The Last Phoenix

Chapter One

Hello! This the first fan fiction I've ever written! I hope you enjoy!

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"Wangji, why don't you want to go?" Lan Xichen had murmured the same question for days after the messenger arrived at the gate. Lan Wangji was getting tired of it. He had only given him the same excuse. 

It was not a good one.

He had nothing else to say, but, "I am not interested."

"You are."

"I am not." 

Almost two weeks had passed since the invitation arrived to the Cloud Recesses, and it really bothered the Second Jade of Lan.

Lan Wangji doesn't want to appear at a masquerade ball for three nights, only to see the prince choose some random cultivator as his spouse.

Lan Wangji knew it was selfish to suddenly resent these people, but he couldn't help the thought of someone taking Wei Wuxian's hand in marriage. Someone other than him. 

The prince had come of age. He had just turned twenty-one, and the King and Queen, Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan, were desperate for him to find someone and settle down as soon as possible.

Or that may just be the Queen who desires it. Lan Wangji has heard about Wei Wuxian's sour relationship with her from the complaints he had shoved in his face. 

Maybe Yu Ziyuan, or Madam Yu, just wants to get rid of him. She'd gladly throw a ball in celebration of his removal.

Wei Wuxian wasn't a Jiang by birth, Lan Wangji knew. He had been adopted after his own parents, Cangse Sanren and Wei Changze, had died during a night hunt. Wei Changze was the right-hand man of the King, his best friend.

So why was Wei Wuxian taken as the Prince instead of his martial brother, Jiang Wanyin? His martial sister, Jiang Yanli, was the Princess. It made plenty of sense, as she is the biological daughter of the King and Queen. 

Wei Wuxian has spoken of her many times. He said that he loved her more than anyone. Lan Wangji couldn't help but feel jealous about it. He hadn't spoken of his brother in the same way, though.

Is the son of the Royal family not well-liked? 

The Prince had once told Lan Wangji that his brother was annoying. Was he really that bad?

Everybody believed Jiang Wanyin to be the heir. Everyone, including Lan Wangji, was wrong.

Everybody was looking forward to it. The dancing, the laughter, the smiles, and most importantly, the Prince himself. Probably each and every single cultivator who'd attend the thing Lan Wangji already calls misery wanted to marry him.

He couldn't blame them for it.

But what he did not like about it was how people just wanted to marry royalty. They wanted to have their own name known far and wide.

It was as if they wanted to shout: "I'm better than all of you! Come, look at me!" 

The cultivators attending don't love him. They don't know him. They want their names to be known and that's all there is to it.

But this meant nothing for Lan Wangji. There's no way he could marry the Prince of Yunmeng, even though he loves him. Even though he knows him. They both knew each other, and that was enough.

He knew that even if they met again, locked eyes again, there's no way that Wei Wuxian would find any interest in him, even if they had already met years ago. The way he'd choose his wife would be through a dance.