Chapter 4 - Meeting With The Grandmaster

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Lan WangJi and Wei WuXian followed Lan XiChen to the residence of Lan QiRen.

Once again, many eyes followed their every move across the grounds of Cloud Recesses. Coverings twitched at windows and doors in their wake. Wei WuXian shuddered and gripped Lan WangJi's hand a little more tightly as he leaned on his shoulder. It was like being watched by ghosts, unseen but felt in the weight of their gaze. Already feeling vulnerable, on arriving at the home of Lan QiRen Wei WuXian found himself slipping a little further back, behind Lan XiChen and as close to Lan WangJi as possible.

Wei WuXian and Lan QiRen had quite a history. The Grandmaster had nearly despaired of teaching a young Wei WuXian any decorum or proper conduct befitting a Cultivator and had exercised every punitive means possible to pound lessons into the brilliant but distracted mind of the young teen. He'd taken his methods of increasingly harsh and even unstinting corporal correction to the furthest degree possible in his attempts to force or even beat a Cultivator's correct bearing into his wayward pupil. For his part, Wei WuXian felt his own conduct acceptable for someone barely past childhood and he found the restrictions of Cloud Recesses both excessive and unreasonable. It was a personality clash of epic proportions and only ended when Wei WuXian was dismissed in disgrace to return to Lotus Pier, at which point Lan QiRen had washed his hands of him.

Subsequent events – Demonic Cultivation, turning the very tide of war, succouring the Wen remnants against calls for their annihilation – did nothing to rehabilitate Wei WuXian in the Grandmaster's eyes. He could not see beyond the Demonic Cultivation, through a lens of his previously determined distaste for Wei WuXian. Even if Lan QiRen had known that Wei WuXian's golden Core had been sacrificed on the altar of brotherly love – a secret known by only three individuals; one undead - Wen Qionglin, and two living - Lan WangJi and Wei WuXian himself - survival itself was not grounds for the use of Demonic Cultivation in the Grandmaster's eyes. 

 Wei WuXian respected Lan QiRen – for raising two wonderful nephews in Lan XiChen and Lan WangJi, for shouldering the running of the Gusu Lan Sect while Lan XiChen was too young, for his knowledge and his adherence to his own moral code – but he could not forget how judgmental Lan QiRen was by nature and he was more than a little nervous to greet him, now he was married to one of those precious nephews.

Lan XiChen knocked gently at the entrance to the Grandmaster's quarters, and drew open the doors once the usual polite, if brief, "Enter" was heard.

Lan XiChen entered first, followed by Lan WangJi and then Wei WuXian. Each made their bow to Lan QiRen, sitting in stately fashion behind his desk. When the Grandmaster saw Wei WuXian's face, he blanched, and his breath quickened. Even having set eyes on Wei WuXian's remade features in the Jingshi had apparently not gotten him past the ability to be shocked by the sight. Almost immediately he was back in control of himself once more, although his eyes never left Wei WuXian. On his dignity, as was his usual, the Grandmaster responded to the polite greetings with a mere nod of his head and a gesture toward the table set in the open area before his own desk. Once everyone was seated, a servant brought the makings of tea. The servant placed everything neatly on the table before bowing his exit and softly closing the door behind him as he left.

Wei WuXian was happy to busy his hands with the tea-making. He carefully measured out the tea leaves, added the water and quietly counted in his head to ensure a proper brew. The Grandmaster's still silence was making him nervous, and the task was welcome to occupy both his mind and hands. When the tea was ready, he poured it out and, after first serving the Grandmaster, he then set a cup before Lan XiChen and Lan WangJi in turn, before taking one himself and settling on a cushion beside his husband. By this point the silence felt undeniably awkward and the two Jades were shooting telling looks at each other, as if prompting each other to take the first step in opening the topics necessary for discussion. A few minutes longer and Wei WuXian broke under the strain.

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