Second Time Around

23. The Farm in Yiling, Part I

The most surprising thing to come out of the Wen-Nie meeting was the existence of fake Wei Wuxian's. Nie HuaiSang found a group of young men with similar body shapes and facial features and placed them, one at a time, in a farmhouse outside of Yiling City. Each fake spent anywhere from two to four months at the farm before being replaced.

"Why Yiling?" the real Wei WuXian had asked.

Nie HuiSang hmmed and hawed until his brother growled. "Once, at the start of the war, you got really drunk and mentioned that Wen Chao threw you into the Burial Mounds and it took you three months to escape. There were a bunch of Jin and Yu and Yao disciples there, too. None of them believed you, and you eventually said that you made it all up. Since you were also talking about a golden haired woman named... I think you said Tip AnNie or something, I didn't believe you, either. When you left Lotus Pier for Qinghe, I remembered that conversation. I thought that if enough people heard that you were stationed in Yiling, that those disciples would remember your story and confirm that it must be you."

The fake Wei WuXians stayed on the farm and did not go to Yiling City. At least, not as 'Wei WuXian'. Every few nights, they were required to dress in red and black with their hair tied up in a ponytail tied with a red ribbon and go to one end of the farm and play music on their dizi. "To lend authenticity," Nie HuaiSang insisted.

That whole revelation was nowhere near as shocking to the senses as Lan Zhan's drunken revelation the night before: Lan Zhan wanted to get married. Lan Zhan did not want a wife.

Conclusion: Lan Zhan wanted a husband.

Additional information: Lan Zhan kissed Wei Ying at every opportunity and was aroused by said kissing. Lan Zhan indicated that he would not be kissing Wei Ying if he liked someone else.

Conclusion: Lan Zhan liked Wei Ying. In that way, liked Wei Ying.

Final conclusion: Lan Zhan wanted to marry Wei Ying.

Addendum to the final conclusion: Wei Ying wanted to marry Lan Zhan.

Question still to be answered: was this love?

Wei WuXian was uncharacteristically silent during breakfast and on the flight to the farm. Lan WangJi asked him several times if there was something wrong or if he had done or said something inappropriate while drunk. Wei WuXian brushed his concerns off with a vague mention that he hadn't slept well due to nightmares about the Burial Mounds. It was only, at the most, half a lie. He hadn't fallen asleep until the false dawn was lighting the sky. His brain repeated his conundrum over and over in an attempt to find the flaws in the argument and conclusions. The Burial Mounds did not make an appearance in his dreams.

Aside from asking a sober Lan WangJi if he'd come to the correct conclusion, there wasn't much else to do now.

He would not discuss marriage options with a sober or drunken Lan WangJi. Not now. Not while there was a possibility that he was going to die in the ambush or be forced to blow himself up again (promise to Lan WangJi notwithstanding; if that was the final way to protect ShiJie, he would take it). Not while there was a possibility that there was a third option he hadn't thought of.

Not while he was sober, at least. A drunken Wei WuXian might just blurt it out. So... no alcohol for a reasonable length of time. Fine, no more than a single jar a day. It would be a challenge, but he would rise to the occasion. Some things were more important than wine.

Like keeping ShiJie alive and happy.

And not embarrassing himself for the rest of eternity.

The farmhouse came with a housekeeper named Nie Fei. "I cook, and I clean for dust," she lectured. "I don't do your laundry or clean up your messes." Wei WuXian was halfway in love with her; she sounded just as no nonsense as QingJie.