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
By the time they rejoin the others, lunch is being served, the meal hearty and full of meat, to A-Yuan's delight. He has taken quickly to calling Min Cenxi "Shijie," something that brings a nostalgic look to Wei Ying's face, and the Jiang disciples dote on him adorably, having already spoiled his lunch with candy—though that doesn't stop him from eating meat from Lan Wangji's plate, something he encourages actively. He also makes sure to sneak more onto Wei Ying's plate.
"We brought bedding for you, too, Shixiong," Min Cenxi tells Wei Ying.
"We were gifted a wedding blanket," Lan Wangji interjects, "but you may remove everything else."
"I've heard—we'll also leave anything obviously yours, of course," Min Cenxi says with a grin that makes his ears turn red.
He's rather relieved he keeps their oil in his qiankun pouch.
When lunch is finished, the conversation turns to more serious matters; specifically that they've been asked to take several members of the remnants back to Lotus Pier to prepare for the transport and integration of the others into the Jiang sect, something they hope to do under the Jin's noses.
Wei Ying's immediate thought is that A-Yuan should go, as he wants him out of the troublesome resentful environment of the Burial Mounds, but the child dissolves into tears at the idea, absolutely refusing to leave "a-die and baba." Lan Wangji can see from the gutted expression on his husband's face that he didn't intend for it to be seen like this, but also that he understands—and he does as well, having lost his mother at a young age and having never known his father by his father's own choice. For one so young, A-Yuan has lost far too many people to take the idea of separation lightly, having only experienced it as permanent.
"I won't send you away, I promise," Wei Ying murmurs, gathering the boy into his arms despite his pulled muscle, rubbing his back soothingly.
Popo, likewise, refuses to go, unwilling to leave A-Yuan even if it will improve her level of comfort, and no one dares argue with her over it. She is, after all, one of their elders, along with Jifu and, to a lesser extent, Wen Qing.
"Before anything is decided, I think we all know that we cannot remain Wen," Popo says, and everyone turns to Wei Ying, the matter having clearly been discussed.
Lan Wangji can see the moment Wei Ying realizes what they're talking about, a myriad of emotions passing over his features—he wants to protest, feeling unworthy, but is clearly also touched—eventually settling on a sort of resigned determination as he turns to Min Cenxi and the other Jiang disciples.
"Will you act as witnesses to the formal adoption?" Wei Ying asks.
They immediately agree, several of them smiling widely, perhaps knowing how much this means to Wei Ying, to have more family officially, to no longer be the last Wei. Though Lan Wangji had mixed feelings about Jiang Wanyin, he clearly made the effort to pick disciples with strong affection for Wei Ying for this mission.
Wen Qing's expression is softer than usual, clearly affected by Wei Ying's emotional reaction. Perhaps, he thinks, she welcomes becoming his elder sister officially. Wen Ning looks as though he would be smiling widely if he had better control over his facial muscles—he'll gain a gege, and he already respects and adores Wei Ying.
Lan Wangji takes A-Yuan from him so he can stand and lead the way to his parents' altar, keeping close in case Wei Ying needs him. The soon-to-be-former Wens follow, the Jiang disciples bringing up the rear.
One of the aunties rushes off and returns with an armful of fruit and jugs of fresh tea, water, and alcohol for the altar. A Jiang disciple helps her place the offerings, and then lights incense.
Wei Ying alters the words to the ritual slightly, as he's not adopting children, but grown adults, and he introduces each of them as Bofu, Shushu, Ayi, or Gugu, and a few of the slightly younger ones as Tangge or Tangjie, while Wen Ning and Wen Qing become his didi and jiejie, accordingly. One by one, they bow beside him as they're introduced to his parents—something Wei Ying insists on doing even as it clearly strains his injured back.
"I should call you Nainai instead of Popo, since I'm adopting you as a Wei," he tells Popo as they bow, and she favors him with a pleased smile and nod.
When it's done, Wei Ying looks haggard, his eyes misty, and Granny Wei draws him close, leading him to a seat and fussing over him. His newly adopted family is kind enough not to comment, returning to the discussion of who should go to Lotus Pier. Lan Wangji joins Wei Ying, sitting close with A-Yuan in his lap.
"Jifu should go; he knows everyone's strengths and can help plan for their integration," Wei Qing argues.
This is met with a flurry of discussion, particularly regarding what Jjifu could contribute to Lotus Pier, despite Min Cenxi's insistence that no one need contribute until they were settled and healthy.
"We are used to work," Jifu tells her gently. "It's good to keep busy, and we must try to help rebuild what our distant cousins destroyed."
"We didn't get a chance to start production of Lotus Breeze wine again," Wei Ying offers. "You know wine, and could help set the trade back up, maybe even make your own vintages."
Ultimately, Jifu acquiesces, and it is decided Meilin should be the other to go, in part because she is the eldest after Popo. Wei Ying comments that her knowledge of dyeing will be valuable to Lotus Pier, since Yunmeng is still building its dye trade back up.
No one mentions why—that Wen Chao had slaughtered civilians and cultivators alike, not caring how it might cripple the trade in the region. Lan Wangji can tell they feel this, too, is a way to atone, even if they have nothing to atone for.
"You are Weis," he says simply. "The sins of your former cousins do not weigh upon you."
"We just want to help," Meilin says, offering a smile. "Yunmeng was decimated in the war, and if we can help heal it, we will—we are healers, after all. I can also help set up the infirmary, since I know what A-Qing will need."
Lan Wangji had forgotten—though Wei Qing was Dafan's best healer, these people were the remnants of a healing clan.
Popo announces that they will need to cook a feast, fretting over how soon they'll leave. Min Cenxi assures them that the Jiang disciples will stay the night, leaving in the morning, giving them time for a proper send-off. Shortly, Wei Ning and Popo head to the kitchen with a few aunties to start cooking, discussing amongst themselves the dishes to make.
Those not helping with preparing the banquet head off to help Jifu and Meilin pack their meager belongings, the Jiang disciples providing qiankun pouches that had held some of the necessities they'd delivered.
When A-Yuan comes to understand what is occurring, keeping him from crying at the impending separation is a near thing, something Wei Ying accomplishes by telling him stories about Yunmeng, and how Jifu and Meilin are going ahead to set up their new home among the lotuses.
"We'll join them soon," he tells the boy. "Lotus Pier is safe."
"You'll get a nice big bed and you'll learn to swim," Min Cenxi adds softly, having stayed behind. "And you'll live with your a-die and baba in a pretty pavilion and you'll have your own room."
Wei Ying blinks in confusion at that, and Lan Wangji quietly tells him Jiang Wanyin intends to repurpose and renovate Madam Yu's former quarters for them. A complicated expression crosses his face before it settles into a false neutrality, and he wonders if he should have waited to give that bit of news, but he has the right to know where they will be living.
"You'll have lots of martial siblings," Wei Ying tells him quietly.
"So burying me worked?" A-Yuan asks, awed.
"Hey, I told you it would, didn't I? You'll meet them when we all go to Lotus Pier."
Min Cenxi's giggle catches Lan Wangji's attention.
"He used to do that with the youngest shidi or shimei—bury them in the shallow mud on the banks of a lotus pond and say they'd get new younger martial siblings grown from lotuses," she says with a smile. "It was a rite of passage, almost, getting buried in mud by Da-Shixiong."
"There are lotus babies, like how I'm a radish baby?"
He wriggles off Lan Wangji's lap to tug on her robe.
"So you're my lotus shijie?"
"I didn't get buried with lotuses," Min Cenxi says in a faux whisper, like it's a secret. "My mama picked me from a pumpkin patch!"
A-Yuan squeals with delighted laughter, tugging at her robes in his glee, calling her Nangua-shijie.
"Not to interrupt, but it's time for your treatment, Wei Wuxian," Wei Qing says, coming over from where she had been giving instructions to the other Jiang disciples.
She rolls her eyes when he pouts. Lan Wangji helps him stand and offers his arm for support. The fact that Wei Ying uses it tells him two things: that his husband trusts Min Cenxi enough to let her see him needing help, and that he is in enough pain to be willing to accept help in front of others.
"Treatment?" Min Cenxi asks.
Wei Qing beckons for her to follow, and she picks up A-Yuan and follows them as they head through the interior corridor to the Demon Slaughtering Cave. Lan Wangji wonders if Wei Ying is comfortable with her presence, but his husband makes no effort to keep her from following.
"Musical, but with We—Wei Qing's needles to direct the spiritual energy," Lan Wangji explains.
He's embarrassed at his slip with her name, but she just smiles and shakes her head.
Min Cenxi's gaze strays toward Wei Ying's abdomen as they enter the area of the cave where their bed rests, and Lan Wangji knows she understands.
"Is there anything I can procure for Wei-daifu before our next visit that would help with his treatment?" she asks, carefully using her newly adopted name.
"I'll write a list when we've finished this treatment," Wei Qing says with a thankful nod. "And if Jiang-zongzhu could send someone to retrieve my books from the former Yiling Supervisory Office, if they're still there, that would also help. Otherwise I'll need to procure copies some other way."
Lan Wangji's guqin still rests on the bedside table from the morning session, from before panic caused by the flare at the wards, but the bed has been transformed with rich plush purple bedding that looks incredibly soft, with extra blankets piled beneath their wedding blanket—Wei Ying will not be so easily cold.
"Strip," Wei Qing orders after surveying the changes with some satisfaction, and pulls out her sachet of sanitized needles.
"Qing-jie, so forward!" Wei Ying squawks in faux indignation, but he nonetheless starts to remove his belt.
Min Cenxi turns red, freezing with A-Yuan in her arms, but Wei Ying doesn't remove more than his outer robe completely, carefully pulling his inner robe from his shoulders to hang from the sash, and removing the zong yi shirt, preserving a bit of modesty. Her expression turns to one of horror when she sees the scars across his back, the lashes left by Zidian, broken zigzags of purple mottling between each from the weapon's sting, none of which healed before he gave his core to Jiang Wanyin and was thrown into the Burial Mounds by Wen Chao.
Lan Wangji focuses on helping Wei Ying lie down on his stomach, can tell he's pushed himself too hard and is in pain from his minute shaking and a few hitched breaths. He keeps hold of his hand, knowing his husband will need comfort while the needles are placed, this fear only lesser than that of dogs in that he didn't flee in terror from it.
A-Yuan squirms until he's let down, and comes forward, looking anxious.
"Your gugu has to use needles, and he doesn't like them, but it will help if you hold his hand," Lan Wangji tells the boy, who immediately crawls onto the bed on Wei Ying's other side to take his free hand.
Wen Qing sits beside Wei Ying on the edge of the bed to place the needles.
"Should—should I go?" Min Cenxi asks.
"It's fine," Wei Ying murmurs tiredly. "Lan Zhan's just going to play healing songs on his guqin, focusing his spiritual energy toward the needles."
"You might as well see what kind of care this idiot needs," Wei Qing says, rolling her eyes. "Anyway, he'll fall asleep in the middle of it, since it also eases his pain."
Lan Wangji can't disagree with her decision to let Min Cenxi know Wei Ying's condition, as it will benefit his health if she can prepare for his needs. She'll also know his limitations more, in terms of what limitations he'll have working with her as co-head disciples.
The young woman mouths 'pain?,' looking concerned, but Lan Wangji knows the conversation is better had once Wei Ying has fallen asleep; discussing his condition embarrasses him, with how healthy he once was and how hard he worked to hide the pain the entire war and after. Wei Ying is one of the strongest people he has the honor to know, but his husband has difficulty believing it, always comparing himself now to who he was before the war.
"We'll discuss later," Wei Qing says, and starts placing needles.
Wei Ying makes an effort not to flinch at each placement, and A-Yuan takes to patting his head gently and calling him "good a-die, strong a-die" in an attempt to comfort him—whether it is successful or not is anyone's guess, but it is adorable.
Lan Wangji reluctantly releases his hand when the last needle is placed, and settles behind his guqin to start the session, focusing on directing his spiritual energy through the notes of the songs of healing, including Clarity and Rest to help clear the muscle of the resentful energy Wei Qing said has settled into the tissue.
True to expectations, Wei Ying is asleep when he finishes, as is A-Yuan beside him, lulled by a combination of the music and his naptime. Once Wei Qing has removed the needles, Lan Wangji covers them both with a new, warm-looking blanket that feels as though it is filled with down, and layers their marriage blanket atop, tucking his husband and son in for their nap.
Wei Qing leads the way to her medical alcove, and starts to explain Wei Ying's condition to Min Cenxi, letting her know his limitations and how he tries to hide them.
"I believe the resentful energy that's leeched into his muscles has caused damage, maybe even scarring, as well, but there's no way to know for certain until he's out of here and cleansed—it would explain some of his chronic pain."
This is something that, if true, little can be done about now, with them living in the Burial Mounds, with the seal still in existence, with Wei Ying steeped in resentful energy, and Wei Qing says as much.
Min Cenxi pulls a blank piece of parchment from a sleeve, her jaw set, and hands it to Wei Qing, gesturing to a nearby inkstone.
"Anything you think will help in the meantime—I'll go buy what's available in Yiling today and come back with the rest in a few days, as much as you need."
As Min Cenxi asks Wei Qing which Head Disciple duties Wei Ying can comfortably take on, Lan Wangji leaves them to discuss, moving back to the alcove to watch over his husband and son, spending his time transcribing more of Wei Ying's notes, particularly the packet he hoped to have ready as dowry when Xiongzhang returned.
A-Yuan wakes before Wei Ying, burrowing his way out from under the blankets and peering at Lan Wangji sleepily.
"Baba write?"
Being called Baba feels like something inside is melting, the same sensation he feels when Wei Ying calls him husband.
"A-Die needs his notes rewritten for his experiments and talismans," he tells A-Yuan solemnly. "He likes my handwriting, so while he's sleeping I'm helping."
A-Yuan settles beside him to watch, and Lan Wangji takes to telling him what some of the simpler characters mean, and eventually gives him a bit of paper and a brush to try one.
He is so involved with A-Yuan—who in the several ke that follows manages to get ink on his face, hands, clothes, and even in his hair, but who also manages to successfully write the character for "man," one that forms a basis for so many other characters he will need to learn, so Lan Wangji considers it an even trade—that he doesn't notice Wei Ying has woken until his laughter fills the air.
By the time he's stopped laughing in favor of just smiling widely and occasionally giggling, Lan Wangji has managed to retrieve the brush from A-Yuan, who was reluctant to give it up, and has gotten quite a bit of the ink from his face and hands. Predictably, this is when A-Yuan gives him the slip, ducking under his arms with his successful bit of calligraphy and a declared intention of showing it to his gugu.
"Qing-jie's gonna put you on laundry and bath duty," Wei Ying tells him with a chortle.
Lan Wangji is unmoved, determined to continue teaching their son, and further pleased that Wei Ying's laughter doesn't seem to bring him any pain. Wei Ying confirms, looking a little surprised, that his back doesn't hurt anymore.
He helps his husband straighten his robes, and they head off to let Wei Qing know. She's in her medicine nook, and they come along just in time to hear her shoo A-Yuan along to "show Popo and Jifu."
"My back doesn't hurt anymore, Qing-jie," Wei Ying says.
He shifts to one side to let A-Yuan past, patting his head; the boy pauses long enough to smile up at them before running off on his mission.
Wei Qing insists on examining him anyway, which musses his robes again, but finishes looking satisfied with the results.
"Seems largely healed, but still no sex," she tells them, and squawks Wei Ying indignantly. "It's susceptible to reinjury right now. Plus A-Yuan is staying with you two tonight. He's excited about it."
Wei Ying still grumbles petulantly, and Lan Wangji can't help but be flattered that his husband wants him so much. It's absolutely something he intends to take full advantage of.
"I want to do another couple sessions tomorrow, too," Wei Qing says, "and then we can see about purging other parts of your body of resentful energy—I really don't like how it's scarring your tissue."
Lan Wangji knows from Wei Ying's expression that he's aware of the damage the resentful energy has done, but that's unsurprising given that Wei Qing has mentioned before he's likely in constant pain. He feels perhaps that will be a conversation they must have, a reminder to his husband not to hide his pain, and instead let it be treated.
"Should he still bathe with the herbs?" Lan Wangji asks.
"I've made up new sachets, with extra ingredients the Jiang disciples brought," she says with a nod, gesturing to her table.
A pile of sachets is in a wooden bowl; beside that a handsome comb rests on a piece of blue fabric, catching Lan Wangji's eye.
"Wait, Jiang Cheng bought that comb in Caiyi," Wei Ying blurts, clearly having noticed it as well. "When did he give it to you?"
Wei Qing reddens, and she snatches the comb and wraps it in the cloth before tucking it in her robe.
"When he released me from the cell Wen Chao put me in at the Yiling Supervisory Office, the first time," she answers after a bit more wheedling.
That, of course, requires more information, and the story unwinds slowly—that was when she learned Wei Ying was missing and, if Wen Chao's boasting was true, dead, for no one returned from the Burial Mounds, particularly not someone who just had his golden core surgically removed.
"I don't know why I took it. I wasn't going to, but…"
She kept it through the war, she tells them, and when Jiang Wanyin refused to help anyone but her when he came to the Burial Mounds in search of Wei Ying, she returned it; she knows he couldn't then, not in the precarious position the Jiang clan held in jianghu, not with Jin Guangshan calling the shots, no matter what debt he owes her and Wei Ning for saving him and sheltering him and his siblings.
When he and Jiang Yanli came, he spoke with her privately and returned it to her.
"He told me he hadn't stopped carrying it," she says, her hand alighting to where the comb rests in her robes.
Silence follows, the tale having clearly taken a lot out of her, and then Wei Ying draws her into a hug.
"So you'll be my jiejie and my difu," he says with a smile.
"I haven't said yes yet, Wei Wuxian!" she yells, swatting at him as he lets her go, but her smile is at odds with her words.
"You took the comb, Qing-jie—you want to comb his hair til he gets old!" he crows teasingly.
She huffs at him, but doesn't deny it.
"You know, when Madam Yu tried to get matchmakers to find him a future bride he came up with a ridiculous list of requirements, like demure and good cultivation but not too strong, and—" he pauses, his expression shifting before he finishes quietly, "—and basically not his mother."
His voice is troubled, and clearly he's had a realization that has thrown him; Lan Wangji knows that means he has internalized it, and he makes a note to discuss it with him later.
"It's funny how love works," Wei Ying finishes softly.
Wei Qing looks between them with a raised eyebrow as though to imply they are a case in point. She tosses Lan Wangji a sachet for later use in Wei Ying's bath, then gestures for them to follow her to the main cavern where they take meals, where they find a feast laid out for their goodbye dinner for Jifu and Meilin—including a steaming vat of lotus and pork rib soup.
Jifu is congratulating A-Yuan on his first calligraphy practice, asking in a booming voice if he can take it with him to Lotus Pier and hang it, and receiving enthusiastic permission from the giggling boy.
"I'll hang it in the room that will be yours, when I help set that up," he promises, to A-Yuan's delight.
As he passes dishes from table to table, Wei Ning is praised for learning to make the soup, something one of the Jiang disciples helped with, "so Da-Shixiong won't go without, Shijie insisted."
Everyone is spread to different tables, but conversation flows among them as they load their bowls, fading away a bit as they eat.
Lan Wangji wonders if they'll have this, these intimate family meals with laughter and warmth, when they reach Lotus Pier, and knows that will be something to bring with them, to fight for.
He keeps Wei Ying's bowls full and helps Popo feed A-Yuan, shifting between duties and eating his own dinner without issue. He knows what each of them likes—both like lotus root and pork rib soup, A-Yuan is still thrilled by anything involving meat, and Wei Ying is oddly fond of the silkworm pupae Wei Ning has tonight worked into a dish with greens and peppercorns; the peppercorns tell him Wei Ning has noticed his dislike of the pupae and has flavored the dish accordingly.
The meal is served with tea that was delivered with the food, a blend with floral notes, and when someone asks Wei Ying identifies it as lotus tea, a black tea with lotus petals.
"We make a lot of dishes involving the different parts of the lotus," he tells them, then discusses how each part of the plant can be used.
Several of the former Wen who were farmers by trade before the war are clearly interested in his discussion, and before long the other Jiang disciples are adding details about how lotuses are grown and harvested and used.
Eventually, everyone has eaten their fill, and A-Yuan is yawning, which leads Wei Qing to remind them they are in charge of him tonight.
"And anyway, we need to be up early to see everyone off," she finishes, giving Wei Ying a mock critical look.
Wei Ying looks at her with overexaggerated faux hurt, and the others laugh, everyone acquainted with his odd sleeping hours, though Wei Qing has mentioned several times to Lan Wangji that they have improved since his arrival.
"We'll be back next qi with the supplies everyone requested," Min Cenxi adds. "We'll take a couple more people then, too. Zongzhu wants to get everyone to Lotus Pier as quickly as possible without arousing suspicion, and no one pays much attention if a few people come in at a time."
A large group will be suspicious, particularly if it coincides with an empty Burial Mounds, Lan Wangji knows is the implication.
Wei Qing shoos them off as Popo and some of the aunties start clearing the tables and the men stack the tables and chairs in a corner, conversing amongst themselves who should go to Lotus Pier next.
"The Jiang disciples are setting up camp in the main hall here," she explains at Wei Ying's questioning look.
It's better than spending the night outside, where after dark despite their best efforts the Burial Mounds is active, though significantly less so than it once was, making it smarter to stay inside the warded settlement area.
"I'll bring some sleeping robes for A-Yuan in a bit," she says as they leave the main hall.
When they get to the cave, Lan Wangji activates a heating talisman on the tub to prepare the bath.
"Bath?" A-Yuan asks, skeptical in the way toddlers are of anything involving getting clean.
He still has ink in his hair and on his face and hands, so a bath is necessary, but sleepy toddlers are uncooperative, and that portents a mess.
"With me," Wei Ying tells him, and the boy brightens considerably at the idea.
Lan Wangji helps the child undress, then hands the boy off to Wei Ying once he's stepped into the tub. He places the sachet nearby to add later, once A-Yuan is clean and out. A-Yuan is excited by the warmth of the water and full of questions that his husband answers happily. While they bathe, he straightens their alcove, putting aside neat transcriptions of notes and turning down the blankets. He picks up their discarded robes and remembers the clarity bells, unhooking them from each to place on the table near the bed. He removes his own at the same time.
A qiankun pouch catches his eye, left in the shadows at the end of their bed, and inside he finds soft robes, an entire wardrobe he presumes is for Wei Ying, something they can go through in the morning. He selects, at first, a crimson sleeping robe, but thinks better of it when it makes him think of wedding robes, and pulls out one in a deep shade of lilac—Jiang Wanyin making it clear Wei Ying belongs to Yunmeng—and a set of zhong yi. The clothing will be large on Wei Ying with the weight he's lost and not yet recovered, but they will be comfortable and soft on his skin, and he places the pile on the bed before setting the qiankun pouch aside. This reminds him that Min Cenxi mentioned measuring them for wedding robes, which will presumably happen in the morning.
Wei Qing calls from beyond the curtain, and hands him a stack of clothing for A-Yuan when he exits the alcove, a sleeping robe and matching duduo and pants in the same lilac shade as Wei Ying's among them, and new, well-made robes to dress him in tomorrow. The latter, he can tell just from touch, have protective talismans sewn into them.
"Jiang-zongzhu sent along so much clothing for him, it's like he couldn't decide on just a few outfits," she says with a little smile.
Lan Wangji is pleased Jiang Wanyin is taking his role as uncle seriously, and says as much, and Wei Qing laughs.
"He's going to make your brother compete for favorite uncle, I'm sure, which at least will ensure A-Yuan is happy and cared for," she says. "I don't know that he should be quite so spoiled, but he's had so much hardship already…"
A giggle sounds from the alcove, and the sound of splashing and the dulcet tones of Wei Ying's boisterous voice, and Wei Qing smiles.
"We've given A-Yuan the best we can, under the circumstances, and it's nice to know he'll get more in the future."
"We will ensure it," Lan Wangji affirms.
Wei Qing lingers a bit longer to remind him she wants to do at least more round of treatment on Wei Ying's pulled muscle before moving to other old injuries that may benefit from the technique; she is nonspecific as to what injuries she could be referring to, and Lan Wangji both does and does not want to ask questions, knowing as he does his husband's tendency to hide his pain, so he simply agrees with her decision, determined to trust her medical expertise. He prefers to assume, for the moment, that she is referring to the damage from the resentful energy she mentioned to Min Cenxi earlier.
When he returns to the alcove with the pile of tiny toddler clothing, Wei Ying is telling a much-simplified version of their battle against the Xuanwu of Slaughter, featuring Lan Wangji as the hero of the tale, dramatically using his hand to mimic the monster thrashing in the water.
"Baba killed the monster?" A-Yuan asks, turning to him with excited expectation.
And so he finds himself telling the child a sanitized version of Wei Ying's own heroics in that battle, including him managing to keep from being swallowed while he strangled the beast with the drawstrings of deconstructed bows. Wei Ying splits his focus between adding details and laving the rest of the ink from A-Yuan's skin and hair.
"Diedie didn't get eaten," Wei Ying assures A-Yuan when he looks at him with wide eyes. "And Lan Zhan saved me when it was dead. Your baba is my hero."
Lan Wangji feels his ears heat, but simply replies in kind.
"Your die helped when I was hurt, so I would have the strength to fight. He is my hero as well."
"Fell in love then?" A-Yuan asks.
"No," Lan Wangji says before Wei Ying recovers from his terminal embarrassment. "I fell in love with Wei Ying before the war."
He tells A-Yuan of Wei Ying's rule breaking and punishment with lines in the library, the silly antics that he couldn't easily ignore.
Wei Ying, unsurprisingly, joins in, adding details and fleshing out the stories—though not giving some that might be inappropriate for a child, for all that they aren't explicit in nature, aside from the porn.
After a while, the child is drooping against Wei Ying in the tub, nearly out, and Lan Wangji lifts him from the water into one of the towels that the Jiang disciples also brought. He hands Wei Ying the satchel of herbs for his soak, then focuses on drying and dressing the half-asleep toddler, tucking him into the bed even as he protests and resists sleep.
"We will come to bed soon, after your die soaks in the medicine," he murmurs to A-Yuan, pleased when he settles at the promise.
He turns to find Wei Ying watching him, smiling in a way that makes him feel oddly self-conscious, so he busies himself undressing to his zhong yi, then comes to the tub to wash Wei Ying's back. His husband sighs softly at his touch, relaxing into the touch, quiet in a content way.
Wei Ying's hair has started to come loose from its braid, so he retrieves the comb from his nearby qiankun pouch and focuses on easing out the few tangles, combing it for the rest of the time he needs to soak. His husband is half-asleep when he helps him from the tub and wraps him in a towel to dry. Once he's dressed, Lan Wangji braids his hair again and tucks him in with A-Yuan, who doesn't stir. Once he's finished his night ablutions and donned a sleep robe, he joins them, front to Wei Ying's back, to find his husband has already dropped off, stomach full and exhausted from a day of surprises, curled around A-Yuan, the boy tucked against his chest protectively.
He kisses a mole under Wei Ying's ear, pleased when he sighs in his sleep and settles more fully, smooths the baby hair on A-Yuan's brow, and extinguishes the candles, working to clear his mind. Lan Wangji finds this doesn't come easily.
The slow piecemeal evacuation of the Burial Mounds will start in the morning, and before long Xiongzhang will be back with Chifeng-Zun and Nie Huaisang. So many things could go wrong in that visit, but he will be here to protect his family. That, he tells himself, is what he can control—as difficult as it is to rely on others, it is necessary if they hope to successfully save the newly-adopted Weis and get ahead of Jin Guangshan's scheming. He doesn't have the power or savvy to accomplish that alone.
But an auspicious eight, supported by Xiongzhang and Chifeng-Zun, would have that power, he hopes. He has to try to have faith in his brother's promise to help.
He can trust Xiongzhang.
Ancient China used a luni-solar calendar system, and there were 24 qi (気) in a year, starting with the Winter Solstice, with each qi being 15 days. So basically the plan Jiang Cheng has is to send disciples every 15 days or so with supplies to keep the settlement comfortable, and they'll bring back 2-3 people each qi when returning to Lotus Pier, in the hopes that the Jin won't notice the trickle.
The Xuanwu fight is a little frankencanon, in that it brings in some details from the novel and the cdrama.
This took longer than I anticipated to write. It's been a little hectic in my personal life, including several family emergencies. I took care of my mom's dogs for a month while she dealt with some of them and it was a perfect reminder of why I never want children.
A huge thank you to my beta readers!