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 Eight
Wei Ying's health takes a dip for several days, something Wei Qing attributes to a mundane illness, as several of the Wei also become ill, including A-Heng and A-Yun. However, it impacts him worse because of his lack of health and, Wei Qing thinks, his prolonged malnutrition at several points in his life, not simply his lack of a jindan.
"Rest and eat regular small meals. Popo will bring them. I'll have A-Ning make you soup tonight," Wei Qing promises, which tells Lan Wangji how concerned she is more than anything else she says.
Lan Wangji cares for Wei Ying, placing wet terrycloth rags on his forehead during fever and keeping him warm, hydrated, and fed, while the Wei care for the children and each other. During this period, Wei Qing halts bringing children home, letting them know they can come when the illness has run its course.
One morning after Wei Qing has finished his treatment and left for Yiling with Wei Ning and the Jiang cultivators for the day, in the midst of his fever, Wei Ying wakes with a grimace.
"Someone is at the wards," he explains, then breaks out in a coughing fit.
He needs Lan Wangji's help to get down to the entrance to the Burial Mounds. Happily, it turns out to be Luo Qingyang with more supplies from Qinghe, having been tracked down by Nie Huaisang and sent in their direction.
She is wearing sensible blue robes, nothing Jin-associated, and there is no risk of A-Yuan reacting to her. The letter she bears from him details finding her and enlisting her help, as well as detailing his search of brothels for Wen women who were sold by the Jin—he plans to have them brought to the Burial Mounds, so they can be adopted as Wei before being moved to Lotus Pier.
"You look like hell, Wei-gongzi," she tells him honestly, and insists he go back to his sickbed while she helps around the settlement.
"Ah, Mianmian, so kind to her ailing Yuandao," he responds weakly, then lets Lan Wangji guide him back to the cave.
Lan Wangji ultimately carries him on his back, back to his sickbed.
Mianmian takes up residence with little fuss, camping in the great hall until one of the Wei uncles lets her know there's a bed available, freshly built, in the larger building where most of them sleep, preferring safety in numbers to privacy. The building is partitioned by a blanket between men and women, and Luo Qingyang insists it's sufficient for her comfort.
The fever breaks the next day, and as Wei Ying was the last person ill, the following evening Wei Qing brings several new children and a very skittish woman with makeup-covered bruises on her face. It turns out she heard the poem and hoped the Yiling Laozu would protect her and her children from her abusive husband, running away for fear of death.
Wei Ying immediately holds the adoption ceremony, unwilling to turn away someone in need, and Wei Yating and her children, seven year old daughter Yi'er and two year old son A-Rong, become the newest members of their clan.
"I'm stealing wives and children now," he murmurs coyly to Lan Wangji later. "Are you going to punish me, Hanguang-Jun?"
"Only from those who deserve to lose them," he says, then presses him into the mattress.
"I hope you don't still think I like Mianmian," Wei Ying says lightly, teasing, and Lan Wangji puts his mouth to better use.
They adhere to every day where possible, now that Wei Ying is no longer ill.
A-Yuan is enthralled with his embarrassment of riches in new cousins and playmates, though his favorite seems to be A-Zhi. He's engaged and happy, and Lan Wangji suspects in many ways the boy was lonely and didn't know it, even now wouldn't be able to put it into words or even understand it. He doesn't fuss as much as he did before.
The children are healing many in the settlement, breathing life into the Burial Mounds in a way that makes the lingering resentment somehow almost seem content.
Luo Qingyang starts accompanying Wei Qing and Wei Ning to Yiling, supplementing the protection of the Jiang disciples and doing any shopping that needs to be done for the settlement. She brings sewing with her and works on child-sized robes for their new and future clan members. Once she even comes home with a child already dressed in the new robes she finished that very day.
This frees Wei Ying to stay in the Burial Mounds to work on his inventions and rest, and Lan Wangji to make sure he doesn't blow up the cave and actually rests. Wei Qing is glad he's not pushing himself to go to Yiling daily with them and is instead able to get more healing out of their musical acupuncture sessions in being able to let the healing take hold more fully.
"You're still underweight and healing, Wei Wuxian," she comments when he tries to apologize for not accompanying them. "Your brother sent disciples to attend that duty. You're not alone. Learn to delegate."
Thankfully, Wei Ying capitulates without too much guilt; it helps that Luo Qingyang has seamlessly added herself to the community, helping the aunties with laundry and clothing repair at times and helping to look after the children. Allowing her to accompany Wei Qing and Wei Ning to Yiling in his stead makes sense, given his health.
She eats meals with them, adding her voice to Popo's insistence that he eat more, though she carefully lets Lan Wangji be the one to fill his bowl, and joins Wei Qing's gentle teasing as well.
"Let your husband feed you, Wei Wuxian. You're so light a stiff wind could carry you off."
Wei Ying takes her teasing with as much grace as he takes Wei Qing's, with an exaggerated pretense of wounded pride.
The children flock to her, as well, and she's patient and kind with them.
The Burial Mounds, while dangerous in the warded areas, have become somewhat idyllic, a functioning settlement with plenty of food and shelter. The former Wen are healing and thriving, the children are happy and recovering from malnourishment, and Wei Ying has more good days than bad, hope illuminating him from within.
It's inevitable that it will shatter, and it comes in the form of an attempt on Wei Qing. They return to the settlement early, Luo Qingyang bleeding from her non-dominant arm, and Wei Ning carrying a trussed up rogue cultivator who is ranting nonsense about Wei Ying and his "Wen army," something Lan Wangji puts a stop to with the silencing spell to spare the children his words.
A couple of the children burst into tears at the sight of blood. One, a girl of about ten years named A-Hua who arrived only the day before, runs to her immediately, calling her Yang-jiejie and fussing over her.
"I'll leave you to interrogate him for now," Wei Qing tells Wei Ying. "Once she's patched up, I'll join you."
"We don't have room for prisoners," Wei Ying says darkly, his gaze on Luo Qingyang's arm.
The rogue cultivator stops struggling at that, seeming to finally realize his position is not favorable to his health. Though he may be biased, Lan Wangji suspects he is not the most intelligent of men.
"Please immobilize him with your needles," Lan Wangji requests, and Wei Qing does as asked without fanfare.
The Wei clan has gathered by this point, murmuring and watching the rogue cultivator with no small amount of unhappiness, and it should be clear to him there is no army, assuming he is capable of rational thought.
On Wei Ying's order, Wei Ning drags the man unceremoniously to the Demon-Slaughtering Cave—and Lan Wangji notices with no small amount of satisfaction that the name makes him pale further.
Wei Ying has WeI Ning dump the rogue cultivator on the stone that once served as his bed, and then crosses his arms for a moment and looks him over before starting to go through the man's robes. The man cannot protest under the silencing spell, and he soon finds a piece of parchment promising a reward and a place with the Jin sect to anyone who "kills or captures Wen Qing, the Ghost General, or the Yiling Laozu, Wei Ying," calling them enemies of the jianghu.
"So Mianmian was hurt protecting Qing-jie," Wei Ying says tightly, "and now we have to figure out what to do with you."
It's almost pitiful to watch the man try and fail to break the silencing spell, cultivation too low to even manage that much, unable to move because of Wei Qing's needles. Lan Wangji wonders if this rogue cultivator could even defeat as little as a walking corpse.
"Luo-guni—guniang d-didn't have to unsheath her sword to cap—capture him," Wei Ning says, clearly sharing Lan Wangji's opinion of the man, doing his best to loom.
"He is fortunate that she stayed her sword after his capture," he comments.
"Only so we could interrogate him," Luo Qingyang breaks in from the entrance to the alcove, Wei Qing behind her. "And I didn't think the Yiling magistrate would be happy if I gutted him in the street like he deserved."
She's clearly angry, but when Wei Ying comes to check her arm, she sets it aside and swats at him affectionately with the bloodstained sleeve of her robe, trying to reassure him. From his serious expression, it doesn't work.
"It's fine; I'll be healed by tomorrow," she insists.
"The more pressing matter is this idiot," Wei Qing said, gesturing at the rogue cultivator. "The Jiang disciples are willing to take him to Lotus Pier so your brother can deal with him, but the real issue is the Chief Cultivator has declared open season on you, Wei Wuxian. On us."
The parchment makes any harm done to Wei Ying or those he protects legal in the eyes of the jianghu, which is a dangerous directive that could undermine all the work they've done. It puts even their sworn brotherhood at odds with the orthodoxy, not just Wei Ying or the former Wen.
"Need to notify the others," Lan Wangji advises. "They will help."
Xiongzhang and Chifeng-Zun, as supporters of the Auspicious Eight, are now in precarious positions, though there is ample room for grievance—Wei Ying has done nothing against the jianghu since he freed the now-Weis. Not that the Jin haven't been engaged in their vicious rumor-mongering.
They are, potentially, back to the lowest of public opinions with this move, all gains lost.
Wei Ying brushes by him, his gait too rushed to be a stalk, and out of the alcove. Lan Wangji knows he must take charge.
"Render him unconscious with needles. Send him with the Jiang disciples. Include the parchment. Have Jiang Wanyin notify Qinghe and Gusu. And Jin-shao-furen."
As happens when he is upset, he turns to the cadence of short sentences, the brevity found in literature and the work of scholars. Wei Qing nods and gestures for him to follow his husband. He does, knowing she will implement the transfer of the prisoner. The sooner the rogue cultivator is out of the Burial Mounds, the better.
Even with him gone, much more will need to be discussed—whether Wei Qing can continue to go to Yiling daily, for instance. What to do about children coming to Yiling to join their family. How to protect the settlement.
He finds Wei Ying sitting in his workshop area, staring at his nearly-finished prototype of the questionably-named Compass of Evil, his body language defensive and evasive, folded in on himself, his breathing harsh. He's clearly trying to calm down, but Lan Wangji can tell he is spiraling.
"Wei Ying. Sending him to Yunmeng."
He gets no response, Wei Ying almost frozen, his eyes dull. Lan Wangji knows his spiral must be interrupted, and so he sits beside his husband and takes the compass, setting it down, taking Wei Ying's hand in his own.
"Wei Ying," he repeats, hoping to lead him from his stupor with his voice.
"I had hope," Wei Ying murmurs, looking at him with a bleakness that doesn't belong on his face. "That maybe we'd find a way. That there could be more than a single-plank path. That I could somehow not be doomed to die."
He looks as dejected as he did the first day Lan Wangji came to the Burial Mounds, when he discovered the truth of his jindan, and his heart aches for his husband, for his hopelessness, and all the worse for that he cannot reassure him beyond any doubt. He has only faith in their allies to rely upon himself, and he can only imagine Wei Ying's is shaky, his trust in people damaged by his experiences.
They intended for the yuefu to take hold more fully, to make it difficult for Jin Guangshan to move against him, but they didn't anticipate this level of action already. Now, with their efforts undercut, there are children involved, more than A-Yuan, and so many people depending on the success of their plan. They can't guarantee it, and none of them, save the original remnants, know this. Wei Ying gave them his name, and now they may be doomed by it.
"I told you I would doom you, too," he whispers.
Lan Wangji gathers him into his arms, hoping he give him strength through the contact. Wei Ying leans against him listlessly, trembling with the force of his emotions. Hope snatched from him cruelly. He strokes his husband's hair, massaging his scalp and guiding him to lean his head against his shoulder, kisses him chastely. He is pleased when Wei Ying's gaze becomes more present.
"Never doom," he says. "I will not abandon you. Nor will the others. We are sworn siblings."
The swearing of siblinghood is often done before a battle, to tie the participants together as kin in what could be the end. Fitting, then, that the Auspicious Eight are now tied together as the battle comes to them.
And they have an extra advantage, one the Jin can't possibly know about—they have two of the Venerated Triad at their backs as well. Three of the four major sects stand behind Wei Ying, and Jin Guangshan's heir gone rogue, even.
Wei Ying burrows against him, seeking the comfort he's offering, his eyes glassy with unshed tears.
"All is not lost, Wei Ying," he assures him gently. "Together we will build a wide avenue."
He swears he will do everything in his power to make that a reality.
This fic is finally breaking 100k words! Also, honeymoon is over. Now come the complications.
Yating, 雅婷, pinyin yǎtíng, means elegant and graceful. Yi, 怡, pinyin yí, means joy. Rong, 融, pinyin róng, means harmonize. Hua, 华, pinyin huá, means splendid. There are a few more children, but they shall remain nameless. Assume there are, in addition to the eight named, four unnamed.
Thanks to adrian_kres and Yassy for the beta!
Glossary:
er = honorific meaning little or dear
jindan = golden core
laozu = patriarch
shao-furen = younger madam
xiongzhang = older brother
yuefu = a style of narrative poetry that basically borrows from Chinese folk song traditions—the Ballad of Mulan is an example