Chapter 2: When Life Gives You Second Chance, You Cease it!

Jiang Yanli is definitely not worried!

"HOW COULD WEI WUXIAN BETRAY THE FAMILY THAT RAISED HIM FOR THIRTY YEARS?"

"IS WEI WUXIAN DATING THE GOOD FOR NOTHING SECOND SON OF BUTCHER SECT?"

"HAS JIANG CHENG BEEN DUPED OF HIS FORTUNE BY HIS SCHEMING HUSBAND?"

The television was crackling with breaking news of the day, every news channel was talking about the biggest cultivation scandal! A divorce between the sect leader and his consort was fuel for gossip, and every channel wanted a piece of this primetime.

Jiang Yanli had already tuned out the loud shrieking from the television screen and was staring at her phone screen for more than an hour, the images of her former brother-in-law cutting his hair and breaking the hairpin had been sent to her by her mother-in-law, sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and her staff. Every other social media page had made a meme out of what she knew was a painful moment for her A'Xian. Jiang Yanli was on extended maternity leave; having birthed a second child in her forties was a lot more difficult than she had been warned about. Insomnia and anaemia had become part of her life since her daughter was born, and she always felt exhausted.

A'Qin was a thriving child, but she needed attention, she was both a joy and reason for worry, the stress of having a crawling toddler and a very public family scandal was making her twitchy. The announcement of the late pregnancy was the beginning of it all, her announcement had left many concerned and many smirking. It was embarrassing for her at first, but Jiang Yanli had her shield, her favourite person who was with her throughout it all. Though her teenage son Jin Ling was ashamed in the beginning, one stern scolding from Wei Wuxian was all it took Jin Ling to shut up and help his mother with her chores.

The day after her pregnancy announcement, Wei Wuxian was with her, despite her husband's protest, this third wheel was a very involved participant in their pregnancy. Though Jin Zixuan was constantly at odds since Wei Wuxian could talk back, he was also glad to have someone to rely on when things became too overwhelming.

It was in the early stages of her pregnancy when Jin Ling had an archery tournament and Jin Zixuan had to escort him, that Wei Wuxian had showed signs of restlessness in his conduct, and fatigue and frustrations with his own marriage. While they sat waiting for their nurse's call, Wei Wuxian had gently placed his nervous hand on Jiang Yanli's still flat belly and asked, "Do you think my marriage would've been easier if I had been a girl?"

It was a very straightforward question which had more than fifteen years of doubts and fear bricked in it. "Forget it… Please don't dwell on it." He had immediately brushed off his question. He never liked bothering others, he definitely did not want to hurt her or stress her by burdening his problem on his sister.

Jiang Yanli didn't let the question slide away. She placed her hand on his trembling ink stained fingers, no matter what Wei Wuxian did to clean his hands, they were always stained with. She held hands that had painted the nails black to draw attention away from the inky hue on the skin, with as much warmth as she could produce she cupped them, "Did someone say anything to you? Is it the elders? Or was it mom?"

At first, Wei Wuxian had refused, shaking his head more than necessary and his eyes trying hard to look lively. Though he was an expert liar since the age of four, Jiang Yanli had known him since his infancy. When he lied about serious things, he bit his lips and averted his eyes, tried to laugh more, as if he was the happiest person in the world.

"Tell me. A'Xian. I am your sister."

"I can't birth an heir. If could, I would've done it by now, I would've carried full term and more. I studied various ancient texts, where there are few records of two female cultivators who had conceived children via dual cultivation and some vague paragraphs of two male cultivators having given birth to a child. It is rare but not impossible and a couple needs absolute dedication, they have to dually cultivate for a few years, they refine the yin and yang energies, temporarily alerting the physiognomy of the one who wishes to carry the child."

"You found the method…" Jiang Yanli was surprised but not shocked. She knew when Wei Wuxian put his mind into something, he would find a solution. Yet she knew the price of tinkering with the order of nature came with a price. "But? There must be a but , there always is a catch. A'Xian…"

"But… if one of the two is not equally dedicated, there is chance of loss of life."

"A'Xian! You will never mention your findings to anyone in the sect, to our parents, not even my brother. If the elders find out there is a way to get an heir, they will not stop. I cannot risk you losing your life for a sect that treats you like an outsider. Especially for a phantom child, that may or may not be conceived. If it was my brother who wants a child, he can opt for surrogacy and there are many people who want to help! Why does it matter where has the bloodline come from?" Jiang Yanli had tightened her grip on Wei Wuxian's hand.

"I haven't told anyone. I found these years back."

"And we shall take this information to our graves."

"If only I was not a man."

"A'Xian, did something more happen?"

"No…"

"Don't lie to me. Look into my eyes and tell me."

It was at that moment, Wei Wuxian took her palms to his forehead and confessed, "A'Cheng doesn't love me the way I do. I have tried everything, I want to be loved by him. But he doesn't love me the way I do. He cares about me, he protects me, but he doesn't really like me. I think he too wishes I was a woman and not a man who towers over him. I think he wishes I was someone more delicate, fragile, I think he wishes I was less me."

"Did you two fight again?"

"This is the fifteenth time he has told me he wants divorce this year. At first, I thought he was just angry, but now I am inclined to believe, he wants this marriage to be over."

What Wei Wuxian had not told her than was that Jiang Cheng had told him not to follow around his sister during her pregnancy because he was trying to make up for his lack of womb. Wei Wuxian had snapped back with, "What did you mean by that?" From there on one word let to two, two turned into a sentence, and long before they realized, Jiang Cheng was asking for a divorce, Wei Wuxian had punched him hard below the jaws and locked himself in his workshop.

"Do you want to end this marriage?" Jiang Yanli had asked.

She knew she was going against every set norm of cultivation society. Divorce, though common in the non-cultivation population, was still seen as a failure of the sect's upbringing and moral codes. Marriage in the world of cultivation was rarely about love and more about maintaining the status quo. Yet Jiang Yanli had to ask this question, had she asked this question to a younger Wei Wuxian, he would've puffed his cheeks and said he would rather be ghost husband that chased away future suitors for his A'Cheng than divorce. But a Wei Wuxian in his thirties was so exhausted, that he didn't even have the resolve to say no.

"I know there is more going inside your mind; I have known you all my life. If you have spoken about your difficulties today, that means you have been suffering for a long time. To be honest, I have no choice but to love my parents, my husband, my children, and A'Cheng. But you, you are someone, I will choose over everyone else. If you choose to leave him, I will support you, if you choose to stay, I will support you. But you have to choose, the decision is for yourself. Not because you think you owe the clan. They owe you, you have been doing a meticulous job of running the sect as consort of the leader, if you leave, and they will all suffer. So don't think about morality or duty, think about your heart."

That day was the beginning, now almost two years later; her brother was a man in denial about his divorce. Watching Wei Wuxian chopping his hair with the family knife hurt Jiang Yanli, Wei Wuxian had made his statement clear, but her brother was not going to calm down.

"Should we drive to uncle Xian's place?" Jin Ling came out of his room with his giggling sister in his arms and grabbed the phone away from his mother and flopped beside her. A'Qin climbed out of her brother's arms and settled into her mother's lap. "Did my little sister miss momma? Does she want her brother to take her riding? Or does little Qin want to sleep?" Jin Ling poked his sister's chubby cheeks, who was pretending to be asleep on her mother's chest.

"A'Lin…" Jiang Yanli sighed.

"Yes maa…"

"You will not tell your uncle; A'Cheng should never know where A'Xian is staying."

"I will not. I know his temper is bad! He might end up causing trouble for everyone. Already people in the academy are calling him a lovesick fool. If he loves uncle Xian so much, why didn't say so? Uncle Xian wouldn't come crying to us in the middle of the night!" Jin Ling had watched the events unfold in his eyes. He loved his uncle Cheng very much, but also loved his uncle Xian. He didn't like his uncles were divorcing, but having witnessed so many dysfunctional marriages in Jin Clan, Jin Ling was glad someone had the guts to ask for divorce.

"Don't mention to anyone that you were there the night A'Xian came to us as well." Jiang Yanli patted the head of her daughter.

"I will not. Though, Maa, uncle Cheng was asking about that sad boy who used to visit uncle Xian's workshop."

"What did you say?"

"I don't know. I really don't know where that boy is." Jin Ling shrugged.

"You don't have to worry about him." Jiang Yanli handed her daughter back to her son, who gladly took her.

"You like your elder brother? Awww, who is the world's cutest sister?" to this question A'Qin replied in giggles and gibberish. "Yes you are."

"Pack your things." Jiang Yanli informed.

"For?"

"Both of you are going to stay in the main house. I need to go look after mom, dad and A'Cheng."

"But we are not coming? And are you sure you should go to that house?"

"I am not sure. But I am pretty assured things are a mess there. Your grandpa cannot handle two firecrackers. Your dad, you and your sister will stay together for a few weeks. Check her nappies every four hours, and do not give her candies! She has learned to hide her candies!" Jiang Yanli pulled her daughter's chubby cheeks.

"I don't give her candies."

"Then I guess it is your dad. I will have to talk to him."

"No… why will dad give her candies."

"Then where is she getting candies from?"

Nie Huaisang Doesn't Have Revenge Plan!

"What are you doing, little fan?" Nie Mingjue walked behind his younger brother after having his end of the day bath, before entering the bath he found his brother was furiously typing away on laptop with frowned eyebrows. An hour later, Nie Huaisang was still typing at lightning speed. The television was turned on and playing.

"Do you want tea?" Without even looking up from his device, Nie Huaisang asked his elder brother.

"Did you make some?" Nie Mingjue tilted his head in surprise.

"Yup," with a flick of a finger, Nie Huaisang flew a hot cup of tea into his elder brother's hands, who looked at his brother curiously.

"Did you?"

"No…"

"Then how?"

"A'Xian, he created a new talisman, that helps weak cultivators like me channel the energy from around our environment without straining our fragile core." Nie Huaisang still did not look up.

"Hey!"

"Look at me."

"Three minutes bro."

When Nie Huaisang said he needed three minutes, he meant three minutes. So instead of demanding his attention like Nie Mingjue used to do previously, he stopped his impulses and sat beside his tiny bother on the couch and observed him.

His brother was too small for his liking, Nie Mingjue had spent money, medicines food on him, yet his little rat like brother refused to grow in size. His toes did not touch the floor when he sat on the couch, nor did his hands reach the kitchen cabinets when he tried to pull out larger utensils, hence his brother was obsessed with learning magic that allowed him to move things around, but with his imbalanced core, he tended to overuse them. Nie Huaisang, was a pampered younger brother, or so the cultivation world liked to see him as. He was gifted with more than enough intelligence, but he was also equally cursed with a fragile core because of his premature birth. He was born three months ahead of schedule and had spent a year in a glass box covered in talismans. Once Nie Mingjue found the toll the use of golden took for performing regular cultivation jobs from his brother's body, Nie Mingjue had immediately forbidden him from performing summoning, tracking and attack spells.

But Nie Huiasang was Nie Huaisang, stubborn like a rat, if he wanted something, he would get it. After multiple arguments, Nie Mingjue had given up and told him to figure out another way to summon things without damaging his delicate core. His little brother agreed, though he thought it was an impossible task to achieve, yet here he was! He was impressed; his little brother had teamed up with that good for nothing Wei Wuxian to create talismans that helped people with weaker spiritual core.

Golden core was everything for a cultivator, if it was heavily damaged or shattered, a cultivator could lose their lives and sanity. Nie Huaisang's overuse of his core could've killed him, but then came Wei Wuxian, who began creating talismans, tonics, devices that would store or borrow spiritual energies from one's surrounding. This invention brought both revolution and anger to cultivation world a decade back, when the new consort of Jiang Clan introduced his devices to public conference! Nie Huaisang was first to volunteer, and a doctor from a disgraced sect had helped his bother. Since then Nie Huaisang carried stones and talismans that helped him function like a newly trained cultivator student, summoning and conducting spells was still hard, but his core had stabilized a lot since his teens. Now that Nie Mingjue saw him fly a cup, he could see why his brother was hell-bent to stay with Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian was an asset and weapon in the right hands.

"And done…" Nie Huaisang shut his laptop and grinned at his brother, "I am looking at you now!"

"You are not a weak cultivator." Nie Mingjue sighed.

"Ah! La La! I didn't mean me! I know what I am capable off, brother!" Nie Huaisang smirked.

"What were you typing?"

"Wei Wuxian wants to sell the summoning talisman to masses. But we need to do run some trial and error tests, so I was emailing out to people, looking to join our experiment for a fee."

"And who is paying for the trial and error tests, my little fan?"

"YOU!"

"OI!"

"Look, our sect needs new students, and we need the public's attention. With Wei Wuxian's divorce, Jiang Clan's popularity is high, but it will not help them in the long run, the moment the students and public realize their biggest asset is gone, they will suffer ten years worth of setback. So if we slowly start releasing tools and talismans that A'Xian makes for us, people will think we have hired him and public attention, which currently is against him, will change."

"Public attention is already on us because of you both!" Nie Mingjue took the laptop from his brother's lap and set in on the coffee table.

"Are they already saying Wei Ying had an affair with me?" Nie Huaisang smirked.

"Yeah, I just got a mail from headquarters."

"Good! Good!"

"You are trying to save your friend's reputation or not? Or are you using him? To bring profit out of his misery, does he know?

"Of course he knows."

"A'Sang…" Nie Mingjue paused and took a deep breath. "If you want to marry Wei Wuxian I won't stop you. You have my support, you know. The clan might protest, but they can't go against me. Though I do think you both are ill-matched, you both are reckless when you don't need to be and secretive when you actually should ask help."

"I do not love him that way!" Nie Huaisang made a face that showed he was disgusted with the very idea of it.

"I thought…"

"You thought, I was holding out a candle for him all these years? No! Who do you think I am Lan Xichen's younger brother?"

"How do you know about Wangji?"

"Every one knows about Wangji! That he left because he was so madly in love with Wei Wuxian, how old is that child now? He must be in his twenties."

"So you do not want to marry Wei Wuxian?"

"Never did."

"Then why?"

"Why do I care so much for him?"

"Not just care, everything, you have been with him forever, ever since the day I dropped you at that kindergarten, you never let go of him."

"He offered to be my friend when no one wanted to be."

Nie Huaisang had met Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng in same pre-school, cultivation world was smaller than now, extremely close-knit and highly competitive. There were elders betting on their children to prove their worth, while their children birthed their own children, who were all put into elite schools to show their prowess. Nie Huaisang was neither strong nor the most outgoing child, but his then alive father would not stop to try to make a racehorse of his second born. So, unable to escape doomed fate, Nie Huaisang decided to play with his calligraphy set while other children formed their make-belief sects. It was then when Wei Wuxian spotted him; he was small like Nie Huaisang and followed around Jiang Cheng like a puppy. Wei Wuxian had smiled at him multiple times, finally three days later he had wobbled towards him breaking away from Jiang Cheng and pointed at Nie Huaisang's hands and said, "It is very pretty."

He didn't say only girls' draw flowers, he didn't say you are wasting your time nor did he mock him, he just flopped beside him and watched him draw.

Since the age of four Nie Huaisang had known Wei Wuxian, since the age of four, he had disliked his friend's fiancé. As they grew up, he became better at hiding his dislike, which made his best friend happier; but deep down Nie Huaisang always felt his friend deserved better. Wei Wuxian was nothing more than a shadow to the heir of the Jiang clan, not a better to have chosen to be his companion, but a shadow to protect him and fuel his ego. So the night Wei Wuxian walked out of his marriage, Jiang Yanli had called him.

By the time Nie Huaisang had reached, Wei Wuxian was a sobbing mess in his sister-in-law's arms. In all these years of their friendship, he had never seen the tall guy cry. Angry, multiple times, frustrated with people's incompetency, hurt by his mother-in-law's snide comments, suffering because of discrimination by the clan, sad at the thought of being a husband consort, Wei Wuxian had never broken down; he always smiled and bore through it all. To find a man who stood taller than his height with pride, curled up in a ball of hiccups and tears and snot, was a pathetic sight Nie Huaisang would never forget. Unable to do anything, Nie Huaisang decided to play the devil's part. He fished out his best friend's phone and cracked it, Wei Wuxian didn't protest. Next, he asked Jiang Yanli to call for their family lawyer. If his friend was not going to fight for himself, he was.

Nie Huaisang didn't want to know what had happened, but he had guessed it anyway. He just knew his best friend was hurt to the point where he was left incapable of forming coherent words. Nie Huaisang sat beside him and patted his back and let him cry. All the sadness and anger Wei Wuxian had gulped down and bolted in the name of love had finally broken free. His face was hidden in his sister's embrace, while his legs and arms were clinging to each other. His entire life had come crumbling down that night. And now to find the world of cultivation calling his friend selfish, ungrateful and disrespectful for daring to ask a few inches of freedom was making him mad.

"Brother…" Nie Huaisang called his brother.

"I am not giving you my black card."

"I do not need your card."

"Call your best friend."

"Xichen? He is not my best friend."

"Yes!"

"Why?"

"I think Wangji will like to know Wei Wuxian is divorced."

"Oi, you are not trying to set up your friend who just got off a long relationship!"

"No! But how will he know he deserves better than the shitty ex-husband of his? Huh? Tell me? Tell me?"

"I don't understand."

"Imagine if you had only had porridge your entire life, you will think porridge is the best food, but then one day I give you a bowl of wontons!"

"The wontons are tastier!"

"Correct!"

"Wangji is Wanton for Wei Wuxian."

"Please call your friend."

Wen Ning's Boss is Fine!

Wen Ning met Wei Wuxian when he was looking for a job, being from a minor branch of the disgraced sect had made it difficult for him and his sister to earn a living. His sister had graduated from Med school with distinctions, yet she was finding it hard to get an internship. Wen Ning had finished technical school; his opportunities were limited to certain branches of the cultivation world. He was a fresh graduate with no work experience, yet he had heard of the kind consort of Jiang Clan, Wei Wuxian, who had been helping people in need.

The cultivation world saw Wei Wuxian as the consort who looked after matters of clan; the allotments of night hunts, funds for missions and admissions of new students. But the civilian world knew him as the inventor and teacher, who made talismans and devices to help better their lives. Wei Wuxian worked as a researcher for an independent institute that was funded by the public taxpayers, away from the nasty politics and demands, he tinkered away his weekdays trying to solve the next problem present to him by common people.

Wen Ning had emailed him, he didn't hope for a reply, but he got an email back a few hours later, asking him to visit at the given time and venue. When he found the office, Wen Ning didn't know what to do; there was no door to the office drawing room. Since there was no door, he couldn't knock! Being a young man of shy nature, he muttered a few soft hellos, which never vibrated enough to draw anyone's attention. After contemplating for a few minutes, he had walked in, only to find a tall man with red ribbon in his hair was being manhandled by a shorter man in purple who was shaking him in anger in the main office. The main office was separated by a glass door. Wen Ning could hear nothing, as they were behind soundproof glass. Fearing the shorter man would be hurt by the taller more; Wen Ning broke down the private door and pushed the man in purple away.

"Do not hurt him!" Wen Ning had spent all his energy in his push and was shaking like a reed in the breeze.

"Who the fuck are you?" the shorter man had crashed against the wall; he was clearly not expecting visitors.

"Don't hurt him." Wen Ning warned as he turned around to look at the taller man, who was frowning at the situation in front of him, he was clearly confused and shocked at the turn of events. Wen Ning was not taller, but he was broader and decided to stand in front of the man with red ribbon.

"I was not hurting him!"

"I saw you push him and jerk him around. He was flinching! You were hurting him!" Wen Ning said with the firmest voice he could manage, "Are you okay sir? Do you want me to call a doctor?"

"I was not hurting him! He is my husband!"

"Everywhere in this world, husbands hurt their wives, what makes you different?"

"Eh I am not his wife, I know I am beautiful, but I am not that right, or feminine am I? But thank you for mistaking me for one, tee hee…" The taller man patted Wen Ning's back. "Are you Wen Ning, here for the job interview for the lab assistant position?"

"Yes sir." Wen Ning turned around and was met with a kind smile, "Sir Wei Wuxian?"

"Aiiii… Don't call me sir. Should I hire you as my bodyguard, this brute needs few punches!" Wei Wuxian walked over to the man in purple. "This guy is my husband. We are in our honeymoon period, so he tends to get a bit passionate." Wei Wuxian had grinned. "Oi husband, say hello to Wen Ning! Wen Ning, my husband, Jiang Cheng."

"Hello Sir Jiang."

"You are not hiring him Wei Ying…"

"Why, because he pushed you? Eh, he is that strong, maybe I can ask him to be Huaisang's bodyguard."

"He is too young."

"It is never too late to start working young. How old are you Wen Ning?"

"I will be 19 in May."

"See! He is a child." Jiang Cheng grumbled.

"What is with you and your paranoia around young men? Look, you have had issues with last three assistants too! It was hard relocating them! And this is my job, not our clan matters. So I am keeping him. Wen Ning, are you good with tools?" Wei Wuxian began walking towards his new assistant when Jiang Cheng, pulled him by the arm and grabbed his head and kissed him full, right in front of the young man. That day, Wen Ning had noticed Wei Wuxian was weak for two things, Jiang Cheng's attention and Jiang Cheng's happiness. The kiss he witnessed was a display of authority rather a display of affection, Wen Ning was slow on catching up on things, but once he caught it he would not forget.

"What is wrong with you today? You don't like holding hands in public, and you are kissing in front of a child!" Wei Wuxian broke from the kiss, his grey eyes had darkened in confusion, but he was excited and hurt too. He wobbled away from his husband and began ransacking his own table.

"Just felt like it." Jiang Cheng shrugged.

"Get out. I do not have time to deal with this. I have processed the draft for cultivation conference," after rummaging through his files, he found the paper and handed it to Wen Ning. "Go hand it over, as my assistant you have to deal with paper work too." Wei Wuxian smiled.

For eight years Wen Ning had worked with Wei Wuxian, for eight years he had harboured distrust for Jiang Cheng. Though his sister had warned him for forming judgment against first impression, he couldn't move past that first encounter. Though Wei Wuxian ensured him multiple times, that he was not hurt by the arm grabbing, he had spotted his boss rub his arms a multiple times in last eight years. There were occasions when both of them had returned with bruises on their arms and neck because Wei Wuxian in fit of anger unable to tolerate his husband's bitter words would punch him and Jiang Cheng would return the favour. But most of their physical brawls happened in the boundaries of the wrestling ring, everyone in Jiang Clan knew when the couple was unable to communicate with words they entered the ring and sparred until one was left crushed to the ground. Most of the time it was Jiang Cheng, who was left on the ground to taste dust.

"A'Ning… Is your boss alright? Do you want me to check up on him?" Wen Ning's sister, Wen Qing, asked him as they were having dinner.

"He said he is fine."

"Being fine and saying fine are two different things."

"I know. He wants to be alone. Divorce must be tough."

"Especially, when a relationship is that long…." Wen Qing sighed, she had met her brother's boss several times, and they were more than acquaintance and less than friends. On multiple occasions, they had helped each other. Though she had never been involved in Wei Wuxian's private matters, she didn't like how Wei Wuxian kept folding himself like a paper crane to always accommodate a little more of Jiang Cheng. "…his whole world must have collapsed in the blink of an eye."

"He was sobbing when had applied for leave. I still remember." Wen Ning sighed. The day after Wei Wuxian had decided to end his relationship, he had come to his office to collect his important paperwork and apply for a long leave. Wen Ning had arrived at his usual time, but he had not thought Wei Wuxian would be there, Wei Wuixan was an amazing boss to Wen Ning, but being on time was not his forte. Wen Ning was surprised to have found his boss, locked in his cabin, sobbing behind the security of his soundproof wall.

Wen Ning had opened the door and his eyes were met with teary eyed Wei Wuxian, who was surprised and immediately tried to wipe his tears away. But it was too late, Wen Ning had already rushed and cupped his boss' face and asked, "Did Jiang Cheng hurt you again?"

"No…"

"Please don't lie."

"I hurt myself." Wei Wuxian's eyes crinkled in attempts to control his tears.

"…"

"I hurt my dignity. I hurt my pride. I hurt my heart. Not only that, but I hurt myself for years, thinking I was not enough. It is on me A'Ning. I did it to myself."

"Do you want to take a day off?" Wen Ning asked without letting Wei Wuxian's face go.

"I will apply for an indefinite leave for now and later a transfer…"

"Are you leaving Yunmeng?"

"It is time."

"Where will you go?"

"They are setting up a new lab in Yiling. I think I will go there. My parents are from Yiling. It is time I meet their other friends, and I have a grandma there."

"I will come with you."

"Absolutely not!"

"Why?"

"You have worked for me for years as assistant, it is time you become a researcher in your own right. I have sent a recommendation; you should be upgraded to researcher from an assistant researcher soon. And in a few years, you can take my seat."

"I am not ready."

"Too bad! I am an evil boss." Though crying and suffering, Wei Wuxian smiled to the best of his abilities and hugged Wen Ning's torso. "I always wanted a younger brother like you. I am jealous of Wen Qing."

"I can be your brother."

"Your sister will beat me up for teaching you wrong things!"

"She will…"

"Do you want me to bear hug you, boss?"

"Yeah…" Wei Wuxian had embraced him tighter and sobbed for a few hours more.

That was the last day they had proper heart-to-heart conversation, after that Wei Wuxian sneaked out of Yunmeng and joined the new team in recently establish laboratory of Yiling. When a month later Jiang Cheng came searching for his husband, the entire Yunmeng research facility on the request of Wen Ning and for their love of Wei Wuxian, didn't disclose the location of their estranged boss, they refused to open their mouths despite Jiang Cheng using various methods of persuasion and bribes. Multiple times, the Jiang Clan people came; they patrolled the facility in hopes of catching a glimpse of the tall men with red ribbon in his hair. Every time Jiang Cheng came, he came with twice the man power than his previous visits, when bribes and begging failed, he resolved to threaten to break down the facility. Sometimes he returned alone when drunk he would yell out Wei Wuxian's name in middle of the night, sometimes he came early morning, sober, with lawyers, but in the last one year, not a single employee let him learn of Wei Wuxian's location.

Trinkets cannot buy you love or so Jiang Cheng had thought

The realization that A'Xian was gone finally dawned on Jiang Cheng when, he returned home after the failed search. His hand was curled in his pocket, holding on to the lock of the inky hair. The lock had been in the pockets of his trousers for two days. They were soft like silk, and right now they weighed like boulders.

When Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian were young, they would dress up in colourful clothes, as they grew older colours had started to slowly fade from their lives, they either had to wear sect uniforms or colours allocated by elders. Wei Wuxian had found a means to bring more colour into his own life by wearing ribbons and hairpin. At first, it was just ribbons, but slowly he began wearing hairpins and combs that Jiang Yanli gave him. Jiang Cheng knew hair care was part of consort's duty, but the guy who could pin men thrice his size and loved playing in dirt and swam naked, actually loved decking up.

After they had turned sixteen, Wei Wuxian had begun taking extra care of his hair, he would oil them once a week, wrap it in a warm towel, float around the house with a cup of tea waiting impatiently for the forty-five minutes to pass. Jiang Cheng's husband was born a restless creature, yet for more than a decade he had looked after his hair. Sometimes the sect sisters would braid his hair for him and put flowers in them, and sometimes Nei Huaisang would style it for him. Wei Wuxian loved his long hair that ran like a black water fall.

And Jiang Cheng loved that hair, he loved running his fingers into them. Especially on those few lazy days that they spent together, he loved combing them. Jiang Cheng loved it more when Wei Wuxian on a busy night would roll up his hair like a ball of wool and would stab it with whatever his hands could lay on. Most days it was pencil and chopsticks. He would be hunched over his talisman formula, his tanned neck exposed while a few strands of hair escaped from his forehead. This was a scene Jiang Cheng was used to when he returned home. His husband in a big black shirt that could fit an elephant and a loose trouser; all black.

Every time he saw this image, Jiang Cheng would either plant a kiss on the exposed neck or tiptoe behind to pull the pencil and chopstick away from the big bun. And every time Wei Wuxian would look up with a smile at him, even on the days when he was hurt or angry.

The last time Jiang Cheng found him hunched up and spread over his work was a month before Wei Wuxian walked out. It was like every other night, Wei Wuxian lost in his work, Jiang Cheng walking behind him and landing a kiss on the neck. Wei Wuxian had turned around and engulfed him into a hug. Jiang Cheng, knowing not what to do or what to say, had hugged him back. They remained liked that for a few minutes before Wei Wuxian pulled away.

"Did something happen?" Jiang Cheng should've had asked, instead, he had stared at his husband whose face was pale and his eyes dark. When Wei Wuxian was angry or sad or happy, his means of expressing his feelings were always physical. When angry he would hide in his workshop and tinker away, when happy he would clean the whole house, when sad he would practice with his sword alone in the garden.

Wei Wuxian pulled him into a kiss, and demanded to be taken then and there. Jiang Cheng was the shorter of the two, but that never stopped him from picking his husband up from his study and tossing him into the bed. Jiang pulled his husband into his arms and took him to bed. He had kissed his exposed neck again and again, slid his shirt to the side to kiss his freckled shoulder blades, and then his hand climb up to let his inky hair flow down by pulling the pencils away. He had kissed Wei Wuxian's face more urgently matching his demand, once they were free of clothes, it was an eventful evening. And it was also the last night they had sex.

After they were done tossing and wrestling and kissing in passion that night, Wei Wuxian had laid his head on Jiang Cheng's chest. His hair spread out like a drop of ink in a water droplet, his suntanned back dusted with freckles, his strong arms holding Jiang Cheng like a koala and his lips red and swollen. There was a sense of satisfaction in Jiang Cheng that night as he kept running his fingers in the dark hair. Twice Wei Wuxian had looked up and tossed, he wanted to say something, but he stopped and closed his eyes and let him play with his hair.

"Are you okay?" He should've had asked. But instead he said, "I saw a lovely hairpin, on my patrol today. I will buy it tomorrow. You can wear it to the summer state dinner."

"We both know you bought it already, and it is lying in the drawer of your office desk." Wei Wuxian stretched his arms and nuzzled his nose to Jiang Cheng's naked belly.

"Maybe I have."

"Hmmm… A'Cheng. You have given me so many! I think I am the richest consort in cultivation world."

"Are you? I thought you had no money… Because you gave them all to the refugees in Yiling!"

"Yes I am! I gave them half a year's worth of salary, not my jewellery! I will never give my ornaments to anyone! When I die, I want to be buried with my hoard."

"Then adding another to your coffin collection is fine!" Jiang Cheng had snorted.

"People will say, I am trying to show off! Especially wearing something grand on summer state dinner! No one decks up during summer! You know, media loves to talk about everything we do!" Wei Wuxian pouted.

"Since when did you care what people say?"

"You care, my dear husband! And my mother-in-law cares! And I care for you!"

"I want you to look the most beautiful consort ever." Jiang Cheng had not lied. He really did want Wei Wuxian to look the most beautiful consort ever. Though he never said it, the day they got married, Wei Wuxian dolled up in red silk and jewellery had made Jiang Cheng the happiest. Deep down, he loved it when Wei Wuxian would style his hair for the formal dinners and set his pins and combs and accessories in them. Though on surface he complained that Wei Wuxian was a man and didn't need to deck up like other consorts, he contradicted his own words the very next day by buying a pair of silver bangles or gold rings, any time he saw something pretty, he got them. Wei Wuxian would wear his formal robes and layer them with jewels and every time Wei Wuxian moved, he would jingle softly. Jiang Cheng enjoyed it when his husband would laugh, and with his laugh the trinkets would make a melody of their own. Though he never expressed it in the open, because of fear of public scrutiny, he felt proud to have such a gorgeous man as his husband.

And yet here he was, angry in an empty bedroom, with a lock of hair in his pocket. Jiang Cheng was still wondering on what went wrong?

They had met one year after Wei Wuxian had sent the divorce papers, he was expecting Wei Wuxian to run into his arms and hug him. They both would have cried and embraced each other. But the moment Jiang Cheng saw Wei Wuxian, he knew, things had changed. The grey eyes that always shined with life looked tired; his beautiful cheekbones had gained an unhealthy sharpness, while his weight had fallen drastically. Jiang Cheng couldn't understand why, the divorce decision had clearly hurt him, so why was he doing this? Unable to control his anger, he grabbed his A'Xian's wrist and asked, 'Why?'

The reply again came without words; Wei Wuxian was a creature of actions. He didn't hesitate, he pulled out the decorative knife from Jiang Cheng's waist and cut the hair and broke the hairpin! Everyone was stunned, but the message was clear to Jiang Cheng, Wei Wuxian was not coming back. He dropped the lock of his hair in his hair and walked away. The hand he had promised to hold until his dying day, handed Jiang Cheng, the silky strands of black hair.

"Why?"

For the first time in one year of separation, Jiang Cheng found tears rolling down and his knees hitting the floor and his head landing with a bang. Fortunately, there was no one to witness the miserable state of Sect Leader Jiang Cheng. As he cried and tossed and turned on the floor, his watery gaze landed on the darkest corner under his bed, he crawled, and finally after a long struggle he pulled out the giant boot of decorative iron. The boot had come to Wei Wuxian as part of bride prize, every Jiang Clan Consort was gifted their own boot, and it was an odd box made of bronze and iron with a polished mirror inside and little shelves and compartments to hold their beauty products and ornaments.

With shaky hands Jiang Cheng opened it; hairpins, ribbons, combs, anklets, bangles, armlets, perfumes, accessories, and other trinkets lay inside neatly. Each of them marked and dated in little pouches, some pouches dated back to when they were seven or eight. All the pouches had little notes inside. Jiang Cheng opened them all, one by one. Each note sappier than the other, some saying ' From my dear grumpy fiancé A'Cheng because he saw it on Lanlin Market, ' others read 'Jiang Cheng got it for me! My angry husband, after his successful night hunt at Dafan with Jin Ling ,' another said, ' My first hairpin after marriage, from my husband Jiang Wanyin. ' Each note delicately written like a grasshopper touching a still pond.

The more he read, the more he felt a sense of guilt. Jiang Cheng had spent all his life assuming, their arranged marriage, was a marriage of convenience where they both had grown fond of each other, and liked each other like bosom friends. They had spoken about romance and love many times; Jiang Cheng had said he loved Wei Wuxian first and on multiple occasions. But he had also made it clear it was not the love that civilians could afford, and Wei Wuxian had understood it. Wei Wuxian had always known that their love was not the love people read in novels or saw on screen. But he had been in love with Jiang Cheng since the beginning.

Feeling helpless and suffocated, Jiang Cheng grabbed the sharpest hairpin his hands could find and stabbed it into his thigh. The pain in his leg could not overwhelm the ache in his heart.

"Wei Ying come back to me… I will love you back. I beg you."

But Jiang Cheng was met with deafening silence around him.

Support Groups are not for Wei Wuxian

The divorce was going to have a long-lasting impact on Jiang Sect , no one knew it better than the person who had asked for divorced. Sitting in his new, relatively new office, watching himself on the computer monitor cutting his hair, was not the most ideal way to spend his weekend. He had become a meme! He was also been made into a limited edition sticker pack! Nie Huaisang was going to deal with them all, he knew, still watching himself be shredded to pieces was not a pleasant experience. He had wanted to finalize this matter for a year now, yet ever since the divorce was finalized by the Sect elders, there was a whirlpool of emptiness in Wei Wuxian's chest. He had thought leaving behind everyone and everything that he loved about Yunmeng would help him move on, but no matter how many books he read about post-divorce life and spent countless sleepless night listening to podcasts about restarting life afresh, Wei Wuxian was not able to step out of the office.

He was a meticulous person, since age of sixteen he had been performing his duty to the Jiang Sect as a consort, though he became official consort years later, his life had changed the day he had turned sixteen. His training as consort had begun at the age of seven, and since the age of sixteen he was allowed to share his home with Jiang Cheng, they were a couple arranged to wed since before their birth. He had grown so used to having Jiang Cheng around that, the feeling of not having his strong arms around his waist on weekends made his heart ache. Though he had been living away from his ex-husband for a year now, there was a tiny flame of hope of under the deepest layers of his soul that wanted to save his marriage. He would've rushed back into Jiang Cheng's arms, if only the man had said, 'I am Sorry' sincerely just once. Just once. Just once, Wei Wuxian wanted to hear an honest apology. But even after one year, instead of an apology, Jiang Cheng with his frown and eyes that accused Wei Wuxian of hurting him had gripped his wrist and asked, 'Why?'

The answer to the 'Why?' were many, and none. If Wei Wuxian had opened his mouth in public, he would have just cried and purged his rumbling belly that was full of years of repressed anger and hurt, exposing the shaky foundations and cracks of their relationship. Yet if he were to pinpoint to one particular reason for breaking up the marriage; there was none. He could've walked out of their room three years before, and he would've the same feelings of hurt and maybe a few less examples of sadness. He could've walked out few years later and with the same hurting heart and few more bruises on his arms left behind by angry grubby palms of his angry husband. In the end, the whole thing boiled down to one important fact; Jiang Cheng did not love him the way Wei Wuxian loved him.

Unable to express the fact, he saw the knife hanging from his ex-husband's waist, he pulled it and cut his hair and broke his hairpin. He had not cut his ink black hair for the last nine years; he respected the tradition of a consort grooming their hair to maintain a healthy marriage. Jiang Cheng loved his hair, on good days he would braid them, combed his fingers through them, often tucking his stray strands behind his ears to drop a kiss on his neck, and on every night hunt or conference he went, Jiang Cheng would always return with a trinket for his hair. Wei Wuxian owned boxes of hair ornaments, if they were pretty Jiang Cheng brought them, it didn't matter if they were made of cheap copper or the most expensive jade, he loved watching Wei Wuxian adorn his hair with his gifts. Yet when he walked out, he brought none of the gifts with him. Cutting his hair was meant to solidify his decision; the angry purple eyes had grown darker when he saw the knife cut through the strands of the silky hair. It all happened so fast that Wei Wuxian was surprised by his own actions. In his anger, instead of handing over the broken hairpin like he was meant too, he walked away with it in his hand.

The realization that Jiang Cheng didn't love him had hit him many moons before the decision to divorce. Wei Wuxian had always known their relationship was not an equal partnership, he had never complained, because he had believed that was how a marriage was meant to be, you bicker, and you fight and make up. But as he saw more and more people around him get married, live their lives, he understood there was something fundamentally broken in the arrangement he was in. The examples he had grown up watching and idolizing were wrong and misguided, the more this awareness crept into his mind the more he questioned; if his parents would've been happy to see their child grow up into a man who kept suffering because of lack of love.

Whenever Wei Wuxian was naughty in his childhood, his caretakers often clicked their tongues and muttered how it was his lack of good blood. At first, he did not understand what they meant, so he had gone to Jiang Yanli, asking what blood bad was and if he will need to go to hospital. But when Jiang Yanli's eyes changed into anger and sadness, he understood it was bad. Jiang Yanli had sternly scolded the entire household staff and replaced his caretaker, though the tongue clicking and muttering stopped, the eyes that mocked him couldn't be gouged out.

His mother was a brilliant person, the brief life she led was glorious, and she was an orphan cultivator raised in a sect that had nurtured generations of famous but lineage-less cultivators. His father was a low-birth disciple who rose to ranks because of his capabilities; his mother had been invited to teach in Jiang Sect after few years of her notorious debut, where she was found beating up corrupt cultivators and returning money to the people scammed. Impressed by her honesty and bravery, she was asked to train young lords on the ways of dealing with ordinary problems of the civilian world; she was a crowd favourite rogue cultivator. His father had gone to escort her, but his mother found his father so endearingly stoic that she took it upon herself to tease the daylights out of him at every opportunity. By the end of her six-month teaching tenure, she had teased his father so much that unable to bear the thought of partition from this gremlin of a woman, he proposed marriage with a red ribbon, a colour his mother loved. Though years later she learned the red ribbon was made of an expensive imported silk, on a set of twelve red ribbons his father had blown his one year's salary.

His parents had married for love, they had met as adults, they knew what they liked and loved and disliked and hated. They were functioning adults with fleshed out personality. He had read his mother's journals so many times that now he knew it by heart, his mother was obsessed with his father, the idea of it made Wei Wuxian giggle! His father was handsome he had seen in pictures, but his mother was an out of this world jolly beauty, he could never imagine how these two polar opposite people fell in love. But in love they were, for nine years they had been happily married, and Wei Wuxian chooses to believe they were in love with each other until their dying breath.

Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng never had the opportunity to grow up without each other's presence. The more he thought about his parents, the more he understood; his parents wouldn't want him to be in a marriage where he was not loved. Yet he wondered why they betrothed him even before his birth, the only logical conclusion was that his betrothal was an emergency safety vault for worst case scenario. They had wanted him to be in a place where he would be protected and looked after if they were gone. His parents were gone for a long time, he no longer needs a place to stay safe. Despite knowing all this, getting up from his chair was hard.

Media had already painted him as an ungrateful son-in-law, a scammer, a fraud who had repaid the kindness he received with betrayal. Every aspect of his existence was put under scrutiny, his education, his research, his job as consort, his so-called affair with Nie Huaisang! His ex-husband was now the top star of 'Broken Hearted Newly Bachelor-ed you should date' polls. Jiang Cheng was handsome, who better than Wei Wuxian could tell it, every curve and mole and stretch mark on that handsome body had been kissed by Wei Wuxian. How could he forget how Jiang Cheng's lips quivered when Wei Wuxian gripped his broad thighs underneath the table when they had to attend boring cultivation meetings? How could he forget how Jiang Cheng's fingers played on his hips? How was he going to remove the intimate memories that they had created since the age of thirteen?

He still recalled the day they first kissed. Wei Wuxian was still small compared to the new puberty stuck teens around him. Jiang Cheng had left early from school on pretext of meeting friends, Wei Wuxian knew it better that his fiancé had no friends! Instead of calling out his lie, he let the liar dig his own grave. On his way back Wei Wuxian was as usual lost in his dream world, after parting ways with Nie Huaisang he walked into an alley he was not meant too and found his betrothed beating the hell out of a senior boy. Though short, Wei Wuxian's beauty had already caught the eyes of older kids, girls or boys, it didn't matter; everyone wanted to be close to the 'orphan beauty' of Jiang Sect. Having found a kid, plummeted to the ground, scared the hell out of Wei Wuxian as he ran to stop them.

"A'Cheng! What are you doing?" Wei Wuxian had grabbed Jiang Cheng's arms and pulled him back.

"He wrote you a love letter!"

"Why?" Wei Wuxian was confused, why was meant for the person beaten up, but Jiang Cheng thought it was meant for him.

"You are my fiancé! How can I let another person court you?"

"No… I was asking him? Why would you write me a love letter? Do you not know, I have a fiancé, I am not allowed to look at anyone but him? He is a bit ugly, but he is alright?" Wei Wuxian spoke as he continued to wipe the dirt and blood off Jiang Cheng's knuckles.

"Oi, who are you calling ugly?"

"Anyway, sorry for causing trouble! Please avoid me from now on. You say sorry! AND YOU, Jiang Cheng, you cannot beat up people!" Wei Wuxian ran his free hand in his hair. He was trying his best to do damage control! His fiancé had beat up the son of another clan leader! If people learned it was Jiang Cheng, he would be trouble and shame would be brought upon the Jiang Clan and Sect.

"I will not say sorry." Jiang Cheng spat. The beaten up boy was now rolling in the floor in pain. Ignoring his bratty fiancé, Wei Wuxian squatted down and examined the face of the flinching boy. He helped wipe the blood from his face and splashed water on the swelling. Wei Wuxian could see there was going to be a week's worth of pain.

"Look, I know it is a disgrace for a fifteen-year-old to get beaten up by a thirteen-year-old. Since the injuries to your face are hard to hide. If your parents ask who hurt you, the name is Wei Wuxian. What will you say?"

"Wei Wuxian…"

"Good… You make up your own excuse. We will make our own. Bye senior." Saying this, Jiang Cheng was pulled out of the alley and dragged home.

Throughout the walk, Wei Wuxian didn't say a word to his fiancé. The moment they were inside the clan boundaries, Wei Wuxian was immediately called to inner court by Madame Yu. Without any explanation or information exchanged, she sent her son's fiancé to the ancestral hall; he was to remain in there, standing with his hands raised up, until she permitted him to return. Though Jiang Cheng tried to explain, Madame Yu was not having any of it.

"Why do you have to play the hero, huh?" Jiang Cheng had scolded Wei Wuxian when the shorter came out into the garden for fresh air with aching arms half a day later.

"Because, I am the only one who can defuse the problems your actions caused."

"What do you mean?"

"If you do not understand without explanation, you will not understand with explanation either."

"Tell me, damn it."

"I am an outsider, if I beat up people, the rest of cultivation world will say it because I have no parents, or I am a delinquent. But if you beat up people, it will reflect on your parents! They will say you have been raised to be spoilt and arrogant!"

"But… That person wrote you a love letter! I had to stop him!"

"Should I go and pull out the hair of the girls who offer you lunch every day and or cut someone's braid for writing and leaving love letters on your table? Should I?" Wei Wuxian was angry as he pushed Jiang Cheng, who was breathing down his neck.

"No! I do not like them. I never eat their food and throw away the letters. How many times have I told you, the likes of us can't have romance?"

"Then why did you have to take actions? I would've done the same! You are a moron! You think I will run away with anyone who writes me a love letter! I was brought in to be your consort! You are an idiot, A'Cheng"

"You dare call me a moron…" Jiang Cheng gritted his teeth.

"I called you an idiot too! I have other words as well. I don't want to say them right now."

"Wei Wuxian! I am your future husband!"

"Jiang Wanyin! I am your future consort! Don't beat up people just because you are angry!"

"I will do whatever I want to protect what is mine!"

"I am not your thing! And I will do whatever it takes from letting you ruin the image of the sect!"

"Who is more important, me or the sect?"

"How are the two different? If I let you run wild, you will ruin the sect's image!"

"Why you…" Jiang Cheng ran to shake up his tiny fiancé.

Soon they were grabbing each other's shirts and tossing around the garden, smearing dirt all over. When pulling each other's hair and kicking was not enough, Jiang Cheng had deadlocked Wei Wuxian with his longer legs and arms. After stopping for a breather, Wei Wuxian had grinned back his widest and unable to control his anger, and not knowing what to do, Jiang Cheng had slammed his lips on his fiancé's. It was violent peck, till this day Wei Wuxian laughed about their awful beginning. After multiple attempts, they had learned the joy of kissing. By the time they found kissing was more than tongues fighting! Madame Yu had separated their living arrangement until they turned sixteen.

The innocence of thirteen was gone, so was the love that Wei Wuxian had for Jiang Cheng. Now, reflecting on the time gone by, Wei Wuxian wondered why he always offered himself as the bearer of punishment. What would've had happened if he had let that young lord go and complain about Jiang Cheng's behaviour. No matter how he looked at it now, they were teenagers, nothing diplomatically drastic would've happened. He thought it was love, but it was the constant reminder that, he was the future consort of Jiang Cheng, an unworthy candidate that would never be enough for the golden child of the clan. Wei Wuxian had spent his entire life protecting a man who never loved him back. Without realizing, he found tears rolling down his eyes. He read that he would've many more days, possibly months, of sleepless weepy weekends when sudden bouts of loneliness were going to hit him. Being aware didn't mean it hurt less. Being aware meant he was made to feel guilty of his own sadness, even his own grief felt like a borrowed pencil with which he was writing his story on a torn paper.

The knock on his door brought him out of his trance and gave him an incentive to move his long legs. The knock was loud and non-stop. Out of habit, Wei Wuxian tried to pull his hair into a bun, only to recall eighty percent of his hair now was with his ex-husband.

"Wei Ying! Open the door or grandma will break it down!"

"Coming laaaa!" Wei Wuxian rushed to open the door before his door was open.

"Were you crying again?" Baoshan Sanren, stood a foot shorter and plumper with her hands on her waist and her dark beady eyes glaring at Wei Wuxian.

"Sorry grandma."

"I never asked you to stop crying!"

"I know!"

"But don't cry alone! How will I face my A'Chang when I go to heaven? If I let her precious little baobei cry alone! Come on, we are going grocery shopping! And what did you think?"

"Think?"

"About the support group, la?"

"I am not an addict! That needs support group!"

"I know you are not an addict! But for an intelligent boy, your idea of support group is very narrow!"

"I didn't mean it that way!" Wei Wuxian whined as he locked his office.

"Then?"

"They are women and I am a man! Won't it be awkward to have someone different from them?"

"You all were married to awful men! I think that is the only common thing that matters"

"A'Cheng is not that bad."

"Yeah… Yeah… keep trying to defend that scumbag! Had I known all those years back that the reason they were adopting you in Jiang Clan was to raise you for the role of consort, I would've come and dragged you away! Your parents were stupid too! They should've left you in my care! Arranging marriage of children without their consent! What was going in Changse's head, I wonder?" Baoshan Sanren was heading towards her eighties with the temper of an eighteen-year-old.

She was Wei Wuxian's mother's teacher and warden. Calling her parent was not apt, she travelled the world fought demons and monsters and spirits and on her way she would adopt orphans who had spiritual potentials. Not all her students were cultivators, some were healers and doctors, few turned to farming, a few more took trades. She lived on top of a mountain and ran her sect of orphans, which she inherited from her master.

Wei Wuxian had reached out her first when he turned sixteen and was allowed to go on night hunts. He had sent a formal letter requesting a meeting with his best handwriting, and Baoshan Sanren had scribbled a note back with date and time. The moment they had met, the old woman had grabbed his face and kissed his forehead. Since then, she demanded Wei Wuxian address her as grandma, together they had gone on many night hunts and brought back children from distressful situations. Though Wei Wuxian was raised in the lap of luxury, he was still an orphan, every time he saw a child without an adult figure in his life; he sent them to his grandma.

Grocery shopping was an excuse; Wei Wuxian knew it very well. But it was a trap, Wei Wuxian was not expecting. Half an hour of pushing a loaded cart around, he found his grandma talking to a woman with beautiful golden eyes and a gentle smile. The woman was in her early fifties but looked younger, elegant and an attentive listener. Baoshan Sanren was a terrible actor, but she did her best to act surprised running into the woman. After two minutes of pretensions, Wei Wuxian was called in closer.

"Here, meet my grandson! He is a bit sad and heartbroken, he got out of a long marriage!"

"A'Xian say hello to Madame Ren, she runs a music school at the foot of Yiling and a farm. She has wanted to meet you for a long time."

"Hello, I hope my grandma didn't bore you about us."

"Nice to meet you, Wei Wuxian, I have heard about you from many people!"

"Yeah, too many people know about me now!" Wei Wuxian sighed, he was glad Yiling was far and almost cut off of from the main cultivation world. Gossip and world news reached here late, thanks to its mountainous range, establishing an entertainment path from the mainland was still hard here. So people watched local news, read local papers and watched local TV shows primarily, and the internet was so bad that, people still used faxes and phone and postal services. Though none of this was an issue for Wei Wuxian he had so many tricks and spells, he could access information anywhere in the world even if he was buried a thousand feet under the ground. But right now he was gladly lapping the advantages of backdated technology. For a year he was walking around Yiling, and no one recognized him as the former consort of the Jiang Clan.

"So Ren'er, just tell him about the support group."

"Grandma!"

"YES!"

"I know you might think we are all women primarily and what will we know of your marriage. Trust me; we have had men join us too. Sometimes, age, gender, looks, social class or status don't matter. Sometimes similar experiences are all we need to make friends and find a closure." Madame Ren, softly, held Wei Wuxian's palm and placed her card. Wei Wuxian took the card and read it, it was a simple ivory card with Madame Ren's Music School's name and address, email address and phone number embossed in cyan.

"We meet every Wednesday at seven! And we appreciate a bottle of good wine." Madame Ren gently patted Wei Wuxian's cheeks and winked at Baoshan Sanren who was grinning with her wrinkled cheeks.

"I will come." Wei Wuxian smiled back, if he did not his grandmother drag in the entire province to convince her.

Nie Huasiang Is NOT Setting up his best friend

Lan Wangji had been sent away from his home at the age of fifteen , returning twelve years later was an experience he didn't want to have. The sense of loss and loneliness that he had condensed and compacted in one of the chambers of his heart was now dancing like a dice eager to roll on the boardgame. Anyone looking at him would think he was fine and almost arrogant, to not have any expression visible on his face.

His arrival was a secret; Lan Xichen was finally inheriting the Sect as leader, so they had to keep this decision hidden. If their father realized, his second son was back on his brother's advice, he would remain as the head of the clan until his dying day and continue suffocating the younger generation of Lans like he had done with his uncle and others.

"Ai handsome man boy, are you single? You… want a ride?" A small man, with round face and sharp eyes, stood in front of Lan Wangji. He carried an expensive fan, with which he hid his smirk.

"Nie Huaisang?" Lan Wangji recognized the man immediately, despite having met him after a decade.

"It is senior brother Huaisang to you, young man! I am almost ten years older than you!"

"I apologize! Senior Brother!"

"Good, now follow me so that we can avoid media! Eh?" Nie Huaisang made some gestures with his hands, and soon Lan Wangji found himself being escorted from an underground path. Lan Wangji knew Nie Clan was good at stealth work, but to have their own exit portals in the airport was jarring information.

"Impressed?" Nei Huaisang smiled once they were settled inside the car.

"Yes."

"Let's cut to the chase."

"Okay." Lan Wangji nodded.

"Do you love Wei Ying?"

"…"

"Wangji, we really don't have time to be shy!" Nie Huaisang could see the blush exploding on Lan Wangji's face.

"A Lan only loves once." Lan Wangji replied.

"But Wei Ying is not a Lan is he?"

"I am. So I will love only him, even if it is unrequited. My love is true. And my intentions are not vile."

"A'Xian is heartbroken."

"I can only imagine."

"So you cannot bulldoze him."

"Pardon?"

"I want you to win A'Xian's heart. But you cannot steam roll him with your pacing."

"I will not pressure him."

"And you have to accept that there will be a lot of things that will coincide with his past life. In future, you will run into Jiang Cheng, you will meet people who will insult Wei Ying and most importantly you will meet people who care about him but couldn't help him. Do you understand?" Nei Huasiang was smiling, but he was angry. He was very angry right now.

"But…"

"But?" Nei Huaisang raised a finely plucked and drawn eyebrow.

"I do not understand, why are you helping me?"

"Because all these years Wei Wuxian regrets having let you go and suffer, he believes it was because of him you had been hurt, he blames what happened twelve years ago on himself."

"I never blamed him."

"I know. He knows. Doesn't mean he will stop blaming himself, will he?"

"Mm."

"So before I drop you where Wei Wuxian is, I think you need to catch up on the last twelve years of cultivation politics."

"Why?"

"You are going to help me turn the world of cultivation upside down, little brother." Nie Huaisang slapped his own thighs and smiled.

Wei Wuxian Is Not a Wine Expert

Just like he promised, Wei Wuxian found himself walking to and fro in front of the music school gate the following Wednesday. Every time he felt jittery his hands automatically went into his hair, he wanted to coil his hair and bun it up. Instead, his hair rested just below his ears and above his shoulders, his head felt lighter like a candy floss, still his hands kept forgetting that his hair was gone. In his itchy hands rested the wine and cheese. Choosing wine was the easiest part; coming down from his office was the hardest part. Nie Huaisang and Wen Ning had called him multiple times and begged him to join the group, his friends were worried and Jiang Yanli was one duffle bag away from coming down to Yiling. It was not that Wei Wuxian didn't have faith in support group and in therapy; it was simply that Wei Wuxian had never spoken about himself, especially his feelings; he didn't know how to talk about it.

Still, he came down. It was an old architectural design that had gone out of style even before he was born. These kinds of houses looked lovely on the outside and were very room to live in, but because of materials used and age, they were hard to maintain if one didn't have their finances in order. He could see the tall windows were cover in soft blue curtains and the porch was decorated in white flowers. Tranquillity was the first word that came to Wei Wuxian's mind, and then that tranquillity left him when he remembered he was joining a divorced people support group.

"Aha! Why are you standing outside, dear?" An old woman patted Wei Wuxian on his back gently.

"Good evening ma'am."

"What a polite young man, come in, Ren'er is waiting."

"Yes ma'am!" Wei Wuxian followed after the old woman, she was slightly younger than his grandma Baoshan Sanren, but their personalities were sync; bossy grandmothers.

In no time Wei Wuxian found his wine bottle whisked away and the cheese on the cheese board, his coat hung on the rack, and he sat in a comfortable couch, he was surrounded primarily by women. Women of different ages were here, one was organizing the chairs, displaying refreshment, the old woman who dragged Wei Wuxian in was brining in books, and the provider of the space Madame Ren helped with preparing the program sheet.

Unable to do anything and feeling restless, Wei Wuxian tried to offer help, but was met with kind smiles which asked him to stay put. When left alone to his own devices, Wei Wuxian was the devil with a workshop; all he needed was a charmed paper and a pen. In five minutes, his talisman were floating around and providing cool air to the woman who were working around the room. At first, they were confused, but when they saw his talisman floating besides them and providing a customized cool breeze, they all giggled and muttered, thank you.

"Your grandma was right, you are a little naughty." Madame Ren refilled his cup of tea.

"If I am not doing anything, I feel restless in here." Wei Wuxian pointed at his head.

"I can only imagine."

"So how does this work? Do I have to say my whole story?"

"It depends on you, you can tell us your story, and you can just listen and think, you can tell us how you feel after divorce. Chronology is not important."

"Chronology is not important?" Wei Wuxian asked, surprised.

"No…" Madame Ren said softly. She waited for Wei Wuxian to reply when he kept on staring blankly she continued, "When you have been married for long, it seems life the divorce is a result of actions and its consequences right?" Madame Ren asked.

"Yeah... I think."

"But an end of relationship may look like it is the end of a linear story, it is not. Even after you have left your partner, signed the paper, live separately for decades, a part of that time together is going to remain with you, and it will pop up. It can pop up at the happiest moment of your life, or it can quietly resurface when you are already down. Sometimes while working, an odd happy moment that you had almost forgotten would flash by, or you can suddenly find an old wound in your chest ache again." Madame Ren smiled, she spoke like someone who had made peace with this life of non-linearity.

"I don't think I fully understand, but I think I can make sense of it."

"I know it sounds cliché, but time and distance brings peace and perspective. So shall we start?"

"Yes."

The first one to introduce herself was Meng Shi, she was a middle-aged woman, who smiled at Wei Wuxian was she introduced herself. She worked as a seamstress and had a son, though she was never married to her son's father, she clearly felt betrayed when she found the man was already married. Unable to bear the pain, she left her former home with her son and moved to Yiling almost twenty years back.

"Though, I regret having crossed path with that man, I am still glad, I had my son. He is my everything; sometimes I fear my love for him will make him feel suffocated! I don't want to hurt him, but I also don't want him to leave me! Because I fear he will leave for forever like his father. He looks so much like that man, I keep worrying! He is already working far away, I just…" Meng Shi broke into tears.

"Fear is natural Meng'er" one of the members said.

"Yes! You did so well, to raise a son on your own! He went to study under the best sect, and now look at him climb up the ranks."

"I know I should be proud. But as a mother, I can't stop worrying."

Wei Wuxian didn't know what to say, having never had the opportunity to be loved by his mother, he could not say what was happening in Meng Yi's heart. But a part of his heart knew if his mother was alive, she would've broken Jiang Cheng's legs for having hurt her baby.

"Would you break that man's legs if you had the chance?" Wei Wuxian blurted out without thinking.

"Absolutely, I would turn them into baby talcum powder and sell them on my shop." Meng Shi replied without blinking.

After a few seconds of silence, laughter broke out, Madame Ren was the first to let a little squeak escape and then the rumbling followed. Everyone present in the room thought of pulverizing their exes' knees.

"I am Wen Guxiang, you can call me Granny Wen." Granny Wen flashed her toothy grin at everyone.

Granny Wen, was a bookshop owner, to Wei Wuxian's surprise who thought she was just helping out, learned she had recently divorced her husband of forty years! Now she lived with her little grandson, who was the apple of her eyes.

"The divorce was the easy part, you know?" She clearly addressed Wei Wuxian who in return nodded. Gaining his attention, she continued.

"When you have been together for four decades! You pick up each other's habits; good and bad. Your friend circle is a mess! Your work life is shambled and most importantly there is a loss of identity! For forty years I was Mrs. Wen! I had forgotten my own name! People still address me as Mrs. Wen! And some treat me like I had committed a sin for divorcing that man!" Granny Wen was angry! She paused to gulp her tea.

"Yesterday, I went to market to get some fish for my grandson, the fishmonger said I was selfish for leaving an old man alone by himself! He questioned me on how I could be so heartless to not care for a man growing on his years. There are three years difference between that man and me, why is no one asking or worried about my health? Why?"

"Yeah, men can age and become old weak men who need care, but us women, we have to be their caregivers even after our last tooth has fallen! Married women don't age! We are just meant to serve!" A woman younger than Wei Wuxian slammed her cup down. At first, Wei Wuxian didn't notice, but as she fixed her dress, he saw her baby bump. Now his guilt was higher, not have helped her with moving the chairs, so he flicked his fingers and the plate of sandwich landed on her lap! Finding the plate in her lap, the young woman grinned so big that Wei Wuxian wanted to feed her more.

"But being angry is not the answer, is it? Because when you get angry, it is your own body and mind you are harming. Since you cannot channel your anger at him, isn't it better to make peace?" Madame Ren asked.

"I would like to break his legs too… With a dictionary" Granny Wen sighed.

Instead of contradicting, Madame Ren smiled and replied, "We all would like to break our exs' legs. Even I too have the desire to pick up my instruments and break on his legs! But then I try to remember that my musical instruments are extremely precious and breaking them on a worthless man is pointless." Madame Ren spoke with such softness that anyone would mistake them for words of love.

"I just wanted an apology… I have broken his ribs and ankle and an arm once while we angrily sparred in the arena. But all I ever wanted was an apology. I was fine with the knowledge that my love would not be reciprocated the way I wanted, but the apology never came. And the more I stayed, the more it hurt. Now I feel so empty! I feel so lonely! All I ever wanted was to be loved back. Not because I did such a fantastic as your consort, not because I successfully found away to stabilize injured and broken golden core, not because I loved him so much! I just wanted to be loved back because I was me." Wei Wuxian felt his heart crumble and his belly twisting, he wanted to say it all. It was for the first time he had cracked open like a coconut full of water.

"I was always hungry for love. Just once, I wanted to know what it was like to get my fill of it — to be fed so much love I couldn't take any more. Just once .** " Wei Wuxian's voice was shaky and his hands trembling. Madame Ren, took his hands into hers and patted them.

"What would you like? Since, I am assuming an apology is not coming our way any time soon. How do you want to move from this point in your life?"

"I want to be pampered, not with trinkets of gold or fancy display of love. I want the little things, I want to go grocery shopping, I want to share an ice-cream cone, I want to hold hands in public, I want to be loved in the ordinary moments of life!" Wei Wuxian wiped his eyes with the back of his sleeves.

"And to do that, you have to choose yourself first! You already have taken the most important step, now you have to keep repeating the gesture. In every moment of life you have to love yourself fiercely." Madame Ren patted his arm.

"And if it doesn't work, we can break their bones." Granny Wen added.

"Violence is not a solution!" Madame Ren laughed.

After the first meeting , Wei Wuxian found his heart to be calmer. Meeting the women of the group every Wednesday made him feel less alone. And so his days of divorced life passed quietly, and in the blink of an eye a month was over while Jiang Cheng awaited dates for next hearing. Once a sect approved divorce case went to public court, the result was known to all. When one party wanted marriage to be over, the court would not reject the divorce plea. Jiang Cheng could delay the formalities by a few months and, if he paid bribes, another few weeks. Under no circumstances, was the divorce going to be revoked. With this knowledge, Wei Wuxian, climbed down the mountain from his office.

"Are you going to rant the flat I saw for you or not?" Baoshan Sanren was again making Wei Wuxian push the cart. They were buying a week's ration for the kids.

"My office is fine."

"Then come live with us! We have plenty of rooms in the sect. You can have your mother's room."

"I do not want to impose."

"I am not giving you for free! Just teach my children how to sword fight on weekends and how to make their talismans. I know you did it for the ungrateful Jiangs!"

"You really want me to stay with you?"

"Not me! But in my sect. I also have a new teacher joining me tomorrow."

"New recruit?"

"Yeah, I don't think you know him, he is younger than you by a couple of years."

"And what subject will they teach?"

"Music cultivation and classical literature."

"Eh, grandma, can you afford music cultivator's fee? You know, the Lan Sect charges so much! Even Jiang Clan found them too expensive! Only Jin clan can afford their service on regular basis! You didn't' hire a third-rate copy, did you?" Wei Wuxian grinned as he teased.

"Don't jinx it, boy! He comes recommendation from Ren'er and your tiny friend's brother."

"Huaisang's brother?"

"Yeah, apparently years back he had been poisoned, and this prodigy had cured him."

"A prodigy, that even I don't know of!"

"He is from a different country." Boashan Sanren dumped more radishes in the basket.

"Ehhh I don't like radish!"

"Why do you care? What I serve?"

"If I am living on top of your mountain! I demand potatoes!" Wei Wuxian pretended to be a toddler and stomped his food.

"La… La… take whatever you want!" Boashan Sanren patted her tall grandson with a grin.

"So after work I will come tomorrow." Wei Wuxian happily dumped potatoes and carrots in his cart.

"Come early. I want you to meet the new teacher."

"Yes. Yes. I will."

Lan Wangji Will Not Bulldoze His Second Chance

Lan Wangji had imagined many scenarios on how he would greet Wei Wuxian when he reunited with the man. But he was a man of limited imagination and ideas. He spent, a month with Nie Huaisang, learning of what happened in last twelve years while his brother took over the sect without raising any suspicions. Each day Lan Wangji had spent, counting minutes, he had not spoken to Wei Wuxian for twelve years. So when Nie Huaisang told him Wei Wuxian was in Yiling, a part of Lan Wangji believed, it was indeed destiny that wanted him to reunite with the love of his life.

He had two options, to meet Wei Wuxian head on and declare his intentions, which Lan Xichen, Nie Huaisang and Nie Mingjue advised against. His second option was to approach Wei Wuxian slowly, to do that he had made himself part of the man's life organically.

That's how he found himself, in Baoshan Sanren's sect, the sect of orphans and misfits. He was appointed as their new teacher, he was welcomed by the talkative old man and made comfortable and given a tour. His first day was eventless. When everything calmed down, and they sat down for supper, Lan Wangji carefully placed his question, "Grandmother Sanren, do you happen to know where I can meet Wei Wuxian, his birth name is Wei Ying."

"Ah la! You know my grandson?" The old woman grinned as she piled more soup into his bowl.

"Your grandson?"

"He is my disciple's son. So he is my grandson! I thought you were too young to know him." Baoshan Sanren pulled a running child by the collar and made him sit down by Lan Wangji.

"He was my teacher when I was 14."

"Ah yes, he used to teach, I remember. Then he stopped teaching outside Jiang Clan suddenly. I am old, I forget things these days."

"Mm."

"We are in luck, though; he finally left that clan and has moved here."

"Mmm I heard." Unable to lie or pretend he didn't know was hard, so Lan Wangji decided to omit the truth.

"He will be living here from today! He should be here any moment."

If he was not Lan Wangji, his tea cup would've slipped out of his hands and collided with his soup bowl and created a mess. But none of this happened, but his grip on the cup got tighter and the heart beat increased.

"Wei Ying is going to live here?"

"Yes! He is a workaholic! He has been living in his office. I finally put my foot down and told him either to get a flat at the foot of the mountain or move in with me. Being alone after divorce is bad. He can do his tinkering here! No one is going to complain! My sect has no such rules that stop people from doing their own thing! And he is my grandson! This is home, what do you say Wangji?"

"I agree."

"Good boy, for a Lan boy, you are very progressive, I am glad you chose to teach my kids. Here have more radish fritters."

"Grandma, I am hungry!"

Wei Wuxian flew inside the courtyard of the sect, his bag of tools and junk and clothes followed behind him. His entrance was grand, the children impressed by his actions began pointing at the man hovering above them.

"Where is my room?"

"There." Boashan Sanren pointed, immediately Wei Wuxian flew into his new room. "Change and come to eat."

"Aye aye!"

After watching Wei Wuxian fly in, Lan Wangji was not able to swallow a single morsel. After twelve years, he found the love of his life. Skinnier than he had left him, alone and sad. Lan Wangji didn't need to look twice to see the aftermath of divorce on him. He wanted to follow him, but restrained himself.

"What do we have to eat?"

"Soup, radish fritters, rice and meat." Wei Wuxian came out, his face was bare, his hair short and wet, tanned and freckled his skin unhealthy pale. The black shirt and the darker shirt made him look like a ghost, a ghost that seduced Lan Wangji.

"Lovely" Lan Wangji muttered unconsciously. Instead of talking to with the man he wanted. He let him sit far away, acquaint himself with the children. Boashan Sanren and her helpers served him food. He wolfed it down; Lan Wangji could see Wei Wuxian's eating habits didn't change.

"Tch he still eats like a starving pup." Lan Wangji said to himself.

The dinner passed uneventfully, but the children were impressed by Wei Wuxian's entry and wanted him to teach them to fly. So questions after questions were showered on him, Wei Wuxian answered them all patiently. When he was overwhelmed, Baoshan Sanren, sent the kids away.

"A'Xian, come meet our new teacher."

"Oh yes! I wanted to ask where is talented the person." Wei Wuxian grinned as he turned around, only to find his eyes shocked.

"He says he was your student, I will leave you teacher and student to catch up." With that, Boashan Sanren was gone.

"Wei Ying, how are you?"

"Twelve years, eight months, forty-seven days and sixteen hours!" Wei Wuxian replied..

"What?" Lan Wangji asked.

"You have been gone for this long. How have you been?" Wei Wuxian wasted no time and rushed to hug Lan Wangji. "Ai, my young master has grown so much taller! Have you been well all these years?" Wei Wuxian squeezed him with all his might.

"You counted?" Lan Wangji fell the sudden desire to left Wei Wuxian up and spin him around.

"Of course I was worried about you. I sent you email, letters, I tried calling you in your university, I tracked down your address, but you never got my messages. It was as if someone was always stopping me to reach you."

"Wei Ying, I never got any of them. I am sorry."

"I know you didn't I don't blame you."

"You never forgot about me? Wei Ying you remembered me all these years."

"No! How can I ever forget you?" Wei Wuxian was still hugging him.

"I missed you." Lan Wangji finally let the breath go that he was holding and engulfed Wei Wuxian with his all his might. "I missed you, Wei Ying. I missed you so much!"

"Lan Zhan… You are stronger than me now!" Wei Wuxian tapped the taller's arms.

"Wei Ying…"

"Yes…"

"Can we start from the beginning?"

"Huh?" Wei Wuxian was pinned to Lan Zhan's chest now.

"I am an adult now. You had told me my feelings might change."

"Did I say that?"

"Yes."

"Did they change?"

"No."

"Sorry." Wei Wuxian stopped trying to free himself and inhaled the sandalwood perfume from Lan Wangji's embrace.

"I don't mean to push you, Wei Ying, but I want to love you for the rest of your life."

Finding no response from Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji continued to hug him and stroke his head. "Wei Ying, you don't have to like me that way immediately, but can you keep your heart open for me?" Soon, Lan Wangji felt, a wetness grow between his chest. Wei Wuxian was sobbing in his arms.

"Wei Ying. I am sorry! I am sorry."

"Lan Zhan where were you all these years!" Wei Wuxian crying loudly as Lan Wangji kept patting his back. "Twelve years, I was worried on how you were doing! For twelve years, I was scared that I hurt you! Lan Zhan! Where were you?" Wei Wuxian had finally broken his last dam of resistance.

"I am here now. I am here."

**"I was always hungry for love. Just once, I wanted to know what it was like to get my fill of it — to be fed so much love I couldn't take any more. Just once**: From Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood.

TBC

Disclaimer: Not my novel!

Hi,

This chapter is long! I know! 15000 words is not something I write for a chapter, but well, this story needs that kind of emotional investment and build up. And I may or may not have read too many break up stories and watched some sad movies to get into the story.

And some of you are confused with ages. Let me break it down.

Wei Wuxian, is 35 some months.

Jiang Cheng is almost 36.

Lan Wangji is 27 some months

Jiang Yanli is, 45ish.

Prior to story timeline, Lan Wangji studied under Wei Wuxian when Wangji was 14, Wangji later left the country at 15.

Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian married at age of 26/27, they were married for 9 years, but they have been engaged before birth, but they started living together when Wei Wuxian just turned 4.

So they have been together technically for 30 years.

Around end of 34th year, Wei Wuxian decided to file for divorce, and at 35 it got approved by Jiang Sect Elders. So from chapter two onwards, Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian have already been living apart for a year.

And I am again making it clear, Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian are not getting back together. Jiang Cheng will crawl and learn his lesson, but his husband is not coming back. So I am sorry if some of you came to the story for ChengXian Endgame.
Sorry!

Now leave me kudos and reviews because I am a tinker bell who needs praises, affection and head pats!