Come Back to Gusu

40. Or we did something right?

"Mmm," Lan WangJi agreed. "There are worse ways to die."

Wei WuXian blinked at his husband for a few moments before falling over in laughter. "I adore you the most when you make jokes. You sound so normal and.... My stomach hurts." He chortled for a bit more, holding his stomach. "Why does no one else know you're so funny?"

Lan WangJi shrugged and set the critter down with a shooing motion. "We should burn what needs to be burned and return to Lanling. I want a bath."

Food, water, their cleaner robes, and anything in the tent not covered with semen were salvaged. The rest was burned in one large pyre, including Xue Yang's corpse. Talismans to make the fire burn hotter than normal allowed it to turn to ash far more quickly than it should have taken. The array around the former Tiger Seal was removed and the inert remains shoved into a qiankun pouch. They used some of the water to wash most of the icky feeling off their skins. They ate the food and drank the last of the water for energy. Then Wei WuXian teleported them back to Koi Tower.

~*~

Wei WuXian was still feeling exhausted. Even after a prolonged bath, food, a full night of sleep, a second prolonged bath, more food, a morning nap, still more food, and a full shichen spent cuddling Jin Ping wasn't sufficient to bring his energy levels up to normal. He picked at the food on the table before him, letting the noise of the clan and sect leaders and their attendants bickering over the newest set of nonsense wash over him. "How come no one has seen Jin GuangShan lately?" roused him from his thoughts.

"The man caught a disease that affects his mind from a whore," another answered. "Do you really think his family should parade him around?"

The first one sneered. "We have Jin ZiXuan's word for that. Did you notice? How everyone who stood in his way to become sect leader has vanished, died, or is supposedly too ill to be seen in public?"

"Who stood in his way?" a third voice scoffed. "He is the only legitimate son of Jin GuangShan. It's a blessing that pervert is finally tucked away from decent people. A man has needs, yes. Get a wife. Have ten! Have concubines. Do you know how many women have showed up here with pearls he gave them asking for their children to be recognised? He has no morals, no scruples. He'd fuck virgins, other men's wives, and whores equally."

The first one laughed harshly. "You just say that because your daughter has a pearl."

"You'd think the same way, too, if you discovered one in your wife's belongings!"

Wei WuXian looked at the trio; the first one, now protesting that his wife would never betray him, was not wearing Jin colors. "I'm just questioning here..." the first one continued. "Isn't it a bit convenient that Jin ZiXun was murdered? And Jin GuangYao banished?"

"Jin GuangYao murdered Jin ZiXun," the second reminded them. "Jin GuangYao was also not banished; he fled Koi Tower all on his own. He probably would have been banished or imprisoned for stealing from Lan ZongZhu had he stayed. But he didn't. In any case, Jin ZiXun was fifth or sixth in line, far behind Jin ZiXuan. Jin GuangYao wasn't even on the succession list due to his mother's profession." He frowned. "Weren't you friendly with him? I remember you hanging around Jin GuangYao at sect conferences before Nie MingJue sliced his hand off...."

"I need more wine," the first responded promptly, as if the preceding conversation had never occurred.

Wei WuXian watched him get lost in the crowd, making a mental note to talk to his brother-in-law about Jin GuangYao's former cronies. They might all still be in contact. With that bastard working with demonic cultivators? And faking his own death? He'd hoped that executing Xue ChengMei would slow down whatever it was Meng Yao was trying to accomplish. Perhaps it just made him alter course slightly. More like a small rock placed in a larger river rather than a dam....