Chapter Text
A-Yuan catches a frog when they reach Yiling, mainly because there is no other way to stop him from saying incriminating things about the markets. Lan Wangji doesn’t like bribing children, but he thinks he can be forgiven this one time.
“What are you going to name your frog?” Jiang Wanyin asks, gruffly but mostly politely. He’s always like that when talking to A-Yuan, like he’s trying his best. It’s appreciated, even though sometimes Lan Wangji still feels the urge to strangle him out of nowhere. It’s fine. He’s a rational man, he can stand it.
A-Yuan shrugs. “I don’t care. Suibian. Not everything needs a name, Jiang-gege,” he replies.
Jiang Wanyin snorts, rolling his eyes. “Suibian is a nice name,” he shoots back.
If Jiang Wanyin did this on purpose, he doesn’t show it. It’s clearly the right thing to say, since A-Yuan shrieks, dissolving into laughs. “No, Jiang-gege, that’s not a name!”
“Be more cautious with your words, then,” Lan Wangji says. He bites his lip to stop from smiling. “You have the responsibility of raising Suibian. You need to be a good role model.”
A-Yuan puts up three fingers and nods solemnly. “I will.”
Lan Wangji is aware that there are some residents of the market that are whispering about him. He assumes they remember his last visit. It’s fine. As long as they don’t approach him and A-Yuan, it will be fine.
Jiang Wanyin has slowed down slightly, eyes fixed on an alleyway. “Did you know,” he starts, before stopping and tilting his head. “Did you know that he was from here?”
There is only one person that Jiang Wanyin has talked about since reaching Yiling. “I did not,” Lan Wangji replies, taking A-Yuan’s hand.
“He was. A-Die found him here. I met his parents once, here. I can’t remember them,” Jiang Wanyin says. “He was-- he was coming home. Not leaving it.”
There is something to be said here about Wei Ying. Lan Wangji cannot say it, nor does he want to. He does not owe Jiang Wanyin this-- a relief, really.
Yiling is disconcerting, to say the least. Everywhere they look, there seems to be some story about Wei Ying that makes the Jiang disciples wince when they remember it. Even Jiang Wanyin himself freezes in front of an inn, unblinking and shivering. He only moves when A-Yuan slips Suibian the frog into Jiang Wanyin’s hand, cackling as he does it.
Jiang Wanyin barely looks at him. “Get the frog off of me,” he snaps, which makes A-Yuan cry, like more things have been doing. They’re all on edge.
Lan Wangji picks A-Yuan up, hitching him higher on his hip. He doesn’t try to hush A-Yuan, just lets him bury his face into Lan Wangji’s shoulder. The frog has escaped. They’ll find another one.
“Let’s stop,” Jiang Wanyin’s Head Disciple says finally, after Jiang Wanyin scowls at yet another building, looking around with shifty eyes. “It’s time for a meal. A-Yuan must be hungry.”
“We’ll rest,” Jiang Wanyin decides, putting a hand on his hip. “We’ll take a meal and rest before setting out for the mountain.”
They go to a teahouse. It’s the same teahouse Lan Wangji had gone to the first time he visited Wei Ying and the Wens, the same one where he’d first met A-Yuan. He has a strange desire to buy a wooden sword for A-Yuan, but it’s probably best not to draw attention to themselves.
Jiang Wanyin catches his eye as he goes to sit down at a far table with A-Yuan. “Sit here,” he says quietly, eyes flicking to his own table. “Just.. sit down.”
Lan Wangji does not make a fuss, because there is no point. He sits down. “Jiang Wanyin.”
“Yeah?”
“When we were traveling, before.”
Jiang Wanyin tilts his head in acknowledgement. “Yes, then. What about it?”
“You said you had last seen Wei Ying in Yiling. Why had you been in Yiling?” There is something off to this whole thing that has been haunting Lan Wangji.
“Doesn't matter,” Jiang Wanyin snaps. He drinks his tea all in one go. “It was a long time ago.”
Lan Wangji lets it go as the soup arrives. It’s such a twisted facade of his afternoon with Wei Ying that Lan Wangji doesn’t even know how to feel. He wants to laugh, kind of? He’s traded in one Jiang sibling for the other. He doesn’t laugh, because that would probably scare A-Yuan, but he has the thought nonetheless.
A-Yuan, still mourning the loss of his frog, eats his soup sadly. He tugs on Lan Wangji’s sleeve, making him bend down and tilt his head to the side to show he’s listening. A-Yuan doesn’t say anything, just scoops up soup with his spoon and holds it up to Lan Wangji’s mouth. "Zhan-gege," he says quietly. "It's tasty."
Lan Wangji nods. He keeps swallowing the spoons that A-Yuan gives him. Jiang Wanyin keeps replacing the soup in A-Yuan’s bowl with his own.
“So,” says Jiang Wanyin once they’re finished eating. “Lan Wangji. What happens if you don’t get accepted for asylum? This is a tantrum; what happens when you’re done?”
Lan Wangji wants to recoil except Jiang Wanyin isn’t completely wrong. He’s almost forgotten that while he is the second son, Jiang Wanyin has played the part of the only son socialized as a youngest one for so long that in a way, there is no Jiang Wanyin without his siblings.
There used to be no Lan Wangji without Lan Xichen either. This isn’t forever, by the way. Lan Wangji is under no pretensions that he can just leave the entire sect with minimal consequences. Jiang Wanyin is right. This is a tantrum thrown by the youngest son until he gets what he wants: a life where there’s a place for Wei Ying’s son.
“I will return,” Lan Wangji replies finally. “I can carry out my responsibilities from Caiyi. It’s mostly paperwork. I am not trusted with the disciples.”
Jiang Wanyin nods, considers it for a while. “And A-Yuan? What will happen to him?”
“He will stay with me,” snaps Lan Wangji, glaring.
“I figured.”
“Good.”
“Lan Wangji, let me ask you a question,” Jiang Wanyin says after a pause. “Do you trust the Lan Sect with their disciples?”
There is something different about his tone here. Something a little more suspicious, a little more calculating.
“In what sense?” Lan Wangji asks warily. This is, admittedly, already too tiring of a conversation. Politics had never interested him much before Wei Ying, and he’d never gotten the hang of reading in between the lines.
Jiang Wanyin cuts a look over to A-Yuan. “Look. Jin Guangyao is your brother’s sworn brother. It’s no secret that they’ll be running the Nie Sect with Huaisang unless I get there first. I need to ensure my nephew’s safety if and when Jin Guangyao takes him to Gusu.”
Ah. Here’s the point. “What are you suggesting?”
“We go to the mountain. We ask Baoshan Sanren for our wishes. If she doesn’t accept us, you go back to Gusu and get whatever you want from this tantrum and I’ll go back to Yunmeng and raise my nephew. I won’t tell anyone anything about A-Yuan, and I’ll back you up if you claim he’s your illegitimate son. In return, you look out for Jin Ling at Gusu.”
Admittedly, it’s a fine bargain. Lan Wangji and Jiang Wanyin do not like each other. They do not even particularly trust each other. But maybe, just maybe, they are learning to live in a world without Wei Ying.
---
They set off at sunrise the next morning. Jiang Wanyin leaves his disciples behind and slips out without making a fuss, only stopping to knock on Lan Wangji’s door and nod once. A-Yuan is still asleep, so Lan Wangji picks him up and they set off.
They do not talk on the way up the mountain. The sun is just barely peeking over the horizon, swathing the village below in a soft glow. Lan Wangji thinks it’s beautiful.
As they get closer to the top, Jiang Wanyin starts fidgeting. He looks around with shaded eyes, looking for signs of anything. To be fair, Lan Wangji does not really know what they are looking for. He expected there would be some type of heavenly shine to it all, that he would immediately know what he was looking for. This just looks like another mountain.
Lan Wangji, in hindsight, did not plan nearly well enough. He had been counting on the fact that Lan Yi had given him her blessing and that hopefully, Baoshan Sanren would honor her old friend. He truly does not know how to find her. He hopes he does. He’s beginning to think he won’t.
They’re almost there when A-Yuan wakes up. He yawns, blinking his eyes open. “Are we there yet?” he asks, tilting his head.
“Almost,” Lan Wangji whispers. He doesn’t want to disturb the silence of the morning.
Jiang Wanyin turns back. He’s been walking ahead, brisker than Lan Wangji. When he turns, his face is wet. “Lan Yuan. Good morning.”
“Good morning!” A-Yuan replies happily, grinning wide. “Zhan-gege, can you let me down now? I want to walk.”
Lan Wangji does not want to let him down. It feels like something terrible is happening. He gently sets A-Yuan down anyway and casts Bonding on their wrists. “Don’t go too far from me.”
And then they’re at the top of the mountain without any fanfare. Jiang Wanyin blinks as he looks around. “I don’t understand,” he says under his breath. “There’s nothing there.”
“What are you looking for?” A-Yuan asks eagerly, skipping up to Jiang Wanyin. “Can A-Yuan help?”
Jiang Wanyin doesn’t respond, instead turning around and looking directly at Lan Wangji. “I’ve been here before, but blindfolded. I don’t know why there’s nothing here.”
Lan Wangji thinks for a moment. He wonders if Baoshan Sanren truly was a hermit, in which case perhaps she is hidden. He kneels. “Baoshan Sanren, this humble servant begs you to give us a chance to explain ourselves. I am Lan Wangji, Lan Zhan, from Gusu Lan, the great-grandson of Lan Yi and the cultivation partner of Wei Wuxian, Wei Ying, son of Cangse Sanren. She has given me her blessing. I seek asylum for myself and Wei Ying’s son.”
Jiang Wanyin kneels as well. He seems a bit wary, but he bends into a bow and starts talking. “I am Jiang Wanyin, Jiang Cheng, from Yunmeng Jiang. I was Wei Wuxian’s brother. My brother and sister are dead. I have heard stories of your magic-- I seek a way to bring them back.”
There is no response.
They try again. “Please, qianbei, we have nowhere else to go,” says Jiang Wanyin.
There is still no response.
A-Yuan sidles up to them and kneels. “Should I try?” he whispers, tilting his head. He smiles at the sky. “Hi. This is A-Yuan.”
Yet again, there is no response.
Surprisingly, almost shockingly, Jiang Wanyin laughs. He doesn’t stop laughing. He shakes his head. “That bastard,” he says between gasps. “That bastard.”
Except maybe he’s not laughing, but crying instead.
A-Yuan and Lan Wangji exchange looks of muted confusion. Jiang Wanyin scrambles to get up and starts roaming the top of the mountain like a madman, eyes trained on the ground.
“What is he looking for?” A-Yuan asks curiously in a stage whisper. Lan Wangji doesn’t answer, because he has no idea.
Finally, Jiang Wanyin bends down and picks up a bit of rusted metal with a crazed look in his still-wet eyes. “That bastard,” he repeats.
“What is that,” Lan Wangji asks. He’s beginning to get an idea.
Amazingly, there’s no response for a while. Jiang Wanyin continues to look at the piece of metal before suddenly sneering. “You know what he told me? He told me that he was so loved by his grandmaster that she would cure his golden core just like that. I should have thought about it longer. Look at this.”
Lan Wangji picks up the metal that has just been thrown at him. It is streaked with dried blood, some type of surgery instrument. “Jiang Wanyin,” he says slowly. “Why was Baoshan Sanren meant to cure Wei Ying’s core?”
Jiang Wanyin finally looks up. “It wasn’t his. It was mine.”
“He gave you his,” Lan Wangji replies, dropping the metal instrument.
“There was no Baoshan Sanren.”
“Did you meet someone named Baoshan Sanren?” Lan Wangji asks. He doesn’t want to ask any real questions. He doesn’t know if he could bear it.
Jiang Wanyin jabs his head towards A-Yuan. “We were given asylum by the greatest doctor in the goddamn cultivation world. I never questioned it. I should have.”
A-Yuan, who has been wandering around, comes back with a hat. It is black and veiled, a woman’s hat. “Zhan-gege, can I keep this?”
“It was hers,” says Jiang Wanyin quietly. “Wen Qing’s. That’s what Baoshan Sanren was wearing when I saw her, except I didn’t see her. The hat belongs to him anyways.”
Lan Wangji nods at A-Yuan, then turns. “Jiang Wanyin. Do you understand now why there was no other option for him?”
Then, Lan Wangji picks his son up and heads down the mountain.
They will see each other in the evening. Jiang Wanyin will return to the inn, where Lan Wangji has, for some inane reason, not left. They will not talk. A-Yuan will tearfully say bye to the Jiang Head Disciple who he’s taken a liking to.
In two days, they will depart their separate ways. Jiang Wanyin will return to Yunmeng with a heavier heart but with a resolution to be better to Jin Ling. The kid hasn’t done anything wrong. He deserves to be loved.
Lan Wangji will reach Caiyi in the middle of the night and immediately run into Nie Huaisang who is, amazingly, still as blissfully ignorant as before. They will exchange words. Nie Huaisang will smile at A-Yuan, who is enamored with the fan. They will go back to Huaisang’s inn, where Lan Xichen will stop crying immediately upon seeing them. They’ll find an agreement, because once Lan Wangji sees how A-Yuan loves his brother so genuinely, he cannot bring himself to do anything differently. He will remember how Jiang Wanyin said it was a tantrum and he never denied it.
They’ll be okay in this world without Wei Wuxian. But right now, they’re safer grieving on their own, separated by the entire city of Yiling.