Chapter Text
Growing up with Jiang Fengmian and Madam Yu, Wi Wuxian had no illusions about the efficacy of political marriage. But in the wake of his sister’s wedding to Jin Zixuan, and the unexpected union between the sect leaders of Lan and Nie, the cultivation world seemed determined to prove him wrong.
“Can’t you just ask Lan Wangji?” said Wen Qing, in exasperated tones.
"No!" Wei Ying exclaimed. In fact, it was a perfectly sensible question. But the image of simply asking Lan Zhan for help gripped him with a hot clench of embarrassment.
“I thought you two were friends now," said Wen Ning. “He visited twice last month, and he hardly looked angry at all!”
Wei Wuxian made a see-saw gesture with his hand. “Maybe? I’m working on it!”
Was "friends" the right word for someone who used to hate you, but now came to dinner once every few weeks? Someone who'd saved your life on multiple occasions, and been saved in return? Did Lan Wangji write him scolding little letters because he actually liked Wei Wuxian, or because he thought Wei Wuxian was wrong and needed correction? The man was so stone-faced, it was sometimes hard to tell.
Wen Ning interrupted this train of thought by saying tentatively, “But won’t you get in trouble, if someone catches you breaking in? The Lan sect takes its library, um... pretty seriously, I think.”
Pretty seriously was an understatement. The Lan sect library was closed to everyone but Lan disciples and visiting scholars. Paroled or not, the Yiling Laozu fell into neither of those categories.
"Better to ask forgiveness than permission," said Wei Wuxian.
Wen Ning gave hum a doubtful look.
“Pfft," said Wei Wuxian. "What’s life without a little danger?”
Wen Qing snorted. “What danger? Lan Wangji won’t let anyone punish you, he’s a soft touch.”
“He is not,” said Wei Wuxian indignantly. But privately he agreed. By Wei Wuxian’s standards, this was a comfortably low-stakes plan.
None of them expected to stay in the Burial Mounds this long.
The first few months were the hardest, a grinding cycle of hunger and exhaustion. Wei Wuxian awoke every morning and thought, I can’t do this, before shaking himself and going to recharge the wards.
But then Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue got engaged, and everything changed.
The engagement emerged from the same event that would save the Wen remnants, although they didn’t know it at the time. No one at the Burial Mounds heard anything until Wei Wuxian received a pair of hurried letters from Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli. They recounted what most of the cultivation world saw as scandalous gossip, but Wei Wuxian recognized as the light at the end of the tunnel.
During an unplanned visite to Qinghe, Lan Xichen had found Jin Guangyao attempting to assassinate Nie Mingjue. The details here were murky, but once Jin Guangyao was taken back to Koi Tower in chains, the rest of the scandal flooded out. Apparently he'd been plotting to overthrow his father. Even more shockingly, he'd hidden a demonic cultivator in the dungeons. This gave Shijie a perfect chance to launch an investigation into the Wen labor camps, which also fell under Jin Guangyao's purview. Their failings were swiftly blamed on him as well.
Personally, Wei Wuxian already thought Jin Guangyao was a snake. He just hadn’t guessed that he was a venomous one. And while Jin Guangyao was clearly taking the fall for his father’s crimes, the Dafan Wen were in no position to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Following some tense back-and-forth with Jiang Cheng, Wei Wuxian allowed a delegation of cultivators to inspect the Burial Mounds. Led by a grim-faced Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue — not engaged yet, although that would come soon — the group offered theatrically horrified reactions to the peaceful Wen settlement. Loudly, they all announced that they had no idea of Jin Guangyao’s vicious deceits. Wei Wuxian bit his tongue while Wen Qing trod on his feet, and somehow they got through it without Wei Wuxian cursing anyone. Just a few months earlier, the cultivation world had been quite comfortable, actually with shooting innocent civilians for sport.
After that, things happened fast. Wei Wuxian didn’t know what machinations went on between the other sect leaders, but Yiling was soon reaffirmed as a vassal state of Yunmeng Jiang. Under the watchful eye of Jiang Wanyin, the feared Yiling Patriarch vowed to destroy the Yin Tiger Seal and stay out of everyone's way.
Two years on, life was calm enough that the Wen might safely leave and find new homes elsewhere. But most of them never did. With help from the Jiang sect — and increasingly regular visits from Lan Zhan — they’d cleansed the Burial Mounds until it was truly habitable. And as it turned out, certain plants thrived in soil that had once been infested with resentful energy. Wen Qing experimented with medicinal herbs, and Wei Wuxian learned to grow something other than radishes. A-Yuan had his first growth spurt, although he still liked to hug people around the legs.
Things were going better than Wei Wuxian ever dared hope. He and Jiang Cheng had even reached an uneasy detente, after Jiang Cheng belatedly and explosively learned the truth about his golden core. Wei Wuxian was just beginning to accept his new life as a farmer — peaceful and contented, if not exactly what he'd always imagined — when the blight came, and reminded him that he wasn't prepared for any of this after all.
"Do you recognize this?" asked Wen Qing, dumping an uprooted plant into Wei Wuxian's lap one day.
He poked at it cautiously. "Um, black mustard?"
"Look under the leaves."
Wei Wuxian did so, and was alarmed to find little red lines curling across the underside like bloody veins, ending in shriveled patches among the green. It was unlike anything he'd seen before.
Running a finger over the leaves, he reached out to sense for resentful energy, and found... nothing.
"It's not demonic," he said, confused.
"I was worried you'd say that," was Wen Qing's grim reply. "It's not natural either. I think it's some kind of spiritual sickness."
They looked at each other with dawning dread. Unquiet spirits they could handle, but neither of them were experts in agricultural magic. Who was it that specialized in plant cultivation? The Hedong Fu Clan? But that was no help to the Wen remnants. They might be grudgingly tolerated by the outside world, but they were in no position to petition strangers for help.
Over the next few weeks, Wen Qing's entire garden began to succumb. She traveled out to visit the nearby villages, asking if anyone recognized the red-veined poison. Nobody did. Fortunately the blight didn't spread outside the Burial Mounds, but that was cold comfort when their income was at stake. Soon they would have to admit defeat and write to Jiang Cheng for aid. The Dafan Wen would not starve again.
Before that, their last resort was to look further afield. Wei Wuxian had a mystery to solve; a mystery involving plants and spiritual poisoning and haunted earth. Where better to begin than the library of the Lan sect, an order known for its dedication to all living things?
And sure, Lan Qiren would never in a million years offer him a formal invitation. But if Wei Wuxian found a legitimate excuse to visit Gusu under Jiang supervision, it wouldn't be so hard to sneak a few clandestine hours in the library. He didn't even need to use the forbidden section. A low-stakes plan indeed.
Wei Wuxian broached the topic during his monthly meeting with Jiang Cheng, albeit with some circumspection. After all, there was no need to tell Jiang Cheng why he wanted to visit Cloud Recesses.
“I’ve been thinking,” he said casually, “of going to the next discussion conference.”
“You mean the meat market?” said Jiang Cheng.
Wei Wuxian frowned in confusion. “What? Isn’t the next one in Gusu?”
“It is,” said Jiang Cheng. “And it’s going to be swarming with people trying to marry Hanguang-Jun.”
This combination of words was so incongruous that Wei Wuxian briefly forgot how to speak. "They're what?"
"Wow," said Jiang Cheng. "You really are out of the loop." And so with a certain amount of morbid glee, he explained the whole sorry affair from the start.
With Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue out of the running, the list of eligible young bachelors was dwindling rapidly. In fact, the top tier now included only three names: Jiang Cheng, Lan Zhan and Nie Huaisang — who'd replaced Nie Mingjue as sect leader, for reasons Wei Wuxian still didn’t fully understand. (Wouldn't it make more sense for Lan Xichen to marry into the Nie clan, handing over the reins to Lan Zhan and his uncle? But then again, what did Wei Wuxian know about marriage?)
At any rate, Wei Wuxian would’ve put Lan Zhan and Jiang Cheng in a separate category of their own: aggressively unmarriageable. Accomplished they might be, but they clearly weren’t on the prowl for wives.
The cultivation world, however, had other ideas. People had got it into their heads that Lan Zhan needed a spouse, and so the Gusu discussion conference was now an unofficial competition for his hand in marriage. It was, Jiang Cheng said, a matter of scarcity. If one of the Twin Jades was suddenly open to marriage, then why not the other? No one wanted to let Lan Wangji slip through their fingers.
“Well, that settles it,” said Wei Wuxian, once he’d gotten over the initial shock. “I have to go. I can’t let Lan Zhan marry some random girl without checking her out first, can I? He needs someone to watch his back."
Jiang Cheng’s face screwed up into an utterly indescribable expression. “Why would any of Lan Wangji’s suitors be girls? ”
All at once, Wei Wuxian felt as if someone had tipped open his mouth and poured hot water down his throat.
“What!” he spluttered, barely even a question.
“When have you ever seen Lan Wangji with a woman?” demanded Jiang Cheng.
“Mian... mian?” said Wei Wuxian weakly.
“You mean Luo Qingyang? The one you kept hitting on, and she still wouldn’t give you the time of day?”
Wei Wuxian thought this was very unfair. And it wasn’t as if he’d ever seen Lan Zhan with any men, either — except in the most platonic sense imaginable. Lan Zhan was probably the most platonic person in the world. If you tried to talk about sex with him, the words just sank into an abyss of Lan propriety, like dropping a stone into a bottomless well.
But Wei Wuxian didn’t say that. Instead he said: “Who? Who are the suitors, then?”
With infuriating carelessness, Jiang Cheng shrugged. “I’ve no idea, it’s not like I care who Lan Wangji marries. One of the senior Jin disciples, I think? Maybe one of the Ouyang cousins? But there’s a lot of competition, obviously.”
“But they don’t actually want to marry him, do they?” asked Wei Wuxian, with increasing desperation.
Jiang Cheng raised his eyebrows. “Why not? He’s ranked first on the list of young masters. That’s what the list is for.”
“Right, but he’s so boring! He’s obsessed with rules, and you practically have to read a codebreaking manual to understand his jokes. They can’t just propose a betrothal based on looks.”
“Well, there’s also the political clout,” said Jiang Cheng drily, and narrowed his eyes at Wei Wuxian’s look of indignation. “Look, do you want Lan Wangji to find a good husband, or don’t you? Because if you’re planning to sabotage this thing, you’re not coming. As your sect leader —”
“I do, I do!” he said hurriedly. “Lan Zhan deserves the best, that’s all.”
“Alright,” said Jiang Cheng suspiciously, looking him up and down. “Well, if you’re coming as a representative of the Jiang clan, then you’ll need something new to wear.”
And so the conversation turned to more frivolous things like Jiang Cheng’s wardrobe, and petty gossip from Lotus Pier. All in all, a fruitful meeting — if not precisely what Wei Wuxian expected.
When he returned to the Burial Mounds that evening, Wen Qing was waiting on the doorstep of the Demon Subdue Palace, patching a hole in one of A-Yuan's shirts.
“Well?” she asked. “How did it go?”
Without any thought to their plans, or to the Lan library, or to anything else Jiang Cheng had said, Wei Wuxian blurted out in embarrassingly high-pitched tones: “Did you know that Lan Zhan is a cutsleeve?”
Very slowly, Wen Qing raised her eyes to the heavens.
“I knew I should’ve gone with you,” she said wearily, displaying very little patience as Wei Wuxian explained why this revelation was, in fact, entirely relevant to their current predicament.
As soon as they met on the Caiyi path, Jiang Cheng handed over a stack of fresh clothes and ordered Wei Wuxian to get changed. Plain but well-cut, the new robes were black with a purple sash — to remind everyone that the Yiling Patriarch wasn’t a hideous ghoul, and that he owed his fealty to Yunmeng Jiang.
“Of course, we know you actually are a hideous ghoul,” said Jiang Cheng. “Just not the kind they think.”
Ducking behind a tree to get changed, Wei Wuxian rolled his eyes. “What did you bring for the opening ceremony?”
“None of your business.”
“It is my business, if it’s something embarrassing.” Wei Wuxian peered around the tree, eyeballing the Jiang disciple who carried the box of gifts for their hosts. “What if it’s too romantic? They’ll think you’re trying to court Lan Zhan as well!”
Jiang Cheng shot him a disbelieving look. “I could hand over my grandmother’s comb and a book of love poetry, and Lan Wangji still wouldn’t believe I was trying to court him. Trust me.” Impatiently, he went over to the box and popped the lid. “Look, it’s just curtains and a box of tea for Lan Qiren. Happy?”
“Ecstatic,” said Wei Wuxian, adjusting his sash and walking back into the sunlight. “How do I look?”
“Why is your hair always a mess?” Jiang Cheng wondered out loud, and together they made their way up the winding steps to Cloud Recesses.
The opening ceremony was painfully dull, as expected. The whole thing was just a ritualized method of standing around in queues, waiting to hand over their gifts and deliver stilted greetings to Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue. At least there was some consolation in seeing that Nie Mingjue was visibly bored to tears as well
Wei Wuxian looked around for any friendly faces, but Nie Huaisang was on the other side of the hall, and Mianmian studiously avoided any attempts to catch her eye. Shijie wasn’t here at all, which was really too bad. Pregnant for the second time, she'd chosen to stay behind at Koi Tower.
Lan Zhan, of course, was up on the dais beside his brother. Not exactly a friendly face, but when their eyes met, it felt like an almost physical collision. Wei Wuxian shifted uncomfortably in his stiff new robes, looking away before his gaze found its way back to Lan Zhan.
Lan Zhan seemed shocked to see him here, inasmuch as Lan Zhan ever looked shocked about anything. As the ceremony wore on, Wei Wuxian kept feeling Lan Zhan’s eyes on him again and again. He couldn’t help but look back. Lan Zhan was certainly a sight to see, all dressed up in a dozen fluttering layers of white and blue, topped with an elaborate three-pronged guan. It was always slightly dazzling to see Lan Zhan again after a few weeks apart; to remember, Oh yeah, he really does look like that. No wonder people were fighting to marry him.
For the rest of the ceremony, the only interesting moment came when one of the minor sect leaders got overconfident and loudly presented a gift “on behalf of my son.” The message here was gratingly obvious.
Up on the dais, Lan Xichen’s polite smile became suddenly fixed. Lan Qiren looked as if he’d just smelled something revolting, and Lan Zhan stared straight ahead like he was carved from a block of ice.
“Yikes,” Wei Wuxian muttered to Jiang Cheng. “Well, that guy’s out of the running.”
Beside the sect leader, a gangly, round-faced kid was turning crimson from neck to forehead. Ignoring him, Lan Xichen said smoothly, “The Lan sect expresses its gratitude,” and nodded for the next visitor to come forward.
After that, the rest of the ceremony was even more boring than before. No one wanted to risk offending Lan propriety and killing off their own chance with the Second Jade of Lan.
Wei Wuxian didn’t think they’d see each other again until tomorrow, but Lan Zhan caught up with him outside the guest quarters.
“I didn’t expect you to come,” said Lan Zhan, discreetly leading him away from the other Jiang disciples.
“It was kind of a last-minute thing,” Wei Wuxian explained. “It’s not going to be a problem, is it? I figured since the Jiang sect was invited, and you’re always saying, you know, Come to Gusu...”
“It won’t be a problem,” said Lan Zhan, cutting off his burgeoning doubts. “Will you take part in the challenges?”
“The what?”
Lan Zhan paused. “The... events,” he said stiffly. But in the face of Wei Wuxian’s obvious ignorance, he was forced to explain.
The whole thing was apparently Nie Mingjue’s idea.
Discussion conferences always featured some kind of entertainment to pad out the politics, but the Lan sect’s idea of “entertainment” was famously dull. With Nie Mingjue as the sect leader’s spouse, this was about to change.
Gusu wasn’t suited to a night hunt, and a Jin-style boozefest wasn’t exactly their style either. Nor did Nie Mingjue enjoy dancing, poetry, or the theater. So Lan Xichen and his husband agreed upon a more respectable option: A series of tasks and challenges allowing the visitors to show off their skills in a peaceful manner. Music, calligraphy, duelling, cultivation knowledge —
“No chariot racing?” asked Wei Wuxian, wondering if they were planning to go for all six arts.
Lan Zhan gave him a severe look. “The Lan sect does not approve of using beasts of burden,” he said.
Silently, Wei Wuxian wondered how their fields were plowed, or if that was just another one of those things the Lan elders pretended didn’t exist.
“No mathematics either,” Lan Zhan added.
“What a disappointment,” said Wei Wuxian. “A-Ying just learned how to count!”
Ignoring this, Lan Zhan gave him another questioning look. Wei Wuxian realized then that Lan Zhan was waiting for his verdict. Would he take part in the challenges?
“Well, I didn’t really know about all this until just now...” he said, prevaricating.
He couldn’t participate in half of those contests, anyway. Duelling was impossible for obvious reasons, as was the cultivation display. That left archery (great!), calligraphy (boring), and music — which was a genuine strength of his, but not in a way the Lan sect would appreciate.
“I’ll probably sit it out,” Wei Wuxian decided. “Give the real young masters and mistresses a chance to prove themselves, right? No one needs the Yiling Patriarch stealing their thunder.”
Lan Zhan’s face closed over, which came as a surprise. Surely Lan Zhan should be glad for him to stay out of the way? Wei Wuxian was positively infamous for disrupting discussion conferences, after all. But Lan Zhan seemed almost disappointed, as if he’d given the wrong answer.
Wei Wuxian peered at him. “Lan Zhan, did you want me to show up and cause drama? Are you bored? ”
“Ridiculous.”
“Well, are you? Blink once for yes and twice for no.”
“Wei Ying,” said Lan Zhan, with great decorum, “may do what he wishes. I certainly have no say in the matter.”
“Dangerous words,” he said teasingly, but he’d already made up his mind. “Alright, I'll join in. Not all of the events, but it sounds fun, right?” He paused. “Wait, Lan Zhan, are you competing? Or are you just the judge, or the host, or whatever?”
“I shall participate,” said Lan Zhan, and Wei Wuxian nodded with satisfaction. It would be fun to see Lan Zhan kick the cultivation world’s collective ass, at least.
Back in the guest quarters that evening, Wei Wuxian flopped down onto Jiang Cheng’s bed.
“Do you mind?” said Jiang Cheng, glaring at him. “This is meant to be my private room.”
He pouted. “You're kicking me out? Your own sworn brother?"
"Is that an option?" Jiang Cheng asked sarcastically, and then shook his head. “Never mind. What is it?”
Wei Wuxian sat up, pushing his hair out of his eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me about the challenges?” he demanded.
“Well, it’s not like I can participate, as a sect leader,” he said. “That stuff’s more for the younger disciples, so —” He broke off, fixing Wei Wuxian with an accusatory glare. “No. Don’t you dare.”
“Lan Zhan practically begged me to join in,” Wei Wuxian innocently. “I think he’s sick of not having any real competition!”
“Did he beg you?” asked Jiang Cheng. “Or did he say ‘Mn,’ without moving his face, and then you made up a story in your own head?”
“He said, ‘Wei Ying may do what he wishes.’ That’s pretty clear, right?”
Jiang Cheng stared at him in disgust — although whether it was disgust at Lan Zhan or Wei Wuxian was anyone's guess.
“Unbelievable,” Jiang Cheng said aloud, but he didn’t attempt to argue with Wei Wuxian any further. The next day, they would attend the first challenge together.