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It was a beautiful summers day, and Wei Wuxian lounged in the shadow of the large empress tree, carefully shaded from the sun, watching two delicate, exquisitely coloured butterflies flitter and fawn over each other as they danced between the flowers of the carefully pruned azalea bushes.
The day was one of those idyllic ones where the sun was warm, but not scorching, and there was just enough of a breeze to keep it comfortable.
And Wei Wuxian thought he might go insane at the boredom of it all.
If asked at that moment, Wei Wuxian would have said his biggest want in the world was to change into one of those butterflies and flutter over the walls of the palace into the unknown.
And he had decided he was going to achieve that.
As if on cue, and like an unsuspecting little fawn wandering into a tiger’s forest, Jiang Cheng chose that exact moment to wander past, no doubt on some errand or other for his father, the grand chancellor.
Wei Wuxian pounced.
Like the proverbial tiger he went from lounging to hunting in the blink of an eye, and like that wandering little fawn, Jiang Cheng was caught easily.
“There you are, Jiang Cheng, how fortuitous. I was just about to send for you”
“Bixia has only to speak, and this lowly one will make it so” despite the fact Wei Wuxian’s sudden appearance had startled him, Jiang Cheng was soon in business mode.
“Do you have to do that Jiang Cheng?”
Jiang Cheng checked around the garden and, once assured they were alone, rolled his eyes.
“It’s more than my life’s worth to be caught being disrespectful to the Tianzi, Wei Wuxian, and well you know it”
“If you call me that once more in private, I’ll send you for beheading personally” Wei Wuxian dropped an arm across Jiang Cheng’s shoulders and drew him back into the shade and onto the bench he’d been laid out on before the other’s arrival.
“Please do, release me from having to bow to your every hare-brained whim”
“Good point, then no, I’ll just sentence you to penal servitude. You must fulfil my every whim for the rest of your life”
“Respect, Bixia, but that’s already the case” Jiang Cheng’s mouth curled derisively.
“Excellent, so, now we’ve established you’re required to follow my commands, tell me. I’ve heard whisper of a liquor called Emperor’s Smile”
“And?” Jiang Cheng caught the loquat Wei Wuxian tossed him from the platter that had been brought to his side earlier that morning.
“And, is it really as tasty as everyone says it is?”
“Everyone who? Who in the world could Your Royal Mightiness have heard talking about Emperor’s Smile?”
“I might be cut off from the world but I have ears Jiang Cheng, I hear the guards talk, and the servants”
“I don’t feel like I should answer this, because I think I’m going to end up regretting it, but yes, it’s meant to be a particularly smooth, mellow drink”
“Meant to be? You say you haven’t tasted it yourself?” Wei Wuxian knew this boy he had grown up with far too well to not see through his every untruth.
“Fine, it is. I have. Do you wish me to procure you some? I’ll bring it for you tonight”
“No need, Jiang Cheng. But I do have a particularly important task for you instead” he reached over and laid his arm across Jiang Cheng’s shoulders again, hugging him close.
“Uh, is that the time?” Jiang Cheng waved a vague hand at the sun, “I think I hear A-Niang calling me, I have a headache, and feel quite feverish all of a sudden, the feng shui is terrible for me here…”
But Wei Wuxian had a tight hold of him, “Jiang Cheng, you must be my protection tonight. We’re going to sneak out into the city and try some Emperor’s Smile”
Wei Wuxian saw the cycling emotions cross Jiang Cheng’s face, from shock, to disbelief, to surprise, to outright fear.
“Are you completely, utterly mad, Wei Wuxian?” Jiang Cheng demanded of him, “I knew I was going to regret it the moment you leapt on me. Do you have any conception of the danger you’re going to be in? Do you have any conception of the danger you’re going to put me in? If A-Die finds out I knew about this, and aided you, he’ll have me executed by lingchi”
“And I’ll commute your sentence”
“You won’t be able to when you’re dead in some gutter somewhere”
“Jiang Cheng, trust me, it will be fine, no one knows what the Tianzi looks like out there. I’m just a faceless figurehead in a golden robe to them. Give me one of your robes”
“I’m wearing them!”
“Not that one, bring me a spare, tonight”
“Is this an imperial order, Bixia?”
“If you like” Wei Wuxian patted him on the back and got up. “Don’t keep me waiting though, I’ll have you dragged out of your rooms and brought to me if you do”
Jiang Cheng clicked his tongue, “Ridiculous, am I to treat you like the Tianzi or not? You can’t have it both ways Wei Wuxian” Jiang Cheng also rose, brushing an irritated hand down the front of his robes to straighten them after Wei Wuxian’s manhandling.
“Actually, I can, Jiang Cheng, I’m the Tianzi” Wei Wuxian grinned at his perfect logic and sent his angry young subordinate on the way with the gentle shove to the back.
***
“Tastes good, definitely worth the effort” Wei Wuxian said as he downed his second cup of Emperor’s Smile in quick succession. And he meant it. It was definitely the best liquor he’d ever tasted. He didn’t know how much of that was down to the new found freedom he had from the palace, however.
Jiang Cheng sat across from him, choosing not to drink, merely giving the impression of it to anyone watching them; in reality he was on high alert, his sword, Sandu, mere inches from his hand and ready to be brought to to bear in defence of Wei Wuxian in a split second.
And Wei Wuxian knew, despite his harsh and sarcastic manner, it wasn’t merely because he was the emperor, it was because they had grown up together and loved each other like brothers.
His mother and father had died when he was quite young, without the usual extended family of an imperial dynasty, and Jiang Fengmian, Jiang Cheng’s father and the grand chancellor to the previous Tianzi, had held Wei Wuxian’s regency safe with an iron fist, quelling potential uprisings and coups and keeping Wei Wuxian’s birthright in trust for him until he reached an age to begin taking the reigns of rule for himself.
Wei Wuxian owed a lot to Jiang Fengmian, not least because his own children had become like siblings to him.
Wei Wuxian cocked an ear at the sound that had been teasing at the back of his brain for the last few minutes, the soft, yet intense, sound of a guqin being played.
He cocked his head, “Do inns normally have musical entertainment?” he asked Jiang Cheng softly.
The other shrugged, “Sometimes”
Wei Wuxian listened for a while longer. “It’s very skilfully played” he said; he had been entertained by the best musicians in the land, and was only half as moved as he was now with that gently, mournful tune drifting in on the night air.
He rose, cup of Emperor’s Smile in his hand as he wandered to the open doorway into the garden.
A young man in white sat in front of a polished dark wood guqin. He was serious looking, and elegant, in a cold, detached way. There was a white headband stitched with cloud motifs at his forehead, and he looked down at the strings in front of him in deep concentration.
“Who is the young guqin player?” Wei Wuxian asked one of the inn’s servers as he bustled past.
“That is one of the famous Jades of Lan from the Gusu Lan cultivational sect” he was informed before the busy older man hurried away to complete his task.
Jiang Cheng joined him in the doorway then, and Wei Wuxian turned to him, “Do you know of the Lans”
Jiang Cheng shook his head, “Only a little, their clan is very strict and rigid is the little I do know. The second son of the clan is a famed swordsman and guqin player”
Wei Wuxian made a decision and moved down the few steps from the inn into the garden, and walked over to stand beside the white-clad cultivator.
“Lan er-gongzi” he tried, hoping Jiang Cheng’s information had been correct. It seemed his brother knew his Lans, as the fingers on the strings stilled momentarily and the long, slender hand came to rest over the strings. The coolly handsome figure looked up at him. Truly the kind of face that would make maidens weep. “Please don’t stop, I merely wanted to tell you how much I appreciated your playing. Truly beautiful”
But despite his urges to the other to continue, the assumed Second Jade rose to his feet. He looked intently at Wei Wuxian for a few seconds; and Wei Wuxian thought the other saw everything about him in that brief glance. The feeling was only reinforced as the Lan cupped his hands and bowed his head deeply, then bent to pick his guqin up and entered the inn, disappearing to his rooms.
He didn’t quite know how to react. His position meant no one had ever dared to ignore him before. Well, Jiang Cheng had tried to sometimes, but Wei Wuxian was far too stubborn to allow him to do that.
Perhaps he was also far too stubborn to allow the Second Jade of the Gusu Lan sect to do that, too.
He pursed his lips consideringly, then turned to Jiang Cheng, an arm casually thrown across his shoulders in a move Jiang Cheng hated, because he knew it meant trouble for him.
“Lets go back, didi, I have something I want you to look into for me. I want you to find out everything you can about the Lan clan of Gusu”
“Fine, gege” the term Wei Wuxian had decided Jiang Cheng should call him outside the palace to avoid any accidental naming was said through Jiang Cheng’s teeth, “lets go back, then I can finally relax” the comment amused Wei Wuxian greatly.
“Didi, you were a tense little ball of anger from the moment you were born, and nothing has changed since” Wei Wuxian teased, then waved a hand towards the inn’s counter, “Bring a couple of jars of Emperor’s Smile, won’t you?”
“As gege wishes” Jiang Cheng agreed irritably.
He pondered the look those pale amber eyes had given him as he waited for Jiang Cheng to make his purchase; he wondered how much they had seen after all.