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“Is it really true that the Lan Sect lets the Yiling Laozu roam free in Cloud Recesses?” a guest disciple whispers with wide eyes.
“‘Roam free?!'” Lan Jingyi sputters indignantly. “What is he, a dog? Wei-qianbei1 is a member of our sect! He’s married to Hanguang-jun! What are you implying?!”
“Jingyi,” Lan Sizhui reprimands calmly as Lan Jingyi’s voice slowly rises in volume.
“Sizhui you’re not really defending this buffoon are you?!”
Lan Sizhui just sighs, but Lan Jingyi can tell he’s peeved as well.
“Is it really that outrageous a statement?” another guest disciple asks.
“Yes!” Lan Jingyi snaps.
“Wei-qianbei is a valued member of our sect,” Lan Sizhui repeats. “It is against Gusu Lan’s principles to disrespect seniors.”
“That’s right!” Lan Jingyi says triumphantly. “You should be lucky Hanguang-jun didn’t hear you say such things—you’d be sentenced to writing lines your entire time in Gusu!”
The guest disciples pale at the thought of months of writing rules until their hands cramp and promptly clamp their mouths shut, but Lan Jingyi still doesn’t think they’ve understood how ridiculous they’ve been.
“You must not have actually met Wei-qianbei before if you’re saying these things—he’s the best senior for nighthunts! Everyone is always extra excited when he’s the one who takes us!”
“That’s true!” an outer Lan disciple pipes up. “Wei-qianbei is the most fun on nighthunts and yet also I feel I learn the most from him! Do you remember when we came across that yao2 in Guangling? He was so cool!”
“Yeah!” an inner disciple adds, the original conversation completely forgotten at this point. “You hear all these stories about his terrible, wicked ways, but no one ever mentioned how cool he is! He tricked that yao into trapping itself in its own den so we were able to easily deal with it! Who else could even do such a thing?”
Lan Jingyi nods along enthusiastically as his shidi3 and shixiong4 speak, and Lan Sizhui looks on in approval.
“But… isn’t he… evil?” a guest disciple asks, voice purely confusion as opposed to malice.
“Are you stupid?” Lan Jingyi huffs. “Don’t you remember the second siege of the Burial Mounds when he saved everyone?! Gossip is forbidden in Cloud Recesses and even we know his name has been more or less cleared after everything that happened with Lianfang-zun!”
Lan Sizhui doesn’t reprimand his rude words or his louder than appropriate voice. If anything, he’s giving the guest disciples a look daring them to disagree.
“Er… right,” the guest disciple musters up.
“That’s right! Wei-qianbei is the best, you better get that through your skull!”
“Jingyi,” Lan Sizhui murmurs beside him.
“What? So what I’ve broken a few rules, it’s not as if Hanguang-jun is—Ah, H-Hanguang-jun!” Lan Jingyi hastily salutes like the others around him. “I wasn’t shouting… Well, I was a little, but…”
“Do not speak ill of others,” Hanguang-jun says.
Lan Jingyi blinks, then realizes the reprimand isn’t meant for him. He waits for his own but…
Hanguang-jun nods and continues on his way.
“Is he really not going to punish shixiong?” one of his shidi murmur behind him.
“Looks like it…”
“Because I didn’t do anything worth punishing!” Lan Jingyi says proudly. “I’m right and even Hanguang-jun knows it.”
“Well, obviously Hanguang-jun doesn’t think his own husband is evil,” someone says.
“I don’t know, I’m pretty sure both my parents think the other is evil,” another muses out loud.
“Maybe Hanguang-jun is just into that,” yet another says, which is where Lan Jingyi feels his indignation start to rise again.
“What are you even saying?” Lan Jingyi huffs. “You ran out of bad things to say about Wei-qianbei so now you’re going to make weird comments about Hanguang-jun?”
“What? No! I would never!” the disciple is hasty to explain, eyes searching frantically to make sure Hanguang-jun isn’t still lurking around.
“Where was all that indignation when we told you to lay off Wei-qianbei?” an inner disciple asks crossly. “They’re both our seniors! You should respect them both!”
“But Wei Wuxian doesn’t even wield a sword,” a guest disciple points out. “Even if he’s not evil, how can one even be considered a respectable cultivator without a spiritual sword?”
“You have something to learn from Gusu Lan it seems since you’re operating off of gossip! If you had waited until you’d actually gone on a nighthunt with Wei-qianbei to make opinions about him then you would know he’s taken up a sword again!” a different disciple scoffs.
None of them are really strictly following Gusu Lan’s rules right now, but Lan Jingyi finds himself agreeing with the sentiment regardless.
“Really?” a guest disciple asks. “Why? ...Why did he even stop in the first place?”
“None of your business!” Lan Jingyi scolds, to cover up the fact that he has no idea. “In this life at least, Wei-qianbei came back with a weaker core, so he couldn’t cultivate with a sword for a while. But he’s been practicing a lot, and now he uses it all the time! Honestly, it’s so late in life to be cultivating a core so much but he’s done a lot, it’s really impressive.”
“And his sword skills are still so good! It must’ve been years since he’d wielded a sword but his technique is nearly as good as Hanguang-jun’s!”
“Do you remember that duel he had with that stupid rogue cultivator a few weeks back?”
“The one that was saying all those nasty things about him and Hanguang-jun?”
“Yeah! Honestly, I was ready to beat him up myself, but there was no need! Wei-qianbei absolutely humiliated him in the duel; if that cultivator hadn’t been such a horrible person I would’ve felt bad for him!”
“Is he really that good?” one of the guest disciples that Lan Jingyi had felt an urge to punch earlier asks, a little starry-eyed.
“You can see for yourself, he’s leading the nighthunt next week!”
The guest disciples start chattering excitedly to themselves, their previous trepidations now completely forgotten in favor of the anticipation of getting to watch a master swordsman up close.
Lan Jingyi grins to himself, satisfied at his skill in defending his seniors. His fellow Lans show their emotions less obviously, but Lan Jingyi can tell they’re quite pleased with the turn of events as well. After all, Gusu Lan takes care of their own and Wei Wuxian is nothing if not a Lan.