After leaving the four younger cultivators Lan Qiren lead him over to a large sparsely decorated office a couple houses down the road. The older Lan was staying close to his older nephew, sect leader Jiang noted. Jingshi however was much further away, perhaps he struggled with seeing someone who was so much like his younger self early in the morning.
"So is that rule also new?" Jiang Fengmian asked, referring to who is or isn't allowed to touch a Lan's headband.
"No" Lan Qiren averted his eyes.
"Then I deeply apologize for my previous behavior. I was in the wrong for touching your headband" To his surprise Lan Qiren looked upset at his apology. Had he reacted like this back when they were both still young it would have been understandable but so much time had passed he would have thought those feelings would have mellowed out.
Taking his headband hadn't just happened once or twice either. The Jiang had constantly been playing with that white strip of fabric, quite often in public too. Doing so always gave the Lan the most adorable of expressions, his right eye twitching as he fought the urge to burst into anger and his face always turned a lovely shade of rosy red. But despite being clearly upset the Lan had never told him off for doing it, not that he remembered anyway.
"So let's hear it. Why is it that you don't believe my boys not good enough for your nephews?" He asked, straight to the point, the way Lan Qiren liked it.
"..." But the Lan had no response, there was no reason to decline their proposals. At least not one relating to the kids. The problem was more likely due to the fact that the union of their sects would lead to a lot more interactions between their sects.
Jiang Fengmian sighed. "After their marriages I'll assign my sons to handle all direct communication with the Lan clan. They could use the practice for when they'll eventually take over the Jiang sect together." Having solved the underlying issue, he turned to leave. Only to have a firm hand grip his to keep the Jiang from leaving.
"Please don't send young master Wei, I-I can't deal with him. Anyone but him" That anyone likely included sect leader Jiang himself.
Jiang Fengmian laughed heartily. "Yeah? And why is that?" he asked coyly, knowing full well why the young man was getting on the elder Lan's nerves. "Does he remind you of someone?" Reaching over he playfully ruffled the Lan's hair.
The Lan stared daggers at him, but they were nothing compared to those of his wife, and so the Jiang simply continued to laugh without a care in the world.
"You really haven't changed a bit Lan Li..." Jiang Fengmian caught himself at the last minute having fallen back into old habits. Retracting his hand from the Lan's head, he swallowed the name he had almost spoken. It wasn't appropriate to call the Lan by his given name anymore, but thinking back it probably hadn't been appropriate back then either. Especially after what he had just learned he didn't have the consciousness to do something so cruel, it didn't matter how teasable he was, for once the Jiang would need to restrain the urge, no matter how strong it was. "Fine, I will send my youngest son instead. But I hope you're aware that you won't escape Wei Wuxian as a result. He will still become your nephew-in-law and he will likely spend quite a lot of time around here"
"Oh, even if he wasn't I still wouldn't be able to escape him. He already haunts my nightmares" Lan Qiren shuddered as he spoke.
"Hey! I thought you said that was my job." Jiang Fengmian pouted. "Has it really been that long that I've faded into oblivion? Am I so unimportant to you that I no longer play pranks in your dreams?"
The Lan's ears went bright red, a fact the Jiang spotted before the Lan was able to hide behind his hands.
"Oooh, or perhaps you don't classify them as nightmares anymore" the Jiang smirked, having completely forgotten all about his previous decision not to tease the Lan the moment he spotted the Lan's embarrassment.
"We shouldn't keep them waiting any longer" the Lan said. Standing up Lan Qiren attempted to get back to the group, to safety from the Jiang's teasing. Even spending time with Wei Wuxian was better than being attacked like this.
"Hang on a second" Jiang Fengmian said as he grabbed the edge of the Lan's sleeve, being careful not to make unnecessary skin contact. "You don't think returning looking like that will get you in even more trouble?"
The Lan was of course very aware of how bright his face was burning with embarrassment. Letting any of them, and especially the Wei, see him like that was practically death-sentence with the cause for his passing being teasing.
"I'll play nice, let me hear how my sons are doing in school. Are they behaving?" The Lan eyed him suspiciously but when he found nothing but sincerity he sat back down with a sigh. Agreeing to wait until his face cooled off.
"Young master Jiang is doing alright, he's learning well and behaving well enough. His grades are above average and so are his manners. Nothing you wouldn't expect from a future sect leader though"
"And the apple of my eye? I'm sure he's doing well too."
"Ha, only if you count being a smartass as doing well" The Jiang smirked. "Which of course you do... Well by those merits I suppose he's doing just fine, he's even gone as far as to beat your record in most rules broken" Lan Qiren sighed heavily as he massaged his temples. Just thinking about all the messes he must have had to clean up after the Wei gave him a headache.
"Already!? More than two thousand rules in less than half a year? I guess there's still hope for the younger generation" Jiang Fengmian had assumed that his son would break the record eventually, especially if he was to marry a Lan, but to have already done so was truly impressive.
After some more catching up the Lan eventually turned back into his usual jade-white demeanor and it was time to head back. As they walked sect leader Jiang speed up, being too fast to be walking but still slow enough that it didn't count as running. Lan Qiren let out a frustrated sigh but failed to keep his amused tone out of it. As much as he would never earnestly admit it, he still very much enjoyed the Jiang's antics. Especially since he in his old age had mellowed down considerable. His pranks at this point being perfectly harmless.
Having gotten the reaction he had wanted out of the Lan, sect leader Jiang slowed down to allow him to catch up. "I wish you would have let me know sooner" Jiang Fengmian said without turning around to look at the Lan.
"It's not like anything would've changed by me telling you" Lan Qiren was as pessimistic as always, but depending on how you look at it he wasn't wrong.
"You're right, nothing would have changed" The young Jiang would still have been running around teasing the Lan as well as getting punished for doing so, all to get that grumpy stone-faced man to show him one of those rare smiles. Knowing the truth about the headband wouldn't have stopped him either, it might have made it even more enticing to play with it.
Had he known, Jiang Fengmian would have made more of an effort to keep in touch after leaving the Cloud Recesses. With enough ingenuity and teamwork, they might have even been able to fight sect leader Yu from forcing the Jiang sect to form a union with them...
But none of that had happened and now he was stuck with responsibilities in the forms of a sect, a partner, and kids. Sect leader Jiang was no longer free to do whatever he wanted, it was too late for him. The past could not be changed. But this was even more of a reason to let his sons chose what they wanted to do with their futures. By not having others force their hands into lifelong commitments they didn't want they wouldn't end up wishing for something different when they grew older.
Jiang Wanyin wanted to become sect leader, Wei Wuxian did not. Thusly the younger son would be the one to take over, with the older supporting him from the sidelines.
His sons wanted to marry the twin Jades of Gusu, then that's what would happen. Although if Lan Qiren was anything to go off of it would seem that the younger Lan brother was always in a need of a little push. If not for some inciting incident Wei Wuxian would eventually end up with someone else and Lan Wangji would be left with nothing but regret for not acting sooner. The Jiang couldn't fix his own situation but this was a problem he could solve.
"I'll be the one to announce the news to them, okay?" Jiang Fengmian said, to which the upset cultivator let out a small "Mmn" in agreement. He had never been one for admitting when he was in the wrong and so he appreciated the Jiang for helping him out. For as much as he loved to play around it wasn't uncommon for Jiang Fengmian to help him out. Usually without asking and without wanting anything in return, so he thought nothing of it. And so he was still completely unaware of the fact that the one sect leader Jiang was aiming to help wasn't him but his eldest son, Wei Ying. Dusting off the old "spew nothing but bullshit"-trick one last time he'd make sure Wei Wuxian wouldn't end up like his father.
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A/N: Honestly editing chapter 14 after writing this one was hell. Having Lan Qiren be 'the bad guy' even after he'd already agreed to Wangxian's marriage, and then have him storm off after Jiang Fengmian basically telling him he deserves better...
On a happier note. I'll be releasing the first chapter of the Interactive Xicheng fanfiction, called 'You Are Dead To Me', later today (If I remember). I usually have Wattpad automatically publish my stories as I know I would forget to publish the chapters myself if I did it manually, but this story will have to be published manually in order for the voting to work. So hopefully the first chapter will be out a couple of hours after this one.
See ya <3