Come Back to Gusu

59. It's not silly.

Time doesn't heal all wounds, but it does allow for scar tissue to form over them. Which meant that most of the time, Wei WuXian was fine. Most of the time, his friends and family were fine.. But sometimes, life interfered and the scar tissue was hit just right....

Wei WuXian found himself in nightmares of being back in the Burial Mounds or fighting in the Sunshot Campaign: injured, coreless, and afraid.

Wei Yuan woke, screaming, from his own nightmares of being captured, of seeing his family murdered.

As the months and years passed, they grew less frequent.

Meng Yao was found dead in his cell not long after the wedding. Lan XiChen had taken pity on the man, broken in both body and mind, and tossed a sharp knife at him. "You have been sentenced to remain here until your death," he reminded the former Jin. "Killing is not permitted in Cloud Recesses. How long you remain imprisoned is up to you."

Wen QiongLin moved to Lotus Pier to live with his sister. But every year, he left Yunmeng right before Chun Jie and wouldn't return until long after the New Year celebrations were over. Wei WuXian suspected his friend was visiting the graveyard in the now abandoned village in Dafan Shan's shade.

Jin GuangShan died in the Wei-Lan third year of their marriage: poisoned. The killer was never caught; Jin ZiXuan admitted, in private, that he suspected his mother was responsible. He launched an investigation, which led nowhere as neither he nor the investigators really wanted to know who murdered the former sect leader.

In the summer of their fifth year of marriage, Wei WuXian and Jiang WanYin were spending one hot afternoon lazing on rafts on a lake. "You still haven't visited your land?" the sect leader asked. "Why did I bother giving it to you if you're not going to do anything with it?" His frustration could have been due to a gift not received well. Or it could have been due to other things.

Wen Qing had safely delivered their third child over the winter and she was already spending her days vomiting again. "Twins!" she had shouted at him earlier in the week. "You got me pregnant with twins! I'm still feeding your daughter! How am I supposed to be a mother to five children?"

"What land?" Wei WuXian dragged a hand through the water.

"You!" the sect leader splashed his adopted son right in the face. "How many times have Jiejie and I told you to read your betrothal agreement?"

Wei WuXian wiped the water from his face. "By the time I saw it, I was already married. It seemed silly at that point to find out what trade agreements you sold me for."

"Sold you? Ha." Jiang WanYin settled back down on the sun-warmed logs. "Jiejie was willing to bankrupt the sect to get your Lan WangJi to come here. I know Lan XiChen put a serious dent in their coffers for you to go there.

"You really should go look at your land, though. It's about halfway between here and Yunping."

Wei WuXian rolled over to lie on his stomach, resting his head on his folded arms. "When did the sect get land there? We never patrolled that far when we were younger."

"It's.... It was part of my mother's dowry, since you ask. She willed it to me to be passed to my eldest son upon his marriage. She didn't specify it had to go to my eldest legitimate son, or even a son of my blood. Just my eldest. My grandmother is extremely upset that I included the land in your betrothal agreement.... But what could I do but follow my mother's wishes in this matter?"

"Your mother will kill you again when you die and see her in the afterlife."

Jiang WanYin shrugged. "I am, and have always been, a very filial son. Besides, by the time I'm dead, she'll have drunk Meng Po's soup and forgotten all about us."