Chapter Text
“This is my child, I birthed him!”
“Do you want me to bear you a little Lan?”
“All is lacking is a little one”
Wei Ying has been thinking about the various interactions with his husband about children that they had before. It had been a feeling that he couldn’t pinpoint, nor name, but knew it was there.
Something he was lacking, in between the 13 years he had been dead, the fact that he could only see A-Yuan, no, Sizhui, only in his youth now, having missed almost all his childhood.
Wei Ying knew that, even if he wasn’t there, the boy had grown really well, Sizhui was strong, smart, well behaved, kind, and all of the qualities of Lan Wangi, which was good, but still he couldn’t erase the feeling that he would want to do something else for him.
Now, Wei Wuxian is a househusband. He spends his days doing housework & farming mainly. He sees this as a good version of what he had to do in the burial mounds, without the survival spice, obviously. Even if other people could think of this as a punishment for the Yiling Laozou, it had always been his dream. Or at least that’s what he thought; but he didn’t count on his steady mind and inability to remain in one place at a time, always jumping around and having a thousand trains of thought at the same time. He spends a lot of time cultivating with Lan Zhan & experimenting new things, making new inventions for the cultivation world that a lot of times he doesn't even want to try, specially the ones that are designed for war & battlefields. He has had enough of that stuff.
He also spends a lot, & I mean, a ton of time, just hanging around in the city. Chatting with the ladies of Gusu that also were housewives. They all gather to gossip & shop together. Exchanging tips for the life of the married, made each other company when their husbands have to go to other cities or on night hunts.
If the ladies are really busy, sometimes, they ask Wei Ying for backup with babysitting & watching over their houses & farms.
No one knows exactly how he ended up in that position, nor even Wei Wuxian himself.
Hanguan Jun just arrived one day to Gusu Lan to find a group of 5 women in peasant attire, two of them with little babies, sipping tea in one of the visitors' halls of cloud recess, with his own husband in the middle. A map was in the middle & the women taking notes.
Lan Zhan just looked at one of the clan members with confusion, and the man responded earnestly that they asked to talk to Wei Wuxian to inquire about something related to their harvests.
He walked calmly to his husband, who greeted him with a sunny smile, and all the ladies stood up to bow at him & greet him.
He nodded in response and looked at the map.
“Oh, Lan Zhan! We were planning on a way to improve the harvest of this year for these friends. They are worried that their crops will die suddenly if the weather is inconvenient”. Wei Ying shared.
“And no one knows better about this type of adversities than the Yiling Laozu”. One of the women said, and the rest laughed quietly.
Lan Zhan decided to not ask more and left them alone. Knowing that it was only time for his husband to start shenanigans again.
Weeks later, after returning from a mission that needed him out of the house for two days, Wangji found cloud recess Wei Yingless. He asked around but no one was able to tell him where his sneaky husband was.
He knew that he could take care of himself and that he wouldn’t do something reckless without informing him, but still found it weird that Wei Ying didn’t leave him a note or something.
He went to the town to look for him, asking around in places Lan Zhan knew the other frequented, until a vendor told him where he could be.
It wasn’t long before he heard something familiar; the melody of a flute invaded his ears, and even without feeling any type of dark energy, he rushed to a place filled with screams & cries that came from the second floor of a store. He stayed just a minute outside to try & figure out what was happening, when:
“Ah! no, stop, it hurts!”
It was Wei Wuxian’s voice. He jumped to find him on the floor, disheveled, with paint on his face, and the flute in his hands. A little girl braiding his hair, another one making a mess with a buck of paint. A Boy crying in a corner while another one, a boy only grown enough to be standing, was teasing him with a stick.
When he entered, he almost tripped with a bunch of toys, but could stand on his feet just for Wei Ying to put the kid down & rush immediately to his lover’s arms.
“Lan Zhan! Husband of mine! save me! These kids are savages, I promised Fangju I could take care of the kids while she is sick but this is below my superior expertise!”
Lan Zhan hugged back tightly, caressing his hair and looking into his eyes.
“Leave it to me”
He proceeded to walk to the kids, quickly taking the toys from them and making them sit against the wall. He separated the kids who were fighting & with a swift move of his hands, took the bucket of paint away.
With a stare and a couple of words, the kids listened to him.
“Oh, Lan Zhan, you always have it in you for everyone to listen & obey you!”
“Not everyone” Lan responded with a glance that only Wei Ying could know what it meant. “I’ve told you to tell me if you are going to be late. I worry.”
Wei Ying smiled just to pout later.
“Sorry, I was supposed to have backup but she hasn’t arrived”.
“Kids, Your mom is sick, please wait here in peace & I’ll bring you a gift.” Said Lan Zhan.
The kids celebrated and stayed calm.
“Oh, Lan Zhan! Is that always your way to be? You don’t gift me things that way” Wei Ying complained.
“Do you want me to treat you like a child?”
“I know you say it as a threat but actually it depends on the result”
Lan only took a deep breath. “Where is the mother?”
“In the back of the house.”
Lan Zhan went out and came back later with medicines & food, and Wei Ying walked him to Fangju’s room, and knocked. They gave her the medicine and she thanked them deeply, laughing when she saw The Wei Gonzu all dirty and tousled.
At first, it was a couple of women who found in Wei Wuxian support, as someone married to a cultivator, then it developed to sharing recipes, tips & then they all started helping each other. The group of women had adopted Wei Ying as one of their own, and even after some time, they also adopted Wen Ning, Mian Mian sometimes tagged along, and the later days, Nie Huisang had found himself hanging around when he wasn’t so busy with his leadership duties.
This happened after one day, Lan Zhan had received an urgent message from Huisang, telling him an accident had happened & he was required there.
He arrived at the place less than an hour later, and found a mess in a place that looked like a lab. An orange liquid still bubbling in a chair, two women hiding behind a table, and Huisang almost crying at the entrance.
He looked at all of them, and they all guided his sight to the other side, where the Yiling Laozu was harshly stepping on a piece of burned fabric.
“Huisang! I clearly told you to not call my husband, I can solve this on my own!”
“Wei Xiong! Ah-gah wasn’t going to forgive me if I let you drag this around”.
Hanguan Jun relaxed and put back his sword. “What happened here?” Asked, as the two women hurried to him & vowed, introducing themselves.
“Hanguan Jun. Nice to meet you finally! Our apologies, I am Guo Meiying. This is my sister, Xiangbao. We hope it is not an inconvenience that we were with your spouse in a secluded place. Is just that, he promised he will teach us how to make amulets to help with our daily chores.”
“Hanguan Jun, Please don’t punish Wei Wuxian for this.”
“Calm down”, Wei intervened “He is not that type of husband, I told you both!”
“And if he was, I would advise him to leave him. It is not good to have an overly angry husband, isn’t it right, Xiangah?” Said Nie Huisang getting closer to them.
“I told you it is not that easy, Huisang gege” She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.
“No, but it's true, is questionable that he treats you that way”
“Don’t make me answer in a way that is not appropriate in front of The Hanguan Jun, Wei Wuxian”.
Lan Zhan maintained his same serious expression. Just looking between all of them, just to end up gazing in his husband's direction.
To everyone around, it was a staring contest that they couldn’t decipher, with Wei Ying finally answering Lan Zhan’s eyesights in a perfect way. How could they understand each other with barely a word? the girls questioned themselves.
“I was trying to show them you can use magic to iron and fondle clothes!”
“...”
“I was sure I could make a magic iron device they could use”
“...”
“Oh, no, I tried that, isn’t worth it”
“...”
“No, Lan Zhan, unnecessary”
“...”
“I tried that years ago, didn’t work”
“...”
“Why are you laughing at me?!
“...”
“Lan Zhaaaaan~”
“Wei Xiong, you know I hate it when you do that.” Interrupted Huisang.
So, coming back to this day, he was coming back to a day with their friend group, he went to help with some installations for one of the ladies and everyone in the room had their children present. He was the only one who didn’t have a child to take care of. In cases like this he tried to convince A-Yuan to tag along, but he had school or something. (And didn’t think it was appropriate to go, as he wasn’t a child anymore).
Lan Zhan entered the room and saw Wei Ying lost in thought.
“Wei Ying” He calls, but the other doesn't answer. “Wei Ying”, he says again. Walking closely “Love, is something wrong?” He sits by Wei’s side and takes his hand between his own.
A couple seconds pass, Wei Ying caresses his belly, turns slowly to his Lan Zhan, and with a puzzled face, he pauses for another moment. Lan Zhan allows him to process whatever he has in his mind before he can share it.
“Lan Zhan… I think I might actually be pregnant”.
He thinks of the children playing between them earlier that day. The older one was around 11 years old, and was playing with the next one, who was a year younger. The other three kids were 5, 6 & 1, so Wei Ying could observe the different phases they were in. And yearned for something like that for himself.
That was the origin of the feeling he, so deeply, has.
It has come in waves, in questions, in little things he couldn’t name but felt familiar.
A feeling in his stomach, especially after a really wild night with Lan Zhan. He felt different.
He felt himself getting heavier, more hungry, and even had cravings.
Wei Ying started getting hints from his friends who had already gone through pregnancies, “You should stop with the alcohol drinking for some time” said Yanxi first.
“It looks like dirt, but it looks tasty somehow” He said once during a conversation with Mian Mian.
“Oh, my, did a pregnant girl possess you? She answered, It was a joke. But, was it? really?
Another day, he woke up throwing up. That happened for several days, actually.
“Xiangbao, you need to be honest, look at my belly, you see it… suspiciously bigger?”
“What the actual hell, Wei Wuxian? Your jokes keep getting weirder”
“It’s not… Do you see it, you know, roundier? like…”
“as if you could bear a child” She scoffed, but Wei Ying’s cheeks turned pink.
“Wait, hold on, hold the fuck on, can you… Are you able to… are you?” She was completely puzzled and thought profusely. “Are you able to bear children? I thought you were a man! or are you-”
“Ok, this conversation got uncomfortable,” Wei Ying interrupted.
“What?! But You were the one to… ah, whatever, you have always been a little weird so I don’t know why I am surprised.
—------
“How can that be even possible?” Lan Zhan finally answers after a moment of complete loss of words.
“I, I don’t know. I’m no doctor. But, maybe we wished that too hard into existence until it happened. Maybe it was your magic seed.”
“Wei Ying, I thought you were serious for a moment” He relaxes and turns away to face the window.
“No, no, fine, maybe that was a joke, but I'm not joking, look, I've been experiencing symptoms I don’t have other ways to explain. I’ve been feeling… weird. And you know there are a lot of things that can happen & we cannot explain, maybe there is literature about it, you could investigate.”
Wei Ying explains his symptoms to Lan Wangji, who listens sincerely.
Lan Zhan, as weirded out as it can be, decides to go out to investigate. There is some literature about men going through pregnancies, in the cloud recess library, but it is mostly about men with biological female underparts, or even people with both types of genitalia, but he has seen his husband right and wrong, and knows for a fact that is not the case.
Almost at the moment of giving up, he sees a book, about a town where everyone thought a girl was pregnant, she had the belly, felt the baby moving, and everything. She never married and claimed she never had been with a man, but she looked enceinte. At the end, it turned out she wasn’t bearing, but wanted so much to have a child, that she started experiencing all the symptoms.
Lan Zhan takes a couple of days off to take care of Wei Ying.
He calls a couple of doctors, to see what were the different diagnoses they could give.
As expected, two of them, even though at the start were a bit wary because there were symptoms of pregnancy, didn't find a baby inside.
Another doctor says he obviously isn’t pregnant.
The last one to visit, refrain from giving an answer, but gives a treatment.
The doctor sends them both to a place in a nearby city, to talk to a specific person. He says this is a close partner and will know what to do. Asks Hanguan Jun & the Yiling Laozu to trust them, and heads away.
In the morning, the couple takes their things and heads out to the city Molang on the border between Yunmeng & Gusu. This zone looks poor & neglected.
They walked with Lil’ Apple through a busy zone full of peasants, not a single cultivator near. Hanguan Jun took notes about talking about the place to his brother.
They finally arrive at a house with a really big garden. The door is open and has gold ornaments. The contrast is interesting. This place surely is a doctor’s house.
The couple walk in & get greeted by a nice old woman, who guides them to the man’s office.
He introduces himself. He is not a doctor, but a teacher, a master. This place is not medical, this is an orphanage.
They have been sent to… adopt a child?
“Not quite” He explains “The majority of these kids do have parents but they need help, that’s why they live here almost all the time. I can help you both with your situation, I just need you both to trust the process, and it involves making sure you are able to care for the youth in a healthy way. If you can with this, you can with whatever life can bring.”
“Sr, I lived on the streets, I’m gonna be fine, especially with my Lan Zhan!”
The next six months are filled with the couple visiting the place at least 3 days every week, mostly Wei Ying, to provide charitable work for the kids.
During the first month, Wei Ying cleaned, washed, and repaired things. Later on, and having talked to the teacher, he decided to teach the kids the basics of cultivation. How it worked, what they can do, what rules there are.
“Can’t believe I have to turn into Lan Qiren” Thinks Wei Ying.
The kids are interesting.
Wei Ying can really relate to them to a certain degree.
"I also have no parents!" with a big smile, was at this point, his introduction catchphrase.
The days concur with both of them tiring themselves out but going to sleep with a warm heart after doing so much. A lot of the days, they really want to throw everything away and go home after a complicated struggle with the kids. Some of them could be really aggressive or explosive, and even once, while Wei Ying tried to give a lecture and one of the youngsters did nothing but yawn and throw papers at his peers, once again, he felt the profound need to apologize to his husband’s uncle.
A couple of months have passed, and the professor gives a letter to the couple, saying that they have completed the test. Lan Zhan strokes his husband’s hand, and the other kisses him on the cheek.
After this, both Lan Zhan and Wei Ying arrive home directly to the hall where the one in black makes his experiments. They were commanded to do a ritual, so, playing their respective flute and gujin, and before a shrine with incense and a sculpture of a goddess, they call a spirit.
The curtains are down, the doors closed, the candles lit. A woman in green and yellow appears in front of them, with a long and flowy dress, a crown garnishing her head. She carries a crook and a basket, and looks at the couple, who are kneeling in front of her.
“Who called me, and for why”.
Her voice is thunderous and makes Wei Ying's skin shiver, but Lan Wangji keeps his calm, only saluting with both arms and a reverence.
“We have brought you something“ He says, pushing a basket with flowers, stones and fruits. “Madam, please, help us have a child”.
Wei Ying has been married to Lan Zhan for a while, but sometimes his formality and way with words still astonishes him. He glances back and forth between both of them, just to make another long reverence. “Yes, madam, please”
The director of the home told them they were gonna be asked 3 questions, they have to answer honestly and right.
“Give me your names, and the names of you masters”
They both answered.
“What have you done for the existing kids, to deserve your own offspring?”
Wei Wuxian proceeds to tell in detail about all the work they did in the orphanage.
“What do you have to offer now and in the future, to said offspring?”
“We are part of one of the biggest sects, so we have resources, there are people willing to help us, we can teach them the Dao, and to cultivate, the child will always have food and medicine and all the virtues of a good man or woman.
The third question makes Lan Zhan open his eyes slightly, and is surprised with his husband’s answer. Especially after she seems to let a tiny smile shine in her lips. She nods once and gives them a packet wrapped in silk. They take it with both pairs of hands and make another reverence, as she vanishes in gold and silver sparkles of light.