Come Back to Gusu

41. We can get married tonight.

"You could have told me the plan," Wei WuXian grumbled once he and his co-conspirators were out of the banquet hall and comfortably ensconced in Jiang YanLi's receiving room. "I felt like an idiot trying to figure out why Nie Xiong was pretending to be drunk."

Jiang WanYin gave him a look and buffed him across the shoulders. "We did. You were too busy making funny faces at my niece or lovesick ones at Lan WangJi instead of paying attention to what us grownups were discussing."

Wei WuXian glared at his sect leader. "I'm allowed to look at my husband."

"Future husband."

Jin ZiXuan sighed and moved Jin Ping from one shoulder to the other, patting her back softly. "To recap, since you weren't paying attention earlier: A'Li and I will do the official mourning stuff for my fake dearly departed brother. Nie HuaiSang has eyes and ears in most of the mid-sized sects and almost half of the smaller clans. He'll be collecting information as to where Jin GuangYao really is. If my half-brother is gathering an army of demonic cultivators, hopefully, we can find a way to infiltrate them. Jiang WanYin and Wen Qing's wedding will proceed as scheduled; A'Li and I will be a muted presence there, but we will attend.

"Wei WuXian, you had to announce the Tiger Seal was destroyed because that's also information that may lead to us discovering where Jin GuangYao is. Especially with Xue ChengMei dead. What has yet to be decided is when you and Lan WangJi will wed."

"I was thinking after Chunjie," Jiang YanLi added. "Or maybe next summer. Early summer when the weather is not too hot, but the water is warm enough for swimming."

"No," Lan WangJi and Wei WuXian both objected. "I'm not waiting more than half a year to get married," Wei WuXian continued.

"We can get married tonight," Lan WangJi offered.

Lan XiChen objected to that. "Uncle will want to see you marry."

"Then Uncle can come tonight to see us marry," Lan WangJi sounded like a toddler. Which would have been the funniest thing to happen except that Jin ZiXuan promptly handed his daughter over to the second jade and walked back to his wife. Wei WuXian burst out laughing at his husband's horrified face. Have you never held a baby before?

"My head disciple is not getting married in the middle of the night like it's something shameful," Jiang WanYin sided with his future brother-in-law. "The ceremony will be at Lotus Pier with all the crap every other sect heirs marrying each other deserve to have."

"Crap?" Jiang YanLi scowled at her brother.

"I don't need an elaborate ceremony," Wei WuXian insisted once he calmed down enough to speak. "Just the people here, really. I don't need all that..." he avoided his martial sister's ire by waving his hand in lieu of saying 'crap'.

Lan XiChen blinked his eyes at his brother, apparently disregarding whatever it was the second jade was emoting. "Didi, you should think about adopting an infant. You look quite settled holding a baby," he teased, with a more than slightly evil grin trying to take over his features. Then, "Can you wait until tomorrow? I can send a runner to Cloud Recesses tonight." To everyone, he added, "We in GusuLan have an additional ceremony that we consider equally as binding as the traditional three bows. We hold a handfasting ceremony, sometimes in conjunction with the bows and sometimes as a separate ceremony. I propose that Wangji and Wei WuXian have a simple handfasting ceremony tomorrow and a more formal wedding next spring or summer."

"Acceptable," Lan WangJi agreed, shifting Jin Ping to a more comfortable position where she could gaze lovingly at her mother instead of trying to grab his hair and ribbon.

"Unacceptable," Jiang WanYin argued. "Handfasting? It sounds like we'd be hiding that they're married. Or pretending that they're married."

"Handfasting is better than people seeing them sleeping in the same rooms, making the correct assumption that they're dual cultivating with each other every night and shaming themselves and their sects," Wen Qing interjected. When her future husband's face turned several shades of purple, she added, "I can tell Wei WuXian's core has increased in power over the last few days without even taking his pulse. Now that these idiots know they're betrothed to each other, they have no reason to not have sex whenever they feel like it." Wei WuXian could feel his own face heating up. How does she know? Is it that obvious?