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Wei Feihao is not particularly impressed when she receives a messenger butterfly from Lan-zongzhu asking her to please come to his study when she has a moment to spare. Really, he should know better by now than to give her that much slack. She blithely carries on feeding the rabbits and the birds, reads the next chapter of her current novel, and sharpens and polishes every last one of her knives before she regretfully accepts that she can’t really come up with any more excuses to dawdle.
She arrives at Lan-zongzhu’s office just before dinner time, and doesn’t bother to knock before she walks inside. Lan Qiren is there as well, and he gets that pinched look he always gets whenever Wei Feihao is in his presence. “You wanted to see me, Lan-zongzhu?” She asks, because she doesn’t have the patience to play the game of waiting for him to crack first. She never does.
Lan-zongzhu smiles sadly at her and puts down his brush. Wei Feihao doesn’t glare at him for it, but she wants to. There are, as Baba has taken pains to point out to her, people in the world far more deserving of her hatred than Lan Xichen. She knows Baba has forgiven him for his part in Mama’s death, but she never will, and she’s made sure everyone knows it. Still, it hurts Baba, for her and Lan-zongzhu to be at odds, so she tries not to be too antagonistic.
“Feihao.” Lan-zongzhu greets. Wei Feihao is glad she managed to convince him to leave off her clan name. She changed it, like the others did, but only because Baba was right when he said she wasn’t only painting a target on her own back, to keep her proper clan name. Wei Feihao would be damned if she would lose any more family, and if that meant sucking it up and letting the whole world call her ‘Lan’, then she would do it, but… It’s a point in Lan-zongzhu’s favour, that he doesn’t rub it in.
He also, thankfully, doesn’t waste time waiting for her to be polite in turn. “As you may know, the next Discussion Conference is coming up in a couple of weeks.” He tells her. There isn’t a question anywhere in there, so Wei Feihao just waits for him to get to the point. “This year, I would like for you to accompany me.” Lan-zongzhu states.
And he is stating it. Wei Feihao bristles, tempted to say no just on principle, but… “Why?” She asks instead, and doesn’t bother to keep her tone anything less than deeply suspicious.
“So that the other Sect Leaders can meet my heir, of course.” Lan-zongzhu tells her.
Wei Feihao laughs. It’s not that she doesn’t realise that he’s serious, it’s just that it’s the best joke she’s ever heard. “What, exactly, is so funny about that?” Lan Qiren grits out.
We Feihao doesn’t bother to fight her giggles, just lets them run their course, and only tries to answer once she’s reasonably sure she won’t set herself off again. “First, what makes you think I even want to be your heir?” She begins.
“You are Wangji’s eldest child.” Lan-zongzhu points out.
“I am Wei Wuxian’s eldest child, too.” Wei Feihao reminds him. Lan Qiren looks like he might crack a tooth if he clenches his jaw any harder. “But secondly, did you even think through what’d happen if I said okay?” She presses on. Lan-zongzhu frowns deeply at her, and Wei Feihao beams back, entirely insincere. “What do you think will happen if you take me to Lanling and put me in a room with, oh, the man who killed my mama, the man who helped execute my guma and shushu, and the man who stood back and let it happen?”
Lan-zongzhu looks a little pale. Good. Wei Feihao hopes he’s grateful that she’s not listing him along with all the rest of them. But Lan Qiren scoffs at her. “Lan Feihao, you’re thirteen.” He reminds her. “If you think you’d be a match for three Sect Leaders, you are beyond arrogant.”
“I’m thirteen now.” Wei Feihao retorts. “But Discussion Conferences happen every year, Shugong.”
“Feihao…” Lan-zongzhu begins, his tone placating.
Wei Feihao doesn’t want to be placated. She is furious, and she has a right to be. “You don’t want me as your heir, and you really don’t want me to lead this Sect one day. Because I promise you, Bobo, the moment you died, I would burn this place to the ground and salt the ashes for what you all did to my parents.” Lan-zongzhu flinches, and Lan Qiren starts spluttering.
Wei Feihao stands and walks out without a backwards glance. If Lan Qiren is so desperate to scold her, he can come find her on the training ground, because right now, she really needs to either scream, or stab something, and she doesn’t have the patience to go all the way into the back hills to scream where no one will hear her.
Six months later…
Lan Yinyue’s favourite time of day is the evening. The rest of the Lan Sect goes to bed at nine sharp, but Lan Yinyue has always hated lying in bed when she isn’t tired. She used to sneak out after everyone else was asleep and sit just outside the Jingshi, finding patterns in the stars until she began to feel sleepy. Now, she doesn’t need to sneak. Baba leaves her a tea-pot engraved with a talisman to keep it warm on the covered walkway just outside the Jingshi, and she can sit up as long as she likes, with tea and a book, or just to meditate, or to watch the stars.
“You should be asleep, LianLian.”
Lan Yinyue smiles, and fills the second, usually unused, cup with tea and slides it across the small table. With a faint sigh, Bobo sits on the other side, and picks up the cup and takes a sip. “Do not work after nine in the evening.” Lan Yinyue quotes mildly, eyes on the shadows of clouds scudding across the tapestry of stars above them. “I am not working.” Bobo inclines his head, smiling softly, accepting the defence. “Are you?” Lan Yinyue challenges sweetly.
That makes Bobo huff a soft laugh. “I confess I’ve been guilty of breaking that one on occasion.” He admits serenely. “I wasn’t intending to break it tonight, however.”
Lan Yinyue thinks about that, sipping at her tea to give herself time to pull it apart. She’s not very good at the political double-speak that Bobo has been teaching her lately, but she’s trying. “You didn’t mean to, but you did it anyway.” She concludes. Bobo nods, his smile slanting towards rueful, and Lan Yinyue studies his face in concern. He looks tired, and not the sort of tired that sleep can help with, and there’s something dark hiding behind the mask of serenity in his eyes. “What’s wrong?” She asks.
Bobo startles ever so slightly, and turns to her in surprise, before a resigned smile flits across his face. “I can never get anything past you, can I, LianLian?” He asks quietly, and then sighs. “Shufu and I have been… in disagreement about the appropriate way to proceed on a… very important matter. It is difficult, to be in conflict with one’s family.”
There’s a weight to that last bit that Lan Yinyue can’t pretend she doesn’t understand. Baba has forgiven Bobo for his part in what happened to their family, more or less, but things are still strained between them. And Jie-jie isn’t helping with that at all. She carries her hatred as though it’s as precious to her as her love, and Lan Yinyue can’t exactly blame her. Xi-di, too, isn’t entirely happy, although he’s much better at hiding it. And Lan Yinyue has never been ignorant of the way the Clan Elders look at them when Baba isn’t looking.
“It is.” Lan Yinyue agrees softly. “But sometimes resentful energy can’t be cleansed so easily. Sometimes you have to figure out where it came from, and- and redress the injustice that created it, before you can restore harmony.”
“…You are very wise, LianLian.” Bobo says quietly, and Lan Yinyue ducks her head. She’s been called ‘wise’ before, but she’s never felt worthy of it. She doesn’t feel like she’s saying anything particularly profound. “Wise, and compassionate, and diplomatic.” Bobo goes on, and Lan Yinyue frowns at him, because for all that he’s always unfailingly kind, he’s not the sort to throw compliments about like that. Bobo catches her eye and smiles again. “And shrewd.” He adds.
“What’s going on?” Lan Yinyue asks warily.
“What would you say if I told you that I have been considering naming you as my heir?” Bobo asks blandly, before sipping at his tea to hide his expression.
Lan Yinyue stares at him, thoroughly gobsmacked. “But… Jie-jie?” She asks uncertainly.
“Refused. Quite vehemently.” Bobo informs her with a smile that doesn’t entirely hide his wince. Lan Yinyue thinks about that, and winces as well, because she can just imagine what Jie-jie might have said in answer to that question, and it would have been very rude.
“Is she in trouble?” She asks through her wince.
“Another thing Shufu and I have been arguing about.” Bobo sighs into his tea. “But no, as of yet, she is not in trouble.”
Lan Yinyue sighs in relief, and picks up her own tea, needing something to wash away the taste of fear clinging to her tongue. As she does so, it dawns on her that Bobo said ‘another thing’, which means it’s not the only thing they’ve been arguing about. With that, and how they got onto this topic in the first place, it doesn’t seem like much of a leap to guess that the other argument is about her.
“I think… I have to agree with Shugong.” She says quietly, looking down at her tea, clasped in her hands in her lap. She can feel Bobo’s gaze on her, but she doesn’t look up. “A demon shouldn’t become the Leader of the Lan Sect.”
“You’re not a demon, LianLian.” Bobo says, as sharp as he’s ever been.
Lan Yinyue smiles, warmed by the stalwart defence. “I know.” She says, and the tension seeps out of the air as Bobo relaxes. “Everyone who matters knows that, but to the rest of the world, I’ll always be the demon-child of the Yiling Patriarch.” She points out. “I don’t mind it, really, it doesn’t matter to me, but… if I were Sect Leader, it would start to matter. The Lan Sect would suffer for it.” She pauses, turning her cup in her fingers. “I’m not Jie-jie, Bobo. I don’t want to punish the Lan Sect for what it did, I just want it to do better in the future. And I can’t help with that.”
Six months later…
“Lan Renshou, stay behind.”
Lan Renshou pauses, confused, but slowly sinks back into his seat. He exchanges a speaking look with Da-ge, who looks just as confused, and hesitates to leave. “Go on, Lan Sizhui.” Lan-xiansheng says from the front of the classroom, nodding to him. “He will be along in a minute.”
Da-ge accepts the dismissal, bowing to Lan-xiansheng before leaving, and it would be rude to argue, so Lan Renshou doesn’t, but he wishes Da-ge had been allowed to stay. He’s sure he didn’t do anything wrong, but he knows full well how strict Lan-xiansheng can be. Did he miss something? Surely Da-ge would have warned him if he’d been slipping? He does not want to give Lan-xiansheng the satisfaction of being able to criticise him. He will, no doubt, attempt to use it as justification for dragging Mama’s name through the mud again, and Lan Renshou will be damned if he’ll be used against his family like that.
Lan-xiansheng doesn’t look displeased, though, or smug, and Lan Renshou sits very still and very straight, waiting politely for him to speak. “I have been in discussion with your bofu on a matter of great importance, Renshou.” Lan-xiansheng begins, and Lan Renshou does not twitch at the unwelcome familiarity.
Instead, he ups the ante. “A discussion pertaining to this lowly student, Shigong?” He asks formally, and doesn’t smile when Lan-xiansheng’s eye twitches, even though he wants to. That would be rude, and Lan Renshou is determined that his behaviour will be flawless , and the Lan Elders can choke on it.
Lan-xiansheng clears his throat. “Yes. As you may know, given the… unorthodox nature of your entrance into this Sect, Lan Renshou, there has been some confusion over the matter of succession.” Lan Renshou goes very still, eyes widening, and he bites down on his tongue when he sees Lan-xiansheng’s expression turn approving. “I have convinced Xichen that the next discussion conference would be the right time to introduce you as his heir.”
Lan Renshou does not let his internal panic show on his face. Of everything Lan-xiansheng might have been about to say, that hadn’t even been on his list of considerations. He never thought he would be considered as heir. It should be Jie-jie. Only, Jie-jie would probably spit in the eye of the first person to suggest it in her hearing. Not that Lan-xiansheng would, but surely Bofu… Unless they were going to be archaic about it – which of course they would, the Lan Sect never misses a chance to be archaic and stuffy – in which case it should be Da-ge.
Only, Lan-xiansheng sent Da-ge out of the room. And Lan Renshou would know if they’d already approached Da-ge about this, because not only would Da-ge have told him , but Da-ge wouldn’t have said no, so they wouldn’t even be having this conversation. Which means either way , Da-ge was passed over. Disregarded . Lan Renshou’s blood starts to boil, and he knows something must have shown on his face when Lan-xiansheng starts to frown.
He bows low to hide it. “This humble disciple is confused. Perhaps Lan-xiansheng could explain the wisdom that led to such a choice?” He asks, because it wouldn’t be polite to say ‘what the fuck are you thinking?’. His words come out strained, not as the mildly polite inquiry he wants it to be, that Bofu would have been able to make it.
“You are Wangji’s first-born son.” Lan-xiansheng says gruffly.
“Lan-xiansheng is mistaken.” Lan Renshou says to the floor, because he thinks he might just spit in Lan-xiansheng’s eye if he looks at him right now. How dare he ?! “This humble one has an older brother. Would Lan-xiansheng like me to go and fetch him? I’m sure he’s waiting just outside. We are very close, you understand, and do not like to be apart for very long if we can help it.”
“That won’t be necessary.” Lan-xiansheng huffs.
Lan Renshou straightens up, and does his best to look earnest. Meimei is much better at this sort of thing than him, but he’s been watching how she does it, and he thinks he can pull it off well enough. “It was an honest mistake, Lan-xiansheng.” He says sweetly. “We are twins, after all, I’m sure it’s easy for people who didn’t raise us to forget who was born first. Da-ge won’t be offended.” ‘ But I am’ goes very loudly unspoken.
Lan-xiansheng breathes deeply, and Lan Renshou smiles into the face of his thwarted frustration like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. Suck on that , he thinks viciously. “I take it, then, that you wouldn’t be willing to stand as the Lan Sect heir at the next Discussion Conference?” Lan-xiansheng asks through gritted teeth.
“How could I, Lan-xiansheng?” Lan Renshou asks innocently. “It would be unforgivably arrogant to place myself above my betters in such a way.” He piously folds his hands together in his lap and recites; “Do not be haughty. Do not boast. Do not raise yourself up by stepping on others. Do not take what rightfully belongs to another. Do not disrespect your elders. Do not envy. Do not covet things you cannot have. Do not strive only for glory over others. Do not disregard the skills and efforts of others. Do not accept gains made by dishonest means. Do not accept disproportionate rewards.”
Lan-xiansheng looks grudgingly impressed, and Lan Renshou glories in it as the man grits out “Very well. Dismissed.” He waits until he’s bowed exactly as deeply as is appropriate to one’s teacher and not an inch lower and turned away to walk outside before he lets himself grin. Da-ge gives him a curious, amused look when he steps out, but he shakes his head and doesn’t explain. There’s no need to let Da-ge be hurt by this if Lan Renshou can help it.
One year later…
Lan Zaiji’s favourite place in the whole of Cloud Recesses is a little waterfall in the back hills. No one goes there except his family, and there’s always something fun to do, whether that’s climbing trees or catching fish or practising dancing or even sitting down to read a book. Sometimes Jie-jie will be there and she’ll help him practice his sword-forms, or A-jie will be there and she’ll let him tell her all about his day, or Da-ge will show him how to find frogs by the river, or Gege will help him with his calligraphy and art, or Meimei will pester him into playing hide and seek.
Sometimes Baba will be there, too, but that’s rarer. If Lan Zaiji wanted to hang out with Baba somewhere peaceful, he’d be more likely to find him in the bunnies’ meadow than here. Which is why he perks up when he hears Baba’s voice, forgetting entirely about the secret hide-out he’d been trying to build and hopping up onto the best look-out rock.
“-too young.” Baba is saying as Lan Zaiji catches a glimpse of white through the trees.
“The Elders are getting impatient.” Bobo replies, and Lan Zaiji bounces a little on the spot in excitement. Bobo never comes out here to the back hills with the rest of them, and Lan Zaiji has always been a little bit, secretly, disappointed by that. “The other Sects are beginning to talk, Wangji.”
“All the more reason to leave my children out of it.” Baba gripes.
“It’s precisely because they are your children that there is talk.” Shugong grouses in response, and Lan Zaiji goes still. It’s probably unkind and selfish, but he doesn’t want Shugong to come here, to this place. This is a safe place, and Shugong always upsets Jie-jie and Gege. And Meimei always upsets him.
He hops back down off his rock, but it’s too late. “A-Luo?” Baba calls. He probably already saw Lan Zaiji up on the rock, so Lan Zaiji sighs, kicks the dirt, and edges out from behind the rock. Baba’s expression goes all soft, and he swoops in to start picking twigs out of Lan Zaiji’s hair. “Your bobo has something to ask you.” He says as he works. “Remember that it is not disrespectful in and of itself to decline a request.” He adds firmly.
When Lan Zaiji nods, Baba steps aside and half turns so that Lan Zaiji can see Bobo and Shugong, and they can see him. Bobo is smiling at him, but Shugong is giving Baba a stern look. “Wangji.” He says sharply, which makes Baba’s expression go all hard again. Lan Zaiji tries to be discreet when he takes a half-step sideways. He’s not quite hiding behind Baba, but his shoulder brushes against the back of Baba’s arm, and it’s very reassuring.
Baba glances at him, and then puts an arm around his shoulders. On the one hand, it means there’s less to hide behind, but on the other, it’s very nearly a hug, and that’s always awesome. “I see you’ve been having fun this morning, Zaiji?” Bobo asks invitingly.
Lan Zaiji can feel the words piling up on the tip of his tongue, but one glance at Shugong scares them all back into hiding, so he just nods again. Baba gives his shoulders a little squeeze, and Bobo’s smile softens. “I’m sorry to interrupt, then, but I’m afraid we have a rather important question for you.” He pauses to collect his thoughts, and then goes on; “The world is getting very impatient for the Lan Sect to formally announce the next heir.” He begins, and Lan Zaiji’s eyes go wide. “I was hoping, if you’re amenable, you might like to come to the next Discussion Conference with me and-”
Lan Zaiji is already shaking his head. Vehemently.
“Zaiji, I don’t think you understand that this is not something to decide on a whim.” Shugong begins sternly. “You should give this matter proper consideration. Just because the rest of your siblings have been irresponsible enough to throw the future of their Sect into chaos does not mean that you should blindly follow in their footsteps.”
Lan Zaiji presses a little more firmly into Baba’s side, partly because he doesn’t know how to tell Shugong that no, really, he means it, and partly because Baba has gone dangerously stiff. His arm doesn’t tighten around Lan Zaiji, exactly, but before, it was a comforting hold, like a heavy blanket draped over his shoulders on a cold day, and now it’s like a steel bar against his back.
“He said no.” Baba states coldly.
“Wangji, this is not-”
“If he changes his mind, you will be the first to know.” Baba interrupts, actually interrupts, and Shugong goes silent in what Lan Zaiji can only assume is shock. “However, it is forbidden in Cloud Recesses to coerce others to do your will over their own, and also to take advantage of those with less power than oneself, and also to benefit from unwilling labour.”
Shugong scowls at him. “It is also forbidden to declare opinions one has not considered fully.”
Baba doesn’t respond to that at all, and his silence practically screams ‘I do not see how that is relevant’. Shugong’s scowl deepens, but Bobo raises a hand and coughs into it in the exact same way Gege does when he’s pretending he’s not laughing at something. “Well, it seems that’s settled then. Sorry for interrupting your game, Zaiji.” He says, and turns to leave, forcing Shugong to follow along in his wake.
“You did well.” Baba murmurs, relaxing again, and Lan Zaiji throws his arms around his waist and buries his face in his side.
One year later…
Lan Meihua thinks she might be the only member of her family who actually likes her shugong. Well, Bobo likes him, of course, and sometimes she thinks Da-ge does as well, but he likes everyone, so she’s not sure that counts. And most of the time, she’s pretty sure Shugong would actually be happier if she joined her elder siblings in shunning him.
So actually having Shugong approach her outside of classes is a pleasant surprise. “Shugong!” She greets, loud and joyful, and waves to him as he comes to a stop beside her and her friends. They bow with polite murmurs of ‘xiansheng’. Lan Meihua does not. Shugong looks like he’s bitten down on a lemon as he returns their bows, so this is already going exceptionally well.
“I require a moment of your time, Meihua.” Shugong says, polite but still commanding.
Meihua decides to pretend she can’t hear the command at all. “Baba is expecting me home to help with feeding the rabbits.” She tells him, and gets two eyebrow twitches in one sentence. Score . “But you can come with me, if you want!” She adds helpfully. Shugong closes his eyes briefly, and then nods. “Bye!” She says to her friends, who wave back with slightly strained expressions. It would be rude to laugh, after all, and they can’t get away with half the things Lan Meihua can. That’s how she knows Shugong really does love her, somewhere deep, deep down inside.
“So what did you need?” Lan Meihua asks as they walk. Well, Shugong walks, Lan Meihua bounces, and skips, and sometimes dances, and every stern side-ways glance it earns her only encourages her.
“The Lan Sect must formally acknowledge an heir at this year’s discussion conference.” Shugong states, and Lan Meihua makes an interested noise. Shugong side-eyes her again for no reason she can figure out, and he looks… conflicted. “This farce has already been drawn out long enough, and it is not as though we do not have an abundance of children among the main family.”
Lan Meihua thinks about that for a moment, and then it dawns on her exactly where this is going, and she very nearly trips over her own feet. “Wait, you want me to be the next Sect Leader?” She asks incredulously.
Shugong looks pained, and it takes him several minutes of working his jaw before he manages to spit out the word “Yes.”
“Lying is forbidden.” Lan Meihua tells him piously, and giggles when he gives her a baleful look. She thinks about pointing out that, surely, he and the other Elders would prefer any of her siblings over her. It’s not as though the Elders have ever attempted to hide the fact that they wish they could get away with beating her without Baba or Bobo or Jiujiu paying them back threefold.
The word ‘yes’ is on the tip of her tongue, because there are glorious visions dancing through her mind of having power over the Elders and being able to do whatever she wants and no one having the authority to even try to tell her no. But then she realises that she would have to actually be the Sect Leader one day. She’d be in charge, and responsible for everyone in the sect, and any problems that came up would be her job to solve.
It would be awful. She can barely even stand it when Baba tries to make her tidy up her room. Imagine having to tidy up after a whole sect. She shudders. “Do I have to?” She whines at Shugong, pouting up at him.
Shugong makes the best face ever. The one that tells her he very, very dearly wants to say yes, but he knows that if he does, Lan Meihua will just go straight to her baba, and ask the same question, and Baba will say no, like he usually does, and Shugong won’t even be able to argue with her listening to him, because she’s being filial and obedient. That, and he knows that if he tries to force the issue, Baba will pack them all up and leave to become a rogue cultivator, and whether he’ll ever admit it or not, Shugong doesn’t actually want them to leave, because he does, somewhere deep, deep down, love them all very much.
“No.” He grits out.
Lan Meihua heaves a relieved sigh, and hugs him. “You’re the best, Shugong!” She enthuses, ignoring the fact that Shugong has gone as stiff as a board in her hold. He clears his throat, shifts from foot to foot, and then, finally, reluctantly, pats her on the head twice. It’s good enough, so Lan Meihua rewards him by letting go. She’ll teach him how to express his fondness properly eventually.
But in the mean time…
“Do you want to come help us feed the bunnies?” She asks, sweetly hopeful, and Shugong makes the lemon-face again. Lan Meihua barely sticks around long enough to hear his curt refusal, just turns and runs off, calling over her shoulder “Okay! Bye, Shugong! See you tomorrow!”
One day later…
Lan Sizhui walks back to the Jingshi in a daze. He’s late for dinner, but running is forbidden in Cloud Recesses, so he’ll just have to apologise to Baba when he gets there. Not that Baba will mind, of course, but that’s all the more reason that Lan Sizhui doesn’t like to be late. When he opens the door to the house, he sees that everyone else is already there, and they’re waiting for him. He feels bad, but then he remembers why he’s late, and the feeling is buried under an avalanche of vaguely pleased incomprehension.
There’s a chorus of greetings, shouts of ‘Da-ge!’ and ‘You’re here!’ and ‘Didi!’, but Baba manages to speak over them all without actually raising his voice. “A-Yuan. Is everything alright?”
Lan Sizhui nods. “Yeah… Yes, Baba. It’s- Bofu wanted to speak with me, that’s all. I apologise for being late.”
“It’s of no matter.” Baba assures him, while his siblings all exchange looks that Lan Sizhui isn’t together enough to try and decipher. He figures, though, that it means at least one of them knows what Bofu had to say. Probably Jie-jie. Shugong might have preferred to go about things the traditional way and go straight to the eldest son, rather than the eldest child, but Lan Sizhui just can’t imagine Bofu slighting Jie-jie that way. Possibly Didi, too, because Lan Sizhui is under no illusions that the Lan Elders have always considered him… one step to the left of actually family.
Whether they’re treating him like it means he’s an interloper who isn’t really a Lan, or like it means he’s an exemplary disciple untainted by the blood of that degenerate Wei Wuxian, it’s offensive either way. They’ve toned it down a lot over the years, and Lan Sizhui is prepared to let bygones be bygones. After all, their opinions hardly matter to him. They actually got kind of funny after a while, because every snide remark from an Elder only makes his family pull him in tighter. And he’s not going to lie – lying is forbidden – and say that it doesn’t warm him, whenever they make the point that he belongs.
“What did Lan-zongzhu want to talk to you about?” Jie-jie asks as Lan Sizhui takes his place, and Baba starts serving everyone.
“I, uh…” Lan Sizhui ducks his head a little, embarrassed, but it’s not boasting to state the truth, so he forces the words out, even though it makes him feel a little ridiculous and unworthy. “I’m going to go with him to the Discussion Conference next month. Um… So that he can introduce me as his heir?”
“Congratulations!” Didi cries, throwing his arms around Lan Sizhui and squeezing him. Lan Sizhui hugs him back and hides his grin in Didi’s sleeve.
“Yeah, congratulations!” Meimei agrees brightly.
“Better you than me.” Jie-jie says dryly, but she reaches over to squeeze his shoulder and tug affectionately on his hair, so Lan Sizhui figures she’s pleased for him.
“You’ll be an excellent Sect Leader one day, Didi.” A-jie adds, which makes Lan Sizhui blush and want to hide his face.
“Do you think you’ll have to go to the Discussion Conference every year?” Er-di wonders. “They won’t make you, will they? I mean, you just have to go the once, so they can show you off and stuff and then you won’t have to do it again. Except then you’ll be Sect Leader one day, and you’ll have to go every year. Why would you agree to that, Da-ge? It sounds awful.”
Lan Sizhui laughs a little. “I’m looking forward to it, actually. It’ll be nice to have an excuse to see everyone more often.”
Er-di looks thoughtful. “I guess I do miss A-Ling.” He agrees. The meal continues on with chatter interspersed between bites, here in the Jingshi where there’s no one to critisize. It’s not until afterwards, when Baba calls Lan Sizhui over to help him carry the dishes back to the kitchens that he realises Baba hasn’t actually said anything about the idea of him being next in line for Sect Leader.
He’s not sure how to ask what Baba thinks, though, without it sounding rude or awkward, so he doesn’t ask. “A-Yuan?” Baba says finally, as they’re walking through the growing dusk, and Lan Sizhui looks up, attentive. “You are happy?” He checks.
There’s a wealth of meaning buried in that question, but the answer stays the same no matter what layer Lan Sizhui is answering, so he says “Yes, Baba.”
Baba smiles faintly, and shifts his armload to put a hand on Lan Sizhui’s head. “Then I am very proud of you.” He says simply, but it’s enough to light Lan Sizhui up from the inside, and he carries that glow with him all the way to the Discussion Conference.