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Chapter Text

One year after the events of the Guanyin Temple, and the death of former Chief Cultivator Lianfang-zun.

Lan Zhan!

I agree with what you said about Sect Leader Yao, that old fart. He wouldn’t know a good idea if it bit him on the arse. If I were you I’d have snuck into his room at night and shaved off his eyebrows – but then again, you’re Chief Cultivator, and you have to follow boring things like rules and protocol. Don’t worry, the next time I’m in Pingyang I’ll … It’s a secret! Look forward to the next time you have a discussion conference with that pig-headed old fool.

I’ve finally reached Yunmeng. Little Apple took such a long time to get started from the inn in Jiangling. I think he had a crush on one of the serving girls, to be honest. Even apples didn’t work to drag him away from her. I had to conjure a mirage of her all the way from Jiangling to Yunmeng to get him going – can you imagine that? One of these days I’ll have to find a nice little female ass to keep his little Little Apple happy … Hahaha! I can practically see you rolling your eyes at me now, Lan Zhan. You still can’t take a dirty joke after all.

Anyway, I digress. It’s nice to be back in Yunmeng and be able to pick all the lotus pods I want and to flirt with all the pretty Yunmeng girls, although none of them are as pretty as you are, of course. You’d make a big stir if you came to Yunmeng – you should visit with me one of these days when you’re free! Although I know of course you have responsibilities as Chief Cultivator etc etc but I promise you it’ll be fun! One of these days I’ll come kidnap you. Then Lan Qiren, that old man, would really have an aneurysm, ha! I’d kidnap you just to see his reaction.

Don’t worry about me, I’m talking nonsense as usual. I wouldn’t really kidnap you, unless I was really bored. And Jiang Cheng would probably beat my ass for trying. Honestly, it surprises me that I haven’t had the honour of Jiang Cheng’s company yet. Somehow, he always knows the moment I step into Yunmeng – it’s like he has a spell set up to go off whenever I’m in the vicinity??? And he never fails to turns up for an hour or two just to shout at me, thrash Zidian around a bit and tell me to go back to Gusu. Then he storms off somewhere to drink tea or something. I swear he’s going to die of high blood pressure one of these days.

Well, I expect I’ll see him around. He’s bound to turn up sometime or other. Looking forward to your reply, and counting every one of your twenty words,

Wei Wuxian

***

Lan Zhan!

Thank you for expressing your concern for Little Apple’s wellbeing. He’s eating well (as usual) and living happily in the city stables where I left him. He has a new crush on the stable boy though, but I’m not worried about that – it seems like his affections are as transient as floating smoke and passing clouds. He seems to be like his former master in the sense of being indiscriminate with regards to his choice of partner, which makes me wonder why he’s taken such an intense aversion to me. I guess it’s just the same old story with me and animals all over again.

It’s my third day in Yunmeng, and still no sign of Jiang Cheng anywhere. Perhaps he’s simply busy with some night hunt or other and can’t be bothered to whip my ass into shape. I’ve been visiting his favourite haunts the past few days but no luck – it seems like he’s really busy this time. I’m starting to worry, and although I never thought I’d ever say this, I miss his grumpy ass. It’s been the longest I’ve gone without hearing him call me a fucking idiot, haha!

Anyway I have a funny story to tell! Yesterday I went to investigate rumours of walking corpses at the base of Yunmeng Mountain. Apparently some farmers came across them and ran away but one of them was caught and eaten.

But guess what, Lan Zhan? Actually, it was nothing more than a group of hermits who’d come down from Yunmeng Mountain five days ago after meditating in seclusion for three years, and they were doing their Bagua ritual circle walk around one of the dove trees at the base of the mountain. They hadn’t bathed once in those three years, and so when the farmers came upon them and saw them chanting and moaning and pacing around the tree they were mistaken for walking corpses! Hahahaha how ridiculous is that??? Anyway I cleared up the misunderstanding. The farmer who was apparently eaten fell down a cliff when he was trying to escape from the “corpses” and broke his leg, so the hermits rescued him and patched him up. He was perfectly fine. I talked to them and they seemed like a pretty normal bunch to me – they were quite a big group when they came down the mountain at first apparently but then most of them decided to go down south and back home instead of lingering in Yunmeng. That’s about all the excitement I’ve had so far, I think.

Well, anyway, thank you for the twenty-one words you used in your reply. You have gotten quite adept at teasing me, haven’t you? Looking forward to how else you may surprise me next,

Wei Wuxian

***

Lan Zhan,

No, I don’t think Jiang Cheng fell off a cliff too. As much as you might wish for it to happen, he’s still my brother an important sect leader, you know! Anyway I already checked all the cliffs around the mountain before I received your letter so it couldn’t possibly be so.

Besides, I went to Lotus Pier earlier today – just to check on how things are going, you know, in case they need my help or something, nothing to do with Jiang Cheng. I just stayed outside the gates because I thought Jiang Cheng would probably descend from the heavens on a cloud and break my legs the moment I stepped foot into Lotus Pier, but some of the disciples spotted me and asked me what I was doing there. They said there have been people disappearing just outside Yunmeng, to the southwest and twenty li outside the main city, and when some of the Yunmeng Jiang cultivators went to investigate a few days ago some of them disappeared. So Jiang Cheng decided to take a few more of the Yunmeng Jiang disciples and investigate himself.

Since I have some free time, I’ve decided to help them out. They’ve been gone for four days already – the beast must truly be a handful indeed. It might be fun to go and help, although I think Jiang Cheng might spontaneously explode when he sees my face. Well, maybe the explosion will end up killing the monster, who knows.

It’s quite odd, though; some of the disciples who escaped even said they saw the spectre of Jin Guangyao, that wily old fox, hanging around the cave where they were attacked. Although of course that is impossible, for he is probably still trapped in Nie Mingjue’s coffin, fighting a battle till the end of time. Well, I guess I’ll see for myself if what they saw was true or not.

I had not known that you were capable of silk embroidery. Your skill is indeed fine – as expected of the esteemed Second Master Lan! I shall treasure your gift until the end of time. The cherry blossoms flowered today, and they made me think of you. I wonder if you still remember visiting Tanzhou with me when we were looking for the remaining pieces of the Yin metal? Was it your first time attending such a festival? You looked so surprised by the petals raining down on you then! I miss those times. 

I will write to you again tomorrow when I have rescued Jiang Cheng from the human-eating monster. I will make sure to give you a good account of his face when he sees me there to interfere with his night hunt, ha!

***

Dear Lan Wangji Hanguang-jun Mr Chief Cultivator Sir,

I am writing this letter to you because I know you to be a good friend of Wei Wuxian. Just today, I visited Lotus Pier and found that my uncle has been missing for a week, and Wei Wuxian with him for two of those days. They have apparently gone in pursuit of a human-eating monster twenty li southwest of the main city limits of Yunmeng. It must have been a fierce creature indeed to have ensnared both my uncle and Wei Wuxian

Unfortunately, as I am currently extremely and regrettably tied up in Lanling Jin sect matters, this humble person would like to humbly request for your help in locating and possibly rescuing them. Thank you.

Best regards, yours sincerely and most humbly,

Sect Leader Jin Ling, Lanling Jin sect

Chapter Text

Wei Wuxian woke in darkness, and it was a darkness he did not recognise.

He sat up, groaning as the movement jarred his bones and made him ache in places he’d not known existed. There was something clouding his thoughts, draining his energy; after a few moments wherein he tried to get his bearings, he sensed the presence of a suppressing array designed to repress spiritual energy and sap his strength.

It was not a man-made array. Instead, it had the hallmarks of something far more ancient and terrible.

The amount of resentful energy in the air was so thick that he almost choked on it. In fact, if not for the suppressing array, he would have had trouble stopping the energy from churning through his body and sending him into a state of backlash.

As he stumbled to his feet, there was a crunch underfoot. Something sharp poked into his hand as he steadied himself against the ground. He felt for the object, and as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he realised he had stepped on and broken the jaw bone of a skull.

“Ah – “ reflexively he recoiled. Then he relaxed as he realised it was likely the skull of a deer.

As he blinked and looked about the room, slowly things came into focus. First he saw around him walls made of dark, dank stone. There was a sour, mossy smell in the air; the air felt thick with moisture, and he wrinkled his nose in response. His head felt like it had been stuffed with cotton, and there was a faint ringing in his ears, likely from the blow to his head he’d received to knock him out before he’d been dragged into this chamber.

“At least whatever took me left me mostly intact,” he muttered to himself, fishing a talisman out of his robes and lighting it with a brief spark of spiritual energy.

He looked down, and realised that the floor was littered with more bones – animal bones, human bones, and unidentifiable shards which were coated in a thin layer of something shiny. When he nudged one of the fragments, it made a squishing noise under his foot, and Wei Wuxian instantly regretted his curiosity.

This must be the lair of the human-eating monster, he thought to himself, and this is where it chucks the remnants of its meals… it must have deemed Mo Xuanyu too skinny and underfed to be worthwhile fare, and tossed me in here for storage instead. It’s not my fault his isn’t a body which builds muscle easily! Why, if I only had my old body…

As he continued to stew indignantly over the monster’s disrespect of his physique, he returned his gaze to the walls, and suddenly realised that there was a passageway carved into the wall, leading into the next room. With one last glance around the chamber he was currently occupying, he deemed there to be little else of note therein, and trotted over to the aperture in the wall.

As he walked cautiously through the passageway, feeling his way with his hands and trying not to cringe at the thin layer of sticky moisture which gathered on his palms, suddenly the corridor opened out into a large chamber. More bones crunched under his feet, and now he found he had to pick his way carefully across the floor without falling over.

Abruptly the faint light from his talisman revealed a purple-clad body on the ground, and Wei Wuxian tripped.

Thankfully, he caught himself before he managed to fall on the body, and once he had regained his balance, he squatted over the body and squinted balefully at the face of the unfortunate person.

Jiang Cheng?! Wei Wuxian exclaimed mentally. What luck!

- Or, lack thereof, depending on how you looked at it. It was supremely lucky that he’d managed to find Jiang Cheng – alive, judging from the steady shallow rise and fall of his chest – and with all limbs and his head still firmly attached. But also supremely unlucky in the sense that they were now alone in a room with both their spiritual energy severely depleted, and without other Yunmeng Jiang sect members/Lan Zhan as buffers.

“Oh well. The rice is now cooked; what’s done is done, and there’s no way around it,” Wei Wuxian sighed. “I’ll just have to deal with his bad temper when he wakes up.”

Wei Wuxian leant over Jiang Cheng and scanned his body. There were faint lines on his temples where dried blood had trickled down from a wound on his head, similar to that on Wei Wuxian’s own forehead, but there didn’t seem to be much lasting damage. His spiritual energy was worryingly low, however, and it could barely be felt through his pulse point. Hurriedly, Wei Wuxian yanked open the collar of his robe and undergarments and placed his hand against his chest.

Thankfully, the thrumming of his spiritual energy was still present – very faint and weak, but still there.

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING,” Jiang Cheng said weakly.

“Aaaahhh!” Wei Wuxian yelped, falling backwards and dropping the talisman. They stared at each other for a moment.

“Why are you the one yelling? I’m the one who woke up to being groped by a goddamn cut-sleeve!” Jiang Cheng shouted, albeit a bit feebly.

“Even when you’re half-dead you’re still so noisy,” Wei Wuxian said peevishly. “I was just checking your golden core! As if I’d want to touch you. Gross. And I’m not a cut-sleeve,” he added quickly.

Jiang Cheng ignored him, lifting himself up on his elbows and attempting to get onto his feet. He slapped away Wei Wuxian’s outstretched hand and managed to hobble upright on his own.

“My golden core,” he said suddenly, and looked up at Wei Wuxian with wild eyes. “I can barely feel it. And my senses feel dulled. I can’t think properly. What the hell’s happened to me?!”

“There’s a suppressing array in place,” Wei Wuxian answered. “Can’t you feel it? It’s suppressing your spiritual energy and sapping your strength.”

“Why don’t you seem affected then?” Jiang Cheng said, his tone mildly accusatory.

Wei Wuxian paused. “I don’t have a golden core, remember. And I’ve gone so long without one, I suppose it’s easier to get used to operating on lower spiritual energy.”

He kept his tone breezy and light, but even he felt that it was slightly over-played. Jiang Cheng’s jaw clenched and he turned away.

Wei Wuxian sighed. “Come on, Jiang Cheng,” he tried. “You know it doesn’t matter to me anymore. It’s an old wound, and I was the one who chose to give it up anyway. It wasn’t your fault at all.”

When Jiang Cheng turned back, there was so much guilt and anger in his eyes, Wei Wuxian found he could no longer stand it. He broke their gaze and looked around instead.

“We’re going to need weapons for defence,” he said, thinking out loud. “Spiritual weapons won’t work, since you’re low on spiritual energy, so Sandu and Zidian are out. Oh, how about this!” and he skipped over to the corner of the room, where a bunch of corpses were haphazardly piled on top of each other, covered in sparse cobwebs. A giant hairy spider crawled out of one of the skulls’ mouths and scuttled sideways into the shadows.

From their garb, the bodies had apparently been farmers or fishermen, and accordingly, there were various tools scattered on the ground next to them. Wei Wuxian picked up a few of the items and scrutinised them.

“Here, Jiang Cheng!” he called, and held them out. “Hoe, spade, pitchfork; time to play farmer for the day! Take your pick?”

Jiang Cheng grabbed the pitchfork without looking, his eyes trained on their surroundings and scanning the walls with what little light from the talisman remained. He clenched his fist, and Zidian crackled weakly, but otherwise there was no response, as expected.

“What do you remember before you were knocked out?” he said finally. “How did you find me here?”

Wei Wuxian was relieved to find that Jiang Cheng’s demeanour was back to normal.

He dropped the tools carelessly. “Hmm… I’ve been in Yunmeng for a while, and I went to – I met some Yunmeng Jiang disciples in Yunmeng and they told me you’d taken a group of your cultivators to the area outside the city where there had been a monster causing trouble and eating humans,” he said. “Since you’d been gone for quite a while, I figured it might be an interesting monster, so I came to have a look. I found the entrance to a cave in the area the disciples mentioned, but just as I entered, something knocked me out. Though I didn’t see what.”

“It was the same for me.” Jiang Cheng’s brow darkened, and his jaw clenched. “We must find the Yunmeng Jiang cultivators who came with me – whether they be dead or alive.”

Wei Wuxian nodded grimly. “I came from another room in which there were also many bones and remnants of clothing. There must be other rooms in which they may be found.”

They made their way sombrely through the various passageways and tunnels into other rooms which also reeked of dampness and decay. One by one, they found the distinctive bright purple robes of the Yunmeng Jiang disciples, covering bodies with the flesh only recently gnawed off the bones. For all of them, Jiang Cheng knelt by their sides and covered their bones with their robes, and arranged their remains tidily as best he could.

As he stood up from the side of the last corpse of the Yunmeng Jiang cultivators who’d accompanied him on his night hunt, his eyes were red with unshed tears. Wei Wuxian tactfully remained silent as Jiang Cheng took a few moments more to compose himself.

“We should get out and find reinforcements,” Wei Wuxian said at last, when Jiang Cheng’s colour had returned, and his grip on Sandu’s handle had loosened.

At Wei Wuxian’s words, he stiffened, and said suddenly, “What about the monster? It’s somewhere in here causing havoc. Who knows how many more people will killed in the time it takes for us to get back to Lotus Pier and fetch more people to help?”

“Our spiritual energy is so diminished, and we don’t have any useful weapons on us,” Wei Wuxian answered exasperatedly. “With this suppressing array in place, what damage can we possibly do to the monster?”

“Even if we bring reinforcements, they’ll be hit by the suppressing array too,” Jiang Cheng said stubbornly

“This creature is clearly a dangerous one, if our experiences have taught us anything, and one not to be taken lightly. We won’t be able to do much to it!” Wei Wuxian protested.

“Didn’t you kill the Xuanwu even while starved for three days, and heavily injured?” Jiang Cheng rebutted angrily. “Are you saying I’m not as competent as Lan Wangji?”

When Jiang Cheng was like this, it was difficult to deal with him. Wei Wuxian let his exasperation get the better of him. “Fine! Have it your way then!” he snapped. “For the record, I still think we’re going to our death. But since you’re being so pig-headed about it, we might as well try and find the monster and do what damage we can before we end up dying.”

They walked for a bit in a stony silence. The talisman, previously already on its last embers, soon shrivelled away into nothingness. Wei Wuxian wordlessly fished another yellow sheet from his robes and lit their way once more.

In the few moments in which darkness had reigned, Jiang Cheng’s expression had changed.

He quickly schooled it back to his familiar frown, however, and Wei Wuxian would have thought it a trick of the light, if he had not seen it plain as day.

“At least… let’s at least scope out the terrain so we know it better,” Jiang Cheng muttered, with a curious scraping noise, as if he were grinding his teeth. “Then we’ll know it better the second time when we come back with reinforcements.”

“… Are you feeling alright?” Wei Wuxian asked cautiously, with concern. “You don’t have a fever, do you? Why are you agreeing with me all of a sudden?”

“Shut up! Don’t make me change my mind!” Jiang Cheng said huffily, and walked a little bit faster.

Now I remember why Jin Ling’s princess-like temper seemed so familiar, Wei Wuxian thought to himself. He’s a carbon copy of Jiang Cheng as a child! No wonder, what with the way Jiang Cheng raises him.

Of course he would never dare to say such a thing to Jiang Cheng’s face, so they continued ambling on in more silence. Suddenly, Wei Wuxian stopped in his tracks.

“What is it?”

“I can sense something different,” Wei Wuxian said, turning his head from side to side as he attempted to trace the thing which had caught his attention. He closed his eyes and focused his mind.

It took him much concentration and mental capacity, but finally he sensed what had distracted him – a tendril of energy which differed from the constant thrum of resentful energy that threatened to overwhelm him at every step, the latter which likely came from the multiple corpses that they had left behind in the previous rooms. This new energy felt more similar to the force that sustained the suppressing array, but at the same time, curiously unlike. Wei Wuxian tilted his head to the side as he tried to sort out the tangled coils of energy in the air, into a more coherent map.

“I think I can sense the spiritual energy of the monster,” he said, after a few moments. “That is, if this creature is indeed the one that set up the suppressing array. Following its energy should lead us to its location.”

“There’s such a thick cloud of resentful energy. You can tell the monster’s energy apart?” Jiang Cheng asked in disbelief.

“Master of Demonic Cultivation, remember?” Wei Wuxian said, mustering up a grin. “I lived and breathed resentful energy for a while before I, er, before the siege on the Yiling Mounds.” He rushed on quickly before Jiang Cheng could become maudlin again. “It’s nothing to me, to tell apart different sources of resentful energy.”

“I’ve never before heard of a beast that was able to cast a suppressing array,” Jiang Cheng said, thankfully too preoccupied with the matter at hand to be easily distracted by talk of the past. “It must be a human-like monster then – but no, those were clearly the marks of an animal’s teeth on the bodies of my cultivators.”

Wei Wuxian nodded. “My line of thinking was the same as yours. I don’t think this thing is purely beast-like nor human-like, and it’s probably a mix of both, such that it’s able to cast a suppressing array, and yet attack people with such ferocity and strength. We’ll have to trace the energy to its source to find out.”

With a grunt of acknowledgement from Jiang Cheng in response, they continued trudging on in a firm, painful silence. This was a foreign concept to Wei Wuxian; even in his time with Lan Zhan, that taciturn rock of a man, he’d been able to fill the void between them with his aimless chatter and the playing of Chenqing. But something between him and Jiang Cheng still felt too raw, too new and vulnerable, to risk damaging with his usual frivolous antics.

This is so awkward, Wei Wuxian thought. Should I make the first move? But he might yell at me again. Hang on, since when have I been so afraid of Jiang Cheng’s scoldings? Anyway, what would I even ask him? ‘How are the lotuses doing in Lotus Pier?’ Um, no…

Surprisingly, however, Jiang Cheng was the first to break the silence.

“How – ahem. How is Lan Wangji?”

Wei Wuxian wasn’t sure he’d heard him right at first, but as he looked at Jiang Cheng incredulously, the question forming on his lips, Jiang Cheng flushed, and looked away.

“Oh! Er, Lan Zhan?” Wei Wuxian asked, loudly to cover up both their discomfort. “I haven’t seen him in a while. He’s Chief Cultivator, you know! Isn’t that amazing?”

Jiang Cheng muttered something that sounded suspiciously like I’m the Yunmeng Jiang sect leader, of course I know who the fucking Chief Cultivator is, but then he harrumphed and cleared his throat. Wei Wuxian magnanimously decided to let him off and pretend he hadn’t heard anything.

“I thought you two were inseparable?” Jiang Cheng asked, darting a sideways glance at Wei Wuxian. “And yet you haven’t seen him for a while?”

For some reason, that particular question grated at Wei Wuxian’s skin, and the light of the talisman flickered in response to his annoyance. “Well, he’s busy,” he said airily, “and… and I’ll see him soon. I’m sure of it. As if he could go a day without my presence!”

“He seems to be getting on perfectly fine without you,” Jiang Cheng pointed out, detestably reasonable as always.

“With Lan Zhan’s poker face, how can you tell?” Wei Wuxian returned quickly. This time it was he who walked a little faster, just to be spiteful, and just because he could.

“You look like you’ve been tramping through the wilderness,” Jiang Cheng said, abruptly switching the subject.

“I’ve just been living wild for a while. You know, living off the land, eating only fruits and berries, surviving by my abundance of wits as usual…”

“Hah!” Jiang Cheng snorted. It was not a nice snort, Wei Wuxian thought crossly, and in retaliation, he decided not to respond.

Jiang Cheng finally spoke up again, after a long while in which Wei Wuxian had been distracting himself with thoughts of a new classification system for demons of the five elements. “We’ve been going in circles!” he said, and his tone bridled with frustration.  “I recognise that rock formation over there. I caught my hand on it earlier – look, my blood is still fresh on the stone.”

Wei Wuxian looked at the rock, and indeed, Jiang Cheng’s blood still glistened on its surface. He wondered how he could have gotten so completely turned around – hadn’t he just been following the tendril of malevolent energy? He could’ve sworn he’d felt it getting stronger, too, which should have meant that they were nearing its source. How was it that they’d ended up circling back to where they’d started?

“I thought we were following the energy from the creature,” Jiang Cheng said irritably.

“Shhh,” Wei Wuxian said, not paying attention to him. “There’s something else at work here. Something I’m not getting.”

Surprisingly, Jiang Cheng quieted down, and leaned against the wall. He did so surreptitiously, as if to escape Wei Wuxian’s sight, but of course he noticed.

Jiang Cheng must be more drained than I thought, Wei Wuxian thought, if he’s stopped arguing with me. Especially since he’s been here for a few days more than me already, and with no food or water. I must find a way to get us out of here - and quickly.

He mustered what little spiritual energy he had left, and focused. In his mind he pushed aside the suppressing fog that clouded his thoughts and distracted his attention, concentrating only on sensing the pulses of energy emanating from every wall in the passageway around him. There was the faint tendril of energy from the creature responsible for the suppressing array, yes, and overwhelming amounts of resentful energy pouring from the corpses of the creature’s meals, and underneath it all… underneath all that energy…

“There’s a maze array in place,” he realised suddenly, his voice echoing in the stillness of the corridor. “It’s cleverly buried under the other layers of energy in this cave, but it’s there. It must have been cast a long time ago, for I could barely sense its presence. And it was not cast by the creature maintaining the suppressing array.”

“That’s what’s confusing your sense of direction?” Jiang Cheng asked despairingly. “Then how are we supposed to get out of here with little spiritual energy and our only lead a complete dead end?”

Wei Wuxian shook his head, mustering a small smile. “Don’t lose hope so easily, Jiang Cheng! We’ll find a way out. We just need a way to overcome the maze array – then we can follow the creature’s malevolent energy without being confused. We just need some way of maintaining our sense of direction.”

“What do you suggest we do? Is there any way to track our steps, perhaps?” Jiang Cheng said.

Wei Wuxian tapped idly at the side of his nose as he thought, pacing back and forth in the confined space. Jiang Cheng’s eyes, lit up by the flickering light of the paper talisman, followed him back and forth.

“I could cast a tracking spell… no, but with my depleted spiritual energy, that wouldn’t last long… I have the Compass of Evil which I worked on to improve last week, but this creature doesn’t consume souls, and so it wouldn’t work… Oh?”

The unravelling hem of his ratty travelling robe had snagged on a shard of rock protruding out of the wall, and had caused him to pause in his steps. Wei Wuxian stared down at the little loop of thread curled around the stone protrusion.

Suddenly, an epiphany came upon him.

“I have an idea!” he said, excitedly, and began picking apart the hem of his robe. Jiang Cheng lifted himself off the wall and came over to inspect what he was doing.

“What’s that supposed to do?” he asked sceptically. “Is it just another excuse for you to go naked again? Oi, just because it’s just me down here with you - ”

“It was one time, and I was eight,” Wei Wuxian said exasperatedly, “and don’t tell me you’d never seen a penis before that! I don’t know why you had to act like a blushing maiden and try to stab me with your brush. We’re both men, aren’t we? Nothing you haven’t seen before!”

While he’d been going on, and Jiang Cheng had started spluttering and turning interesting colours, he’d managed to unpick the thread from his robe, and tied it around a sturdy stalagmite on the ground. He gave the limestone pillar a few experimental pulls, and it didn’t budge.

“Now we just have to follow the thread, and we’ll know which routes we’ve walked, and which routes we haven’t!” he said brightly, as he straightened up.

“That’s… actually a good idea,” Jiang Cheng said grudgingly, crossing his arms over his chest and looking down at the stalagmite.

“I always have good ideas. Don’t you know?” Wei Wuxian said, grinning. “Come on, let’s hurry. I don’t know how many days have passed, but surely it’s been too long already. We should quickly find the monster’s hideout and then figure out a way to escape.”

It was indeed a good idea, if Wei Wuxian said so himself (and he did, multiple times, very smugly, so much so that Jiang Cheng started ignoring him again), and with its aid, they managed to find their way out of the maze of corridors that surrounded the rooms containing the corpses. Wei Wuxian heaved a sigh of relief as he finally felt the thick fog of resentful energy that had been giving him a massive headache, fade away into the background and eventually disappear.

Now, the passageways they walked were a little less damp, and a little less foul-smelling. There were even lamps embedded in the wall, unlit and covered with cobwebs, but obviously made by a talented craftsman. Wei Wuxian stopped to inspect one of them, and the style of its carvings and the technique of its forging marked it as a craft belonging to the dynasty of six centuries ago.

“Whatever inhabits this cave must be ancient indeed,” Jiang Cheng said grimly, as Wei Wuxian shared this insight with him.

They stopped abruptly as a carven wooden door appeared beside them, looming out of the darkness, leading into an enclave that branched off from the main tunnel.

The frame of the door extended high above their visible range, and as Wei Wuxian guided the talisman as far up as he dared without losing his tenuous hold on the charm, they realised just how large the tunnel was beginning to run. All they could see above them was darkness, and there was no observable ceiling. They exchanged glances, and with a mutual nod of acknowledgement, Jiang Cheng placed his palm on the door and pushed firmly.

It creaked open with a loud sound of protest. The noise made both of them wince and glance around sharply to see if the clamour had attracted any undue attention. But thankfully, even after a few moments of silence, they were still alone in the tunnel, with no foes in sight. Jiang Cheng pushed the door open all the way, and they peered into the darkness cautiously.

“It’s a library - !” Wei Wuxian exclaimed, his voice hushed, as the talisman floated into the room and lit up shelves upon shelves of crumbling, decaying books and scrolls. Jiang Cheng scanned the titles, trying to make out the words on their spines.

“Vegetarian Dietary Principles,” Jiang Cheng read out, “Journey to the West, Classic of Poetry, Classic – Classic of – Music?”

Wei Wuxian expelled a surprised breath and shook his head. “Whoever owned this library must have been a great patron of the arts - he’s even managed to acquire books which no one’s ever had a copy of before! It’s a collection to rival even that of the Gusu Lan library. But such a valuable hoard would usually be maintained zealously by its collector, not left to rot away in such a sorry state.”

The talisman settled on a pile of objects arranged neatly in the corner of the library, and Wei Wuxian felt his brows shoot up even further.

“A guqin, guzheng, pipa, dihu, yangqin – truly an impressive collection of instruments from all across China!” he said admiringly. “They’ve been left to gather dust as well, and they haven’t been maintained in a while. Things are becoming curiouser and curiouser indeed.”

“Perhaps the owner of the collection was eaten by the monster,” Jiang Cheng suggested.

“Perhaps,” Wei Wuxian said doubtfully. I feel that there’s something here we’re still not getting…

They left the library behind, unable to see much in the darkness and with their limited light source. Wei Wuxian had to light another talisman, for the previous one flickered and shrivelled to dust. Just as he did, his stomach let out a loud sound of dissatisfaction, and he automatically pressed a hand to his abdomen.

“I’m hungryyyyyy,” he whined. “Jiang Cheng, do you have any food?”

“Stop talking nonsense,” Jiang Cheng retorted sharply. “If I’d had any food, I’d long since have eaten it up already!”

“Ugh,” Wei Wuxian groaned, leaning dramatically forward as they walked. “I’m going to die of hunger. Who knows how many days and nights we’ve spent in here! It’s not like you have a set sleep schedule so we can count the days. We’ve probably been walking for a few days without rest already – and who knows how much longer it’ll take to get out.”

He felt his coat slip off his shoulder, and he looked down at it. Because of the unravelling string, his already-raggedy outerwear was falling apart, and it no longer resembled anything coat-like. Wei Wuxian shrugged it off and tucked it under his right arm, and was left only in his underthings.

“I feel the wind blowing through places I didn’t know existed,” he complained, shivering.

Jiang Cheng looked at him and immediately averted his eyes, a dull flush colouring his cheeks. “Shameless!” he spluttered. “What wind?! There’s barely any wind, we’re underground! Wei Wuxian, you’re truly shameless as always!”

“Now you’re starting to sound like the old Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian muttered under his breath. “One of him is good enough, thank you very much…”

Suddenly, there was an ear-splitting crash, and it was only their quick reflexes that caused them not to be buried under a large column of rocks that suddenly came pouring down on them. Both of them leapt to the side, and stared, bug-eyed, at the spot in which they had been standing just moments ago.

“Agh, my eyes,” said Jiang Cheng loudly, as the fog from the avalanche cleared, and piercing sunlight shone down on them from the large hole which had suddenly opened up in the ceiling of the tunnel, far above them. Wei Wuxian shielded his eyes with his hand and squinted blearily up at the hole.

…

“LAN ZHAN!!!!” he cried out happily, as he made eye contact with a very dear, familiar figure. Lan Zhan peered imperiously down at them, the sunlight making it seem as though his head was glowing.

“Speak of Cao Cao and Cao Cao will arrive,” Wei Wuxian said, bouncing excitedly up and down on the spot. “Didn’t I tell you Lan Zhan could be counted on to rescue us?* Huh? He’s reliable, isn’t he?”

*A/N: (he didn’t)

“Did you really have to invoke his name?” Jiang Cheng said grumpily, following his gaze upwards. “I always feel like he’s looking down on me, but now he’s actually literally looking down on me.”

Another figure appeared beside Lan Zhan and peeked cautiously over the edge of the hole. After squinting for a while more, Wei Wuxian realised it was Lan Xichen.

“Are you two alright?” Lan Xichen called down to them, his gentle voice filled with concern. “I’m afraid we went a little, ah, overboard in trying to get down to you two…”

“We’re fine, Zewu-jun, thanks for your concern!” Wei Wuxian hollered back up at them. “Won’t you come down and join us? We’re depleted of spiritual energy and unable to join you up there!”

Lan Zhan immediately flew down, but the moment he alighted and laid his eyes on Wei Wuxian, his finely-sculpted eyebrows shot up towards to his forehead.

“What – what happened to your outer robe?” he said, sounding faintly strangled.

“Oh – this? I used the string from my hem to track our progress through this cave,” Wei Wuxian replied cheerily. “There’s a maze array in place, although it’s quite difficult to detect, and with our limited spiritual energy there wasn’t any other way to stop ourselves getting lost. Jiang Cheng will tell you it was quite a clever idea. It must have been quite cold outside, Lan Zhan, your ears are turning pink! Here, rub your hands together…”

Jiang Cheng, predictably, ignored him and lifted his hands in a salute to Lan Xichen, who’d descended as well to join them. “Sect Leader Lan,” he said formally, and Lan Xichen returned the gesture. Jiang Cheng turned to Lan Zhan and repeated the gesture, a little more unwillingly.

“Here, take this,” Lan Zhan said, pulling a qiankun pouch out from his sleeve. Sticking his hand inside the pouch, he drew out an overcoat with the designs of the Gusu Lan sect and placed it securely around Wei Wuxian’s shoulders.

Wei Wuxian whistled in surprise and appreciation. “Lan Zhan, you came prepared! It’s one of your robes, isn’t it?” A thought occurred to him which made him laugh out loud in pure delight. “Ooh, Lan Zhan, are you embarrassed by my lack of clothing? You know I’m shameless, I don’t mind even if I’m just parading around in my underwear or even if I’m stark naked.”

“As you can tell, Hanguang-jun, he’s doing perfectly fine,” Jiang Cheng said acrimoniously. “The days of starvation and lack of spiritual energy haven’t done anything to dampen his personality.”

Wei Wuxian pouted. “Lan Zhan knows that,” he replied peevishly. “We killed the Xuanwu together under the same circumstances, remember?”

A soft laugh from the side reminded him of Lan Xichen’s presence, and he spun around to face him.

“Sect Leader Lan, what’re you doing here?” Wei Wuxian asked curiously. “I thought you were in seclusion. What brings you here?”

Lan Xichen smiled. “I was in seclusion, but Wangji came to me today and told me of your and Sect Leader Jiang’s disappearance. He was quite distressed by the news, and asked me for help to track the two of you down. And when I heard that A-Yao – that Jin Guangyao had been seen in the area…”

He hesitated, and said no more. None of them pressed him further.

“How did you manage to find us?” Jiang Cheng asked quickly, directing his question at Lan Zhan.

“Jin Ling wrote to me when he found that you were missing,” Lan Zhan answered. “We followed your trail to this place. And I could sense Wei Ying’s energy coming from here, so we entered here.”

“You could sense my energy?” Wei Wuxian asked, bewildered by this new turn of events. “But – how? Plus the suppressing array – “

“Where is the human-eating monster?” Lan Zhan asked abruptly, cutting him off. “Have you already killed it?”

After a pause, Wei Wuxian shook his head, and relayed the events of the past few days to them. It turned out that Jiang Cheng had been missing for nine days, and Wei Wuxian for three – that explains why Jiang Cheng looks so exhausted, he thought to himself; nine days without food or drink will do that to you.

Lan Xichen passed them water in a flask and two bags filled with baozi, steamed buns, which Jiang Cheng immediately started scarfing down ravenously. Lan Zhan took the other bag and held up the flask to Wei Wuxian’s mouth.

“Drink,” he said softly. One of his hands came up behind Wei Wuxian’s back to steady him.

Wei Wuxian drank obediently, thinking, I am so loved.

When he finished, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Lan Zhan immediately fished one of the baozi out of the bag and held it up for Wei Wuxian to take a bite. The meat inside the bun tasted truly delicious to his starved palate, and he couldn’t stop himself from letting out little ‘mm’s of enjoyment as he chewed.

Only when Wei Wuxian had finished munching on the baozi did Lan Zhan exhale and relax, although his hand still remained on Wei Wuxian’s lower back.

“Thanks, Lan Zhan,” he said, smiling widely. Something about Lan Zhan’s presence always left him feeling refreshed. “I knew I could count on you. You’re such a reliable friend. No wonder you’re the Chief Cultivator, indeed!”

“You’re fucking kidding me,” Jiang Cheng said indistinctly, and Wei Wuxian whipped around to look at him.

(If he was being perfectly honest, he’d forgotten Jiang Cheng – and Lan Xichen – were there.)

The two of them were staring openly at him and Lan Zhan, the bag of baozi dangling loosely from Jiang Cheng’s hand and Jiang Cheng’s cheeks still stuffed with bites of baozi so that he looked like a squirrel. Lan Xichen’s smile looked like it had ossified on his face.

“What?” Wei Wuxian said in confusion. He looked at Lan Zhan for reassurance that he wasn’t the only one bewildered in this situation, but Lan Zhan seemed to be trying to do something with his face, alternately widening and squinting his eyes at the two other people.

Lan Xichen coughed. “Never – never mind, Young Master Wei,” he said, his smile back on his face, although now it looked a little bit forced. “If you’ve finished your meal, we should proceed with your original plan to find the human-eating monster. Wangji and I have spent only a few moments in this cave, but already I can feel the effects of the suppressing array. Wangji, you feel it too?”

Lan Zhan inclined his head, his face back to its usual expressionlessness. “It was not cast by a human,” he replied. “The energy is different. Staying here longer than necessary will result in full depletion of our spiritual energy.” He materialised his guqin and played a few complicated sounding notes. Blue light flared as he cast the pathfinding spell, and it formed a faint line on the ground showing the direction in which they were to go.

“We must hurry,” he said brusquely, “or my energy will fail and the spell will disappear.”

“Got it,” Wei Wuxian said, nodding decisively, feeling much more comfortable and at ease now that he was no longer alone with Jiang Cheng, and Lan Zhan was here at his side. As they walked, Wei Wuxian filled the silence with his usual chatter, speculating about the origins of the creature and how it could possibly have cast a suppressing array, interrupted only by Lan Zhan’s ‘mm’s of acknowledgment and the occasional offered insight.

If he was speaking a little louder than usual, it was only because he could feel the supreme awkwardness radiating off the two sect leaders walking behind them. It wasn’t coming off Lan Xichen, no – Wei Wuxian had previously turned around surreptitiously to check on the two of them and Lan Xichen had looked perfectly at ease and his usual composed self. Rather, it was Jiang Cheng who was blatantly trying to avoid everyone’s gaze, and who’d answered Lan Xichen’s initial attempts at conversations with curt, albeit polite, rejoinders.

That’s strange, Wei Wuxian mused to himself, as he chattered on to Lan Zhan about his theories regarding whether or not beasts had souls akin to that of humans, Jiang Cheng’s used to silence and isn’t often fazed. I wonder if something happened between him and Zewu-jun? Or maybe he’s just tired. Or maybe he feels left out of the conversation between me and Lan Zhan? But that’s not my fault! He’s the one being all grumpy and crabby. I mean, I know things aren’t exactly back to normal between us, but I’d thought after the Guanyin Temple events he’d started to hate me a little bit less…

“We’re here,” Lan Zhan said, stopping abruptly, as the faint blue line on the ground ended and they were faced with a large door.

This was different from the door that had led into the library, for it was carved out of granite and not wood, and gems were embedded deep into the stone in a pattern that radiated out from the centre, where two large knockers were located. The faces of two door gods glared at them out of the darkness, painted as they were on either panel of the door.

It must have been a glorious sight, Wei Wuxian thought to himself, when the lamps had been lit. But now the gems only gleamed dully in the limited light from the talisman, and the paint of the door gods was chipped and peeling. Now their stares looked mournful, rather than stern and majestic, as they would have been before.

Words were carved into the upper frame of the door, large, sombre characters in ancient text. They looked as if they had been etched into the stone by a great claw, the edges of the words were still clear and relatively unchipped by time.

“Cave of… Cave of Dormancy?” Wei Wuxian read with some difficulty, for he had not practised reading ancient scripts to any significant extent.

“There is a great well of yang energy beyond this door,” Lan Xichen said from behind them, his voice almost awestruck. Wei Wuxian concurred. As they had been following the path indicated by Lan Zhan’s pathfinding spell, he too had felt the presence of a boundless amount of yang energy emanating from some unseen force, that now apparently lay behind this door.

Even in his weakened state, it felt ponderous and overpowering; he could not imagine what it felt like for Lan Zhan and Lan Xichen, whose reserves of energy were mostly intact. True to his thoughts, Lan Zhan staggered slightly, and the blue line on the ground faded. Wei Wuxian dropped the ratty overcoat tucked under his arm, and steadied him with a hand on his elbows.

The faint crackle of Zidian echoed throughout the space as Jiang Cheng clenched his fist, and he strode forward, placing his palm on the handle of the door.

“Sect Leader Jiang, we must be cautious,” Lan Xichen said, and in his gentle voice it did not sound like a rebuke. Jiang Cheng spared him a sideways glance, then nodded shortly. It took the both of them to push the heavy doors open, and Lan Zhan levered himself out of Wei Wuxian’s grasp to peer carefully into the chamber.

It was the light that hit them first, and blinded them.

Jiang Cheng grunted in surprise and cast his head away, for he had been the first one to gain entrance to the chamber. Wei Wuxian pushed his way forward and squinted into the blinding light.

Once his eyes had stopped metaphorically bleeding, he made out lamps on the walls, larger than the ones in the passageways, and this time, these were lit, with a curious iridescent flame that flickered and danced even though there was no wind.

As his eyes adjusted to the brightness, he began to make out more features of the room. It was a vast chamber, with the ceiling towering high above them, and every panel of the walls inlaid with gold and jade. Golden dragons snarled motionlessly at them from the corners of the room, their presumably-once-gleaming surfaces now flecked with dirt. Two thrones sat at the far end of the room – which was more like a hall – one enormous and golden, the other slightly smaller and carved in jade. A thin layer of dust covered every single object and surface in the room.

Except for the centre of the chamber, a shining golden pedestal, upon which lay a great slumbering long.

There was a sharp intake of breath from behind Wei Wuxian from Lan Zhan that told him he’d noticed the long as well. Very slowly, not daring to take even a single breath, Wei Wuxian stepped backwards and back into the passageway.

Once he was no longer in the hall, he spun around, his eyes open so wide he felt they were about to fall out of his skull.

“It’s a Shenlong. A heavenly dragon,” he hissed frantically. “The nine resemblances were present: the stag’s horns, the camel’s head, the demon’s eyes, the snake’s neck, the clam’s belly, the carp’s scales, the tiger’s paws, the cow’s ears, and most distinctive of the Shenlong, out of all the types of long – the eagle’s claws, of which there were five on each foot.”

Jiang Cheng’s were equally wide. “Is it… is it the real thing?” he managed. “Or is it a deformed copy, like the Xuanwu of Slaughter you and Lan Wangji fought?”

“He is a true Shenlong,” Lan Xichen spoke, and there was a subtle tremor in his voice. “He had the chimu atop its head, without which he may not ascend to the heavens.”

“That explains how he was able to cast the suppressing array, and the non-human aura of his energy, given that a Shenlong is a fully sentient being and not merely a mindless beast. But what’s he doing down here, though?” Wei Wuxian wondered aloud. “A Shenlong belongs in the heavens or in the body of water he governs, not under the ground where he has no access to the water which sustains him.”

Lan Xichen shook his head, his gaze equally uncomprehending. “Before we left the chamber, I observed that there were large lacquer panels on the walls with accompanying text, which likely depicted the Shenlong and his story,” he said quietly. “I did not get a close enough look at the words, however. But there is one thing beyond doubt – this Shenlong is unlike his more benevolent peers, and is responsible for the disappearances of the people of Yunmeng. We must find a way to observe both the Shenlong and the panels on the walls, which may give us a clue as to how to combat him.”

“According to the stories, it has superior sight and smell,” Lan Zhan spoke up. “It will be difficult to evade its notice.”

“It did not notice us when we first entered, however, and we were rather noisy,” Jiang Cheng said. “If we are careful, we should be fine.”

Given that none of them saw any other way to proceed, it was on that note of caution that they entered the chamber once again. Wei Wuxian kept his eyes firmly trained on the Shenlong, but even as they eased themselves slowly past the door and into the room, he did not wake. The lines of his magnificent, serpentine body rose and fell in tandem with his breaths, and the silky tendrils of his beard fluttered in the air that whooshed out of his nostrils. A pearl glimmered faintly from where it was nestled underneath his chin.

Wei Wuxian could not help but stop and admire his majestic beauty. It was truly a sight he’d never thought he’d see in his lifetime, for long were said to be mere figments of imagination, myths of the past.

But… I suppose, if there’s a Xuanwu, why not a Shenlong? It was a perfectly reasonable line of logic, he thought, and besides, unless he and the other three were having mass hallucinations, the proof of truth in those supposed legends lay before his own eyes.

It was only when he was sure that the Shenlong was deep in slumber, that he finally turned his attention to the four lacquer panels on the wall. These were clearly done by a great artist - like the rest of the statues and art pieces of the chamber - for the panels were carefully inlaid with mother-of-pearl and gold leaf carved into the shapes of miniscule birds and flowers that fluttered in and adorned the background of the scenes. Below each panel were lines of ancient script, carved deep into the rock by the same great claw which had labelled this cavern the Cave of Dormancy.

The words were not clear to him, given his inability to read ancient text, but thankfully, the pictures were evocative enough that he was able to get the main gist of the story. In the first panel, the Shenlong perched atop a mountain, watching as the towns and people in his purview were washed away by strong wind and rain. In the next screen, he was depicted swooping downwards into the fray and picking off various unfortunate victims from the deluge of water below. His large bulging eyes, created with carven jade gemstones, glimmered malevolently in the light. Blood gushed from his cavernous jaws.

Then, in the next panel, a Fenghuang – a divine phoenix - had descended upon the scene, and was tussling violently with the Shenlong, her long, sharp beak digging into the flesh of the Shenlong’s leg where it was buried. The artist had captured their likenesses so perfectly that the extended claws of the Fenghuang seemed to leap out from the painting at viewers, and her vibrant feathers appeared soft and inviting to the touch.

The scene depicted in the final screen was set in a familiar location: here, in the Cave of Dormancy, the Fenghuang presided over the Shenlong, the iridescent plumage on her wings spread wide as she cast her shadow on the slumbering Shenlong. His long body was now marked heavily with the scars of battle and blood, and he lay in exactly the same position as he was in now, atop the golden pedestal, feet tucked under his body and tail curled round his head; a curiously docile posture.

The only difference between then and now, Wei Wuxian reflected, as he glanced back to the actual Shenlong, was the array of bones now scattered haphazardly around his pedestal – some animal, some human.

The old stories only tell of the Shenlong as a noble and wise creature, who bestows rain upon peasants as a water god, Wei Wuxian thought to himself. This Shenlong must be a rogue one, akin to the black dragon of Jizhou which was killed by the goddess Nüwa. This Shenlong must have brought calamity to the surrounding towns and abused his power to consume human flesh.

All this information he recalled from dusty textbooks and boring lessons on rainy days that seemed a lifetime away – well, he corrected in his mind, for him at least, they were a lifetime away. But there was no time to dwell on his sad past, now. The important thing at hand now, was to find a way to defeat this Shenlong, and stop it from killing any more Yunmeng people. The only thing was – how? Wei Wuxian could see from the grim look in the eyes of his companions that they were similarly nonplussed.

In the stories, there were few who actually fought a long, and even fewer who survived, Wei Wuxian thought, his brain working furiously. Of those few, most were deities or gods like the Monkey God Sun Wukong, or the Third Lotus Prince Nezha. Long have few weaknesses and many strengths, and it will be difficult to conquer it without external, godly help…

Then, all of a sudden, came the clear, sonorous ring of a bell.

Immediately, all four of them froze. Slowly their gazes turned, from the four panels on the wall, and landed on the Shenlong sleeping atop the golden pedestal.

Wei Wuxian’s last thoughts?

…

We’re fucked.

Chapter Text

Wei Wuxian watched, feeling curiously numb, as the large heavy lids of the Shenlong flickered and twitched, before - very slowly - they lifted – revealing eyes which were scarred, white and unseeing.

The Shenlong did not miss a beat. Pulling his lips back in a fearsome snarl, he leisurely uncurled his long, serpentine body, and lunged towards the four of them in a streak of light and colour.

Immediately, Lan Zhan flung his arm out from beside Wei Wuxian, and a shining blue barrier of light erected itself between the Shenlong and the four of them. The Shenlong crashed straight into his spiritual barricade and bounced backwards, but the impact made Lan Zhan stumble and fall. The barrier shattered into pieces and Wei Wuxian caught Lan Zhan before he hit the ground.

“This is bad,” he cursed, not bothering to lower his voice – what was the point, now that the Shenlong had finally awoken. “Lan Zhan! Lan Zhan, are you okay?!”

“There’s a chink in its scales!” Jiang Cheng shouted indistinctly from somewhere to Wei Wuxian’s right. Then the Shenlong came down on them again, his vehemence renewed, and they each had to dive to the side to avoid his next foray. The impact from hitting the ground as Wei Wuxian fell to the side, still clutching desperately on to Lan Zhan’s arm, jarred his shoulder and sent sparks of agony up his side.

“I am fine,” Lan Zhan said, pushing himself out of Wei Wuxian’s arms, even as he staggered. With a flick of his wrists, Wangji appeared, and Lan Zhan busied himself with firing bolts of spiritual energy from his guqin towards the Shenlong.

But it was to little avail. His blows glanced off the Shenlong’s gleaming, impenetrable hide, and he shook off the blasts of energy – which Wei Wuxian knew to be extremely powerful, having been on the receiving end of those blows once – as if they were mere droplets of rain on the surface of a lake. Even blinded, the Shenlong was a terrible adversary.

The mournful, clear tones of Liebing echoed through the enclosed space, a soothing melody to calm the murderous rage of the Shenlong, but it only made his ears twitch with irritation, and elicited no other reaction. Wei Wuxian tore Chenqing from his belt and brought the flute to his lips.

His debilitated spiritual energy reserves did not hinder him from the ways of demonic cultivation, and thank the gods for that, he thought fervently. As he played, he focused his energy and sought to tap into the veritable reserves of resentful energy which he’d sensed before. The bones on the ground began to rattle and skip their way across the floor.

The Shenlong let out a thunderous roar in response, and its foot came down on the ground with a thunderous bang, and instantly every bone in the vicinity of the room shattered. The levels of resentful energy in the chamber suddenly surged, and Wei Wuxian felt it begin to tear at his insides and fill his brain with an endless cacophony of screams.

Wei Wuxian choked on a mouthful of blood that forced its way up from his stomach and into his mouth, and Chenqing fell from his quivering fingers.

He’s… far too strong, he realised, with a growing dread. There is a good reason why few would dare to fight a long, and why even fewer triumph.

Dimly, he heard a frantic cry of “Wei Wuxian!” from his right, and as his eyes drifted shut and he fell to the ground, he thought of Tanzhou City in bloom, and cherry blossom petals in dark hair.

***

When he came to, it was with a terrified start. He convulsed and trembled as he felt himself engulfed in a cocoon of warmth, and his body instinctually sought to escape from the constricting hold.

“Wei Ying,” came a voice, from very far away. “Wei Ying!”

“Lan Zhan,” he gasped, as he came to and saw Hanguang-jun’s face hovering over him. Wei Wuxian rolled over weakly, and coughed. His hand came away from his mouth covered in blood.

“Wei Ying, don’t move,” Lan Zhan said softly, one hand coming up to support his back and the other proffering him a handkerchief, magically it seemed, out of thin air. “You were heavily injured by the backlash from the resentful energy. We barely got you out.”

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Wei Ying said, coughing again, and relieved when this time, the handkerchief came away unmarked with bodily fluids. He looked up at Lan Zhan, and at the expression on the other man’s face, Wei Wuxian raised his eyebrows in bewildered surprise. “… Lan Zhan, are you okay? Your face looks quite awful. Did you get hurt too? Is Sect Leader Lan okay?”

“I am fine,” Lan Xichen said quietly, from somewhere behind the two of them, out of sight. “I’m afraid Sect Leader Jiang did not escape unblemished, however.”

“Jiang Cheng?! Jiang Cheng’s hurt?!” Immediately Wei Wuxian spun around, ignoring his body’s creaks and groans of protest.

Thankfully, Jiang Cheng was still mostly intact, save for a large bloodstain on his right arm, and a gash on his temple which was bleeding copiously.

“I’m fine, thanks for asking,” Jiang Cheng said dryly. Lan Xichen was cleaning his wound with a wet cloth, dabbing gently at the edges of the laceration and making Jiang Cheng wince occasionally from the sting, and shift uncomfortably away.

“Tch, there’s no need to be so catty,” Wei Wuxian retorted, sniffing imperiously. “You look okay to me. Anyway head wounds always bleed a lot. I’m sure it’s nothing serious.” He was secretly relieved, however. Subtly running his eyes up and down Jiang Cheng’s figure, he realised that the bloodstain was not from Jiang Cheng’s body, as it had a curious metallic sheen to it that looked more like long blood to him. Furthermore, the wound on Jiang Cheng’s forehead was not severe, and would heal without a scar. “What happened to you, anyway?”

“It was nothing, I was just trying to stab the chink in his armour, and got hit on the bloody head with his chin – “

“Sect Leader Jiang saved you,” Lan Xichen interrupted. Jiang Cheng made a sharp sound of protest that immediately turned into a pained squeak as Lan Xichen pressed forcefully on his wound with the wet cloth.

“He… saved me?” Wei Wuxian said, bewildered.

“When you passed out, Sect Leader Jiang threw himself over your body to protect you,” Lan Xichen said serenely, and for some reason, Jiang Cheng did not interrupt again, instead staring sullenly down at the ground with a dull flush extending all the way to his chest. “When the Shenlong attempted to eat you, he stabbed with Sandu at the gap between the Shenlong’s scales. He received his injury from being caught on the head by the Shenlong’s chin as the creature reared backwards.”

“It was a pity I didn’t have my spiritual energy,” Jiang Cheng grumbled. “That would have felt just like a tickle on the chin to it. But we were clearly outmatched, even if both of us still had our full energy reserves.”

“Thank you, Jiang Cheng,” Wei Wuxian said softly, ignoring the attempt to change the subject. There was a heavy silence.

“If you died, and I had done nothing to save you,” Jiang Cheng said finally, “Hanguang-jun would have garrotted me with his guqin strings. I was only trying to save my own neck.”

That startled an unwilling laugh out of Wei Wuxian, although he did not think Jiang Cheng had meant it as a joke. “Lan Zhan would never do that,” he said, turning back to Lan Zhan with a smile. “Would you, Lan Zhan?”

“Would not use Chord Assassination. Too quick a death,” Lan Zhan said, completely deadpan, and that startled another weary laugh out of Wei Wuxian.

“Lan Zhan, you’re really something else,” he said, wiping tears from the corners of his eyes. “You truly know how to tease me now, huh? Where are we, anyway?” he asked, looking around their surroundings and finding them foreign.

“We fled from the underground tunnels through the same hole Wangji and I had made to find the two of you,” Lan Xichen replied. “We brought you and Sect Leader Jiang to a safer location, in the woods near the entrance to the cave, where you could first recover, and we could regroup.”

“The Shenlong did not find us again?”

Lan Zhan shook his head. “It could not fit through the tunnel,” he said solemnly, “and Brother put in place a trap spell to prevent him from escaping from the cave. But the spell will not last for more than a week at most. The Shenlong is very powerful.”

“That’s an understatement,” Jiang Cheng muttered angrily. “If you mean that after a week he will be back to tormenting and eating the people of Yunmeng – then something must be done about it!”

“We should fetch more help from the clans,” Lan Xichen suggested calmly. “This is not a mere beast which can be tackled by us. He was a true Shenlong who matched the descriptions of antiquity; unlike the Xuanwu of Slaughter, which was a mere diminished reflection of the true Xuanwu. I think it was pure luck that we managed to escape, and that Sect Leader Jiang’s attack distracted it sufficiently for me to place the spell upon it.”

“But if the stories on the panels were true,” Wei Wuxian broke in, the thought suddenly occurring to him, “then – wasn’t it supposed to be sleeping? Why was it awake? And why was it blind?”

Lan Xichen nodded. “The last panel did indeed speak of this. ‘The Shenlong of Raging Waves was punished for his mischief: Full of vigour and vivacity, the Shenlong was condemned to eternal slumber by the Fenghuang of Heavenly Music’. But as to its blindness…” He sighed and shook his head. “I do not know. I can only presume that it was part of his punishment.”

“The more important question is, how do we defeat it?” Jiang Cheng asked sharply, wincing as Lan Xichen wrung out the cloth and returned to sponging his wound off with a renewed vigour. “Wei Wuxian, have you come across the Shenlong before?”

Wei Wuxian was confused by this statement. “Why would you say that?” he answered, screwing up his face in incomprehension. “Why would I have met a Shenlong before? Just because I was the Yiling Laozu doesn’t mean I invented all evil, you know. That Shenlong is obviously much older than I am.”

“No, you idiot, I didn’t mean that,” Jiang Cheng snorted. “It’s just, he didn’t seem to like you much. When you fainted he fixed his eye on you and seemed to go berserk. He was roaring and thrashing around quite a bit trying to attack you. It was as if he’d recognised you and had some personal vendetta against you.”

“If I’d met a Shenlong before, I’d have remembered it, trust me,” Wei Wuxian replied with a sigh. “Maybe it was just my natural lack of affinity with animals. Little Apple still doesn’t like me much, and the rabbits in Cloud Recesses don’t pay me any attention unless I’m with Lan Zhan. But I can assure you that I definitely haven’t met any Shenlong before.”

“We should return to Lotus Pier and get help from there,” Lan Zhan said. “As brother said, this matter requires more aid.”

“No,” Jiang Cheng said stubbornly, and the proclamation made all three of them turn to him in surprise.

“Huh? Why not?” Wei Wuxian asked. “Surely you aren’t thinking of attacking it again by yourself?? We were clearly outmatched! And with the suppressing array…”

“No,” Jiang Cheng repeated, more firmly. “There has to be another way. I don’t want… I can’t let more of my disciples die.” A shadow passed across his face.

There was another tense silence for a while as Wei Wuxian looked at Lan Zhan, whose face was inscrutable and stone-like. Lan Xichen did not say anything either.

“There is another way,” Wei Wuxian said, softly. As the sun sank into the horizon and its rays spread a last pale wash of colour over the grass and trees, Wei Wuxian turned his face and let its last warmth seep into his skin. Now that they had left the cave, the cold had left his bones, and the air smelled clean and clear.

“Wei Wuxian, what do you mean?” Jiang Cheng said fiercely. “What other way?”

“The Fenghuang of Heavenly Music,” Wei Wuxian answered, and Lan Xichen made a soft sound of realisation. “She defeated the Shenlong once – she can do so again. We must travel to Kunlun Mountain, where the Fenghuang nest, and seek her help.”

“But – Kunlun is nothing more than legend!” Jiang Cheng protested. “How will we find our way to an imaginary mountain? And what will guarantee that the Fenghuang can be found there, or that she will be willing to help us?!”

“The Shenlong was once nothing more than legend, as well,” Wei Wuxian pointed out, “but as we have seen today, nothing could be further from the truth. He is a divine beast, and so we must seek divine help.”

“We have no choice but to find the Fenghuang and beg her assistance, or risk the lives of other cultivators,” Lan Xichen said quietly, nodding in agreement. Jiang Cheng’s head whipped around to face him. They could all see that Lan Xichen’s last words had sunk in.

“… Fine. I see no other way, at least,” Jiang Cheng conceded, his voice hard. “But my statement stands – we do not know where Kunlun is.”

“The Library Pavilion,” Lan Zhan spoke up. “The Forbidden section. I have seen books which describe Kunlun and the way there, in the pavilion.”

“Good idea, Lan Zhan. Then we should make for the Cloud Recesses tomorrow,” Wei Wuxian said, with a quick smile. He batted his eyelashes coyly at Lan Zhan. “Help me up?”

“You’re not an invalid – “ Jiang Cheng grumbled, but immediately snapped his mouth closed, as if he hadn’t meant to let the words escape.

Of course Lan Zhan ignored the awkward pause which followed, and gripped Wei Wuxian’s hand without an ounce of hesitation. With a firm but steady movement, he pulled Wei Wuxian to his feet. Wei Wuxian wobbled a little bit, unintentionally (perhaps just a little bit intentionally) leaning into Lan Zhan’s body to regain his balance. Lan Zhan’s skin was very warm.

“Wangji,” Lan Xichen called, something different about his voice. Lan Zhan stiffened a little bit under Wei Wuxian, but he did not respond, and the arm that he wrapped around Wei Wuxian tightened.

“Thanks, Second Master Lan,” Wei Wuxian whispered cheekily, patting his arm before standing up on his own two feet again.

“Since it is late,” Jiang Cheng said, speaking up abruptly, “please may I offer Lotus Pier as your place of stay for tonight.” He followed the statement with a short salute to Lan Xichen, although Wei Wuxian could tell that he was firmly training his line of sight on Lan Xichen’s magnificent eyebrows, and not his eyes.

Lan Xichen smiled, and immediately Wei Wuxian felt his body relax. It clearly had the same effect on Jiang Cheng. “We would not wish to impose,” he answered, “but since Sect Leader Jiang has so kindly offered, Wangji and I will take you up on the offer.”

“Glad that’s all settled!” Wei Wuxian said brightly. “I guess I’ll see all of you tomorrow then. I know an inn or two which hasn’t closed yet, and I’ll find a bed there.”

“Brother, I will join Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan said. Wei Wuxian turned to him, his eyes wide as saucers.

“Lan Zhan! There’s really no need – “ he protested. “Go and sleep in Lotus Pier, since Sect Leader Jiang offered. I’ll be fine, I promise! I won’t be lonely!”

“Yes, Hanguang-jun, there’s no need for that,” Jiang Cheng said shortly. “Wei Wuxian will be joining us in Lotus Pier for the night.” He turned his gaze upon Wei Wuxian then, in that moment, and the look in his eyes was inscrutable.

“Ah – “ Wei Wuxian scratched his head awkwardly, but looking sideways at Lan Zhan made his decision for him. He wasn’t about to let Lan Zhan sleep in some unsavoury inn when he could be enjoying the fine comforts of the Yunmeng feather-down beds. “Thanks then, Jiang Cheng. Appreciate it.”

Lan Zhan suddenly strode over to Jiang Cheng, causing the latter to jerk his head up and look up at him like a rabbit caught in a trap. Wei Wuxian’s eyes automatically flickered to Bichen, and he started calculating all the ways he could wrestle the sword away from Lan Zhan before it was unsheathed…

Slap!

…

“Huh?”

Jiang Cheng lifted his hand and touched his forehead. His hand came away covered in an ashy grey powder.

“This is – “ he said, his eyebrows shooting skyward. “Tuo Li Xiao Du San?”

“Resolves toxins, strengthens the qi,” Lan Zhan said stoutly. He marched back to Wei Wuxian’s side, turning his back on Jiang Cheng.

A small, tinkling laugh came from Lan Xichen, from where he was standing next to Jiang Cheng. The latter turned to him, looking supremely betrayed and aggrieved by his amusement.

“Wangji is right. The herbs in Tuo Li Xiao Du San will be good for your wound, and will aid in healing,” Lan Xichen advised, with another laugh. “Thank you Wangji. I’m afraid I rushed out of the Hanshi too quickly to pack any herbal medicine, but you seem well-prepared enough.”

“Wei Ying is often injured,” Lan Zhan said curtly.

He must really be feeling the cold again, Wei Wuxian thought, staring at him. His ears are all red!

***

They returned to Lotus Pier quickly, for it was a short distance away by flight. Lan Xichen and Lan Zhan had combined their efforts to erect an array around the cave which would keep away any curious visitors, and strengthened the fog around the area.

“Thank you,” Jiang Cheng had said to them, his voice brittle as he turned to stare into the main entrance of the cave. His lips moved soundlessly, and although no words came out, Wei Wuxian knew what he was saying.

I must leave you here for now, but I will be back for your bodies. Be well.

In his eyes Wei Wuxian had read the same dogged determination which had driven Jiang Cheng to search for him even after three months had passed, after the regaining of his golden core. The same grit and steel which had had him dragging Wei Wuxian to the training fields to practise his swordmanship even as the latter protested and bemoaned the loss of his precious free time.

Wei Wuxian had wished he could console him. Once, he would have, and he would have followed it with a joke to uplift Jiang Cheng’s spirits. But it was no longer his place to do so.

Stepping over the boundary to Lotus Pier for the third time brought a mixed bag of feelings. Wei Wuxian did not miss the way Jiang Cheng’s jaw clenched, almost reflexively, as they passed the front gate. As for Wei Wuxian himself, seeing Lotus Pier both vastly different and exactly the same as it had been before its destruction, was both sweet and a bitter pill to swallow. He half expected Shijie, or Sect Leader Jiang, or even Madam Yu to come bursting out of the pavilions with words of welcome (or rebuke) on their lips. Instead, the pier was filled with unfamiliar faces cloaked in familiar robes, to whom he was no longer their Shixiong.

Jiang Cheng led the way to his private balcony by the lotuses, wherein a rich supper had already been laid out for the four of them. Along with the typical spicy dishes, Jiang Cheng had had bland vegetables and soup prepared for the two Gusu Lan members.

Wei Wuxian seated himself with his back to the lotuses. They reminded him too much of things past and best left alone.

“Thank you for dinner, Sect Leader Jiang,” Lan Xichen said, with a smile, making the first jab at conversation. Jiang Cheng nodded brusquely, returning a polite rejoinder, and with that, they dug into the food. Although Wei Wuxian was famished, he ate slowly, taking measured bites without stuffing his face as he greatly desired to do, and all the while, he kept his eyes covertly on Jiang Cheng. But Jiang Cheng kept his gaze resolutely fixed elsewhere.

Lan Xichen kept up a polite chatter with Jiang Cheng about Yunmeng and inter-sect matters. Jiang Cheng’s replies were short and sharp, as always, and to Wei Wuxian’s ears (which were very much used to Jiang Cheng’s different vocal tones and moods), somewhat standoffish. The strength of Jiang Cheng’s taciturnity, however, was matched by the adeptness of Lan Xichen’s ability to converse, and so against all odds, the discourse flowed relatively smoothly.

Apparently Sect Leader Zhang wasn’t happy with Jiang Cheng raising an objection to his proposal the last Discussion Conference, and had raised his complaint with Lan Xichen… Wei Wuxian wasn’t listening. The content of their conversation passed him by like a puff of wind passing by his ear.

Instead, he busied himself with toying with the tip of Lan Zhan’s forehead ribbon, which had slithered down his arm and was tickling the outside of Wei Wuxian’s thigh. They were seated quite close together, and so Wei Wuxian was able to pinch the tip of the ribbon and rub it absently between his fingers, while he ate with his other hand. Lan Zhan’s eyes darted down to his fingers, but other than that, he didn’t react, other than to produce a minute sigh, and then go back to his vegetables.

Lan Zhan’s no fun anymore, thought Wei Wuxian with a pout. I guess it’s good that he’s letting me touch his forehead ribbon, but it’s no fun if he doesn’t give me a reaction anymore. He gave a firm little tug at the ribbon, and realised with delight that the movement made Lan Zhan’s mouth twitch.

Ehhhhh, Lan Zhan! he crowed with triumph in his mind. So you’re more affected than you’re letting on. Come on, look at me…

He gave another tug to the end of the ribbon, but this time, he misjudged his strength. It was more like a firm yank. With a gentle swishing noise, the forehead ribbon uncoiled from Lan Zhan’s forehead and fell into Wei Wuxian’s lap.

Abruptly he became aware that a sort of horrified silence had descended over the group.

“Ah – “ he said, screwing up his face in apology and lifting his other hand to scratch at his head. “Ah, sorry Lan Zhan. I didn’t mean to… Hahaha…”

“Wei Wuxian!” Jiang Cheng barked, his face red. “You – How can you, in public – That sort of thing, shouldn’t you keep it to the - “

Lan Xichen coughed awkwardly. “Young Master Wei, the forehead ribbon is something sacred to the Gusu Lan sect… Surely, you…” Wei Wuxian did not know if it was his imagination, but Lan Xichen’s voice suddenly seemed a bit harder and colder. He glanced up with shock at the sect leader, who gave him a pained smile in response. He looked very much as if he was trying to hold something back.

“It’s fine, Brother,” Lan Zhan said. He turned to Wei Wuxian and took the ribbon out of his lap.

“Not here,” he said softly to Wei Wuxian, so quietly that Wei Wuxian was not sure if he’d misheard. Lan Zhan lifted the ribbon gracefully and refastened it without difficulty, his fingers going through the practised motions smoothly. Then he went back to his rice as if nothing had happened.

“Wangji - !” Lan Xichen said, and he definitely sounded agitated now.

“It’s fine, Brother,” Lan Zhan said again, sounding firmer.

On Lan Xichen’s face now was a familiar expression. As Jiang Cheng’s Shixiong, Wei Wuxian had seen it often on his Shidi’s visage. It was the Lan Xichen version of the “we’re not finished here” look, perfected by all older siblings (and Jiang Cheng, despite his younger age). But Lan Zhan seemed inured to it, and just continued placidly chomping on his vegetables.

“Ahahaha,” Wei Wuxian said, trying to diffuse the tension. “Er – Sect Leader Lan, er, how are the flowers in Gusu this time of year? Are they flowering?”

“Yes, Young Master Wei, they are flowering,” Lan Xichen answered, clearly forcing a smile back onto his face. Wei Wuxian waited, but nothing else was forthcoming. Lan Xichen looked like his brain was moving a mile a minute and yet nothing was coming up with regards to conversation. Wei Wuxian wondered feverishly just how important the forehead ribbon must be, to have shocked even Lan Xichen so much so that he was at a loss for words.

“Here. Lotus seeds.” Lan Zhan dropped a full handful of seeds into Wei Wuxian’s plate, and they made a pitter-pattering noise as they hit the china. Wei Wuxian seized gratefully on the distraction like a starving man at a feast.

“Aiya, Lan Zhan, you needn’t have! That’s… that’s a lot of lotus seeds, oh wow, you must have been working hard for a long time. Did you know I can catch lotus seeds with my mouth? Here, you take one and throw it into the air – yes, like so – gulp – see! I caught it! Try another, here – “

“Don’t play with your food,” Lan Zhan said reprovingly, but even as the words came out of his mouth, his hand was moving to toss more seeds into Wei Wuxian’s mouth. Wei Wuxian deftly caught every single one of them, and grinned widely, holding the seeds in between his teeth.

“It’th a very coveted th’kill here in Yunmeng,” he boasted, returning the seeds to inside his mouth and chewing enthusiastically. “I was also the one who could fit the most number of seeds in his mouth – would you like to see? Lan Zhan, look!” and he began stuffing his mouth with seeds, Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen quite forgotten by this time.

“Stop that,” Lan Zhan said, his ears tinged red.

“Why?” Wei Wuxian said indistinctly, shovelling more seeds into his mouth. “I was always the champion when it came to these competitions. Isn’t that right, Jiang – “

“Mm,” Jiang Cheng said moodily, looking at his food and ignoring the rest of them.

He must really be tired, or depressed, Wei Wuxian thought to himself. I wonder if something really happened between him and Lan Xichen? … No, no, it can’t be that. They barely know each other. … But why is Jiang Cheng being so moody and cold? It can’t all be due to me, can it…

“Wangji, if you’re finished, could I speak to you tonight before you sleep?” Lan Xichen said. His voice was calm, but stern.

Lan Zhan turned his head to look at his brother, and slowly nodded. There was a kind of resigned determination in his eyes.

Jiang Cheng stood and gestured to the both of them. “If you’ll follow me, I’ll bring you to your guest rooms for the night. All three of you,” and he looked at Wei Wuxian. It was a very pointed gaze.

“Okay, okay,” Wei Wuxian said, trying to school his tone back to normal. It was difficult treating Jiang Cheng as a stranger and sect leader when he’d known Jiang Cheng since he was a brat barely taller than his father’s waist. “Let’s go, Lan Zhan.”

The rooms Jiang Cheng gave them were clearly meant for the highest class of visitors – probably only for visiting sect leaders. Wei Wuxian thought his own room had probably been already destroyed by Jiang Cheng in his rage. Based on the stories Jin Ling and the other cultivators told, it seemed that Jiang Cheng’s temper had only grown worse in his old age, and most of that fury appeared to have been directed at Wei Wuxian. He wondered idly if the stories were true, and if Jiang Cheng was really keeping demonic cultivators chained up in his basement.

Lan Xichen was showed to the most lavish room, and he levelled a significant look at Lan Zhan before bidding them all goodnight and that he would see them early next morning. It was surely not Wei Wuxian’s imagination that Lan Xichen’s parting greeting to him was particularly frosty.

“Don’t mind Brother,” Lan Zhan said in an undertone, as they were being led away to their rooms by Jiang Cheng. “I will settle the matter with him.”

“I don’t even know what matter you’re going to settle with him,” Wei Wuxian grumbled peevishly. “Why won’t anyone tell me what the forehead ribbon means? You certainly refuse to tell me. Maybe I’ll ask Sizhui and Jingyi when we go to Gusu Lan. They’d better give me a straight answer.”

“Here. Your room.” Jiang Cheng interrupted his spiel by sliding open a door and gesturing inwards. Wei Wuxian peeked in and his eyebrows shot up.

“That’s an awful big bed. Are we supposed to sleep on the same bed?” he asked in confusion. “Jiang Cheng, did you run out of rooms? Otherwise, why are you putting us in the same room?”

“Huh?! I thought you’d prefer it that way,” Jiang Cheng said bad-temperedly. “Why are you complaining? I went to the effort of picking a room further out of the way for you too. Don’t tell me you want to room separately from your – “

“My what?” Wei Wuxian asked in bewilderment, quite done with being confused, at this point. “What’re you talking about, Jiang Cheng?” Have you gone senile in your old age in addition to becoming more ill-tempered? he added in his mind, although of course he would never dare say it out loud to the Jiang Cheng of today.

“Sect Leader Jiang, we will take separate rooms,” Lan Zhan butted in. His jaw was clenched very tight, and it was a miracle that his tone was as civil as it was. Jiang Cheng looked at him in surprise; then his mouth twisted.

“I suppose it’s good that you’re showing a bit of restraint in Lotus Pier, at least,” he muttered brusquely under his breath. “Fine, this way then, Hanguang-jun. I’ll give you the room next to your brother.” They walked off, leaving Wei Wuxian to enjoy the room with the big bed – which he did, after closing the door, by heaving himself onto the soft pillows with an ecstatic groan as he felt all the aches and pains in his body fly away.

He stared up at the ceiling, with its familiar lotus pattern in the centre and the geometric, petal-like designs radiating outwards. Suddenly there was a taste so sour in his mouth that he had to roll over and stop looking.

You think you can stay immune to all their condemnations, live outside the world and do as you please? There’s no such thing.

If you continue to protect them, then I can’t protect you!

It had been a long time since he’d last thought of Jiang Cheng’s words to him. But now that he heard them without the fog of the Yin Tiger Seal over him, their message was clearer and more bittersweet.

What kind of Shixiong was I? he berated himself. I swore to Sect Leader Jiang and Madam Yu that I would protect him. But I left him alone to fend for himself. Yes, Jiang Cheng had had Shijie, but Shijie had that peacock to worry about. He was alone.

His skin felt itchy, as if ants were crawling all over his body. He felt he had to move or he would go crazy.

It’s been long enough already – twenty minutes, by my count, he thought suddenly. Surely Lan Zhan has finished talking to Zewu-jun by now. I’ll go and bid him goodnight before he sleeps.

The thought of Lan Zhan gave him the energy to vault out of bed and leave his room. The air outside was crisp and fresh, and the rich vibrant scent of the lotuses was a familiar one. A faint breeze rustled the leaves of the cherry blossom trees; the scent of incense drifted from the ancestral halls; and the gentle splash of the water lapping at the wood of the walkways filled the air. It was intoxicating, and Wei Wuxian felt some of the weight in his chest ease somewhat.

As he approached Lan Zhan’s door, his mind was filled with the memories of his youth. It had been that pond into which he’d fallen after an argument with Jiang Cheng about how he’d coloured the other boy’s hair blue. He’d tried to rescue a kitten stuck in the branches of that tree while Shijie stood aside and bit her fingernails in her anxiety, and when Jiang Cheng had come upon them and shouted loudly for him to come down, he’d fallen off the tree and broken his little finger. Oh, and it’s that room in which I stole mandarins from Jiang Cheng’s bag after Chinese New Year celebrations… Oh, we used to get each other into so much trouble back then. The memories brought a soft smile to his face.

Lan Zhan’s door was open, however, as he approached his room, and it was empty.

Oh… he’s still talking with Sect Leader Lan, then. I guess I’ll disturb him tomorrow morning then, Wei Wuxian thought with a touch of disappointment. The strain of that day’s exertions were beginning to weigh heavy on him, and he thought perhaps today would be the day where he would sleep at haishi for the first time…

“ – may be leading you on. Wangji, he’s – “

“He isn’t,” came Lan Zhan’s deep voice, deeper and rougher now in its surety. “Wei Ying is a good friend, and he treats me as such.”

Hearing his name piqued Wei Wuxian’s curiosity. He had never had an aversion to eavesdropping – unorthodox means were sometimes needed to achieve unorthodox results, after all – and knowing that they were speaking about him was too exciting to miss. He moved closer to Lan Xichen’s room, from which the conversation was coming.

The Twin Jades of Lan were seated at the small table, their cups of tea untouched, with Lan Zhan’s head bowed close to his chest so that his face could not be seen.

“You cannot tell me that he doesn’t know what he’s doing to you. What he’s done to you.” Lan Xichen’s voice sounded pained and furious, and his face was twisted into an expression of anger which was terrifying in how foreign it was on his face.

“I haven’t told him anything, and I won’t,” Lan Zhan said quietly. “He doesn’t mean any harm.” At these words, he lifted his head and looked straight at Lan Xichen. Wei Wuxian thought he looked rather tired and drawn.

“Brother,” he said plainly, “Please understand. I am perfectly fine and happy. And Wei Ying is not at fault in any way.”

The conviction in his voice touched Wei Wuxian deeply, and he clutched unconsciously at his chest.

Then the conversation seemed to be over. Lan Zhan stood, and made for the door. Immediately, instinctually, Wei Wuxian jolted from his position and sprinted behind a nearby pillar. He did not know why he was hiding – after all, he was shameless enough to not fear being caught eavesdropping – but something about the conversation made him feel as if he had betrayed Lan Zhan by peeking. He had no desire for Lan Zhan to find out that he’d heard their exchange of words, for it would make him angry – really angry, and Wei Wuxian didn’t want that.

As Lan Zhan came out of Lan Xichen’s room and closed the door, he paused on the threshold of the step. Wei Wuxian inhaled sharply and held his breath. He couldn’t have seen me, could he? I didn’t make any noise - !

But to Wei Wuxian’s relief, Lan Zhan merely put his fingers to his temples, and sighed. The exhaustion in his face was clearer than ever, although his body was still rigidly upright in its perfect posture. He looked as if he was in intense pain as he resumed walking and passed soundlessly into his own room.

The door shut behind him with a quiet click, and Wei Wuxian heard the soft whoosh of the light being put out. Wei Wuxian wondered if Lan Zhan would light his incense burner. The scents commonly utilised by Yunmeng Jiang were flowery and strong in their fragrance, in stark contrast to the austereness of Lan Zhan’s favoured sandalwood. Wei Wuxian thought it likely that Lan Zhan had simply left burning whatever Jiang Cheng had had prepared for his room, instead of lighting his own scent, for he looked far too tired to bother with such trivialities tonight…

Wei Wuxian had to stop in his thoughts and take a breath. His chest hurt, and he wondered why.

Zewu-jun is worried that I’m using Lan Zhan for my own means, he thought, feeling his mouth twist ironically. Is he worried that I’ll betray Lan Zhan? But I’ve already proved my innocence to the entire cultivation world ten times over! And Lan Zhan… I’d never betray Lan Zhan. Of all people in the world, he’s the one person I’d never betray. He’s been by my side always, even when I didn’t know he was, and he’s been a steadfast friend to me ever since the start.

… I guess I’ll just have to make sure Lan Xichen knows that, he resolved then, feeling a sudden sense of pique come upon him. It’s natural that he’s worried, since he’s Lan Zhan’s older brother… but I don’t mean any harm to Lan Zhan. Surely he can see that! What’s he trying to do, coming between our great friendship? I must speak to him to settle his fears…

Lan Xichen’s light was still on, as could be seen through the paper screen on his door. Making his decision, Wei Wuxian skipped out from behind the pillar and tapped lightly on the wooden frame of the door.

There was a short delay, then Lan Xichen opened the door. He was still wearing his headpiece and robes of the day, although his belt was slightly askew and there was a red blotch on his forehead. Wei Wuxian couldn’t help his eyes fixing on the mark, and Lan Xichen uttered a weak chuckle as he realised where Wei Wuxian’s line of sight ran.

“An accident, Young Master Wei, no need to be worried,” he said with a wry smile. “Can I help you with anything?”

“Zewu-jun,” Wei Wuxian said determinedly, rolling nervously back and forth on the balls of his feet and stopping himself abruptly once he realised he was doing it, “can I speak to you? It’s about – it’s about Lan Zhan. Can I come in?”

Lan Xichen’s eyebrows shot all the way up, but he quickly concealed his surprise and nodded. He let Wei Wuxian in, and the scene was exactly as it had been a few minutes ago, except minus one Lan Zhan. Wei Wuxian sat down where Lan Zhan had been sitting and declined the cup of tea Lan Xichen offered him. He laced his fingers together in his lap and tried to stop them trembling.

“Sect Leader Lan, I… I’m afraid I overheard your conversation earlier,” he said, deciding it was best to be completely honest under the circumstances.

“Oh?” Lan Xichen said quietly, sipping at his tea. He was looking down, so Wei Wuxian could not tell what he was feeling this time. “And? What did you want to say?”

Wei Wuxian launched immediately into his spiel. “S-Sect Leader Lan, I promise you, I’m not out to do anything to Hanguang-jun. He’s my good friend – my best friend, in fact, and I’d never do anything to betray him. Sect Leader Lan, you have to believe that – I really really like Lan Zhan, and I’ll always support him. You needn’t worry about our friendship affecting him in any way.” Wei Wuxian realised then that his nails were digging into his palm, and had to make the conscious effort to relax his muscles.

Lan Xichen’s head jerked upwards, and there was confusion in his eyes.

“Young Master Wei, you… what do you mean?” he said. “I… don’t quite understand what you’re saying.”

“I don’t understand what you don’t understand,” Wei Wuxian said, still trying for politeness, but letting some of his exasperation slip through his voice. “Umm… I don’t know what else to say. But I can assure you!” He held up his hand, trying to make his eyes as big and serious as possible to convey his utter solemnness. “I won’t ever hurt Lan Zhan. He’s my best friend, as I said! And I care for him. I’ll protect him. I can promise you that.”

“Young Master Wei,” Lan Xichen said, very tiredly, “how much of our conversation did you hear?”

“Uhh… after the part where you said I was leading Lan – Hanguang-jun on?”

Lan Xichen stared at him for a few moments, then an unwilling laugh escaped him, muffled as if he had been unable to choke it down – a laugh that sounded very bitter. Once he had started, he could not stop, and he had to hunch over, hand over his mouth as his shoulders shook with the force of his laughter. Wei Wuxian sat ramrod-straight, wondering if he should be offended.

“Ex-excuse me, Young Master Wei. I should not be laughing, but really… this situation… it’s absurd,” Lan Xichen managed, once he had stopped convulsing. The laughter had softened the lines around his mouth which had previously been drawn tight the moment he saw Wei Wuxian on his doorstep. “It appears as if I have made an unwitting assumption which has erroneously coloured my perception of you – and for that, I apologise. You… you are not the person I thought you to be.”

“I… accept your apology?” Wei Wuxian said unsurely, thinking it to be extremely annoying how members of Gusu Lan always spoke in circles, and never said what they meant. “What was the assumption you made?”

“Regretfully, I have promised Wangji to say nothing to you on the matter,” Lan Xichen answered, and the unhappiness in his eyes was real. “But,” he added, cryptically, “if you are truly his friend, I am sure you will come to understand his feelings. Especially if you think on all the things that you have been through together.”

“What does Zewu-jun mean by that?” Wei Wuxian said, feeling something dark coil up in his chest. “If you are referring to how Lan Zhan used to hate me, I’m sure all those feelings are long-gone – “

“I will trust in Wangji,” Lan Xichen interrupted, looking very much as if he wanted to throw something across the room – possibly at Wei Wuxian – “since he has assured me that he has the situation under control. Now, if you don’t mind, Young Master Wei; it’s been a long day, and the hour is late. Perhaps you would like to get some sleep in preparation for tomorrow’s early departure?”

Wei Wuxian recognised the dismissal for what it was, despite it having been phrased in the nicest way possible. He allowed Lan Xichen to show him out, but during the entirety of the walk back to his room, he was thinking long and hard about the entire matter. It both confused and angered him that neither of the Twin Jades of Lan would agree to explain things to him, and that they were unilaterally settling things among themselves.

Especially when it comes to Lan Zhan, I … I want to know …

Wei Wuxian had to stop himself there. I what? What was I going to say?

Shaking off the heaviness of his emotions, Wei Wuxian pushed open the door to his room and resolved to think nothing more of the matter. He trusted Lan Zhan, and that was the end of things – should be the end of things. Since Lan Zhan had said he had the situation under control, he should trust in Lan Zhan’s words. Even if Wei Wuxian had completely no idea what the situation was.

The disquiet followed him deep into the night, and he tossed and turned until finally, eventually, he fell into a restless sleep.

Chapter Text

The next day, they set off bright and early to the next city along Yangtze’s banks. Wei Wuxian was starting to feel more adjusted to the altered sleeping schedule, although he was still bleary and yawning when he hopped onto Bichen. They travelled quickly; Wei Wuxian was more subdued in the beginning, still feeling chastened from last night’s argument, but being close to Lan Zhan soon brought his mood back up. He found himself starting to make inane comments again, just to get Lan Zhan to smile – which he almost did, once or twice! – and slowly he began to feel more like himself again.

Jiang Cheng was mostly taciturn, as was to be expected, speaking mostly to Lan Xichen in a cordial and pleasant manner. He made an effort to talk to Wei Wuxian in the morning, but seemed to be unable to sustain this into the afternoon. Wei Wuxian felt supremely depressed at the lack of progress he seemed to be making with Jiang Cheng.

One step forward, two steps back, he thought mournfully to himself, drawing patterns listlessly on Lan Zhan’s back. I almost wish I didn’t care about Jiang Cheng’s opinion of me so much… No, that’s not true. I do want to care. And that’s why it hurts me so much that we can’t find a way forward.

The day was a hot one, and as such, when they espied a rest stop near a well, Lan Xichen suggested they take a break from flying. They landed by the well, grateful to be out of the scorching heat of the sun, and decided to take their midday meal there.

“I’m going to catch a pheasant for lunch,” Wei Wuxian promptly announced, as soon as Bichen was back in its sheath. “Lan Zhan, come with me.”

“Mm,” Lan Zhan said, allowing himself to be dragged off into the nearby forest.

As soon as they were out of sight of Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen, Wei Wuxian let go of Lan Zhan’s hand, and sagged down by a tree. He looked up at Lan Zhan plaintively.

“Lan Zhan,” he tried, and his voice came out croaky, so he had to say it again. “Lan Zhaaaaaaaaaaaaan.”

Lan Zhan’s face was the picture of martyred patience. “Yes, Wei Ying?”

Wei Wuxian sighed. Saying Lan Zhan’s name no longer worked as a magic charm – it would normally have uplifted his mood, but this time he was feeling far too demoralised and down to be so easily cheered up. An image of Jiang Cheng’s enraged expression, and his cutting words of last night, echoed through his mind.

“Jiang Cheng was right,” he said dolefully, staring down at the ground and picking moodily at the blades of grass. “It… It never even occurred to me that he was left raising Jin Ling and running Yunmeng Jiang alone. I mean – I did know it was happening, but it just didn’t register with me. I’ve been awfully selfish and thinking only of myself.

“… And I wish I could have been there by his side,” he said, quieter. “But at the same time, I know that even if I went back in time, I wouldn’t change a thing about saving the Wen clan. There was no other alternative.” He looked woefully up at Lan Zhan through his eyelashes, feeling terribly sorry for himself.

Lan Zhan hesitated, then sat down next to him on the grass, but not before primly arranging his robes so they would not crease. The fastidious little movement that was so Lan Zhan almost made Wei Wuxian smile fondly. Almost.

“Mm,” he said, eloquently, his hand warm where it held onto Wei Wuxian’s own.

“No, what do you really think, Lan Zhan?” Wei Wuxian said, rather plaintively. “You’re not just agreeing with me because we’re friends, are you?”

Lan Zhan appeared to be choosing his words very carefully.

“I believe Wei Ying was right to save the Wen people,” he said, finally. “They were innocent. I also do not think there was any way to do it other than by force. Lanling Jin would still have wanted to wipe them out in the end.”

Wei Wuxian sighed. It was a mournful sigh.

“That’s also what I think,” he said, “… but I can’t help but think there must have been another way.”

Lan Zhan turned abruptly to face him, his mouth twisted. “Jiang Wanyin is right about one thing,” he said, and it was almost comical, the way his face screwed up in distaste as he was forced to concur with Jiang Cheng. “The past is the past, and it must be put behind us. No use dwelling on what could have or should have been.”

“Both of you are right. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk about it. There’s still lots of things to talk through,” Wei Wuxian concluded with another great sigh. He got back to his feet and stretched. “The problem is, neither of us is brave enough to start talking,” he continued, louder this time, as if speaking the words more carefreely would convince even himself. “I wonder if locking us in a cupboard would force a discussion between us. Ha! I can imagine Jiang Cheng’s face if we were to do that!”

“It would not be good for either of your health, no.”

“Yes, and Lan Zhan likes me strong and healthy, eh?” Wei Wuxian teased, watching Lan Zhan’s face closely for his reaction. Already he felt much cheered by their exchange, and once again, it confused him how much he had come to rely on Lan Zhan for reassurance and stability. He supposed it was just a mark of how great their friendship was.

“You are needed to find the Fenghuang,” Lan Zhan said in a monotone, his face perfectly placid. This shocked a laugh out of Wei Wuxian.

“Oh, good, Lan Zhan!” he said admiringly. “You know how to tease and wound me the best, don’t you now?”

And so, in a far cheerier mood than they had been before, they returned to the rest stop with one fine fat chicken in hand. As Wei Wuxian approached the well, he watched Jiang Cheng carefully, but was relieved to find that he’d seemingly returned to normal. He and Lan Xichen were seated by the small fire they’d started and were talking quietly in softer voices. Jiang Cheng was watching Lan Xichen as he cleaned Liebing.

As they spoke, and Lan Zhan and Wei Wuxian approached covertly, Lan Xichen uttered a loud, unrestrained laugh that sounded like it had startled even himself. He held out Liebing, but Jiang Cheng looked down at it with utter incomprehension and shook his head emphatically.

Wei Wuxian uttered a fond little chuckle. “Jiang Cheng was never one for music,” he said softly. “He would never sing with us or willingly play any musical instrument. I swear he’s tried every single instrument, whether it be of silk, bamboo, wood, stone, metal, clay, gourd or skin, but even the most renowned bayin music masters of Yunmeng couldn’t carve something out of rotten wood.”

The look on Lan Zhan’s face told him what Lan Zhan thought of that.

Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen looked up as they approached, and made space for them. Wei Wuxian deftly skinned and cleaned the chicken, having had lots of experience doing so. He put it on the spit and started roasting it on the fire.

He was just beginning to take the chicken off the fire and carve it up when they heard the sounds of incoming hoofbeats clopping slowly up the path, and a greeting called out: “That smells good!”

“Are they here to steal our lunch?” Wei Wuxian grumbled, but still he returned the greeting, craning his neck to look at the people coming over the field. “Hello!” he shouted, as his eyes alighted on the pair coming towards them.

Jiang Cheng made a choking sound deep in his throat.

“Lady Yuqing,” he said, his voice rigid to the point of breaking. Wei Wuxian spun around to look at him in disbelief.

“Jiang Cheng, you… you know this maiden?” he said in an undertone, too shocked by this revelation to forget that he and Jiang Cheng were supposed to have just argued. Jiang Cheng had, apparently, also forgotten this fact in his surprise, for he nodded, struck dumb. Wei Wuxian turned back to the two newcomers, now even more eager to see just who it was who had managed to render Jiang Cheng completely mute!

It was a man and a woman, seated on two separate horses. The former was a tall, middle-aged man, unremarkable-looking, with a large sword strapped to his back and a swarthy, crudely-handsome face. He was the one who had called out the greeting, and was waving enthusiastically as his horse plodded ponderously towards them.

His companion, however, was far more striking. Fair and lively, with pale snowy skin and large dewy eyes, she was no mere beauty. Coupled with the name Jiang Cheng had called out, Wei Wuxian was able to place her as Lin Yuqing, the famed beautiful young mistress of the Dongting Lin clan.

Her face went lightning-quick through a multitude of emotions as her gaze fell on the four of them, then abruptly she turned to the man and said loudly, “A-jun, we should find a different place to make camp.”

“What? Nonsense, Qingqing!” said the man in confusion, glancing back and forth between her and Wei Wuxian’s group. “We’ve ridden for a few hours now, and I’m starving! Besides, we didn’t see any other rest stops on the way, and who knows if we’ll see another stop again for a while before we reach Chongqing.”

“But… But that’s Jiang Wanyin!” Lady Yuqing hissed in an undertone, pulling her horse closer to the man and darting irritated eyes over at Jiang Cheng who, they all now realised, was the target of her ire. “He’s the one who… whisper whisper whisper.”

The man’s eyes widened in comprehension as he heard her words, but they seemed to have the opposite effect from what she desired. Instead of choosing to ride off, he puffed up his chest, and sat up straighter on his horse. His prominent shoulders were thrust even wider than normal.

“So this is the renowned Sect Leader Jiang!” he boomed. His voice had suddenly become deeper. “Your fame has spread far and wide, Sect Leader Jiang. My name is Sun Lijun, from the Xiaoguan Sun clan. My Qingqing has said so much about you! It’s an honour to meet you, and the rest of your companions, er…” He had now alighted from his horse and was saluting, looking expectantly at them and waiting for their names.

Jiang Cheng saluted back calmly to both of them, although he hesitated a bit before turning to Lin Yuqing. “Sect Leader Sun, Lady Yuqing. It’s my pleasure to meet you at last, Sect Leader Sun – I’ve likewise heard of your great exploits as well,” he said respectfully.

Lan Zhan, Lan Xichen and Wei Wuxian all took their turns to introduce themselves, and Sun Lijun’s eyes got bigger and bigger with each introduction. With Wei Wuxian’s, he was visibly taken aback, and had to collect himself. Contrary to this, Lin Yuqing – after a preliminary polite salute - began tugging surreptitiously on Sun Lijun’s sleeve, although it was to no avail.

Jiang Cheng must really have aggravated her, Wei Wuxian thought to himself, for her to be so visibly rude in front of the Chief Cultivator, two sect leaders and the Yiling Laozu!

Thankfully, the two of them had their own lunch, and so there was no need to share Wei Wuxian’s hard-won chicken. Sun Lijun was a big talker, and used to hearing the sound of his own voice, clearly; his tactic to win friends was apparently boasting about his impending marriage, the rituals he had to go through and all the money being spent on him and his wife. It was mostly Lan Xichen who kept up the conversation, for he was used to such boring pleasantries. Wei Wuxian couldn’t be bothered with low-level cultivators like him – even if they were sect leaders - who were the epitome of the saying, “tapping a half-empty bottle makes the most noise”. Lan Zhan, as usual, stayed stubbornly silent, and Jiang Cheng kept stuffing his face.

Finally, Lin Yuqing could bear it no longer.

“So, Sect Leader Jiang is still single, I hear,” she said snidely, interrupting Sun Lijun’s incessant flow of words. “What a boon for all the unmarried female cultivators in the cultivation world, that such a great catch as yourself is still available.”

Jiang Cheng made a grunt of acknowledgement, eyes fixed determinedly on his food. Seeing no reaction, Lin Yuqing forged on.

“You should find a mother for your nephew – Jin Ling, was that his name?” she said, tapping a finger against her chin as if in deep thought. “A child without a mother can’t be growing up well, can he?”

Jiang Cheng’s face became wooden. He had to visibly muster up his politeness. “I’m afraid I’m not looking for a wife at the moment,” he answered stiffly.

“What a pity,” Lin Yuqing said coldly. “You had such charm during our first meeting. Do you remember me telling you, A-Jun? I told you, didn’t I? Sect Leader Jiang was so, ah, unique. This humble cultivator had never met a man like you before, and probably never will. You were truly special, Sect Leader Jiang.”

“Ah, yes, I remember you saying!” Sun Lijun boomed, and suddenly Wei Wuxian thought his face had lost most of its handsomeness. Now it seemed more like a nasty, grabbing kind of face. “Then why didn’t you pursue the partnership then, Qingqing? Sect Leader Jiang would make a much better match for you than I, wouldn’t he?”

Lin Yuqing smiled, baring her teeth. “Perhaps it appeals to other women, but I’m afraid excessive candour is not a virtue which appeals to me,” she said frostily, and her gaze was like dripping icicles. “I wonder if you still think green doesn’t suit me, Sect Leader Jiang?”

It didn’t really, Wei Wuxian thought to himself, eyeing her bright forest green dress with a critical eye, but to think Jiang Cheng actually told her that to her face - !

“It doesn’t,” Jiang Cheng said bluntly. “You look like a winter melon,” and Wei Wuxian almost fell over.

At his words, a dull red flush suffused her skin, and now she looked like a watermelon. She shot to her feet and glared furiously down at Jiang Cheng. Her mouth opened and closed as she tried to find the words with which to rebut, but no sound came out. Sun Lijun looked up at her with an expression of growing alarm on his craggy face.

“And I’m no sartorial expert,” Jiang Cheng continued ruthlessly, driving the knife forward and twisting it with a relentless, relished cruelty, “but I believe my grandmother of Meishan Yu used to wear that style of clothing. And your perfume smells awful. If you don’t mind my candour, Lady Yuqing.”

Lin Yuqing’s famed complexion was now covered in blotches of colour, and you could practically see steam coming out of her ears. She stood there lamely for a few more seconds, trying to retort, but in the end all that resulted was that she let out a frustrated scream of fury and stormed off towards her horse in a huff. Sun Lijun’s face was a mask of rage, but with such eminent personalities as his adversaries, there was nothing he could do. He saluted shortly to them and hurried after her. The rapid clip-clopping of their horses’ hooves as they hurry away is a relief to all four of them present.

“… No wonder you can’t get a wife,” Wei Wuxian said, but his tone was admiring. He couldn’t help but marvel at Jiang Cheng’s skills (if you could call them that). Jiang Cheng cast him a side glance and looked away with a snort.

“She insulted Jin Ling,” he says stone-facedly, and returned to his meat like nothing had happened. Wei Wuxian did not know if that was a jab at him, or not.

“Perhaps I should learn a thing or two from you,” Lan Xichen said with a quiet laugh. “Maybe then I’d stop getting marriage proposals from cultivators I barely know.”

“Brother could never – “

“Sect Leader Lan could never – “

Jiang Cheng and Lan Zhan spoke up at the same time, then immediately looked at each other. The twin looks of disgust on their face were truly a sight to behold.

“It’s a compliment, Xichen-ge!” Wei Wuxian said brightly, although he was laughing internally at how funny Lan Zhan and Jiang Cheng were being. It was weird how many similarities they seemed to have, despite being such polar opposites. “It’s a good thing, being top of the list of cultivators!”

Although privately he’d always doubted the veracity of any list which didn’t have Lan Zhan at its head. Lan Xichen was handsome and accomplished, it was true, and he had a gentle steady manner which women liked. But in Wei Wuxian’s mind, he couldn’t even begin to hold a candle to Lan Zhan’s ethereal looks, or the invigorating power of his “mm”s.

After flying for half a day more, they landed in Chongqing and decided to rest there for the night. Wei Wuxian had never visited this city before, as it was a little further from Yunmeng and under the jurisdiction of a minor sect, the Chongqing Wu sect, which was rather independent and never saw the need to seek the help of Yunmeng Jiang, their more powerful neighbour. As such, he skipped from stall to stall, eagerly looking at the wares on sale. There were many goods made from bamboo displayed by the sellers, due to the numerous bamboo forests in the vicinity.

Wei Wuxian picked up a beautiful fan made of bamboo wood and paper with a design of a red sun rising above a mountain range, painstakingly painted on with ink. He flipped it open and looked over it admiringly.

What a fine-looking piece of work, he thought to himself. I know someone who’d love to add this to his collection…

The shopkeep noticed his attention to the fan and hurried over, wringing his hands together and scanning Wei Wuxian in an assessing manner. When he saw that Wei Wuxian was clothed in his typical black robes lined with red thread, and was looking rather the worse for wear, his face fell, and internally he smacked his face with his palm in disappointment.

“Young fellow,” he said with an irritated tone, and snatching the fan away from Wei Wuxian’s hands, “if it’s out of your budget, don’t touch! You might damage the wood. These kinds of high-quality goods are hard to come by these days, you know.”

There was a subtle clink, clink next to them as Lan Zhan wordlessly set down that perfume pouch which contained his money, on the table.

A large smile suddenly appeared on the shopkeeper’s face, and he stuffed the fan back into Wei Wuxian’s hand.

“My dear Young Master, please, look all you want!” he gushed effusively, eyes fixed on Lan Zhan’s purse. “We have everything, and high-quality goods too! Do you want to look at our cutleries? How about this tea set made out of the finest bamboo wood, from the Yangtoushan Bamboo Sea? Or this set of wind chimes…”

“It’s fine,” Wei Wuxian said, slightly miffed that he’d not passed muster, and turning up his nose at the shopkeeper. “I was just looking anyway, before you very rudely interrupted my window shopping. Hmph!” He was turning to walk away when the shopkeeper shouted at him again.

“Eh, Young Master, don’t be like that! I’ll show you something good, why don’t you come over here? It’ll be worth your money, I promise…”

Curiosity thus piqued, Wei Wuxian turned back, the aloof expression still on his face. The shopkeep was holding out a large carved bamboo rabbit, intricately carved so that its eyes shone like gemstones in the light of the flickering street lamps. The expression on its little face was so lifelike that Wei Wuxian half-expected it to jump out of the man’s palm.

Wei Wuxian could not resist the urge to lift his hand and stroke gently at the bamboo rabbit’s nape The wood was smooth and cold to the touch.

“This is real Chongqing bamboo wood!” said the stallholder, still maintaining his enthusiastic salesman-like demeanour. “Look at the technique – every stroke of the carving made by a master hand. You only get this here in Chongqing, where we have the finest bamboo artisans who train under the tutelage of another master for years before they accomplish this high standard of skills!”

Wei Wuxian was still slightly disgruntled at the man’s obvious two-facedness, and his assessment of Wei Wuxian as being too impoverished to afford some simple bamboo handicrafts. I mean, it’s true that I don’t have any money, but… I’m just temporarily out of cash! he griped to himself. Anyway, with Lan Zhan around, who needs money? He pays for me whether I have money or not. A casual observer might start suspecting that he was my patron rather than just my good friend, hahaha…

And so he decided to put the shopkeep on the spot as a bit of petty revenge. Besides, the man was being a bit too blatant with his boasting, wasn’t he? The rabbit was superb, that was true, and the skill level needed to create it was pretty high, also true; but the way the man was presenting it was as if it was a rare and unusual treasure.

“How much?” he said, affecting a condescending air. “How much for the rabbit?”

“For you, kind sir…” The man cast a very telling glance towards Lan Zhan’s coin purse. “Only one tael!”

Wei Wuxian’s soul almost left his body. One tael?! This was plainly daylight robbery! And what further added to his ire was the fact that Lan Zhan immediately opened up his pouch and set one precious shining silver tael on the counter without displaying any urge to bargain at all!

“Pi!” Wei Wuxian said explosively, and slapped his hand down hurriedly on the stallholder’s greedy fingers inching the way of that valuable silver. “One tael??? You’re kidding. What nonsense! This little rabbit is of such low quality. It’s not worth more than sixty copper coins at most!”

Lan Zhan looked at him disapprovingly as if to rebuke him for downplaying the rabbit’s worth, but that was just the nature of bargaining. You just had to employ these kinds of shady tactics to get the price as low as possible. Wei Wuxian’s bargaining skills were legendary – he’d sent a full-grown, burly old storeholder into a fit of tears before, with how low he’d managed to get the price. And he wasn’t about to let this wily fox get one over Lan Zhan just because Lan Zhan was a rich prince who didn’t know much of the conventions of this world!

“What ‘bamboo artisan’! What ‘high standard of skills’!” he scolded the stallholder. “This is clearly just a shoddy handicraft carved by a bamboo farmer. Don’t think that just because my dear brother over here is so generous that you can just cheat him of his hard-won money like that!”

“I’m not lying!” retorted the shopkeeper, now looking supremely offended. “Look, if you turn the rabbit over, you can see the seal of the great bamboo artisan Pan Chuanli. It’s clearly a work of great artistic merit, good sir, and I’ll tell you one thing – you won’t get this kind of quality elsewhere, I can guarantee it!”

“How can you guarantee it?” Wei Wuxian asked, seeing that there was indeed a seal carved into the base of the rabbit, but as he wasn’t familiar with the conventions of the bamboo carving industry, that meant nothing to him. “Can you let me meet this great man and see how he does his work?”

The shopkeeper withdrew visibly then, his face darkening and a shadow passing over his face. He scratched the back of his head.

“Unfortunately, Master Pan is dead,” he mumbled, eyes cast downwards.

Wei Wuxian was shocked by this sudden dark turn of events. “Er - I’m sorry,” he said. Now it was his turn to scratch at his neck awkwardly.

“It was those damned beasts!” the shopkeeper suddenly shouted, his face flushed with anger. “They’ve been damaging our crops, destroying our bamboo plantations, invading our homes… And two days ago two wild boars rammed into the outhouse of Master Pan while he was inside doing his business. He had a heart attack and passed away in a most ignominious fashion. Ahh, what a pity, to have lost such a great master before his time!”

“Oi, what’s taking you so long?” came Jiang Cheng’s voice, as he and Lan Xichen approached the store at which Lan Zhan and Wei Wuxian were held up at. Seeing the telltale purple robes of the Yunmeng Jiang sect, the shopkeeper’s eyes bulged out in disbelief. Then he seized hold of Jiang Cheng’s hand.

“Are you a group of cultivators? Then please, you must help us with our problem!” he said, shaking Jiang Cheng’s hand vigorously up and down. It was almost comical to see Jiang Cheng’s face darken as if a thundercloud had descended over it as his hand was enthusiastically pumped by the desperate stallholder. “Please help us, o great and wise cultivators!” He turned back to Wei Wuxian since Jiang Cheng wasn’t responding to him, and now it was Wei Wuxian’s turn to have his hand seized by the sweaty palms of the stallholder.

“Kind sir, please help us,” he urged again, and the desperation in his eyes was pitiful. “My wife’s family runs a chicken farm on the outskirts of Chongqing, and yesterday a group of deer charged onto her farm and gored half of her poultry to death. If this goes on… if this goes on… her farm won’t be able to survive!”

“A sudden incidence?” Lan Zhan asked shortly. The man nodded.

“We’ve been living harmoniously with the wild animals of the nearby forests for centuries,” he babbled. “But it was about a week or two ago that large crowds of wild beasts started coming out of the forests and wreaking havoc. They’re difficult to fend off and act almost as if they were possessed! I hear they’ve already managed to put the two farms nearest to Yangtoushan Bamboo Sea, out of business!”

“Did you not seek the help of the Chongqing Wu sect?” Wei Wuxian queried.

“They told us that they did not have cultivators to spare, due to the big Discussion Conference in Gusu Lan,” the shopkeep answered despairingly. “They said they’d come by to help in about a week’s time, but by that time I fear there will have been far more deaths and more businesses forced to close their doors.”

Wei Wuxian looked at Lan Zhan. He had already made up his mind. These people needed help, and they were being denied it by the cultivators duty-bound to provide assistance. There was nothing else he could do, in good conscience, other than to offer his and Lan Zhan’s service.

The look in Lan Zhan’s eyes showed that he and Wei Wuxian were of one heart and one mind.

But later when they were taking their dinner in a private room of a Chongqing inn that was overlooking the street, Wei Wuxian realised that Jiang Cheng did not share their sentiments.

“No,” he said stonily, when Wei Wuxian said casually that he wanted to visit the farms by Yangtze tomorrow to see what the problem was with the wild beasts.

“What?” Wei Wuxian said. Something twisted in his chest.

“You heard me. No.” The sentence was uttered resolutely and without quarter.

“I’m not even asking you to come,” Wei Wuxian answered, his tone turning mulish. “And I wasn’t asking your permission. Lan Zhan and I have decided to go. The locals need our help, Jiang Cheng, can’t you understand that?!” Only when Lan Zhan put a hand on his wrist did he realise that his volume had been steadily rising, along with his level of pique.

Jiang Cheng snorted. It was an ugly sound, and made Wei Wuxian’s chest twinge even more painfully.

“Since when have you ever asked my permission for anything? And for that matter, since when have you listened to anything I said?” he said coldly. “But consider this, Wei Wuxian: every moment we spend dallying here in Chongqing is a moment more during which the Shenlong might awaken and find its meal in Yunmeng. Every person you save in Chongqing might mean one lost life in Yunmeng. As Yunmeng Jiang’s Sect Leader, I have a responsibility to safeguard my people, not the people of Chongqing!”

“We don’t know that the trap spell will fail!” Wei Wuxian cried exasperatedly. “Look, Jiang Cheng, you, Lan Zhan and Lan Xichen placed the spell yourself – you know that it will last longer than it takes for us to return. There’s time to spare, and if we use that time to save the people in Chongqing, that would be time well-spent.”

Jiang Cheng slammed his cup of wine down on the table with a hand that was trembling violently. “My people in Lotus Pier will die if we delay any longer!” he shouted.

“So will these people if we don’t help them!”

“Don’t you understand, Wei Wuxian?! We have to protect the people of Lotus Pier – the people who are my people, and who are your people too!” Jiang Cheng roared, shooting to his feet. The table trembled with the strength of his wrath.

Then, as his words sank in, his face flushed dully. Looking at Lan Xichen, who’d stood as soon as he had and was now lifting a hand as if to place it on his shoulder, he jerked abruptly and turned away. With an exclamation of anger, he stormed off.

Lan Xichen stood there for a moment, his hand raised in its abortive gesture. His face bore a curious expression.

Then he looked down at Wei Wuxian, and that expression changed. Wei Wuxian recoiled slightly, instinctively, and Lan Zhan suddenly gripped his hand as if to offer him comfort. Then Lan Xichen walked out of the room.

Wei Wuxian closed his mouth. He felt as if he’d just been stabbed by Sandu. Did Jiang Cheng still consider him part of Yunmeng Jiang?

… But no, that bridge had been burned long ago.

Instead, he set his jaw resolutely. “There’s no other way,” he said quietly. “We have to help Chongqing. If we don’t… who will?” He turned to Lan Zhan, abruptly finding that he needed to justify himself. “These are trivialities to us, but to these farmers and stallholders and peasants, this is their life,” he said. “We can’t not help them when it would make their lives better. Someone’s got to take care of them, and if no one else can – or will – we just have to do it.”

Lan Zhan, his dear Chief Cultivator, did not say anything. He did not need to say anything; he simply nodded. With that single nod, Wei Wuxian felt the gripping sensation in his chest ease, and the feeling of having submerged himself into a warm bath came over him. He turned his palm over and gripped onto Lan Zhan’s hand.

“We will go alone,” Lan Zhan said decisively. “Time for bed.” Wei Wuxian nodded, and sighed. Jiang Cheng wouldn’t like it, but he’d just have to put up with it. When it came to matters of life and death such as this, brotherly feelings had to be put aside for the greater good.

But as they approached their rooms, they heard soft voices coming from the room next to them. Jiang Cheng’s room, Wei Wuxian realised, and glanced over to Lan Zhan, whose face was as granite. Slowly, Wei Wuxian tiptoed closer and beckoned Lan Zhan.

Lan Zhan frowned at him. It seemed that Gusu Lan stickler-for-the-rules disposition was not so let go of. He turned, as if to march off into his own room, but Lan Xichen’s gentle voice echoing out of Jiang Cheng’s room gave him pause.

“Come here, Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian mouthed, beckoning him again. This time, Lan Zhan acquiesced obediently. He came over to Wei Wuxian’s side, and they pressed closer towards the paper door so as to hear more clearly.

“… think I’m a bad person for not wanting to help?” Jiang Cheng’s voice was hard, but at the same time an underlying layer of vulnerability was obvious in his tone.

There was a pause, and then the creaking of the floorboards, and a soft thump. It appeared that Lan Xichen had seated himself down by the table at which Jiang Cheng was also sitting.

“No, I don’t,” Lan Xichen said at last. He was choosing his words very cautiously. “No, I understand Sect Leader Jiang’s rationale. As sect leader, we always have to put our people first. Not many people can understand that. We do not have the freedoms allowed many others of our age.”

Jiang Cheng exhaled heavily. Wei Wuxian suddenly could not stand not being able to see his face, and so surreptitiously he poked a hole through the paper of the door with his spiritual energy, and peered in.

His guess of earlier was true – Lan Xichen and Jiang Cheng were both seated at the low table in the centre of Jiang Cheng’s room, and Lan Xichen was lifting the teapot to pour tea into Jiang Cheng’s cup. The steam wafted up from the hot tea and infused the room with a calming, herbal scent.

“Was the choice never given to you?” Jiang Cheng asked abruptly. “Even after Qingheng-jun passed on, there was Lan Qi – Teacher Lan. And there was Lan Wangji.”

“I never minded any of that,” Lan Xichen said, with a small laugh. “Being Sect Leader is a great responsibility, but one that I enjoy bearing. As for Wangji… Wangji must be free.”

“And yet he is Chief Cultivator,” Jiang Cheng said disbelievingly. “He is far from free.”

A shadow crossed Lan Xichen’s face, and he put the teapot down. “He took up the role for his own reasons,” he said evasively. “And the role is good for him. It gives him the freedom to carry out justice wherever he goes, and the power to protect those he loves. He is an excellent Chief Cultivator. And so would you have been,” he continued, turning back to Jiang Cheng with a faint frown on his face. “Why did you turn down the position?”

This was startling news to Wei Wuxian. He had not known that Jiang Cheng had been offered the role of Chief Cultivator before Lan Zhan.

Jiang Cheng shrugged carelessly, as if the question did not mean much to him. “I have enough politicking to deal with, as it is,” he said, and a sardonic smile that had altogether too many teeth crossed his face. “I’m happy taking care of Yunmeng Jiang and my people. And I guess that brings us back to the topic at hand.”

A heavy silence weighed over them. Neither of them said anything for a while, choosing to sip at their tea, or stare moodily out of the window on the opposite wall, at the fog outside.

“Young Master Wei… has a good heart. I don’t think he quite understands what you’ve sacrificed to give him his freedom,” Lan Xichen said quietly, breaking the silence.

In answer, Jiang Cheng’s head jerked upwards and he looked at Lan Xichen with haunted eyes. He was met with that familiar soft smile. “He’s lucky in that sense. He has people who love him to support him, and that gives him the freedom to be the righteous and honourable person that he is. And I do believe that he’s right to want to help the people of Chongqing. … But that doesn’t also mean that I don’t agree that your concerns are valid.”

“I didn’t do any… any of it for him,” Jiang Cheng said hollowly. The look in his eyes was almost hungry, at this point, as he looked at Lan Xichen. His fists were clenched tight where he held them together under the table, the tendons standing out on the back of his hands.

Lan Xichen shook his head. “You are right as well, to want to protect your people. Sect Leader Jiang, if I could be so bold,” he continued, as gentle but determined as the flow of water; soft, but strong, like a stream eroding stone over decades of years. “Please believe in the power of our spell. We have reinforced it against the Shenlong, and I am quite sure that it will hold until we return. These people in Chongqing… they need the aid that we can provide. And although Young Master Wei does not say it, you being by his side would be a great comfort to him, and your contribution invaluable.”

Jiang Cheng laughed darkly. “I know, I know all that, and yet I still feel unsure,” he said. “I have no real choice, do I? We must help these people.” Something flashed across his face. “If only to satisfy Wei Wuxian’s hero complex. It’s like he’ll die if he doesn’t save a person for one day… It’s what got my family into trouble in the first place.”

Wei Wuxian’s hand tightened into a fist on his lap, and unconsciously, he sought Lan Zhan’s gaze. In the dim light, it was difficult to see Lan Zhan’s expression, but as their eyes met, Lan Zhan’s face visibly darkened. He moved as if to stand, but Wei Wuxian gripped on to his shoulder.

“Don’t,” he mouthed, even though his chest felt again like it was crawling with snakes. “Lan Zhan – “

“No, that’s unfair,” Jiang Cheng said, his voice harsh and grating, as if the words had been torn out of his mouth. Wei Wuxian’s head snapped back to stare into Jiang Cheng’s room in shock.

Jiang Cheng passed a hand over his face so his expression could not be seen. He breathed deeply, and something strange flitted over Lan Xichen’s expression. Lan Xichen lifted his hand, as if to touch Jiang Cheng’s shoulder, but at the last moment, he aborted the movement abruptly, and pulled his hand back to his side.

Instead, he said, “You do have a choice, Sect Leader Jiang. You always have a choice. And no matter what, I trust that your reasons for that choice would be right, whatever your decision may be.”

Jiang Cheng took his hand away from his face, and he did an unexpected thing. He smiled, a proper smile; albeit a small one, barely visible.

“Thank you,” he said quietly, the words sticking in his throat. Lan Xichen returned his smile with one of his own.

“The hour is late. Shall we retire, Sect Leader Jiang? Another early morning awaits us again tomorrow.”

“Yes,” Jiang Cheng said, swallowing. He stood to let Lan Xichen out, and the movement led Wei Wuxian and Lan Zhan into a mad scramble to run back into Wei Wuxian’s room, which was the closest to Jiang Cheng’s. Thankfully, they managed to make their escape soundlessly, and the sounds of Lan Xichen padding softly past Wei Wuxian’s room to go to his quarters soon faded away.

Wei Wuxian felt as if he’d just been put through an emotional wringer. He looked at Lan Zhan’s face, and there was a complex expression on the other’s face. There was something in the subtle quirk of his eyebrows that read of his bewilderment.

“I have never seen Brother like that before,” Lan Zhan murmured. The confusion in his voice was palpable, and he turned his face towards Wei Wuxian.

“He offered Jiang Cheng the comfort that I could not,” Wei Wuxian said, and only once the words escaped him did his legs give way, causing him to fall to a kneeling position by Lan Zhan’s side. Lan Zhan caught his arm as he fell, and the feeling of Lan Zhan’s hand on his shoulder seemed to burn a hole through his clothes.

“I’d never thought about it like that before,” Wei Wuxian confessed, Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen’s words running through his mind in rapid-fire fashion.

“Lan Zhan… Lan Zhan, my chest hurts so much,” and it shocked him, how plaintive his voice was.

Immediately Lan Zhan’s brows slanted downwards, and he placed his hand against Wei Wuxian’s chest, right over his heart. Somehow Wei Wuxian found that that eased the pain.

“Sleep, Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan said softly. “Don’t think about it anymore. Just sleep.”

And so he did.

Chapter Text

The next day, Jiang Cheng wasn’t exactly happy, but he was more acquiescing than before. When he soundlessly got up from breakfast and accompanied them on their walk to the farms by the banks of Yangtze, Wei Wuxian chose not to say anything about it. It seemed that they were falling into a cycle that was quickly becoming predictable – an argument one night, awkwardness the next morning, and a return to semi-normality by evening, at which point Jiang Cheng would be set off by something and the cycle would restart. Wei Wuxian wondered despairingly if they would ever be able to break the cycle – but for now, this fragile rapport would have to do. They had to focus on more important things; namely, the rescue of Chongqing from the beasts that were plaguing it.

As they arrived at the area of the riverbank where most of the farms were sited, Wei Wuxian silently bemoaned the fact that he was soon going to lose most of his remaining sartorial dignity. There was mud everywhere; on the sole of his boots, the hem of his robes, even his waist where an overenthusiastic runaway chicken had flown up and planted its dirty feet onto his belt.

Lan Zhan and Lan Xichen, as usual, were somehow still pristine, their clean white robes and shoes remaining as pure as the driven snow despite the many li of muddy land the four of them had trodden through. And Jiang Cheng… as if any farm animal would dare to plant its filthy trotters on his clothes, with his fierce glare! Wei Wuxian was surprised the plants hadn’t already withered to death under the strength of his glower.

Most of the forest had been cleared for farmland, and so some of the farms sat quite close to the trunks of the bamboo sea. The trees grew close together, forming what seemed like an impenetrable, daunting barrier against entry, and it was clear how wild beasts could simply burst out of their depths without warning. As per what the shopkeep had said, there weren’t many live animals left on the fields and paddocks, and the crops looked as if they had been run ragged.

Yangtoushan Bamboo Sea on the left, Yangtze on the right… no wonder these people were at their wits’ end, Wei Wuxian thought. They simply had nowhere else to go. The thought only strengthened his determination to offer assistance in any way he could.

Finally they reached one of the main farmhouses, where a woman stood on the steps of her home, rocking a baby on her hip and watching them apprehensively as they approached. Wei Wuxian called out a greeting to her which she did not return.

“Auntie,” Wei Wuxian said respectfully, as they drew near, and he saluted to her. “We’ve heard this area has been facing attacks from wild beasts recently. Can we ask where the attacks have mainly been focused?”

“You’re just on time,” the woman said curtly, drawing the baby closer to her hip. “If you’re looking for those blasted animals from the forest, they’ll be coming out in about a minute. Trust me, you won’t miss them - they’ll descend on every single farm in this vicinity.”

“How long has this been happening?” asked Lan Xichen, stepping closer, and under his powerful healing aura, even this prickly woman seemed to ease somewhat.

“Um, for the past two weeks,” she said. “They just came out of nowhere… we don’t even know what it was that angered them so - ”

Suddenly, as she spoke, a low, ominous rumbling came from the direction of the bamboo trees. Wei Wuxian pivoted and tried to pinpoint a specific location from which it was coming.

Then he realised that the sound was coming from the entire length of the Yangtoushan Bamboo Sea that bordered the farmland.

“They’re coming,” hissed Jiang Cheng, the master of stating the obvious. With a loud crackle, Zidian was released, and it arced in front of their vision in a bright purple streak of lightning. The woman gave a little shriek of fear and fled back into her house, slamming the door loudly behind her. All around them, whatever animals were left in the fields screeched and neighed and called, as if in anticipation and fear.

The rumbling was getting louder. Now, the ground was shaking. Wei Wuxian closed his eyes and felt under the ground – he could detect the presence of a few corpses, but they were already in such a state of decay that they would be of little use. That made sense, for dead bodies were often not buried by rivers, for any material that leaked from the corpses might contaminate precious drinking water. But the problem was that it left him with precious few options. His fingers tightened around Chenqing’s shaft.

BOOM! With a loud crash, dozens of wild boar and deer burst out of the bamboo forest. Their fevered cries echoed through the air as they charged straight for the farmhouses. Gates were smashed, crops were trampled, and livestock were gored cruelly by the weaponry of the beasts. The first wave was so swift that the four of them hardly had time to react.

However, quickly, a sonorous and calming melody was heard. Lan Xichen was playing on Liebing, Lan Zhan on Wangji, and Wei Wuxian on Chenqing. Together, the chords of their melody rose and fell, creating a harmonious piece that shook the air.

Briefly, it seemed as though they’d succeeded. The animals paused in their rampage, and some of them turned their snouts into the air, sniffing hungrily. The deer tossed their heads in agitation and confusion, while the boar flicked their ears and pawed at the ground. Emboldened by their success, Wei Wuxian continued playing, watching their foes closely.

But it seemed that this was fated to be nothing more than a brief respite. With a loud squeal of defiance, the creatures at the head of the assault resumed their charge, this time with renewed fervour. The dust raised by their hooves created an ominous cloud around them, through which the beady bright flickers of their pupils gleamed.

“They’re mad!” Jiang Cheng shouted. “There’s no calming them!”

Wei Wuxian agreed. These beasts were so crazed and hungry for blood that there was no making peace. The only way forward now was by using force. Concentrating hard, he dug deep into the ground and summoned whatever meagre corpses he could find. Loud cracks could be heard as the bodies clawed their way up and burst through the land.

There was a loud explosion as Zidian swished through the air and cast aside many of the beasts who had been leading the attack. The creatures flew into the air with agonising screams; and when they hit the ground, they fell silent, and breathed no more. Beams of blue light from Wangji arced through the air, cutting through the next few waves of the beasts and sending them flying.

There was something curiously familiar about the frenzied glitter of their eyes. Wei Wuxian realised with a start that their pupils, contracted to tiny pinpricks of light, were burning a bright shade of fiery red.

“They’re being controlled,” he said, too soft at first to be heard over the din of the squalling animals and the now-discordant sounds of their instruments. “They’re being controlled by resentful energy!” he said again, this time shouting to be heard over the clamour. “We must trace them to their source!”

Now he changed the tune he was playing on Chenqing. It was a melody he’d been developing recently, in case there came the day when someone else was able to control ghost puppets with resentful energy to counter his own efforts, as had been the case with Su She and Jin Guangyao. While it had not been fully tested, and still had its flaws – chief among those the fact that it might not even work on animals – he had no choice at this point in time. He could only play his composition and hope that it would have the expected effect: to jerk the wild beasts out of their forcefully-induced craze and back into a state of sensibility.

Thankfully, his experiments proved true. With every note Chenqing delivered, one more creature stopped in its tracks and blinked fitfully, turning its head from side to side as if to deduce what was happening. With these beasts which had been freed from the control of their unknown master, their pupils dilated back to their normal side, and they soon scampered off back into the forest to escape the battle. Jiang Cheng gave a scornful laugh in response and only flicked Zidian harder to clear away the creatures which were still being controlled.

Abruptly there came a turn in the tide, as if their unseen master had detected that things were going very badly for him. With a resounding screech, the remaining animals turned tail and fled back in the direction of the forest.

You’re not getting off that easy! Wei Wuxian shouted in his mind. He looked at Jiang Cheng, who returned his gaze, and after a heartbeat, gave him a short nod. Pulling Zidian back to himself, he coiled it into a lasso with his spiritual energy, and threw it back towards one of the fleeing beasts. It caught around the poor creature’s neck and tightened into a collar around its neck.

They followed swiftly behind the horde of beasts, running on their own feet. Although they were soon outmatched when it came to speed, the light of Zidian glowed brightly even through the murk of the bamboo forest, and it was a beacon that guided their way. Bamboo leaves cut at their cheeks as they sped through the depths of Yangtoushan, and only a very dim light penetrated through the tops of the plants. But still they sped on, doggedly following the path of that vibrant purple light.

When finally they caught up to the light of Zidian, it was to find a motley group of around ten cultivators, all clad in dark leaf green. They were standing in a clearing at the entrance to a cave, with swords outstretched in shaking hands. The animals which had been fleeing were now standing placidly around, grazing on the grass or resting from their exertions.

“Why are you attacking the farms of Chongqing?” Wei Wuxian asked, his voice resounding around the enclosed space. There was no answer.

Instead, the two people at the head of the group, who appeared to be the leaders, cast despairing looks at each other. Then they returned their gaze to the four cultivators with their jaws clenched, as if they’d made up their mind.

“Attack!” howled one of the men, and forward charged the group of cultivators.

Jiang Cheng swung his hand upwards. With a loud swish, Zidian returned to his hand from the neck of the poor deer it had been previously attached to, and he slammed the whip down on the ground in a line right in front of the cultivators. The men skidded to an abrupt stop and cowered.

“S-S-Sandu Shengshou!” whimpered one of them, clutching at another cultivator who was trembling by his side. “It’s Jiang Cheng – Jiang Wanyin!”

“That’s right,” Jiang Cheng said coldly, Zidian returning to his hand with a sharp hiss and a cloud of smoke, although his eyes still sparked with violet light. It was truly an imposing sight, and even Wei Wuxian felt chills go down his spine.

“First it was Wen Ning, and now it’s Jiang Cheng who inspires more fear than the Yiling Laozu? I need to step up my game,” Wei Wuxian whispered. Lan Xichen smiled amiably, while Lan Zhan and Jiang Cheng just ignored him.

Striding forward, Jiang Cheng gripped one of the cultivators by the neck and lifted him easily. “Answer the question!” he snarled. “Why are you attacking the farms of Chongqing? And how are you controlling these beasts?”

One of the cultivators to his right threw himself desperately at Jiang Cheng’s body. Without even looking in his direction, Jiang Cheng unleashed Zidian and tossed him away. He hit the ground with a loud thump, and did not get up again.

“SPEAK!” he thundered, tightening his grip around the cultivator’s neck. The man began to turn blue as his legs kicked futilely and he spasmed with the need for air.

“I’ll talk, I’ll talk!” sobbed one of the other cultivators. Jiang Cheng dropped the man in his grasp like a stone, casting a contemptuous glance his way before stalking over to the cultivator who’d spoken.

“Sect Leader Jiang,” Lan Xichen said quietly.

Jiang Cheng looked over at him, then snorted. “I know, I know,” he grumbled, “I’ll be gentle.” And he turned his head away, back towards the cultivator grovelling on the ground.

“Well? What do you have to say?” he asked fiercely, and for the life of him, Wei Wuxian could not tell how that was supposed to be gentler in any way!

“We didn’t mean for things to get out of hand!” blubbered the cultivator, snot starting to leak out of his nose. “We were just trying to perfect Master’s craft. He hasn’t been back for two years, and so we have had no one to guide us in our ways. We made a mistake with harnessing the animals’ resentful energy. It whipped them up into a frenzy, and they’ve been venting their grudge on the farms by the river ever since. It was only today that… that some of the animals were released from the spell we had over them, and so we were able to dispel some of their resentful energy and command them to return.”

“I’ve never before heard of a clan who could control resentful energy in animals,” Wei Wuxian said, his interest piqued now that these cultivators seemed mostly to be harmless idiots. “Who is your master?”

“Master – Master Wang Chenglong,” said one of the men hesitatingly, and Wei Wuxian almost choked. Wang Chenglong? What a clever name, he said sardonically to himself. “Wang” for “hope”, but also “Wang” the character of his surname; and “Chenglong” that means “becoming a dragon”. Adding on “zi” for “son”, it makes the idiom “wang zi cheng long”… which means “hoping one’s son becomes a dragon”, eh? His mother must have been a witty one indeed.

“He… he developed his own method of demonic cultivation, and managed to harness resentful energy from animals. There’s been plenty of resentful energy in the animals in this area because of the constant clearing of the forest to provide space for the Chongqing farms, and so he said there was a rich well of energy here,” the cultivator continued blabbering. “We – we all thought it was a quick way to gain power. But he left two years ago and hasn’t been back since! Without his teachings, our learning was not complete, so we weren’t able to harness the energy properly and redirect the animals’ anger. We made a mistake with our experiments somewhere – we don’t know where - sometime last week, and they’ve been destroying the farms since.”

“You’d better stop this immediately!” Wei Wuxian said sternly, crossing his arms over his chest. “You’re damaging innocent farmers’ livelihoods, and you’ve even taken one life to date with your careless cultivation mistakes. Besides,” and he glanced over at Jiang Cheng’s stony face, “Now that Sect Leader Jiang knows your faces, he won’t let you have a free pass if you commit any further crimes, I’m sure.”

Jiang Cheng side-eyed him, then gave him that well-known eye roll, and tossed his glare back to the cultivators. A warm feeling began to spread throughout Wei Wuxian’s body at the familiar action.

“We won’t! We won’t! We’ll disband immediately,” wailed the cultivators. They were a sorry bunch indeed, mostly harmless, Wei Wuxian thought. But of course they still had to be accountable for their crimes. It would teach them a lesson that they sorely needed.

“Wangji, Sect Leader Jiang, why don’t you check the cave for any evidence or any more cultivators?” Lan Xichen suggested. “Young Master Wei and I will stay here to restrain and look after these cultivators.”

Lan Zhan and Jiang Cheng cast horrified glances towards each other, but acceded without protest, since it was Lan Xichen who had given the order. They descended into the depths of the cave with a noticeable distance between them despite the narrowness of the cave entrance.

He wanted to talk with me in private, Wei Wuxian realised, otherwise he wouldn’t have sent Jiang Cheng and Lan Zhan off together… everyone knows that’s a recipe for disaster. He’s not an experienced Sect Leader for nothing – he knows how to get his way.

He cast an assessing glance over at Lan Xichen, but was met with the same beatific smile that always adorned that fair face. Wei Wuxian returned the smile.

“Xichen-ge, do you have rope to tie these cultivators up with?” he said respectfully. Lan Xichen fished a qiankun pouch out of his sleeves and passed it to him.

“I’ll attend to the cultivator who was hit by Zidian. Could Young Master Wei please tie up the other men while I do so?” he instructed. Wei Wuxian nodded and proceeded to carry out the task.

Thankfully, the man who Jiang Cheng had tossed to the side hadn’t been severely injured, at most sustaining a broken arm and leg. These cultivators weren’t anything special, and so the level of their cultivation or bodies was near that of normal people. Jiang Cheng must have assessed this to be the case and moderated his strength accordingly, Wei Wuxian realised, watching as Lan Xichen splinted the injured cultivator, up and helped him hobble to his feet.

When Wei Wuxian had finished tying up the cultivators and seated them in neat rows by the entrance to the cave, and Lan Xichen had finished guiding the injured cultivator to where the rest of his companions sat, Wei Wuxian dusted off his hands and walked over to Lan Xichen.

“What did Xichen-ge want to speak to me about?” he asked, pasting a winning smile on his face. Lan Xichen tilted his head down to face him.

“Oh, it was nothing urgent,” he said, amiably. “Just that I wondered if Young Master Wei had any thoughts on the things I was discussing with Sect Leader Jiang last night?”

“… How did you know I was listening?” Wei Wuxian said, the shameless smile remaining on his face, as he saw no reason to deny his actions. “Did Sect Leader Lan hear us?” Something flashed through his mind, and he uttered an understanding chuckle. “Ah, the hole in the door… I guess Sect Leader Lan saw that. But when did you become aware that I was listening?”

“Only at the end, when I was taking my leave,” Lan Xichen answered. “I suppose Young Master Wei heard the entirety of our conversation, then? What were your thoughts?”

Wei Wuxian exhaled explosively, the memory of last night’s exchange removing any remaining urge he had to smile. “I… I was grateful that Zewu-jun could offer Jiang Cheng comfort, where I could not,” he said haltingly. “Jiang Cheng and I, we’ve always been at odds. It seems that anything I say nowadays easily angers him.”

“Young Master Wei, you are not a bad person. Quite the opposite, actually,” Lan Xichen said, his voice now different, and startling Wei Wuxian with the apparent non sequitur. In his tone of voice Wei Wuxian recognised that emotion which had been present on his face last night as he had cast his glance onto Wei Wuxian, before pursuing Jiang Cheng out of the dining room. It was an emotion which made Wei Wuxian feel inexplicably chastened, and guilty.

“But I think it would be good if you tried to understand things from Sect Leader Jiang’s perspective,” Lan Xichen continued, unyielding and relentless. “It is true that there are many things you say which easily rouse Sect Leader Jiang’s ire, but there is a reason for that. Perhaps Young Master Wei should also try to understand why it is those things infuriate him so.”

“Then do you think I’m in the wrong? That I was wrong to push for us to come to Chongqing today?” Wei Wuxian said, and he could not help the defensive tone that his words took on.

In answer, Lan Xichen’s face showed uncharacteristic irritation, before he calmed himself.

“I do not think either of you are in the wrong here,” he said, this time in a mildly-stern tone. “When it comes to fault lines in relationships like yours, often the division is beyond either parties’ control. But perhaps you should try to understand Sect Leader Jiang’s perspective, and understand why it is that he has done the things he has done.”

“It’s a difficult thing to do,” Wei Wuxian said lowly.

“Repairing a relationship is difficult in itself,” Lan Xichen said, “but when it comes to such a precious thing, the end goal is often worth it; is it not?”

Wei Wuxian glanced at him. Lan Xichen’s eyes were like deep pools, holding infinite regret and sadness, and Wei Wuxian could not resist the impulsive urge to place a hand on his shoulder to offer comfort.

“Xichen-ge, I’ll try, I’ll try,” he said, plaintively. “I love Jiang Cheng, you know, and I want our relationship to get better. Thank you for your advice. I’ll do my best to abide by it.”

Lan Xichen turned his head and looked at him, then laughed gently. That look in his eyes had now disappeared. “I am sure that anything Young Master Wei puts his mind to will come to pass,” he said softly.

Don’t be sad, Xichen-ge, Wei Wuxian wanted to say, don’t think about things that shouldn’t be thought about. But of course he couldn’t say those things. So instead he clung tighter to Lan Xichen’s arm and plied him with whatever inane observations he could spout out from his brain, as they waited for Lan Zhan and Jiang Cheng to ascend back out of the cave. He succeeded in drawing out a quiet chuckle or two at some of his wittier remarks, and Lan Xichen looked down at him with a soft gaze, as if perfectly aware of what he was doing, but going along with it anyway.

They received no warning as Jiang Cheng and Lan Zhan came out of the cave, the freezing silence that had been between the two of them when they had entered, apparently having persisted all throughout the time that they had spent underground. Behind them walked a few more cultivators, a mix of women and younger men, who had been hiding inside the cave, and were now tied up with the same hemp rope that Lan Xichen had kept in his qiankun pouch.

The twin expressions of exasperation on their faces, however, as Lan Zhan and Jiang Cheng came out of the cave and spotted Wei Wuxian attached to Lan Xichen’s arm like a barnacle, were altogether too hilarious to resist. Wei Wuxian let go of Lan Xichen and bent over, holding his sides as he tried to control his laughter.

They’re really too similar in some ways, Wei Wuxian thought to himself in amusement. Although if that fact was ever mentioned to either of them, Wei Wuxian did not hold out much hope for the survival of the person who delivered this observation.

Jiang Cheng set off a signal that was hidden in his sleeve, and the purple shimmer of the lotus motif exploded high above them. Any Yunmeng Jiang patrols in the vicinity would soon arrive to take the Yangtoushan cultivators away.

“Did you find anything of use in the cave?” Lan Xichen asked. Lan Zhan nodded and fished several books out of his sleeve.

Wei Wuxian took one from him and flipped through it quickly. With each page he turned, his eyes became bigger and rounder.

“This Wang Chenglong appears to have been quite intelligent,” he said admiringly. “He’s written down his theories regarding how to harness the resentful energy in animals. The idea hadn’t occurred even to me, to look at animals as a potential reservoir – I mean, I knew animals could harbour resentful energy, but without a soul, I didn’t think they could be controlled to any useful extent. Look, he’s even made comparative diagrams of the equivalent acupoints in different species of animals, next to this diagram of a human’s acupoints, and by using this knowledge you should be able to manipulate their qi and yin energy… Look, he’s even got diagrams for a long and a xuanwu… Ahh, what a pity!”

“What’s a pity?” Jiang Cheng asked shortly, looking through one of the books himself with an uncomprehending gaze.

Wei Wuxian sighed. “It’s a pity that his handwriting is so atrocious, and that he clearly only learned his writing at a late age,” he griped. “Most of the words are incorrectly-written and incomplete. No wonder his disciples couldn’t figure out his techniques properly just from his journals! I mean, look at this! What does it even say?? Interspecies… trans… translation? Transmission? Transferral? It’s completely illegible in places! It’s only because I’ve written similar books that I can sort of understand what he’s writing. But even so, it would be near-impossible to figure out his methods just with these rubbishy manuals.”

“Wei Wuxian, stop thinking about more heretic magic,” Jiang Cheng said fiercely, turning quickly to pin him with a glare. “If you managed to control even animals… there’s no telling what the other sects would do to stop you, even if your current reputation has improved in their eyes!”

Opening his mouth to retort, Wei Wuxian suddenly remembered Lan Xichen’s words of earlier.

“Fine, fine, fine, I just think it’s an interesting concept,” he said instead, sulkily. “Besides, like I said, it would be impossible to figure out the techniques without instruction from the master himself. I wonder who this Wang Chenglong is, and where he is. Surely if he was causing trouble somewhere, we would have heard of it. He must be lying low.”

Lan Xichen had a visible frown on his face. “The name sounds familiar,” he murmured. “But I am quite sure that I do not know him personally. I do not know where I have heard of him before.”

Jiang Cheng frowned, his mouth twisting, and concurred. “Now that you mention it, the name does sound familiar. Then again, it’s a common name. Plenty of families wish their son to become dragons.” He frowned and looked up at the visible patch of sky that could be seen above the tops of the bamboo plants – the sky had darkened considerably in the time they had spent here, and it was almost night-time.

Thankfully, there were Yunmeng Jiang cultivators patrolling quite close by, since the border between Chongqing Wu and Yunmeng Jiang’s territory lay near the edges of Yangtoushan Bamboo Sea. The group of five purple-clad cultivators landed with an explosion of dust and stepped off their swords with a quick salute to the four of them already present on the scene.

“Sect Leader Jiang, what is your command?” asked one of them in a deferential manner, a man who sported a sparse beard and moustache, and appeared to be quite senior. Jiang Cheng gestured to the bound cultivators.

“These people have been causing chaos in Chongqing, and we managed to subdue them,” he explained shortly in his characteristic concise fashion. “As Chongqing Wu is currently facing a lack of manpower, we should take custody of them first and take responsibility for the interrogation, before turning them over to Chongqing Wu for punishment.”

The Yunmeng Jiang disciples nodded quickly and proceeded to load the fifteen Yangtoushan cultivators onto their own swords and any spare swords they had. Lan Zhan handed over the books and various other materials he and Jiang Cheng had gathered for evidence to the senior disciple, and it wasn’t long before the five of them were bidding goodbye and flying off on their swords with the prisoners in tow. By this time, the sun had long descended past the horizon, and night had fully come upon them. Wei Wuxian lit a talisman to guide their way as they left the bamboo sea and returned to their inn of last night.

Unfortunately, due to a troupe of guest cultivators passing through the area who had booked up space in the inn, they weren’t able to secure a private dining room. Wei Wuxian didn’t mind in the least, since people-watching was one of his favourite pastimes. They were seated near the window as in the Yichang inn, attracting plenty of attention from young ladies who giggled and peered over their fans as they walked past the large windows. Wei Wuxian waved enthusiastically to some of them and called out a greeting to the particularly beautiful ones. Lan Zhan just clucked his tongue and turned away when some of the more daring girls tried to catch his attention.

And of course none of them would dare solicit Jiang Cheng, with the thunderous scowl that was adorning his face.

He’s just socially-awkward and hates the attention, Wei Wuxian wanted to tell the ladies, he doesn’t actually dislike you! But of course Jiang Cheng would immediately strangle him if he said anything of the sort, so he kept resolutely silent on the matter.

Lan Xichen turned back to them as he finished ordering food from the waiter, and entered a quiet but easy conversation with Jiang Cheng. Wei Wuxian noticed that Lan Wangji’s gaze had become fixed on someone sitting at a table a few tables away from them.

“Oh, is that your type?” he said loudly and adopting a teasing tone. Lan Zhan’s head snapped back to face him, his eyes wide. Immediately the conversation between Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen came to a sudden stop across from them, and he felt their inquisitive gazes turned on them.

“Are older women your type, Lan Zhan?” he persisted, watching with increasing delight as Lan Zhan’s face became redder and redder. “I didn’t know you had that kind of preference; I thought you’d be more into the fox-spirit kind of lady, not the type of woman like Xu Zhaopei – a lady who preserves her womanly charm even into her old age!”

Jiang Cheng looked in the direction that Lan Zhan had been looking, and laughed, a not-unkind laugh that was nevertheless wholly made at Lan Zhan’s expense. “Isn’t she a bit too pale for your liking, Hanguang-jun? A bit too tall?” he said snidely. “And that brown hair… surely it isn’t to your taste, hmm?”

If looks could kill, Jiang Cheng would be already have died ten times over. But that didn’t stop Lan Xichen from also joining in with the teasing.

“Wangji, she looks a lively enough sort,” he said quietly, his eyes sparking with the mischief that Wei Wuxian had learnt lurked beneath the surface of his pleasant demeanour. “That would be more to your preference, wouldn’t it? And she looks extremely stunning in black and r – “

“Brother!” Lan Zhan said, sounding extremely betrayed. Lan Xichen laughed lightly and decided to let him off. Wei Wuxian was in stitches at the sight of a severely embarrassed Lan Zhan. So that’s what he looks like when he’s abashed! he thought to himself gleefully. I guess all those times his ears turned red weren’t because he was cold, but because he was feeling self-conscious. Now if only I could remember what I’d said or done then to make him so…

Lan Zhan’s mouth was severely compressed as he turned to Wei Wuxian, ignoring Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen. “Was not looking at the woman,” he said, tripping over his words a little in his haste to explain himself – how adorable! “It is Sect Leader Sun.”

Immediately Wei Wuxian stopped laughing at the mention of the man they’d met during their rest stop, on their way to Chongqing – that odious man with his odious fiancé who’d insulted Jin Ling. He glanced over at Jiang Cheng, whose face was rapidly turning stormy with fury. Then he turned and got a proper look at the table at which Lan Zhan had been looking.

It was indeed Sun Lijun who was now settling down at the table, wiping off his hands and having apparently returned from the outhouse. His big round face was flushed from having already imbibed, and he uttered a lecherous laugh as he wrapped his arm around the older woman who was seated there and rubbing subtly at his thigh. She was indeed still beautiful, despite her advanced age, and only when Wei Wuxian looked closer did he realise she was probably a prostitute.

“Immoral and despicable,” Lan Zhan said, and his voice thrummed with anger. Wei Wuxian agreed. Even if he thought Lin Yuqing was an awful woman, the fact remained that she was betrothed to Sun Lijun, and such a union mandated faithfulness between the parties involved. It was absolutely disgusting and a blemish on his family’s honour for this man – who was a Sect Leader, to boot! – to fuck around with whores behind his intended’s back.

This thought galvanised him into action. Before anyone could stop him, he stood and walked over to Sun Lijun’s table, where the appalling man was now openly groping at the prostitute’s chest, inviting coquettish laughter from her that was completely unfitting with her advanced age. With a loud bang, Wei Wuxian slammed his wine jar onto the table. It pleased him, how Sun Lijun’s face went from outraged to full of fear in a matter of moments.

“Good evening, Sect Leader Sun – fancy meeting you here!” Wei Wuxian said, giving him an amiable smile but making sure to show all his teeth. “It truly is a small world, isn’t it?”

“Y-Yes, it is, Young Master Wei,” croaked the man, suddenly looking very small. His piggy eyes darted from side to side, and his pupils dilated even further when he saw Wei Wuxian’s companions seated at another table, staring at him stonily. Jiang Cheng’s glare, in particular, seemed especially full of wrath.

“Aren’t you going to invite me to sit, Sect Leader Sun?” Wei Wuxian said pointedly, tapping Chenqing casually against the table leg. Sun Lijun’s eyes fixed on the shaft of the dizi and he gulped audibly.

“Wouldn’t Young Master Wei p-prefer to eat with his companions? This humble Sect Leader would not dare intrude on your meal. I’m afraid I’d provide poor company this evening…”

“Nonsense, they can do without me,” Wei Wuxian said sunnily. “I was getting a bit tired of sitting by the window, anyway. Too dusty, you know. Can I take a seat?” And he promptly plopped into the seat next to the lady, who was staring at him with wide eyes.

Sun Lijun cleared his throat a few times and snatched his hand back from the woman’s shoulders, as if only just realising his position. Her head snapped around to stare at him with narrowed eyes.

“And this beautiful lady is…?” Wei Wuxian asked, looking at her. She humphed and tossed her hair.

“My name is Wang Bingbing,” she said coldly, “and this Young Master is?”

“Wei Wuxian, at your service!” he chirped, saluting to her. “Nice to meet you, Miss Wang! Sect Leader Sun here is my good friend. How do you two know each other?”

“We’re – old acquaintances,” Sun Lijun broke in. There was sweat starting to bead on his high forehead. “Old friends, from when I used to visit some cultivators I knew who lived in this area. Aren’t we, Bingbing?”

“Yes, yes, old friends,” she said irritably, crossing her arms under her chest and making her ample bosom jiggle distractingly. Wei Wuxian had to expend a lot of energy to not look. “Sect Leader Sun has been most generous to my, ah, business. He’s a good friend.”

“Then I’m afraid you know Sect Leader Sun better than I do,” Wei Wuxian said, giving her his trademark winning smile. It had a hint of boyishness about it which always did the older ladies in, and this woman was no exception. She visibly thawed and returned his grin with an attractive smile of her own. Wei Wuxian internally patted himself on the back and proceeded to pour wine from his own jug into their cups.

“A toast, to new friendships!” he proposed, and they clinked their cups together. Sun Lijun stared at the wine in his cup apprehensively before finally throwing it all back in one shot.

“Good wine!” Wei Wuxian cried, and set his cup back down. “Another, Miss Bingbing?” And he gave her a flirtatious wink.

“It would be my pleasure to accept wine from so handsome a young man,” she answered, fluttering her eyelashes and pushing her cup forward. “May I ask, how did you come to make Lijun’s acquaintance? Are you a member of his sect?”

“Unfortunately, no,” Wei Wuxian said, pouring more wine for her, “which is a great pity – I had heard that Dongting Lin – ah, apologies, Sect Leader Sun! The wine has muddled my brain. What I meant to say was, I had heard that Xiaoguan Sun had a number of great beauties in their midst. It is indeed a great shame that I am unable to mingle among their midst!”

Wang Bingbing did not react to his intentional slip; likely she did not know that Sun Lijun had a fiancé, or if she did, she did not know from which clan the fiancé came. Sun Lijun, on the other hand, jerked violently and cursed as his knee hit the underside of the table. Wei Wuxian ignored him and continued his conversation.

“Sect Leader Sun and I met but two days ago, when I had the fortune of meeting him at a rest stop just outside Chongqing,” he chattered on, helping himself to the dishes on the table. “I remember it like it was yesterday – how impressed I was with the uprightness and valour of Sect Leader Sun’s character!”

Wang Bingbing simpered and looked over at Sun Lijun, who looked quite ill at this point. “Yes, Lijun has always been kind and benevolent to me,” she said, patting the back of his hand. “When I had a son, he doted on the son like his own, even volunteering to spend extensive time looking after the child when I was, er, unavailable to care for him. Truly a man with a character like a light breeze and clear moon.”

This Sun Lijun indeed has a human face and a beast’s heart – two-faced to the extreme! Wei Wuxian thought in disgust. Portraying an upright and honourable persona to the outside, when he’s actually nothing more than a lecherous dog!

On the outside, however, Wei Wuxian continued to present an admiring front and ply the two others with wine. “Miss Bingbing is indeed a learned young miss,” he complimented her. “You mentioned that you had a son? Impossible! Miss Bingbing looks barely out of her teens herself.”

Even he thought this was rather a bit too shameless, but amazingly, it worked. Wang Bingbing preened and pressed closer to him, deliberately squeezing her shoulders together to draw his attention to her bounteous charms. Her perfume was rather a bit too strong, Wei Wuxian thought, choking down a cough, and going a bit cross-eyed trying to keep his eyes resolutely on her face.

Somehow the thought of Lan Zhan’s disapproving gaze in his mind kept his self-control from straying.

“Unfortunately, he disappeared when he was a teenager,” she said, her large eyes filling up with sudden tears. She was probably quite drunk at this point. “He was but fifteen… I’ve not been able to find him since. Oh, my baby Chengcheng! Where are you?! Did you desert me to find your father?! How could you betray me like this?! CHENGCHENG AH CHENGCHENG!” With that, she suddenly tipped over and fell fast asleep, banging her head on the table with a loud thud.

The waiters quickly hurried over and bowed, making effusive apologies to everyone around who had been disturbed by her loud cries. One of them approached Wei Wuxian’s table, head lowered and shoulders hunched in.

“Please, Young Master, don’t mind her,” he said deferentially. “She’s been a bit, well, not right in the head since her son left ten years ago, if you know what I mean. Or rather, ever since she got knocked up in the first place. Delusions of grandeur, you know.”

“Delusions of grandeur? What do you mean?” Wei Wuxian asked, curiously. He glanced over at Wang Bingbing. Well, he supposed she did look like the type to indulge in such fantasies…

The waiter glanced around covertly as if to check if there were prying ears around, then huddled closer to Wei Wuxian. “Because of the boy’s father, you know,” he whispered. “She told everyone he was the son of a great Sect Leader who would one day come back to claim the child as his own. Sent him for lessons at the local school, too, to prepare him to be a cultivator. A bunch of nonsense and rubbish, if you ask me. She was good looking in her youth, that’s for sure, but how many Sect Leaders go around bestowing their favour on common whores like her? What a pity, what a pity…” and so shaking his head and sighing extensively, he walked away.

Wei Wuxian thought to himself that he could think of at least one Sect Leader who acted in such an immoral and undignified fashion.

“Chengcheng, Chengcheng,” Sun Lijun slurred, his head lolling around on the table as saliva dripped out of his open mouth. “My dear boy Chengcheng… Why did you have to leave your mother? You were such a handsome child, too…”

Now that Wang Bingbing had been put out of commission, Wei Wuxian could act without restraint. He seized Sun Lijun by his collar and yanked him close so that they were close enough to be breathing each other’s air. The other man jerked awake, his eyes going comically round.

“Now listen to me, you piece of human garbage,” Wei Wuxian hissed, shaking Sun Lijun back and forth by his collar. “I may not like Lin Yuqing, but she certainly deserves better than you. So I’ll give you an easy choice – either you go back and tell her family the marriage’s off, or you shape up and become a worthy husband. You can choose. Got that through your thick head?”

Sun Lijun nodded frantically, his head bobbing up and down like a doll, and rapidly sobering. “Yes, Young Master Wei! I will!” he blubbered. “I’ll be faithful from now on, I promise!”

“Fine, and see that you stick to it,” Wei Wuxian said icily, letting some of his energy seep into his eyes and sending them sparking with red light. He knew it always made for an imposing image; and true enough, Sun Lijun started whimpering and squirming even harder. “I don’t know where you’ve managed to hide Lady Yuqing away while you’re out frolicking in the exact same city, but I have no qualms about finding her and letting her know about your indiscretions, if you ever break your vow. Got it?”

Sun Lijun continued nodding, no words coming out of him at this point as if he’d finally been broken. Wei Wuxian dropped him in disgust and let him hit his head on the corner of the table, which knocked him out immediately. Now there were two inebriated and slumbering bodies laid at the table. Wei Wuxian summoned the waiters over and asked them to move the bodies back to their rooms.

When he returned to their table, the other three were looking at him with indescribable expressions on their faces.

“What?” he asked in confusion, sitting back down and starting to eat voraciously again. The food at that table had been far too bland. Now here were dishes worthy of his taste! Someone – probably Lan Zhan - had already piled his plate high with his favourite foods, and shaken a hefty serving of chili powder over it, just the way he liked it. He picked up the bottle of chili powder and frowned at it.

“Oh, we’re out,” he said regretfully. “There’s none for you, Lan Zhan? Let me ask the waiters for a new bottle…”

“There’s no need. I’ve already finished,” Lan Zhan said hurriedly, and indeed, his plate was spectacularly clean, with not even a grain of rice left behind.

“Wei Wuxian, you’re truly something else,” Jiang Cheng said, and there was something in his voice which Wei Wuxian couldn’t make out. He pouted.

“Is that supposed to be a compliment? Because I’m taking it as a compliment,” he said, arching an eyebrow. Jiang Cheng huffed out an unwilling laugh.

“Take it whatever way you want,” he muttered under his breath, and Wei Wuxian decided that he would count this one as a win.