Work Text:
昨夜见军帖，可汗大点兵。军书十二卷，卷卷有爷名。
阿爷无大儿，木兰无长兄。愿为市鞍马，从此替爷征。
He sees it first because the summons arrive in the night. The Emperor is conscripting men to serve in the army. On every page is Jiang Cheng’s name.
He knows that sending his brother off to war is a death sentence. Jiang Cheng has no heir. Jiang Cheng is the last male in the Jiang line.
He knows what he must do. Wei Wuxian will bear this burden for his brother.
He gathers what he needs, he has no time to lose. Jiang Yanli hovers in the doorway of his bedroom, tugging at her sleeves in the way she’s always done when she’s nervous, a childhood habit she’s never been able to drop. If she had her way neither of her brothers would go, but they have no choice. To disobey is to bring wrath upon their family. Jiang Cheng is already asleep, thankfully. They both know that his pride would not allow anyone else to go in his stead.
Wei Wuxian refuses to take the Jiang family’s armour or sword- they are Jiang Cheng’s birthright. He has his own sword, everything else he can buy in the markets before he leaves. Jiang Yanli hands him a small pouch filled with coins, her hand hesitating ever so slightly before letting it fall into the palm of his hand.
It’s almost dawn, and he has to leave before Jiang Cheng awakens, but he takes the time to give his sister a tight hug. “I will come back,” he promises, though he knows he probably shouldn’t. “Try to keep Jiang Cheng from doing anything stupid.”
Jiang Yanli laughs between sobs. “Come back to us safely, A-Xian. Please.” She stands still as a ghost at the gate as he leaves, the courtyard otherwise empty, silent. It’s almost like every time Wei Wuxian has snuck out of Lotus Pier, except now he’s cognisant of the fact that it may be the last time he sees his home. He forces himself to keep walking because he must.
~~~~~~~
朝辞爷娘去，暮宿黄河边。不闻爷娘唤女声，但闻黄河流水鸣溅溅。
旦辞黄河去，暮至黑山头。不闻爷娘唤女声，但闻燕山胡骑声啾啾。
The war stretches on. Several seasons pass. Wei Wuxian sees men he joined up with die, sees the too-young children who replace them fall, all in a distant battlefield faraway from his home. He rises in the ranks, at first by virtue of Jiang Cheng’s station, and then because he's able to bring the majority of his men back from skirmishes.
In Yunmeng he had learnt tricks from old sailors who had sailed far out east where pirates are as common as merchants, benefits of a misspent youth. He uses the pungent oil from fish guts to fashion a crude sludge-like substance that will burn with just a single spark. He finds a man almost as good as he is with a bow and teaches him how to shoot at thrown targets. He and his men harass the flanks of the enemy army, leaving a wake of burnt, blackened outposts behind them. It’s not glamorous, but it’s better than riding headfirst into death.
His men call him Commander Jiang, a rank to which only gentry can rise. It takes some getting used to, getting called by a name he’s always been told is not his, but Wei Wuxian does not mind. It reminds him of who he's protecting, who's back home at Lotus Pier waiting for his return. He tries to channel his brother’s seriousness when he's training his men, aware that each battle is life or death. He also tries to practise his sister’s kindness, because this war has been long and his men are tired and homesick.
Eventually he's summoned by the general in charge of the imperial army, an exhausted messenger cloaked in road dust delivering the order. Wei Wuxian makes sure the man and his horse are looked after, then gets on his own steed and rides for the main encampment. He doesn’t know what is going on. More likely than not it means he’s in some sort of trouble, but he can’t just not go.
He is shown to a vast white tent three times as large as any of the others. Inside there are a pair of soldiers, but Wei Wuxian’s eyes are immediately drawn to the general.
The man is clothed all in white, which Wei Wuxian muses is vastly impractical for a battlefield, and it makes him look quite funereal. Despite the excessive white, the man is beautiful in a way that most people are not- both in stillness and in motion. Wei Wuxian has never seen the man in person before, but he already knows that this is Lan Er-Dianxia. The younger brother of the Son of Heaven. Between moments of staring, Wei Wuxian remembers himself and kneels in greeting, keeping his eyes trained on the floor. “Er-Dianxia.”
“Commander Jiang Cheng, Jiang Wanyin of Yunmeng,” the prince says, his voice deeper than expected. Wei Wuxian risks a glance up, only to meet the prince’s gaze. He flushes in embarrassment and looks back down. The prince must be used to people stealing glances, being as he is.
“Yes, Er-Dianxia.” Wei Wuxian tenses up, wondering if the prince is aware of his real identity. Impersonation of a member of the gentry is a crime with a punishment that Wei Wuxian has no desire to discover. The prince has never been to Yunmeng as long as Wei Wuxian has lived there and as far as he knows Jiang Cheng has never gone to the imperial palace in Gusu, so he hopes there is no way that the man knows what Jiang Cheng looks like.
The prince is silent for a moment and Wei Wuxian can feel the man’s eyes on him but this time he makes sure to keep his eyes firmly on the ground in front of him. “I was sorry to hear of your parents’ passing.”
“Thank you, Er-Dianxia.” Wei Wuxian replies, a bit startled at the sincerity in the man’s voice.
“Rise.” The prince commands, and Wei Wuxian gets up, unsure why he has been summoned if not for punishment. The prince beacons him closer, so Wei Wuxian approaches the desk between them. The table map shows the latest positions of their troops and where their scouts have reported the Wen army is located. Immediately Wei Wuxian sees how bad of a situation they are in, and he can’t hold in his sharp inhale. He looks to the prince and even if Wei Wuxian had not deduced their circumstances, the grim look on the prince’s face would say it all.
“Indeed, you can see the problem.” The prince says severely. Now that Wei Wuxian knows, he can hear how tired the prince sounds, how the furrow of his brows betrays his worry. “There is only one thing we can do, and I will need your help, Jiang Wanyin.”
“Anything, Er-Dianxia,” Wei Wuxian says immediately.
The plan is this: General Nie Mingjue will infiltrate the Nightless City, where the self-styled Emperor Wen Ruohan has installed himself, and assassinate him. Instead of going through his home province of Qinghe, General Nie will travel through Yunmeng where the landscape is not quite as sparse. Their task is to design and provide a diversion in Qinghe, drawing Wen Ruohan’s forces away from the general.
It’s … not a completely horrible plan, but it’s clearly a last resort. Based on what Wei Wuxian has just seen, they are vastly outnumbered by the Wen, and there’s no way they can take on Wen Ruohan head-to-head. It’s a testament to how desperate the Emperor must be for them to be willing to resort to assassination given how much the Lan disdain such tactics. Wei Wuxian on the other hand has no qualms with the plan. He just has to think of Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli, back home in Yunmeng, and how they will be sitting ducks for the Wen army if the army falls.
The wheels in his mind are already turning. The diversion has to be serious enough for the Wen army to be engaged and led away. Somehow they are going to have to make it look like they have many more men than they actually do.
“This is why I have summoned you,” the prince says to him. “Your tactics are…unconventional and unorthodox,” Wei Wuxian feels himself bristling- his tactics keep his men alive, keep him alive. The prince must notice something in his expression because he continues, “But perhaps unconventional is what we need right now.”
They spend many hours discussing strategy, Wei Wuxian explaining his ideas. To his delight, the prince is extremely quick, can immediately see where Wei Wuxian is going before he’s even finished speaking. He offers ideas of his own, listens without offence to Wei Wuxian when he picks apart something the prince has suggested. It is not until a servant arrives with the prince’s dinner that they both realise that evening has come. Wei Wuxian is aghast. Now that he’s not completely focused on their discussion, he realises that he is absolutely starving.
Before he can start hinting at a desire to be dismissed so he can get on his way, the prince places the tray of food in front of Wei Wuxian. “Eat.” He says.
Wei Wuxian stares at him in shock. From the wide-eyed glances that the prince’s guards are exchanging, he can tell he’s not the only one surprised. “Ah ha ha… Er-Dianxia, I couldn’t possibly eat your food.” He says apologetically, backing away from the food. The room seems to be holding its breath.
The prince does not even look up at him when he responds from where he’s sat back down behind a writing desk. “Eat. You are hungry.”
Wei Wuxian looks at the soldiers in the tent, silently pleading for intervention but receiving none. The two guards have returned to staring determinedly at the tent walls behind Wei Wuxian, though one of them is clearly biting back a grin.
When the prince finishes the letter he is writing, he folds and seals it with wax. “Sizhui, ensure that General Nie receives this. Jingyi, please find a bedroll for our guest and have another meal delivered from the kitchens.” The two men snap to attention and hurry to perform their tasks. Lan Sizhui gives Wei Wuxian a small smile before he leaves the tent. Wei Wuxian realises how young the two men are, barely old enough to be in the army.
“Er-Dianxia, which tent should I have prepared for Commander Jiang?” Lan Jingyi asks.
The prince looks up with a puzzled frown. “Just bring the bedroll here. It is short notice, I do not wish to trouble anyone. Commander Jiang can sleep here.”
Wei Wuxian squeaks and then prays to vanish through the ground when the prince looks at him with an eyebrow raised.
An incredulous look passes over Jingyi’s face before his expression smoothes over, but Jingyi gives him a cheeky thumbs up as he passes, adding to Wei Wuxian’s bewilderment.
“E-er-Dianxia,” he stutters out. “I can just sleep outside.” But the prince either does not hear him or chooses to ignore him and instead continues writing in silence. Wei Wuxian wrings his hands and stands awkwardly, shifting his weight from foot to foot. He really is starving but he won’t touch the food before the other serving arrives. He doesn’t know if this is some sort of test. (Jiang Cheng frequently scolds him for not having any manners, but Wei Wuxian was also raised by Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan and has had his manners literally beaten into him, he just usually chooses to ignore propriety when it’s just him and his siblings.)
When the same servant returns bearing a second tray, the prince finally looks up and gestures silently for Wei Wuxian to take a seat. Wei Wuxian waffles for a moment, but the prince unblinkingly stares him into submission and he obediently takes a seat. He wonders if this is punishment when he tastes the food and it turns out to be horrifically bland, but a quick peek at the prince’s bowl shows that the man is having the same fare as he is.
Lan Er-Dianxia is possibly the strangest man that Wei Wuxian has ever met.
Wei Wuxian really wants to figure him out.
~~~~~~~~
万里赴戎机，关山度若飞。朔气传金析，寒光照铁衣。将军百战死，壮士十年归。
Much to Wei Wuxian’s dismay, Lan Er-Dianxia insists on going with him. Insists on going alone with him. While Wei Wuxian silently panics, Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi, who Wei Wuxian has figured out are supposed to be the prince's personal bodyguards, try desperately to persuade the prince to at least allow them to follow him. Wei Wuxian nods his head frantically in agreement, mentally willing the prince into being reasonable. He's having visions where the prince gets injured (or worse killed) and it will be because of Wei Wuxian and he might as well stab himself now because there is no way he won’t be executed if there is so much as a scratch on the prince-
The prince stubbornly shakes his head. He has swapped his blindingly white clothing for a muted grey, but he’s still atrociously beautiful. “The fewer people who go, the easier it will be for us to remain undetected.” His tone brooks no further disagreement and Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi salute although their facial expressions indicate how unhappy they are with this arrangement.
Wei Wuxian is dead, Wei Wuxian is so dead.
They head for the Unclean Realm in Qinghe, stopping to leave instructions to every garrison they pass. They will have to backtrack at some point to check the preparations, but the sooner they get to Qinghe the more time they’ll buy for General Nie.
On their first day together, the prince asks Wei Wuxian to call him Lan Wangji because he does not want to draw attention to his identity. Wei Wuxian freaks out about this for a few days and stutters each time, but after the tenth time that the prince glares at him and tells him to focus, he tries to overcome the block in his throat and address the prince by his name.
(Wei Wuxian privately thinks that it's pointless anyway because in what world does a face and physique like Lan Wangji's not draw attention. Even the ‘normal’ clothes the prince is wearing would feed a family for a year. On the second day, Wei Wuxian barters a worn but serviceable cloak from another soldier. Not luxurious enough to mark them as rich targets for bandits but well-made enough that it'll protect Lan Wangji from the elements. He almost expects the prince to refuse, but he just silently accepts the article of clothing. Wei Wuxian tells the prince to slouch a little, maybe work up to dragging his feet a little. Lan Wangji ignores this. Wei Wuxian really doesn't know what to make of this prince.)
The pri- Lan Wangji is a surprisingly good travel companion. He knows how to travel light, does his tasks efficiently and without complaint and even volunteers to do the cooking, which Wei Wuxian is grateful for until he realises that Lan Wangji eats tasteless food by choice and then he’s filled with so many regrets.
When they are not talking about the war, Lan Wangji asks him about Yunmeng. Well- he asks Wei Wuxian one question about Yunmeng, and Wei Wuxian happily answers twenty others. “I have never had the opportunity to go, although I have heard much about it from xiongzhang.” It’s still weird for Wei Wuxian to hear him talk about the Emperor so casually, but he supposes that the Emperor was his brother before he was the Emperor. He thinks that he can relate to this- Jiang Cheng is now the head of the Jiang clan and the Lord of Lotus Pier but he will always be Wei Wuxian’s grumpy, emotionally constipated, well-meaning younger brother.
Wei Wuxian wistfully tells him about growing up in Yunmeng. He tells stories of the things he and his siblings got up to when they were younger, always making sure to push all the blame onto himself so the prince doesn't think that Jiang Wanyin is some unruly hellion (Yu-furen's words, not his). Lan Wangji listens carefully, presses his lips together prissily when Wei Wuxian talks about something particularly egregious. But otherwise he's mostly silent and intrigued, if somewhat judgemental, and Wei Wuxian is struck by the thought that the prince must have had a lonely childhood.
Although he’s curious, he doesn't ask Lan Wangji about himself. It's not his place to. But the longer they spend together, the more the prince reveals about himself in his silences. He knows that Lan Wangji has never been on a lake to watch the stars, that he has never been allowed to run freely around a market (or possibly ever been to a market at all), has never gone travelling simply for the pleasure of seeing what's out there.
One day he blurts out- “Lan Wangji, if we survive this war, you should come to Yunmeng. I’ll show you all my favourite places.” Once the words are out, he flushes deeply and looks away. The prince has better things to do than to visit someone like him.
“I would like that,” Lan Wangji says stiltedly. Wei Wuxian can’t help his grin, and Lan Wangji looks vaguely poleaxed. It’s only later that he remembers that Lan Wangji can never visit Lotus Pier, or he will know that Wei Wuxian had been pretending to be Jiang Cheng. He doesn’t want the prince to think that Jiang Cheng was too much of a coward to go to war. His younger brother is many things, but a coward is not one of them.
As they traverse eastern Qinghe, they leave behind a series of elaborate traps and ambushes designed to make a garrison of a hundred men look ten times larger. Qinghe is not naturally abundant in rivers, but through some experimentation, Wei Wuxian finds out that Dragon’s Tree blood, long harvested by locals, burns almost as well as fish oil. Lan Wangji (still travelling ‘incognito’) spends hours with local hunters and farmers scouting out the terrain to secure the best positions for potential ambushes. They recruit every able elder, woman, and child to lay false tracks so it looks like a massive army has fled toward Gusu.
On their forty-seventh day together, Lan Wangji returns to the house the locals have graciously allowed them to stay in with an almost-smile on his face. By now Wei Wuxian knows Lan Wangji's facial expressions well enough that he knows the prince has good news.
"Wen Chao has been given command of the Eastern army," Lan Wangji says succinctly. Wei Wuxian has no idea who that is and why this is a positive so he waits for Lan Wangji to elaborate. He starts boiling some water to make tea while the prince sheds his dusty cloak and folds (folds!) it. Just as the water is ready, Lan Wangji drops himself neatly into a seat opposite Wei Wuxian.
“Wen Chao is Wen Ruohan’s second son. He is arrogant and prideful.” Lan Wangji explains. Wei Wuxian already knows where he is going with this.
“So he will be easy to bait and will persist in spite of losses?” Wei Wuxian says, pleased.
“Mn,” the prince hums in a way that tells Wei Wuxian he’s happy about this. “We should empty the towns closest to the border, entice him to attack.”
“The Empty Fort? Not bad. Not bad.” Wei Wuxian grins. He perks up as another idea comes to him. “What if we strategically weaken some buildings?” Before he can finish his thought, Lan Wangji speaks up.
“Collapse them on the soldiers when they’re looting the city.”
Wei Wuxian laughs with delight. “Lan Wangji, how do you always know what I’m thinking?” Lan Wangji scoffs at this and lifts the teapot to pour but the tint of red on his ears tells Wei Wuxian that the prince is secretly pleased. Wei Wuxian pulls the teapot away from him. “Aiya, Lan Wangji, how can someone like you pour for someone like me?” He pours a cup for the prince and then another for himself, carefully watching to make sure he doesn’t spill any tea (he usually doesn’t care if he sloshes a little, but he's trying to be on his best behaviour. He’s not going to accidentally offend a member of the imperial family. It’s not because he wants Lan Wangji to approve of him.).
He’s concentrating so much on the tea that he almost misses the next words out of Lan Wangji’s mouth. “I have never met someone like you.” He says consideringly, raising his teacup to take a sip. Wei Wuxian flushes in embarrassment.
He tries to play it down, uncomfortable with compliments after years of conditioning from Yu-furen. “Someone like me? I’m no one special,” he mumbles. Lan Wangji says nothing and his face is unreadable, so Wei Wuxian looks away.
He's in the middle of visualising the map of Qinghe when Lan Wangji says out of the blue, “Did I not hear you tell a crowd of children this morning that Commander Jiang is the genius of Yunmeng?"
Wei Wuxian startles, and then lets out a laugh. “Lan Wangji, are you teasing me? Lan Wangji is secretly hilarious, don’t think I don’t know.” He wags his finger scoldingly at the other man. Lan Wangji’s lips quirk minutely in a tiny smile, and Wei Wuxian has to excuse himself to boil more water because he can’t look at Lan Wangji in the face when he’s like this.
In the end they spend what feels like ten years on the road, trying to lure Wen Chao and his army away from Nie Mingjue. They ride, they fight, they ride, and they fight again, but their gambit miraculously works and between one unremarkable day and the next, Lan Wangji receives news that Nie Mingjue has succeeded and that Wen Ruohan is dead. Wen Chao turns his army around to return to Qishan, presumably to fight his elder brother Wen Xu for succession.
It’s over.
Wei Wuxian isn’t with Lan Wangji when the news reaches the city that they’re currently garrisoning in, but word travels fast and the shouting and cheering even faster. He wants to slump down on the ground, he wants to find Lan Wangji.
It doesn’t take much effort for Wei Wuxian to locate the prince- he just follows the crowd. Lan Wangji is surrounded by people, standing tall amongst all the jubilant cheering, a beacon of their victory. Wei Wuxian hangs back, he will get to speak to Lan Wangji later. He stands there, pressed in on all sides by people. Someone he has never met has slung an arm over his shoulder but he pays them no attention- his eyes never leave the prince and his heart feels full.
~~~~~~~
归来见天子，天子坐明堂。策勋十二转，赏赐百千强。
可汗问所欲，“木兰不用尚书郎，愿借明驼千里足，送儿还故乡。”
They part ways near the Unclean Realm. Wei Wuxian will travel back to where his men have been stationed near Moling, while Lan Wangji is expected at Koi Tower.
Wei Wuxian feels strangely reluctant to leave Lan Wangji, is perfectly happy to be in his orbit.
He doesn't even get a chance to say a proper goodbye, not really. Not with the retinue that Lan Wangji picked up after passing through the Unclean Realm, each and every one of them higherborn and higher-ranked than Wei Wuxian, who is completely beneath their notice. Surrounded by regional ministers and army personnel, the prince has returned to his stiff formality and his pristine white uniform, no longer Lan Wangji but Lan Er-Dianxia once more, brother to the Emperor and now decorated war general.
So Wei Wuxian gives Lan Wangji a formal bow, tells him that it has been an honour. Lan Wangji looks like he wants to say more, but someone else steps forward to speak to the prince and the chance is lost. Wei Wuxian gets on his horse and rides towards Moling, where he will handle the discharge of his men, and then return home to Yunmeng and his siblings and become plain old Wei Wuxian again.
He takes his own sweet time through Lanling, relishing not feeling hurried, not having to make the best use of each minute. Lan Wangji had given him a jade token that ensures that he's well-housed and well-fed at each city he passes through. On one occasion he's even lucky enough to stay somewhere where there is proper wine and not the rotgut that had been the only thing he could get his hands on during the war.
Sprawled atop the roof of the inn he’s staying at, deep enough into the wine that he’s turned melancholy, Wei Wuxian admits to himself that he misses Lan Wangji. He’s dawdling on his route to Moling because while he’s still out here, he’s still Commander Jiang, and it means that there’s a non-zero chance he might see Lan Wangji again.
Wei Wuxian drains the last of his wine, wiping the dribbles of it away with his sleeve. He scoffs at himself. What a story that would be, he thinks. He imagines telling Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli about meeting Lan Er-Dianxia and their insane quest across Qinghe. Jiang Cheng would roll his eyes and yell at him for making things up, and Jiang Yanli would be kind about it, but she’d still think it was one of Wei Wuxian’s crazy stories that he’s spun out of thin air to entertain them.
Either way it doesn’t matter. The war is over, thankfully, and Wei Wuxian will never have reason to cross paths with Lan Wangji again.
His only regret is that he will never get to hear Lan Wangji call him by his own name.
Because of his leisurely pace, which he thinks he can be forgiven for, it takes him an additional week to reach Moling. He's barely ridden through the gates when Ouyang Zizhen, the harried young clerk who had been assigned to him, rushes up with a scroll in his hands. Wei Wuxian's eyebrows shoot up when he sees the golden wrapping around the scroll.
It's an imperial summons, he reads, for all men ranked commander and above to present themselves at the Imperial palace in Gusu to receive their reward for service in the war. The cause of Ouyang Zizhen's anxiety becomes obvious when he realises that he has only two short weeks to make it there thanks to his slow pace. He considers not going, because there isn’t anything he particularly wants except to be able to go home and Jiang Cheng’s accounts of the fancy dinners he used to have to attend as his parents’ heir make them sound like a giant snoozefest. But between Ouyang Zizhen’s persistent nagging and the tiny voice in the back of his mind weedling him to take the miniscule chance that he might see Lan Wangji again, he allows himself to be bullied into going to Gusu.
The imperial receiving hall or whatever it’s called is so massive that Wei Wuxian thinks the whole of Lotus Pier might fit in it. He’s not the only one gawking but he tries his best not to be too obvious about it. The closer he gets to the Emperor, the more hopeful he becomes. There’s so much white surrounding the Emperor on the dias that he thinks Lan Wangji must be around somewhere.
When it comes to his turn, he kneels at a hundred paces from the dragon throne. “Jiang Wanyin of Yunmeng,” he says, managing not to stutter.
“What reward would you like, Jiang Wanyin?” the minister next to the Emperor says. Wei Wuxian rises to his feet, gives the men on the platform a quick glance, but he doesn’t see Lan Wangji. The tiny hope that had lingered extinguishes. Wei Wuxian guesses that asking for the prince’s friendship as a reward would not be taken well.
The men before him have asked for titles, promotions. The Emperor has awarded hundreds and thousands of taels of silver and gold. Wei Wuxian looks around him and sees how stiffly everyone stands, how formal everything is. The gilded hall is both splendid and lifeless. He does not belong here.
“I do not want a promotion or a title. All I would like is a swift horse to take me home to Lotus Pier.”
("Oh! And some Emperor's Smile if you have it.")
~~~~~~~
爷娘闻女来，出郭相扶将；阿姊闻妹来，当户理红妆；
小弟闻姊来，磨刀霍霍向猪羊。开我东阁门，坐我西阁床；
脱我战时袍，着我旧时裳；当窗理云鬓，对镜帖花黄。
Wei Wuxian considers sending a note ahead of him, but decides to surprise his siblings instead. When he nears the gate to Lotus Pier, he hears several shouts and sees one of the sentries running off. He grins and nudges his horse into a slightly faster pace.
The quick patter of steps is followed by the sight of Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli rounding the corner of the courtyard wall. Wei Wuxian leaps off his horse at Jiang Cheng, laughing when his younger brother lets out an indignant shout as he staggers backwards under Wei Wuxian’s weight. Jiang Cheng shoves him off but can’t hide the wide smile on his face. Jiang Yanli throws her arms around Wei Wuxian, and he can feel her tears dampening his collar as she hugs him tightly.
He’s more or less been on the road for months on end and he’s exhausted, but he insists on joining his siblings for dinner. Jiang Yanli puts bowl after bowl of soup and rice in front of him and Jiang Cheng wrinkles his nose and tells him he smells like a horse. Wei Wuxian has never had a meal so wonderful in his life.
Later, when he’s lying on his own bed with his arms pillowing his head, Wei Wuxian exhales deeply. He’s clean of the road grime- it’s the first time in more than a year that he hasn’t had dirt under his fingernails - and back in Yunmeng purple. His old clothes are all a little looser now. He doesn’t have to look in the mirror to see how his face is gaunter, how his ribs are almost showing. And then there are all the other ways he’s changed.
It’s almost too quiet so he opens his window slightly to let in the sounds of the cicadas, but then closes it again because having an open window makes him nervous. It takes too long to fall asleep.
He falls back into his old routines, taking back duties that Jiang Cheng had taken on while Wei Wuxian was at war. His brother doesn’t say anything but he can tell that Jiang Cheng is glad he’s back. His method of coping with the guilt of Wei Wuxian taking his place had been to run himself into the ground doing the work of two people.
The one new thing Wei Wuxian gets to do is joyful yet incredibly tragic. Jiang Wanyin had not been the only one summoned to serve their country, and the war had created many orphans. Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli, who both remember the waif their father had brought home those years ago, have taken them all in.
Wei Wuxian has always been good with children because he’s simultaneously able to take them seriously and himself not too seriously, so he’s put in charge of their education. He wracks his brain trying to remember how he had been taught when he had just been taken in by the Jiangs. He teaches them numbers and words, runs them through the exercises that all Jiang disciples learn as children. He has to beg for Jiang Yanli’s help for calligraphy.
But he teaches them how to have fun too, and how to take care of each other. Everytime he herds them from the classrooms to the outer courtyard where they can run around without disturbing anyone, the residents of Lotus Pier are treated to the adorable sight of rows of children holding hands walking two-by-two. Sometimes he makes a game of it when they’re a little restless- he has each pair bind one leg each together so that they look like a weird three-legged monster. The children can’t stop tripping over themselves and they end up as a mess of giggling children fallen over along the corridors.
A month goes by, then another, and then another. Wei Wuxian never brings Lan Wangji up, never tells his siblings that he met Lan Er-Dianxia. The whole story is so ridiculous that sometimes he wonders if it was real or if it was just something his mind dreamed up to keep him sane during the war. And then he digs out the tiny locked box shoved under his bed (behind the other things also shoved under his bed so that nosy younger siblings can’t see it) and right there, lying inside, is the jade token Lan Wangji had given him. Wei Wuxian traces the contours of the smooth jade and thinks of dinners together after long days, of Lan Wangji shaking him awake at the same ungodly hour he rises at. He thinks of a man who, in the span of only several seasons, knows him better than even his siblings.
But, he reminds himself, he is back at Lotus Pier with Jiang Yanli and Jiang Cheng, the three of them together again. What more could he ask for?
Under the watchful, tyrannical, eyes of his siblings, he slowly puts back on the weight that he’d lost. The sweet voices of children reciting the sanzijing drown out the sound of his own fear. He even manages to fall asleep with his window open. He keeps count of the residents of Lotus Pier compulsively (108), at first twice a day, then once, then once a week and then one day he counts a hundred and eight for the thousandth time and Wei Wuxian decides he will stop counting.
It’s a day like any other when Lan Wangji arrives at Lotus Pier.
Wei Wuxian is in the middle of storytime, the next episode in a long drawn out saga he’s made up about a hapless jiangshi . Somehow all his kids have gotten really into it and keep demanding more. They insist that he has to have talisman paper tacked up all over him or the story won’t be authentic . If they’re feeling really sassy they rub turmeric all over his face. It takes ages to wash off his skin. (He lets them anyway.)
The children sit cross-legged on the floor facing their makeshift stage, intently watching as Wei Wuxian is setting the scene when he hears it.
“WEI. WU. XIAN.” is bellowed only the way Jiang Cheng can. He freezes in the middle of the sentence, trying to remember if he has annoyed Jiang Cheng recently, and the kids are all giggling that Wei-laoshi is in trouble. “Uh-oh” one of them says.
A disciple practically sprints up to the classroom and pauses to take a breath. He’s clearly not a whit surprised by Wei Wuxian’s get-up, and just blurts out “Jiang-zhongzhu needs you at the main gate. Right now.”
Wei Wuxian sighs with annoyance and peels off the talisman stuck on his forehead. He hates being interrupted during story time. He walks briskly to the entrance of Lotus Pier, noticing that he’s not the only one headed in the same direction. By the time he arrives, there’s a huge crowd gathered at the gate. He starts to push his way through, and he hears someone near him say “Wei-gongzi is here!” and then another person repeats it and another and he can hear the message being passed all the way down to where Jiang Cheng is presumably waiting for him.
He finally makes his way through the mass of people. “Jiang Cheng. I didn’t do anything! I swear!”
His brother glares at him balefully and yanks him closer by the arm, pulling him front and centre in the gate, facing the crowd he’s realised has also formed outside the walls. When he looks up after tripping over his own feet, he sees Lan Wangji, eyes wide, staring back at him..
Wei Wuxian is wonderfully confused, and his brain has not caught up yet. At least that’s his excuse when he forgets his manners completely and exclaims, “Lan Wangji! You’re here!”
“Jiang-,” the prince starts to say, before his eyes slide over to Jiang Cheng. His eyebrows are furrowed just the slightest amount, so Wei Wuxian knows from experience that Lan Wangji is either upset, confused, or both upset and confused.
Wei Wuxian’s brain finally catches up with his mouth and he stares dumbly at Lan Wangji before turning to Jiang Cheng. “Oh shit.”
~~~~~~~
出门看火伴，火伴皆惊惶。“同行十二年，不知木兰是女郎。”
雄兔脚扑朔，雌兔眼迷离。双兔傍地走，安能辩我是雄雌？
Later, when everything has blown over and the peanut gallery has dispersed, Wei Wuxian is told what happened at the gate before he arrived:
It takes Lan Wangji a lot longer than he had anticipated to visit Yunmeng. There is so much to do after the war and he spends several months helping to resettle those displaced by the war and helping to rebuild destroyed villages and cities.
Lan Xichen tries to get his brother to rest and spend time in the Imperial capital. Lan Wangji acquiesces but finds that a week is about as long as he can manage being surrounded by self-congratulatory bureaucrats. His uncle and brother are disappointed when he tells them he’s leaving again, but they also seem to realise that he’s no longer content to remain in the court. He’s no longer content to be the man whose brother rules a vast kingdom but whose own world extends only so far as the confines of the imperial palace.
(General Nie, who’s celebrated and revered as the hero who ended the war, tries to tag along but Lan Xichen puts his foot down and the disgruntled man has no choice but to remain in Gusu and endure the endless parade of banquets.)
Lan Wangji tries to go where help is the most needed and not where the requests for help are the loudest, or he would be forever stuck in Lanling. So he travels through a succession of small towns and smaller villages and stays until he’s satisfied that the people will be able to weather the coming winter.
Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi travel with him and Lan Wangji finds that he’s no longer so opposed to company. The two teenagers seem somewhat nonplussed at his new sociability, but they take it in stride. Lan Sizhui is still soft-spoken and formal, but Lan Jingyi slides into what most Lan would consider a shocking lack of manners that instead just reminds Lan Wangji of someone he dearly misses.
He insists that they wear something less ostentatious than the ‘blindingly white’ style worn in the capital, remembering how much he had enjoyed not being constantly stared at.
(“But the rules say that we can only wear white,” Lan Sizhui says carefully.
Lan Wangji thinks for a moment. “... light blue is also acceptable.”)
Lan Wangji doesn’t tell the two why they’re headed towards Lotus Pier. He hasn’t told anyone about Jiang Wanyin except for his brother and General Nie and he’s recently learnt that Lan Sizhui has a romantic streak a mile wide- he’s not sure he really wants to have to explain everything. But his two shadows are also not stupid and they realise quickly that Lan Wangji is stopping at places to buy what are obviously courting gifts.
The morning arrives when they enter the city, and they reach the gate to the Jiang compound faster than Lan Wangji realises. He panics a little because he doesn’t know what to say. He’s usually much better at planning than this.
“I am here to see Jiang Wanyin,” he says when the sentries ask him to state his business. The two guards exchange puzzle glances, so Lan Wangji hurriedly adds, “I am his… friend.” Somehow this doesn’t seem to help because they look even more confused but one of them disappears into the compound.
The wait is agonising. Lan Wangji is vaguely aware of the crowd that is gathering, presumably drawn by the sight of three obviously wealthy individuals outside of Lotus Pier. The remaining guard is trying very hard to seem like he’s keeping an eye on them while simultaneously trying not to look Lan Wangji in the eyes. Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi are silent behind him but he doesn’t have to turn around to see what kind of face Lan Jingyi is making.
Finally, he hears the guard returning, along with another man. He’s clearly someone with authority, given the way he holds himself, his stride confident even with the slight limp he has on his right side. The guard trails behind the man, whispering something to him that makes him frown as they make their way to the gate. Lan Wangji guesses that this is Wei Wuxian, Jiang Wanyin’s adopted brother. Jiang Wanyin had not mentioned a limp, but given all the… adventures that Jiang Wanyin had described to him, Lan Wangji supposed that a broken leg should not have been surprising.
Lan Wangji dismounts smoothly, giving a slight bow to Wei Wuxian. Behind him, Lan Sizhui coughs to hide his surprise. Lan Jingyi is less delicate, going by the drawn out ‘uhhhhhhh’ Lan Wangji hears. By rights everyone here should be greeting Lan Er-Dianxia on their knees but it seems that no one recognises him, and Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi are probably confused by the deference Lan Wangji is showing.
“Lan Wangji greets the Jiang family,” he says. “I am here to court Jiang Wanyin.” Around him the crowd bursts into mutters. The guard still standing at the gate lets out a startled laugh and then immediately claps his free hand over his mouth.
“I’m sorry, did you say that you are here to court Jiang Wanyin?” Wei Wuxian says doubtfully, sounding like he doesn’t believe it’s possible. He’s not at all like what Lan Wangji had imagined based on the stories Jiang Wanyin had told him during their time together. The man who’s standing in front of him looks like he’s as familiar with the concept of smiling as Lan Wangji himself. His brows are furrowed so tightly together that it looks like he only has one. Lan Wangji wonders if he should be insulted on Jiang Wanyin’s behalf. He can’t imagine that the man he had gotten to know during the war wouldn’t have his fair share of suitors.
“Yes.” Lan Wangji nods. “Is he here?”
“He’s here alright,” one of the guards mutters before his partner elbows him in the stomach.
“I am Jiang Wanyin.” Wei Wuxian (?) says slowly. “Who are you?”
“Hey!-” Lan Jingyi shouts, appalled at the rudeness of the man. Lan Sizhui, who’s always been a much better reader of social situations, grabs his arm. “Jingyi.”
The man formerly known as Wei Wuxian doesn’t wait for Lan Wangji to answer. Instead he rolls his eyes and yells “WEI. WU. XIAN.” Everyone nearby except for Lan Wangji winces and covers their ears.
The Jiang Wanyin he recognises finally arrives, tripping over his own feet. The smile on his face is luminous and he looks like a total disaster and Lan Wangji is so unbelievably happy to see him. “Lan Wangji, you’re here!” he shouts. Of course I’m here, Lan Wangji thinks, you asked me to come.
“Jiang-” he starts to greet the other man, but manages to cut himself off, frowning. The man gapes at him, then almost comically, his head swivels between Lan Wangji and Jiang Wanyin (?).
“Oh shit,” the man blurts out. There he is, this is the man Lan Wangji remembers.
The explanations are convoluted. Lan Wangji supposes that he ought to feel betrayed for being lied to, but all he can do is feel helplessly fond as Wei Wuxian rambles on nervously.
He looks at the real Jiang Wanyin. “So you are Jiang Wanyin.” The man nods, somehow looking extremely unbothered by the fact that he’s in the presence of royalty. If anything he seems resigned to… everything.
Lan Wangji turns to his friend. “And you are-”
“Wei Ying, Wei Wuxian!” He says with a lopsided smile, giving Lan Wangji a cheeky bow, before letting out a small yelp of pain when Jiang Wanyin steps on his foot and hisses “be polite!”
Lan Wangji stares at Wei Wuxian as he and his brother start bickering. Somehow the name feels more right , more fitting. He takes a step forward and calls out-
“Wei Ying.”