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robininthelabyrinth · 1 year

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The Other Mountain - ao3 - Chapter 14

Pairing: Lan Qiren/Wen Ruohan

Warning Tags on Ao3

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“Do you think something unfortunate happened between Cangse Sanren and Jiang Fengmian?” Lan Qiren asked Wen Ruohan, who just stared blankly at him. “Do not think that I am complaining, given how much it accrues to my benefit. It is only that I really cannot imagine doing a thing that would cause that much internal strife to a person I consider to be my friend.”

Despite his reluctance to ever let his two nephews out of his sight again now that he’d seen them again, Lan Qiren had quickly approved Wen Ruohan’s proposed plan to have Cangse Sanren smuggle Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji out of the Lotus Pier, taking advantage of the fact that as a rogue cultivator she could leave early and with relatively little suspicion.

He knew, just as Wen Ruohan knew, that the two of them would be the prime suspects in the disappearance when it was inevitably discovered and reported – it was inevitable, given Lan Qiren’s role in his nephews’ lives up until this point, and the rumors of discord between him and his brother. No matter what they did, it would be impossible to conceal Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji well enough to keep them from being found and returned to their father and sect. And, once returned…

Well, Lan Qiren’s brother had been clear enough about what would happen to them, and that had been before Xichen and Wangji had flagrantly violated Lan sect custom (although not the rules, strictly speaking) in a manner that displayed their preference for Lan Qiren over their father.

(Lan Qiren wished that he could trust his brother to be fair and impartial in imposing punishment, limiting himself only to the rules the boys had actually broken – but his trust in his brother had disappeared long before his love for him had gone. Even in his youth when his brother had only disliked him, Lan Qiren had found his brother to be rather petty on the subject of punishment.)

Lan Qiren thought that Wen Ruohan had been surprised by how swiftly he had agreed with the plan, which he’d done more or less immediately after he’d finished wiping the tears from his nephews’ eyes. Neither Xichen nor Wangji had wanted to leave him, with Wangji being especially distraught, but Lan Qiren had explained the issue to them to the best of his abilities, sticking as much as possible to his desire to see them again rather than expressly stating or even implying any insult to their father. He’d then set rules for their upcoming trip, cautioning and scolding them in exactly the way he would if the trip were merely to go down to Caiyi with their cousins to buy sweets, and he’d seen with satisfaction the way they had both relaxed as soon as the sense of familiarity settled in. He hoped it would help, particularly with Wangji, who was so very clearly suffering greatly from all the changes and the lack of the set schedule Lan Qiren had so painstakingly helped him put together…

No, Lan Qiren couldn’t think of that. Not that, nor of how nervous and burdened Xichen looked, weighed down by responsibility years before it should have fallen upon him. It would only cause himself pointless distress, when he should instead spend his time thinking of the future and what he could do to abate their distress going forward.

(“I thought you’d object,” Wen Ruohan remarked to him in an undertone while Cangse Sanren had been very colorfully introducing herself to the boys, both of whom seemed somewhat doubtful and possibly mildly disapproving in a way that suggested they were in the process of being thoroughly charmed. Cangse Sanren had a very particular way about her of doing that. “Or at least that you would need some convincing that it wasn’t necessary to send them back to the Cloud Recesses where they belong, rather than let them come into my grasp.”

“I told you before that I intended to use you,” Lan Qiren replied, cognizant of but not entirely understanding the flash of delight on Wen Ruohan’s face at his words. “They will return to the Cloud Recesses only once their well-being has been secured to my satisfaction, which I expect will require, at minimum, negotiations with my sect elders. Until that time they must be in a safe place that can resist the disapproval of even the entire cultivation world. Other than your Nightless City, I can think of nowhere else that would do, short of barricading myself in some unpleasant locale naturally inclined towards defense. You will simply have to suffer their presence until then.”

“After hearing the way you used your sect rules to justify keeping them, I doubt I will be suffering,” Wen Ruohan said, voice droll. “Your Xichen in particular has picked up your fondness for loopholes.”

“They are not loopholes. The rules are complex and require tailoring to the present circumstances – ”

“They can keep company with my Chao-er,” Wen Ruohan interrupted. He’d been smirking. “Perhaps they can improve him.”)

In short, Lan Qiren had been quite satisfied with Wen Ruohan’s proposed plan. What he hadn’t expected was that Cangse Sanren would take the initiative to add her own twist, which she did by walking straight up to Jiang Fengmian and asking for permission to take his children on a trip through the cultivation world. She’d claimed that the idea had come upon her abruptly and that she hoped that it would build better ties between their families – to allow her Wei Ying and his Jiang Cheng to grow naturally into friends, the way Jiang Fengmian had with her husband Wei Changze, who had not attended the conference.

That absence seemed slightly odd to Lan Qiren, given that Wei Changze had been the one who’d grown up in the Lotus Pier to start with, but he hadn’t had time to question Cangse Sanren on the subject – assuming he even could, given that in truth they were not particularly well-acquainted. One summer’s worth of something combative that could barely be termed friendship, if one squinted, and a few casual greetings in passing since then, an unreturned letter or two…

Lan Qiren’s life had not left him much room for friends, which he now regretted. There were so many times he had let a relationship that seemed ready to grow wither away instead – Lan Yueheng, Cangse Sanren, Lao Nie… He would have to do better in the future. Perhaps this escapade would allow him to regain something of the acquaintance he had once shared with Cangse Sanren, and then he would be able to ask her questions directly, rather than needing to inquire with Wen Ruohan.

At any rate, Cangse Sanren had made the request, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, Jiang Fengmian had agreed. Cangse Sanren had then very enthusiastically and very quickly wrangled up both Jiang Yanli and Jiang Cheng, commandeered a carriage, and driven away from the Lotus Pier without so much as a backwards glance – or any indication that the carriage contained two sets of children, one sitting on the seats and the other hidden in the interior compartments, wrapped in sheets and pretending to be pillows. Her statement to the door guards, that she was traveling with some children entrusted to her, would have made any Lan sect politician proud, being both completely truthful and absolutely unhelpful.

It was only after they’d all already left that it had come out that Jiang Fengmian had agreed to Cangse Sanren’s proposal without consulting or even telling his fearsome wife…and she was not happy about it.

Politeness dictated that, as guests of the Lotus Pier, everyone attending the discussion conference should respect their hosts’ privacy. And they were, even if that meant pretending not to hear the shouting and crashing of items being thrown – but their hosts were certainly not making it easy.

Surely at some point they’d think to put up a privacy screen of some sort…

“I do think that she did it deliberately,” Lan Qiren continued, thinking aloud. “Not just in terms of what she asked to do, but in then leaving without confirming the request with Yu Ziyuan, though she must have known that it would cause Jiang Fengmian no end of trouble. I even understand the logic – the fight between the two of them, which they seem to incorrectly think we cannot hear or perceive, has captivated the attention of the cultivation world. The information about my nephews’ disappearance has thus been held back a little longer. But it seems…not cruel, precisely. But certainly it seems rather cutthroat a move to pull on someone close to you. Wouldn’t you agree?”

When Wen Ruohan didn’t respond, Lan Qiren shrugged.

“I thought you might have some insight,” he explained. “You and Lao Nie – you have something similar, do you not? You are lovers, but I noticed that you are also often at each other’s throats, and not in a way that could be explained through mutually consensual sadism. In fact, that is another thing I would like to understand. Is there some new cause for that? I had not seen you two interact for a while, but I recall that you did not behave like that with each other before – ”

“Could we not discuss this right now?” Wen Ruohan interrupted. His voice sounded strained. “Perhaps – later…?”

“Ah, of course, of course,” Lan Qiren said, nodding in apology, though his remorse was not as genuine as it probably should be. He had been doing it on purpose. “This is supposed to be for you, after all. I should focus my attention more thoroughly. Would you like to finish again?”

“No,” Wen Ruohan said fervently. “Four in one night is enough, thank you.”

“I think you can manage once more,” Lan Qiren said encouragingly, making Wen Ruohan whine and dig his nails into Lan Qiren’s sides in an encouraging way that was far from consistent with his words of denial. “You were the one who wanted me to…hmm, what was the phrase you used – ”

“Your sect has to have some sort of rule against this,” Wen Ruohan complained insincerely. “When I said I wanted you to fuck me into next week, this is not what I meant.”

He would probably try to take Lan Qiren’s head off if he actually tried to stop.

“Do not tell lies,” Lan Qiren reminded him virtuously, then added, perhaps a little maliciously: “But you are correct, there is an applicable rule, I suppose. How does Sect Leader Wen feel about Do not bully the weak…?”

Predictably, Wen Ruohan growled at the suggestion that he was weak, and yet again at Lan Qiren’s suggestion that he really could just stop what he was doing if it was getting to be too much for him. Lan Qiren did put a pause on the conversation after that, at least – he knew that Wen Ruohan enjoyed listening to him talk, which was probably the first time anyone had ever paid him that particular compliment, but also that after a certain amount of exertion and pleasure he found it increasingly difficult to keep up with the strategic analysis that he most liked hearing. It would be discourteous to abuse that knowledge.

Well, more than he already was, anyway.

Lan Qiren hadn’t been lying about wanting to do something for Wen Ruohan. He was grateful, overwhelmingly grateful, grateful enough that it was almost frightening. Wen Ruohan might not have arranged his nephews’ departure from the Cloud Recesses, they had done that themselves – and the mere thought of it was enough to make Lan Qiren’s heart freeze in his chest in terror – but he had found them, and he had swiftly taken action to help Lan Qiren keep them. Even if he was acting in part due to his own motives, which Lan Qiren never doubted, he had still done it, and in so doing, had saved his nephews from whatever foul plan their father had in mind for them.

The rules said Have affection and gratitude, and Lan Qiren would do his best.

“Fuck,” Wen Ruohan said when Lan Qiren coaxed him to finish yet again, his entire body gone utterly limp and relaxed. “Fuck, that was – good. Painfully good. How are you not done yet?”

“I am using my spiritual energy to improve my stamina,” Lan Qiren said. He’d thought it was pretty obvious, but Wen Ruohan gave him a look that suggested he thought Lan Qiren was the insane one of the pair of them.

“That phrasing suggests that in previous incidents you didn’t – ”

Lan Qiren hadn’t thought it was necessary before.

“– and also, stamina is only stamina, even when backed with spiritual energy. You still need willpower to direct your actions without being distracted or overwhelmed by pleasure.”

“Willpower is something I am not short of,” Lan Qiren said dryly, enjoying the way the words made Wen Ruohan’s throat work as he swallowed, shifting uncomfortably in a way that suggested that the mind was still willing even if the body was no longer able. “As for the question I believe actually you meant to ask – namely why I haven’t finished yet – I thought you might enjoy it if I kept going after you passed out. If I were to use you for my own purposes and my own pleasure at a time when you were no longer able to resist.”

“…fuck,” Wen Ruohan said, and shut his eyes. “Yes, do that.”

Lan Qiren obliged him.

When he was done, he got up to engage in the necessary clean-up, which included applying healing salve to the myriad of little injuries Wen Ruohan invariably left on him. The other man was unquestionably a sadist, with strong fondness for physical pain – he liked the scratches and bruises he left littered on Lan Qiren’s body, liked inflicting them and liked seeing them later so that he could smirk in reminiscence of having caused them. Mindful of that, and of his gratitude, Lan Qiren purposefully did not seek to fully heal the marks Wen Ruohan had left on his neck, each one purposefully high so that the edges would show even if he wore his most concealing high-collared robes, while being just barely low enough that Wen Ruohan could claim that he’d done it unintentionally.

Normally, it would annoy Lan Qiren, but – well, he was grateful. Let Wen Ruohan have his fun.

The next morning, he rose at his usual time and instructed the servants at the door not to wake Wen Ruohan until he rose naturally. The whole cultivation world had tacitly agreed to jointly pretend that the original postponement of the usual morning meeting to lunchtime had always been meant as a postponement until lunchtime the next day, so as to avoid embarrassing their hosts more than they were already embarrassing themselves and also to provide the Jiang sect disciple scrambling to fix things with a little more breathing room. That meant there was no point in making Wen Ruohan drag himself out of bed early for socialization he already had little to no interest in.

Instead, when his morning routine was done, Lan Qiren dressed himself in the most atrocious of the robes Wen Ruohan had had prepared for him – the ones streaked with bright red suns, similar to the ones the main Wen clan wore, and completed with an embroidered belt in which the subdued black-on-black pattern of clouds was eclipsed by the gold and ruby of the sun used as the clasp in what must be the most unsubtle of metaphors – and went out himself. In truth, he hated the social aspects of the discussion conferences just as much, if not more, than Wen Ruohan did, since Wen Ruohan only disliked making time for those he perceived to be his social inferiors or his competition, while Lan Qiren could have done very well without seeing any of them at all.

But as all sect leaders eventually learned, dislike of an act could not mean disregarding it.

Lan Qiren might not like socializing, no, but he could do it, and he could do it well. He had ten years of knowledge at his fingertips, enabling him to personalize his interactions with each sect leader he met – he knew which ones had recently had children and which ones had married, which ones had had recent success in night-hunts and which ones had had embarrassing failures, knew when to offer congratulations and when not to. He knew to always compliment Sect Leader Huang on his wife and ask Sect Leader Ouyang about his only son, knew to avoid mentioning Tingshan He to Huaitang Wu while always doing so the other way around, knew that a casual reference to the fierce ladies of Chenwei Zhao would make the sect leader of Songdian Zhao panic and yield under almost any circumstances…

Do not embarrass your wife in public, he had written to himself, setting it as a rule and thinking of Jiang Fengmian, and he’d been right, hadn’t he? Support your wife’s family, for they are now your own.

And Lan Qiren…Lan Qiren was grateful.

So he ignored his dislike and even his dignity, and made the informal rounds of visits to the other cultivation sects, greeting who he should greet and snubbing no one he shouldn’t snub. He let them look at him in his Wen sect clothing, Wen Ruohan’s blatant symbol of possession, and equally he let them smirk at the marks on his neck, revealed by the low collar of the robes he’d picked out. He was polite and…well, not charming, he didn’t think he could manage charming, toneless and tactless as he was.

But he could certainly manage to be compelling, implying without saying that Wen Ruohan had made significant plans and that he was aware of them while refusing to share any details. For some sect leaders he put on a concerned look, suggesting that he disapproved of what he had heard but was helpless to do anything about it, while for others he permitted himself an expression of mild satisfaction, as though he had succeeded in convincing Wen Ruohan to do something out of his usual line. In each case, he left the sect leader he spoke with something to think about, something that they would turn over and over again in their minds until they could think of nothing else, until they wanted nothing more than to meet up in groups to speculate with each other about the Wen sect’s next move.

Anyone else seeking to accomplish something at this discussion conference would be hard-pressed to get in a word. Even the return of his brother, which would have otherwise been the main subject of the day, was cast aside as old news, unable to make a dent in the furor.

Because Lan Qiren was grateful, but also because he was spiteful, too.

“I like the outfit,” Lao Nie said to him, eyes curved with glee, when Lan Qiren visited the portion of the main dining hall typically (if informally) set aside for the Great Sect leaders. Lan Qiren’s brother was standing by his side, stonily mute once more. “Very…colorful.”

He was making a comment on the mauled state of Lan Qiren’s neck, Lan Qiren surmised. He had heard similar comments all morning, some far less subtle than others.

“Thank you,” he replied politely. “All credit goes to my wife.”

If he put a mild stress on the word wife, or allowed his voice to be louder than usual so that it would carry, causing the rest of the room to burst out in whispered speculation at the fact that Lan Qiren had said it not once but twice, then it was only a matter of good politics. Everyone would wonder at Wen Ruohan’s intentions, worry about the possible results of his schemes. Their minds and mouths would be filled with nothing but him – just as Wen Ruohan had wanted.

Be your wife’s partner, after all.

And if those very same acts of good politics also happened to make Lan Qiren’s brother’s eyes fill with anger at the reminder that Lan Qiren had taken the insult he’d intended to degrade him and turned it into a source of power instead…well. Lan Qiren had promised himself that he would make his brother live in regret, and he intended to do it.

There would be consequences to his current display, Lan Qiren knew. His brother was quite capable of disregarding their sect’s rule against bearing grudges, and he was both powerful and clever in his own right, however out of practice he might be at the moment. He had been raised by their father to play the political game in ways Lan Qiren had never been, and he had been good at it, those few years he had managed the sect before he had gone into seclusion. He would be thoughtful, and he would be vengeful, and Lan Qiren had relatively little power to resist any retaliation his brother might wish to take in revenge for this slight. Lan Qiren knew too well, as most of the other sect leaders did not, that his relationship with Wen Ruohan was a delicate one, born of cooperation held together solely by mutual interest; he wasn’t anywhere near as favored or as influential as he was pretending to be, and his brother would eventually learn that, even if he didn’t know it yet. There would be consequences.

But now that Lan Qiren knew that those consequences would not fall on his nephews, he didn’t care.

Do not be haughty and complacent, the rules said. He was knowingly breaking that rule, and to knowingly break a rule was worse than an accidental violation – he would require a more severe punishment to correct his future behavior. Possibly even to the point of needing physical discipline, rather than merely reviewing the basis of the rule or copying it out.

(Perhaps Wen Ruohan would enjoy administering it? That seemed likely. And Lan Qiren was grateful…)

“Oh, that reminds me,” Lao Nie said with a smirk that suggested mischief. “Your secret marriage meant that I didn’t get a chance to send a wedding present. Naturally I will have to make up for that. Do you have anything in mind? Or should I just dig through my treasury?”

Lan Qiren grimaced at the thought of yet more priceless items ending up unused in Wen Ruohan’s treasure rooms, swords left to rust and instruments gone out of tune.

“I suspect my new household already has everything that it needs,” he said, then added, dryly, “Though I understand that my wife has always appreciated having a little more land.”

Lao Nie cackled. “Not a chance, my friend. Not a chance.”

“In that case, we will be satisfied with no gifts at all, and your presence at dinner some time.” Lan Qiren glanced sidelong at his brother and added, a little colder and much less sincere, “Naturally, Xiongzhang should also come to visit us when it suits him best.”

His brother smiled thinly. “I would be more than delighted to visit, of course, when you have a chance to settle down. I know how…busy…you’ve been, in the service of your new family.”

Lan Qiren wasn’t sure what his brother meant to imply by that, but it made the smile on Lao Nie’s face fade away into a mild frown, which meant it was probably some sort of subtle insult.

“Half the people I spoke to this morning said that you’d already been to visit them,” his brother continued in seeming explanation, and Lao Nie’s expression cleared up, though Lan Qiren was sure that his brother had actually meant whatever insult he’d initially implied. “Don’t let yourself get worked over too hard, Qiren.”

There was another insult there, which again Lan Qiren couldn’t figure out, but he was more interested in the fact that his brother had also been making the informal rounds of socialization. He didn’t know his brother well enough anymore to be able to determine if he’d done it because he’d had a specific goal, or merely as a means of reintroducing himself to the cultivation world, or else simply because he enjoyed socializing more than Lan Qiren ever had. If his brother had been anyone else, and Lan Qiren still in his position as sect leader, he would have made a point of trying to find out – and he still could, he supposed, though he would have to do it through Wen Ruohan’s means rather than his own. Still, it would mean losing face, having to ask someone else a question about his own brother…

“Sect Leader!” someone called, and multiple heads turned, but it was a Lan sect disciple who was calling. An older one, one of the ones that had never liked Lan Qiren, and he looked worried, rushing forward at an unusual speed to whisper into Lan Qiren’s brother’s ear.

Ah. It is time, then.

Lan Qiren inclined his head to Lao Nie and started making his way away from them. It would be better to appear that he had no idea what was being said before the news came out, if only because his brother would eventually find a way to confront him, presumably in private –

“Qiren, stop.”

His brother’s voice cracked like a whip, drawing attention from the room at large. Lan Qiren pressed his lips together in irritation, wondering if his brother had no care for their sect’s face. Was he really going to confront him here and now, in front of everyone?

Nevertheless, he turned back. “Yes, Xiongzhang?”

“My sons have gone missing from the Cloud Recesses,” his brother said, watching him with a cold expression, and Lan Qiren pressed his lips together further: it seemed that his brother did, in fact, intend to do this here and now. “Do you know where they might be?”

On the road to Xixiang, Lan Qiren thought to himself. Cangse Sanren had mentioned hearing rumors of something there that might be worth night-hunting, a matter of some urgency – it was one of those no-man’s-land regions that lacked a local cultivation sect and therefore relied on the kindness of rogue cultivators like her and her husband. Critically, it was not too far from the Lan sect’s outer borders, meaning that Cangse Sanren would have a plausible (though not especially believable) place where she could have run into Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji that didn’t involve stealing them away from their rightful home, and from there she would make her way towards the Nightless City.

“I do not know where they are right now,” he said, careful to be precise: he didn’t know where on the road they might be, whether they’d gone fast enough to be past the nearest town by now or if they had taken a longer, more circuitous route. With Cangse Sanren involved, it could be anything. For all he knew, she could have decided to go backwards. “Do you mean to say you do not know? Is there any risk that they have been kidnapped?”

Lan Qiren rarely had reason to be thankful for his natural lack of affect, which made others perceive him as being dull and uninteresting, but it was helpful now – he was a poor actor, but no one would question his relative calm or use it as a reason to doubt his sincerity. His brother would suspect him even more, knowing as he did of Lan Qiren’s meltdowns, his fears, his recent emotional instability, but he couldn’t mention any of those, not without explaining why he might think such a reaction was likely. That wouldn’t leave either of them with any face, and his brother cared deeply for his face, even if he sometimes seemed to forget that his sect also had face that he should concern himself with.

That left him helpless – unless he could force Lan Qiren to admit to something.

“Do not tell lies,” his brother said.

“I am not lying,” Lan Qiren said, forcing himself to look at his brother directly, or at least as close as he could tolerate. “Xiongzhang, you know that I would never risk letting my nephews come to harm.”

Even if the harm comes from you.

His brother’s eyes narrowed. He understood the implied message – that Lan Qiren did know where the boys were. More: that his strongest leverage against Lan Qiren had disappeared along with them.

“Qiren – ”

“I think that is enough,” Wen Ruohan said, his powerful voice carrying through the room. Lan Qiren glanced over to look at him: he was standing at the door, with his hands clasped behind his back and that cruel smile he used in public. He’d timed his entrance well, with the late morning sun glittering off the water to frame him and his incredibly strong cultivation was rolling off of him in waves, a display and reminder that he was so much more powerful than the rest of them. “He has already said he didn’t know, and we all know Lan Qiren doesn’t lie. I will not permit one of my people to be baselessly questioned any further.”

He strolled forward, ignoring the way they all gawked at him.

“I assume you will nevertheless want to check my Wen sect’s rooms…?” he said mildly, stopping only when he was standing by Lan Qiren’s side. “You are welcome to do so. You will find no lost children there, but by all means, go ahead and waste your time.”

“I thank Sect Leader Wen for his courtesy,” Lan Qiren’s brother said smoothly, jerking his head in the briefest of inclines before sweeping out the door.

Lao Nie glanced at the two of them with a brief frown of his own, but then opted to head out as well, undoubtedly off to offer his assistance with the search. That was the Nie sect: always willing to fight evil no matter where it might be.

Once they were gone, the room quickly lit up in gossip, everyone immediately seeking out someone else with whom they could discuss this newest twist. And to think that when they’d arrived, they probably thought that they would spend the entire conference talking about the return of Lan Qiren’s brother…

“I heard that you had a busy morning,” Wen Ruohan murmured in Lan Qiren’s ear. When Lan Qiren looked at him, his eyes were shining with barely restrained excitement. “You look – ravishing.”

Lan Qiren rolled his eyes. “I’m sure. Tell me, is it the outfit that stakes your claim or the chaos I caused in your name that does it for you?”

“Can’t it be both? Surely I’ve demonstrated the genuine nature of my interest in you by now.”

Lan Qiren snorted. He was quite certain that Wen Ruohan would happily drag him into a convenient bedroom and demand service at this very moment if he thought they could get away with it.

“It was the least I could do,” he said instead. “Have affection and gratitude. You should make the rounds yourself, while you can – if things keep going the way they are, this entire conference will end up getting canceled.”

“Mm, a good point.” A smirk played around his lips. “Perhaps I’ll go check in on Sect Leader Chang to see how Yueyang Chang is settling in. It is their first discussion conference as a subordinate clan of the Wen sect.”

Lan Qiren rolled his eyes at the other man’s smugness. The plan had worked out just as Lan Qiren had proposed, much to Wen Ruohan’s evident delight, though if he kept tormenting Sect Leader Chang with how badly his scheme to defeat his neighbors had gone, the man was likely to work himself into an aneurysm. Which would make him much less useful to Wen Ruohan!

“What about you?” Wen Ruohan asked. “Do you have more people you want to see?”

“‘Want’ is not the word I would select in this context,” Lan Qiren said with a faint sigh. “And no, not quite. At any rate, it would be inappropriate for me to continue socializing while my nephews are missing, even if, as a member of another sect, it is equally inappropriate for me to assist in the search without permission. However, I am certain that if I remain here unattended any number of my peers will come to express their best wishes on my nephews’ swift return.”

“Your analysis is shrewd as ever, Lan Qiren, but for one thing: you have no peer.” Wen Ruohan’s icy smile briefly curled up into something a little more genuine. “Other than me, of course.”

Of course you would think that, self-absorbed narcissist that you are, Lan Qiren thought to himself, but perhaps a little more fondly than before. Self-absorbed or not, Wen Ruohan had helped him when he had needed it most, and not only once. Have affection and gratitude indeed…

The first few people who approached Lan Qiren only came to fish for gossip, but he repelled them easily enough. The next two after that actually had something interesting to say, though whether they meant to have said it Lan Qiren could not be sure. Potential allies or enemies, in any event, and he noted down their names to share with Wen Ruohan afterwards.

The one after that, though, had a different goal entirely.

“It’s just, you see, you did such a good job with A-Ling,” Sect Leader Xie said apologetically. He was the head of a small independent sect loosely allied with the Lan, but he’d only made a cursory attempt to comfort Lan Qiren over the disappearance of his nephews, focusing instead on his own concerns. “Everything about him has improved: his conduct, his temperament, even his martial skills and cultivation. A-Yi has been immensely jealous, and we’ve been promising him all year that he would get the chance to attend your classes once he was old enough…”

“I intend to resume my classes,” Lan Qiren reassured him. “They will need to be held in the Nightless City, as I now reside there, and as a result I expect to start later in the season than usual, but they will still be taking place.”

Indeed, Wen Ruohan was likely to insist on it.

“The Nightless City,” Sect Leader Xie repeated, shifting uncomfortably. “I don’t mean to be rude, Teacher Lan, but…”

“Naturally anyone who comes to my classes will have my personal guarantee of safe passage, as well as the same guarantee from Sect Leader Wen,” Lan Qiren said firmly. He would insist on it, and he thought he was likely to get it – it wasn’t as though Wen Ruohan could run the classes without him. Anyway, Wen Ruohan saw the classes (however incorrectly) as planting seeds for the future, a long-term investment, so he was highly unlikely to risk that future by acting against any of Lan Qiren’s students in the present. “If anything ever happens that makes me doubt that guarantee, I will cancel rather than risk any student that is entrusted to me.”

“Oh, that’s good, that’s good. Very good! As always, Teacher Lan, you are the most reliable!”

Lan Qiren inclined his head and watched with no little bemusement as Sect Leader Xie bustled away back to his preferred clique, saying some words to them that made them all perk their heads up and look over at him like a gaggle of meerkats from some distant foreign land. He was aware, of course, that he had developed something of a reputation as a teacher, but it was rather gratifying to see other people so enthusiastic about the notion of sending him their children…

Lan Qiren shook his head and turned his attention back to politics.

Another five visitors later, his enthusiasm was starting to flag, as he would have expected. The process of politics was seemingly interminable, and the amount of time and effort it took to deal with people was simply exhausting. He was just thinking that he should find his way to a slightly more obscure corner –

“Murder!”

Lan Qiren startled, as did everyone around him, each of them falling silent and wondering if they’d misheard.

“Murder!” someone shouted. It was a panting, panicked disciple in nondescript colors that had clearly just run into the main hall, chest heaving and eyes wide as saucers. “Help, please! Someone’s been murdered!”

Lan Qiren started making his way forward at once, his fingers immediately itching for either his sword or his guqin, but found that he was making no headway. Everyone else was still staring at the disciple blankly, as if trying to understand how something like that could have happened here, amongst all of the cultivators, and when all of them were unarmed, too.

“I’m telling you, someone’s been murdered…!”

Lan Qiren gave up on subtlety and started forcing his way through the people in his way. It was rude, but it worked: the crowd parted before him as soon as they noticed him, the smaller sect leaders instinctively deferring to a Great Sect leader, even though he wasn’t one any longer.

“Who has been injured?” he said sharply to the panicked disciple, and when that didn’t work, added, “Show me. Where are they?”

The disciple led the way outside, where a number of people were already gathering, muttering to each other. There was the smell of blood in the air, mixing unpleasantly with the flowers and water, and when Lan Qiren finally made it through the crowd, he found that its source was a middle-aged man in a green robe, splayed out on his belly in a puddle of his own blood, half-in and half-out of one of the Lotus Pier’s many pavilions. Several people were already kneeling next to him, helping turn him over.

He looked – familiar.

“It’s Sect Leader Pei!” someone shouted, recognizing the man at exactly the same moment Lan Qiren did. “Wangdu Pei!”

Sect Leader Pei? Why is that name familiar – Oh no.

Oh no.

“But who would want to hurt him?” The whispers had already started. “He didn’t have any enemies. Wangdu Pei is a subsidiary sect of Lanling Jin. Who would dare?”

And then, inevitably, as Lan Qiren had already known they would –

“Didn’t Sect Leader Pei get into a dispute with Sect Leader Wen? He did, didn’t he? Yesterday, at the morning meeting, he called out the former Sect Leader Lan for where he was sitting. Sect Leader Wen was angry, you saw him, you saw his face. He wanted to hurt him…he wanted to kill him…”

Lan Qiren gritted his teeth and ignored the whispers, kneeling beside the body and pressing one hand to the man’s neck, the other to his nose, seeking breath. Abruptly, he flashed back to being in a similar position with He Kexin’s body, all her once-prodigious beauty rendered abruptly hollow, spelling the beginning of so much horrible change.

For a moment he found it hard to breathe.

And then he felt something under his fingertips, something that had been absent with He Kexin, and that brought him back to himself.

“He’s not dead,” Lan Qiren said. No one heard him, they were too busy gossiping. This was why his sect had set Talking behind others’ backs is prohibited as a rule.He raised his voice to his best schoolteacher’s bellow: “Listen to me!”

Everyone fell silent and looked at him.

“Sect Leader Pei is not dead,” Lan Qiren said firmly. “There is still a pulse, and breath. Someone go fetch a doctor at once.”

No one moved.

“Is he really not dead?” Someone unseen hissed. “Or is Teacher Lan just covering up for his lover…?”

Lan Qiren was about to retort that Wen Ruohan was his lawfully married wife, not a lover, when he was interrupted once more.

This time, though, it wasn’t a verbal interruption. Rather, a sudden sense of tremendous pressure suddenly came crashing down on him, on all of them, knocking half the sect leaders still standing down to their knees and making the rest stagger. It felt as though the weight of a mountain had abruptly settled down on their shoulders. The force of it curved their shoulders from the strain, crushing their chests and lungs, making it impossible to draw air –

“I would offer my own services,” Wen Ruohan said pleasantly from the doorway to the main hall, looking out at all of them in the reverse image of how he had entered the same hall not long before. “But for whatever reason I don’t think they would be properly appreciated, despite my sect’s fame in medicine.”

He had his fingers up in a gesture not unlike a pinch, with a small round fleck of black smaller than a grain of rice rotating rapidly in place like a spinning marble, held between his thumb and middle finger.

Lan Qiren had never seen anything like it before. What was that…?

Wen Ruohan pinched his fingers a little closer together, causing the immense pressure to momentarily tighten – Lan Qiren felt as though he were drowning – and then brought them together in a swift snap that shattered the sense of heaviness all at once, freeing them from the terrible weight.

Lan Qiren inhaled sharply, drawing in air to fill his screaming lungs once more, and he wasn’t the only one to do so. He still didn’t know what it was that Wen Ruohan had just done, but he was tremendously grateful that it was over…and also, retroactively, that none of them had actually managed to succeed in truly angering Wen Ruohan, that ancient monster of the cultivation world.

He turned his head to catch Wen Ruohan’s gaze and nodded at him in thanks, as that had been a very efficient – if perhaps excessive – way of getting everyone to stop gossiping. Wen Ruohan smirked in response, inclining his head and spreading his hands by his sides in a subtle silent bow as if he were a performer that had just finished pulling off a particularly magnificent stunt of sleight-of-hand.

Ridiculous man.

“There must be a doctor somewhere,” Lan Qiren said loudly, trying to focus on what was important. Human life takes precedence. “Yunmeng Jiang must have some on retainer. Has someone sent a disciple to summon them?”

Luckily, it turned out someone had, and a few moments later three of them arrived, each one holding their medical kits. With Lan Qiren and Wen Ruohan both glowering at everyone, a path was swiftly opened up for them, and soon enough they were crouched around Sect Leader Pei, wielding acupuncture needles and bitter-smelling poultices and bandages and the like.

Lan Qiren took the opportunity to retreat, heading back to Wen Ruohan’s side. He had to speak with him as soon as possible – and privately, if they could manage it.

Unfortunately, that would be difficult, given all the people around them, many of whom were still eyeing them both suspiciously. But it was necessary, and urgent. He had to tell Wen Ruohan what people had thought when they’d seen Sect Leader Pei lying there, what they had suspected, who they had suspected…

Only Lan Qiren wasn’t quite sure how to manage it.

Leaving the scene together would only be deemed even more suspicious, and at precisely a moment in which it was absolutely vital for them to avoid increasing the already tense atmosphere; it was impossible. But neither was there some easy way to simply draw Wen Ruohan aside for a quiet word. It wasn’t as though Lan Qiren could just walk up to him and whisper in his ear…

Ah, no, wait. They were married. There was no reason he couldn’t.

Lan Qiren matched action to thought at once, arriving at Wen Ruohan’s side and leaning his head in close as if he were trying to kiss him on the cheek. Wen Ruohan reacted at once, reaching out one hand to wrap around him and pull him in closer, as if into an embrace, his second hand reaching up to cup the back of Lan Qiren’s head and draw him in close the way a man might to comfort a shaken loved one, cooperating with the illusion almost as if he knew what Lan Qiren were trying to do.

“Someone is trying to frame you,” Lan Qiren hissed into his ear.

To his surprise, Wen Ruohan snorted.

“Do not laugh. This is serious, take it seriously. I am entirely in earnest.”

“You always are,” Wen Ruohan murmured back, voice low. “But to jump immediately to framing…you recall that you haven’t seen me all morning, do you not? Who’s to say I wasn’t the one who did it…?”

Lan Qiren pulled his head back and gave Wen Ruohan his best glare, though he kept his voice quiet. “I told you to be serious. Naturally you did not do it! Others may doubt it, more fool they, but I know that you are neither insane nor an idiot. Even if you did intend to kill him, why would you do it now, when it serves none of your interests and would only harm your sect’s reputation if it were known?”

“An excellent point,” Wen Ruohan said. He was smiling, his eyes curved with good humor rather than dead and cold. “You’re entirely correct, as usual. I did not kill him, and I am being framed.”

“I know that. I said that. That is how I started this conversation. The question is what to do about it – ”

“Sect Leader Wen.”

Lan Qiren turned, drawing away from Wen Ruohan as he did. It was Jiang Fengmian who had called, a look of solemn neutrality on his face. Behind him were Lan Qiren’s brother and Jin Guangshan, the latter tapping his fan against his palm, and a few steps behind them was Lao Nie, lingering by the pavilion with Sect Leader Pei with a frown on his face and his hand resting on the hilt of his famous saber Jiwei.

Four Great Sects, joined together to face down the Wen, which as always stood alone.

Well, not quite alone, Lan Qiren amended. He put his hands behind his back, grounding his stance and making it quite clear from his posture that he had no intention of going anywhere.

Jiang Fengmian drew to a halt in front of where Wen Ruohan and Lan Qiren were standing.

“Sect Leader Wen,” he repeated, and raised his hands to salute respectfully. “There have been certain questions raised that I request that you answer, if you are willing. If you would come with me…?”

There was a dangerous smile playing at Wen Ruohan’s lips, though for once Lan Qiren could not sense his usual rage at anything even remotely suggestive of a challenge to his authority – on the contrary, he seemed to be in an extraordinarily good mood. Lan Qiren had no idea why that might be, given that he was blatantly being schemed against.

Though perhaps that was it. Lao Nie had once remarked to Lan Qiren that Wen Ruohan did not seem to overly mind betrayals provided that they were conducted with sufficient style, evaluating them the way an aesthete would fine art. Lan Qiren had found the notion strangely sad, which Lao Nie had not understood and which he had never been able to explain, not even to himself.

“I would be more than happy to accompany my gracious host and provide whatever assistance I can,” Wen Ruohan said smoothly, causing a good three quarters of the room to exhale in relief at the realization that no wars would be starting today. “Lead the way, Sect Leader Jiang.”

Jiang Fengmian bowed a little and turned, with Jin Guangshan and Lan Qiren’s brother both stepping to the side to allow him to pass.

Lan Qiren glanced at them, wondering if he should go as well, but Wen Ruohan caught his eye and shook his head lightly in refusal. Lan Qiren inclined his head back and left him to follow Jiang Fengmian alone, although as they entered the pavilion Lao Nie turned and joined them – a little shameless of him, but then again he was notoriously shameless. Not to mention quixotic enough that no one would be able to guess whether he’d joined in order to be on Wen Ruohan’s side or against him.

Perhaps that was why Wen Ruohan hadn’t wanted Lan Qiren to come along. If he had, it would have given his brother the opportunity to do the same, and they knew that he wasn’t on their side.

Though, now that Lan Qiren thought about it, it was something of a surprise that Jin Guangshan hadn’t insisted on joining the interrogation himself. Wasn’t Wangdu Pei one of Lanling Jin’s subordinate sects…? Surely he would have a vested interest, and even if he didn’t care about his own subordinate sect, he certainly could have plausibly claimed to –

“I wouldn’t have expected such an unseemly display from you, Qiren.”

Lan Qiren stiffened when his brother came to stand next to him. “I am not sure I know what you mean.”

His brother hummed, though it was barely audible, the room having erupted into conversation once more, everyone rushing over to talk with their friends and allies and occasionally even enemies if they thought they might have something worth saying. Jin Guangshan in particular was standing at the center of a large circle of people, fielding questions with his usual slimy smile. Presumably that was a greater draw than the interrogation.

“Only that you have always seemed so detached from worldly pleasures. Who would think that once you were married, you would be shamelessly hanging all over another in public…” Lan Qiren stiffened in outrage, and his brother chuckled in a low voice. “Ah, but you are the expert on the rules! Naturally I don’t need to remind you. Though perhaps a refresher would be in order on Do not be promiscuous…”

“We are married,” Lan Qiren said through gritted teeth, instead of objecting the way he would like to the lurid mischaracterization of his actions, which were nowhere near to what his brother seemed to be implying. It was pointless, and would only make his brother laugh at him even more. “I am certain I do not need to remind you that it is a husband’s duty to ensure his wife is satisfied – ”

He choked at the sudden burst of pain in his abdomen, staggering back in surprise. He stared up at his brother in shock: had he just hit him?

His brother was looking down at him, unconcealed wrath twisting his features into something ugly. He stepped closer, lifting his hand once more…

There was a burst of laughter from the door, deep and compelling and distinctive, immediately identifiable to Lan Qiren despite how rarely he heard it. Everyone else seemed primarily confused, perhaps wondering who would be laughing at a time like this, and all together turned to stare at Wen Ruohan, who was leaning against the railing of the walkway next to the pavilion and laughing loudly with his head thrown back.

“No, no,” he said, lazily waving his hand at Jiang Fengmian. “Please go on! Tell me more! Yes, of course, when you put it that way, it couldn’t have been anyone but me, could it? Everyone knows that I am hot-headed and passionate, always the first one to act irrationally for the sake of…what was it again…”

“Love, I think,” Lao Nie drawled. He was visibly rolling his eyes.

“Oh, yes, of course. That.”

Lan Qiren would be amused by the sheer dripping disdain in Wen Ruohan’s voice – certainly it was doing an excellent job of getting the rest of the room to abruptly realize that they’d been too caught up in the moment to actually think about how unlikely it was that Wen Ruohan, of all people, would be sufficiently moved to action by an insult to Lan Qiren – but his brother had caught him by the wrist and was squeezing tightly enough that it felt as though his bones were grinding together.

“How very shameless you are, Qiren,” his brother hissed, and Lan Qiren had to bite his tongue to keep from making a sound of pain when he felt something give way in his arm. “Shameless and spoiled, with your so-inflexible righteousness scarcely hiding the rot of your hypocrisy. How many losses will your lover be willing to bear, do you think, before the cost of you begins to outweigh the benefit…?”

Lan Qiren stared at his brother, realizing what that must mean. “Do you mean you were the one who – ”

“I didn’t do it!” someone cried out, yet again drawing the attention of the gathered group to where the investigation was continuing. It was poor Sect Leader Xie, that little rabbit of a man that had promised his A-Yi the chance to attend Lan Qiren’s classes. “I mean – I know – I was there, yes, but I didn’t do it! I didn’t even see anything!”

“That’s a little implausible,” Lao Nie pointed out reasonably. He’d obviously stepped forward to be the lead investigator for the matter. “You’re saying a man was attacked only a few steps away from you and you missed it? Because you were, what, looking the wrong way?”

“But I was!”

Lan Qiren tore his arm away from his brother, mind working furiously to try to find a way out of the present crisis. His brother had all but admitted to him that he had been the one to orchestrate the framing, but no one else had been paying attention, and he was unlikely to be willing to admit it where anyone else could hear it.

His aim had undoubtedly been to create trouble for Wen Ruohan, and Lan Qiren could see how it would. Even if Wen Ruohan managed to deflect actual blame for the attack, as he was so ably doing, people would still associate the incident with him later, upon retelling, and the Wen sect was not yet so powerful that it could afford to ignore public opinion completely. It made sense, as a countermove: Lan Qiren had been flaunting Wen Ruohan’s power, so his brother attacked and diminished that power…

Worse – it would cost his brother nothing he deemed of value to cover up his own involvement.

Only a single small independent sect, not even a subsidiary, set up to be the perfect scapegoat.

And Wen Ruohan would take the bait and accept that conclusion, of course. Why wouldn’t he? Even if Lan Qiren could get to him in time to tell him who had actually committed the crime, having someone conveniently there to take the blame would minimize the harm that any rumors would do to the Wen sect’s standing or to Wen Ruohan’s own reputation. People would be more inclined to talk about who’d actually done the crime than who had been merely suspected of it, whereas if the culprit were not found, Wen Ruohan would remain the likeliest option. Forcing Sect Leader Xie to bear the blame instead, regardless of whether he was genuinely guilty or innocent, was the obvious next step – it made perfect logical sense, perfect political sense.

It was wrong, against all principles and morality, but since when did Wen Ruohan care about that?

“Lao Nie,” Wen Ruohan suddenly spoke, his powerful voice easily overriding Sect Leader Xie’s sobs. “Be careful. You are on the verge of insulting me.”

Lao Nie blinked, clearly taken aback by the unexpected interruption. “What? How’s that?”

“Sect Leader Jiang, our gracious host, has already said that he believed it was me at fault.” Wen Ruohan shrugged in a grandiose fashion and smirked. “And didn’t I already admit it? Turning around and accusing another like this…it’s almost as if you doubt my word.”

“Hanhan, you were being sarcastic.”

“Says who?” Wen Ruohan waved his hand. “You have as little evidence that it was him as you do that it was me. Anyway, Sect Leader Pei isn’t even dead. Just call it a friendly accident and let us move on – surely we have better things to do. We haven’t even had lunch.”

Lao Nie protested, but Jiang Fengmian was already nodding in agreement, clearly all too happy to wash his hands of the entire incident, and there were fervent murmurs of agreement already rippling through the crowd. It seemed that all of them had had enough excitement for the day.

Sect Leader Xie even stopped crying, seemingly realizing that he was being spared. He looked poleaxed, as if he didn’t understand exactly what was happening but nonetheless overwhelmingly grateful for the unexpected reprieve.

For his part, Lan Qiren stared at Wen Ruohan, wondering what in the world had gotten into him.

There was no benefit to Wen Ruohan in speaking up to spare Sect Leader Xie, nothing at all; it was pure loss for him, for both him personally and his sect more generally. A small loss, to be sure, but a loss nonetheless, and a loss that could be laid squarely at Lan Qiren’s feet – moreover, it was a loss Wen Ruohan could have reduced to almost nothing, effortlessly, and yet chose not to. Why…?

Wen Ruohan turned and caught Lan Qiren’s gaze from across the room. His cold smirk widened, very briefly, into a smile, and he winked, startling Lan Qiren and making him stare even more blatantly. And then, once he was sure he had Lan Qiren’s attention, Wen Ruohan once again inclined his head and very subtly spread his hands out beside him in the most minute of gestures – the same gesture he had made earlier, a silent bow, smug, like a performer having done a trick he thought the audience would like.

He’d done it…for Lan Qiren?

Not for his own benefit, not for any calculation, but rather just…just to please him.

Because he’d noticed Lan Qiren’s distress at the wrong person carrying the blame for something they did not do. Because even if Wen Ruohan didn’t care about what was good and what was right and certainly not about someone as irrelevant as Sect Leader Xie, Lan Qiren did.

And Wen Ruohan, it appeared, cared about that.

…oh, Lan Qiren thought, unsure of why his stomach suddenly felt beset by butterflies, a strange anxiety he hadn’t felt even when his brother had been threatening him – and then abruptly not unsure at all. Oh, no.

He knew exactly why he felt the way he did.

#mdzs #lan qiren #wen ruohan #sect leader nie #qingheng-jun #my fic #my fics #Megafic #:D #happy over 100k everyone

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