"Here, here, your sister's all yours," Zixuan put out his tongue at them and placed her on the floor beside them.

"Shijie!"

"A-Jie!"

Yanli hugged them close. "Guess who get to be the jiujius!"

"YAY!"

"Ah, to think I'll one day be a Da-jiu! Shijie, I'm so happy for you!"

"Da-jiu? I AM THE UNCLE!"

"AND I AM OLDER! Which makes you xiao-jiu and me Da-jiu!"

"Why! I'm already A-Yuan's Xiao-shu, I want to be the older one for once!"

"Tell that to your mother," Jin Zixuan laughed.

"A-Yuan calls you Xiao-shu? Cute."

"My nephew's the sweetest thing on earth," Jiang Yanli smiled. "A-Xian, I'll tell A-Ling to call A-Yuan gege someday, yes?"

"Why not! Ey, so the unborn Jin second heir's name is Ling?"

"Birth name. Courtesy name, you give me one."

"If it's a girl?"

"I'm asking A-Niang for the girl's name. But if it's a boy, we need a courtesy name. A-Xian tell me," Yanli smiled. 

"Yeah, not like we can ask the uncle who named his dogs Love and Princess, can we?" Jin Zixuan snickered.

"OIII!"

"Haha! Erm... what's the generation letter?"

Zixuan thought for some time, counting on his fingers, before answering, "Ru."

"Ru... 'like a'... Eh, Jin Zixuan's child, how about Ru... kongque? Peacock?"

"Good one," Jiang Cheng chuckled.

"But then... Shijie's child would be like a... Hm... Gentle and warm. The silent carer." All of a sudden, his head inadvertently twisted to the right, where the Twin Jades were seated and chatting with Nie Huaisang. He stared at the younger Jade for a few minutes before nodding to himself. "Rulan."

"Like an orchid?" Yanli beamed. "Splendid!"

"I feel like he meant another Lan but the orchid Lan fits," Jin Zixuan smirked. "Oi, Wuxian, stop daydreaming."

"Er, sorry," Wei Wuxian turned his head back to them, blushing furiously. "Got a bit... distracted."

"Clearly." Zixuan and Wanyin snickered.

"Could you excuse me, perhaps?"

"Want to go outside?"

"Yeah, find A-Yuan."

"Wuxian, teach me father tactics later. Now get going, he went that way." 

"Thanks," Wei Ying nodded and marched down the hall. He stopped once at Jiang Fengmian's table, bent down and whispered, "it's sorted, Jiang Shushu. All sorted."

"What's sorted?"

Wei Ying whispered a single word before walking out the door.

"Wei."

Jiang Fengmian's eyes swelled. He turned to Lan Wangji across the hall and pleaded with his eyes. Lan Zhan understood immediately and hurried over. "Shushu?"

"Wangji, please check on him. He just told me that the Wei curse is now all taken care of. You know what that means."

"Dare you to follow my path to hell

For a talisman of blood to break the spell." 

Oh no...

In a flash, Lan Wangji had disappeared.

**********

"Diedie?"

"A-Yuan!"

"DIEDIE!" Weilan Yuan scurried over to his father and hugged his legs like he was never going to let go. "A-Yuan missed Diedie, boohoo!"

Feeling his legs getting wet with the little one's tears, Wei Wuxian picked him up. "Well, then," he held him by the waist and raised him high. "Tears, pain, fly away! Baby Yuan wants to play!"

Weilan Yuan squealed. "Tears, pain, fly away!"

Slip-

Wei Wuxian lost balance while twirling on the deck with A-Yuan and toppled towards the water, but found familiar, firm arms wrapped around his waist just in time.

"Wei Ying!" 

Wei Wuxian returned to his feet with a smile. "Thank you."

"Is Diedie alright?" Weilan Yuan asked as he plopped back onto the ground. "Has Diedie not eaten? Why can't Diedie carry A-Yuan?"

"I... it's nothing, really. A-Yuan has grown so much!"

"Two weeks, not that much... Diedie..." Weilan Yuan pouted grumpily at his lying father.

"SIZHUI! WEILAN SIZHUI!" A six-year-old boy wrapped in purple robes cried.

"OH! Diedie, Baba, Jiang Jing'er is calling, can I go play?"

"Why not!" Wei Wuxian was relieved to be saved again from answering.

"Jing'er!" The toddler ran forth with the rest of the Jiang boys to play.

"Wei Ying."

"Lan Zhan," Wei Ying looked up at him and beamed brightly as ever.

But Lan Zhan stared back coldly. "You really did turn to it in the end, didn't you?"

"You think I'll let you die? And maybe even A-Yuan? I can't let that happen."

"And your core?"

"The spiritual half of my core has completely turned black with demonic energy now. But the Divergent half stays. Which is spiritual, so it's a bit hard... both energies fighting in one core... It's like having both fire and water within you."

"Don't worry. When we get back, I'll find music pieces to help you meditate to heal."

"Willing to help me? Hanguang-Jun is just too sweet to resist! Oh and hey, guess what? The fan's my spiritual tool, too. As in, it's loaded with corpse ashes so it has demonic cultivation powers, swift and easy to use."

"And Suibian?"

"Will forever be my good friend. Suibian can't connect to my demonic half-core but still recognises my Divergent part, so I still get to keep my sword. As for Chenqing..."

Wei Wuxian pulled out the flute and stroked it once. Flash! Thud! A beautiful shimmering white red-eyed snake fell onto the pier.

Lan Zhan's jaw dropped.

"Beautiful, right? An albino python. My little Chenqing is actually a living thing now!"

"Mn," Lan Zhan nodded, watching how the snake turned back into a flute upon Wei Wuxian's pat.

Seeing Lan Wangji's inexpressive face, Wei Wuxian felt a bit... forlorn.

"Are you going to hate me now? Demonic cultivator Wei Wuxian isn't the same as little and summery Wei Wuxian?" He smirked sourly, silver eyes momentarily igniting with scarlet.

"No matter which Wei Wuxian is by my side, I'll still love him."

"I knew what you said the other day, you didn't mean it. You said you hate me only because Xichen-ge was there, right? To go ahead with our plan?"

"Mn. I meant to apologise but..."

"But I left before you could, sorry... I DID know... just that... it... kinda still hurt...– Oof! Lan Zhan, let go, people might see!"

Lan Wangji tightened the grip of his arms around Wei Wuxian's back. "No." Everyone was at the party, and no, he won't let go.

"Aish, trust me, I'm fine, okay? Health dropped by an inch but I'm trying my best to stay sane, okay? Not even the Devil can defeat me, why would some demonic cultivation thingamabob hurt me, right?"

"Mn. Wei Ying's strong. When are you coming back?"

"So you know I won't follow you guys after the party," Wei Ying patted his back. "Lan Zhan... I don't know when I'll return. I came today both for Shijie and for Zixuan."

"Zixuan? Why?"

"To save his life."

"Eh?" Lan Zhan let go of him to peek at his troubled face. "What's wrong?"

"Meng Yao. I found his hiding spot. I've been staying in the forest near his cabin for some time now, couldn't get close enough without being noticed. So I started sending ghosts there to check. Yeah, I can control those things now, cool eh? So anyway. Three things."

They started walking back to the hall, ready to instantly split up back into their hate-act once they arrived.

"One. Meng Yao hates the Dark Knight and wants to frame him for something huge. I don't know what exactly, but what I do know is he's planning on creating some sort of chaos and passing the blame onto Heiguang-Jun so Heiguang-Jun will be hated by the public."

"Jealousy."

"Obviously. Maybe I'm the only one not jealous of the mighty Heiguang-Jun or Hanguang-Jun or whichever."

"That's because you love them, not hate them."

"Wah, so proud and smug, aren't you?"

"Mn," Lan Zhan smiled. "I love it when you love me. Anything wrong in that?"

"Tsk, fuddy-duddy. Where was I?"

"Finished one, now two."

"Ah, two. For some reason, he met Jin Zixun a couple of days ago."

"How?"

"His scouts found that big-mouthed rascal's whereabouts on a Sunday morning, and he went to the inn Zixun was drinking at."

"Where?"

"Lanling."

"Why?"

"I don't know? At first glance, it would seem like he went to recruit Zixun to his gang, but..."

Lan Zhan stopped walking. "But?"

"But something tells me... he's trying to get rid of Zixun."

"Kill?"

"Yes."

"Sunday morning... that's two days ago."

"Yes. Lan Zhan? What's the matter?" Wei Wuxian watched as Lan Wangji's frown deepened and he gripped Bichen tighter.

"Two days ago, Zixun fought with Zixuan."

"A bad fight?"

"Mn."

"Bad enough to..."

"Kill him? Yes."

"Meaning he fibbed on something to make Zixun fight with Zixuan... And now... Shoot!" Wei Wuxian picked up his robes and darted towards the hall.

"What? Wei Ying, wait!" Lan Zhan chased after him all the way into the hall, where the actual banquet had just begun. Jin Zixuan had risen to his feet with his wife and had raised his cup for a toast.

Lan Zhan's mind whizzed through the details. Zixun fought with Zixuan so should anything happen to Zixuan, they'll frame Zixun. Two obstacles would be out of the way for Meng Yao to be sect heir.

As for how he would do anything to Zixuan...

Whizz!

Slap!

Clash!

The golden cup rolled around on the floor, part of it in pieces. Jin Zixuan stared dazedly at his emptied hand for a whole minute before glaring ahead. "WEI WUXIAN! WHAT WAS THAT FOR!"

The black-and-red fan that had shot out at Jin Zixuan and successfully knocked the cup away flew back to Wei Wuxian's swift hand. Shutting it, he bowed low in apology. "Zixuan, I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt your toast."

"Wei Wuxian–"

"I really am sorry!"

A warm hand on his shoulder patted him back to consciousness. "Hey, stop panicking. First, tell me what's wrong?"

Wei Wuxian looked up at Jin Zixuan who had walked right up to him and smiled with relief. "It's... erm..."

Without proof, he won't speak, Lan Wangji sighed. But the proof's right there, silly A-Ying.

"There's poison in your cup."

"Wangji?" Xichen shot up. "What are you saying?"

"There's poison. In. His. Cup."

The hall erupted into chaos. Who would dare poison Jin Guangshan's son?

Jin Zixuan picked the cup up and twirled it in his hand. "Cup? Not the wine?" He asked, waving it to a maid to get it checked. 

"No," Wei Ying shook his head. "Wine would poison everyone. The cup's poisoned just to affect you." 

"Affect? Ha. You mean to 'kill' me," Zixuan smirked.

"JIANG WANYIN! CALL THE SERVANTS!" Jin Qingyang shot up onto her feet. "I'll slit the throat of whoever dared to harm my brother!"

Jiang Cheng was just as ready when his memory lit up on time. "Wait... for today's party... weren't both Jiang and Jin servants serving?"

Jin Guangshan nodded, "Yes, we did bring along some of our more internal ones."

"Are you suggesting this was the doing of one of our servants?" Jin Qingyang glowered.

"Mianmian... with all due respect, and not meaning to offend the Jins but... we're Jiang," Jiang Wanyin glared back. "Servant, disciple, whatever: no Jiang shall ever be a traitor."

Wei Wuxian and Jiang Fengmian bobbed their heads.

Seeing things were getting out of hand and the Jins' temper was rising, Jiang Yanli made haste to step between the furious Mianmian and Wanyin. "Erm, look, what he means is that the Jiangs wouldn't have a motive to harm A-Xuan, now, right?"

Mianmian blinked. Of course... Zixuan was the Jin heir, why would the Jiangs bother to poison him? Not their business!

"Oh, so it's one of my own people," Jin Zixuan shook his head. "Never mind. We'll question them after the party, let's keep things going now–"

"Are you OUT of your mind?" Madam Jin shouted.

"True, even I agree, A-Xuan, I can't keep my party going knowing someone's out to ki........ harm you," Yanli agreed petulantly, but reluctant to actually say the word.

Jiang Fengmian sighed and stood. "Well... in that case, party dismissed, I suppose?"

"I'm really sorry about this," Wei Wuxian looked sullen.

"A-Xian, really, thank you. No apologising. You stay here while I send the guests off, yes?"

"Yes, Shijie."

Jiang Yanli waved her hand and dragged the Wens and other guests outside. Nie Huaisang and Wen Ning insisted on staying for their Jin-xiong, which led to Nie Mingjue and Wen Qing having to stay back too. The Twin Jades also remained in the hall with the Jins.

"There, everyone else is gone," Jiang Yanli returned to the hall with a sigh.

Madam Yu rose to her feet. "Madam Jin, call out your servants."

Madam Jin nodded, thrilled that her friend would be taking action. There was no way whatsoever for the culprit to escape...

...when Zidian was in action. 

SLASH! 

**********

"Well, that went well. At least nobody suspected Zixun. Madam Yu really is terrifying, don't you think, Chenqing?"

The albino python almost purred as it rubbed its head against Wei Ying's palm.

"Hm... good thing Lan Zhan and I didn't tell it was Meng Yao. Nie Mingjue and Lan Xichen wouldn't have believed us. Things would have been too troublesome. As for how Meng Yao did it... incentivising a servant must be easy for rich young Deputy General Nie. That servant boy will never see the light of day again..."

Chenqing hissed sharply, as though urging him.

"What is it? Oh, evidence."

Wei Wuxian sighed as Nie Mingjue's deep voice rang in his head. 

"Since you were the one to claim this, prove it. Our scouts will be in action, but for you to make such a daring reveal today and know this much information, at least to clear the suspicion on your own self, find evidence. Reveal the culprit, Wei Wuxian."

"The sects wanted evidence. Evidence we shall get!" Puckering his lips, he blew a sharp whistle. Not the frequent harmonies he once learnt. But instead, darker, more alert ones. Cautious, steady, spooky. With the flow of the bitter melody came a drifting wisp of black smoke, which slowly transformed into the figure of a young lad.

"Same cabin. Go there, see if he's in there. Snoop around, feel free to. Just whatever you do, bring me back information."

The ghost whisked away.

Wei Wuxian yawned and laid his head back on the tree trunk. Chenqing slithered into a ball on his lap.

"Chenqing... Lan Zhan's such a dear, right? Promising to make sure only Jiang Shushu, Madam Yu and himself would know... even vowing to not let A-Cheng and Shijie worry and not let them know... Chenqing, I feel like I did him wrong by just vanishing..."

The snake tilted its head.

"I know, I know, he wouldn't have let me go had I told him... and yes, he knew I'll be going after we fake a fight... but I just feel bad... Ey, Chenqing, we should get them both something, don't you think? You know, when all this is done? When I go back?"

The snake hissed with delight.

"Okay then."

Just then the ghost returned with a screeching whisper. Wei Wuxian beckoned it closer and placed his palm on its head.

Empathy.

The cultivator's trick to seeing the unknown past. Channelling a spirit to see the ghost's or fierce corpse's memories.

What better way to communicate and see the ghost's memories than that?

"Show me all you saw, little boy." 

**********

The summer breeze seemed to come in pretty often these days. Feeling the cold raising the hair on his skin, Lan Wangji looked up at the blue sky —

Blue?...

More like... grey... ashen...

A storm was brewing. Whether it was up overhead or down here... We'll find out in time, Lan Zhan sighed. He rubbed his palm, thinking of the butterfly letter Wei Ying sent that had landed there minutes ago. Not a word on Meng Yao for fear of any other Lan reading it, but what he had said.........

I'm doing just great. The forest is as peaceful as the Jingshi. But I miss A-Yuan's playtime. And ours. If you know what I mean, haha!

Could you keep an eye on your brother? Something tells me he's not... not well. Not safe. When I met him the other day at the party... I don't know, maybe demonic energy is sensitive to spiritual energy fluctuations but I sensed something off in Xichen-ge. He seems weak. Imagine, the strongest cultivator being so weak! Don't let him work too hard, and check on him for me. Shijie told me everyone's talking and gossiping about the Chief Cultivator not being as efficient as he used to be. For him to slack in work...

That's not our Xichen-ge. Slacking is not at all a Lan thing to do.

Update me. Should I find out anything, I'll inform through someone, don't get scared if someone comes with a red ribbon in hand. That'll be my underling.

Miss you. Love you. Take care, ZhanZhan.

ZhanZhan. He called me ZhanZhan.

Lan Wangji's smile faded in an instant.

That 'someone' must mean a ghost. A-Ying is communicating through ghosts now? I must give this my all: Shufu can NOT find out. Lan Zhan gulped. Never mind the curse being lifted — he'll whip A-Ying to death.

The three-hundredth-something rule echoed in his head.

"Do not associate with evil."

Shufu will never accept A-Ying isn't evil.

He was angry enough with me marrying him, a man; Xiongzhang had to save me from being whipped. And then again with A-Yuan, once again Xiongzhang saved me. And A-Ying and A-Yuan. Shufu's short-tempered. I should keep A-Ying away from him even after he returns.

As for xiongzhang...

Lan Zhan stopped walking and looked up to find he had unconsciously arrived at the Hanshi. Sighing, he lifted his hand and tapped his knuckles on the door. "Xiongzhang."

............... Not a sound.

Knock-knock. "Xiongzhang?"

No reply.

Lan Zhan furrowed his brows and opened the door, surprised to find it unlocked.

"Xiongzhang?" He pushed the door wide open and looked around. Not a soul was in sight.

But instead...

A crashed teacup.

And a purple ribbon. 

_______________________________________________________

A/N:

So yeah, Wei Wuxian's a demonic cultivator unbeknownst to the world here, so they get to live on relatively more peace. No Fat Clan Leader Yaos talking behind his back here! *proud grinning*

And as for "But I miss A-Yuan's playtime. And ours. If you know what I mean, haha!" I really don't need to explain what WangXian's playtime means, right? If you know, you know. *wink*

Chenqing now has the ability to turn into an animal form, an albino python. Beautiful creature. edzooc8r, bet you'll love that idea, being a snake fan hehe ^^

Also, the "generation letter". For those who don't know, this means a specific first-character-in-the-courtesy-name that specifies which generation the cultivator belongs to. It was seen in the Jins, with Zixuan and Zixun, Rusong and Rulan. The other sects... not so sure, coz we have Xichen and Wangji. ZERO connection. Just that as far as I learnt, at least the Jins followed the generation letter thingie. 

That's all the explanations! <3