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Shijie had told Wei Wuxian not to interfere. She’d said, “Let A-Cheng have a friend of his own.”
But surely, Wei Wuxian thinks to himself, merely observing doesn’t count as interfering, right? He won’t interrupt; he just wants to make sure whoever Jiang Cheng is meeting with isn’t some sort of unsavory character.
Beneath Jiang Cheng’s prickly exterior lies a fragile heart. As his shixiong, Wei Wuxian has a duty to protect it, and it’s a duty he doesn’t intend to shirk.
He follows Jiang Cheng as he rows out to a secluded cove, first hitching a ride with a few bemused but tolerant older disciples in their boat and then slipping into the water as the number of boats dwindles until only Jiang Cheng’s is left.
Jiang Cheng rows to a little cove that is a popular spot for lovers to rendezvous due to its secluded location and the thick garden of lotuses growing there that gives it a rather romantic atmosphere. With every stroke he swims after Jiang Cheng’s boat, Wei Wuxian’s heart grows colder and colder with dread. Could it be that some huli jing has ensnared Jiang Cheng in her clutches, intent on becoming the next madam of Lotus Pier?
Not on Wei Wuxian’s watch!
He hides behind a particularly thick patch of lotuses and treads water as he waits for Jiang Cheng’s paramour to show herself. No fair maiden appears…but the water near Jiang Cheng’s boat begins to ripple as a strange creature surfaces. At first, Wei Wuxian thinks it’s just a water snake, if an unusually large one, but the longer he looks, the more he realizes that it’s something far stranger. What water snake, after all, has a human head?
Jiang Cheng doesn’t seem to see it. In fact, to Wei Wuxian’s horror, he even leans over the side of his boat and trails his fingers through the water.
“Jiang Cheng, no!” Wei Wuxian shouts.
With a powerful thrust of its long tail, the creature bursts into action, speeding through the water towards Wei Wuxian. Though Wei Wuxian is a powerful swimmer in his own right, there’s no way he could ever swim away fast enough. Time seems to slow as the creature launches itself from the water towards him in all of its deformed glory. Wei Wuxian can only mourn that its bloated, misshapen face will be the last thing he ever sees.
“Little Noodle, stop!”
At Jiang Cheng’s cry, the creature manages to twist in midair at the very last second. It flops back into the water with a splash. As Jiang Cheng rows over to drag Wei Wuxian into his boat, scolding him all the while, Wei Wuxian can see the thing swimming just beneath the surface of the water. He thinks he can spy a pair of baleful yellow eyes glaring up at him.
“…did you call that thing ‘Little Noodle’?” He asks, interrupting Jiang Cheng’s tirade.
Jiang Cheng flushes.
“That’s his name!”
Wei Wuxian snorts. “What kind of name is ‘Little Noodle’?”
“You named your sword ‘whatever’!” Jiang Cheng huffs. He leans over the edge of the boat, speaking towards the water. A face comes up to greet him, though it doesn’t breach the water’s surface. “Don’t listen to him, Little Noodle. As long as you like your name, that’s enough.”
Wei Wuxian peers over Jiang Cheng’s shoulder.
“I think that’s the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen,” he comments.
Up close, even partially obscured beneath the water, the creature is even more hideous. What Wei Wuxian can see of it is more than enough to turn his stomach. From what he can tell, it seems to be some ungodly amalgamation of a person and a water snake. Its body is long and serpentine, trailing off into the depths below. Unlike a true snake, however, it doesn’t have a thick covering of scales; its scales are in patches at best. Beneath them is skin so pale it almost seems to glow, along with the occasional patch of moss or lichen.
Its head is not connected to the rest of its body by any sort of neck; it simply seems to sprout awkwardly from the rest of its body. Its face is roughly humanoid, with front-facing eyes and a thin slash for a mouth. It even has a sparse covering of dark hair across its scalp. However, there’s something slightly off in the shape of its jaw. Wei Wuxian sees why as soon as the creature unhinges its jaws to hiss at him.
“Shut up!” Jiang Cheng growls. He punches Wei Wuxian in the shoulder. “Have you looked in the mirror lately?”
“I know you did not just compare me with that thing,” Wei Wuxian says. He gives Jiang Cheng a shove, which escalates into a scuffle that threatens to capsize the boat. Wei Wuxian surrenders at this point because he is a magnanimous older brother, and also he suspects that Little Noodle will attack again if he ends up back in the water. He’s not so sure Jiang Cheng would call the creature off a second time, either.
“…what even is it?” He pants, flopping onto his back on the bottom of the boat. “Some kind of yao?”
Jiang Cheng, collapsing beside him, shrugs as much as he can while lying flat on his back.
“I think he’s a water snake that tried to cultivate a human form but got…stuck,” he says. “He doesn’t always look the same; the more qi he’s able to absorb, the more he can alter his appearance.”
Wei Wuxian snorts. “He can change his appearance and still looks like that?”
“Shut up,” Jiang Cheng grumbles. “He can hear you!”
There’s a thump against the bottom of the boat, right beneath Wei Wuxian’s head, as if Little Noodle is emphasizing his point.
“He was injured when I found him, so he’s been focused on healing,” Jiang Cheng continues. “The ambient qi from the lake has helped. And I-“
He cuts himself off, pressing his lips together and avoiding Wei Wuxian’s gaze.
Wei Wuxian sits up slowly.
“Jiang Cheng,” he says. He looms over Jiang Cheng, who stubbornly continues to avoid his eyes. “Have you been giving qi to this thing?”
“I knew you would freak out,” Jiang Cheng grumbles. “It’s not a big deal. I’m a cultivator just like you; I can spare a bit of qi every now and again. And how is it even different from you wasting your qi on your dumb experiments-“
He keeps talking, but Wei Wuxian isn’t listening. His hands curl into fists.
His poor shidi. For a minute there, he’d almost believed that Jiang Cheng had just found a new (if strange and unsettling) pet to play with. But instead, he’s been targeted by a shameless parasite!
“Little Noodle!” He shouts, leaning over the side of the boat. Suibian vibrates at his hip, just as eager to avenge Jiang Cheng’s honor as he is. “How dare you steal Jiang Cheng’s essence? You huli jing!”
He’d been worried about a metaphorical huli jing taking advantage of Jiang Cheng, but it seems like Jiang Cheng has been targeted by a creature not too far off from the real thing.
Little Noodle’s yellow eyes widen at his words. Somehow, perhaps due to the sheer intensity of the emotion, his misshapen face manages to convey utter shock.
Jiang Cheng, meanwhile, is sputtering.
“Wei Wuxian!” He bellows. “‘My essence’-what are you even saying?”
“Don’t worry, Jiang Cheng,” Wei Wuxian tells him. “Once I kill this thing, no one will have to know that your virtue has been besmirched-“
Little Noodle’s long tail sweeps out of the water in a wide arc. A wall of water hits Wei Wuxian in the face, knocking him back onto his behind in the boat. Not even a single drop lands on Jiang Cheng.
The creature doesn’t wait to see his handiwork. He vanishes back into the water, vanishing into the depths below.
“Now look what you’ve done,” snaps a still red-faced Jiang Cheng. “You scared him off!”
Wei Wuxian reaches up to pat him on the hand.
“There, there,” he consoles. “There are plenty of fish-er, snakes-in the sea. One day, you’ll find someone who likes you for more than your qi-“
The ensuing squabble ends with the boat flipped, and both of them in the water. The commotion draws the attention of every creature living in the lake-that is, except for the snakelike creature determinedly hiding in the silt.