Work Text:
–1
“My mother may have been a prostitute,” Meng GuangYao allowed, “But she was a human woman. She wasn’t swine.”
Jin ZiXuan bristled in visible offence. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means the Lord Jin GuangShan is a pig!” Mo XuanYu gleefully declared, and pointed with certain finality at the outraged Jin ZiXuan. “And you are a piglet!”
Any words Jin ZiXuan had thought to say were gone when he looked upon the silent Qin Su.
–2
Their father disgraced, his mother retiring from public life due to the shame, and his half-siblings legitimised in the scandal, Jin ZiXuan had a lot of work to do.
Still, he also had a newborn, and made time for his new family to meet him.
“Does the baby like red?” Mo XuanYu asked, hushed, as he scrubbed a finger over his eyelid. As he reached out with it to little Jin Ling, Meng GuangYao carefully lifted the babe away, frowning at him.
“Don’t put that on the baby,” Qin Su admonished. “Young Master Jin Ling, don’t mind Uncle, he’s very daft,” She cooed. Meng GuangYao laughed as Mo XuanYu protested heartily, pointing out the babe’s vermilion mark of Jin ancestry to defend himself.
“Thank you,” Jin ZiXuan said, quietly.
Meng GuangYao looked to him. “Older Brother?”
Jin ZiXuan switched to frowning. “If you’re going to put paint on my child, give him back,” He demanded.
–3
Qin Su’s ranking of her half-brothers was absolute. “Meng GuangYao is the best to me,” She declared frequently. “I favour him more than anyone.”
“Mo XuanYu has his eccentrics, but when he is not in fits he is lively and sweet. He is second only to A-Yao.”
“Jin ZiXuan may be arrogant, snobbish, and sometimes even rude,” Qin Su said of her last half-brother.
“… That’s it?” Jin ZiXuan prompted.
“That’s it,” Qin Su confirmed.
–4
“It sounds feasible,” said Jin ZiXuan. “Apart from everything A-Yu said.”
Meng GuangYao’s skill at negotiation was unparalleled; Jin ZiXuan was grateful to have him out of all this mess. Meng GuangYao nodded thanks, taking careful notes, while Mo XuanYu protested loudly.
“I can’t believe Elder Brother would cast aside the opinions of one of The Bastards of Lanling,” He whined.
Jin ZiXuan was stunned to silence, but Meng GuangYao just asked him, flatly; “Bastards of Lanling?”
“That’s us,” Mo XuanYu supplied, helpfully indicating from himself to Meng GuangYao.
Jin ZiXuan couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “No one’s calling you that,” He finally managed out.
“Everyone’s calling us that,” Mo XuanYu pointed out, like it was unbelievably obvious. Meng GuangYao, meanwhile, just sighed.
“No need for Sect Leader to hear such things,” He reprimanded their half-brother. “He’s a rich Young Master. He doesn’t need to learn such words.”
“No one’s calling you that,” Jin ZiXuan grit out, louder now, “Because I am a rich Young Master, and I will not allow it.”
More stunned silence met this revelation, but it felt different. Mo XuanYu punctuated this by sighing, girlishly; “Oh elder brother Yao, the Sect Leader Jin is so gallant.”
“Our most noble and respected Brother,” Meng GuangYao said agreeably, starting to smile.
“A man among men! Most Revered Elder Brother ZiXuan!” Mo XuanYu played at fainting over the table.
“Stop it now,” Jin ZiXuan snapped.
–5
Qin Su loved her nephew dearly, and wrote frequently to her father, Qin CangYe, of his growth.
“When he is big,” She mused, as she cradled A-Ling in her arms, “Perhaps he will come to Laoling Qin. I could show him some beautiful places.”
There were a lot of things Jiang YanLi could think to ask in response to that, what she, as the child’s mother, might say. Instead of all that, she simply asked; “For night-hunting?”
“Oh no; for sight-seeing! There is the most breathtaking scenery,” Qin Su exclaimed, and came sweeping over to try and describe her home. Jiang YanLi, surrounded as she was by hand-planted lotus flowers, laughed, and listened intently.
–6
“Qin RuSong,” Qin Su insisted.
“Meng RuSong,” Meng GuangYao said instead.
“Mo Zizhen!” Mo XuanYu joyfully put out, flinging his hand into the air.
“He’s a child of the Lan Clan,” Jin ZiXuan pointed out, for the seventh time. “They’ll come for him in the morning.”
“Lan JingYi!” The child himself piped up with, around the rice cracker they had offered to him. His tears had long since dried; it seemed he was no longer afraid of these unknown adults who had found him all alone during a night-hunt.
They paused to consider this seriously. Jin ZiXuan hoped this would be the end of it.
“… Jin JingYi,” Qin Su acquiesced, and the half-siblings began all over again.
–7
“You could have taken our family’s name,” Jin ZiXuan said, quietly. “Why didn’t you?”
Meng GuangYao looked over the lillies he had told his half-brother to plant. A bit like his new wife’s home. The one that had been so razed not long ago.
“I loved my mother more.”
–8
“Wei WuXian is not an enemy, nor a threat,” Jin ZiXuan repeated himself, again.
Meng GuangYao, across from him, sighed. “This goes beyond the man, Sect Leader; what do we know of demonic cultivation? Apart from that it utilises resentful energy, of all things? Not to mention the yin tiger seal… There are too many unknowns, even without considering the remnants of the Wen with him.”
“It’s because of the unknowns that we mustn’t be so quick to decide,” Jin ZiXuan insisted.
“I could go,” Mo XuanYu piped up suddenly. His older brothers looked to him, utterly blind-sided. “I could go and train under the Yiling patriarch, and learn demonic cultivation,” He continued. “Then we’d know!”
“No,” Jin ZiXuan said. Meng GuangYao, however, looked appraising. “Absolutely not,” The newly appointed Sect Leader said again, for all that it was worth.
Not much.
-9
“I imagined there would be… consequences.” Jin ZiXuan turned to look at his half-brother. Meng GuangYao seemed to be at a loss. For all the man’s intelligence, this was what stumped him. “I killed a superior.”
“He stole from you,” Jin ZiXuan said simply. “And he paid for it.”
“… I don’t think Sect Leader Nie accepts that.”
Jin ZiXuan motioned, and Meng GuangYao came to stand beside him. The lotus in their pond practically shone under the moonlight. It paled in comparison, of course, to the gold the Jin Clan surrounded themselves with.
“Stealing from my brother has consequences. Anyone who served the Jin Clan would have known that.”
-10
“Sworn brothers?”
Lan XiChen nodded, regarding the two other men in the room with warmth. “Have we not relied upon each other during this whole ordeal? Meng GuangYao and Nie MingJue are both men of rare character; it would be my honour.” Lan XiChen is a gentle man. Whatever arguments between them could be fixed, he seemed to think, because of the bond between them all. Shared history. Shared friendship.
Meng GuangYao, for the first time in a long while, found fit to speak his mind. It might have been the company, the place, the time of day, but for once, Meng GuangYao spoke plainly. He wanted to be understood. “I’m to believe Sect Leader Nie could lower himself as to swear brotherhood to a whore’s son?”
Lan XiChen looked stricken. Meng GuangYao didn’t currently have the composure to regret it, but then Nie MingJue answered; “To the man who was Meng Yao, yes.”
“The man who was Meng Yao is the son of a whore. They are one and the same.”
“A man’s birth does not define his worth. His actions do.” There is a weight to his words Lan XiChen did not know. Meng GuangYao came even closer to regret.
But he did still answer. “Sect leader Nie might say that. Perhaps even Former Sect Leader Jin would have? Wen RuHan certainly did. A man who’s birth has always defined him as above the rest can say such things so easily!”
“Enough!” Lan XiChen cut them off. Both men were so shocked they fell silent. It might have been the look on his face, too; he seemed, truly, distraught by their actions. “It is not enough that we survived? That we are here now, when so many aren’t?” He looked to them both, searching their faces for something. “… Perhaps I was too hasty.”
“Perhaps,” Nie MingJue admitted, though he did not sound happy about it either.
Meng GuangYao regretted now. “Perhaps not now,” He agreed, quietly. “But… I would not be opposed. In the future. After-” He looked, finally, to Nie MingJue. “After we have spoken.”
Nie MingJue, for one long, inscrutable moment, considered. Then, he met Meng GuangYao’s eyes, and he nodded.
Lan XiChen smiled, and allowed Meng GuangYao to change the topic. He would look forward to that perhaps.