the thread may stretch or tangle but it will never break
by Rose Thorne
Disclaimer: I don't own anything associated with The Untamed, and make no money writing fanfiction.
Chapter Twenty Seven
The booth is large enough for Wei Qing to see patients, Wei Ning to brew medicine and keep food warm, and for Wei Ying, Lan Wangji, and A-Yuan to stay toward the back. A-Yuan plays quietly with his toys, and Wei Ying works on his notes about invention ideas, specifically told he can do no experiments here by Wei Qing.
"We don't need to scare folks off with explosions," she says wryly.
Wei Ying squawks indignantly but doesn't argue, instead focusing on getting his ideas on paper. Lan Wangji oscillates between meditation and transcribing his notes into something more orderly.
Her patients range from people with headaches, to women who have their moon or are pregnant, to people with more serious conditions. Wei Qing is kept busy, and by extension Wei Ning is as well. Brewing medicine is a meticulous process and if Wei Ying distracts him, Wei Qing glares at him, so he generally stays distracted in Yiling.
They continue Wei Ying's musical acupuncture treatments every morning before they leave the Burial Mounds and when they return in the evening. At times, the brighter and warmer sun in Yiling leads his husband to drowse, and he's happy to lend him a shoulder to nap on.
Over a week passes before one of the street children, one who seems to be newer to the street, less wary, allows Wei Qing to examine him and give him medicine and salve for a particularly nasty-looking dog bite on his leg, hidden beneath his tattered robes, which makes Wei Ying shudder in empathy. He rolls up his zhong yi trousers and shows the boy his bite scars.
"I was on the streets here in Yiling, too, for a long time," he tells the kid, who looks awed.
He's maybe four years old, close to A-Yuan's age, maybe a bit older. The boy eventually gives them the name Zhi. The inflection could have multiple characters, one meaning will or determination, another meaning wisdom, and still another meaning essence, though it's doubtful he knows which one.
It takes another week, during which A-Zhi stays near their booth and plays with A-Yuan much of the day while eating multiple meals, before they offer to take him home with them in the evening, explaining they live in the Burial Mounds.
"What about the Yiling Laozu?" the boy asks in a whisper. "Is he going to eat me?"
"Aiya, if I was going to eat you, I would have already," Wei Ying says softly. "And I haven't eaten A-Yuan either."
The boy bolts, leaving a distraught Wei Ying in his wake, but he returns the next day, a bit shy, but still staying close. When they ask if he'd like to come with them that evening, he bravely nods, following them up the mountain until he tires and joins Wei Ying and A-Yuan in the cart.
"You're not ugly, though," A-Zhi says thoughtfully on the way. "Yiling Laozu pictures are ugly."
Wei Ying huffs, and Lan Wangji answers for him.
"The pictures are lies. Wei Ying is very beautiful."
That gets a bashful whine from Wei Ying, especially when A-Zhi and A-Yuan agree.
"Many lies are told about Wei Ying," he tells the boy seriously. "Gossip is often wrong."
A-Zhi is doted upon by the aunties and uncles, spoiled by Popo, fed plenty, and given a nice place to sleep with Popo and A-Yuan. When he comes with them to Yiling the next morning he is dressed in fresh, clean robes sewn from the bolts of fabric they had dyed green with bamboo leaves. One of the aunties, Qiuyue-ayi, sewed it in expectation of this development, having heard nightly from Wei Ying talking at dinner each night, giving them all anticipation—she is already working on more. A-Yuan happily calls him Zhi-gege.
"You don't have to come to Yiling with us," Wei Qing tells the boy.
"I want to play with A-Yuan," A-Zhi says shyly, "and show I'm not eaten."
He is clearly a bright child, potentially forced to mature beyond his years by his brief time on the streets as Wei Ying was. They don't ask him how he wound up there, at Wei Ying's insistence.
"He'll tell us if he wants to, Lan Zhan. Let it be his decision."
Eventually, when he's ready, they learn his father was killed by soldiers, likely Wen in the Sunshot Campaign, and his mother died of illness not too long ago, leaving him with no one and nowhere to go.
They find the street children staying closer during the day and eating their fill after A-Zhi joins them, and slowly they add two more coming with them to the Burial Mounds.
Aside from A-Zhi, who apparently imprinted on Wei Ying when they shared scars from dog bites, the other two gravitate toward the aunties and uncles. Lan Wangji cannot help but be relieved, as he is not certain they can effectively parent so many children.
One, a little girl of about seven who suddenly joins them partway home one evening and introduces herself as A-Mei, mostly stays at the Burial Mounds during the day as well instead of following them into Yiling. She sticks close to Qiuyue-ayi, who presents her with a little dress made from the purple-dyed fabric and brushes her hair once she's bathed. Wei Ying spends the next day at their booth whittling a rabbit hair pin, which she takes shyly with a happy little giggle. She largely stays close to Qiuyue-ayi and only goes back to town with them once.
A slightly older boy, maybe eight or nine, A-Tao, identifies the character of his name as "like the tree," which is good information to have because it could also mean pottery or cleanse. He spends several days hanging close to their booth before coming to the Burial Mounds, then mostly stays there and watches the farming and does little chores, like bringing water to those tending the crops, and is roundly spoiled by Popo with food. He's understandably wary, shying away from them, and they let him sleep in Jifu's old hut so he can be alone.
"None of their stories are likely happy," Wei Ying says softly after they've bathed and gone to bed to bask in the afterglow.
Lan Wangji knows this, but Wei Ying is in part thinking aloud, which he is quite used to, so he only shifts to bring him closer. He knows also that this is forcing Wei Ying to relive a painful time in his life, but he hopes it brings a sense of catharsis. He is saving children from the very circumstances he was in as a child.
"Even if they had happy lives before, those lives are gone now."
"We will make new happy lives for them," Lan Wangji promises, and is pleased when this seems to make Wei Ying settle.
When Min Cenxi next visits with more supplies she is delighted, and she comes with disciple uniforms and other clothing in child sizes. She introduces herself as their da-shijie and fields questions about Lotus Pier.
"We'll teach you to swim, because there are a lot of lakes. And I'm sure Wei Wuxian will plant you with the lotuses so you'll grow big and strong."
A-Tao and A-Mei giggle at the idea, while A-Yuan insists it works and even gives siblings to a rapt A-Zhi.
By this time the children know they'll be going to Lotus Pier eventually, but A-Mei is distraught upon learning Qiuyue-ayi will leave with Min Cenxi and insists on accompanying her, something easily accommodated.
"Honestly, da-shixiong, I'm not surprised you're already bringing that poem to life," she says, which is how they learn that she's heard it in Yunmeng already. "You've always been good with kids. Now for the lotuses."
She gives him several varieties that Jiang Wanyin sent with her, meaning a pond will have to be built. Lan Wangji is about to resign himself to going without his husband to Yiling daily to protect Wei Qing until he's succeeded when she reveals that two senior disciples will be staying to accompany her and help around the community. So he will be able to help with the process of growing lotuses after all.
The disciples will serve as further protection for their little settlement, as well, and Lan Wangji nods his thanks. While the Jin haven't acted, there is no guarantee they won't.
The children look adorable in their little Jiang sect disciple uniforms, A-Mei in her blue practice-appropriate dress, A-Zhi and A-Tao in purple hanfu. There are even several lotus guan for the boys to wear, and A-Tao can't stop touching his when Popo puts his hair in a proper crown.
Wei Ying starts building the pond for the lotuses near the cave entrance, between the entrance to the great hall and the Demon-Slaughtering Cave. He is helped by Lan Wangji, who insists he isn't bothered by a little dirt, and a thrilled A-Yuan and A-Zhi, for whom digging is great fun getting dirty—not in their disciple uniforms, but what have been relegated as play clothes. A-Tao joins in when the Wei uncles insist on helping, and A-Mei just watches them as though judging them all, her countenance similar to Wei Qing's. Even some of the visiting disciples help out. Popo brings out lunch for them all, cooked by some of the aunties, and they enjoy a small meal of noodles, mushrooms, and pork.
By the end of Min Cenxi's stay, the pond has been built and filled with water by Wei Ning, who simply fills a bathtub in the stream several times to do so, and the lotus seeds have been planted. The excuse to celebrate is a welcome one, so a larger meal is cooked, and Min Cenxi brings out some Lotus Breeze.
Wei Ying asks A-Mei if she remembers her surname, or if she would like to take Wei or Jiang as her surname, and she wants the same surname as Qiuyue-ayi. A-Zhi wants to be a Wei as well, as soon as he hears she'll be one, but when they ask A-Tao if he remembers his surname, he clams up.
"If it's Wen, that's what we used to be," Wei Qing tells him bluntly, and then has a crying little boy clinging to her.
It's a sad story—his parents pushing him out the back door of the farmhouse, telling him to run to the woods as gold-clad cultivators approached their farm, having heard terrifying rumors of what happened to people named Wen. They took his parents, likely to a labor camp, and burned the farm and slaughtered the animals needlessly, leaving the carcasses to rot. The poor child has wandered from town to town since, terrified someone will realize he's a Wen and turn him in.
Lan Wangji can't help but wonder if other street children have similar stories, their lives ruined by the war and its aftermath. He wonders if the yuefu will draw them to Yiling.
"You're our tang-di," Wei Qing tells him, "and it's up to you, but our surname is Wei now."
And so they hold an adoption ceremony for all three children, bringing them into the family officially. Wei Ying takes great joy in introducing them to his parents, and explaining to their tablets why he is doing so, asking for their blessing. A-Yuan adorably insists they're all his siblings, something A-Zhi enthusiastically agrees to. A-Mei shyly offers to be his tang-jie instead, and A-Tao shrugs at the idea, too worn down from crying to make a decision. Likely he will be their tang-ge.
In the aftermath, A-Tao takes to sleeping with the aunties and uncles in the larger building, happy to have rediscovered distant family, trusting finally that he will not be turned out, and the Jiang disciples are able to take Jifu's hut instead of sleeping in the great hall, and the uncles get started on building a second bed for them so they don't have to trade off or share. They try to protest that it's unnecessary, but the uncles insist, having worked on making small beds for the children so they don't have to share with an adult unless they want to for comfort.
A-Mei thanks Wei Ying, calling him gege, and he suggests she can call him Xian-gege.
"A-Yuan called me that before he started calling me A-Die," he tells her.
"Okay, Xian-gege. You're coming to Lotus Pier later?"
"Of course."
She gives him a hug, brief and shy, and then runs to Qiuyue-ayi.
A few days after Min Cenxi leaves with two of the remnants and the newly-named Wei Mei, several Nie disciples arrive with Nie Zonghui to night hunt the resentful creatures of the Burial Mounds beyond the wards. To start the arduous process of clearing them, with the hope of eventually cleansing them entirely.
The Nie disciples have clearly been briefed on the situation, and they cook a feast out of a boar they slew on the way, while Wei Ning makes side dishes using supplies they provide. By the time the meal is finished, the children are stained liberally with grease and drowsing happily, likely soon to be bursting with energy and ready to run it off.
Though they don't want for meat anymore, such a meal goes a long way in rebuilding strength for the previously malnourished, and is thus welcome. Lan Wangji and Popo join forces to bully Wei Ying into eating enough, and A-Zhi mimics A-Yuan when he feeds Wei Ying from his bowl, too. Wei Ying puts on an exaggerated pout, but eats what he's given by their children.
"I know how to feed myself, you know."
"Are you sure? I thought Xianxian was three," Popo teases, and Wei Ying laughs.
They also come with gifts of toys for the children, clearly acquainted with the poem, along with more practical gifts like better tools for farming and woodworking. They pass on a letter from Nie Huaisang, in which he tells them of his success with the yuefu and where it is currently released—Gusu, Yiling, Yunmeng, and Qinghe, carefully avoiding Lanling for now, though it will undoubtedly travel by word of mouth at some point.
I don't want Jin Guangshan time to notice it yet. He might scoff, but Jin Guangyao knows the power of such things.
A cautious, intelligent approach that again reminds him that Nie Huaisang isn't the know-nothing fop he pretends to be. Lan Wangji reminds himself to never play weiqi with him.
While the Nie disciples conduct their Burial Mounds night hunt within the warded-off areas, Wei Ying and Lan Wangji rejoin Wei Qing in her daily trips to Yiling, along with A-Yuan and A-Zhi. To their surprise, the street kids seem pleased to see them, showing more interest in hanging around the stall, with new faces appearing for the free food.
That night two more, a pair of orphaned brothers about A-Tao's age, named A-Yun, for cloud, and A-Heng, for persistent, join their ranks on the trip back to the settlement, admitting they'd heard the yuefu while loitering outside a wine house in another town, then traveled to Yiling. Already its reach has brought results.
"Will you really adopt us?" A-Yun asks, wary but hopeful.
"If you'd like, or you can take the Jiang name when we go to Lotus Pier," Wei Ying says seriously. "If you become Weis, you'll have plenty of aunties and uncles and a popo to dote on you, plus you'd have A-Yuan and A-Zhi as your didimen, if you want."
"You need not decide immediately," Lan Wangji adds, knowing the boys may want time to make a decision. "And you may take the Wei name without regarding us as parents if you prefer."
"Planting with the radishes worked!" A-Yuan crows happily.
This requires explanation to the other boys, and leaves A-Zhi awed and A-Yun and A-Heng amused.
The two murmur between themselves the rest of the way home, and Lan Wangji makes no effort to listen in, allowing them their privacy.
The boys recognize one of the uncles as soon as they get to the Burial Mounds, one of the few not from Wei Qing's branch. It winds up being a family reunion, if a bittersweet one because Bai-shushu confirms their parents died—their mother on the march to the labor camp, and their father taken by the smiling man and never returned. Like A-Tao and A-Mei, they'll become cousins to A-Yuan and A-Zhi through Bai-shushu.
"They did a good job, staying together and taking care of each other," Wei Qing says, watching the boys as they cry tears of grief and joy.
"And now they have more family to take care of them," Wei Ying says, smiling softly. "The yuefu is bringing Wen children here, and may bring any Wen in hiding to us as well."
"If not, it will still bring hope to them," Lan Wangji adds.
Wei Qing and Lan Wangji treat Wei Ying's back before dinner, then wake him so he can eat. Afterward, they help get the children ready for bed and Lan Wangji organizes the mess of notes Wei Ying brought back from town that he has worked on while idle.
The Nie disciples camp in the great hall, boisterous about the successful night hunt, which involved fierce corpses and several yao. They leave the next day after breakfast with a letter Wei Ying has written for Nie Huaisang, letting him know of their progress.
The next day is not one of Wei Ying's good days, so after his morning musical healing session, Lan Wangji lets him sleep instead of waking him to go to town with Wei Qing. He's had a nice series of good days, so she isn't worried, telling him to simply let him rest. So Lan Wangji spends the day working on sorting his recent notes and fielding A-Yuan and A-Zhi when they come together to check on "A-Die."
"Baba takes care of A-Die," A-Yuan tells A-Zhi, who nods seriously, letting his new brother explain everything to him. "Diedie sleeps after music and needles."
They are not disruptive, so Lan Wangji entertains their questions and even shows them how to write their names, fascinating them, and eventually Popo comes to collect them.
By the time Wei Ying wakes, Wei Qing and Wei Ning have returned from town with three children, two girls and a boy. When they leave the cave, they find the lotuses sprouting and are in time to stop A-Yuan from pulling one out.
They are well on their way to fulfilling the yuefu.
Getting a new PCP this month and I have a long Covid appointment to see if they think I have it. I just want answers, you know?
Many thanks to adrian_kres, who also writes amazing fics, for being my awesome beta reader throughout this fic.
A-Zhi is named with the character for will, 志, pinyin zhì. Or at least this is the character Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji will decide upon.
A-Mei is named 美, pinyin měi, which means beautiful. Not demon or dark, I promise. Amusingly, apparently meimei, or little sister, sometimes uses this character. I can just imagine someone calling her Mei-meimei with all three characters the same. Or at least Wei Wuxian teasing.
Qiuyue is named 秋月, pinyin qiūyuè, which means autumn moon.
A-Tao is named using the character for peach tree, 桃, pinyin táo, the wood of which in Taoism is considered to repel evil spirits. He knows the meaning of his name and doesn't need one chosen for him.
A-Yun uses the character for cloud, 云, pinyin yún, and A-Heng uses the character for constant or persistent, 恒, pinyin héng.
Bai means cypress/cedar tree, 柏, pinyin bǎi.
I should specify that these aren't going to be major characters (except maybe A-Zhi) but it felt awkward not to name them. This is largely so we can see how quickly their numbers grow with the children coming to trust them and even learning of a benevolent war-hero Yiling Laozu adopting and taking care of children and traveling to get in on the deal. Especially Wen children. Kind of an interlude chapter.
ayi = auntie
da-shixiong = first elder martial brother
didimen = plural of didi, little brothers
gege = older brother
popo = grandmother
da-shijie = first elder martial sister
shushu = uncle
tang-di = younger male cousin
tang-ge = older male cousin
tang-jie = older female cousin
yuefu = a style of narrative poetry that basically borrows from Chinese folk song traditions—the Ballad of Mulan is an example
zhong yi = undergarments (shirt and trousers)
For those of you looking for me on AO3, I'm RoseThorne and this fic title is the same. You might be able to find me easier through titles of my other fics, though?
