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Wei Wuxian’s tails wiggled in barely-concealed excitement. He lit two sticks of incense and bowed to the shrine. 

“ Baba , Fuqin, ” he said as he rose to look up at the paired figures. “I found someone. I pray for luck in getting him.” 

He could almost hear his baba ’s laugh, dry and sarcastic and nearly cruel to anyone who was not fuqin . Luck, what luck? Do it yourself, little brat . 

Laughing, Wei Wuxian placed the incense in the holder. “I will,” he promised 

Bored, Wei Ying slipped away from his baba and fuqin and found himself on the streets of Yiling. He wasn’t one to believe too much in good omens or serendipity—though, he did believe in luck because of his baba —but what else could it be, when he appeared in the same alleyway that fuqin had found him in? 

What else but his baba ’s fantastic luck and a blindingly good omen that, as soon as he appeared, he caught the eyes of the most lovely boy with such a somber, serious face? 

The boy was called Lan Zhan and he was a child of the Lan Clan of Gusu, which meant very little to Wei Ying at the time because the idea of clans and sects were beyond his interest. He was as fascinated by Wei Ying as Wei Ying was by him, and that was enough in his books. 

Wei Ying was thoroughly besotted. He’d always protested loudly—as all children did—when his baba and fuqin kissed or were gross in front of him, but now he understood. Little Lan Zhan with his serious little face and his pretty amber eyes in his pretty robes made Wei Ying want to hold him close the way that baba held fuqin and hold his hand the way that fuqin did while they walked. 

He was young, he knew he was young compared to baba and fuqin , but even he was certain that he learned what love was from watching them, and he wanted to have that love with Lan Zhan. 

Lan Zhan, he learned, was in Yiling only briefly as he traveled with his family on the way to something called a “discussion conference”. It sounded awful and boring to Wei Ying, but Lan Zhan was proud to be allowed along, even if his shufu was frustrated by how slow they had to travel because of him and his brother. But, sadly, it meant that they were only in Yiling for a few hours or so before moving on, and that meant that Lan Zhan would have to leave Wei Ying. 

“What if,” Wei Ying said as Lan Zhan got ready to leave him, “I see you in the next town you go? What if I’m going to your discussion conference too?” 

Lan Zhan looked so baffled that Wei Ying couldn’t help but pat his pouty little cheeks. His cute friend didn’t like it and puffed out his cheeks as the tips of his cute, round ears turned a delightful shade of pink. “Before today, you didn’t know what it was,” he pointed out. 

He was so clever, his Lan Zhan. Wei Ying loved him the way that baba loved fuqin ’s cleverness. “Well, yes, but what if I went anyway?” 

“You have to be invited,” Lan Zhan said, but sounded disappointed as if he really wanted to see Wei Ying there. 

Wei Ying grabbed Lan Zhan’s little hands and held them in his own. “Ah, Lan Zhan,” he said with a wide grin. “Do you want to see me there?” 

“Mn,” Lan Zhan said with the most tragic look on his little face. “But Wei Ying wasn’t invited.” 

“Aiya, Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying said, a delightful and mischievous little plan already forming. “If you want me to be there, just say it and you will see me there! Don’t you believe me?” Lan Zhan looked doubtful and Wei Ying could hear someone calling for him. He was running out of time. He squeezed Lan Zhan’s hands. “If you say it, I will make it happen. Say you want to see me there!”

Lan Zhan was already so stuffy and stubborn but his amber eyes were wide and trusting. He set his little mouth in a determined expression. “I want to see Wei Ying there.” 

“You promise?” Wei Ying teased. “You promise you want to see me?”

“Mn,” Lan Wangji said. “I promise.”

Grinning a Trickster’s smile he definitely learned from baba , Wei Ying promised, “Then I will see Lan Zhan there!” 

“Lan Zhan!”

Hearing someone else calling his name, Lan Zhan turned with a startled jump and looked at the older boy waiting at the mouth of the alley. “ Xiongzhang! ”

So formal, his Lan Zhan. Wei Ying wasn’t too bothered by the possessive thought because it was true—Lan Zhan was his . He just didn’t know it yet. Or rather, he knew it but he just didn’t realize what it meant. 

Lan Zhan’s xiongzhang looked like he was cut from the same stone, a beautiful boy with a sweet smile and eyes nearly as captivating as his Lan Zhan’s. Behind him was another boy with a dour face dressed in green and grey robes. 

“ Didi ,” Lan Zhan’s xiongzhang said. “There you are! Shufu and I were looking all over for you. You can’t wander off like that.” 

Wei Ying watched in delight as Lan Zhan’s little face scrunched up. “I didn’t wander off,” he said. “You left me behind.” 

The dour-faced boy made a noise that could be mistaken for a laugh; Lan Zhan’s xiongzhang looked pained. “ Didi ,” he said. “Come on, it’s time to go. Shufu and I were very worried.” 

“I’m sorry for worrying you,” Lan Zhan said, not sounding particularly sorry at all. 

Lan Zhan’s xiongzhang held out a hand and Lan Zhan turned around to look for Wei Ying, who watched gleefully as he registered the look of surprise when Lan Zhan realized that he could no longer see Wei Ying. 

“Come on, didi ,” Lan Zhan’s brother prompted. “We need to go. Shufu wants to see if we can get to Qishan by supper.” 

Wei Ying perked up. He had a name, now. Qishan—that’s where he needed to go to see Lan Zhan again. 

“My friend was here,” Lan Zhan said a little mournfully. He looked around, that cute little pout on his face. Wei Ying just wanted to squeeze his cheeks but he knew that at the moment, he couldn’t. 

He didn’t have hands, for one. 

“Bye, Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan said softly. Then he paused. “Remember,” he said solemnly to the air. “You promised.” 

Wei Ying would have watched him go, but baba chose that very moment to pick him up by the scruff. “ There you are, tuzaizi ,” he grumbled, though he didn’t truly sound upset so Wei Ying wasn’t too worried. 

When Wei Ying turned back, he found the alley empty. He yipped sadly, but baba had a good grip on his scruff and he couldn’t wiggle free. Still, his wiggling was enough to get baba to hold him properly, which was nice because it allowed him to take his other form.

“ Baba! ” he cried when he had a mouth to do so. “I want to go to Qishan!”

“ Tuzaizi ,” his baba said sternly, though a corner of his mouth lifted in an amused smile. Fuqin was always telling him that he needed to look stern while scolding, but Wei Ying knew that baba loved mischief too much to do so. He was still stern and strict when he needed to be, but far too often he seemed delighted by Wei Ying’s troublemaking. “You wandered off. Fuqin and I were worried.” 

Wei Ying couldn’t bow properly when he was held by baba , but he also knew that his baba didn’t hold well with formality. “Your son apologizes,” he told baba earnestly. “But I wanted to come and see and I met someone who’s going to Qishan and I want to go too!” 

Baba laughed, which meant that he wasn’t really too upset with Wei Ying, because if he was really upset, his laugh would make him shiver. He loved his baba and knew that baba would never hurt him, but sometimes his laugh was scary. 

He wiggled in baba’ s arms. “ Please? ” he asked. Baba and fuqin were both tragically immune to his begging, but sometimes they indulged him if he asked really, really nicely. “Please, baba ?” 

Laughing, baba reached into his sleeves and pulled out a pair of dice. He tossed them lightly in his hand and Wei Ying took a moment to admire the way baba ’s hands moved with his pretty dice. “Tell me why,” he ordered. 

“Imagine me becoming an errand boy at my age,” shifu muttered and handed a bundle of clothes to Wei Ying. 

Wei Ying beamed up at him because he knew that shifu really did like him despite how cranky he got. And he liked to shapeshift as much as Wei Ying did, so he always liked spending time with shifu to practice his skills because fuqin was really bad at it and baba often told him to figure it out himself. So he knew that though shifu complained, he wasn’t really upset with him either. 

He grabbed the clothes and gasped. “It’s so pretty!” he cried. 

“Yunmeng purple,” shifu said gruffly as baba put him down. “Like the disciples of Yunmeng Jiang wear. You got that?” 

“Yunmeng Jiang disciples,” Wei Ying parroted obediently as he put away his tail and began tugging on the robes. Clicking his tongue, shifu knelt in front of him and tugged the robes into order. “Thank you, shifu .” 

Baba barked a laugh. “And what about me, tuzaizi ?” 

Evidently deeming him dressed well enough, shifu stepped back and Wei Ying bowed to baba . “Your son thanks you!” he said and then threw himself to hug baba ’s leg. 

“Ay, tuzaizi ,” baba grumbled. “Now go have fun. But if you get caught and skinned, don’t tell your fuqin , okay? He’d kill me.” 

“But baba ,” Wei Ying said with a grin. “You always say that it’s an honor to die for fuqin .” 

Baba bared his teeth at him but it wasn’t mean. He knelt down and Wei Ying threw his arms around his neck and pressed his forehead and nose to baba ’s in a foxy kiss. “ Tuzaizi ,” baba grumbled. “How could I have raised such a troublemaker?” 

Wei Ying giggled and made grabby arms at shifu until he knelt too and tipped his head down for his own foxy kiss, though he made faces while Wei Ying did. He tweaked Wei Ying’s nose affectionately and then the two of them were gone, disappearing with a little toss of baba ’s dice. 

Giggling, Wei Ying ran out into the street and looked around. There were people in all kinds of amazing colors, some as bright purple as the robe he wore, and some in that weird green that the dour-faced boy had worn, and gold as bright as the sun, and some in white and red with sun motifs on the sleeves and collars. Was this Qishan, and had he found where the discussion conference was being held? 

More importantly, would he find Lan Zhan soon? 

First things first…

He knelt down and picked up a few leaves which he carefully folded into his palm. Then he ran up to a stall that sold mooncakes and used the leaves disguised as coins to buy several, shoving some in his mouth and saving the rest in case he found Lan Zhan. 

The next stall sold melon seeds so he bought a small bag and munched on them as he walked. 

He realized after several hours of aimless wandering that if he went to the areas that had more colorful robes, then he had a better chance of seeing Lan Zhan, who belonged to one of those weird clan things. Most of them ignored him, distracted by bigger things so it was an easy thing to trick them into dropping things that he could pick up. Paying for things with real money was better than an illusion on street trash and leaves, because it meant that he could stay in the area longer before he was caught. 

“Hey!” 

Wei Ying turned, cheeks full of mooncakes, and found a boy also dressed in purple staring at him. His cheeks were puffed out and pink with outrage, which only made Wei Ying grin. Baba always said that he was born to be annoying, and it seemed that it was true. 

“I don’t recognize you,” the boy in purple said. “And you’re wearing Yunmeng purple!” 

“I’m hurt!” Wei Ying cried. “That you don’t even recognize your own shixiong !” 

The boy’s cheeks turned darker. “Are you a thief?” he demanded. “Did you steal someone’s clothes?” 

“I’m not a thief!” Wei Ying said, because he wasn’t the one that would have stolen the clothes and he really didn’t steal the food either because he paid for it. He offered a handful of melon seeds to the boy. “Do you want some, shidi ?” 

He pulled his hand back when the boy moved to slap it away. “I’m not your shidi! ” 

Wei Ying shrugged as if it didn’t matter to him. Still, baba’s warning rang in his ears. The boy in front of him was just a boy, but if he brought his baba and Wei Ying was found out, he’d be skinned just like his mama had been before baba and fuqin had found him. But first they’d have to catch him. 

“Okay, shidi , it’s okay if you don’t remember my name,” Wei Ying said with a giggle. He popped a handful of melon seeds in his mouth. “I forget things all the time. And it’s not like I remembered your name anyway.” The boy reminded Wei Ying of fuqin ’s cousin that no one liked to talk about. Always cranky and easily goaded into things.

“What!” the boy yelled in outrage, stomping his foot on the ground. “What do you mean you don’t know who I am? You say that you’re my shixiong but you don’t know who I am?”

Wei Ying shrugged. “I meet a lot of people, shidi ,” he said, thinking of Lan Zhan and wondering if he’d see him soon. “And I don’t have a great memory. Baba says it’s because I was dropped on my head as a child.” 

“I can see that,” the boy grumbled, crossing his arms petulantly over his chest. 

A girl that looked to be several years older than him approached. She was dressed prettily in pink and purple, with lotus-shaped beads in her hair. “A-Cheng,” she said in a soft, sweet voice. “Did you make a new friend?” 

Grinning, Wei Ying bowed to her, which made A-Cheng sputter in outrage. “ Shijie ,” he pretended to complain. “A-Cheng says that he doesn’t know who I am! His own shixiong !” 

To his delight, the girl laughed even as A-Cheng’s face began to turn as purple as his robes in fury. “Don’t you call me that! You don’t get to call me ‘A-Cheng’! I’m going to be a sect leader some day, so you should show me some respect!” 

Baba was going to kill him, pulling the tail of the future sect leader of the Yunmeng whatever-their-name-was clan. Still, Wei Ying couldn’t help it! He was so easy to rile up. 

“When you remember my name, I’ll stop calling you ‘A-Cheng’,” he said cheekily and tucked his melon seeds back into his sleeves. “Okay, shidi ?” Without waiting for a response—or worse, a promise—Wei Ying turned and ran off into the crowd. 

He amused himself in Qishan until evening when there was an awed cry from the crowd. “The Lan Clan is here,” he heard someone gasp. 

From her clothing, he guessed that she didn’t belong to a sect, but maybe was a noble of some sort. She had nice clothes and the oils and perfumes on her made Wei Ying’s nose itch even from where he was across the street. Seeing the amount of skin revealed by her clothes, he amended, maybe some kind of courtesan or entertainer . 

“Did Qingheng-Jun leave seclusion?” another asked. “Is he here?” 

Wei Ying watched them both crane their necks and realized that the Lan Clan—and thus Lan Wangji—must be visible to them. Curse his short height! When he was big, he hoped to be as tall as baba so he wouldn’t have this problem again! 

Spying a nearby cart he scrambled on the back to look over everyone’s heads. The streets were crowded but seemed even more so, both because people seemed to be streaming out of shops and poking their heads out of windows to watch the arrival of the Lan Clan, but also because they were making way for them, opening a wide strip of space in the middle of the street to let them pass. 

From there, it was easy to see the Lan Clan and Wei Ying couldn’t help but gasp. No wonder everyone was staring!

They walked in two very neat columns and all wore pale robes so soft and white that they looked like they were made of clouds. The edges of their sleeves had beautiful blue designs stitched into them and Wei Ying didn’t need to feel the itch in his fur to know that they were more than just pretty little designs in cloth. He wasn’t big enough or close enough to know what kind of designs they were, but he would guess that it was for protection. 

People like them always wanted protection or blessings or luck. 

Wei Ying craned his head. All of them walked with such stiff, rigid postures with perfectly-centered ribbons tied across their forehead—just like his Lan Zhan—and with such neutral faces that Wei Ying almost expected them to be some kind of funeral procession. But all of the adults carried swords decorated with blue and silver and their collective power—or rather, the collective power in the designs on their robe—made Wei Ying’s skin itch. 

At the front of the procession was an older man with a mustache and a long beard. His hair pieces were silver and the ribbon on his forehead had a silver piece in the center. Reminded, Wei Ying realized that Lan Zhan had a similar piece, and that not all of the people in the two long lines behind him had that same piece at the center of his forehead. How curious. 

Behind him, to Wei Ying’s delight, were Lan Zhan and his xiongzhang , followed by two female disciples that looked to be their minders. 

Wei Ying tried not to pout. Female cultivators were always such a pain to deal with. They were usually meaner and more aware than their male counterparts. Two minders and the shufu that Lan Zhan’s xiongzhang had mentioned? So much trouble. But it was worth it, of course. He’d gotten his promise, and above all else, he was determined to have his Lan Zhan. 

Fuqin always said that the best things in life ( or death , baba would always interject) took effort to get. The harder the task, the sweeter the reward. 

He probably wasn’t thinking about this when he said that to Wei Ying, but surely he’d be pleased that Wei Ying was applying his teachings regardless of what mischief he may be causing along the way. 

“Hey! You again!” 

Wei Ying looked down from his perch and found that the little boy and girl in purple from earlier were both looking up at him. Next to them was a man dressed in fine purple robes. 

Yunmeng purple, shifu had called it. 

He ignored the man and grinned down at the little boy. “Yes, shidi ,” he said. “It’s me! Do you remember my name now?” 

The little boy’s cheeks puffed up in outrage. It reminded Wei Ying of the time’s he’d gone with shifu to the beach. Shifu had brought all kinds of fish to meet him, including a cute little thing that shifu said was covered in little spikes and swallowed water and puffed up when it was scared.

“A-Cheng,” the finely-dressed man said. Wei Ying was wary of him, but he had a pleasant smile and seemed to have good humor as well, so he didn’t think that he’d have to make his escape just yet. But the man had very nice clothes with a lot of layers, which shifu said was often a sign of a noble or someone with a lot of power and money. He was dressed in Yunmeng purple, so he must be a powerful cultivator from that clan, and the ornaments in his hair and on his sash had delicate lotus motifs. 

He was beautiful . Not as beautiful as fuqin in his full regalia or in the pictures that baba painted of him, and not as beautiful as Lan Zhan, but he had kind eyes and a kind smile and all that purple and silver looked stunning on him. Especially the silver. Wei Ying had always liked shiny things. Sometimes baba would ask him if he was part magpie, since he liked shiny things so much.

The man smiled at A-Cheng, who didn’t seem to notice. “Who is your friend here?” 

“He’s not my friend!” A-Cheng said and stomped his foot. 

The man turned and looked at Wei Ying, nearly as much Trickster in him as baba . He winked. “Your shixiong, then.” 

A-Cheng looked betrayed and the little girl giggled. “ Baba ,” she said. “We saw him in the streets earlier. But we don’t know who he is, even though he wears Yunmeng purple.” 

“I am the sect leader of the Yunmeng Jiang,” the man said and Wei Ying hid his dismay behind a handful of melon seeds. A very powerful man indeed. “Forgive me, young disciple, but what is your name?” 

That was the difficult thing. Did he give his real name? Dangerous, very dangerous, but he also knew that shifu or baba were nearby. Despite their words, they wouldn’t really let him be skinned. Still, they’d make him work for a rescue, so he still had to be careful. 

He decided to tell the truth—it was much more interesting that way, anyway. 

Finishing his mouthful of melon seeds, he bowed. “Sect Leader Jiang,” he said. “This one is called Wei Ying!” 

A strange look crossed the sect leader’s face. “Wei?” he said. “Are you by chance related to Wei Changze?” 

“That was my father,” Wei Ying said with a grin. “Did you know him?” 

The sect leader’s face twitched. Baba and fuqin had not heard very much about his parents, nor could they find much information other than to tell him that they were very strong cultivators. Well, that and the obvious about his mother. 

“Enough to say that it is very fitting that you are wearing Yunmeng purple,” he said. “How did you come across such clothes?” 

Wei Ying smiled. “Sect Leader Jiang, where is the joy in sharing all of my secrets?”

“Brat!” A-Cheng said. “How dare you speak to a sect leader like that?” 

Wei Ying could only laugh. He bowed to Sect Leader Jiang who seemed strangely indulgent of his mischief. Did he know? If he did, he wasn’t forming a trap and wasn’t calling the hounds, so Wei Ying thought he could toy with them a little longer. 

“A-Cheng, so serious! Surely I could make allowances for the child of an old friend?” Sect Leader Jiang said with a laugh. 

Now Wei Ying was deeply curious. So few people could tell him about his parents, aside from what his grainy memories would allow. 

Your curiosity may be the end of you , fuqin always told him worriedly. Usually while he and his spiritual silk cuddled him close after a particularly rough scrape. But surely even fuqin would excuse him if he really wants to hear about his parents!

“You knew my father?” Wei Ying asked. 

A sad smile crossed the sect leader’s face. He held out a hand. “I did, and your mother,” he said. “Will you join us for our evening meal? I’d love to hear what they’ve gotten up to.” 

He doesn’t know they’re dead , Wei Ying thought sadly. What would he do then? Past him, a passer-by in the crowd caught Wei Ying’s eye and he recognized one of shifu ’s other forms. She was watching him, touching her lips with a folded fan. 

Go or don’t, shifu’s eyes said. I will be here.

Wei Ying smiled. “Thank you, Sect Leader Jiang,” he said. “But only if you share stories of them, too!” 

A-Cheng looked betrayed again and the girl beside him, who might be his sister, smiled behind a delicate hand. Wei Ying took Sect Leader Jiang’s hand and let himself be led away.

Sect Leader Jiang knew a lot about his parents, it turned out. Wei Ying’s father was a close friend and servant of his, and Sect Leader Jiang had once tried to pursue Wei Ying’s mother before his parents eloped. 

He wasn’t bitter about it, though. It was obvious he was very sad about it—and very sad to hear that they had died on a night hunt when Wei Ying was very young—but he wasn’t bitter and he seemed truly happy to see Wei Ying.

Wei Ying wondered if Sect Leader Jiang really knew about his mother. But he wouldn’t ask, not when so many cultivators could prove to be difficult even for shifu to handle. 

“The robes suit you, Wei Ying,” Sect Leader Jiang said at the end of dinner. “Please feel free to visit Lotus Pier in Yunmeng if you ever need more.” 

A-Cheng was well and truly sulking, and Wei Ying decided not to lord it over him too much. “Thank you, Sect Leader Jiang,” Wei Ying said with a perfectly reasonable bow. Fuqin would be proud. Probably. Maybe not of his mischief, but certainly of his bow. “And now I must go! I take my leave!” 

Was that what he was supposed to say? Fuqin once told him about royal manners, but they were so stuffy and boring that Wei Ying grew bored of them. Not to mention, fuqin ’s sense of style of propriety was very old. Who knew if it was even polite to say those things anymore? 

“Do you have somewhere to stay, Wei Ying?” Sect Leader Jiang asked. 

Wei Ying smiled. “Nope!” he cried. “But that’s alright. I’m used to it! And I’m looking for someone, anyway. So don’t worry.” 

“Let me show you where our disciples are staying,” Sect Leader Jiang said. “And if you need a place, you can find your way back.” 

After years on the streets and in the wilds before baba and fuqin found him, Wei Ying had learned to not turn down a soft bed and a warm place to sleep, not when it was so sweetly offered. 

The plus side, Wei Ying realized as he was led into a large noble house that he learned belonged to the Qishan Wen, was that the other sects were housed nearby. Which meant that he could look for Lan Zhan!

He waited until it grew dark and everything slowed down before sneaking out of the area the Jiang Clan was staying in to look for the Lan Clan. Wiggling through a window, Wei Ying landed and yelped in surprise when he was immediately picked up by the scruff of his neck. 

“ Tuzaizi ,” shifu said in the female form he had seen her in earlier and Wei Ying relaxed. “You need to be more careful.”

Shifu transferred him into her arms and Wei Ying cackled, resting his chin against her chest. I was being careful! He wanted to say and yipped and wiggled to prove his point. You’re just being sneaky!

Huffing a laugh, shifu hugged him again and then put him down. “Be careful, tuzaizi .” 

Wei Ying ran in a quick circle around her legs and scampered off again, this time more aware of his surroundings. It was only because he slowed down and paid more attention that he was able to find the Lan Clan housing. 

Excitedly, he scrambled up the wall and, hidden in the shadows by his dark coat, watched the comings and goings of all of the adult disciples.

Tucked in a corner, out of the way of everyone, were two familiar boys and Wei Ying nearly yipped in excitement. He found his Lan Zhan!

Now how to get to him? If he was seen, his tails would give him away in a heartbeat and, like baba feared, he’d be skinned by the cultivators. So how could he get there without being seen? Perhaps the direct approach would be best , he mused to himself and slid down the wall.

The disciple that answered the gate looked confused and Wei Ying realized that by human standards, it was a very odd time to visit. That’s what fuqin would say, anyway. Or that’s what Wei Ying thought he’d say. Fuqin had a strange way of looking at the world and as such, sometimes said things that Wei Ying didn’t expect him to.

“Hello,” Wei Ying said, because the disciple was looking around but his eyes were too high to notice Wei Ying. He waved helpfully and the disciple looked down with a comical expression. “I’m looking for Lan Zhan!”

For a moment, the disciple simply stared at him as if he had grown two heads and Wei Ying had to carefully check that his tails were hidden away and that he did, in fact, only have one head. But he did—his human disguise was perfectly in place so the disciple was looking at him in shock for another reason.

“Hello?” Wei Ying asked, when the disciple didn’t move. “May I see Lan Zhan?”

“Young master,” the disciple said haltingly. “It’s…very late.”

Wei Ying pouted. Fuqin said that pouting never worked but baba always got his way by pouting at fuqin so Wei Ying knew that, at least in this, fuqin was full of shit. “But it took so long for me to fiiiind him,” he said. “Please, gege , can I see him?”

A man appeared behind the disciple. “Who is this?”

He was an older man with a dark beard. More importantly, he had the same eyes and nose as Lan Zhan, so he must be some kind of relative. Wei Ying turned his best pleading eyes up at him. “Please, daozhang , it took me so long to find him! Can I pleeeaaaase see Lan Zhan? I’ll be quick, I promise. Gege says it’s late but can I just see him? Am I in the right place?”

The older man had a stern appearance but his eyes softened slightly. It was a moot point because a moment later, Lan Zhan appeared behind the two of them. “Wei Ying,” he said quietly, sounding surprised and so, so pleased to see him.

“Ah, Lan Zhan!” Wei Ying cried excitedly, the disciple and older man completely forgotten. “Didn’t I tell you?”

Above them, the older man’s eyebrows arched. “A-Zhan?” he asked. “Do you know him?”

“Mn,” Lan Zhan said, adorably serious and solemn and perfect in every way.

The older man to Wei Ying. His expression was somewhat lighter, but still stern. “It’s very late,” he said firmly but kindly. “Perhaps you can visit again tomorrow? Are you here for the conference?”

“No,” Wei Ying said, because he knew better than to lie completely to a cultivator. Especially one that was as hard to look at as the older man in front of him. “I’m just a visitor,” he added glibly.

The older man nodded. “Lan Zhan and Lan Huan will not be attending the conference itself,” he said. “It would do for them to have some company, but only if your minders agree.”

Wei Ying gave the older man his sweetest smile. “Mn!”

Which wasn’t a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ and, most importantly, not a promise.

He turned as if he meant to leave and then stopped, turning around with wide, sad eyes. “ Daozhang ,” he said, his voice wobbling plaintively. “You promise?”

Shifu once said that he was more shameless than baba , something that he had thought was impossible. He also said that if Wei Ying turned his pleading eyes on him one more time, he’d rip them out.

(He wouldn’t, and they both knew it. Shifu liked him too much and baba would kill him and fuqin would be really sad and no one would win when fuqin was sad. After all, Wei Ying learned that expression from fuqin , despite what baba and shifu seemed to think.)

But, as it (almost) always did, the older man’s severe expression lightened. There was even a look on his face that was almost a smile! “Yes,” he said. “If you come here before the lectures, and you get permission from your minders, you can spend the day with Lan Zhan and Lan Huan.”

“You promise promise?” Wei Ying asked, twisting in place. He turned up his begging eyes and let his lips wobble slightly, just to see the way that the severe expression on the older man’s face cracked again.

Almost audibly.

The disciple looked horrified.

“I promise,” the older man said and Wei Ying’s face brightened. The look of relief on their faces was priceless.

“Remember,” Wei Ying crowed as he backed away. “You promised, daozhang! ” He waved. “Bye, Lan Zhan!”

Then he turned and sprinted away.

“It’s good that you’re making friends, A-Zhan,” Wei Ying heard the older man say as he closed the gate.

“Yes, shufu ,” Lan Zhan said and Wei Ying giggled to himself and sprinted back to the Yunmeng Jiang quarters.

The next morning, he woke just before dawn and climbed to the top of the arched roofs and waited until he saw movement in the Lan Clan housing. It was warmer in his other skin, and no one would notice a little lump of shadow-colored fur beneath the eaves of one of the buildings the way they would notice a shivering child in Yunmeng purple.

When he saw movement as the disciples got ready for their day, Wei Ying scrambled down to wait in front of the gates. That way, when the older man from the night before—Lan Zhan’s shufu —opened the gate, the first thing he saw was Wei Ying shivering as he waited in the cool morning air.

It wasn’t as cold as Ghost City, but something about Qishan made the morning extra chilly and he didn’t need to pretend too much to be uncomfortable. He could see that the Lan cultivators were similarly affected, dressed with a heavier wool outer robe than they had been the day before.

“ Daozhang! ” Wei Ying cried and bowed.

“You’re up very early,” Lan Zhan’s shufu said to hide his obvious dismay.

Wei Ying turned up his eyes, keeping them wide and guileless. “ Daozhang said ‘tomorrow’, but Wei Ying didn’t know when tomorrow. So I woke up really, really early just in case!”

Behind his shufu , Lan Zhan peeked at Wei Ying. “Wei Ying,” he said quietly.

“Lan Zhan!”

Lan Zhan’s brother, who must be the Lan Huan that the daozhang had named the other day, also peeked out from behind his shufu . He flashed a smile at Wei Ying that was pure mischief that was quickly tucked away behind a mask of propriety.

If Wei Ying didn’t like his serious-faced little Lan Zhan so much, he thought that he’d like Lan Huan. Well, he supposed that he could like Lan Huan too, as long as Lan Zhan always came first.

Which he would.

Always.

“ Shufu did promise,” Lan Huan said innocently.

The daozhang looked pained. Wei Ying wondered belatedly if he was the sect leader. He certainly wore the most elaborate decorations and the guan in his hair was larger and shinier than everyone else’s. Compared to the other sects he’d seen, the daozhang was still dressed very plainly, but he stood at the head of the line of disciples and had the air of someone with great authority.

“Very well,” the maybe-sect leader said at last. The two female cultivators that Wei Ying had seen yesterday split from the neat lines and Lan Huan and Lan Zhan followed them to stand on the side next to the gate. “Keep an eye on them,” the daozhang ordered and Wei Ying almost felt bad for knowing that he’d sneak both brothers away, because the mischief in Lan Huan’s eyes was too entertaining to not unleash on the world.

Besides.

It’d be harder to find two brothers running around separately than it would be if they were playing together with Wei Ying.

“Thank you, daozhang! ” Wei Ying cried and bowed. Then he grabbed Lan Zhan and Lan Huan’s wrists and towed them down the street. As he knew they would, the two minders followed but not very closely, and he knew that he could work with that.

He turned a corner and then another.

“Can we go to the Nie lodging?” Lan Huan asked.

“I don’t know where that is,” Wei Ying replied.

Lan Huan smiled, so mischievous that Wei Ying would have thought that he was huli-jing . “I can show you.”

“ Xiongzhang ,” Lan Zhan said.

“Let’s go to the Nie lodging,” Lan Huan said. “And if I lose you along the way…”

Wei Ying grinned and let go of Lan Huan’s wrist. He refused to let go of Lan Zhan’s, though. Only Lan Zhan could make him let go. Fortunately, Lan Zhan didn’t seem too opposed to it.

“Not that way,” Wei Ying said when Lan Huan made to turn to their right. He smiled guilelessly at Lan Huan when he was given a look that seemed too old on such a young face. “This way.”

He trotted down the narrow alley and found the door he was looking for. To his sensitive nose, it reeked of fish and brine and he grinned as he reached for the handle and dragged it open. Then he tugged Lan Zhan through the door and Lan Huan followed, closing it behind them, and both looked amazed to find that they were in a different part of the huge Qishan complex.

Lan Huan looked thoughtfully down at Wei Ying but intelligently didn’t ask questions. His face lifted though, when he recognized where they were. “The Nie lodgings are just over there,” he whispered.

As they walked down the boulevard, they nearly walked into another long line of cultivators. This time it was Yunmeng Jiang.

“Ah, Wei Ying,” Sect Leader Jiang said warmly. “I see you found your friend.”

“I did!” Wei Ying said brightly.

Sect Leader Jiang smiled. “Then I hope you have a nice day. Be safe, okay? Don’t cause too much trouble.”

“No promises, Sect Leader Jiang,” Wei Ying chirped and Sect Leader Jiang laughed. He led his sect away and Wei Ying giggled. He wondered if A-Cheng and Jiang Yanli were elsewhere too, or if they were going to the discussion conference too. It sounded so super boring so he didn’t think too much about it.

It didn’t matter, because Wei Ying only wanted to spend the day with Lan Zhan.

“The Nie lodgings are just over there,” Lan Huan whispered and pointed down the street. Then he deliberately walked ahead of them and grinning at the hint, Wei Ying tugged on Lan Zhan’s arm.

“Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan whispered some time later as they turned down another alley. “ Shufu will be unhappy.”

Wei Ying smiled at him. “Let me get in trouble,” he said.

His serious Lan Zhan’s face looked tragic with worry. “You might be whipped,” he whispered.

“Whipped?” Wei Ying asked. “That’s nothing!”

It wasn’t.

He’d seen worse.

Lan Zhan’s face made an adorable expression that was almost like a pout but not quite. He still looked so adorably worried. “Wei Ying,” he said softly.

“Ah, Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying said and gripped both of Lan Zhan’s hands. “It’s okay! I won’t let anything happen to you and if you get in trouble, you just tell me, okay? I won’t let you get whipped.”

He watched Lan Zhan’s beautiful golden eyes flick from Wei Ying to the mouth of the alley. “You’ll get in trouble with your sect.”

“It doesn’t matter to me,” Wei Ying said, because they weren’t really his sect anyway. Sect Leader Jiang was just being weird.

Lan Zhan’s golden eyes were captivating and Wei Ying wanted to hoard them more than anything. He had no care for riches—just like baba and fuqin , who had no use for it—but golden eyes like Lan Zhan’s made him want to keep it for himself. Only then did he understand the stories of nobles hoarding their money until they had mountains of gold, but if anything, he would only hoard everything of Lan Zhan.

But baba always said that things that were loved could never be hoarded or kept in a cage. That’s why he always let fuqin do as he pleased, because to keep him locked up and hidden away would be to destroy everything that he loved about fuqin .

“Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan whispered.

“So serious, my Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying teased and squeezed both of Lan Zhan’s hands. “Smile for me, won’t you, Lan Zhan? I won’t let anything bad happen.”

Lan Zhan’s cheeks puffed out. “Mark your words.”

“I don’t make promises I don’t intend to keep,” Wei Ying told him. “But come on, Lan Zhan! There’s so much to see! Let’s go.”

For a moment, Lan Zhan didn’t move when Wei Ying tugged on his arm but then he followed along, allowing himself to be led down the waking market streets of Qishan.

Wei Ying brought Lan Zhan back to Lan Huan and the dour-faced boy as the sun began to set. His clothes were dusty from the road and there were twigs in his hair but Lan Zhan looked as pristine as ever.

“You look like you had fun,” Lan Huan said with a Trickster’s smile.

Lan Zhan didn’t answer, so Wei Ying said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The dour-faced boy looked so pained that Wei Ying laughed. Lan Huan did too, but it seemed more that he laughed at Wei Ying’s mischief than his friend’s expression. 

“ Shufu will be worried,” Lan Zhan said. He’d been fretting about it all day. 

Lan Huan smiled. “You shouldn’t worry about things like that,” he told Lan Zhan. “You should just enjoy your time.” 

Wei Ying decided that he liked Lan Huan more than anyone except Lan Zhan. 

And baba or fuqin . 

Or shifu . 

So, maybe fifth. 

“Still,” Lan Huan said with an apologetic look at Wei Ying. “It’s getting late, so we need to be heading back.”

Wei Ying pouted but he looked at the sky and knew it was true. He held Lan Zhan’s hands in both of his. His pretty little friend looked so sad and a part of him hurt to see it. “Aiya, Lan Zhan,” he said with a cheer that he didn’t feel. “I’ll see you again!”

“Tomorrow?” Lan Zhan demanded. He gripped Wei Ying’s hands back just as tightly.

Wei Ying smiled helplessly. “Tomorrow,” he agreed while Lan Huan and the dour-faced boy turned away to give them the illusion of privacy. It was appreciated.

“You promise?” Lan Zhan pressed. His hands tightened on Wei Ying’s, and his pretty golden eyes were wide and beseeching in a way that Wei Ying didn’t think Lan Zhan was aware of.

His Lan Zhan seemed as quiet and peaceful as a carved statue, but he felt so deeply. It was like he burned inside. Wei Ying loved it about him. It was thrilling.

Promises were dangerous but this was the kind of promise that Wei Wuxian was more than happy to make. He squeezed Lan Zhan’s hands back. “I promise!” he declared. “I will see you tomorrow!”

Reluctantly, Lan Zhan let go and held on to his brother’s hand. “You promised,” he reminded Wei Ying.

Wei Ying smiled, ignoring the dour-faced boy and Lan Huan. “I did,” he agreed.

Reluctantly, they parted. The dour-faced boy jogged down the avenue on his way back to the Nie housing, and Wei Ying tailed the Lan brothers in his other skin, using his shadow-colored fur to hide himself from their view.

He watched them meet up with their minders, who were frantic with worry, and then be ushered into the courtyard of the Lan housing. Shaking out his fur, Wei Ying considered what he should do next. A flash of purple caught his eye and Wei Ying grinned when he recognized the group from the Jiang Clan, walking beside the Lan Clan. Sect Leader Jiang and the older daozhang that had reluctantly allowed his nephews to play with Wei Ying were talking to each other.

One of the cultivators in the Jiang Clan held Jiang Cheng, who was sleeping; Jiang Yanli walked beside him, but seemed nearly asleep herself. Wei Ying was glad that he didn’t go. Though he was dying of curiosity about what happened during a “discussion conference”, he thought that if he had attended, he would have instead died of boredom.

Sect Leader Jiang patted the sleeping Jiang Cheng’s head, then Jiang Yanli’s shoulder and sent the cultivators of his clan, save for two guards, back to their housing. Then he and Lan- daozhang continued to speak outside the gates to the Lan Clan housing.

It was something about night hunts and wandering cultivators. Something that Wei Ying really wasn’t interested in hearing about but was fascinated by the conversation nonetheless. After all, he might be one of the things that these cultivators hunted one day. That was why baba and fuqin and shifu were always so concerned about him going into the mortal realm.

The thought made him sad.

There were just so many things to see.

Eventually, Lan -daozhang said his goodbyes to Sect Leader Jiang and they separated. Seeing his chance, Wei Ying ran along the shadows—growing darker and longer now, as the sun set—and got ahead of the ambling cultivators. He hopped into an alley that led to the markets and emerged in his other skin.

“Ah, Wei Ying,” Sect Leader Jiang said pleasantly as if he had expected to see him. “How was your day today?”

Wei Ying grinned up at him. Sect Leader Jiang had said that he’d known his parents, so Wei Ying thought that he might know exactly what he was. But he hadn’t said anything so he thought he’d push his luck a little.

“I had fun!” Wei Ying said.

Sect Leader Jiang smiled and ruffled his hair. “I can see that,” he said. “Would you like to join us for dinner?”

“Thanks to Sect Leader Jiang for thinking of Wei Ying,” Wei Ying said with a laugh and a bow. “If Wei Ying would not be a burden, Wei Ying would be happy to accept.”

See, baba? He thought smugly to baba . This tuzaizi can be polite!

Sect Leader Jiang chuckled. “Not a burden at all,” he said. “You are also welcome to spend the night once more.” Wei Ying grinned innocently at Sect Leader Jiang.

The look on Jiang Cheng’s sleepy face when he caught sight of Wei Ying again was worth the screaming and the fuss later that night.

The next morning, dressed in clean robes provided by Sect Leader Jiang, Wei Ying left the Jiang compound and slipped into his other skin.

When he climbed to the spot that he had claimed the day before, he found it was occupied by a young hawk that still had chick down peeking out from his collar. When he turned his head to squint at Wei Ying, the morning breeze made his feathers stand up like a silly crown. It made Wei Ying yip with laughter and the hawk scowled at him but offered no commentary.

In his experience hawks, even hawk shifters, did not tend to have much commentary, anyway.

The morning was cool again and the hawk shivered so Wei Ying approached and curled his tails around the hawk who glared at him as if the cold was his fault. But it seemed that the hawk was in no mood to turn down the warmth and he hunkered down against Wei Ying’s side with an annoyed little mumble.

The both of them watched the Lan compound slowly wake up and Wei Ying huffed when he realized that Lan Zhan and Lan Huan weren’t among the cultivators lining up to leave. The hawk also muttered and fluffed his feathers when Wei Ying uncurled from around him to hop down to the avenue. He looked both ways to make sure that no one would be there to see him and took his other skin once more.

When Lan -daozhang opened the gates, he looked startled to see Wei Ying once more. “Good morning, daozhang-gege ,” Wei Ying said with a bow. “Can I play with Lan Zhan again today?” Because he was as much of a brat as baba liked to call him, Wei Ying turned beseeching eyes up at Lan- daozhang .

“They got themselves into trouble yesterday,” Lan -daozhang said firmly. “I’m afraid they’re being punished and cannot leave.”

Wei Ying turned up the intensity of his begging eyes. If this was baba and fuqin , he would have allowed his ears to pop out so that he could turn them downward sadly and curl his tails sadly around his ankles. As it was, he did his best with what he could show Lan -daozhang . “Oh,” he said, sounding heartbroken. That , at least, wasn’t hard. “Can I see them?”

“No,” Lan -daozhang said firmly, though Wei Ying could see him wavering a little. “That would defeat the purpose of a punishment.”

Looking down, Wei Ying scuffed his toe against the ground. “Oh,” he said again, sounding as if he was close to tears. A part of him was. The thought of being unable to see Lan Zhan and his beautiful golden eyes again hurt almost like a physical pain.

And he promised .

He looked back up at Lan -daozhang . “ Daozhang-gege ,” he said. “They’re sending me away soon.” Which was the truth, because he had the feeling that he was also about to be in a lot of trouble for being away for so long. Fuqin would be very unhappy with him and baba and shifu , and shifu would be cranky that he’d been dragged into their troublemaking again and then crankier that he was getting punished for it too. “Can I…can I at least say goodbye?”

“Tomorrow,” Lan- daozhang said and Wei Ying didn’t need to pretend to be heartbroken. “Today, they are not allowed to have visitors.”

Then, because he had clearly learned from interacting with him previously, Lan- daozhang looked away and led his cultivators away down the street.

When the last of their entourage turned a corner out of view, the hawk came up behind him. “Lans for you,” the dour-faced boy said when he had lips to do so. “Stuffy and always adhering to their stupid rules. There’s 3,000 of them, you know.”

Wei Ying wrinkled his nose. “Yet we’re still here.”

The hawk huffed. “I shouldn’t even be here,” he grumbled.

Wei Ying took his other form, intending to scramble up to the roof again to get a better vantage point. But as he galloped into the alley to climb up the trusses of the building, shifu reached down and picked him up by the scruff.

The dour-faced boy, who had run after him in his two-legged skin, skidded to a stop. His eyes were wide in his usually sour face and his look of shock at seeing Wei Ying’s shifu was almost comical if it wasn’t for the scowl on shifu ’s face.

“ Tuzaizi ,” he growled. “Your fuqin is furious.”

Wei Ying wiggled in his grip as the dour-faced boy seemed to think about how he should approach their new predicament. When shifu adjusted his grip to hold him under his arms, Wei Ying obeyed the silent order and returned to his other skin. “ Shifu ,” he cried. “I promised!”

“You also promised your fuqin ,” shifu growled. He looked at the dour-faced boy. “Who is this?” He didn’t wait for the dour-faced boy to respond, turning back to Wei Ying. “We’re going.”

“No!” Wei Ying cried, wiggling even though he knew that shifu ’s grip was too strong to break out of, even if he shifted into his other skin. “ Shifu , please, I promised .”

Shifu tucked Wei Ying under his arm. “Come on. You too,” he growled at the dour-faced boy. “If you’re trying to get into the Lan compound?”

Wei Ying froze and then wiggled in delight. “Come on, come on,” he told the dour-faced boy. “ Shifu will help us.”

“’ Shifu will help us’,” Shifu mocked. “ Shifu is in enough trouble.” He reached for one of the doors in the side alley they had all ducked into and opened it. To Wei Ying’s nose, it reeked of fish and brine and he wiggled excitedly in shifu ’s firm grip.

With the dour-faced boy following cautiously, they all stepped through the Distance-Shortening Array.

From lessons with shifu and baba , Wei Ying knew that Distance-Shortening Arrays became harder and more costly to cast the further the distance traveled was; he wondered if shifu even noticed any change in spiritual energy to take the three of them such a short distance.

Likely, he barely noticed it compared to the spiritual energy he would need to expend to allow them to remain unnoticed when they stepped through. But, as fuqin liked to say, baba and shifu ’s energies were as deep as the sea.

Lan Zhan and Lan Huan stared up at them in shock. “Lan Zhan!” Wei Ying cried as shifu put him down.

Shifu pointed a finger in Lan Huan’s face, then at the dour-faced boy’s. “You didn’t see us,” he said sternly. Then he pointed at the door that they had just came through. “But that door will work until sunset.”

Both of them blinked at him in surprise for a moment. Then a Trickster smile crossed Lan Huan’s face. He got to his feet and bowed to shifu . “Thank you, gege ,” he said and, grabbing the dour-faced boy’s arm, yanked him back through the door.

“I’m getting too old for this,” shifu muttered. “Wei Ying, you don’t have long before your fuqin comes looking for you. Hurry up and meet me outside when you’re done.” Then he left through the Distance-Shortening Array once more.

Lan Zhan gripped Wei Ying’s hands. “You have to leave?” he asked, his golden eyes wide.

“Ah, Lan Zhan, don’t look so sad,” Wei Ying said, even though he was just as upset. “You’ll see me again! But I promised that I’d see you today so I begged shifu to let me before he takes me back.”

Lan Zhan’s eyes filled with tears. “Wei Ying,” he said.

Wei Ying hurried to wipe the tears from his eyes. “Aiya, Lan Zhan,” he said, even though he felt like his own heart was breaking. He couldn’t imagine how baba had waited 800 years for fuqin , and yet he found that he could understand completely. If it took a thousand lifetimes, he’d wait for Lan Zhan, even though every second apart was torture.

“Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan said again. “Don’t go.”

“I promised , Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying said softly. “But don’t worry…I’ll be back! You’ll see.”

“When?” Lan Zhan demanded.

“I don’t know,” Wei Ying murmured, unwilling to lie to those sad golden eyes. “But the next time I see you, I won’t let you go!”

Lan Zhan looked at him. “When you’re big?” he asked.

“If that’s what you want,” Wei Ying said hesitantly. He’d been thinking of returning once fuqin stopped worrying so much. But maybe Lan Zhan had another idea?

Lan Zhan’s little face scrunched in determination. “I want to marry you,” he declared.

“Marry me?” Wei Ying asked, surprised and pleased. Marriage meant forever.

“It means that I can keep you forever,” Lan Zhan said in an eerie echo of Wei Ying’s own thoughts. “So we’ll marry.”

Wei Ying smiled slowly. “Will we?” he teased. “It means forever, you know. Forever and ever. Do you want me that long?”

“Always,” Lan Zhan promised. “And no one can stop us because we’ll be married.”

Unable to help it, Wei Ying wiggled in delight. “Yes,” he said. “I like that! I like forever.”

Lan Zhan’s face fell slightly and then scrunched in determination once more. “Promise me,” he said.

“I promise,” Wei Ying declared immediately.

“Promise me you’ll marry me,” Lan Zhan said.

Wei Ying grinned and he squeezed Lan Zhan’s hands in his. “I promise,” he said solemnly. “That I will marry you. You’ll be mine forever.”

“And you’ll be mine forever,” Lan Zhan said, as possessive and serious as a dragon.

He could feel the prickle of power— shifu warning him that his parents were on their way. Reluctantly, he pulled away. “I don’t know when I’ll be allowed back,” he said apologetically and, because he couldn’t help it, he squeezed Lan Zhan’s serious little cheeks in his palms. “It might be a long time—I’m in a lot of trouble right now, my Lan Zhan—but don’t forget, okay? I promised . Okay?”

Lan Zhan’s face scrunched but he didn’t fight Wei Ying’s touch. He squeezed Wei Ying’s wrists. “I promised too,” he said.

Laughing, Wei Ying jumped close and pressed a kiss to Lan Zhan’s forehead ribbon and laughed at the shocked look on Lan Zhan’s face. “Ah, husband-to-be,” he said. “With promises like that, nothing can stop us!”

He pulled away and the both of them extended their arms to stretch that moment for as long as they could. Then Wei Ying backed through the door and baba ’s arms wrapped around his waist and whisked him away.

Lan Zhan pressed a hand to where he could still feel the ghost of Wei Ying’s kiss.

“Don’t touch your forehead ribbon,” shufu corrected absently. “Sit still and behave.”

As if Lan Zhan did anything but! Well, except for the other day, when Wei Ying had whisked him and Huan- ge away. If Huan -ge and Mingjue -ge hadn’t both agreed that Wei Ying and his shifu were real, Lan Zhan might not have believed it.

He was too beautiful to remember properly, even though Lan Zhan tried really hard. When he had first seen Wei Ying, he had thought that he had been imagining things. First there was only shadow in the back of the alley, but then there was a boy with eyes like molten silver.

His hands had burned but hadn’t made Lan Zhan’s skin itch the way that other peoples’ touch sometimes did. It felt right to touch him, to have Wei Ying grab his hands, tug on his wrist, tangle their fingers together, as if they were meant to be.

And when Wei Ying looked at him, it felt like he was really looking at Lan Zhan, as if he knew the words that he was unable to say. When Wei Ying looked at him, it felt right .

So, when he left, it felt as if Lan Zhan’s world had been upended—as if the world had grown dark without Wei Ying and his smile like sunlight.

When shufu wasn’t looking, Huan- ge reached over and squeezed Lan Zhan’s hand once, quickly, before going back to his perfect posture. It was enough. Xiongzhang was there, and he knew how upset Lan Zhan was.

But Wei Ying had promised , so Lan Zhan would just have to wait.

After the second day of Wei Ying’s absence and the requirement that, without “that strange Jiang boy”, Huan -ge and Lan Zhan attend the discussion conference. Several of the other children of the Sect Leaders were there, and most of them had been encouraged to play together or at least interact with each other in a separate little area but shufu had insisted that Lan Zhan and Huan -ge stay with him.

Lan Zhan knew that it made Huan -ge sad because he really really liked Mingjue -ge , but he couldn’t say anything without making shufu upset so he was stuck sitting behind shufu with Lan Zhan. They were both hurting and Lan Zhan carefully patted Huan -ge ’s arm when shufu and their minders weren’t looking. Huan -ge smiled at him with just his eyes and Lan Zhan’s own sadness briefly lifted.

When a brief recess was called, Lan Zhan saw his chance and slipped away. He stopped in front of Sect Leader Jiang who, having not seen him walk up, nearly tripped over him. Fortunately, Sect Leader Jiang was quick on his feet as the Yunmeng Jiang Clan were said to be, and was able to gracefully not trample Lan Zhan.

“Lan Zhan greets you, Sect Leader Jiang,” Lan Zhan said, forcing himself to speak. He didn’t like to, but for Wei Ying he would.

“Hello, Lan Zhan,” Sect Leader Jiang said, sounding amused, which was annoying but it also meant that he wasn’t in trouble yet, so he’d deal with it. “Can I help you?”

Carefully, Lan Zhan looked up at Sect Leader Jiang. “Where is Wei Ying?” he asked.

“Ah, are you the one he was looking for?” Sect Leader Jiang asked. “He said that he was looking for someone but, I’m sorry Lan Zhan, I haven’t seen him for a few days.”

Lan Zhan frowned. “His shifu came to get him,” he said. “Because his fuqin was looking for him. I wanted to see him again.”

A complicated expression crossed Sect Leader Jiang’s face. “I’m sorry, Lan Zhan, I’m not aware of this. I’m sure he’s fine.”

Frustrated, it was all that Lan Zhan could do to keep himself from stomping like a spoiled brat. “If we are to be wed, then should I not be allowed to see him?” he asked. “I would like to see him. If Sect Leader Jiang allows,” he added belatedly and bowed. 

“Oh?” This seemed to amuse Sect Leader Jiang, which Lan Zhan did not appreciate. “Are Wei Ying and Lan Zhan engaged?” 

Squaring his shoulders, Lan Zhan nodded. “We are,” he declared. “So I must respectfully ask Sect Leader Jiang to not hide my betrothed from me!” 

A hand closed around his wrist and tugged him back. Furious, Lan Zhan turned and found shufu holding his wrist. Mingjue- ge and Huan -ge were behind him, both of them (in their own way, because Mingjue- ge always looked like he had sucked on something sour) looked like they were hiding laughter. 

“ Betrothed? ” shufu demanded, his eyes so wide that Lan Zhan wondered if they would fall out of his face. 

Behind him, Sect Leader Jiang began to laugh. 

There were a lot of apologies to be made. Shufu made him apologize a lot, too. 

And he promised that when they returned to Cloud Recesses, that Lan Zhan would be taught how to do a handstand so he could copy the rules while doing handstands. 

All the while, everyone denied that he was betrothed to Wei Ying. One day he’d prove them wrong. 

One day they’d know that he was telling the truth the whole time. 

Lan Zhan began to cultivate in earnest. The faster he could form a golden core, the faster he could cultivate immortality and then the promise with Wei Ying of forever could actually happen.

Wei Ying did not appear.

Huan -ge became Lan Xichen, Zewu-Jun, the First Jade of Lan, Sect Leader Lan. Mingjue -ge became Nie Mingjue, Chifeng-Zun, Sect Leader Nie. 

Wei Ying did not appear.

Lan Zhan became Lan Wangji, the Second Jade of Lan, and received a spiritual sword.

Wei Ying did not appear.

In his heart of hearts, Lan Wangji did not doubt Wei Ying’s promise, but he still wondered. Would Wei Ying recognize him? Would he recognize Wei Ying? What was his name now? The name of his spiritual sword, if he cultivated?

He knew that it was foolish to love someone that he had only known for three days—as a child, no less!—but Lan Wangji felt in his very soul that it was meant to be. It had never been a question for him, though it had been somewhat of a surprise to realize it.

They said that Lans only love once, and Lan Wangji found comfort in that, even if he felt comfort nowhere else.

“Wangji,” Lan Xichen said. “The elders are pushing for you to marry.”

Lan Wangji cast him a look from the corner of his eye and his xiongzhang laughed. Here, having tea together, they are not the Twin Jades of Lan but simply brothers, and older brothers are forever tormenting their younger siblings.

“Are you still going to marry your Wei Ying?”

It wasn’t that xiongzhang ever doubted his devotion—he was just being annoying. Lan Wangji didn’t dignify that ridiculous question with a response, instead lifting his cup to his lips and taking a long sip of tea.

Lan Xichen chuckled. Things were difficult for him, Lan Wangji knew. As a Sect Leader, love always had to be set aside for duty. It weighed on Lan Xichen, who had inherited the title at a very young age, and it was this knowledge that kept Lan Wangji from ever becoming too upset with xiongzhang for his teasing.

Xiongzhang was always there for him, with an understanding smile. He knew what it was like to miss someone that wasn’t there.

The doors opened and they both jumped. Very few people would burst into the Hanshi without knocking, and the silhouette in the doorway did not match those people.

The figure that had so rudely thrown open the doors closed them and moved to sit at the table with them, rude in such a way that had both Jades staring at him in shock.

When they got a good look at who it was, they both froze. Eyes like polished silver peeked out from beneath ink-black bangs in a face whose lips were curled in a smile that was pure mischief. Once upon a time, they had seen him in Yunmeng purple, in the colors and style that marked him as a member of the inner circle family but now he was dressed in black and grey, the color of shadows and charcoal. His sleeves were trimmed in scarlet and there was a scarlet ribbon in his hair and around his waist and though he had grown up over the years—just as Lan Huan had turned into Lan Xichen and Lan Zhan had turned into Lan Wangji—there was no doubting exactly who this person was.

“I’m sorry it took me so long,” Wei Ying said with the same Trickster grin he had given them as children. “I had a few loose ends to tie up, and some growing up to do—and I was grounded for a really long time . But I’m here now, just as I’ve promised you, Lan Zhan.”

“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji whispered.

Wei Ying grinned. “That’s me,” he said. “I’m glad I made an impression. The Second Jade of Lan, who would have known? And second most eligible bachelor.” He made an appreciative noise. “Though is it true? That Lan Wangji is truly eligible ?”

“No,” Lan Wangji said shortly. Then, a little petulantly, “you promised.”

This time Wei Ying’s smile was flavored with a hint of sadness. “I did,” he agreed. “And I’m here. I’m just sorry it took me so long.”

When he touched Lan Wangji’s wrist, it was just like it had been all those years ago. Warm—burning, actually—and the brush of his skin didn’t make Lan Wangji’s itch.

Wei Ying’s grin was as bright as the reflection of the sun on newly-fallen snow. “Ah, Lan Zhan, I will have to make it up to you.” He walked his fingers up Lan Wangji’s arm and he set down his teacup so that he wouldn’t drop it.

Across the table, Lan Xichen watched as if the whole situation was fascinating, a smile of pure mischief—a look that he didn’t often allow anyone else to see—stretched across his face. Lan Wangji knew that he’d be teased for it later, but at the moment he didn’t care at all.

As if remembering himself at the last minute, when his fingers reached the inside of Lan Wangji’s elbow—burning even despite the layers separating them—Wei Ying stopped and turned to Lan Xichen. “Ah, forgive me,” he said. “Sect Leader Lan, may I begin courting your brother?”

“I have the feeling that, no matter what my response, that is what you will do,” Lan Xichen said. “Our shufu is likely on his way now—I’m sure he’s sensed your mischief by now. Tea?”

Wei Ying laughed and accepted the cup that Lan Xichen poured for him. “Ah, Lan -daozhang ,” he said. “He was really quite upset to see me back then. It would be nice to see him again.”

Despite his words, Lan Wangji had the feeling that “nice” was certainly not what Wei Ying really meant.

Moments later, the doors to the Hanshi burst open again and this time, Lan Qiren stood in the doorway, backed by several elders and disciples. “You!” he cried, pointing at Wei Ying.

“Me!” Wei Ying agreed. He lounged as if he owned the place, one elbow on the table and legs stretched out. Picking up the teacup, he gave Lan Qiren a mocking toast and then drank it down. When he put the cup down again, his breath—heated by the tea—condensed on the cool air of the Hanshi. “Greetings to Lan -laotou .”

Never before had Lan Wangji seen someone jump to near- qi -deviation from a few simple words. “Who are you?” Lan Qiren demanded.

Wei Ying put the cup in his hand down and gave a mocking bow. “Wei Ying, courtesy name Wuxian,” he said. “I made a promise as a child and I’ve come to collect.”

Across the table, Lan Xichen continued to sip his tea and Lan Wangji stared at him. What do you want me to do? Lan Xichen asked with his eyes. Just let it play out…unless you want me to deny his demand?

No!

Lan Xichen’s smile was hidden by his cup but his eyes crinkled with it.

“Beast,” Lan Qiren hissed, which…rude. “What right do you think you have to claim anything ?”

Wei Ying laughed. “I have a promise,” he said. “Thus, this matter is really between me and Lan Zhan. But…” he trailed off, letting his eyes slide to look at Lan Wangji. “I imagine that he’d want his shufu in his life; and certainly his xiongzhang . Which is why I’m here talking , rather than taking what I am owed.”

In the course of his short lifetime, Lan Wangji had heard many people speak. He’d attended every Discussion Conference in the hopes of seeing Wei Ying again and thus had heard how many sect leaders and sect heirs and head disciples spoke. These were men of great power and yet they didn’t speak with even half the confidence or power that Wei Ying had.

“You dare ,” Lan Qiren hissed. “We owe you nothing .”

“ You owe me nothing,” Wei Ying agreed, still lounging against the table despite the swords being drawn and pointed at him. “But I was promised a marriage—and forever—by Lan Wangji, and I have come to collect.”

“You will do no such thing,” Lan Qiren thundered. “Beast!”

“Aiya, so rude,” Wei Ying complained and sat up. When he grinned at Lan Wangji, he realized that Wei Ying’s teeth were sharp and pointy and he shivered. “So many rules, yet still, here I am.” He stood and the elders, Lan Qiren, and disciples all clustered at the door startled, bristling with drawn swords. Reaching down, Wei Ying cupped Lan Wangji’s cheek in his hand.

Lan Xichen gently set down his cup. “If I may?” they all looked at him. Lan Xichen smiled serenely. “If you are going to fight, may I ask that you at least leave the Hanshi first?”

Wei Ying laughed. “Ah, Lan -dabaizi , don’t worry. I will not harm your Hanshi.”

“I won’t ask you to promise,” Lan Xichen said. “But thank you for that much at least.”

“You’ve seduced my nephews!” Lan Qiren cried.

“Really, just one,” Wei Ying replied. “But if you want to give me Lan Xichen too, I won’t say no. Except that I won’t accept him as a husband. No offense.”

“None taken,” Lan Xichen said with the little catch in his voice that Lan Wangji knew meant that he was biting back laughter.

Lan Qiren took several steps closer, his sword pointed at the center of Wei Ying’s chest. Seeing that dangerous blade so close to Wei Ying, Lan Wangji’s breath hitched.

“Ah, Lan -laotou ,” Wei Ying said. With two fingers, he pushed the point of the blade away from himself. “You wound me!”

“I’ll do more than that!” Lan Qiren vowed. “Beast, begone!”

Wei Ying clicked his tongue. “So rude, Lan -laotou ,” he whined. “Lan Zhan? Will you come with me now?”

“I’ll kill you before you take him!”

“I’d like to see you try,” Wei Ying laughed. It wasn’t a pretty laugh, but it still made Lan Wangji’s face heat.

Oh.

Was that what arousal was like?

“I was promised a marriage,” Wei Ying said. “And I’ve come to collect.”

“A marriage cannot happen,” Lan Qiren cried. “I won’t allow it!”

Wei Ying shrugged. “A traditional marriage, maybe. Do you want that, my Lan Zhan?”

“I promised Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji said simply.

“I would never allow it,” Lan Qiren vowed. “I would never allow such a marriage between a member of my clan and a beast like you!”

Lan Wangji looked up at Wei Ying and his severe expression softened. “As you wish, Lan Zhan,” he said. “My Lan Zhan.” He leaned down and pressed a kiss to his forehead ribbon. “You have until tomorrow,” he whispered, loud enough for Lan Qiren, Lan Wangji, and Lan Xichen to hear. “Then I will be back.”

“You promise?” Lan Wangji asked without thinking, gripping Wei Ying’s wrist tightly.

Wei Ying’s silver eyes danced with mischief and his fanged grin widened. “I promise,” he declared solemnly. “I will return tomorrow.”

As Wei Ying moved toward the door, completely unafraid of the elders and cultivators there, Lan Wangji scrambled to his feet and raced to the door.

On the porch, he stopped. Instead of seeing Wei Ying down the path, there was instead an enormous fox. His fur was the color of charcoal and ink and was so fine and beautiful that the reflection of the sunlight and snow caused it to ripple with streaks of blue like fine, tempered steel. Eyes like polished silver, full of good humor and mischief, met Lan Wangji’s and with a high, yipping laugh, the enormous fox bounded once, twice, and then disappeared as if he had never been.

“ Huli-jing ,” Lan Xichen whispered behind him.

Lan Wangji swallowed. “Wei Ying,” he whispered back. Xiongzhang laughed.

“I refuse to let you marry that monster,” Lan Qiren insisted.

“I promised,” Lan Wangji reminded him. “I am willing.”

One of the elders shifted. “It is improper,” she said.

Naturally, due to the public nature of Wei Ying’s declaration and the fact that everyone had apparently witnessed a huli-jing bounding through Cloud Recesses, this was no longer a conversation for Lan Wangji to have with xiongzhang and Lan Qiren. Now the elders were involved and it was all a bore.

What was so hard for them to understand?

He’d promised and, while he was certainly not bound to that promise, it was one that he was desperate to keep.

“He is a beast,” another of the elders said. “A monster.”

“Thus far, he has not claimed insult,” Lan Xichen pointed out gently. “However, huli-jing are notorious for their lack of patience—I would suggest that however we proceed, we proceed with caution.”

Which Lan Wangji took to mean, stop calling him a beast, holy shit .

Looking at the elders, it seemed that only a few of them took the warning. Most seemed too outraged, which did not bode well for Lan Wangji’s marriage prospects.

He glanced at Lan Xichen. What would you do if I eloped with him? He asked his brother with his eyes.

Beg you to take me with you , Lan Xichen’s expression replied.

After many, many years of practice, it was easy to keep his laughter inside.

“How dare a beast like that demand such a ludicrous thing?” another elder cried. “What makes him think that he has the right to do such a thing?”

Lan Wangji huffed in frustration. “Thus far, Wei Wuxian has proven that he will keep his promises,” Lan Xichen said with a sympathetic look at his brother. “He promised marriage, at some point, and was promised the same in return. It is natural that he would come to collect.”

“Not even if the world burned,” Lan Qiren declared. “Let him find another wife, another husband, if he so dares!”

“The promise was between myself and Wei Wuxian,” Lan Wangji reminded them.

“He walked through our wards like they were nothing,” one of the more reasonable elders, who had thus far remained silent, said. “Who is to say he won’t do that again? We cannot protect ourselves against him, so shouldn’t we give in to his demands?”

The elders and Lan Qiren continued to argue. Xiongzhang and Lan Wangji pretended to listen; they already knew what would happen.

As expected, the next morning, Wei Wuxian appeared in Cloud Recesses. At least this time, he seemed to come through the front gates instead of appearing in the middle of Cloud Recesses, but his arrival still caused a stir. It was very pointed, and sent a message and Lan Wangji couldn’t help but sympathize with everyone’s nervousness or fear.

Wei Wuxian had arrived, in his enormous fox-form, at the front gates. He gave the terrified guards a good, long look at him before taking on his two-legged form and walking through the wards that had been raised in preparation for his return . Both guards had been turned into wobbling dolls with bulging eyes that he held in his arms as he walked the path deeper into Cloud Recesses.

“Lan -dabaizi ,” he said when he encountered the group waiting for him. “The spell on your guards should wear off in less than a shichen .”

Lan Xichen smiled tightly. “Thank you,” he said faintly. “I’m glad that they are not harmed.”

Wei Wuxian set the wobbling dolls down on the side and straightened. “As promised,” he declared loud enough for everyone, who had gathered nearby, to hear. “I have returned. Once more I ask for what I was promised.”

“Beast,” Lan Qiren declared, clearly feeling brave with the Lan Elders behind him.

Lan Xichen looked at Lan Wangji and said with his eyes, it would be funny if you could call him a “beast” for a different reason .

Xiongzhang , Lan Wangji’s eyes replied tiredly. What the fuck.

Naturally, your marital duties are none of my business —

Xiongzhang!

— and perhaps it’s rude of me to think of my future brother-in-law in such a way, but it’s a funny thought .

I can’t believe you.

You’re the one that wanted to marry a huli-jing.

Lan Wangji had nothing to say to that, even silently, so he said nothing and hoped his hair hid the way his ears turned pink. He knew that his brother knew exactly where his thoughts had turned but he hoped that no one else had noticed.

They both turned their attention back to the spectacle before them, just in time to hear one of the elders cry, “—even if the Cloud Recesses were on fire!”

Wei Ying’s silver eyes flashed like coins. His smile wasn’t a pleasant one. “That can be arranged,” he declared and pulled an ominous black flute out of his sleeves. A jade and silver butterfly pendant hung from it by a cord redder than maple, as red as blood. He played a long, wavering note on the flute as everyone that had not expected a huli-jing to take a challenge thrown at him (which, sadly, was almost everyone present) leaped to defend themselves.

Like dry tinder introduced to a spark, the roofs of the buildings nearby caught fire.

Another warble, and the Lanshi caught fire.

Black smoke rose in the air as the winds picked up and swirled around Wei Ying.

Lan Wangji’s heart leapt into his throat. Now he looked like a demon, some kind of monster as his black and red robes whipped around him. Was there something wrong with him that he looked all the more beautiful for it?

Now his silver eyes blazed red and the afterimage of an enormous, many-tailed fox appeared in the swirling energy and smoke behind him. His eyes were challenging as he stood before them and Lan Wangji was amazed that he could read that expression as easily as he could read xiongzhang ’s.

Do you see me? Do you see what I am, what I can do? Are you afraid?

Lan Wangji looked at Lan Xichen and saw his lips pressed in a line the way he did when he was trying really hard not to laugh. His eyes said, this is bad , but also, maybe I should have asked for a promise to not destroy the Hanshi .

Thoroughly done with his brother, Lan Wangji stepped forward as Wei Ying played a complicated series of trills. The fires climbed and the smoke continued to swirl but they all passed harmlessly through and over Lan Wangji. Carefully, he touched Wei Ying’s wrists and those shining red eyes—now with slit pupils drawn into narrow, brittle shards—snapped to him.

As he watched, those pupils gradually rounded and that awful red light began to fade, returning to brilliant silver. He smiled at Lan Wangji with his eyes as he ended his song with a flourish that sounded too playful for what the song had just been used for. The wind died down and as his hair settled once more, Lan Wangji realized that a pair of fuzzy ears were poking out. His fingers itched to touch them, but he had the feeling that it would be highly inappropriate for what was going on.

Later , he promised himself.

“Ah, Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying said as he pulled his flute from his lips. “Have you come to stop me?”

“I, Lan Wangji, accept your proposal,” Lan Wangji declared and basked in the wide, delighted smile on Wei Ying’s face. “I always have,” he added quietly, for Wei Ying’s ears only. “This is just…a formality.”

“So formal, my Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying teased just as quietly.

It was certainly not traditional—none of this was—but Lan Wangji turned to face shufu and xiongzhang . “We ask for your blessing,” he said with a bow and didn’t need to turn to know that Wei Ying wasn’t bowing.

“How can we—” Lan Qiren began but was interrupted by Lan Xichen.

“If Lan Wangji agrees to the proposal, then who are we to stop them?” Lan Xichen said nearly pleasantly, as if he wasn’t standing in the middle of a clearing whose buildings were slowly burning.

Lan Qiren looked like he ate something sour. “How can we have marriage talks when Cloud Recesses is burning?” he demanded. “Surely to ask us to do something like this would be too much!”

Out of the corner of his eye, Lan Wangji watched Wei Ying lift his flute to his lips. He played a few sweet notes and the wind picked up once more but instead of spreading the fire, it extinguished it like a strong breeze against a candle flame.

Clearly, Lan Qiren hadn’t expected such a thing and neither did the Lan Elders. They all murmured nervously to themselves. “How can you ask us to negotiate, when the groom’s family isn’t present?”

Immediately, all of the elders nodded emphatically. Lan Qiren’s expression soured further. He must have known that it was a losing battle at that point.

“Ah, my Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying laughed. “I had thought that I would be the wife for you to ravish but if this is the way that you would prefer, I can be your handsome groom.”

Lan Wangji said nothing, though he knew that the tips of his ears were burning as hot as the fires that Wei Ying had summoned into Cloud Recesses. He didn’t need to look at xiongzhang to know that he was valiantly hiding a smug smile.

“Then I will return with my family,” Wei Ying said with a feral grin. “And one of the gifts that I give to the family of my future wife is to repair the damage done here.” He paused and smiled at Lan Xichen. “And to promise Lan -dabaizi that I will not burn down his Hanshi.”

Lan Xichen smiled pleasantly. “Thanks to my future brother-in-law.”

It was strange that Lan Xichen had no care that Lan Wangji was to marry a huli-jing , or that said huli-jing had nearly burned down several buildings. He wondered if xiongzhang really cared about him at all. Then Lan Wangji remembered Lan Xichen’s “beast” comments and concluded that his brother truly did not care for him because he was really just the worst.

Wei Ying turned to Lan Wangji with a smile that had too much mischief in it to be innocent at all. “I will return,” he told Lan Wangji firmly. “It will not be tomorrow, but I promise to return with my family and the means to pay the first part of the betrothal gift that I have offered.”

Swallowing, Lan Wangji nodded once. Between one heartbeat and the next, Wei Ying disappeared and, in his place, stood an enormous black fox.

No, Lan Wangji realized. From a distance, Lan Wangji had thought that Wei Ying’s silky coat was solid, inky black but up close, he could see that his undercoat was a bright, vibrant red like fire. Wei Ying’s large silver eyes glittered at him and he yipped quietly in a fox’s laugh before turning and bounding away.

Just as he had last time, he bounded once, twice, and then disappeared as if he had never been.

“It seems,” xiongzhang said like the awful brother he was. “That we have a wedding to plan and a bride to prepare.”

Ears red, Lan Wangji turned and walked stiffly back to the Jingshi.

The next day, Nie Mingjue arrived.

By some otherworldly intuition, he knew what had happened and had brought his brother, Nie Huaisang, with him. Ostensibly, it was to show support to a fellow sect leader, but Lan Wangji knew that not only would he take any excuse to see Lan Xichen, but he also showed up so he could laugh at Lan Wangji too.

In his bird-shape, a lioage , Nie Huaisang fluttered around Lan Wangji’s head like an annoying insect that he wasn’t allowed to swat. Worse, even in his bird-shape, Nie Huaisang had the ability to chatter.

“Lan- er-gege ,” Nie Huaisang trilled in delight, as awful as xiongzhang was. “ Da-ge says that you’re going to be a bride! Aren’t you excited?”

Lan Wangji refused to answer, continuing to play his qin .

Laughing, Nie Huaisang fluttered to land in front of Wangji and fluttered his wings. He sang an awful counter-tune to the music that Lan Wangji was playing and he wished really hard that he could smack Nie Huaisang out of the air the next time he fluttered past his face. But Nie Mingjue would probably frown and that would make xiongzhang make embarrassing faces at Lan Wangji until he apologized.

Given the whole “beast” conversation they had the other day, he would bet that xiongzhang would use that as ammunition as well. Truly an awful brother.

But…not as awful as Nie Huaisang.

“I want to meet him,” Nie Huaisang declared. “I think it’ll be fun to meet a huli-jing . They’re very rare, you know. And one with all of his tails! He did have all of his tails, right?”

Lan Wangji thought back and realized that he had never counted Wei Ying’s tails. He didn’t say this, but Nie Huaisang seemed to somehow sense it. How was his life filled with people that could read him so easily? It was awful.

“Aiya,” Nie Huaisang complained and switched to his other skin. “You didn’t even count his tails! What am I to do with you, Lan- er-gege ?”

Leave me alone? Lan Wangji thought.

“They say that the last huli-jing that anyone could remember was Cangse Sanren,” Nie Huaisang said absently, fanning himself. “She was the disciple of Baoshan Sanren, the legendary immortal cultivator. Can you imagine? I wonder if he’s related to her. It would make sense, in a way.”

Unable to help it, Lan Wangji made a curious noise.

“Well, Cangse Sanren married a human man,” Nie Huaisang said, his eyes twinkling. “She had several marriage proposals—including Sect Leader Jiang—but decided to marry a servant. I think his name was Wei.”

Very deliberately, Lan Wangji kept himself from reacting. Wei Ying .

“So, if your huli-jing is related to Cangse Sanren, then it would make sense that he has ties to the Jiang Clan!” Nie Huaisang concluded excitedly. “ Everyone knows that Jiang Fengmian was so in love with Cangse Sanren that he didn’t ever really get over it. That’s why Madam Yu is so cranky.”

Privately, Lan Wangji thought that “cranky” did not adequately describe Madam Yu’s infamous temperament.  

Still…it was food for thought.

Something fluttered down from the sky and Lan Wangji looked up. Silver butterflies fell like snow, swirling around him. A particularly large one hovered in front of Lan Wangji and cautiously, he stilled Wangji’s strings and extended a hand for it to land.

“ Ah, Lan Zhan ,” Wei Ying’s disembodied voice said in the air between them. “ I cannot say much, because to speak to my wife-to-be without a chaperone would be horribly inappropriate .” There was a hint of teasing in his voice.

As if anything you’ve already done here isn’t already horribly inappropriate , Lan Wangji thought to himself, but he couldn’t help the fondness that rose in his chest at the thought.

Wei Ying’s voice laughed as if he could hear him. “ I just wanted to warn you, that fuqin and I will be arriving tomorrow. ” He laughed again, low and husky. “ I cannot wait to see you again, my beautiful wife-to-be .”

Then the butterflies all took off once more in a shining cloud. The largest, the one that had held Wei Ying’s voice, briefly touched his cheek like the softest kiss before returning to the rest of them.

Lan Wangji and Nie Huaisang watched in silence as the butterflies disappeared.

“Smooth,” Nie Huaisang said because he was truly awful and Lan Wangji did his best to ignore him even though his ears burned red.

Lan Wangji heard the alarm from the gates and paused in surprise. Surely, knowing that Wei Ying was arriving wouldn’t cause such alarm?

A moment later, he could understand why.

First, he heard a strange sound, a chant in the form of a song of nonsense words. “Yi, yo, xi. Yi, yo, xi.” Then, from the path that led to the entrance to Cloud Recesses, an enormous step-litter appeared, carried by four golden skeletons who were the ones chanting and singing. The litter was decorated in gold and draped in fine satin hangings, and ghost fires hovered around it all like fireflies in the summer.

So distracted by the golden step-litter and the golden skeletons that bore it, Lan Wangji almost didn’t notice the enormous black-and-orange fox walking sedately behind it.

Nie Huaisang noticed, though, and cried out in amazement. He shifted into his other skin and flew excitedly around his brother, who had come running with Lan Xichen. Grunting, Nie Mingjue plucked his brother out of the air and held him securely in one fist.

“ Da-ge! ” Nie Huaisang complained. “ Da-ge, you’re so rude!”

Wei Ying yipped a fox’s laugh and shook out his fur before shifting into his other skin. He was dressed just as he had been before, in black and charcoal and bright, bright red. Only when he had shifted into this smaller form, though, did Lan Wangji notice who had come behind him.

In two lines behind the step-litter, twenty or so demons and ghosts had followed. Several carried tools while the rest were harnessed with large baskets of materials—they were the workers that Wei Ying had promised would fix the damages he’d caused before.

For a long moment, it seemed that no one knew what to say and they all stared at each other. Then the step-litter moved and, instead of Jiang Fengmian as Lan Wangji had expected, an unknown man emerged.

He was…plain. At least, his clothing was. He wore the simple, cream-colored robes of a traveling cultivator, and a worn bamboo hat on a string around his neck. Bandages wrapped around his throat and right wrist, and his hair was held behind his head in a remarkably plain style.

Most of all…he looked to be younger than Wei Ying.

Then the step-litter moved again and someone else emerged. It wasn’t until this second man joined the first that Lan Wangji realized just who they were dealing with.

Robes red as maple, draped in silver jewelry decorated with butterflies…

…a black patch covering his right eye, and a scimitar with a rolling red eye on the hilt…

Next to each other, Lan Wangji could see the resemblance to the figures that always seemed to be present in every temple, in every stall that sold religious effigies. From everyone else’s silence, it was obvious to them as well.

“ Fuqin, baba ,” Wei Ying said with a polite bow. He did nothing to hide the mischievous grin that stretched across his face. “May your son introduce Sect Leader Lan, brother of my betrothed?”

The silence was broken by Lan Xichen as he burst into laughter.

“Are you happy now, my Lan Zhan?” Wei Ying asked. His eyes were silver and wild and his teeth were too long and too sharp but his hands were gentle as he held Lan Wangji’s. 

Lan Wangji smiled. “Mn,” he said. 

“Ah, Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying said, curling into Lan Wangji’s space and pressing his nose into his throat. “What a pretty wife you make.” 

“And if I want to be the husband?” Lan Wangji asked as Wei Ying pulled away and tugged him toward a door that hummed with energy. Instinctively, he knew that once he stepped through, he would be whisked away. 

Wei Ying laughed and the points of his teeth flashed. “Husband, wife, it doesn’t matter as long as I have you.” 

“Mn,” Lan Wangji said and let himself be pulled through the door.