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Jin Guangshan had come to the firm conclusion that, after this meeting, he would finally be able to have everything he wanted. The Yiling Patriarch and his Wen-dog army would be slaughtered, the Stygian Tiger Seal in his sole control.
Currently, while he had the support of most of the minor sects, the other three major sects were still uncertain about what to do with Wei Wuxian. Jin Guangshan was sure that Nie Mingjue would have agreed with him — the uncouth fool always turned to violence first and foremost — if his little brother hadn’t been pouting and wailing, begging his Da-ge not to attack his old friend. Everyone knew that Nie Mingjue would do anything for that brother of his, regardless of how hard the man tried to deny it.
The Lan Sect were also out, because even though the elders of the clan supported Jin Guangshan’s plans to eradicate the remaining Wens and the Yiling Patriarch, they couldn’t do much so long as their leader disagreed with it. And Lan Xichen, for whatever reason, seemed to disagree with launching an immediate attack. Jin Guangshan had learnt all of this from A-Yao, because, as it turned out, the son of a whore was at least good for some things.
The Jiang Sect were also useless, since Jiang Wanyin, despite having seemingly disowned his former Shixiong, still didn’t seem eager to permanently end Wei Wuxian’s wicked ways. And then, Jin Guangshan constantly had his own son constantly talking in his ear, trying to convince him to stop targeting Wei Wuxian, because that Jiang girl apparently held that much control over him. He was starting to very much regret allowing A-Xuan to marry her. She was a sweet girl, but still far too obsessed with that former Shidi of hers. Jin Guangshan would have suspected something more illicit, if he couldn’t for the life of him fathom why any woman would choose a servant over the heir to the strongest sect in the cultivation world.
The point was, before he could actually lead a siege to the Burial Mounds, like he so desperately wanted to, he needed the support of this group of idiots. And finally — finally — he would have that support.
After today, there was no way they could continue to delay the inevitable.
The idea had come to him after he had remembered an old array belonging to the Lan Sect, that he had heard about years ago when he had spent a year studying there. The array allowed someone to focus on a specific person, and allowed a visual projection of exactly what that person was doing at that specific moment.
It would have been the perfect tool to use to spy on one’s enemies, if those idiot Lans actually bothered to put it to use. But no, apparently invading a person’s privacy was against their rules, so that wonderful array was locked away in the forbidden section of their library.
It had taken much convincing and needling before Jin Guangshan had finally been able to convince a few Lan elders to allow him to use the array. Finally, he had won, because there was currently nothing they hated more than the accursed Yiling Patriarch. The thought of finally being able to end his wicked ways, once and for all, had been enough incentive to hand over the array, and risk any punishment from their Sect Leader.
Jin Guangshan stood in front of the large group, consisting of sect leaders and prominent sect members, all of whom had been invited to Koi Tower for the viewing, and announced that they would be using a special array to observe the crimes of Wei Wuxian and his Wen Army. He made sure to give especial thanks to the Lan Sect for cooperating with his plan, and took pleasure in the looks of shock and rage on Lan Qiren and Lan Xichen’s faces. Lan Wangji was nowhere in sight, but Jin Guangshan doubted the man would need any prompting to agree to a siege after all of this. It was no secret how much he despised Wei Wuxian.
“Father, what are you doing?!” Jin Zixuan asked, his entire form tense. Jin Guangshan ignored him. His boy was a soft-hearted fool, who had doubtlessly been blind-sighted by that wife of his; no matter, both he and Jiang Yanli would soon realise what Wei Wuxian was truly capable of.
“I am protecting our people, A-Xuan,” Jin Guangshan said. Jin Zixuan was probably just shocked; Jin Guangshan had not told him of his plan, and had not told anyone really, but a A-Yao, Jin Zixun, and a selected number of people.
He had eventually had to lie to Jin Guangyao, and tell him that he wasn’t going through with the plan after all. His son had seemed particularly concerned for whatever reason, anxiously trying to point out that there had been a number of elderly people in the camps, and even some children, and how would that look for them? Jin Guangshan had brushed off his concerns. There were plenty of strong, dangerous cultivators in those camps, and surely the sight of them would be enough to distract everyone. And besides, they were all Wens; who cared about their age, or occupation, if in the end, they were all the same filthy dogs?
In all honesty, he doubted any of the elderly or children were even still alive. Wei Wuxian had mostly just killed them off, because what use would he have for them?
At any rate, he had eventually decided that trusting Jin Guangyao with this was too much of a risk, and had quickly assured him that he would not be continuing with his plan after all. He had made sure to be particularly discrete after that, since Jin Guangyao was almost too perceptive for his own good. It worked in Jin Guangshan’s favour when used against other sects, but he would be damned if he let some prostitute’s son try to tell him what he could do in his own home.
(Of course, what Jin Guangshan didn’t realise was that the majority of the camp that Wei Wuxian had liberated had been filled with Wen Qing’s close relatives, who were mostly frail and elderly. Jin Guangyao, who had realised this, and who had tried repeatedly to talk this father out of this ridiculous plan of his, knowing that it would only end badly for the Jin Sect, could only sit silently, dreading what was fast approaching, and thinking of ways to save his own skin).
“Father this is a terrible idea,” Jin Zixuan stressed. “Stop this, please.”
Jin Guangshan ignored him. It wasn't like Jin Zixuan had any idea what was going on. He hadn't even been aware of the labour camps, Jin Guangshan having known that he would only whine and complain about them if he did. The boy had always lacked the backbone needed for the harshness of leadership. Right now, all he was concerned about was what this would do to Wei Wuxian and, in turn, to Jiang Yanli, and Jin Guangshan was not in the mood to deal with that.
“Father!”
“Go back to your wife, A-Xuan,” Jin Guangshan said. “She will probably need the support and comfort after this — god knows, she still cares for that Shidi of hers, for whatever reason.”
Jin Zixuan looked disbelieving. “I don’t think you understand quite what you are doing,” he said. Jin Guangshan ignored him; what did the boy know, about any of this?
Jin Zixuan let out a huff of frustration, and walked away from his father when it became obvious that Jin Guangshan would not be listening.
He sat down in-between his wife and mother. Both Madam Jin and Jiang Yanli looked concerned, and Jiang Wanyin was shooting Jin Guangshan a look of pure rage. If he wanted to convince anyone that he was truly done with his former Shixiong, then he would need a better poker face.
Lan Qiren was furiously hissing at some of his Sect members, most of whom looked resolute in their decision. Jin Guangshan turned back to the array, smiled, and activated it. No one really tried to stop him, because while some of them seemed unsettled, most were eager to truly get insight into what the Yiling Patriarch was doing.
As an image appeared in the air in front of them, almost like a moving painting, the room quietened down. Even the Jiangs, who were worried about their brother, and Lan Qiren and Xichen, who were furious at their Sect members for going against their rules, immediately turned to pay attention to what was happening.
Jin Guangshan sat himself down amongst his Sect members, and Jin Zixun immediately exchanged a gleeful look with him.
Jin Guangyao looked the opposite of gleeful. “Father!” he hissed, frantically. “You told me you would not go through with this plan!”
“I changed my mind,” Jin Guangshan said.
“This — do you not realise what they will see — ”
“They will see that the Yiling Patriarch is truly a creature of evil and destruction, and that he and his Wen-dogs need to be put down like the animals they are.”
“Father,” Jin Guangyao said, his voice low, “you know that there are — less than savoury things that they might see — ”
“Be quiet,” Jin Guangshan told him sharply. He would not be lectured by a child, let alone one whose entire life purpose had been granted by him. He turned his attention back to the projection, which was currently displaying an image of a dark, ominous looking space that was clearly the Burial Mounds.
Jin Guangshan felt a thread of anticipation. This would be perfect.
Jin Guangyao sat hunched over, feeling nervous and weary. He would need to brainstorm a way to exonerate himself of any guilt once this was over. After everything he had worked for, he would not allow his father’s mistakes to drag him down.
…
Things were certainly not going to plan.
The array should have shown them visuals of a strong, blood thirsty army, or of the Yiling Patriarch, standing with bodies scattered around him, as the Ghost General tore people apart with terrifying strength.
Instead, the first thing that the damned array decided to show them was a group of elderly people. There was a woman, who might’ve been old enough to be his great grandmother (and Jin Guangshan was severely understating his age, though he would never admit that out loud) and a few men who looked like their backs might snap if they worked too hard. Jin Guangshan ignored the beginnings of anxiety, and told himself that this didn’t matter. Any confusion would disappear as soon as the Wen army showed up.
Except, they did not show up. Instead, that group stood up and walked over to an even larger group of elderly people. Jin Guangshan ignored the murmurs echoing around the room.
‘Hurry up, you cursed Wen-dogs,’ he thought furiously. ‘Reveal yourselves! Do something evil!’
“What are we having for lunch?” one of the men asked, a smile on his face despite his obvious tiredness.
“Radishes, what else,” another woman said with a light laugh.
“Don’t forget the potatoes! Young Master Wei actually managed to find some potatoes this time around!”
The group laughed like it was the funniest thing they had ever heard, like they were talking about bloodshed, and war, and anything but goddamn potatoes.
“How exactly did he manage to find potatoes? I remember how long he was complaining about the price of them.”
Jin Guangshan’s eye twitched.
“Oh, A-Qing told him to give up, and just buy them, because we were all sick of eating the same thing every day."
“Here, here!” another man agreed, laughing loudly.
“I’m sorry, but where are the Wens?” Sect Leader Yao interjected.
“Yes!” agreed Sect Leader Ouyang, “Surely this isn’t all there is?”
“Of course not!” Jin Guangshan said. “There is — well, there is a dangerous army — ”
“Oh yes, because this is definitely a dangerous army,” Jiang Wanyin said, with a snort. Jin Guangshan’s teeth ground together.
Wei Wuxian suddenly appeared, with Wen Qing by his side. Jin Guangshan relaxed, because surely now, something would happen. Some plotting, some scheming, anything.
That…wasn’t quite what happened.
Instead, while the rest of them watched on in disbelief, the dreaded Yiling Patriarch sat down and…had lunch. With his — apparently elderly — followers.
“Husband, where exactly is this supposed army that you’ve been going on about?” his wife asked, her tone bordering on dangerous.
Jin Guangshan refused to answer. Surely, given enough time, the question would answer itself.
The question did not answer itself. Instead, Wei Wuxian and the rest of the Wens — and it was soon becoming apparent that they were the only people here, since enough time had gone by and no one else had shown their faces — simply sat around, eating their meals, and chatting amicably with each other. The most violence they got was when Wei Wuxian made a teasing remark, and Wen Qing slapped the back of his head.
“Who knew the Yiling Patriarch was so boring,” Jin Zixun scoffed. Jin Guangyao shot him a withering glance.
‘It’s alright,’ Jin Guangshan thought, as he felt cold sweat trickle down his back. People looked confused. No one looked happy right now. ‘Things will…improve. They are still Wen-dogs.’
The Ghost General appeared, and Jin Guangshan immediately relaxed. Surely the evil plotting would soon commence.
The Ghost General apparently had a giggling toddler on his shoulders. Jin Guangshan opened his mouth, about to spew some story about how the evil Yiling Patriarch was now stealing children away from their homes (even though he was sure he had seen that very child in one of his labour camps) when the child immediately screamed, “Xian-gege! Xian-gege!” and attempted to jump from the Ghost General’s shoulders.
Wen Ning’s eyes widened, and he quickly lowered the child to the floor. The child hurried over to Wei Wuxian, and immediately clambered into his lap.
“Wen Yuan!” Wen Qing snapped, and there went any hope of accusing Wei Wuxian of kidnapping. “When you are being carried by someone, wait patiently to be put down. Do you want to fall?”
“No, Qing-jie,” the child — Wen Yuan — said, shaking his head.
“Aww, Wen Qing, don’t be mean to him,” Wei Wuxian laughed, cuddling the child close. Jin Guangshan thought he heard someone nearby coo. His fists clenched.
As if this situation couldn’t be any worse, Wei Wuxian decided to show everyone that he was father of the year by carrying the child around on his shoulders, tickling him, cooing at him, and generally acting like an embarrassment to his evil name.
Jin Guangshan was starting to think that this might have been a very bad idea.
“A-Yuan, would you like Xian-gege to bury you?” Wei Wuxian asked teasingly.
Jin Guangshan leaned forward, his eyes widening eagerly. Yes.This was perfect — if Wei Wuxian killed the child in front of everyone, surely they would be spurred into action, desperate to put an end to the cruel beast —
And then Wei Wuxian proceeded to bury the giggling child in the dirt, saying some nonsense about how he was a little radish, and how this would help him grow faster.
Jin Guangshan felt all his hopes and dreams slowly fading away. That Stygian Tiger Seal suddenly felt very far away.
Jin Guangshan turned to his nephew and son, and hissed, “Do something.”
Jin Guangyao stared blankly forward for a moment, silently contemplating his life choices. “The…Yiling Patriarch was aware of our plan,” he said at last, his voice lacking any enthusiasm.
“You expect us to believe that?” Nie Mingjue called out, his voice disbelieving.
Jin Guangyao winced. “I’m not sure, Da-ge. My father controlled the camps, so I’m very confused about what is going on right now.”
“What?!”
“Father, perhaps you should explain,” Jin Guangyao, the treacherous son of whore, actually had the gall to sound innocent. As if he hadn’t been perfectly aware of what they had been doing.
“They’re all Wen-dogs!” Jin Zixun snapped, and Jin Guangshan silently despaired. His nephew had always been easy to control, but the boy was hardly the most intelligent. “Who cares who they are, or how old they are?! They’re all guilty! That’s why they were in the labour camps.”
“Shut up, you idiot!” Jin Guangshan snapped.
“Labour camps?!” Madam Jin called out, furious. “You had these people — this child — in a labour camp?!”
“Father, what have you done?!” Jin Zixuan demanded, because apparently his entire family consisted of traitors. “How could you have done something like this?”
“It’s truly disgusting,” someone else agreed.
“Honestly, the Jins were telling us that Wei Wuxian was building an army in the Burial Mounds — what army? This is no army!”
“How could you put any of these people in a labour camp? That woman over there is as old as my grandmother!”
“That child is simply adorable…”
“Wei Wuxian is really good with kids, isn’t he?”
“…Wait, is that Hanguang-Jun?”
Jin Guangshan whipped around, eager for anything to distract everyone from the sudden barrage of verbal attacks. It soon became apparently exactly why Lan Wangji wasn’t here with everyone else; the man stood tall and proud in the projection at the front of the room, walking beside the Ghost General.
“Young Master Wei,” Wen Ning said, sounding timid, and soft, and nothing like an evil sentient fierce corpse should. Was nothing ever going to work in his favour? “Hanguang-Jun is here to see you.”
Wei Wuxian looked up from where he had been cooing over Wen Yuan. Jin Guangshan briefly hoped that Lan Wangji was perhaps here to kill Wei Wuxian; everyone knew about how much the two hated each other, after all.
Instead, Wei Wuxian beamed from ear to ear. “Lan Zhan!”
“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji said back, his voice surprisingly soft. He knelt down beside Wei Wuxian.
“Rich-gege,” the child said, smiling widely. “Rich-gege, Xian-gege is burying me so I’ll grow big and tall!”
“Very big and tall,” Wei Wuxian agreed, nodding with mock-seriousness. “You’ll be even bigger than your Rich-gege. Right, Lan Wangji?”
Lan Wangji made a show of actually considering the statement, before nodding his head. “Mn.”
Jin Guangshan winced. Weren’t these two supposed to hate each other? What were they doing, seemingly co-parenting a goddamn child together. He glanced around the room, first at the Lans who looked dumbfounded, and then at the Jiangs who looked just as shocked by this development.
When he turned back, Wei Wuxian was smiling brightly at Lan Wangji. “Lan Zhan, I don’t know why you keep showing up here but…I have to admit, it is nice. A-Yuan really misses you when you’re not here!”
Lan Wangji ducked his head slightly.
“And…I do too! It really is good to see you again, Lan Zhan. I know you always say you’ll come back, but a part of me kind of doesn’t expect you to.”
“Will always come if Wei Ying wants me to.”
Wei Wuxian’s lips parted in surprise. “Oh, that’s — Lan Zhan, when did you become such a smooth talker?” Wei Wuxian gestured weakly, and then actually blushed. Jin Guangshan resisted the urge to bang his head on the table. They were flirting. Those idiots were flirting, and in the most painful way possible.
He did not need this. He should be on his way to the Burial Mounds right now, preparing to launch a bloody siege, not watching Hanguang-jun and the Yiling Patriarch flirt.
“What the actual hell?” he heard Jiang Wanyin utter from across the room. Jiang Yanli shushed him, with some amusement in her tone.
“A-Yao,” he hissed, leaning closer to his son. As unfilial as the boy was, he was resourceful. “Do something about this!”
“Like what?”
“Anything! How could you not have known about this?!”
Jin Guangyao shot him an incredulous glance. “I warned you! I told you this would be a bad idea! Father — how could you not have known this would happen? You’ve been to the camps!” He made sure to keep his voice low, so that only Jin Guangshan could hear.
“I cannot remember everyone who was in there!”
“I provided you with a list of all the people who had gone missing!”
“I didn’t even read it,” Jin Guangshan scoffed. “Why should I care which Wen-dogs Wei Wuxian had taken with him?!”
“You know,” Wei Wuxian was saying, “I thought you said that you needed to go to some meeting in Lanling today?”
“A-Yuan asked me to come for lunch.”
“Well — yes, but Lan Zhan, you shouldn’t skip something like that to be here with us. What if someone found out! It would reflect badly on you — ”
“Do not care,” Lan Wangji said firmly.
“…I mean you really should.”
A-Yuan squirmed, obviously sick of being buried in the ground while the adults continued to talk above him. Wei Wuxian laughed and pulled him out, and A-Yuan clambered over to Lan Wangji with an excited cry of, “Rich-gege!” Lan Wangji, who apparently actually knew what to do with a child — who would know, looking at that blank face of his — lifted A-Yuan into his arms with a surprising tenderness.
Wei Wuxian gazed upon them, looking utterly, disgustingly besottled. What was even more horrific was that he didn't even seem aware of it.
Someone cooed. Someone else murmured about how truly lovely young love was.
Jin Guangshan had enough. With a roar of frustration, he strode forward, and destroyed the array. The projection stopped immediately.
Jin Guangshan turned to the shocked crowd, and the sight of them dampened his rage somewhat. He laughed awkwardly. “Enough of that,” he said, trying to keep his tone light. “After all, this is exactly what the Yiling Patriarch wants — for us to give him more attention that he deserves — so now, let us move on! The, uh, crops in the southern region have been suffering somewhat — ”
“Sect Leader Jin!” Nie Mingjue roared.
The room erupted into chatter.
“Exactly what is the meaning of this?!” Lan Qiren demanded. “You dare use a forbidden array of the Lan Sect — and what exactly did we just see? You mean to tell us that those people were in your labour camps?”
“There is an explanation for all of it,” Jin Guangshan assured him.
“Then I would like to hear it!”
“Yes, tell us,” Jiang Wanyin agreed, sounding almost smug. “Tell us all about the army that my brother has been amassing.”
“Your brother?” Jin Guangshan shot back. “I was under the impression that he had deflected from the Yunmeng Jiang Sect.”
“Our brother,” Jiang Yanli interjected, firmly. “Please, Sect Leader Jin, we would all very much like to wear about this.” Her tone was as perfectly polite as always, but Jin Guangshan could hear the dangerous undercurrent to it.
“Well, hurry up then,” Nie Mingjue called out. “I’d like to know exactly what a group of elderly people and a child were doing in your labour camps!”
“Sect Leader Jin, it is a fair question for us to ask,” Lan Xichen said. The constant barrage of questions were starting to give Jin Guangshan a headache.
“And where is the army?” Sect Leader Ouyang demanded, as if he hadn’t been very vocally calling for the Yiling Patriach’s head only hours before.
“That is the army,” Jin Zixun said. The volume of the room increased, and Jin Zixun sat smugly, oblivious to the fact that he had probably made things worse.
Jin Guangshan observed the chaos of the room, watched as that traitorous son of a prostitute simpered away to Lan Xichen, telling him that he had no idea about any of this, and that Er-ge knew him, he would never do anything like this —
The expressions on the Jiangs faces could only be described as smug. His wife and his son looked furious, and, come to think of it, a lot of other people currently looked very furious.
As he absorbed the chaos around him, Jin Guangshan realised that this might have been a very bad idea.