Chapter Text
It took mere moments upon his arrival for Wei Wuxian to make an impression on everyone there. Lan Qiren immediately decided he was a troublemaker, and he was… not entirely wrong. Lan Wangji decided the same, and took to glowering at him at every available opportunity in a way Nie Huaisang had never seen before. As for Lan Xichen, well, no one really knew, for his smile did not so much as wobble, though it widened just a little whenever he saw his brother in the company of the other boy. The rest of the students were somewhat divided on him; though he was friendly, charming, and almost absurdly talented, but he was of low birth and that mattered a great deal in cultivation circles. Nie Huaisang, who was himself the son of a concubine, had little place to judge on that account, and indeed, even less energy to do so. Hatred took so much effort, and he’s always felt he could not bear to lift a finger for it unless he was wronged, and badly wronged at that.
Still, considering everyone else’s opinions, it probably said something about Nie Huaisang that he took one look at Wei Wuxian and realised they were going to be friends.
“Wei-xiong,” he said, immediately taking liberties, and watched as Wei Wuxian’s grin only grew. “Want to get into some trouble?”
“Always,” Wei Wuxian said, and laughed.
Trouble, for the most part, took its form in a few harmless pranks, skipping class and generally breaking the ‘No noise in the Cloud Recesses’ rule to pieces every time they were in a room together. Lan Qiren shouted himself hoarse over the next few weeks-- the term ‘worst class I have ever taught’ was thrown about wildly-- but the rest of the boys rather enjoyed the fact that less of them were being scolded. Nie Huaisang himself was enjoying, for the first time, the fact that someone else could keep up with him. Not physically, of course, but Wei Wuxian and he both enjoyed going off the beaten path in a way no one else around seemed to.
“I had hoped some of his good points would influence you,” Lan Xichen sighed some time later, as they met in his rooms for their daily tutoring sessions. “Wei-gongzi is a very talented student, and he works hard even if he doesn’t seem to take things seriously. It is unfortunate it appears to have worked the other way around.”
“Yes,” Nie Huaisang said wisely. “My terrible points have corrupted him instead. You should be grateful he hasn’t taken up collecting fans and avoiding training.”
Lan Xichen snorted, then threw him a reproving look, embarrassed to be caught being undignified, but it only made Nie Huaisang laugh as he sprawled out on the floor carelessly, eyes dancing.
Somehow this caused Lan Xichen to avert his eyes, a faint flush on his cheeks. “Huaisang, you should sit upright.”
“Never,” Nie Huaisang declared, but he sat up obediently enough.
“I suppose it's good at least that you’re too busy to start another betting ring,” Lan Xichen allowed, still slightly pink.
“Ah,” Nie Huaisang said, hedging. The truth was that in the interim between his first and second year at the Cloud Recesses, his brother had cut his allowance, telling him that he would only get it back when he applied himself to his studies. This was mostly just a minor inconvenience seeing as Nie Huaisang just decided to diversify his business, branching out into porn-- he was after all, an excellent artist. It turned out to be a sensible decision, because sheltered teenage boys knew very little of good porn and were horny all the time. Nie Huaisang got away with selling off a load of rough sketches at inflated prices and smugly bought himself a fan or two in the spirit of spiting his brother. In any case, he’d been too busy to take bets as of late, and also-- “No one’s petitioned the dragons yet, have they?”
“Not yet,” Lan Xichen agreed. His expression was somehow weary, now. “But I suppose it's only a matter of time.”
Nie Huaisang let out a soft hum of agreement, and a silence which was not quite comfortable settled over them both.
It took a while before the topic of the dragons was raised in class, but it always was eventually, at least from what Nie Huaisang had gleaned last year. Lan Qiren inevitably held that lesson for when the first challenger appeared at the Cloud Recesses after the students’ arrival, and this year, they were barely two weeks into class before it happened. It wasn’t eventful-- the man went down to the caves and came right back out again whole and unharmed, but looking rattled, leaving the Cloud Recesses that same day. But most of the students had spent the entire day speculating about what was going on, and they were in a high state of energy when they were finally shepherded into their first class.
“Can we go down there?” Wei Wuxian demanded, wriggling in delight. “Can we go see?”
Lan Wangji looked tremendously insulted. “No. You cannot ‘go see’.”
“Why not?” Wei Wuxian edged closer to his desk, and he threw him a look of even greater offense.
“Students are expressly forbidden from going into the caves, is that understood?” Lan Qiren snapped, storming in through the door. The students all straightened instinctively as his eyes narrowed on Wei Wuxian who smiled radiantly back. “There will be consequences if our rules are broken. Serious consequences.”
Then he ordered them all to copy out the twenty-seven rules regarding the dragons five times over, which the students (except Lan Wangji, of course) moaned about, and marched right back out again, rubbing at his temples. The dragons always gave him a headache, Nie Huaisang knew. In any case, the boys knew they would undoubtedly be tested upon his return, and so sadly, they bent over their desks as a group, though Lan Qiren’s absence made them chattier than they would have been otherwise.
“‘Do not petition the dragons without explicit permission from a Lan cultivator.’” Jiang Cheng read doubtfully as they copied. “‘Do not approach the dragons without explicit permission from a Lan cultivator.’” Aren’t these identical?”
“No,” Nie Huaisang, who had heard all the stories the last time he’d been at the Cloud Recesses, said with a sigh. “That’s there because people kept going down to see the dragons even though they had no intention of asking to court Lan Wangji or Lan Xichen, because they figured they only needed permission then. Apparently there were crowds heading in and out on a daily basis before Lan Qiren finally had enough.”
He, personally, would have suggested they charge everyone in the crowd an exorbitant fee just to take a look, and wash their hands of the matter when they inevitably got frozen to death, but of course no one had asked him.
“‘Do not treat children as though they are full cultivators,’” Jin Zixuan read, from his place with the other Jin disciples. “That makes sense, but why is it here?”
“Bribery,” Lan Wangji said darkly from his desk, and everyone turned as one to look at him, Wei Wuxian brightening at the sound of his voice. “Bribery for permission.”
“The youngest Lan cultivators are still, technically, cultivators,” Nie Huaisang explained, seeing he was unwilling to continue. “And the children of the Lan sect aren’t allowed to have sweets, which makes them particularly susceptible to that sort of thing.” They were also particularly susceptible to the effects of sugar, and Nie Huaisang remembered being roped in to watch a half-dozen of overly energetic tiny Lans one afternoon with Lan Xichen, while Lan Qiren bellowed at a few would-be courters. They had been adorable, he had to admit, if exhausting. He’d ended up with his head on Lan Xichen’s lap, fast asleep and covered with other sleeping children while Lan Xichen had pet his hair and teased him gently. That had been a good day.
“‘Do not throw flame talismans at the dragons.’” Wei Wuxian read, breaking him out of his reverie. “Nie-xiong--”
“Someone threw a flame talisman at the dragon,” Nie Huaisang answered, and then added, somewhat unnecessarily, “It didn’t end well.”
“What the fuck,” Jiang Cheng said.
The worst thing about Wei Wuxian, Nie Huaisang thought mournfully, was that he was incapable of leaving things alone. He was the kind of person who would poke at his own wounds incessantly until they became infected.
“Did you not hear my detailed and terrible description of what happened to the last people who annoyed the dragons?’ he panted, stumbling down the path. It was far too dark to see in the cave, and in the end he had settled for clinging to one of the sides for support as they descended. It wasn’t helping much. “It was graphic! I made sure of it!”
“Yes, it made Jiang Cheng sick,” Wei Wuxian replied airily. “That’s why he wouldn’t come with me!”
“So why am I with you?” Nie Huaisang demanded in outrage.
“Because you believed me when I told you we were going night-fishing,” Wei Wuxian said, simply. Nie Huaisang’s mouth fell open.
“Wei-xiong, you’re too cruel!”
Wei Wuxian shot him a look. “Weren’t you the one who told me that it isn’t wrong to lie to people because it isn’t your fault if they’re stupid enough to believe you?”
Nie Huaisang scoffed. “That rule doesn’t apply to me!”
“Of course it doesn’t,” Wei Wuxian said in the patient tones of someone who was ignoring everything he said. Nie Huaisang had taught him too well.
“There’s a lesson in this,” he mumbled to himself as Wei Wuxian dragged him further down. “Kill your students before they outdo you, that’s probably it.”
“Well,” Wei Wuxian said without sympathy. “At least you’ve learned something.”
“Why are we doing this?” Nie Huaisang wailed in response. “I want to go back! Wei-xiong!”
“Nie Huaisang,” Wei Wuxian said. “Haven’t you lived your whole life hearing about these dragons? I have. Aren’t you curious in the least?”
“No,” Nie Huaisang replied flatly. “I took one look at the first mangled body they dragged out of here and all my curiosity was killed dead. It was sudden and violent.”
“Tragic,” Wei Wuxian said. “Luckily, mine is alive and well. We can share!”
“I hope you get so cold your toes fall off,” Nie Huaisang grumbled. They’d reached the deepest part of the cave system by now, and a chill wind was blowing through the tunnels, making him shiver. There was nothing but pitch black all-around, apart from the flame talisman Wei Wuxian was holding up. Despite his annoyance, he slid surreptitiously behind Wei Wuxian and to his credit, the other boy said not a word about it. A little of his apprehension drained away.
“Do you hear that?” Wei Wuxian whispered, and it immediately came rushing back. Nie Huaisang grabbed the back of his robes and peered suspiciously around.
“Hear what?” he asked, but then he was hearing it too, a low grumble of sound was coming from ahead of them. It sounded like snoring, oddly enough.
Wei Wuxian had one hand on Suibian, probably out of pure instinct; Nie Huaisang reached across and smacked it away, glaring at him. Fire talismans, he mouthed, when Wei Wuxian shot him a look, and he nodded, relaxing a fraction.
They crept forward, Nie Huaisang practically shaking with nerves, following the noise until they finally spilled out of a side-passage straight into the dragons’ chamber.
There were, indeed, two dragons, a white and a blue, large and long enough that their bodies were the entire length of the cavern. They were curled around pearls, their scales shimmering in the dim lighting of talismans, probably put there by the Lan Clan. The white was asleep-- and it turned out the noise was snoring, after all, and as they watched, it let out another one, which blew their hair back as it hit them. It was chilly as a Qinghe winter, and they moved closer together on instinct.
The blue, on the other hand, was awake, and it raised its head now to fix them both with a calm, even gaze.
“Wow,” Wei Wuxian said, with a sharp inhale of awe. “I mean-- wow.”
“Eeeek,” Nie Huaisang said, completely involuntarily. The noise just came out of him, as though he was a mouse that had been stepped on. “Eeeeeek!”
“Welcome, visitors,” said the blue dragon, very graciously. Then, when it became clear that Nie Huaisang’s squealing was not stopping, he added, with more strained politeness, “Are you all right, young master?”
“Eek,” Nie Huaisang said pitifully.
“He’s fine,” Wei Wuxian answered, and nudged him until he bit down on his lip so his noises of terror wouldn’t spill out of his mouth. “Thank you for allowing us into your chamber. We are honoured to be in your presence.”
He made as courteous a bow to dragons as any Nie Huaisang had ever seen. It was sometimes easy to forget that Wei Wuxian had been raised amongst the great sects, but of course he was as well-taught as any of the other cultivators in etiquette. Nie Huaisang hastened to mimic him.
“Brother, look, we have petitioners,” the blue dragon, but the white did not so much as stir. “Brother?”
Nie Huaisang and Wei Wuxian looked at it expectantly, but nothing happened. The blue dragon swished its tail in clear aggravation. “Brother!”
“It’ll be Lan Xichen again,” the white dragon said irritably, finally cracking open an eyelid. “Isn’t it always? I grow weary of this nonsense. Do you think it says more about my human or yours,” it added to the blue. “The fact that no one ever comes here for the younger one? One wonders if his personality really is that monstrous.”
Wei Wuxian’s mouth dropped open in offense. “Lan Zhan isn’t that bad! He’s just quiet! And strict! And also stuffy and boring!”
“Are you defending him or not?” Nie Huaisang whispered. “I can’t tell.”
Wei Wuxian ignored this. “But he’s a good person. Anyone would be lucky to marry him.”
“Mm.” The blue dragon threw it a quelling look. “Please ignore my brother. He knows a bit about having a monstrous personality.”
The white dragon huffed, and Nie Huaisang loosened his death grip on Wei Wuxian’s robes just a tad. If they were joking around, they probably weren’t about to freeze them to death. Probably.
“You would have a monstrous personality too, if you had to put up with what I have,” the white dragon complained. “Every year, one after another! It’s relentless. I have had it.”
“Hasn’t it been five months at least since the last time you were petitioned?” Wei Wuxian wondered.
“When you are immortal, child, five months will seem like the passing of a second,” the white dragon said loftily. “My life is a trial.”
What happened next, Nie Huaisang would say later, was his brother’s fault (“How?” Nie Mingjue would demand, upon hearing this, but Nie Huaisang just ignored him.). He was, after all, the person who had cut him off from his allowance, thus leading him to stray into the lucrative business of taking advantage of his fellow students. It had been on his mind for the last few weeks, and it was why he said what he did next.
“Why don’t you just hold a competition?” he asked.
The room swivelled to stare at him as one, and he held up his hands nervously. “It makes sense, right?”
“A competition?” the blue dragon said, narrowing his eyes. “Please elaborate.”
“Well, if you want to get rid of a whole lot of irritating cultivators at once, it is the best way to go about it,” Nie Huaisang pointed out, toying with his fan where it hung from his belt. “Instead of eliminating individual suitors one by one, you could just throw a whole load of them out at once. It streamlines the entire process.”
There was a long silence while everyone contemplated this.
“You know, he’s got a point,” Wei Wuxian said finally. “It would make things a lot faster.”
Nie Huaisang nodded. Both the dragons narrowed their eyes at him, and, deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, he dove behind Wei Wuxian again.
“The idea does have merit,” the blue dragon admitted.
“We wouldn’t even have to talk to them directly,” the white dragon said dreamily. “We could make that fool Lan Qiren into our messenger.”
“Please, brother,” the blue dragon said. “Referring to him in that manner isn’t polite.”
“It is correct, though.”
The blue dragon paused for a moment. “Well.”
Wei Wuxian started to laugh, but the sound was cut off when it fixed its gaze on him, sharp and thoughtful. Then--“We can start with you,” it announced, and stretched its neck forwards, quick as the strike of a snake. Wei Wuxian started to dodge it, but then he realised Nie Huaisang was still behind him, and he paused. His hesitation was enough that the dragon reached him-- but all that happened was that the blue dragon pressed its nose gently against Wei Wuxian’s hand.
There was silence for a moment, and then Wei Wuxian yelped as a pale blue ribbon appeared out of thin air, wrapping around his wrist.
“There,” the blue dragon said with satisfaction. “Your petition has been approved, though since we are holding a tournament, you will have to hear about your tasks at the same time as the rest of the competitors. It would not do to start this on unfair terms.”
“Oh,” Wei Wuxian said dumbly. He and Nie Huaisang stared at the ribbon, eyes wide. There was a long silence, which stretched forever.
Finally, the blue dragon cleared his throat noisily. “I do believe that you should both be on your ways, young masters. My brother and I have things to discuss.”
“He means get out,” translated the white dragon. “And send Lan Qiren down here; I want to see if we can make him weep from frustration this time. It’s the only piece of joy left to me.”
A few moments later, the two of them were stumbling back up the way they had come. This time, they had no need for talismans, because the ribbon on Wei Wuxian’s wrist was emitting a bright blue light strong enough that they could see several meters ahead of them.
“You’re going to get into so much trouble,” Nie Huaisang breathed for the fifth time, almost in awe at the sheer scale of the disaster before him. The Lans took the dragons about as seriously as they did anything involving their precious Twin Jades. “You’re going to get me killed! My brother is going to kill me!”
“No one will know it was your idea!” Wei Wuxian whispered back, but he was looking a little concerned, too. “Do you think Lan Zhan will be mad at me?”
“How is that what you’re worried about?” Nie Huaisang demanded.
“Well, there’s nothing we can do about any of it now,” Wei Wuxian pointed out reasonably, eyeing his wrist. “I think it's going to happen whether we want it to or not at this point. Unless you want to go down there and convince the dragons differently?”
Nie Huaisang was already shaking his head. “No-- no, you’re right. Still, I think you should lie low for a while, at least until after whatever is going to happen is made known to everyone else. I’ll get Lan Qiren to go down and speak to the dragons.”
“How are you going to do that without letting him know we were down there?” Wei Wuxian asked.
Nie Huaisang waved a weary hand. “I’ll find a way.”
The two of them had finally reached the exit and they climbed out of the cave silently, sucking in breaths of the cool night air in relief once they were away from the stuffy interior. It was nearly time to rise, and they would have to head back to their rooms quickly if they wanted not to be caught, but for the moment they could catch their breaths.
“I think that went well,” Wei Wuxian said after a minute. “Don’t you?”
Nie Huaisang punched him in the shoulder. It only made him laugh, bright and sunny as ever, but Nie Huaisang still felt a little better about things afterwards.
Once the morning bells had rung out, signalling the waking hour, Nie Huaisang put on fresh robes and got Lan Qiren to go to the caves by running up to him and gasping out something about ‘scary noises’ that he insisted he had heard emanating from inside, and refusing to leave until the older man exasperatedly agreed to take a look (Thankfully, Lan Qiren had not questioned why he was actually awake at the proper hour, which he normally never was.). Then all he had to do was wait until the man, grim-faced (Nie Huaisang eyed him for any traces of tears. There were none.), stormed back out of the cave system and announced to the rest of the Cloud Recesses, students included, what the dragons had decreed.
Within hours, there were about twenty students with glowing ribbons wrapped around their wrists, and more cultivators were pouring into the Cloud Recesses with every moment that went by. Nie Huaisang safely stashed Wei Wuxian somewhere discreet for the first of those hours, then set him loose when it was clear that there were numerous people in the running even for Lan Wangji.
Wei Wuxian being Wei Wuxian, he immediately ran off to wave his arm in front of Lan Wangji’s face.
“Look what I’ve got, Lan Zhan!” he beamed. “Isn’t it pretty?”
Lan Wangji blinked and drew back, which would, on anyone else, be a look of shock. “What?”
“Your dragon gave it to me.” Wei Wuxian wriggled his eyebrows up and down. “Lan Zhan, do you think I can win your hand? Say yes!”
“You--” Lan Wangji, normally pale as it was, went even paler. “You are making fun of me.”
“Huh?” Wei Wuxian cocked his head to the side in confusion, and Nie Huaisang could see the conversation going downhill at a record speed, but he was too far away to help. “What are you talking about?”
Lan Wangji’s shoulders had stiffened, his lips tightening. “Get lost.” He stormed off, the crowd parting before him, ignoring Wei Wuxian yelling after him in surprise. Nie Huaisang winced, then turned as someone heaved a great sigh from next to him.
“Xichen-gege?” he said. Lan Xichen had his eyes closed, as though praying for patience. “Are you alright? Is it--” He stopped. “Are you upset about the competition?”
“What? No, of course not,” Lan Xichen said, and he relaxed. “It makes about as much sense as the rest of it. I just wish your friend would be a little more careful with my brother. Wangji might appear stoic, but there is much under his surface.”
“It’s not Wei Wuxian’s fault he can’t read someone’s mind,” Nie Huaisang pointed out, feeling this was unfair. When his brother and Lan Xichen had first become friends, Nie Huaisang and Lan Wangji, being the same age, had been left to entertain themselves together in rooms more often than not when they visited each other. It had mostly resulted in silence. A lot of it. While Nie Huaisang didn’t see himself as anywhere near as charming as Wei Wuxian, he did have a large number of friends, so he was fairly certain it hadn’t been his fault. In any case, he felt a certain degree of sympathy for Wei Wuxian. “Your brother could learn to be a bit more straightforward, Xichen-gege.”
Lan Xichen was frowning slightly, mulling it over, a far cry from his usual serenity, but Nie Huaisang preferred him this way, anyway. It always gave him a smug sense of satisfaction, being one of the few people allowed to see Lan Xichen upset. He might not be able to get more than a passing look from him, but he still got more than most.
Well, he’d never claimed to be a good person.
“I suppose you’re not wrong,” Lan Xichen admitted finally. “Perhaps I will talk to Wangji about it.”
Nie Huaisang let out a soft hum of agreement, folding his arms across his chest. The two of them watched the milling crowd for a long moment more, and then the soft sound of a throat clearing made him look up.
“I noticed,” Lan Xichen said, sounding a little awkward, “That you didn’t enter the competition.”
Nie Huaisang burst out laughing. “Me?”
Lan Xichen pressed his lips together, looking off into the distance. “I suppose it wouldn’t make much sense, would it?”
“Ha! No,” Nie Huaisang said, still chortling. “I thought you said you wanted your brother to be happy? Even if I managed not to die in the first five minutes somehow, if I actually won, can you imagine how miserable Lan Wangji would be with me?”
“Oh,” Lan Xichen said, very quietly. “Right. My brother.”
Nie Huaisang patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry so much, Xichen-gege. The dragons have high standards, so I’m sure they’ll pick someone good enough for him. He won’t end up with someone like Wen Chao, and he’ll definitely do better than me.”
“Of course,” Lan Xichen murmured, which Nie Huaisang had to admit, stung a little, but he shook it off.
At this point, Wei Wuxian, having been thoroughly spurned by Lan Wangji, slunk back to Nie Huaisang’s side, pouting.
“You should have seen that coming,” Nie Huaisang told him, not unkindly. Wei Wuxian only sulked and slumped on top of him. “Wei-xiong, you’re so heavy! Get off me!”
Lan Xichen was smiling again, watching as Nie Huaisang beat Wei Wuxian off him with his fan, but just as quickly as it had arrived, it disappeared, as two cultivators some distance behind them began talking, unaware of how much their voices were carrying.
“Do you really think you stand a chance?” one of them was saying. “There are so many people competing.”
“Do you really think I’m stupid enough to play fair?” the other replied, and Nie Huaisang narrowed his eyes. “There has to be a good way to get ahead here. I’ll hire a servant or two to help me complete the tasks, and as for the other competitors… well, those who aren’t from the main sects will be easily bribed, won’t they? Then I’ll be halfway to the prize.”
Wei Wuxian made an angry noise, starting forward, but a hand shot forward, gripping his arm. Lan Xichen was as tense as a drawn bowstring, but his voice was calm as ever. “Please don’t, Wei-gongzi. I do not think the Jiang sect will thank you if you get into trouble over this.”
“But--” Wei Wuxian began to protest. Lan Xichen cut him off.
“I would prefer it if you would both return to your quarters. The next few days will be busy, especially since we have to sort out the matter of your studies as well.”
Nie Huaisang shot a look over his shoulder and-- yes, Jin cultivators. Of course they were. He made a face.
“Xichen-gege,” he started, but Lan Xichen only shook his head in a jerky fashion quite unlike his usual grace.
“Don’t worry.” He managed a smile. “I’ll speak to my uncle about this. There is nothing to concern yourself over.”
He walked away, making his way over to Lan Qiren just a tad too quickly to be casual, leaving Nie Huaisang behind, feeling sick to his stomach with sudden guilt. Next to him, Wei Wuxian was looking about as stricken as he did, at least for a moment. Then his eyes narrowed with determination.
“Nie-xiong,” he said. “We have to do something. We can’t let those people win.”
“The Lans will take care of it.” Nie Huaisang’s voice wasn’t remotely convincing.
Wei Wuxian looked insulted. “No, they won’t. They’re lousy at catching cheaters! Just look at how much we’ve gotten away with here.” They’d also gotten caught pretty often, but Nie Huaisang said nothing. “And even if they did, poor Lan Zhan will have to put up with all these people--” Wei Wuxian wrinkled his nose. “--trying to talk to him and forcing him to be around them and bothering him. He doesn’t deserve it.”
Nie Huaisang figured he was correct. That did sound like Lan Wangji’s worst nightmare.
“We have to help them,” Wei Wuxian said again, distressed.
Nie Huaisang eyed the crowd before them, growing even as they spoke, and thought of the week between them and the next task, and how much time it gave more cultivators to travel to the Cloud Recesses.
“Ugh,” he said with real disgust. “This is going to be so much work.”
The ghastly prospect of having to actually do things hung over him like a restless spirit for the rest of the day, and so Nie Huaisang turned to his traditional method when he felt that he had messed up horribly: go and beg his brother for help, while doing his best to skimp on details of the story that made him look bad. It had the added benefit of allowing him to retire to his room away from the other cultivators since now that he was paying attention, it was impossible to avoid people talking about how they were going to cheat. Nie Huaisang was getting worried that if he heard one more terrible idea floated about how to trick the dragons into letting them marry Lan Xichen, he was going to do something that would make his brother proud and himself very, very injured.
In any case, since he wasn’t in Qinghe Nie this time, running to his brother was both more and less difficult than usual. For one thing, it was very easy to make this all about helping Lan Xichen in his time of need, which he was certain his brother, protective as always, would be happy to do under any circumstance. All he had to do was explain what he had overheard and his brother would be handing over a few choice cultivators to him without even being prompted. He didn’t even really have to lie.
Unfortunately, there was the time constraint to consider. He had sent his letter with one of the Nie servants who had shown up with their delegation, and it would take a few days more for his request to even reach Nie Mingjue. The competition would start in less than that; Nie Huaisang wanted to be on top of things when it did. Help from that quarter would be limited.
That night, he lay awake, unable to sleep, turning over Wei Wuxian’s predicament, and Lan Xichen’s, and even Lan Wangji’s over in his head until he was thoroughly miserable.
What he and Wei Wuxian really needed, he thought, staring at the ceiling, was some way to manipulate events from the inside. Not enough to actually cheat themselves, only to get rid of the really awful competitors. Going to Lan Qiren was out of the question, of course, and for the first time Nie Huaisang almost regretted his carelessness throughout the years. Almost. But in any case, alienating him had removed most of the official avenues with which they could help. Which, of course, led to the only ones who were involved in this whole mess who were not in the Lan Sect--
Nie Huaisang sat up.
“Oh, look, it's the shrieking one,” the white dragon said, when he had worked up the nerve to return to the caves. (He’d broken into Wei Wuxian’s room to run his idea by him, first, and he’d offered to go with him, but his arm had been glowing, so Nie Huaisang had firmly dissuaded him of any such notion.) “Are you going to make that noise again? Am I going to have to eat you to shut you up?”
“We don’t eat people,” the blue dragon interjected mildly from its perch, to Nie Huaisang. “But please don’t do it again, it was most trying. Our ears are sensitive.”
“I won’t!” insisted Nie Huaisang. “Sorry, I-- you were just very big. Very big.”
Both dragons looked strangely pleased with this.
“So,” continued Nie Huaisang, who knew from dealing with most of his growly, cranky relatives that it was always best to try and convince them of something when they were in a good mood. “I’ve been thinking. If you're going to hold a tournament, I think you’ll need help. An inside man, of sorts! Not to change the outcome, just to make sure no one’s cheating, or anything.”
“Cheating?” the blue dragon asked.
“There are about five different plans I’ve heard floated already, and you haven’t even announced the tasks yet,” Nie Huaisang informed them. “And all the cultivators who are interested in competing haven’t even arrived. Most of these are just students. Do you have any idea what the grown versions will be like?”
“We have had problems with such dishonorable attempts in the past,” admitted the blue dragon. “We took care of it.”
“We ate them,” the white dragon said.
“Brother.”
The white dragon rolled its eyes. “We drove them away.”
“But you are correct,” the blue dragon said. “With so many cultivators competing… still, I do not see why the Lan sect would not be sufficient at regulating this. It is, after all, their sect, and their family.”
“It’s very simple,” Nie Huaisang explained. “The Lans are excellent at organising things, but they’re lousy at deception. For one thing, they think making up rules actually stops people from doing things. It’s ridiculous.”
There was a begrudging murmur of agreement from the dragons.
“Remember the fire talismans?” the white dragon asked. It huffed. “They were so annoying.”
“That happened more than once?” Nie Huaisang demanded in horror. “Once wasn’t enough?”
“Humans are deeply stupid,” the white dragon said, stretching lazily. Then, after a moment’s more consideration, “Fine. You may help.”
“Really?” Nie Huaisang said. “Oh, good. I thought I was going to die.”
“We don’t hurt people that often,” the blue dragon said reproachfully.
“But it’s very memorable when you do!”
“As you can see, some of the petitioners had very suspect intentions.”
Nie Huaisang opened his mouth, then, abruptly, remembered the look on Lan Xichen’s face and shut it again. It made him feel... strange, as though some dormant force that lived in his chest had woken up and was pressing against his ribcage, demanding to be let out so it could do a lot worse than drive cultivators away. Maybe tear a few heads off… but no. He looked down at himself. “Stop that.”
The feeling ebbed and then faded, and he looked up to see the dragons eyeing him-- the blue with a thoughtful look, the white with a deeply unnerving stare which he couldn’t read.
“...Interesting,” the white dragon said, finally.
“Nies,” the blue sighed. “You are all heart and very little sense.”
Nie Huaisang took offense to this. “I have loads of sense, way more than anyone else in my sect! I stopped.”
“A huge accomplishment, I am certain,” said the blue dragon politely, and Nie Huaisang narrowed his eyes at him. Rude!
“So what are the terms of this deal, anyway?” he demanded, tired of being spoken down to by a pair of rude dragons.
“Simple,” the white dragon said. “You and Wei Wuxian help us deal with those who would take advantage of this situation to further their own gain, and we will focus on the tasks.”
“Great,” Nie Huaisang said, glumly.
“But Wei Wuxian will be subject to the same rules as everyone else,” the blue dragon added quickly. “He will have to complete the tasks as well, and he will not be given any extra time.”
“Probably fine.” Nie Huaisang shrugged. “Have you met him?”
The dragons looked noncommittal, and he snickered. “Just wait.”