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It was supposed to just be a simple night hunt. But isn’t that always how these things began?
It all started with Jin Ling being in Cloud Recesses for some sect leader work. After a couple of days of suffering through trade route discussions with some Lan elders, the young sect leader was given the all clear to go let off some steam with some people his own age. In anticipation of this, Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi had sent a letter ahead of time to Ouyang Zizhen, formally requesting his assistance in a night hunt.
So, the juniors had set off, eager for some free time, just the four of them.
Or, well, five of them, if you counted the crazed man who had been the cause of the shifts in resentful energy they had been following, and who had lured them into an array that knocked them out and allowed him to place them into their current predicament: sitting in a line of four chairs in the middle of some sort of courtyard, hands and legs bound to their seats.
“You four dared try and stop my work?” their captor spat, stalking up towards where they were being kept. “You couldn’t possibly understand the scale of what I am doing. Nobody has used resentful energy in this capacity since the fall of the Yiling Laozu!”
Lan Sizhui cast a sideways glance over to Lan Jingyi, who looked equally confused. Did this man… not know that Wei-qianbei was alive again?
“I suppose, however,” the man continued, turning back to the array he was lining on the ground. “It is nice to have an audience witness something so monumental.” Lan Sizhui did not need to look at Jin Ling to know that he was rolling his eyes. They were just lucky that the man seemed too absorbed in his work to notice.
The man may be amusingly dramatic, but his talk of resentful energy made Lan Sizhui nervous. He knew Wei-qianbei used it, but he had always cautioned against anyone else trying, saying it was too easy to be consumed by it. After all, he always added with a rueful smile, even he himself had been so consumed, had he not? Hanguang-jun didn’t like it when Wei-qianbei joked like that, but he did have a point. No one was immune to the immense power presented by restful energy, and by the looks of it, this man was definitely not an exception.
Their captor moved frantically around his array, muttering to himself in a quick, frenzied stream of words. He added one last brush stroke before he stood back, eyes sweeping over his work.
“Nearly there, just one last thing,” He turned to face the four boys with a feverish look, eying them over like pieces of meat. “Maybe one of you can be useful after all.” Lan Sizhui swallowed hard.
The man walked up to them, expression calculating. He reached out and grabbed Ouyang Zizhen’s wrist, holding it for a moment before dropping it and doing the same to Lan Jingyi. He moved down the line, roughly pulling Jin Ling’s wrist back when he tried to wrench it out of the man’s grasp. Finally, he reached for Lan Sizhui’s wrist, pausing for a moment before a crazed smile twisted his features.
“Yes, a very strong core, you will do nicely.”
“Hey, don’t touch him!” Lan Jingyi yelled, pulling hard at his restraints. On either side of him, Ouyang Zizhen and Jin Ling were doing the same.
“Yeah, leave him alone or you’ll be sorry!” Jin Ling’s face was red with anger as he yelled.
The man reached for his belt and pulled out a small knife. He ignored the other boys, focused solely on Lan Sizhui, cutting his arm free of its restraints and pushing up his long white sleeve. “Now just hold still and this will go smoothly. Consider it an honor to be involved!”
Lan Sizhui could feel his heart start to hammer. He fought down the urge to jerk back, knowing it could lead to the man cutting him deeper on accident. What would Hanguang-jun do? He wondered desperately. What would Wei-qianbei do? A depressed part of him wanted to say that they wouldn’t have let themselves be captured in the first place.
A sharp pain on his forearm yanked Lan Sizhui from his thoughts and he looked down, watching in morbid fascination as the man dragged the knife lengthwise down his arm. He was distantly aware of his friends shouting in outrage beside him, but it felt a bit like his head was underwater as the warm sensation of blood dripping down his arm distracted him.
The knife reached Lan Sizhui’s wrist and the man quickly threw it aside before cupping his hands beneath Lan Sizhui’s now throbbing arm, blood pooling into his cupped hands.
There was a lot of blood. It’s going to stain my robes. Maybe I should start wearing black like Wei-qianbei. Maybe Lan Sizhui was feeling a bit woozy. He dragged his gaze up and away from his heavily bleeding arm to watch as the man dashed back to his array, hands held carefully in front of him. When he reached the edge, he held his hands high above his head and began to recite something too faint for Lan Sizhui to make out.
“Sizhui!” Lan Jingyi’s sharp call finally broke him out of the almost trance-like state he had been watching their captor in. Lan Sizhui looked over to find all three of his friends looking at him with worry written plainly on their faces.
“Are you okay?” Ouyang Zizhen asked, looking a bit pale as he eyed all the blood.
“I’ll kill him for doing that,” Jin Ling muttered darkly, though the threat was somewhat undercut by the look of fear shining in his eyes. Lan Sizhui did his best to smile reassuringly.
“I’m fine, just a cut. It’ll heal in no time.”
“Still, that looks-” Lan Jingyi was cut off by a loud bang coming from the array, and all four of them turned their faces away at the strong gust of wind that followed.
“ Yes !” they could hear the man shouting over the roar of the wind. “ Yes! I knew it would work! Rise! ”
Squinting against the dust being kicked up, Lan Sizhui could just make out the blurry silhouettes of people standing up in jerky motions. Where had they come from? There definitely hadn’t been anyone else here before, unless…
“Oh no,” Lan Jingyi whispered as the dust settled. Standing all around them, limbs stiff and awkwardly held out in their distinctive stance, were a dozen fierce corpses.
“I knew I could do it,” the man’s voice echoed across the square, drawing the four boys’ gazes back to him. He looked… wrong. Tendrils of resentful energy swirled around him, fast and violent, and he looked as if he had somehow aged ten years in the last minute. His face was now drawn and sallow, his hair wild. “I knew it!”
“You don’t know what you’re doing!” Ouyang Zizhen called out. “The resentful energy will control you!”
“Silly boy!” The man cackled. He raised his arms and the corpses all turned to face them. Lan Sizhui’s eyes widened and beside him, he could feel Jin Ling struggling harder against his bonds. “I am in complete control!”
“Hey!” a familiar voice called from above. “That’s usually my line.”
The four boys whipped their heads up to the source of the voice and relief crashed over them like a wave. Lan Jingyi cried out, “Wei-qianbei!”
Across the square, a familiar figure in all black landed on the roof, his eyes immediately focusing on the man shrouded in resentful energy.
“Well, someone has been busy.”
“Who the hell do you think you are? Do you have any idea what I am doing?” the man cried, clearly not enjoying someone interrupting his moment of victory. From the roof, Wei-qianbei simply threw his head back and laughed.
“Me? Do I understand what you’re doing?” he barely gasped the sentence out between peals of laughter.
“How dare you!” the man cried, and now the corpses turned to face Wei-qianbei. This, combined with the presence of their senior, seemed to restore some of Lan Jingyi’s usual confidence.
“Don’t you have any idea who he is?” Lan Jingyi called out, the judgement clear in his tone. He didn’t wait for a response. “He’s the one who invented demonic cultivation!”
The man froze, his eyes widening as he whipped his gaze from Lan Jingyi to Wei-qianbei and back again. “You - he - he can’t be…”
“Ah, Jingyi, you ruined the surprise! Now he -” Wei-qianbei suddenly cut himself off as his gaze finally settled on the four juniors. More specifically, on the unmistakable shock of red staining Lan Sizhui’s robes. The playful smile slid off his face and was replaced by an unreadable expression that would have looked more at home on Hanguang-jun. His eyes followed the line of blood droplets leading from Lan Sizhui to the array on the ground. After a few drawn out moments of tense silence, Wei-qianbei demanded,
“What did you do.”
All four boys froze, confusion coloring their faces. Never had they heard their usually bubbly senior sound so cold or severe. He sounded… dangerous. The man, however, ignored his statement, still staring in shock.
“You’re… you’re…”
With that dispassionate expression still frozen on his face, Wei-qianbei surveyed the square, eyes calculating. When he spoke, his voice was almost unrecognizable; it held an unnatural calmness like the moments before a storm.
“Do you know how I got the nickname ‘Yiling Laozu’?” His gaze slowly found its way back to the man and he blinked. Even from a distance, the sinister red glow of his eyes could be seen. The man let out a terrified cry.
“ I earned it. ”
The four boys watched with mouths open in shock as Wei-qianbei raised one hand and the resentful energy poured out of all twelve fierce corpses, leaving them to drop to the ground like puppets with their strings cut. Above them, the resentful energy curled into a ball, a tumultuous sea of black swirling in place.
On the ground, the man fell to his knees. “P-please! Yiling Laozu, have mercy! I just wanted to follow in your footsteps! To use demonic cultivation to make others pay!”
Wei-qianbei’s crimson gaze snapped from the cloud of resentful energy to the begging man. Around him, swirls of darkness peeled off him as if his clothes were smoldering. Unlike the violent, jerking way the resentful energy had surrounded their captor, the inky wisps circled Wei-qianbei languidly, like a caress. He would seem almost bored if it wasn’t for the dangerous note of fury in his voice.
“Then you shouldn’t have touched those boys.”
The man grew impossibly paler. “No! I didn’t know! I didn’t -”
Wei-qianbei ignored his pleas and turned his hand so his palm was facing the man. The boys watched, transfixed, as the resentful energy followed, coalescing around the man in a violent swarm. As Wei-qianbei slowly closed his fist, the energy sank into the man who screamed and grabbed at his chest, tearing feverishly at his skin as if he could scratch the resentful energy out.
For a second, after the last wisp of energy had disappeared into the wailing man, all was still. Then, quick as a flash, Wei-qianbei splayed his fingers open and the resentful energy followed, bursting forth in a soundless explosion that coated the entire square in darkness. All four boys squeezed their eyes shut.
But just like that, it was over. Silence reigned and after a moment, the juniors opened their eyes. The resentful energy was dissipating into the air as Wei-qianbei jumped down from the roof. Their captor was nowhere to be seen.
“Are you boys okay?” he asked in a frantic voice as he ran over. “Sizhui…”
“I’m fine,” he reassured as Wei-qianbei cut their bonds. He held up his arm. “See? It’s already healing.”
Wei-qianbei took Lan Sizhui’s arm gently and scrutinized his cut, carefully looking it over until he seemed content with the healing progress. He sighed and stood back, facing the other three.
“What about you boys?”
Lan Sizhui looked over to find his three friends staring with open mouths at their senior, completely ignoring his question.
Wei-qianbei slid his gaze over to Lan Sizhui and back again. “Uh… boys?”
“Wei-qianbei…” Ouyang Zizhen began.
“Your eyes…” Lan Jingyi finished.
Blinking rapidly, Wei-qianbei brought a hesitant hand up and realization dawned over his face as he lightly touched his cheek, near where his eyes were still glowing blood red.
“Ah… that… that’ll um, that’ll go away soon.” he stuttered awkwardly. Suddenly, Wei-qianbei was looking anywhere except at the juniors in front of him.
“You just…” Jin Ling mimicked what Wei-qianbei had done and opened his fist in front of him. “Poof.” He stared at his uncle with a dumbfounded expression.
Lan Sizhui only just noticed Wei-qianbei’s flinch. “I ah…” he still refused to make eye contact with the juniors, instead turning around and leading the way out of the square. “Hanguang-jun, he’s waiting. Let’s get you all to Hanguang-jun.”
The four boys exchanged confused glances, unsure why Wei-qianbei was being so cagey all of a sudden. But their curiosity was outweighed by their exhaustion and desire to be done with this disaster of a mission, so wordlessly, they followed their senior out.
Wei-qianbei kept up a breakneck pace and remained silent the whole walk to Hanguang-jun, who had been searching for the juniors one town over. His uncharacteristic reticence was contagious, and the four boys followed in a tense silence, every once in a while casting a guilty sidelong glance at each other. About half way there, Lan Jingyi sidled up to Lan Sizhui.
“Do you think he’s mad at us? For getting captured?” he whispered. Lan Sizhui stared at Wei-qianbei’s back, noting his tense posture and bit his lip. The nervous look he shot back was more than enough confirmation.
By the time they reached Hanguang-jun, all four boys were feeling dread pool in their stomachs as they anticipated their punishment for messing up what was supposed to be a simple mission. Hanguang-jun’s disappointment was always a terrible blow to their pride and enough to leave them moping about for days, but Wei-qianbei’s disappointment? That was uncharted territory. He was INT never angry with the juniors. The idea of him being upset with them was downright devastating.
Like Wei-qianbei, Hanguang-jun’s gaze immediately fell on the blood blooming across Lan Sizhui’s robes and a flicker of concern marred his usually expressionless face. All four boys came to a stop in a line in front of the Chief Cultivator and gave their most immaculate bows.
“Hanguang-jun,” they greeted. For a moment no more was said as each of the juniors desperately willed each other to be the one to explain. Unsurprisingly, Lan Sizhui was the one to eventually take a hesitant step forward, dropping into another low bow.
“Hanguang-jun, these disciples apologize for being careless and any inconvenience we may have caused. We will be more diligent in the future.” Behind him, the other three juniors nodded enthusiastically.
“Are you okay?” Hanguang-jun’s question was directed at all four juniors, but his eyes stayed locked onto Sizhui, who nodded.
“Yes, we’re all fine. Wei-qianbei…” Lan Sizhui trailed off, not really sure how to finish that sentence. ‘Wei-qianbei exploded our captor with resentful energy’ didn’t seem like the right thing to say.
At the mention of their senior, Hanguang-jun turned to him, that soft look smoothing over his features like it always did when he looked at Wei-qianbei. Normally, it made the juniors’ hearts melt a bit (even Jin Ling’s, though he would never admit it). But now, it just served as a reminder that if they had upset Wei-qianbei, Hanguang-jun’s punishment would be that much more severe.
“I ah… took care of it,” Wei-qianbei said tensely. The crimson had finally faded from his eyes, but he still had a bit of a wild look to him, like the inverse of an afterglow. A small line appeared between Hanguang-jun’s eyebrows, his gaze intensifying. The juniors watched as the two seemed to have a silent conversation that ended with Wei-qianbei giving a small shake of his head and Hanguang-jun a sharp nod.
The four boys swallowed hard. They were positive that they were in for it now.
Which is why they were shocked when all Hanguang-jun said was “Let’s head back to Cloud Recesses then before it gets too dark.” and jumped on Bichen, offering a hand down to Wei-qianbei to help him up after him, and took off into the sky.
The juniors spared a quick, confused glance at each other before quickly pulling out their swords and following their seniors skyward.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“This is the worst thing that has ever happened ever,” Lan Jingyi moaned despondently, his voice slightly muffled given that he was lying face down on the floor.
The four juniors were in their usual late night meeting place of Jin Ling’s guest quarters. Because he was a sect leader, he was afforded one of the bigger, more comfortable rooms and, most importantly, a single room as opposed to the other three’s shared chambers.
Said sect leader was currently sitting cross legged on the floor, obsessively unbraiding and rebraiding a strand of his hair, which completely destroyed any credibility of his indignant reply. “It’s not that bad.”
“Oh, it’s bad.” Ouyang Zizhen chimed in from his place at the low table, where he was stress eating out of Jin Ling’s welcome basket. “We made Wei-qianbei mad. I didn’t even think that was possible! Did you see his face? He was all,” he did an exaggerated pout and big, sad eyes. “If Hanguang-jun doesn’t kill us, then I’ll die of a broken heart.” He shoved another piece of dried greens into his mouth.
“Zizhen,” Lan Sizhui broke in gently. “Those are medicinal.”
Ouyang Zizhen froze with the food halfway to his mouth, studying it for a moment with a forlorn gaze before gloomily declaring, “I deserve this.” and popping it into his mouth. Sizhui sighed and shook his head.
“We are terrible, terrible people,” Lan Jingyi lamented, banging his forehead on the ground with each word for emphasis. He then blindly threw a hand out, slapping it on the floor searchingly in Lan Sizhui’s direction. “Except you, of course, Sizhui, you beautiful, majestic chestnut-haired sunfish.”
Lan Sizhui tisked, reaching out to lightly smack his hand with a soft, “Jingyi,”
“Hanguang-jun is going to be so disappointed that Wei Wuxian is disappointed,” Jin Ling added. He was now braiding together three smaller braids. “I bet that’s why he didn’t say anything earlier - he was thinking of a more severe punishment. Can he even do that? I’m a sect leader…”
“He is the Chief Cultivator,” Lan Jingyi supplied without lifting his face off the floor.
Jin Ling paled and began a new plaiting strand. If he kept this up, his whole head would be full of little braids by the end of the night.
“What if Wei-qianbei is so disappointed he leaves Cloud Recesses?” Ouyang Zizhen gasped around a mouthful of herbs. “Hanguang-jun would be heartbroken! We would be responsible for ruining one of the greatest romances of our time!” he let his head come down face first into the welcome basket. “We’re destroyers of love.”
“Let’s calm down,” Lan Sizhui said in his best impression of Lan Xichen’s commanding but soothing tone. “We may have upset him, but he’s still Wei-qianbei! I’m sure if we head over to the Jingshi in the morning and apologize again, he will forgive us.”
He would, right? Lan Sizhui certainly hoped so. He didn’t remember ever having disappointed Wei-qianbei before and he would be lying if he said he wasn’t just as panicked about it as his friends were, and just as desperate to get back in their senior’s good graces as soon as possible. But, well, someone had to keep these three from spiraling into a depression, and looking around the room at their various stages of despair, it looked like that someone would have to be Lan Sizhui.
Ouyang Zizhen raised his head up from the basket. There was a clump of herbs sticking to his cheek. “Sizhui’s right,” he sighed. “There’s nothing we can do about it now.”
Lan Jingyi flopped over so he was lying on his back. “Well, I don’t know about you three, but personally I’m going to wallow in my own self hatred all night long.”
“Jingyi, I’m not sure that’s the healthiest response.” Lan Sizhui gently admonished as he rose from his seated position. He held out a hand to his friend.
“Oh, we are well past that.” Lan Jingyi took the proffered hand and let Lan Sizhui do most of the work in lifting him to his feet.
“Are any of you staying here?” Jin Ling asked as he stood and walked over to his bed, reaching over to swat the herbs off Ouyang Zizhen’s face as he passed.
“Jingyi and I should head back before the other disciples notice we’re out of bed,”
“I’ll stay,” Ouyang Zizhen said, flopping down on the ground next to Jin Ling’s bed. “I’m too emotionally exhausted to make it back to my room.”
“That doesn’t even make any sense,” Jin Ling muttered as he threw a spare pillow at Ouyang Zizhen, snickering when it hit the boy square in the face.
“We can meet back here tomorrow morning before breakfast so we can head over to the Jingshi.” Lan Sizhui said. The other three boys nodded, said their sullen goodnights, and tried their best not to dwell on what the morning would bring.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
None of the juniors had slept well if the consistent yawns and dark circles under their eyes were anything to go off of, and the extreme wave to half the hair on Jin Ling’s head suggested he had not stopped stress-braiding after the Lan disciples had left. They met outside of Jin Ling’s quarters like they had planned and made their way over to the Jingshi with nerves buzzing in their stomachs like a swarm of angry wasps. What if Wei-qianbei was still upset? Or maybe by now, Hanguang-jun had come up with their punishment. Jin Ling in particular could attribute most of his lost sleep to his mind conjuring up increasingly creative punishments the Chief Cultivator could dull out.
As they passed through the Jingshi’s outer gate, the tranquility that usually surrounded the small building seemed to only amplify their anxiety by comparison. Nearing the Jingshi, muffled voices from inside were able to be made out.
“Aiya, Lan Zhan, I don’t know what to do about those juniors.”
Hearing this, Lan Jingyi’s eyes went wide and he grabbed Lan Sizhui and Jin Ling by the wrists, beckoning Ouyang Zizhen to follow as he quickly dragged them to crouch down under the Jingshi’s window.
“What are you doing?” Jin Ling hissed, wrenching his wrist from Lan Jingyi’s grasp.
“I’m brewing tea, what does it look like we’re doing, young mistress?” he shot back in a harsh whisper, earning a hard punch to the shoulder for the nickname.
“Jingyi, eavesdropping is against the rules,” Lan Sizhui muttered anxiously.
Lan Jingyi shook his head, but had the good graces to at least look a little guilty. “I’m not eavesdropping, I’m… gathering context. ” Jin Ling rolled his eyes. “I want to know how much trouble we’re in.”
“But-”
“Shh!” Jin Ling cut Ouyang Zizhen off as Hanguang-jun’s deep voice drifted out to them.
“What do you mean?” They heard Wei-qianbei sigh in response and the rustle of fabric. It sounded like they were getting ready for the day.
“You should have seen their faces, after I…”
“After you saved them,” Hanguang-jun supplied in a calm but firm tone that suggested this was not the first time they had had this discussion.
“They couldn’t even look at me,” Wei-qianbei said and, oh no, he sounded so… hurt . The four boys exchanged guilty glances. They had been too ashamed to make eye contact with Wei-qianbei last night after he had saved them, too afraid of seeing the disappointment in his gaze.
“I can’t even imagine what I must have looked like.” Wei-qianbei continued. “It must have been like before, like I was-”
“A-Ying,”
They couldn’t even allow themselves to internally coo over hearing Hanguang-jun address Wei-qianbei so sweetly because this was suddenly going in a direction they did not expect. What had been wrong with how Wei-qianbei had looked?
“Ah, Lan Zhan, you’re right as always. The past is the past; there’s no use in dwelling on it.” How he had gotten all that out of one utterance of his name, the juniors did not know. “It’s just…” Wei-qianbei sighed and when he continued, the juniors could hear the forced humor in his voice, turning it brittle like ice just about to crack. “I had sort of liked having at least a handful of people who didn’t know me as the fearsome Yiling Laozu, scourge of the cultivation world. To them I was just Wei-qianbei, the bumbling, but exceedingly handsome oddity of Cloud Recesses,” they heard Hanguang-jun huff out a quiet laugh. “But now I’m Wei-qianbei, the man who can blow you up with his demonic powers.”
“They already knew you practiced demonic cultivation. They have seen you do it before.”
“Not like this,” Wei-qianbei’s voice dropped any pretense of lightheartedness. He sounded… haunted. “I didn’t even use Chenqing. I just saw that A-Yuan had been hurt and this man was going on about wanting to follow in my footsteps and I just got so angry , I…” he took a deep breath. “I haven’t used my power like that since… before. I scared myself , Lan Zhan. There is no way those boys aren’t scared of me now. Just like everyone else.”
They heard footsteps and a rustle of fabric followed by a prolonged silence. The four boys exchanged a glance, their previous dread of punishment now replaced by a grim clarity. Lan Sizhui inclined his head towards the gate and the juniors made their silent retreat, not saying a word until they were safely back in Jin Ling’s guest quarters.
“Well, now I really do need to die a thousand fiery deaths.” Lan Jingyi was the first to break the silence as he threw himself down on Jin Ling’s bed. It was a sign of how distressed the young clan leader was that all he did in retaliation was sit down on top of Jingyi’s back with slightly more force than necessary. Even Lan Jingyi’s punched out “ oof ” sounded despondent.
“Just to be clear, none of us are actually afraid of Wei-qianbei after last night, right?” Ouyang Zizhen asked hesitantly as he, too, sat down on the bed, sprawling out over Lan Jingyi’s legs.
“Are you kidding?” Lan Jingyi exclaimed, struggling to turn to face his friends while being sat on. “That was the coolest thing I have ever seen. Jin Ling, how come you didn’t inherit any of your uncle’s coolness? You would think just statistically you would have gotten, like, a little bit at least.”
“Shut up!” Jin Ling smacked the back of Lan Jingyi’s head, causing the other boy to cry out indignantly.
“Alright, you two,” Lan Sizhui sat on the floor beside the bed. “Obviously, none of us could be scared of Wei-qianbei.”
“I mean, did you see his eyes ?” Lan Jingyi gushed, holding his own eyes open with his fingers for emphasis. “They were glowing red ! How badass is that?”
“He didn’t even look like he was trying, either.” Jin Ling somehow managed to sound both amazed and annoyed by this. “He just…” he raised a hand and splayed his fingers like how Wei-qianbei had.
“Is this what he was like during the Sunshot Campaign all the time?” Ouyang Zizhen marveled. “If so, no wonder Hanguang-jun had a thing for him.”
Lan Jingyi snapped a couple of times in agreement while Lan Sizhui and Jin Ling shared twin looks of distaste.
But Ouyang Zizhen did bring up a good point. Logically, the four of them knew that Wei-qianbei had to have been very powerful during the famed Sunshot Campaign - they had all heard the stories, afterall. They knew that he leveled entire battlefields with a single song from his dizi, that he commanded a truly unfathomable wealth of power through his demonic cultivation. There was a reason why all of their seniors who had fought alongside Wei-qianbei - and then later, against him - seemed to stiffen anytime they heard the sound of a dizi float through Cloud Recesses, or why they seemed hesitant to do anything that might anger him.
They knew this, and yet they had still been surprised by seeing what was surely a small taste of what Wei-qianbei’s true power was. And that was because, well, he was Wei-qianbei . Just last week he had caused a ruckus around Cloud Recesses because he had managed to get his hand stuck inside of one of the more ornate vases that decorated the halls. He had refused to break it, and for a day and a half he had lived his life with one normal hand and one large porcelain club hand, which had nearly caused a couple of black eyes while he did his normal wild gesticulating during the lectures he taught. In the end, it had taken two entire bottles of oil and Lan Sizhui pulling on the vase while Lan Jingyi pulled onWei-qianbei to get it off.
So, for the juniors to have to face the fact that their bumbling, lighthearted Wei-qianbei was also the chilling Yiling Laozu from their childhood tales? It was a little jarring, to say the least.
“ The point is ,” Jin Ling redirected. “Wei Wuxian is full of shit and beating himself up over nothing. As usual.”
“Why don’t we head back over there and tell Wei-qianbei we’re not afraid of him?” Ouyang Zizhen suggested.
Lan Sizhui sighed. “I’m not sure it’s that simple.”
“Why not?”
“Well, for one, they’ll definitely know we were eavesdropping if we do that.” Jin Ling said, completely ignoring Lan Jingyi’s insistent “ Gathering context !”
“And even then,” Lan Sizhui added. “I’m not sure merely saying it will prove to Wei-qianbei that that’s how we feel. He could think we’re saying it just so we don’t upset him.”
The room drifted into silence as the four juniors contemplated what to do. After a few minutes, Lan Jingyi let out a victorious shout and attempted unsuccessfully to shift out from under the two boys on top of him. He settled with just awkwardly staring over his shoulder.
“If Wei-qianbei thinks we’re afraid of him, we just need to prove that we still trust him!”
“Yeah, and how do you suggest we do that?” Jin Ling demanded, folding his arms over his chest.
“Well, I can’t do everything for you, princess,” Lan Jingyi drawled, earning another slap to the back of the head.
“Hang on, that might work,” Ouyang Zizhen nodded, a plan formulating behind his eyes. “If we each come up with our own way to show we trust him, it wouldn’t be as suspicious as if we all did it together. It’ll seem more natural.”
“Yeah, see? I’m a genius. Sizhui, tell them I’m a genius.”
“Sorry, Jingyi,” Lan Sizhui said, face and voice as emotionless as the great Hanguang-jun. “Telling lies is forbidden in Cloud Recesses.”
“Ah!” Lan Jingyi flopped dramatically down with a wail. “Bastards, the lot of you! Where is the love, huh? Where is the respect? Why is my life a never ending vortex of pain and agony?”
Above him, the three juniors snickered, their spirits lifted now that they had a plan.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“Maybe this isn’t a good idea…”
“Ah, Sizhui, you sweet, naive, sophisticated baby owl. Of course it is!”
“Where do you come up with this stuff?” Jin Ling sneered.
Lan Jingyi smiled pleasantly. “I have a gifted mind.”
“Last week you told Lan Qiren that the best way to deal with a water demon was to drink it.”
“Hey, Wei-qianbei said my answer was inspired. ”
“Wei Wuxian is an idiot, so that doesn’t mean much.”
“I’m telling Hanguang-jun you said that.”
“If you do, I’ll have Fairy eat you!”
“Shh!” Ouyang Zizhen cut off their bickering. “Here he comes!”
From their position hiding behind some bushes, the four juniors watched as Wei-qianbei walked alone across the square, just as they calculated he would at this time of day.
It was time to put their plan into action.
“Watch and learn, fellas.” Lan Jingyi said with a wink, standing up from their hiding place and jogging towards the retreating back of their senior.
“Wei-qianbei!”
Just as Wei-qianbei turned towards the call, Lan Jingyi jumped up onto the nearby bannister, spread his arms wide, and tipped backwards.
“Hey!” Dropping all the papers in his hands, Wei-qianbei rushed over to the falling junior, catching him awkwardly under the arms before he could make contact with the ground. “Jingyi, what in the world -”
“Ah! Wei-qianbei!” Lan Jingyi said brightly as if he hadn’t just fallen into his arms for no discernible reason. “Thanks for the catch! I knew I could trust you.” He stressed this last part, staring intently at his extremely confused senior for a few silent beats before smiling and waving. “See you around, Wei-qianbei!”
From their hiding place, both Jin Ling and Lan Sizhui had their faces buried in their hands, so it was only Ouyang Zizhen who watched as Wei-qianbei stared in stunned silence after Lan Jingyi before shaking his head and busying himself with picking up his scattered papers.
Lan Jingyi ducked back behind the bushes just as Wei-qianbei rounded the corner out of sight. He spread his arms out proudly.
“Well? Are you not impressed?”
“What on earth was that?” Jin Ling exclaimed, punching Lan Jingyi hard on the shoulder.
“Ow! That hurt, young mistress!”
“Jingyi, you just… fell on him,” Lan Suzhui said, confused. Jingyi sighed, exasperated.
“It was a trust fall ,” he said slowly, as if explaining something exceedingly obvious to children. “I was showing him how I trusted him to catch me!”
“But you made him drop all his papers,” added Ouyang Zizhen disapprovingly.
“Okay, fine then. What’s your grand plan, Zizhen?” Lan Jingyi pouted, folding his arms defensively.
Ouyang Zizhen smiled conspiratorially and leaned in. “I am asking him for his advice on the matter that involves the utmost trust and respect.”
“A night hunt?” asked Jin Ling.
“A book recommendation?” tried Lan Sizhui.
“That weird new thing you’re doing with your hair?” Lan Jingyi pointed towards his ponytail and Ouyang Zizhen slapped his hand away, his mouth open in outrage.
“No, you idiots! Love .”
There was a prolonged pause before all three boys burst out into fits of laughter.
“Hey,” Ouyang Zizhen whined. “I think it’s a good idea!”
“Oh no, by all means,” Lan Jingyi gasped between outbursts. “ Please do this, I need to see how poorly it goes.”
“Zizhen,” Lan Sizhui tried to control himself, but he couldn’t keep the mirth from dancing in his eyes. “Do you really think Wei-qianbei is the best person to ask for love advice? It took him years to realize Hanguang-jun was desperately in love with him.”
“And who are you in love with, anyway?” Jin Ling was making no attempt to control his laughter. “Besides the young woman who runs the sweet bun stall in Caiyi?”
“Or the young woman who sells flowers in Lotus Pier?” added Lan Jingyi.
“And there was that disciple from the Nie clan…” said Lan Sizhui with a grin.
“Weren’t there two Nie disciples?”
“No, I think it was three!” Lan Jingyi crowed, sending the other two boys back into fits of laughter. Ouyang Zizhen stomped his foot indignantly.
“The people of the Nie clan have a beautiful understanding of the deeper meanings of poetry! Hearing them recite some would make anyone fall in love!”
This, of course, only caused the riotous hysterics to increase. Ouyang Zizhen waved a dismissive hand in their direction.
“Fine! I’ll show you three.” And with that, he stalked off in the direction that Wei-qianbei had gone.
Twenty minutes later, he returned, wiping tears from his eyes.
“What happened?” asked Lan Jingyi with a raised eyebrow.
Ouyang Zizhen slowly shook his head and sniffled. “He just loves Hanguang-jun so much…”
Lan Suzhui came to pat his back comfortingly while Jing Ling rolled his eyes.
“So, did you actually execute your plan or did you just cry on him?”
Ouyang Zizhen sat down with a heavy sigh. “It started out okay; he mostly just talked about flirting and how to get their attention, but then he started to talk about how him and Hanguang-jun got together, and you all know how that story makes me cry,” The other three nodded. They were well aware. “But then he said he had to be somewhere, so he might have interpreted my tears as fear and not as a physical manifestation of my appreciation for their tragic yet beautiful love.”
Lan Jingyi let out a huff. “So, you blew it.”
“But I did cry in front of him, and I feel like that creates a bond of trust.”
“Zizhen,” Lan Sizhui broke in gently. “To be fair, you cry in front of everyone.”
“You’ve even cried in front of Jiang-zongzhu!” accused Jingyi. “Multiple times!”
“That was demonstrative crying ,” Ouyang Zizhen corrected, and Jin Ling nodded in agreement. When both Lan Jingyi and Lan Sizhui looked at them with twin expressions of confusion, Jin Ling rolled his eyes and explained.
“We think jiujiu may be incapable of expressing his emotions through anything but anger, so we were hoping to show him what another emotion looks like. And Zizhen can cry on demand.”
“I just think about the last thing that made me really sad. Or really happy.” He shrugged. “I have a lot of emotion.”
“I saw Jiang-zongzhu cry once,” Lan Jingyi said.
“You did? When?”
“Last spring when we were all on that night hunt together.”
“... you mean the one when we were hunting the sand demon?” Sizhui asked. “The one that blew sand into everyone’s eyes?”
“Yeah, he cried a lot on that night hunt.”
“Jingyi, he had sand in his eyes.”
Lan Jingyi paused for a moment, eyeing Lan Sizhui suspiciously. “Or, maybe he gets really emotional over sand. Jin Ling, write that down.”
Instead of writing it down, Jin Ling smacked Lan Jingyi upside the head.
“Alright, you two,” Lan Sizhui mediated before it turned into an all out fight. This, however, had the unintended effect of turning Lan Jingyi’s attention on him.
“Alright then, Sizhui, it’s your turn.”
“...I don’t know, I’m still not sure this is a good idea…”
Lan Jingyi had that look on his face like he had just sucked on a sour fruit that Lan Sizhui knew was him trying to suppress a shit eating grin. “Ah, Sizhui, you beautiful guqin lullaby brought to life.” he began, slinging an arm across Lan Sizhui’s shoulders. “It’s okay if you just can’t think of anything!”
Lan Sizhui was the product of Hanguang-jun’s upbringing. He was poised and courteous and calm. He was the perfect Lan disciple who should never be manipulated into doing something purely out of a competitive desire to prove someone wrong.
He was also, undeniably, the product of Wei Wuxian.
So that is exactly what he did.
“Jin Ling,” Lan Sizhui said with purpose, shaking off Lan Jingyi’s arm and striding over to the young clan leader. “I’m going to need your help with this one.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The lilting tune of a dizi grew in volume as Lan Sizhui and Jin Ling drew closer to the Jingshi. Normally, it wouldn’t be unusual to stumble into one or two Lan disciples who were camped outside the Jingshi fence, drawn in by Wei-qainbei’s music. If Hanguang-jun and Wei-qainbei were dueting, they could draw in quite the crowd. It was one of the disciples’ best kept secrets - they were all afraid if their seniors knew they listened, they would stop playing.
Today, however, the only two crouching by the bamboo fence were Ouyang Zizhen and Lan Jingyi, ready to watch Jin Ling and Lan Sizhui execute their master plan. It seemed Wei-qainbei’s uncharacteristically glum mood had afforded him some extra privacy from the rest of the disciples.
Lan Jingyi and Ouyang Zizhen flashed two thumbs up at the two juniors as they walked past them and into the yard of the Jingshi. Wei-qainbei had his back to them as they approached and kept playing from his position leaned against one of the porch railings. It was a song Lan Sizhui hadn’t heard before, and he wondered if Wei-qainbei had just made it up. It sounded… sad.
Beside him, Jin Ling cleared his throat.
The final note of the dizi tripped and sputtered, like the sound a pheasant makes when it’s caught for dinner. Wei-qainbei spun around and for a moment, the way he raised Chenqing made it seem like he intended to defend himself with it. When recognition flashed across his face, however, he quickly lowered the dizi, placing it firmly behind his back. He forced a smile and laughed awkwardly.
“Aiya, you two, isn’t there some Lan rule about scaring your seniors?”
Lan Sizhui said “Sorry, Wei-qainbei,” at the same time Jin Ling reprimanded “Well, pay attention next time!”
Wei-qainbei huffed and shook his head. Neither of the juniors missed how he still had his dizi hidden. “Is there something I can help you boys with?”
“Yes, actually,” Lan Sizhui began, stepping forward with a polite bow. “Jin-zongzhu and I were wondering if you could help us in the kitchens.”
Their senior raised a skeptical eyebrow. “I thought you juniors hated my cooking.”
“We do.”
“What Jin-zongzhu means,” Lan Sizhui cut in, subtly stepping back onto Jin Ling’s foot and ignoring his quiet sound of protest. “Is that we were hoping you could help us make a specific dish. One no one else here knows.”
Wei-qainbei cocked his head to the side, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. “The cooks here have gotten pretty good at replicating Yunmeng cuisine if that’s what you’re wondering.”
“There’s a soup,” Jin Ling piped up. “One that I’ve had in Yunmeng but jiujiu says they make wrong. One that…” he swallowed as his face screwed up, as if gathering his courage to finish the sentence. “One that my mother would make.”
When Wei-qainbei just stared at them blankly with wide eyes, Lan Sizhui tried to further explain.
“Wen-jiujiu said I had that soup when I was little, too. We would both like to have it again, and we trust you to remember the recipe correctly.”
“You want…” Wei-qainbei’s voice tapered off and he tried again. “You want shijie’s soup?”
And then Jin Ling put the final nail in the coffin:
“Please, dajiu ?”
Internally, Lan Sizhui celebrated; there was no way Wei-qainbei would deny them now. He watched as Wei-qainbei’s eyes widened, how he sniffed, how his lower lip began to tremble, how his eyes welled up with tears -
Oh.
Oh no .
“Oh, nice going, Jin Ling!” Lan Jingyi’s voice suddenly cut across the yard as he and Ouyang Zizhen rush over. “You made him cry.”
“What?” Jin Ling sputters, rounding on Lan Jingyi. “This was all Sizhui’s idea! How is this my fault?”
“Sizhui could never make someone cry unless they were tears of joy, everyone knows that!”
“I didn’t say anything mean - I was trying to be nice!”
“Well clearly, you were so bad at being nice that it made poor, sweet Wei-qainbei cry!”
Beside him, Ouyang Zizhen sniffled. Lan Jingyi whipped back around to glare at Jin Ling with narrowed eyes.
“Young mistress, you monster . Now you’ve made Zizhen cry, too. Are you happy? Are you happy that you have caused so much suffering?”
“But Zizhen’s just crying because he’s crying!” Jin Ling shouted, flinging a hand out to point at Wei-qainbei.
“It’s true - I’m a sympathy crier.” Ouyang Zizhen sniffled.
“Alright!” Wei-qainbei yelled, raising his hands in surrender. He looked at the juniors with a lost expression for a moment before he sighed and nodded. “Maybe we do need that soup.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
One soup making lesson later found the five of them sitting around a table, steaming bowls of the famed lotus root and pork rib soup in front of them.
“Your mother used to make this soup for your jiujiu and I when we fought,” Wei-qainbei explained, addressing Jin Ling. “So, as you can imagine, we had this soup quite a lot.”
Lan Jingyi and Jin Ling exchanged a guilty look.
“I can’t claim that it’s anywhere near as good as hers,” Wei-qainbei continued in that slightly brittle tone he used when he was sad but didn’t want others to notice. “But it’s definitely closer than anything else you’ll get in Lotus Pier.”
The four boys hesitantly took a bite - they were far too familiar with their senior’s unfortunate attempts at cooking to rush into any food he made. There was a moment of stillness before the juniors’ eyes went wide, and they dug into their soup with gusto.
“This is amazing!” Ouyang Zizhen exclaimed between mouthfuls.
“Is it possible to marry a soup?” Lan Jingyi steadfastly ignored the Lan rule about talking while eating. “Because I want to marry this soup.”
“It’s really good, dajiu.” Jin Ling said quietly, not meeting his uncle’s eye.
Wei-qainbei’s smile was soft as some of the melancholy slipped off his features.
For the next few moments, the only sounds were the slurping of broth and clink of spoons against bowls, occasionally interrupted by more ardent praise for the soup. Wei-qainbei waited until everyone had been served a second helping before he set his own bowl down and lightly clapped his hands together.
“So, does anyone want to tell me what’s going on?”
The four juniors exchanged wary glances, each willing the other to begin. Naturally, Lan Sizhui was the first to break.
“After the last night hunt…” he trailed off, not sure how to continue.
At this, Wei-qainbei’s face fell and he looked away, swallowing hard. “Look, I know what you saw was… I mean, I’m not… I didn’t…” he sighed and shook his head. “I’m sorry you four had to see that. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“You didn’t! That was the whole point of this!” Jin Ling couldn’t help but exclaim. Wei-qainbei looked at him sharply.
“What?”
“Wei-qainbei,” Lan Sizhui began softly. “We overheard you talking to Hanguang-jun about how you thought we were scared of you because of what happened on the night hunt. We… wanted to try and show you that we weren’t scared, that we trusted you.”
Their senior’s eyes were wide and his mouth opened and closed soundlessly a few times before he stuttered out, “You’re… you’re not scared of me?”
“Wei-qainbei, look at me.” Lan Jingyi leaned far over the table to make intense eye contact. “What you did that night? That was the coolest thing I have ever seen in my entire life. And one time I saw Wen-qainbei rip a tree in half with his bare hands.”
Wei-qainbei let out a startled laugh at that. He looked around the table at each junior’s sincere expression and his face softened. “You’re sure? Because I wouldn’t blame you if you were scared. Plenty of people are scared of me for less.”
He was met with four enthusiastic nods.
“How could we ever be scared of you?” Jin Ling scoffed, trying to look nonchalant and failing miserably. “You’re just… you .”
Wei-qainbei gasped in mock hurt. “Insults! Nothing but insults from my own nephew! See if I make soup for you again.”
Jin Ling rolled his eyes in a manner that was one hundred percent Jiang-zongzhu, which caused their senior to excitedly launch into a story of a time when he and his brother had fought on the docks of Lotus Pier and the soup their fighting had incurred. When Wei-qainbei laughed so hard at his own joke he nearly choked on a piece of lotus root, the four juniors looked at each other and smiled. They had their Wei-qainbei back.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Nearly a month later, the four juniors and their Wei-qainbei found themselves on another night hunt. This one had no wannabe demonic cultivators, but it did have plenty of fierce corpses. So many, in fact, that soon the juniors found themselves overrun.
Normally, the senior accompanying a night hunt would only step in if it was absolutely necessary, and when Ouyang Zizhen’s sword was sent flying out of his hand by a particularly quick fierce corpse, their senior did exactly that.
Stepping forward out of the shadows, Wei-qainbei straightened his shoulders and raised Chenqing to his lips and… hesitated. He looked over at the juniors, uncertainty coloring his features. In response, however, the four boys only nodded encouragingly at their senior, each of them seeming to light up with excited anticipation.
Wei-qainbei turned back towards the fierce corpses and with a smirk on his lips, began to play.