Make Love AND War
"I killed the Tortoise of Slaughter!" Jiang Cheng announced with the most exuberant grin Yu ZiYuan had seen on his face in years.
"Wen Chao took our swords! And I want mine back!" Jin ZiXuan announced with an attempt at his usual hauteur, but he was still so young it couldn't hide the pride and excitement at having successfully returned from an amazing night hunt.
The rest of the Sect heirs and young masters, arriving at Lotus Pier after abandoning the Wen indoctrination conference weren't even trying to contain the excitement and their words overlapped one another.
"Jiang WanYin killed it with a whip!"
"It was amazing!"
"Wen Chao and his guards ran away like cowards!"
"Wrapped right around its throat!"
"And they had all the swords!"
"We were all throwing talismans and arrows at it!"
"My clothing got torn!"
"Much good it did them! They're the ones who died!"
"Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi used music to redirect the resentful energy!"
"We killed the Tortoise of Slaughter!"
"You mean, Young Master Jiang WanYin killed it!"
"We were all there, though! It was killed on our night hunt!"
"Wen Chao died like a coward! At least his bodyguard died honorably defending his master, however unworthy!"
"I feel bad for the surviving Wen guards who have to go back to report to Wen RuoHan!"
"Ha! Sect Leader Wen should know how his worthless second son was!"
In other circumstances Yu ZiYuan would have rebuked the young master for rudeness, but under these circumstances she was grimly pleased at the shared disdain the young masters directed towards the Wen Sect.
Over the last two years, Yunmeng Jiang had developed close ties to Gusu Lan, and the burning of Cloud Recesses had hurt the Lan Sect. Although in many ways it turned out to be more of an insult than truly harmful.
The fireworks that lit the sky the same night Cloud Recesses burned denied the Wen any victory in the recounting. The Gusu Lan Sect never celebrated with fireworks, but the blue and white dragons that burst forth against the backdrop of stars were clearly theirs, a sign of power visible from valleys and mountains near and far.
The Gusu mountains held many secrets and where the other Lan residences were located was among those secrets. And every secret residence would know from the fireworks what had happened and to be prepared. The details came soon enough. By the time a group of Lan disciples arrived at Lotus Pier, the news had already spread: the Wen army with their hundreds of cultivators had killed only four Lan guards and taken not a single scroll or treasure.
Their only success was in capturing the Second Young Master Lan for their indoctrination lessons while their greatest failure was drawing Sect Leader Lan, Qingheng-Jun out from his self-imposed seclusion.
The Lan disciples who arrived at Lotus Pier with the news were angered by the attack and the deaths, but were in otherwise good spirits and strong in their determination to fight back.
"Shoot the Clouds, Lose an Arrow!" the Lan disciples had recited with hidden pride and obvious determination. They were angry at the burning of Cloud Recesses but their spirits were strong and undiminished.
Even the capture of Lan WangJi was waved away with assurance that he would be just fine. The Lan disciple reporting to her even said, "Second Young Master will meet up with his fiancé Wei WuXian at the indoctrination conference!"
It made Yu ZiYuan deeply suspicious of just how captured Lan WangJi had actually been. Somehow Wei WuXian had managed to infect a proper Lan disciple with his own brand of idiocy because she was honestly considering whether Lan WangJi allowed himself to be captured in order to see Wei WuXian again.
With that in mind, listening to the accounts of the well organized retreat, Yu ZiYuan even began to consider if Lan QiRen had set fire to Cloud Recesses himself to prompt his brother into action.
Jiang Fengmian and Lan QiRen had previously discussed the ways in which Wen RuoHan was testing the other Sects, seeing how far they could push before reprisal. It would not surprise her if an elder of the Lan Sect had decided to make this particular attack a bit more extreme to force the other elders to finally accept action as their only recourse.
There was no way to confirm or deny the suspicion. Lan QiRen had gone to the Unclean Lands to speak to Sect Leader Nie, while Qingheng-Jun had gone to Koi Tower to speak with Jin GuangShan, while Lan XiChen was rallying his people in the hidden caves of Gusu. There was no one for Yu ZiYuan to question regarding her suspicions.
Even if there had been, she would likely have remained silent on the topic and allowed Lan QiRen's willingness or unwillingness to meet her eyes be the answer. It was possible that his absence was already giving her the answer.
After nearly two years of negotiation, Cloud Recesses and Lotus Pier were close enough allies that Jiang Fengmian was not insulted by the second tier of disciples coming to report to him, to warn of potential future Wen attack and request aid in a counter attack.
There would be war.
For all that Yu XiYuan should have been unhappy with the disruption of her peace, it felt like a spark had ignited within her. It had been nearly two decades since she had last fought without holding back.
Two decades of cutting with words rather than blades, attacking students and allies when the itch to fight became too much. Two decades of living with a powerful husband who she could never seem to understand and who could never seem to understand her.
But in this, at least, they could communicate as war leaders.
Sect Leader Jiang would hold the defense of Lotus Pier while the Violet Spider would lead the offense strike as soon as the hostages at the indoctrination conference were accounted for.
It had been a genius move on Wen RuoHan's part to delay all reprisals with that indoctrination, but it would not work.
After the burning of Cloud Recesses, she and Jiang Fengmian and the visiting disciples from Gusu Lan had discussed, agreed upon, and began preparations for war.
They had only been waiting on the return of the young masters before mounting their first offense against a Sect that had grown too proud in it's power over the other Sects.
Now her son had returned a hero, with all the young masters of his generation to witness.
Jiang YanLi was doing the Jiang Sect proud in organizing for the sudden influx of guest cultivators with various injuries. Her relationship with Jin ZiXuan seemed to be doing well if the way he promptly offered to assist her meant anything.
After leaving most of the organizing to her daughter, Yu ZiYuan was able to return to her son in time to see his father actually compliment him.
"You've done your Sect proud, Jiang WanYin," Jiang Fengmian said and her son lit up like the sun itself.
"See!" Wei WuXian said. "I told you they'd be proud!"
Yu ZiYuan could taste her own bitterness at how delighted her son was at that compliment. Getting a compliment from Jiang Fengmian could be an even more impossible achievement than killing the Tortoise of Slaughter with a whip.
"I am also very proud of you, my son," Yu ZiYuan added. "And since you've apparently taken to using a whip, I think it's time for you to begin training with Zidian."
He turned away from his father to look with equal delight and pride and happiness at her. "Really? Yes! Thank you, Mother!"
"I am curious," Jiang Fengmian asked, "how did you acquire a whip when everyone else was unarmed?"
Jiang Cheng's eyes flickered to her and then away again before answering his father, so Yu ZiYuan knew it had been Wei WuXian somehow. Sure enough, "Wei WuXian smuggled it in his sleeve."
"What? I knew Lan Zhan would be there and maybe he'd bring the dizi he promised me with him! And then I'd be practicing that and if I was learning something new then my little brother had to learn something new too!"
"Why a whip though?"
"Well, eventually Jiang Cheng will get zidian, right? And how embarrassing would be if he got it when he's seventy or something and didn't know how to use it? I was just looking out for my little brother's reputation!"
"You...!"
Yu ZiYuan found Wei WuXian insulting in his very existence as her husband's ward, an older brother to her own son, but it did soothe her when he acknowledged her son as the Jiang Sect Heir, despite having taken the position of first disciple that should have been Jiang Cheng's.
Jiang Fengmian, apparently missing the byplay, asked, "And you, Wei WuXian? You smuggled a weapon for Jiang Cheng but not another whip for yourself?"
"No, why should I? I'm never going to inherit Zidian, and I knew Lan Zhan was going to give me a dizi! See!" And he presented the dizi to their inspection.
He had been presenting that admittedly quite beautiful instrument to everyone in Lotus Pier who stood still long enough. It was black to match Wei WuXian's preferred colors but had a pale blue tassel immediately recognizable as from Cloud Recesses.
Yu ZiYuan did not like her husband's ward, but his existence felt less like a continuous insult to her now that he was so clearly attaching himself to Gusu Lan and away from Yunmeng Jiang. The best thing that boy had done for Yunmeng Jiang was to fom an attachment with Second Young Master Lan.
"It is very pretty."
"Lan Zhan has such good taste! And it plays so beautifully! We can play together and even do music cultivation together since he plays the guqin!"
None of this was new information to any of them, and Jiang Cheng groaned before chasing Wei WuXian off, both of them pausing only briefly to bow polite but rushed good-byes, before bounding off to join the chaos that Jiang YanLi was mostly managing to organize. Looking after them, Jiang Fengmian didn't look quite as indulgent as he usually did, while at the same time Yu ZiYuan found herself significantly more accepting.
Jiang WanYin was being lauded by everyone as the hero who defeated the Tortoise of Slaughter using a whip in the same way Yu ZiYuan did.
All the witnesses agreed that Jiang WanYin had defeated the Tortoise of Slaughter using a whip while Wei Wuxian and Lan Zhan had played music together to provide protection and distraction. It was simply a shame that the repulsed resentful energy had redirected towards Wen Chao. Wen ZhuLiu had died an honorable death in the defense of his master. It must have been mere chance that so many of the other Wen guards had not been effected.
Every living witness agreed on what had happened to that extent at least, but every witness was young and relatively inexperienced, too.
Yu ZiYuan was not an idiot. She knew what an assassination looked like, especially one hidden in the heat of battle, and Jiang Fengmian did too.
The Lan Clan was known for being righteous and ascetic, but it was just as well known, among cultivators although less spoken of, that they had a history of training the best and most subtle assassins. One of their many rules was against waste and they extended that to even the lives of their enemies: a few specific kills were less wasteful than killing an army of soldiers.
Another well-known secret among cultivation masters was that music was one of the few ways that resentful energy could be controlled without inviting it directly into the body.
Lan WangJi and Wei WuXian had assassinated Second Young Master Wen and his bodyguard in plain sight without a single witness noticing.
She knew it and Wen RuoHan would know it too.
Wen Chao had led the Wen forces into Cloud Recesses, had failed at every turn until he finally died in an embarrassing show of incompetence.
The burning of Cloud Recesses and then the taking of all the Sect heirs for an indoctrination conference had been a flex of power.
It had been slapped down decisively.
When she led the combined disciples of Jiang and Lan on the offense, she would teach Wen RuoHan a lesson in why he shouldn't try again. She was looking forward to it.
She spent the next hours making final preparations for departure the following morning and ate a formal dinner with all the guests, and then tried to find something else that needed doing. There was nothing left to do.
She was ready and past ready, and should get some rest but she couldn't sit still much less lay down. She went to go see her son in his rooms, but stopped right outside the open door when she heard the voices inside. She could see her son and Wei WuXian talking.
"You're my little brother, A-Cheng, of course I love you. But," Wei WuXian grinned in that way he did when he was either getting into or attempting to get out of trouble, "there are things I want to do with Lan Zhan that I would never want to do with you."
Yu ZiYuan grimaced at just the thought, and then winced again at the transformation of her son's face as it went from hurt, to confused, to properly horrified. "WEI WUXIAN! Why would you say something like that!"
Wei WuXian managed to jump back to avoid Jiang Cheng's lunge but then stumbled and fell to the floor because he was laughing so hard.
"Of course, I'll always love you, ChengCheng!"
"Don't call me that!"
"And I'll always support you when you become the great Sect Leader I know you're going to be!"
"You won't just go live in Cloud Recesses?"
"Lotus Pier will always be my home, for as long as I am welcome here."
"You'll always be welcome here."
"Mark your words. You know I'm always getting into trouble." Wei WuXian seemed sad, like he thought Jiang Cheng would one day think he was too much trouble, would tell him not to come home. Those words echoed her own, oft repeated, and she refused to regret them, but in the coming war, his type of trouble might be just what they needed, especially since Lan WangJi had apparently discovered the trick to directing it.
She was so caught in watching her son that she didn't notice Jiang Fengmian approaching until he stood right outside the doorway as well. He would be staying here at Lotus Pier with all the Sect heirs when she left in the morning, so he had no need to see his son as she did, but he too seemed interested only in watching Jiang Cheng and Wei WuXian rather than interrupting them.
He smiled slightly at Jiang Cheng's next words.
"I swear, Wei WuXian, no matter how much trouble you get into, you can always come home to Lotus Pier."
"Thank you, little brother." Wei WuXian was serious for a moment but then laughing again, "because can you imagine me living all the time with Lan QiRen around?"
"I don't know. He's strict but not as stern as mother. And you'll go of night hunting with Lan WangJi."
"And you too, when you can get away from the Sect Heir duties. And I'll come here to teach too. I can't let my shidi down!"
Jiang Cheng looked pleased and embarrassed and it was too easy to see herself in his face as he struggled to find a way to respond.
"You better! And keep the lessons appropriate! None of your, you-and-Lan-WangJi stuff!"
Wei WuXian's face lit up with laughter and malicious delight. "None of my me-and-Lan-Zhan stuff? What about your parents!"
Yu ZiYuan froze. She didn't think either boy had noticed her or Fengmian standing outside the door.
"What? No!"
"Uncle Jiang and Madam Yu..."
"No!"
Wei Wuxian was laughing his obnoxious laugh while he grappled with her son. "... At least twice! Hahahahha!"
Yu ZiYuan wanted to scowl, especially since Jiang Fengmian was right there, but instead she could only feel a blush slowly and inevitably rise.
It had been significantly more than twice.
Yu ZiYuan had expected nothing more than to do her duty and give her husband children, but Fengmian had done his Sect's motto proud, to attempt the impossible. He had been very, very... good. She was fairly sure her face was bright red with just the memories and she couldn't quite make herself leave.
But A-Cheng's birth had been dangerous and she had spent months recovering. The doctor had recommended that she not attempt to have any more children. She had done her duty and given her husband a son and heir. Nothing more was needed. She had continued to sleep in her rooms. Fengmian had continued to sleep in his.
They had never spoken about it although she knew his mother had recommended he find another wife. A few years later, Fengmian had gone out searching for another son instead and brought back Wei WuXian.
"You can't even have children!" A-Cheng howled from the other room, in a vain attempt to drown out WuXian's cackles.
"There's more to..."
"NO!"
"... dual cultivation!"
"NO!"
"Lan Zhan is so strong and powerful! His arms..."
"NOOO!"
Second Young Master Lan was a strong and beautiful boy, but Jiang Fengmian was a strong and handsome man. ZiYuan found her eyes drawn unwillingly to her husband's arms. They were very... nice... arms.
Her eyes had stayed too long and then caught Fengmian's own eyes and her face burned with embarrassment.
What had she to be ashamed of anyway?
She was the lady of Yungmeng Jiang! Jiang Fengmian was her husband! Her son had killed the Tortoise of Slaughter! She was the Violet Spider and tomorrow she would lead an army!
Fengmian was looking a bit flushed as well, but also had a small smile on his face. A hopeful one. "My lady...?"
She finally made herself move, to sweep past him.
She felt his sigh as she passed, and he didn't follow!
She stopped at the corner, and looked down and scowled and finally barked, "Well? Are you coming or not?"
She was, after all, headed towards his rooms.
She heard him laugh behind her, with surprise and pleasure. "As you wish, my lady!"
Her son was victorious and safe, she would ride out tomorrow to fight, and tonight… tonight she would be enjoy herself without worry or shame.