Work Text:
ONE
“Wei-jie,” Nie Huaisang drapes his arm over the said girl, “did you see the e-mail I sent you?”
Wei Ying blinks and thinks back, “Not yet, I think. What’s it about? Do you need my notes?”
“Ayish, Wei-jie, I’m doing you the angel’s work and this is how you repay me,” Nie Huaisang tuts. He was probably going to say more to tease her but he suddenly shuddered and dislodged his arm from her shoulders and made sure to leave even a small space between them.
“Eh? What’s wrong, Huaisang?” She asks.
“I just felt death approaching me,” he says, face serious as he looked at the front seats.
She followed his line of sight to see the back of Lan Zhan’s head. The said girl was reading a book and ignoring all of them lowly mortals in the classroom. She looks back at Huaisang who still shuddered dramatically.
Rolling her eyes, she asks, “Ugh, what did you send me anyway?”
“I have a video I wanted to show you. “Wait, I have the video on my phone.”
“What video are you talking about?” Jiang Cheng slides at the seat beside her. “The two of you are so noisy. I can hear you two before I even entered.”
Nie Huaisang waves a hand before brandishing his phone at the siblings. “Look, look, Wei-jie, I’m showing it to you because you’re my best friend and also you’ll owe me a bottle of Gusu-exclusive Emperor’s Smile,” he declares proudly.
Wei Ying rolls her eyes, thinking it’s just another funny video Huaisang took while they were drunk. He has a lot of blackmail material against Jiang Cheng, but Wei Ying’s never ashamed of the materials their third records.
The video, however, opened with her future wife’s figure sitting down in front of a guqin. Can she just say that Lan Zhan wearing formal hanfu? A beautiful goddess who has graced their mortal presence.
She’s already in love with the untouchable young woman in her general courses, she didn’t think she could fall in love more. Then, the young woman’s fingers flew across the strings of the instrument and created a beautiful harmony of music, but more importantly, amazing finger skills.
“Oh my gosh,” she swoons.
“You’re welcome,” Huaisang sounds smug but she didn’t divert her eyes from Lan Zhan’s figure.
Her brother made a sound of disgust and told her she was awful. She didn’t hear him anyway, her ears filled with the beautiful music made by her future wife.
“Lan Zhan,” she shouts, standing up, “Lan Zhan!”
“Mn,” the goddess in the front turns, a frown on her face as usual.
“Lan Zhan, you didn’t tell me apart from being beautiful and smart, you were also talented,” she pushes her brother out of her way and moves to sit beside the other girl.
She hears her brother groan and Huaisang laugh. She ignores the rest of the world.
“Lan Zhan, you’re amazing,” she beams, showing the video on Huaisang’s phone
Lan Zhan’s face thundered at the sight and she reached for the phone. Knowing the other girl would likely throw or take away the phone, Wei Ying pulls back and raises the hand holding the phone.
“Oh, come on, Lan Zhan, you’re amazing,” she says. “Ah, can I hear you play for me?”
The other girl’s frown deepened and snaps a reply of her usual “Ridiculous”.
Wei Ying pouts, “Lan Zhan, please, you’d really bless me if you play for me.”
Before she could plead more, their professor enters and she had to slink back to her seat beside her brother and Huaisang. She prods her friend how he got the video (his brother who was friends with Lan Zhan’s brother) and if he had more (not yet, but she sold her last alcohol budget for the greater good).
Ah, how unlucky that she couldn’t get a live show of Lan Zhan’s playing.
Don’t worry, though, she’s stubborn to a fault. She’d get Lan Zhan to bless her to witness her amazing musical ability (and finger ability) one of these days.
TWO
Wei Ying didn’t mean to stumble on Lan Zhan’s practice room. She might be sticky on her Lan-jiejie but that doesn’t mean she meant to intrude in something obviously private.
The thing was, she was on modafinil since yesterday and Nie Huaisang is a traitor who told her brother about it in exchange for bottles of Emperor’s Smile. Of course, Jiang Cheng had been screaming at her ears about it, refusing to listen to her reason that she needed it. All he heard was that she was on ‘study drugs’ and was likely starting to abuse the pills again.
Her head ached and she’d been awake for three (or was it four?) days now trying to finish her project. She managed to finish it with single-minded focus, forgetting about others on her to-do list. The pill was losing its effect and she hadn’t taken another one yet. Her body was losing the energy that pumped in it thanks to the drug.
She is tired and so she ran away from her brother’s lectures.
She didn’t really know where she was going. She had cut classes – she couldn’t even remember what her class was supposed to be – and just wanted to get away from the hustle and bustle of her brother.
That was how she stumbled into one of the music department’s practice room. She snapped out of the maze of her head when she heard the soft music coming out of a room. She took a peek at the glass window and saw Lan Zhan in the middle of the room with her eyes closed, fingers flying on the strings of her guqin.
The sound outside the room was soft and she knows that Lan Zhan would hate to know that she’s eavesdropping on her, but she craved.
She forgot everything. As if she had popped another pill in her, she was up and alert with single-minded focus. All that is in her mind is the want to listen to Lan Zhan.
So, hoping that her DnD rouge character would descend and posses her with his almighty stealth, she opened the door and let herself in to fully bask in Lan Zhan’s ethereal glory.
However, it seems that fate isn’t with her. As soon as she tries to close the door, its soft click causes Lan Zhan to abruptly stop playing. Her eyes flies open and the two of them stares at each other.
“Wei Ying.”
Said girl chuckles awkwardly, “Hey, Lan Zhan, sorry for interrupting you.”
“What are you doing here?” Lan Zhan stands up, as if in defensive mode.
“Got lost,” she rubs the back of her head. “I saw you here and I wanted to watch you play. Also, wow, I know you’re talented but watching you live is amazing. Your music touched me, really.”
Lan Zhan doesn’t speak. Wei Ying, who doesn’t have the brain cells anymore, falters and couldn’t think of anything else to say.
She wants to apologize. She wants to back off, losing the energy she had to prod the woman of her dreams to look at her and notice her.
Before she could step back though, Lan Zhan spoke first, “Wei Ying. You – are you okay?”
She blinks, “what?”
“Tired?”
She gives a weak chuckle, “Come on, Lan Zhan, I thought you’d be more polite to point out to a girl that she looks ugly.”
The frown on the other girl’s face deepens. She steps forward, “Has Wei Ying slept this week?”
A grimace crosses her face. “Are you going to lecture me too?” She sighs.
“Take a seat,” Lan Zhan says instead, “Rest.”
That was better than being glared at and judged for her life choices. Besides, she has nothing else to do anyway. She had passed her project, she had ditched class, and she’s tired. She drops on the bench and just stares.
“Are you going to continue practicing?” She wonders.
“Mn.”
“Lan Zhan, play for me?” Argh. Why did she say that? Lan Zhan will throw her out now? Her mind is tired, that’s the reason she’ll say for that swoon-worthy sound she made for that request.
She was about to apologize but Lan Zhan sat down, facing her with her guqin in front of her. “Wei Ying,” she says.
“Uh, what?”
“Listen.”
And her fingers flew to produce the most serene music Wei Ying has ever heard. Her mind calms from the roaring thoughts and the external noise. Her body relaxes and she unconsciously closes her eyes.
Lan Zhan should record her songs and post in on Bilibili, she thinks.
She falls asleep until evening.
Her back and neck hurts but when she wakes, she’s lying on the bench with Lan Zhan’s bag under her head and her jacket draped over her. Lan Zhan is still playing. It’s a different song, a beautiful melody that resonates with her. It feels like its telling a story. She doesn’t get up, but she does open her eyes and turn her head to watch Lan Zhan’s ethereal beauty as her fingers continue to strum her instrument without falter.
Beautiful, she thinks.
THREE
“Lan Zhan, will you please play for me?” Wei Ying sniffles. She rolls to her side to look at the said girl who is moving across the room.
“Wei Ying needs rest,” Lan Zhan reprimands her, shifting her back to rest on her back. “Do not move.”
She whines at that, moving her body as if in tantrum despite the pain. “Lan Zhan, I’m sick, I need some tender, loving care,” she gives a fake sob.
Had it been the Lan Zhan of a year ago, she would’ve fallen for it. She would’ve pampered her with affection, allowed Wei Ying all the liberties she wanted. But this Lan Zhan, who had been affectionately been calling her ‘my girlfriend’ for almost months now, is more stubborn when it comes to her health.
“Lan Zhan,” she pouts, “I’m sick, I can’t move, I don’t have the appetite to eat. It’s bo~oring.” She turns away and hides her cough behind her elbow.
Her girlfriend’s eyes soften. She leans to kiss the top of Wei Ying’s brow. “Rest,” she says, “I’ll be here when you wake up.”
Wei Ying closes her eyes with a deep sigh. Sleepily, she still insists, “Lan Zhan, won’t you play for your Yingying.”
“I don’t have any instruments with me.” It wasn’t a no. She smiles.
“Then, sing for me.”
She hears an indulgent sigh. A soft grin crosses her tired face. She knows what that means.
“Okay,” Lan Zhan’s soft fingers comb her hair. “But you have to rest and get better.”
“Mhm.”
There is only darkness, both of her vision and of her mind. She breathes in and out. Her temperature is high and her throat hurts alongside the ache in her joints.
Then, her mind relaxes when she hears the soft humming of a song she’s slowly but surely memorized by now.
Ah, she loves her Lan Zhan so much.
FOUR
Wearing what could possibly be the fanciest piece of dress she has ever worn, despite it being second hand from her own birth mother’s old closet, Wei Ying feels like an empress.
Her wedding was not the lavish affair like her older sister’s. It’s a small gathering attended only by her family and friends, and Lan Zhan’s brother and brother’s friends.
“Are you upset your uncle didn’t attend?” Wei Ying leaned her head on her new wife’s shoulder.
She was quiet for a moment. “No,” she drops a soft kiss on her forehead. “No, I’m not. Here, with you and everyone, I have never been more happy.”
The smiling face of the famed ice goddess of Gusu warmed her heart and she just had to lean up and capture those red painted lips. The soft feeling of those lips on her own. She closes her eyes and drowns herself in it.
“Okay, okay, Mrs. and Mrs. Wei-Lan,” Jiang Cheng’s voice cut them off from their love space and they separated to look at him, standing at the made-up stage. “We all know it’s your wedding, but for the love of all of us here, spare us the love fest and leave it up to your actual honeymoon.”
“A-Cheng!” Their sister rebuke caused her to let out a laugh.
Wei Ying makes a face and shouts, “How about you find a date first. I can’t believe you went to both your sisters’ weddings dateless.”
“Why you!”
“A-Cheng!”
Laughter from the guests echoed in the room. A light atmosphere, filled with happy noise and the love of her life beside her – it truly is the best day of her life.
Jiang Yanli takes over the mic from their sharp-tongued brother. “Ahaha, welcome family and friends,” she says. “Our brides may have missed their cue, but let us welcome warmly our blissfully wedded Mrs. and Mrs. Wei-Lan.”
Though her wedding was a simple ceremony in a government office, as she looks at this gathering her siblings prepared – complete with using Jin Zixuan’s money to rent out an entire restaurant – she feels her eyes sting with tears. As she walks to the front, she sees at the tables at the front that there are two spaces by Lan Huan’s side and two spaces in the table with Jiang Cheng and her adopted parents. There were sits saved for their parents and oh, oh, she really is going to cry.
Oh.
There it goes.
She's crying now.
“Wei Ying.”
“Happy tears,” she whispers. “I’m so happy.”
“Mn.”
Jiang Yanli speaks again, “Now, for the brides’ first dance.”
Music fills the room. Familiar whistle of a dizi sings a familiar introduction. Then, strums of a guqin harmonizes with it, forming a song she knows all too well. She knows it because she’s heard it everyday since Lan Zhan first told her the name of the song. It’s their song.
“Oh, oh,” she sniffles. She holds her body closer to her beloved’s, swaying to the beat of their song. “Did you record this yourself?”
“Mn. Brother helped.”
Wei Ying leans forward so their foreheads touch. “Mrs. Wei Zhan, sing for me,” she whispers.
“Mn.” She spins them. “But only if Mrs. Lan Ying sings with me.”
Mrs. Lan Ying.
Mrs. Wei Zhan.
A bright smile mirrors their each in their face. As she opens her mouth to sing their song, she decides that nothing could top this day.
AND ANOTHER ONE.
Lan Zhan and Wei Ying returned that early evening to a cheerful child and smiling brother. They had a lunch date, just the two of them, and were quite relaxed when they arrived home.
Wei Ying scoops their child up and gives him butterfly kisses that makes him giggle as they make their way to the living room where Lan Huan was packing his bag.
“Good evening, A-Zhan, A-Ying, did you have a good lunch?” He smiles at them.
“Yeah, thanks for looking after our baby,” Wei Ying replies.
“Mama, mama, dajiu showed,” A-Yuan motions for the TV, “dajiu showed.”
“Eh?”
A-Yuan made the universal child signal that he wants to be placed down. Wei Ying acquised and the three adults can only watch as A-Yuan happily tugs on her mama’s sleeves and motions once again to the TV. “Mama, dajiu showed A-Yuan!”
“What did dajiu show you?” Lan Zhan asks.
Wei Ying looks at her brother-in-law in question and sees him chuckle good naturedly. “I had some recordings of A-Zhan in college. I showed A-Yuan some of them,” he whispers.
The two of them turned to the mama and son, watching with good humour as A-Yuan tries to explain what Lan Huan showed him in the TV. Lan Zhan is nodding, as if she understands every word but the two who knows her best that even she is trying to get it.
“Mama was, she was,” and A-Yuan moves his hand in front of him and his fingers make a strumming motion.
“Oh,” Lan Zhan finally gets it.
“Yes, I showed him some of your performances. I didn’t think he hadn’t watched you play yet,” Lan Huan explains.
“We’d been busy, Lan-ge,” Wei Ying explains. “With the adoption and the move and the acclimation with our new work, Lan Zhan hasn’t even taken out her guqin from its place in our closet.”
“Ah.”
“Mama, mama,” A-Yuan says. “Mama, play for A-Yuan please. Teach A-Yuan the” – he does the same strumming motions again.
Wei Ying and Lan Huan watches a small smile forms on Lan Zhan’s face. She gives a nod and says, “Mn. Will play for A-Yuan. Will teach A-Yuan.”
“Yay!”
As Lan Zhan takes out her beloved Wangji Guqin and tests the strings, Wei Ying could only watch with soft eyes as her son clambers on Lan Zhan's lap and marvel at the domestic scene in front of her.
She closes her eyes and listens to her wife instruct their son how to play.
Maybe later, she'll also teach him how to play the dizi and the three of them can harmonize and make beauitful music together too.
Someday.