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It takes Wei Wuxian approximately four days to sneak from the women’s side of the Cloud Recesses to the men’s. It’s a disturbance held back apparently only by her shijie’s pleads and took a day longer than Jiang Wanyin expected.
Wei Wuxian wears the female disciple uniform as much as she doesn’t, her own bracers and robes poking out, looking ready for heavy combat, which Lan Wangji supposes was the goal of her crossing over, her sword in hand. She draws the attention of every other disciple in the courtyard, loud and brash like no one else. The red ribbon in her hair sways and distracts as much as it is an infringement against the modesty rules, asking female disciples to dress appropriately.
“You’re not supposed to be here,” Lan Wangji tells her, only to be promptly ignored by Wei Wuxian in favor of draping herself over her martial brother, entirely indecently. Jiang Wanyin holds her up only reluctantly, as if letting go might be worse.
“A-Cheng, shidi,” she complains, pouting like a kid who lost their favorite toy. “Don’t you want to switch classes with me? If I have to sit through another lesson on etiquette and the four virtues, I am going to hang myself.”
“Wei Wuxian!” Jiang Cheng hisses, shoving her away as though she were one of his martial brothers. “Can’t you act decently even once?”
Wei Wuxian catches herself with an admittedly graceful spin. She puts her hands on her hips and smiles cockily. “I know how to act decently quite well,” Wei Wuxian refuted. “Shijie taught me just fine, but a-Cheng, it is so boring. We don’t even spar! If I want to get any exercise, I have to run through the forms myself in the evening.”
At that, Jiang Wanyin pauses, suddenly frowning in concern. “You don’t? Mother won’t like it if you fall behind.”
“I know,” Wei Wuxian replies. “And think that with that ridiculous separation of men and women, I can’t even pretend to make an attempt at finding a good husband. Madam Yu won’t be pleased when I come home without betrothed and missing every second step in the easiest drills.”
She looks like she wants to say more, but the teacher finally shows up and promptly orders her to return to her own class, assigns readings and writings, but Wei Wuxian rolls her eyes before taking off with a grin. Lan Wangji is sure she does not run towards the women’s side. He’s starting to see why his uncle was so annoyed at her appearance.
Wei Wuxian is distracting in ways Lan Wangji didn’t expect.
She keeps running from her classes or sneaks into her brother’s room to rummage through his belongings to steal something from herself. It makes her a frequent visitor in the library for punishment, supervised by one of Lan Wangji’s cousins, but that doesn’t deter her. If anything, she only acts out more, asking for detailed elaborations on their rules until she is told to quiet, never finding a satisfactory answer.
It isn’t enough to risk being sent home, but enough to cause a disturbance.
It seems not a day passes where there aren’t any whispers about Wei Wuxian. Some blame her blood, saying it must be the natural consequence of an immortal’s disciple refusing to follow any order, and marrying a servant of all people.
The words leave a bitter taste in Lan Wangji’s mouth and those badmouthing Wei Wuxian find themselves copying many more lines in the library than the woman they offended.
Still, it hardly takes two weeks for everyone to know who Wei Wuxian is and from where she came.
After her mother’s death, her father returned with her to Lotus Pier to ask his former sect leader to take them both into the sect again. To no one’s surprise, and highlighting Jiang Fengmian’s exceptional character, he did not refuse his former servant. Lan Wangji only needed to witness one of Wei Wuxian’s interactions with her martial siblings to tell that she was close to the Jiang siblings, closer perhaps than expected of servant’s daughter.
This too leaves drunken boys gossiping and Lan Wangji’s only ally is Jiang Wanyin, who is keen to report anyone tattling on Wei Wuxian or his older sister.
It is no surprise that, Lan Wangji assigns punishment to Jin disciples most often.
“Lan-er-gongzi!”
Lan Wangji looks up and finds Wei Wuxian calling for him. He cannot spot any other disciple around her, which surely means that Wei Wuxian’s excursion to Caiyi was not granted.
“You should return to the Cloud Recesses,” Lan Wangji tells Wei Wuxian, not yet reminding her of the punishment for going on unsanctioned excursions.
Her expression, previously so open and cheerful, transforms into pure annoyance. “Why?” she asks. “So I can learn to listen well? Obey my future husband? Know how to raise children? Lan-er-gongzi, for all that your sect raises such prudes, you sure talk a lot about all the children women are supposed to have for their husbands.”
Lan Wangji cannot follow her thought process, something Wei Wuxian notices as she proceeds to use her hands to refer to her intended meaning.
Lan Wangji feels his whole face heat up. “Shameless,” he bites out, and once more, Wei Wuxian is grinning.
“That’s me! I honestly don’t see the point to all of this, I’ve already decided on my future.”
Lan Wangji wants her to shut up before she speaks more drivel, but Wei Wuxian decides to do the exact opposite. “I’ll do as my grandmaster did and cultivate towards immortality! And once I’ve done that, I will search for a nice mountain and raise lots of orphans!”
This is not how things are done, he wants to tell her, but Wei Wuxian has already abandoned the topic of her own marriage to speak about his, for some reason.
“You don’t strike me as the type to marry either, Lan-er-gongzi,” she says confidently.
It is not the first time Lan Wangji has heard statements following that sentiment. He’s unapproachable, prefers solitude, and is, as he was told, a bore for not caring about how pretty a particular woman is.
And still, even though Lan Wangji should do everything but entertain Wei Wuxian and her endless questions, he finds himself asking, “Why do you think so?”
“Because you have about two hundred rules governing marriage and not one of them declares the wife to be equal to her husband and you’d never marry anyone lesser.”
“People,” Lan Wangji feels the need to remind her, “are never less than another.”
“And yet you put a single male guard in front of the door separated male and female disciples and not one on the other side,” Wei Wuxian pointed out. “As if you’re afraid of a fox sneaking into the hen house or just waiting to lock us all up.”
Lan Wangji doesn’t mean to flinch, but he does it anyway. Something must show on his face, because Wei Wuxian doesn’t explode in righteous fury, but frowns in concern instead. “Are you alright?” she asks and Lan Wangji’s knees ache, his fingers shake from the frost as he sits in front of his mother’s cottage.
“Lan Wangji? Lan Zhan!”
Wei Wuxian calls his name, but Lan Wangji has no words for her.
He leaves.
Wei Wuxian, for some unfathomable reason, sticks around. She tracks him down as often as possible and does not stop calling him by his name. His brother follows the exchange with an amusement Lan Wangji cannot parse. He knows what this looks like from the outside, recalls Wei Wuxian’s words from the very first week, but he cannot look at her, standing in the Cloud Recesses and imagine her staying without hating him.
It is discourteous to treat a woman harshly, but every bit of mild pleasantry has Wei Wuxian acting out even more.
Sometimes, when Lan Wangji passes her, she isn’t smiling at all but deep in thought until she is caught by some disciple and told to return to her place, leaving Wei Wuxian glaring.
Wei Wuxian never makes her peace with the Cloud Recesses and Lan Wangji watches as she continues walking with her head held high, as if daring someone to put their hands on her and shove her down.
Wei Wuxian is not thrown out of the Cloud Recesses, nor is she asked to leave as her teachers try to direct her attention towards more appropriate topics, but when her father arrives at the front steps of the Cloud Recesses, she doesn’t hesitate to jump into his arms with her belongings packed away.
Wei Changze indulges her and replies to her quick-fire question at a matching speed. He is a tall man, easily towering over most people Lan Wangji knows, and his smile is kind.
“A-Ying,” he interrupts his daughter after a while. “Don’t you want to introduce your friend to me?”
“Oh!” Wei Wuxian jumps away from her father and vaguely gesticulates at Lan Wangji. “This is Lan Zhan! He’s my friend!”
Wei Changze merely raises his eyebrow before bowing respectfully. “Thank you for tolerating my daughter’s antics, Lan-er-gongzi.”
“Baba! Am I so intolerable?” Wei Wuxian starts bickering with her father again. “See if I show any gratefulness towards you again! Once I find my mountain, I will leave you!”
“Still thinking about your mountain, a-Ying?” Wei Changze asks, amused.
“More than ever,” she insists. “You shouldn’t have sent me here if you wanted my opinion to change! I’ll allow nobody but Shijie and a-Cheng to visit me.” She paused, then turned to eye Lan Wangji critically. “Lan Zhan can come as well, but only if he spars with me! In fact, I will make this the first of my rules. Whoever wants to visit me, must be willing to fight me.”
“Ridiculous,” Lan Wangji mutters before he can hold himself back.
“Oh?” Wei Wuxian leans forward, one hand on her hip and the other raised as if to reprimand him. “Are you calling my rules ridiculous, Lan-er-gongzi? Don’t they meet your approval, Lan Wangji? Are they shameless, Lan Zhan?”
“They are just like Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji replies. He cannot tell if he means it as an insult or compliment, perhaps it is simply the truth. In any case, they delight Wei Wuxian enough for her to grin.
“There you hear it, Baba. Next time we meet, I’ll tell you what rules you must follow on my mountain, Lan Zhan!”
Unlike her father, Wei Wuxian waves until she is but a tiny dark spot on the horizon.
Uncle sighs in relief when he hears that Wei Wuxian has left. “Finally, peace will reign again.”
Yes, peace, Lan Wangji thinks. One governed by three thousand rules. Peace, so very easily broken by a single bored disciple, asking about guards and lessons and nothing that ascribes an unvirtuous character.
“I had hoped the girl would be better than her mother, but what could be ascribed to ignorance in Cangse Sanren, is utter disregard in Wei Wuxian.”
Lan Qiren complains some more before finally deciding he has said everything he needs. Lan Wangji opens his mouth only once to interrupt his uncle as it must be against the rules to speak in such manners of a former student, but he keeps his thoughts to himself when his brother shakes his head.
The next week is quiet, and the next month sees few interruptions.
Somehow, the silence Wei Wuxian left behind speaks louder than her presence.
Lying in his bed at night, tracing how many steps it would take from his room to his mother’s cottage, Lan Wangji wonders whether his uncle confused ease for peace.