Chapter Text
When Wei Wuxian first met Lan Wangji, her first thought was that she had a very strong personality. She wasn’t brutish, or loud, or sloppy. She didn’t chew with her mouth open or sit with her legs apart. Lan Wangji was aloof in ways that young women shouldn’t be, keeping to herself instead of her sect. She didn’t smile at her peers or greet them like her sister did, and nobody quite knew how domestically capable she was. Wei Wuxian thought, then, that some women just weren’t made to be good wives.
Perhaps no Lan female was meant to be a good wife. Even though the Cloud Recesses had strict rules defining how the boys and girls should and shouldn’t intermingle, the girls of GusuLan seemed to cultivate just as strong as their male counterparts. According to the sect leader, they weren’t “inhibited by worldly matters.” This turned out to be especially true for the Twin Jades, the pride and joys of GusuLan. Wei Wuxian couldn’t imagine how many boy cultivators already asked for their hands in marriage, for if the two girls were able to fight their way to the top against men, the people must treat them as someone to be feared rather than loved.
In the dark of night, Wei Wuxian found her thoughts to be true.
Right outside the Cloud Recesses, the city of Gusu allegedly had the most delectable alcohol that was never made available in Yunmeng. Despite the late hour, Wei Wuxian was used to navigating midnight drunks and dangerous back foot alleys that would otherwise scare young women like herself. No normal man would test a cultivator of any prowess, after all. Carrying two full jars, she made a mental note to buy them in bulk on her way back home. Just the smell had made her itch for a drink. Wei Wuxian leaped up onto the buildings that encapsulated the Cloud Recesses within, intending to make an unnoticed entry back to her living quarters.
“You cannot enter the Cloud Recesses at night.”
Wei Wuxian turned and, for a second, thought she was hallucinating. Framed by the soft, cold illumination of the moon was a vision dressed in pure white. The wind rustled through her embroidered sleeves and her long, straight black hair. On the left side of her head, a hairpin held a strip of her hair in a loose bun, the pretty gemstones reflecting the light, glittering like stars. Her sharp eyes, like icicles, glowed with the moonlight. Wei Wuxian found herself momentarily entranced.
“A fairy...” she murmured to herself.
But her eyes had deceived her. As she squinted, she determined that the person before her was just another disciple. Her heart leaped to her throat as she attempted to cover up her mistake. “Ah, I mean, I didn’t know anything about that rule!”
Lan Wangji's expression did not change at all. It was as if she wore a mask made of porcelain. When she spoke, her voice naturally coaxed in a low alto, husky like a monk’s hum. “It is written on the mountain.”
“There’s too many rules here!” Wei Wuxian shot back.
She groaned, bent at her waist, her shoulders slouched deeply. Wei Wuxian knew at the back of her mind that repercussions might happen for her disorderly actions. She just hoped that nobody would find out in the first place. Besides that, she was tired and only wanted to enjoy her alcohol, such a simple pleasure, in peace.
She put on her best dazzling smile, the kind known to knock the wind out of men and elders, and held out one of her jars. "Then I'll give this to you as a present if you keep it a secret, hmm?"
Pressing her thin, pink lips into a line, Lan Wangji glared at her but said nothing.
"You should take it," Wei Wuxian continued to goad. The wine inside the jar made a wet sloshing sound as she shook it insistently. "It's Emperor's Smile, after all. It's very good!"
"Alcohol is prohibited in the Cloud Recesses." She stated these facts unthinkingly in her monotone voice, and Wei Wuxian wondered how often she must have rattled off the entire side of the mountain over the course her life. Probably pretty often, with how often the disciples were drilled on it. Wei Wuxian thought the rules may be better coming from her than the mountain since she had such a nice voice.
"If that's the case..."
Lounging back on the edge of the rooftop, she ripped the cover off of one of the jars and chugged half of its contents.
“I’m not drinking inside the Cloud Recesses," she said, her mouth half-full of sweet wine. It left a pleasant burn at the back of her throat and a certain pleasant fogginess at the back of her head. "I’m not breaking any rules! We could've had fun together, but now I must get my money's worth!”
From behind the wide belly of the wine jar, she heard Lan Wangji sigh.
“Accept your punishment.”
Wei Wuxian wiped her mouth free of the wine with the sleeve of her uniform. Oh, how she wished she could enjoy it more. “I’ll accept mine if you accept yours,” she said, pointing over to where Lan Wangji stood. Even in the face of someone as unruly as Wei Wuxian, she stood tall as a picture of grace. “We’re both out after curfew. Pretty girls like you need to be in bed getting their beauty sleep, anyway. If you stay up too late, you’ll get dark circles under your eyes.”
She cackled and held her jar up high, ready to down the other half of it, until she heard the sharp metallic slide of a sword from its sheath.
Wei Wuxian ducked, the edge of Lan Wangji’s sword barely grazing her wild hair. Even though she made an effort to brush it every week and Jiang Cheng decorated her head with thin braids, her hair always managed to become a tangled mess. “Wait! I’m unarmed!” she exclaimed, though Lan Wangji didn’t halt. She struck at Wei Wuxian—to hurt, not to kill—with practiced precision and elegance. The bright glint of the moon on Bichen's edge gave Wei Wuxian a fright. When Lan Wangji fought, it was only half of a means to take on a target. The other half was a performance.
She caught her sword in a dead hold as it struck at her shoulder. It grazed the hem of her uniform and cut a small slit into it, but her skin remained uncut and unblemished underneath. “Is it that hard to reason with you?” Wei Wuxian asked, a bead of sweat dripping down the side of her face. “If you don’t try to see things from other people’s perspectives, you’ll never make friends. I could be your friend! I bring a lot of benefits, too. For example...”
With a twist of her leg, Lan Wangji hooked her sword into the loop of the Emperor's Smile jug, spun around, and sent the jar crashing into Wei Wuxian's chest. Though the ceramic didn't break on contact, Wei Wuxian clutched at her chest as she gasped for air. The sensitive nerves in her breast felt like they were on fire.
“Fine,” she huffed, holding her last remaining jar close, like a mother bear protecting a cub. “If that’s how you want to be...”
~
“I wish I could go to Yunmeng,” Nie Huaisang sighed, fanning her face absently. The short ponytail on the left side of her head shifted slightly with the artificial current. “I want to hunt pheasants too.”
Wei Wuxian folded her hands behind her head. Jiang Cheng had often berated her for the boyish gesture in the past, but it was a habit she never quite broke until she stopped complaining altogether. “I can teach you how I do it,” she said cheerily. “The men in Yunmeng are especially handsome, too!”
The pathway to the library pavilion was chipped out of the side of one of the grassy mountains that surrounded the Cloud Recesses. It curled around the mountainside like the swirling cloud motif of the Lan sect, rising to a lone cliff about as tall as the larger buildings on the lowest ground. Along with other buildings, all saddled high against the mountain, the roof kissed the sun every day and the moon every night. Not only that, but its balcony had the best view of the sunset in the entire recesses.
Jiang Cheng huffed, palm pressed against her creased forehead. “Huaisang, your Dajie is going to break your legs if she finds you’ve gallivanted somewhere else,” she said in her irritatingly strong voice. She stepped in front of Wei Wuxian and halted her, pointing between her eyes with a fierce expression. “And you! You need to focus on not getting in trouble! We’ve been here for only a couple of days and you’ve already pissed off Lan Qiren twice!”
“It’s not my fault!” Wei Wuxian defended, palms upward.
“You mouthed her off and broke several basic rules at the same time! Not to mention that little stunt you pulled in class.”
“I didn’t technically break the rules! And Old Hag Qiran just doesn’t see my way of thinking.”
The walk up to the library pavilion's spiraling stairs was long and Wei Wuxian’s legs ached by the time they were at the library door. She was so, so close to asking Jiang Cheng to carry her the rest of the way. Her Shimei was strong enough, of course, though she would most likely just insult Wei Wuxian if she asked and then threaten to break her legs as per usual.
When they pushed open the doors, another breeze swept through an open window, scattering papers on a table’s surface. At that table, sitting at attention, was Lan Wangji. In the noontime sun, she fixed her cool stare at Wei Wuxian, her deep pale eyes burning through her mind. The wind flowed through her hair just like the other night, but this time instead of being framed by the moon, she was outlined by the pavilion window and the delicate magnolia tree next to it. The branches shifted, their petals fluttering in and out of focus.
“I do remember something about Wei-Jie needing a supervisor,” Nie Huaisang whispered to Jiang Cheng in her high-pitched voice.
“Should we stay?” Jiang Cheng replied in a hushed tone, crossing her arms over her chest. She puffed up with air, Lan Wangji's presence putting her on edge. "At this rate, I'd think Hanguang-jun would claw Shijie's eyes out."
“Wangji-Jie is too refined for that. Wei-Jie, though...”
"A-ah, wait, gossiping isn't allowed here..."
Wei Wuxian plopped herself at the other end of the table, elbow resting on her knee as the other two faded from her attention. She sat in a very inappropriate position with her knees parted wide and comfortable, only made better by the fact that she had trousers on as part of her disciple uniform. Already, the materials she needed to copy each of the three thousand rules were set in front of her, as if Lan Wangji had gone through the effort of perfectly preparing everything for her punishment. Wei Wuxian supposed that the action would at least be fitting.
She stared at Lan Wangji, whose straight nose was buried in a book.
“So...” Wei Wuxian trailed off, a hint of mischief coating her lips. “What do I need to do to get a response from you?”
~
Wei Wuxian liked to think she would make a good wife one day. Jiang Cheng had often talked about it amongst themselves, about the men they would like to marry.
“He has to be handsome. Naturally handsome,” Jiang Cheng said, staring at her ceiling from her bed. “A nice jaw and nose. He can be good at cultivation, but he mustn’t be jealous of me if he isn’t. He should be jealous when I talk to other men but not too jealous and he must win back my affection with gifts and compliments. He must be intelligent, but not too intelligent that he is full of himself. He must be wealthy, not marrying me for my money, and be willing to pay for anything I need without objecting. He mustn’t talk back to me, and he must encourage me and cheer me on whenever I go night hunting.”
Giggling, Wei Wuxian looked down at her Shimei. The dormitories were mostly bare and base, hosting a bed, a desk, a rug for meditation, and a lock box for personal items. There were no other places to sit, so she sat cross-legged on Jiang Cheng's bed. “I don’t really think of those things when I think of who I’d like to be with. Are you sure your standards aren’t too high?”
Jiang Cheng let out a puff of air, blowing a lock of her bangs out of her eyes. “Even though A-Li is first in line to the Jiang sect, I’ll still help to represent it. I think if my relationship was made public--which, of course, it will be considering my status--my demands are quite reasonable.” Her body language shifted into something that gave Wei Wuxian the opinion that Jiang Cheng could not be swayed.
“So it’s all about your status?”
“Of course not.”
Wei Wuxian scratched at her chin absently, leaning her back against the wall. “Why don’t you court a man from GusuLan?" she suggested. "I'd never marry into the Lans, but they have good reputations and are all quite handsome.”
Jiang Cheng ran her nails against the back of her neck. “... Well, it’s a bit more complicated," she said in a low voice.
“Oh?”
“The men of GusuLan all are naturally handsome... No, scratch that. All disciples of Lan are very attractive without makeup.”
Wei Wuxian's mind went to the naturally beautiful face of Lan Wangji, how her face seemed to illuminate regardless of the time of day. “Now that you mention it, I haven’t seen a single unattractive person here. They’re all quite above average, I suppose.” This would be good, she thought, if she wanted to check the boys out seriously. She hadn't had a lot of time to search through the boy's half of the Cloud Recesses. Every time she tried, she would get caught and sent back. As such, she had only seen them in the library and in class, scarce and far between.
“The Lan clan focuses primarily on appearances, so it makes sense. But... with how the Lan men are taught, I fear that they may lack a certain drive that I find appealing.” Jiang Cheng's words trailed off towards the end. Silently slipping an arm over her eyes, she barely hid a red complexion.
It was odd to hear Jiang Cheng talk about stuff like that, and Wei Wuxian felt honored that her Shimei was finally opening up.
They sat in silence for a while, letting her words sink in. When the stillness of the room finally thickened an appropriate amount, Wei Wuxian slowly leaned back. Another bedroom was located behind the thin wall. “Oh!” she said loudly enough for others to hear. “I see! Jiang Cheng wants some super hot, sweaty, rough se--”
Jiang Cheng bolted from her spot on the bed and clasped her hands over Wei Wuxian’s mouth. “It isn’t too late to break your legs,” she growled, eyes more intense than ever.
Wei Wuxian wanted to laugh. And it was so trivial! She said something under her hand. It sounded almost like, “Harming others is forbidden in the Cloud Recesses.”
“Well, what about you?” Jiang Cheng asked after removing her hands.
She hummed, tapping her fingers together. A sweet expression overcame her. “I think I just want someone who makes me happy,” she said simply.
Jiang Cheng paused and crossed her arms.
“... And?”
“And?”
“That’s it?”
Wei Wuxian shrugged and relaxed her posture. “Well, happiness comes in many forms," she instructed as if she were a teacher talking to a student. "But as long as I’m surrounded by happiness, I think I would be content marrying that person.”
Jiang Cheng paused again.
“And what makes you think you’ll make a good wife to that person?” she asked incredulously.
Wei Wuxian huffed, her lips quirking up into a smile. “I’m glad you asked!” she exclaimed, hands proudly on her hips. “I can cook, I can clean, I’m very good with kids, I can take care of an entire household, manage money, and a lot of guys say I’m quite attractive!”
Jiang Cheng faced Wei Wuxian eye-to-eye. “No, no, no, oh my heavens, no,” she said to every point Wei Wuxian made. “Guys only follow you because you look like a bum and then they start fights with you and you break their noses.”
“Occasionally!” Wei Wuxian corrected. “I think I’d be very good at being a wife!”
Jiang Cheng sighed and fell to her side, facing her wall. Her tone of voice suggested she didn't believe her Shijie one bit. “I pray for your future husband’s mental health after choosing you to be his bride.”