Chapter Text
He’d never liked Discussion Conferences. Swords, sabers, and bows had never been his thing, yet showing off the superiority of one’s Clan through competitions surrounding hunting, archery, races (both sword and horse), and duels were all said conferences ever seemed to amount too.
While the subtle and not-so-subtle politics of it all could be entertaining, Huaisang can’t help but wish such competitions focused on the Six Arts as a whole rather than on just combat and martial arts. If there was a Go, painting, literature, or calligraphy tournament, Huaisang would actually stand a chance at making his Da-ge proud — who was he kidding, Da-ge didn’t give a rat’s ass about the Fine Arts, it was martial arts and cultivation or nothing to Da-ge.
His A-Die would be proud though, while the man was just as cultivation and saber obsessed as Da-ge, he’d always encouraged Huaisang to pursue his interests and never rarely got angry over his lacking cultivation. A-Die had even talked about trying to implement competitions for the other Arts in the Conferences so Huaisang could proudly participate by the time he was 15.
Until then, Huaisang only ever had to “participate” in the conferences, by standing beside his Da-ge and striking up friendships with the other Clan Heirs. At least, that had been the plan.
Nie Huaisang was eight when his father died — murdered by that bastard Clan Leader Wen, at least according to Da-ge — shortly after one such conference held in Qinghe.
(Little eight year old Huaisang hadn’t understood what Da-ge meant. Their A-Die had died of a Qi-deviation in front of them. Huaisang can still remember the absolute terror when A-Die had raised a stolen saber against him and Da-ge had flung himself between them. It did suddenly make Huaisang wonder if their A-Niang had truly passed in her sleep as he’d been told or if like him, she had witnessed such a sight only with no Da-ge to protect her from A-Die’s bladed wrath.)
With his A-Die’s death, life started along a new path as his Da-ge was forced to shoulder the weight of being QingheNie’s Clan Leader at the young age of fifteen.
(It’d been the first Conference Da-ge would get to truly participate in. He’d been so excited to bring glory to their Clan, yet the whole thing had ended in disastrous tragedy.)
Da-ge wasn’t the same after that, rarely ever having time to play with Huaisang, all his time taken up by the chaos and burden of his duties to the Clan — while any free time his Da-ge found was spent in brutal saber training and constant fighting to improve his cultivation. The time they managed to spend together was more often than not filled with arguments about Huaisang wasting time on art, birds, and fans rather than on sabers and cultivation.
Because while Da-ge had doubled down in his cultivation efforts, Huaisang had done the opposite. Cultivation had never been a passion of his and now, now the thought of picking up a saber scared him. He’d heard rumors all his life about the Nie temperament and their tendency to qi-deviate, but it had never seemed real to him until that year leading up to their A-Die’s death, until his Da-ge’s cultivation was growing leaps and bounds and his temperament deteriorated with it.
Only then did the reality of cultivation strike him; the life of a cultivator was a violent one — filled with constant danger and horror, made up of never-ending combat and death. It scared him, such a life was not one he desired, so he avoided it no matter how angry Da-ge got or how people mocked him.
The combination of his Da-ge’s growing ever-present paranoia that the QishanWen Clan might try something again and Huaisang’s own willful weakness, meant he rarely even got to “participate” in the conferences hosted within Qinghe, and when he did he was to remain with an army of guards at all times.
Not that he minded — much — especially since the last few attempts at befriending let alone chatting with his fellow heirs had never ended well.
The last Discussion Conference Nie Huaisang would attend whilst in his youth began and ended much like all the others. His Da-ge bristling at the very sight of Clan Leader Wen and sending a reluctant Huaisang away with Lan Xichen-ge. And ending with his Da-ge glowering at the heirs of Jin and Jiang after demanding the Clans teach them manners and apologize for insulting Huaisang.
Nie Huaisang thought it unnecessary, not that he didn’t want an apology but because the Jin and Jiang Clan Leaders had clearly proven themselves incapable of disciplining, let alone correcting their heirs.
LanlingJin’s Heir Jin Zixuan, who was only a short few months older than him, didn’t bother him much. The heir for all his pompous attitude and disrespect rarely meant to insult him, it was just the boy was an awkward mess who didn’t know how to properly communicate with others, let alone how to speak to others as his equal. What Da-ge interpreted as insults never had any malicious intent, but were rather just — often correct — statements regarding Huaisang’s cultivation or conduct. He wasn’t a bad person so much as an awkwardly socially constipated one, and Huaisang honestly wouldn’t be against befriending him either.
The problem lay in the existences of Jin Zixuan’s cousin, Jin Zixun and the Jiang Heir, Jiang Wanyin. Those two Huaisang could do without ever hanging around, especially that pig, Jin Zixun, the less said about him the better.
Jiang Wanyin, while not as horrendous a person as Jin Zixun, was not a particularly pleasant guy to be around either. The Jiang Heir had a nasty temper and a cruel habit of indiscriminately taking out his insecurities on those around him, much like the boy’s mother, Yu Ziyuan, the Violet Spider. In terms of social-incompetence and emotional constipation, Jiang Wanyin tied with Jin Zixuan, the difference was that one wasn’t purposely cruel.
Huaisang didn’t care if Jiang Wanyin hid his care and concern behind threats and insults, it didn’t change the fact he’d said it and his words were designed to hurt. You couldn’t exactly excuse his poor behavior when his older sister Jiang Yanli was as saintly as Lan Xichen. As neglected as the Jiang heir was, he was still absolutely a coddled spoiled brat. And while the Jiang heir had mellowed out in his treatment of others, Huaisang could not say it was due to an improvement of temperament and personality because somehow those had gotten worse.
The only change was that now Jiang Wanyin had a target to consistently direct his insecurities towards and take it all out on. Nie Huaisang pitied Wei Wuxian, the rumored bastard of the Jiang Clan Leader, that had been taken into the family at nine-years-old. The boy’s life certainly hadn’t been great before the Jiang’s and now he was basically their punching bag.
That was besides the point though. Putting aside his lacking personality, it certainly didn’t help that the Jiang heir’s main interests rested solely in cultivating with zero appreciation for the fine arts. Hell, Huaisang would rather strike up a correspondence with Jiang Cheng’s older sister, Jiang Yanli because at least she didn’t insult him every other second.
As such, Nie Huaisang had not been particularly enthused when the Jiang Clan Leader proposed that the two of them become pen-pals. Less so by the fact Da-ge had agreed likely in hopes the other’s passion for cultivation would infect him.
This lacking enthusiasm was probably why it had taken three letters, for the 13-year-old heir of the Nie Clan to realize his newest pen-pal was not Jiang Wanyin as promised, but likely the YunmengJiang’s Head Disciple, Wei Wuxian. He never said a word about it to anyone though, finding the correspondence to be pleasant.
Regardless, after three years of being pen-pals Nie Huaisang liked to think he knew YunmengJiang’s Head Disciple rather well. He’d thought wrong, underestimated how carefully crafted those letters were to ensure the real Jiang Wanyin could respond to any questions upon their inevitable meeting again.
Nie Huaisang’s second impression of Wei Wuxian was that the rumors surrounding his parentage were bullshit. The fifteen year old looked absolutely nothing like the Jiang Clan Leader let alone acted like him. Yunmeng’s Head Disciple had brillant silver eyes with hidden bits of a pinky-red more similar to the QishanWen Clan than the purple-gray-brown of the YunmengJiang Clan.
And his hair, while jet black had an undoubtedly dark brownish sheen to it, with an undeniable wave-ish curl—in all its slightness—to his otherwise straight hair, both of which did not belong to the straight-laced purpled obsidian nor the light lavender brown hair of the Jiang Clan.
Then there was his face. The YunmengJiang Clan of their present had faces crafted for amicable smiles or ever-present scowls, there was no in between. To dare claim someone as average as Jiang Fengmian played any part in crafting Wei Wuxian’s face was an actual crime, let alone insult.
Wei-xiong’s face didn’t have a preset viewing bias. Whether he was smiling like the goddamn sun personified, smirking like a mischievous fox, grinning knowingly like the mysterious twinkling stars and moon, frowning like an approaching hurricane, or scowling like a — distractingly unfair attractive —calamity in human apparel, you’d never be able to tell which was his default expression.
Look, Nie Huaisang had always been something of a connoisseur in terms of arts, be it the beauty of a painting, melancholic tapestry of silk, sophistication of a poem, or someone’s very appearance. Of his generation, he is probably the most cultured—Need he mention he had the largest collection of spring books* amongst his peers. Yet for all he lacked a general interest in nor drive for sexual relations, goddamn—Wei Wuxian was an absolute work of art.
He had the sun in his smile, the wind in his laugh, the night in his hair, and the very moon and stars in his eyes.
Huaisang had never been more grateful for his ever-present painted fans than that first morning in Cloud Recesses, when said unfairly attractive young man had positively beamed at him in greeting, and he desperately needed to hide the flush rapidly spreading up his neck and face.
Which brought us to his first impression of Wei Wuxian, being it was an absolute crime, an utter disgrace, and an honestly insulting level of disrespect that YunmengJiang’s Head Disciple only ranked as number four on the Cultivation World’s Most Eligible Bachelor’s List.
Hell, Nie Huaisang was the creator of the list and yet couldn’t believe he’d allowed this utter injustice. What Twin Jades of GusuLan? What Golden Peacock of LanlingJin (a name Wei-xiong had dubbed the Jin Clan Heir in a past letter)?
Lan Xichen was excusable given his generally polite and respectful manner, plus his gentle amicable personality. He was practically Clan Leader though, and a member of a clan with over 3000+ rules that needed to be strictly followed else one dared brave punishments typically far too harsh for the “crime”. The less said about the fate of the former Madam Lan the better. Needless to say, Nie Huaisang knew very very few woman who’d be willing to marry into such a place.
It was much the same for the cold and emotionless Lan Wangji, as pretty as the Second Jade and heir was, a personality like his was an acquired taste most females would refuse to put up with. Huaisang could certainly agree, brooding emotionally constipated men were only fun in fiction where there was a narrator to explain them in all their absurdity, in real life they were just an absolute annoyance to deal with. Besides Lan Wangji was even worse than his brother when it came to the rules, meaning he was no fun at all.
Jin Zixuan, the Golden Peacock, shouldn’t even be on the list in the first place given he was engaged to the young lady Jiang Yanli. But given the various affairs of his father, the Jin Clan Leader, and his own general attitude regarding his engagement, some women couldn’t help but hope for the chance at riches and a taste of “forbidden romance”.
So when it came to the realistic most desirable amongst them, Wei Wuxian was always on the tip of every ladies tongue. Despite the rumors surrounding him, Wuxian was the most approachable of the top four, with a bright smile and laugh, willingness to play, tease, and just have some honest fun, combined with his respectful attitude towards women and skill with children, he was really the only candidate women could truly picture having a happy married life with. So why was it he ranked fourth?
It all came down to his “lack” of bloodline. Nie Huaisang called bullshit, this was the son of an Immortal’s disciple, of a former Head Disciple of YunmengJiang! What servant? What common rogue?
Wei Wuxian was a realistic and entirely plausible choice for the woman of the Cultivation World, but the others were fantasies, held up by delusional dreams of wealth, status, and power. The unattainable would always be ranked higher even if no one ever wanted to actually choose them.
Of course, Nie Huaisang hadn’t known any of this about Wei Wuxian when he first made the list. Though maybe he should have suspected it. There were five categories that went into determining the rankings of his original list; Proficiency in the Six Arts, looks, cultivation talent, temperament and personality, and finally, bloodline and status.
Across the board, the top four seemed rather equal. Both the Peacock and Second Jade were lacking in temperament and personality, but those lost points were made up in bloodline and status for one and by cultivation talent in the other. Lan Xichen was lacking in cultivation talent but made up for it in his personality and temperament. Meanwhile Wei Wuxian wasn’t actually lacking in any respect, held back only by his bloodline and status being “lesser” than that of an heir’s.
Hell, YunmengJiang’s Head Disciple actually outclassed the other three in the majority of categories. If Huaisang had added just one more category, that of potential, Wei-xiong would’ve wiped out the rest of the competition without question. After all, compared to those three, who’d been raised as young masters, in an environment where their growth was encouraged, Wei-xiong had started when he was nine. So what did it say about his potential that he’d already caught up and surpassed them where it mattered?
So now he couldn’t help but contemplate designing a new list of Most Desirable Bachelors where Wei Wuxian would surely get first place as the heavens so clearly demanded whilst sculpting him.
He may be getting ahead of himself just a bit though. Because it was only the third impression, where it was all at, that truly mattered to Huaisang. An impression built, deconstructed, and rebuilt all within a single day. Goddamnit, Huaisang was totally screwed.