(thank you @smmojen and @emilyshi101emu for donating to a black lives matter affiliated charity!)
When Wen Ruohan tells her that he’s arranging a marriage for her to secure an alliance, Wen Qing wishes she could be excited about it. She doesn’t care one way or another about marriage, but it means getting her and her brother out of here, means getting out from under Wen Ruohan’s thumb, but she knows better.
He doesn’t care about alliances, and he doesn’t care about her.
“You’re to be a spy,” he tells her. “We’ve been burning bones for weeks and they all say that the Yin Iron is Yunmeng. Find it, take it, and kill your husband before returning to me. If you don’t, I’ll set your people aflame.”
“Yes,” she says, impassive. “I understand.”
Nothing to get excited about, as she thought.
Wen Ning doesn’t know any better, thinks her nerves are about her impending marriage, and he tries to comfort her, tries to say that he’s sure her husband is nice and handsome and they’ll be very happy together.
The wedding is already underway by the time she arrives and she barely has the time to be tugged into a side room and stuffed into a red robe, several women fluttering at her and doing her hair and painting her face. “You’re late,” Madame Yu says, her mouth in a flat, disapproving line.
She hadn’t known they’d arrange for this all to happen so quickly. What were they planning to do if she hadn’t arrived in time? “I sailed. I can’t control the wind.”
“You’re a cultivater, aren’t you?” she sneers. Wen Qing lifts her chin. Her skills don’t lie in those types of cultivation skills. With so much medical knowledge to learn, focusing on anything else had seemed foolish. “Hm. Perhaps you deserve each other.”
She has no response to that, so she doesn’t give one.
Lotus flowers overwhelm the courtyard. Mostly everyone is in Jiang purple except for some reason the Two Jades of Lan are here. The younger’s face is completely blank and somehow Wen Qing still gets the impression he’s glaring at her.
Her husband is, if nothing else, very beautiful.
If Wei Wuxian barely looks at her throughout the wedding, she doesn’t hold it against him. His grip on his sword and flute throughout the ceremony is it odds with his cheerful face.
They go back to his room – their room, now – and he dutifully removes the cloth from her face. She waits for him to remove the rest of her clothing, or for him to order her to do it. She’s his wife, after all.
Instead he sits on the bed next to her, smiling, and keeps his hands in his lap. “Look, A-Qing,” the intimacy of the affectionate name in his mouth startles her more than his hands on her would have, “you are very beautiful, and very smart, and I’m sure we’ll be very happy together. But I’m not going to sleep with you.”
She stares. “Okay.”
“I’m going to sleep with other people,” he continues looking at her face.
It’s hardly surprising for upper class masters to take multiple lovers. Wen Chao has several, in addition to multiple wives. “I understand.”
Wei Wuxian is frowning, looking at her. “No, I don’t think you do. I have a boyfriend,” he continues, and that does surprise her. “We were going to – well, it’s not important anymore, because I’m your husband,” he says it very seriously, as if it’s a serious thing, “and I’ll do all the husband stuff. What’s mine is yours and I’ll protect you and take care of you and,” he winces, “if you want kids that’s okay too, but not right now, my boyfriend is still really pissed off about all this. He wanted to kidnap me away, but that would have caused a lot of problems, so.”
Something clicks into place. “Your boyfriend is Lan Wangji?”
His mouth hangs open for a moment before his whole face lights up. “You are clever! Lan Zhan is my heart,” he says, completely unabashed, “but you are my wife. Everything but my heart is yours.”
“That’s fine,” she says. Maybe it will be easier for her sneak around, to find the Yin Iron.
It’s going to make killing Wei Wuxian harder, though. She’d been hoping her husband would be cruel, and greedy, someone she could relish in killing.
~
Jiang Yanli introduces herself as her sister, saying that Wei Wuxian is her brother in all the ways that matter, and offering to take her around Lotus Pier. Wen Qing agrees because she has to start looking for the Yin Iron somewhere, and ruling out the main grounds is a good start.
“I’m sorry if this isn’t the marriage you’d wanted for yourself,” Jiang Yanli says earnestly, “but A-Xian is very kind.”
Wen Qing thinks to this morning, to Wei Wuxian inviting Wen Ning along on archery practice and complimenting his skill and slinging an arm over his shoulder, loudly proclaiming how lucky he is to have such a talented brother.
Wen Ning’s happiness had hurt, when Wen Qing knows she’s going to have to take it away.
“Yes. He is.”
~
They’ve been married four weeks, four weeks in the same room although rarely in the same bed. She assumes her husband spends his nights with Lan Wangji, who still hasn’t said so much as a word to her.
Wei Wuxian enters the room, dropping his flute and sword on the bedside table. His clothes are rumpled and there are bruises up his neck that she’s sure haven’t come from sparring. “A-Qing,” he greets, “have you noticed that my brother is in love with you?”
She feels heat crawling up the back of her neck and is instantly mortified by it. Jiang Cheng is angry and violent and even more beautiful than her very pretty husband. He yells a lot and he reminds her of lightning, like his mother’s spiritual took that he wears on his wrist. She’s never had the urge to hold a storm beneath her hands before, but it’s almost impossible to ignore.
She’s used to ignoring what she wants. Jiang Cheng isn’t someone she can have for so many reasons. “He doesn’t know me.”
Wei Wuxian’s smile is a little bit too perceptive for her to be comfortable with. “He could.”
She doesn’t say anything, and Wei Wuxian kisses her cheek before getting into bed with her that night.
He’s very kind. She thinks she might love him, but like she loves Wen Ning, and nothing like she would love a husband.
She’s achingly, pathetically grateful, that they hadn’t married her to Jiang Cheng. She doesn’t think she would have survived it.
