Chapter Text
THE HORIZON DARKENS
At times like these, Lan Qiren feels that his existence is meaningless.
As a young man, he had watched his elder brother fall helplessly in love with a murderess and consequently abandon their family, their clan and every principle they had been raised with. He had stepped into the shoes that his once-glorious brother – who had earned the title Qingheng-jun in his youth due to his valour – so easily vacated and shouldered not only the responsibility of preserving the clan’s reputation, but also that of caring for the children he had fathered. In all but name, he became the man his brother should have been and gave up his own dreams of a life of swordsmanship. He had done everything he could to raise the boys to be righteous; to instil in them the essence of the clan’s principles so that it may neutralise the poison of their parentage. When his brother passed and Xichen donned the mantle of clan leader with such grace despite his youth – around the same time Wangji started exhibiting his musical prodigy – Lan Qiren finally laid to rest the resentment he had borne for his brother; this life may not have been the one he would have chosen for himself, but it has been fruitful. Sometimes, that is all a man can ask for.
All had been well.
Until Wei Wuxian had come to the Cloud Recesses.
Lan Qiren has often looked back on the day he received the letter from Lotus Pier, from the now long-deceased Jiang Fengmian, informing him that his children and his adopted child would be amongst the disciples. He had known, of course, that Jiang Fengmian had taken in Cangse Sanren's son, but it hadn't crossed his mind then that the boy would be identical in nature to – no, worse than – his mother – and he has often wondered how things might have differed if he had never allowed the boy entry. There had been no justification to do so, then, and no matter how he tries to think of a justification now, he cannot.
Since that fateful day, everything Lan Qiren had worked so hard to build has crumbled.
That is what Lan Qiren thinks as he stands outside the Hanshi, looking down at the evening meal Xichen has left untouched, as he tries to figure out how he should react to the information that a disciple had just delivered to him; that Wangji is at the gates with Wei Wuxian in tow.
One of his boys has been crushed under the weight of his own kindness, and the other has taken up with a practitioner of demonic cultivation. The clan's reputation is in tatters.
His entire life has been meaningless.
≈
There was a time when Lan Qiren saw himself in Wangji.
Not his actual self, but the person he once had the potential to become. Xichen, even though he does not like to hear it, is like father; charming, genial and perfectly at ease in the murky, muddy waters of politics. Wangji is like him. Severe, composed and aloof, surpassing him in the same fields that Lan Qiren once prided himself in; swordsmanship, nighthunting and the guqin. Oh, how much pride Lan Qiren used to have, watching how Wangji made every effort to earn his approval.
Now, as he sits before Wangji, he sees that woman in him instead; his severity is her cold-bloodedness, his composure is her quiet defiance and his aloofness is her lack of gratitude to the man that saved her unworthy life at the expense of his own.
Wei Wuxian is nowhere in sight.
If Lan Qiren had to guess, he'd say that Wei Wuxian is in the Jingshi. It is also possible that he might be roaming freely around the Cloud Recesses despite the rule – a last-ditch, desperate attempt on his part, Lan Qiren admits – that he's not allowed in at all. In any case, he's glad that the other man is not here.
“You took your time to return,” he remarks to Wangji.
The Chief Cultivator is dead, a temple has been desecrated, the Lan clan has been dragged into this mess and his brother is heartbroken, and Wangji still did not care enough to return immediately.
Wangji makes no apology.
≈
A new Chief Cultivator must be appointed.
The title should naturally pass to Xichen. Nie Huaisang lacks both spine and knowledge, Jiang Wanyin is too unpopular and temperamental and Jin Rulan is too young. As things stand, it is sheer luck and the strength of both his and the clan’s reputation that Xichen has not been called to account for his close relationship with Jin Guangyao.
He's also decided to go into seclusion.
Lan Qiren sighs into his tea.
It seems that both of his brother's children are destined to walk his path in some way or another.
Instead of worrying about the future Chief Cultivator, Lan Qiren needs to think about the Lan clan. Wangji has returned, but their relationship is fraught and there is no telling how long he will stay. He can take up the mantle of de facto clan leader again, as he did when his brother was in seclusion, and groom his replacement from the younger ones who do not bear the scars of their elders.
But he is older now and so, so tired.
≈
Lan Qiren salutes Chief Cultivator Lan Wangji as he returns to the Cloud Recesses in what the rest of the cultivation world will see as a triumph for the Lan clan.
Yet, it is no triumph for Lan Qiren. Wangji, who once valued his approval over all else, hadn't breathed a word of his plan to vie for the position to him. And from the unease with which his salute is received by Wangji, it is no triumph for him either. When the news reached the Cloud Recesses, the clan elders had loudly wondered why Wangji, who since his release from the Cold Pond Cave has wandered the Jianghu as though he's a rogue cultivator, would take up the position. Lan Qiren could not provide an answer to their questions.
In his heart, he suspects that Wei Wuxian is a large part of the answer. This knowledge robs Lan Qiren of the pride he knows he should be feeling for Wangji.
Wangji is quick to excuse himself.
He does that these days.
Where they once spent many shichen practicing the guqin together, or simply drinking tea in meditative silence, they now find each other’s company unbearable beyond the exchange of formalities. But as much as it pains him, Lan Qiren will give Wangji whatever support and advice he needs to carry out his duties as the Chief Cultivator. And he won't forget Xichen either. He had lost his brother to that woman, but he's determined not to lose Xichen to his own guilt and self-recrimination and he’s determined not to lose Wangji to that demonic cultivator.
*
Curious about the matter of a yao about which the new leader of the Moling Su clan had written to him – after the abscondment of Su Minshan in the Burial Mounds, the two clans had reconciled somewhat – Lan Qiren heads to the Forbidden Chamber of the Library Pavilion in search of a book which details the many ways in which yao can be formed. Such knowledge is considered illicit, lest it tempt disciples with lesser morals to try to create yao out of plant and animal spirits out of curiosity, but it is still useful to determine how certain yao have come into being to enable them to be put to rest.
But tonight, the secret entrance to the Forbidden Chamber is thrown open.
There are few with access; only the clan leader, himself and a handful of the clan elders.
And who should he find in the Forbidden Chamber but Wei Wuxian?
It is bad enough that Wangji has brought this man here – has kept him in the Jingshi without any regard for propriety – but it is a wholly different thing to expose all of the Lan clan's secrets to him. Has his nephew really taken leave of all his senses?
“What is he doing here?” he demands of Wangji.
Wangji deflects the question. “We have identified the composition which Jin Guangyao used to murder Chifeng-zun, but not the piece which Su She used to stymie the spiritual powers of cultivators at the siege of the Burial Mounds. It is necessary to do so. Our disciples must know how to identify it in the future.”
It would be a perfectly reasonable explanation were it not also trying to excuse the presence of a demonic cultivator in the Forbidden Chamber.
As Lan Qiren is about to press the matter with Wangji, he's stopped in his tracks by Wei Wuxian. Standing behind Wangji, he is glaring at Lan Qiren with murderous intent. In his eyes, Lan Qiren sees not his former student or Cangse Sanren's mischievous boy, but the demonic cultivator whose name still terrifies people across the land.
For the first time in his life, Lan Qiren backs down out of fear.
≈
That encounter is the first of many.
He sees him heading to the Back Hill, where Wangji's rabbits are. He sees him wandering around the gardens, talking to himself and spinning that blood-soaked flute as he does so. He sees him in the library – the very one he seemed to hate as a student disciple – sprawled messily across the floor with precious books treated like scrap paper. Wei Wuxian seems to take particular joy in breaking the clan’s rules as if he's rubbing in Lan Qiren's face how complete his victory is, how he has Wangji under this thumb.
And what can Lan Qiren do but cow himself and retreat?
No matter what words he says, Wei Wuxian is too shameless to leave the Cloud Recesses on his own volition.
If he tries to have him removed by force, Wangji will leave too.
Lan Qiren is a defeated man.