WangXian Untamed

Chapter 54 - Contemplation

Lan XiChen sat quietly at home in the Hanshi, his tea growing steadily colder before him. So much had happened in the near past.

Lan WangJi was a married man...to a man. To Wei WuXian, the YiLing Laozu. My baby brother has a husband. The idea of Lan WangJi being married was quite strange to consider, regardless of his choice of spouse. Neither of the Twin Jades had ever spoken of an interest in marrying and the elders had never raised the topic, young as they had been at the end of the war, and the long, hard years of rebuilding subsequently undergone. Stabilizing the Lan Clan had taken precedence over providing heirs. There were so many needs, so few resources...not to mention that Lan direct heirs had almost always contracted arranged marriages. The duties and obligations of heirs were so onerous that it took an informed and committed partner to ensure a successful union – their own parents' spontaneous disaster of a marriage provided a lived cautionary tale for both Jades. Ah, Mama....

And Lan WangJi had chosen a man as his mate. Although Lan XiChen had long known of Lan WangJi's fascination and affection for Wei WuXian - in fact, long before Lan WangJi had known his own heart - he had never considered the possibility of the two men marrying. The research done in preparation for approaching Lan QiRen had been enlightening, indeed. Although two men joined in marriage had never crossed Lan XiChen's experience, not one of the Rules, nor the Laws, nor even the common customs, prevented this. Surely that meant that some people, somewhere, were already joined in marriage this way? Even though it meant Lan WangJi would never sire an heir of his body, he'd had the foresight to formally adopt Lan SiZhui, so he had made good his responsibility to ensure the Lan lineage continued.

Wei WuXian. Lan XiChen gently shook his head. If Lan WangJi was going to break the bounds of convention and marry a man, of course it would be Wei WuXian. He'd heard the two refer to each other as soulmates and seen their genuine affection and respect for each other. So what if Wei WuXian is the dreaded YiLing Laozu? He'd seen him make his decisions many times, or heard of the torment tearing him apart, trying to do the right thing in the face of overwhelming opposition. The title of YiLing Laozu wasn't something arrogantly demanded by Wei WuXian. Rather, it was first mockingly and later fearfully assigned by others, who then used it as a rod to beat his reputation to death and frighten small children into behaving.

Lan XiChen sipped his tepid tea and made a face. Ugh. How unpleasant. He set about refreshing the tea, pouring fresh hot water over new tea leaves, using the measuring and pouring and steeping to soothe his mind with motions performed by sheer muscle memory, as his thoughts wandered.

So many questions.

Who sent the booby-trapped pellets to Lan QiRen? Why was he targeted? Who hated the Grandmaster so terribly they would try to kill him? And why him? What did they hope to gain? Lan XiChen couldn't think of why his uncle would have been selected for assassination. Certainly, his manner was rigid at best, and his acerbic personality gained him no friends, but those aren't reasons to kill someone, surely? And to come up with such a novel means of dealing death from a distance... that took a particularly devious turn of mind. Yin Iron was far too dangerous for nearly anyone to handle. How had they managed to devise such a weapon, without being betrayed by someone who remembered how evil devoured the Yin Iron handler, remembered the war and the uncountable cost...

Lan XiChen's mind wandered further afield. How had the mystery attacker ever acquired Yin Iron? It was the rarest of materials. Virtually unobtainable, it had somehow been weaponized and used to attack Lan QiRen. Where did it come from? How did they get control of it? The only person to survive commanding Yin Iron was Wei WuXian, who had been gravely injured by it.  And ultimately, his death would be properly laid at the feet of Yin Iron, no matter how you chose to view things...