Work Text:
The days are getting warmer before cooling down in preparation for autumn. Even the Lans are not completely immune to the might of the tiger of the fall, and Lan Zhan is lying on the cool floor of Jingshi in just his underclothes, his eyes closed. His hair is in a braid, and the stray bits of hair sway softly in the wind as Wei Wuxian dutifully fans his tuanshan over him.
“Wei Ying,”
“Mm?”
“Let’s go on a trip?”
Wei Wuxian is taken aback for a second by the sudden request, and stops fanning.
“Lan’er gege, what…right now?”
Lan Zhan rolls on to a cooler spot on the floor which brings him closer to Wei Wuxian -maybe that’s the reason to begin with- and puts his head on Wei Wuxian’s thighs. He bites back a smile, it’s not often that Lan Zhan becomes tactile like this and he’s not going to comment on it and make Lan Zhan feel self-conscious.
“Not right now. But I can take a leave” Lan Zhan says, leaning into Wei Wuxian’s fingers smoothing out the damp hair strands on his forehead. He’s like a cat. “We can go wherever you want.”
“Wherever I want?”
“Mn. And eat whatever you want too”
“Lan Zhan, what brought this on?” Wei Wuxian asks, feeling wrong-footed. “It’s not my birthday… do you feel like maybe I’m not happy here? You don’t have to worry about…”
“I just want to spend a day doing things that you like to do” Lan Zhan says. “You’ve been in Cloud Recesses for a while now, living this life, and I think it’s about time I do the same.”
“Sweetheart, have I ever been complaining?” Wei Wuxian reprimands. “I mean I guess I do, but not really. And I’m used to living in different places, living different lives, and it’s not like you are constraining me in any way. You are not forcing me to follow your rules, or making me eat your bland food. There’s nothing you have to compensate for.”
Lan Zhan sits up. He looks frustrated, and spends few inelegant (as much as Hanguang jun can be) seconds trying to form his sentences.
“It’s not the same. Not really.” He says. “Even though we have managed to convert the living conditions here to cater to your taste as much as it is for mine, the… atmosphere, the entire place… puts me at more advantage sometimes”
“Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian leans to look at his face, beginning to understand. “Are you saying you want to visit Yunmeng?”
Lan Zhan cannot stop making a slight grimace.
“Maybe not really Yunmeng, then” Wei Wuxian smiles, good-natured. “But somewhere close by, living the life I used to live for a day?”
“Mn”
“We will have to make a visit to Jiang Cheng too though. He’ll be unhappy to hear I passed by without saying a word”
“He is always unhappy,” Lan Zhan mumbles. “But yes. Necessary sacrifices will have to be made.”
Wei Wuxian giggles.
“Good boy,” he praises. “It won’t be so bad.”
“Hm”
“Lan Zhan, are you really saying you will let me drag you around for a whole day! And doing things I do!?”
“Mn.”
“You really want that? You don’t have to do it, you know?”
“Want to”
“You don’t know what you are asking for!”
“Maybe,” Lan Zhan is already looking quite satisfied at Wei Wuxian’s obviously delight. “I will consider anything with you to be a privilege, regardless.”
“Unfair!” Wei Wuxian squeals, covering his face. “Er ge, take pity on your poor husband. Warn me next time before you suddenly say things like that, my heart can’t take it!”
“Mn”, Lan Wangji agrees and picks up the tuanshan and takes over fanning.
........
🌶
They wait until the Tiger-days are over, for the weather to be more pleasant for an outing. Wei Wuxian plans meticulously. He sends a letter to Jiang Cheng, buys some cheap fabric to make two inconspicuous peasant outfits for him and Lan Zhan. On the morning of the outing he wakes up at mao shi without complaining, and dresses himself up. He braids Lan Zhan’s hair to a common topknot who sits patiently as ever, without letting on whatever curiosity he has about Wei Wuxian’s plans. They mount Bichen, and Wei Wuxian points westwards and yells; “To Jinghubei!”.
Then he promptly leans against Lan Zhan’s chest and falls asleep for the rest of the journey, secure and trusting.
The sun is high when they land. It’s rural area close by Yunmeng but not quite under its jurisdiction. Wei Wuxian immediately sets on locating a restaurant for lunch.
The restaurant is bustling, and they take the only available table which is not in a preferred quiet corner but rather in the middle. All the customers seem to be locals- farmers, in ragged sweaty clothes and messy windblown hair and the place is filled with loud talking and the sounds of plates clattering and the employers shouting orders. A waiter boy hurries to take their orders.
“What do you have here?” Wei Wuxian asks and the boy trips for a second over words.
“Uh, Rè gān miàn, fish stew, fried crayfish..”
Wei Wuxian nods. Hubei cuisine mostly seeks to keep the original taste of food and is not that spicy, Lan Zhan must be able to handle at least the stew, especially now that his spice tolerance is bit higher after years of living with Wei Wuxian.
But when the food arrives, every single dish is bright red. Firy glaze sheens on the noodles and crayfish and there are red oil bubbles in the stew.
“Ahahaha…” Wei Wuxian nervously laughs. Lan Zhan’s face has turned pink just from the sharp steam. “Did the food get spicier during the time I was away”
“Oy, xiao haizi” an uncle from the nearby table calls. “You not from around?”
“I’m from Yunmeng, da shu” Wei Wuxian says. “I married to my husband’s, we came on a trip here today. I don’t remember this much chili being used here, though”
“It’s Shaiqiu, master” the waiter boy says. “We do tend to use bit more than usual, it’s the season after all”
“It’s the time of drying crops under sun”, Lan Zhan breathes in understanding. “I remember, yards full of chili in Gusu too”
“Young man, you from Suzhou?” the uncle asks. “Aiyah, this is nothing for you then. Suzhou food is much spicier!”
Lan Zhan’s eartips get red.
“Lan Zhan’s family doesn’t use spices,” Wei Wuxian explains, taking a piece of fish onto his rice bowl and quickly wipes off the excess red with rice and tries a bit. Manageable. He puts the cleaned chunk on Lan Zhan’s.
“How strange, is your family monks?”
“Ehehei,” Wei Wuxian giggles, continuously loading Lan Zhan’s bowl with fish wiped off of chili oil. “That’s fine, I eat chili for all of them”
By the time lunch is over Lan Zhan is surreptitiously breathing through mouth and trying to keep his nose from running. The uncle tsks.
“You two heading to Yunmeng right after?” he asks. “Or got a place to stay the night?”
“We are not really in a hurry, shushu” Wei Wuxian says refilling Lan Zhan’s bowl of water. “We were going to maybe walk around… then maybe find a place to sleep… under a tree is good too!”
“Young men these days with too much time to waste,” the man huffs. “My place can use an extra hand or two today. If you come over, we have an empty barn. There’s the lake to take a bath in. And my wife is going to make lotus root and pork rib soup tonight. Looks like your husband might enjoy it better.”
Wei Wuxian opens his mouth to protest- he wouldn’t mind, but love to in fact: he enjoys the soreness in arms that come from a good day in fields under sun. And free homecooked meals are always welcome! But Lan Zhan shouldn’t have to work on their holiday.
“Thank you for your kindness,” Lan Zhan bows to the man. “We would like to. My husband has especially been craving the soup of his home, I can never make it the same way”
“Aiya Lan Zhan, you…”
“Wei Ying doesn’t want to?” Lan Zhan asks, eyes smiling knowingly. Ah, he has seen through him, as always.
“You are going to regret this, Lan’er gongzi,” Wei Wuxian whispers later, following the uncle -now Li shushu- out the restaurant. “Do you know what it’s like to be all dirty and sweaty doing farmwork? It is very different from sword practicing!”
“Hmm,” Lan Zhan says serenely. “We will see.”
…….
🌶
In the end Lan Wangji does end up getting beaten, not from the exhaustion but from the sharp sensation of spice that shoots through his fingers by handling too much chili with his bare hands, too unusual and not really a focused pain to dispel using his inner Qi, but strong enough regardless.
Too much means the fifteen bamboo trays he flattened chili on to dry under sun (that’s what Li shushu was in town for: to buy more trays. His yield this season was larger than he expected and he hadn’t prepared enough trays beforehand), and then the pain made itself known and it has only steadily increased ever since.
He tries not to pout as Wei Ying laughs at him, along with Li shushu, Lao He and Ding Ma, the two other workers.
Wei Ying wipes tears on his own shoulder and takes Lan Wangji’s hands and blows on them. Lao He and Ding Ma pretend to gag.
“That’s not going to work,” Li shushu shakes his head. “Go tell a-yi and dunk your hands in cold water. Then help her there in the kitchen.”
This is not how he thought their holiday would go, Lan Wangji thinks forlornly as he separates from Wei Ying.
“I will try to finish soon and join you, Lan Zhan!” Wei Ying says and kisses his cheek.
“Ei? You wish. We have lot more to do!” Li shushu says as the other two pretend to gag again.
Li shushu’s wife is Zeng a-yi, who is washing muddy lotus roots in huge basins with A-Xun and Jiajia who are the sister and wife of the other men. Lan Wangji hesitantly explains his situation and they also laugh a bit before telling him to join them in washing the lotus roots.
Zeng a-yi is sympathetic and kind and tells him she was the same when she first married in here as a young girl with shiny hair and plump cheeks just like Lan Wangji. He blushes and bows his head to acknowledge the compliment and also to avert his eyes. They talk to Lan Wangji about the best time to harvest lotus roots, how it’s important to unearth the entire humongous roots without breaking them because they spoil faster if contaminated with mud and he listens as he carefully scrubs the roots till they are shining white. After a while the skin of his palm wrinkles and the spice-pain completely passes.
After that, A-Xun and Jiajia start the process of pickling chopped roots with chili and storing them in clay jars, and Lan Wangji sticks to Zeng a-yi who teaches him how to spread minced fish and scallion paste between two thin slices of lotus roots, dip them in batter and fry in oil.
By the time Wei Ying comes barrelling to the kitchen, -finally freed by Li shushu but not that quickly, it’s close to the sunset anyway-, they have steaming pot of fresh rice and a bubbling cauldron of lotus root and pork rib soup to making of which also Lan Wangji paid careful attention.
“Hey, hey, hey, wash your face and hands first!” Zeng a-yi yells while A-Xun dreamily sighs again about how unfair it is to have the two most handsome geges she has ever seen in one room in close proximity, but none are available to grab. Lan Wangji is secretly smug that Wei Ying is his alone to grab.
“I’m sure a beautiful meimei like you will soon meet a handsome lord of your own,” Wei Ying offers, his voice garbled through the rug he’s drying his face with.
“Or a lady,” he adds thoughtfully, looking fondly at Lan Wangji. He gravitates towards the soup pot and inhales.
“How is it? Smells like you remember?” a-yi asks. “I heard this is your favorite from hometown?”
“My jie made it often,” Wei Ying says with a sad smile on his face. “After.. after she was gone I never quite got the chance to… I mean Lan Zhan has tried..”
“Here, here” she grabs a bowl and quickly fills it with hot soup and chunks of ribs and roots. “Sit sit, give it a try.”
Wei Ying tentatively takes a sip. Then another. He gulps something bigger than the soup he took in his mouth and blinks and looks away. “Tasty,” he mumbles. “Very close”
“Well, I’m not your jie, I doubt anyone can make it the exact same, right?” she gives his shoulder a pat. “Eat a lot. Your husband here helped to make them.”
Wei Ying says nothing but leans quietly towards Lan Wangji’s body in a grateful half-hug before straightening and draining the bowl to the last drop, and Lan Wangji suddenly feels very happy he suggested this getaway.
........
🌶
Later, they retire to the empty barn with heaps of blankets and a mattress and a big pillow (Wei Wuxian tried to refuse: “We can use our bags and clothes, a-yi”, and she said: “Hush, just don’t sully them. If you do, you are washing them before leaving” and they blushed and scampered away with a quick yesthankyou). It’s supposedly a cold room for food in heights of summer, with a small pond-like section of the bigger lake behind it, surrounded by shade of willows which provides year-around cool breeze.
Wei Wuxian is barely held back by Lan Zhan before he jumps in with glee the moment he sees the pool. After confirming it’s safe from both natural and supernatural hazards, they both go in, Wei Wuxian lets out a loud satisfied moan while Lan Zhan lets out a long breath; which is his version. They soak till moon rises from horizon, and baby fish get used to them and come pecking curiously at their skin.
They make a small contained fire inside the room and huddle on the sun-dried mattress in their sleep clothes, and Wei Wuxian takes out their travel comb and starts the methodic ritual of running it through Lan Zhan’s hair a hundred times.
“All the meridians converge in head, and all the acupoints will open and blood will flow well through the channels and my husband will be free from all diseases. Shijie taught me.” He narates, sing-song. “Also it will make his hair the shiniest.”
“Mn, your efforts have paid off.”
“Oh?”
“Zeng a-yi says my hair is shiny”
Wei Wuxian shrieks and hugs Lan Zhan’s back. “Noone is prouder than me when my gorgeous husband is appreciated by people! As he should be!”
“Hm,” Lan Zhan amicably allows.
“What else did she say?”
“…….”
Wei Wuxian prods Lan Zhan’s back.
“…she says I have plump cheeks”
Wei Wuxian roars in laughter. “I’m definitely telling that to your xiongzhang. And uncle” he says, plopping in front of Lan Zhan and grasping at his cheeks which mould like putty while Lan Zhan suffers but sits patiently through it.
Then he shifts the tone in his voice. “But Lan Zhan’s plump cheeks belong to me now”
Lan Zhan looks up, his gaze suddenly hooded. “Mn.”
“These soft, snow like cheeks. That I want to bite.”
“Mn.”
“All mine”
“Mn.”
They don’t talk for a while after that.
.......
🌶
Later, the moon is high and peeks through the rafters high up the wall and paint them in soft blue glow as they cuddle, whispering even though they are the only occupants in near vicinity save for one or two fireflies in the room.
“Do you think maybe Jiang Wanyin knows the recipe of your shijie?” Lan Wangji asks.
“What, you are going to ask him?”
Lan Wangji runs his hand across Wei Ying’s back, who is mirroring him.
“But you hate him!”
“Allowances can be made.”
“Aiyah, Lan Zhan” Wei Ying rubs softly at his hip, which reignites the pleasant soreness there. “You know you what you already have done is more than enough for me right?”
“Can do more”
“It is fine. It really is fine. Today was great! I really loved all the food, especially the soup. Did you help making that too?”
“Mn. I learned the proper way to make it.”
“Amazing! Now you can make it for me often!”
“But it’s not your shijie’s” Lan Wangji contemplates.
“No. But it’s my husband’s” Wei Ying’s voice is soft in the dark. “With time and practice it’ll become even better.”
“Hm,” Lan Wangji says, after thinking for a second. “Want to make shijie’s soup too for Wei Ying.”
“Okay, you perfectionist,” Wei Ying gives up, sounding exasperated but loving. “Hey Lan Zhan,”
“Mn?”
“Do you think once you retire- not soon-and I love our life right now- but one day….”
“Yes?”
“Do you think you’d like a life like this?” Wei Ying murmurs. “In a small farm of our own… with a patch of vegetables… I can hunt too. And a pig. And a couple of hens. Not a rooster though! I still don’t want to wake up at ungodly hours!”
“Want bunnies too”
Wei Ying rises on his elbows and looks down at him. “Yeah?”
“Yes, Wei Ying” Lan Wangji touches his face. His features are blurred soft but so, so, adored in the autumn moonlight. “I meant it when I said I want everything with you.”
Wei Ying makes a choked sound and smothers Lan Wangji in a tight hug, which he returns in equal strength and feeling.
Much late into the night Lan Wangji awakens from sleep by an unusual tingling feeling on his skin. With returning focus he registers it’s everywhere…. his hips and belly and thighs and arms…..
Oh dear.
Wei Ying is also stirred, he probably wasn’t yet in deep sleep. “Lan Zhan?” he groggily asks. “Is something wrong?”
“How much chili did you handle today?”
“Uhh… a lot? Around fifty trays?”
“I didn’t imagine the spice can stay in hands even after bathing…” Lan Wangji breathes. “I think… everywhere you touched..”
Wei Ying jerks up. “Oh my gods… Lan Zhan! Does it hurt? What should I do!”
“No, doesn’t hurt.” Lan Wangji shakes his head. “Thankfully. But enough so I know it’s there. Also how much chili did you eat tonight?”
“Ai… Aiyooh my poor husband!” Wei Wuxian says, now less concerned, more awake and worryingly playful. “What can I do for him! If I kisses all his ouchies will they go away?”
“Wei Ying, don’t!” Lan Wangji says, already scooting away, but Wei Ying pounces on him.
“Here? Here?”
“Mmmph, Wei Ying...!”
“Here?” Wei Ying giggles, kissing and blowing raspberries everywhere he can reach with loud noises. “Come now Lan Zhan, don’t be shy! Tell your Wei Ying so he can make all the bad ouchies go away!”
Lan Wangji sighs, resigned to his fate. Truly, he did say he wants everything with his Wei Ying. And he is nothing if not a man of his word.
.........
🌶