Chapter Text
Lan Sizhui was looking forward to this night hunt. Jin Ling had successfully arranged his schedule so he didn’t have pressing sect work for a whole week, Ouyang Zizhen showed up early for the autumn lectures (he was there mostly for emotional support for the other Ouyang disciples), and he and Lan Jingyi had picked out a perfect hunt close to the Cloud Recesses.
Four whole days without parents and sect duties determining what they had to do. They could just spend time together, catch up, and kill a snake yao terrorizing a nearby village.
When the sun had solidly set, and they couldn’t safely keep traveling, they found a clearing and began to set up camp. Lan Sizhui swept the ground to remove the worst of the rocks and sticks while Lan Jingyi made a pit for the fire.
“Finally,” a voice from the trees said. The four of them immediately drew their swords and faced the sound. “It’s way too late to be walking anymore.”
A-Qing walked into the clearing, her cane ghosting over the forest floor.
Jin Ling was the first to drop his sword. “Aren’t you supposed to still be recovering?”
“The elders think so, but the healers agree with me that I’m good.” A-Qing was whisked away to the infirmary as soon as the juniors returned from Yi City. After months of care and cultivation, she regrew her tongue, but her eyes never recovered. The Lan elders (after a great deal of persuasion from Lan Sizhui and Lan Wangji) decided to give her a small house on the edge of the compound.
“You can’t be here, Qing-guniang!” Ouyang Zizhen sheathed his sword and moved to push her out of their camp, but she shrugged his hands off.
“Why not? The forest isn’t owned by anyone.” She crossed her arms and glared at them. Losing her sight hadn’t made her any less intimidating.
“You won’t be safe,” Lan Jingyi started.
“Yeah, you’re, y’know. Blind. And a girl.” Jin Ling’s voice only broke a little.
A-Qing laughed, a loud sound that woke up at least one bird. “So what? Daozhang was blind, and he never had a problem on night hunts.”
Lan Sizhui bit his lip. He didn’t want to patronize her, or imply she wasn’t capable, but he worried. A-Qing wasn’t a cultivator, and might get injured, and he didn’t want her to get hurt again after everything that happened to her in Yi City.
Lan Jingyi opened his mouth to object again, but A-Qing interrupted. “I lived with Xue Yang for three years. Nothing you clowns are hunting can possibly be worse than that.”
“She has a point,” Lan Sizhui said. He had only met Xue Yang for a day and it gave him nightmares. He couldn’t imagine spending years in the same house.
Ouyang Zizhen frowned a little. “I just don’t think a night hunt is a good place for a young woman who can’t see or use a sword.”
A-Qing walked further into their camp and sat in front of the fire. “And I don’t think you guys can stop me. I’ve been following you since you left the Cloud Recesses and you only noticed me now.”
Jin Ling sighed theatrically, but pulled extra blankets out of his qiankun bag. “Fine, if you’re determined to follow us --”
“I am,” she said.
“-- here’s a blanket. I don’t have an extra bedroll, though,” he continued. He dropped the blanket unceremoniously on her.
A-Qing grinned. “Thank you, A-Ling. This is more than enough.”
The juniors returned to setting up camp. Lan Jingyi set up warding talismans on the trees, while Ouyang Zizhen and Jin Ling gathered more wood for the fire. Lan Sizhui pulled the rations out of his bag to set up for dinner.
A-Qing scooted next to Lan Sizhui. “What food do you have for the night?”
“More than enough, don’t worry,” he said.
She waved him off. “Of course you have enough. But what do you have?”
“Dried meat and rice.” Jin Ling had offered to bring more, but the rest of them had decided to travel more simply this time around.
A-Qing made a face. “That’s all? Ugh, fuck that.” She stood, grabbed her cane, and walked out of the camp.
Lan Sizhui jumped up to follow. “If you want something else, I’m sure we can find a town with real food--”
A-Qing knocked on a tree. “You don’t need to go to town.” She walked to another tree, knocked on its bark, and shook her head. “Another pine.” She turned to him. “Can you tell which of these are oak trees?”
Lan Sizhui pointed to the nearest one before remembering she was blind. “Yes. Why do you ask?”
“There are a lot of mushrooms that grow on oaks this time of year. Dinner will taste better with them.”
“Oh! Thank you, A-Qing!” He resisted the urge to bow to her.
“You can thank me by bringing me to oak trees with mushrooms on them. I’ll check if they’re the right kind.” She reached her hand out to him. If he blushed when he took it, no one could tell.
He led her to the closest fungus-covered oak. “Here’s one. It has orange mushrooms, is that alright?” He didn’t know much about mushrooms, but he knew most were inedible. Orange was not a promising color, in his opinion.
“Maybe!” A-Qing knelt down and felt the mushrooms, running her fingers between the thin shelves. She tore off a piece and sniffed it. “Perfect!” She pulled a knife out of her robes and started harvesting.
Lan Sizhui knelt down next to her and put the mushrooms she liberated into his outstretched robes. “What are these?” He nibbled the corner of one of them, and was pleasantly surprised by its bright flavor.
“Chicken of the woods,” A-Qing replied. “A staple of Daozhang’s and my diet when work was scarce.” She smiled at the memory. “And they’re more fun to look at than most of the mushrooms we foraged.”
“I wasn’t expecting something so colorful to be edible,” Lan Sizhui admitted. “I think we have enough for tonight’s dinner.” He made sure the mushrooms wouldn’t fall out of his robes before standing.
A-Qing led the way back to camp, cane tapping lightly on the ground and trees. Jin Ling and Ouyang Zizhen were sitting around the fire, but Lan Jingyi was still securing the perimeter.
“Where did you run off to?” Jin Ling demanded.
A-Qing sat down on her blanket with a thump. “I was grabbing you some decent food, you prick. But if you want to just eat dry meat and cold rice, I can keep it all to myself.”
Lan Sizhui grinned when he saw how quickly Jin Ling closed his mouth. His cousin was wonderful, but like their uncle, he tended to shout when speaking would suffice.
“What did you find us, Qing-guniang?” Ouyang Zizhen leaned over slightly to look at their harvest. “Mushrooms?”
“Chicken of the woods,” Lan Sizhui said. He sat back next to the food and added the mushrooms to the pot with the rice and a little water before putting the pot on the fire. “They taste good.”
“I could go for chicken,” Lan Jingyi said, returning from the woods. “Even if it’s fake mushroom chicken, it’s probably better than the dried meat we brought.”
“I told you, I could have brought better rations!” Jin Ling shouted.
“And I told you, I didn’t want us living like spoiled brats on this hunt!” Lan Jingyi shot back.
Lan Sizhui shared a tired look with Ouyang Zizhen. This hunt was supposed to be fun and low-key. He didn’t want to spend it fighting over nothing.
“I think the rice is warmed up, let’s eat,” Lan Sizhui said. He served everyone, making sure A-Qing got several good pieces of mushroom.
“Oh, this is good A-Qing!” Lan Jingyi said through a mouthful of food. Jin Ling and Ouyang Zizhen made similar pleased noises.
A-Qing grinned. “See? It’s a good thing I decided to join you all.” She shoved a piece of meat in her mouth.
“I can’t believe this is edible,” Lan Jingyi said. “It’s so bright it looks like Wei-qanbei’s congee.”
“Oh it’s not always edible,” A-Qing said mildly. Lan Sizhui studied her face. There was a note to her voice that he didn’t trust. “You have to cook it just the right way.”
“What is the right way?” Ouyang Zizhen asked.
“Did you just poison us?” Jin Ling lacked Ouyang Zizhen’s tact.
“Probably not,” A-Qing answered. “Lan Sizhui is smart, I’m sure he cooked it long enough.”
“And if he didn’t?” Lan Jingyi’s eyes were just a little wide, his voice just a little shaky at the end.
“You’ll know.” A-Qing took another bite of her meal. “It tastes mostly right.”
She was messing with them, Lan Sizhui realized. That note in her voice was mischief. He ducked his head to hide a smile.
“I lost track of how long I was cooking,” he said, playing up the uncertainty. “But I think it was enough.”
A-Qing shifted so her knee touched his, and knocked them together. “Yeah, it definitely felt like ten minutes.” It had been five at the most, and everyone knew it.
The other three made worried noises, but kept eating. Lan Sizhui pressed his knee into A-Qing’s, and she pressed back.
“Here,” he said as he put another large mushroom piece into her bowl.
She grinned at him.
--
Lan Sizhui didn’t even think about it the first time he brought A-Qing a gift from a night hunt. He just found her when he returned to the Cloud Recesses and handed her the bag of mushrooms.
“What is this?” she asked. She tested the bag’s weight.
“Chicken of the woods,” he answered. “At least, I think they are. I harvested them before we left Qinghe.” Suddenly he was thinking about it. Did she want mushrooms now that she had access to a proper kitchen? Did he pick the right mushrooms? Was this weird?
Her face broke into a smile, though, so if it was weird, she didn’t mind. She opened the bag and took a sniff. “Ooh, these are good. Plump and fresh.”
Lan Sizhui smiled. “I’m glad you like them.”
“Do you want to cook them? Last time I think you just steamed them with the rice, but they taste even better in curry.”
“I am getting hungry,” he said. “Lead the way.”
--
Lan Sizhui did think about the second gift he got A-Qing. He thought a lot about it. He studied everything in the market in Caiyi Town, and settled on some sturdy boots. The sandals A-Qing brought from Yi City wouldn’t stand a chance to the mountain winters, and the boots the sect supplied rarely lasted more than a season. It was a practical, thoughtful gift that would improve her life even if she didn’t return his feelings. A perfect gift.
He also bought a selection of pastries, in case the boots weren’t well-received.
He was intercepted on his way to give the boots by Lan Jingyi.
“Those look cozy,” Lan Jingyi commented. “I didn’t think you were that sensitive to the cold. Are you feeling sick?” He elbowed his friend in the ribs. “Or are you taking after young mistress Jin, buying all the best clothes?”
“They’re not for me,” Lan Sizhui said. “They’re a present.”
Lan Jingyi looked the boots over again. “That seems a little fancy to give to Wei-qianbei, doesn’t it? He’s supposed to be the one spoiling you.”
“Maybe I want to spoil the man who saved my life,” Lan Sizhui said mildly.
Lan Jingyi shrugged and went on his way, but the damage was done. Lan Sizhui looked at the boots again and realized that they were too expensive for him to just hand to A-Qing out of nowhere. It might look like he was pressuring her, or flaunting his wealth.
Lan Sizhui waited for A-Qing to leave her house and snuck in, placing the boots in among the rest of sect-issued clothes. That way, even if he wound up admitting that the boots were his idea, he could say the sect bought them.
A-Qing was there when he left, because of course she was.
“Lan Sizhui?” She frowned. “Is that you?”
“How could you tell?”
“Your gait. Your legs are longer than Lan Jingyi’s, and your step is lighter than the junior disciples.”
Lan Sizhui warmed a little at the thought that she paid that much attention to him.
“Plus, you always smell like the rabbits,” she said, grinning.
He shrugged. “There are worse things to smell like, I suppose.”
A-Qing passed by him to enter her rooms. “You’re no fun to tease.” She stopped and turned in the door. “Did you need something?”
“No, I was just going to offer you some pastries I picked up in Caiyi Town.” He pulled some of the red bean cakes from his qiankun bag and pushed them into her hands.
“Shit, thanks!” She shot him a smile and took a bite of one. “Delicious.”
She definitely liked pastries, then. He’d keep that in mind for next time. “Okay, I have to give these to Lan Jingyi and Ouyang Zizhen.” He started to retreat.
“Later,” she said around a mouthful of red bean cake.
--
Lan Sizhui was not as subtle as he thought he was. Or maybe it was just that A-Qing was much more clever than him.
The mushrooms might just have been a gift to cement their friendship, a way to extend the camaraderie they’d shared on the night hunt. The pastries could possibly just be a way to include her in what he was already doing for his other friends.
The boots, though, they were definitely a courting gift. They were too nice to be anything else. And they were clearly from Lan Sizhui, since they showed up in her room on the same day he gave her the pastries.
A-Qing wasn’t sure what to think about this. On the one hand, Lan Sizhui was rich and trusting. If she let him pursue her, she would never lack anything again. No more begging for scraps for her. No more cold winters, as evidenced by the new boots. And if she ever needed to run away, she could just ask him for enough cash to disappear, and he wouldn’t blink.
He reminded her of Daozhang in the worst way.
She loved Daozhang so much. He made her believe that people could be good and maybe she could have an honest life. And then had died and she was left alone with the worst of humanity. She didn’t want to go through all that again.
A-Qing tried the boots on. They were warm, sure, but they were also soft. Lined with some kind of fur. They were the nicest thing she’d ever worn, and Lan Sizhui hadn’t even taken credit for giving them to her. He just wanted her to be safe from the elements come winter.
Lan Sizhui would get taken advantage of if he wasn’t careful, just like Daozhang. He would probably smile when some con artist stabbed him in the back and took his money. He needed someone to look after him and keep the lesser thieves and hooligans away.
A-Qing nodded to herself. She wouldn’t encourage the boy, of course, that would be wrong. But as long as he was doting on her, he wasn’t getting swindled by someone with a meaner temperament. She wouldn’t take advantage of him (much). And while he hung at her side, she could keep an eye out for any parasites that wanted to latch onto him.