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2021-05-03
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pitfalls of greed

Summary:

Wei Wuxian gets kidnapped. Things don't go well from there.

 

... for the kidnappers, that is.

Notes:

This is set about 5-6 years post-canon, so WWX has a pretty well-developed golden core by this time.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

Tang Xue’s mother had this story she used to tell him when he was a child. He couldn’t remember exactly what the story itself was— only that it involved an animal of some kind. What he did remember vividly, was that it was about the dangers of greed. She had always told him that it was bad to be greedy, bad to want more than what one is fated to have.

Tang Xue thought that was a stupid moral. How could he improve himself when he didn’t want things? It was wanting that motivated people to improve themselves. He was a merchant, a pretty successful one too, so he knew what he was talking about. Had he cut a few corners in the pursuit of his goals? Of course he had! Who hadn’t?

When that woman he had been so bewitched by had rejected him, only to go on to marry the heir to the Liu sect, he knew what he had to do. All he needed to do was get rid of his rival, and there she would be, in his arms, with no better prospects. She would be all his.

Luckily for Tang Xue, he had discovered that he wasn’t the only person that bore a grudge against the Liu sect. There was a whole group of people who found him— they needed his talents, his connections and money— who had plans for the elimination of the entire sect. Tang Xue did not know how to feel about that, but if it got him what it wanted— that is, his beloved— he supposed he could turn a blind eye to the rest of it. He wouldn’t be doing the killing himself anyway, so what did it matter?

Of course, he hadn’t ever had anyone killed before, but his mother also used to say that there was a first time for everything, and that, at least, was pretty good advice.

There were fourteen of them.

They were being very careful— not even sharing names with each other. Or rather, Tang Xue didn’t know anybody’s name. They probably knew each other, seeing as they had apparently worked together before. Their leader, whom Tang Xue only knew as The Leader— and that he used to be a part of the Moling Su cultivation sect before it had been disbanded— was supremely confident about the plan he had devised. The rest of them too had great faith in him, so Tang Xue, who was new to this, decided to trust in their expertise.

They had made sure none of them could be traced back to this little town. No one would be coming to check in on them. Not a single sound would escape the heavily warded room they were using— a room paid for by Tang Xue, though through a few third parties so that no one could trace it back to him.

There was no way this plan would go wrong.

Tang Xue watched as one of his new allies towered over their prisoner. The man was sprawled on the floor against a wall, his hands chained separately to iron rings far enough apart that his hands couldn’t touch. The chains were heavy and tight enough to be quite painful, even if their prisoner didn’t show any signs of feeling it. He had been searched thoroughly, a number of talismans hidden in his clothes had been retrieved and now lay in a pile next to his sword and flute in a far corner of the room. His hair had come loose, presumably from the struggle he must have put up when the men had kidnapped him, though all the fight had seemingly gone out of him when they had dragged him into the room.

He had complained to Tang Xue as he had been chained down, whining something about being on time for dinner. Tang Xue hadn’t listened, and somehow the man had realized, and he had pouted at Tang Xue, in an incredibly childish manner.

Now, he is quiet, as he looks around the room. Perhaps, Tang Xue thinks, he has just realized how much trouble he is in. He shows no sign of fear though, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t afraid. Most cultivators can put on a show of bravado even while they are trembling in fear on the inside, or so he has inferred from the little experience he has with them.

The men step aside as their leader enters. He walks purposefully, like a man on a mission. Tang Xue is suitably impressed. There was a reason this man was the leader! He stalks towards the sprawling man, stopping far enough to be out of reach, but close enough to kick him or restrain him as needed. It’s probably smart of him.

The leader nods, and one of the other men unsheathes a sword, pointing it at their prisoner, who only wrinkles his nose mildly at it.

“Yiling Patriarch,” their leader greets the chained man, who responds with a blindingly bright grin.

“That’s me,” he says cheerfully. For someone who was currently chained to a wall, in front of men armed to the teeth, including one pointing a sword at his throat, their prisoner seems far too much at ease.

“You’re a hard man to find,” their leader says.

“Well, clearly not, if I’m currently here,” the Yiling Patriarch replies, shrugging his shoulders, as far as he can with his hands chained.

“And yet, here you are,” their leader continues, ignoring the interruption. “The feared Yiling Patriarch, at our mercy. At my mercy.”

“You can just call me Wei Wuxian, you know,” the man replies flippantly. “I won’t be offended or anything.”

Then he reconsiders. “Actually, I might be offended if you make me late to dinner. So let’s get this straight. What do you want?”

Their leader grits his teeth at the constant insolent interruptions. “You’re going to help us,” he says firmly. His demands are, unfortunately, a lot less impressive sounding when stated like this. He sounds like he is merely answering Wei Wuxian. He doesn’t sound like he is the one controlling the conversation.

Wei Wuxian scoffs. “I’m not particularly in a helping mood.”

Their leader narrows his eyes. “You will help us,” he says, drawing himself up to his full height. “We have ways to make you cooperate, but it will be easier for you if you give in now.”

“Really,” Wei Wuxian deadpans, sounding completely unimpressed.

It enrages their leader enough that he backhands Wei Wuxian across the face. His head snaps sideways with the force of the blow, but he just takes it in silence, then calmly turns his head back to face the man currently towering over him and raises an eyebrow.

“Is that the best you can do?” he asks. Challenges.

Their leader follows it up with a sharp kick to the chest, a kick to the stomach, then backhands him again, fist hitting the same spot as before. The cheek begins to redden with the beginning of a bruise, and Wei Wuxian even spits out a little blood this time.

“That’s just a taste of what awaits you,” their leader huffs, shaking his hand out. “Keep talking and that face won’t be pretty any more.”

“I—”

Their leader doesn’t wait for him to finish, and hits him again in the face, splitting his lip this time. Then he pulls back and stares in satisfaction at the bruised face.

“Do you see how serious I am?”, he asks.

Wei Wuxian only tilts his head consideringly, probing the split lip with his tongue. “You seem like resourceful men,” he says, like he is absently complimenting them. “Why can’t you do whatever it is you want done yourself?”

Their leader snorts. “Why would we dirty our hands with demonic cultivation when we can have you do it for us instead?”

“Ah, I see!” Wei Wuxian says brightly, then sounds a bit sheepish. “Like I said, I’m not in a helping mood, so I can’t help you with… eh… what were you saying you wanted me to do?”

“We want you to destroy the Liu sect. Kill everyone.”

His face darkens slightly at that. “I don’t do that kind of thing,” he says seriously.

Their leader smirks, leaning in closer. He reaches out and grabs Wei Wuxian’s chin, forcing him to meet his eyes. “You will help us,” he says in a dangerous voice, “Or we will have to motivate you by bringing you bits and pieces of your husband. Maybe one of those kids that are hanging around you all the time too. All of them have a rather unfortunate tendency to go on a lot of night hunts, don’t they?”

Satisfied at the threat he has delivered, their leader moves back. Tang Xue’s eyes, however, remain on the Yiling Patriarch. His face shutters and his eyes narrow, yet when he speaks, it is in what Tang Xue can identify as a deceptively calm tone.

“You shouldn’t have threatened my family,” he says conversationally, like he is telling them what tea he likes best.

Their leader laughs out loud at that, heartily. “What are you going to do about it?” he asks.

Tang Xue looks around to see if anyone else thinks they should stop taunting the man who was known to have killed thousands of cultivators in one night. He looks to see if anyone else is considering running away.

None of them seem to be thinking along the lines he is, most of them watching eagerly as their leader continues to talk.

“You see, I’ve seen this kind of bravado before,” their leader continues. “‘You won’t be able to touch my family,’ they all say, but not one of them has been able to stop us. Every time, they have failed when faced with us. All they could do was weep and moan about what they had lost. Eventually, every one of them bent to our whims.”

An understanding look dawns on their prisoner’s face and his eyes darken somehow. “Those children,” he says through gritted teeth. “The ones that were disappearing. You took them?”

What? The group he was with had… kidnapped children? They certainly hadn’t told him that when he had joined! It had to be a lie, right?

Their leader smirks and begins to clap mockingly. “Well done!” he says. “The Yiling Patriarch is truly as perceptive as they say!”

“And what about the ones who were hurt in your… custody? Was that your doing too?”

Their leader shrugs. “Their parents got a bit defiant. They were all returned in one piece, weren’t they?”

What? Tang Xue was involved with these people who had kidnapped and hurt children? He had to be misunderstanding something!

“What can you do about it?” their leader continues, and Tang Xue turns to stare at him. Did he even know this man at all? “We have taken away your sword and your flute, those little talismans you rely on so much. We’ve removed every single corpse from this town and the next. Face it, Yiling Patriarch,” he sneers, “You are defenceless.”

A cold laugh interrupts him. “Am I? Are you certain?”

Tang Xue turns to look at the Yiling Patriarch who is wearing a smile again. This smile isn’t nice, it is cold and angry, and his teeth are just a little too sharp. It is the smile of a predator who has its prey right where it wants it. As Tang Xue keeps looking, he feels a weight on him, a weight that makes him want to get on his knees, cower, beg for mercy.

For a second, Tang Xue truly contemplates kneeling and professing that he had nothing to do with any hurt children, but he is frozen in place. All he can do is watch as the Yiling Patriarch tilts his head slightly, levels a stare at each one of them, then closes his eyes.

When he opens them again, his eyes are glowing red.

He lets out a single short, sharp whistle.

The shadows leap to his command.

 

Tang Xue doesn’t know exactly what happened after.

All he can remember is fear.

Mind-numbing, bone-chilling fear.

He burns with it, he cries, he screams.

He feels like he is a child again, staying up at night, terrified that his dreams will be haunted by the monsters he feared so much.

He shakes and yells and begs.

He pleads for mercy.

 

When he comes to, he is on the floor. His limbs are shaky and can’t support his weight. He cannot move from where he is. There is a bone-deep ache in him. When he lifts his head, he meets the glowing red gaze of the Yiling Patriarch, then has to immediately look away.

There’s only two of them now— Tang Xue and the leader. Everyone else— all that’s left of them is the blood splatters on the wall and their corpses on the ground. Their leader somehow looks even more shaken than Tang Xue feels.

“You— you—” he stammers, but Wei Wuxian only smiles mockingly.

As he prepares to whistle again, the leader stands on trembling legs and quickly uses a spell that seals his lip shut. They both sigh deeply in relief at the reprieve. If he can’t whistle, he can’t hurt them.

Wei Wuxian raises an eyebrow, then effortlessly unseals his lips.

“That was rude,” he says calmly. Then his eyes flash red again. “I wasn’t quite finished.”

He is once again interrupted before he can whistle, this time by the door crashing open. Tang Xue instinctively brings his arm up to cover his face as a tall white-robed figure strides in. He cautiously looks up to get a better look at the newcomer, and immediately regrets it.

The man looks incensed, his golden eyes flashing dangerously as he brandishes a very impressive looking sword. Tang Xue regrets every decision he has made in his life, every one of them that has led to him here, to a certain, painful death at the hands of one of these very dangerous men.

“Lan Zhan!” exclaims a cheerful voice— a voice that Tang Xue would have said was far too cheerful to belong to their prisoner if he didn’t know better. “You’re here!”

The newcomer— Lan Zhan, Tang Xue presumes— sweeps a look over Wei Wuxian, then immediately turns towards Tang Xue and the leader. He looks angrier now, if that’s even possible. “Which one?” he growls. Growls.

“Ah, Lan Zhan—”

“Which one?” he turns to look at Wei Wuxian who reluctantly jerks his head towards the leader.

The man walks up to the leader, eyes still blazing, then sheaths his sword. Instead, he grabs him by the neck and slams him against the nearest wall.

Just as Tang Xue is certain that he is going to watch the leader be killed painfully, then have a painful death himself— he wishes he had at least thought to ask for their leader’s name, instead he was going to die alongside a bunch of men whose names he didn’t even know— a voice interrupts them.

“Aiya, Lan Zhan, don’t kill him, I have questions for him!” Wei Wuxian exclaims. “He wanted me to do some very bad things, you know, I’m a little curious about his plans.”

The man currently choking the leader turns— presumably to look at Wei Wuxian, Tang Xue doesn’t dare to take his eyes off of where their leader is ineffectively scrabbling at the hand crushing his neck— then nods briefly and drops the leader like a particularly inconvenient sack of potatoes.

Tang Xue turns back around, only to realize that their prisoner is no longer their prisoner. While Tang Xue’s attention had been on the fact that their leader was having the life choked out of him, Wei Wuxian had somehow managed to get free of the restraints he had been in, which were lying pitifully shattered on the floor.

Which meant that he could have gotten out of them at any time.

Which meant that this whole time, he had been toying with them.

The thought terrifies Tang Xue, and he has already been terrified for quite a while now.

 

Wei Wuxian comes up to where he’s standing, and draws something in the air— Tang Xue doesn’t know exactly how cultivation works! He’s just a merchant who was trying to gain his future wife’s attention!— and Tang Xue finds himself flying towards their leader. Then he feels a sturdy rope wrap firmly around both of them so neither of them can move. Not that their leader is moving— he had passed out either from fear or air loss, or alternatively, from crumpling to the floor.

Seemingly satisfied that they won’t be doing anything further, Wei Wuxian flings himself at the other man.

“Lan Zhan! You saved me!” he exclaims. Then, he puts on the same childish pout that Tang Xue had dismissed when he had first been dragged into the room. “Lan Zhaaaan,” he whines. “Look at how harshly they’ve treated your poor Wei Ying! What would have become of your fragile, defenceless husband if you hadn’t found me in time?”

Fragile? Defenceless?

The room is still littered with bodies! There is blood splattered on the walls! Tang Xue is possibly never going to be able to close his eyes without seeing those terrifying horrifying images in his head again!

This man is going to appear in every one of Tang Xue’s nightmares, he has slaughtered nearly every member of his group just by whistling, and he has the audacity to call himself defenceless?

His husband however, doesn’t point any of this out. “Mn,” he says instead, reaching out to brush the split lip, then pressing a glowing hand to his bruised cheek— where the bruise had, in fact started fading already, even if Wei Wuxian’s husband is acting like it is a fatal injury. “I will always come for Wei Ying.”

He is rewarded with a blinding smile.

What.

What is he being forced to bear witness to?

“Er-gege!” Another dramatic pout. “You’ll have to carry your poor husband out! He is far too weak to walk!”

Tang Xue is pretty certain that despite this alleged statement of weakness, Wei Wuxian had broken through the restraints on the wall with brute strength alone, but he knows when to shut up. He has learnt today that he apparently isn’t good at assessing people’s threat levels or their planning abilities or even their character, but even he knows that in such a situation, the longer he is ignored, the longer he will live.

So he shuts up and watches as Wei Wuxian gets lifted into his husband’s arms. He watches as the man shifts his husband's weight to one hand, so he can pick up the discarded sword, flute, and the talismans with the other one, handing them to Wei Wuxian who gives him yet another blinding smile.

“Hanguang-jun,” he cooes. “I’m hurt very badly. Will you kiss it better?”

“Shameless!” his husband says, but leans in and kisses his forehead anyway.

Tang Xue wishes he was anywhere else. He is very envious of their leader who is knocked out cold, and doesn’t have to bear witness to their very dangerous, very murderous prisoner flirting with his equally dangerous, possibly slightly less murderous husband.

“Lan Zhan! That’s not where I’m hurt!”

“Later.”

Wei Wuxian uses another talisman that somehow allows his husband to drag Tang Xue and the leader behind him as he walks out, not even sparing a second glance at the rather painful way they are being jostled across the ground.

Tang Xue thinks, as a stone hits a particular sensitive spot on the back of his thigh, that maybe his mother did have a point about the pitfalls of greed.

Notes:

WWX when he's in danger/someone he cares about is in danger: 🗡️☠️👿
WWX when LWJ appears: 🥺😳🥺