Work Text:
For as long as Wen Qionglin had known Wei Wuxian, he'd known that the man loved lotus flowers. It was understandable, given that he'd grown up in Yunmeng, at Lotus Pier. Given how much he loved lotuses, he also had a vast knowledge about them, whether it be about growing them, caring for them, or their very numerous uses. And, he liked to impart that knowledge. A lot. At any given point of time. Because of this habit of the man who had become like a brother to him, Wen Qionglin too had a pretty exhaustive list of facts about lotuses. He had never thought that this knowledge would come in handy, but he should have known never to say never.
Lan Sizhui, his baby cousin, the little boy he'd thought he'd lost but hadn't, was the most precious boy in the world. Wen Qionglin had known that, and yet, sometimes, it would overwhelm him… Just how precious A-Yuan was. Like now.
"Ning-Shushu," A-Yuan was saying. "You do know how to grow and care for lotuses, don't you? I want to grow Baba his own lotus pond! You'll help me, right? You have to! Please. I need to have it ready in the next ten months!"
Ten months. Wen Qionglin knew what would be happening in around ten months. It would be a year to the day that Xian-Ge had been resurrected. It was cute that A-Yuan wanted to do something to celebrate the day, even if it would be marred by sadness of Mo Xuanyu's passing. It was still the day that Xian-Ge had gotten a second chance at life, and it deserved to be celebrated.
"I will help you," Wen Qionglin agreed. "How could I not? Xian-Ge will love this present, A-Yuan!"
"I know that Wei-qianbei doesn't like to talk about the past much, but I know he misses some parts of it. Yunmeng may not be his home anymore, but it's still the place he grew up, and I want to give him something from there back," A-Yuan said.
"Hmmm," Wen Qionglin hummed. "Xian-Ge managed to get lotuses to bloom in the Burial Mounds, did you know that? He wanted to have them so badly, he made it happen."
"He did?" A-Yuan asked, surprised.
"He did," Wen Qionglin confirmed. "We were all surprised to see it happen, but Xian-Ge tended to his pond religiously and made it happen."
"We should give it back to him then, don't you think, Shushu?" A-Yuan asked, beaming happily.
"We should," Wen Qionglin answered. "We will."
_________
Tending to lotuses was just as cumbersome as Wen Qionglin remembered. He hadn't ever had a proclivity for gardening or growing things despite being raised as a healer. It had always been Jiejie who had had the green thumb out of the two of them. He missed her dearly.
But, he also loved tending to their little lotus pond in the backhills of the Cloud Recesses along with A-Yuan. It gave the two of them time together. They bonded over their passion for the healing arts. While A-Yuan was a cultivator, he was deeply interested in the art of healing and liked to gain as much knowledge as he could when he could make the time. Wen Qionglin was only too happy to educate him about the things he did know.
The two didn't always talk about that, though. They talked about their family a lot too, of the people who had left them long ago but who they both still loved. Wen Qionglin told A-Yuan about them all, he recounted their years in Dafan and also the ones in Burial Mounds, telling A-Yuan what he remembered. In turn, A-Yuan told him what it was like, being raised as a Lan, and Hanguang-Jun's ward at that. It pleased Wen Qionglin to know that Hanguang-Jun had done his best to raise A-Yuan and he respected the man deeply for it. He was wistful about the years he'd lost with A-Yuan, as was Xian-Ge who had all but adopted A-Yuan before his death. Knowing A-Yuan had had a good childhood, that he'd been raised by people who loved him meant a lot to him.
And, he was grateful to have time with A-Yuan now. Just as the two of them nurtured the lotuses, watching them slowly bloom, so did Wen Qionglin feel the blooming relationship between himself and A-Yuan, and also saw the way that Xian-Ge was nurturing his own kinship with A-Yuan. Slowly but surely, A-Yuan grew more and more comfortable around the two of them.
Wen Qionglin watched as A-Yuan went from calling Xian-Ge Wei-qianbei to Xian-Gege to Baba. He watched as the two of them forged a bond just as strong and fierce as the one they'd shared while living in the Burial Mounds together, and a piece of his heart thawed, finding contentment. Wen Qionglin knew that Xian-Ge would never complain, but the distance between him and A-Yuan had bothered him at first. It was an understandable consequence of everything that happened and Xian-Ge did his best to cope with everything since his resurrection, but he knew that out of everything that had changed in the years that Xian-Ge had been dead, this development was the one that had been the hardest for him to come to terms with. But like always, Xian-Ge had come to accept it, and had done the best he could to start afresh with A-Yuan. And just like Xian-Ge had accepted their changed relationship, so had A-Yuan slowly warmed up to Xian-Ge and had started thinking of him as a parental figure once more.
It warmed Wen Qionglin's heart to see the two most important people in his life finally find a balance and move forward in their lives. Xian-Ge and A-Yuan were the only two people he could call his family now, and as he watched their little family find their rhythm once again, he felt at peace, knowing that this second chance would mean good things for them all.
________
"I'm nervous," A-Yuan declared one even as they sat by the lotus pond where lotuses were in full bloom now. Tomorrow would be the day that A-Yuan finally showed Xian-Ge what they'd been upto these past few months. "What if Baba doesn't like it?" He asked.
"Xian-Ge will love any—anything you do for him, A-Yuan. But he will especially love this lotus pond, I'm sure," Wen Qionglin reassured him. "I told you, Xian-Ge loves lotuses. Having his own lotus pond in the Cloud Recesses will mean so much to him. It's a piece of a long forgotten home that he gets to have back again. He will absolutely love it."
"You're sure?" A-Yuan pressed.
"I'm sure," Wen Qionglin told him. "He will. Don't be nervous, A-Yuan. Xian-Ge loves you and he's going to love your present too."
"Do you think it is okay to show this to him tomorrow? Should we wait a few days? I know it's the day he came back, but it's also the day that Mo Xuanyu…" A-Yuan trailed off.
"I know," Wen Qionglin replied. "The reason that we have Xian-Ge back is because Mo Xuanyu decided to perform the ritual, sacrificing his own life. That's something we all have to come to terms with, and we are. But, it doesn't make us bad people if we want to celebrate the day we got Xian-Ge back, does it? We shall always honour the sacrifice Mo Xuanyu made. I know that Xian-Ge regularly burns joss paper for him and that he plans to visit Jinlintai to pay his respects to Mo Xuanyu in the ancestral hall. We haven't forgotten Mo Xuanyu by doing this, A-Yuan. Don't worry."
"Mn," A-Yuan replied, sounding too much like Hanguang-Jun in the moment, making Wen Qionglin smile as much as he could. A-Yuan had picked up many mannerisms from both Hanguang-Jun and Xian-Ge and it was adorable seeing him emulate the two of them, so unconsciously most of the time. He truly was their son in every way that mattered.
“I can’t w—wait to see Xian-Ge’s reaction tomorrow,” Wen Qionglin said. “He’s going to be so happy. You’re going to make him so, so, so happy, A-Yuan. I just know it.”
“I hope so,” A-Yuan replied. “Baba… I always want him to be happy, Shushu. He has already been through so many bad things… his life should only be happy now. It makes me sad that it’s not.”
“Trust me, A-Yuan, this is the happiest he’s ever been,” Wen Qionglin told him. “I know I should not speak ill of the dead, but Xian-Ge’s life in Lotus Pier was not—not as happy as he makes it seem. Yu-Furen did not like him and she treated him poorly. Jiang-zongzhu’s father… he never said anything and let her do as she pleased. She created a lot of animosity against Xian-Ge in Jiang Zongzhu’s mind. Xian-Ge always treated him like a brother, but I don’t think that’s how Jiang-zongzhu felt, not entirely. You know, Jiang-zongzhu… he visited us once, at the Burial Mounds. He saw that we were just a settlement of civilians, trying to make the best of a bad situation. He knew that we were innocent, yet he didn’t do anything to help us. Instead, when Xian-Ge said he’ll defect from the Yunmeng Jiang so that they could save face, Jiang-zongzhu agreed. They had a fight — it was supposed to be fake, to make the world believe that Xian-Ge really had defected, but Jiang-zongzhu stabbed Xian-Ge so hard… it took Xian-Ge weeks to recover. I know he broke Jiang-zongzhu’s arm too, but Xian-Ge didn’t have a golden core to help him heal, and even if Jiang-zongzhu didn’t know that, he saw that Xian-Ge was sick… he was starving, he wore threadbare robes that barely helped him in the cold… he saw all this and he still stabbed Xian-Ge.
And the Mounds… the place was filled with so much resentment. Xian-Ge made it safe for us to live, but he took so much on himself. All of us were a family. We all loved Xian-Ge and I know he loved us too, but those times… we were all scared, A-Yuan. Any day could have been our last. We were living on borrowed time. That sort of existence, no matter how much support you have… it’s always scary and haunted, A-Yuan. Some days, we were so scared we didn’t know how we lived to see another minute, let alone a day. Xian-Ge had it the worst of all. He had a family in us, but he had still left behind his entire life and that was not easy for him to do. But he still did it and he never let us feel any guilt about it no matter how much he missed his old life.
He… has sacrificed a lot, just to see us live. But even before that, he didn’t have the best life. He had some pockets of happiness to call his own, but he was never happy. Not like he is now. Everyday I get to see him so happy and so carefree. Sometimes it feels like a dream. I’ve never seen him like this before. It’s because of you and Hanguang-Jun. You’ve both brought him so much happiness.”
“And you,” A-Yuan reminded him, smiling wetly. “Baba loves you too, Shushu. You’re his brother. I promise, Shushu, Baba will not have to live like that again. I will do everything I can to make him happy. Every single day.”
“I know you will,” Wen Qionglin replied, pulling A-Yuan into a hug.
________________________
“Where are we going?” Xian-Ge asked, for possibly the thousandth time since they’d set out from the Jingshi. Their little family of four had left straight after breakfast. A-Yuan had blindfolded Xian-Ge, wanting to truly surprise him with the pond and Xian-Ge had readily agreed. He still couldn’t deny A-Yuan anything.
“It’s a surprise, Baba,” A-Yuan replied patiently. “If I tell you, it won’t be a surprise anymore.”
“Aiyah… my little radish has grown so old that he’s started keeping secrets from his Baba now!” Xian-Ge lamented.
“Not secrets, Baba! This is a surprise! And Fuqin doesn’t know either,” A-Yuan added.
“Oh? So your Ning-Shushu does, huh?” Xian-Ge asked rhetorically.
A-Yuan looked at him for a second, completely panicked, before saying, “You can’t ask him!”
Even in this situation, clearly panicking, he did not raise his voice and that really was a testament to Wen Qionglin about how much of a Lan his cousin/nephew was, and how much things had changed. Sometimes, Wen Qionglin wondered how things would have been if A-Yuan had been raised by his family… if he would still have been so disciplined. Wen Qionglin loved A-Yuan as he was, and would never want to change him, but sometimes he couldn’t help but wonder what if? Their family was nowhere as strict as the Lan. They were all a boisterous lot who had not lost their brashness even in the Burial Mounds. Would A-Yuan have been like them too? Audacious and loud? Or would he have always been the soft spoken boy he was, no matter who raised him? It didn’t matter though, because he would never find out and A-Yuan was here, happy as he was. And that was enough for Wen Qionglin. Would always be.
“Are we there yet?” Xian-Ge asked, his tone exceptionally whiny, making the two Lan men smile, and pulled Wen Qionglin out of his thoughts.
“Almost there, Baba. Just a few moments more,” A-Yuan assured.
When they finally reached the clearing where A-Yuan and Wen Qionglin had planted the pond, there was a sharp intake of breath. Wen Qionglin turned to see that Hanguang-Jun was standing, unmoving, his eyes fixated on the little pond. Wen Qionglin wasn’t sure, but he thought he saw tears in Hanguang-Jun’s eyes. If he was reacting this way, Wen Qionglin didn’t know how emotional Xian-Ge would get.
“Lan Zhan? Are you alright?” Xian-Ge asked, as always, completely attuned to every little sound Hanguang-Jun made. “Is everything okay?”
“Mn,” Hanguang-Jun replied.
“Oh! It’s such a good surprise, huh? Wow… A-Yuan! You even rendered your Fuqin speechless! That is very rare! Now I’m so excited to see what it is! Can I look now?” Xian-Ge rambled, making A-Yuan chuckle.
“Yes, Baba! You can,” A-Yuan answered. He stepped back and pulled the blindfold from Xian-Ge’s eyes.
Wen Qionglin’s eyes were fixed to Xian-Ge’s and a moment later he realized that even A-Yuan and Hanguang-Jun were staring at him intently. Once Xian-Ge opened his eyes and got used to the light again, he looked around for a second, before his eyes zeroed in on the pond. For a moment, it seemed like Xian-Ge thought he was dreaming because he reached up to clear his eyes of any supposed dust before he looked again. And then he looked and looked and looked without uttering a single word. Wen Qionglin couldn’t even be sure if he was breathing.
One second he was standing and the next he was on his knees, silent tears streaming out of his eyes. And Wen Qionglin knew just how much it meant to him to have this. Xian-Ge would always create a ruckus over the smallest of things, but when it was the big things, he would always be quiet. He had always been this way. He had a lot of words for everything, but when he was truly hurt, or if something or someone touched his heart gravely, he would become speechless, not knowing how to express himself correctly.
And yet, he always tried. “This… This… A—A-Yu—A-Yuan… did—did you… you planted a lot—lotus pond for me?” Xian-Ge stammered.
“Ning-Shushu helped,” A-Yuan replied, always the modest boy. “I thought that it—it should be a day of celebration. It’s been one year to the day that you… you came back to us. And I wanted to celebrate it.”
Xian-Ge turned and wordlessly hooked his arms around A-Yuan taking him into an embrace. “Than—thank you. Thank you so much, A-Yuan. I don’t—I can’t… this means so much to me. I don’t think I can ever express in words just how much. You made me a new home, A-Yuan. This lowly one will always be so grateful. Thank you.”
“Baba!” A-Yuan protested. “This is… it’s just… I want you to always have a home, Baba. Here, in the Cloud Recesses. With me and with Fuqin. And everyone else.”
“And you did all this for me!” Xian-Ge cried. “You and A-Ning…” he trailed off, his eyes settling on Wen Qionglin. A second later, Wen Qionglin’s arms were full of Xian-Ge, hugging him tight. As Wen Qionglin hugged his brother back, he could see the wordless communication between A-Yuan and Hanguang-Jun. Hanguang-Jun smiled at A-Yuan and reached up to pat his head before he caressed A-Yuan’s forehead ribbon, a gesture Wen Qionglin had come to understand meant that Hanguang-Jun was proud of A-Yuan.
“Thank you so much, A-Ning,” Xian-Ge was blubbering into his shoulder. “You’re the best. You’re both the best. Thank you so much for doing this for me. I love you so much. This is the best present anyone has ever gotten me. I just… thank you!”
Wen Qionglin patted Xian-Ge’s back for a while but seeing how overwhelmed he was getting, Hanguang-Jun strode forward and plucked Xian-Ge out of his embrace, pulling the man into his own arms. Xian-Ge melted in his embrace and sighed happily as Hanguang-Jun reached up to wipe the tears from Xian-Ge’s eyes.
“Thank you, Wen Qionglin,” Hanguang-Jun said to him with a slight bow. Hanguang-Jun was a man of few words, but Wen Qionglin understood the sincerity behind them and bowed back in acknowledgement.
They spent the rest of the day in the clearing, Xian-Ge peeling lotus seeds for all of them to enjoy. They played with the rabbits for a while, but most of their time was spent on Xian-Ge regaling the tale of how he grew lotuses in the Burial Mounds as A-Yuan listened in fascination, and him repeatedly thanking the two of them for his present. A-Yuan’s face had turned a deep shade of red with all the praise he was receiving from his father, and also because Xian-Ge kept pulling his cheek as he had always been habituated to when he spoke to A-Yuan.
It was a happy day, filled with lots of love and laughter. Just as Xian-Ge deserved to be celebrated. At the end of the day, as they all made their way back, A-Yuan pulled Wen Qionglin into an embrace of his own, thanking him profusely for all his help, and for a second, Wen Qionglin was sure that he could hear his heart beat again.