At thirteen, Wei Ying creates an array he calls 'Time Reversal' which he uses to save Jiang Cheng from drowning. At fifteen, he dies in a tragic accident. Two years after that, Wen Ruohan has overcome the Nie-Lan-Jiang rebellion. The small clans as...
An auspicious wedding date was set nearly three months away. Lan Xichen read the letter from the matchmakers with a soft smile. "Wangji, this will give you and Wei Gongzi sufficient time to customize the ward for Bujing Shi and it will allow time for gossip to die down should you mutually decide this marriage is not what you want."
"Xiongzhang, with the betrothal and eventual marriage, Jiang Furen won't dare to harm Wei Ying anymore. She won't risk ruining the new trade agreements between our sects. Marriage between friends is preferable to marriage between strangers."
Lan Xichen smiled softly again. "To marry a good friend is not a bad thing. You can always divorce later when you find women to marry, I suppose."
"Divorce?" He hadn't thought of that. Of course Wei Ying will want to marry a woman and be a father. Do we really have to divorce for him to have that?
"Didi... concubines are not permitted by our Rules. When you or Wei Gongzi decide you want to have children or fall in love, you will need to divorce."
That night as he was preparing to sleep, he made a decision. I just won't want to have children then. Or fall in love with someone else. I'll fall in love with Wei Ying or no one. That felt right.
In three months they would be married and Wei Ying would move into the Jingshi. They could kiss whenever they liked.... Will he want to share a bed with me? The Jingshi was large enough to make room for a second bed. Or... they could build additional rooms around the back garden? What would it feel like to fall asleep next to him? If I was marrying a woman, we would be expected to sleep in the same bed.... At least until she became pregnant. He could feel his ears burning at that thought.
He'd confiscated sufficient spring books to know how women became pregnant. He'd even seen a few cut sleeve books, so he had an idea of how that worked too. Plus... that dream.... I'm pretty sure I'm a cut sleeve. I've never felt anything towards women except respect, never wondered what it would like to kiss one.
I've never felt like this about anyone else.
Is Wei Ying a cut sleeve? He flirts with women mostly. A few men, perhaps, when he's trying to haggle down a price.
He kissed me. First. When we went out on the lake that night, he was the one who.... He could feel his lips tingling in a ghostly remembrance of that night. If he didn't like me, at least a little bit like that, then... why would he do that? A kiss on the cheek, I suppose could be brotherly;
Xiongzhang hasn't kissed me on the cheek since I was four or five. Since before Muqin died.
A knock on his door interrupted his thoughts. "Lan Zhan? Are you awake?" Without waiting for an answer, Wei Wuxian slid the door open and slipped inside the room. "Oh. Lan Xichen. I apologize for intruding."
"It's fine," the elder responded. "I'll just leave you two to talk."
Alone, they both sat at the table and he began making tea to give his hands and mind something to do. "Did you need something?"
"Ummm. It's... I..." Wei Ying looked like he was constipated. "Are you sure?"
"About what?"
Wei Ying's face turned bright red. "About marriage. Jiang Shushu talked to me earlier. He said since I'm marrying in to Gusu Lan, I'm the one who's the bride and although even if I don't have to wear a veil if I don't want to..." so quietly it was almost inaudible, he added, "Jiang Shushu told me I have to be the woman in our marriage. And our marriage bed. He told me what's expected of me on our wedding night and how to prepare myself for you."
"Oh." he could feel his own ears heating up. "He told you how two men are together?" He received a frantic nod. "Wei Ying... we only have to do what we want to do. If all we want is to kiss, then... that's the marriage we have. If we want to share a bed or sleep separately, that's our decision. All I ask of you is to keep yourself to our marriage while it lasts. If there comes a time when you wish to marry a woman, I will grant you a divorce."
"So you don't want me to be your wife?"
"Wei Ying, you will be my husband. As I will be yours. Just so you know... I've never done... anything. I've never kissed anyone else. I've never thought of kissing anyone else.
"I promise I will stay true to you and you alone."
"By 'never done anything'... that means with another person, right? I've never done anything with anyone else, either."
He could feel his ears and face burning now. He shook his head wishing he could hide under his blankets or at least his hair. "I've never done anything."
Wei Ying leaned over the table, and then jerked back as the hot water steamed in his face. "But you do stuff when you're alone, right? You read a book and pretend you're the man in the story or you think about a pretty girl you've met and..." He made a crude gesture.
He couldn't answer. It was too embarrassing. Instead he focused on making tea, carefully measuring out the leaves, warming the pot and cups. Surely, waking up needing to change his sleeping clothes didn't really count as 'doing stuff' as he wasn't awake when he did it.
"Lan Zhan... It's okay that you haven't. I guess monks are taught to ignore that. You do know how men are together?"
This he could answer with a positive sounding, "Mmm."
"We can learn how to be married to each other together?"
Wei Ying sounded like he was smiling again, so he looked up hoping his face had returned to its proper coloring. I love seeing you smile. I love the way your eyes get all squishy. Someday maybe I'll kiss them when you're smiling. Would you like that? He handed over a cup of perfectly brewed tea. "Together."
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Dear readers.
Engaged! And difficult questions starting to be asked and answered.
I have to spend some time working on finishing up Gusu. JC and JZX sat me down the other day and demanded they have a very important conversation, so now I have to figure out how to get that into what's already been written. Write the final chapter seems to take longer than write smut at times. So don't expect the next chapter until Monday.
Speaking of smut... I'm not sure how detailed I'm going to go in this story. Right now, WWX is wearing something NSFW and LWJ is hiding his face in his hands and peeking through his fingers. Both are blushing like crazy and hesitating over whether they want me to write what comes next or if they would prefer a fade to black and let you provide the intimate details.
