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Jin Ling used to wonder about him, sometimes. What Rusong would have looked like if he’d been allowed to grow, what his personality would have been. Would they Night Hunt together? Would they have been close?
He doesn’t have many memories of him. He’d been too small to really play with for a while, and Jin Ling was spending half his time in Lotus Pier. The only real memory of his cousin that Jin Ling had was sitting next to his uncle and being very still when Jin Guangyao carefully put the baby in little Jin Ling’s waiting arms. Rusong had looked up at Jin Ling and hadn’t cried at all. Jin Ling had smiled down at his cousin and said “I’m gonna teach you everything I know!”
They’d never gotten the chance for that.
Jin Ling liked to think they would be close, but he wasn’t as sure about it as he used to be. He got the sinking feeling that Jin Guangyao wouldn’t have let them be, and the subtle, backstabbing poison that ran through Carp Tower might have kept them apart. If Rusong had been alive, Jin Ling probably would have been sent to Lotus Pier permanently as his Uncle’s heir and they’d have met at discussion conferences at Carp Tower but with very few other opportunities to bond.
Or… Jin Ling thought, sad and horrified at the realization, it would be Rusong here in the ancestral hall wondering about the older cousin he could barely remember.
He’d paid his respects to his mother and his father and to poor aunt Qin Su who had always been kind to him and who deserved so much more than the end she’d been given.
“Cousin, the truth is out now. It was so unfair what happened to you,”
Unfair isn’t the right word. Someone should have known, someone should have seen.
“I don’t know why I’m talking to you, you’re still a kid, you probably don’t understand anyway. I don’t think ghosts age,” Jin Ling sighed. He was getting sidetracked.
“But it’s out now, people know what he did to you, and I don’t know where to even start everything is so messed up but I promise you I’m going to make Langling better than our grandfather and your dad left it. I promise,”
Jin Ling felt a cool breeze against his cheek, the wind bringing with it the scent of pine and the ghost of a little child’s laughter. Jin Ling, who had been trying very hard to hold it all together, began to cry.
He kept hearing it, that laugh. Not very often, but just every once in a while, and when there weren’t any children around. It was disconcerting, especially since no one else seemed to hear it the few times it had happened around other people. But it didn’t feel malicious and Fairy never reacted like anything was wrong. Jin Ling had more important things to think about than whatever was causing it – ghost or hallucination, Jin Ling had work to do to repair all the damage Jin Guangyao and his grandfather had done.
Jin Ling was taking a break from going through Jin Guangshan’s records to clear his head. Jin Guangyao had the more meticulous notes, but they were practically in code. Jin Guangshan had been more straightforward, acting like it had never even crossed his mind that someone else would ever dare look closely at anything.
He was walking through Carp Tower mindlessly, letting Fairy lead the way, when he heard the laugh again and a cool brush of air against his hand. Fairy gave a short bark and took off. It wasn’t one of her Danger barks, but one of her Play ones.
“Fairy, no! We’re not playing chase! Come back here, silly dog!” Jin Ling called, but chased after her anyway.
He caught up to her when she eventually stopped, wagging her tail happily at the game. He knelt next to her and put his hand on the back of her neck, curling his fingers into the soft fur.
“Silly dog, what’d you go running off for?” he said, giving her fur an affectionate tug. Fairy gave his face a lick, looking very pleased with herself and her tail still wagging wildly.
Jin Ling looked up and saw two guards dressed in Jin gold standing outside a door. Jin Ling narrowed his eyes as he took in their faces. He didn’t remember any guards supposed to be stationed there.
Jin Ling buried his face into Fairy’s fur. She was soft and warm and smelled like dog, but also faintly of pine. “That sure is suspicious, isn’t it, girl?”
Fairy just wagged her tail in response.
So Jin Ling went back to the records he’d been searching, looking for any reference to the room the guards were posted at. Normally he would have just barged in and damn the consequences, but he’d learned his lesson after the Nie Sword Sacrifice Hall and Yi City and the Burial Mounds and Guanyin Temple, ok? He was trying to be better about rushing into things, he really was. He was a mature, responsible Sect Leader now who took his time to research things before jumping in head first.
There were so many notes to look through, though. Jin Ling was reaching the end of his patience for his grandfather’s crimes when there was a faint thud. He looked up. Fairy was sniffing curiously at a book that had fallen to the floor.
“Fairy, did you knock that over?” Jin Ling asked, gently scolding.
There was a faint giggle.
Jin Ling knew he was alone – aside from Fairy, obviously. He had specifically warded this room against anyone but himself. There were no windows that could be open to carry sound. He spared a second to think sympathetically to poor Mo Xuanyu, because Jin Ling certainly felt crazy and there wasn’t even anyone manipulating him.
Jin Ling had a theory starting to form, though, but he didn’t want to put it in words yet, not even in his thoughts.
Jin Ling picked up the book of notes and gave it a look. It was a record of some of the actions taken against the Wen remnants, post-sunshot and stretching to the final executions. Jin Ling felt sick reading it. But there was one particular passage that stuck out.
“Are you fucking kidding me,” Jin Ling hissed. He tossed the notes aside and immediately grabbed some blank paper to write a message to Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian. As soon as the message exploded into the gold light of the Jin messenger butterflies Jin Ling stormed out of the study, Fairy hot on his heels.
The guards had put up a token protest that no one was allowed past the doors, but Jin Ling glared at them and snapped “Under whose orders? A dead man’s or your Sect Leader’s?”
Jin Guangyao was dead and could not protect them from an angry teenager who held their fate in his hands, so the guards shrugged and let him through.
“Every day I discover some new problem left behind!” Jin Ling said to himself. At least this one was an easy fix. He squared his shoulders and threw open the next door.
It was a prison, bare and cold and the opposite of the glamour that Carp Tower boasted.
The prisoner did not look surprised at the intrusion, but her shoulders were tense. The stare she gave Jin Ling could have frozen lesser men in place. But Jin Ling was Sect Leader now, and he had a job to do.
“Lady Wen, my name is Jin Ling. I am the new leader of Lanling Jin, and I am righting my predecessors’ wrongs. I have sent a letter to Gusu informing the Chief Cultivator of your discovery and release. I apologize for the actions of my uncle and grandfather,” Jin Ling said and bowed to her.
Wen Qing did not speak, instead giving him a searching look.
“Jin Rulan?” she said eventually.
“…Yes,” Jin Ling said. Some day he would have to get used to people using that name. Today was not that day.
“It really has been a long time, then,” Wen Qing said. “I’m free to go?”
“Yes. Of course. Though I assume the Lan will be sending someone to come get you. I can have some servants get you some proper clothes and a proper bath if you’d like to wait for their envoy,” Jin Ling said, motioning to the dirty, rough robes Wen Qing wore.
Wen Qing raised an eyebrow at him. “That’s the second time you’ve mentioned Gusu Lan. What do they want with me?”
Jin Ling frowned, but then realized that of course Wen Qing wouldn’t know.
“Wei Wuxian is married to Hanguang-Jun, who is the Chief Cultivator and resides primarily in Cloud Recesses. Your brother the Ghost General will most likely be there as well,”
“They survived?” Wen Qing asked, the ice suddenly melting and her eyes desperate. “A-Ning and Wei Wuxian both? What about the others?”
Jin Ling sighed. “Lady Wen, this is going to be a long story and I only have parts of it. But yes, they’re both currently alive. Well, uh, Wei Wuxian is alive and Wen Ning is…Wen Ning?”
Jin Ling heard that ghostly giggle again, the one that had led him here in the first place. Wen Qing didn’t react to it, which Jin Ling couldn’t decide if that was reassuring or not.
“That’s…good. It’s more than I expected,” She said, though she looked sad.
Wen Qing took a nice long soak, which Jin Ling did not blame her for, and the servants managed to find her proper robes in red and black. Jin Ling had been clear that he was not going to put her in Jin gold, not even temporarily.
Jin Ling tried his best to catch her up on what she’d missed, but there was a lot of it that he didn’t understand himself.
“My uncle was a bad man who did terrible things. My grandfather was a power hungry monster. I’m trying to do better,” Jin Ling told her, at the end.
“You can hardly do worse,” she said, and Jin Ling laughed until he cried.
There was just enough warning to get out to the landing before the Ghost General himself was running up the steps of Carp Tower, practically flying. Thank Guanyin for her mercy that Jin Ling had realized that he would probably be the first one of the Lan envoy to make it, otherwise some jumpy guards might have gotten the wrong idea.
“Sister!” he yelled, and when he got to the top of the stairs he practically tackled Wen Qing, enveloping her in a huge hug.
He was crying, tracks of dark black liquid running down his face. “You’re alive!”
Wen Qing, who had kept a flat face up until that point, also started to cry. Jin Ling looked away, to give them some privacy.
Lan Sizhui and Wei Wuxian were running up the stairs, no match for Wen Ning’s undead speed. When they reached the top, Wei Wuxian was red-faced and panting.
“I really have to train up Mo Xuanyu’s golden core. This is ridiculous,” he said between heavy breaths. He turned to Jin Ling and pointed an accusing finger at him. “You! Why on earth do you have so many stairs?”
“I didn’t build them, it’s not my fault,” Jin Ling said with a roll of his eyes.
Wei Wuxian ignored him. “Wen Qing!” He yelled, and took a leap at the Wen siblings to join the hug.
Lan Sizhui was hanging back.
“Hello, Jin Ling,” he said, over the sobbing and general commotion.
“Lan Sizhui. You arrived quickly,” he said.
“We were nearby when Senior Wei received your butterfly. We came as quickly as we possibly could,” he said.
“A-Yuan!” Wei Wuxian called during a pause the in the greetings. Wen Ning was still clinging to his sister. “A-Yuan come here and say hello to your Auntie Qing!”
Wen Qing’s eyes went wide and disbelieving. “A-Yuan? Are you…Wei Wuxian don’t lie to me!”
Lan Sizhui left Jin Ling’s side and bowed to Wen Qing. “Hello again, Lady Wen,”
“Lady Wen? Lady Wen? You used to call her big sister!” Wei Wuxian said. “Aiya, Huanguang-Jun raised you to be too respectful!”
Jin Ling’s eyebrows went all the way up to his forehead, he was pretty sure. Probably it shouldn’t have been much of a surprise, considering the close relationship between Lan Sizhui and the Ghost General.
“A-Yuan,” she said, like she could hardly believe that the Lan disciple in front of her was her A-Yuan.
Jin Ling coughed. “Well, this feels like a private conversation, so I’m just going to…go somewhere. The lotus garden. I’ll be at the lotus garden if you need me,”
There was a ghostly giggle that felt distinctly like it was laughing At Jin Ling and a cool breeze against the fingers of his left hand.
Lan Sizhui found him later, sitting on the bench by the lotus pond his father had installed. Jin Ling was thinking about a lot of things. The Wens, his family, the terrible things his family had done, and if he was ready to put words to his growing suspicion.
“Jin Ling?” Lan Sizhui called for his attention gently, like he didn’t want to disturb Jin Ling’s thoughts. But honestly, Jin Ling would rather be distracted.
“Is the reunion over already?” Jin Ling asked.
Lan Sizhui smiled and shook his head.
“No. But I thought I’d let them have some time to themselves. And I wanted to thank you for finding her,” Lan Sizhui bowed in gratitude. “How did you find her?”
Jin Ling stayed silent for a long moment. If there was anyone in the world he could trust with this –and in Jin Ling’s more cynical moments recently he had wondered if there was anyone he could ever trust – it was probably Lan Sizhui.
“Can I tell you something and not have you freak out?” Jin Ling asked, testing the waters.
Lan Sizhui tilted his head curiously. “Of course you can,”
“It wasn’t me who found Wen Qing,” Jin Ling. “At least…I don’t think so,”
Now Lan Sizhui was well and truly confused, Jin Ling could see the questions on his face.
“You don’t think so?” he asked.
“I think I’m being haunted,” Jin Ling confessed. At Lan Sizhui’s alarmed expression Jin Ling continued his explanation.
“Not by anything evil!” he said reassuringly, “Just…you know, a ghost following me around recently. I’m pretty sure it led Fairy to the guards in the first place, and knocked the notes I needed onto the floor,”
Lan Sizhui was frowning now. “And you haven’t felt any resentful energy or noticed anything amiss?”
“No,” Jin Ling confessed. “Looking back, I think it plays with Fairy sometimes. But it doesn’t cause problems. I just…hear it laugh every once in a while. Feel it touch my hand,”
Lan Sizhui looked just as lost as Jin Ling felt. “Do you have any idea who it is or why they’re following you?”
And this…this was the hard part. It took a while for Jin Ling to be able to say the words.
“Jin Rusong,” Jin Ling whispered. “My cousin,”
Lan Sizhui looked stricken. Of course he had been around when the whole cultivation world was happily dragging every one of Jin Guangyao’s sins into the light.
“He would have had the soul-calming rituals done,” Jin Ling said. “But he was so little. What if he didn’t know how to move on?”
That was Jin Ling’s worst fear, that Rusong was just…lingering. All by himself.
“We could ask him?” Lan Sizhui offered. “I mean, we don’t know that it is him, but I could play Inquiry for you?”
Jin Ling could only nod in acceptance.
Sizhui waved his arm and his guqin appeared.
“It’s okay, Jin Ling. If he is here, we’ll get a quick response,” Sizhui strummed the first notes. “Hello. Are you here?”
The response was nearly instantaneous. “Hello! I’m here!” Sizhui translated.
“What is your name?” Sizhui asked, and the guqin strings thrummed in reply. “A-Song! He’s so cute, Jin Ling, I can tell from his response,”
Lan Sizhui smiled at Jing Ling before turning back to the task at hand.
“Why are you here?” Sizhui asked. When the response came back this time, he didn’t translate it right away, instead he looked near tears. He cleared his throat, and Jin Ling watched him put back on the proper professional Lan face. “A-Ling was sad. A-Song wanted to help make things better,”
“Oh,” Jin Ling said. He felt his eyes starting to sting. “Thank you, A-Song. You did help me,”
Jin Ling watched Lan Sizhui send his thanks.
“He’s happy,” Lan Sizhui said softly.
“We should be encouraging him to move on, right?” Jin Ling said reluctantly. Of course he wanted Rusong to pass on and join the reincarnation cycle, but…He’d just found him. This wasn’t fair. He swallowed around the lump in his throat. “Rusong, If…if you were waiting, or scared, or restless…you can rest now, it’s okay,”
Lan Sizhui sent the message, and even Jin Ling could tell the reply was petulant.
“What about A-Ling?” Lan Sizhui said. “A-Song wants to help,”
“I don’t know what to do,” Jin Ling said.
“He seems very stubborn. We could force him, but…you said he wasn’t hurting anything,” Lan Sizhui said.
Jin Ling felt a wave of relief wash over him.
“We can’t tell anyone. Not even Wei Wuxian,” Jin Ling said.
Lan Sizhui nodded in agreement.
“Tell Rusong he can stay if he wants. He can keep helping. I guess Carp Tower has an Official Ghost now,”
Jin Ling could hear Rusong’s laughter as Lan Sizhui’s notes fall away.