Chapter Text
Jiang Yanli had grown up watching HGTV with her brothers, critiquing decorating styles and arguing over countertop colors, and all her life she’d dreamed of buying a fixer upper and changing it up just so with her brothers to make it perfect for her and her husband. So, when Jiang Yanli finally was married, to a man who was disgustingly rich no less, she could have asked him to purchase for her any of the disgustingly opulent mansions on the market, but she had only wanted a Fixer Upper.
A run down, ill kept, and poorly decorated home for her to nurture into her dream with her brothers, and if she now had three brothers courtesy of the last minute hail mary marriage between Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian to save both him and the Wens, well, that just meant she would need to buy a bigger dinner table. (But not until she had settled on kitchen colors, of course.)
Her husband, incapable of denying her anything, agreed to whatever she asked, including hosting all three of her brothers (also incapable of denying her anything) while they all personally saw that her new house became a home instead of hiring contractors like the disgustingly rich do.
“I want us to make our house a home, A-Xuan. For all of us.”
“Of course, A-Li.”
It wasn’t a plot. She had always wanted to create her forever home with her entire family, and she wasn’t going to let silly things like ‘rebelling against orthodoxy’ and ‘crimes against nature’ get in the way of that. But if all of the key players of the cultivation world happened to stop by during her renovations to see her middle brother being sweet and helpful and, like, shockingly in love for this to have been a political marriage, well, that was just a fun coincidence.
(But seriously, she was going to have to talk to A-Xian about his relationship with Lan Wangji, had they been seeing each other in secret? Without telling her?)
So Yanli hovered on her truly tragic old deck and watched nervously as Wei Wuxian used the mini skid steer that Jin Zixuan had rented to clear out the scrub that had overtaken her large backyard. There had been a minor fit where Zixuan insisted on running it himself because he was the one paying for it, but then Wen Qing had stopped by for A-Xian’s
(apparently regular) acupuncture treatment, and shouted at him for lugging rocks around and straining his body. She then reiterated for everyone present that A-Xian was in fragile condition and was not to be doing strenuous labor.
(Yanli would also have to talk to him about that.)
Lan Wangji was also looking rather nervous about Wei Wuxian operating heavy machinery. Wei Wuxian threw his head back and cackled when he rammed none too gently into a tree that seemed just a bit too thick for his skid steer to knock over.
“Wei Ying, please be careful!” Lan Wangji said, sounding distressed even to her.
“Don’t worry, Lan Zhan, I will be! Wen Ning, help me out!”
“Okay!” Wen Ning said, dropping the boulder he was carrying and hurrying over to Wei Wuxian’s side.
“Oh, A-Xian be careful, you could hurt Wen Ning!” Yanli cried out, biting her nails to see the boy so close to the teeth of Wei Wuxian’s bucket.
“Don’t worry, Shijie, I didn’t spend months binding his soul to his body just to ruin it again!” He replied brightly. “Are you ready Wen Ning? On one- two- three!”
True to his word, Wen Ning was miraculously unhurt. He also seemed to be doing the majority of the work on uprooting the tree, if the way it tore from the ground and into his hands was any indication. She saw the concerned look that passed between her husband and youngest brother and decided to ignore it. Yanli was well aware that the Ghost General was feared and hated by most of the cultivation world, but she’d loved him the moment she saw him. He was such a sweet shy boy, and A-Xian was right to want to protect him, he’d never done anything wrong in his life ever. Wen Ning had become her unofficial fourth brother in the short time she’d known him.
(On that thought, she may need to rethink her dining room table options.)
Though the marriage had saved Wei Wuxian and the Wens, their place in the cultivation world was tenuous, which of course was why she had made sure to invite Wen Ning along as well, because people would continue to fear him as long as he remained a mystery. Yanli happened to be a woman of fairly prominent social standing in the cultivation world: beloved older sister to the Jiang Sect Leader and Yiling Lousu, wife of the future Jin sect leader, and sister-in-law to the Twin Jades, one of whom was the Lan Sect leader, which also kinda made her tangentially related to his sworn brother Nie Mingue; so it wasn’t unusual that all of the most important players in the cultivation world happened to see her brother and Wen Ning being adorable and sweet and harmless.
Well, not harmless, she thought as Wen Ning ripped up another unwanted tree with his bare hands, but certainly not malicious.
(She was calling it redemption through renovation.)
How could they not bond while renovating their sister’s home together?
“Great job, idiot, now she’s got these great big holes in her yard!” Jiang Cheng shouted, gesturing to the holes where the trees had been.
“They’re going to be digging up a shit ton of dirt when they put in the pool! Just tell them to dump some of it here!”
“What pool?” Jiang Cheng asked, looking from Wei Wuxian to her. “Since when are you getting a pool? I thought you wanted a lotus pond.”
(After Wen Qing had revealed that Wei Wuxian was much worse off than he pretended, Jiang Yanli had texted her to ask if there was anything she could do. The woman had responded, kindly, that swimming was good physical therapy.)
“I just thought, we have the room, and we’re already going to have so many people on and off the property, we might as well do it all at once. We’re still going to have the lotus pond, it’s just going to be over there instead.”
Jiang Cheng made a face that said ‘fair enough’ and went back to pulling up the remnants of scrub that had only been skinned and not pulled up by Wei Wuxian’s skid steer tirade.
Wei Wuxian repaired what damage he could with the skid steer, evening out the uneven patches in the ground to try and fill the holes a bit, but there was only so much he could do. Really, enough dirt would be displaced when they dug out the pool, there would be plenty to put in the holes then. Wen Ning resumed carrying his enormous boulder like it was nothing, smiling brightly when he made eye contact with Yanli, and Jin Zixuan, Jiang Cheng, and Lan Wangji set about deciding which trees needed to go outright and which ones just needed their lower limbs trimmed.
“This one will eventually grow out and hit your roof, it is better to cut these limbs close to the trunk,” Lan Wangji said, indicating the tree closest to her house.
“You’re right, some of them will be tough to reach, though.”
“This is a good shade tree, you could put a swing on this one, and even higher up maybe a tree house,” Jiang Cheng said, peering up into the thick branches of another.
“Hell yeah!” Wei Wuxian called from the other side of the yard. “Build your kid a tree house, that would be awesome!”
“The boys always wanted a treehouse as kids,” Yanli elaborated to Lan Wangji, “but none of the trees at Lotus Pier were big enough.” Lan Wangji nodded very seriously, like this was incredibly important information that he would be filing very carefully away. Really, it was very cute. She thought maybe she was starting to see what made A-Xian so crazy about him.
“There are many very old trees in Gusu, A-Yuan might like to play in one with Wei Ying,” Yanli beamed at him.
“I had a feeling that you were going to take good care of my brother. I’m glad it seems like I was right.”
Lan Wangji’s face remained set in stone as his ears flushed cutely pink. “I aim to take very good care of Wei Ying, Madam Jin.”
“Please, call me Yanli.” That earned her a look, at least.
“Wangji.”
“Perfect. Thank you, Wangji, for taking such good care of him.”
Now that was definitely a smile.
“Ah, Shijie, thank God you had the air conditioning fixed first,” Wei Wuxian moaned, leaning back in his chair and pressing his glass of lemonade against his neck.
“It’s as humid as any Yunmeng summer,” Jiang Cheng put in, resting the bottom of his own glass against his forehead.
“We’ll get lots of use out of our pool, then,” Yanli said mildly, pressing her own glass against her cheek.
“And no cloud cover at all, I should have worn like, a hat or something,” Jin Zixuan said, fanning himself with a to-go menu.
“Ah! That reminds me,” Wei Wuxian exclaimed, sitting up suddenly, “Lan Zhan, are you wearing enough sunscreen? What about you, Shijie? Lan Zhan has some you can borrow.”
“Since when are you responsible about SPF? I can’t recall a single time you’ve ever worn any sunscreen, and one time in particular when you burned redder than the horrible paint job on that deck out there.”
“Lan Zhan burns very easily! They don’t call them the ‘Twin Jades’ for nothing, look at him! He needs sunscreen.”
“I will reapply before we go outside,” Lan Zhan acquiesced.
“Want me to get your back?”
“Please.” The two exchanged an almost embarrassingly smitten look. “I will also apply sunscreen to Wei Yings back.”
“Please, don’t listen to Jiang Cheng, I never burn.”
“Then who the hell did I spend a month rubbing aloe vera on?”
“Still,” Lan Zhan insisted.
“But sunscreen makes me all greasy!”
“A-Xian you are looking pale, the Burial Mounds weren’t good for your health, you should wear sunscreen outside while we’re working, at least until you start getting your color back.”
Wei Wuxian threw himself back dramatically into his chair. “Fine, but I’m calling a foul, you two gangin up on me, it’s just not fair!”
“Serves you right, maybe with Lan Wangji babysitting you all the time you won’t be able to do anything else stupid.”
Lan Zhan opened his mouth to say something but was stopped by Wei Wuxian’s hand on his wrist. He looked over at his husband, who shook his head minutely, then closed his mouth again, jaw flexing. Yanli sighed internally. Yet another conversation she would need to have, telling Lan Wangji that this constant jabbing back and forth was just their way, and it would need to come to a head before the two finally cried and made up about it. She would have to warn Wangji so that he didn’t accidentally interfere and ruin the reconciliation that she was working towards, or else she might have to pay someone to bust up her house so they could do this all again.
“The crew coming to dig out the pool should be here the day after tomorrow, do you think we need to have the deck built out by then?” All the men blinked owlishly at her and it was exactly as funny as she had thought it would be. “What?” She asked innocently.
“Shit, A-Jie.”
“What?”
“That’s a really short time frame, A-Li.”
“Is it?”
“Yeah, I don’t know if that’s even possible with the people we have,” Wei Wuxian said, looking like he was running numbers furiously in his head. Unless you call for help? She mentally prodded.
Down by her side she texted her husband to suggest that Lan Xichen bring Nie Mingue when he comes, and added a shushing emoji to make sure he didn’t ruin her plan. His brow furrowed deeply when he saw her message, and he tried to catch her eye, but she resolutely kept looking between her three (three!!!) brothers.
“Oh no! What will we do? It was the only day they had available until next year, so I told them to come on ahead!” She said, brow furrowing in concern. She could see her husband looking at her like she’d just grown a second head from the corner of her eye and she willed him not to blow her cover.
“Xichen may be available to help tomorrow,” Lan Zhan said thoughtfully. (He was, she’d put in a call to his assistant to check.) And this is when she made pointed eye contact with her husband, who came alive like an animatronic who had just been switched on.
“You should see if he can bring Nie Mingue,” he said, sounding only a little bit unnatural. He made eye contact with his wife and seemed to intuit this wasn’t good enough. “I think I heard he’s good with stuff like this.” Well. Good enough. The world needed more bad liars in politics anyway.
“Now you mention it, I think Huaisang mentioned that once he rage-built a gazebo by himself just to get Huaisang to shut up and stop whining about wanting a gazebo,” Jiang Cheng said thoughtfully.
Yanli looked over to Wei Wuxian, who was looking apprehensive. She knew he’d be the only one likely to protest this, and even as she watched him he cast a nervous look out the door to Wen Ning, who had momentarily stopped working and seemed to be cooing to a stray cat. Adorable. Then Wei Ying looked to her, and nodded to himself.
“Yeah, I think I remember that story too, Jiang Cheng. He could probably really help.”
She didn’t miss the way his hand was resting on the qiankun pouch Chenqing was stored in while he said it.
After a fresh application of sunscreen all around (even Jiang Cheng was peer pressured into dabbing a bit on his face) they got back to work. Jin Zixuan and Jiang Cheng cut low hanging branches with pole saws and throwing them into piles for Wei Wuxian to push into a big brush pile while Lan Wangi and Wen Ning began working on her decorative flower beds. After tearing out the weeds and laying down the landscape fabric Lan Wangji was soaked in sweat, and while Wen Ning started smashing rocks into smaller pieces to make a raised rock wall, he removed his t-shirt to reveal the sweat soaked white tank top underneath.
Wei Wuxian, who was parked and awaiting more branches to be placed in his bucket, took notice immediately and wolf whistled, leaning forward to google his husband shamelessly.
“Hey there, hot stuff, you got a man?”
Lan Wangji shot a burning look over his shoulder. “Yes.”
Wei Wuxian flushed brightly and buried his head in his hands.
“Could you not?” Jiang Cheng snapped.
“Just because you’re the only single one here doesn’t mean you get to rain on my hot husband parade!” Wei Ying said waspishly.
Lan Wangji said nothing, but returned to his work with red ears, shovelling gravel around the plants Yanli had carefully placed in their little holes while he was distracted. Wei Wuxian watched eagerly, chin resting in his hand, and had to be called out to several times before he realized his bucket was full and he could make another trip to the brush pile.
“I think I’m going to start on dinner,” Yanli said eventually. Her work was mostly done and she was now just doing much of the same that Wei Wuxian was doing, except watching her own husband with much more subtlety.
“Aiyah, Shijie, your cooking is so good! I wish the food at Cloud Recesses wasn’t so boring and bland!”
“Oh, A-Xian, be nice,” she chided.
“It’s true! They don’t even have pepper! Pepper! I’m like one hundred percent sure the only spice they have is flour! No cooking can compare to yours!”
She gave him another stern look, but ascended the dilapidated stairs up to the back door. A few moments later she was joined by Lan Wangji, who quietly asked if she would teach him to cook Wei Ying’s favorite meals. Really, she would have to get on to him for being so mean about the food in Cloud Recesses, his husband was so sweet.
“Have you no shame? You can’t even pretend to like the food when the Lan Clan saved your dumbass and your stupid Wens?”
“Shut the fuck up, asshole,” Wei Ying snapped, with far more venom than he’d used for any of the jabs Jiang Cheng had shot his way so far. “I only said that to get him out of here, I know what to do about those hard to reach branches, but he’d never let me do it.”
“What is it?” Jin Zixuan asked, looking wary.
“I saw it on the internet-”
“So it’s surely not going to get you killed,” Jiang Cheng interrupted.
“Listen, they’re too high for our ladder, even with the pole saws, and the trunk of the tree is too far from the roof, so here’s what we do- someone lifts me up in the bucket-”
“No,” Jin Zixuan and Jiang Cheng say at the same time.
“It’s perfectly safe! Look, this thing is made to lift like, a ton or something, I’m nothing compared to that! Someone can lift me very carefully up, and I can get all those pesky branches, and Shijie and Lan Zhan are none the wiser. Jiang Cheng can pilot it and Jin Zixuan can throw the branches out of the way so I can be lowered. Just think, it’s steady and sturdy and way taller than the ladder.”
“I hate to say it, but he’s got a point,” Jin Zixuan said.
“I don’t like it,” Wen Ning said nervously. “Just think what A-Jie would say.”
“See the thing is I’m not planning to tell Wen Qing what we’re doing, so she won’t be saying anything. And I have a job for you too! The most important job there is! A solemn, sacred duty of loyalty and-”
“You want me to keep watch.”
“Yeah, I want you to keep watch.”
Jiang Cheng watched in disbelief as Wen Ning gave a long suffering sigh and moved into watch keeping position.
“Come on, Jiang Cheng, it’ll be fine, we’ve done way more dangerous shit and not gotten hurt!” Well, that was certainly true, but back then they’d both had golden cores. If they’d been hurt it would cause no lasting damage. But he didn’t say that, so instead he just climbed into the driver’s seat of the skid steer, thinking that this was going to end badly.
“Alright, now lift me up slow, alright?” Wei Wuxian said as he climbed into the bucket. He sat down on the back of the bucket and braced himself to keep steady as he was lifted slowly up toward the limbs. “Tilt it forward a bit, it’s tilting backwards as you lift me,” he shouted, gesturing with his hand in case Jiang Cheng couldn’t hear him over the sound of the machine.
The bucket was tilted and lifted some more, up until he was finally within reach of the branches in question and he stood to start cutting. He was just constructing his brags about being right when this was done when he finally registered the sounds of Wen Ning’s warning call over the sound of his chain saw, too late. The door was already sliding open as he shut off the chain saw, then panicked, and crouched down to hide in the bucket.
“Wei Ying!” Lan Zhan called out. He snuggled down deeper inside the bucket like that was going to save him when he heard the sound of his husband’s sword unsheathing, and an instant later Lan Zhan was floating in the air before him, looking equal parts worried and angry.
“Hey… there, hot stuff… you come here often?” He tried, laughing nervously as he clutched the chainsaw to his chest. Lan Zhan did not look amused, extending a hand wordlessly out to Wei Wuxian in a silent order. Wei Wuxian took his hand, hanging his head as he stepped onto Lan Zhan’s sword and allowed himself to be lowered down into the group of assembled men, also wearing guilty expressions.
“Wei Ying, what were you thinking?” Lan Zhan asked, stepping away as he sheathed his sword, knuckles white against the sheath.
“Well, we wanted to get these branches like you said, and the ladder wasn’t tall enough!”
“Jiang Wanyin and Jin Zixuan could have flown up on their swords. The two of them still have that ability, do they not?”
“Ah.”
“So why was it necessary for you to do something so dangerous?”
“I- we forgot- it- it’s not like I was on a tightrope! The thing is made to carry heavy loads! I’m not exactly very heavy!”
“I watched the bucket fall off twice today.”
“Only when I was trying to do back drags!”
“Wei Ying!” Lan Zhan snapped, stepping closer once more. Wei Wuxian hunched his shoulders and crossed his arms in front of him.
“I’m sorry, okay, we didn’t think about the swords.”
“But you did think to intentionally distract me so you could do something you knew I wouldn’t like.”
Wei Wuxian opened his mouth to reply, but the words froze in his throat.
“A-Xian, we’re just worried about you, we don’t want you to get hurt!”
“I’m not made of glass,” he said petulantly.
“And what were the two of you thinking, letting him up there? A-Cheng, I’m disappointed in you.”
“It was his idea!”
“A-Xian has bad ideas all the time.”
“Hey!”
“You should have known better, you too A-Xuan.”
“I’m sorry, A-Jie,” Jiang Cheng said.
“I’m sorry too, A-Li.”
Lan Zhan and Wei Ying remained silent through all of this, gazing intensely at each other until Wei Wuxian sighed in defeat. “I’m sorry.” Lan Zhan reached forward and drew Wei Wuxian into a hug, tucking his mouth beside his ear.
“I don’t know what I would do if anything happened to you, Wei Ying, please be more careful.”
“Alright, alright. I will. I’m sorry, I won’t take any more stupid risks.”
“Good.”
“Come on, dinner is almost ready, we can stop for the night,” Yanli said. “Come in and wash up.”
“Man, I was hoping to get the old deck taken down today that way we could spend all day building tomorrow,” Jin Zixuan said.
“Yeah, it might take hours to take that thing down, that’s a lot of valuable time,” Jiang Cheng put in.
“What hours to take down?” Wei Wuxian asked, withdrawing slightly from his husband's embrace. “Wen Ning, would you?”
“Of course!” Wen Ning replied.
He approached the deck and walked around the perimeter, observing carefully as he went. He decided on a spot and planted his feet surely before grabbing ahold of the nearest crossbeam and support beams and tearing the deck away from the wall with an almighty heave. The sound of splintering wood filled the air as the support beams either gave way and cracked halfway down, or remained resolutely where they were and held onto a few planks with them.
“I can finish up out here! You guys go on and eat, this won’t take long!”
Wei Wuxian snickered and lead the way around to the front of the house as Wen Ning carried the large portion of the deck he tore off in his hands while Jiang Cheng and Jin Zixuan tried to hide their gaping expressions.
“Thank you, Wen Ning,” Yanli said sweetly, before following Wei Wuxian and Lan Zhan back to the front of the house.