Chapter Text
Wei Wuxian used to tease Lan Zhan about how no-one could live in the Cloud Recesses, with all its rules.
There is perhaps an irony in the fact that Wei Wuxian himself now chooses to do so, but in fairness, Lan Zhan no longer holds him to all of the rules. Lan Zhan lets him break enough of them that the rest are not too stifling; it is worth it, to be with Lan Zhan.
However.
He is starting to realise that it is not so much a compromise between them as it is compromising both of their happiness. Wei Wuxian would sacrifice much for Lan Zhan's happiness, but he is less willing to sacrifice Lan Zhan's happiness, itself.
Lan Zhan is accustomed to travel, and Wei Wuxian thinks he misses it. Lan Zhan hates taking meetings about sect business, having to listen to people talk foolishly for hours. He is frustrated and strained with the ache to cut through the foolishness in ways that he cannot, it would be undiplomatic. Lan Zhan loves to train the juniors, work with them and watch over them, and now he doesn't really have time.
But with Lan Xichen in seclusion, there are things Lan Zhan is left to do, no matter how much he hates it.
Wei Wuxian knows that isn't why Lan Zhan visits his brother so often; that is because Lan Zhan sincerely wants to offer him his support.
He does not know why Lan Xichen, who has always seemed to love his brother so very much, refuses to accept it.
Lan Zhan used to speak to the door of his brother's hanshi, baring his soul so openly that Wei Wuxian had to lurk nearby to keep others from coming near enough to hear him. He talked of understanding - of what it was like to love someone and lose them, to hear the world vilify one for whom you cared. Clear and forthright, he spoke of his love for Lan Xichen, too, his thankfulness for all his brother had been to him, his wish to help.
Yet the door did not open. Lan Zhan was worried, but he spoke to the servants, who assured him that Zewu-Jun lived.
Lan Zhan stopped speaking, so much. He would announce his arrival, and kneel outside the door until his duties called him away; he would announce his departure, and hesitate a moment, and then walk away.
Wei Wuxian does not know why Lan Xichen would leave his brother kneeling outside another door that refuses to open even once each month.
He does know that it is hurting Lan Zhan. Even as Lan Zhan starts to visit less often. Instead of kneeling outside the hanshi, he'll press his face silently into Wei Wuxian's neck, running his hands over Wei Wuxian's body like it will hide the way sometimes they shake.
Wei Wuxian thinks he might be starting to get angry about it.
Especially when Lan Zhan quietly suggests that perhaps after all they should marry, where previously Lan Zhan wanted to wait until his brother emerged from seclusion, so that he could be there at their wedding.
Lan Zhan tells him that one morning before he leaves to go to the meetings he hates. and Wei Wuxian thinks about it, and realises that he is in fact furious.
He tells his beloved not yet.
After that, he begins planting a garden.
---
Once upon a time, he was a farmer. It wasn't like he'd once dreamed, it wasn't Lan Zhan and a cottage and contentment; it was the Burial Mounds and the Wen and a struggle to survive. But it was an education in drawing crops from poor soil, and for all that they didn't survive it wasn't because the crops failed.
Planting in the Cloud Recesses is easier. The earth is rich and untainted by resentful energy here, and Wei Wuxian thinks it might even be good for him. Working with the soil is solid and real but quiet, almost meditative, a space to remember the people he lost in a way that almost doesn't hurt.
Almost.
A-Yuan comes back from his trip with Wen Ning while Wei Wuxian is in the midst of it, and joins him. He has no idea whether the kid understands the point of his little project, but he kneels with Wei Wuxian in the dirt, and listens when the words start spilling out. Wei Wuxian tells him about arguing with Wen Qing about crop choices, about the long-dead aunties and uncles who taught him how to do this. About meals that were full of love and laughter for all that the food was scarce.
About the family both had, once upon a time.
A-Yuan is a good boy, who doesn't comment on his tears.
Once the planting is done, he and Jingyi both help tend the garden assiduously. They take turns playing songs that promote growth, and the garden thrives, growing rapidly.
In the months of this project, Lan Zhan's visits to the hanshi became rare, and then he stopped going at all, and Wei Wuxian is glad of that when the buds form.
More so when they bloom.
Wei Wuxian arrives in the morning, when the sun is still slanting golden over the mountain and the air is crisp and bright, and for the first time in a long time he sees the door of the hanshi is open.
Lan Xichen is outside, too thin and too pale in the sunlight that glints off his tears. He's kneeling in the dirt in wrinkled, stained robes amid the gentian blossoms that surround the hanshi, now, tracing the petals with his fingertips, gentle despite how badly his hands are shaking.
He looks up as Wei Wuxian approaches. "You did this," he says, voice rough from disuse.
"I did," Wei Wuxian acknowledges calmly, coming to a stop on the path.
"You know what -" Lan Xichen falters, hand wrapped around a flower like he wants to crush it but can't bring himself to do it.
"Yes," Wei Wuxian replies. "I know what these flowers mean."
It has never been his way to take pleasure in cruelty, but he has also never shied away from it. Cruelty has its purpose, on occasion.
"Why," Lan Xichen all but snarls. "Why would you do this?"
Wei Wuxian smiles without warmth or humour. "You needed to understand what you were doing to him," he says, tone light. "Locking Lan Zhan outside a door that wouldn't open again. How badly you were hurting him." He cocks his head. "Did you even listen to him, when he was pleading outside your door?"
Lan Xichen looks away. "I listened," he says. "I don't deserve his love. I don't deserve to be comforted by him."
Something dark and ugly twists in Wei Wuxian's soul, at that. "And who," he says aloud, carefully keeping his tone mild, "said that was up to you?" He takes a step closer. "Who gave you authority over Lan Zhan's choices? Over his heart? What makes you think you're worthy of making Lan Zhan's decisions for him?"
Lan Xichen surges to his feet and closes the gap between them, grabbing a fistful of Wei Wuxian's robes. "Do you think you are worthy, then?" he demands.
"Absolutely not," Wei Wuxian replies, meeting his gaze with equal fire. "I could never be worthy of that, and even if I was I still wouldn't have the right, because Lan Zhan's choices are his own. Do you think I believe that I deserve his love? Do you think that I should leave him? That he would be happier if I walked away and never spoke to him again?"
"Of course not," Lan Xichen snaps. "My brother loves you, and -"
"And you," Wei Wuxian counters. "Your brother loves you."
Lan Xichen, at his best, could undoubtedly argue with that. He's a skilled speaker and a thoughtful man, and could undoubtedly wrangle a philosophical discussion out of it. Wei Wuxian is no slouch and could hold his own, but would get bored of it before Lan Xichen would ever concede the point.
Lan Xichen is not at his best.
"I don't deserve his love," is all he says, and he's said it before.
"That's not your decision. Does he deserve to be hurt?" Wei Wuxian keeps his tone even with an effort.
"No!"
"Then stop hurting him. Talk to him," Wei Wuxian tells him. "He misses you and he thinks you're rejecting him. Trust me when I tell you that it will never feel good to remember that you did that."
Lan Xichen stares at him. "I made choices that got people killed," he says, and Wei Wuxian can't help it, then. He laughs in his face.
"You think that will stop Lan Zhan loving you?" he asks incredulously. "Zewu-Jun. I'm the Yiling Patriarch and the only reason he hasn't married me is that he wanted you to come to his wedding." He shakes his head. "Get dressed, you're not fit to be seen in public. I'll take you to Lan Zhan, and if you're very good, the boys and I will take the gentians away again."
Lan Xichen shudders. "All right."
He goes to get changed, and Wei Wuxian sends a paperman talisman to call A-Yuan and Jingyi and some of their friends.
It would be more cruelty than he thinks Lan Xichen deserves right now to leave his home surrounded by flowers that remind him only of grief and loss, and beneath the surface the soil is laid in pine frames they can lift and carry away. There's a clearing in the forests that surround the Cloud Recesses he has in mind, where they can easily enough be replanted.
When Lan Xichen emerges, looking haggard and underweight but presentable, A-Yuan bows to him, and he flinches, and the rest of the boys pretend to be too absorbed in their work to notice that their sect leader is passing.
Wei Wuxian takes him back to the jingshi, which most members of the Lan Sect avoid for fear of encountering Wei Wuxian himself, and sends a message now for Lan Zhan.
---
Lan Xichen sits carefully in his brother's home. Somewhere, Wangji is apparently in a meeting, and while they wait for him to be able to come back, Wei Wuxian serves tea.
The jingshi is not quite like Lan Xichen remembers. It is not as neat and austere as it was. Here and there is a disorderly sign of its second inhabitant.
Lan Xichen has not left the hanshi in so long that it feels strange to be anywhere else. He feels exposed.
He dreads what Wangji might say when he gets here. He doesn't want to meet Wei Wuxian's gaze.
"You didn't bring your sword," Wei Wuxian says conversationally.
"I didn't feel like it," Lan Xichen snaps, and hears the echo of Wei Wuxian's voice across the years.
"It happens," Wei Wuxian replies, tone mild. "But people don't take it very well."
Lan Xichen does look at him, now. His expression is... neutral. A faint smile that means nothing. It's unpleasantly familiar; the face is different, but this man is still the Yiling Patriarch, capable of terrible things.
And yet.
He's also capable of kindness and warmth, and Lan Xichen suspects that Wei Wuxian knows he can hardly stand to touch Shuoyue since he used it to strike Meng Yao.
Wei Wuxian fills the teapot. An outrageously domestic act for the Yiling Patriarch.
"People needn't take anything at all from me," Lan Xichen says, finally. "I have no intention of returning to society. I know my crimes."
Wei Wuxian looks at him for long moments. Then he pours tea, and discards it, and pours and discards and pours, setting a cup in front of Lan Xichen. "What are they?" he asks at last. As if he were curious. As casually as he used to question shufu in classes.
Lan Xichen looks away from him, staring into his cup, controlling his temper. "I am responsible for the deaths of many," he says. He can recite the names of many. There are some he never knew.
"How so?" Wei Wuxian asks, because he is a monstrously cruel man.
Lan Xichen consciously unclenches his jaw. "I trusted Meng Yao, and allowed him access to the Cloud Recesses and the weapons with which he murdered Chifeng-Zun," he says. Chifeng-Zun, not da-ge, because Lan Xichen no longer has the right to remember the man as his brother. "He murdered many people directly." When he thinks of this, he always remembers A-Song. Remembers holding the boy as an infant, remembers the toddler who sat on his knee and looked up at him with his mother's eyes and his father's smile.
He remembers doing what he could to try and comfort Meng Yao in his grief, and feels sick.
"Hmm," Wei Wuxian says. "Is that all?" His tone is skeptical, like that wouldn't be enough - and surely, Lan Xichen thinks, it's more than enough, but no, it isn't all.
"No," he grits out. "Because I trusted Meng Yao, I took no action to prevent the slaughter of the Wen. I was complicit in that crime." That, he thinks, should shut Wei Wuxian's mouth. Wei Wuxian had strong opinions about the Wen, after all.
But Wei Wuxian just scoffs. "You and everyone else," he says dismissively. Except me, he doesn't say, even though it's true. "Anything more?"
Lan Xichen puts his cup down before he crushes it in his hand. "I took my sect to the pledge conference at the Nightless City," he says tightly. "Pledged to destroy the Yiling Patriarch, who had not cursed Jin Zixun, nor intended to kill Jin Zixuan." He forces himself to take a breath. "This supplicant kneels before the Yiling-laozu and begs indulgence to ask a question," he spits.
Wei Wuxian has the effrontery to look amused. "You may ask," he says.
"If we had not attacked you, would you have been a threat to us?" Lan Xichen asks flatly. "Did you intend to attack us from your Yiling stronghold?"
He laughs, a cracking sound, tears of mirth in his eyes. "No," Wei Wuxian says. "I was growing turnips. That year I got lotus to grow. I had a handful of old people and a child and we were just trying not to starve."
Lan Xichen nods. He'd expected that. "And yet," he answers, "we brought thousands to fight you, even though we had all seen that you stood alone against greater numbers than we had during the Sunshot Campaign." Bitterness creeps into his tone. He's had time enough to think. Time enough to remember the truth of that warning.
"Aiya, I did try to tell you," Wei Wuxian says. His tone is light, but there's little trace of amusement left.
"I took my people there. I did. And one hundred and seventeen members of the Gusu Lan Sect died that day," Lan Xichen says. "I watched people I'd known my whole life die and fall and rise again to fight their own kin. I saw my own people turn against us. My brother cut down three of our cousins trying to get to you." Wei Wuxian has paled, but Lan Xichen doesn't stop. "And I know whose fault it was that that happened. That they died."
"Mine, I presume," Wei Wuxian says resignedly.
"No. Mine." Lan Xichen has never said it aloud before. "I took them there. It was my responsibility. It was because I willed it that they stayed and fought a battle we should have known we could not win." He dashes the tears from his own cheeks. He does not deserve to weep. "My brother was given thirty-three strokes of the discipline whip for wounding as many of our elders. Were it not that I lack the courage and the will, I would order one hundred and seventeen for myself."
"You'd die," Wei Wuxian says.
"So be it," Lan Xichen replies, and sees Wei Wuxian's eyes flash with what might be real anger.
"You say that? Now? You watched your brother mourn me for thirteen years, and you think you get to die on him?" Wei Wuxian's eyes narrow. "I never took you for a selfish person."
"Selfish?"
"Yes." Wei Wuxian leans forward. "Do you think I don't know what it is to regret?" he asks, tone silken. "Do you think I don't know what it's like to live with guilt and shame? Do you think that I don't know what it is to want to die? Not one of you could have killed me if I didn't let you, Zewu-Jun." He straightens. "There were three people left, that I knew of, who I loved. Jiang Cheng was better off for it, but I left Lan Zhan and A-Yuan behind. I'm honestly shocked that either of them has forgiven me." He sips his tea. "No-one at all is better off if you die. You just think it's the easy way out."
Lan Xichen cannot speak for long moments. "I think I actually hate you," he says finally.
"That's allowed," Wei Wuxian replies. "But I can't let you kill me again, because Lan Zhan still loves me." He smiles without humour. "And he loves you, too, so I can't let you kill yourself, either. I'd apologise, but I wouldn't mean it." He cocks his head. "He should be home soon. I'm going to wait outside for him, I don't want to give him too much of a shock." And then he rises, and goes to the door, and just leaves Lan Xichen sitting there with the tea.
It doesn't matter what Lan Xichen says to him, he's starting to realise. There is nothing he could say about his own crimes or about Wei Wuxian that would alter Wei Wuxian's course. Wei Wuxian doesn't care what Lan Xichen has done, or not done, or what Lan Xichen thinks of Wei Wuxian.
Wei Wuxian cares only that Wangji loves his brother, no matter how much Lan Xichen has ceased to deserve his affection.
All too soon, Lan Xichen hears Wei Wuxian call his brother's birth name, his too-rapid footsteps, the murmur of his and Wangji's voices as they approach the jingshi together.
The door opens, and Wangji says, "Brother."
Lan Xichen braces himself and looks around.
His baby brother is standing in the doorway, looking at him. Lan Xichen has nothing to shield him from Wangji's gaze.
He looks so happy.
Lan Xichen looks at the floor, feeling sick.
---
Wei Wuxian watches from the doorway as Lan Zhan sits across from his brother. This conversation doesn't need him, and in any case, he's still feeling unsettled. There's something cracked and unsteady in the foundations of him, right now - Lan Xichen calling him Yiling-laozu and claiming responsibility for lives lost at Nightless City himself was...
Confronting.
Even if it was not as unnerving as the general problem here. He suspects Lan Xichen is too lost right now to realise it, but Wei Wuxian knows his pain better than the man probably wants him to.
He's sympathetic, and it's not going to change anything, because Wei Wuxian simply cannot allow him to continue on the path he has chosen.
Lan Zhan loves him, and Wei Wuxian will stop at nothing for Lan Zhan's happiness.
Right now, the conversation is going exactly like it always would have, which is exactly why, no doubt, Lan Xichen has been avoiding his own brother so assiduously. Lan Zhan, for once, has a great deal he wants to say.
Some of it hurts Wei Wuxian to hear at least as much as it must hurt Lan Xichen, because Lan Zhan has prepared an entire treatise on guilt and loss and mourning for one who is otherwise unmourned.
Face to face with Lan Zhan, sincere and intent, with Lan Zhan's love and conviction, openly expressed, Lan Xichen is no more able to resist than Wei Wuxian himself, and Lan Xichen's best efforts to plead Wangji's responsibilities and his own exhaustion - no doubt unfeigned, despite the early hour and how briefly Lan Xichen has been away from the hanshi - achieve only an offer for Lan Zhan to walk him back, and that after Lan Xichen has promised that Lan Zhan can see him again this evening, when he has had some time to rest.
Wei Wuxian hopes the boys have finished clearing the flowers away by now.
---
He should have ignored the flowers, Lan Xichen thinks. He should have relied upon the discipline he has spent his life developing (to what end, his mind whispers, you were weak and foolish anyway) even as the scent of gentians pervaded the hanshi.
Because he has broken seclusion now, and respect for his seclusion will no longer provide protection against his brother's stubborn persistence.
Lan Xichen can remember Wangji kneeling outside their mother's cottage, even after her death. (You needed to know what you were doing to him, locking Lan Zhan outside a door that wouldn't open, Wei Wuxian whispers in his mind.) He can remember the way he would set out, grimly determined, to find Wei Wuxian and try to convince him to change his course; the way he would return hurt and disappointed but no less determined.
His brother's love, once won, is steadfast and resolute.
Wangji comes to see Lan Xichen every day. He updates him on things he missed in seclusion. He asks how he is feeling, and encourages him to talk about it. He is earnest and sincere, and Lan Xichen wants to scream at him, but can't.
He can't tell his baby brother, It's different because you were right about him and I was wrong. It's different because mine was guilty of all of it. It's different because you held his child in your arms and then you watched the boy grow up, and I held his child in my arms and then he murdered him.
Wangji tells him, with careful delicacy, that he found it more sustaining to lose himself in his work.
Lan Xichen can't tell him, It's different because you still knew the world needed you, and I have nothing like that. It's different because you went to dark places and brought light, you helped people, and all I have ever done is provide the shadow in which the monster concealed himself.
He can't tell him, It's different because you were finding a way to sustain your will to live, and I don't have one.
Lan Xichen can only force himself into a new daily routine, suddenly as joyless and serious as Wangji used to be, because a smile no longer feels natural on his face, and to wear one as a mask reminds him of Meng Yao, who did so so flawlessly. Was anything ever real?
Wangji is sympathetic and kind and their shufu is gentle with him, undemanding in a way that also feels kind and Lan Xichen could hate them both for it when he's so deeply, deeply undeserving.
Now that Lan Xichen is out of seclusion, Wangji wants to marry, and they send out the announcement because Wangji is, at present, Lan Xichen's only heir, and the next thing that happens is that one of the gate guards arrives in flustered haste to announce that Jiang-zongzhu is here, and he is very insistent on seeing you.
Lan Xichen is the Sect Leader; he has responsibilities. He forces himself to his feet and goes to greet the visiting sect leader, limbs leaden.
Jiang Wanyin has definitely arrived wholly in his capacity as Jiang-zongzhu. He is dressed in resplendent formality, and so is the substantial cohort of Jiang cultivators behind him, every single one of them immaculate, perfectly matched in dress and pose.
"Jiang-zongzhu," Lan Xichen says, bowing.
"Lan-zongzhu," Jiang Wanyin replies, precisely matching his bow. His eyes flick over Lan Xichen, just once, and Lan Xichen suppresses any outward reaction; he knows what the man sees. He is too thin, and the sword in his hand - required, after all, by propriety - is not Shuoyue.
"To what do we owe this honour?" Lan Xichen asks, and Jiang Wanyin's eyes narrow.
"I think it would be better if we discussed that in private," he says tightly, and Lan Xichen acquiesces and invites him into his office.
---
Kneeling across from Lan Xichen's desk, Jiang Wanyin seems somehow larger than life. His purple robes are so vivid, his scowl so intent.
His aggression is so visible, not hidden behind lies and smiles.
"The Lan Sect are known for their courtesy and their adherence to propriety," Jiang Wanyin says flatly, and it does not sound like a compliment. "It is therefore a surprise that they would see fit to stage an improper marriage for one who is believed to be important to them."
Lan Xichen blinks. "I don't understand," he admits, and Jiang Wanyin's scowl deepens.
"Are you suggesting that this is a forgery?" he asks skeptically. He pulls something from his sleeve and tosses it onto the desk. Lan Xichen examines it, and blinks.
It is the notification of Wangji's forthcoming wedding to Wei Wuxian.
"It is not," he says carefully.
"Then explain to me," Jiang Wanyin growls, "how it is that you think it could possibly be appropriate for you to announce the wedding of my father's ward, a Jiang disciple, without my permission."
Lan Xichen blinks. "It was my understanding he parted from the Jiang Sect many years ago."
"There was a separation. He was not struck from the registry. My father would never have allowed that," Jiang Wanyin snaps. "Wei Wuxian is a Jiang disciple, as he always has been."
"I would have thought you would be pleased," Lan Xichen says without thinking, and Jiang Wanyin's expression darkens.
"Would you be pleased if Lotus Pier announced our claim to one of your disciples?" he asks coldly.
"No," Lan Xichen allows, "but you do not even invite Wei Wuxian to visit Lotus Pier."
Jiang Wanyin snorts. "Whereas you, no doubt, invite Hanguang-Jun to visit the Cloud Recesses frequently."
"Of course not," Lan Xichen says. "He lives here, I do not -" He stops.
"Quite," Jiang Wanyin says, tone dry. "You do not invite him to his home, because such a notion would be foolish."
"He doesn't go to Lotus Pier," Lan Xichen amends, feeling the conversation spinning far, far out of his control.
"Would you have me keep him prisoner? Lock him in a hall as my lifelong captive?" Jiang Wanyin cannot know how his words are tearing Lan Xichen open, but they are, and it makes him careless of his own.
"I would expect you to be glad someone is taking him off your hands," he says, too sharply.
Jiang Wanyin goes still. "Explain yourself," he says, soft and silken, and it's the first time Lan Xichen has ever seen any kind of brotherly resemblance in Sandu Shengshou and Yiling-laozu. (They are not brothers by blood, of course, but they have never before seemed like they could have anything in common at all.)
"You surely cannot pretend he's - he's good," Lan Xichen says helplessly. "He's -"
Jiang Wanyin's eyes narrow. "He's loud and messy and annoying, and he has no sense of decency or propriety," he says easily. "He's thoughtless, and an idiot, and he's my shixiong and my xiongzhang and he's a better man than either of us will ever be, Zewu-Jun."
Lan Xichen swallows. "How do you -" He takes a breath. "How do you forgive him?"
Jiang Wanyin scoffs. "Who forgives him? I've never forgiven him for anything in my life. That's not the point." He looks at Lan Xichen for long moments, and sighs. "What did he do?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"You harboured him while he was on the run from the Jin," Jiang Wanyin points out. "It can't be the Yiling-laozu stuff. And he never promised to be your loyal subordinate and then ran away after your whole sect got murdered, he never killed your brother-in-law, and he didn't forget the cakes your sister made were for your birthday and eat them all when you were eleven. So what did he do that you're angry about?"
"He -" Lan Xichen stops. "He helped me. But I didn't ask him to and I didn't want him to."
It sounds stupid to his own ears, but Jiang Wanyin nods in understanding. "That makes sense," he says. "He's pretty unforgivable when he does that." He smiles faintly. "You can hit him if you want, I won't fight you over it." And then the smile drops. "But that doesn't mean you get to just tell the world he's yours now."
"We would have spoken to you if he thought you wanted that," Lan Xichen says quietly. "As far as I know, he thinks he is unwelcome at Lotus Pier. He thinks you were glad he died."
Jiang Wanyin freezes, for a moment. Zidian sparks in Lan Xichen's peripheral vision. "That asshole," he bites out. "We'll see how happy I am when I kill him myself."
He stands and stalks from Lan Xichen's office, and Lan Xichen takes a few moments longer than he should to follow, caught on Jiang Wanyin's wording.
Kill him myself, he'd said, like that wasn't something he'd done before.
But people said he had.
(But people said Jin Song was murdered by his father's enemies, and that the Yiling-laozu was a threat to the whole world.)
The delay is enough time for Jiang Wanyin to have stopped a Lan disciple to ask directions, and Lan Xichen hastens to follow him as he strides towards the jingshi, but he can't catch up to the man's long, swift strides without running, and he trails behind uselessly the whole way.
"Wei Wuxian!" Jiang Wanyin is familiar with the rules of the Cloud Recesses, and capable of containing his anger; Wei Wuxian's name is loudly spoken, not a shout. "Wei Wuxian, show yourself!"
The door jerks open. It is late in the morning, and Wei Wuxian is, at least, dressed; it's hard to tell whether his messy hair is because he wasn't fully dressed or because, well, he's Wei Wuxian.
"Jiang Ch- Jiang-zongzhu?" Wei Wuxian looks startled, and slightly afraid. "What are you doing here?"
"I should be asking you that. Do you want to die?" Jiang Wanyin snaps, and Lan Xichen wonders fretfully if he is capable of protecting his brother's beloved if Jiang Wanyin does try to kill him.
"What - I don't -" Wei Wuxian stops as Jiang Wanyin shoves at him, taking a step back inside that Jiang Wanyin follows, the better to get in his face.
"Jiang-zongzhu..." Lan Xichen protests weakly.
"Zewu-Jun says you think I was happy that you died," Jiang Wanyin snarls. "Happy? You promised you'd be by my side and I was alone and you think I was happy about it?"
Wei Wuxian stares at him, wide-eyed. "I -" He stops. "Shijie was - it was my fault that -"
"Shut your mouth," Jiang Wanyin hisses, and Wei Wuxian flinches. "My sister was an adult who made the choice to run onto a battlefield for you. You don't get to take that away from her."
"I'm sorry," Wei Wuxian whispers.
"Be sorry that you still haven't come back to Lotus Pier," Jiang Wanyin snaps. "The one time you deigned to come past you didn't present yourself to me even once but you took Hanguang-Jun into my ancestral hall. You'll take your unmarried lover to my dead parents but not to me, and then I get an announcement about your wedding?" He leans forward. "Did your childhood mean so little to you? Did our family mean so little to you? My father loved you more than his own son, and you disrespect our clan like this?"
"No, I -"
Jiang Wanyin straightens. "Wei Wuxian," he says, voice almost a growl. "I do not give you permission to marry Hanguang-Jun. If you marry him now the Jiang Sect will consider it to be the kidnapping of its senior disciple, and take action appropriately." He turns away.
"You wouldn't go to war against the Lan over me," Wei Wuxian says, with a weak laugh.
Jiang Wanyin meets Lan Xichen's eyes, even as he answers Wei Wuxian. "Wouldn't I?" he asks, tone flat. "Ask yourself, Wei Wuxian. In my heart and your golden core, what wouldn't I do for my family?" He shakes his head. "I'm going back to Lotus Pier. We can discuss this further there, if we're discussing it at all."
Lan Xichen tries not to shudder. If a transplanted golden core affects a man's character... Jiang Wanyin has that of a man who would stop at nothing for those he cares about, no matter the cost to himself or the world.
"Jiang Wanyin," he hears, in flatly hostile tones, and he turns in horror. They do not need this to get worse, but apparently someone has called Wangji, who is not good at making a situation better when it involves Jiang Wanyin.
"Hanguang-Jun," Jiang Wanyin says. "If you will excuse me, I was just leaving."
"Wangji," Lan Xichen says quickly. He cannot risk his brother doing anything that escalates this situation. He's thinking rapidly now, long-dormant political instincts waking, and they cannot actually afford to assume that Jiang Wanyin is bluffing. The Lan Sect will cast Wei Wuxian out of the Cloud Recesses forever rather than go to war with the Jiang Sect for his sake, even if it would mean losing Wangji - and it would.
They would have no choice, because the Nie would abstain from such a dispute entirely, but without doubt the Jiang would be joined in force by the Jin. Lan Xichen has known Jin Ling since infancy, and the boy always adored his jiujiu. Meng Yao used to laugh about the weeks it took for A-Ling to stop sulking every time he came back to Jinlintai. (Meng Yao held a sharp cord to A-Ling's neck and threatened his life.)
Wangji glares, but is silent, and something in Jiang Wanyin's demeanour shifts. Lan Xichen can see his profile, and the faintest hint of a smirk that now appears. "I'm sure I'll be seeing you soon," Jiang Wanyin says, and strides confidently away.
Of course he is confident. The upper hand is his, and everyone present knows it, even if Wangji doesn't yet know why. Jiang Wanyin does not work in shadows, he does not beguile and lie and trick.
Jiang Wanyin is as subtle as a whip of purple lightning. The question of Wei Wuxian and his place in the world has festered behind closed doors all this time; Jiang Wanyin, it seems, will shatter those doors at a blow.