bang! crash! the lightning flashed!! -- that's another story, nevermind, anyway!

[qingxinling]

Jiang Wanyin sweeps along the shores of the lake, glowering. This is not his beloved Lotus Pier. These waters are cold, foreign, uninviting. Clearly there's been some trap: he's been distracted by duty in this hunt, and when he followed the slight tug in his chest, he ended up getting pulled into unfamiliar territory.

No matter. He draws himself to full height, letting cool arrogance slip down his shoulders and suffuse him. Sandu is naked in one hand; Zidian crackles in the other. He can handle whatever monsters may arrive.

Comments

[qingxinling]

Jiang Wanyin assumes he's not talking about the Chief Cultivator's receiving chambers. "What the fuck is a greenhouse?"

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan grins, leading him around a corner in the garden path to the greenhouse entrance. He lets go of Jiang Cheng to open the door. "This," he says, "is a greenhouse."

The sunlight streams in through the windows. Someone must have just been in here, because the neat rows of green leaves are wet and sparkling, as if with dew. Vines twine their way up carefully woven lattices; fruits of all types swell and color basically before their very eyes. That's actually--a little more than usually happens; is Magnus have a really good day or something??

"You can grow anything you wish, here," says Shen Yuan, quietly. "No matter the season." He looks sideways at Jiang Cheng. "One could build a lotus pond in one of these, if they were so inclined."

[qingxinling]

Jiang Wanyin is impressed despite himself. "Is that what Wei Wuxian has been up to?" he grumbles.

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan shrugs. "Maybe? I'm not really sure what he's been up to. We had a drink, once, but I haven't seen much of him since then. His, ah, husband is not particularly fond of me."

[qingxinling]

So Lan Wangji has been his trademark self (i.e., a total ass) even to an immortal cultivator. Jiang Wanyin cannot even muster up the slightest bit of feigned surprise. He wonders what Shen Yuan did -- breathe in his space? Or was Hanguang-jun just jealous that Wei Wuxian makes friends like breathing and likes a drink? "Typical," he grouses.

[peaklordshen]

"It totally is, right??" says Shen Yuan. Finally, someone he can complain about Lan Wangji with! He's getting a migraine from pretending to like that guy around Magnus. "He's so judgmental, and he pretends he's always above everyone else, like our lives are petty little games and only the people he deems worthy are worth caring about."

[qingxinling]

Jiang Wanyin, it must be admitted, does stare at Shen Yuan for a protracted moment. "You must be a wise immortal indeed," he says, even though flattery tastes strange on his tongue and is not actually a great look for him. "To see through that asshole's entire ruse."

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan scoffs. "Nothing to do with being immortal, I can just smell a fraud from a mile away." Because he's such a practiced one himself, but no reason to go into that!! "Most people here like him, though, so it's refreshing to speak to someone who gets it." He elbows Jiang Cheng conspiratorially. "He defaced a wall the other day. You want to see?"

[qingxinling]

"He what?! Yes I fucking do."

[peaklordshen]

This requires moving through the connecting doors from the greenhouse to the Mansion and traversing several hallways, which Shen Yuan happily takes Jiang Cheng's arm again for. When they reach the cafe there's quite a bit of chatter inside, and Shen Yuan is surprised to find several more Frenchman gathered around one of the tables than he's used to. He waves, a little, to Enjolras, who's the only one of them he's really had extensive¹ conversation with, though he notes Grantaire among them as well.

He leads Jiang Cheng over to the wall, where someone has set up an empty frame around Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian's signatures. He folds his lips into his mouth to keep from laughing. "Shameful."

¹ And high!

[futaille]

Grantaire looks up at the pair of new arrivals and laughs when he sees where they're heading. He calls out to them. "Ah! Come to goggle at the smallest art gallery ever?"

[qingxinling]

Jiang Wanyin has more important concerns than a loud drunk man. In truth, his primary concern is a different loud and frequently-drunk man. "You're telling me Lan Wangji did this," he says to Shen Yuan.

[peaklordshen]

"Yep," Shen Yuan confirms with satisfaction. "In front of the whole Mansion, pretty much." He turns and raises his eyebrows at Grantaire. "Are you the one who added the frame?"

[futaille]

Grantaire nods with a grin. "Seemed appropriate for the place's first and most public defacement!"

[qingxinling]

"What the fuck happened here," Jiang Wanyin asks, glowering at the frame and the words that it enshrines.

[peaklordshen]

"I told you," says Shen Yuan. "Lan Wangji defaced a wall. I think he might have been drunk?" he says, looking to Grantaire for confirmation; if he was, then that was at least one thing CQL had gotten right. Along with Jiang Cheng being so handsome.

[futaille]

"Very drunk, if his talent show performance had anything to say about it."

[qingxinling]

"Lan Wangji got drunk?!" Jiang Wanyin is frankly a little flummoxed by that one. "This array is so fucking weird."

[peaklordshen]

"Oh, there's no array," says Shen Yuan. "I mean. I'm pretty sure. It's not that type of magic. And I don't think Lan Wangji getting drunk had anything to do with magic at all, I think he just wanted to stake a claim to Wei Wuxian in front of everybody, because--" he's a yaoi Dom with overactive paranoia about everyone stealing his husband, even though everyone is happily ensconced in entirely separate yaoi dramas of their own? He rolls his eyes a little, meaningfully. "You know."

[qingxinling]

Disgusting. Disgusting!! In a way, they deserve each other. "I know," Jiang Wanyin grumbles.

[peaklordshen]

Shen Yuan pats his hand sympathetically. "You want a drink?" he asks. "Or—something else?"

[qingxinling]

"Something else, like food?"

[peaklordshen]

"Sure, if you like," says Shen Yuan, and then taps his fan against his cheek, as if something has just occurred to him. "Or—someone here gave me something, a special kind of plant, only available here¹—inhaling its vapor brings peace, and a certain—clarity of thought." He shrugs, a little. "If there is an array here that I haven't noticed,² it could help you figure it out."

So, okay, he's lying to Jiang Cheng a little about what weed does. But how long did he spend watching that show wanting everyone to just let Jiang Cheng chill out?? Enjoy himself a little?? Receive a little positive reinforcement for once in his life?? If getting him stoned and buttering him up about his spiritual investigation skills is what it takes, Shen Yuan will shoulder that burden.

¹ No it isn't, but it's almost definitely not available in Jiang Cheng's world, unless the novel is very different than the show, so same diff.
² There isn't.

[qingxinling]

"Like some kind of special incense?" Jiang Wanyin asks, suspiciously.

[peaklordshen]

"Sort of," says Shen Yuan. "You inhale it more directly than that." He draws Jiang Cheng away from the display on the wall and toward somewhere more private. "I can show you?"