Thread by @enigmatree

#warprizejiseason The Sunshot Campaign was going to be lost, and the one suffering the most was the Lan Sect; already weakened by internal strife and yet cornered again and again by the vengeful Wen Sect.

So, after long contemplation, Sect Leader Lan came to a decision.

It'd been more than a decade since the previous Madam Lan ran off with LQR, and the previous Sect Leader was continuously unavailable. The current Sect Leader Lan was chosen as a last effort from amongst the branch families to lead until the 11 year old heir could be reclaimed.

Unfortunately, Madam Lan and LQR ran fast. They also hid well. The Lan cultivators pursuing them only once managed to drive them into a corner, but even so, the 11 year old heir, LXC, could not be reclaimed.

The previous Sect Leader's 5 year old younger son, however, could.

When the current Sect Leader Lan was first presented with the expressionless, cold face of that bizarre child, he instantly knew that Lan Zhan and he would never become close.

But the child was still Qingheng-jun's son, still a Lan, and so Sect Leader Lan arranged somethings:

A room in the common halls, a sufficient number of teachers, enough pocket money for a child...

...and one day a month's allowance for QHJ's seclusion to be null, so that LZ might go learn from his father instead of his mother.

LZ was still expected to be the heir, back then.

But the child couldn't speak or smile. He disdained his classmates and he lacked the most basic empathy; NOTHING like LXC had been.

And the current Sect Leader was gentle and just, a capable and involved man, already used to the position. He already controlled most of the Sect.

Slowly, before LZ was even old enough to notice any change, the talk of raising LZ into the Sect Leader dimmed. The number of elders asking about LZ's education dwindled. Every year, there were more people wary of approaching LZ, of being seen as if favoring LZ, the true heir.

And Sect Leader Lan began to think... why should he give away the leadership he'd worked so hard to maintain a child? Just because that child was the son of QHJ? QHJ was a joke!

With every passing year, he was more certain that he didn't have to.

But LWJ's mere existence, now that he was 17 and one of the most powerful warriors the Lan Sect had participating in the Sunshot Campaign... even just living in his distant, lonely house in the CR, the true heir was a threat. Like this, he was more.

Sect Leader Lan was a just, considerate man who followed the Lan precepts to the tee. But he was also an ambitious man who had had this job for years and had absolutely no intention to relinquish it to anyone.

So LWJ had to go.

And the Sect needed protection from the Wens.

What better way, then, than to arrange a fortutious marriage with the only other power capable of standing beside the Wen Sect?

At this point of near annihilation, not even the angry, fearful elders dared say anything against the demonic cultivation of this elusive Yiling Laozu.

If not the Lan Sect, then some other sect would eventually reach out to the Yiling Laozu. After all, this was the man who had endless land around Yiling and reaching into both Qishan and Yunmeng, and yet could still protect it all against the Wens.

The YLLZ was the only one who truly stood a chance against the Wens. He was also someone who had been interested in legitimizing his rule of the lands he had conquered-- and someone who was known to pluck away both young girls and boys.

If not the Lan Sect, then some other sect would marry their children to the YLLZ. And then may Heavens protect the Lan Sect, the weakest and most unstable of the Great Sects! They wouldn't even last a month!

No, the only choice was to act now and make an alliance.

The first spouse, the ruler of the YLLZ's household, the one in the best position to sway this man-- it had to be a Lan. A husband was unorthodox, yes, but so was the YLLZ. The man had already expressed an interest in men as well as women, according to rumours, no?

There was a significant argument amongst the elders, and eventually, there was a majority agreement.

...even the ones that argued against the decision didn't dare claim that the Sect Leader Lan was trying to write LWJ out of the clan records by using this strange method.

After all, they did indeed need the help. LWJ was indeed their best; the Lan had too few female disciples these years. And YLLZ had indeed been rumoured to steal girls AND boys.

In the end, self-interest won out.

A letter was sent to the Burial Mounds.

Within two weeks, an answer arrived. By then, the war with the Wen Sect had pushed all the way to the borders of Gusu, and the Lan were losing heavily. LWJ's excellence shone in the battlefield, covered in blood, but remained unnamed, leaving only the title of HGJ following him.

Sect Leader Lan opened the letter from YLLZ at his desk in the central tent and then called for LWJ.

LWJ stood silently with his eyes lowered, picture perfect soldier, and listened without interrupting. He was still as cold as he was at age five, as blank as untouched snow.

"I've arranged a marriage for you," Sect Leader Lan said, "It is advantageous to the point where if you were a woman, I would expect your gratitude. But I'm afraid you must marry into a man's household, so it'll be a sacrifice you must make for the survival of our sect."

For the first time in years, LWJ's eyes widened in surprise and he seemed like he might even speak.

"This is non-negotiatable," Sect Leader Lan said gravely, "I am not certain if he would even have accepted, if not for your fame and position. We cannot replace you with another."

LWJ's parted lips closed and he lowered his head again. His fame of ethereal, unmatched looks was mentioned three times, his standing as a young master of the reputable Lan Sect two times, in YLLZ's letter.

YLLZ had accepted to ally, but clearly only to acquire the good match.

Sect Leader Lan looked at LWJ for a long time. LWJ hadn't even nodded to agree, because his agreement was already presupposed-- it was in accordance with the rules to sacrifice for one's family.

"...you'd have made an incredible disciple, Lan Wangji," He sighed.

They both knew he wasn't talking about LWJ's marriage to YLLZ.

LWJ was the perfect image of a Lan disciple and yet, he had never been a disciple at all. Even unwanted and unneeded, he had always been the heir.

"..." Sect Leader Lan sighed again, "Don't forget your family."

LWJ continued listening.

"The wedding... is soon," Sect Leader Lan said, "Your brideprice is our safety and more, but don't worry. Your dowry won't be small either."

"Thank you, Sect Leader." LWJ bowed slowly, his hair draping, as always proper to an edge-- brittle but sharp.

LWJ was sent home from the warfront for the first time in months. He was cleaned and dressed and dropped into the hands of his martial aunts to be taught all the bridal matters no one had ever expected him to know. The wedding would be as soon as they could possibly arrange.

With such hurry --with the continued survival of the Lan Sect as a whole hinging on them completing the wedding-- the lessons were dense enough that LWJ's days were full to the brim.

It was late in the evening that he barely managed to find an hour to pay his respects.

He walked silently through the cold night. Not a single disciple ever came over to these parts anymore. LWJ's room was further away, but he came to a stop in front of the burnt down ruins of a house.

LWJ knelt gently on the broken porch in front of the door. "I'm back, Father."

There was no answer, of course. The house was almost entirely gone, and only the burnt foundations of the walls stuck out like black ribs. But there wouldn't really be an answer before either. It only came rarely enough that it used to scare LWJ, sometimes. His father's voice.

"Sect Leader Lan arranged my marriage," LWJ reported quietly, the same way he'd be told to report his grades by the elder beside him. "I will be marrying out."

He paused.

"It isn't a woman," He said, even though father never knew that LWJ liked men so this meant nothing to him.

....really, LWJ had never managed to learn to speak. There wasn't anything much to say either. All LWJ could say was always better expressed in a report.

"His morals are worrying," LWJ said, "But the marriage will protect our Sect. He is rumoured to be of considerable might."

A snow wind blew and made the wood creak.

"I will likely not return," LWJ said with his chin raised and voice even, "This Wangji will do his best to be a good spouse and not let our Sect down. Thank you for everything."

LWJ bowed to the empty, burnt door.

"Farewell, Father."

The wedding was methodogical, planned, and acted akin to a well-scripted play. LWJ expressed no particular emotion at any part of it. He had always known he would be married to an advantageous match one day; marrying a man was a plus, having to marry out of his home was a minus.

He was washed in flower scents and dressed in the most elaborate wedding robes of the Sect. Lan Yu was the woman of good fortune who combed his hair and put it into glimmering golden accessories. The dressing was entirely traditional, while the rest of the ceremony was not.

But at the very least, his husband rode all the way to the CR to get him. Veiled under embroidered red silk, LWJ couldn't see what he looked like, but his hand was rough and warm. The fact that he expressed no hesitation before grabbing LWJ's hand was also.

Rough and warm.

One of the women who was to be accompanying LWJ's bridal sedan towards his new home started to say something about the inappropriateness, about touching the bride before--

"Hm?" His husband spoke, voice low and leading, "Did you say something?"

"N-nothing," Said the woman.

His husband --the groom, still, but-- squeezed LWJ's hand once before letting go, as if he was just trying to see if he could, to see if LWJ would let him.

"Let's go, then," He declared. "I don't suppose the Lan Sect wants to host a party too?"

Someone else spoke, "No, Laozu."

The rest of the wedding was as LWJ was told it would be, except for the teleportation talismans cutting away days of travel.

When everything was done, it felt like LWJ had just blinked and found himself kneeling on a cushion in the huge Ancestrall Hall cluttered in tablets.

"I don't remember my parents' names, so we don't have tablets for them, sadly," His husband laughed, only a little bitter, as he pulled up the edges of LWJ's red veil.

"The veil..." LWJ started, only to be shocked silent when he saw his new husband's secretive, handsome smile.

"We're about to kneel to the only family I know," His husband told him, "Ah, it's better if they see your face. You'll have an easier time living here."

LWJ looked up at the absolutely stacked tablets all around him and blinked his eyes.

"Come on." His husband started bowing.

LWJ followed him and they completed their bows to the thousands of unknown tablets around them; the only family his husband had known.

His family too, now.

Pleased to meet you, LWJ thought quietly, for lack of anything else to think, and something seemed to settle around him.

When he raised his head with veil still clutched on his lap, folded carefully, his husband was smiling at him. He really had such a handsome, roguish smile, like he was always thinking of pranks to do or ways to play.

LWJ couldn't really remember anyone smiling at him, before.

"The Lan Sect really didnt pitch you well enough," His husband laughed, to LWJ's surprise, "They didn't say that you were so easily likable."

LWJ drew back. What?

"Look!" His husband leant onto LWJ's cushion and very discourteously pulled LWJ's hand to make LWJ touch a tablet.

Before LWJ could snatch his hand back and kneel down in apology to the ancestral tablet that he, still a stranger, had touched...

...a ghost fire lit up above their clasped hands, floating merrily.

"They've already accepted you," His husband said, and then; "See? Likeable."

LWJ looked up at that ghost fire illuminating the hall around them in blue, in awe, feeling like his chest had opened painfully to let in fresh air.

"Your ancestors..." He whispered, "They didn't receive the sprit calming ceremony?"

His husband's answer was uproarious laughter.

LWJ gazed directly at him, but couldn't quite glare.

"Ahaha, grandpa he thinks you should have gotten the spirit calming ceremony!" His husband cried, "A homeless peddler like you!"

The ghost fire leapt onto his husband's head like a scolding smack, before disappearing.

LWJ wouldn't know. He didn't kmuch, of love.e brightest thing were his husband's crimson eyes as they turned to LWJ's own. Like Sect Leader had said: unorthodox cultivation to match unorthodox taste.

A good match, one might say.

LWJ wouldn't know. He didn't know much, of love.

There didn't have to be love between spouses. In fact, the paper houses of marriage may even be more secure without that restless spark. LWJ would know that firsthand.

If LWJ loved, it probably wouldn't be a restless spark.

It'd probably be a lawless wildfire. An abomination.

"You can meet them all in the morning," His husband said, and when he pulled LWJ to his feet, their hands stayed dangerously clasped between them. "You're part of the family now. So we can go--"

All at once, the entire room lit up in hundreds of ghost fires; hundreds of souls.

LWJ startled and almost called for Bichen, but his husband's hand squeezed firmly on his. His husband himself was looking around, visibly listening.

"What? Seriously?" His husband demanded then, "What is this, Burial Mounds matchmaking hall? No, you don't have to see anything!"

A few dozen more ghost fires appeared, flickering with what could possibly be interest.

"You-- fine. Fine, okay, just one!" His husband huffed at the souls of his family before turning to LWJ. His smile was wry this time. No less beautiful. "Sorry. May I have one kiss, to show?"

LWJ froze. Then he felt his ears flush. "Here?" LWJ demanded, "Absurd! Improper!"

"My Ancestral Hall is clearly a village gossip center!" WWX complained, glaring at the ghost fires, "They're all lowly people like me, so they wouldn't know propriety if it excorcised them!"

LWJ looked at the ghost fires. He looked at his husband's tall and wide shoulders, his charming face, his crookedly smiling soft lips. Was it really custom in villages to make embarassing demands from the newly wedded couple?

LWJ looked at his husband's beautiful face again.

LWJ paused. "...with them watching?"

His husband made a tiny laugh and stepped close, raising his palm to cover LWJ's eyes entirely.

"Mm, don't you know?" In the darkness, he whispered the world's fakest lie; "They're ghosts. If you can't see them, they can't see you either."

LWJ grasped his husband's wedding robes so that he couldn't escape when LWJ pressed his lips to his, that palm still over his eyes. His husband's laughter tried to escape again, but it only ended up in LWJ. Did he find LWJ's insane actions funny?

...Unorthodox desires indeed.

By the time his husband pulled back to breathe, and LWJ was gasping with his husband's one arm around LWJ, the other still over LWJ's eyes, LWJ seemed to be hearing a lot of laughter at the back of his head.

"That's.."

"A 'welcome to the family'," His husband said breathlessly.

The family...

LWJ's family.

With the three bows completed, they left the Ancestral Hall to pass through the joyous celebrations everywhere around his husband's large mansion in the BM. LWJ hurriedly draped back his veil so no one could see that he had taken it off.

"Why are you putting that back on?" His husband asked as they walked through the corridors.

"It's improper," LWJ told him. He wasnt supposed to be seen yet. His husband reached over to grab the veil, but LWJ batted his hands away. "Not until the time comes."

His husband sighed.

"You're so beautiful, so why are you hiding it?" He asked, "I want to see. If anyone dares to say anything about impropriety or whatever, I'll just throw them out."

"No." LWJ said.

"Fine," His husband huffed before saying; "This is so strange. Is this how it's supposed to be?"

LWJ turned his face towards him, for all that he couldn't really see through the veil. But his husband must have understood the question.

"Marriage, I mean," He explained, "I never argue about anything. Everyone either agrees or tries to kill me about it. This feels so strange."

"We're not arguing," LWJ said.

"We definitely are," His husband said, humorous, as he led LWJ by the hand around a corner.

"Do not fight with family, for it doesn't matter who wins," LWJ recited to him.

"If we don't fight, how will we decide whose desire we should follow?"

LWJ hesitated. Indeed, how were people supposed to fulfill conflicting desires as a family?

In LWJ's experience, no one ever had those in the Lan Clan. They just did whatever the rules told them to, and if the rules were unclear, they did what their superiors told them to.

"...you're my Lord-Husband," LWJ said gravely, trying to apply that to his new home and raising his free hand to raise the veil. "If it really matters to you, I will do as you say."

Before he could touch the veil, though, his husband grasped both of his hands in his own.

"We'll just talk about it," His husband said, lowering both of their hands from the veil, "I don't think that's it, even though I don't know much about how families work. Do you?"

"..." LWJ closed his mouth. Then, he said, "No. I don't know either."

"Yeah, we'll figure it out!"

The veil stayed on LWJ's head all the way to the bridal chamber. On the way, some older people stopped by them to bow down and give auspicious words, smiling widely. His husband nodded to them while LWJ stood silently beside him. Were these servants? His husband's friends?

"They're people I took in," His husband explained later, as they walked into what would become LWJ's courtyard, "I think maybe those were the ones whose village got burnt down during the war? Some of them help in my house. Everyone in the BM are refugees or escaping cultivators."

"Who administers them?" LWJ asked, trying to understand the structure of his husband's extraordinarily large territory.

His husband paused. "...no one?"

LWJ fell silent.

"Um," His husband said, "Is that bad?"

It was only his husband's power that kept everyone in line? "Mn."

"Ah, whatever!" His husband said casually, throwing himself down on the bed and pulling LWJ with him. LWJ stumbled and fell over his husband's thigh with a soft thump.

When LWJ tried to right himself up on the bed, his husband pulled him back close. He raised LWJ's veil up.

"Are you glaring at me?" His husband asked, brushing his fingertips across LWJ's naturally cold-looking eyes, "I really can't tell. Ah, dont be mad at me, I just... don't care about that all, anymore."

LWJ closed his eyes, letting his husband's fingers trace his eyelashes.

"Oh," His husband said. His hand moved down to cradle LWJ's jaw. "You weren't glaring, were you? Lan Zhan, don't tell me you're all soft under the ice and fame?"

LWJ eyes flashed open, shocked.

"What? I can't use your name? We're married," His husband said, "Call me Wei Ying!"

"We don't..." LWJ started, but didn't know how to continue. 'We don't know each other'? They were married.

His husband was grinning smugly like he knew he had LWJ cornered. "What else can you call me? I don't have a courtesy name."

It did make sense. LWJ said, "Wei Ying."

"Lan Zhan," His husband answered, and as if to reward LWJ, he pushed forward to kiss his lips. Before LWJ could respond, he pulled back with a smile curving his lips. "It does feel good," He said.

LWJ didn't follow him to get another kiss, properly this time. He stayed put.

"Like I said," His husband said, then, in a completely different tangent, "I just don't care about all that anymore. It was something of a phase? Anyways, you can do what you like with it."

"What?" LWJ asked, still thinking of his husband's lips.

"My lands," His husband said.

LWJ sat up. His husband was looking up at him, dishevelled in the candlelight, like he couldn't understand what LWJ was doing. "Your lands," LWJ said, then, "Wei Ying."

"Yes?" WY said, "Just do whatever you like with it! My territory is too large anyways. I can't manage it all!"

LWJ kept staring at him.

"What is it?" His husband asked, sitting up to lean their shoulders together, "Is it too hard? I'm not ordering you to manage it. You can sell it or give it to your Sect or whatever. I don't care much about it anymore."

"I will manage it," LWJ declared.

"Hm? Well, if you like," WY shrugged.

LWJ narrowed his eyes at him. "This is important."

"Not to me," WY said softly, "It really was just a phase. There was a war when I left the BM, and the governor of Yiling suddenly gave Yiling to me. Then people started rushing in..."

"I thought I could probably conquer everything," He continued, "It's just death and fear, you see. Not hard. So I decided I might as well give it a try!"

LWJ waited, looking at WY's bored expression.

"But, well," His husband said, "It's just lines on a map. No meaning to it."

His husband snorted. "What is the use of more land than you can see, more riches than you will ever need?" He asked, before pausing, "Well I did use a lot to get you, so there was that. Anyways, if you like them you can have them! Let's talk about something else now, husband!"

Talk about something else? LWJ hadn't even spoken much about this, what 'else' was he going to talk about? LWJ was useless at speaking.

"What? You don't want to talk?" WY asked, leaning back on his hands, "Then I'll just look at you."

LWJ glanced at him. What?

"Is that an issue, Lan-er-gongzi?" His husband asked, with that crooked smile, "I heard you were the most handsome cultivator on some list, but you're really so graceful. Like moonlight. When I think that you'll be my husband from now on, I feel good just looking at you."

And indeed, WY proceeded to silently watch LWJ with pleased, satisfied eyes; as if he had pulled one over everyone else just by having married LWJ first.

This was his husband. They were married. From now on, forever.

"What is it?" WY grinned, "Do you have an objection, beauty?"

Without a word, LWJ pushed him down and kissed him soundly, one hand on his cheek.

WY made an interesting hum, hiding the way LWJ's heart was stuttering in his chest. Was he even allowed to talk like that? Like-- like he was a common flirt, like LWJ was some passing courtesan?

When WY put his hand on LWJ's nape and parted their lips, when he licked into LWJ's mouth, when his fingers grasped into the smooth hair that LWJ had gotten all tangled with sweat... LWJ's heart was racing too fast. This didn't seem allowed, the way marriage was. It felt illicit.

LWJ pulled back up, breathing harshly, only to see his husband licking his own kiss-bruised lips. He scrabbled to grab a fistful of his husband's collars and dove in for another kiss. His husband was laughing into his lips again, feeding a fire he couldn't possibly know existed.

Marriage was supposed to be consummated. Consummation was supposed to hurt. That was what LWJ knew. The one marrying into the household was most likely to endure the pain, because consummation was supposed to hurt. Even preparation had hurt.

It wasn't supposed to feel like this.

It wasn't supposed to make LWJ feel one snapped thread away from devouring his husband whole. It wasn't supposed to feel good.

And yet, it felt better every time his husband curled his fingers into him, even though it was so bad when LWJ did it himself; made incomparable by WY.

"Good? Continue?" WY asked when LWJ shuddered around his fingers. He rubbed LWJ's thigh soothingly where his knees were clamped around WY's ribs, driving LWJ insane.

LWJ almost let out a deranged sound and had to press it into WY's lips, hands clenched in WY's pinned hair.

"Ah I'm glad," WY said shakily when LWJ had to pull away, "I'm glad you know so much about this. I should have looked at cutsleeve porn too! More?"

"I don't--" LWJ clenched his teeth against a groan when WY added a finger, "--look at porn."

"But you know so much, Lan Zhan!"

At the same time, WY pushed in deep in a single go and LWJ couldn't speak at all as his arms almost gave out under him. "Ah," He gasped out for the first time.

"Like this salve," WY said, grabbing the small jar that LWJ had brought with him, "I wouldn't have thought of it!"

Looking up at LWJ, WY let go of the jar. "Why did you think of it?" He grinned, leaning up to touch his fingertips on the smeared rouge at the corner of LWJ's lips, the hair sticking to his face. "If not for porn?"

"To... to make it hurt less," LWJ managed, "The healer said."

"Oh," WY said, and he paused. "Does it hurt?"

"No," LWJ said, still moving where WY wouldn't, his head thrown back and his hair falling tangled through the remaining of his golden pins. Even this, a lesser pleasure, rippled through him. "Doesn't," He panted, "Wei Ying."

"Oh. That's good," WY said. He sat up and shifted LWJ backwards on his lap in a move that made LWJ's skin shiver.

WY brushed his thumb on LWJ's jaw as he said, "I'm really... too practiced at breaking things. But there is only one of Lan Zhan. You'd tell me if it hurt, right?"

LWJ's breath shuddered out of him when he forced himself to sit still, eyes wide, to look at WY. But WY's bright red eyes were only a little amused. He meant it.

LWJ thought about saying that a little pain was no burden and that cultivators were used to such trifles, but...

"The only correct answer is yes," WY whispered, as if helping LWJ cheat, "Even the littlest pain. Sometimes I... I can't tell. So if you say no-- we will sleep."

As LWJ stilled, WY pushed his hair back and placed a chaste kiss on him.

"There is only one of you," He repeated.

LWJ's heart thundered in his chest. It wasn't supposed to feel like this.

"Lan Zh--"

Before WY could speak, LWJ was pushing him down and sealing his lips in a much, much filthier kiss. WY groaned into his mouth as LWJ threw off his pants and found WY's hardness behind himself.

"Ah, ah, wait a--!" WY gasped when LWJ sank down on him, trembling over WY's chest even as he forced himself down, "Slow down!"

"Sorry..." LWJ made a sound at the back of his throat; a low, harsh thing that he breathed into WY's mouth. "Husband," He whispered, "My husband."

WY breathed shakily as LWJ pushed further down. "Does it really-- really not hurt?" He asked, and LWJ kissed him again.

How could it not? LWJ had gone so fast, and this was his first time. It burnt with every single inch.

But it wasnt even pain, this burn. Just more feeling.

Just so, so good.

LWJ rocked tightly on WY's lap, shocked again and again by the way pleasure shot through him. WY was rubbing his bare thighs below the robes again. It made LWJ's legs shake helplessly under him.

When LWJ managed to glance down, and WY was watching him. With his red eyes half-lidded in pleasure, his lips curved up at the corners, smudged faintly with LWJ's rouge... he looked so dangerous. So beautiful.

"My husband," WY murmured back, savoring the word in a way LWJ hadnt.

LWJ's last thread snapped.

He bore down on his husband with his hands clenched on his shoulder, into his hair, fucking himself on him. WY instinctually grabbed his waist and pushed back into him, and LWJ could only muffle the desperate hitch of his breath in WY's neck.

Then suddenly, LWJ was on his back, with his husband pushing up one leg to fucking him properly. It was too hard, too much, so good, and yet LWJ was going to scream because now WY had one hand held under the back of LWJ's head so that the pins in his hair wouldnt scratch him.

"Ah--" LWJ said, and then when WY bent him further in half sound got buried in his throat alongside the half-mad anger he felt about the stupid hand in his hair.

"Come on," WY panted, kissing him, and touching him, and kissing him again. "You like this. So come on, Lan Zhan."

LWJ had his face buried in the crook of WY's neck and he didn't even know what sound he was making, digging his fingers hard into WY's nape, into the back of his ribs.

"Lan Zhan, husband," WY said, desperate, "/Baobei/."

Just that, and it slammed the breath out of LWJ.

He came suddenly, without a sound, so shocked that he bit WY's shoulder to hide his gasped cry.

"Ow-!" WY exclaimed in pain, but he pressed LWJ down as he shuddered under WY, keeping LWJ there, still. LWJ was still shaking when WY came inside him.

He grunted, muffled, "Nnh!"

His husband was heaving for breath over him, a warm blanket over LWJ, but he somehow found the energy to ask LWJ breathlessly whether he should pull away.

LWJ's only answer was to tighten his arms too hard around WY.

"I see," WY laughed, shaky, and just flopped down over him.

After a moment, his husband let out a sound. "Lan Zhan, my neck."

Despite feeling irrationally unhappy about it, LWJ managed with difficulty to part his teeth and release his husband's neck from the bite.

"Hmh," WY said and he burrowed closer to kiss LWJ's neck, "Thank you."

LWJ lied silently with his head still on the cradle of his husband's palm, looking up at the red silk draped over their marriage bed. His husband had his face buried on LWJ's neck now, breathing calmly on his skin.

"Someone is probably waiting outside with a bath," WY muttered.

"Mm," LWJ hummed.

WY laughed onto him, and it echoed inside LWJ's chest. LWJ didn't say anything as they called for that bath and cleaned up in sweet-smelling hot water, so luxurious at war time. He took off the golden guan in WY hair with shaky fingers at WY's behest.

In return, WY didn't even give LWJ the chance to speak before he had his hands in LWJ's hair, pulling out the pins gently, one by one, letting LWJ's hair fall loose.

When they went to sleep, LWJ laid down on his back. WY wrapped his arms around him, snuggled up to LWJ's side.

When LWJ woke up in the morning, dawn light was filling his bedroom to the brim. His husband was still a heavy, breathing blanket on him, holding tightly onto LWJ like he feared having him stolen.

"...silly," LWJ murmured, sitting up and pushing WY down as he did.

Like this, WY did look rather funny; all sprawled out, a strand of his loose hair stuck on his lips. Nothing like a demonic cultivator without morals. Nothing like he had bought LWJ at a steep price just for his looks and position.

And yet.

...and yet.

LWJ had always known that he would end up married to the highest bidder. He had just expected to receive a woman who he couldn't love in the isolated rooms near his father's ruins, to obey his elders in meaningless jobs all his life.

Up in that house... It was always so cold.

Sitting on the soft mat of his new bed, buried too-warm under a silk quilt with the sleeping WY greedily draped over his waist, LWJ thought that at least his husband seemed very fond of him.

Just as well. LWJ could probably be more useful to WY than he ever was to his family.

As LWJ moved to get out from under him, WY grumbled something under his breath. "L'n Zhan..." He muttered blearily, "You said..mm... healing cream, on t'table. D'nt forget..."

Then he promptly fell asleep.

LWJ silently bowed down over his own knees, rubbing his face.

Really... what healing cream? LWJ hardly needed anything but his cultivation. He had maybe, what, a bruise? Two? He had been so naively convinced that pain was a natural result of the consummation, wholly unavoidable.

"The one who needs that is you," LWJ said quietly, helpless.

Had his husband even seen himself? He was covered in bruises and scratches in the shape of LWJ's fingers. The bite mark on his neck had bruised to a dark purple.

WY didn't look like he had had sex. He looked like he had been grappling with a mountain lion to hold it down.

If pain wasn't a natural consequence of consummation, if it wasn't unavoidable, if WY could treat him so preciously, like spun glass, and avoid getting so much as a scratch on him...

Then what was LWJ supposed to do?

What was he supposed to do?

LWJ used the healing cream on himself, because his husband had told him to, and then he put the rest on his husband's bruises.

Afterwards, he attended his morning routine and dressed in the first robes he found in his husband's sect colours-- black and red, it seemed.

Outside the room, a few servants were extremely startled to see LWJ up already, but helped LWJ find the Ancestral Hall again and promised breakfast as soon as he was out. His husband didn't have any living family, so LWJ made do with giving his first greeting the tablets instead.

Then, after breakfast, LWJ went on an inspection. He had no in-laws to introduce him to the important people and places of his new home, but even without an introduction, everybody was exceedingly polite and obedient. Maybe the servants from the morning had spread the word...

He methodically explored the mansion, he wondered if his husband had had people from Yiling to build it? How had he convinced them to come up the BM? But then he passed by the outer gates to the rest of the BM, and he completely realised why.

The BM was... it wasn't the empty land of certain death that LWJ was taught it was. It wasn't even the scarcely tamed wilds that he had assumed it would be, this morning.

It was an enormous city stretching out past his husband's mansion, all the way to where mists covered it.

LWJ started walking past the gates. Standing at the walls of his husband's mansion was an endless line of corpses, none of whom moved at the sight of him. LWJ grabbed Bichen harder, but didnt react; this was one thing he had already expected. His husband was a demonic cultivator.

But as he stepped down the tiled road down hill that led into the busy streets of the city, he grew tenser. There were corpses and yao here too-- but they were. Strange. Mixed in with the living humans with too little distinction.

A fierce corpse was... haggling for potatoes.

But regardless of whether they were dead or alive, they were all looking at him with unchecked curiosity. It was exceedingly unnerving to have a fierce corpse ogle you from just three feet away.

Maybe the robes were telling-- LWJ hadn't seen anyone else wearing WY's colours.

LWJ had assumed that while his husband's main authority came from his demonic skills, he must still have a sect, cultivators subordinate to him. It seemed that he... didn't. All the cultivators LWJ could see here were just to citizens living under their lord's protection.

...LWJ would have quite a lot of work to do if he really wanted to manage his husband's territory, it seemed.

Although his husband had made it very clear that LWJ could also just decide it was too much work and not do it, LWJ didn't enjoy the thought of failing him.

This was the first truly meaningful duty LWJ had ever overtaken. He wanted to do it well. He wanted to be indispensable.

LWJ turned back to the mansion, planning to check his husband's account books next. But just as he was walking uphill, a voice called out to him.

"A-Huan?!"

Someone grabbed LWJ's arm, talking loudly, "A-Huan you tell your Uncle Four what's with these robes!"

LWJ stepped away from his hand. "You have the wrong person," He said.

The man patted LWJ's shoulder. "Who else has such a face? You think you can prank this old man, huh?!"

"I am not named Huan," LWJ frowned, trying to get away, but the man was incredibly persistent.

"No way, I'm not gonna fall for it!" The uncle laughed, putting his arm around LWJ's shoulders, "You're just like your Mama!"

"Do not touch me," LWJ said icily, "It's inappropriate."

"Aiyah, what's inappropriate is your robes! You'll really get it when your Shufu sees," The man laughed again, "Are you trying to get yourself into trouble with the Patriarch, hm?"

Finally, LWJ lifted the man by his collar and placed him away. "Unprincipled conduct," He growled.

"Eh..?" The man paused, his laugh-lined face scrunching in hesitation, "A-Huan?"

"Do NOT touch me," LWJ declared, glaring, "It is forbidden."

He should have brought a retinue, when the maids offered to accompany him to the city. No wonder it was the norm. He had made a mistake.

"I dont get it... are you okay?" The man rubbed his head, coming closer again. LWJ's hand went to his sword.

Then, there was a faint whisper in his head like a gust of wind, or an old man's familiar voice. LWJ startled as a couple of the undead staggered between him and the man.

The man, finally, stumbled away with wide eyes. "A-Huan?" He asked LWJ, only to jump when another voice called from behind:

"Uncle Four, what are you doing?! Are you slacking again!"

The man turned around stiffly, pale, looking at the young man in green there. "..A-Huan..."

"Uncle Four?" The young man started walking over from an inn, still carrying a few jars in his hand. "What's wrong?"

But the man was too busy looking wide-eyed at LWJ and the undead. "This... this gongzi... those robes... might you be-- the gongzi who the Patriarch married in?"

"Mn." LWJ placed his hand on his back, standing straight. He narrowed his eyes at the man, "You are aware of me?"

"Y-yes, gongzi," The man stammered, "There were celebrations... I provided free wine... Oh would you like some? A-Huan hurry up here and give the gongzi those jars!"

"What? But these are your best batch, Uncle Four! Didn't you say we'll gift them to the Patriarch?" The young man asked, incredulous, as he stopped next to the man.

"What do you know, boy!" The man scolded him, slapping his shoulder, "This is his new furen. Show some respect!"

The young man looked over at LWJ at the very same time as LWJ looked past the undead and towards him. And LWJ was struck silent at the sight of this young man.

This A-Huan... he had darker eyes, messier hair, but other than those... he really looked almost exactly like LWJ.

While to those outside his Sect he was Lan-gongzi, at the Lan Sect, LWJ was always called Lan-er-gongzi. His older brother was used too often to separate him from real legitimacy. As a result, though, LWJ could never forget that he had a brother.

He... wasn't he named Lan Huan?

LWJ remembered something, looking at that face that looked so much like his own, wide-eyed just like him.

There was a time, when he was really small, that he simply couldn't tie his forehead ribbon. Warm hands had guided his own to the correct place, laughter muffled behind him.

"You're coddling him, A-Huan," Someone had said, and the bigger person sitting behind his back had replied something.

But what LWJ really recalled was the image in the mirror; himself, pudgy, forehead ribbon tied, and a face identical to his own laughing over his shoulder.

The young man, A-Huan, was still standing frozen behind the too-friendly man. LWJ was standing equally so, behind his undead guards.

"A...A-Zhan?" The young man croaked, finally, disbelieving.

The wine jars in his hand fell down.

He staggered forward. "A-Zhan? Is that you?"

"...gege," LWJ whispered, still caught at the grips of warm memories and a past he had for so long wished to forget.

"It's really you, it's you," Lan Huan choked on tears as he stumbled towards LWJ. He yelled out, "Sh-Shufu! A-Niang! You have to come here, A-Zhan, it's A-Zhan!!"

LWJ watched in mute shock as someone hurried out of that inn at Lan Huan's shout. It was a bearded, middle-aged man, and he rushed to Lan Huan's side in worried anger, "Xichen, what are you shouting for?! Your mother thought something happened to you!"

"Shufu... it's A-Zhan..!"

"A-Zhan? Xichen you--" Shufu's gaze turned automatically to LWJ. "...A-Zhan...."

And suddenly LWJ felt so very out of place, so alien, standing with Lan-poise in layers of embroidered black and red silk; his pinned, long hair; his unblemished, clean fingertips.

"A-Zhan," Shufu said hoarsely, walking up towards the undead guarding LWJ, "What.. what are you doing here? You're the heir, you're supposed to be at the Cloud Recesses..."

Without conscious thought, LWJ took a graceless step back. The undead immediately started growling at LQR.

"A-Zhan?" Shufu stopped in place.

Swallowing, LWJ steadied his feet. "I apologise," He said, and he wasnt sure if he should bow or not. "Sh...shufu," He managed to say stiffly, "Wangji greets you."

"What are you... doing here?" LXC asked this time.

LWJ hesitated.

Thankfully, that friendly man from before interrupted this awkward conversation. "Didn't I just say?" He said to LXC, "The Patriarch's new spouse..."

LQR and LXC both gazed up at LWJ with horror in their eyes. "What?"

LWJ stood even more stiffly to resist shifting in place.

"My Sect required an alliance, to avoid annihilation," He explained rigidly, and perhaps unnecessarily, "Sect Leader found my qualities satisfactory to offer the Yiling Patriarch my hand."

"Father sent you?!" LXC exclaimed.

LWJ's lips pursed. "Father passed away two years ago."

The silence was even more strained than the conversation.

"The Sect was attacked by the Wens," LWJ said, "Father refused to break seclusion to escape his burning house and died."

"That man..!" LQR spat angrily, covering his eyes with a palm, "How far can his selfishness go!"

LWJ stood silently, and didn't tell LQR to please watch his words about LWJ's esteemed father, and didn't tell LQR that he and Mother were the criminals who LWJ, if he were still of the Lan Sect, would be duty-bound to report to the Sect authorities. He didn't say anything.

When, at age ten, LZ had became LWJ, there had been so few people at his naming ceremony. The elder just nodded and left when the official ceremony was completed. LWJ wasn't friendly, and his age-mates could sense the oddness adults had about him, so there werent any kids either.

It was an all too clear memory.

Winter, a cold hall, snowing faintly outside. LWJ had sat with his guqin in front of him on the stage, as he was told to bring it for a demonstration. The teachers always refrained from praising him too much, for fear of being seen as supporters.

LWJ had been excited. It was going to be a new experience; showing a song he'd praticed hundreds of times for this and being complimented on it.

There were two people. Sect Leader Lan and his wife; they had only stopped for the demonstration out of pity, as everyone else left.

LWJ remembered looking out of the window and seeing the frost climb up in odd shapes. He hadn't spoken before silently starting to play the song, and after he finished just as silently, Sect Leader Lan's wife had clapped. Sect Leader Lan had told him to continue studying well.

That evening, he had been led to his father's house and told to speak to his father of his past month.

Normally, LWJ would always try his best to do so. But this time... LWJ hadn't been able to speak a single word, just watching the closed doors in front of him, completely numb.

Maybe that silence had meant something more to his father than LWJ's clumsy words, because suddenly there was a sigh. "Like this, they will never let you become the Sect Leader." A scratchy, disused voice, quiet. "Do you know that, A-Zhan?"

LWJ had looked down. "...yes, Father."

"You don't even want it. Child." Another sigh. "Show me your song."

Silently LWJ had pulled his guqin up and played, his fingers red and aching from the cold.

"Masterful," Had come the low voice, muffled.

And in the ensuing silence, LWJ had started sobbing onto his lap.

"...but now that that man's dead, you should be the Sect Leader!" LXC exclaimed, looking genuinely mad, "They-- did they marry you out, to steal your right? How could they!"

LWJ looked at him, silent, feeling completely disconnected from it all. Really... He couldn't understand.

LQR seemed as if he was going to say something too, but then he closed his lips. He said, instead, "A-Zhan... would you like to come in for some tea? We own that inn there, your mother is still inside... She'll be delighted to see you. We can talk more comfortably, sitting."

LWJ crashed back into his body, heart tripping madly in his chest. He didn't-- he didn't get out of sitting down to talk. He never did. He always, always, had to stand there with his head bowed, silent, letting them dig into him for information. And his mother..? He.. He couldnt.

He COULDN'T. He wasn't ready. He wasn't ready yet.

"Yeah, A-Zhan!" LXC beamed, "A-Niang will be so happy to hear what you've been doing--"

A rustle in the energy of the air, and two arms wrapped around LWJ's shoulders from behind. "Hm? You want to spend my Lan Zhan's time?"

Wei Ying.

LWJ took in a shuddering breath that felt like his first fill of clear air today.

"You weren't there when I woke up," WY said with half a pout, pulling LWJ closer until LWJ was pressed entirely to his chest, "Don't think you can escape entertaining me at breakfast."

LWJ had the vague idea of a retort at the tip of his tongue only to find himself unable to say it. He just wordlessly leant back against WY, pressing his lips together.

"Oh hey," WY said then, squinting at LXC and LQR, "You two look familiar. Strange. Do I know you?"

Wrapped in WY, LWJ could see LQR looking at him with a sheet pale face, tensed up but not daring to move.

LXC answered WY instead, smiling just as tense, "Yes... Patriarch helped us evade our pursuers eight years ago. We are very grateful."

"Oh, the ones escaping their sect."

Eight years ago? LWJ would be 11 then, so six years after they first escaped... His sect pursued them for so long?

"Yes," LXC was saying, "You said that you owed a favour to A-Niang and let us stay here... Actually, Patriarch, um, if it's alright, may I speak with my brother?"

"Brother?" WY said.

"Lan Zhan," LXC hurried to say, "My brother was grabbed in the struggle on the first night of our escape-- so he was still part of the Lan Sect..."

"You are Lan Zhan's brother?" WY asked, unimpressed, "You look nothing like him. He's far more beautiful."

"I... I see," LXC said, "But, um, could Patriarch spare him for an hour?"

"Haha," WY said. His arms tightened around LWJ.

"It's been very long and we. We missed him. So if we could--"

"Mm, no. You can't," WY said, smiling carelessly, "You lost him, and he fell into my hands."

LXC took a step back, and LQR had his hands balled at his sides.

"Is that a problem, Lan Zhan's brother?" WY was still smiling as he put his hand on LWJ's jaw from around, his touch gentle. "He belongs to me. No lending, no renting. You can have him back over my dead body."

"I..."

"Feel free to try, if you like," WY shrugged, dragging LWJ away by his wrist. "You know the rules, no? But if you try to kill me and fail, you have to leave. If you're still alive."

"Wait..!"

WY paused to glance back, smiling a little less. "You're annoying me."

LXC immediately fell silent.

"Do you know the rules or not?" WY asked.

"No-- yes. I know."

"Okay? What's the problem then?" WY glanced at them with his eyes cold above that everpresent smile. "I can still throw you out just for annoying me. You wouldn't be the first either."

"We apologise, Patriarch," LQR spoke up, bowing his head, "What my nephew was trying to say is-- if you are amenable, and if your husband has the time and desire, he can ALWAYS visit our inn, as often and as long as he wants. We would be honoured to host him."

"Oh," WY blinked, "Well why didn't you just say so then!"

"I... apologise." LXC managed to say.

"It's fine, I guess," WY said, once again turning around to leave. He linked their arms, escorting LWJ. "Let's go, I'm hungry. You still have to think of something to entertain me!"

LWJ walked alongside WY with a straight back, looking forward. His hands were still shaking faintly. He hoped WY hadn't noticed.

"You were more talkative last night." WY said suspiciously, looking at him.

LWJ didn't meet his eyes, staring down at WY's neck. Helplessly silent.

"Oh well," WY said, his grin pulling up at one corner, "Lots more to do than talking."

Before LWJ's eyes could even widen, WY had leant over, one hand on LWJ's cheek, and was kissing him. A soft peck, lips closed.

"As nice as I remember," WY murmured as he pulled back, smiling.

When he started walking again, LWJ followed him back to the mansion, still holding his free hand over his lips.

...really, was it alright for it be like this?

In LWJ's life, the simplest things were so difficult, but the most complicated one seemed to insist on being easy.

"Wei Ying," LWJ whispered, half nauseous just by making words, kind of hoping to go unheard.

WY glanced at LWJ, eyes bright. "Hm?"

"...do you want to hear a guqin piece?"

"Of course!" WY smiled smugly. "They said your music was amazing, in that letter. Play for me, Lan Zhan?"

LWJ silently moved his head up and down.

WY pulled him along through the mansion's courtyards and then through the halls with servants bowing to them. At the dining hall with a single table, there was a spread of food, awaiting. WY said, "I'll have someone bring your guqin."

WY spoke with one of the manservants as LWJ settled at the place next to the head seat, looking at the breakfast. For lack of anything to do, he started brewing WY tea.

"It's supposed to be part of the dowry," WY's voice came, "Take as many people as you like but just find it!"

WY returned to the table and threw himself onto the cushion, casually taking the cup of tea LWJ poured him. "Your dowry is too big, Lan Zhan!" He complained as he started eating, "Yes I gave a lot too, but how is your sect expecting us to find anything in that dowry? Too much!"

It HAD to be too much if LWJ, a man sold, was to have any standing in this marriage with only a fragile sect behind him.

LWJ thought but couldnt say; perhaps Sect Leader felt remorse. Perhaps he wished to ensure LWJ would at least receive a bit of respect where he had sent LWJ.

Although LWJ didn't seem to need it, with his husband's favour bolstering his position in this household, it was appreciated nonetheless. No matter how much dislike there was between the Sect Leader and LWJ, it didn't change that they were from one sect, one natal family.

"Really, if we can't find it I'm going to buy you another," WY was still complaining huffily, so LWJ silently poured him more tea. As WY obediently drank the tea, LWJ added food to his plate. Then WY was stuck in a loop of eating what LWJ gave him and could no longer complain.

By the time a servant knelt at the doors to report that the guqin was found, and WY's eyes widened in the realisation that he had been thoroughly distracted, LWJ's hands were no longer shaking.

"I'll let you get away with it this time," WY pouted at him, "My devious husband."

LWJ looked at him, but he didn't seem angry at all.

"Well? What are you waiting for?" WY asked, cross-legged and leaning indolently on an elbow as he drank LWJ's tea. Handsome. "Play."

Lowering his eyes, LWJ took the guqin and started playing a traditional Gusu ballad.

He had chosen one of the first songs Lan disciples learned, wanting to make sure he could play it perfectly. When he finished, he looked up to find WY still leant on his elbow, listening with his eyes closed.

LWJ's fingers caught on the strings. He quickly started another song.

He went through six songs in a trance, every clear note striking through him, watching his guqin with unmoving eyes. He could hear WY pouring tea, the rustle of his robes, the clack of his chopsticks, the occasional low voice as he hummed along to the more cheerful songs.

LWJ's hands slowed gently as he finished the sixth song, trying to remember which other song he knew as perfectly as these and failing. He startled when a heavy weight fell over his lap.

The guqin made a strange chord in LWJ's haste to steady the man settled on him. "Wei Ying?"

"Are you angry I interrupted?" WY asked, tracing his thumb on the corner of LWJ's always-severe lips, "It's useless to be angry. I can't resist. You know, a street child like me doesn't really know what music is."

LWJ looked up.

"So it can be like this," WY said softly, "Warm."

LWJ had heard of music being praised as a skill and a craft, but never with anything so personal as 'warm'. How disrespectful was WY's treatment of him... like a musician at some common teahouse.

"You're unbelievable," WY smiled smugly, "Now you'll have to play for me forever."

LWJ hugged WY's waist so tightly that WY squeaked in surprise. "Lan Zhan?" He tried to look down at LWJ's face, but LWJ had it buried helplessly in the crook of WY's neck.

WY made a displeased sound. "What? You dont want to play?"

LWJ hadn't thought playing music could be fun.

He hadn't thought of many things. He hadn't thought of his lost family. He hadn't thought of sex, of marriage, of Wei Ying. He hadn't thought anyone could be so disinterested in everything around him and yet be so attached, so endlessly indulgent to a spouse he had only just met.

"Lan Zhan?" WY asked, "You really are silent today. Dont tell me it's because of that brother of yours? Did he bother you?" Then he said, with utmost seriousness, "How could he dare? Doesnt he know I'll make him regret it?"

LWJ closed his eyes on WY's neck. "Wei Ying."

"Hm?" WY said.

What was there, that could possibly make LWJ so different? What was it that made WY act this way? Why was he-- why would he-- why, why, why, why--

"Why did you marry me Wei Ying?" LWJ asked.

There was a moment. Then WY buried his fingers in LWJ's hair, petting.

"...aiyo," WY said, "I don't think you're going to like the answer, Lan Zhan."

"I am used to that" LWJ replied. He pulled back to look up at WY's eyes, blood red and still so incomprehensibly gentle as he scritched LWJ's nape. He had to, HAD to know.

"..." WY sighed, "Alright."

WY got out of LWJ's lap and offered him a hand to pull him up too. Then he let go and led LWJ out of the dining hall.

"You ate breakfast early, but you can still hold out until lunch, right?" WY paused, "I can make it quicker, if not."

"I will be fine," LWJ said.

"Good then."

They went deeper and deeper into the estate, until LWJ wouldn't be surprised if they found themselves inside the mountain peak that the estate was built upon. Finally, WY came to a stop in front of a pair of forbidding metal doors.

"There is a lot to show, after all," He said.

LWJ watched apprehensively as WY raised his hand to the doors, only for five different arrays to activate at the same time. Then WY waved his hand and they all disappeared.

"Come on," WY said, pushing the doors open and walking into the dark.

Holding onto Bichen, LWJ followed.

Lanterns lit up around them with every one of WY's steps. As they walked deeper and deeper, LWJ could see that it was actually a giant cave, growing gradually illuminated. And it was really...

"It's too big," WY said wryly, still walking, "Like your dowry, in that way, hm?"

All around them, for as far as the eye could see, there were riches. Gold and jewels and silk; spritual artifacts whose power LWJ could feel tingling on his skin; mountains of jade. A desk sat at an empty cavern nearby with a map hanging up behind it, surrounded by scrolls.

WY walked up to the desk and traced the dusty edge of it. "This is the treasury," He said, and he leant back against the desk, gesturing LWJ closer. "Or at least I use it as the treasury now. I actually lived here when I was a kid. Oh-- careful with the blood pool, Lan Zhan!"

LWJ froze just in time to notice the dark, glimmering pool of something dark spreading out in front of him, just next to the cave ground where the desk was set.

"That pool is something like my shixiong," WY laughed, "But no need to greet it. Just watch your step and don't fall."

Why is there a pool of blood, LWJ thought but didn't dare ask.

"Come here," WY said, holding out his palm. LWJ carefully walked up to him and placed his hand in it, letting WY lead him to the giant map behind the desk. "I said I'd let you have my lands, didn't I? There you go."

LWJ looked at the map. It was yellowed from age, but a fairly detailed and expensive-looking map of all the known lands around China. The Eastern side of it was covered in red splotches all the way to the sea.

"Everything painted red is mine," WY said.

LWJ sucked in a breath.

"Ah, there's some in the North that I didnt mark," WY sighed, looking so disinterestedly at the map, "I was more enthusiastic about documenting it at first. I told you, didn't I? I thought that since I could, I might as well conquer it all. But it just got so meaningless..."

LWJ was still looking at the map, his eyes shaking. This wasn't a sect. This wasn't a sect at all. Did-- did Sect Leader Lan know about this? In the midst of a three year war with the Wen Sect, had any of the cultivation sects noticed the Empire growing silently at their borders?

"Do you understand, Lan Zhan?" WY turned to LWJ, smiling charmingly from one side of his lips, and for a single second he was the most terrifying thing LWJ had ever seen.

"I-" LWJ breathed out, stilling his heart "No. I'm sorry."

WY pouted, "It'll sound bad if I just say it!"

"Wei Ying," LWJ said, and WY pulled LWJ closer to wrap him in his arms as easily as he sat on LWJ's lap. He really seemed to enjoy touching LWJ, and LWJ couldn't protest-- especially now, when it reminded LWJ of what he was resigned to:

WY was always painfully gentle with him.

It was just strange, to be handled so preciously when he had the blood pool and the vast hills of fortune in direct line of sight.

"I'll tell you a story, then," WY said, his chin digging on LWJ's shoulder from the back, "But you have to remember, you cant just leave afterward."

"..." LWJ stayed put as WY hugged him around the waist the way one would hold a toy. "Wei Ying, I am married to you."

WY laughed and it echoed through LWJ's back, rustling them both. "Ah, you're so funny!" WY said, "Mm, indeed. You're married to me. Best decision ever."

"Once upon a time," WY started.

"Wei Ying," LWJ sighed.

"Let me have this," WY said, pawing in annoyance at LWJ's belly. "Okay-- ONCE upon a time, there was a kid in the Burial Mounds. He had been there for some time, and he had figured out how to tame the evil energy."

"Why--" LWJ swallowed harshly, his throat closed up, "Why was the kid in the Burial Mounds?"

"Eh? Does that even matter?" WY asked, before continuing, "Anyways, after a few years, the kid had taken over the tallest mountain of corpses and knew all the--"

"How old was the kid?"

"I dont know, Lan Zhan," WY sighed, "Let me finish okay?"

"Wei Ying--"

WY covered LWJ's mouth with his palm and LWJ froze in shock.

"Shhh," WY said, right onto LWJ's bare neck, his hand still pressed on LWJ's lips, "You're interrupting the story. Be quiet and listen, okay?"

"The kid had taken over the Burial Mounds," WY told as LWJ just leant against him, frozen still with his heart tripping through his chest. "And he knew all the ghosts and ghouls there. Some, he sent off. Some remained his family."

LWJ recalled the Ancestral Hall; the tablets...

"Most were just broken toys abandoned there, though," WY sighed, "And the boy wanted to see if he could fix them."

LWJ made a sound, muffled.

"Do you want to know if he could?" WY asked, "Not really. Maybe a few. I can make sentient corpses, but only if they want to return."

"Either way, after years and years spent in the dreary, boring Burial Mounds," WY continued, "The boy was tired of being around unresponsive ghouls and friendly ghosts that he couldn't see properly. He decided he wouldn't afraid of the outside world now that he could do magic."

Why was he afraid of the outside world, LWJ wanted to ask, but WY's hand was still over his mouth, so he didn't interrupt.

"So he took along the dead inside the Burial Mounds," WY said, "And he walked out of the Burial Mounds, with all of them."

LWJ's heart skipped a beat.

"And surprise!" WY grinned, "The people were all kowtowing at the gates. The town was familiar, but the people weren't. Looking at them from above... they looked so different. Then the magistrate said everything would belong to me if I protected them, so I agreed."

LWJ reached up to grasp WY's hand with both of his, gently pulling it down. He turned around in WY's arms to see his face and WY placed his hand onto LWJ's cheek.

"From below a child's height, adults all look terrifying," He murmured, "Kowtowing, they're only as tall as grass."

"I was still a kid, really," WY sighed, "I hadn't had anything to my name before so I thought it was really cool to have my own town. I made them build me this estate around my cave, and had a blast eating tasty food, wearing silk, looking through books."

"Some people did come-- and I was very friendly!" WY interrupted his own story, oddly defensive, "But you know how it is. When you're a kid and an omen of death, people think you must be stupid. They came smiling and then tried to stab me in my sleep, so I ripped them apart."

LWJ's lips pursed.

"Are you angry?" WY asked, raising a brow.

"They used dishonourable methods," LWJ said, genuinely mad, "And it is vile to attack a child."

"Well, I was a demonic evil that crawled out of the BM to them. Either way, they tried to kill me, so I killed them."

LWJ was still decidedly unhappy about that.

"Moving on! I spent quite a few years just hanging around my estate, after that," WY continued, "I killed some other people who were doing bad things or trying to kill me. People with nowhere else to go started living near me."

"I don't mind that of course. The BM looking livelier is enjoyable for both the dead and me," WY said, "So I just let them build houses and stuff; it's not like I had to talk to them or anything. I guess your family must have asked me for help around then? I'm not too sure."

WY paused to hum as he thought, his brows furrowed. LWJ waited for a long moment before he finally asked, "Wei Ying, what does that have to do with you marrying me?"

"I'm getting there!" WY protested, "Okay-- fine. The point is; after some years, I went out of the BM again."

"I seriously had nothing to do, so I decided to go exploring. It was three years ago, I think? And apparently there was a war, so past a few towns, a Wen army tried to attack my undead, and when I defeated them the magistrate of Yiling gave the land to me. The rest is as I told."

LWJ blinked, lost.

"You know? I decided to take over the world?" WY pulled away from LWJ, walking over to look at the map. "It was a lot of fun for a few years. Then I realised how stupid it was --what can I even do with the world?-- so I gave up. Like I said: A phase."

As LWJ watched from in front of the desk, WY sighed, raising his hand to touch the curled lower corner of the giant map. "I stayed here after that. I tried some hobbies; researching, drawing, even farming! I worked some more on demonic cultivation advancements..."

From the back, WY often looked indescribably solid to LWJ, with his shoulders wide, stance confident, his hair falling low, soft. This was the man his family had sacrificed him to; the first successful demonic cultivator, the only threat to the Wen Sect, the Patriarch of Yiling.

But when WY glanced over his shoulder, meeting LWJ's gaze, his eyes were blank, lost. An expression of soul deep nothingness.

"There is no meaning to it," WY said, "There is no meaning to any of it. Birth, life, death... What's the point?"

LWJ lurched towards him. "Wei Ying--"

"Well. There are lots of pointless things in this world, you see. This isn't the first or the last," WY smiled, and the sudden unease that had grasped LWJ softened. LWJ slowed to a stop behind him, quietly hooking his fingers into the silk of WY's sleeves. WY didn't protest.

"I was still trying meaningless things when marriage offers started coming," WY said, "So I thought, why not? Everyone says marriage is what completes life, what they dream of... Since I'm of age and don't have anyone living beside me, I guessed it would be interesting at least."

"Amongst the offers, you were the best," WY says plainly, looking straight at LWJ with a grin. He placed his palms on LWJ's cheeks, cradling him like precious china. "Powerful cultivator, a noble heir, educated and graceful, and the most beautiful bachelor. So I chose you."

LWJ didn't know what to say, really. It was indeed an answer. WY wanted to get married, so he chose the best candidate. Entirely reasonable.

"You don't like the reason, no?" WY asked, grin turning wry, "It sounds bad when I say it like that. I told you it'd sound bad!"

"Mmm," LWJ considered it. More than 'sounding bad' it felt a little lacking; bereft of vital details, just like WY's story had been. "Is it interesting?"

"Huh?"

"You said you thought marriage might at least be interesting," LWJ said, "Is it?"

WY started laughing loudly.

While LWJ was distracted by the laughter, WY turned and pulled him against the wall, pressing LWJ's back on the soft fabric of the map. He was still giggling under his breath as he pulled LWJ's hands high up. He pressed his lips into one palm. Then the other palm, just as surely.

His ears going aflame, LWJ tensed up in place to avoid snatching his hands away.

WY's breath brushed against his palm, staccato in peals of remnant laughter, and he pulled back with his hands still clasped on LWJ's hands. "Very," He smiled, "You are unlike anything else."

Now standing one step back, WY looked at the scene before him; LWJ standing listlessly, and the map behind him. "Hm," WY said, with his eyes curved up in pleasure, "Like this, I can even lay eyes on everything precious I have in one glance. Don't you think that's interesting?"

LWJ couldn't answer, as he was fighting to keep down the raging beast beating in his chest. None of the very many words WY said really explained why WY treated him this way. Treasured him, in the most truly literal sense.

Coddled him; cold, silent, heartless, unloveable LWJ.

"I wondered if my husband would be boring, or if those annoying ancestors of mine might hate him," WY laughed, "But luckily my Lan Zhan is so easily likeable. I was told marriage would be nice, but I didn't think it would be so great. Who knew? Even kissing you is a treat."

In response to that, LWJ was helpless to do anything but step forward to slide his hands under WY's soft hair and kiss him. Kiss him soundly, deeply, so that he'd be pinned against the desk and couldnt escape LWJ's trembling clutches. Kiss him until he stopped speaking like this.

When WY managed to drag LWJ off, they were both gasping for air. "I suppose that means you don't mind my awful reason for marrying you," WY said smugly.

LWJ dropped his head onto the crook of WY's neck. "I married you," LWJ said, breathless, "Because my Sect Leader told me to."

WY laughed again. "Mhm, stupid awful reasons all around. You know I think grandpa once said-- everything's all good if it ends good."

LWJ was pulled up by rough, warm hands as WY got off the desk.

"Does that answer your question?" WY asked, "Do you wanna see what I have here?"

'All good if it ends good'. Perhaps LWJ could come to accept that one day, just like he had already given in to WY's gentleness.

"...yes," LWJ answered, in turn, both questions, "Yes."

"Great! Prepare to be amazed Lan Zhan!" WY grinned brightly, "It's a big collection!"

((to the top!!))

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