Chapter Text
Jiang Cheng was at the siege, Lan Wangji was at the siege, Nie Mingjue was at the siege, was there anyone who wasn't at the siege?
How ungrateful.
Now, Lan Wangji had tried to save him. And Wei Wuxian thought the Lan couldn’t get anymore confusing- always calling him “annoying” and “immature” even starting full on sword fights over some drawings. Wei Wuxian is sure the great Hanguang-jun hated him.
So maybe he wasn’t trying to save him, maybe he was just trying to keep him alive long enough to face whatever the cultivators in Gusu had to do to him…
Yes, that sounded right.
_______________
Xue Yang brought him food and water a few times during the day, nothing filling. And every time Wei Wuxian asked where the amulet was, the youth would just smile and continue on whatever he was doing.
This kid knew who he was, and yet, he had the nerve to act so confident around him.
'Annoying' was the only word that came to Wei Wuxian's mind (now he’s sounding like someone familiar), but he didn't care to do anything about it.. These few days after the siege, he was nothing but tired. His usual sarcasm and snap just vanished. He expected to feel anger and rage- but no, all gone.
________________
By now, the wound on his side had healed decently and wouldn't take long to disappear.
Wei Wuxian stood up and watched how Xue Yang practically jumped to his feet as well. "Well look at you, moving about." The youth sighed, stuffing… something into a qiankun pouch.
"The amulet." Wei Wuxian held his hand out, waiting. The youth eyed his hand and sneered, "Hmm, maybe I'll give it to you..under some conditions.." He cocked his head as if he was deep in thought.
This kid…
Wei Wuxian narrowed his eyes. "What 'conditions'?"
Xue Yang perked up -hands on his hips- and smiled, "Teach me."
"Teach you?" Wei Wuxian balked.
The youth sighed and dramatically rolled his eyes, "Demonic cultivation, you idiot."
Wei Wuxian couldn't help the laugh that bubbled up, a genuine laugh. "What makes you think you can learn it?"
Xue Yang shrugged,”I dabble.” He said proudly. "I've already got the basics." His smile paused as he pushed Wei Wuxians hand away. "It's not hard to figure out, I'm not as dumb as I may look."
…..
…..
"I could just kill you right now and take the amulet."
Xue Yang waved a finger, "You could.. try to kill me, but you won't get the amulet either way." He stood up- Wei Wuxian realized that they were almost the same height, he certainly didn’t expect that. "Like a sword, the qiankun pouch is sealed- only I can open it." Xue Yang stated, with a proud trill to his voice.
"Oh, and I wouldn't try cutting it open if I was you…you'd find out why pretty quickly." The youth added with a toothy grin.
Wei Wuxian narrowed his eyes, “I think I could handle whatever it is.”
“No, no .” Xue Yang laughed like there was some kind of joke to it that Wei Wuxian wasn't aware of. Wei Wuxian watched as the youth stretched out his arms, but the thing that stood out to him was there was no pinky finger on Xue Yang's left hand. After looking even closer, the ring and middle finger were… ‘crooked’ and littered with tiny scars. A sign of broken bones that healed wrong.
Previously, Xue Yang had been wearing a glove on his left hand, so Wei Wuxian paid it no mind. But now, he couldn’t help but prod- how could someone lose such a strange body part? “What happened to your hand?” He implored, inclining his head. Xue Yang froze, slowly closing his hands into fists. He met Wei Wuxians gaze, his amber eyes fiery and sharp. “An old man testing his luck with a street rat.” For the first time since Wei Wuxian woke up, Xue Yang's voice wasn’t bright, it had no sarcastic or playful bounce to it- it was cold and icy.
“Huh, so that's it. You want to learn demonic cultivation for revenge.” It wasn't really a question, but a statement.
Xue Yang shrugged, apparently flipping right back to his normal behavior. “That’s why I started learning it, but A-Yao kinda picked me off my ass so I could be their ‘demonic cultivator disciple.’ a shitty title, really.” He snickered.
Right. Xue Yang was still a ‘guest disciple’ for the Jins.
Wei Wuxian hummed softly. “Yeah, about that. Why do you have me here if you’re ‘with’ the Jins? In the end, it’s a problem for me and you.” He looked at the dull orange flower on the yellow robes. “And I’d hope you smart enough not to bring me trouble.”
“Oh, I would never - after all, you are the mighty Yiling Laozou after all.” Xue Yang mocked, his amber eyes pulling into crescents as he flashed a smile. Wei Wuxian felt his eye twitch, this kid really knew how to get on every last one of his nerves, “That's right.. I am.”
The youth met his eyes again and raised a brow. “Teach me.”
“Or what?”
“You won't even be able to pry the amulet out of my cold, dead fingers. You’ll get no help roughing up whoever you want, the Lans, the Jiangs- whoever.” Xue Yang listed off with his fingers.
Wei Wuxian stayed silent, his main concern was the amulet, only heaven knows what this kid would do with it. Nothing good, that's for sure. Xue Yang claimed he only ‘knew the basics’ so he certainly would have no clue how to keep the amulet in control and keep the resentful energy from killing him.
Wei Wuxian spun around with a sigh of exasperation and let his hand slap against his thighs. He could almost hear the smile on Xue Yang’s face, the handful of ways to rip it off his face filled his head. Wei Wuxian huffed and looked at Xue Yang from over his shoulder. “Fine.”
Xue Yang smiled ear to ear, but not his mocking kind of smile, Wei Wuxian could confidently say it was a genuine smile.
"Thank you Qianbei- Oh." He paused, dramatically nodding to himself, "Sorry. I meant 'Shifu."
Wei Wuxian sighed. He was already starting to regret this…