Chapter Text
Wei Wuxian’s earliest memory is a vague one of his mother and father loving him and each other very much. He sat on a donkey with his mother, his father leading them along, and he could feel the warmth radiating off of it.
His second memory is of some alpha dragging an omega into his alley in Yiling where they proceeded to have very loud, very passionate sex, hesitating to stop even when a seven-year-old Wei Wuxian yelled at them to shut the Hell up so he could get some sleep. He ended up having to chase them out with a stick—and they just moved an alley over before continuing.
That night, Wei Wuxian decided that sex was stupid. He has yet to find evidence to prove him wrong.
Betas are few in numbers, and Wei Wuxian has not met many of them in his life. Jiang Fengmian, who dragged him to Lotus Pier, is an omega. Yu Ziyuan, who hates his entire being, is an alpha. Jiang Yanli, with her sweet words and loving gaze, is an omega. Jiang Cheng, with his fierce temper and ferocious drive to be the best, is an alpha.
Everyone but Wei Wuxian is surprised when he presents as a beta. If he’d become an alpha or omega, Wei Wuxian would have run away into the woods to sulk in self-pity for the rest of eternity, but the universe apparently doesn’t hate him too much! At least, that’s what he thought. He was wrong.
After Jiang Fengmian effectively adopted him, Wei Wuxian became the highest-ranking beta of the YunmengJiang Sect, making him the Pack Beta. (Sects and Packs are, of course, entirely different—the former is the formal cultivation group formed long ago by a ranger, and the latter is largely dependent on the physiological tendency of people to form close-knit groups.) The previous Pack Beta was Yinzhu, a personal maid to Yu Ziyuan.
Pack politics are complicated—Wei Wuxian has heard many a horror story about the vicious fights that may occur to obtain the title of Pack Alpha or Pack Omega (which are held by Yu Ziyuan and Jiang Fengmian respectively), though they don’t tend to happen as often in prominent Packs like the YunmengJiang. However, Wei Wuxian has never heard of a fight over becoming the Pack Beta. He learns very quickly that this is because no one wants to be the Pack Beta.
Wei Wuxian is found at nine years old. He is given a month of solace before Yinzhu dumps all of her responsibilities onto Wei Wuxian with no prior warning.
Wei Wuxian suddenly finds himself responsible for ensuring the stability of all the marriages in the Pack.
“It could be worse,” Jiang Cheng tells him. “Mother is responsible for defense and Father is responsible for keeping us supplied. You just have to keep an eye on everyone. Even us kids can do that.”
Wrong. Wei Wuxian is nine and he should not be forced to walk in on multiple couples having sex as much as he does. He screams at them to do it at home, to do it out of sight, to keep quiet, to at the very least keep most of their clothes on—but no one listens. They keep on having very loud, very naked sex in the Great Hall, in the Mess Hall, in the training grounds, in the shrubbery—even in the hallways! Right next to doors to unoccupied rooms or closets that they can easily go into! But no, they just continue to have sex right where they are!
“You!” Wei Wuxian thunders as he tries (and fails) to tackle Yinzhu approximately eight days after getting his new responsibilities. “Take them back! Don’t shove your work onto me!”
Yinzhu’s eyes stare down at him in complete and utter glee. “You heard Madam Yu,” she croons, “I’m finally no longer Pack Beta—like Hell I’m going to go back to doing that! It’s your problem now, brat!”
“At least help me!”
“No!”
Yinzhu is a sadist.
The worst part of the job ends up being when he is called in to help mediate between bickering couples. Nearly one hundred percent of the time, Wei Wuxian reveals how stupid both parties are being and then has to hightail it out of there before they start having reconciliation sex. Sometimes he even succeeds. The few times he doesn’t get them to forgive each other, he has to get out before they start having hate sex.
Being a beta means he’s not genetically predisposed to mate. He can technically have sex if he wants to, but the very thought of it nearly has him punching the nearest wall. He doesn’t understand the rabid fanaticism around it—it’s just squishing genitals together! It’s sticky! It’s gross! The images that have been burned into his brain (the most mortifying of which being finding Yu Ziyuan and Jiang Fengmian on the Lotus Throne, what the heck, get off, do you have any idea who hard it is to clean all those ridges— ) have killed any desire he had ever had. (Not that he had any desires in the first place.)
Every day, Wei Wuxian gets down on his knees and prays that Jiang Fengmian has a long-lost beta sibling who will one day return and take the burden off of Wei Wuxian’s shoulders. As the days pass, the possibility of that happening becomes smaller and smaller—but Wei Wuxian still has hope.
The good thing about heats is that omegas prefer to have sex in the safety of their homes during them. Wei Wuxian has the heat cycle of every omega that lives in Lotus Pier marked down—taking a savage satisfaction in the three days to a week that the omega either spends entirely with their partner, or entirely alone shut up in their own house. It’s beautiful.
Ruts, on the other hand, have no such restriction. Wei Wuxian has the rut cycle of every alpha that lives in Lotus Pier marked down, and he makes sure to threaten them all into submission with Suibian the day before so they don’t try anything stupid. (Who says that alphas are the most dominant? A hysterical beta can and will stab you—a fact which Lotus Pier has learned after one couple decided that they liked it when Wei Wuxian walked in on them and decided to make it a more common occurrence.)
Well, it turns out that he doesn’t have the heats and ruts of everyone marked down.
It must be some kind of sick joke that Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan have their heat and rut spanning over the exact same time period. Jiang Fengmian is Sect Leader—when he is out of commission, Yu Ziyuan is supposed to take charge. When she is out of commission, who is left? Not the calm and sensible Jiang Yanli, not the rightful heir Jiang Cheng, but the Pack Beta.
Wei Wuxian spends a week doing paperwork and desperately trying to keep Lotus Pier from imploding in on itself. Yinzhu watches on the entire time, face curled into a vicious smirk. Wei Wuxian would try to pull Suibian on her, but she’d beat him into the ground, put him back on the desk, and demand that he complete the rest of the paperwork.
Then he finds himself doing the same thing after Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan crawl out of their chambers, too.
Wei Wuxian thinks that, maybe, he would have been better off on the streets of Yiling, chasing people away with rotten sticks.
Omegas care for children, alphas provide for children, and betas…well, they do their best to make sure those children don’t grow up into rabid sex fiends. Wei Wuxian fails miserably in this regard. To be fair, he’s only been there for a few years and his responsibilities are numerous, so he hasn’t had enough time to properly explain to children why mating and having children themselves should not be their life goal.
He thinks quite a few of the adults could also use this conversation, but he suspects that he won’t be able to get anything through their thick skulls.
The curriculum goes like this—
Lesson #1: sex is not the most important thing in the world.
Lesson #2: everything other than sex is not just window dressing.
Lesson #3: sweet heavenly Buddha just please keep it in your pants because Wei Wuxian’s heart can’t take much more of this.
Every single student fails the test. Wei Wuxian sulks in his room for all of ten minutes before he’s dragged out to settle a fight between a mated couple.
He truly considers running away into the woods, but he genuinely likes Lotus Pier and if he leaves then Yinzhu will almost definitely burn it down as revenge.
Wei Wuxian stays.
Jin Zixuan is the alpha heir to the Jin Sect and Jiang Yanli’s betrothed. She’s smitten. Jin Zixuan is not. Wei Wuxian doesn’t know if he should be offended on his Shijie’s behalf or if he should fall into a full-on kowtow in front of the arrogant peacock.
All he knows is that he does not want to walk in on them having sex. Ever.
Jiang Cheng takes a much more hostile approach, reminiscent of most alphas when it comes to the prospective marriage of their omega siblings. He fights, he backstabs, he throws insults and taunts—he does not like Jin Zixuan. Wei Wuxian lets it keep going purely because he knows it will drive Jin Zixuan farther away.
Wei Wuxian knows that, eventually, Jiang Yanli will probably have to marry, but he’s all for putting it off for as long as possible. And, guiltily, he plans on gently maneuvering Jiang Yanli into marrying someone from Qinghe—which, you may note, is home to the Great Sect that is farthest away from them—so that he can still write frequently to her, but maybe not visit her as much.
He is too ashamed to admit his plan out loud. He continues to politely bring up that Nie Mingjue is an unmarried alpha that’s around her age anyway. Neither Jiang Fengmian nor Yu Ziyuan notice, too busy glaring at each other (and possibly planning their next round of “hate” sex).
Wei Wuxian hates everything.
One day, Yinzhu comes up to him with a rigid expression that shows she doesn’t want to be anywhere near him. Jinzhu is holding her in place steadily. Wei Wuxian all but hisses at her. “What do you want?”
Through grit teeth, Yinzhu explains, “Over the years, I have learned that Madam Yu and Sect Leader Jiang appreciate it when the Pack Beta takes a more active role in running the Sect.”
He stares dumbly. “What does that mean?”
Yinzhu says nothing. Jinzhu sighs. “She means that whenever they’re unavailable, you’re quite literally Acting Sect Leader, so stop being so shy and timid about YunmengJiang affairs! Make decisions for them when they can’t! They won’t care as long as you don’t do anything stupid like trying to undermine their power.”
A twelve-year-old making decisions for an entire Sect may be considered undermining their power to some people. Wei Wuxian is included in that group. He does not care. Actually making decisions means saving time thanks to no longer writing letter after letter explaining to various minor Sect Leaders that Jiang Fengmian can’t contact them at that time but he really, truly cares about their problems. (He does not. Wei Wuxian is doing him a huge favor that he is going to cash in one day.)
He starts making decisions, and immediately regrets it, because now people actually treat him as regent! Every time Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan are off doing things that Wei Wuxian would rather not think of, people start to come to him with their problems instead of just laying their grievances on Jiang Fengmian’s desk and walking away!
He’s buried under a mountain of work! He’s still a disciple, he needs to train! His new schedule is absolutely terrible, but now it must be followed.
(He makes sure to save ten minutes in it for ensuring Yinzhu and Jinzhu are served the most watery, disgusting soup imaginable for the next week. They know he did it, he knows they know he did it, and none of them do a thing about it.)
Despite Wei Wuxian’s continued failure at living a fulfilling, satisfying life, he doesn’t fail at much else. For example, he’s an intellectual (a title that makes Jiang Cheng snort in disbelief). Due to his heightened intelligence, he notices a very specific pattern in himself, one that he would not have noticed if he weren’t paying attention.
You see, every time Wei Wuxian hears the word “knot,” he hurls the closest object at the person who said it. He doesn’t even mean to, it’s an automatic response. So far, it’s just been various Jiang disciples that he’s thrown books and brushes and vases at, but eventually, some important person is going to say it and his little habit will come back to bite him in the butt.
Reluctantly, he makes an effort to rid himself of the habit.
He gets mixed results.
When the invitations for lectures in the Cloud Recesses arrive, Wei Wuxian immediately signs himself up. Then, realizing that this sort of experience will be good for Jiang Cheng, he signs him up as well. He informs everyone at dinner.
Jiang Cheng nods along easily, Jiang Yanli congratulates them both and wishes them luck, and Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan…don’t hear a word he’s saying. They keep staring into each other’s eyes. Their heat and rut start tomorrow.
Wei Wuxian drags Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli out of the room the moment they’re both finished with food—after all, they have planning to do.
Wei Wuxian does not drink alcohol often because it usually means bad decisions, and bad decisions mean that he’ll end up seeing more people having sex than he needs. He intensely debates whether or not he should buy some of the famous Emperor’s Smile in Caiyi Town—and decides not to, because the Jiang entourage is made entirely of fifteen-year-olds and it’s his job to keep them out of trouble.
Still, one day, he hopes Jiang Cheng will have a beta child who Wei Wuxian can pass this wretched mantle onto—or perhaps even marry a beta if he wants to, since that’s becoming more and more common these days—so Wei Wuxian can run away into the woods and become some small village’s drunkard of a cryptid.
Today is not that day.
Wei Wuxian arrives in the Cloud Recesses and greets Lan Qiren formally. He then turns around and does a headcount, only to freeze. Two heads are missing—one belonging to an alpha, another to an omega.
He tries to keep calm. He’ll just drag them back and threaten them with Suibian a bit—it’s fine. Except, he can’t seem to find them. They aren’t in the Cloud Recesses.
It’s well after sunset before he finds the two in a horrifyingly intimate position in Caiyi Town. “You two!” he roars. “Get up!”
They can’t get up. With an increasing amount of dread, Wei Wuxian realizes why. Neither of them even get to mutter the word “knot” before Wei Wuxian throws something onto them—thankfully, it’s a robe to cover them up.
“Once you can,” he hisses, “you’re going to hightail it to the Cloud Recesses and explain to Grandmaster Lan exactly why you were late. And if I find out tomorrow that you didn’t, you’ll have a world of hurt coming for you!” He pauses, then adds, “And, you,” he points to the omega, “if you’re pregnant, either you abort or you’re both getting married.”
He promptly turns around and goes to the nearest tavern and almost buys alcohol. He ends up just getting a glass of water instead.
It is, of course, very late when he returns, and he tries to sneak back in, jumping over the wall. He’s stopped at swordpoint by a man in mourning white, hands wrapped around the blade’s silver sheath. Lan Sect ribbon? An inner disciple, then.
Wei Wuxian knows the rules of the Lan Sect very well. He immediately kowtows right then and there. “Please, Young Master, let me in!” He’s not above begging to get what he wants, and since yelling probably won’t work on the other teen, begging is his best option.
The boy stares at him impassively—no, he actually looks somewhat incensed. “Breaking curfew is forbidden in the Cloud Recesses.”
“I know,” Wei Wuxian says. If he gets punished like this after scolding that couple in Caiyi Town, he doesn’t think he’ll have a thick enough face to handle it. He stays in his kowtow. “This disciple humbly—”
“Breaking curfew to have sex,” the boy cuts in, “is also forbidden.” His voice is getting incrementally louder.
Before he can finish his beratement, Wei Wuxian bolts upright, livid. “You! I assure you that I was most definitely not having sex!” He dodges the boy’s sword and grabs the front of his robes, pulling him closer before he even realizes what’s happening. “There, do you smell anyone’s scent on me? No! Because I have basic common sense—”
“You’re a beta,” is the first thing the boy says, and there is no more rage in his voice—just relief.
Wei Wuxian blinks at him, struggling from whiplash, before the boy’s scent also hits him. “You’re a beta, too,” he marvels. All his anger immediately leaves him and he lets the boy go, watching as he sheaths his sword in one elegant move. “Well,” he says, still in awe at finally meeting a beta from outside the YunmengJiang Sect, “I’m Wei Wuxian, Jiang Pack Beta.” He bows deeply.
The boy bows in return. “Lan Wangji, Lan Pack Beta.”
“Second Young Master Lan! It’s a pleasure to meet you!”
“You as well,” Lan Wangji concedes. Then, he asks, “You were late because…”
Wei Wuxian scrunches his nose. “I realized two of my disciples were missing. I had to track them down in Caiyi Town. It took longer than expected.”
Lan Wangji’s gaze is sympathetic. “I understand,” he says. “I have done so as well. But, I usually wait here.”
“To catch them while they try to sneak back?”
“Yes. I enjoy the look on their faces when they see me.”
Wei Wuxian grins. Yes, there’s a sick satisfaction in revealing yourself to two (or more! Sometimes, horrifyingly, there’s more!) people who thought they’d outwitted you. “Second Young Master Lan,” he says, “I think you and I are going to get along very well.”
Lan Wangji inclines his head. “As do I.” Then, he turns and jumps down into the Cloud Recesses. “Come. I will escort you so you don’t get into trouble.”
It’s the start of a beautiful relationship.