"Kneel," Jiang YanLi ordered with a stern frown on her face. Jin Ping was fussing in her arms; Wei WuXian didn't think his martial sister's obvious frustration was because of the baby. Not when they were summoned like transgressors and immediately directed to kneel. "You two are being childish. I had thought you were bright young men. Moping like little children? Both of you? This ends now." She sat on the couch, and carefully turned Jin Ping's head up to burp her. "Wei WuXian.... Do you honestly think my brother and I would choose a spouse for you that you didn't already approve of? Do you honestly think we would consider the Sect's needs above your own wants and needs?"
"ShiJie..." he whined.
"And you, HanGuang-Jun.... You're almost worse than my shidi. Why would you ever think your brother would choose a random spouse for you without discussing it with you first?" Lan WangJi's ears turning pink was his only response. "Honestly? I am so disappointed in both of you! Practically the whole jianghe knows how you feel about each other! It amazes me that fathers are still sending marriage proposals to you two. What are they thinking? How can any decent father think, 'I want my daughter to marry a man who is completely infatuated with another man.' Poor girls. It's obvious that you love each other just from the way you look at each other. Those of us who have been unfortunate enough to see you sneaking kisses?" At Wei WuXian's shocked look, she sighed. "Yes, I've seen you kissing. More than once.
"In case my words aren't already clear, your betrothal agreements are to each other. Betrothal agreements between two Sect heirs must be written carefully which is why you aren't married already."
"Two?" Wei WuXian blinked at his sister. "Who's the other Sect heir?"
"Wei WuXian.... There are only four of us in this room. Who else can be the heir to YunmengJiang?" she snapped. "Especially considering that I'm already married, and Ping'Er wasn't born when we started negotiations."
"How should I know who is next in line to be the Sect leader?" Wei WuXian tried to understand. Tried and failed. He was still struggling to comprehend that his shijie had seen him, them, kissing. How embarrassing!
"You signed the papers years ago accepting the honor," JiangYanLi was frowning again. "Your memory is such a mess, XianXian. It has more holes in it than a fishing net."
"I did?" Wei WuXian wracked his brain trying to remember.
Lan WangJi rose smoothly to his feet. "Please excuse us, Jin XiaoFuren." He grabbed Wei WuXian's hand and practically dragged him out of the room. The first empty room they came across, he slammed the door shut behind them, locked it, and cast silencing talismans at the walls. "Wei Ying..." He was breathing hard and fast, "Wei Ying... do you?"
"Do I what?" Wei WuXian was still trying to make sense of what his martial sister had said. Marriage. Heir. Lan Zhan. Kissing. Marriage. "Did... did ShiJie really say the betrothal agreements are for us? Are we really to be married?"
"Is that what you want?" Lan WangJi's golden eyes were fierce.
"I want to marry you, Lan Zhan. I dreamed of making a life with you when I was fifteen.... Lan Zhan, I want to night hunt with you. I want yours to be the last face I see at night. I want yours to be the first face I wake up to. I want to sleep with you. That kind of sleeping. I told you I want to save my body for my wife? That's yours, husband not wife of course, but... It's for you. My body. My heart. My soul. All yours. I want... I want you to be mine.... Zhiji. Husband. Mine. My husband. Do you want to marry me, too?"
"Only you." Lan WangJi wrapped his arms around Wei Ying. "It's only ever been you. Marry me, Wei Ying. Be mine."
"Yes," Wei WuXian squeezed his love. "Yours. Of course I'm yours. I love you, Lan Zhan." Shouldn't we be kissing? "Kiss me. I need you to kiss me," he demanded.
He was surrounded. A hard wall pressing against his back. A hard body pressing against his front. Arms like iron bands wrapped around his sides. He squeezed his own arms tightly around Lan Zhan's neck and upper back, and lost himself to their kiss. Hard, hot, wet, insistent, urgent. "Lan Zhan," he moaned when his love moved away from his mouth, planting wet kisses against his jawline and neck.
"I'm here. I'll always be here from now on." A gentle bite in the curve of his neck had him gasping. "Wei Ying... when will you grant me my rights as your husband? With or without bows and contracts, I am your husband, and you are mine."
"Your rights?" Wei Ying shivered as his sash slithered down to pool at his feet.
"My rights." His robes followed the sash, leaving him in his shirt and trousers. "My rights to fully take you into my bed." There was a fumbling at his waist and his trousers slipped down. "I want you to fully be mine." Lan Zhan dropped to his knees and enveloped the throbbing cock with his mouth. Wei Ying wasn't sure who moaned louder; he was quite sure he moaned longer. Hot wet heat... heaven. Wei Ying felt like his soul was soaring towards heaven. Pulling off, Lan Zhan continued, "I want to fill you. I want to fuck you until you scream." The dirty talk inflamed Wei Ying's senses. Yes. You can. Fuck me. Lan Zhan's head moved back onto the wet cock in front of his face and bobbed back and forth slowly, all the while looking up at his love. "Finish in my mouth," he begged after Wei Ying's hips pressed his arousal more deeply.
Wei Ying moaned more, trying to keep some restraint, and not shove his cock into his love's throat. Warm hands were cupping his ass, slowly spreading his cheeks apart. "Lan Zhan.... What?"
"Let me, please." Lan Zhan sounded hoarse and so very aroused. "Let me touch you. Please."
Wei Ying's head thunked against the wall as he was stimulated front and back. Lan Zhan's lips were pressing against his groin at the same time a finger was brushing up and down against his hole. "I told you, Lan Zhan... I'm yours. Completely and absolutely. Every part of me," he stuttered through heaving breathing. He released with a groan, legs trembling, hands grasping at air instead of hair. "Here?" he asked when he had sufficient control over his body again. "Are you going to do me now?" The room was empty of anything resembling a soft horizontal surface. Or vertical, for that matter. He was aware that beds weren't absolutely necessary for sex; he'd read enough spring books to know that the only requirement was a study surface to lay on or lean against. He was old enough to want a soft surface for his body to rest on when they became one body.
"Not here," Lan Zhan appeared to be of the same mind. "Tonight? Come to my room." This kiss tasted bitter and salty.
"Are you sure?" Wei Ying smiled his teasing smile. "Will HanGuang-Jun's spotless reputation survive?"
"HanGuang-Jung's reputation is already spotted," Lan Zhan deadpanned. "As were we."
Wei Ying burst into laughter. "Lan Zhan... I adore you the most when you make jokes." They left the room together holding hands, ignoring the looks the Jin disciples gave them.
~*~
A Jiang disciple found them before long. "Wei Chianbei, HanGuang-Jun... Jin ZongZhu requests your presence in the Cold Room."
"What happened?" Wei WuXian asked.
"Apparently, Jin GuangYao's body has been found."
Lan WangJi exchanged a look with his husband. "I didn't know he was missing," Wei WuXian stated baldly.
The Cold Room was cold. Jin GuangYao's body was lying on a table, looking rather worse than he had when alive. Half his face was eaten off and decomposition had set in. Jin ZiXuan asked for the room to be protected against outside observation.
"I will acknowledge this to be my half-brother to everyone outside this room," the Jin sect leader stood at the body's head. "I just need to know that it is Jin GuangYao. When he left Koi Tower, he left all of his sect belongings behind. And now he's wearing our uniform?"
Surprisingly, it was Nie HuaiSang who stepped up to start examining the clothing. "It's a good forgery. But a forgery all the same. The silk is inferior and mixed with cotton. The dye is inconsistent. See here and here?" He pointed to various locations on the body. "I assume the Jin have spells woven into your cloth? The Nie certainly do. These robes do not."
Nie MingJue scoffed, "Is this how you spend your time when you're supposed to be practicing with your saber?"
Nie HuaiSang straightened his back to stand at his full height. "I like clothing, pretty fans, birds, and information. Right now two of those are far more important than sabers. A saber can't tell you if this body is Jin GuangYao's. But I can."
Jin ZiXuan silenced Nie MingJue with a sharp look. "Nie Gongzi, we appreciate your talents. Lan XiChen... is there any spirit attached to the corpse?"
Lan XiChen shook his head. "WangJi can confirm by playing his qin. Preliminary inspections show the soul has completely departed the body. Which is to be expected in the body of a cultivator."
Jin ZiXuan shook his head. "I don't believe my father had the soul calming rites performed on my half-brother."
Nie HuaiSang had moved on to inspecting the body, raising its arms and turning the head carefully around. "It's not Jin GuangYao," he stated with certainty. "DaGe chopped Meng Yao's hand off right at the wrist; not only is the left forearm noticeably shorter than the right, the stump is not nearly as healed as it should be. So... unless the stump became infected in the last half year or so and it needed to be cut further?" He shrugged. "Not that that is important. An arm can be recut; moles don't lie. Meng Yao and I used to put each other's hair up before I left for Cloud Recesses. He has a mole in between the index and middle fingers on his right hand and a triangle of moles on the back of his left ear lobe. This body has neither."
"Not my brother." Lan WangJi wasn't sure if the carefully enunciated and emotionless words were relief or fear.
Lan XiChen added, "Although someone certainly wants us to believe that it is."
Wei WuXian leaned over the corpse's face to examine the marks left on it. "Someone who isn't very knowledgeable about yao wants us to believe it. See here?" He pointed to various marks. "These are made from the teeth of a wangliang."
"A wangliang?' Nie MingJue asked. "Are you sure?"
"Absolutely," Wei WuXian affirmed.
"I've never heard of a wangliang biting a face," Nie MingJue frowned. "It eats livers."
Wei WuXian smiled. It wasn't a pleasant looking smile. "Exactly. I guess someone held a skull or jaw to the body and made those marks? Someone wants us to believe that this is Jin GuangYao but doesn't know enough to really fool us."
"A kid?" Jin ZiXuan looked up, shocked. "Do you think it's a kid doing this? If so...." he paused and took a deep breath. "I received reports of a demonic cultivator trying to make a name for himself. The reports say that he's not even eighteen. Xue Yang, courtesy ChengMei. He's rumored to have murdered an entire clan because their leader slighted him. The murders rivaled the techniques you used on the Wen soldiers when you chased after Wen Chao."
"A demonic cultivator?" It was Wei WuXian's turn to look shocked. Lan WangJi held his hand just that more tightly, to let his husband know he wasn't alone.
Lan XiChen frowned. "A young demonic cultivator trying to fool you into thinking this body is Jin GuangYao's...."
Lan WangJi finished his brother's thoughts. "Xue ChengMei is working with Jin GuangYao."
Nie HuaiSang stepped back. "Give me a copy of the reports about Xue Yang. I'll get some eyes and ears looking out for him."
"That's too dangerous," Wei WuXian stated. "If he's using yin energy to cultivate, he needs to be assessed and executed if necessary. I'll go after him."
"No," Jin ZiXuan declined the offer. "If the reports are accurate, he wants your Tiger Seal as a backup to having access to you. My wife will severely injure me if I allow you to put yourself into another dangerous position. Especially if he's working with my half-brother. A demonic cultivator and a genius?" With a quick glance at the other sect leaders in the room, he announced, "We can put together a coalition of our best cultivators to go after him, apprehend him if possible, and take him out if not."
Lan WangJi looked at his husband's mulish expression. "Wei Ying... you can be the bait that draws him out. We can secure a place, and announce you're there. If he wants you, he'll come."
"If he wants me?" Wei WuXian gave a measured look back. "It is best that I be the one to apprehend him. You, none of you, really understand what we can do with yin energy. You saw only a minuscule part of what I was actually capable of. I hid a lot of what I learned during those three months and afterwards. If Xue Yang has learned even a fraction of what I know? We know Jin GuangYao had access to my notes when I was recuperating in the Cloud Recesses.... How much has he passed on to Xue Yang? Or worse... what if he's learned how to do things I didn't?
"No. Your best will die in a fight. I'll go alone."
Lan WangJi felt his soul slipping away from him. "Wei Ying... you cannot face him alone. You cannot fight him with yin energy; it will destroy your new Core. Especially if you use the Seal. You're not strong enough yet to face him with yang energy. At least let me fight this battle with you."
Wei WuXian's face firmed with stubbornness. "I can handle one demonic cultivator."
"And I can handle Jin GuangYao," Lan WangJi was just as stubborn.
"We can reduce the number of cultivators in the coalition," Jin ZiXuan interrupted. "One from each of the major Sects."
"No." Lan WangJi and Wei WuXian spoke at the same time. "Wei Ying and I will go alone," Lan WangJi asserted with a warning look to his husband. We will do this together.
Wei WuXian shook his hand free. "No."
"There is no way you're going after a demonic cultivator alone!" Jiang WanYin spoke harshly, Zidian sparking on his hand. "Four is barely sufficient as it is."
"Four means two dead unnecessarily," Wei WuXian spat. "I won't be responsible for their lives." He left without bowing. Lan WangJi followed, trying to look like he was strolling and not hurrying.
"Lan Zhan... You should stay here."
"No." If you want to be stubborn about this, you've met your match. I can be just as stubborn.
"I can't lose you!" Wei WuXian hissed. "If I die... at least I'm dying protecting the world against the abomination I created. I... I won't let my work take you."
"Wei Ying is not dying, either. Won't allow it." Wei Ying's laughter was bitter and sad and hurting. Lan Zhan ignored that they were in public and yanked his husband into his embrace. "Lan Zhan can't live without Wei Ying. Together. We live or die together."
Wei WuXian snuggled into the embrace. "Alright then. Together. Let's pack up and go get those bastards."

Happy New Year dear readers!
As promised, a new chapter to start a new year.
My new year is starting painfully. I spent Christmas week on a warm and sunny beach and got a lovely pink sunburn on my legs despite my efforts to stay approximately the color of paste. My consolation is that they are nowhere near as red as some of the human shaped cooked lobsters sharing the beach with me. (As if gradients of sunburn mean anything in the sunburn=BAD reality we live in.) Anyway... the burns have reached the itchy stage, but HURT when I try to alleviate the itch by pressing on it. Fun times. Fun times, believe me.
As always, thank you for reading. And my wishes that we all stay healthy, content, and safe in 2024.
- Aitch.