Work Text:
Jiang Yanli was arranging the bandages into tighter packages. She had already done so twice today, but she couldn’t bear the thought of being idle. Not while her whole world was marching into battle, into a fight that she knew would be the end of everything. Whether it was the end of the war or of life as she knew, that, she didn’t know. But maybe if she could fit more bandages into the one basket, maybe if the bottles were filled right to the brim without room to spare, maybe that would be enough. And so she arranged bandages, mixed the tonics she had learned to make from Wen Qing, folded pillows and blankets. Anything to avoid thinking about which of these supplies her brothers might need, but preferring that thought over even contemplating the possibility that treatment would come to late to help at all.
So, when Lan Xichen arrived in camp, announcing that Jiang Cheng was fine, tired, but fine, and that Wei Wuxian was unconscious, but breathing, she fell to her knees, sobbing with relief. She quickly collected as many supplies as she could carry, including a freshly made pot of soup, and hurried ahead of the others to Nightless City to be at her brothers’ sides.
--
Once she had arrived, she’d taken directions from Mianmian, who had smiled kindly even if a little worriedly at Jiang Yanli’s frantic questioning. Yanli had known it was the right place as soon as she heard the guqin music coming from inside. She knocked at the door, and almost started sobbing again as the door opened vigorously to reveal Jiang Cheng. She felt overwhelming gratitude to see his face even before it had cooled from anger and annoyance to a helpless and pained expression once he realized who was at the door. As the door had opened, the guqin had stopped. The quiet in the room would have made even Lan Qiren uncomfortable. Jiang Cheng led her to the bed, where the unnaturally still body of her usually animated brother lay. Lan Wangji, Hanguang-Jun as he was now known, resumed his playing from the table the moment he saw that their visitor was far from a threat.
She sat by the bed next to Jiang Cheng, clasping both of her brothers’ hands. She smiled at A-Cheng, simply appreciating that they were all there, alive and recovering, before remembering what she had brought with her.
These early hours of Wei Wuxian’s unconsciousness passed with Yanli’s careful tending to Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji’s wounds - both of whom had skipped any medical treatment in favour of lingering by Wei Wuxian’s bedside - and a warm bowl of lotus and rib soup for each of them.
After they ate, Yanli couldn’t help but notice her brother’s leg tapping anxiously.
“A-Cheng” she said softly, understanding his restlessness, “You can go check on the other Jiang disciples if you would like.”
He looked at her, back to Wei Wuxian, briefly at Lan Wangji, then to the door before turning back to her, “Are you sure?” he asked, the pleading tone in his voice telling Yanli that he didn’t want to be the one to make this choice.
“Mmm” she said in agreement, “I think you should go. I’m sure they will want to hear from their leader right now.” She stroked the side of Jiang Cheng’s face. He nodded to her, anxious expression turning serious as he faced Lan Wangji, who had resumed his guqin immediately after eating the soup at Yanli’s insistence, though even this he had done in silence. Jiang Cheng bowed to the musician. “Thank you.” he said, before steeling himself to greet his injured and exhausted troops.
Yanli watched him go, anxious to start tending to the wounded herself, but right now… She hadn’t wanted to do a full examination of Wei Wuxian in front of A-Cheng. A-Xian’s breathing was a good sign, but she’d been worried about a few other things ever since Wei Wuxian had returned to them, especially after her conversation with Lan Wangji in Qinghe. She felt Wei Wuxian’s wrist.
She let in a sharp intake of breath. Without looking away from her brother, and without revealing her findings, she asked, “What’s wrong with him?”
There was no break, not even a waver in the melody, as Lan Wangji answered curtly, “Wei Ying used too much spiritual power.”
Yanli nodded, but she had felt this odd beat in a brother’s wrist before, in Jiang Cheng’s wrist as Wen Qing had showed her how to tend to him. She knew what it meant. Wei Wuxian, no matter what miraculous feat he had just accomplished, hadn’t simply run out of spiritual power - he had no golden core.
She closed her eyes and sighed. She had known that something significant had changed in A-Xian since she had seen him in Yiling. His loss of his golden core made sense, though she still didn’t understand how he had accomplished what Lan Xichen had described during the last battle. She assumed, though she didn’t know how it could be, that the missing core had something to do with Jiang Cheng’s frankly miraculous recovery several months before, and probably (she supposed) Wei Wuxian’s subsequent disappearance, which would mean that the battle itself might have exacerbated something, but hadn’t been the cause.
She shook her head. At this point, the cause didn’t really matter. What was important was that she now understood that the types of treatments that Wen Qing had taught her for Jiang Cheng might work here. She was only grateful that she had recognized this - many physicians would have simply allowed him to rest, without bothering to check if someone who had accomplished such a feat was missing something as fundamental as a golden core to help in the healing process.
She dipped a cloth in cold water, wanting to bring down her brother’s fever. Having decided her course of action, she was able to notice less crucial details in the room - namely, the odd but soothing melody coming from the guqin.
“What is this song?” she asked.
“It purifies the soul and the mind,” was the only reply she got, but it was enough to make her wonder. While it seemed that Jiang Cheng thought that all their brother needed was rest, Lan Wangji was focusing on spiritual healing, seeming to understand differently. She remembered their conversation back in Qinghe.
“Lan Er-Gongzi…” she wasn’t sure how to frame the question, “never mind.”
“Lady Jiang.” It was said as a statement, but Yanli understood it as an invitation to continue.
“About our conversation… in Qinghe…” she paused, and given the other’s continued silence, proceeded, “I was wondering whether… you thought this had anything to do with it?”
“Yes.” His certainty surprised Jiang Yanli, who had only ever seen Lan Wangji provide passive nods or “Mmms” in response to direct questioning. She drew her attention away from her brother, only to just catch the other man’s gaze quickly turn back from A-Xian to his guqin.
Oh, she thought, something occurring to her about Hanguang-Jun’s fixation on her brother that she hadn’t considered before. She decided to press on.
“So this flute… and this… amulet that your brother mentioned… are they dangerous?”
Only now did the music pause, the sharp - but Yanli thought she detected a hint of concern - eyes meeting hers. He said nothing, only looking at her, as though expecting her to speak. So she supposed she should.
“I only mean, well,” she struggled to identify a concrete example explaining her unease, “I touched the flute back in Qinghe.” She took a breath, “It pushed me back.” She got only a blink in response, “At first, I thought it was like Zidian - that it was just rejecting me because I was not A-Xian, but then…” unbidden tears welled up in her eyes, “if tried to touch Zidian, it resisted, but it never hurt me.” She remembered the shock she had felt, the brief look of shame as A-Xian had hidden the flute behind his back…
“I do not trust Chenqing.” Finally, a reply. Again, the certainty in Lan Wangji’s voice was surprising.
Yanli blinked the tears out of her eyes. This was confirmation of everything she’d been worried about. Lan Wangji was not one to speak so definitively unless he was truly confident in his opinion. She wasn’t sure whether she was comforted to hear such a person echo her fears, or regretful that she could no longer dismiss her feelings as mere paranoia. Wei Wuxian’s actions, his behaviour since his return - it was not all in her head.
But she was equally sure that Wei Wuxian did not want her spreading his secrets any more with anyone. Whatever she knew about his golden core, whatever she suspected about his new spiritual tool, she could not even share it with Lan Wangji, who seemed to be the only person as closely attuned to her brother’s behaviour as she was.
“I fear…” the significance of Lan Wangji speaking two sentences in a row, where one would be sufficient to be polite, was not lost on Yanli, “I fear Chenqing might hurt him.”
Yanli nodded in agreement, but could not contribute to this line of thinking further without potentially violating Wei Wuxian’s trust.
The two sat in silence for a while, the guqin still playing its calming tune. Jiang Yanli let her mind wander as she wiped her brother’s feverish forehead gently with the cloth. She was aware that on more than one occasion, Lan Wangji’s gaze drifted over to them, and Yanli understood that it was not her that attracted his attention.
It was not the first time Yanli had had occasion to note a certain softening in the twin jade’s stoic expression around A-Xian, nor was it the first time she had sensed a sort of link between the two, one that went beyond the concern of a former classmate. Many people were concerned about Wei Wuxian. She had even had a brief conversation with Nie Huaisang back in Qinghe about her brother before they had left. But with Lan Wangji… his interest in A-Xian’s wellbeing was different. She chanced a look at the other man. Though his face remained decidedly neutral, there was a suggestion of pain around his eyes, signifying something unlike concern for a friend, more like a fear that a part of himself was at risk. Yanli thought she might be starting to understand the nature of the refined lens with which Lan Wangji identified anything amiss with her brother.
“Lan Er Gongzi…” she ventured, unable to leave this discovery unaddressed, “Thank you. Thank you for the concern you show for my brother.”
If she hadn’t looked up then, she would have missed the nod that was the only reply she got.
“I… I can tell that you care for him a great deal.” She needed to ask, could not leave her suspicions unsaid, not between her and her best ally when it came to protecting her brother. Still, she couldn’t bring herself to look at him as she asked, “What are your true feelings for A-Xian?”
For the first and last time in her life, Yanli thought she heard the hint of a false note in Lan Wangji’s playing.
“What do you mean?” The reply was even, elegant, but this time had a near imperceptible waver in the voice. Yanli, well-practiced in the art of interpreting the tones of even the most repressed individuals, was not deterred.
“I mean,” she knew she would have to be more direct. She looked at him, “I can tell that your feelings for him go beyond those of friendship or of brothers-in-arms.”
The music stopped. It seemed that Lan Wangji could not continue this conversation with his attention divided. His hands lingered over the guqin a moment before lowering to his lap. He looked to Jiang Yanli.
“You are correct.” He looked her in the eyes, although challenging her to do something, say something, to kick him out, to say he wasn’t worthy of Wei Wuxian, that he shouldn’t dare to be so presumptuous when it came to a member of her clan. But the thought of doing any of these things never crossed Yanli’s mind.
Instead, she smiled, “I am happy to hear you say that.” She looked back to Wei Wuxian, “I think you two would be good for each other.”
The other man blinked, “He has already done enough for me.” Yanli melted at the straightforward affection in Lan Wangji’s voice. “But I do not think he feels the same way.”
Yanli looked into Lan Wangji’s face. She saw sadness, concern, perhaps grief, but moreover, she saw resignation. She understood in that moment that what Lan Wangji felt for her brother would not be lessened no matter how Wei Wuxian felt or what he did. While she was reassured to know that there would always be someone who would willingly leap to her brother’s protection without hesitation, her heart ached at the thought of such a man believing these feelings went unrequited.
This was especially intolerable when she recalled the number of times and the tone with which the name “Lan Zhan” had passed her brother’s lips since the pair had first met in Cloud Recesses so long ago.
She smiled, combing Wei Wuxian’s hair back, “Lan Er Gongzi, I should tell you something about my brother.” She turned to look at Lan Wangji, who was staring so helplessly at his guqin she thought the instrument itself might cry in sympathy. “He is smart, very smart, as I’m sure you know, but…” she considered how exactly she wanted to phrase this, “He can be extraordinarily dense when it comes to his own wants and feelings.” She caught Lan Wangji’s eye as he looked quizzically at her, “Give him time.” She concluded.
The only reply came as a couple of blinks, ones in which she thought she saw the faintest hint of tears, but it was enough. Lan Wangji renewed his playing, and despite it being the same melody as before, there was now a sense of hope permeating the song.
--
When, after waking up, Wei Wuxian had described Lan Wangji as a boring person, Jiang Yanli did not miss the wistful smile painting her brother’s face. And by the time her brother had worked up the nerve to ask her why a person might like another person to the point of haltering themselves, Jiang Yanli already understood, even if Wei Wuxian was not quite there yet, exactly which person he had in mind. It would be delicate going forward, but Yanli had faith that these two, who completed each other so well, would find their way to each other in the end.