Uncle's supervision

Chapter 8

Lan Qiren was sitting in his study, drinking his morning tea and wondering how Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian were doing now. Despite the rules, he was curious about how his advice worked. He did not want to involve himself in their love life any more than absolutely necessary. After all, such a topic was frowned upon in the Cloud Recesses, it should have been kept under lock and key in one's home, just a domestic affair really. Not the one that Wei Wuxian was making it, clinging to his husband openly in public and scandalizing and embarrassing everyone who saw or heard them. Even having the nerve to laugh about it!

However, Lan Qiren hoped that with this subtle advice, the couple would be able to sort everything out and calm down quickly. He was not too mad though, he could understand. The members of the Gusu Lan clan could only love once after all, and it was so much fiercer and more passionate than others. He had seen it with his brother and now with both his nephews. Lan Wangji had waited sixteen years for his feelings to be returned, Lan Qiren assumed that it was only normal that he and his husband would be needing some more time to themselves.

That however did not mean that they could overlook their duties or act shamelessly in public, scandalizing the older and more conservative members of the Gusu Lan sect and ruining the education of the juniors. He really needed to keep an eyes on them so they would not go too overboard.

When Lan Wangji had threatened him to leave the Gusu Lan sect for good if Lan Qiren would not acknowledge his marriage and his husband staying with him in the Cloud Recesses, it had been made perfectly clear to which extent he would be willing to go for Wei Wuxian. It was kind of romantic really, Lan Qiren had to admit.

His line of thoughts led him to the decision that he had to check on the couple today. Even though it was most probably too soon to see any visible improvements, he still wanted to know that they were at least working on behaving themselves better. Especially his nephew, he could not just go around hurting his husband, what would everyone else think about the Gusu Lan sect? About how Lan Qiren had raised the sons of his late brother?

He was just about to stand up when there was hesitant knocking on his door. He wondered who would be coming to see him, this reluctantly at that, at this time of the day.

"Come in," he called and looked towards the door to see his visitor.

It did only surprise him in the first second to see Lan Wangji standing between the door, looking unsure of himself. It was clear that his nephew felt very out of place and Lan Qiren thought he could guess why. He must have been here to talk about Wei Wuxian, or more like the application of Lan Qiren's advice. And from the look on his face, the elder could tell that it had not gone too smoothly.

Calming himself internally, he gestured towards the empty seat across the table from him and poured them both a cup of tea which was luckily still warm. Lan Wangji accepted the offer with a small bow and sat down, reaching for his cup of tea and emptying it in one go. Lan Qiren's eyebrows shot up at once, it really seemed like his nephew was greatly perturbed.

They sat in silence for a few minutes. When Lan Qiren realized that Lan Wangji would not start talking himself, he sighed, resigned, and prompted: "Wangji, what did you come to talk to me about? Does it, in any chance, concern Wei Wuxian and the book I have given you?"

The silence was still growing longer and Lan Qiren already wanted to try to make his nephew speak when he finally did so on his own: "Uncle, thank you for the book. It was... educational. However, it did not seem to help much, Wei Ying is still in pain. I do not know what to do."

This was perhaps the longest speech that Lan Qiren had ever heard his nephew say in one go, just one more reminder about his disturbed state of mind. The elder steeled himself, he really did not want to continue with this conversation but he knew it was necessary, he had to help his nephew.

"Did you follow the instructions?"

"Mn," confirmed Lan Wangji and Lan Qiren knew that it was the truth, or at least what his nephew believed as being true. Lan Wangji never lied, that was one of the rules he would never break.

Lan Qiren was now a little confused, he could not tell what went wrong. He reached his hand up and started stroking his beard. What else could he do for his nephew? Lan Wangji now looked devastated and hopeful at the same time and Lan Qiren knew that the hope was directed at him. His nephew was begging him for more advice which Lan Qiren unfortunately could not give when he did not know what exactly had happened.

He could have of course tried to ask Lan Wangji for details, making them both embarrassed and uncomfortable and he would probably not get any decent replies. Not when Lan Wangji was struggling with words on the best of days. The questions would have to be simple enough to reply to with yes or no but at the same time detailed so he would understand the problem. No, this would not work, not if he did not want to spend next few days on this matter.

Just as yesterday, he regretted that there was no one else who could take care of this. He would have liked Lan Xichen to talk to his brother; if less experienced in love life and sexual education, his older nephew was certainly more apt at talking with Lan Wangji. It would make this conversation so much easier!

But Lan Xichen was still in seclusion, cutting himself off of the entire world, mourning his own love of his life. It would be too cruel to ask him for advice and assistance now. So that only left Lan Qiren as the person who would have to teach his younger nephew and his husband about how they should properly behave in bed.

When Lan Qiren reached this conclusion, he sighed deeply, unhappy with the realization. He knew that there was no way around this, only one path was left to him if he could not talk properly with Lan Wangji and refused to breach this sensitive topic with Wei Wuxian. He would have to go personally supervise.

It would surely be very uncomfortable and embarrassing for all the involved sides but there really was no other way. Hopefully, he would be able to correct everything quickly and would at least not have to stay for the whole act, but that remained to be seen. He sighed again, even more deeply now, and stopped stroking his beard. This was it, he had to go through with this; he could not bear to see his nephew unhappy like this and potentially tarnishing the Gusu Lan sect's reputation.

"Wangji, there is only one way, the last resort so to speak. Wait for me this evening, I will come to the Jingshi and see what I can do."

Lan Wangji visibly perked up and Lan Qiren could not bring himself to actually say in which way he would help. However, it would surely be alright in the end, he would explain in the evening. At least he would not have to say it twice. This was really something he was ill equipped to deal with and would most probably be very awkward for all of them.