they do scream arranged marriage, yes..
Zhanyao happening during LZ seclusion because A-Yuan got found out as a Wen and Jin Guangyao takes care of it.... they should be pen pals.. Lan zhan gets two very morally grey men... these two arent even in love... theyre there for The Lan.
more Correct opinions from the zhanyao anon...
AND THEY ARENT EVEN IN LOVE i am hollering yes Yes you Get It you understand my vision!!
during lz seclusion his adopted charge gets revealed as a wen, and his uncle and brother desperately need to find a way to re-integrate lwj into Proper Society. Fantastic that Xichen already knows just the man! his good and trustworthy a-yao is surely the finest man who will help bring wangji out of his grief. and a-yao is still so torn up about da-ge's tragic death, it would be good for the three of them to be close and console each other, and perhaps wangji and a-yao could find solace in each other...
simultaneously jgs is looking for a way to remove jgy from the direct line of succession... and so through the power of societal expectations and xichen's well-meaning but incessant Meddling, we have an arranged marriage zhanyao au!
i think theyd probably be very formal with each other at first, quite distant, but amicable. jgy adores lan yuan, of course he does, so lwj cannot outright hate him.
then jgs dies and lwj realises that his husband is not as squeaky-clean as he pretends to be. this...is very attractive. simultaneously, jgy realises that lwj knows, but does not care... this is also quite attractive.
xichen understands nothing but is delighted that his two favourite people have finally FINALLY gotten this marriage thing worked out!
when 10 years later a resurrected wwx arrives on the scene, jgy heaves a put-upon sigh and sets to pull the right strings to get as many of wwx crimes forgiven as possible, because wangji wants this flea-ridden sex pest and what his husband wants jgy will move mountains to get (damn his lan kink!)
in this au nmjs murder never gets found out, so we fade out on a pleased lwj strutting around like a peacock with his two twink husbands in tow, each atop their own pile of corpses. theyre not in love with each other, theyre here for The Lan, but they get off on the competition (its a Thing).