and warm furrballs. He opened his eyes again, when he heard the delighted shriek of Jin Ling.

„A-Ling, more quiet. You are frightening the rabbits!“, he called lowly, letting the deep notes of his voice travel the distance. The child listened and came to them more quietly, but not calmer.

„Uncle Cheng is seeing a pretty woman. She is my aunt!“, he exclaimed excitedly. He lifted an eyebrow, settling down and listening to the tale his nephew had to tell. He could feel his smile tugging at his lips and indulged in all the gossip that was forbidden. He also listened to Huangye Xiyue and Ai Sunshi who had been spying on his brother. He rolled his eyes at the antics of his ghost maidens and asked them where the other two were. He sighed when he learned that they had attached themselves to Jingyi, but the child calmed down about ghosts, when he started to get to know them.

Chapter Text

Lan Wangji was excited. He hated that he had to be separated from his love for the last two days, as was needed and custom, but he was excited to finally have his lovely husband in red by his side. He was not looking forward to being made a spectacle for others to gawk at, but he was happy to have his love being happy and accepted into the clan. Fully and whole when the wedding was finished.

His love was currently doing his own preparations with his brother and Su She, who had volunteered to help. Qin Su was also helping them, especially with taking care of the mass of children they had accumulated. He hummed, content to let his brother help him through his preparations. At last, his hair was bound by red ribbons and gold accessories, the white Lan forehead ribbon the only thing contrasting his red and gold accented robes. He was ready to sit at the altar and wait for his husband.

The scents of the prepared banquet, a mix of Gusu's and Yunmeng's best dishes, their favorites first and foremost as well, wafted to him from the side. The whole way to the pavilion and the pavilion itself was covered in red translucent silks and red lanterns were ready to be lighted for the fast approaching nightfall. Wen Ning stood beside A-Yuan, ancestor tablets in their hands, while his own Shufu stood at the other side of the altar, holding the tablets of his father and mother. Everything was ready, the guests had settled. Jiang Cheng came with another set of tablets and stood with them, waiting with nervous energy and an almost fond and melancholy scowl on his face.

They waited for his husband to arrive, waited as the sun set down, late as it got, the lanterns lighting themselves and giving a red and golden warm glow to the whole pavilion. They waited, but Wei Ying did not arrive. Did his Wei Ying change his mind? Lan Wangji stomped this thought to the ground with prejudice. He was faithful in his husband and he knew his husband had been as excited as he was. He waited with a soft breath, snow falling to the ground and caught in the silk, weighing it down as it melted.

„This is unacceptable!“, one of the elders declared. The other elders nodded in agreement, a hush of restlessness washing through the guests.

Snow falling through the dark sky, frozen tears of grief. Cold biting his hands, his face, his whole skin. Waiting in the cold was nothing new, he had done that, time and time again. Kneeling in the snow, waiting for a door to open, his mother not there anymore. Waiting with bamboo stocks before the door of his uncle, waiting for forgiveness he never sought and never wanted. Only because he pursued his love. Darkness outside of the pavilion, grief and pain inside his heart.

„Wei Wuxian has no integrity or moral whatsoever. I knew he would get cold feet!“, another declared. Lan Wangji could feel his heartbeat quicken, his breath catching in his throat. To his mortification it was not even his brother who caught his slip of control, but his future brother-in-law.

„Enough! I will not let you slender my brother! He was barely able to wait for the past two days!“, the booming voice of Jiang Wanyin interrupted the hush. It was accompanied by the threatening crackling of Zidian and the sharp and sudden smell of ozone.

„Clearly he has changed his mind. He would not let our young master wait otherwise!“, one of the elders argued back.

„He has not!“, Jiang Wanyin roared, his whip crackling stronger. Lan Wangji took a deep breath, listening to the man that knew his love just as much, as he himself knew him.

Do not break faith, echoed through his mind. Gathering his breath he started to straighten his minimally bowed back. His eyes found those of his brother-in-law, who was looking at him in something he thought might be a form of concern.

„He is not here, is he?“, the elder argued back.

„I know he is not!“, the Jiang sect leader groused, „And when I find out why he is not, he better have a good excuse, or I will break his legs.“

„Senior Qionling“, A-Yuan interrupted, accompanied by Jingyi. „A-Niang told me about your special bond. Could you use that to find my A-Niang?“ It took a moment for him, where he seemed to concentrate, then he shook his head.

„I’m terribly sorry but I can’t reach Master Wei. We have somewhat of a distance problem, where one needs to reach to the other and the other has to reach back. Lots of spiritual or resentful energy, exhaustion and simple sleeping can interfere with our connection as well“, Wen Ning answered.

„Does this mean that Wei-Qianbei is in danger? His ghost brides have vanished“, Jingyi pointed out. Lan Wangji gave the child his full attention, ignoring his indignant uncle and his offended sensibilities.

„I hope he is safe, but he may be in trouble. We will find him and bring him back“, he promised, reassuring the child and himself. „What did you say about his ghost brides?“

„Wei-Qianbei is always surrounded by his ghost brides. Or they follow me, because they like ‚to make me jumpy‘. They were here, gossiping about the splendor and wealth their master would marry into, but they vanished suddenly. They didn’t even say anything, they just stopped in the middle of their words. I think Shizui may have felt them disappear “, Jingyi said, looking at his friend. A-Yuan nodded wildly, his hair flying everywhere.

„We will look for him“, the groom promised his children again, giving them into the care of his brother and his brother's lovers. He gave his brothers-in-law a long look, the sect leader and the fierce corpse mirroring his look of intense determination, then they headed off into a sprint through the Cloud Recesses in search for Lan Wangj's Wei Ying.

Chapter Text

He had teased his brother about his crush on the timid but beautiful aunt of their nephew, but he had also made it clear, that he would support his brother if he decided to pursue her. His brother had spluttered angrily but had given him his shoulder to lean on, leaning on him in return. It was peaceful and he needed that after he had cleaned the last of Baxia. That Wei Wuxian was not permitted to go and cuddle with his husband, as he was going to be wed and it would be improper, was not helping his overall mood.

He watched his children run around, too exhausted to do much running and playing with them, humming a soft tune and enjoying the warmth his core gave him in the frigid but clear winter air.

„I still don’t know how you are suddenly so comfortable with the cold“, Jiang Cheng groused. Amused Wei Wuxian blinked and chuckled, bumping his shoulder softly into the other man.

„This winter is mild compared to the last one. And I have developed a golden core again. My core is different to the one I gave you“, he explained to his brother.

„But you cultivated it with the same methods.“

„Jupp, but the environment is different. The energies here are very yang and the cold is part of this place and its natural beauty. I may have a stronger resistance and warmth response to the cold from that. I think that is a change I would have seen coming anyway if I had spent much more time here when we were younger“, he responded, looking at his brother. He was upset, but that was to be expected. He was always upset when one of them mentioned the core inside of him. „Hey, A-Cheng? How has your core developed?“

„There is no trace of your spiritual energy remaining. The doctors were very happy about that. Especially after it vanished within two or three days“, he grumbled, crossing his arms and glowering into the snow before them.

„That was fast. You didn’t violently purge it, did you?“

„No. I’m not an idiot!“, Jiang Cheng shouted, setting his glare on his brother. Then he turned away, a pout on his lips. „I tried to hold onto it...“

„Hey, why would you do that?“, Wei Wuxian asked. The look he got was utter shock and disbelief.

„If you don’t know, you are more stupid than I thought you could be!“

„Anyway. You should go. Su She is due to arrive any moment and I think Wen Ning is almost here. Would you help A-Ning and welcome him? I have to stay here and let Su She help. And take the children with you.“ Wei Wuxian watched his brother rally their kids and passing him the toddler in his arms, trusting him to know how to care for him during the time this whole wedding preparation was going to take.

„We will also go with the children. We want to be as surprised by your beauty as your husband will be“, his ghost maidens spoke and floated to Jingyi who jumped with the sudden voices near his ear, but relaxed quickly as he recognized them.

He hummed and prepared himself as best he could, bathing and putting on the robes. Red silk layered beautifully over his frame, a feminine cut that would conceal Chenqin in his robes. He would of course wear his sword openly, but, aside from the sword, spiritual tools were forbidden at weddings. It was a shame, as there were exceptions for first-class spiritual tools like Zidian which disguised itself as a ring and Wangji which could vanish into thin air. That was a surprising revelation and his husband confirmed that the guqin stored itself in his qi, ready to be materialized. Chenqing did not show any such abilities and he didn’t intend for Chenqing to show such abilities if the ditzi didn’t want to, but it made it harder to find reasons for it to be with him without offending the other people.

He was starting to make his makeup, when his help arrived. He finished with the coal and ink around his eyes, highlighting the mischievous glint in his silver irises and contrasting the powder he used on his face. Not as much, that his face would be white, but enough to give it a natural-looking lighter tone than it had, giving him the beauty that was expected of a bride.

„Master Wei, I have arrived to help with your preparations “, Su She said, bowing deeply.

„Great!“, Wei Wuxian clapped his hands while he spun around, his hair flying widely. „I’ll need your help with my hair.“

„Of course“, he replied, bowing again and stepping up to him, his hands starting to card through his hair. „What is it like to marry the second young master Lan?“

„Oh, it is fantastic“, Wei Wuxian answered. „He is so good to me, and so handsome. He is talented, brilliant, attentive and attuned to my needs. He takes care of our son, he is just perfect.“

„Really? He isn‘t cold? He always looks so unmoved by everything“, his helping hand asked, intertwining the black hair of Wei Wuxian with all the accessories. Gold chains and needles and red jewels gleamed under the light, sparkling and giving his hair beauty and warmth.

„Lan Zhan? Cold? Oh no, no, no. He is lovely! He just looks unimpressed and has not many movements of emotions in his face, but he is feeling deeply“, Wei Wuxian explained, humming excitedly and looking at himself, suddenly nervous about being the bride to his husband.

„I see“, Su She replied, wandering into the kitchen and swiftly returning with a filled cup. The cup had the mellow smell of Emperor’s Smile inside. „I thought, as you are so nervous, I could help you with that.“

„Thank you, Su She“, Wei Wuxian replied, smiling and savoring the taste. It tasted different, but not bad. Still, it had him on edge, especially as his connection to his ghost brides and his little brother Wen Ning cut completely off. The resentment around his core coiled in displeasure as he became dizzy, his vision swimming and blurring. He couldn’t reach out to the energy inside or around him and his awareness was quickly fading.

„Lan Zhan, I’m sorry“, he whispered, falling into the blackness that surrounded his mind.

Chapter Text

He woke up, hair whipping around him in the strong winds created by fast sword flight. He was somewhat impressed by the speed they traveled with, his eyes seeing the ground fade by distance and flying by through their flight. He felt somewhat nauseous from whatever substance they used to weaken him further and get him to pass out. That the view he got and the helplessness he felt, reminded him of his ride through the sky with Wen Chao and his subsequential fall into the Burrial Mounds, did not help whatsoever. Now that Wei Wuxian thought about it, the flying-by scenery was too similar to that to be a coincidence. He tried to reach into his surroundings with his qi, only to find it sluggish and unresponsive inside him. The resentful energy around his core was not better, equally suppressed as it was. Sighing inside his mind, he closed his eyes and decided to sleep some more. Whatever happens will happen, but he could try to gather his strength beforehand.

The next time he woke up, he was surrounded by rocks and moist, metallic air. His nose could catch the smell of blood, old, rotten and still not clotting. He could feel the slight quivering of the energy around him, but he could not connect to it, it would make it too obvious, that he had awoken again. Wei Wuxian took stock of his health. Still sluggish and suppressed qi and resentful energy. They must have mixed some substances to suppress qi and to make it docile again. Some medication for qi-deviation treatment could make the qi of one behave and coupled with a slight poison to suppress qi, it would explain why his qi was not reacting. He also knew that the plant for the poison that suppressed qi -and could harm a golden core if worked against- only grew in the Burial Mounds.

At last, he opened his eyes, greeted with the darkness of a cave. Still, he took a breath, remembering the first time he came into the Mounds and relied too much on his vision. He had learned quickly to navigate and protect himself in the darkness, blind by the missing sun and the pain in his body. The resentment was not as thick nowadays as it had been the first time he was here, his protection for the former inhabitants of the Mounds holding true, even after all these years, but it was still far away from a sunny place. At least some sunlight came through and made it possible for crops to grow.

„You’re finally awake“, someone said. Wei Wuxian groaned, ramping his discomfort up to be as dramatic as one can be.

„Why do I feel as if the red blade master had come for me in a fit of rage?“, he asked, groaning again and straightening his position on the floor, sitting up. He noticed his hands and his legs had been bound together.

„It seems your chosen body can’t take the medication we gave you. For that, I'm sorry. To make it short, I need your help, Grandmaster“, the voice spoke.

„Extremely shameless to ask for help, but not tell who you are, don’t you think?“, the bound man replied, trying to loosen the rope around his wrists. He glared at his hands when even the slightest shift made the rope chafe his skin unpleasantly. The rope was so coarse it was easy to rub his wrists raw and bloody.

„You’re right Wei Wuxian. I’m Xue Yang and you will help me. My friend is having an eye on your children after all“, the man said. Wei Wuxian stilled, his playful demeanor falling away from him in a way, he hadn’t felt since he was protecting the Wens.

„Do not threaten my family!“, he growled, shifting to an upright position. He could feel his energy trying to respond to his anger, but it was still too sluggish to do so. What responded was the resentment of his surroundings, the resentment of the place he knew was his home and his domain. He was the Yiling Patriarch after all. It was not only a title the cultivation world gave him for protecting the Wens, it was a title he earned as the master of the Mounds and protector of Yiling as well.

„I am not threatening, I am promising“, the man spoke, his voice cheerful and upbeat, similarly deflecting as Wei Wuxian got sometimes. It grated on his nerves, but he could make cheerful conversation, even in this situation.

„Alright“, he said, relaxing his posture again. „What do you want?“

„I want the Yin Tiger Tally. Help me create a new one. And I want you to repair this!“ The bound man had to curl forward to catch the spirit-binding pouch that was thrown at him. He could feel the spiritual energy of the shattered soul inside.

„The Tiger Tally is a possibility, but this is impossible. And I say that with the background of attempting and succeeding in the impossible. To shatter a soul so completely the soul must have lost all its will to live. I can’t give that back to them. It needs something neither of us can give them. They need love, understanding and time to forgive themselves“, Wei Wuxian explained.

„I don’t care! You will repair this soul!“

„I can’t“, Wei Wuxian growled out, his eyes burning with rage. He closed them and took a deep breath to calm himself. „I can attempt the impossible, but I can’t work miracles. I’m no god and I don’t want to be one. Baoshan Sanren is possibly a better way to fix this soul. I can’t and to be frank, I won’t force this soul to get together again.“ He listened to the deep breath of his capturer and pinpointed his location, smiling when he had it. It was smart of him to mask his own qi in the resentful energy around them, but Wei Wuxian’s hearing helped circumvent it.

Still, he could not fight back with his qi and his connection to the surrounding resentful energy so sluggish. So he let his posture slump again.

„I guess I can try to repair this soul after I made a new Yin Tiger Tally. Do you at least have the material for it? I mean the right material for it? It needs a resentment steeped piece of metal after all“, Wei Wuxian changed the subject.

„I have. I threw a piece of metal into the blood pool a while ago in preparation. I just can’t figure out how to smith the tally“, Xue Yang replied.

„For that you have me. I need a smithing place and usage of my hands at least. I guess you have cleared the smithing place I already had installed here?“ Wei Wuxian got an amused answer into the positive, breathing shallowly when the blade of a sword caressed his vulnerable neck, nicking it shallowly to draw a single drop of blood before the blade cut through the rope around his wrists. Circling his hands and rubbing circulation back into his hand, he stood up, reorienting himself in the darkness to find his smithing place. He clapped into his hands, giddy to work out a method to make the tally, but also refine it even more than it had been, making sure it would not benefit anybody but those the Burial Mounds deemed worthy. „Great, let's start then. My husband will be most displeased with my vanishment on my wedding day after all! And my brothers won’t take kindly to that either!“

„Oh, my friend will have them handled, I don’t worry all too much about them“, Xue Yang replied, coming nearer and resting the tip of his sword on silk-covered flesh. „It’s thanks to you and your weapon that I was able to make an equally good weapon. Who do you think would be stronger? Your Ghost General or my friend?“

„I guess you don’t talk about Su She anymore. But the answer is easy anyway. Wen Ning is stronger and will win. I would appreciate it, if you would not talk about him as if he is a mindless thing. He is my little brother after all.“

„My bad, my bad“, the captor laughed, turning around and walking away. „I will toss some bamboo as fuel for the fire in.“

„Don’t expect a ‚thank you‘ for that!“, Wei Wuxian groused back, waiting until the other man had gone and started to prepare the smithing place. He would probably have some time, maybe even enough time to finish the Tally, but he would be damned if he would not try to get away as soon as possible. At the moment it meant to play nice, as he was even more helpless than the first time he came into the Burial Mounds.

Chapter Text

Arriving at the Jingshi, they only saw strawn about things that could have also come from the wind that came through the open door. Su She was nowhere to be found, as was his Wei Ying. He found a red piece of fabric, the only thing not white or dark inside the Jingshi, the color blooming bright in the space it was in. Lan Wangji scooped it up, a red hairband and probably the only piece of his husband he had at the moment. Clutching the fabric to his chest he turned around.

„Wangji, calm down. We will find Wuxian“, Lan Xichen said, hands raised in a placating gesture.

„I will break his legs for getting kidnapped!“, Jiang Wanyin promised, putting a quirk of his lips to his mouth.

„I hope you will help me decimate his kidnappers first“, he spoke, falling back into the camredy they had during their three-month-long search for Wei Ying.

„Of course. Nobody steals my brother. Especially on his wedding day!“ Lan Wangji nodded, turning around and leaving his home, waiting for Wen Ning to finish his part of their search.

„Master Wei got medicated. It’s a blend of two medicines. One to calm down his qi and make it docile, so it will not surge on its own. And one mostly used as a poison to suppress the qi altogether. His medication must leave his body before he can use any type of cultivation without something akin to the Yin Tiger Tally“, the fierce corpse spoke, after finishing his examination of the building. „Master Wei was sedated too, so he couldn’t fight his kidnappers.“

„Wangji, go and save him. I will watch over the children with A-Yao and Mingjue“, Lan Xichen expressed, giving Lan Wangji the blessing as a sect leader and a brother. Not caring that he still was dressed in his wedding robes, he went directly to the place he suspected Su She to be.

It took them some time, but they managed to catch up with the outer disciple. He bowed respectfully and watched them with curiosity in his eyes.

„Can I help you?“, he asked righting himself after the bow.

„Yes, you can. What happened with my brother?“, Jiang Wanyin asked, Zidian crackling in warning. The eyes of their suspect never left the irritated sparkling ring of the sect leader.

„I don’t know what exactly happened. Wei-gongzi felt ill and decided to lie down. As I was not invited to the ceremony, I left him be. I had helped him with the preparations and let him rest as he wished“, the Lan disciple spoke smoothly, bowing again. „I regret not being there to wake him and to prevent him escaping. He is dangerous without Hanguan-jun to temper his demonic cultivation.“

„You...“ Sect leader Jiang didn’t even have the time to really get his temper going. A loud echoing slap of skin on skin surrounded them, swallowed only by the shocked silence.

„Who told you to give my husband these substances? Where was he brought to? And better hope I will not forget myself if you don’t answer!“, Lan Wangji growled, leaning into the pale cultivator and bearing his teeth.

„Xue Yang. He gave me the substances and told me to get Wei Wuxian to take them, or he would summon every corpse he can control to burn the Cloud Recessess and especially my family. Again. I couldn’t let that happen“, he cried out, shaking and folding into himself. „I couldn’t let my home get up into flames for a demonic cultivator who didn’t knew anything about being a Lan and sacrificing. He is so arrogant.“ The cowering man was silenced by a lash of a whip, electricity burning the air and his robes and skin.

„You don’t know anything about sacrifices! Especially those of my brother! Tell us where he is taken to or I will make it worse for you“, the sect leader growled, showing where he earned his title of Sandu Shengshou. He knew exactly how to wield his own poisons.

„I don’t know. I only know that he is taken so Xue Yang can have him make a new Yin Tiger Tally for himself. He wants all the power to set the world aflame“, he cried, cowering away. A sharp smell told them that he had soiled himself in fear. They left him where he was and went to save Wei Ying.

„Where and how does one make a Yin Tiger Tally anyway?“, Jiang Wanyin asked after they had taken flight on their swords.

„With metal deeply embedded in resentment. A sword thoroughly soaked in it was the material for the first one“, Lan Wangji answered over the wind howling around him. He had Wen Ning with him on Bichen, the ghost general a surprisingly docile passenger on the tandem flight.

„Something like that needs too much resentment and too much time to just find it somewhere. So where does one get something like that?“

„The Burial Mounds“, Wen Ning piped up. „The blood pool especially. The bloody pool of resentment is the most potent source of resentment in the Burial Mounds. And it drenches everything inside it gradually in resentment. It would not take long to make a piece of metal that is brimming with resentment. Especially if you could get hold of one of the Nie sabers. They are made to absorb resentful energy after all.“

„Chances are, that Wei Ying is in the Burial Mounds“, the groom sighed, his hand flexing where he was not stabilizing the fierce corpse.

„But he is helpless! Last time he had his demonic cultivation, but it is sealed now as well!“, Jiang Wanyin called out, the wind not enough to carry the words away.

„It’s even worse than the first time he was there“, Wen Ning replied. He didn’t even flinch as the hand on his waist tightened to a degree even Lan Wangji’s masochistic husband complained about in earnest. „The first time he could reach out to the energy surrounding him and use his talismans to protect himself. With this kind of medication, it is impossible to do so for him. He can probably use enough energy to coax a spirit into a tool he creates, but not enough to use a talisman. And talismans need more energy. That is why a cultivator needs to draw them. But Master Wei can’t use any of his cultivation methods because his energy is bound inside him and the energy around him won’t react to his commands.“

After this revelation Jiang Wanyin and Lan Wangji called more upon their cores, speeding up the flight to save their husband and brother respectively, their sun in dark times, their silent support and the one who saved them, from others and from themselves.

They reached the Burial Mounds in record time, the landscape eerily silent and resentment churning in the air. Wen Ning didn’t seem affected one way or another. He looked as calm as coming home looked like. Lan Wangji suppressed a shudder as the resentment thickened around him, sinking into his meridians and doseing him in its dark energy, before leaving again. Jiang Wanyin looked the most affected by the resentment, but determined to not let it beat him down.

„Why are we not flying anymore?“, the sect leader groused, stomping along a faint path some wandering corpses must have made.

„Conserving strength“, Lan Wangji answered, unsatisfied with the answer himself. Wen Ning tilted his head slightly in their direction, not turning around and looking at them. He was clearly focused on something else.

„The wards will throw you off your swords. Nobody is to enter the Burial Mounds on sword. You can fly high over them, but not into them. Master Wei made the natural inclination of the Mounds to throw cultivators from their swords into an array to not allow it unless he gave permission. I know you don’t have the permission, sect leader Jiang. I’m not sure about Hanguan-jun's permission and Master Wei can’t give us the permission as long as his connection to the surrounding energy is cut off “, the corpse explained. „Brace yourselves, we are being surrounded.

Wei Ying, stay safe, hold on. I will come and save you, Lan Wangji thought, readying himself to fight the resentment-filled beings thrown their way.

Chapter Text

Smithing was something Wei Wuxian enjoyed deeply. Creating new things through his work with his hands, was something he had always enjoyed. He learned many skills out of necessity, a need to provide for his brother and his sister beforehand. This, he also learned purely to care for Suibian and create things without Madme Yu breathing down his neck and demanding he didn’t shame the sect while also doing servant work. He worked the metal in the smith, a beautiful dark piece of metal, dark as the sky at night. It reminded him of the energetic rabbit he had given his husband when he had left Cloud Recesses after his studies as a teenager.

With his mind still lingering on his teenage years and escapades, he was not surprised as the first half of the tally took the form of a rabbit. He had taken one of the Jiang clarity bells he wore with him, not the one from Chenqin but the one he had on his own robes, forming the light metal and infusing it with the yang energy of the Mounds, making sure it would be a counter to the heavily Yin influenced first half. If his calculation was right, and he hoped they were, would this be the crucial point for the tally to work as intended.

Finishing the tally and connecting the two pieces, he had a better connection to the Burial Mounds. He bit his thumb until it bled, dripping blood in the center of the circle. Two metallic rabbits were engaging in rather clandestine affairs in a little meadow of leaves made and formed from precious green gems he had lying around from his last craft project in the cave. The blood clotted together, collecting resentment, especially after the complete tally got bathed in the blood pool.

„Ah, I see the Tally is finished. Good work, now give it to me“, Xue Yang snarled, extending his hand in clear expectation. Wei Wuxian looked at the two rabbits, remembering the two bunnies his husband had referred to as their likeness and sighed.

„I'm not willing to part with this tally, though. Look, it even has fucking rabbits in it. I can’t give it to you, when it‘s such a perfect gift for my husband. Especially after you crashed our wedding“, Wei Wuxian whined, stepping near to his capturer and showing him the tally. It was not ready as of yet, but he was sure that the other could feel its might.

„I don’t mind the scandalous“, the other man replied and snatched the tally, only to hiss, when the resentment of the Mounds lashed out at him.

„You may not mind, but I think the Burial Mounds mind you. Do you know why the pool you used is so deeply infused with resentment? Even more so than the last time I was here?“, Wei Wuxian asked, the tally floating back to hover over his hand, ready to extend his own power as it was always meant to do. He could see the face of the man pale in the soft glow of his dying fire in the smith, the last embers flickering out with the resentment suppressing any form of warmth and light. Wei Wuxian could feel the excitement of the resentment, their willingness to play with their prey. He was more than willing to give into that resentment and let it flow over him.

Blood started to dripp and splash, movement coming from the depths of the blood pool. Bodies were dragging themselves out of the resentment-filled pool, bodies made from clotting liquid that was meant to preserve and give life, not be a sign of death and despair. Wei Wuxian listened to all of the bodies rising, his smile only growing with each additional corpse coming up from the pool. At last, when the last body splashed out of the metallic-smelling liquid and stood dripping and clotting at the ledge of the pool, then he let the resentment flare, lighting everything up in green flames that was burnable.

„It’s because of them. Of them and every soul left here to rot and get forgotten. And the Mounds love me, those corpses you see before you, they love me too. I came into the Mounds bringing warmth and light they didn’t know with me. Then I left and I returned, turned the barren earth to farmland and a settlement, where the Mounds only knew despair and death, it now had more of this warmth I brought. Those standing behind me lived in the Burial Mounds. They are part of the Burial Mounds and the Burial Mounds are a part of them.“

With every word from Wei Wuxian's mouth, the corpses stepped closer, following the lead and dance of their young master. Xue Yang was smart, the desperate kind of survival smart any street kid would learn eventually to not get turned into a victim of the streets. Those survival instincts let him know he had fucked up. So he did the only thing a street child in the face of such overwhelming fear could do. Fight or Flight and fighting was no option. Scrambling Xue Yang stood up, starting to run for the entrance, only to find it blocked by heavy stone.

„Nice trick, how did you do that?“, the man asked, his voice a high pitch.

„I did nothing, you are too far left to find the exit“, Wei Wuxian replied calmly, taking step after step to the fleeing and blind man, chuckling when he would take a false turn short of the cave entrance. The resentment was not satisfied at all and demanded that it could hunt the prey down, that it could play and after the master of the Burial Mounds was stolen from his husband, on his wedding day nonetheless, Wei Wuxian was very inclined to let the resentment have it’s fun.

„You can’t trap me here forever!“, Xue Yang complained, standing right before the entrance, not seeing it because it got so dark. The bride's eyes fell on the tally, the bunnies there still locked in mating, and thought about how he should be in the position of the dark bunny, railed into oblivion by his husband to consummate their marriage and possibly make a baby. Fury, he did not know he possessed until he thought about the scars on the back of his husband, the pain and punishment he had endured for his love and devotion as the rules of his sect declared, burned inside the master of the Burial Mounds.

„Don’t worry, I won’t. If you can make it out of the Burial Mounds before sunrise, I will let you go your way. If not“, Wei Wuxian declared, tilting his head to the dark red corpses behind him. „They will have a feast. Not even your soul will be left after they feast on you and I won’t stop them. You should run, little rat, the exit is right behind you.“

Xue Yang ran, his life depending on his fast legs. Wei Wuxian soothed the impatient resentment still filling him through the seal and waited until he deemed the head start far enough. Then he turned to the Wen’s, who came out of their last resting place to come to his aid, fueled by the will to save and avenge him.

„Make him suffer, don’t let him escape“, he asked of them, smiling when they nodded once and bowed before they started to run out. They were not as fast as Xue Yang, but they were not influenced by the changed parameters of the labyrinth ward Wei Wuxian controlled. The master of the Mounds went and strolled out of his cave, greeting the passive corpses that were standing at the cave entrance. He took his flute and started playing rest, to make them rest and return to the reincarnation cycle.

He whistled, the Yin Tiger Tally floating at his side, connecting him and the Burial Mounds where his own resentful energy and qi couldn’t reach. He followed the howling and growling, groaning and moaning his charges did on the hunt for the increasingly panicking Xue Yang, laughing when the man almost ran into him.

„I’m sorry, I’m sorry!“, he wailed, clutching the red silk that had gotten covered with soot and dust, darkening the hemlines. Wei Wuxian looked down without sympathy, thinking about his husband waiting on the altar, alone in the snow and waiting as he so often did. He was surely heartbroken and sad about his love missing their wedding. He could hear the rustling of the nearby vegetation, somebody coming to them, before a corpse flew into the other man, ripping the silk he still clutched to, ruining the robes further.

„No mercy for you“, Wei Wuxian decided, fury burning cold inside him, curling deeper around his core.

Chapter Text

Lan Wangji could feel his core draining. The fast tandem flight with Wen Ning and the ambush of the fierce corpses depleted his reserves. He could see the sect leader at his side flagging as well. Even Wen Ning looked somewhat drained, but he still ripped into the yaoguai that had come to them.

„They don’t seem to get less. And they get stronger!“, Jiang Wanyin shouted over his cracking whip, dissipating a few corpses and one of the demonic beasts, giving them a short room to breathe.

„Mn“, Lan Wangji agreed, catching his breath. The burning sun and suffocating resentment still traveling through his meridians were not helping his condition. They relied more and more on Wen Ning to protect them while they made their way up, and his condition also worsened.

„Wen Ning“, Lan Wangji called out, worried for the man his husband thought of as a little brother. He had gotten a hit from sharp claws, resentment curling in black smoke out of the wound until it knitted itself back together.

„Don’t worry Master Lan“, he replied, punching through another corpse, which crumbled and fell to dust. „I’m alright. Just draining in resentment.“

„How can you drain in resentment? Shouldn’t you get stronger with all the resentment around you?“, Jiang’s sect leader shouted out, cracking his whip to dispatch a few smaller yaoguai, that had started to bite his ankle. Bichen flew out and took some of them from the air, their bodies neatly cut in half.

„I only get stronger, if I take the resentment in. I only take resentment in, if I am given it from my master, or I could lose myself. I am not sure I wouldn’t attack you then“, Wen Ning answered. „And reaching for my own resentment in myself could get you hurt for the same reasons.“

„What the fuck?“, Jiang Wanyin shouted, his frustration and disbelief clearly expressed in his tone alone. „I call bullshit!“

„Sect Leader...“ Whatever  Wen Ning wanted to say, was interrupted as a body swiftly collided with him, trying to rip him apart. It was the strongest fierce corpse Lan Wangji had seen, maybe as strong as Wen Ning himself. It was clear that the ghost general would need his concentration and all his energy to deal with this threat, which left Lan Wangji and Jiang Wanyin to deal with the other corpses and smaller yaoguais on their own. They were battle-hardened and possessed the strongest cores of their generation, but it would not matter, if they couldn’t coordinate their attacks.

„Your left!“, the sect leader shouted, and Lan Wangji turned, only to jump away, when Zidian nearly hit him. He glared at his brother-in-law and was ready to show him how it was done, but then he remembered their predicament and let his anger melt away. It was better if they redirected their energy to their problems instead of each other.

It took a while, their reserves depleting more, but they made snail's progress to the former settlement of the Wens. Wen Ning fought the other fierce corps uphill, to keep pace with them and have the chance to reconnect with his master. That was until the dark clouds of resentment started rushing off, being drawn to the center of the Burial Mounds. With the resentment vanishing the onslaught of enemies started to dwindle, some turning away and leaving, others just crumbling on the ground.

The only ones not vanishing were the fierce corpses that were similarly controlled as the one that Wen Ning fought, trying to stop them from advancing. They still fell apart pretty easily, all but a few who were especially robust. It was not until they reached the edge of the former settlement, that they heard the screeches, moans, groans, growling and howling of more fierce corpses, the scent of clotted rotted blood thick in the air. They saw the dark-clad cultivator, running in circles and jagged lines, trying to throw the bloody corpses off. A few of them noticed the new arrivals and started attacking the fierce corpses around Lan Wangji and Jiang Wanyin.

It was a fast fight with the help of the bloody corpses, corpses Lan Wangji recognized from his visit to the settlement a long while ago. Those were the former residents, coming to help them and support them.

They heard frantic pleading and went to the commotion, only to be shocked by the vision Wei Ying made in his red wedding robes, hems darkened with grey dust and black ash, a Tally floating beside him, filled with resentful energy and oozing it out. The Tally itself was made from light and dark metal, formed to make a connecting ring and have two rabbits playing with each other in a green-filled meadow. At least Lan Wangji hoped the rabbits were only playing and not doing other things rabbits were known to do, but he had low hopes for it not being a display of mating. Not with his husband at least. The dark-clothed cultivator was clinging to the hems of his husband, then he was thrown off, ripping the red silk in the process as the fierce corps Wen Ning had fought flew into the cultivator.

Lan Wangji was stunned to a stop by the exposed skin of his husband, the legs bare from missing trousers and exposed through the ripped robes. Dark red filled the lovely eyes, glowing with a promise of violence. Raw need rushed through him, making him growl low in his throat. His husband had not even looked at them, giving his attention to the other cultivator.

„No mercy for you“, he purred, letting Lang Wangji see red. The Tally at his husband's side jerked in his direction and floated at his side. Whatever that meant for his husband it did get his reaction. He locked his eyes with Lan Wangji and smiled. A slow, lazy curl of his lips. Dangerous, Lan Wangjis instincts provided. Mine, his heart called out. Wei Ying's eyes were smoldering on him, before he turned to the other.

The pathetic begging and laughing cultivator at their feet had to be Xue Yang. He had drugged his husband and kidnapped him before their wedding ceremony. The Tally still floating beside him reacted to his fury, dark smoke encircling him and reaching for the cultivator.

„Lan Zhan. This is Xue Yang. He forced me to make another Tally. And he is the reason I was not at our wedding. He even ruined my robes“, Wei Ying said, his tone not even remotely whiny, pointing out the damaged robes that still showed the soft skin of these perfect legs. His eyes turned sharp on the cultivator who tried to get a blade on his husband, his fury alighting him with burning hate for the man. He forced his husband to create a new calamity, took him from his side and probably hurt him. Lan Wangji could see the red and agitated skin on his husband's wrists. The resentment reacted to his thoughts, his feelings, and wrapped tenderly around the wrists of his love.

„Wei Ying“, he said, too overwhelmed to say more. He tried to say everything with only those two words and somehow, the most miraculous thing that had happened to Lan Wangji, his husband seemed to understand.

„I know, Lan Zhan. But first, we need to deal with this creep“, his husband replied, voice and gaze going soft.

„When you both finished being mushy, can I go ahead and whip him up? He did kidnapp and threaten my brother!“, Jiang Wanyin growled, Zidian sparking in preparation.

„Have at it, I don’t care as long as I can go and marry Lan Zhan soon. Wen Ning, restrain him, don’t destroy him“, Wei Ying replied, giving Lan Wangji a look full of love and want, giving him a soft, but all too short kiss, before he went and dealt with the fierce corps currently restrained by an increasingly stronger getting Wen Ning.

Turning his attention back to Xue Yang, where Jiang Wanyin was still venting his anger through lashes from Zidian, he tapped into the resentment still curling around him, shocked to be welcomed like that. He could feel it wanting to make Xue Yang suffer and gave his permission, letting the resentment of the Burial Mounds have its way.

He himself went to his husband, giving him a long kiss and letting all his feelings flow into the movements of his lips. He didn’t care about their wedding being crashed, all he needed was his husband in his arms, pliant and willing to yield the control he had over his cultivation.

They would soon get back to the Cloud Recesses, would have their official wedding and live in the Jingshi, caring for their two sons and the rest of the kids. They would support the relationships of their brothers, help them with their responsibilities and unite the four great clans for the first time since a long time ago, making a peaceful future possible. For now, it was enough to kiss his husband and guide him back into the cave he had lived in a long time ago, reenacting the vision of the new Yin Tiger Tally.