Chapter Text
Wei Wuxian had figured out a while ago that Jiang Shushu and Madam Yu didn’t actually pay attention to him. Or either of their other kids for that matter. As far as he could tell, in Madam Yu and Jiang Shushu’s eyes there was a Jiang Yanli, a Jiang Cheng, and a Wei Wuxian– but it was pretty clear that they hadn’t put names to faces and weren't ever going to.
So it came to reason that it didn’t really matter who wore which name and what robes as long as there was a Jiang Yanli, a Jiang Cheng, and a Wei Wuxian. So, they switched. Whenever A-jie got worn down by constant disregard, she’d just tie her hair up and switch robes with Jiang Cheng. Whenever the weight of Madam Yu’s scorn got to be too much Wei Wuxian would simply slip on one of Yanli’s dresses. Whenever Jiang Cheng needed a scrap of acknowledgment from his father, all he had to do was throw on Wei Wuxian's robes and swap hair ribbons.
It was the perfect solution to just about all their problems.
– - –
“I’m Yanli today.” Jiang Cheng grunted, slamming the door to his sister’s room shut behind him, a pile of neatly folded robes nestled in the crook of his elbow. Wei Wuxian raised an arm in a half hearted wave from where he was laying sprawled across Yanli’s floor.
“Cool, A-jie called Wei Wuxian ‘cause Madam Yu doesn’t care what I do when we’re at conferences– as long as I’m out of her sight.” He let his arm fall lightly to the ground beside his head, “So I guess I’m you for the day, Chengcheng.” the nickname bugged Jiang Cheng to no end, Wei Wuxian knew this, of course, why else would he use it if not to bug his darling baby brother? He felt an involuntary grin creep onto his face at Jiang Cheng’s glower.
“You’re stupid, and so is your face.” Jiang Cheng snapped, Wei Wuxian cackled in reply.
“Wear the lilac hanfu, m’kay?” A-jie peaked out from behind the dressing screen, eyes locking onto Jiang Cheng who had turned his full attention to her, cruelly ignoring Wei Wuxian.
“Okay.” he nodded, looking incredibly serious.
“Pastels are in right now…” she smiled softly, “...I can’t have my fiancee thinking I’m out of fashion, can I?” she laughed quietly to herself, disappearing back behind the screen. Jiang Cheng grumbled, looking nothing short of annoyed, but even the thought of that awful, no good, very bad, ugly, stuck-up, tasteless, peacock was known to have that effect on people. Wei Wuxian would know– he felt the same way whenever he remembered the peacock existed.
He sent a disgusted look to his brother, in camaraderie. They were united in hatred towards Yanli’s so-called ‘fiancee’. That was, in fact, the reason Jiang Cheng was Yanli for the day, because neither of them wanted that stupid, boring, prick associating with their sister. And Wei Wuxian had been Yanli the last time they were at Koi Tower, so it was Jiang Cheng’s turn to put up with the peacock.
“Welp,” Wei Wuxian huffed, swinging his arms upward, leveraging himself back onto his feet, “Give me your clothes, and your fancy hair stuff.” he made grabby hands at his little brother.
“Lilac hanfu!” A-jie hummed as she swept out from behind the dressing screen, making her way over to the large, bronze mirror, to adjust the crimson ribbon swinging delicately from her ponytail.
“Yeah, I know!” Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes, throwing the pile of clothes in his arms at Wei Wuxian, and stomping behind the dressing screen.
Wei Wuxian fumbled to catch the robes, the pile threatening to spill out of his arms and onto the floor, which wouldn’t hurt the clothes, but it might hurt his ego a little. He considered himself to be very good at catching things, something he may or may not have bragged about the day before. To Jiang Cheng. So it was a relief when he finally managed to juggle the clothes into a secure position.
“Does my hair look alright?” A-jie turned towards him, eyebrows pinched, “It doesn’t curl like yours does, so I think the ponytail might make it look flat, or dull…” she ran her fingers through the end of the ponytail in question.
“Your hair looks perfect, A-jie,” Wei Wuxian smiled reassuringly at her, “Wei Wuxian will have suitors throwing themselves at him– more than usual anyways.” he winked, voice lilting playfully. A-jie huffed a laugh, her shoulders dropping as a tension he hadn’t realized was there eased. Wei Wuxian heaved a long, dramatic sigh.
“I’m going to have to start spending time on my hair now,” he could feel a teasing smile crawl into his face, “You’re raising people’s expectations, A-jie!” he pressed a hand to his chest in mock betrayal, “How could you!”
The remaining tension bled out of A-jie’s frame, her worries floating away as she giggled, swatting at Wei Wuxian’s arm.
“Ah, you're right A-xian, we can’t go raising everyone’s expectations of you,” Her eyes twinkled in amusement as Wei Wuxian nodded all serious like,
“I’ll make sure to roll around in the dirt before the conference– to remain consistent with your usual look.” Jiang Cheng barked a laugh from behind the dressing screen.
“A-jie!” Wei Wuxian squawked in disbelief, twisting his face into an exaggerated look of offence, “How could you bully your A-xian like that? I expected this kind of cruelty from Jiang Cheng– but you?” he threw a hand up over his forehead, “The betrayal…it’s just too much!” he stumbled backwards, swooning onto Yanli’s bed as if he were a heartbroken maiden in a play.
Yanli laughed, bright and loud, gliding over to pat Wei Wuxian’s shoulder consolingly.
“Oh, you know I didn’t mean it, A-xian,” she smiled, pinching his cheek, “You’re very handsome.”
“You’re too nice, A-jie,” Jiang Cheng groused, stomping over to his siblings, swathed in gauzy lilac,
“He’s ugly. Can you do my hair?” The first half was directed at Wei Wuxian who stuck his tongue out in reply. The second bit was for Yanli, who smiled angelically and motioned him over to the mirror, moving to gather the necessary supplies from the table beside her bed.
Wei Wuxian rolled off the bed– his robes for the day secured under one arm– and ducked behind the dressing screen.
He slipped his own clothes off, tossing them over the screen, and got to work putting on all of Jiang Cheng’s fancy sect-heir robes. He wasn’t particularly fond of being Jiang Cheng at sect conferences, but no one really was. During conferences Jiang Cheng was the most monitored of the kids, he had to be toted around to greet sect leaders, and sect heirs, and head disciples, and what not– all under the unrelenting watch of Madam Yu. He had to ‘uphold the sect’s name’ which was just a super ominous way to say ‘behave’ (one of Wei Wuxian’s least favorite activities). Plus Jiang Cheng’s fancy robes were inexplicably uncomfortable. Seriously, for all the money they cost, and all the probable hours spent painstakingly crafting them, they should be more comfortable. But no.
Although, he might still prefer being Jiang Cheng over having to talk to the peacock.
“Do my hair, A-Cheng.” he demanded, striding out from behind the dressing screen and sitting down in front of Jiang Cheng, holding out the ribbon and guan expectantly.
“I hate you.” Jiang Cheng muttered, taking the hair ornaments from Wei Wuxian, and raking the comb Yanli had graciously handed him the second Wei Wuxian had sat down through his hair.
– - –
The conference, as all conferences were, was completely and utterly boring. He was going to call dibs on being Wei Wuxian at the next one when he got back.
His eyes drifted across the large, embellished room, the whole place glinting and gleaming from the sheer amount of gold everywhere. Each wall, pillar, window, table, and chair was encrusted top to bottom in a disgusting amount of the stuff, he wrinkled his nose, it looked incredibly tacky. In his personal opinion Jin Guangshuan should really work on his taste.
“Stop slouching.” Madam Yu hissed, voice clipped. He wasn’t slouching? He was just standing normally, like everyone else– also Madam Yu wasn’t looking at him and hadn’t since at least a ke ago. So he was pretty damn sure she was just saying stuff because she was mad for some reason or another. She did that.
Wei Wuxian didn’t say anything in reply, he just sighed internally, and drew his shoulders back until he was standing ramrod straight. Better not to piss her off anymore than she already was, he was not looking to be verbally eviscerated today. Or any day really, but today he could actually avoid it by just doing what Madam Yu said. Being Jiang Cheng was neat like that.
Apparently satisfied by his posture, Madam Yu clicked her tongue and then grabbed him by the shoulder dragging him off to greet…uh a Lan guy? He wasn’t really keeping up with all the names and people. Whatever his name was, the guy was definitely, probably important– or just someone Madam Yu wanted to snub– and he looked like a total stick in the mud. He also had a goatee which wasn’t important, but Wei Wuxian just thought it was interesting, it was the first goatee he’d seen at the conference. Madam Yu said something, in her neutral ‘I’m mad but not at you’ tone she used when she was talking to people she deemed important and wanted to forge good relations with.
“– my son, Jiang Wanyin.” she finished, motioning towards Wei Wuxian. Oh, that was his cue.
He bowed respectfully to the goatee guy, he didn’t say anything in greeting though because Jiang Cheng wasn’t supposed to speak– part of the whole ‘upholding the sect’s name’ thing, and, once again, he didn’t particularly want to be verbally murdered today. Once his part of the conversation had been completed, he just kind of had to stand there while Madam Yu and the goatee guy droned on about something or another. Every once in a while Madam Yu would make a vague motion towards him, but that was about it. Like he’d said, conferences were boring. Like super boring, especially if you were Jiang Cheng at the conference. Being Yanli or Wei Wuxian at a conference wasn’t bad, Yanli had to talk to the dumb, annoying, peacock at least once, but other than that she was allowed to drift as she pleased. As for Wei Wuxian, well, he could pretty much do whatever he wanted as long as he was out of Madam Yu’s sight, giving him the best deal at conferences. Which is why Wei Wuxian was going to call being himself at the next one. Being Jiang Cheng was so boring, how did his brother even deal with this before they started switching?
Burning questions.
Anyway, Madam Yu and the goatee guy’s conversation was turning out to be a weirdly long one, he wondered what they were talking about. He supposed he could tune in and figure it out based on context clues, but he also knew that chances were it would be about something painfully boring. So, instead, he let his gaze wander around the room, searching for one of his siblings.
Ah. He caught sight of A-cheng, swimming in layers of floaty lilac, and looking like he was moments away from actually ending the peacock’s life. Wei Wuxian kind of hoped he would snap and do it. If only for the entertainment. Something between murderous rage and wicked amusement flashed through his brother’s eyes, oh, shit was about to go down. He had to bite down on the inside of his lip to keep a manic smile from creeping over his face.
“Who even are you?” Jin Zixuan broke first– as expected he was a loser like that– frustration saturating his voice as it echoed across the room. Hah, the bozo had completely forgotten himself and shouted. At a conference. Wei Wuxian would never.
He could see the peacock turning increasingly red from where he stood on the other side of the room, A-cheng raised a sardonic brow. His brother sniped something in reply, but he had decorum so he didn’t holler it for everyone to hear. Jin Zixuan waved his arms clearly at the end of his rope, saying something back– quieter this time so he couldn’t make it out from where he was, but it was definitely something pathetic and stupid. Madam Yu apparently also thought the peacock was being a pathetic asshole, because she gave Wei Wuxian her knife sharp ‘do not move, on my life I will end you if you so much as breath while I’m gone’ look and cut her way across the gilded floors to where his brother and Jin Zixuan stood. Madam Jin followed suit, appearing from seemingly nowhere to stand disapprovingly behind her son.
The two women proceeded to chew out the peacock like it was their actual job, the loser making– what he interpreted to be– weak attempts to defend himself. Jiang Cheng just standing there looking incredibly smug. Every couple of minor ke one of the women would pat A-cheng’s shoulder consolingly.
“That’s not–” Jin Zixuan started, before realizing he was shouting again, flushing and lowering his voice. Whatever he said after that was apparently incredibly offensive because both Madam Yu and Madam Jin began scolding him at the same time. He couldn’t quite keep the evil little smile off his face when Madam Jin took her son by the head, forcing him into a deep bow, before dragging him out of the room.
“Do you find something amusing?” intoned a dry voice. Shit. The goatee guy, who was probably, definitely, important was still there. Wei Wuxian schooled his expression as best he could and shook his head. The man gave him a ‘You’re up to nonsense, and I’m on to you, but also too tired to actually call you on your bullshit right now’ look, which Wei Wuxian respected. Straightening his spine and swallowing his evil grin before Madam Yu returned.
“Children are so troublesome.” Madam Yu groused, a tight smile stretched over her teeth– she sounded remarkably like Jiang Cheng sometimes.
“Mn,” the goatee guy, hummed in reply, “They can be.”
“I should hope mine won’t give you any such trouble at the Cloud Recesses.” She said it to the goatee guy, but Wei Wuxian knew that it was actually mostly directed at him. The goatee guy nodded sagely, stroking his goatee. Classic goatee guy stuff.
Also: what? Maybe he should have zoned back in a little for their earlier conversation. It was starting to sound like some of it actually pertained to him.
Okay, so he– Jiang Cheng at least, but probably another one too, because Madam Yu had used the plural ‘mine’– was going to the Cloud Recesses. He was pretty sure that the Cloud Recesses did a studying thing for sect heirs, but he’d never given it too much thought. The Jiang kids rarely left Lotus pier, and even more rarely left Yunmeng– Madam Yu and Jiang Shushu didn’t like them being where they couldn’t control what they did.
A year away from Yunmeng.
Huh. That sounded like a good time to him, screw calling Wei Wuxian for the next conference, he was calling dibs on whoever was going to the Cloud Recesses.