You don't understand why XiSangYao is such a funny ship dynamic. You have these two secretly feral gremlins masquerading as semi-normal members of society, both completely head over heels for this pleasant little fluffy guy who seems the exact opposite of them. Now, the feral gremlins know the other likes fluffy guy and are constantly making passive-aggressive comments at each other while fluffy guy's like: ???
Like it would just be soooo funny for both of them to be flirting with Xichen while also sniping at each other while Xichen is painfully oblivious. Huaisang and Meng Yao (in a perfect world) would eventually team up to save Da-Ge from JGS, and Huaisang would kiss Meng Yao in a closet or smth, idk. Meanwhile, Xichen has already figured out he has feelings for both of them and is having a full-on gay crisis to Wangji, who's just there like: yes, brother. I understand the trials of having an oblivious partner.
I would love Mingjue walking in on them one time and going full-on overprotective brother and is like: Wtf you SEDUCED MY BROTHER??????!!!!!!
And Huaisang being like: >:( Hey, how dare you assume I wasn't the one seducing them? I put a lot of work into that!
Idk I just thought the enemies to lovers combined with head-over-heels would be really funny.
(Sorry, I haven't done much writing. I've had pretty bad writer's block recently, and also, school decided to crush me under the iron fist of creative oppression (finals))
"You don't understand, do you?" asked Nie Huaisang softly, sweetly, lovingly caressing Lan Xichen's cheeks. As if he wasn't about to break up with him. With them. As if he wasn't destroying everything they build up. As if... as if he still cared.
Lan Xichen shook his head, desperately trying to say something. Anything. He couldn't loose Nie Huaisang, but-
But he wouldn't be able to survive without A-Yao either. He can't choose- he can't!
"It's not an ultimatum. I'm not making you choose between him and me; I know who you'd choose anyway. Goodbye," Nie Huaisang said, stepping away from Lan Xichen. He was still smiling, gently, like he always did. Why was he still smiling?!
anyways, au in which nhs, jgy and lxc are soulmates (and get married). jgy still ends up killing nmj. and nhs plots to kill jgy in the worst way possible. but this is amped up to level 100, several times worse than canon. cause they’re soulmates and married and lxc married two actual insane madmen. chaos, angst and just so much unhinged-ness ensues.
In a world where everything your soulmate writes on their skin appears on yours, finding your own and living a fairytale isn't hard at all.
Meng Yao would like to opt out of this one though, thanks. He has more important things to worry about. Like his next audition for his big role, or the fact that, despite his best efforts, his father would never acknowledge him.
The fact that his soulmates keep writing to him, despite him ignoring them is...bothersome. it's not like Meng Yao misses them or anything. It's fine, he has always been alone.
Everything seems to be going(misterably) well, until the autidion. Where Meng Yao comes face to face with one of his soulmates. Did he also mention he is supposed to kill him in that scene? Awkward.
To make matters worse...there is a new customer at the cafe he works at. Meng Yao is fairly sure the guy is stalking him. And wearing a disguise. Can he please catch a break around here?
Like all things in Nie Huaisang's life, it started with Da-ge.
When killing Jin Guangyao and causing the heartbreak of Lan Xichen didn't help, didn't bring back his Da-ge nor gave him happiness or peace, at least - he tried something else.
The thing about sacrificing one, and alienating the other source of his to demonic cultivation was that it made everything way harder than it should have been - but he was always a resourceful little demon. Just as easily as he defeated the mastermind behind the murder of his Da-ge, he found himself back in time, when Jin Guangyao was still called Meng Yao and Da-ge was still a living, lovely little ball of rage and fierceness.
It was a strange experience, to be older than his brave and strong and talented Da-ge, but... he would always be his spoiled little didi. It wouldn't take long to get back to being the pampered little Second Master of Qinghe. Except...
He couldn't allow himself to be that lazy and shallow as he was. His Da-ge would. Not. Die. Not under his watch.
He was ready to kill Jin Guangyao, before the man could lay even a finger (or a faulty note) on his brother, but-
The man he met at the first time he opened his eyes in his past - in his new present -, was Meng Yao. His favorite non-Da-ge person, his friend, his first (second, if he wanted to be honest) crush. Da-ge's deputy, whose presence was essential in the daily lives of Qinghe. Nie Huaisang's plans changed in the minute he heard his A-Yao's soft words of concern.
"Is Second Master okay? Should I call for the healer?"
It was real.
Ever since he realized who killed his beloved brother, he questioned everything he knew about Meng Yao. He questioned his care, his love, his friendliness. But it was all real. His A-Yao really cared about him.
Maybe not Jin Guangyao. But Meng Yao did. And that care was what saved him.
"No, it's okay! It was just a quick dizziness, but everything is good now. And how many times more should I tell you that it's A-Sang?! A-Sang! A-Yao is so cruel to his A-Sang," he pouted, and the helpless adoration in the other man's eyes was so clear to him now that he didn't understand how past him had failed to notice it.
"Once more, probably," Meng Yao sassed, his tiny smile and cute little dimples hidden behind his sleeves.
"So cruel..." Nie Huaisang muttered, hiding his own smile behind a fan.
"Sect Leader sent me to tell you to get ready for the arrival of Young Master Lan," A-Yao said, taking Nie Huaisang's hairbrush in his hand to tame the unruly hair, and the younger boy allowed it, deep in his thoughts.
Meng Yao had to stay. Qinghe couldn't afford losing him right now, Jin Guangshan didn't deserve him, Nie Mingjue needed him at least until after the war, and Nie Huaisang... well, he wanted him. But in the past, as soon as Meng Yao had a better option, he took it, be it the adoration of Lan Xichen, the acceptance of Jin Guangshan or the opportunity to become Sect Leader. Meng Yao would do everything to be as close to power as he could, to be acknowledged and respected.
Nie Huaisang couldn't give that to him. He was just the heir, and saving Nie Mingjue was the whole reason for doing the whole time travel thing. He was not powerful enough. On the other hand, he would never allow Nie Mingjue to fall for Meng Yao, as his brother would never survive that relationship. Allowing Jin Guangshan to accept Meng Yao into the Jin Sect was absolutely out of the question. But-
But.
Hm.
That might work.
Lan Xichen had fallen for Meng Yao before. It was inevitable, but it was not enough. They would never do anything with their feelings; Xichen-ge was too Lan for anything, and Meng Yao would always feel inferior. And just the two of them... that would not guarantee Nie Mingjue's survival. (Hah! On the contrary, it would make the whole murder easier.) But!
But...
Lan Xichen always had a soft spot for Nie Huaisang. With some carefully timed helpless tears, some grateful hugs that last longer than appropriate, some flattering words and carefully cultivated image of being soft and sweet and just spicy enough to not be seen as a younger brother, it would be so easy to seduce the First Jade.
A-Yao already adored him, and if he had the means, the opportunity and the incentive to have Nie Huaisang as his, he would take it. Before, he never started anything with Huaisang because being the husband of the Second Young Master was not attractive enough. But being the spouse of the heir of Qinghe AND the heir - soon-to-be Sect Leader - of Lan was a completely different thing. Having connections to not one but two of the Big Sects, being Consort Lan, the husband of a man who would be indulgent to all of his manipulations and power games would be a temptation not even Meng Yao could resist.
Jing Guangshan had to die soon, though. It would be a shame to kill his not-yet-husband because he thought it was a good idea to suck up to his walking sexually transmitted disease of a father.
Nie Huaisang, at last, is reunited with Nie Mingjue
Nie Mingjue looks up at the stranger in front of her with no small amount of circumspection. She doesn’t particularly look like the man she was in another life, Nie Huaisang notes. None of them do, strictly speaking, though from life to life, they somehow always keep certain mannerisms. Lan Xichen still does that thing where he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath when he’s particularly annoyed, while some of Meng Yao’s nervous smiles are still the same even on different lips (but those tense smiles are less frequent in this life, something for which Nie Huaisang is grateful).
So while Nie Mingjue doesn’t look the same, there’s definitely a certain familiarity in the judging way she inspects the man who was once her brother.
She doesn’t look particularly impressed, is what Nie Huaisang is getting at, and that too is painfully familiar. He knew this would be a bad idea, he’d told Meng Yao and Lan Xichen that it wouldn’t go well, but they insisted, pushing and arguing for weeks, and now…
“Come on Beastie, say hi,” Meng Yao encourages. “You don’t want to be rude, right?”
The little girl shakes her head, but her lips remain pinched as she steps closer to Meng Yao and clings to his legs.
“Hey, is something wrong?” Meng Yao nervously asks, though he probably sounds perfectly calm to anyone who doesn’t have the advantage of several lifetimes of study to know any better. “It’s ok, that’s my friend Huaisang, he’s nice.”
“He looks funny,” Nie Mingjue mutters at last. “He doesn't look real.”
While Meng Yao is puzzled by that statement, Nie Huaisang understands. It happens sometimes that certain people will notice there’s something not quite right with immortals. Animals, some children, and a handful of particularly observant adults will look at people like Nie Huaisang and realise they’re seeing something that shouldn’t be there. Lan Xichen also seems to fall in that category and occasionally looks at his brother and Nie Huaisang with startled wonder, but Meng Yao doesn’t seem particularly bothered that he’s hanging out with old monsters.
“If you want I can make a grimace,” Nie Huaisang offers. “Then I’ll look real funny.”
Nie Mingjue’s glare intensifies and she shakes her head.
This isn’t going well at all.
Meng Yao swore it would be going well. He repeated it when he left earlier to pick her up at her school. He said she’d taken to Lan Xichen instantly, that she’d befriended the moment she saw him, and that she was excited to meet Meng Yao’s other good friend. For well over three months now Meng Yao has promised that Nie Huaisang has nothing to be worried about, that it’ll go very well, but now he’s there and this isn’t going well.
“Beastie, do you want Huaisang to leave for now?” Meng Yao asks, because while he said this would go well, he also made it clear that if it somehow didn’t, they wouldn't force the issue, and would wait some more and try again another time.
Nie Mingjue hesitates, still glaring at Nie Huaisang, but eventually shakes her head.
“It’s Lan-ge’s party,” she says. “He’s Lan-ge’s guest, he can stay. Meng-ge, can I go play now?”
“Not too much screen time, you know your mother doesn’t like it,” Meng Yao says after a nod. “Oh, but later, you should show Sang-ge what you’ve done with his game, I’m sure he’ll be very impressed.”
Both Nie Mingjue and Nie Huaisang startle. If he’s honest, however much he’s bemoaned the lost of his Switch for months now, he couldn’t bear to make the trip to the Hanshi to get it back. It hadn’t occurred to him that Meng Yao might have picked it up. He’s seen a few times a console in Meng Yao’s living room, of course, but it’s covered in cute little stickers and it just didn’t click that it could be his.
“You made the pretty city?” Nie Mingjue gasps, sounding impressed. “I’ve taken good care of it! The museum is almost full now, and I’ve planted flowers. Can I show you now?”
Unsure how to deal with that sudden change of mood, Nie Huaisang can only nod and let the little girl lead him to the living-room. In a second she’s forgotten all her previous wariness, and is happily chatting about that game, and how she captured so many bugs, and that one time her Lan-ge had to help her because she’s accidentally changed a pattern and wasn’t sure how to put it back, but Lan-ge has a little brother who also plays, so they were able to fix everything and he gave her some nice new things with which to decorate.
Before long, Nie Huaisang and her are chatting about that game. It feels like a dream. He’s never been able to talk to his brother like this, Mingjue always too serious and intense. They’d never really had anything in common back then, and all the love in the world couldn’t change the fact that they were too different to get along.
But things aren’t like that anymore.
Nie Huaisang could become friends with this Mingjue.
The thought almost makes him want to cry, and he’s a little relieved when Lan Xichen’s arrival provides a distraction. Mingjue drops the game on the sofa and runs to greet him, Nie Huaisang following closely behind. Lan Xichen, while removing his coat, glances over the two of them with the slightest air of worry on his face, before smiling when he realises that things appear to be going well.
“Lan-ge! Did you sign many books?” Mingjue asks.
“More than I expected. I should have taken you with me to help me sign them.”
“I write very well,” Mingjue agrees. “I could help you a lot. But I was in school, I couldn’t have come. Next time, Lan-ge should sign books in the weekend, so I can be there to help.”
“I’ll tell my publisher to consider that next time,” Lan Xichen promises. “Now, would you do me a favour and go ask Meng Yao if I can have a snack? He’ll be less cranky about it if you’re the one asking.”
Mingjue grins and dashes toward the kitchen, where Meng Yao is currently working on their dinner. Nie Huaisang will probably join him very soon and offer his help, while Lan Xichen, by far the lesser cook between them, will keep Mingjue occupied and set the table with her help.
For now though, Lan Xichen takes Nie Huaisang’s hand and pulls him closer, stealing a kiss.
Nie Huaisang doesn’t know if he’ll ever get used to that. He dreamed of it when he was young, so long ago, before thinking the chance had been lost for good when his brother died. To be given this second chance is overwhelming, especially when he's still half sure he doesn't deserve it. But he's always been selfish and entitled, so being undeserving doesn't stop him.
“How did it go?” Lan Xichen asks.
“A little rough at first, until we found a common interest to talk about.”
“So she did not scream at you, or accuse you of avenging her the wrong way, or yell at you to go practice the sabre,” Lan Xichen notes, rather unkindly in Nie Huaisang’s opinion. Those were very valid fears to have, all things considered.
“You’re mocking me,” Nie Huaisang laments.
Lan Xichen laughs and steals another kiss.
“I am, a little. But only because it went well, and you were so dramatic before.”
Nie Huaisang’s heart starts racing in his chest. He wouldn’t admit it out loud, but he likes that Lan Xichen knows how to tease in this life, and that he’s more assertive than he was, all the way back then. It gives him the same pleasure that seeing Meng Yao expressing his anger does.
They’re the same people, but they’re also not. They’ve changed just enough to become the people he would have wanted them to be when he first met them.
It scares him a little how happy he is. There have been a few times in those last three months when he thought again of disappearing, overwhelmed by the fear of losing them. Meng Yao and Lan Xichen are very patient with him about that. Apparently, Lan Xichen is currently working with Wei Wuxian to see if there’s anyone among immortals who might act as a therapist, claiming that if there isn’t, someone should really get to it already. Nie Huaisang isn’t sure his problems can be solved that easily, but he’s willing to try.
Meng Yao and Lan Xichen have changed over centuries of reincarnations, it’s only fair that he should try to improve himself as well.
“I wouldn’t mind some help in there!” Meng Yao shouts from the kitchen. “That is, if you want to have anything edible tonight. I know Wei Wuxian said he’d bring something, but that’ll just be something horrifyingly spicy, so we can’t count on that.”
“We’re coming,” Lan Xichen replies, and they do, though not before Nie Huaisang takes a second to kiss him again.
Meng Yao is washing some vegetables when they enter the kitchen, while Mingjue is helpfully kneading some dough. Lan Xichen starts taking out of the fridge a few things they’ll need, while Nie Huaisang goes to wash his hands in the sink and steals a quick kiss from Meng Yao who blushes beautifully.
“Absolutely shameless,” he grumbles without heat.
“I’m too old for shame,” Nie Huaisang cheerfully replies.”Now, what do you need help with?”
A wet cabbage gets thrown at him.
“Mince that for me,” Meng Yao orders. “You’re on cutting duty today.”
Nie Huaisang complains and whines about being cruelly used and abused as a mere kitchen hand when he could be a chef, but sets to work anyway.
Meng Yao, done with washing vegetables, gets ready to pre-cook the meat. Mingjue is making a mess with her dough while laughing at a silly little story Lan Xichen is sharing about his day.
Nie Huaisang sighs, his heart so full that it feels several sizes too big for his chest.
He’s happy at last, and it is worth every day of lonely waiting he’s had to do.
Meng Yao makes himself useful after losing his job, and discovers something unexpected
Names are funny things, Meng Yao thinks as he stares at the sheet of paper in his hand.
Funny things indeed.
-
After everything that went down in the Hanshi, it's Beastie that saves Meng Yao from himself.
Left to his own devices, he would have either wallowed in misery, or waste time proving to himself that everything that happened wasn't his fault, the way he knows he's done in other lives. But when he comes home after having his past lives thrown into his face and losing a job he loves, Beastie’s mother corners him just as he puts his key into his lock. Her daughter is on school holiday, she explains, and was supposed to be looked after by a friend with children of a similar age. But one of the children came down with something contagious, so the whole plan fell through, and the poor woman now desperately needs help finding someone to look after her daughter.
She’s not asking for Meng Yao to play the babysitter, but he knows so many people, he has so many connections, maybe he could pull a favour somewhere, help her out again.
“I can take care of her for a few days,” Meng Yao offers without thinking. “I’m jobless as of today.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry! What happened?”
“My employer died,” Meng Yao replies, which is close enough to the truth. He doesn’t think Nie Huaisang will continue using his Shanzi alias after this, and they’ll never meet again. He might as well be dead. “I don’t plan on looking for a new job right away, so I can babysit for a while, it’s no big deal.”
She tries to insist that he doesn’t need to be doing that, but quickly agrees after some reassurance that Meng Yao doesn’t mind. She looks so relieved she could cry as she says she’ll drop Beastie in the morning. Meng Yao smiles, certain that his mother would be proud of him for doing what’s right.
Having Beastie around is definitely the best choice he could have made. She’s a good kid, but she’s also high energy and needs to be entertained, which means he doesn’t get to think too much about how much he misses Nie Huaisang and Lan Xichen.
They watch movies together, as they’ve always done when he picked her up after school. They go for walks to a nearby park, and once to a museum to look at old armours and swords. He buys Beastie a fake sword, though they agree to keep it at his place, since her mother already despairs that she so strongly favours boy’s toys. In fact, Meng Yao ends up just spoiling that little girl, the way he would have loved someone to do for him when he was her age. He even has Nie Huaisang’s console repaired so she can play on it, instead of selling it as he’d intended.
The video games are a big hit with her. She’s particularly in love with the same game Nie Huaisang spent too many hours on, that weird little terraforming thing which Meng Yao can’t see the appeal of. He liked that it made Nie Huaisang happy. He likes that it also makes Beastie happy, and that she’s very careful not to ruin the work previously put into it, focused instead on maintaining it and planting flowers
“It looks like home,” she explains when Meng Yao asks about that, and lifts the console for him to see.
It doesn’t look like a homely place, he thinks, and more like a military fortress right out of a wuxia drama. But Meng Yao doesn’t get to make that remark, because his phone vibrates, demanding his attention. Beastie, sitting crossed legs on some cushion on the floor, goes back to watering virtual flowers, while Meng Yao checks some news from his bank account. A lump sum has been sent to him, a good deal more than his usual salary, coming from an account registered under a name he doesn’t recognise.
It has been a week since he was fired.
Nie Huaisang kept his promise.
It really is over.
Not that Meng Yao really doubted it. Nie Huaisang has many faults but indecision has never been one, though he’s always been good at pretending otherwise. Once his choice is made he toys with expectations but rarely ever changes his mind.
Rarely, of course, isn’t never. Meng Yao, foolishly, hoped to be one of those few exceptions.
Those new zeroes on his bank account feel like a divorce, and he never even got a honeymoon.
That night, Meng Yao allows himself a few hours to wallow in misery, after Beastie went back to her mother. He is only human, and it does feel good to eat take-away in front of a cheesy romance. The film's hero doesn't get the girl, who was dead all along. Meng Yao cries, even though he's seen that movie before.
By morning, he's in control again, and takes Beastie to the park so she can run around in the sun, and scare pigeons with her sword.
Those holidays are all great fun, until Beastie’s mother reminds them that she has homework to do.
Beastie is a clever kid, there’s no doubt about it, but she doesn’t much like doing her homework, least of all when she feels she could be playing. It takes all of Meng Yao’s negotiation skills to get her to even look at her school books, and he almost resorts to bribery to make her pick up a pencil. But she works hard once she starts, and Meng Yao, wanting to encourage her, sits with her at the kitchen table to update his resume. Beastie will go back to class soon, and inactivity just isn’t in his temper.
When Beastie is done with her work, she gets permission to put on whatever movie she likes while Meng Yao checks what she’s done in case it needs correcting.
But when he picks up the sheet of simple maths she’s expected to give her teacher on monday, all Meng Yao sees is her name.
It’s really funny. He knows her name of course, though he hasn’t heard it in a while. Even her mother took up to calling her Beastie after he nicknamed her that. It just fits her so well, that active little girl who prefers trousers over dresses because they're easier to move in and always wants to play at fighting. She’s a real little monster, and Meng Yao loves her like that. She’s just Beastie.
But according to the homework she’s spent the afternoon on, she’s also Nie Mingjue.
It could just be a coincidence. Names are funny like that, they pop up in unexpected places, they get forgotten and reused. Perhaps in another life, Meng Yao would have just dismissed it as a random incident.
In another life, he wouldn’t have been called Meng Yao.
It’s the first time this happens since that first life they all shared. He’s Meng Yao again, Lan Xichen bears his old name too, and now he’s found a Nie Mingjue, hiding right under his nose. A Nie Mingjue who likes fighting, and claims that her toy sword is actually a sabre, and who always insists a lot on things being fair, even when Meng Yao tries to give her the biggest share of a food she likes.
It can’t be a coincidence.
Meng Yao needs to tell someone.
He needs to tell Nie Huaisang.
He tries, of course, and without surprise his former employer’s number has been terminated. He has the same luck trying to send an email. Nie Huaisang might as well never have existed. Meng Yao feels helpless, torn between tears and laughter. After spending centuries looking for his brother, Nie Huaisang just might have lost his chance due to being so damn dramatic. Serves him right, Meng Yao thinks, still bitter about being discarded so easily, and never getting a chance to see if things might work better in this life.
Bitterness doesn’t last. Meng Yao cares about Nie Huaisang, more than he should if he were a little smarter, and he knows how important finding his brother again would be for him. And if Nie Huaisang can’t be directly contacted, there’s always indirect ways.
It’s not that Meng Yao misses Lan Xichen, he tells himself that night, when Beastie is back with his mother and he starts writing a long text message on his phone. Well, it’s not just that, anyway. He does miss Lan Xichen, sweet and funny and so eager when talking about art. But more importantly, Lan Xichen probably has access to Lan Wangji, who clearly must know how to contact Nie Huaisang.
Texting Lan Xichen is a strategic choice.
The way Meng Yao's heart jumps inside his chest when Lan Xichen immediately replies is… it's strategic too. He's just glad that his plan is working.
How have you been? :)
I could have been worse. I've just realised something and I think it concerns you. I've told you about that kid I babysit, haven't I?
Little Beastie? Is she okay? D:
She's Nie Mingjue.
This time, the answer isn't immediate. Meng Yao stares nervously at his phone, wondering if Lan Xichen thinks he's lying, or planning something. Considering their first life, who could blame him?
But after a few minutes, his phone vibrates again.
Sorry, I dropped my phone and couldn't get it back from under the couch. Are you sure?? (⊙ˍ⊙)
It all fits. You could come meet her if you want. But it's him, I'm sure.
Did you tell Nie Huaisang???
I can't contact him. Are you in touch with Lan Wangji? Maybe he can warn him.
I have his number, I just texted him! I'll keep you updated! It's so wonderful if it's da-ge!! Can I really meet him? ╰(*°▽°*)╯
Her*?
I'll send you my address. If you can come tomorrow, she'll be there.
Are you sure? I don't think da-ge would still want me around. (≧﹏ ≦)
Meng Yao gives that question the consideration it deserves. It's not an unfair worry to have, and he'd be wondering the same if he hadn't known Beastie for so long.
I literally killed him, and he killed me. If she had to hate anyone it'd be me, but we get along great. We're no longer the same people we used to be. It's the same for her.
If you're sure, then I'll come! (❁´w`❁)
-
Meng Yao is very sure indeed.
So Lan Xichen comes.
It's odd to invite someone to his flat. It's a small place, a bit messy, full of trinkets and DVDs that Meng Yao would never admit to owning, not with the image he wants to create. He's always avoided guests. But having Lan Xichen over is as rewarding as it is terrifying. Lan Xichen brought some charming little cakes, as if he's visiting someone important, and he smiles at the sight of a movie poster on the wall, confessing he watched it so often as a teenager that the tape broke one day.
"It's my favourite too!" Beastie exclaims. "Meng-ge has it, you know! Can we watch it now?"
Normally, Meng Yao would point out that it's a little rude to ask that when they have a guest. But he can see that Lan Xichen is nervous and unsure how to act around Nie Mingjue, and maybe a movie will let them all relax.
In the end, they spend a pleasant afternoon, the three of them. Once Lan Xichen stops worrying that the Nie Mingjue of old will appear and shout at him for getting him killed, he starts chatting with Beastie about her favourite movies, what she's learning in school, what she wants to be when she grows up. She's very happy to answer, and very impressed when he explains he's a teacher, even though she's finding it hard to accept that most of his students are fully adult.
And when Beastie is back with her mother, Lan Xichen lingers for a while, tempted by the offer of Meng Yao's favourite takeaway.
“It’s amazing how much like him she is,” Lan Xichen says as they sit on the sofa to wait for the food to arrive. “It’s the first time he reincarnates, you know. At least, Wangji told me they’d never found any trace of him before.”
Guilt shoots through Meng Yao. It’s his fault if Nie Mingjue’s soul was so fractured it took him this long to be reborn. Or at least, it’s the fault of someone he was, once, which is nearly the same, and yet completely different. Meng Yao has learned from living and dying several times, and he’s lucky enough to live in a kinder world than Jin Guangyao did. It helps.
“She’s also different from him, though,” Lan Xichen continues, moving just a little closer, until they’re almost touching.
“We’ll, for starters she’s a kid,” Meng Yao points out, wondering if he should take the other man’s hand. If this had happened before the Hanshi, he would have, but he’s not sure where they stand now.
“It’s not just that. In that first life, I knew da-ge as a child too and he was…” Lan Xichen sighs and makes a vague hand gesture. “He was a lot. Way too serious sometimes. We all were, I suppose, but him most of all. The Nie tended to grow fast, to compensate for dying young. I’m… I’m glad that he gets to properly be a child this time. That she gets to be a child.”
“The world has changed,” Meng Yao says, finding the courage at last to brush his fingers against Lan Xichen’s. “Things aren’t always easy but they’re… easier, I suppose.”
Lan Xichen’s returns that touch, gentle and careful as always. This, too, is easier now than it was back then. It’s not easy, but there’s less pressure to conform, less demands to be good dutiful sons, and just a little more space to be their own people, to make their own choices.
Maybe in their next life they’ll meet again and it’ll be even easier to be like this. But even now, Meng Yao is ready to take the chances that his past self wouldn’t have dared to dream of. He leans toward Lan Xichen, hoping to kiss him, but a knock on the door interrupts them and he jumps to his feet to go get their food. The delivery man looks at him a little funny, but makes no comment. If Meng Yao is half as red as Lan Xichen, he deserves those odd looks.
Nothing happens again that night. The moment has passed, and after eating, Lan Xichen has to go home because he has engagements the day after that he can’t cancel.
It's not a date that night, no more than any of their previous encounters were.
It's not a date then, but next time, when Lan Xichen invites him to a restaurant, Meng Yao is informed in no unclear terms that this is, in fact, a date. They go see a movie after, and Meng Yao gets to kiss one of the two most handsome men in the world.
Life is good.
Life is really good, and yet Meng Yao wants more.
In spite of their efforts, Lan Xichen and him can't get in touch with Nie Huaisang to inform him that his brother has finally reincarnated. Even Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian are getting worried. From what they told Lan Xichen they haven't had any contact with him since the day they picked him up at the Hanshi.
"They say he's done that before," Lan Xichen tells him. "They think he'll return in a decade or two, maybe a little longer. Time is hard for immortals, they lose track easily."
That's all very well for them, but Meng Yao doesn't have a few decades to waste, and neither does Nie Mingjue. They're not immortals. One bad illness, a reckless driver, just tripping in the stairs, and it's all over until they reincarnate again, and Meng Yao is done with missed chances.
If he can't directly get in touch with Nie Huaisang, Meng Yao can make a few discreet calls to former buyers, and advise them to get their purchase asserted again, just in case. He makes sure to only contact people who bought legitimate artworks of course. He wants to make a wave, not get in trouble. If Meng Yao knows Nie Huaisang even half as well as he thinks he does, then even in hiding Nie Huaisang will be checking what’s happening in the world of art collectors, and he’ll hear about some of his buyers suddenly becoming fearful of fakes.
It’s a little mean perhaps, when Nie Huaisang is so proud of his counterfeits, but kindness has never been Meng Yao’s greatest quality.
Besides, it works.
One afternoon, when Meng Yao is alone at home, checking a job offer that he’s probably going to reject because he deserves better, there’s a knock on the door. Meng Yao considers ignoring it, but some of his elderly neighbours have been coming to ask for help with their phones or whatever new fancy blender their kids got them to make life easier. Usually, five minutes of easy work means free homemade food for his next meal, which is always a great deal.
When he opens the door, there’s a very old man waiting in the corridor alright, but free food is probably out of the question.
“Well, I’m here,” Nie Huaisang says. “Whatever is going on, it’d better be important.”
with a little help from Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, Meng Yao and Lan Xichen get one last chance to talk to Nie Huaisang
It has been a long and exciting day, but Lan Xichen waits to be back home after his meeting with his publisher to text Meng Yao. He may or may not be hoping that the conversation will get a little heated once he explains just how much free time he’s going to have for a few weeks, now that his first draft has been handed in. He’s certainly planning on hinting at a few ways they could spend that free time together. They’ve been taking things slow due to Lan Xichen being busy and their complicated situation, but he's very eager to change that.
But instead of exchanging spicy texts with his boyfriend, Lan Xichen learns that Nie Huaisang has been in touch, that he knows about Mingjue, and that in a fits of dramatics, he may or may not be planning to never meet his brother’s reincarnation and to instead just die.
Some things haven’t changed. Or at least, Nie Huaisang hasn’t changed, as if immortality just froze him in place.
Nie Huaisang, even in Lan Xichen’s first life, has always been a too dramatic, and threatening to die at the smallest inconvenience. Even before putting on his Head-Shaker persona, before the Sunshot Campaign even, Nie Huaisang would break into tears and swear it would kill him whenever he had to do homework, or train with the sabre, or put on clothes he thought didn’t look good enough. Lan Xichen remembers treating all of these laments very seriously, in case Nie Huaisang meant it that time, a habit that would last until their last meeting and the death of Jin Guangyao.
He does the same this time. After chatting with Meng Yao about this situation, Lan Xichen texts Lan Wangji to ask for help, explaining what has happened, insisting that Meng Yao and him need to talk to Nie Huaisang again. Lan Wangji, at first, offers the same apologies as before and says he just cannot do more. Lan Xichen, who remembers his brother better from their first life now, and who’s had the chance to relearn some of what he’s forgotten, notices that at no point Lan Wangji says he doesn’t know where Nie Huaisang is.
“Do not lie” the old rules said, but they’d all learned that omissions could be tolerated.
Once, in other lives, Lan Xichen would have been very polite about this, about respecting boundaries, about letting others decide how to lead their lives, about trusting people to know what’s good for them. Maybe in this life too he would have remained polite, if he didn’t see how much this situation hurts Meng Yao, if he didn’t remember a series of portraits of a man who once was himself.
And since Lan Wangji is too honourable to break any promise he’s made, then Lan Xichen can just the problem by getting his hands on Wei Wuxian’s phone number.
He has no qualms breaking his word, if he thinks he knows better than everyone what’s good. Which he does on most things, of course. And once Wei Wuxian is on board, Lan Wangji can’t object anymore.
This is how they end up in a car, all four of them, heading toward the city that was once Qinghe. Lan Wangji is driving, Wei Wuxian is riding shotgun and fighting with a GPS, Meng Yao and Lan Xichen sit in the back and try to decide the best strategy possible to convince Nie Huaisang that isolation isn’t the right choice. It will be a hard sell, Lan Xichen knows. Because while Meng Yao is baffled that Nie Huaisang would avoid something he’s wanted for so long, Lan Xichen understands.
He remembers how the Nie brothers were in that old life, the push and pull of their affection, arguing whenever they were together, miserable when they were apart. It is something Jin Guangyao didn’t understand and mistook for mutual hatred, something that had often left Lan Xichen himself a little baffled when he’d been very young, until he’d learned the balance that existed between those two. A balance that had been ruined in the months leading to Nie Mingjue’s death, when perhaps it really had become the hatred that Jin Guangyao had seen there.
It wouldn’t surprise Lan Xichen if Nie Huaisang were terrified of going through that again, and apparently, Wei Wuxian, who’s just given up on getting the GPS to do exactly what he wants, agrees with Lan Xichen. In fact, he has many theories about Nie Huaisang, and is quite happy to have new people to share them with.
“We’ve wondered sometimes how he even reached immortality,” Wei Wuxian explains. “I like him a lot, he’s probably my best friend, right after Lan Zhan, but I’m not going to lie and say he got there through any sort of actual talent for cultivation. He’s never made an effort. Right?”
Lan Wangji hums his agreement, his eyes never leaving the road.
“I kind of figured that he got there out of sheer stubborn need to see his brother reborn,” Wei Wuxian continues. “At least, I used to joke about that a lot at one point, but maybe the joke wasn’t so far off from the truth. I mean, it makes as much sense as anything, and there’s no hard rule to how people get to immortality.”
“If he became immortal to see his brother again, what will happen if they do meet?” Meng Yao asks, stiff and business-like. He won’t even let Lan Xichen take his hand, not around those two immortals whom he mistrusts, both for their role in his death so long ago, and for not saying earlier that they knew where to find Nie Huaisang.
Meanwhile, Wei Wuxian shrugs and turns to look at them, a lopsided smile on his face.
“You’re coming at this from the wrong mindset,” he says. “It’s not science, it’s magic. You can’t think of it in terms of cause and consequences. He might have gotten there for his brother, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that meeting his brother will fulfil some kind of requirement and cause an effect, in this case his death.” Wei Wuxian paused, his smile growing a little wider. “The most likely thing to happen if those two meet is that Huaisang will cry like a baby, as he always does, and then he’s going to spoil that kid rotten, because he’s convinced that’s what an older brother should do.”
That explanation only makes Meng Yao frown, displeased at the idea that he won’t be able to carefully calculate every possible outcome of this encounter. For his part, Lan Xichen takes it as good news: they probably won’t kill Nie Huaisang by accident, and that’s all that matters.
It takes almost a full day of driving to get to Nie Huaisang’s other secret house, hidden in the mountain. As they exit the car, Lan Xichen and Meng Yao exchange a look, both of them struck by the same certainty: they’re in the Unclean Realm.
It doesn’t look the way it used to, of course. Unlike the Hanshi, which was miraculously preserved, nothing remains of the old Unclean Realm. The house in front of them can’t be more than three or four hundred years old at most, and built in a style much more modern than the one in their memories of another lifetime. But it’s still the Unclean Realm.
Lan Xichen is struck, again, by the thought that Nie Huaisang hasn’t changed, even if the world around him has. He’s sought out Meng Yao again and again, tried to remember Lan Xichen’s old face, seized the Hanshi for himself, and now he is hiding in this house which stands where his home once was.
Nie Huaisang, frozen in time.
And unlike Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian, there is nobody frozen there with him.
Nie Huaisang, frozen in time and alone.
Lan Xichen has failed that man, in another life. He will not fail him again in this one.
After saying goodbye to Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian, Lan Xichen decisively walks to the door and knocks on it. He isn’t surprised by the lack of answer, nor by the fact that Meng Yao, a little more willing to show his emotions now that they’re alone, shuffles closer and takes his hand. Lan Xichen smiles at him, as comforting as he can making himself be, and knocks on the door again.
“We’re not leaving,” he calls out calmly. “We’ve travelled a very long way to see you, and we’re not going away until we have. We’re ready to stay on the porch all night. More, if that’s what it takes. I’ve warned the university that I had a family emergency and I don’t know yet when I’ll be back, and Meng Yao doesn’t have a job at the moment. We’re ready to wait.”
It’s only slightly an exaggeration. Lan Xichen has taken a week off, which he hopes will be enough. But he is fully prepared to wait there that entire week. He’s brought a bag filled with snacks and thick blankets. They are going to make themselves comfortable on Nie Huaisang’s porch, until he lets them in and they can make themselves comfortable in his life.
Having announced his intentions, Lan Xichen lays out a blanket on the ground and sits down, joined quickly by Meng Yao who takes out a thermos of tea. It’s merely lukewarm now, but still very fragrant and goes wonderfully well with some of the cakes they brought. They sit close, chatting about the weather, and how nice this house could be if it didn’t look so abandoned. It would be a lovely place for summer holidays, Lan Xichen thinks, and Meng Yao readily agrees. They both used to like summers in the Unclean Realm, and they will like them again, given half a chance.
Night falls around them, and so does the temperature. Meng Yao takes that as an excuse to cuddle, which is absolutely lovely. Lan Xichen might just fall asleep like this, sitting against the side of a door, a wonderful man using his shoulder like a pillow. His back is going to kill him in the morning, but it’ll be worth it.
It is a little past midnight when the door opens.
Lan Xichen, who had been dozing off, is startled away at the squeaking of the hinges. Both he and Meng Yao look up to see Nie Huaisang, glaring down at them. He's wearing jeans and a very crumpled t-shirt, giving him the air of someone who had to dress in a hurry.
“Go home, both of you,” he hisses. “I have nothing to say to you.”
“I can pretend to believe that, if you’d like,” Lan Xichen says, stifling a yawn. “But it won’t change the fact that we have plenty to say to you.”
Nie Huaisang's fingers curl on the side of the door, his knuckles going white.
“I’m not going to listen. You shouldn’t be here. I swear I’m going to kill Wei Wuxian for bringing you here. I know it’s him. I made Lan Wangji promise he wouldn’t, so it can’t have been him.”
“You can’t blame your friends for being worried about you,” Meng Yao says.
“I can, because they’re not my friends!” Nie Huaisang coldly replies, convincing no one. “They’re just two bothersome idiots I haven’t yet managed to get rid off. And they’re not worried about me, they just think it’s fun to torment me. But I’m not talking to you two, so you can just go home!”
The door slams shut, the sound loud in the quiet of the mountain. Meng Yao looks disheartened, but that’s only because he’s always taken Nie Huaisang’s comedies at face value more than Lan Xichen did, even all the way back then.
“Goodnight to you too, Huaisang,” Lan Xichen cheerfully says to the closed door. “I hope we’ll see you in the morning. If not, then maybe at lunch. We’ve asked Wangji to come and bring us food. If there’s anything you’d like to eat, tell us and we’ll see what he can do. Or if you know any nice restaurants in the area, we'll tell him to go there.”
A long silence follows, long enough that Lan Xichen wonders if Nie Huaisang hasn’t gone to sleep, or more truthfully gone to mope dramatically on his bed. But eventually the door opens again, just a smidgen.
“If I listen to you,” Nie Huaisang carefully says through that slim opening, “will you leave after?”
“If you want us to,” Lan Xichen replies. “But it will be you wanting us to leave, not us.”
A moment of silence.
“It’s a terrible idea,” Nie Huaisang points out. “You don’t know what sort of a person I am. You have no idea…”
“I do, a little,” Lan Xichen protests. “A-Yao told me about his past encounters with you. Even the bad ones.”
Meng Yao shivers and nods. It was a very emotional evening when he explained to Lan Xichen the depth of his emotions toward Nie Huaisang, all of the best and all of the worst he’s seen of that man, the hatred, the resentment, the grudging gratitude, and eventually the love he now feels. Lan Xichen doesn't quite understand, but he also doesn't not understand. He remembers locking himself away in sorrow, hating and loving at once the two men who had so intimately betrayed him glad they were out of his life and yet missing them to his dying day.
"It's a terrible idea," Nie Huaisang repeats, but he still opens the door in full and motions for them to come inside.
They do just that, though Lan Xichen first puts away all traces of their little camping, feeling it would be rude to leave a mess behind. By the time that's done and they go inside, Nie Huaisang has put some water to boil and asks them what sort of tea they'd like as he leads them to the kitchen.
The teapot he's using must be an antique, probably worthy of being displayed in a museum. So are the glasses, actually, a mismatched set of precious porcelain. But the box of tea is just flimsy cardboard from a current big brand.
"So, let's get this over with," Nie Huaisang orders as he pours tea for them. "Go on, tell me how we should all be good friends even though I killed one of you, and broke the other one's spirit so bad he cut himself from the world until his death, which kind of means I killed him too."
"An interesting way of seeing this," Lan Xichen concedes, taking a sip. The tea isn't bad, and it feels a little exciting to drink from a glass so beautiful. He's tempted to take a photo to show Mo Xuanyu when he gets back to his office, in case it can be identified. "I have one main counter-argument: we are not these people."
"You definitely are," Nie Huaisang objects, turning his glass between his fingers. "I can tell. It's hard to explain, but at first glance I could tell it was you."
"We are the same souls, yes. But that doesn't mean we are the same people. Our lives have been different, our experiences as well. My parents haven't left me traumatised by the idea of love and selfishness the way they did for poor Zewu-Jun. And Meng Yao never looked for his father to elevate him, the way Lianfang-Zun did."
"Certainly not," Meng Yao exclaims. "I wanted to, as a kid, but my mother made sure I knew what kind of a man he was, and encouraged me to rely only on myself. Who needs a father, anyway. I'm doing well without one, and so does Mingjue."
At that name, Nie Huaisang startles, spilling some tea over his fingers. It is still very hot, but the heat doesn't appear to bother him.
"See? Different people," Lan Xichen says with a smile. "And I do feel it would be quite unfair to judge us and reject us because some other men, a millennium and a half ago, made mistakes."
"But you wouldn't even be here tonight if not for those 'other men' and their choices," Nie Huaisang counters. "Well, maybe Meng Yao would, he's a romantic,” he corrects, earning a very offended look from the man in question, while Lan Xichen tries to keep a straight face because he agrees about that judgement. “But you don't know me. We’ve never met except for that day in the Hanshi, and we didn’t exactly speak back then. Just because seeing me awoke your memories…”
“I knew you even before,” Lan Xichen quietly objects. “I’ve been looking for you for several lives, even if I didn’t know it.”
“Is that so?” Nie Huaisang sneers.
Lan Xichen nods with a smile, and, after taking Meng Yao’s hand in his for support and putting it on the table, he starts explaining what he realised while working on his book. That’s his secret weapon for forcing Nie Huaisang to stop running away.
First of all, that there is a book at all startles Nie Huaisang, who apparently has never taken time to wonder why Lan Xichen and Meng Yao had come to the Hanshi that day. The way Nie Huaisang flushes upon hearing that Lan Xichen chose him and his art as a subject worth writing about… he doesn’t look like a great immortal when he’s this embarrassed, and more like the sweet young man Zewu-Jun would spoil, never pausing to wonder why it mattered so much that Nie Huaisang should always be happy.
Having described his book, Lan Xichen then explains the careful research that was required to write it. He went through archives, old inventories, description of lost paintings, a few journals of collectors, and realised that there had been a few people before him who had also been quite obsessed with that obscure painter nobody else cared about.
Or rather, Lan Xichen had realised that in more than one life, he’d been obsessed.
“It came back to me when I was going over that estate sale from a few years ago. Several paintings of yours, in a single collection? And most of them were authentic, too. Except ‘Winter moonlight in Qinghe’, it was all authentic.”
“Oh, ‘Moonlight’,” Nie Huaisang says with a grimace. “That one is cursed, I swear. I’ve had to repaint it almost a dozen times. And nobody ever noticed a damn thing, until you people brought in all those carbon tests and x-rays and whatnot. A man can’t make an honest living anymore these days.”
“Counterfeits are hardly honest,” Meng Yao points out.
“What counterfeits? They’re all authentic, original Nie Huaisang paintings! Pah, often they were better than the initial ones, even!”
That might not be an unfair statement, Lan Xichen thinks. If this all works out, if Nie Huaisang needs a job to keep himself busy (money should hardly be an issue for him) then maybe he should just start painting again. New art, not just copies. Properly advertised, he could have some success on social media. A thought for later.
“That’s not the point here,” Lan Xichen says, gently redirecting the conversation where it needs to be. “The point is, I did some research on the man who gathered that collection, early last century. I was able to find a portrait of him, and I realised he’s me.”
Nie Huaisang flushes, his eyes wide with surprise.
“I don’t suppose you ever met him?” Lan Xichen asks.
“No! I’d just… I knew of his collection, and I was aware he’d owned ‘Moonlight’ at one point, so when I was asked to have a look, I ‘discovered’ it filed away,” Nie Huaisang explains. “I really like that one.”
With good reason. ‘Winter moonlight in Qinghe’ is beautiful. Lan Xichen saw that not-quite-counterfeit version Nie Huaisang painted, and remembers being stunned. Now, with memories of a past life returned to him, he’s only more impressed because that painting so perfectly captured the essence of the Unclean Realm after dark, when the snow silenced everything else. There was a unique peace in this that Zewu-Jun loved, that Lan Xichen wishes he could experience himself.
“It was not the only time I did that,” Lan Xichen resumes. “You see, one of the most helpful documents I’ve been using all this time is a list of all your known paintings. It was supposedly established by a scholar of the late Song dynasty.”
“Ah, yes, Hao Wenxin’s list? I remember him. Good fellow, always paid well. I know that wasn’t you, though. I’ve told you, just one glance and I would have recognised you.”
“I wasn’t that man, no. But I was his wife, and he loved me enough to indulge my taste for a certain painter, even allowing me to compile that list. He was a very good man, who even asked for permission before publishing that list under his name. It’s the only way it could ever have been shared, of course. But as you can see, even if I never remembered you, I also never fully forgot.”
Nie Huaisang flushes again.
“That’s… so what? I’m a pretty good painter. I’m only surprised there aren’t more people interested in my work. It doesn’t mean anything!”
“Just as it doesn’t mean anything that you’ve looked for Meng Yao every time he’s been reborn?” Lan Xichen retorts. “Just like those portraits of Zewu-Jun in your workshop don’t mean anything?”
“You went through my things?” Nie Huaisang gasps, sounding positively shocked. “But that’s… how could you! ‘Keep your curiosity in check’ and ‘respect others’ privacy’, and…”
“Those were rules that Zewu-Jun would have been bound by. I’m not him. Besides, I’m a researcher, being curious is my job.”
“I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make then!” Nie Huaisang says. “One moment you’ll use your past lives as an argument, the next you insist that they have nothing to do with you… make up your mind.”
“I’d say the point is that there is no real point,” Meng Yao argues. “None of this makes any sense. Immortals and reincarnation… none of this is logical. The only thing that’s certain is that all three of us have been drawn to one another for centuries. Isn’t that enough?”
Lan Xichen smiles at him, and squeezes his hand affectionately. Linked by fate or not, he's so in love with that man.
“It’s not!” Nie Huaisang exclaims. “It’s not! You don’t understand what it’s like to live for so long, to see so much, to be so…”
He hesitates, tears shining in his eyes.
“To be so alone?” Lan Xichen finishes for him, holding out his other hand toward him. “But you don’t have to be alone anymore. We’re here now.”
Nie Huaisang stares at that hand as if it’s a snake ready to bite him.
“I’ve hurt you both so much.”
“And we’ve healed,” Meng Yao replies with an annoyed huff. “That’s what people do, when they’re hurt. You’ve clearly forgiven us for what we did in that first life together. Are you going to deny us the chance to forgive you as well?”
“This is a bad idea,” Nie Huaisang sniffles, glaring at Lan Xichen’s still extended hand. “I’ll just hurt you again.”
“Maybe,” Lan Xichen concedes. “But any friend we meet for the first time has the power to hurt us as well.”
“You’ll grow old and I’ll stay young. Isn’t that awful?”
“So you think we can stay together even into our old age?” Lan Xichen asks. “How wonderful!”
“People will think we’re horrible old men who have a sugar baby,” Meng Yao adds with a smirk. “That’ll be fun for sure.”
“You’ll say that I have to meet Mingjue, and I’ll end up hurting her!” Nie Huaisang complains, still fighting tears.
“Again, so might any person she meets in the normal course of her life,” Lan Xichen points out. “But I don’t think there is anyone else who might bring her as much joy as you. Our poor xiao-da-ge, will you really deny her this? Do you think her soul doesn’t long for your company as much as you must yearn for hers?”
“It’s a terrible idea,” Nie Huaisang hisses, his tears finally spilling.
“Perhaps it is, perhaps not. But do you really want to stay alone, when instead we are all ready to love you?”
“I shouldn’t…”
“That’s not the question,” Lan Xichen insists, reaching out farther across the table, nearly touching Nie Huaisang’s hand. “The question is, what do you want?”
Nie Huaisang sobs, but finally takes Lan Xichen’s hand. Immediately Meng Yao reaches out to take Nie Huaisang’s other hand, grasping it tightly, as if worried the other man might disappear again otherwise.
“If this doesn’t go well, I’m running away to Antarctica,” Nie Huaisang mumbles, squeezing both their hands. “Don’t think I won’t! I’ve been there before!”
“And I hope you’ll tell us about it,” Lan Xichen softly replies. “It must be a fantastic story.”
“I’ll go on the moon!”
“Have you already visited that one too?” Meng Yao asks with a smirk. “Met the rabbit that lives there, perhaps? And I bet you didn’t even bring back a souvenir, how rude.”
“I’ll leave the galaxy!” Nie Huaisang insists with a glare. “If this doesn’t go well, I’ll go away and you’ll never see me again, in this life or any other!”
Meng Yao snorts, while Lan Xichen can only smile, struck again that Nie Huaisang has changed so little, after so many centuries. Always too ready to expect the worst, even when offered something good.
But they’ve gotten him to give this a chance at least, and Lan Xichen is confident everything after this difficult first step can be dealt with.
Nie Huaisang can threaten to change universes if it pleases him. Lan Xichen and Meng Yao have him now, and they aren't going to let go again.
