Courtship Rite

You Had One Job

On the tarmac, walking from the plane to his car, Meng Yao overheard his head of security speaking into his comms. "He should be there in twenty minutes."

"Who was that?"

The man was too professional to look startled, but Meng Yao had the impression he hadn't expected the question. "Lan Xichen asked to be kept informed of your arrival time."

Meng Yao spent the drive to the Lan Corp HQ wondering how much trouble he was in. Lan Wangji had punched Lan Qiren. Meng Yao wished he could believe that the old man wouldn't blame him, but he was the logical scapegoat. He wasn't family. He did have the ability to rein in Lan Wangji when others couldn't. Of course, the old man would put that together and lay the blame on him. The real question was how would Xichen react.

Xichen was waiting outside the building as the car pulled up. Meng Yao had never seen him look so serious. Had he decided that Meng Yao wasn't worth protecting any longer? Xichen greeted Meng Yao, but distractedly. He didn't speak the entire elevator ride to the top floor.

When Xichen knocked on the office door, Lan Qiren glanced up from behind his desk, but didn't rise to greet them. "You do not need to be here," he told his nephew.

"I'd prefer to stay." Meng Yao felt hope rise in his chest. If Xichen was going against his uncle's wishes, then perhaps he would support Meng Yao.

Lan Qiren may have looked more annoyed than usual. It was hard to say. He gestured Xichen to the back of the room and pointed from Meng Yao to the solitary chair on the other side of his desk. "You. There." Meng Yao tried to draw calm from the painting of clouds in the mist that took up most of the wall behind Lan Qiren. It didn't work.

"While you were away ..."

"To be fair, uncle, we did agree to let him take a vacation." Ah, Meng Yao had wondered if the suggestion had come from Xichen alone. Apparently not. If the family had discussed Meng Yao, that could mean they were starting to see him as a problem.

"While you were away," Lan Qiren repeated. "Wangi married that, that ..." He petered off as if he couldn't find a word bad enough to describe Wei Ying. "You were hired to prevent exactly this type of ..."

"Mistake?" Xichen suggested.

"Atrocity," Lan Qiren thundered.

That wasn't exactly true. Meng Yao had been hired, in effect, to run aspects of the business that Xichen didn't care to. However, he'd soon taken on the duties of cleaning up after Lan Wangji's more out-of-bounds behavior. Meng Yao had thought he was good at his job. He now realized he'd merely never run across anything Lan Wangji truly cared about.

"Explain to me why I should allow you to retain your current position." Meng Yao's heart started pounding. The Lan family didn't fire employees who disappointed them.

"Uncle, that's not fair."

"Do not interrupt. When you first brought him here, I agreed that you could put your little toy in a position of power but only as long as he performed his assigned tasks to my satisfaction."

Meng Yao didn't dare raise his head to look, but he noted that Xichen didn't reply to Lan Qiren. Fuck, they were going to kill him. Would anyone ask after him? Zixuan might, but Meng Yao knew exactly what Zixuan would be told. Meng Yao had, after all, updated the procedures to get rid of nosy relations. They were quite effective.

What could he say to save himself? "I regret my shortcomings."

Lan Qiren snorted in disgust, but Xichen was suddenly beside him. "Uncle, stop it. You can't expect the impossible. Why do you expect Meng Yao to control Wangji when you can't?"

Xichen offered his hand to help Meng Yao up from the chair. "Let me escort you home."

"Could we go to yours?"

"Of course."

Good, let the old man see he was under Xichen's protection. Hopefully that'd be enough to keep him from ordering Meng Yao's execution.