Chapter Text
Darkness.
The sound of splitting wood, clay smashing , water splashing out onto the earth, the rustling of straw.
The screams are inhuman , the howling of a wild beast, high, grating shrieks and low, gut-clenching growls. It hurts his ears.
Soft, plaintive sobbing, maybe a little child?
Finally, human speech, a floating, disembodied voice forming words.
“Xiao Xingchen.”
“If you don’t get up, I’ll make your dear friend Song Lan murder people.”
“I’ll kill off everyone in the entire Yi city and make them into living corpses.”
“I’ll strangle that little blind A-Qing and leave her corpse in the fields for wild dogs to gobble her up.”
“XIAO XINGCHEN!”
“GET UP!”
Xingchen blinks as the rough, violent shakes jolt him back to consciousness, faintly registering the pleasant guqin tones of the alarm he’d set on his phone (that had been a mistake) and the less pleasant expression on the face hovering above his.
“I was about to use the water! Ge, you seriously sleep like the dead.”
Xiao Qing grumbles, stifling a yawn herself as she screws the lid back onto her open bottle.
“Ah, I’m up, I’m up.”
He concedes, reaching out for his glasses with slow, unhurried grace as A-Qing rushes to call dibs on the one bathroom in their tiny, shared apartment.
Xingchen rubs his eyes. Ah, I really have been too stressed lately.
What a strange dream. Perhaps his little sister is right - researching for his master’s thesis, offering advice to panicking students in the class he TAs on their last minute submissions (fictional adaptations are often not historically accurate, the wisdom of peer-reviewed papers cannot be substituted by a drama or many) and perhaps a bit too much tea at night, not to mention his day job, is not the best combination.
He should stop reading so much at night.
//
“Do you have your stationery, your transportation card...have you topped it up, do you need money, ge will be working late the next few days - ”
“Ge, I’m not a kid.”
His precocious sister whines, as his fingers finish off one braid on the left side of her head with a black elastic band while A-Qing rushes through the other.
“You’re seventeen.”
“Exactly!”
A-Qing huffs, bouncing over to the rice cooker once she’s done with the slightly messy but still functional plait.
“Ma says eat more.”
Xingchen smiles when she fills his bowl with the sticky grains and stir-fried vegetables, less green than he remembers the leaves of shengcai from their hometown to be, lush and verdant and served with brown soy sauce at the old dinner table their parents still use.
Grocery shopping in the city had been...different, when they first arrived, mainly due to Xingchen’s tight budget. There was no haggling to be done in supermarkets, not that he had ever been good at it, neatly marked barcodes on clear plastic packaging replacing cardboard signs and yelled prices.
A-Qing had adapted quickly.
(When their children made the move - as soon as Xingchen was old enough, there were better schools in the city, more opportunities - even now, over long distance calls, Ba and Ma had told their younger daughter, not their eldest son, to ‘look out for your da ge, meimei’.)
Xingchen had taken a while.
His xiao mei is growing up too fast.
“Ge! Ge, your phone’s ringing. Who’s - hmph, up so early, guess his husband must be a bad influence - ”
“Respect your elders, do not speak ill of - ”
“Eat, eat, I’ll put it on speaker!”
“Aiyo Lan Zhan, you are naughty - ”
Wei Wuxian gasps out all in one breath, oddly hoarse and sounding rather...indisposed. A throat ailment, it seems. Xingchen frowns. (Perhaps he should ask Zichen to recommend a good, preferably inexpensive doctor.)
“...mn.”
A-Qing squeaks, covering her ears while simultaneously attempting to keep her mouthful down.
“EW, gross! Shut up shut up SHUT UP!”
“Little aunt! Ah, morning, morning!”
“...A-Xian?”
“Little uncle! You haven’t left home, have you?”
“I haven’t - ”
“Ah, that’s great! Practically heaven’s will! Listen, I need a favor! Little uncle won’t say no, right?”
Despite being a fair bit older than Xingchen, old enough to have a career, financial stability and a husband (not necessarily in that order), Wei Wuxian seemed to take his nephew privileges very seriously, wheedling his little uncle into...well, into all sorts of things, from defending him from an angry Jiang Cheng to placating his in-laws at family dinners.
A taciturn man unused to A-Xian’s high spirits and rambunctious nature, his husband’s uncle had regarded Xingchen quite highly, which thankfully helped smooth over relations so his nephew didn’t have to elope.
“You see, my boss might have...miscalculated the budget for the production, ahaha, we spent too much on costumes and professional extras are expensive! Aiya, now we’re scrambling to find people to fill the scene. Little uncle is so good looking, I’m sure he could double up - ”
“Are you paying us?!”
“Little aunt, aren’t we family?”
“This Wei Wuxian is really shameless.”
“A-Qing!”
“Of course, there’ll be a small fee...”
“Small?”
“...on top of the money we’d already be paying to Little Uncle as historical consultant, of course, consider this a small favor to your poor - ”
“A-Xian, are you...sure? I’ve never acted - ”
“Doesn’t matter, doesn’t matter! It’s nothing, a small role, Little uncle just needs to show up and walk around in period clothing.”
“Ah...since you need people...then alrig- ”
“Great! The filming bus will be at the terminal by nine, plenty of time to prepare - oh, Lan Zhan you’re so thoughtful - we’re driving down to Shudong today to shoot some action scenes. Ah, I almost forgot, please wear contacts!”
“Really, ge.”
Setting her chopsticks down with a clang, Xiao Qing rolls her eyes.
“You’re too kind.”
“We should help when we can.”
“Don’t forget to get an autograph for me!”
She adds as an afterthought.