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Mo Xuanyu wakes up because little hands are tugging at his hair. And he has a headache. And he has to piss something awful.
The chamber pot is easy to find. The water is nearly as easy. The little child is...he's at a loss.
He retraces his steps. His bastard half brother kicked him out of the Jinlintai, so he's on the way home in disgrace. Where else is he going to go, after all? So he was walking, yes. And he walked until he couldn't walk any more and then he found an inn.
And he ordered wine, he thinks with a groan. That explains the headache. The little child must be the innkeeper's kid or something like that.
He needs breakfast, so he scoops up the kid and takes it downstairs.
The innkeeper spots him and looks thrilled. "Ah! Young master! You see, I brought her first thing this morning, as we agreed!"
Mo Xuanyu looks at the kid. "What?"
"Your little sister! You agreed to take her! Rather than the--other solution," the innkeeper whispers loudly.
The previous night unspools. He had been complaining drunkenly about the Jin sect, and Jin Guangshan in particular, and the innkeeper had joined him, complaining about his sister who got knocked up and died, leaving him with a little bastard girl, and how she wasn't old enough to sell to the brothel--
Mo Xuanyu looks at the baby. She looks back at him with nearly his own face.
"Yes," Xuanyu says, without the slightest idea what he's going to do. "Good. Thank you. Can you bring us breakfast?"
*
The baby eats like a horse. Her name is Xiao Ling. She cost him...his entire purse. He must have given it to the innkeeper last night. He has nothing but an empty bag now.
Fuck.
*
Fuck, he thinks, walking along the road holding hands with a toddler.
*
Seriously, he's so stupid. So stupid. Maybe he will make an array in the forest and kill them both with ghost knives. He's pretty sure he can do that.
(Both, because he's not going anywhere without his baby sister, not when she smiles at him with those dimples.)
(Fuck, he's not killing her either, not this darling happy child. Not for a single second. He will. Think of something. His mother always said he was smart. His brother said he was smart. He knows a lot of demonic cultivation. He can think of something.)
(He's a rogue cultivator now, isn't he? How do they make money to live? Can you charge for night hunting? But he's never really night hunted and nearly everyone is better at it than he is. And he's never heard of anyone charging for night hunting, actually. Rogue cultivators eat at temples and things like that. Maybe he can go to a temple?)
(Maybe...he'll sell himself to the brothel? Do they take boys? They must take boys, plenty of men like boys. He likes having sex, is it still fun if you do it for money? It has to be more fun than going back to his aunt.)
He thinks about having sex with Jin Zixun, the worst person he knows, and tries to decide if that's better or worse than going back to his aunt. He has until the travel food in his bag runs out to decide.
As his mind spins like a grass pinwheel, he sits in a field by the road making a crown out of wildflowers for Xiao Ling. Xiao Ling chews on an apple, offering him spit-drenched bites every so often. She's so cute he could die of it.
Xiao Ling sees the carriage before he does. She points, excitedly, and says "horse! One horse, two horses, three horses, five horses!"
Xuanyu looks. Indeed, there is a carriage with accompanying outriders coming down the road. "Seven horses," he says. One horse pulls the carriage and six riders accompany it.
"Ten horses!"
"Seven. See, there's one, two, three--"
"Ten!"
"One, two, three--" he tries again. Xiao Ling flings herself onto the grass and starts crying. The horse riders look at him. Mo Xuanyu looks at her in panic.
"Ten! Ten!" She kicks her strong little legs.
"That's an even number," he says helplessly, making the baby cry louder. "There's an odd number of horses."
"Young Master Mo, is that you?" someone calls out.
Xuanyu looks up, scrambles to his feet, and bows to Sect Leader Nie in his carriage. "Yes, Sect Leader Nie!"
"What are you doing out here? Come over here, I don't like shouting."
Xuanyu picks up his sister. She goes limp and sobs. "I'm not doing anything?" he says, walking up to the carriage.
"Why are you here and not in Jinlintai, where did you get that baby, and why are you in a field?" Sect Leader Nie wiggles his fan, dancing the tassel in front of Xiao Ling. She immediately stops crying and stares.
"I was kicked out," Xuanyu says. He swallows back the thickness in his throat and holds on to his composure. "It's a big misunderstanding. I'm not, um, going anywhere--I mean, I was going to go home, but then I found this baby, and she's my sister by the same father, you know? So now I don't know what I'm doing. Nothing really. I'm making this flower crown and then I thought--well, I don't know."
"Get in the carriage," Sect Leader Nie says.
Xuanyu gets in the carriage. He takes deep breaths. Xiao Ling stares at Sect Leader Nie with her mouth hanging open.
"Have some water, you look distraught."
Xuanyu takes the water.
"I see the resemblance," Sect Leader Nie says, taking Xiao Ling and standing her on his lap. "What's her name?"
"Xiao Ling. Her uncle was going to sell her so I said I would buy her."
"Mm-hm," Sect Leader Nie says. Xiao Ling touches his guan.
Xuanyu drinks more water. He needs a nap badly.
"Lie down on the seat," Sect Leader Nie says, and Xuanyu does.
*
When he wakes up, it's almost night. A muscled Nie lady is shaking him awake by the ankle. "Go sleep inside," she says, with a smile teasing at the corner of her mouth.
He staggers blearily out of the carriage and finds himself at a new inn, a fancy inn he wouldn't dare to enter if the Nie lady didn't prod him, where Sect Leader Nie is sitting in a private room with his little sister asleep on the seat next to him. She's wearing a clean new outfit of gray cotton.
"Beautiful dreamer!" Sect Leader Nie greets him.
Xuanyu rubs his eyes and sits across from him.
"Are you feeling better?"
Xuanyu nods.
"I got you a change of clothes as well. Gold doesn't suit you. I think black looks better."
"Thank you, Sect Leader," Xuanyu says.
"So, tell me, what's happened since I was last visiting?" Sect Leader Nie asks. He pours tea for Xuanyu and orders some food. Xuanyu eats and tells him who was married, who was embarrassed, who had a baby, who was ill. Finally, he explains how he was kicked out. It wasn't his fault.
"I still don't see what was inappropriate about my poem. He asked me to write about the moon!"
"No, no. Of course you didn't mean anything by it. You're a good brother. Look what a good brother you are to your little sister already?" Sect Leader Nie says, indicating Xiao Ling. She hasn't moved at all since Xuanyu arrived. Her little hand is stuffed in her mouth.
Xuanyu abruptly feels his eyes fill with tears. He tries. He really tries to be good, he's always tried, and he never succeeds, and now both his two blood families have kicked him out, and he has to go crawling back to a place where he's not wanted and that has never felt like home--
He sniffs, trying to hold it in. Sect Leader Nie looks concerned and opens his arms. "Didi, didi, come here," he says, and Xuanyu slides into his arms and cries on his shoulder.
It's been so hard since his mother died. Nobody ever wanted him around. No family, not a single person loves him. Nobody even likes me, he sobs.
"Didi, didi," Sect Leader Nie shushes. "I like you."
That makes him cry harder. He's hiccuping and snotty by the time he manages to stop. Sect Leader Nie gives him some tea and he sips carefully between hiccups.
"Breathe through your nose to stop hiccups. Like you're playing a jade flute," Sect Leader Nie says. Xuanyu looks up, astonished--had he meant that the dirty way? A sect leader?--but Sect Leader Nie's face is perfectly straight.
"Thank you," Xuanyu says once he has himself under control. "Thank you."
"Eat something. You're with me, I'll pay for the gossip and company. Try the braised tofu."
Xuanyu tries the braised tofu.
"Try the pork in herbs."
Xuanyu tries the pork in herbs.
"You feel better when you eat well," Sect Leader Nie says, and Xuanyu nods. He does.
*
He sleeps well that night. Huaisang reserved the whole inn for his retinue. In the morning, he finds his new clothes laid out for him. They're red and black.
Xuanyu puts on the new clothes and feels right for the first time in years. He's always liked red and black, just like Wei Wuxian used to wear. He walks downstairs and finds one of the muscular Nie ladies--Nie Dong, if he recalls correctly--talking to the innkeeper.
"Innkeeper, this is the young gentleman," Nie Dong says. Xuanyu hurries to put on his young gentleman face.
"I always knew someone would come! My daughter is bringing the child," the innkeeper says.
Xuanyu has a premonition but before he can run away, a young woman is ushering a young boy into the inn. "Oh!" the young woman says. "Oh, I would know you in an instant. Sweetheart, this is your older brother."
The boy marches up to Xuanyu. He must be eight? Eight-ish. "Xiongzhang," he says, bowing.
Nie Dong nods. "We will look after him, young lady," she says.
"I'm so relieved. I can marry now. Thank you, gongzi! Thank you!" She's bowing and bowing, and so is the innkeeper, and Nie Dong is smirking.
Xuanyu takes a deep breath and touches the boy on the shoulder. He looks just like Jin Guangyao, just like Jin Guangshan, just like Xiao Ling, just like Mo Xuanyu himself. "What is your name, didi?" he asks.
"A-Chong," the boy answers.
A-Chong. His little brother A-Chong. "Come up and meet your meimei," Xuanyu says.
*
At the next stop, Xuanyu gains a sister named Pingyang. She's fifteen and has a lot of questions Xuanyu can't answer, like 'where did you come from' and 'what is going on' and 'where are we going'?
Xuanyu poses those questions to Huaisang while Pingyang is shopping for clothes suitable for her new station in life (which is what??) with the Nie ladies.
"Well, I came from Qinghe and I'm returning there. I'm shopping for hair pins," Huaisang says. After a week in the small carriage changing diapers, after sneezing directly in Xuanyu's mouth in a field of tall grass, he's Huaisang.
"But," Xuanyu says.
Huaisang fans himself and looks at Xuanyu serenely. "The country around Lanling has the best jewelry anywhere."
"But," Xuanyu says.
"Hm?"
But you haven't bought anything except an extra cart for A-Chong to ride in? But you keep bringing me siblings? But I don't know what you want? But you're helping me, when nobody else would? None of these are things he can ask, lest he be turned out of the carriage onto the side of the road with a little brother and two little sisters to look after.
Xuanyu breathes in and out through his nose and looks at the weiqi travel board with its beautiful inlay and jade and onyx pegs. "I don't know what move to make," Xuanyu says.
Huaisang smiles and gestures with his smallest finger to a position on the board that Xuanyu hadn't even considered. Without hesitation, Xuanyu moves his piece, and from there...it's extraordinary. The board blossoms with white jade. Xuanyu wins his first game.
He meets Huaisang's eyes over the board. Huaisang has beaten him easily on every previous game. Huaisang...wanted him to win.
He feels weepy again, though he doesn't know why.
Pingyang returns. "Gege! Dage! Look at this color! It needs to be hemmed up, but I can do that myself. Shijie bought me thread so I can embroider butterflies on Xiao Ling's coat! And I got you this ribbon, gege!" she says, handing a ribbon to Xuanyu and stowing thread and silk in her work bag. "The cloth merchant said to go to the Lucky Peony Inn, and the dumpling woman said that it's run by his sister but it's still the best. The dumpling woman says to try the smoked tofu. She said Sect Leader Jin himself once stayed there."
Huaisang nods. "Then we will stay at the Lucky Peony Inn," he says.
Xuanyu has a feeling in his marrow.
That night, he meets his fourth sibling, A-Du, a skinny toddler. He immediately takes the baby into his lap and feeds him rice until he falls asleep mid-bite. A-Du's mother, only a teenager, is skin and bone with deep shadows under her eyes. She eats the pork and rice that Huaisang gives her but keeps her eye on the door.
When the baby is asleep and the mother bolts, the Nie ladies let her go. "Poor girl," Nie Dong says. Nie Cheng nods in agreement.
A-Du whimpers in his sleep. Xuanyu rocks him until he subsides.
*
In all, they gather eight children and a litter of kittens.
Xuanyu is too tired out by wrangling seating and food preferences and motion sickness to think one single extraneous thought. Pingyang wants to sit next to the coachman, Xiao Yuan keeps stealing food, A-Chong wants his own pony, A-Fei wants to walk, Junjun wants to be carried by Xuanyu, the kittens need to be returned to their bamboo basket, the nameless baby needs to be held and fed constantly...
They're in the Unclean Realm before he knows it. Xuanyu is tired. So tired. A-Chong is learning to ride a horse. Junjun is cutting a tooth. A-Fei sprained her ankle. A-Du has night terrors. Xiao-Ling is learning to walk inside the carriage. Pingyang is flirting with the coachman.
Sect Leader Nie leaves the coach without a glance behind, speaking to the advisors that meet him at the gate. Nie Dong and the other ladies follow him.
The kids look at him.
"Young master," a man says. He looks at Xuanyu sternly, but bows and introduces himself as the butler, here to get them situated.
The butler gives Mo Xuanyu a senior disciple's room, houses the older children in the junior disciples dormitory, and assigns him a nursemaid for the toddlers and babies. It's as if Sect Leader Nie collects gangs of children every day.
(Maybe he does? It's not like he knows the man.)
And finally...finally...Xuanyu collapses into a real bed and sleeps.
*
In the morning, Mo Xuanyu is awoken by determined shaking of both his arm and leg. He opens his eyes to see Pingyang and A-Fei standing over him. "Finally!" Pingyang says. "You sleep so deeply, ge!"
"You need to have a bath. Sect Leader Nie wants to see you. Tell him I want to be a disciple! I can catch pigeons in my hands already!" A-Fei says.
"Okay," Xuanyu says, rubbing his face.
It's late in the morning. The bath has been drawn--he didn't wash after arriving last night, after all--and has started to cool. He gets in anyway (after shooing the girls out).
Huaisang has given him several sets of robes, all in black and gray and red. He puts on a black outer robe with gray inner robes to echo the gray and green Nie colors without being presumptuous.
He combs out his hair before the mirror and hesitates; should he use his cosmetics? He used to like to powder his face like a fierce corpse, like one of the dead ladies who attended Wei Wuxian. He hasn't thought about it in all the time he was traveling.
When he was in the Jinlintai, he liked to look weird and spooky and mysterious. He liked acting like a ghost haunting the cellars. It made him feel more like he was rejecting the Jin sect than being rejected by them.
(But he was rejected by them. Rejected, ejected, thrown away. At least he wasn't also beaten to death like Xue Yang.)
He decides against the makeup. He doesn't want to scare the kids. He ties his hair back neatly with a silver ribbon and has a maid lead him to Sect Leader Nie.
The Unclean Realm is carved into the rock of the mountain. The walls tower overhead, topped with glowering stone animals. It's a different type of maze than the Jinlintai, more overtly threatening, less gilded.
He wishes that he had been able to meet the former sect leader Nie Mingjue. Anyone Xue Yang hated that much had to be a good person.
The maid leads him to a study and announces him. Nie Huaisang tells him to come in immediately.
Inside, Huaisang's room is utterly different than the halls. The room is white and airy with green jade ornaments on the shelves and ink paintings on the walls. An ancient, miniature cherry tree is displayed prominently on a low table before his desk, and Huaisang is tending it with bamboo tweezers.
"Young master Mo. Have a seat," Huaisang says.
Xuanyu sits. He watches Huaisang pluck individual budding leaflets from the branches of the little tree.
"You lived in Jinlintai for ten years?" Huaisang asks.
"Yes."
"What was the schooling like there?"
Xuanyu relaxes and talks about Jin teaching, his tutors, Jin Guangyao and his relationship with his older brother. Huaisang asks him what he would like to incorporate in the schooling of his siblings and they discuss the best ways to teach reading and writing, the blade and sword, and so forth.
A maid brings in food: it's time for lunch. Huaisang pours a mild wine that complements the pork and chestnuts and spicy soup.
Very spicy soup, he realizes, and he drinks perhaps too much wine to cool his mouth. Huaisang laughs at him and refills his cup.
They discuss girls and boys. Huaisang asks Xuanyu who he likes, especially, and Xuanyu admits that he slept with Su Minshan, and Huaisang roasts him and asks for details. He whispers about Minshan's body shyness. Minshan refuses to take off his clothes and only exposes his dick. It's ridiculous.
Huaisang fans himself and talks about Wang Jiji--not his real name, but oh what a jiji he had. Xuanyu asks how big and Huaisang points to a spot halfway up his arm, which makes Xuanyu giggle.
He goes back to his room and falls back to sleep. He wakes in the middle of the night, and undresses. He goes back to bed and sleeps until daylight.
*
Weeks pass and their lives start to blossom. Pingyang has fallen in love with the coachman (Ma Wu, a Nie outer disciple, only three years older than her, trusted and capable). Huaisang approves the match but says they need an engagement period of at least one year to make sure they're serious. She swears it's true love. Xuanyu isn't sure, but it's not like he knows a test for true love. A yearlong wait will suffice.
A-Chong, at nine, is old enough to go into the junior disciple dormitory. He's an independent boy, stoic and self-contained, and barely needs his da-ge.
A-Fei is twelve, certainly old enough to be a disciple, but she cannot read or write. Her aunt never schooled her at all. She is studying with a special tutor. Xuanyu helps as much as he can: the one thing he's good at is memorizing and writing characters. He can give her some mnemonics and aids in learning stroke order and radicals. What he can't do is take away the bad dreams that make her silently sob in her bed at night.
A-Du and Xiao Yuan are too young to be disciples, so they are put in the nursery classes. A-Du is an anxious child, prone to sobs and nightmares, scared of older women but comfortable with Mo Xuanyu. Xuanyu lets him stay home often and quietly listen to a-Fei's lessons. Xiao Yuan, on the other hand, is a troublesome girl, wary of all adults. She steals food at every meal and hides it in every sleeve and crevice; she shouts and runs away at bathtime. She has a horror of cold water and won't even drink cold drinks. Xuanyu knows this means abuse--thinking of his own cousin throwing cold water on him in winter--but he doesn't know how to address it other than with patience.
(He asks Huaisang and Huaisang says "in the Unclean Realm, we use those who abuse children to fertilize our crops" which is gratifying but not helpful.)
Two nursery maids help with the toddlers, Junjun and Xiao Ling, and the nameless baby. The baby had been left in a basket by a veiled woman who told the innkeeper "for the young masters gathering children" and then fled. The innkeeper swore he didn't know her. Xuanyu doesn't even know if the baby is his sibling at all.
He calls the baby Ying. It's the simplest name for a baby, but he also knows it was Wei Wuxian's baby name. "Mo Ying," he whispers to the baby. He doesn't want to give her the Jin name when she will never be acknowledged, but he can give her his own. He thinks his mother wouldn't mind.
(His aunt would mind a lot. Xuanyu doesn't care what she thinks.)
Xuanyu knows that he and his siblings must be expensive. He can't imagine why Huaisang is doing all this. There must be a plan for them, but what is it? When will the world fall out from under his feet again?
*
Months pass. Xuanyu settles in. A-Fei learns enough characters that she can join the regular disciples. She needs help writing out her assignments, but her teachers, some of the older students, Xuanyu, and Huaisang himself are willing to help. She develops an especial fondness for Huaisang's handwriting. She declares it is the most elegant and gives Xuanyu various papers that Huaisang has written for safekeeping in a box in his rooms.
(He has a box or basket for each child. Pingyang's box contains the dowry he is putting together. He saves the baby blanket a-Ying was wrapped in and the dried flower crown he made for Xiao Ling. Xiao Yuan's basket is full of blankets and socks and dried fruit and rice, which calms her on anxious days. He saves a-Fei's first perfect page of calligraphy and a-Du's drawings.)
A-Du starts to sleep more peacefully, though he is still anxious during the day. Junjun, a sunshine child, is informally and then formally adopted by two women who want to bless their marriage with children. They can take another child as well, they say. Should they take Xiao Yuan?
He thinks about that. Xiao Yuan is so, so, so troublesome. She drives him around the bend. But… "No," he says. "She needs to stay in one place so that she knows she is loved and wanted."
The new mothers smile at him. "His siblings are welcome in our home," they tell him.
Xiao Ling is still Huaisang's favorite. A little play pen with a basket of toys now lives in his study. If Xiao Ling isn't where Xuanyu put her, she's there.
Xuanyu goes looking for Xiao Ling one day and finds Huaisang looking at a-Fei's writing. "Your little sister is good at codes," Huaisang observes.
"She-- What?"
"Maybe because she came to writing late. She sees writing as a system of code rather than immediately associating each character with its word. She's analytical."
"And this makes her good at code-breaking?" Xuanyu asks. He's lost.
Huaisang nods. He smiles at Xuanyu. "You look like you need a rest," he says.
Xuanyu does. He really really does. He sits on the couch near Xiao Ling's play pen and falls asleep in the sunbeam from the window.
*
He jerks awake, thinking: the children? Who needs something?
Jin Guangyao is standing over him. Xuanyu yelps and would jump to his feet, but Guangyao is too close. "Xiongzhang?" Xuanyu says.
Jin Guangyao looks pale and strange, almost ghostly. His eyes are wide and haunted. He draws his flexible sword and Xuanyu throws himself out the window.
He runs, screaming--and then he remembers Xiao Ling's play pen. Would his older brother kill a baby? He remembers the rumors around his brother's own son and thinks he would. He stops and turns back.
Jin Guangyao is pursuing him, though, not stopping to harm their little sister. When Xuanyu turns, Guangyao swings at him. Xuanyu, unarmed, flings his arms before his face automatically and catches the sword on his forearm. It bites deeply and painlessly, a strange intrusion into his flesh that turns his stomach.
He is screaming again, repetitions of "Brother, brother!" He is on his knees. Blood splashes over Guangyao's golden robes. Guangyao raises his sword.
The sound of a xiao fills the courtyard, fighting the ringing in Xuanyu's ears. His vision goes black.
*
When Xuanyu awakes, Hanguang-jun is healing his arm, and he's even more beautiful up close. Xuanyu gasps.
Hanguang-jun just looks at him, holding his wrist in both hands. His exquisite eyes…the long slope of his nose…that mouth…wow. Xuanyu swallows, not knowing what to say.
"Is he awake?" Huaisang calls out.
"Mn," Hanguang-jun says. He sets down Xuanyu's arm and stands as Huaisang bustles in and takes his place by Xuanyu's bed.
"My dear boy! I had no idea A-Yao would do such a thing. Thank goodness both Lan brothers were visiting--it took them both to subdue him in the end!" Huaisang chatters.
"What happened?" Xuanyu asks.
"Ah, sect leader business brought all three of them here. Sandu Shengshou as well, like a discussion conference without a banquet. Rumors of Wei Wuxian in the countryside, but it's nothing, it's really nothing, A-Cheng said--that's Sandu Shengshou, you know, I've known him since he was in diapers--anyway, he hunts down the merest whisper. So after we spoke I brought A-Yao through to see all your brothers and sisters and then you. I thought he would be interested to have so much family out of nowhere--of course, we always knew that Guangshan had more bastard children, but knowing and seeing are different. A-Yao didn't seem happy, though...and then we saw you, so cute, sleeping in the sunshine like a little cat. Xiao Ling needed changing so I brought her into another room, you know where I keep her diapers. And then--well. He tried to kill you," Huaisang says.
Xuanyu swallows. "He never liked me," he says.
"Still! I didn't think he would dare. Fortunately, Xichen-ge heard you and he and Wangji leaped into the courtyard and stopped him. Wangji cut off A-Yao's arm and Xichen stabbed him through the heart," Huaisang says. He doesn't sound upset. Not at all. "Hanguang-jun stopped the bleeding and healed you. Xichen tried to save A-Yao."
"But he's dead?" Xuanyu asks.
"Jin Guangyao is dead."
"You're sure?"
"I'll show you his corpse," Huaisang says. Briefly, there's iron in his voice, and Xuanyu wonders what Nie Mingjue was like. He remembers that Mingjue could have chosen anyone in his sect as his heir--blood doesn't matter much in the Nie sect--and he chose his little brother.
"Yes," Xuanyu says. "Please."
*
Jin Guangyao's body is in the ice house, and Lan Xichen is there too. He has been weeping. Xuanyu bows low and thanks him for his quick reaction and defense.
Lan Xichen lifts him up. "Your brothers and sisters…" He trails off, clearly trying to formulate a question, clearly struggling with grief.
"My younger brothers and sisters are safe and well here," Xuanyu says.
"So many," Lan Xichen says, looking past him, at Guangyao's body. "So many others. And he started here in the Unclean Realm, and now you all will find second chances here…" He releases Xuanyu, distracted by his inner thoughts.
Xuanyu looks at Guangyao's body. His brother's face is gray. He is obviously dead. That's all he needs; now he can sleep.
*
Lan Xichen takes Jin Guangyao to Jinlintai. Hanguang-jun and Sect Leader Jiang go to chase more Wei Wuxian rumors. Xuanyu waits until late night and slips into Nie Huaisang's bedroom.
Huaisang is still awake and doesn't look surprised. He's lounging on a couch with a book, dressed in his inner robes, his hair loose.
Xuanyu draws the ribbon from his hair and shakes it free. He kneels by the couch. "You could have told me the plan," he says.
Huaisang strokes Xuanyu's hair. He shakes his head. "I really didn't think he would draw his sword. I expected shouting, not blood."
Xuanyu puts his head down on the couch, letting Huaisang continue to stroke his hair. "You hated him," Xuanyu says.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"He harried Da-ge to death. Da-ge would have ten or twenty years of life if not for him."
"He was a monster," Xuanyu whispers. He heard about Nie Mingjue's fatal qi deviation. He heard how Jin Guangyao dragged Nie Huaisang back from his brother. He wonders if Jin Guangyao was holding Huaisang as a shield.
Huaisang threads his hand through Xuanyu's hair. He strokes his cheek. "And now he is dead," Huaisang says.
"His face…"
"I made sure the Twin Jades were there."
"I didn't think he hated me. I knew he didn't like me, but he hated me." He starts crying, helplessly, feeling the stress and terror at last, feeling the phantom pain in his arm, feeling the dagger of his brother's rejection.
Huaisang pulls him up onto the couch, into his arms. He holds Xuanyu while he cries. They're both small men, but Huaisang's arms are stronger than they look and he holds him easily.
Eventually, Xuanyu’s sobs fade to shuddering breaths. "How do you feel about concubines?" Huaisang asks.
"I...I don't know?"
"I thought I might marry you, but only if you don't mind concubines. I like you very much."
"You do?"
"I do. And I like your little brothers and sisters. They're sneaky smart, like me. We need more sneaky people in the Unclean Realm."
Xuanyu raises his head and looks at him. He sees truth in Huaisang's face. He realizes that he can see the truth in his face, that he saw the lies in the infirmary, that he saw the amused affection in the carriage when they met. He realizes that Huaisang really wants to marry him. Him!
"I'm very busy with the children, teaching them and planning Pingyang's wedding," Xuanyu thinks out loud. "So you would have to have concubines, I couldn't possibly do all that and service you every night as well."
Huaisang laughs, pulls him in, and kisses him.
*
Wei Wuxian crashes Xuanyu's wedding banquet. This seems...typical for Xuanyu's life, somehow. At least he's a good guest, lively and entertaining, and he brought Hanguang-jun and a string of well-behaved juniors. Pingyang, A-Fei, and A-Chong are sitting with the guest juniors and gossiping. Sect Leader Jiang is sitting across from Wei Wuxian, fuming, with Jin Ling (now Sect Leader Jin, he reminds himself) sitting beside him looking ill.
Huaisang leans in behind his fan. "Stop looking at Wangji," he whispers.
"No," Xuanyu responds. "Besides, he's sitting next to the Yiling Patriarch, why shouldn't I look watchfully?"
Huaisang bites his ear and Xuanyu giggles; he's ticklish. "I am raging with jealousy," Huaisang whispers.
"I can't help that Hanguang-jun is the most beautiful man in all the sects and clans."
Huaisang bites his cheek gently before standing. "A toast! To my friend Wei-xiong, back from the dead!"
Wei Wuxian scrambles to his feet. He's visibly drunk--his hand lands on top of Hanguang-jun's head for balance. "To my friend Nie-xiong on his wedding day!" he cries, raising the jug of wine.
Xue Yang did the rite of self-sacrifice. Xuanyu still can't make sense of it. Xue Yang! That hoodlum, that criminal, that monster who was supposed to be dead, loved Xiao Xingchen so much that he sacrificed himself to bring back Wei Wuxian so that Wei Wuxian could bring back Xiao Xingchen. It makes no sense.
Huaisang drinks with Wei Wuxian. Sect Leader Jiang glowers.
"I bet Sect Leader Jiang fights Wei Wuxian," Xuanyu whispers to his husband. (His husband!)
"Are you betting me? What are you betting?" Huaisang asks, raising an eyebrow slightly.
Xuanyu realizes his mistake. "I bet...I bet kisses all over your body," he whispers, barely audible.
"You're going to do that anyway."
"I bet...a threesome with that maid who looks so boldly at you."
"You're going to do that anyway," Huaisang whispers.
He's right. "I bet...you get me with child."
Huaisang frowns, but then tilts his head. "I accept," he says.
*
Sect Leader Jiang and Wei Wuxian don't fight that night. Wei Wuxian elopes with Hanguang-jun the next day, saying he was inspired by the wedding banquet.
Huaisang sends out riders. They return with a toddler and his mother, who gasps when she sees Xuanyu. "This is your little brother," she says instantly.
*
By the time Huaisang’s hair goes silver, between his concubines' offspring and Xuanyu's siblings, they have thirty-six children. "I think that's enough," Huaisang says. "That seems like enough."
"I expect over 100 grandchildren," Xuanyu says. So far, they have six.
Huaisang's eyes sparkle. "I accept the challenge," he says. Xuanyu kisses him.
*
The end.