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The door was unassuming. It was solid wood with a polished silver handle, perfectly ordinary and expected. There was no reason for the mere sight of it to cause Lan Zhan's palms to grow suddenly clammy, his grip weakening on the neck of the bottle in his hands. He tightened his hold, not wanting the wine to fall to the frozen pavement and shatter. He'd spent almost an hour in the liquor store selecting it, even with expert guidance, and had finally settled on one that was sure to please their hosts. It would be such a waste if the bottle never made it to the destination.
"Don't worry so much," Wei Ying said, grinning and nudging him gently with his shoulder. "They're going to love you, I promise."
"...mn," Lan Zhan said.
Wei Ying's grin turned even brighter and somehow more reassuring. He stepped forward and knocked, then drew back to wait beside Lan Zhan for their hosts to answer.
"It'll be fine!" Wei Ying said, almost as if to himself. "Totally fine..."
A thought seemed to occur to him and he winced just slightly.
"For you, at least."
Before Lan Zhan could worry about that or ask him to clarify, the door opened. The woman who stood behind it was just a bit shorter than Wei Ying, with smile lines at the corners of her intelligent grey eyes and a hint of silver in her dark hair.
“Well, if it isn’t my darling a-Ying, come to see his parents for the new year!” she said, her smile wide and teasing. “I guess he does still remember where we live!”
“I was here last week for dinner!” Wei Ying protested, but Cangse Sanren waved him off.
“A week too long,” she said before glancing over to Lan Zhan with a gleam in her eye. “And you must be Lan Zhan.”
Lan Zhan dipped his head politely, his fingers tightening on the neck of the wine bottle.
“Pleased to meet you,” he managed to say, only the etiquette drilled into him since childhood saving him from losing his words entirely. Wei Ying casually leaned against his arm, giving him a grounding point of contact, and Lan Zhan breathed out.
Cangse Sanren smiled at him and then leaned back into the house to shout.
“Dear, a-Ying is here! His Lan Zhan really is as handsome as an immortal from a costume drama!”
Lan Zhan felt his ears burn while next to him, Wei Ying let out a strangled, exasperated 'mama!’.
Cangse Sanren smiled sweetly at her son, the picture of innocence.
“Oh? Should I have used a different description?” she asked. “What else did you say… more handsome than any pop idol? The most beautiful person you’ve seen in your life? More gorgeous than-”
“Ma!” Wei Ying cried, cutting her off. His face was bright red. Cangse Sanren snickered.
“We’ve listened to you for hours on the subject, he can withstand five minutes,” she said, opening the door to allow them entry. “Now come in, you’re letting the heat out.”
Wei Ying groaned and hid his face against Lan Zhan’s shoulder.
“Is it too late to tell them we can’t make it?” he asked in a mock-whisper.
“Yes,” Cangse Sanren said.
“Mn,” Lan Zhan agreed, and as Wei Ying groaned again, his mother’s smile widened.
“I think we’re going to get along just fine,” she said.
They stepped into the entryway and removed their jackets and shoes, donning house slippers before venturing further. Wei Ying’s were a well-loved black pair, embroidered with a red flame and Lan Zhan’s, much to his surprise, weren’t the plain grey he would have expected. Instead, he was handed a pair of white slippers embroidered with blue bunnies, much like the pair he had at home.
“A-Ying mentioned you liked rabbits,” Cangse Sanren said, noticing the way he’d paused upon seeing the slippers. “I do hope he wasn’t lying to us?”
“He was not,” Lan Zhan said, and handed the bottle of wine to Wei Ying so he could put the slippers on.
The house was modest but tidy, with polished wooden floors and tasteful decor. There were a few ink paintings on the wall, things Lan Zhan recognized as Wei Ying’s work, and he paused for a moment to look while Wei Ying bounded ahead to the kitchen.
“Ba!” Wei Ying called. “We’re here!”
Wei Changze’s response was too soft for Lan Zhan to hear more than the rumble of his voice. Cangse Sanren stepped up next to him, joining him in admiring the ink painting of a mountain range.
“You have a beautiful home,” Lan Zhan said and she beamed at him.
“I have a very talented son,” she said, nodding at the painting fondly. “His first love might be engineering, but every now and again he still picks up a brush to draw something for his old mother.”
“Mn,” Lan Zhan said and, by mutual silent agreement, they continued on to the kitchen. Inside was lively, with pots bubbling on the stove and Wei Ying flitting around, talking his dad’s ear off while inching closer to the plate of cooked dumplings.
Wei Changze nimbly moved them out of range just as Wei Ying made to reach for one.
“You’ll spoil your dinner,” Wei Changze said calmly.
“But those are dinner, so how could I spoil it?” Wei Ying asked, making another grab for the dumplings, only to be thwarted again when his father moved them to the other side of the stove with the ease of long practice.
“So impatient, a-Ying,” Cangse Sanren chided, coming into the kitchen and casually coming up to her husband’s other side. Her hand began to reach for the dumplings as well.
“Cangse,” Wei Changze said, warm but firm, halting her unsubtle grab in its tracks. “Dinner will be ready soon.”
Knowing she’d been caught, Cangse Sanren pouted the same way Wei Ying always did when his mischief was discovered prematurely.
Spotting the wine he’d brought sitting on the counter, Lan Zhan thought that now might be an appropriate time to present it to their hosts. He grabbed it and stepped forward, drawing the attention of Cangse Sanren and Wei Ying.
“Oh, right!” Wei Ying said, as if just remembering, then turned and began to dig in one of the lower cabinets for something.
“You brought wine?” Cangse Sanren asked, spotting the bottle in Lan Zhan’s hands. Wei Changze turned as well upon hearing that and Lan Zhan bowed his head, presenting the bottle to them for inspection.
“Thank you for inviting me,” he said as Cangse Sanren reached out to take the bottle from him. She lifted it for Wei Changze to see, her eyebrows raised as if impressed, and her husband nodded.
“Good choice. This will go well with dinner,” he said approvingly, looking Lan Zhan briefly up and down and then nodding again. He was a tall man, with broad shoulders and a kind face. “A-Ying told us you didn’t drink?”
Lan Zhan nodded back.
“I had help selecting it,” he said.
“You did very well,” Cangse Sanren said, looking the bottle up and down with a grin. “We should get this chilling if we want to have it with dinner-”
“Found the bucket!” Wei Ying said, finally straightening up from where he’d been digging in the cabinet, holding aloft a small metal bucket. “Just needs ice.”
“Perfect,” Cangse Sanren said, setting the bottle carefully back down on a nearby countertop and heading to the freezer to get ice out of the trays.
“It’s so cold outside it won’t take much,” Wei Changze commented. He smiled kindly at Lan Zhan. “Would you like some tea? We picked up some biluochun the other day.”
His favorite. Lan Zhan wondered if that was the type the Weis usually drank or if they had gotten some especially for him, like they had done with the slippers.
“Mn. Thank you,” he said. Wei Changze just nodded again and looked towards Wei Ying.
“A-Ying, you do remember where the pot is?” he asked.
“Yes, ba,” Wei Ying replied, already moving to prepare the tea.
As he took out the metal canister containing the tea, Lan Zhan noticed that he had to break the seal to get it open.
He felt his heart warm, something deep in his chest relaxing, a long-held breath finally released.
Perhaps there had been no need to worry so much about this dinner after all.
Dinner had been excellent.
Wei Ying’s father, Wei Changze, had been hard at work in the kitchen. He and Cangse Sanren had managed to make two kinds of spring rolls and two kinds of dumplings, both vegetarian and pork, hand-pulled longevity noodles, lion’s head meatballs, and side dishes of baby bok choy, lettuce, and jielan, and for the main course, Wei Changze had grilled a catfish for each of them.
Dessert had been niangao and Cangse Sanren’s homemade tangyuan, which Wei Ying had spoken enthusiastically about and Lan Zhan was pleased to finally get to try for himself. It had been sweet and chewy, the perfect end to a very filling meal.
More than the food though, Lan Zhan found himself warmed by how welcoming the Weis were. His uncle had always enforced silence during meals, so he still preferred not to speak while eating, but the Wei family had no such rule.
Wei Ying had clearly inherited his ability to chatter throughout meals from his mother, as they kept bantering throughout dinner, interspersed with stories of how their week had gone. Wei Changse watched them with an indulgent smile and occasionally spoke up, usually in support of his wife but occasionally in support of Wei Ying, drawing mock offense from both parties in turn. It was surprisingly fun to watch and nobody seemed to expect anything more from him than the occasional nod or sound of agreement, allowing him his habitual silence without making him feel like an outsider who just happened to join their table.
It had been surprisingly pleasant. Lan Zhan didn’t generally enjoy noise at mealtimes, but he thought he could easily get used to such lively dinners.
After dinner, they moved to the parlor to relax. Once everyone had some sort of warm drink in hand, as if she’d been waiting her entire life for just this moment to arrive, Cangse Sanren whipped out scrapbooks full of baby photos, much to Lan Zhan’s quiet delight and Wei Ying’s vocal embarrassment.
“He was so proud to have made me breakfast on my birthday!” Cangse Sanren said, turning the album so Lan Zhan could see a photo of an absolutely destroyed kitchen; pots and pans were all over the floor, multiple frying pans had various layers of blackened or congealed batter, and eggs, milk, and flour were spilled across every countertop. In the middle of the chaos stood Wei Ying, no more than four or five years old, grinning ear to ear and absolutely covered in flour from head to toe. He was holding out a plate of pancakes that were a lurid red on one side and pitch black on the other, an unlit candle stuck haphazardly into the top.
“This was before he learned that chili paste doesn’t belong in everything,” Cangse Sanren said fondly, turning the album back around to flip the page.
“He has yet to learn,” Lan Zhan replied, drawing a delighted laugh from Wei Ying’s mother and an outraged cry from Wei Ying himself.
“Betrayed by my own boyfriend!” Wei Ying cried dramatically, throwing himself at Lan Zhan and pouting up at him, like that was some sort of incentive to tease him less. “I can cook!”
“With supervision,” Lan Zhan agreed, as Wei Ying tended to be a bit overzealous in his seasoning if left to his own devices. Wei Ying made another outraged sound and his parents both chuckled.
“Some things never change,” Wei Changze said, nodding sagely. “Once, when he was seven, I let him help me make sesame noodles for dinner and he added an entire jar of chili oil when I wasn’t looking.”
“The noodles were almost inedible,” Cangse Sanren added, reaching out to poke Wei Ying’s cheek. “Even a-Ying could barely stomach them.”
Given Wei Ying’s prodigious tolerance for spice, that truly was saying something, even if it was about a much younger Wei Ying.
“Are you done embarrassing me?” Wei Ying asked, puffing his cheeks out in protest of his mother’s poking finger.
“Not yet!” Cangse Sanren said cheerfully, ceasing her torment of her son in favor of picking the scrapbook back up. She flipped a few more pages and then grinned, looking back at Lan Zhan.
“Speaking of adding too much of something…”
She held the scrapbook out and Lan Zhan could instantly see what she meant. The photo in the center of the page was of a bathroom and the bathtub was absolutely overflowing with bubbles. At the center of it was a five-year-old Wei Ying, clearly delighted and up to his shoulders in foam, caught in the middle of throwing a mass of bubbles into the air.
“Changze went to get a towel and I blinked for one second too long,” Cangse Sanren said fondly. “Before I knew it, a-Ying had dumped the entire bottle of bubble bath into the water.”
“Please, not the naked baby photos,” Wei Ying begged. His mother raised an eyebrow.
“Oh?” she said sweetly, enough faux-innocence dripping from her voice that Lan Zhan was instantly on his guard. “Why? Are you telling me that your Lan Zhan hasn’t already seen everything?”
He’d been right to be wary.
Next to him, Wei Ying spluttered, for once speechless, his face going bright red. Lan Zhan was fortunate enough that he didn’t blush, but he could feel his ears heat instead and knew that they were as red as his beloved’s face.
“That is not the point!” Wei Ying said and his mother grinned.
“I knew it,” she crowed, then looked at her husband smugly. “Pay up, Changze! I win!”
“You were betting on my sex life?!” Wei Ying asked, indignant, as his father sighed.
“Or theoretical lack,” he said, moving to get up. “Guess it’s time to do the dishes. Wei Ying, if you’d help?”
“You bet chores,” Wei Ying said faintly, getting up to follow. “On whether or not Lan Zhan and I have had sex.”
“Yep!” his mother said.
Lan Zhan, ears still burning, made to follow Wei Ying and Wei Changze as they headed for the kitchen and the veritable mountain of dirty dishes, but Cangse Sanren waved him off.
“Please, you’re our guest!” she said, gesturing for him to sit back down. “Let those two handle it, there’s still so many more photos I can show you!”
Wei Ying startled at that and turned as if to run back to the couch, but his father laid a gentle hand on his shoulder and steered him into the kitchen, leaving Lan Zhan alone with Cangse Sanren.
As the kitchen door closed, Lan Zhan couldn’t help but feel like he’d been led into a trap.
“So…” Cangse Sanren said slowly, her voice gentler than before but still teasing. “It seems like you and my son are quite serious about each other.”
Lan Zhan looked back at her and met her gaze without flinching, ears still hot as he nodded. Cangse Sanren smiled at him, eyes sparkling the same way Wei Ying’s did when he solved a particularly tricky puzzle.
“I thought so. The way you were looking at him during dinner… there’s something you want to ask him, isn’t there?”
Lan Zhan ducked his head to hide from her knowing smile, so she continued.
“A certain important question?” she probed gently. “Shall we consult the temple for auspicious dates?”
Apparently, Wei Ying's mother shared her son's ability to see right through him.
"It's too soon," he said in reply, echoing what Lan Qiren had said when Lan Zhan had told him about his intentions last week. The words rang hollow in his own voice, betraying his quiet disagreement.
Cangse Sanren made a quiet, thoughtful hum.
"You know..." she said slowly, each word carefully measured. "Changze and I had only known each other for four months when he asked me to marry him. I’m not sure which one of us was more surprised when I said ‘yes’.”
She laughed quietly, her gaze distant and fond, a smile tugging at her lips.
“And I’m not sure who was more disapproving, my family or his, when we told everyone we were getting married. We ended up eloping just to avoid having to deal with it, did you know that?”
Lan Zhan hadn’t known the specifics, but Wei Ying had mentioned once that his parents had eloped. Lan Zhan had been considering it himself, if Wei Ying was agreeable but his parents were just as opposed to the idea as Lan Qiren was.
“Everyone thought for sure that Changze had knocked me up, but then it took a-Ying three years to join us.” She gave him a sly wink, a smirk tugging at the corners of her lips. “Three very enjoyable years, Changze and I both wanted a baby and we were very diligent.”
Lan Zhan was certain his ears would be stained red after this evening.
“You seem happy together,” he said, thinking. If Cangse Sanren and Wei Changze had married so soon after meeting and were still this happy together after decades of marriage… could it not be the same for Wei Ying and himself? They’d met almost a year ago and had been dating for only a few months, but Lan Zhan knew in his heart that Wei Ying was the one he wanted for the rest of his life.
“It hasn’t always been easy,” Cangse Sanren said. “But even when times were difficult, I always wanted Changze beside me.”
Lan Zhan nodded seriously and she smiled at him.
“You look at a-Ying the way Changze still looks at me,” she said, her eyes going dreamy. “What mother wouldn’t want that sort of love for her son?”
“Then… you approve?” Lan Zhan asked. She nodded.
“As long as a-Ying accepts, but I don’t think that will be a problem,” she said, grinning. “When he loves, he loves with his whole heart, holding nothing back. He’s always been that way, ever since he was young.”
Lan Zhan nodded again. It was one of the things that had drawn him so strongly to Wei Ying, the way he was so warm and kind and genuinely good, like a campfire on a cold night.
“He was always so fascinated by everything; science, music, engineering, poetry… you name it, he wanted to know everything about it. I swear his first word must have been ‘why’,” Cangse Sanren said with a soft laugh. “I always worried that one day, he’d fall for someone who did not love him back as deeply. He’s always thrown himself so fully into everything he cares for that I worried heartbreak was inevitable once he fell, but his love was never directed at any specific person… until you.”
Her smile was much softer now, warm and relieved.
“But you’re made of the same stuff he is, aren’t you?” she asked. “I think you could fascinate him for the rest of his life.”
Lan Zhan felt exposed again and warm all the way through. He felt seen, but not like a bug under a microscope; more like a stranded motorist catching the attention of a passing vehicle and recognizing an old friend in the driver’s seat.
He did not think of himself as a particularly interesting person. Even Wei Ying had called him ‘boring’ in the early days of their acquaintance, so to hear from Cangse Sanren that he could fascinate someone as lively and warm as Wei Ying was a reassurance he didn’t realize he had needed to hear.
“In my family, it is said that we only love once,” Lan Zhan said. “I believe it’s true.”
He’d gone his whole life without finding anyone he was interested in romantically and then he’d met Wei Ying. He’d fallen hard and fast and now couldn’t imagine growing old with anyone else. He knew Wei Ying felt the same and it was that certainty that had led him to purchase rings last week, even without his uncle’s approval.
“Then I’m happy you found each other,” Cangse Sanren said. She looked up towards the kitchen door. “They’re probably about done, so why don’t we go check on our boys, hm?”
Lan Zhan nodded and stood with her. They walked towards the kitchen together and as they did, Cangse Sanren laid a warm hand on his shoulder.
“And Lan Zhan? Keep me updated on any proposal plans, won’t you?”
“I will,” Lan Zhan vowed. Cangse Sanren patted him on the shoulder.
“You’re going to be an excellent son-in-law, I can already tell,” she said.
With that, they opened the door and walked into the kitchen to find Wei Changze drying dishes and Wei Ying putting them away. Both men turned at the sound of their entry, Wei Ying with a bright smile and his father with a knowing one.
“Lan Zhan!” Wei Ying said, abandoning his duty to hug his boyfriend. “Please tell me she didn’t show you any more embarrassing photos!”
“She did not,” Lan Zhan reassured him. Wei Ying sighed with relief.
“Good talk?” Wei Changze asked, looking between his wife and Lan Zhan. Cangse Sanren grinned at him and Wei Changze nodded in understanding, as if that one look was a whole conversation.
Wei Ying, having also noticed the exchange, narrowed his eyes suspiciously at his parents.
“Ma, you didn’t give Lan Zhan some kind of shovel talk, did you?” he asked. Cangse Sanren waved a hand dismissively.
“Nothing of the sort! Just what are you accusing your poor, blameless mother for?” she asked.
Wei Ying glanced at him and Lan Zhan nodded, a soft smile on his face, and Wei Ying’s tension eased. His wary look melted back into a smile once more.
Across the kitchen, Wei Changze and Cangse Sanren were watching them with warm, approving smiles on their faces. Wei Changze looked at the clock and sighed.
“It’s probably time for you two to start heading back,” he said. It was getting late and the trains would be packed if they stayed any longer.
Still, Lan Zhan felt reluctant to leave. He had enjoyed himself tonight much more than he thought he would, so it was with heavy footsteps that he followed Wei Ying back to the entryway to retrieve their jackets and shoes.
“I’ll be back next week!” Wei Ying assured his parents.
“You better,” Cangse Sanren replied, pulling him into a tight hug. Then, to Lan Zhan’s surprise, she turned to him and pulled him into an embrace as well. He froze for a heartbeat, unused to receiving hugs from anyone besides his boyfriend, but before she could pull back and apologize he wrapped his arms around her to return the gesture.
The last time he’d had a mother’s hug, he’d been six. Cangse Sanren was not his mother, but her arms were just as warm and soft as the ones he remembered.
“Thank you for coming,” she said. “It was lovely to meet you at long last.”
Then she stepped back, a twinkle in her eye.
“I look forward to hearing from you very soon,” she said. Lan Zhan nodded.
“Thank you for the invitation,” he said.
Wei Changze hugged his son and shook Lan Zhan’s hand firmly, expression warm.
“Safe travels back,” he said.
“We will!” Wei Ying promised easily, and with a wave goodbye, they stepped back out into the cold.
Wei Ying sidled up next to him, beaming, and slipped his hand into Lan Zhan’s, who interlaced their fingers out of habit.
“So, what did you think?” Wei Ying asked eagerly. “They’re a bit much sometimes, but they mean well! It was fun, right?”
He was like a puppy, so clearly hopeful for praise, though Lan Zhan knew that making such a comparison out loud would only offend Wei Ying. He smiled at his boyfriend and nodded.
“It was good,” he said, knowing Wei Ying would understand how much he meant the words. He glanced back towards the house. “I look forward to returning.”
Perhaps the next time he set foot in that house, it would be as Wei Ying’s fiancé.
Oblivious to his thoughts, Wei Ying nudged his shoulder with his own, practically vibrating with happiness.
“Mark your words!” Wei Ying crowed, turning one of Lan Zhan’s favorite phrases against him for once. “I’ll tell my mother and you’re going to be buried under invitations to dinner. I told you they’d love you!”
“Mn,” Lan Zhan said. “You did.”
They continued towards the train station, Wei Ying launching into an excited babble about their plans for the next day, the official first day of the New Year. Lan Zhan walked beside him, hand in hand, content to listen.
One day soon, he’d propose.
After all, he’d promised his future mother-in-law.
END