Chapter Text
In the seventeenth year of the reign of Wen Qionglin, the world changed. The Emperor abdicated and retreated into retirement. There were persistent rumors that he had been secretly murdered, or that he walked among them as a commoner, but no one paid them much mind. There was too much other work to be done.
Wen Yuan was much too young to hold office, and so the war heroes Hanguang-jun and Wolong Jiangjun were appointed as joint prince regents. If this move raised some eyebrows at court, it was rarely spoken of openly. No one dared. Not when the common folk were half in love with one or both of the handsome prince regents, and not when the boy Emperor himself clearly doted on his guardians. Besides, there were no voices of note in opposition anyway. The sister of the deposed emperor, Wen Qing, was solidly behind the regency, and overall the lesser ministers and families felt reasonably comforted that the triumvirate of power created between Imperial Sister-now-Aunt and the prince regents would prevent any one family from taking such strong control of the throne again. Lan Xichen took over the reins of the Lan clan quietly and remained a staunch supporter of the ruling trio.
The clan that would have been expected to have the most to say about this arrangement would have been the Jins, but given the mysterious death in prison of their decades-long leader Jin Guangshan and the execution of his son and right-hand man Jin Guangyao, their power was considerably reduced. Another son of Jin Guangshan, apparently born the same day to another of his concubines but long disfavored, now took on the reins of the Jin family. The entire court braced themselves for how this unknown would turn out. Another Jin Guangshan was desired by no one, but if he failed to adequately control the sprawling network of power that Jin Guangshan had built as a chokehold on the realm, that could also be disastrous: subsidiary clans would fall to infighting to carve out pieces of power for themselves in the vacuum, leading to more bloodshed and chaos. But Jin Zixuan proved himself to be a different breed — slow to act but level-headed in his decision-making, and above all a man who had grown up in relative ignominy and was by all accounts a kind and humble leader. He mostly kept to himself, executed his assigned duties well, and in the months that followed seemed to have been accepted: if not fully into the inner circle of the Imperial family and the regents, then at least as a well-known and tolerated ally. This alliance was further solidified a few short months later when the news broke that Jin Zixuan had married the foster sister of the Yiling Patriarch, Jiang Yanli.
As for Wen Ning, freed from a life of ceremonial trappings, he quickly became what he had always meant to be: a young man who loved to work with his hands, to alternately dote on and be scolded by his fierce older sister, and to be completely indulgent of his younger cousin and successor. His golden core might have always been weak but he took well to Wei Wuxian's talismanic and ghost cultivation. Under Wei Wuxian's tutelage he developed a fighting style of his own, utilizing resentment-energy-enhanced chains and ranged far and wide across the realm, bringing back news of unrest and tackling challenging night hunts. Mo Xuanyu had been, as Chancellor Nie put it, "identified as a talent" and given a commission that suited him perfectly — traveling the countryside, gathering intelligence, and causing a calibrated amount of chaos in the service of the realm. His routes had a tendency to intersect with those of the Ghost General, though neither man ever confirmed whether this was coincidence or coordination.
The question came up on how A-Yuan should be introduced to the court, with Lan Wangji suggesting the name Sizhui. Wen Qing and the newly-appointed Chancellor Nie had both protested the courtesy name for different reasons. Nie Huaisang said it was far too depressing and poor messaging, whatever that meant. Wen Qing was worried about it being far too heavy a name for such a young child to carry — a child they already feared might someday feel too weighed down by the burdens of his position. But Wei Wuxian blithely overruled all concerns. "I gave A-Yuan his first name and so it's only right that his other father, Hanguang-jun, give him his courtesy name. This is what Lan Zhan has chosen. He will grow into his name just as much as his position." He continued nonchalantly, "Besides, you're not trying to imply that Lan Zhan could have made a mistake, are you?" He made a mock accusing face that no one took seriously, but it was backed up with unyielding determination in his eyes that they had all learned to respect. And so Wen Sizhui was his regnal name when the young Emperor was officially crowned.
In the tenth year of Lan Sizhui's reign, when the teenager and his entourage were ambushed near Yi City, Wen Ning alone held off an army of rebels until his guardians could arrive. No one could know, of course, that the wandering figure was the ex-Emperor himself. So the Ghost General was born: he who appeared in defense of the common folk and disappeared into the wind. Everyone suspected an association with the Yiling Patriarch, given the similarities in their cultivation but when asked, Wei Wuxian would only ever smile.
In the end, the bloc that was the most discontented were the single ladies of the court, since many of the eligible bachelors — including Hanguang-jun, the Yiling Patriarch, and now the young Jin clan leader — either chose to marry each other or married total unknowns from the backcountry. "What are we supposed to do," they bemoaned, "when all of the eligible men won't look twice at us?" Lady Mianmian, as she had been coined by A-Yuan (egged on by Wei Wuxian she suspected), commented idly that perhaps they should stop focusing on the men and focus on some of the eligible women. This did seem to raise spirits all around, but Wen Qing wouldn't talk to Mianmian for a week and swore revenge.
In the second year of the reign of Emperor Sizhui, the peace of the Imperial gardens was abruptly broken.
"Wei Wuxian! Where have you run off to? Just wait till I get a hold of you!"
Wei Wuxian flinched. Some things, no matter how often you dealt with them and how powerful you became, never got any easier to handle. Personally, Wei Wuxian thought that a healthy fear of Wen Qing's needles was only rational. He muttered down to the (conspicuously) silent radish patch in front of him, "Oh boy, we're in for it now. That damn Wen Ning! I thought he'd be able to slow Wen Qing down for at least an hour longer. What am I going to do with that man?"
With the sun beating down on his back and some particularly uncooperative radishes in front of him, Wei Wuxian was sweating. A shadow fell over the radish patch, momentarily shielding Wei Wuxian's bare neck from the scorching heat. He looked up in exaggerated surprise.
"Lan Zhan, is that you?"
"Wei Ying. You knew I was there." Not even a hint of a question in those words.
Wei Wuxian cackled and gave up the act completely. "Yes, yes, but I wanted to save some face for you, Lan Zhan. Who would have thought that the formidable Hanguang-jun has gone so soft that he can no longer sneak up on unsuspecting criminals? Woe, who will guard the realm now?"
Lan Wangji raised one skeptical eyebrow in response, and Wei Wuxian broke immediately. When it came to Lan Wangji, he was still so, so weak. "All right, all right, I admit it — Hanguang-jun is without flaws. Who knows it better than me? I just can't help it, Lan Zhan. You're like the moon: when you come into the vicinity, like the tides I have no choice but to be pulled towards your presence." Lan Wangji said nothing, but his eyes crinkled.
Through this nonsensical speech, Wen Qing's annoyed shouts drew closer and closer, and the bushes behind them started to rustle, though there was hardly any wind to speak of. Stifled giggles emanated in bursts. But Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji did their very best to keep a straight face and ignore all occupants of the radish patch, human or otherwise.
Besides, Lan Wangji was too occupied with staring at Wei Ying's face in the sunlight — transfixed by how the light set those pale grey eyes ablaze into radiant silver, how the play of light and shadows accentuated those cheekbones to an obscene degree and brought out warm tones in that thick, glossy hair. The sunlight also illuminated several patches of dirt that Wei Wuxian had no doubt absent-mindedly rubbed into his own skin. Lan Wangji gave in to his impulse and rubbed away the worst of the marks high on Wei Wuxian's cheekbone. Task done, he let his shameless, traitorous hand stay, cupping that beloved face.
"If I am the moon," he said finally, "it is only because you are the sun. It is your light and warmth I reflect."
The "Laaan Zhaaaaan" that followed was truly magnificent. He must truly have been overwhelmed to have forgotten himself, because Lan Wangji knew that otherwise Wei Wuxian would have been trying to keep quiet and delay Wen Qing actually locating them within the expansive palace gardens that Wei Wuxian had appropriated as his farm. Lan Wangji was very smug.
But he only had a few moments to appreciate the blush creeping into Wei Wuxian's face, the way he squirmed like a shy maiden and tried to make himself small and climb into Lan Wangji's body, before Wen Qing rounded the corner.
"There you are! What are you two fools up to? Lan Wangji, they roped you into this too? A-Yuan, where are you?"
A-Yuan finally rose up from where he had been half-hiding and generally having a grand old time making a mess at the back of the radish patch, and made a dash for it in the opposite direction. Perhaps towards Mianmian's palace in the hopes that she would help him, perhaps to find his uncle Wen Ning and use him as a shield. But run he did, as quickly as his little legs could carry him. Wen Qing followed after at a slow enough pace that Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji knew she was not that serious about making A-Yuan get back to his studies.
And so they continued to hold each other, soaking in the sun and the warmth of the embrace, and being, as Jiang Cheng and Wen Qing often bemoaned together, as embarrassingly lovey-dovey in public as they could possibly be. They were done with chasing. Right now, in each other's arms, they both had all they needed.