Chapter Text
“Wei Ying.” Lan Zhan’s voice is quiet in the forest- but breaks through his thoughts like a battering ram.
Wei Ying looks up at the noise.
The pair of them find themselves staring upon the very same white light that they had seen the day previous. It was glowing with supernatural fervour- emitting some kind of brightness that rivalled only the lights of the city they had just come from.
“Holy shit.” Jiang Cheng whispers from behind them. Wei Ying had nearly forgotten he was there.
“I suppose this is where we leave you, Jiang Cheng.” Wei Ying says, a grin on his face. It felt a lot more forced than usual.
“Wait!” Jiang Cheng holds out his hand, stopping Wei Ying in his tracks.
Wei Ying turns to look at his brother, that was not his brother- but, in the end, kind of was his brother...
...Ugh. So strange.
Jiang Cheng looks like he has a bumble bee in his mouth with the amount he fiddles with himself… Come on, Jiang Cheng, out with it. “When you said to tell my past self to forgive you… What did you mean by that?”
Ah.
He’d said that in haste because he thought he’d never see this Jiang Cheng again. He didn’t regret it. It was entirely superfluous, after all.
...But now he felt he owed the man an explanation.
Wei Ying gives him a sad smile. “The two of us are not on the best of terms right now- back where I’m from.” This whole situation had grown more and more peculiar. “But I never stopped thinking of you as my brother.”
Jiang Cheng looks at him, equal parts confused and curious.
“I would have loved to see Shijie again before I went...” Wei Ying admits, looking to his feet with a melancholy expression that was hard to truly encapture. He was elated that his dear sister had lived on in this century- but was heartbroken that that hadn’t been the case in his world.
“What do you mean? You’ll see her when you get back?” Jiang Cheng furrows his brows.
“...I guess you’re right.” Wei Ying smiles at him. Perhaps Jiang Cheng was giving into the idea that everything about the two of their situations were exactly the same. He probably hadn’t even entertained the thought of Shijie being dead...Or maybe he was in denial. Either way, Wei Ying didn’t want to sway him. He seemed happy.
Jiang Cheng, as if remembering something, begins to fish around in his clothes. Seemingly looking for something within the peculiar pouches sewn into them. It was a genius innovation- Wei Ying would have to remember it for when he got home...
Finally, he manages to find what he’d been looking for; It was one of those peculiar little boxes- slim and dark- the ones that he’d seen when they’d first arrived.
Jiang Cheng places his hands on it and it lights up with some kind of energy.
Perhaps cultivation wasn’t absent from this society, after all.
“Here,” he shoves the bright side of the object into Wei Ying’s face.
His eyes widen. The beam of light had produced a perfect image of pristine clarity.
Though it was blinding in the darkness of night-
He cannot look away.
Jiang Yanli sits on a blanket in the middle of a field of Myrtle trees. She looks like she’s smiling straight at Wei Ying, holding what looks to be a young child in her arms. Wei Ying had thought it to be Jin Ling- but as he drags his eyes away from her rose-cheeked face, he sees him in the corner of the object- seemingly as if he had been the one that had captured this ‘image.’ He is not scowling- like he always seemed to be doing, but is rather smiling brightly against the natural scene. Jin Zixuan is sat next to Jiang Yanli but doesn’t seem to be looking toward them at all. Rather, he looks to be tickling the youngest child in Jiang Yanli’s arms with a sprig of grass. The smile on his face is amused- bright.
The child… Was it one that could have been had it not been for him?
“Who is that?” Wei Ying can’t find the will to look away from the image in front of him. It was so much more clear than a painting. It looked so real. Like he could reach in and touch it...
Jiang Cheng tilts his head. “Jin Chen? She’s their youngest daughter?” He turns the box back to face him before Wei Ying can snatch it from him. (Not that he was planning to do so.) Jiang Cheng looks upon the image with the same fondness that he always had when he looked at his sister. He hadn’t seen that expression in years. “She’s my favourite because she can’t talk shit about me yet.”
Wei Ying feels tears begin to spring into his eyes.
Before he can really stop him, Wei Ying all but tackles Jiang Cheng into an awkward hug. They had never been touchy-feely with one another. Of course, the exception was when Jiang Cheng was… trying to kill him. It doesn’t stop Wei Ying though.
“Oi- what the fuck.” Jiang Cheng squawks, entirely uncomfortable with the situation. The weird guy that he’d barely known for a day had just suddenly started to hug him after all.
“Tell Shijie that I love her and Jin Ling so much… And Jin Chen too… Oh, fine, and Jin Zixuan!”
“O-okay…? Just get the fuck off me.”
Wei Ying releases his hold on Jiang Cheng, turning to look back at Lan Zhan- who looks rather perturbed once more. Wei Ying would have to make it up to him in some way. He had a few ideas.
“I’m glad I came and followed you fucking weirdos.” Jiang Cheng says, nodding solemnly. “It was… educational.”
Wei Ying smiles at him. “Good luck getting down the mountain, Jiang Cheng.”
Jiang Cheng, seemingly only now realising that he’d have to climb down the massive incline in the dark by himself just shouts out an indignant, “fuck!”
Wei Ying runs away from him with a laugh- back to Lan Zhan. Back to their world.
As they walk into the light- Wei Ying feels a peculiar pull on his consciousness. It’s familiar- but not. It isn’t painful, only strange. Nevertheless, Wei Ying grabs a hold of Lan Zhan’s hand- clasping theirs together in a tight grasp. Whatever this was, they were going to face it together like they always did.
“I see you have found your way back.”
There’s a voice in the pure white space. It’s ethereal- genderless- entirely void of human error or infliction.
“Why was it that you sent us into the future?” Wei Ying asks the voice- never being one to cower from beings beyond his comprehension.
“You have heard the legends of this mountain, no? I sent you there to test you.”
“Test?” Wei Ying raises his eyebrows.
“You, Lan Wangji, one of the twin jades of Gusu. And you, Wei Wuxian, the Yiling Patriarch. The two of you together are an unstoppable force of power. I thought it only a matter of time before you sought me out.”
Wei Ying swallows, “but who are you?”
“Who I am matters not.” The voice replies cryptically.
“Ugh. It’s like talking to another one of you, Lan Zhan.” Wei Ying quips, nudging Lan Zhan’s side.
Lan Zhan scowls, “we wish to return to our time.” He says, looking upwards- as if he was planning on finding a face there.
“Worry not. I will not keep you for much longer. I will tell you only this; you have much to learn before I grant you my power.”
“Your power?”
“The pair of you, in the distant future- will be granted with the power of immortality. But it will not be today.”
Wei Ying’s eyes widen. “Immortality?”
The voice chuckled, “I have said too much. Farewell, cultivators, Lan Wangij, Wei Wuxian. I will see you once more within your lifetime.”
All of a sudden the blinding white turns to a burning black.
COULD THIS DAY NOT GET ANY FUCKING WEIRDER?
Lan Zhan and Wei Ying stumble into their present without much more fanfare- wide eyed and tense- as if they weren’t entirely sure if it was all a dream or not.
“Lan Zhan…” Wei Ying is waving his arms around, patting himself down to make sure he was still real.
“Mhm?”
Wei Ying cranes his neck to glance around. They were no longer on the mountain. It seemed they were just on the edge of a small village surrounding Gusu. Their Gusu.
Home.
“We made it back!” Wei Ying cries, “I have no idea how, but we made it back!”
Lan Zhan looks around for himself and finds the statement to be true. Wei Ying doesn’t neglect to notice the massive amount of relief pooling in the golden flecks of his eyes.
Wei Ying flops down onto the ground next to him with an exhausted groan. “That was… too much. Ugh, Lan Zhan, I’m getting much too old for such things...”
Lan Zhan just nods in agreement.
“I can’t believe we met Jiang Cheng again.” Wei Ying continues, “I’m sure it was that pesky spirit’s doing!”
Something about Wei Ying’s expression was melancholy despite his exclamations. Lan Zhan knew his husband too well to let it go.
“Wei Ying?”
“Hmm?”
“The Jiang’s future prosperity has nothing to do with your lack of intervention.” Lan Zhan says, placing a hand on his shoulder.
Wei Ying frowns, “but-”
“Your presence in this world is vital.”
Wei Ying looks at Lan Zhan, his eyes filling with tears for the second time today. That was such a nice thing for Lan Zhan to say! Ah! He loved him so much. “Aw, Lan Zhan!” Wei Ying all but tackles him in an embrace.
“Hanguang-Jun! We were looking all around for you!”
Wei Ying had never been more excited to hear Lan Jingyi’s voice.
The sound of two people’s steps approach them with haste. Wei Ying looks to see that Sizhui is right next to him.
Wei Ying’s heart fills with affection. With a quickened urge, he picked himself up off the ground to greet the two boys.
The pair, however, are stopped in their tracks.
Lan Jingyi and Sizhui’s eyes are as wide as saucers.
“WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU WEARING?!”
Wei Ying looks down at himself.
Oh… Right.
Wei Ying and Lan Zhan had a whole lot of things to process about their whole… situation.
But right now, they were content in basking in the past- well, their present.
The future could wait.