Backlash Part 1

Chapter 33: The Meeting Hall

Wen Qing had to put a great deal of effort into not letting her annoyance show on her face. Sect Leader Jiang's concerns were valid, or would be valid in a different situation. Wen Qing herself would usually not recommend someone in Wei Wuxian's state to begin a relationship. In most cases it would be better for the individual to take some time to work on everything else they had going on a bit before pursuing the complication of starting a relationship. This, however, was not most cases.

For one, these feelings had already existed when Wei Wuxian was in a much more stable state of mind. Especially from her and Wei Wuxian's perspective, this was a formality that was long overdue. For Lan Wangji these feelings were more recent, but she felt strongly that they would not change. Additionally, her biggest concern for Wei Wuxian would be that he would not only allow a partner to take advantage of him, but he might actively volunteer to do things harmful to himself for the sake of said partner. Wen Qing trusted Lan Wangji would not take advantage of Wei Wuxian and would do his utmost to counter this behaviour when possible.

The other concern she would normally have was that it would put extra strain on the relationship. In this case Wen Qing strongly suspected there would be little change in their behaviour towards each other with the formalizing of the relationship.  Lan Wangji would not go to any less efforts or be any less stressed whether they were engaged or not.  The majority of the changes Wen Qing expected to see would be external, the perception of everyone else. If they were in a relationship then targeting Wei Wuxian would also mean targeting Lan Wangji. It would give Lan Wangji more authority in the eyes of others in regards to all things Wei Wuxian. This would include having Wei Wuxian stay in Cloud Recesses when he might otherwise return to Lotus Pier. Right now that part was very important.

Wen Qing had fully expected that Sect Leader Jiang would probably come here with the intention of taking Wei Wuxian back to Lotus Pier immediately. There was no way he would suggest leaving Wei Wuxian to be cared for in Cloud Recesses. She expected he would be resistant to the suggestion of the idea. Wen Qing could try to argue for him to stay, but if she was too forceful it would seem like she was accusing Lotus Pier of something. That wasn't likely to accomplish her goal. Furthermore she was not part of GusuLan Sect, nor YunmengJiang Sect. Her authority was only as Wei Wuxian's doctor. It gave her little power to demand the location of his treatment.

So she needed to lead the people in the room who did have that power. She needed to give them reason to think Lotus Pier was not a good place for Wei Wuxian right now. She needed to reinforce the idea that the best place for Wei Wuxian right now was Cloud Recesses. It certainly helped that she firmly believed these things to be true. It wasn't like she was having to fabricate reasons. She just had to present them in ways that were easy for everyone involved to accept. Well, maybe not easy. She was, after all, trying to convince Sect Leader Jiang that his home was not a good place for his ward to return to. She imagined that was probably hard to accept no matter how gently she tried to say it.

Jiang Fengmian had an almost pained expression on his face as he reviewed the document again. He had of course read it through once already and in his shock made a few initial protests mostly related to discussing this given Wei Wuxian's current condition.  It wasn't that he needed to reread it.  Everything in it was more than perfectly appropriate. In truth it made the on paper proposal for Jiang Yanli's engagement look sloppy.  They had already included the results of their astrologer and provided Lan Wangji's year, month, day, and hour of his birth for Jiang Fengmian.  This was more a formality.  The major sects in particular did not always follow the common procedure, especially when the proposed marriage would have such clear political advantages. 

In addition the YunmengJiang Sect in particular had many marriages in its history that did not follow the traditional customs of marriage.  It was not so unusual for their sect to forgo some of the normal formalities of arranging a marriage and instead arrange a marriage after the couple themselves expressed interest in each other.  So really there wasn't anything Jiang Fengmian could say about the proposal itself that was the least bit problematic.  It was just that, Wei Wuxian being married off was never the plan. Jiang Fengmian of course expected him to get married, and he looked forward to celebrating it. Except that he expected him to marry a young lady who would be brought into the YunmengJiang Sect. Or perhaps marry one of the female disciples already part of the sect.