Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, 33rd floor, IT Department, Director’s Office

Lan Wangji puts down the phone and sips his cup of tea in silence, waiting for his secretary to come into his office. Lan Yanyun appears on his third sip, and smiles when she meets his eye. He does not return it, but his eyes are warm behind the rim of his tea cup. 

“Yes, boss?” 

Lan Wangji puts his cup down and gestures to the thick binder in front of him. “Please send this final contract and proposal to my brother. He’ll be expecting it by mid-afternoon. If he’s not there, leave it with his secretary.” 

“Sure.” Her smile widens when she reaches his desk. “So... Is it finally over?” 

She gets a quiet nod in reply, and notices a tiny slump in her boss’ shoulders. After working with the man for the past 4 years, this is the closest she can recognise as relief from the usually expressionless man. 

“Thank goodness.” Lan Yanyun says loudly. She knows this was a huge contract Lan Wangji and his team had been working tirelessly on for the past eight months. “You should take a break, now that it’s over. Make use of your vacation days for once. When was the last time you’ve taken a day off?”

It was an old argument between them. Lan Wangji shakes his head no - it’s probably the answer she expects anyway - and he hears her sigh ruefully. She has always shown concern over his working habits and self-care (or lack of it), and he always insists (whether verbally or otherwise) that there is no need. 

“Fine, fine. I’ll head over to CEO Lan’s office, then!” She turns around at the door. “At least go home early today. You know you deserve it.”

“Mm. Maybe.”

She waves and closes the door behind her. 

He goes back to his cup of tea. It’s a simple blend of oolong and jasmine, a gift from his son last winter. He knows he will wait till 5pm at least. Sizhui finishes work then. He will want to head home together. 

Just as Lan Wangji finds some more paperwork to finish, his office phone rings. He looks up, surprised. There should not be anyone calling him, especially since he has just closed a major contract. 

Unless there is something wrong with the contract and proposal. 

Lan Wangji calmly picks up the receiver. 

“Lan-”

“Oh, thank god !” A loud voice interrupts him. “Are you from IT?”

“Yes, speaki-”

“Okay firstly, thank you for picking up the phone! I’ve been trying to get help from your department for ages - well, okay, not ages, more like 20 minutes, but that’s practically years considering how much help I need and can’t seem to find a single person in IT doing their job! Except for you, I guess! Ha! Do you have any idea how grateful I am that someone answered at all, I was starting to lose all hope of being saved! I’m so desperate for help - can you believe I searched HR’s contact folder and practically tested every number I could find under the IT department? Ridiculous, I know, but you’re probably the twentieth number I tried and the first one to answer! If I didn’t know better I’d think your whole department decided to go to lunch together the moment my crisis started! Wouldn’t be the first time fate had it in for me…”

Lan Wangji has not heard so many words directed at him in one go since… since he was working as tech support, most likely. He cannot seem to get a word in either because of this person’s rambling,  which seemed to be a mixture of simultaneous panic and relief. 

“What-”

“... and don’t get me started on the user system here, it is totally not designer-friendly! This isn’t the first time this happened, but why did it need to happen just when I was almost done with this damn thing, now I can’t even reboot it because I might lose my work and-”

Lan Wangji clears his throat loudly and the man stops speaking abruptly. He hears the faintest self-deprecating laugh. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I’m rambling again! This always happens when I panic. But then again, I have no reason to anymore, right? I’ve got you to help me!”

Lan Wangji can hear the smile in his voice, and… now that the man is more calm, he can appreciate the image of wind and sunshine that comes to mind when the man chuckles. And that in itself is surprising.

“Mn.” He knows he can get Lan Yanyun to transfer the call to any of the actual tech support officers sitting outside his office, or even do it himself. But something about this guy’s enthusiasm makes him hesitate to do so. 

“So… what’s the problem.”

“My desktop is frozen! I’m using Illustrator and Photoshop and that is frozen too! Can’t even find my mouse pointer! And rebooting is not an option if it means I might lose my work! You need to help me, gege!”

Lan Wangji freezes. For a split second, his mind has come to two conclusions: 1) This man talks as if every sentence he says ends in an exclamation mark (which is more emotion than Lan Wangji is used to dealing with, even on the phone) and 2) This man has no sense of propriety if he goes around making such flippant declarations of familiarity, no matter how desperate he is to get his computer fixed. 

Still. Lan Wangji will calmly help this man out despite how his heart is beating strangely fast. 

“Stay calm. What is your computer serial number?”

“Serial number?”

“Yes. Look at your CPU. There should be a 15-digit serial number that starts with CR near the USB ports.” He might be the IT director of Cloud Recesses now, but he had started out as a tech support officer after graduating from university. Even if that was 13 years ago. He knew the servers and systems he had helped to introduce to the company well. 

“Ah, yes, yes! Found it! It’s CR-M-C-1105-383-18304-999!” The man says excitedly. 

Lan Wangji jots it down quickly and pulls up the server admin system on his own desktop computer. “I am going to remotely access your computer. Please stay on the line and refrain from touching anything while I work.”

“Of course! Please, do your thing!” The man says. 

Lan Wangji puts the man on speaker and is swift in noticing the immediate problem. His fingers fly across the keyboard as he does a quick tinkling of the software server.

Meanwhile, the man has clearly extrapolated the instruction “stay on the line” into his own version of “make endless conversation to fill in the silence while I work to save your work”. He talks to Lan Wangji about what he had for lunch that day (an egg sandwich) and how it was not as good as his breakfast that day (pancakes with chili?) and how come the coffee machine on his floor is always broken and isn’t that the perfect excuse to head to the coffee shop across the street but nooooo he got chewed out by his boss for slacking off and what does that even mean when he sometimes stays five hours past office hours to meet a project deadline, and isn’t that basically the coffee machine’s fault, Mr. IT?

“Lan Zhan.” It slips out before he notices it. 

“Lan Zhan?” 

“My name.” His birth name, to be more specific. Lan Wangji does not know why that is the name he chose for this man to know him by, but he does know that he likes the sound of his name coming from the man’s playful tenor. 

“Ah! True! I can’t call you Mr. IT forever, can I?”

“Mn. All done.” Lan Wangji relinquishes the remote access he had on the man’s computer, but keeps the screen on just in case to see if it’s working properly on his end. The mouse pointer moves smoothly as the man flips through his many open applications to check his work and do some quick saves. 

It is then that Lan Wangji takes note of what is actually on the man’s screen. Files and files of open work-in-progress designs. He must be in the marketing or adverstising department of Cloud Recesses, if his designs are anything to go by. One of them looks like a large billboard to encourage joint/family membership for the cloud server networks they will be unveiling next month. Lan Wangji himself had a hand in sourcing for, rebuilding and customizing the new server. The billboard design looks young and modern; it will definitely draw in the more tech-savvy millennial crowd. 

“Thank you so much, Lan Zhan! You’re a life-saver!” The man’s voice suddenly blares from the phone speaker, and Lan Wangji startles slightly. 

“It was no problem. You are welcome…”

“Wei Ying, courtesy name Wuxian! That’s me!” Lan Wangji’s lips quirk up slightly at the reply. He can almost picture a raised hand and a cheeky grin on the faceless image he has of this man. Of Wei Ying. 

“You are welcome, Wei Ying.” Lan Wangji says, and he feels compelled to add, “Maybe try not to have so many applications open at the same time? One or two is fine, but with this many, the software will be slowed down.” 

Wei Ying laughs, a light tinkling sound.  “Ahhh Lan Zhan, you just don’t know my process! But don’t worry. I’ll try to follow your advice next time, eh? Otherwise I can just call you again for help!”

Lan Wangji contemplates for a second and replies, “Anytime, Wei Ying.”

“Thanks again, Lan Zhan! Have a nice day!”

“Same to you.” 

Lan Wangji disconnects the line just as he hears Wei Ying hang up. He looks back at his remote access system that is still on Wei Ying’ screen. The mouse has begun to move in earnest, opening up Illustrator and clicking on tools and text; Wei Ying has started working again. 

Lan Wangji logs out of the programme and stares at the paperwork on his desk that he was just about to start on before Wei Ying called.

Wei Ying. Who works in the marketing department on advertising and is creative and exuberant and likes his pancakes spicy and has a grudge against their office coffee machine. All that from a phone call that lasted less than ten minutes. 

 He realises that he did not correct Wei Ying on who he really is; Wei Ying probably still thinks Lan Zhan is some tech support officer. 

That’s fine, he thinks, albeit a little sadly.

Not like Wei Ying will call again. 

*****

Wei Ying does in fact, call again. 

Many times. 

Over the next week, he calls about multiple computer issues. System lagging, not being able to find a certain editing programme, being locked out of his computer because he forgot to change his password on time even with the renew-password reminder from the cyber security team, being unable to render his final designs due to a new software upgrade that thought his files might have been corrupted; they ranged from frankly silly issues to some that really needed help from IT. 

He calls Lan Wangji’s line directly, and without fail (as long as he was at his desk, which was often, now that he had just closed a large contract) Lan Wangji would answer. 

Wei Ying says it’s because he’s the only one nice enough to always be there for him when he needs help and calls.

 (“When I try the other numbers, no one picks up! Seriously, Lan Zhan, is there even anyone around you right now doing their job?”

“No.” Lan Wangji cannot lie, and there is literally no one else in his office except him.

“I knew it.”)

*****

By the next Tuesday, just a week after their first call — eight days to be precise, but who’s keeping count? Not Lan Wangji — the calls from Wei Ying have stopped being about any technical or IT issue at all. Sometimes he calls during lunch. Or after lunch, or even after breakfast. There is no schedule as to when Wei Ying calls, but all Lan Wangji is sure of is that he will. He has been doing so nearly everyday for the past week. 

Sometimes the calls are short — just five minutes or so where Wei Ying calls him just to ask how is he? Is the work boring? Is he even doing work or just stoning at a laptop all day because sometimes that is what his voice sounds like. Lan Wangji likes to think that Wei Ying asking after him means they have become friends of some sort. 

And sometimes the calls are longer, more than half an hour where Wei Ying rambles on about nearly everything that pops into his mind. How his jiejie is doing at her restaurant and what kinds of new dishes she has just invented and how much he just spent on repair because his microwave broke down the other day. 

Through these mostly short, sometimes long (mostly one-sided) conversations, with Wei Ying, Lan Wangji has learned quite a number of things. About his older sister who is just the best and his younger brother who tries to act like an older brother, and his nephew whom he loves but is at an age where he wants nothing to do with his embarrassing uncle, about the numerous potted plants he has kept in his office at work and the ones that need more love and seem to be wilting slightly because of the heat. 

Lan Wangji finds this terribly fascinating.

No one who knows him personally dares to even have a prolonged conversation with him. Not long enough for him to get close to anyone at work. Aside from his brother, Lan Yanyun was probably the only one at work with whom he could have more than monosyllabic conversations with. He knows his department respects him, and they look up to him. But they also find him rather aloof and difficult to warm up to, and he does not blame them. He was raised with strict rules, being from the main family branch of the Gusu Lan conglomerate, and while he might not have approved of or even liked them, he still obeyed. First his father, and then his uncle growing up. 

He was not like his brother. They might look similar but they were vastly different in personality. The rules they followed made his brother more outgoing and pleasant to others; it made Lan Wangji curl inwards into himself. 

It is… difficult sharing with others when you spend your entire life learning - and succeeding - in cultivating silence. 

But with Wei Ying, he wanted to share. Wanted to talk about his brother when Wei Ying spoke about his siblings. Wanted to talk about his son when Wei Ying spoke about his nephew. Wei Ying always waited, gave him a chance to answer, but was never bothered when Lan Wangji did not. He listened, though, and he learned, and despite some of his non-answers, Wei Ying never stopped asking.

Wei Ying probably knew a lot less about Lan Zhan than Lan Wangji knew of Wei Ying. 

And then on Wednesday — 

“Eh, Lan Zhan! I’ve been wondering! You’re in IT, right? So you must work with computers a lot — so what’s on your wallpaper right now?”

“My… wallpaper?” Lan Wangji has no idea where this is going. 

“Yeah, you know, the first thing you see when you turn on your computer! I changed mine yesterday and I couldn’t stop thinking about what yours would be! Describe it to me!” Wei Ying’s voice gets louder the more excited he gets. 

“Um. It is mostly black… With a window on the right side with blue light shining through.”

“ What .” Wei Ying whispers loudly into the phone. “Are you describing… the Windows default wallpaper?!”

“Mn.” Lan Wangji nods even though he knows Wei Ying cannot see it. 

“NO, Lan Zhaaaan, this is a travesty . And I am fixing this right away! How long have you been using this computer of yours and you didn’t even bother to change your wallpaper?”

“There is no need. I do not look at it when I am working.”

“NO, we are fixing this .” Wei Ying hisses dramatically into the phone. “Tell me something you like! Like, a hobby or an interest, or something! Anything!”

“Hm.”

“Sports? Do you like soccer? Or basketball?”

“No.”

“Art? Favorite artist?”

“I appreciate many forms of the visual and performing arts.”

“Oh my god, Lan Zhan, give me something to work with here! Anything! You have to love or at least like something . I dunno! Animals! Pets?”

“Mn.” Lan Wangji acknowledges quietly. He does like animals. But pets were not allowed at home growing up. 

“Well there you go! Any particular ones? Don’t say dogs, though. I will hang up right now if you say—”

“Rabbits.” Lan Wangji blurts involuntarily. “I— I like rabbits. But they are against the rules, so…”

“Ahhhh hold on, Lan Zhan, give me a second!” Wei Ying says gleefully, and Lan Wangji says. “Mn.”

Lan Wangji hears the clicks of a mouse and the typing of keys over the phone. It is decidedly more than a second when Wei Ying finally returns and says, “Go to our employee sharing cloud, Lan Zhan! Look for my folder! Now, now!”

Lan Wangji hums in response and opens up the employee sharing server, where every single Cloud Recesses employee has their own folder that can be accessed but not edited by everyone in the company. Only the owner whose name is on the folder and specified administrators can add and delete files inside. He looks for Wei Ying’s name under “W” and clicks it. The inside of it is organized chaos; documents and files with no seeming categorical sense except, most likely, to its owner. 

Right at the top of the list is a newly created sub folder titled “For LZ <3” and Lan Wangji’s heartbeat is pounding in his chest looking at that heart symbol next to his initials. He can feel his ears heating up. 

“Do you see it yet?”

“I see the new folder.”

“Yes, that one! Look inside!” Wei Ying chirps. 

Lan Wangji clicks it. Inside the folder, he finds five different images with extremely long names (most likely from Google), and opens them up in a slideshow to view them. They are all images of different breeds of rabbits doing ridiculously cute things; chewing on straw, sniffing a flower, cuddling into a blanket too large for them. 

“Oh.” Lan Wangji says because his brain has obviously short-circuited. 

“Aren’t they cute?! Do you like them?” 

“I— Yes. I like them. They are adorable.” 

“There you go! Your new wallpaper! Pick any one!” Wei Ying sounds like he’s clapping his hands in excitement. 

“I—” Lan Wangji is even more speechless than usual, but he’s interrupted by the sounds of someone shouting on Wei Ying’s side of the call. 

“Ah, sorry, Lan Zhan! Gotta go, my boss is being an ass right now. I’ll call you tomorrow! Let me know which one you choose! “

Lan Wangji barely manages a quick, “Bye, Wei Ying.” Before the line disconnects. 

He spends maybe thirty seconds staring at the five rabbit pictures in the folder on screen before hovering his hand over to his mouse. He picks the one with three white and brown rabbits curled up in a giant white blanket and sets it as his desktop wallpaper. When he closes the employee sharing cloud folder, the rabbits are now on his desktop, napping in their giant blanket. 

He stares. 

He probably would have started work immediately after Wei Ying put down the phone, but the rabbits on his desktop hold his attention for a good few minutes before he pulls out a proper work document. 

Lan Wangji knows this wallpaper thing will become as good a distraction as anything to his productivity, but his lips curve into a smile anyways.

Chapter Text

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, 33rd floor, IT Department, Director’s Office

Lan Wangji stares at his desktop wallpaper. He has changed it today to another image of two rabbits seen from afar, frolicking together in a field under the bright afternoon sun. 

Wei Ying has been updating his “For LZ <3” folder daily with new pictures of rabbits doing cute things for Lan Wangji to choose new wallpapers from. Now, when he sees his desktop, he not only thinks of rabbits that he loves, but Wei Ying as well, whom he is… he is not sure how he feels about him, but he knows he does feel… Something.

Something that had stopped him from hanging up the moment Wei Ying had loudly barged into his life via phone call. Something that had made Lan Wangji’s heart beat erratically when Wei Ying had (probably) jokingly called him gege , while disapproving of his blatant disregard for propriety. Something that had made Lan Wangji divulge his birth name within less than ten minutes of one-sided conversation, and now quietly relish the myriad of ways in which Wei Ying can say his name and make the sound of it mean different things. 

Yes. So… something. Something was definitely there. 

That in itself is a revelation for Lan Wangji. He knows at this point, he is possibly feeling something… for this man he’s only heard the voice of and never met. Despite this, he has no interest in searching the company database to look for a picture of Wei Ying, courtesy name Wuxian, either. 

Lan Wangji is content in his knowledge that no matter what Wei Ying looks like, he will always be that wrecking ball of endless energy and enthusiasm that has slowly sent Lan Wangji’s carefully nurtured walls crumbling down one phone call and multiple rabbit pictures at a time. Who does that for someone they barely know, anyways?

Definitely not Lan Wangji. Wei Ying, on the other hand, seems to be all about taking the first step and actually doing things for others. And now Lan Wangji cannot recall nor imagine what his days at work were like just two weeks before without him anticipating Wei Ying’s daily phone calls and now the additional cute rabbit pictures curated from Google just for him and his previously desolate default desktop wallpaper. 

He glances one last time at his new wallpaper before he gets to work. 

*****

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, 23rd floor, Marketing Department, Advertising Workroom

Wei Wuxian looks at the four youngsters standing nervously at the door of his tiny office, or makeshift workroom, more like. They stare around the entirety of the workroom before as one, their gazes land on Wei Wuxian at his desk in the far corner. All four of them have varying emotions on their faces, each one different from the other — awed excitement, polite curiosity, guarded amusement and complete mortification. 

The mortified one he knows personally - Jin Ling, his beloved nephew. Who at the moment is staring into Wei Wuxian’s office like he would like to be anywhere but here. Wei Wuxian can’t help but grin back slyly. 

“A-Ling!” He says, in his most cheerful and obnoxious voice and stands up at his desk to walk towards the four boys. Jin Ling shrinks back slightly when the other three immediately whip their heads around to look at him questioningly. 

“You know him?” The one who had the look of guarded amusement asks bluntly.

“Of course!” Wei Wuxian reaches their group and plants an arm around his still growing nephew. He’s much taller now than Wei Wuxian remembers, but still shorter than Wei Wuxian. “A-Ling here is my favorite nephew! Look how much you’ve grown! What are you now, sixteen?”

“Dajiu, could you NOT. And I’m nineteen this year. How can I be your favourite nephew if you don’t even remember my age. Of all the luck drawing lots, I have to end up under you.” Jin Ling grumbles and shoves Wei Wuxian bodily off him. 

“Aiya, I forget everyone’s age, not just yours! Don’t take it to heart.” Wei Wuxian says with a smirk and extends his arms out to the rest of the group. “Come in, everyone. It’s not much, but I hope all of you will have a good time, and possibly learn something too while you’re here, eh?”

He gestures for all four of them to sit down at the tiny round meeting table in front of his desk. It comfortably sits the four of them. The moment Wei Wuxian joins in and plops himself on a wooden stool between two of the boys, it becomes a tight fit. Good thing he’ll be working at his own desk after this introduction. 

Every year, the Cloud Recesses Headquarters takes in at least twenty interns for a prestigious joint-university partnership that gives the undergraduates a chance to experience the corporate world and to apply stuff they’ve learned in an actual working environment. 

In Cloud Recesses, CEO Lan makes it a point to check up on these interns personally, so that he can scout for himself kids with potential and good attitude. Wei Wuxian is privately really proud of A-Ling for being able to get the internship on his own. Maybe one day he can say it out loud in front of his friends for the sheer joy of seeing his nephew’s mortification again. 

For the first two months, the interns are stationed in a different department of the company every two weeks. Then after getting their feet wet in four different departments, they get to choose which one they prefer for their final assignment, which will last for at least another two months. Usually the internship lasts for four months, after which the interns will go back to school in the fall. 

Wei Wuxian looks forward to this every year. In Marketing, they divide the twenty or so interns into smaller groups and spread them around the department to try different aspects for the two orientation weeks. Usually Wei Wuxian gets around four or five of them for his one-man show as the in-house designer in advertising, under the creative side of the marketing department. Because the “creative director”, his boss, Su She is a vindictive little rat, he always insists that Wei Wuxian is enough to handle the artistic side of their marketing, and refuses to request extra manpower from HR. As though he can whistle a tune and magically produce an entire ad campaign out of thin air. 

Wei Wuxian has no one else to turn to for support in this area, so he is positively ecstatic every time the internship period rolls around and he gets some extra hands in. Of course he tries to make sure they leave with a good experience and something learned as well, even if they come in not being design-trained or lacking aesthetic taste. 

Last year’s batch of interns were pretty decent. Out of the five of them sent to him, three of them decided to come back for their final two-month assignment, so he counts that as a win. 

This new lot looks promising. Judging by the looks on their faces, he can tell he’ll at least have a good time with them. 

“Okay, time for intros! My name is Wei Wuxian. Lone in-house designer in the Cloud Recesses. Welcome to my workroom!” Wei Wuxian gestures grandly around his tiny office as the interns take their glances around. There’s stuff lying around on nearly every surface, works in progress, posters, banners left over from previous ad campaigns, empty foam boards for last minute mounting, empty frames of all sizes stacked vertically against a few walls, and the odd plant here and there where he can find the space for some natural greenery. It’s a lot to take in. 

He takes a breath and continues. “You all may call me Senior Wei, or Wei-ge. Or Xian-ge. I’ve heard many variations before and I am alright with all of them.” He plasters on his brightest smile. “Except for you, A-Ling. I will always be your dajiu!”

Jin Ling groans. 

“Who’s next!”

“I’m Lan Jingyi.” The only one who spoke earlier to Jin Ling raises his hand. Wei Wuxian nods. What with the Lan clan being so big and how a lot of them actually work for Cloud Recesses, it’s pretty normal to have at least a few young Lans in the internship every year. 

“Pleased to meet you, Senior Wei. I am studying project management, second year, and I hope to be of help.” Jingyi continues. 

“Good to hear!” Wei Wuxian can already think of things to assign to Jingyi that can play to his learning expertise. “What about you?”

He points to the boy who had looked around his makeshift workroom in awe earlier. The boy immediately straightens his back and smiles brightly. “I’m Ouyang Zizhen, Senior Wei! I’m looking forward to working with you. Corporate design and marketing, second year!”

Wei Wuxian nods excitedly. He turns to the last boy, whose back is ramrod straight and is paying the utmost polite attention to Wei Wuxian. “I am Lan Sizhui, Senior Wei. I am also a second year student, but in Finance and Accounting, and I look forward to learning from you and contributing what I can.”

Another Lan. His smile is sweet and calm, and for some reason, Wei Wuxian is reminded of another man whose voice is also quiet and calm. He imagines that his Lan Zhan would resemble this Sizhui in demeanor. Oh, wait, his Lan Zhan?

Whoa, Wei Wuxian, you were just with him on the phone just now. Get a grip. You’re supposed to be a role model here!

Wei Wuxian finds his eyes drifting distractedly to his office phone. He lets out a loud laugh when he catches himself and looks back at the interns, especially the two Lans, Jingyi and Sizhui. Could Sizhui be related to Lan Zhan? Their disposition alone screams Lan upbringing, but it’s presumptuous of him to think that all Lans behaved the same. Look at Jingyi! One look and Wei Wuxian can tell that Lan Jingyi is not your average Lan, judging by the faces he keeps pulling at Jin Ling the moment he thinks he’s not being watched. 

“Senior Wei?” Zizhen asks tentatively. Ah, he must have gotten lost in his thoughts. 

“Yes! Since all of you know each other, I’ll take my time to get to know each one of you! We’ll have two weeks, at the very least! Now, time for duty delegations!”

He distributes tasks to all four of them, and assigns each of them to their work laptops (courtesy of Lan Zhan, who had sent someone over to him to help set up this morning when he said he needed them for the new interns coming into his department, bless him — he got things done fast ) at the small meeting table, and returns to his desk to get back on track with the new ad campaign for the family cloud membership. 

He plays some music on a soft speaker while he works, and the interns seem to enjoy it. While they work, Jin Ling starts talking to him across the tiny office to give him updates on his parents and grandparents, and Wei Wuxian allows himself to relax and really focus on what he needs to finish by today. By late morning, the interns are as relaxed as he is, comfortably chatting with each other and with Wei Wuxian so he gets to know them a little better. 

Their conversation turns to Jiejie’s cooking and her new menu at the restaurant (“Dajiu, mom says she wants to invite you over so you can taste test the fusion pork dumplings.”) when Lan Jingyi’s stomach lets out a tiny growl the moment a pause sweeps over the room. Wei Wuxian laughs out loud. 

“It’ll be lunch in half an hour! What shall we get?” 

The interns all look at each other. “Um…” Zizhen begins. “We normally just get some sandwiches from the cafeteria downstairs.”

“That’s it?” Wei Wuxian laughs. “Not today! It’s your first day here — we’ll get something good! There’s a street vendor two blocks away with the best wonton noodles in the area! My treat for today!” 

“Really?” The interns immediately light up. Wei Wuxian is certain he’ll have fun with this group. They start chattering excitedly — even Jin Ling. 

Lan Sizhui offers to go buy lunch back for them so the rest of them can continue working, and Lan Jingyi quietly bullies Jin Ling into following to help carry the food back. They set up a WeChat group including Wei Wuxian so that they can text in their orders to Sizhui. 

They leave at half past noon with some cash from Wei Wuxian, and he continues to work on his design. He wonders what Lan Zhan is having for lunch. Maybe he should give Lan Zhan a call to ask if he wants noodles too. He’s sure Sizhui and Jin Ling wouldn’t mind carrying back an extra bowl. 

It’s a bold move - they always ask each other if they’ve eaten and what they’ve eaten, but this… this is like, next-level. Like, asking-to-actually-buy-food-for-each-other kind of next-level. Which could possibly lead to actually-eating-with-each-other next-level. Which would imply actually meeting Lan Zhan — highest level of all the levels Wei Wuxian can think of at the moment. 

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, huh? Wei Wuxian chastises himself. 

It’s just a bowl of noodles. 

His hand hovers over his office phone when he suddenly remembers that he’s not alone in his office anymore. He looks at Jingyi and Zizhen working on their laptops and retracts his hand. Maybe not a good idea to make a social call during work hours. In front of others no less.

Wei Wuxian goes back to his laptop, but his eyes keep drifting to his office phone an arm’s length away on his desk. He looks at the clock; 12.40pm. It’s been ten minutes and he’s still wondering if he should call Lan Zhan. Technically he already spoke to him this morning, but that was just to confirm the laptops for the interns. 

“Wei-ge?” Zizhen’s voice startles him out of his internal dilemma. 

“Ah… sorry. Yeah, what’s up?”

“Um, are you alright?” He looks over to see both Jingyi and Zizhen looking at him strangely. 

“Yes, of course! What makes you ask that?”

“Ah, you just keep looking back at your phone as though you want to set it on fire.” Zizhen laughs nervously. Jingyi quips, “Yes! It’s been quite an intense ten minutes watching you have a staring contest with your phone.”

“OH. That, yes, well…” Wei Wuxian pushes his long fringe out of the way. “It’s nothing, real—”

“Are you waiting for a call from someone? Or is there someone you want to call?” Jingyi says and his face slowly breaks into a large smile when he sees Wei Wuxian’s face morph into a sheepish grin. 

“Uh, yeah.” Should he? Even be mentioning this to interns? They’ve been here less than a morning!

Zizhen perks up. “There is? Is it someone special?”

And there it is. Their eager faces are just urging him to share. Jingyi looks positively delighted and Zizhen looks as if he wishes he had someone special too. 

So Wei Wuxian does share. As vaguely as he can. He tells them about the IT guy he called by accident two weeks ago, and how he’s been calling him at least once a day now for a quick chat. Between friends. Jingyi looks at him suspiciously when he emphasizes the word. 

“Okay, wait, I’ll just call him to check if he wants to add on an order for lunch with us. Before Sizhui and Jin Ling leave the noodle stall.” 

“Jiayou, Wei-ge!” Zizhen gives him a thumbs-up while he’s dialing Lan Zhan’s office number. The ringing starts and he swats his hand back and forth at the boy. “It’s not like that, Zi—”

“Wei Ying?”

“AH YES HI,” Wei Wuxian says inadvertently loudly into the phone receiver while the two boys smother their laughter. 

“Are you alright? Is there a problem with the laptops?” Lan Zhan’s voice is low and soothing and calm, as usual, despite the content of his speech. 

“Ah, no, they’re fine. The interns are fine too! I was just, ah, no, we were getting lunch from that wonton noodle store two blocks down, you know which one? Yeah. Would you like a bowl too? We could get one for you and one of the boys could send it to your department or something!” 

Or I could drop by too. 

“It is alright, Wei Ying. I brought my own lunch today.” 

“Oh, oh, you did?” Wei Wuxian can feel his voice going softer at the gentle refusal. It was gentle, but still a refusal. He can see Zizhen’s face deflating, even just listening to Wei Wuxian’s one-sided conversation. Jingyi’s mouth is in a straight line and his face is unreadable. 

“Yes. My son made me a salad and a sandwich.” 

“Uh…” Wei Wuxian’s mind blanks out for a second with the revelation revealed in that alliterative sentence. His son?

“Your son.” How did he not know that Lan Zhan has a son? Was he married?

“Yes. But thank you, Wei Ying, for thinking of me.”

“Oh, ah, no problem. Maybe next time, huh? Sorry to disturb you! Have a good lunch!” Wei Wuxian says and promptly hangs up. 

“Wei-ge,” Zizhen looks at Wei Wuxian with the roundest eyes. “He has a son?”

“Ah, yes.” Wei Wuxian grimaces. This took an awful turn. “He already had lunch — made by his son.”

“Oh.” Zizhen sighs. “Maybe… maybe he’s a single dad?”

Wei Wuxian laughs without humor. Way to be optimistic. “Maybe. What are the odds of that being true?” 

“You never know!” Jingyi butts in. “You can try again tomorrow! Or the day after that. When he doesn’t have lunch.”

“Haha, I know what you’re up to, Lan Jingyi. I’m not treating you boys to lunch everyday just so I can ask my IT guy if he wants to join in.” 

Jingyi just smiles mischievously. “Wouldn’t hurt to try, Wei-ge. Maybe text him tonight so he’ll know not to bring lunch tomorrow.”

“Oh. Um, yeah. Well, we only talk on the phone. In the office.” Wei Wuxian says nonchalantly, and moves back to his desktop computer which has gone into screensaver mode. 

“What! At least get his number!” Zizhen says, outraged. Jingyi nods his head and adds rather bluntly, “How is it that you have our numbers when we’ve been here for all of three hours, and you’ve been speaking to IT guy for two weeks and you’re still living in the 90s with him?”

“Hey! We have a… a budding friendship. Things like this take time!” 

“Ugh. Just get his WeChat number already.” Jingyi mutters loudly. 

*****

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, 33rd floor, IT Department, Director’s Office

As soon as Wei Ying puts down the phone, Lan Wangji is a little lost. He merely told Wei Ying the truth about him already having lunch. Did he say something wrong? Why did Wei Ying seem so… so not like himself. 

He looks down at the salad he was halfway through finishing before his office phone rang, and at the sandwich next to it he has yet to touch. 

Sizhui had meant to bring his own lunch today, but his friends at the internship had texted him while they were on the way to the Cloud Recesses Headquarters, asking if he wanted to have lunch with them today. The group of interns were being shuttled over to a new department today — Wei Ying’s department, he now knew, after Wei Ying had called him earlier for help with the laptops — and they were planning to grab food from the cafeteria together in case they ended up with an unpleasant boss and had to rush through lunch. Lan Wangji remembers his time as an intern there before he graduated from university. Stuff like that happening was a high possibility. 

“It is alright, Sizhui. I can take your lunch for myself if you want to eat together with your friends.”

“Really? Would it be too much for you, though? You’ve already got your salad, Dad.”

“It will be fine. I will skip my tea this afternoon.” Lan Wangji glanced at his son briefly before turning his eyes back on the road. Sizhui was smiling. “Thanks, Dad.” 

Lan Wangji pulled the car over near the pavement, about two blocks from Headquarters. Sizhui had insisted that he wanted to walk in separately from his father. He did not want his relationship with his father, uncle and granduncle to be known during his internship there lest he get special treatment from either the management, employees or other interns. Lan Wangji was really proud of his son’s maturity when he told his father his decision. 

“Thanks for the ride, Dad. I’ll see you after work. Enjoy your double lunch!” Sizhui had said quickly as he opened the car door. 

“I always enjoy the food you make me for lunch.” Lan Wangji replied serenely. He got one of Sizhui’s brightest smiles and a wave in return before starting his solo drive to the office. 

Lan Wangji takes another bite of his salad, prepared by Sizhui this morning.

My son. 

Oh. Was that why Wei Ying sounded so strange? Lan Wangji sighs internally. He has yet to mention Sizhui to Wei Ying at all. Maybe that is why he sounded so shocked on the phone. It was not common knowledge that Lan Wangji was a father, not even in his own department. He was pretty sure the only people in the office who knew were his brother, uncle, and his secretary. Though the news of Lan Wangji being a father should not warrant that rather awkward reaction from Wei Ying (and he should know; Lan Wangji was familiar with many things awkward, given his propensity for silence). Unless...

He should call Wei Ying to see if he is alright. Wei Ying is always the one who calls him first, though. He realizes he does not even know Wei Ying’s office extension number. 

The phone rings suddenly just as Lan Wangji was looking at it. He puts down his fork and answers it, looking at the caller number. 

“Wei Ying.” 

“Hi, yes. Lan Zhan! It’s me again.” He sounds as if he’s whispering into the phone receiver. 

“Hello, Wei Ying.” Lan Wangji says. “About earlier, I am sorry if I have not mentioned my son before today—”

“Oh no, don’t worry, I was a little shocked at first, yes. But it’s okay! It’s so sweet that he makes you lunch to bring to work!”

“Yes. His lunches do make me happy.” Lan Wangji cannot help the smile he knows is slowly extending on his face. 

“Um, maybe if you would like, I can—”

“What do you think about exchanging num—”

They both start talking at the same time and stop when they both realize it. Lan Wangji clears his throat softly. “You first.”

“Ah, yes! Sorry! Yeah, so I was wondering what do you think about exchanging numbers? Like, we can add each other on WeChat? So next time I get some lunch I can check with you if you want some too!” Wei Ying says really quickly, still whispering. 

“Yes. I would like that very much.”

“Really? Great!” Wei Ying lets out a quiet huff of laughter. Maybe of relief? Lan Wangji would like to think so. He tells Wei Ying his number, and Wei Ying tells Lan Wangji his, and he jots it down quickly on a post-it next to his phone. 

“This is great!” Wei Ying says, and Lan Wangji can tell that he’s smiling. “So, what were you saying just now? Sorry we were overlapping!”

Lan Wangji swallows a lump in his throat. “Um. I was saying that, if you would like, I could maybe tell my son to make a little extra food. So we can share. Sometime. Maybe.”

It is uncharacteristic of Lan Wangji to speak in such a roundabout way, and in so many words. Did he actually say maybe twice in the same breath? Logically it cannot have been more than a few seconds, but his heart seems to be pounding forever, waiting for Wei Ying’s reply. It comes as a whispered gush. 

“Awww, that’s so sweet! As long as it’s not too much trouble for the little guy! I would love that. And the sharing too.” 

“That’s good. I will be looking forward to it.” Lan Wangji says, his heartbeat finally slowing down. “And Wei Ying. Why are you whispering?”

“Oh!” Wei Ying chuckles. This time his volume is back to normal. “Nosy interns. Don’t want them to hear what I’m saying.”

“Ah.” 

“Yeap. Heh. Oh! Our lunch is here! Gotta go! Enjoy your salad and sandwich! Bye, Lan Zhan!” 

“Bye, Wei Ying.”

Lan Wangji picks up his fork again and continues where he left off with his salad. Now he needs to find a way to tell Sizhui about Wei Ying before baffling him with a request for a double lunch portion the next time. 

*****

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, 23rd floor, Marketing Department, Advertising Workroom

Wei Wuxian hangs up the phone just as the interns start clearing up their work table for lunch. 

“I saw you typing in your cell phone.” Jingyi says without hesitation. “Does this mean you got his number?”

“Aiya, busybodies!” Wei Wuxian says with affection and a glee he can’t hide. “Let’s eat!”

“What’s going on?” Sizhui asks while Jingyi and Zizhen share a conspiratorial look and Jin Ling looks at his uncle suspiciously.

“Nothing! I’m starving, let’s eat!” Jingyi flaps his hands until everyone is seated. He looks at Sizhui and whispers, “I’ll fill you in later!”

*****

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, Basement level 4, Parking Lot

Sizhui will be waiting at the same spot Lan Wangji dropped him off this morning in twenty minutes. 

Lan Wangji has a bit of time to himself for now. He sits in the driver’s seat of his car and stares at Wei Ying’s contact saved in his phone. Should he initiate a conversation now that they have each other’s numbers? Previously it had always been Wei Ying who had called him. It cannot hurt to be the one starting now, can it? 

Hesitating, Lan Wangji pulls up the WeChat app. The chat logs there are mostly for work, and aside from his brother, uncle and Sizhui, there is only one contact that he chats regularly with who is not in his company. 

He starts typing a new message. 

___

LanWJ > Yang-jie.

LanWJ > Are you free now?

LQY > Hiiii Wangji!

LQY > Been some time! Is that big contract deal you were working on finished?

LanWJ > Yes. We finished two weeks ago. Everything is settled.

LQY > Wow, and you only speak to me now? Lan Wangji!

LanWJ > Sorry, Yang-jie. I do still have work and… 

LanWJ > Other stuff. 

LQY > OOH. What other stuff. Are you going to tell me? 

LQY > is that why we’re talking now?

LanWJ > Yes. 

LanWJ > In the office. There’s someone

LQY > WHAT WHO

LanWJ > Someone I met. Sort of. Technically we have not met.

LanWJ > Not face to face. 

LanWJ > But I have been talking to him on the phone nearly every day. For the past two weeks.

LQY > !!!

LQY > OMG Wangji, I forgive your radio silence for the past month! 

LQY > Tell me everything!

LanWJ > I just need to know your opinion. 

LQY > ON WHAT

LanWJ > We just exchanged phone numbers. Should I text him first? 

LQY > WHAT. YES OF COURSE. What kind of question is that, Lan Wangji! How have you been talking to him if you didn’t have his number????

LanWJ > Office phone. 

LQY > !!!!!!

LQY > You are telling me EVERYTHING. We are going for lunch this Saturday. NO excuses

LanWJ > Alright. Saturday is good for me too. 

LQY > Now go TEXT HIM. 

LanWJ > Alright. Thanks, Yang-jie. 

___

Lan Wangji exits the chat he has with Luo Qingyang. Having been project partners with him since their first year in university means she is one of the few non-family members he knows who feels relaxed enough to talk to him so casually. Especially since she found out she was ten months older than him, and was not intimidated by his rather cold exterior and silent stares. 

Even before texting her, Lan Wangji had already been expecting a similar response from her replies. Maybe he just needed someone to actually egg him on before he could draw up the courage to talk to anyone new on his phone. 

Lan Wangji did not initiate new conversations, be they for work or personal motives. And he rarely had to do it at work as well; people spoke to him first, and he replied. Starting the conversation… It was new, and scary. What would he even say? 

But Wei Ying does this all the time , he tells himself. He can try it out. For Wei Ying. Right. 

Before texting Wei Ying, he marks down Luo Qingyang’s name on Saturday for lunch in his personal calendar. 

Then he pulls out Wei Ying’s contact on WeChat and stares a while at the empty chat log. He’s been doing that a lot lately. Staring at Wei Ying-related things. 

___

LanWJ > Hello, Wei Ying. This is Lan Zhan. 

LanWJ > I just wanted to tell you, thank you for the new photos today. I chose the one with the rabbits playing in the field. 

WWXXX >  \(^____^ )/<3333

WWXXX> YES! That’s my fave too!!!

___

He watches as the chat indicates that Wei Ying is typing, and lets out a breath he did not realize he was holding. 

It’s a good start. Lan Wangji can at least tell himself that he is trying. 

Chapter Text

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, Lobby

“Hold the doors!” Wei Wuxian shouts as he rushes past the crowded lobby on a Wednesday morning. It seemed as though everyone milling about the lift lobby was enjoying a relaxed chat with each other, catching up over a cup of coffee while standing in very inconsiderate clumps that blocked his beeline to the elevators. He wasn’t late this morning, but very nearly so. 

Of all the things that could be used as an arrow to shoot him with, punctuality was one that had been used on multiple occasions before. Not happening today, he told himself.

Someone nice enough holds the door of the lift open for him, and he barrels his way in with his laptop bag and poster storage tubes hanging off his shoulder, his arms full with a few sketchbooks he brought from home. 

The people already in the lift stare at him; Wei Wuxian is used to this. Most of them dress in business wear. Rarely do they see anyone in black jeans come into the office building, especially their company headquarters. But Wei Wuxian can’t work in stifling, stuffy clothes, and has put comfort and his familiar style at the top of his fashion priorities. And since he’s usually stuck in his workroom, not many people get to see him and gawk anyway. At least today he’s in a black oversized sweater and a red henley underneath, instead of one of those days where he feels like a t-shirt is enough. He’s been dressing slightly better since he has interns to be a role model for. 

Wei Wuxian reaches out to press the large “23” button on the lift panel, when he gets shoved unceremoniously to one side, his sketchbooks flying on the floor. The loose sheets that he had haphazardly stuffed into them go tumbling out, and he makes a sound of dismay. 

“Make some space! Hanguang-jun is coming!” The man behind Wei Wuxian whisper-shouts into the lift, as though that is an excuse to rudely push people around an already confined space. Not even an apology!

The middle-aged lady in a tight pencil skirt he nearly bumps into clucks her tongue disdainfully. Wei Wuxian gives her a roll of his eyes and crouches down to pick up his scattered drawings and sketches. Whoever this Hanguang-jun was, he was probably some company big shot. Could possibly be one of the main family-Lans who ran this entire company. Good thing the lift was huge and there were less than a handful of them already inside. Knowing his status in the company, he probably would have been given the boot out if the lift was full. 

Solid, heavy footsteps approach and enter the lift to a chorus of “Good morning, Hanguang-jun” from nearly everyone. This Hanguang-jun doesn’t say a word in reply, though his footsteps pause, probably when he notices Wei Wuxian squatting at the floor with his papers. From what Wei Wuxian can see, the man gracefully turns to face the door, and is followed in by another set of lighter footsteps - heels, most likely a woman’s. Her voice rings loud in the enclosed space as the lift doors close. 

“... Then at 10am there’ll be a meeting with CEO Lan and Chairman Lan to finalize the event plans and to go through the system demo — don’t worry, you don’t have to be there. Chairman Lan says he’s received the necessary materials for the launch. He’ll meet you after lunch to discuss the performance if necessary. The production side are looking for approval of the extra budget for the maintenance of the mainframe after last week…” The lady goes on non-stop while Wei Wuxian collects his work. All the while this Hanguang-jun doesn’t make a sound. 

Wei Wuxian bites his lips to contain his snort, trying to not draw attention to himself. Maybe the guy’s fallen asleep. Not that he blames him. Whatever boring admin thing the woman keeps talking about would totally fly over Wei Wuxian’s head. 

Once his papers are in a relatively neat stack, he stands up, opening one of the sketchbooks to quickly shove them into. Just as he does so, he is hit with the image of the most piercing amber eyes he has ever seen in the reflection of the lift doors. 

Okay, like, whoa. This guy is… hot. And tall. And his hair is long and smooth, tied loosely across one shoulder with a white ribbon with light blue embroidery, a subtle match with his pinstriped light grey suit that cuts a stunning figure. 

The lift rings loudly and the man — most definitely a main family Lan, judging by that hair and ribbon — quickly steps out with his secretary. He doesn’t spare Wei Wuxian a glance. 

Good. Wei Wuxian thinks and lets out a shallow breath. Low profile, remember? Don’t make a scene with your shameless staring. He clutches his sketchbooks tighter. The entire lift ride up, the man didn’t say a word. Wei Wuxian wonders what his voice sounds like, just as the lift makes another ring and he realizes that they’re going up past the 35th floor now. 

Wei Wuxian sighs. Aw man, I forgot to press the button for my floor. 

*****

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, 23rd floor, Marketing Department

Ugh. What a slob. Wei Wuxian thinks while staring at the mess on his boss’ workspace while being lectured. His workroom was a mess too, yes, but it was an organized mess. He had many things, knick-knacks and paper and other printing or packaging material he might need to bring his 2D ideas and designs to life, but he knew where everything was at least. 

His boss, on the other hand, probably just dumped random paperwork and stuff wherever there was an empty space on his desk. Why does he even have this much crap? Wei Wuxian let’s his eyes wander around. It’s not like he does any real design work that requires any paper or art materials. It’s not like he does any work, to be honest.

“Wei Wuxian! Are you even listening to me!” Su She shouts loudly enough that others in the marketing department glance their way before returning back to their own work. The smattering of other interns hanging around the area are clearly trying very hard to look like they’re not eavesdropping.

“Of course! Every word!” Wei Wuxian says in a tone that would be more appropriate for placating an annoying child. Luckily, it seems to fly over Su She’s head. 

Wei Wuxian sighs to himself. Su She was a Lan, very distantly related, but still a Lan. Lan Zhan was a Lan too, possibly also from one of the outer family branches, if he was working as an IT support officer. So was Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi. That hot guy Lan from the lift this morning was a Lan as well. He shakes his head minutely. How could his current boss be so… so… so un-Lan. He was basically an ass. 

“As I was saying, how could you not notice the spelling mistake in the sponsor’s name before printing out the programme booklet for the event launch?”

“Well, how -”

“And of all the people to notice the mistake, guess who did! Lan Xichen and Lan Qiren - the CEO and the company Chairman! Together. Do you know how embarrassing it was when they brought it up and I had to cover up for your mistake?” 

“Uh, actually - “

“Be thankful I was there and we managed to stop production before the entire order was printed. You could have cost us thousands in reprinting!” Su She says, his voice deliberately loud enough for the rest of the department to hear. 

“Actually,” Wei Wuxian retorts, just as loud. “Everything in the launch booklet was sent to me by one of your team members. I’m just the designer! I take the text, and I make it look good. I’m not qualified to start correcting the info sent to me by someone whose job it is to actually write the words! And why was it not double checked before coming to me? The booklet design is the last stage before printing. The content should have been vetted multiple times before I received it.”

His temper starts to rise. Wei Wuxian is rather proud of his (relatively) calm objection to Su She’s accusation, especially after how he came bursting into his workroom and shouting at him in front of the interns. Wei Wuxian had had the sense to send them out quickly to buy lunch so they wouldn’t be involved in this. 

Wei Wuxian stares at Su She with a look that said, this was not my fault. And anyways, what was a few thousand yuan lost in printing. He knew it was peanuts in the grand scheme of company finances. 

His boss throws him an intense glare. “You -”

“Yes, you. Maybe make sure your team double checks all the text this time before sending it to me to edit the booklet? Thanks! If you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.” Wei Wuxian nods and turns back towards his workroom, leaving Su She and everyone else staring after him.

Once he’s in his workroom, Wei Wuxian closes the door behind him and lets out a breath. Oh boy, that took some guts. Even for him. He makes his way to his seat and tries to calm himself down. 

He rarely talks back to Su She, and right now he has no idea what the fallout will be for this. Hopefully something not too big. 

Wei Wuxian has been the lone in-house designer at Cloud Recesses for the past 5 years. He wouldn’t say it’s a thankless job. More like a creditless job. He knows Su She takes most of the credit for his designs, but he can’t say much about it. 

The only reason he even has a job here in the first place is because Uncle Jiang went and asked his friend Chairman Lan for a favour. After that scandal back at Lotus Pier, Madam Yu was adamant about firing him. No one told him any specifics, but he knows his adoptive father had something to do with his sudden shift in companies, just to get him off the receiving end of Madam Yu’s ire. 

And of course, Su She, being the snake that he is, did his own digging and found out about it. And now he holds that information over Wei Wuxian on the not-so-rare occasion that he feels like throwing his weight around. 

Now Wei Wuxian just does what he’s told to do and keeps a low profile at Cloud Recesses, and it’s been five years of that. He puts in the best effort into his designs, but he knows he doesn’t get credited for them. He’ll keep putting his all into his work, though, because he still takes pride in it and enjoys the process, and he’ll be good so as to not cause any trouble that can affect Uncle Jiang’s name and company. So far so good. He hasn’t even seen the CEO or Chairman of Cloud Recesses before, so that means he hasn’t been in any trouble here at all. 

Wei Wuxian sighs. Let’s not think about this now. 

He takes out his phone to distract himself, and sees a number of texts from his interns. He opens the group chat and begins to read. 

___

Sizhui > Hope everything’s okay, Senior Wei!

Sizhui > We bought lunch for you too! On the way back now. 

Jingyi > Beef noodles! It smells really good!

Zizhen > We weren’t sure what you’d like, but the noodles really do smell good!

WWXXX > Thanks, you guys! Don’t worry, everything’s fine! 

___

Wei Wuxian smiles to himself. These kids are his favourite interns so far. It’s been less than three days and they’re already quite close to and work well with him. 

It’s only then that he realizes the texts they sent were from more than twenty minutes ago. He knows which beef noodle stall they’re talking about, so it shouldn’t take them more than five minutes to walk back. Maybe they’re stalling in case Su She was still shouting. 

___

WWXXX > Coast is clear, guys! You can come back now!

WWXXX > Kids?

WWXXX > Did you get lost???

Jin Ling > We’re not kids! 

Jingyi > We got side-tracked, Wei-ge! Look at what we found!! 

___

Jingyi sends a photo into the chat. Wei Wuxian opens it to find that it’s a photo of Sizhui crouching over a cardboard box with two little rabbits inside. Their bag of takeaway bowls of noodles are on the pavement forgotten. 

___

WWXXX > WERE THEY ABANDONED?

Zizhen > Think so. They look so sad!

Jingyi > Sizhui is the sad one. He doesn’t want to leave them out in the open. :(

WWXXX > Bring them along, then! 

Jingyi > What? Along to where??

WWXXX > To the office! Here! We’ll find somewhere for them to nest before we get them a proper home!

Jin Ling > Dajiu are you NUTS

WWXXX > What’s wrong! They need a proper home! Sizhui’s right. You can’t leave them there!!!

Zizhen > Okay. We’re coming back, Wei-ge! Noodles gon take a while. :/

WWXXX > Oh, and take the box along! Better to keep them hidden from others in the office!!

___

Wei Wuxian stands and starts looking around his workroom for a space to put the rabbits temporarily. He finds some leftover mounting boards and quickly tapes them together to form a makeshift pen in one corner of his room. The rabbits can run around in there without getting in the way. Then he lays some cardboard and newspaper inside as a base. 

He grins to himself. His tiny workroom is about to get even livelier. 

*****

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, 33rd floor, IT Department, Director’s Office

“Yes. There was an issue with the launch event programme booklets, but it’ll get sorted out soon. It shouldn’t affect the opening deadline.” Lan Xichen says as he flips through the launch itinerary for their latest upcoming event. 

“Issue?”

“A small issue. There was an error in one of the sponsor names.”

“That’s not small.” Lan Wangji looks up from his own copy of the itinerary. “If no one on our side noticed it, we could have offended them with the mistake.”

 “True, but at least we found it before they printed too many copies of the booklet. It’s not a big deal to reprint once the typo is edited.”

“Who noticed it?”

“Uncle did, at first.”

“Hm.” Lan Wangji does not want to think about the person who had to face his uncle with that mistake thrown in their face. 

“It’s fine. The marketing people should be taking care of it now.” Lan Xichen says and leans back in his chair facing Lan Wangji’s table. 

Hm. Wei Ying is in the marketing department. I wonder if he’ll-

Before Lan Wangji can finish that thought, his phone buzzes with a message. He glances over to see Wei Ying’s name on the notification. It reads, Check out today’s wallpaper selection, Lan Zhan! :DD

Lan Wanji picks his cell phone up. 

“Wangji.”

“Xiongzhang?” Lan Wangji looks across his table at his brother. 

“You’re smiling.” Lan Xichen is smiling too. “Is that a message from… someone?”

The mischievous glint in his eyes tells Lan Wangji that his brother knows more than he lets on. He levels his gaze with his brother’s. “How did you… was it Yang-jie?”

(Lan Wangji had met Luo Qingyang for lunch yesterday. They were supposed to meet on Saturday but she had been… excited, which might have been understating things. So excited that she made impromptu plans yesterday to meet him near his office for lunch. She was positively gleeful at the prospect of Lan Wangji having a friend other than her, and possibly one that could “lead to moreeee”. 

So in a middle-class restaurant nearby, Lan Wangji had very patiently told her every detail he could remember of his and Wei Ying’s interactions since that first phone call more than two weeks ago (seventeen days, but who’s counting?), and she had lapped all the information up like a man in a desert swallowing water. He could only reply to her eagerness with a look of unfiltered disapproval and minor apprehension. 

He picked up a mouthful of guotiao noodles with his chopsticks and ate it while she stared at him wide-eyed. 

“And?!”

“And what?”

“So what happened!” She flailed her chopsticks around a little, food all but forgotten. 

“That’s it. Our last conversation on the phone was just yesterday.”

“In which he mentioned inviting you to his sister’s restaurant?” 

“Yes.”

“And…?”

“And what?” Lan Wangji sipped his cup of chrysanthemum tea and looked at her. Luo Qingyang looked like she was about to rip her hair out. Or rip his hair out. It could have gone either way. 

“ What. Did. You. Say. ” She grit her teeth and took a particularly violent jab into her watercress soup with her chopsticks. 

“Um. I did not really answer. We have not even met each other at work yet. I am afraid of things moving too fast.” Lan Wangji says solemnly. 

Luo Qingyang just stares at him. “Too fast? All you’ve done is talk a lot and exchange rabbit photos. It’s not even an exchange. He gives you the rabbit photos! The pace of your relationship is practically glacial. By the time you two go on your first date, Sizhui will already be married.”

“... date?”

“Lan Wangji.” Yang-jie says, her eyes narrowing. “That’s what you want, isn’t it?”

“I…”

“How do you feel about him?”

“I… care about him.”

“Yes. And he’s special?”

“Yes.”

“So you like him.” It was not a question. 

“I—” Lan Wangji hesitated a moment, but eventually… “ I think I do.” 

“Finally! Yes.” Luo Qingyang raises her hands in declaration. “So the next time he invites you to something, you say yes. Understood?”

“Um.”

“Does Xichen-ge know about this?”

“No, xiongzhang does not know. Only you do.”

“Hmm… Maybe I should give him a call. It’s been awhile. We could form the Get Wangji a Boyfriend Club.”

Lan Wangji glared at his friend. “Don’t you dare.”)

“No.” Lan Xichen says. Lan Wangji just stares at him, quietly disbelieving after the lunch he had had yesterday with Yang-jie. 

“It wasn’t Mianmian. Though maybe I should give her a call. It’s been a while. We could start a support group.” Lan Xichen teases, smiling kindly at his younger brother, eyes twinkling in a way Lan Wangji knew his own eyes never would. Lan Wangji gives his brother the same glare he gave his best friend.

“It was your secretary. Yanyun mentioned something when I saw her in the cafe the other day. She said you’ve been taking calls on your office line, but they weren’t redirected to you by her, which means you’ve been talking to someone who has your private line number... Nearly everyday.” 

Lan Wangji groans internally. He has clearly underestimated his secretary’s observational skills. She has a connected intercom, and would of course notice that his phone line is engaged even though she herself did not receive any work calls to direct to him. 

“Care to share?”

“Um.” 

“You don’t have to tell me who it is yet if you don’t want to.”

“I -”

“Maybe just let me know who this person is to you?”

“He is… someone I care about.”

“A friend?”

“... Yes.”

Lan Xichen stays silent, but Lan Wangji can guess what his brother is insinuating when he sees him trying not to smile too widely. His brother stands up. 

“I will be off, then. You can reply your friend now, Wangji.”

“Xiongzhang.” 

“Say hi to Sizhui for me!”

The door closes quickly before Lan Wangji can respond. He sends the door one last glare before looking at the message notification again and opening up Wei Ying’s sharing folder. He clicks on the five latest additions to view the images. 

Today’s images are drastically different from the photos Wei Ying has been sending so far. Firstly, their file names show they are clearly taken from a phone camera which means Wei Ying probably took them himself, and secondly, they are not the rabbit stock photo images Lan Wangji has become used to seeing. 

All five images have the same two rabbits, one fully black and one fully white. The black one has a little scar on its left ear. They seem to be in some kind of cardboard home or hutch. The pictures show them in different positions, chewing on newspaper, tumbling with each other. 

In the last one, the white rabbit is being pet by someone’s hand, with a slender finger curled under its chin. Is this Wei Ying’s hand?

He sets that one as his wallpaper for today, and replies Wei Ying with a photo of his screen and the caption,“Today’s choice.”

It is not even a minute before his office phone rings. 

“Wei Ying.”

“Lan Zhan!” Wei Ying is whispering again, which probably means his interns are there. “I like that photo too!”

I like it maybe for other reasons , Lan Wangji thinks. But he says, “You took these photos, Wei Ying?”

“Yes! Do you like them? The lighting’s not very good but I wasn’t going to shine a torch in their cute little faces just to fix that.”

“That sounds like a wise choice. The photos are nice as they are. The rabbits are very cute.”

“They are, aren’t they!”

“Mn. To whom do they belong to?”

“Shhhh. It’s a secret. Can’t tell! Maybe one day soon I’ll let you know!” Wei Ying chuckles softly to himself. Lan Wangji looks at his wallpaper and right now his chest feels really full. 

“Mn.”

They continue their conversation for a while longer. Lan Wangji asks if Wei Ying has eaten lunch and Wei Ying tells him about his steamed pork buns and the salted egg yolk lava buns he had for dessert, both of which were made by his jiejie for him and the interns and brought to work by his nephew, who happens to be an intern too. Wei Ying then asks Lan Wangji what he had for breakfast and Lan Wangji tells him about the vegetarian omelette with mushrooms and capsicums he made for himself and his son, and how he likes extra onions in his while his son likes more carrots.

Even though they have exchanged phone numbers and have a steady stream of texts going back and forth throughout the day, Wei Ying still calls him sometimes on the office line and whispers short conversations. He told Wei Ying to just text if the interns are there, but Wei Ying replies, “It’s okay, they don’t mind. And anyways, sometimes it’s good to hear your voice, Lan Zhan.”

And Lan Wangji cannot agree more, although he does not say this out loud. He is glad to hear Wei Ying’s voice too, even if only for a few minutes each day. 

They sometimes chat on WeChat when they’re no longer at the office, but not as much then because Lan Wangji tries to spend the time after work with Sizhui, and Wei Ying understands that Lan Zhan needs to spend some time with his son too. 

It has only been three days but they seem to have settled into a routine for their conversations. It is all very… domestic. Or as domestic as it can be without being in the same house or even without actually knowing what the other looks like. Lan Wangji cannot think of any other word to describe their exchanges, and he finds that he really likes it, and maybe he does want this to develop further. 

(He can suddenly hear Yang-jie’s voice in his head whispering, “Glacial, Wangji. Glacial.” and he adamantly ignores it.)

*****

Mudan Heights, 18th Floor, Lan Wangji’s apartment

Meals are usually always a quiet affair. So says one of the many Gusu Lan family rules. Lan Wangji had spent the first twenty years of his life following them to the letter. 

Until his twenty-first year, when he came across a lost little boy looking for his guardian on the streets near Lan Wangji’s university campus. His parents had passed, and they never did find the apparently distant relative who was supposed to be looking after him. 

Lan Wangji had decided to let the little boy stay with him in his apartment near campus while the police investigated. And later, when they closed the case on the missing guardian with no leads, he decided that this arrangement would be permanent, even with his brother and uncle questioning him and persuading him to think this through. The little boy had wrapped his arms around Lan Wangji’s leg and had not let go. Lan Wangji knew then and there that he would never let go either. 

From then on, Lan Wangji and the little boy followed the Gusu Lan family rules together. All except one. 

Silence during meals.  

Having lived his life with this rule, Lan Wangji had decided that no, there would not be silence during meals when his son was with him, unless the boy himself wanted it to be so. There would be noise and laughter, and even if Lan Wangji was not a loud person by nature and by nurture, his son would be allowed to decide for himself what kind of person he wanted to be. 

Now he looks at the same boy all grown up, sitting across him at their dining table, smiling widely with bright eyes as he tells his father about his day at work, and Lan Wangji is glad that for once in his life, he decided to choose his own rules. 

“... and they looked so good. We could smell the salted egg yolk even though the buns were still untouched.” Sizhui laughs softly as he gently waved his chopsticks in the air for emphasis. 

“You wouldn’t believe how motivated Jingyi was this morning to get our work done so we could have lunch early. And Senior Wei snuck the buns into the microwave for us and the egg yolk lava just flowed out when you bite into them - Zizhen very nearly burned himself! And they were delicious - Jin Ling was saying that we should go over to their family restaurant sometime. His mom is the head chef there and she made all the buns we had for lunch today!”

Lan Wangji is in the midst of nodding and chewing a spoonful of his fried rice when his brain catches up with him a split second later. 

“Senior Wei?” His eyes widen at Sizhui, who nods enthusiastically. 

“Ah, yes. Our supervisor in the marketing department! Remember how last Friday was our last day in Finance? Now we’re in marketing and we drew lots, and our group got Senior Wei Wuxian! He’s the in-house designer and he was in the middle of a lot of work when we found him in his workroom, but he’s really warm and funny and really enthusiastic about his work and us coming in to help!”

Lan Wangji knows that Wei Ying was currently hosting a small group of interns under him, but who would have guessed that he’s already met Sizhui before Lan Wangji can even tell his son about his new... friend. Sizhui has put down his chopsticks and is gushing about his Senior Wei in a way that he’s never done before about his previous supervisors in HR and Finance. He is a lot more relaxed around his father, and his words get faster and faster, his excitement showing. 

Wei Ying, Lan Wangji thinks, You must have really made an impression. 

“And then Jin Ling couldn’t take anymore of Senior Wei’s teasing and he walked out of the room, and Senior Wei tried to chase after him but tripped over one of his potted plants that he moved to the floor to make space for us. Jin Ling somehow managed to snap a photo of Senior Wei on the floor, and said he would send it to his other uncle for blackmail material.” Sizhui’s eyes crinkle in amusement. 

Lan Wangji cannot help the quirk of his own lips too. Wei Ying! It sounded like something that would happen to him, given his abnormally high levels of excitement and surprisingly low levels of self-preservation, from the stories he’s told Lan Wangji. 

Sizhui is quick to notice his father smiling, which Lan Wangji himself knows is rare when it is about other people besides his son. 

“He’s funny, isn’t he, Dad? We’ve only been there for four days and so many things have happened!”

“I hope you have managed to do some amount of work, at least.” Lan Wangji raises an eyebrow in amusement. Also partially to stop himself from smiling any wider. “Despite these… shenanigans.”

Sizhui laughs loudly. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say that word before, Dad. It’s strange coming from you!”

Lan Wangji nods sagely. “Well, yes. Up till now, no one we know would actually do anything that is… befitting the use of that word.” 

No one until Wei Ying. Lan Wangji thinks and fondly watches as his son laughs. 

Chapter Text

Mudan Heights, 18th Floor, Lan Wangji’s apartment

The next day at seven in the morning, Sizhui is washing up the breakfast plates while Lan Wangji sorts through a few folders that he will need to bring back to the office at their dining table. Today’s breakfast was a simple one of avocados and toast that they had made and ate together. 

Sizhui looks at the clock on his cell phone. “I should be leaving soon, Dad. I’m meeting the rest at a cafe near work for coffee.”

Lan Wangji remembers his son telling him last night that he will be going to work himself today. He raises his eyebrows very slightly. “But you do not drink coffee.”

Or rather, they both do not. Lan Wangji is very much a tea person, and through being brought up by one, so is Sizhui. Sizhui just chuckles and continues to dry a plate with a dish towel. “I know, but Zizhen and Jingyi said they found this really cool cafe that’s open 24/7 and it’s nearer to our area, so they went there after work last week. Apparently it’s really good, and they want to check out the breakfast menu and drinks.”

He puts the dry dish into the dish cabinet, picks up a glass to wipe dry and says cheerfully, “And according to Senior Wei, it’s important to try new things!”

Once Lan Wangji gets over the shock of Wei Ying just being casually brought up in conversation with his son, he nods slowly. “Senior Wei says that?”

“Yes! He’s a firm believer of trying new things and doing the impossible.” Sizhui says as he checks to make sure the dishes and cups are dry before closing the cabinet and washing his hands one last time. 

He likes trying new things. The thought swirls around Lan Wangji’s mind as he is reminded of one of the conversations he had had with Yang-jie during their lunch. 

“He keeps doing stuff for you, right?”

“Yes.” 

“And he’s always the one calling?”

“Yes.”

“And he asked you first if you wanted some lunch?”

Yes. 

“And he’s the one feeding your rabbit obsession via wallpapers.” 

“Yes.” 

“Okay,” Luo Qingyang had said sagely. “Do you want a very important piece of advice?”

Lan Wangji had nodded, maybe a little too quickly. “It would be greatly appreciated.” 

She leaned in like she was about to share a huge secret. “Do something for him!” 

“What? Like—?”

“Like, invite him somewhere! Get him something he likes! You know what he likes, right?”

Lan Wangji does, in fact, know a lot of what Wei Ying likes. He likes spicy food, and copious amounts of alcohol, he likes his job as a designer, he likes sleeping late for no reason, he likes gaming and boasting about his skills, and many more things, most of them not said explicitly, but Lan Wangji can infer from his many conversations with Wei Ying. He definitely likes to share. 

And he likes trying new things — this new fact courtesy of Sizhui. 

Maybe Lan Wangji should share something he himself likes, something that would be new for Wei Ying. 

He looks up when he hears the front door open. Sizhui grabs his backpack and his suit jacket and waves at the door. “I’m off, Dad!”

“Do you need a lift home?” Lan Wangji asks. 

“Sure! Same place, same time!” Sizhui’s smile is returned by his father and he closes the door from the outside. Lan Wangji stares at his stack of office folders. He should leave soon for work as well. 

*****

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, 33rd floor, IT Department, Director’s Office

For the past few hours since breakfast, Lan Wangji has not been able to get the thought out of his head. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. He is clearly distracted from his work, thinking about what Sizhui had said and what Yang-jie had suggested. He should do something for Wei Ying. Yang-jie was right. Wei Ying is always the one initiating conversations and showing that he thinks about Lan Wangji first, asking about his well-being. 

Except for that one time when Lan Wangji was the first one to text Wei Ying on WeChat, Wei Ying is clearly the one who “bothers” him first, as he likes to put it, to which Lan Wangji will be quietly happy about and reply, “Wei Ying is not a bother.”

You need to show him some affection! If not some initiative, at least, comes Luo Qingyang’s voice in his head again. 

Lan Wangji opens his eyes and glares at his paperwork as if it has offended him personally. He picks up his teacup on the side and takes a sip, sets it down. 

Hm. Tea. 

Lan Wangji loves tea, was brought up with it, an important aspect of his heritage and Chinese culture, as his uncle so very often likes to reiterate. He gets a new flavor from his son every year. He looks at the accent table lined up against the wall of his office, where he keeps his traditional teapot set for brewing his daily afternoon tea. 

And from what he knows, Wei Ying drinks coffee. And alcohol. Coffee to keep him awake and alcohol for the fun (and possibly the taste) of it. Tea would be something new, also with Lan Wangji sharing something he loves with Wei Ying. 

Before he has the nerve to question his decision, he calls up his secretary on the intercom. 

“Yanyun.”

“Yes, boss?”

“I need to check, do I have anything scheduled before lunch today?”

“Nope. You’ve got a meeting with the R&D head this afternoon at 3pm. That’s it.”

“Good. Unless it is important, if anyone calls for me before then, please tell them to make an appointment for this afternoon instead.”

“Sure!” Yanyun says. He thanks her and hangs up the phone. 

Alright. One hour. He will leave one hour before lunch. Lan Wangji gives himself until then to complete the paperwork he has in front of him. Get this done, and he can think of Wei Ying after. 

*****

Outside Mo Yun Teashop

Lan Wangji quickly parks his car near the sidewalk and gets out. The temperature is warm and he feels his ears prickling. Nerves. 

It will be fine, he tells himself. He had finished his work quicker than he expected, left his office and had taken the forty-minute drive to the slightly more suburban area of the city, where his favourite tea shop was. This particular branch was a small family-owned business that specialized more in selling a wide variety of loose tea leaves and the many items necessary for traditional tea-brewing. They did not have a cafe area for customers, and only had small alcoves for buyers to do some sampling before purchasing tea leaves. 

Lan Wangji steps into the shop and is immediately calmed by the sense of familiarity the place has for him. The aged shop owner greets him with a small wave and a smile, and quickly hobbles over. 

“A-Zhan!” Uncle Chen says with genuine delight. “It’s been a while.”

“Uncle Chen. Yes, it has.” Lan Wangji bows politely. “I apologize for not visiting more often.”

“Nonsense. Come anytime!” The old man says warmly. He has known Lan Wangji since his university days when he discovered this place hidden away on a nondescript suburban street, and has always treated Lan Wangji like a son. Their mutual love of tea has led to many free afternoons taste-testing and discussing aromas. “So are you looking for something new to taste or has your stash been depleted?”

“I am looking for a… a gift. For a friend.” Lan Wangji says softly, and watches as Uncle Chen’s expression turns from surprise to amusement. 

“Must be someone special,” He says knowingly. 

“Yes, he is.” Lan Wangji replies. 

“I’ll take out some of our new leaves, then, and you can have a taste. They have some pretty and subtle aromas your friend might enjoy. And maybe some stronger ones too!”

“Mn. Thank you.” 

Uncle Chen hobbles back to the rows and rows of wooden cabinets and glass jars all neatly labelled behind the shop counter and starts to open them one by one, looking for a particular species of leaves, all the while making light chatter. 

“Oh, and how is that young man doing? Your Sizhui!” 

“Very well, thank you for asking. He is currently doing his internship at my office.”

“That sounds like fun. He gets to see his dad at work, huh?” Uncle Chen looks at Lan Wangji over the top of his glasses. 

“Not so much yet. But he will be coming over to our department soon, I think.”

“Ahhh, he’s all grown up now. I remember when he came in last year to get that oolong and jasmine blend. I nearly didn’t recognize him; his growth spurt made such a difference from that scrawny kid that liked to count and weigh out the tea leaves with me.” 

Lan Wangji smiles at the memory of Sizhui sitting with Uncle Chen while his father took his time browsing the different samples of leaves available. He did not know that Sizhui had bought the leaves for him from here last year. There were still enough leaves from that gift sitting in his office that could be used for three or four more brews. 

Uncle Chen settles in front of him with five or six new flavors, as well as some of his staple purchases from last time. 

Lan Wangji thinks of Wei Ying and what kind of flavors he might like, delicately taking individual whiffs of the separate cups containing different blends. Soon, he decides on multiple flavors that he thinks Wei Ying might enjoy instead of getting just one type of leaf. 

He chooses the osmanthus and pu’erh blend, a small can of white peony leaves, a dry leaf mix of lotus black tea, cinnamon and spices, and the oolong and jasmine blend that he now has in his office. 

That should be a good variety of white, black, oolong and dark teas. He suspects that Wei Ying might like the lotus black tea, if not for it’s strong flavor then for the spices mixed in. 

Uncle Chen packs in a small wooden spoon for scooping out the tea leaves from the cans they are in, and a packet of disposable gauze filter bags for steeping the leaves, convenient for daily use. The four cans of leaves are measured, packed, sealed and labelled with specific instructions. The packaging is minimalistic — brown with a black logo, definitely not too ostentatious. Or at least Lan Wangji hopes. 

Uncle Chen pats him gently on the hand and he promises to visit a little more regularly. With a heartfelt thank you, Lan Wangji leaves the tea shop. 

He sits in the car for a little while, thinking. He’s giving Wei Ying something. Which means he is going to meet Wei Ying. He could meet Wei Ying. 

But what if Wei Ying is not there? He checks his watch. 12.10pm. By the time he drives back to the office it would be during lunch hour. Wei Ying might be out for lunch. 

He steels himself. There is nothing to fret about. He will leave it up to fate, whether Wei Ying is in his office or not. He glances one last time at the bag of tea leaves in the passenger seat and begins the drive back. 

*****

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, 23rd floor, Marketing Department

Lan Wangji steps out of the elevator to find the office on the 23rd floor with mostly empty desks and cubicles. Everyone must be out for lunch then, save a few people working on their laptops. 

He approaches one of them closest to the open elevator lobby area, a woman eating an açaí bowl and watching some variety show on her phone. “Excuse me.”

The woman sits up suddenly when she notices who it is exactly that is interrupting her lunchtime entertainment. “H-hanguang-jun!”

Others around the area start to look up. Lan Wangji ignores them and says in as brisk and businesslike a tone as possible. “Where can I find Wei Wuxian? He is in your department, yes?”

“Uh, y-yes. He is. His workroom’s over there.” She stands up and points towards a small corner of the open office floor, where a number of doors line a wall, indicating what looks like meeting rooms. The layout is not the same as his department in IT. 

“The rooms?”

“Yes. His is the first door on the right.” 

“Is he in?”

“Um, sorry.” She looks around at her colleagues and they all shrug in some way or another. “I don’t know if he went out for lunch. We don’t usually talk to him.” 

“Why not?” Lan Wangji asks bluntly, surprised. Wei Ying seems like he would talk to anyone, given the chance. 

“Well… it’s just, he doesn’t seem to be on our boss’ good side. So we thought it might be better if…” 

Lan Wangji nods. He does not ask more in order to not draw too much attention to Wei Ying. Something seems off, and he might check out who is in charge of marketing and the people working there soon. 

He says a brisk thank you, heads over to the closed doors and knocks a few times on the furthest door on the right. There is no reply. He turns around and catches the handful of employees following his movements. They quickly return to looking at their cell phones or computers. 

Lan Wangji suddenly realizes that Wei Ying’s interns might be in there as well. Sizhui included. But he can probably handle it; after all he’s been pretending to be not related to his father, uncle and granduncle in this company for the past five weeks. No turning back now, since the other employees have seen him knock. Lan Wangji takes a deep breath and opens the door to find…

The room empty. Out for lunch, most likely. Fate has spoken. 

Lan Wangji exhales and enters, closing the door. He glances around the dark room, what little light it has coming from the desktops screensavers, noting first the green of the potted plants sticking out at odd places, on the floor, on a few work tables, randomly placed on shelves. And the general chaos of the small workroom, stacks of posters, cardboard boxes in random corners of the room. 

Compared to the clean layout of the open plan office space with everyone’s individual desk and cubicles outside, Wei Ying’s workroom is very much reminiscent of his personality, and his employee cloud sharing folder. A mess that only the owner can make sense of. Lan Wangji smiles to himself. 

He quickly walks across to Wei Ying’s desk with the multi-screen desktop computer, careful to not disturb anything, and leaves the brown paper bag on it. Then he picks up what looks like a small piece of rough paper on the desk and takes out his pen to write a short note on it. 

Lan Wangji is in and out of Wei Ying’s workroom in less than two minutes. He does not need anyone to start gossiping about what he was doing inside when Wei Ying is clearly out. 

The employees dare not look up from their screens as he waits for the elevator to return to his office floor. 

*****

Wei Wuxian steps out of the elevator to find a number of people staring at him from their desks. He frowns at them and they turn back to their desktops. He’s ignored most of the time, so this isn’t new. Maybe they were expecting someone important and it was just him that the elevator spat out. 

He shrugs and goes back to his workroom. The interns have yet to return from lunch and the room is empty. He had told them to go ahead since he had to make a short trip to the printer warehouse located a few blocks away in the industrial corporate area to confirm some of the colors that might not have translated well from digital designs to print, before they went ahead and started printing the giant decals that would decorate the walls and pillars of the upcoming launch. It had all looked fine. 

Wei Wuxian heads over to the rabbit pen to pour some pellets into their food tray and replenish their water bowl. They’re both hiding in the cardboard box that acts as a temporary hutch. So far they have had no luck in finding any families to adopt them. He had thought about asking Lan Zhan, but has since found out that he had grown up with a no pets rule. It would be weird to ask something like this so soon after knowing him, right? And he didn’t want Lan Zhan to feel obliged to accept them if he couldn’t. 

The white rabbit starts to peek its nose out of the cardboard box, smelling the food. As it comes out and nibbles on the pellets, Wei Wuxian strokes it a few times while the black one still hides away in the hutch. Then he finally stands up to get back to work. 

Once he sits down at his desk, he is surprised to find a small paper bag on it. The logo on the bag is simple but stylized so that the text is hard to read if you don’t know what it is supposed to be. The strokes of the characters look like a flower and clouds. 

This definitely wasn’t here when he left. He peeks inside and impatiently takes out four tin canisters with minimalist labels that look handwritten with ink and brush. Huh.

Lotus Black Spice. 

White Peony Jade.

Osmanthus Blossom Pu’Erh. 

Phoenix Orchid Oolong and Jasmine.

It’s tea. Wei Wuxian only recognizes the words pu’erh and oolong as types of tea. He reads the fine print on the labels — instructions on brewing and timing. Is this for him? 

His eyebrows knit together and he looks inside the bag in case he missed anything. There is a small linen pouch with a wooden spoon, and a stack of gauze bags. 

And a note. 

                                    Dear Wei Ying,

                                             Sorry I came when you were not here. Please accept these teas.

                                             They are from my favourite tea shop and I thought you might enjoy these flavors. 

                                     Yours, Lan Zhan.

Wei Wuxian rereads the note four more times before cursing the printer that called him down during this specific lunchtime. Lan Zhan was here? In his workroom?

And he left him a gift. I thought you might enjoy these flavours.  

Something indescribably warm and fuzzy blossoms in Wei Wuxian’s chest as he reads the note one more time. He looks at the four canisters on his desk now and picks the oolong. The smell of the tea leaves fill the room the moment he pops open the canister lid. Reading the instructions on the side of the can, he spoons one spoon of loose leaves into the gauze bag. Then he grabs his favourite mug from his desk and heads to the office pantry for hot water. 

By the time the interns return, Wei Wuxian is happily holding his warm mug of oolong and jasmine, the gauze bag of wet leaves in another dry cup — the instructions say the leaves can be re-steeped twice more. 

The oolong tea is fragrant with a light floral scent that smells like orchids, and the addition of jasmine provides a hint of sweetness to the taste of this tea blend. He didn’t even have to add extra sugar like he would for his coffee. He doesn’t know much about tea, but Wei Wuxian is sure this is good quality stuff. 

The interns smile and wave at him, returning to their seats to get back to work. Sizhui pauses for a moment, a strange look that Wei Wuxian can’t decipher on his face. It disappears just as quickly as it had appeared, and he gives Wei Wuxian his customary bright-eyed smile. 

Wei Wuxian smiles back and watches quietly as the interns start up their laptops and continue with the chatter. He sips the hot tea, lets the fragrance waft over him and glances at the four cans he has arranged at the side of his desk with the handwritten note, lined up against the wall. All the cups of tea he has yet to enjoy from Lan Zhan. 

*****

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, 33rd floor, IT Department, Director’s Office

Lan Wangji’s phone buzzes twenty minutes after one. 

_____

WWXXX > LAN ZHAN I LOVE THEM.

WWXXX > I haven’t tried them all yet, but I love them already!! Thank you!!

WWXXX > Aiya Lan Zhan! Give a guy some warning. What am I supposed to do when you suddenly do something like this!!! <333

_____

Lan Wangji opens a photo that Wei Ying has just sent, and sees a steaming white mug, the can of oolong and jasmine behind it, with the caption “I’m so glad we get oolong, Lan Zhan! ”

The laughter that tumbles out of Lan Wangji’s mouth is as unexpected as it is genuine, and Yanyun comes into his office moments later with a look of utter surprise to find him actually smiling at his phone. 

*****

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, Lobby

Wei Wuxian hums happily while waiting for the elevator. It is a sweltering summer temperature outside. Thank goodness he left his sweater in the office, even if without it he might look underdressed for being in a corporate office like this one. It’s fine, people can stare all they want. 

He’s got treats in the form of bubble tea for the interns and himself, and had casually added two more orders for Lan Zhan and his son. It was almost 4 in the afternoon and he could bring the extra cup home for his son once he was done with work. 

He’s still humming when he reaches the 23rd floor and enters his workroom to a round of cheers from the four boys, who had been looking forward to something cold and sweet nearing the end of the day. 

As he sets out the drinks on their table, Jingyi and Zizhen eye the extra two cups with barely concealed grins. 

“Are those for your IT guy?” Zizhen asks, smiling. Jin Ling groans. “Ugh. Why do I need to hear about my dajiu’s love life?”

“Hey! He’s a close friend! And friends share things!” Wei Wuxian grumbles at his nephew, slamming a paper straw on the boy’s cup. “Take your tea!” 

“Thanks,” Jin Ling grumbles back. Jingyi is undisturbed at the interruption. “So you’re going to surprise him and finally meet him face to face?!”

“Yes, well! We shall leave it up to the heavens' will! It’s nearly the end of the day. He should be at his desk, right? If he’s not, then it’s just not meant to be today!” Wei Wuxian inhales deeply. He honestly does not know which outcome he prefers at this point, for Lan Zhan to be there or not. 

The interns, of course, became aware of what Lan Zhan had given him last week the moment Sizhui had asked about his sudden tea-drinking and Jingyi had chirped in with his observations that Wei Wuxian’d had at least four cups of tea since lunch last Friday and zero cups of coffee. 

“Why did you get him two cups?” Jin Ling interjects again. 

“Duh, it’s for his son. How can I get something for the dad without getting anything for his son? Tell me which kid in the world doesn’t like bubble tea!” Wei Wuxian exclaims. 

“I’m sure either way, when he receives it, he will be very happy, Senior Wei.” Sizhui says softly, his eyes warm and upturned into tiny crescents with his smile. “His son, too.”

“Thank you, Sizhui. Your Senior Wei will accept all the encouragement he can get!” Wei Wuxian says dramatically while throwing Jin Ling a look of mock irritation. 

“Jia you, Wei-ge!” Jingyi and Zizhen say together, while Jin Ling rolls his eyes. They pierce their cups with their straws and are already drinking by the time they wave their supervisor out the door like they’re sending him out to war. A very pleasant version of it, anyways. Wei Wuxian grins and makes his way to the elevators again. After the strange staring of yesterday, it seems that most of the people in his department have continued to ignore him again today. 

Inside the elevator, Wei Wuxian looks through the office directory written on the button panel that tells you which department is located on which floor. IT is on… hmm. 32 and 33. Of course, being a cloud storage company, their would have a larger than normal IT department. Guess I’ll start from the top and work my way down. 

He pushes the button for the 33rd floor. Wei Wuxian looks down at the two cups in the takeaway bag with gentle condensation on the outside. He had ordered a peach and strawberry flavored oolong tea with aloe vera cubes for Lan Zhan, one of his favourite refreshing combinations for a hot summer’s day, and another blueberry mango white tea with white pearls for his son. The lady at the bubble tea shop had said that that was a popular choice with kids. 

Wei Wuxian was practically bouncing by the time the elevator reached the 33rd floor. He steps out and immediately notices the large open office space, quite different from his own floor. Nearest to the elevator lobby, there were many smaller low-walled cubicles where employees had microphone headsets on, and some of them were talking on them. At this time in the afternoon, most of the desks were filled with the tech support officers at work. 

Bingo. This must be where Lan Zhan works! He’s probably somewhere in one of these cubicles. There must be at least forty cubicles here. Okay. He’s probably going to need to look for name plates on the cubicles or something since he has no idea what Lan Zhan looks like. 

His phone buzzes. It’s Sizhui. Senior Wei, Senior Su is looking for you. He seems… more irritated than usual. We told him you were in the washroom — in case he asks you. But come back as soon as you can!

Wei Wuxian sighs. So much for having a proper meeting with Lan Zhan. At least let him find his desk and quickly leave the bubble tea there. Wei Wuxian walks slowly at first through the first row of cubicle tables, looking for names written anywhere over the shoulders of the tech support officers on the phone. Once he spots them, it’s easier to eliminate each not-Lan Zhan he finds. The tech support officers who notice him hovering turn their heads to give him questioning glances and he nods genially when he finds their name plate somewhere on the desk. By the time he gets to the fifth and last row of cubicles without seeing Lan Zhan’s name, Wei Wuxian starts to look around the area more desperately. There can’t be any areas further back in where the tech support officers are seated, right?

Just as he starts hovering around a few of the larger desk cubicles looking at more names, he’s interrupted by someone loudly clearing their throat nearby. Wei Wuxian jumps a little and turns around. 

A woman who looks to be in her mid to late thirties is standing behind him, her eyebrows knitted in confusion and irritation. She’s dressed neatly in a dark pants suit and has her hair in an elegant knot at the base of her neck. “Excuse me, can I help you?”

“Ah, yes, please!” Wei Wuxian perks up and moves the two of them further away from the cubicles so he won’t be overheard. 

“Do you know where Lan Zhan sits?”

“Lan… Zhan?” The lady’s eyes bug out of her head and her eyebrows unfurl to disappear behind her bangs. 

“Yeah, Lan Zhan! He’s a tech support officer from IT! This is IT, right?”

“Uh… yes, this is the IT department.”

“Great! So do you know where Lan Zhan is? Is he here?” Wu Wuxian asks, bouncing a little, looking around at the office at large.

“No, he’ll be out for the next half an hour or so. You’re looking for him for…?”

“Ah, it’s okay, then. Nothing much. Could you do me a favour?” Wei Wuxian tries to hide his disappointment that Lan Zhan isn’t in. Oh well, at least he can rush back to his darn boss without feeling like he’s missed out on too much. 

She nods.

“Could you help me pass this to him? Please!” Wei Wuxian raises the bag of cups, the ice and tea inside sloshing with the movement. 

“Um… sure.” She reaches out to grab the bag and Wei Wuxian hands it to her. He’ll text Lan Zhan afterwards to make sure he got it. He flashes her a brilliant smile. “I gotta run first, my boss is looking for me. Thanks for your help, jiejie!”

*****

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, 33rd floor, IT Department, Director’s Office

Lan Wangji closes the door of his office and sets his work messenger bag on the sofa in his office. His meeting with his uncle ended much earlier than expected. If he can handle the paperwork quickly enough, he can check if Sizhui is ready to head off too. Maybe they could have dinner outside tonight. 

He stops short upon approaching his desk. There is a paper bag sitting on his desk, with a note in Yanyun’s handwriting leaning against it, saying, “Give me a call, boss.”

Lan Wangji approaches the bag and peers inside without touching it. There looks to be two iced drinks inside, set into a disposable cup tray at the base so that they remain upright. 

He reaches in and picks one up. The drink inside is pink and iced, and the label reads peach and strawberry oolong, aloe vera. 

What is going on. Lan Wangji stares at it a bit more before finally pressing his speed dial on his office intercom. As the ringing continues, he sits down in his chair and looks at the other cup. Blueberry mango white, white pearls.

Yanyun picks up the second time he tries her number. “Boss, do you see them!!”

“The drinks? Yes. What—”

“Okay, hold on, I’m coming in!” She says excitedly and hangs up the phone. Lan Wangji can hear the click-clacking of her heels outside as she runs from her desk to his office. She enters without knocking, and looks positively thrilled. She quickly closes the door and comes over to his table.

“So.” She is smiling so widely. Lan Wangji cannot recall if he has ever seen her this excited. 

“So.” He repeats. “What is this?”

“Okay, boss, let me explain what happened like, fifteen minutes ago. I was at my desk doing work, right, then I get this call from one of our IT techs and he’s going on about this guy who came out of the elevator and immediately started to hover around their cubicles. And the tech guys got super suspicious because apparently he kept looking over their shoulders like he was looking for something and they got worried because he didn’t look like he worked here. So I came running around to check, and he was quite nice. Good-looking in a wild kind of way. Then guess what he said.”

She says all this in a calm yet quick manner. Lan Wangji stares at her. “What?”

“Do you know where Lan Zhan sits?” 

“What?”

“His words, not mine, boss. And of course I was shocked because, that’s you, right! But… like, he called you by your birth name. And at first I thought he was some delivery guy or something — he was dressed like one. But how would he know your birth name, right? And then he just passed me this bag and said to put it on your desk. It’s for you, I presume.” 

Oh my god. Lan Wangji thinks. Could that person have been…?

“And then I think he actually works here, because he said he had to go, his boss was looking for him, and then he said thank you and called me jiejie.” Yanyun looks at Lan Wangji incredulously, her story finished. She looks like it was the most exciting thing that happened to her all day, and knowing the office they worked in, it probably was. 

Lan Wangji bites his left cheek to prevent his face from giving anything away. He remembers how when they first spoke, Wei Ying had called him gege. It was definitely him. 

“... I think you know who it is, don’t you.”

Lan Wangji nods, pointedly not looking at her. Yanyun looks as if she’s waiting for an explanation, but Lan Wangji can feel his ears heating up and looks back at the drinks, determinedly not wanting to say anything else. 

“Yes, okay. I’ll not bother you now, then. Um, enjoy the drinks? Call me if you need anything!” Yanyun says as she gradually makes her way towards the door. 

“Mn.”

The door closes behind her, and Lan Wangji’s hand shoots towards his office phone. He calls Wei Ying’s extension and gets an answer on the third ring. 

“Lan Zhan!” Wei Ying whispers cheerfully. 

“Wei Ying.”

“Did the nice jiejie pass you the bubble tea?”

“Yes.” Bubble tea? Lan Wangji looks at the two cups again. He has never stepped foot into a bubble tea store before, let alone tried bubble tea.

“Have you tried it yet?” Wei Ying sounds excited. 

“Not yet. I have just returned to my desk.”

“Ooh, try it then! I got the peach and strawberry one for you! It’s oolong! I’ve never noticed before, that they actually used Chinese tea but mixed them with other flavors! Then because I got your gift the other day I started to pay more attention at the shop!” 

While Wei Ying chatters on, Lan Wangji pulls open the packaging for the straw and stabs the plastic seal on the cup. He always drinks his tea hot or warm. He can only imagine his uncle’s face when he complains about how the “commercial success of such tea abominations have misaligned Chinese tea heritage and culture”.

Lan Wangji takes a sip and gets a mouthful of tea as well as a few large cubes of aloe vera through the thick straw. He chews on the crunchy aloe vera while its light flavor gets mixed with the peach and strawberry and oolong. It tastes… good. 

“Well?” Wei Ying asks impatiently. 

“It is very good. Refreshing.” Lan Wangji replies after he has swallowed the aloe vera. “It is… very different from what I am used to.”

“As in, flavoured tea?”

“As in, cold, with fruits, and solid food objects inside.” Lan Wangji says wryly. His uncle would scream at the thought of putting tapioca inside tea. 

Wei Ying laughs out loud, bright and joyous. “Ahhhh, I wish I was there to see you try it!”

“I’m sorry I was out. Thank you for thinking of me, Wei Ying.” 

“Don’t mention it! I was just getting a treat for the interns and I thought you and your son might like some too!” 

“Oh.” Lan Wangji stares at the second cup. “The blueberry mango… is for my son?”

“Yeah! It’s almost the end of work! I thought you could bring it back for your son! All kids love bubble tea, right? He’ll be jealous if his dad got some without him.”

Lan Wangji exhales softly and smiles. Wei Ying was thoughtful enough to remember his son and think of him too. He stares at the cup, speechless for a moment as his heart felt like it was going to burst out of his chest, the taste of peaches and strawberries on his lips.

“... so the ice might melt a little by then but I guarantee the taste will still be good if he pops it in the fridge for a while before he drinks it! And the cashier-jie said that blueberry mango was a hit with kids these days, so I chose that, but I changed the pearls to white ones because apparently it has less sugar by more than half compared to the black ones, and you know, we gotta look out for the sugar content nowadays what with this already being a sweet drink and—”

“Wei Ying.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry I was rambling!”

“Thank you.” Lan Wangji pauses for a moment, finding it difficult to find the right words. Instead he says, “You bought them for your interns too?”

“Ah, yeah! They’ve been working hard! We needed to celebrate their first week here with me!” Wei Ying says proudly. 

They talk a little more about the tea, and Wei Ying asks Lan Wangji which of the four flavors he recommends he try next after he’s tried the oolong jasmine and the white peony. Lan Wangji suggests the lotus black tea and tells Wei Ying about the different spices inside. Wei Ying tells him maybe they can go tea-shop hopping together. When they meet. 

Lan Wangji says he will look forward to that and listens to Wei Ying laugh. 

After Wei Ying hangs up, he calls his secretary back into the office. He is in the middle of drinking his tea when she arrives, and she is delighted when he offers her the blueberry mango, asking why. 

“It’s a long story.”

She looks like she does not mind sitting and listening to him tell it, but he stays silent until she throws her hands up in defeat and picks up the drink. “I would like to hear it sometime soon, boss.”

“Mn. Maybe.” He responds to her smile with a small one of his own as she leaves.

He chuckles to himself. Lan Wangji loves his son, but there is no way he is letting Sizhui have two sweet drinks bought by Wei Ying today.

Chapter Text

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, 33rd floor, IT Department, Director’s Office

Lan Wangji grips his pen a little too tightly, judging by the way his knuckles are slowly turning white. Maybe it was not such a good idea to open his home to strangers. 

Well, they were not strangers, per se. Sizhui’s friends were not strangers. Not to his son, at least. He’s known them since the beginning of their internship, and it has been more than five weeks. He is glad that Sizhui has made more friends — definitely a lot more than Lan Wangji had at his age. 

He remembers going to high school, and then university; attending classes alone, eating alone, studying alone. Even with Yang-jie there, whom he had only gotten closer to towards the end of their second year. He did not mind it, the silence and quiet that followed him wherever he went. And then when he took in Sizhui in his third year at university, his little A-Yuan had made sure that he never had a quiet day from then on with his lively and cheeky chatter and his eager sweetness. 

Lan Wangji breathes in and out. He has no idea how to entertain a bunch of teenage boys, but when they were texting over the weekend and he brought them up in conversation, Wei Ying had suggested that Lan Wangji should get to know his son’s new friends. 

(“Just invite them over for a meal or games or something. It’ll be fun, Lan Zhan! More bonding time for father and son! And friends!”

“Hm. But what if…”

“It’ll be good! You get to know them better and your son will know that his father cares! What kind of parent doesn’t meet their child’s friends, anyways, hmm?”)

When you put it that way, it made sense. Lan Wangji was ashamed to say that he probably was that kind of parent. He knew about Sizhui’s friends. Like how he has heard about Lan Jingyi since Sizhui was in high school with him, but he has just never met any of them. Meeting Sizhui’s friends or arranging playdates meant meeting their parents eventually, and then there would be the obligation of hosting birthday parties and sleepovers and actual playdates and… no. Lan Wangji was fully aware and uncomfortable with any such developments. Meeting and interacting with new people was a chore that he did not do willingly unless he was obliged to — like for work. And Sizhui has grown up understanding that his father was just like that, and he was (or seemed to be) okay with it. 

But now, his son was a teenager, almost a young adult. There was no need to worry about meeting other parents and arranging playdates since Sizhui could do that himself. 

Lan Wangji also remembered that next week, he would be meeting the interns anyway when they transferred to IT for their last orientation rotation of the different departments, even though they themselves did not know which department they were headed for next. It was an opportunity to get to know them in a less formal setting, especially if they were important people to Sizhui. 

Sizhui had stared at his father for a little too long this morning over breakfast when Lan Wangji had suggested meeting his friends and having them over for dinner. 

“Really?”

“Mn.” Lan Wangji had nodded over the rim of his teacup. “I thought it would be nice to get to know them. You speak of them often. They are important to you.”

Sizhui had beamed. “I’ll ask them later when I see them!”

And it was barely fifteen minutes after Lan Wangji had reached his office when he receives a text from Sizhui saying, Everyone’s super excited to come over! We can’t wait for Friday night! :D

Which promptly led to Lan Wangji sitting at his desk, gripping his pen and doubting his decisions and his life choices made based on Wei Ying’s suggestions. 

He picks up his phone receiver and hits the speed dial for Wei Ying’s extension. 

“Morning, Lan Zhan! Had breakfast?” Is the first thing Wei Ying chirps. 

“Good morning, Wei Ying.” Lan Wangji replies, his calm voice hiding the not-so-calm thoughts of doubt flying around in his head. “Yes. We had some youtiao with congee. You?”

“Not yet, but I’ve got my tea and I’m definitely planning a big lunch later.”

“Mn. That’s good. Um… Wei Ying, I-” Lan Wangji pauses. I may need some help, is what he wants to say. But does not. Instead, he says, “I did what you suggested. With my son’s friends.”

“You invited them over?” Wei Ying asks excitedly. “Do you need help planning anything?”

Yes. 

“That would be appreciated.” Lan Wangji lets out a tiny sigh, glad that Wei Ying had immediately offered; it would have taken him a lot more time to formulate a desperate plea for help than for Wei Ying to be his usual thoughtful self.

“Then you’ve asked the right person!” Wei Ying declares. “In my family, I’m known as the Fun Uncle!”

Lan Wangji snorts delicately. He knows from Wei Ying’s stories what his nephew and brother really think of him. “Please enlighten me, then.” 

Wei Ying is excited and serious as he whispers suggestions to Lan Wangji, and Lan Wangji carefully writes them down on a piece of paper to consider later. They range from movies that are family friendly to some family games they could play, to checking if Lan Wangji has any video games at home (he does not) and finally some vegetarian recipes that could be popular with kids.

“My jiejie has a few kid-friendly recipes, I think, when she tried to get A-Ling to eat his veggies! I’ll ask her for you!” 

Lan Wangji does not mention that his son and friends are probably too old for a does-not-like-vegetables problem; the suggestions could not hurt, could they? Any suggestion at this point is helping Lan Wangji calm his nerves and reverse his opinion of this being maybe one of the Worst Ideas Ever — interacting with multiple teenagers when he himself had not been a normal teenager to begin with. 

“Thank you, Wei Ying.” Lan Wangji says sincerely. Even though this whole meet-the-friends idea would never happen had he not known Wei Ying, Lan Wangji is glad his friend is there to give advice and encourage new experiences. 

*****

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, 23rd floor, Marketing Department, Advertising Workroom

“Thank you, Wei Ying.” 

Wei Wuxian feels butterflies in his chest at the sound of Lan Zhan’s voice saying his name. And in the way that sounds so soft and sincere, he doesn’t know if he’s reading too much into it. 

Lan Zhan is already usually quiet by nature, the strong and silent type, Wei Wuxian likes to tease, but when he actually says something, you can understand a whole spectrum of emotions from a few words. Or at least, Wei Wuxian is proud to say that he can. Less than a month of phone interaction and he is definitely a pro at reading the nuances in Lan Zhan’s voice. He could listen to him talk all day, though knowing Lan Zhan, he would be lucky to get a handful of sentences. 

“Ah… don’t mention it, Lan Zhan! Jiayou ! All of you will definitely have fun! You’ll see!” 

“Mn.” 

“Remind me if I don’t send you anything by tonight, ‘kay? Today’s kinda busy for me, so I might only call my jie a little later after —”, Wei Wuxian says, only to be interrupted by his workroom door slamming open. The interns at their table jump in surprise, turning around to see who it is reflexively before quickly turning back to their laptops once they do see who it is.

“Wei Wuxian!” 

Su She barges his way in unceremoniously and grabs the receiver handset out of Wei Wuxian’s hand. 

“Hey!”

“Who’s on the line?”

“Uhhhhh…”, Wei Wuxian is speechless for two seconds. He doesn’t know what kind of reply would not get either himself or Lan Zhan in trouble. 

“If you can’t answer my question then it means it’s not work-related! Stop wasting time on the phone!” Su She shouts before slamming the receiver down onto the dial pad. 

Rude. Wei Wuxian will have to apologize to Lan Zhan later. He would like to clarify that he’s still producing his best work on time so technically his phone calls are inconsequential to whatever point his angry boss is trying to make, when he notices that Su She, in the meantime, has started looking around the workroom and eyeing the floor of Wei Wuxian’s workroom with a blatantly suspect look in his eye, like he’s actively trying to find something to pick on. And that’s when Wei Wuxian, and even the interns start to realize, Oh no.

“What is this?!” Su She storms over to the corner behind Wei Wuxian’s desk and stares into the makeshift cardboard pen. 

“Nothing!” Jingyi stands up abruptly and almost shouts, at the same time, Wei Wuxian says, “Uhhhh…” like that’s all he has been capable of saying since his boss stormed in. 

“Rabbits.” Su She’s left eye twitches. “Rabbits. ”

“Uhhhh…” 

“What do you think this is, a zoo? Who brought those filthy creatures in here?” Su She shouts, and the rabbits scuttle into their makeshift cardboard hutch. 

“Hey! They’re not filthy! We keep their area really clean!” Zizhen says indignantly. Jingyi shushes him quickly and tries a “Senior Su, they’re only here temporarily until we find them a proper home.”

Su She ignores them and turns onto Wei Wuxian, thrusting a finger in his face. “You! I knew it. The moment someone mentioned they saw you bringing pet food into the office, I knew you were hiding something. And dragging your interns along into this mess with you; I should have known you’d be a bad influence on them!”

Wei Wuxian stands up to say that he shouldn’t bring the interns into this, but is beaten to the punch by Jin Ling who raises his voice first. “It’s not his fault! We were the ones who found them abandoned on the street! You don’t have to shout at him like that!”

Su She turns his glare on Jin Ling, who adds on a quieter “Senior Su.”

Oh bless him, he’s trying to protect his uncle, Wei Wuxian tries and fails to hide a smirk, which Su She does not miss. 

“Think this is funny? We’re not running a goddamn orphanage here that you can use to feed your hero complex. Apparently old habits die hard.”

The smirk on Wei Wuxian’s face slowly fades and he grips the edge of his desk. This asshole wants to bring up the past now? In front of the interns? He’s not going to let that happen. 

“Fine. The rabbits won’t be here tomorrow. The interns had nothing to do with this. Please accept my apologies and pretend this did not happen.” Wei Wuxian says in the most calm voice he can muster and gives a slight bow. He can’t afford to let Su She blow this out of proportion, not only for him to keep a low profile, but also for the interns so they won’t have any complaints against them for misconduct over something as trivial as this. 

Seeing how Wei Wuxian has so politely apologized, he knows that Su She can’t kick up a bigger fuss without seeming like the smaller man in front of the interns. Though there have been exceptions in the past since Su She has the tendency to make mountains out of molehills. 

“Hmph. I’ll be here tomorrow morning to check.” He huffs and slams the door on his way out. 

Wei Wuxian sits down and sighs, while Jingyi conspicuously rolls his eyes and lets out a quiet “What an asshole”, to Sizhui’s half-scandalized, half-amused face. 

Wei Wuxian gives a bitter laugh and looks over to the rabbits who have started to slowly peek their heads out after the shouting has stopped. 

“Thanks, kids. You guys didn’t have to stick your neck out for me like that. He’s just looking for any excuse to shout at me. Won’t be the last time, anyways.” 

“Ugh. According to the interns under his team, he’s like that with them too.” Jingyi says. 

“I’m just glad that we got Wei-ge instead.” Zizhen mumbles loud enough to hear, to which the four of them nod their head vigorously in agreement. 

“Awwwww, you guys! I’m glad I got you too. Couldn’t have asked for a more hardworking and caring bunch.” Wei Wuxian says dramatically, hands clasped together against his chest. He does not want to think about how their two weeks together will be over in a few days time and they’ll move on to the next department. He’ll keep his fingers crossed that some of them might choose him for their final assignment. 

Jin Ling gets up and heads over to the rabbits to pet them. “Stop being so mushy, dajiu! What are we gonna do now about these two now?”

Yes. That. The room falls silent as everyone looks at the black and white rabbits. 

The rabbits have barely been there for a week. And Wei Wuxian can’t take them home in case his landlord with her no-pets policy finds out. He’ll miss them when they’re gone. At least he’s got a ton of photos of them in his cloud sharing folder with Lan Zhan, he thinks wistfully. 

Hmm. Would Lan Zhan…? He stops his train of thought. Would Lan Zhan be willing to take them? He loves rabbits, and from what Wei Wuxian can glean, it sounds as if he doesn’t have any of his own, not even growing up because they were “against the rules” or whatever that meant. Or maybe it’s too much of a last minute thing to expect Lan Zhan to take them in on such short notice. Plus he’s got his son’s friends coming over soon and probably needs time to plan without this suddenly being thrown on him. 

“Senior Wei.” Sizhui’s soft voice breaks the silence.

“Hm?” 

“I’m thinking, maybe I can take them home.”

“What, really?” Wei Wuxian blinks in surprise. 

“Uh, yes. I think my father wouldn’t mind. He’s never said it out loud, but I think he has a soft spot for small animals. And strays.” Sizhui says the last bit like it’s an inside joke only he’s privy to. 

“Uh, okay, then! Let me know tomorrow if there’s a problem though. I know someone who likes rabbits too, but now might not be such a good time to throw this on him.” Wei Wuxian laughs, thinking of the monosyllabic answers or sounds Lan Zhan might possibly respond with. “If your father doesn’t agree, we’ll try to find somewhere else to home them soon.”

“Mn!” Sizhui nods enthusiastically, reminding Wei Wuxian of someone. 

*****

Outside Starbucks, two blocks away from Cloud Recesses Headquarters.

Lan Wangji pulls over to the curb to find his son standing on the sidewalk, a fairly large cardboard box in his arms and a nervous grin on his face. He reaches over the passenger seat and pushes the car door open for Sizhui, who deftly slips in while carefully holding the box upright in his hands. 

He looks at his father and bites his lips together. It is a rare occasion that Lan Wangji has difficulty reading his son’s expressions and this is one of them. He cannot tell whether the content of the box is pleasant or unpleasant. 

“Sizhui.”

“Hey, Dad.”

“Mn.” Lan Wangji starts. “So.”

“So.”

When it becomes apparent that Lan Wangji is not going to start driving anytime soon, Sizhui lets out a nervous chuckle. “Um, I got you a surprise?”

Lan Wangji’s eyebrows raise suspiciously. “I am guessing that it is inside that box.”

Sizhui chuckles again and nods, carefully pushing the box onto his father’s lap. 

Lan Wangji takes it as his cue to open it, so he does, gently, seeing how careful Sizhui was when moving it. His eyes widen at what is inside, and Sizhui sees that as his cue to give a quick rapid-fire explanation. 

“So last week when we went out to buy lunch, we found them abandoned on the street near some recycling bins, and they looked so sad and it was really unsafe to leave them there so we told Senior Wei and he just told us immediately to bring it back to the office, and we did and by the time we got back, we found that he’d already made a small pen for them inside his office and then he went to look for some leftover salad for them to eat before we could find proper food and we’ve been looking after them together ever since.”

Lan Wangji looks at the rabbits inside incredulously. One black and one white. They’re the rabbits in the photos Wei Ying has been adding to their wallpaper collection, he’s very much certain. The black one has a little scar on its left ear and the white one has a tiny black dot on the underside of its neck. No wonder Wei Ying could not tell Lan Wangji to whom they belonged to. If anyone found out he would  be in trouble. Of all the Lan rules in Cloud Recesses, “No pets in the office” was not one of them, mainly because the founders could not foresee there being actual animals in the office. But if they could, it would definitely be a rule. 

The rabbits have been in his office since last week? Lan Wanji tries to recall if he saw them during his quick in-and-out of Wei Ying’s workroom, but he cannot remember seeing them. He must have been too preoccupied with his gift giving. His mind focuses back on the present, and Sizhui is still at it. 

“But then this morning his superior came storming in and discovered them — more like he came in looking for them — and he blew up over it, and Senior Wei tried to protect us so he apologized but now these two have nowhere to go.” Sizhui continues quickly and softly adds, “And I thought that we could give them a home; I know you’ve never said it out loud but I’ve seen the way you look at other people’s pets in the park, and I just thought—”

“Alright.”

“— that it’d be nice for us if we could take care of them together and— what?”

“Alright. We can keep them.” 

Sizhui does a pretty good impression of a goldfish for a split second before he breaks into a large smile. Lan Wangji’s eyes soften as well, looking from his son to the rabbits that his son and friends and Wei Ying had been caring for together. 

Sizhui eyes his father. “That was... easy. I thought you’d take a lot more convincing, to be honest.”

“Hmm.” Lan Wangji makes a non-committal noise and puts the box gently back in Sizhui’s lap. “Shall we get some supplies, then?”

On the way to the nearest pet shop they can find, Sizhui sends a text on his phone and announces, “I’ve let Senior Wei know he doesn’t need to find anyone else to adopt them!”

“He was looking for people?” 

“Yes, in case, well… in case you didn’t approve of keeping them. He said he’s got a friend who loves rabbits but it might be a bit too last minute to suddenly push this on him, so we can check with you first.”

Lan Wangji nearly snorts out loud; he himself is probably the friend Wei Ying was going to ask if Sizhui’s father refused. Fate works in mysterious ways. He is glad he controlled himself before letting out a sound that would be most unbecoming of a Lan. 

*****

Mudan Heights, 18th Floor, Lan Wangji’s apartment

Friday rolls around fairly quickly. 

After their impromptu shopping spree at the pet store for rabbit supplies, they get the rabbits settled in in no time. Sizhui had watched with admiration in his eyes as Lan Wangji sat quietly reading reports on the floor with the rabbits hopping around him, and they had taken less than fifteen minutes to deem him harmless and approach him by themselves, deciding that they liked their new owner. It had been an enjoyable evening, spending time with his son and the newest members of their small family.

Later that night, Lan Wangji receives seven different recipes from Wei Ying that he could try making for Sizhui’s friends, and three days later he ends up using four of the seven for side dishes. He takes a photo of the dishes for Wei Ying and sends it to him on WeChat, and Wei Ying replies with a string of emojis that mostly have hearts in them. Lan Wangji wonders what it’ll be like to cook a meal for Wei Ying.

Maybe one day. They have not even had their promised lunch together yet. 

One meal at a time, Lan Wangji thinks. He has never had anyone over that is not his brother, uncle or Yang-jie (who would kill to have a front row seat if that ever happened, he knows). He will probably tell her about this dinner after it is over, also about how Wei Ying had helped him, but not before or even now because he is a bundle of nerves as it is. 

Sizhui is aware that his father is normally a very private person, and has not tried to hide his surprise that his father would even suggest inviting his new friends over to meet them, and shows even more surprise that his father would go through the effort of cooking and suggesting things for them to do together. Lan Wangji sees this clear as day on his son’s face. 

“Thanks, Dad.” Sizhui starts. “For planning all this.”

“Ah, you are welcome. It is… one’s duty. As a parent.” Lan Wangji wraps an arm around his son’s shoulders in reply, and thinks that Wei Ying was right. Sizhui is and has always been a good natured, lively and independent child, and although Lan Wangji spends plenty of time with him and thinks he knows him well, he has not seen how his son interacts with others. It will be nice to see that now. 

“Oh, one more thing, though. Before they come?”

“Yes?”

“Um… Jingyi has a… a request.” Sizhui begins, and Lan Wangji just raises his eyebrows, waiting. He has not met the boy, but he has been Sizhui’s good friend since high school and now university, and Lan Wangji has heard plenty from Sizhui about his… wayward tendencies for fun and mischief, and his clearly very un-Lan-like personality, despite being part of their clan. 

“He ah… wonders if you could, maybe not mention that you work in the office? Jingyi doesn’t know too much, anyways, just that you and uncle Xichen are quite high up the office hierarchy. But he says it might be… interesting. Not to tell the others first. Just in case.” Sizhui adds on with a tiny long-suffering sigh, as if he was forced to ask on someone’s behalf, but at the same time also has vested interest in seeing the outcome play out.  

Lan Wangji tilts his head slightly to look down at his son. He was not planning on doing so anyways, especially knowing that the interns will be coming over to his department next week. Even they will not know where they are going until they are moved to their new department in the orientation rotation, and Lan Wangji can appreciate the amount of planning foresight that Lan Jingyi has, even if he uses it for more nefarious means. 

“Sure.” Lan Wangji says. “I am not the talkative kind anyways.” To which Sizhui just rolls his eyes good-naturedly at his father’s matter-of-fact tone; it was hard to tell if he is joking or serious.

*****

Lan Wangji has come to the conclusion that he is very lucky. 

Lucky to have found a son who is not only sweet, eager and teachable, but who is above anything else, mature for his age. As he now sees the contrast between Sizhui and his fellow interns. 

They had all started out very polite and reserved when greeting him at the door, but as soon as dinner was well under way, and they realized that Sizhui’s father was not as cold and strict as he appeared, just naturally not talkative, they began to loosen up and be themselves. 

It was amusing up to a certain point. Lan Jingyi had turned to Jin Ling and was busy teasing him about the way he looked while eating, much to the grins of the other two boys. 

“You!” Jin Ling accuses without heat. “It’s just… some of the dishes remind me of what my mom used to cook for me when I was little. It’s... eerily similar.”

Lan Wangji freezes. Oh. He forgot. This is Wei Ying’s nephew. Son of Wei Ying’s jiejie. Whose recipes he used tonight. 

“Ooh, does someone miss his mommy?” Jingyi laughs and jabs Jin Ling in the arm. 

“Shut up!” Jin Ling swats the other boy’s hand away. 

“Maybe it’s a common dish.” Ouyang Zizhen guesses. 

Jin Ling looks offended that anyone would call his mother’s cooking “common”. 

“She’s a Michelin-starred chef, I’ll have you know!” Jin Ling rants at Jingyi and Zizhen, then catches Lan Wangji’s gaze. “Not- Not that this doesn’t taste good, Mr. Lan. It’s really good. Very um… nostalgic for me.” 

Sizhui is silently watching his father and Jin Ling, and doing an acceptable job of controlling his amusement at his father’s and friend’s expense. 

Lan Wangji looks back at the boy - Wei Ying’s nephew - then stops himself. He would rather not have to think of Wei Ying right now when he’s hosting four teenagers in his home, thank you very much. Wei Ying would be a total hit with them, he’s sure, excitable and chatty as he is. Lan Wangji pushes that thought aside, then gives the tiniest of nods and picks up some glass noodles with the sharing chopsticks, elegantly portioning some of it onto his own plate. He is not sure what to say without giving too much away, so he remains silent and eats. 

*****

By the time dessert is distributed (honeyed yam purée and ginkgo nuts), the conversation at the dinner table has turned to work and their internship. Lan Wangji silently eats his dessert and listens to their chatter. The boys learned that he keeps quiet most of the time, but they also try to include him once in a while with a question or two to which he will nod or give a small “Mn.” 

To be honest, it’s very similar to dinner with Sizhui, where Sizhui will tell him about what happened in school or work, or what new television show he just watched or what he recently read in a magazine, and Lan Wangji will listen attentively and acknowledge, and then add on if he has something to say. The only difference is that there are three more voices. It is rather nice, he has to admit to himself. 

The boys talk about their previous experiences in HR and Finance before coming over to Marketing, and compare the supervisors they’ve been under. Apparently Wei Ying is the unanimous favourite. Lan Wangji can’t help a sense of pride at the thought, and also a small blossom of fondness growing inside him, hearing the boys speak so highly of his friend. 

Today was their last day in Marketing, and they were obviously reluctant to leave. 

“Who knows what kind of supervisor we’ll get next. If they’re nasty then at least it’ll only be for the next two weeks.” Zizhen says with a sigh. 

“Let’s not think about it until Monday.” Sizhui suggests, trying to lighten the mood. 

“Ugh, just pray we don’t get another Senior Su. The only reason I’d be glad to leave marketing is so that we don’t have to see him again.” Jingyi rolls his eyes and the rest of them agree. 

Lan Wangji startles a little at that bit of information. After going over to Wei Ying’s floor the week before, he had gone back and checked up on the Marketing department, starting with the Marketing Director, Lan Shenghan. During his spare time in between projects and meetings, he was making his way down the hierarchical ladder to check out the different management personnel in Wei Ying’s department, although it had been slow going with his busy schedule. He is not fully acquainted with every single employee in Cloud Recesses. Lan Wangji knows his own IT department and its employees well, and he makes it a point to learn everyone’s names at the least. As for the other departments, his interactions are limited to just the department directors that he needs to sometimes have meetings with. His brother, as CEO of Cloud Recesses, would likely know more about people in other departments.  The name jolts something in him, but at the same time seems inconsequential for some strange reason. He can’t help but ask, “Senior Su?” 

The boys are surprised by his sudden interjection, but recover quickly. 

“Yes. Senior Wei’s boss, Dad. The creative director in Marketing. I think his name is Su She.” Sizhui answers helpfully while Jingyi and the rest make a face. 

Su She. Lan Wangji remembers him now. For all the wrong reasons. He used to be in the IT department with Lan Wangji. They came into the company around the same time and after three or so years, Lan Wangji was promoted to team leader, and then to manager first. Su She was also promoted but was always a year or so behind. 

He was dismissed from the IT department shortly after Lan Wangji became the IT director four years ago. It was for an incident he caused where he had liaised with one of their competitors and had helped them introduce a virus into their company servers. 

It took no more than an hour for the virus to spread to other departments, and they were getting a flood of calls from all over the company about computers blacking out and even the technicians working in the server rooms were calling about their mainframes showing anomalies and signs of overheating. Lan Wangji and a team of programming specialists had worked for over seventeen hours straight, trying to subdue and eradicate the virus from their servers with minimal damage. 

He purses his lips in distaste. Two days after they managed to remove the virus and salvage almost eighty-five percent of their company data and client accounts, one of the programmers had approached Lan Wangji with a trace that could lead them to whose computer the virus had originated from. Su She had begged the Chairman and CEO of Cloud Recesses for leniency, claiming innocence that he had no idea what the virus email was when he clicked it. 

After they found out about the incriminating email exchanges between him and their competitor of the Wen conglomerate, Su She was almost fired, but given a second chance by CEO Lan, seeing as how he was still part of the Lan clan, albeit a distant relation and not in the main family branch. 

They transferred him out of IT where he could no longer do any major damage and Lan Wangji has not heard from or about him since. Until now. 

Lan Wangji puts his spoon down and frowns. “This Su She… he is Wei Y-your Senior Wei’s boss?” 

The boys either do not notice his slip or they are too excited to tell him about their experiences with Senior Su. 

“Unfortunately. Wei-ge is literally being buried by this guy. He picks on him every other day for the most inane things!” Jingyi says grimly. 

“Yeah. In the past two weeks we’ve been there, he’s maybe shouted at dajiu like, seven times, at least.” Jin Ling says. He obviously cares for his uncle, even if he does not like to show it. 

Lan Wangji recalls the phone call they had earlier that week before Sizhui brought the rabbits home. When Wei Ying’s boss had picked up the phone while shouting and hung up abruptly, Wei Ying had texted Lan Wangji during lunch to apologize. 

There is a prickling under his skin which resembles an anger that he has not felt for many years, dealing with this man. And now Wei Ying has been dealing with this snake of a man in his department for the past four years? And as his boss, on top of everything else? 

Wei Ying has never once complained to Lan Wangji about his working situation, with the exception of the occasional, “Oh, my boss is being an asshole, I’ll text you later, Lan Zhan!”

“I think he is, though. No doubt about that.” Zizhen says firmly. 

“Sorry?” Lan Wangji says, missing the last part of the conversation. 

“Oh, I heard from the other interns working under Senior Su, that they think he’s taking credit for designs he has not done. And a lot of them are Wei-ge’s.” Jingyi says. “It has to be Wei-ge’s work, seeing as he’s the only designer in their department. Where else would the designs have come from?”

Zizhen nods his head. “I heard the same. Apparently it’s been going on for some time, but Wei-ge doesn’t admit it out loud. Senior Su seems to know something of his past. He goes all quiet when it’s brought up.”

The boys tell him a lot more about the things they’ve noticed, and how their Senior Wei is always deflecting Senior Su away from them and onto himself. 

Lan Wangji has heard enough. 

Sizhui leads the cleanup after dinner and Lan Wangji lets the boys visit and feed the rabbits they have not seen in days and then hang out in the living room, where they have Jin Ling’s PlayStation hooked up to the television. Then he goes to his study and turns on his company-issue laptop. 

He searches the company’s servers and archives, and easily finds the marketing and advertising archives. In there, they keep all their past campaign ads and marketing materials. For the past three years, Su She’s name appears on nearly everything, and the number of times Wei Ying’s name appears on any design, Lan Wangji can count on his fingers. 

The more he sees, the more incensed he gets. How has this gone on for so long without anyone noticing? And why would Wei Ying not say anything? 

Lan Wangji takes screenshots and saves a copy of the folders, then emails them to his brother and uncle. They have an injustice to correct.

*****

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, Lift lobby

It is the Monday after the dinner of many revelations (which Lan Wangji was most grateful for; without which, he would have no idea about how life for Wei Ying was like under a dreadful boss who was even worse as a person, according to the interns).

Lan Wangji is early today. He reaches the elevator just in time before it fully closes. There are already three other employees inside, and they look up from their phones when the elevator doors open again with a sharp beeping sound. 

The two at the back are from his IT department, and they step aside to make space for him with a brief greeting of “Hanguang-jun”. He nods in acknowledgement, although the title still seems awkward to him. It has been almost five years since the virus incident and it seems like the title has unfortunately stuck. 

Just as Lan Wangji turns around to face the elevator door, another person comes in and stops just short of barreling into him, his messenger sling bag hitting the person next to him unrepentantly. 

The man is not dressed like everyone else in the elevator - proper suits, dress shirt, and tie. He is in a loose, black dress shirt that is open at the collar, with the sleeves open and messily rolled up to his forearm, dark slacks and black leather bands loop around his wrists with the occasional silver trinket attached to some loops. His hair is long and messily tied up in a red elastic tie, and a good amount of fringe is falling out of his high ponytail. 

Lan Wangji watches as the man nods sheepishly in apology to the other occupants of the elevator, before turning his back on Lan Wangji to face the closing elevator doors. He’s never seen this man before; he probably would remember otherwise, in an office full of businessmen in suits.

From the few seconds during the man’s entrance Lan Wangji had only managed to catch a quick glimpse of the man’s face, distracted as he was by his clothing and hair. He has the impression that this man was reasonably attractive, but could not confirm for sure, judging by the slight blur the metallic elevator doors had made of the man’s reflection. He was only slightly shorter than Lan Wangji himself.

And then the elevator stops at the 23rd floor and the man walks out at the same time as the other passenger who is not in IT. They bump shoulders and the man with the ponytail steps aside gracefully and says in a cheery, lilting voice, “Sorry, you first”, before Lan Wangji’s heart starts to pound against his rib cage for some inconceivable reason.

Lan Wangji’s eyes widen the moment he hears that voice. That voice. In just three words, he recognizes it, had been listening to it for the past month. Even now when he reads messages on WeChat, he pictures this voice speaking the words in his head. 

Wei Ying . 

Before Lang Wangji can come to his senses, the elevator doors close and they are on their way to the 35th floor.

*****

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, 35th floor, Chairman’s Office

Lan Wangji sits patiently at the meeting table in his uncle’s office with his brother and uncle, waiting. He puts aside his almost-encounter earlier with whom he is certain is Wei Ying. First things first.

It is already 9.30am, and no doubt the interns are currently getting a tour of the IT department now. It will be a while before he can go back down and check out the potential hires for the company, including his son and friends. If everything goes smoothly, he might be able to make it in time at the end of the hour to do the welcome briefings personally before they start delegating roles. 

There is a knock on the door, and Lan Qiren’s secretary announces their visitor. 

Su She walks in, looking around the Chairman’s office, baffled. His eyes land on Lan Wangji, and immediately his expression turns sour and nervous. 

Good, Lan Wangji thinks. 

He had worked tirelessly over the weekend, compiling evidence and convincing his brother and uncle to look into the matter. Lan Qiren was suspicious, but Lan Xichen and his pleasant nature was more inclined to give Su She the chance to explain himself first before jumping to conclusions based on office rumors from interns. Either way, with his track record being less than commendable, Lan Wangji is sure this meeting will not go in his favour. 

Lan Xichen greets him politely and gestures for Su She to sit down in front of them, pushing a large thick folder in front of him. He opens and flips through it. 

“Are these your designs, Creative Director Su?” 

“Er, yes.” 

Lan Wangji’s blood boils, but he maintains a steady half-lidded glare in Su She’s direction. The last time they were seated like this, it had been over the virus incident four years ago. 

“Is there a problem with them?” 

“Hm,” Lan Xichen hums and flips the file to the end, where the latest campaign materials for their upcoming launch is. The one that Lan Wangji had seen Wei Ying working on the very first day they spoke on the phone when Wei Ying’s computer had frozen.

“And these?” 

“Yes. These too.” Su She replies, more confident now. 

“I see.” Lan Xichen says airily. “Then I hope you don’t mind if we conduct a little test right now?”

“A— A test?” Su She asks, his confidence faltering slightly as he looks from CEO to Chairman to IT director. 

“In here,” Lan Xichen pushes a new folder towards Su She, “is a brief for another event due in four months. It contains everything you will need to know about it. Please show us what ideas you may have for advertising the event and what you can do for the campaign.”

He gestures to an empty sketchbook and an open laptop. “You may work on paper or digitally, as you wish. Given that your previous work shows such well-thought out adaptations of themes and coordination with our desired aesthetics, I would expect the same from you now.” 

Lan Wangji is taking an enormous amount of satisfaction watching the color drain from Su She’s face. He has not spoken to this snake in four years, but feels compelled to add in as condescending a tone as he can, “Take all the time you need.”

Chapter Text

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, 33rd floor, IT Department, Briefing Room

Clearly, nobody here knows about Sizhui’s background, or his relationship to any of the senior management figures, otherwise they’d be kissing ass trying to get into his good graces. Which was probably why Sizhui had been so quiet about it; who would want that kind of unnecessary attention anyways? And knowing Sizhui, he probably wanted to prove himself based on his own merits and not his family’s influence. 

But it was still funny seeing the looks on Jin Ling and Zizhen’s faces when “Director Lan” stepped into the briefing room towards the end of their tour and introduction of the IT department, and it turned out to be Sizhui’s super stoic and silent dad. They were just at his house three days ago! And despite Director Lan being really reserved and quiet, he must have a sense of humor if he agreed to Jingyi’s request of not mentioning what he did for a job. Not to mention the fact that he himself had kept their change of department to his department a secret from the interns themselves. He must have known early on that they’d be coming over this week!

Lan Jingyi wants to laugh so bad. And apparently he’s not doing a particularly good job of hiding it when he feels an elbow in his ribs from the right. Jingyi turns to see a disapproving frown from Sizhui, and he bats away Sizhui’s arm with a whispered “What! I know! But come on. This is funny!”

Sizhui frowns even more. “Director Lan is talking.”

“Fine, fine.” Jingyi turns back towards the front of the briefing room where Sizhui’s father is finishing his welcome speech. They go through this every time they change departments, but Director Lan’s speech is definitely the most succinct and the shortest. Jingyi would have done that too. A quick “Welcome, hope you learn lots!” would be his way to go.  

Even though the workload there was the heaviest, Jingyi’s still sad to leave the marketing department and Wei-ge. But getting to see Zizhen and Jin Ling’s faces right now is almost worth it. So many possibilities right here for drama just based on the fact that Director Lan’s son is among the interns right now, with father and son pretending they don’t know each other. 

“You’re doing that evil villain finger thing again.” Sizhui hisses. He looks torn between amusement and knowing that he should not be amused.

Jingyi puts his hands under the table. “Am not.” 

The lady from HR who is in charge of the interns’ placement steps forward to read the duty allocations. So they won’t be drawing lots like last time. She starts announcing roles from the top of her clipboard and works her way down until she reaches Jingyi’s name. 

“Lan Jingyi. Jin Rulan.” 

Director Lan leans closer over her shoulder to point at something on her clipboard, softly murmuring something only she can hear. 

“Noted, Hanguang-jun.” The lady starts again. “Lan Jingyi, Ouyang Zizhen.”

The two of them raise their hands. Jingyi wonders why the sudden change. 

“The two of you will be shadowing Ms. Lan Yanyun, personal assistant to Hanguang-jun. You will be learning about supporting upper management by managing the daily ins and outs of this company.” 

Jingyi nods enthusiastically — this will definitely be a good experience for him, considering his uni major being project management. He catches Director Lan’s gaze and gets a pointed look from the man. Immediately, Jingyi knows that Sizhui’s father remembers their dinner last Friday. Ah, that’s why he swapped out Jin Ling for Zizhen.

Jingyi wants to smack himself. He should’ve known better than to keep teasing Jin Ling at Sizhui’s place. Don’t get him wrong, he won’t stop doing it; that boy with his temper will forever be fun to tease. Just that he probably should have thought better of doing it in front of Director Lan, and in his home to boot. 

Jingyi must look stricken, because Director Lan’s face softens just a smidge, and he looks almost… amused. He must just think that with Jin Ling and Jingyi being put to work together, actual work may not end up being the top priority. And he’s probably right. Jingyi runs a hand through his hair and lets out a sheepish grin, to which Director Lan replies with a tiny nod and turns his attention back to the HR lady reading out names. Jingyi exhales and reminds himself to be on his best behavior. For now, at least. 

Sizhui is now paired with Jin Ling, assigned to the technology management team on the 32nd floor. The four of them glance at each other — it’s the first time their group is being separated since they’ve started the internship. At least they’ll be able to have lunch together. Hopefully. If their allocated supervisors are nice. 

Lan Yanyun soon appears and takes Jingyi and Zizhen out of the pool of interns. She brings them to their desks situated near hers, further away from the IT tech support officers and on the side of the office floor across from the meeting and briefing rooms. Once they are seated at their desk next to hers, there’s an introduction of their roles, and what they need to know to start out with. 

She points a finger towards a large wooden door at the edge of the open floor space, a few meters away, made of dark wood with a large bronze door knob. “That’s Hanguang-jun’s office. Only go in when you’re called, or if I instruct you to. And always knock before you enter.” 

The two boys nod seriously. Jingyi finds that he likes her. She’s friendly, but still shows that she means business and seems to get the job done. Efficient. She has to be, probably, if she’s Director Lan’s personal assistant and secretary. 

“Any questions?”

“How should we address you?” Jingyi asks. 

“Ms. Lan would be most appropriate in any setting with other people.” Lan Yanyun says as she smooths out her jacket, then gives them a cheeky smile that makes her look much younger than she probably is. “But when it’s just us you can call me Yanyun-jie.”

Jingyi smiles at that and nods. 

“Any more questions?”

“Um.” Zizhen begins. “How do we address him?” He points at the dark wooden office door, and Jingyi bites his lips to restrain himself from looking amused. Zizhen is probably still reeling about the fact that Sizhui’s father is… well, Sizhui’s father. “Is it Director Lan or Hanguang-jun?”

“Oh, that!” Yanyun says. “Either one is fine. He answers to both.”

“Why Hanguang-jun, though?” Jingyi can’t help but ask, curious.

“Ah, yes. He got that informal title four, almost five years ago.” She leans one arm on her desk, moving closer like she’s ready to tell a juicy piece of gossip. 

“There was an incident. This virus from a rival company got into our system servers, and it was horrible! All the computers started blacking out, and it infiltrated our cloud servers and our client data as well. Super scary.” Her voice goes low. Jingyi thinks she’s probably the most dramatic storyteller Cloud Recesses has (aside from Wei-ge, of course).

“So anyways, Director Lan had only been promoted to director for less than six months back then, and the moment he got wind of the situation, he took charge of a small team of programmers and they spent more than seventeen hours fighting the virus and trying to save our data. And then finally, once the virus was removed safely, all of our computers lit up and came back online at the same time. And that’s why he’s Hanguang-jun — the light bearer, who valiantly saved the company servers from the darkness of the virus shroud.” Yanyun-jie ends the story in a sagely manner, nodding slowly.

Then she laughs. “Though he hates it when someone brings that up. He’s shy about that.” Yanyun-jie laughs as though this is something that has amused her for a long time. Probably since the actual incident. 

“Whoa, cool.” Both Jingyi and Zizhen say at the same time. Who knew Sizhui’s quiet father was a badass when it came to computers?  He definitely has to tell Sizhui about this. 

*****

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, 5th floor, Employee Cafeteria 

“And they have these really cool server rooms that keep all the hardware running, and it’s cold inside so the equipment doesn’t overheat and stuff!” Jin Ling says, excitedly showing off about where he and Sizhui were sent to work. 

Sizhui takes a careful bite of his bao and nods along. “Yeah, it’s really cool.”

“Okay, that’s nice and everything, but guys, do you not realize which department we’re in now?” Jingyi asks conspiratorially over his tray of glutinous rice and chicken. This was literally the first thing that popped into his mind the moment the interns found out they were heading to the IT department next. 

“IT?” Jin Ling replies, then sits up straight as though he has just remembered something. He points an accusing finger at Sizhui. “AND HOW COME no one mentioned anything about Director Lan being your FATHER!” 

Sizhui shushes him quickly while glancing around to make sure no one heard anything. The cafeteria was large and meant for Cloud Recesses employees only, which meant that it was not safe in terms of listening ears and prying eyes, of which there were probably a lot. 

“Yeah! Oh my god. I think I was so shocked when he appeared, I didn’t catch anything that was said after. Nearly didn’t hear my name being called.” Zizhen whispers. 

Jingyi is holding his sides, laughing silently. 

“You knew?!” Jin Ling growls, turning his finger of accusation onto Jingyi.

Jingyi swipes the finger away and slaps Jin Ling’s shoulder playfully. “Just a bit. I knew Sizhui’s dad works here. I didn’t know he was going to be our new boss for the next two weeks!”

“Okay, okay, what were you saying, Jingyi? About the IT department?” Sizhui asks, quick to steer the subject of conversation away from his father. 

“Oh yes, we’re in IT, guys!”

“So what?” Jin Ling asks, while Zizhen’s eyes go round as saucers as a look of dawning comprehension crosses his face. “And so is Wei-ge’s boyfriend!!”

“Exactly!” Jingyi says, clapping Zizhen on the back. It was clear that if anyone in their group would have the same vested interest, it would be Zizhen, starting from that very moment on their first day there when Wei-ge had called and asked his IT boyfriend about lunch. 

“What are you planning?” Jin Ling asks slowly, like he’s trying to figure out if he can prevent some disaster from happening before it actually happens. 

“Duh! What do you think! We find out who this guy is and give the two of them a little push! Together!” Jingyi says confidently, smacking his two palms together in front of his face. He looks at Zizhen, and that shining look in his eyes already tells Jingyi he’s got one of them on his side. 

It’s really been way too long. For the past two weeks they have known Wei Wuxian, he’s been a great senior and supervisor to them. Intelligent, creative, resourceful, caring and protective — everything they could have hoped for in a big-brother figure in this corporate experience. But when it came to his personal relationships… Jingyi groans. You’d think someone with at least a dozen years of life experience more than Jingyi himself would be a little more observant and… accomplished in getting his love life settled. But no, Jingyi has seen and heard enough whisperings and murmurs of secret hidden conversations between Wei-ge and this IT guy on the phone to make him want to pull his own hair out. 

Geez, you’d be surprised at how such an extroverted guy like their Wei-ge was so not- proactive when it came to chasing this guy he liked so much. And yes, the tea exchange thing was rather sweet, but come on, they haven’t even met face to face yet! And apparently this whole thing started nearly a month ago? And Wei-ge was still resolutely insistent on calling the IT guy his “ friend ”, which, puh-lease. They were way past that stage without having met each other; even Jingyi could tell. 

Jingyi was sure Zizhen could tell too, and it was driving both of them insane. The two of them would totally be on the side of wanting to help their Wei-ge just get a move on already. 

He turns to look at Jin Ling, whose face is scrunched super tight as though he’s thinking very hard and trying not to turn purple. “Fine. It’s better than watching dajiu pine all day and night.” 

Jingyi does a small fist shake. Jin Ling tries to act all tough, but deep down, he knows the youngest of their group really admires his uncle, even if he doesn’t say it aloud. Hell, if Jingyi had an uncle as cool and fun as Wei-ge, he’d admire the heck out of him. Look at all the crappy uncles he had who were middle-aged and kept asking him when he’d bring home a girlfriend. Ugh. 

When Jingyi turns to look at Sizhui, his friend has stopped eating and is thoughtfully staring at his half-eaten bao. Unlike Jin Ling, though, when Sizhui thinks hard he still manages to look rather elegant and contemplative, not like he’s trying to explode a fruit with his mind. 

“Uh… Sizhui?”

“Yes!” Sizhui jerks a little out of his thoughts and turns to face the three of them waiting expectantly for his answer. “Sounds like a plan.”

“I know, right? Now we just have to find a way to find out who this guy is!” Jingyi says, digging into his glutinous rice. “What do we know about him!”

“He works in IT!”

“He’s a tech support officer!”

“He likes… tea!”

“And Wei-ge!” Zizhen says helpfully. 

Jingyi groans and mumbles to himself. “Wow. An IT guy who likes tea. We’re in China. Everyone likes tea!”

“Man.” Jin Ling starts picking at his noodles. “Now what! That means we don’t know anything about him! We don’t even know his name or what he looks like!”

“Well, the two of us can’t do much since we’re on the 32nd floor.” Sizhui gestures towards Jin Ling and himself. “But you two are on the 33rd, right? That’s where the tech support officers are. You guys can just keep an eye out for anyone talking on the phone about… non-IT stuff?”

“Yes!” Jingyi puts his fork and spoon down, excitedly. “And the wallpaper!”

“Oh yeah!” Zizhen grins. “We can look out for anyone with animals on their wallpaper! Wei-ge says he’s been sharing wallpapers with his guy! Anything that looks remotely crazy, or not business-ey enough— something that Wei-ge himself might use as his wallpaper!”

“Now this sounds like a plan.” 

They all nod in silent agreement.

Sizhui takes a bite of his bao. “You’re doing that evil villain finger thing again, Jingyi.” 

*****

Outside Starbucks, two blocks away from Cloud Recesses Headquarters.

Sizhui watches as the sleek white car carefully pulls up to the pavement, just inches from where he waits on the sidewalk. He opens the door and quickly gets in, making sure his jacket and the straps of his backpack aren’t in the way when he closes the car door. 

“Hi, Dad!” 

His father hums a reply. Sizhui looks sideways at his father. There’s the faint hint of something in his expression. He’s not smiling, but he definitely looks pleased with something, Sizhui can tell that much. 

“Good day at work?” Sizhui asks, buckling his seatbelt. 

“Mn.” Lan Wangji nods. “Justice being served.”

“Really? What happened? Something big?”

“Mm. You can say that.” His father nods, eyes on the road. Sizhui lets out a little laugh. “Is this one of those top-secret company things you can’t say anything about to an outsider like me?”

“Not an outsider.” Lan Wangji’s voice is suddenly hard. 

Sizhui immediately knows what is on his father’s mind. They've spent quite a lot of time with both relatives and acquaintances alike, where there is always the comment about how nice it was for his father to take in someone not from their Lan clan as his son, to which Sizhui’s father will first ignore and then get defensive about if the conversation topic continues. Sizhui knows they're not biologically related, but never once has he been made to feel like he doesn’t belong. And his father is always touchy about others saying otherwise or making subtle allusions to the fact that Sizhui is not A “real” Lan. 

“Ai, you know what I mean. Outsider of the company, dad!”

“Oh. Yes.” Lan Wangji says. “You might find out later when it becomes public information in the company.”

“Ah, I see.” Sizhui says. He knows his father will let him know sooner or later if the information becomes relevant, so he doesn’t push any further. 

“How was your day?” His father asks serenely. “Have you settled into the department and your job yet?

“It was good. Jin Ling and I are learning a lot from Senior Liu.”

“Mn. That is good to hear.”

“Mm. So… speaking of hearing things.” Sizhui is not proud of that segue, but he’s too amused to not bring this up. “I finally heard the story, Dad.”

“What story.” Sizhui chances a glance at his father. Lan Wangji’s eyebrows are raised, but he’s still conscientiously paying attention to the traffic in front of him. 

“The Hanguang-jun story!” Sizhui says cheerfully. “The one you’ve been refusing to tell me about. Jingyi and Zizhen told us. Who knew you were such a badass hacker.”

Lan Wangji sighs. “Not a hacker. Programmer. That was my major in university.”

Sizhui lets out a chuckle. “Either way, the story was cool. You’re the hero of Cloud Recesses! Bringing light when the servers were shrouded in darkness.”

Lan Wangji sighs again. “Should have threatened Yanyun to keep her silent.”

Sizhui giggles at his father’s ears turning red. 

The car abruptly lurches forward in an aggressive stop. Lan Wangji quickly parks the car against the curb and stares at the information displayed on the car dashboard. 

The faintest hint of smoke seems to be escaping from the hood of the car. Sizhui points it out and his father looks blankly at it, his face as expressionless as ever, before stepping out to open the hood up. 

By the time Sizhui gets out too, his father is frowning. “Something is wrong with the engine.”

It doesn’t look too serious, but Sizhui can feel the heat coming out of the engine area of the car. He knows his father is not the kind of person to overlook safety; Lan Wangji calls for a tow-recovery service to help.

When the tow truck arrives, Lan Wangji settles the payment and gets the car sent to the nearest auto-repair shop, while Sizhui waits to one side. The tow truck driver offers them a ride to where they need to go, but unfortunately only has one passenger seat available. Lan Wangji declines politely and thanks him anyways. 

When the truck drives off with their car, Sizhui looks at his father. 

Lan Wangji gives him a wry look. “Taxi or walk home?”

Sizhui laughs. They can definitely afford the taxi, and it’s a 30-minute walk home. It would be fun to walk, though. An unexpected detour he doesn’t mind spending with his father. 

“Let’s walk. It’ll be interesting.” Lan Wangji nods in agreement and they start off.

Despite the early evening progressing, the summer air is still warm and humid with the occasional breeze, and after ten minutes of walking the two of them take off their suit jackets to drape across their arms. The streets start to come alive with cafes, restaurants and businesses opening for the after-work crowd, and more people who are getting off work and looking for places to have dinner and social meetings. 

Sizhui points out a few of the cafe chains he and his friends have gone to since they’ve started their internship in the business district, telling his father what tastes good and what he should order if he ever tries those places (though the possibility of his father going into one of these roadside cafes by himself is probably zero to none), and also one or two little stores that he’s seen on Weibo that have viral circulation and are popular with the younger crowd. 

Lan Wangji nods along to Sizhui’s commentary, asking a question or two when he’s curious. Sizhui can’t help but be amused. Technically his father isn’t that much older than him — still in his mid-thirties! — but his tastes are pretty traditional (blame it on the clan traditions, Sizhui thinks) and it’s rare to see his dad in such a setting. 

And then they come across a bubble tea chain store — the very one that Senior Wei had bought them drinks from. Sizhui thinks about the loose-leaf tea that Senior Wei had received from his IT friend. The one that smelled exactly like the oolong and jasmine he had given his father for Christmas last year, that he had bought from Uncle Chen at Mo Yun Teashop. It had taken him by surprise when he had entered Senior Wei’s workroom to that exact same aroma. Was he overthinking things? It could just be a coincidence, right? 

He had kept silent about it since, but Jingyi’s voice was ringing in his head about their plans to help Senior Wei get together with his IT boyfriend, even if he himself didn’t know it yet. What if …?

Sizhui’d be happy, though. For both Senior Wei and his dad. His dad has not shown any romantic interest in anyone in all the time Sizhui has known him. And he knows how hard it probably was for his father to juggle working and being a single parent at such a young age; he basically didn’t have time to meet anyone outside of university, and then work, let alone go on dates. This change would definitely be a good thing. Plus Senior Wei was the best and the kindest person Sizhui knows, but also kind of the loneliest — stuck in his workroom all day, buried in work — despite his happy-go-lucky nature. They would be good for each other. 

Sizhui looks at the bubble tea store and decides he can put it to the test. He tugs on his father’s sleeve to stop him for a bit. 

Lan Wangji stops walking and looks down at his son, a question in his eyes. 

“Dad, shall we get some drinks?” He points to the store they have just walked past. “It’s so warm. Something cold might be nice!”

Lan Wangji looks at the bright neon lights and the even brighter menu of teas lit up at the front of the store. Something flits across his face, something that softens his eyes. Oh boy, Sizhui thinks, just as his father nods. 

“Great!” Sizhui says and starts leading them towards the counter to order. If he’s wrong about this, well, at least he’ll get to see his father try bubble tea for the first time. Heaven knows it’ll be amusing just to watch his dad stare at all the ingredients they can put inside (something he wouldn’t dare introduce to his granduncle). And if he’s right about his suspicions, then… he’ll think about what to do when the time comes. 

The interior is bright in contrast to the darkening sky outside, and the design of the counters, tables and chairs are filled with clean lines and a minimalist wood and concrete aesthetic. The counter is currently empty, but Sizhui can see the employees at the back getting ready for the after-work rush. 

Lan Wangji stares at the menu. “Is that cheese ?” 

Sizhui laughs out loud, which gets the attention of one of the staff, who quickly wipes her hands on her apron and starts to come to the front. 

“Yeah. It’s a fairly popular trend. Cheese tea.”

A look of absolute horror appears on his father’s face, which just means his eyes widen a sizable amount. Sizhui is rather enjoying this experience. The girl that approaches the counter probably doesn’t recognise the appalled look his dad has on for what it is, and says cheerfully, “Hello, welcome to Xi Cha, can I take your order?”

Still laughing, Sizhui orders himself a passion-fruit pineapple fruit tea with aiyu jelly, and turns to ask his father if he needs any help ordering, but before he opens his mouth, his father says in his usual tranquil tone of voice, “One peach and strawberry fruit tea with aloe vera, please. No sugar.”

Sizhui is stunned. He stares as his father confirms their order with the girl at the counter and takes out his phone to pay. 

Once they are on their way back home, the sky is much darker and Sizhui is conflicted. His father is walking next to him, drinking his very non-traditional tea drink as if he drinks bubble tea all the time — which Sizhui knows to be Not True. 

The color of the tea he got is strikingly similar to the one that Senior Wei bought for his IT friend. Two can put this mystery boyfriend together, given the right puzzle pieces. And holy crap, that mystery boyfriend happens to be his father?

Sizhui takes a long sip of his drink and stares silently at his father once more as they walk side by side; he might never stop being surprised at this casual display of acceptance for something that goes against all he’s ever been taught about tradition and culture. 

Lan Wangji notices him staring and looks at his son. “What?”

“N-nothing, dad! Uh,” Sizhui wants to ask “Are you phone friends with Senior Wei?”, but instead, he asks, “How’s the tea?”

“Good.” 

*****

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, 33rd floor, IT Department

“Done, and done!” Jingyi says triumphantly. He hands the binder over to Lan Yanyun with a smug smile. 

“Hm, we’ll see about that!” Yanyun says, opening up the binder to gloss through the contents.

“Everything checks out?”

“Yes.”

“Are all the possible vendors listed?”

“Yeap!”

“And categorized according to price and reliability?”

“Done.” Jingyi says smugly, supremely pleased with himself. 

Yanyun flips through the binder once more and starts checking things a little more closely. Finally, she closes it and smiles. “Good job. With an hour to spare before the deadline I gave you too!”

This doesn’t mean that Jingyi can knock off work early, but it does mean that his pile of administrative tasks and paperwork is shorter by a good inch and a half. He punches the air. 

“Alright. Since you’re done, leave this on Hanguang-jun’s desk. He can read it when he gets back from the meeting with the other directors. Oh, and these as well.” She pulls a few thin folders from under the other papers on her desk with post-it tabs marked with “Sign here” on various locations. “Arrange it separate from yours so he’ll know they’re two different things he needs to look at and sign his approval.”

“Got it!” Jingyi grabs his newly completed binder and the thin folders and stands up. 

“When that’s done you can go take a break!” Yanyun-jie says. 

Zizhen looks up from the desk opposite Jingyi’s with the look of a sad puppy. Jingyi sticks his tongue out while Yanyun-jie laughs. “You can take a break too once you’re done with the schedule plans for next week.”

Jingyi doesn’t stay to listen to Yanyun-jie list out the importance of planning and scheduling the department meetings along with her boss’ external ones, and making sure that they take into account other departments as well to avoid last-minute scheduling clashes as much as possible. 

He reaches the dark wood doors. Jingyi knows Hanguang-jun isn’t in his office but he knocks anyways before entering; it’s only polite to do so. 

Closing the door after himself so that it doesn’t slam shut loudly in the quiet office, he looks around the room. The desk is large and made of dark wood similar to the door, definitely something fancy. And it’s neat too, though he’d expect nothing less of Hanguang-jun.

Before Jingyi can approach the table, though, he gets shocked out of his skin when the phone suddenly rings, blaring out loud into the noiseless office. Geez, that gave him a fright. 

The phone continues to ring as Jingyi arranges the binder and files onto Hanguang-jun’s table. Strange. Normally any calls for Hanguang-jun would go straight to Yanyun-jie’s intercom. She should have picked up by now since he left her at her desk just moments ago. 

Ah, whatever. It wasn’t his business to answer anyways. 

Jingyi is very nearly to the door when the ringing finally stops. Then the tone beeps to indicate that it’s recording a voicemail, and Jingyi freezes in his steps when he hears the voice that comes rambling out of the speaker. 

“Lan Zhan! It’s me! I guess you’re too busy now to answer your phone, but I have some exciting news to tell you! Well, sort of exciting. I only know half of it, I’m guessing, but it’s still relatively good news! Hope I’m not disturbing anything! It’s just that it’s some good news and I wanted to tell you first! I’ll wait till you’re free, I wanna hear your voice, eh? Haha. Oh, and sorry I haven’t been updating our bunny folder as often, been really busy preparing for the launch event by myself. Ahhh, you know it’s been so lonely here without my lively interns around. I know it’s only been three days since they’ve left but man, do I miss them! Plus it’s getting crazy preparing for the launch and heaven knows I need more hands around here... Oh, I’m going on again. Anyways! Call me when you hear this! Or text! Then I can call you! Heh. Okay, byeeee—”

The voicemail beeps again, signalling the end of the message. 

That voice. Was undeniably Wei-ge. Jingyi would bet his life on it. Heck, he’d spent two weeks working with the man and listening to his non-stop chatter and teasing and teaching and oh, what is this on Director Lan’s table — is that the same brand of tea that Wei-ge received last week — and oh my god, is Wei-ge's IT boyfriend Hanguang-jun?!

Chapter Text

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, 33rd floor, IT Department, Director’s Office

If Lan Wangji cares to admit it to himself, he knows he is a little nervous. It has been two days of “we will need more time to deliberate, Wangji, please be patient”, and he is not beyond pestering a few older men to make up their mind already. It did not take a genius to know that if you did bad things, there would be consequences, so why was this issue taking so long. 

The only bright side of things now is that that snake of a man Su She has been put on temporary suspension, something he had to learn from Wei Ying himself because neither his uncle nor brother were supposed to mention anything until an official decision has been made. And Wei Ying had no obligation to keep secrets from his best (?) friend in the office. 

Lan Wangji had returned to his office earlier after the long meeting with the other department directors to the completely mortified looks of surprise from Sizhui’s two friends, and a cheerful and relatively long voicemail from Wei Ying. 

The boys had been sitting at two smaller makeshift desks next to Yanyun, and when she smiled at Lan Wangji walking towards them to his office with her usual cheery, “Hi, boss, the vendor list is on your desk, and the colored files need your signatures!”, the two boys — Lan Jingyi and Ouyang Zizhen had looked up at him with expressions that were a mixture of shock and maybe nervousness…or was it anticipation? Nervous anticipation? 

Which was strange, because Lan Wangji knows he has not done anything to warrant those looks. For the past three days they have been what Sizhui would call “chill” with their friend’s father and new boss. Lan Wangji admits it; he knows he is not the best at reading others. 

He had then tilted his head a little in confusion, and the two of them immediately broke eye contact and looked back down at their work. 

And then upon sitting back at his desk to look through the vendor list and the documents that needed his signatures, he saw the red flashing light on his office phone that signaled an unopened voicemail. He pressed the play button, and listened as Wei Ying’s loud voice started his usual excited ramble. 

"Lan Zhan! It’s me! I guess you’re too busy now to answer your phone, but I have some exciting news to tell you! Well, sort of exciting. I only know half of it, I’m guessing, but it’s still… ”

Lan Wangji had then proceeded to call Wei Ying to ask about the good news, and had a fifteen minute conversation with him where he learned that Wei Ying’s asshole boss has not turned up for work since Monday, and no one knew the exact reason why, though Wei Ying heard some people speculating that Su She had been put on suspension for unknown reasons. And although Lan Wangji was raised by his uncle to not take part in gossip, he asked Wei Ying if he had known anything else, to which the answer was no. 

And of course, before they hung up, Lan Wangji had asked Wei Ying how he was doing, seeing as his department was slightly disrupted with the loss of one of their team leaders. 

“Ah, I’m more than fine. I’ve always tried to ignore him anyways and do my own thing! Just one less person barging into my workroom now!” Wei Ying had seemed pleased with this turn of events. Lan Wangji was too, even if it had yet to be fully settled by the CEO and Lan elders. 

Now that he has seen Su She make a fool of himself during that Monday morning “test” where he had been incapable of coming up with a single idea or concept within an hour or so, Lan Wangji had a (rather forgettable) face to place into all the times he recalled Wei Ying mentioning his less than pleasant boss and even that one time Su She had slammed Wei Ying’s phone down on Lan Wangji. 

“That’s good, Wei Ying. I will not disturb you further. Since you are busy with the launch campaign.”

“Ahhhh, Lan Zhan, you never disturb me!” Wei Ying had teased. “Your calls are what I look forward to the most each day!”

That line was said with such earnestness and candor that Lan Wangji still finds himself blushing now; even without being able to see himself, he knows his ears are unnaturally warm. 

*****

His brother calls him the next day, first thing in the morning. 

The elders have made their decision, and Su She will be called into the office this morning to be informed of it. 

“You may be there too, if you want, Wangji. You seem to be rather invested in this. Also, you were the one who discovered it.” Lan Xichen says, his voice soothing over the phone, sounding as if he’s talking about the weather and not about possibly someone losing their job. Lan Wangji can appreciate the irony of this situation. 

“Mn.” He does not elaborate. 

“Alright. Nine-thirty in Uncle’s office. We’ll see you there.”

“Mn.” Lan Wangji hangs up the phone. He has another half an hour before then, so he makes himself a cup of tea. 

Finally. It will be good to be able to give Wei Ying some good news; Lan Wangji prays silently that the outcome will be in their favour. 

Perhaps if it is, he can be the one to tell Wei Ying in person. It would be a good excuse to allow him to meet Wei Ying. 

But then again… on second thought, did he want Wei Ying and himself to have their first face to face meeting on such a formal basis and for business purposes? 

Lan Wangji sighs deeply. He had not thought about that. What would he even say? 

“Hello. I am here on behalf of our company to let you know that your boss has been fired for being an asshole to you and taking credit for your work. And by the way, I happen to be your Lan Zhan. How did you like the tea? Have you tried the rest yet?”

No, that is possibly the worst opening line ever. He has not dated before or been interested in doing so, but even he knows that’s the worst. How unromantic. 

Lan Wangji gives himself a moment’s lapse to pinch the bridge of his nose. Romantic? When did that just slip into the equation? 

Let us not get ahead of ourselves, Lan Wangji tells himself. Find out what the elders have decided first. Then we can go into thinking about possible meetups with hopefully good news and introductions. 

He cannot get his mind to stop thinking of all sorts of possible meeting scenarios. 

Before his little heart can implode in his chest, Lan Wangji forces himself to meditate for the next twenty minutes before the meeting. 

By the time his mind is sufficiently clear of thoughts of Wei Ying, it is nearly nine-thirty. He takes a last sip from his tea cup and adjusts his tie, standing up from his desk. Much better. Mind clear. One step at a time. 

He heads towards the door, and opens it just as Yanyun seems to be in the midst of knocking. 

Lan Wangji frowns. Yanyun never knocks. Not unless someone else is in the room and she has to show some decorum or she knows that he is busy with something urgent. Otherwise she just comes and goes (or barges in or out) of his office when necessary. 

She retracts her hand immediately upon seeing him standing there. 

“Boss!” Her voice is slightly startled at seeing him, though why she should be when she was knocking at his own office door was beyond Lan Wangji. 

“Yes?”

“Oh! Uhm, hi! Erm…” Yanyun turns around for a bit, and Lan Wangji follows her gaze towards the two interns Jingyi and Zizhen standing around her desk. They look just as shocked as she is, like deer caught in headlights. Yanyun is the first to compose herself. 

“Ah! Yes! I was thinking, maybe I could make us some tea,” she gestures to Lan Wangji and then to the interns, letting out the most unnatural smile Lan Wangji has ever seen on her face. “And you could get to know our interns here a little better! Or we can have a casual chat in the pantry or something? They’ve been working with me for three days already, and you’ve been so busy you haven’t even said hi to them. It’ll be good to show that we’re interested in our employee welfare too, you know?”

“I know them already.” Lan Wangji says. He thinks he might still be frowning at her odd behaviour. 

“How…?” 

“They’re friends with Sizhui. They came over last week.”

Yanyun’s eyes widen and she throws the interns a look that might suggest betrayal. Zizhen looks appropriately chastised, but Jingyi has a look of trying to restrain laughter that Lan Wangji has come to associate as part of him most of the time. 

“Still! That’s a completely different setting! They should get to know us in this professional space, don’t you think?”

“Mm.” Lan Wangji hums in response. That is an acceptable idea. “Alright, but after I get back.”

“Get back? You don’t have anything scheduled for this morning.”

“Urgent meeting with CEO and Chairman Lan. My brother just called earlier.”

“Oh.”

“I am sorry for not informing you first. I should have done so so that you can plan more efficiently.”

“Oh! Ah,” Yanyun lets out nervous laughter. “That’s okay. We can… meet with the interns when you get back.”

Lan Wangji nods and moves out of the doorway to close his office door. “Mn.”

He gives a nod to the interns and what he hopes is a warmer gaze as he walks by. It is true that he has been busy the past few days. Normally he would meet Yanyun’s interns on the first day of their transfer. He will have to make time later. 

“What time will you be back, Hanguang-jun?” Jingyi raises his voice before Lan Wangji is completely out of earshot. He winces infinitesimally at the title but turns back around. Jingyi is looking confidently at him, while Zizhen still looks like a caught deer. 

“I cannot say at the moment. It is something urgent I have to attend to.” Lan Wangji replies patiently. 

“Okay.” Jingyi looks just a little disappointed. “Have a good meeting then, Hanguang-jun!”

“Thank you.” 

Jingyi smiles brightly and waves at him, and Zizhen shyly joins his more extroverted friend in waving their boss goodbye. 

Lan Wangji nods and heads for the elevators. Wei Ying was right. The office will be a lot livelier with them around. He gets the sense that Yanyan and the two of them already seem to be up to something, given the many looks they have been exchanging within the past two minutes, even though he does not know nor want to know what it is.

Lan Wangji does not turn around but he can hear Yanyun smacking someone on the shoulder with a loudly whispered “Why didn’t you tell me this earlier!”, followed by a loud “Ow!”

He shakes his head and steps into the elevator. Lan Wangji is sure he does not want to know. 

*****

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, 35th floor, Chairman’s Office

The room is silent as Su She seems to be weighing his options. 

Lan Wangji cannot say that he is entirely satisfied with this outcome. He had expected swift retribution and justice, but was instead hindered by the corporate policies and utter bureaucratic bullshit put in place that gave a handful of people the power to decide on disciplinary matters such as this. Lan Wangji, being a department director (even as one of the most important ones in Cloud Recesses), has little to no say when it comes to how the Lan elders made their decisions. 

His brother and uncle had discussed the issue of Su She’s deplorable conduct with the board of Lan elders. The board was made up of various elders who were chosen to represent different family branches of the Lan clan that were all shareholders of some form of Cloud Recesses, with his uncle Lan Qiren being one of them. And after nearly three days’ worth of “investigation and deliberation”, they had apparently made their decision for disciplinary action via voting. 

Lan Xichen has just told Su She of the outcome — that he has a choice to make. For his fraudulent claims of plagiarism, taking credit for work done by those he was put in charge of, the board of elders has elected for his punishment to be either accepting a relatively large demotion, or to be forced to leave the company. 

Quite honestly, Lan Wangji is disappointed. If Su She was of any clan descent other than Lan, he would have been tossed out as soon as word had got around of his deceit. But there were definitely those on the board of elders who took sides and chose to support the more distant family branches together. Lan Wangji has heard his uncle complain about the politicking behind their backs enough times to know everyone had their own agenda. 

Not that he could fault them entirely — he was here with his own agenda as well (aside from justice, in general). And that was to help Wei Ying. But at the moment, Lan Wangji himself was completely helpless in the face of his family’s traditions and methods of operation that have been long and unchanged in running their conglomerate. 

Lan Xichen clears his throat discreetly. “I am afraid we will need a response.”

Su She, who has been simultaneously turning paler and also getting redder with his awareness of the situation he is in, looks between Lan Qiren, Lan Wangji, and then finally settles his gaze on Lan Xichen. “What…” He begins. “What happens if I do not want to leave?”

Lan Wangji resists the urge to hit something. How shameless is this man who still wants to stay in the company and clan despite all the things he has done? First with the virus, and now with stealing credit and work from others? Lan Wangji is annoyed at the Lan elders. They clearly think that this current incident is not a big deal — who was the graphic designer Su She stole from but an outsider to the clan and company? On a scale of one to utter betrayal, the virus incident definitely scored higher than taking credit for someone’s work. 

“Then you will accept the demotion. You will no longer be Creative director in charge of the public campaigns and any promotional work. You will rejoin your current team at the lowest rank possible — which is to say, as a permanent employee just one step above the interns who will be assigned there. Your salary will be cut as well, to fit your current role and job scope, and you will be put on probation where a new creative director will monitor your work and attitude.” Lan Xichen says calmly, looking Su She dead in the eye. 

“But—”

“No allowance nor leniency will be given. You will be awarded based on your effort and attitude, or not at all if it proves to be poor.” Lan Xichen answers curtly. Lan Wangji does not remember this being part of the elders’ decided punishment explained to him earlier, so it must be his brother adding his clout as CEO to appease Lan Wangji. Lan Xichen can definitely see through his little brother’s expressionless exterior to the irritation stemming from the injustice of this entire outcome, that this snake still is given a choice. 

“So… if I accept, who will the new creative director be?” Su She hedges his question a little, but it is obvious that he wants to know who his replacement will be. 

Lan Xichen does not miss a beat. “It will be Mr. Wei.” 

Lan Wangji turns to look at his brother. He has not heard about this news either. Was this his brother’s choice or the Lan elders’? 

“Since he was the one who came up with all the material for our company’s successful ads and campaigns for the majority of the past five years, by himself, we will make it up to him for overlooking this egregious situation caused by your actions. That will be the most fair, no?”

Su She suddenly loses all this composure. 

“Mr. Wei — as in Wei Wuxian?” Su She’s eyes bulge out of his head. “You can’t be serious!”

Lan Wangji feels better about this solution, since it also involves Wei Ying getting the recognition he deserves, as well as a promotion on top of that. Plus, with Wei Ying in charge, he can request for more manpower on his team instead of being forced to handle everything by himself. 

Lan Qiren clears his throat. “We most definitely are. It is his work, after all, that has been fueling our company’s renown in the public eye. The publicity derived from our public events and marketing efforts in recent years have improved greatly according to statistics we have acquired.”

“But he! He’s irresponsible, unpredictable, and unreliable!” Su She begins, in what seems to be a weak attempt at salvaging the situation. 

Lan Wangji narrows his eyes at those baseless insults heaped on Wei Ying’s character and work ethic. However, Lan Xichen is the one who responds first.

“How can he be unreliable if the designs are completed on time and the events are pulled off smoothly? We have not had a complaint from Lan Shenghan about anyone in his marketing department shirking work.” 

“Although he might need to be more vigilant in supervising his department, considering how you have managed to get away with this for so many years.” Lan Wangji says icily. 

Su She remains facing Lan Xichen, but his eyes dart quickly to look at Lan Wangji out of their corners. This is the first time Lan Wangji has spoken in their meeting today. Normally, he prefers to sit silently and watch things unfold so he can analyze and compartmentalize what is going on before he takes any action. 

That comment, however, was the last straw. How dare he defile Wei Ying’s name and attitude in front of two of the most important people in the entire company, knowing that they probably have no idea who this unknown graphic designer with no status in the company is. 

“Look,” Su She chooses to ignore Lan Wangji’s comment and turns back to address his uncle and brother instead. He sure knows who holds the most cards in this game. “I know I made a mistake, and I’m really sorry about it. No one regrets it more than me! But you can’t let this Wei Wuxian take over my job! He… he’s not a team player! He doesn’t get along with anyone on our team! He always shuts himself in his workroom alone, and he’s doing who knows what inside!”

Lan Wangji wants to say that Wei Ying shuts himself in his workroom because everyone is too scared to incur Su She’s wrath to even try getting to know him — he’s seen proof of it himself. But he stays quiet first. There is no point in arguing in front of his brother and uncle. He can always tell them what he knows after this meeting is over. 

He lets Su She continue on his tirade of falsehoods spun to fit his narrative. 

“And just last week I found rabbits in his workroom! He was keeping them in there like this office is his own personal zoo!”

Lan Xichen raises his eyebrows in surprise, and even Lan Qiren leans forward in his chair, clearly thinking that he must have heard wrongly. 

“Yeah! I found them and started scolding him, but the interns started shouting at me to defend him! He’s a bad influence!”

Which entirely did not correspond with what Sizhui had told Lan Wangji the night they adopted the rabbits, Lan Wangji wants to add, but does not. He does, however, say, “The interns stood up for him because he is a good mentor and they appreciate him.”

“He bribes them with meals!”

“He was making sure that they ate properly.” 

“He didn’t tell them off for being rude to a superior!”

“He was trying to protect them from you. You were shouting at him.”

“I was reprimanding him for the rabbits!”

“In front of the interns?”

“Yes, so what! What’s the big deal?!”

“If you do not show respect to those under your charge, how can you expect any in return.”

“Lan Wangji, you—!”

Lan Xichen clears his throat and both Lan Wangji and Su She turn to look at him. His brother is surprised, while his uncle is clearly appalled at Lan Wangji’s lack of restraint and the fact that he is talking so much. 

Lan Wangji sighs lightly. So much for not arguing with this man. Everything about him just grates on Lan Wangji’s nerves. To be honest, he had forgotten about Su She after the virus incident and he had transferred to another department. He was not even worth remembering, and his pathetic attempt at betrayal by accepting bribes from their rival companies was… troublesome, at the time, but it was fixed eventually. He has long since put this underwhelming man out of his mind. 

But now, Lan Wangji cannot stand him, and he cannot let go. He wants him gone. 

Because he has been bullying my Wei Ying, his mind unhelpfully supplies. 

My Wei Ying? Lan Wangji’s heart skips a beat. 

Not the time for this, Lan Wangji. 

Back in the present, Su She is continuing with his tirade.

“Then I heard from some old friends back in IT that he had appeared one day on the 33rd and just started snooping around their desk areas! Doesn’t that kind of suspicious behavior require an investigation?”

Oh, no. That was probably Wei Ying trying to find which desk Lan Wangji sat at, like what Yanyun had mentioned. 

“And he’s always on the phone! I have no idea who he’s even talking to, and he refuses to answer me when I ask who it is! Isn’t that suspicious too? Plus that one time I came across him whispering into the office phone receiver, and when I called him out on it, he called me an ass! To my face!”

Lan Xichen actually lets out a little choking sound at that, which Lan Wangji recognizes as a tiny snort. He also notes that his uncle has chosen not to say anything about how rude that could potentially be, which says a lot about how he feels about Su She. 

“If he was spying for another company, why would he use our office phone line to pass information?” Lan Wangji asks calmly. 

“I don’t know! Maybe he’s not smart enough to think about texting or emailing privately?!”

“Yes, of course you would know about that, would you not?” Lan Wangji raises an eyebrow. 

Su She does not answer that, his face clearly unhappy. He ignores Lan Wangji again and turns back to Lan Xichen and Lan Qiren. 

“As I was saying, the phone calls are very suspicious because he does not tell me who is on the other line!” Su She continues as if Lan Wangji had not interjected. 

“So how can someone like that be the new creative director? He’s clearly unpredictable, and his actions are proof of either him being irresponsible and unstable, or that he’s probably consorting with other companies with the amount of phone calls he makes and that completely suspicious snooping he did on one of the IT floors!”

“Thank you.” Lan Xichen says quietly, but it echoes in the office the moment Su She stops speaking. “Your opinions and observations have been noted.

“However, your demotion, should you choose to stay in Cloud Recesses, is inevitable. Since you have brought this up, we will conduct an investigation to check if Wei Wuxian is a corporate spy or not, as is fair to everyone. Whatever the outcome, I must emphasize that you will not be able to get your old job back. That is the most we can do for you, considering the reason why we are here in the first place.”

“Would you like more time to consider your options?” Lan Qiren asks. 

“No need.” Su She replies without hesitation. “I will remain in Cloud Recesses. But let me tell you that something is definitely up with Wei Wuxian, so please investigate thoroughly, CEO Lan.”

Lan Wangji bristles at the fact that Su She is just completely blatant in trying to sabotage Wei Ying to bring him along on his downfall. 

“Alright, then. Rest assured we will. You will carry out the rest of your suspension for the next two months without pay, after which, please report to HR where they will give you your new placement and reintroduce you to your job scope before you return.”

“Fine.” Su She stands and turns to leave before throwing back a bow that barely meets the acceptable standards of Lan clan decorum. 

“Thank you for the second chance, CEO Lan. Chairman Lan.”

“Third.” Lan Wangji says, correcting him. 

Su She throws him a dirty look before closing the door behind him. 

Lan Wangji turns to his brother and uncle who are once again staring at him like he has started levitating. He is surprised at the amount of pettiness he never knew he had inside of him, but at the same time he cannot not bring himself to care. It is normal to feel vindictive over someone who repeatedly torments those you care about, right? 

If this happened to his brother or his son, he would not even question these emotions, so why should he feel bad about questioning any response Wei Ying elicits from him? 

His brother and uncle are now deep in conversation, while his brother is taking down notes on a blank page in his notebook. Lan Wangji frowns when he realizes what they are talking about now. 

“Rest assured, Uncle, I will make sure we follow up on this information.”

“Good, good. I don’t want another corporate espionage incident again. Once was more than enough. If the elders gets wind of this, they’ll surely kick up a fuss. Not to mention the media.”

“What?” Lan Wangji asks.

“I will send my own team to do a background check on this Wei Wuxian before we make any hasty accusations.”

Lan Wangji clenches his fists. “He is not a corporate spy.”

“We can’t be too careful, Wangji.” Lan Qiren says. “It was a good thing you brought Su She to our attention. Now just let Xichen do his investigation.”

“Not necessary. Wei Wuxian is not a spy. Su She is not trustworthy.”

“But we still need to check, Wangji. We cannot let it go if there’s even an ounce of truth hidden in what Su She has said.” Lan Qiren says. 

“Anyways, it’ll be simple. All I need to do is pull his office phone records to see if Su She is telling the truth about Wei Wuxian constantly contacting someone. I can get someone in Security to help with that.” Lan Xichen explains good naturedly, as though everything is settled. 

Lan Wangji feels his blood run cold. Once they check the records, Lan Wangji’s office extension number will appear multiple times. There is no way his brother or his uncle will not recognize it. His brother already knows he has been on the phone with someone, someone whom he sees as important to him. 

No, no, no. This is not the way he would want to tell his family about Wei Ying. His Sizhui did not even know yet; he wanted to tell Sizhui first. Then his brother. Definitely not Uncle. And definitely not without any warning and not because of that snake of a man that just walked out of the room. Lan Wangji mentally curses Su She again, this time for another reason. 

He thinks of what he saw of Wei Ying in the elevator. The quick glance before he heard Wei Ying’s voice. Wei Ying with his rumpled shirt and his messy ponytail and the leather bands and trinkets wrapping his wrists. What are the odds that Uncle will approve of someone like that? 

Lan Wangji is already starting to form arguments in his head. Do not judge a book by its cover, Uncle. Do not judge Wei Ying on the fact that he probably does not own a comb. Do not judge his ability to work just because he dresses more like the manager of a rock band than a businessman in a well-known corporation. 

“Wangji! What’s wrong?” Lan Xichen sits himself next to his brother and puts a calming hand on his shoulder. Uncle looks concerned. Lan Wangji does not have the time to even think of what he must look like right now. Probably panicked. His brother can definitely read him right. 

“Xiongzhang,” Lan Wangji begins, but he does not know how to continue. 

You have no choice. They can find out by checking the phone records, or you can tell them. Which will make it easier for Wei Ying, will put him in a better light?

“Shufu,” he tries again. Deep breaths. “I know Wei Ying is not a spy.”

If his uncle notices the use of the birth name, he does not show it. But he does raise his eyebrows and ask, “How can you confirm that?”

“I… I know who he has been talking to on the phone.”

“Who?” Uncle demands.

There is a spark of recognition in Lan Xichen’s eyes the moment he starts to piece things together from one of their previous conversations. He knows. He gives his little brother an encouraging smile. 

Lan Wangji is mortified. Is this how high school kids tell their families that they have someone they like? He has never had to. And neither has Sizhui done this to him. Someone he likes. Oh heavens. He’s a thirty-five year old man going through the crisis of a teenager. And technically, he still has not met Wei Ying yet. 

What is this. He feels like throwing up all the tea he drank earlier. 

“Well?”

“... Me.”

“What?”

“He— Wei Wuxian has been talking to me.”

“What. Are you saying, Wangji.” Uncle’s frown deepens, his impressive eyebrows knitting together. 

“He and I. We have been… corresponding. By phone.” 

Lan Wangji exhales. Alright. There. It is out. He said it. 

Now all that is left is to wait for Uncle’s reaction, the one thing he can possibly predict but cannot control. 

*****

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, 33rd floor, IT Department, Director’s Office

Lan Wangji closes his office door behind him and leans against the smooth wooden panel. 

That went as well as it could have gone. He was just glad that his brother was there. He does not think he would have been able to talk to his uncle as calmly as he did had his brother not been there. 

That conversation took more than triple the time it took to deal with Su She. Lan Qiren had asked question after question, and Lan Wangji had answered them as sincerely and as truthfully as he could. He told his uncle about how they had “met”, and a basically watered down version of how Wei Ying had slowly wormed his way into Lan Wangji’s… heart, mind. Body and soul. Why not throw those in there too for the whole set. 

And he had also tried explaining all those seemingly ridiculous things Wei Ying had done that Su She was trying to exploit for his own gain. How he came to 33rd to look for Lan Wangji and ended up looking suspicious because he did not know where Lan Wangji sat. 

(“What was he looking for you for?”

“He bought me and Sizhui bubble tea.”

“What-tea?”

“Bubble tea. Strawberry peach oolong and blueberry mango white tea.”

“What?”)

The rant on consumerism threatening cultural heritage was expected, and Lan Wangji had taken it with an understanding disposition. He also wanted to say, but you might like it once you try it, shufu — I did, but he held his tongue.

And also how the rabbits were found abandoned and how none of the interns nor Wei Ying had the heart to leave them. And how after Su She intervened, the rabbits were now at Lan Wangji’s apartment. 

( “Repeat that.”

“They are now at home. My home. Sizhui and I are looking after them.”

“Wangji! You know the rules!”

“Yes, shufu, no pets in the house.”

“So you haven’t thrown all the Lan rules out of your head, I see.”

“No pets in your house. It is my home, and I allow them. They are well taken care of.”

“Lan Wangji!” )

That part could have gone better. 

*****

He feels a small headache forming at the back of his eyes; not something he would have attributed to speaking about Wei Ying for two hours. 

Lan Wangji sits at his desk and closes his eyes, gently rubbing his temples for a minute. 

He hopes that their conversation (or interrogation, more like) just now would be the end of it. His uncle had not said much after, just repeated advice to his nephew to be careful, because what did he know about Wei Wuxian, really? 

Lan Wangji had nodded, outwardly accepting of whatever needed to be accepted, and had wisely kept silent. His brother followed him out of the Chairman’s office, and only spoke when they were waiting at the elevator lobby, out of earshot of their uncle. 

“So… this Wei Wuxian, huh?”

“Mn.”

They stepped into the elevator. 

“... I doubt whatever Uncle said just now is going to make you change your mind.”

“Mn. I know Wei Ying. He is a good person. I have known so for weeks now.”

“Then may I suggest something, Wangji?”

“Of course, xiongzhang.”

The doors opened at the 34th floor and Lan Xichen stepped out. 

“Just meet him already.”

“What.”

“Don’t worry, didi. He’ll like you no matter who or what you are!” His brother had winked at him just as the elevator door closed. 

Lan Wangji shakes his head. His brother was the most gentle and unassuming person he knew, but Lan Xichen definitely had the dramatic exit down pat. 

That could have gone worse, Lan Wangji reminds himself again slowly, before opening his eyes. It was almost noon, and he still had work to do. 

On his usually neat and clear desk, something is new. 

He stares at the two pieces of origami left in front of his computer keyboard. They are about the height of his palm standing up, and are in the shape of two rabbits facing each other, sitting on their haunches, their ears perked up with a little bit of paper left sticking out as their short tails. The one on the left is white and the one on the right is black. 

There is a small note left under their feet. 

          LAN ZHANNN

          Sorry I missed you~ 

          Hope you like them! :D

That note paper is undoubtedly from Yanyun’s desk. Wei Ying must have spoken and passed this to her. 

Lan Wangji picks up the white rabbit to examine it. The folding is intricate, and the pattern Wei Ying had used to make it allows the rabbits to stand by themselves on their hind legs. He smiles, puts the rabbit back into position on the note and takes a close-up photo with the note included. 

He sends it to Wei Ying on WeChat, along with the caption, “Thank you, Wei Ying. They are adorable.”

The reply he gets is almost immediate. 

________

WWXXX > YES THEY ARE :D

WWXXX > Do you like them!

LanWJ > Yes, very much. 

WWXXX > Yay! That’s great! Help me thank the jiejie again for arranging them so nicely for me!

LanWJ > I will. 

LanWJ > Did you make them yourself?

WWXXX > Yep!

WWXXX > I was watching a tutorial on Weibo 

WWXXX > The person made it look so easy 

WWXXX > But it WASN’T Lol 

LanWJ > They look complicated. How long did it take?

WWXXX > The first one took around 45 minutes? Then the second one was slightly faster once I got the hang of it 

WWXXX > Been practicing folding them during my breaks while I drink my tea ^^

WWXXX > But it was worth it as long as you like them! <3

LanWJ > I do. 

LanWJ > :)

________

His uncle’s voice echoes in his head from their conversation earlier. 

“You need to be careful, Wangji. You said yourself you have not met him; how can you know what kind of person he is?”

This. Lan Wangji thinks fondly, looking at the origami rabbits. This is the kind of person Wei Ying is. 

*****

Along Tang Ning An Street, Bus 85

Lan Wangji tries not to fiddle with the umbrella handle leaning against the seat in front of him. It is swaying gently left and right from the rocking motion of the bus, but kept upright between Lan Wangji’s leg and the wall beneath the bus window. 

His car is still in the repair shop. Apparently one of the engine parts needs a replacement, which the auto repair shop is having difficulty in procuring this week. They said their earliest shipment will be in by next Monday. 

It is alright, though. He has been taking the bus with Sizhui to work for the past two mornings, and he can do so for one or two more days. It is also good that the weekend starts tomorrow. 

Lan Wangji has not taken any form of public transport in the last ten years, since he has gotten his first car with his own money. It had fully amused his son to teach him how he can now use his phone wallet as a bus card instead of an actual physical card. 

He was doing pretty well, financially, and so technically had no need to worry about taking a taxi to and from work, but it had just seemed like a nice change for a short amount of time that allowed him to experience something new. 

Wei Ying was a firm believer of that, yes, as Sizhui had so helpfully brought up again. 

Today, however, he is riding the bus alone because Sizhui had left earlier to meet his friends for breakfast. 

Lan Wangji stares out the window, watching the streets pass by and watching the tiny droplets of water forming as a drizzle begins. The ride to work is around half an hour, because they live a bit further from the business district. The neighborhood he chose his first and current apartment in is slightly more wealthy and was peaceful throughout the day, with the bonus of being separate but not too far from where the majority of Lan clan members prefer to stay. 

The bus turns a corner where Lan Wangji recognizes it as being about halfway through the bus journey. The drizzle is slightly heavier here. 

At the next stop, a lot more people start to get onto the half-empty bus, filling up the empty seats and the central aisle space. There must be a train station nearby to explain this many passengers coming on board at once. Lan Wangji is glad his apartment is earlier in the route, so he and Sizhui have been able to get seats every morning so far. 

And then a very loud thud is heard as something heavy drops to the floor of the bus, making the bus shake slightly at the sudden impact. 

Almost everyone turns their heads towards the source, and someone is crouching down towards the front of the bus, probably picking up what they have dropped. 

The person’s ponytail flings with a flash of red as they stand up, carrying a cardboard box with them that looks rather heavy. 

Lan Wangji’s heart stops for a millisecond as they speak, their cheerful voice traveling through the enclosed space of the bus. 

“Sorry, sorry!” The person moves forward, apologizing genially for holding up the line to get on the bus. 

It is Wei Ying. 

Lan Wangji stares as Wei Ying stops nearly three rows of seats in front of him, turning sideways to face the back door of the bus, his back now the only clear thing in Lan Wangji’s line of sight. As more people start to file into the bus, Wei Ying disappears from Lan Wangji’s view, except for the rare glimpse of his red hair-tie that pokes out above nearly everyone else. 

He cannot see Wei Ying anymore, and Wei Ying probably did not even notice him, after the fluster of getting on board the bus with his heavy load. 

Lan Wangji wants to reach out, to call him out, to offer his seat, anything really. But they are too far apart with too many people in between that would make it awkward. Not to mention the fact that Lan Wangji knew what Wei Ying looks like but Wei Ying probably did not know what Lan Zhan looks like. 

Lan Wangji looks out the window. It is another fifteen more minutes until they reach their destination bus stop. 

He pulls out his phone. 

________

LanWJ > Yang-jie, are you free now?

LanWJ > I 

LanWJ > I need your advice.

LanWJ > Wei Ying is on the same bus as me. 

LanWJ > Should I talk to him?

LanWJ > If I get the chance, of course. 

LanWJ > Between here and the office is a 15-minute bus ride and 5-minute walk. I can.

LanWJ > I can introduce myself?

________

Lan Wangji types frantically (as much as he has never typed frantically before in his life), and waits for a reply. There is nothing for five whole minutes. It is 8.30am. Luo Qingyang is probably driving to work now. 

________

LanWJ > I want to talk to him. 

LanWJ > But is it weird?

LanWJ > Yang-jie, would you find it strange if someone approached you and introduced themselves?

LanWJ > Even if you technically already know them?

________

Lan Wangji stares at the chat log that says Luo Qingyang’s last seen was at 8.14am. He looks up and stares expressionlessly at the rainwater forming rivulets down the bus window. What are the odds that she will miraculously check her phone now and reply him with advice on how to live his life. 

The answer is zero, he finds as the bus steadily approaches the nearest stop to Cloud Recesses, and as Wei Ying is standing in front of the door, he is the first out. 

Lan Wangji’s shoulders slump a tiny fraction. There goes his chance. It is fine. Lan Wangji had thought (read: stressed out) about it, but clearly fate was not on his side. 

As Lan Wangji slowly makes his way to the door, shuffling along with other people whose faces are buried in their phones, the sound of rain is suddenly deafening on the metal roof of the bus. He steps quickly out of the bus and under the shelter of the stop, adjusting the strap of his leather messenger bag on his shoulder. 

He presses the catch on the umbrella handle to open it, and starts making his way towards the office, along with the other commuters going out of the bus stop shelter in all directions. 

The rain patters none too gently on his umbrella, and Lan Wangji is glad that Sizhui had checked the forecast this morning before putting the umbrella next to his father’s bag before he left early. 

Lan Wangji approaches the first of two crossings that lead to Cloud Recesses. There is already a crowd of people standing around, waiting for the pedestrian light to turn green. And at the back of the crowd, is a familiar figure, with a tall and lean frame hidden under a large black sweater, wearing black jeans and combat boots, his tied up hair getting more and more soaked as the rain beats down on his head. His shoulder canvas bag is also getting progressively covered with dark rain spots on the material. 

A foldable umbrella dangles unopened from his right wrist, and his arms are full with the heavy cardboard box. 

He cannot hold the umbrella without help, Lan Wangji realizes. 

Before his brain has the capacity to think of what to do, his body moves of its own accord. 

Lan Wangji takes two long steps to come shoulder to shoulder with Wei Ying, and pushes his umbrella out further so that it covers both of them. His umbrella is not meant for two, but he pushes it more over Wei Ying. The fabric on the left arm of his tailored suit is starting to darken with each drop of rain, but Lan Wangji does not notice it. 

And then without warning, Wei Ying freezes before looking up in a sudden movement to see the umbrella now sheltering him. Then he turns to his left to look at the person holding it. 

Oh, Lan Wangji thinks, finally realizing what his body has done without his permission. His eyes.

Wei Ying’s eyes are large and clear underneath his wet fringe, and the gray of his pupils shine with tiny flecks of almost-lavender. The gray changes slightly with the weak light; it reminds Lan Wangji of mist gently swirling, of storm clouds gathering, the sharpness in his gaze similar to the metallic sheen of a sword. 

Lan Wangji stares. 

And Wei Ying stares back.

Lan Wangji can see the exact moment recognition flickers in his eyes, and Wei Ying blurts out, “Hanguang-jun?”

Lan Wangji is startled speechless. Wei Ying knows who he is?

He opens his mouth to say something, but is sidelined by Wei Ying talking a mile a minute, a parody of their very first phone call where Lan Wangji could not get a single word in because of this man’s continuous soliloquy. 

“You’re Hanguang-jun, right?” Wei Ying blows a puff to get some of his wet fringe out of his eyes. “I saw you in the lift once! Everyone was greeting you and everything! Haha. I’m sorry to say that I don’t really know who you are, but seeing as how everyone else does, you’re probably upper management at CR, huh?”

The light turns green, and they begin walking across the road, pushed forward slightly by the crowd rushing, everyone eager to get to shelter. Lan Wangji tries to focus on walking forward, looking half at the wet ground and half at the pavement and people ahead, holding his umbrella mostly over Wei Ying and actually listening to what he is saying. He is normally decent at multitasking, but currently he is finding it difficult just putting one foot in front of the other. 

Wei Ying himself seems to be oblivious to all this. He walks forward at Lan Wangji’s pace, still carrying his heavy box, complete undisturbed by the rain or by the fact that they’re crossing the road with at least twenty other people. 

“Took me a moment to recall who you were, sorry! I was kinda preoccupied when we met. Ahh, my bad, I mean when I saw you — of course we didn’t meet! Don’t think you saw me, I was picking my stuff off the ground, and your PA? I’m assuming she’s your PA — was going on and on about your meetings or something. Don’t know how you even understood her! Not that I was eavesdropping or anything, but it was hard not to listen. But then again everything she said flew over my head so not like it matters! Thanks a lot, by the way! This is really nice of you! You looked so cool and unapproachable and everything when I first saw you, now I know that you’re cool but also kind, eh!”

Lan Wangji turns to look at him. Wei Ying thinks he looks cool?

“Thank you, really! I’d be in so much trouble if this got wet! The cardboard isn’t the best protection but who knew the rain’d be this bad, huh? And I brought an umbrella too, but obviously, I didn’t think far enough ahead! Look, Ma, no hands!” Wei Ying shrugs his shoulders to emphasize his last point and laughs at himself. 

Lan Wangji can’t help the small upwards curve of his lips he lets creep onto his face. Wei Ying’s non-stop commentary is literally following them all the way to work. 

“Yeah, maybe I should have taken a taxi to work instead of trying to lug this thing with me in this weather. But hey, in my defense, when I left my apartment and entered the train station, it was all hot and sunny! Then when I came out it was pouring. Aiya, talk about bad luck. But then I ran into you, which I guess is actually good luck, right?” Wei Ying turns to give Lan Wangji a cheeky grin. 

Wei Ying is doing his usual rambling that he likes to apologize for, and Lan Wangji is impossibly enamored with his chatter in real life. Being able to see his myriad of facial expressions as he spontaneously articulates his thoughts is not something Lan Wangji had ever thought of as being a thing of concern, but now he just wants to be able to look at Wei Ying head on while he is talking instead of the sidelong glances he is doing trying to multitask walking and holding the umbrella properly over him and trying to pay attention to what he is saying. Lan Wangji is sure that were his arms not full, Wei Ying’s hands would be gesticulating all over the place. 

Lan Wangji’s thoughts are racing faster than a motorbike on a race track, and he does not know how to respond, so he nods. 

Which Wei Ying takes as his queue to continue. It is not so different from their phone calls, really, except that now Wei Ying is here, actually next to Lan Wangji.

It lasts all the way until they reach the office lobby, and Lan Wangji lowers his umbrella down and gently shakes the excess water off at the door. The automatic sliding doors open as Lan Wangji steps in after Wei Ying, the sudden gust of air conditioning a welcome reprieve from the humid rain outside. 

He is greeted to the sounds of “Wei-ge!” And then a stuttered “H-Hanguang-jun?!”

And Lan Wangji looks up from trying to close his umbrella to see his son and his three friends and his secretary all standing around the elevator doors. All five of them stare at Lan Wangji, then at Wei Ying, then back at Lan Wangji, and Lan Wangji catches Sizhui’s wide eyes and he knows. 

He knows that Sizhui knows. 

And judging by the pregnant pause after the boys have called his title out in such a dumbfounded manner, they know too. And apparently, so does Yanyun. 

Amidst the bustle of the lobby and the sudden silence between the seven of them, Wei Ying is oblivious when he says, “Eh? What’s going on? You kids know Hanguang-jun too?”

Jingyi’s face changes from shock to dismay for some reason, and Jin Ling drags a palm over his face. 

“And the IT-jiejie! Thanks for your help yesterday!” Wei Ying says as though he cannot see or probably doesn’t understand everyone’s reactions. 

Yanyun is the first to break their group’s silence as she reaches forward to guide Lan Wangji away with, “Ah, Hanguang-jun, I was waiting for you! We need to discuss something very important!”

And at the same time, Jingyi surges forward with a, “Oh my god, Wei-ge it’s been so long since we saw you, how have you been!”

Lan Wangji is corralled through the doors of the nearest open and empty elevator by his secretary, and when he finally turns around, he sees Wei Ying laughing at the interns and ruffling his nephew’s hair. Sizhui is politely holding up the cardboard box for Wei Ying while he brushes off stray droplets of rain from his canvas shoulder bag. 

Then Wei Ying looks up and their eyes meet. He hefts his shoulder bag further up his shoulder, and lifts a free hand to wave at Lan Wangji with a brilliant smile that crinkles the corner of his eyes. “Nice meeting you, Hanguang-jun! Thanks for sheltering me!”

The elevator door closes before Lan Wangji can do or say anything in reply. 

Yanyun turns on him. “What the hell just happened?!”

Lan Wangji would like to know the same thing. 

“That was—”

“Your boyfriend! I know!”

Lan Wangji does not know what his face is doing right now, but he knows it’s doing something. “How—?”

“He’s the bubble tea guy.” Yanyun says accusingly. Of course she would remember him. She would not be his secretary if she was not observant. “Plus your son and his intern friends totally know and they’ve been trying to get you two to meet for the past two days!”

“What?”

“Yeah, remember the paper rabbits? The note? How he missed you? Jingyi and Zizhen were planning to get him up to 33rd so he could run into you by accident.” Yanyun sighs long-sufferingly. 

“You—”

“Yes, me. They let me in on their plan so I could help. It would seem less suspicious if someone like me called him up to the 33rd for official work to collect something, compared to the boys just calling him up for no reason when they could have just visited him on his floor.”

They… they planned that? Half of Lan Wangji is not surprised — he is sure most of it had to be Jingyi. 

“And then you had to run off for your ‘urgent meeting’.” Yanyun gives her boss a look that tells Lan Wangji she thought nothing could be more urgent than him meeting Wei Ying. She knows he does not mind it when she speaks so informally to him, but it is clear she is upset on his behalf and not afraid to show it.

"Then when he came over because I had already called him to pick up some random document to pass to his department, you weren't there to accidentally bump into! And we discovered he brought you gifts," Lan Wangji cannot tell if she's doing air quotes with her fingers or using them to imitate rabbit ears like the origami he received. "So I told him to write a note I could pass to you."

The elevator door opens with a loud chime.

They are silent as they exit the elevator at the 33rd floor. Yanyun sighs. “So judging by your earlier interaction, he still doesn’t know who you are, huh?”

Lan Wangji thinks of Wei Ying waving at him with that smile, calling him “Hanguang-jun”. He realizes that he did not manage to say a single thing throughout their entire walk from the bus stop. It was the slowest and yet fastest five-minute walk of his life. 

“No, he does not.” Lan Wangji says, suddenly melancholy. 

“Figures. Jingyi and Zizhen said he is ridiculously unaware of his love life developing around him.”

Love life?

Oh, heavens. What is even happening right now? 

Lan Wangji feels his heartbeat loud and fast in his chest, and there is a tightness inside it like someone has their hand around his heart and is gently squeezing. His stomach feels light, as if he has a million butterflies fluttering around his very core. 

It is an overwhelming sensation he has never experienced before, and Lan Wangji has no idea what to do with it. Yanyun just shakes her head at him.

Chapter Text

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, 33rd floor, IT Department, Director’s Office

Lan Wangji has been sitting rather dazed for the past twenty minutes at his desk. His phone beeps with an incoming text. 

_________

LQY > OHMYGOD WANGJI TELL ME EVERYTHING

LQY > and I’m sorry for not replying earlier, I was driving!

LQY > and trust me when I say I have never been more sorry in my life for not replying quickly. D:

LQY > SO WHAT HAPPENED

LQY > did you go talk to him? Introduce yourself?

LQY > because you KNOW I would have told you to go for it!!!

LQY > Wangji?

LQY > OI. 

LanWJ > Hello, Yang-jie. 

LQY > So what happened!

LQY > what

LQY > happened

LQY > omg wangji

LanWJ > I am trying to type it out, Yang-jie. 

LanWJ > But you are texting me too fast. 

LQY > UGH I AM CALLING YOU RIGHT NOW.

________

His cell phone rings, and he answers immediately. 

Luo Qingyang’s voice is loud in his ear, and she is on the verge of screaming by the time he tells her everything that had just happened not even an hour ago. 

How he had seen Wei Ying on the bus, how he had texted her in a panic, how he had thought he missed his chance when they got off the bus, only to find Wei Ying getting soaked waiting at the pedestrian crossing. How he had sheltered Wei Ying the entire way to work without saying a single word because Wei Ying could not stop talking. How Yanyun and the interns and his son — his son — had seen them together and had immediately almost lost their collective minds, trying to salvage the situation by dragging them apart because it was clear that Lan Wangji knew who the other man was but Wei Wuxian was clearly not aware of who Hanguang-Jun was to him. 

And in hindsight (or the last twenty minutes), he himself would say it was a good call — he did not want to introduce himself to Wei Ying when they were both ragged from the rain and in front of a million other employees just reaching work. Especially since it was clear that Wei Wuxian was good at a lot of things, but not at putting two and two together when it came to… to these types of things; his mind and personality was just all over the place, but in a good way, in a way that makes Lan Wangji want to laugh and also cry at the same time.

Yang-jie sounds wistful on the phone. “You know, Wangji, I’ve never heard you talk this much about… Well, about anything.”

Lan Wangji stops. He looks at his computer clock. He has been talking for over fifteen minutes. 

“About your Wei Ying, no less.” Yang-jie says, echoing his thoughts. “You do know what you sound like right?”

Lan Wangji sighs. He can guess. “Like a teenager in love?”

“Like a lovesick teenager in love.” She corrects emphatically. “I mean, come on, Wangji, how many people actually know about this despite you not mentioning this to any of them?”

Lan Wangji counts. His secretary, her interns, his son and friends. 

“Five.” He says, just as she says, “A lot, that’s how many.”

“And do you know why they know? Because they have eyes.”

Lan Wangji does not know what to say to that so he says nothing. His friend however, does not need him to as she barrels on the commentary and questioning. Finally, she asks, “So what now?”

“I…” 

“Should talk to him.”

“Should talk to him.” Lan Wangji repeats.

“And confess.” 

“And… what?”

“Confess, you dummy. Don’t leave him and yourself hanging! It’s been more than a month. Couples have gotten together in less time.” Yang-jie says breezily, as though confessing to someone you have never met but are clearly in love with is as easy and natural as breathing. 

Lan Wangji stays silent. 

“Okay?” She emphasizes again, searching for acknowledgement. 

“Mn.” Lan Wangji is surprised he lets out a tiny sound of agreement. 

“Good! Update me when it’s done! Bye, Wangji, jiayou~ don’t make me call your brother!”

She hangs up after making that last threat sound like she is singing about the weather. 

Lan Wangji inhales and counts to ten, then exhales and counts to fifteen. Repeat. And again. 

Fine. He was already debating calling Wei Ying and telling the truth last night now that his brother and uncle know about their exchanges. 

This just gives him more resolve, yes. 

He picks up his office phone and hits Wei Ying’s speed dial. 

The phone rings twice before it is answered. 

“Lan Zhan! Morning~”

“Good morning, Wei Ying.”  He does not need to see Wei Ying’s face to picture the smile on it, the same one carved in his memory from Wei Ying waving him thank you and goodbye earlier. 

“The rain was super bad this morning, huh! Did you get caught in it? I know you drive your super fancy car but I hope you were doing it safely! You know so many accidents happen while people drive in wet weather? I saw this documentary once on the science behind collisions and did you know that when the road is wet, the friction coefficient between your car tyres and the road becomes halved? That’s super dangerous if you think about the odds, with some maniacs I’ve seen speeding on the highway during a downpour!”

Lan Wangji cannot help the amusement seeping into his voice. “I am fine, Wei Ying. I did not take my car today. It is in the repair shop.”

“Oh! That’s unfortunate! Hope you get it back soon, then!”

“Yes, me too. What about you?”

“Me?”

“Were you caught in the rain, Wei Ying?” Lan Wangji thinks he can try to fish for information. If Wei Ying mentions Hanguang-jun, then Lan Wangji can sort of lead into a “by the way, that was me. Shall we meet for lunch later?” And all might end well, right?

He has thought about telling Wei Ying face to face, but after the shock of that morning, Lan Wangji does not think his heart or his brain will be able to handle it. Plus it might also come as a shock to Wei Ying as well after that encounter to learn someone he thought of as someone was someone else?

Now Lan Wangji’s mind is just confusing himself. 

“Oh, nah, it wasn’t too bad! Ooh, I should tell you, I think I made a new friend today! He held his umbrella for me while I was carrying my heavy ass box of brochures and booklets! It was so stupid but the printer couldn’t deliver it to the office last minute and they were shutting down temporarily for maintanence or something. And it was kinda urgent so I had to pick the brochures up from them on my way home yesterday and lug it back to the office this morning. But! I met a kind soul who helped shelter me! And people in the office were saying he’s usually so prestigious and pristine and he won’t talk to just anyone, but he’s really a big softie. Now that I think about it he didn’t say anything at all to me! Not a word! So I guess that part is true!” Wei Ying laughs. 

“Wei Ying.” Lan Wangji begins. His ears warm at everything Wei Ying has just said. It is really now or never. 

“I have something to tell you.”

The laughter fades away quickly. “Oh. Lan Zhan? What is it?”

“I…”

“Yes?” Wei Ying prompts. 

“I am…” Lan Wangji curses himself in his mind. He feels like his tongue is stuck in his throat and his heart has stopped beating. 

“Lan Zhan, are you okay?”

“I do not work as tech support in the IT department.”

“Uh, what...? But the IT-jiejie knew who you were! How did she pass you the tea and my origami if you don’t work there?”

“I… It is because I—” 

Lan Wangji is interrupted by a loud knock on a door on Wei Ying’s end of the line. It is loud and frantic enough that he can hear it through the phone. 

Wei Ying whispers back, “Sorry, Lan Zhan! Hold on a minute!”

And then Lan Wangji hears his own heart palpitate in his chest like a hummingbird’s wings, and he also hears Wei Ying’s voice talking to someone, but muffled as though he had probably covered the receiver mouthpiece with his hand. 

“Ah, sorry, Lan Zhan!” Wei Ying’s whisper is back. “I know you have something to tell me but I’ll call you back, okay? Urgent work stuff, I think? The chairman is here. I’ll talk to you later. Bye, Lan Zhan!”

The line beeps dead as Wei Ying hangs up. 

Lan Wangji’s heart has just dropped into his stomach. Did Wei Ying just say The chairman is here?

*****

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, 23rd floor, Marketing Department, Advertising Workroom

Wei Wuxian hangs up the phone and tries to put the receiver away quietly while standing up at his desk. Shit, his workroom is a mess. He should have bothered to clear some of the stuff away or at least done some spring cleaning while the interns were here to help. But now he’s alone and the place looks like it was just sucked into and spit out by a cyclone. Not to mention their department is currently in the middle of planning the upcoming launch in less than two weeks, and he has been solely in charge of designing and creating all their collaterals from official invitations to the sponsors and info pamphlets for the public to the gift bags and new merchandise. 

And how was he to know that he would be visited by the Chairman of Cloud Recesses of all people?!

His colleague from the marketing department who had knocked on the door and poked her head in with a hurried whisper of, “The chairman is here to see you” was waving herself out the door as Lan Qiren enters his workroom. 

Wei Wuxian moves around his computer work table to quickly clear out some test designs, pamphlets and sketches he has lying around on the “meeting table” the interns had used just last week. He stacks them up and dumps them on his own desk first, and also pulls out a chair for the chairman. 

Huh. A chair for the chairman. He bites his lips together to stop his laughter from escaping at his own lame joke. In the meantime, his brain is going through multiple scenarios of what this could possibly be about. The only thing he could think of was the fact that his direct boss was apparently on official suspension. But that didn’t warrant the bloody Chairman himself to come make an announcement to Wei Wuxian, did it? 

Normally Lan Shenghan, the Marketing Director and Su She’s boss, would disseminate any important news to the department if necessary. 

“Please, have a seat, Chairman Lan.” Wei Wuxian gestures to the (what he thinks is appropriately clean) chair at the meeting table. “Uhm… do you need anything? Water? Or tea? I have tea!”

Wei Wuxian thinks fondly of the tea leaves he got from Lan Zhan. 

“Hm. Tea is fine.” Lan Qiren says, looking mildly surprised. Wei Wuxian is secretly glad that he knows the chairman’s name, read from when he was doing content input for the Chairman’s message for their sponsors’ booklets. Otherwise, he might embarrass himself if he needed to ask. 

“Uh, great! Give me three minutes!” 

Wei Wuxian makes quick work of the gauze filter and scoops some loose leaves inside, putting it inside a spare mug, excusing himself to grab some hot water from the pantry. He chose the White Peony Jade, since white teas steep the fastest at three minutes, and Lan Qiren did not specify any preferences. 

By the time the tea is steeped and placed in front of the Chairman with the gauze bag removed, Lan Qiren looks at the mug and stares. 

Wei Wuxian fights the urge to sigh. Oh no. He must be one of those who drink their Chinese tea brewed in a clay teapot and sip at it from those tiny exquisite teacups. Those are just not efficient for someone like Wei Wuxian who runs a no-fuss beverage to oesophagus programme here. 

“Thank you.” Chairman Lan says and moves his gaze from the mug to Wei Wuxian. 

“So. I will be frank and straight to the point. I am here for a reason, Wei Wuxian.”

“Uhm. Sure. What can I help you with?”

“What is your purpose in getting close to my nephew?” Lan Qiren says in his most authoritative voice. 

Wei Wuxian stops short. “Who?”

“My nephew. IT Director Lan, you should know him as.” 

“Huh? You mean Hanguang-jun?”

Chairman Lan sighs. “Yes. Hanguang-jun. What are your intentions in getting close to him?”

“What?” Wei Wuxian bursts out laughing. Even though he knows it’s not very polite, he can’t help it. He was just telling Lan Zhan about his new friend on the phone? How does word travel so fast that it’s not even 10am yet and the freaking Chairman is here asking about it? 

Lan Qiren’s right eye twitches.

“Answer me. What intentions do you have?”

“What? Nothing! I just met him this morning! All he did was share his umbrella with me because my hands were full!” Wei Wuxian raises his hands in what he hopes is a placating gesture. What on earth could the Chairman be looking for as an answer?

Lan Qiren leans forward in his chair, his arms calmly folded on the table. “Do not lie to me, Wei Wuxian. I know everything. You have known him for weeks, am I right?”

Wei Wuxian blinks at him. What is he talking about? 

“You speak to him on the phone! You text him as well, apparently.”

“What? Chairman Lan, I assure you, I only just met your nephew— Hanguang-jun this morning!”

Lan Qiren’s eyes narrow dangerously. “So you didn’t buy and deliver bubble tea up to the 33rd floor for him and his son? Because apparently you caused quite a ruckus when you went up there.”

“Uh… I did! But that was for Lan Zhan—” Wei Wuxian’s brain pauses himself mid-sentence, and then Lan Zhan’s deep, soothing voice from the phone call earlier flitters into his mind. 

“I do not work as tech support in the IT department.”

Lan Zhan was…

He’s…

“Lan Zhan is your nephew?” Wei Wuxian whispers. 

“Yes.” Lan Qiren nods, looking supremely not happy that Wei Wuxian is calling his nephew by his birth name.

“And so that makes him…”

“The IT director, yes. Lan Wangji.” Lan Qiren says solemnly. 

Wei Wuxian blinks.

“I have something to tell you.”

Was this what Lan Zhan was trying to tell him earlier? He had seemed so nervous and Wei Wuxian had no clue why, so he didn’t think it was a good idea to rush him. And that meant… 

“We just met.” Wei Wuxian whispers, mostly to himself. He and Lan Zhan had met. In the rain. Hanguang-jun — Lan Zhan — had shared his umbrella with him. He had covered Wei Wuxian to the point that the entire left side of his expensive looking business suit had gotten drenched, and he didn’t even say anything about it. In fact, he didn’t say anything at all. Had Lan Zhan known? Probably. He sheltered you from the rain. 

Why didn’t he say anything? Wei Wuxian groans out loud. In his mind’s eye, he sees Hanguang-jun’s face, looking completely unbothered by anything or anyone. And then when Wei Wuxian kept racing his mouth off, there was that sudden tiny tiny curve of the corner of his lips that he thought he had imagined at first. Wei Wuxian did not know the man very well — at least not visually, aside from the fact that Hanguang-jun was hot, and even hotter up close — but he knew, he just knew that that expression was a rare one and he had liked that little smile and had the sudden urge to be the one to put it there again. 

And ugh, he realized. It’s not really Lan Zhan’s fault is it? I couldn’t shut my mouth for a second to let him speak. He thinks of Lan Zhan’s voice. If he had to compare it to a flavor it would be caramel; smooth, and rich, and sweet with a heady aroma (and no, he has not spent hours at night thinking of that comparison). If Lan Zhan had spoken, he’d have recognized it in an instant — he’d bet his life on it. 

See? I told you you should learn to shut up more. Jiang Cheng’s voice pops into his head just as he already wants to slam it into a nearby wall. 

Oh heavens. Wei Wuxian drags his palm across his face in exasperation. “He’s been trying to tell me the entire morning.” 

His mind was suddenly racing a mile a minute, trying to piece together every interaction they’ve had, on the phone and that one glimpse he got of Hanguang-jun in the elevator a week or so ago. From the start of their calls, Wei Wuxian realizes that Lan Zhan had never really specified what he worked as; Wei Wuxian had just assumed that he was tech support, because his number was listed under the IT department. 

I wasn’t wrong on that part.  

But… IT Director? Shit. What happened to keeping a low profile here? To have the freaking Chairman here in his workroom asking about his intentions towards the IT Director. Shit. Uncle Jiang is not going to be too pleased if he finds out. And Madam Yu. Oh fuck. He does not want to think about her. With her network and affiliates spread far and wide in influential circles; for Madam Yu it was not an if, only a matter of when. 

Wei Wuxian buries his face into his hands for a moment to calm himself. It’s taking every fibre of his being to not freak out in front of the Chairman. 

And as if he can read thoughts, Lan Qiren speaks up after what must have been a long pause in their conversation in which he has just watched Wei Wuxian go through about twenty different realizations and epiphanies and roughly fifty different emotions in the roller coaster that is his current state of mind. 

Whether he fully understands what is going on or not (and Wei Wuxian isn’t even sure if he said anything out loud or if the thoughts remained solely in his head), he does say something that pulls Wei Wuxian back to the present with a jerk. 

“So, you’re Jiang-xiong’s adopted son.” 

Wei Wuxian looks up from his palms. The “Fengmian” was implied. There could only be one person in the entire Jiang clan that Lan Qiren would call brother. And he’s known of their close friendship since he was young and still playing with Jiang Cheng and their jiejie. 

“Y-yeah.”

“Your name sounded familiar when Su She brought it up at first with all his accusations. So it was because of you that he came begging to me to hire someone dear to him.”

“Please. I don’t want to bring any trouble to Jiang-shushu.” Wei Wuxian says quietly, but loudly cursing in his head. He barely had any time to deal with his Lan Zhan revelation and all the accompanying feelings, and this was happening instead. Sure, Lan Qiren might be merciful and keep this to himself, but people always talked. And he doesn’t want Madam Yu to find out. Not after what he did last time when he had tried to protect some Lotus Pier employees from being wrongfully sacked for a mistake that they didn’t do. 

He had been stubborn and fought till the end, and as a side effect his actions and crusade for justice had brought so much unwanted media attention and backlash that it made the Jiang clan look merciless and uncaring towards their employees — definitely not the ideal image a large clan corporation would want. Who would invest in or want to work for a company that had such a bad public image? It was worse you realized that their company’s entire downfall that year had been caused by someone they had taken in and thought of as their own. 

And Madam Yu had been furious when their stocks started plummeting, and had fought with her husband, daughter and son, who had all tried to stand by Wei Wuxian. To placate her, Uncle Jiang had “thrown him out” and fired him, but he had also secretly found him a safe haven at the Cloud Recesses. Legally though, he was still part of the family. A part that still struck a nerve with Madam Yu. Wei Wuxian was thankful he only had to go for family gatherings once a year with her. 

“He told me what you did.” Lan Qiren continues. “He had to, if I had to take a chance by hiring and accepting you into the Cloud Recesses, I could not do it blindly. And you’ve been rather quiet the last five years; I had almost forgotten your name. Didn’t hear a peep out of you until Wangji came to us with proof that Su She was taking credit for your work.”

Wangji? Lan Zhan did what? He was the reason Su She was suspended? How did he even find out? They rarely chatted about work stuff nowadays. Wei Wuxian thought it would be boring and Lan Zhan wasn’t really the sharing type anyways. But there was a small part of this new information that made his heart skip a beat. Lan Zhan did that… for him. To help him? To protect him. 

Lan Zhan ah, Lan Zhan. Give a guy some warning before pulling stunts like this. 

Wei Wuxian is all but ready to fly out of his workroom and look for the (his) IT Director, were it not for said director’s uncle sitting across the table from him, scrutinizing his reactions. Because that was clearly what he was doing. 

“So I am going to ask again. What intentions do you have in getting close to my nephew?”

Wei Wuxian sputters. “What? Chairman Lan, I swear I had no idea who he was when I called Lan Zhan! We just— we just clicked, that’s all. He’s been a really good friend, and— and I treasure his friendship. A lot.”

He’s not sure how much to give away, how much Lan Qiren already knew. He can hear Jin Ling and Jingyi’s voices in his head. Friendship, yeah right. 

Lan Qiren has gone back to analyzing him. He doesn’t mention Lan Zhan anymore, but suddenly switches topics to his boss. “So you’ve heard about Su She?”

“Uh… yeah, sort of. He’s suspended, right? There’ve been rumors flying around our floor. I don’t really talk to the others much, but even I’ve heard them, so that’s gotta count for something?”

“Yes. So we have questioned him, and tested him, and have found his skills… lacking.”

Big surprise there. 

“And we apologize to you for having overlooked his honourless behaviour in taking credit for your work.” Lan Qiren says, his authoritative mask of professionalism right back on from when he started this conversation, and Wei Wuxian can’t tell if he’s sincerely sorry or if he’s just imposing enough to make you believe that he’s sorry. 

“Uh… it’s, it’s fine. It is partially my fault; I let it happen too.” Wei Wuxian says, looking down at the table. 

“He knew about my… about my… about the Lotus Pier incident. Was threatening to tell the whole office about my dishonorable firing from my own family. And I… If people started talking about me, it’s fine— I’m kinda used to it. But if after all this time now that the hype over the incident has died down, and people started talking about the Jiangs again, when all they’ve ever been was kind to me… and I had to ruin things with my… with what I did, I don’t think I could handle it.”

Wei Wuxian takes a deep breath. He has not spoken about this out loud in more than five years. And to Lan Qiren of all people. He pushes those feelings away and puts a small smile on his face. He doesn’t know how real or fake it looks, though. 

Lan Qiren nods. “CEO Lan and I were initially planning to fire him directly, but unfortunately, the board of elders were against it. So he will be demoted severely, and will be supervised under a new creative director when he finishes serving his suspension.” 

“Oh! So we’re getting a new boss? Who’s gonna be the new creative director?” Wei Wuxian perks up for real. This is good news. Anyone will be better than his predecessor.

Lan Qiren sighs and looks at Wei Wuxian as if he’s dealing with a particularly dense student. Wei Wuxian cringes internally but tries not to let it show. How must Lan Zhan’s childhood be like with an uncle like this? He’s eternally grateful for his Uncle Jiang. 

“CEO Lan is proposing for you to take up the title.” Lan Qiren says cooly, with just the vaguest of impressions that he does not fully approve. That look is gone in an instant, like a fleeting mirage in a desert.

“What?”

“He is impressed with the work you’ve done with our marketing designs and campaigns, and you have technically worked quietly and hard for us the past five years.”

Wei Wuxian can hardly believe what he’s hearing. This sounds great! If he becomes creative director, he’ll finally get to expand his design team. And maybe finally get to know some of his colleagues instead of steering away from them all the time now that Su She’s target is off his back. 

The glee must show on his face, because Lan Qiren coughs lightly and says, “I have to ask now. Is this what you were aiming for?”

“...What?”

“What you were aiming for when you made friends with my nephew? A promotion?”

“What?!” Wei Wuxian stands up in outrage. He would never, never take advantage of Lan Zhan like that, and he says as much to the Chairman. 

“Then will you choose to keep your relationship with him secret forever?” 

“I… I don’t understand.” Wei Wuxian breathes. 

“I know what is going on with you two. I can tell that Wangji is different. It most likely has to do with you. He would and will do anything for you, and I have never seen him like this. He has not spoken a word back to me ever since he was a child.”

Wei Wuxian swallows visibly. He doesn’t think he’ll like what he’s going to hear next. 

“And now he’s doing all sorts of strange and funny things; talking back to his elders, drinking commercial tea, talking about rabbits, poking his nose into other directors’ departments, accusing their employees of plagiarism, no matter how true. This is not what he does. This is you.”

Wei Wuxian almost wants to smile at Lan Qiren describing his nephew’s behaviour. It’s kinda cute and sweet, really. Up until the last sentence the man said with an obvious hint of reproach. 

“Chairman Lan, I swear I did not—”

“I’m sure you didn’t. But he is changing, and people are noticing. And if you two are what I think you are to each other right now, do you think you can keep it a secret forever?” Lan Qiren’s voice grows steadily louder as he continues. “How will others in the company react when they realize that Hanguang-jun has a relationship with an office employee? And furthermore that that employee got a large promotion shortly after all this began?”

Wei Wuxian sits in stunned silence. He… has not thought about this. About any of this. He just likes Lan Zhan. What else was there to think about? 

But Lan Qiren is right. Something like this will affect Lan Zhan’s whole career — the way people view him and talk about him would be different. He wasn’t just any old office employee like Wei Wuxian was. He was Hanguang-jun, IT director Lan Wangji, nephew to Chairman Lan and oh god, brother to CEO Lan if he remembers correctly. 

“I…”

“I would advise you to think this through, before you act. For Wangji’s sake. I will not have to tell anyone anything about this if nothing comes out of it.” Lan Qiren stands up and heads towards the workroom door. 

He opens the door and turns around just as he’s about to leave. “And congratulations on the promotion.”

The door closes and Wei Wuxian is left standing there in the middle of his tiny workroom. The mug of white peony tea sits on the table, cool and untouched. He thinks of Lan Zhan who had bought him that tea, and Wei Wuxian almost wants to cry. 

*****

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, 35th floor, Chairman’s Office

Lan Wangji paces his uncle’s office. It has been an hour since Wei Ying’s call, and even though he has never been a violent or over-emotional person, he is nervous enough now to want to start throwing things. He is starting to feel like if he does not get any answers he might just start vibrating out of his own skin. 

He had weighed his options, and this seems like the best one. Barging into Wei Ying’s workroom while his uncle was there was not going to go well. It was blatantly disrespectful, and he would not gain any favors from his uncle that way. And there was also the unknown factor that Lan Wangji had no idea what his uncle went to Wei Ying to talk about. 

Maybe it was about the whole promotion thing and Su She. Oh, how he prayed it was about that snake. But his mind kept going to other things that were much, much worse. 

He does not want to think about it, even though deep down, he knows what his uncle is like, what the clan elders are like. They were rooted in traditions, and stuck to their ways to the point of being stubborn, and they were outrightly abhorrent of anything that stood in their ways and beliefs. And Lan Wangji was afraid that Wei Ying could be considered that. 

It was true that Lan Wangji did not know much about Wei Ying — he had refused to check the company records and employee data — but he knew that he was a good person with a curious heart and a kind soul, and that was all that mattered. Lan Wangji was afraid that that would not be how the elders and his uncle saw him. 

Truth be told, he knows his uncle is the best one of the elders already, but now he can only silently hope that his belief in his uncle holds true. 

He stops pacing and elects to sit on one of the sofas meant for clients and visitors. There he calms his breathing, counting in his mind and attempting to meditate. He does not last long before his uncle comes in through the door, poised as always. 

Lan Wangji almost shoots out of the chair and greets his uncle hastily. 

“Shufu.”

Lan Qiren is surprised to see him, but replies him with a calm, “Wangji.” 

He gestures towards the chair positioned opposite his desk while he seats himself down in the large swivel armchair behind it, looking very much like the chairman running a conglomerate. 

Lan Wangji sits himself down, feeling almost like he had when he was twelve and was asked to sit in this very same chair, waiting for his uncle’s lecture. He had to look up to meet his uncles’ eyes back then. Not anymore. 

“What is it, Wangji?”

“Shufu. I know you went to see Wei Ying.” Lan Wangji has no time for formalities. He just needs to know what his uncle said to Wei Ying.

His uncle raises an eyebrow and stares at Lan Wangji, as if daring him to continue. Lan Wangji stays silent. He can read his uncle and he knows he is not in a good mood. 

“Yes, I did.” Lan Qiren says, after an abnormally long pause. 

Lan Wangji has never felt so impatient in his entire life. Not even after Sizhui got his university entrance acceptance envelope and the two of them had opened it together. 

“What did you talk to him about?” 

“It isn’t really your business, Wangji. After all, he is in Lan Shenghan’s department. Not yours. You should be focused on your own employees in IT.” 

“Shufu, please. I need to know.”

“Why?”

“Because,” Lan Wangji struggles to find words again, not sure of what he could say that would help his uncle understand. “He is important. To me. I need to know that he is alright. What did you say to him? Was it about me? He does not know… who I really am, I believe.”

His uncle gives him a hard stare, one that is partially surprised, but mostly stern. 

“I told him.” Lan Qiren begins. “The truth. About what his actions have done and will do to you, and the consequences, for both of you.”

“Wei Ying has not done anything.” 

His uncle explains what he said to Wei Ying, calm and utterly serious, and Lan Wangji is silent. He cannot understand why his uncle would go out of his way to do such a thing. By the end of it, Lan Wangji realizes he is standing, towering over his uncle’s desk. 

“You had no right.” 

Lan Qiren stands up too, almost the same height as his nephew. “It is what is best for you.”

“You do not know what is best for me. I do.”

“Wangji, look at yourself. This isn’t you.”

“This is me when you threaten to take away someone I love!” Lan Wangji can barely hear the echo of his own voice, bouncing off the glass windows behind his uncle. He has never raised his voice before, and certainly not at an elder. He barely has time to consider the words he has just said, when his uncle raises his voice too. 

“Wangji! Contain yourself. Have I taught you nothing of restraint in the past thirty years?”

“I…” He cannot get the words out. They are stuck in his throat, almost suffocating him. He does not know what is happening, what he is doing or what he is feeling. His body suddenly goes into autopilot, and he bows to his uncle, low and deep. 

“My apologies, shufu. I do not know what came over me. It will not happen again.” Lan Wangji says quietly, his voice docile and genteel. 

“Hmph.” His uncle huffs loudly, clearly not as quick at accepting his apology as his nephew was at making it. 

“I trust your judgement.” Lan Wangji grits his teeth, still looking down at the contents on top of his uncle’s dark red mahogany desk. “I know what I have to do. You have my word this will not happen again.” 

His uncle does not say anything, anger radiating off him, and Lan Wangji knows when he is dismissed. His lifts his head, but keeps his gaze lowered in respect, and quietly makes his way out of the room and closes the door behind him. 

His heart is hammering. Lan Wangji knows what he told his uncle about trusting his judgement, but he knows there are certain things he needs to handle on his own, that he will not let his uncle interfere with. He pulls out his cell phone and opens up WeChat, walking to the elevator fast to avoid interaction with anyone who might want to greet him. 

He opens up Wei Ying’s chat log, and types a message while waiting for the elevator. 

“ Wei Ying. I’m sorry for not telling you about myself earlier. And I’m sorry about what my uncle said to you. He does not know the whole picture, and he does not know you like I do. I would really like to talk, and meet you face to face. Can we meet? For lunch, maybe? I want to see you. ”

It is the longest paragraph Lan Wangji has ever typed out in a text. Before he thinks too much about it, he hits send. 

*****

Mudan Heights, 18th Floor, Lan Wangji’s apartment, Study

Lan Wangji carefully writes out the last stroke of the word and gently puts his brush down onto the ceramic brush holder. 

He peers at his cell phone. Still no reply. 

Lunch time had come and gone, and there was no reply from Wei Ying.

He had gone about his day, trying to forget about the fight with his uncle, doing what work needed to be done. Yanyun could tell that his mood was not the best, despite what she had begun to dub “the Umbrella Incident”. Lan Wangji thinks even the interns were aware. They smiled quietly at him, but were not their usual lively selves. Even Jingyi was restrained today. 

And then the afternoon flew by, and still not a single notification on his phone from the one person that truly mattered. His brother had likely heard about what happened with their uncle and had texted him to ask if he was okay. 

Lan Wangji had replied with a “I am fine, xiongzhang. Thank you.”

And Yang-jie had not called to chase him for “deets”, so he assumes she might have heard from his brother, and now she was giving him space. 

He had tried to put up a more lively front for Sizhui, but their taxi ride home had been an awkward affair with Sizhui holding up the one-sided conversation most of the time, and dinner was just as bad. He felt bad for his son. And his friends, and everyone else who had to work with him today. 

Lan Wangji closes his eyes and opens them again, looking down at the stack of rice papers to his left, and at the sheet of rice paper he was currently working on. He has not had to copy out the Lan precepts since… since he had argued with his brother and uncle about keeping Sizhui thirteen years ago. 

He is on his seventeenth copy of the rules, and he finds that despite his lack of punishment in more than a decade, he still has not forgotten them. 

Just as Lan Wangji is gently scraping his brush on the side of the inkwell to get rid of excess ink, he hears a knock on the door. Without waiting for an answer, it opens, and Sizhui comes into the study with a gentle smile and a mug in his free hand not holding the door knob.

Lan Wangji puts his brush down as his son approaches. 

“Dad.”

“Sizhui.”

“I made this for you.” He puts the cup down next to the stack of used rice paper. The aroma of hot chocolate wafts upwards and engulfs them both. 

Lan Wangji looks up at his son standing next to his desk and gives him what is probably the most genuine smile he has had since this morning. Lan Wangji loves tea, and his son does too. But during special occasions, like on holidays or in winter, and the rare occasion when his son feels down because some bullies at school had teased him for being adopted, they needed something stronger to celebrate, or comfort each other with.

If Sizhui notices his father copying precepts — a punishment even he has outgrown since he was sixteen — he does not say anything nor ask questions about it. Instead, he raises his arms like he did when he was a child. 

“Can I hug you, Dad?”

Lan Wangji looks up from the mug, hesitates just a fraction and nods, opening his arms too. It has been a while, and Sizhui knows to ask first because his father can get uncomfortable with touch, but Lan Wangji wraps his arms around his son’s shoulders, feeling the familiar pressure of being hugged back. 

“It’ll be okay, Dad. Don’t worry.”

A part of him wants to punch himself for making Sizhui worry. He tries not to think about Sizhui worrying over him and his relationship with Wei Ying. Then again, his sudden dip in mood is probably hard to ignore, and he really only has himself to blame. 

“Thank you.” Lan Wangji says quietly, and Sizhui slowly lets go of his father. 

Sizhui leaves him with a smile and a reminder to drink his chocolate while it is still hot. 

*****

Lang Wangji makes it to twenty-four copies before he stops. Then he picks up his cellphone to check for notifications once more, a total of twenty-five times. Then he sighs and takes a fresh sheet of rice paper, making it twenty-five copies before he really stops. 

After he packs up his calligraphy materials, he showers, changes into something more comfortable, and heads back into the study to feed the rabbits. He takes them out of their pen, making sure the study door is locked, and lets them roam around the room freely. 

His phone is where he left it half an hour ago. 

Lan Wangji sits on the floor and leans back against an empty wall. He checks his phone again, only to find the same result. And then he opens his WeChat app. 

He starts typing as the black rabbit starts pawing at his pajama-clad thigh. 

“ Hello, Wei Ying. I hope you are alright. I am very sorry for hiding who I am from you. I really did not mean to. It would be nice to hear your voice again. Let me know if you want to talk. I will be here. But if you need the space I can give you some too.”

Again, he hits send before he can overthink it. 

Lan Wangji puts his phone down next to himself and picks up the black rabbit, settling it on his lap. It seemed a little surprised at first, but settles down quickly once he starts gently stroking its back. 

He misses those rare nights at home when he would chat with Wei Ying on the phone, just like they did in the office. Like just a week ago when Wei Ying was helping him plan the menu for the interns coming over, or even before that when Wei Ying had texted a random photo of a pizza he had had for dinner with his brother over, and they had spent twenty minutes discussing acceptable pizza toppings, with Wei Ying’s ideas getting more and more ridiculous until Lan Wangji had finally given up when Wei Ying suggested peanut butter and bananas. 

The white rabbit notices where its partner has gone, and hops over to Lan Wangji as well, snuffling its nose into the palm of Lan Wangji’s hand. It tries to climb into his lap, and Lan Wangji gives it a hand, pushing it carefully up and stroking it too. 

He falls asleep there in his study, sitting on the floor, the rabbits in his lap and Wei Ying’s smiling face on his mind.

Chapter Text

________

LanWJ > Wei Ying. I’m sorry for not telling you about myself earlier. And I’m sorry about what my uncle said to you. He does not know the whole picture, and he does not know you like I do. I would really like to talk, and meet you face to face. Can we meet? For lunch, maybe? I want to see you.

________

LanWJ > Hello, Wei Ying. I hope you are alright. I am very sorry for hiding who I am from you. I really did not mean to. It would be nice to hear your voice again. Let me know if you want to talk. I will be here. But if you need the space I can give you some too.

________

WWXXX > Hi, Lan Zhan I’m alright

WWXXX > I’m sorry too

WWXXX > for bothering you that day, when I first called you 

LanWJ > You are not a bother, Wei Ying.

WWXXX > It was a happy accident, huh?

WWXXX > And I’m sorry I took so long to reply

LanWJ > It is alright. I would have waited.

WWXXX > I think.

WWXXX > your uncle might be right about some things.

WWXXX > I might take you up on your offer, Lan Zhan. Some space might be good.

WWXXX > plus there’s the upcoming launch for the new family cloud 

WWXXX > last two weeks before the event will be killer. 

WeChat Notice: This conversation has been muted.  

_________

*****

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, 23rd floor, Marketing Department, Advertising Workroom

Wei Wuxian curses out loud. The designs for the signages need to be finished by this week, so that they can be sent for printing, be finished and set up at least two days before the launch next Wednesday. It is already Thursday, and unless he wants to go chasing after printers and the event stylists over the weekend, he has to finish this by like, yesterday. 

So far he’s already done with almost ninety percent of the design work needed for the upcoming event. Wei Wuxian checks the list he’d written out more than a month ago, stuck on the bottom of one monitor screen that helps him keep track of all the components of event preparation that needed any design work for the launch. He scans the list downward and checks the correlating deadlines. 

There is a knock on the door and a silence that follows, before he remembers to yell, “Come in!”

A young woman pokes her head in. “Uh, Director Wei?”

Wei Wuxian frowns at her. 

She clears her throat. “Oh, I mean, Senior Wei?” 

“Better.” Wei Wuxian gives her a grin. He’s kind of uncomfortable with the new title; and Senior Wei was definitely preferable to that, though a bit strange seeing as the woman was probably his equal in terms of age and seniority. Wei Wuxian guesses it must be that his colleagues now want to address in any form that shows some difference in rank. Honestly he’d have been perfectly happy with something less formal like Wei-xiong. 

It has only been a week since he got the promotion last Thursday. The entire department found out about it by the afternoon, of course, and a few of his marketing colleagues had even come up to him, tentatively congratulating him. He didn’t have the chance to interact with a lot of them before, but those of them who had been decent to him started opening up a lot more now that Su She wasn’t in the office to throw his weight and disdain for Wei Wuxian around. 

It was a welcome distraction for Wei Wuxian after that not-so-pleasant meeting with Chairman Lan that morning, and the… and Lan Zhan’s text.

Wei Wuxian had seen it during lunch, after he had spent fifteen minutes searching Weibo, the internet and the Cloud Recesses database to find a short bio and a tiny passport-looking photo of IT Director Lan Wangji, just to make sure that he didn’t hallucinate the entire conversation with Lan Qiren. And boy, oh boy. Having seen Hanguang-jun that morning up close, that stupid HR photo where the man just stares at the camera lifelessly did not do him any justice. He recalled the look on Hanguang-jun — on Lan Zhan’s face when Wei Wuxian felt the raindrops stop attacking him, and had turned to look at him — that intense stare in his eyes, and the quickest glimpse of his long hair fluttering in the wind beside his marble-like features, before recognition kicked in and he had to go blabbering on. 

Wei Wuxian closed the browser tab, unable to read any more, and saw the notification first on his lockscreen, only to find the full paragraph that was the longest message Lan Zhan had ever sent him (or possibly anyone, he’d bet good money on). 

He read it three times, and by the fourth time, his heart was a mess of desperately wanting to reply, YES, COME FIND ME NOW LAN ZHAN , but his mind was going through as much of his meeting with Chairman Lan as he could recall, and their conversation, and the man’s insinuations. 

But they can’t be considered insinuations if they were true, could they? Everything Lan Qiren said had made sense. And with a reputation like Wei Wuxian’s… how could he sully Lan Zhan’s name like this? 

Even though there was a part of him that was slightly more optimistic and not wallowing in self-doubt right now, he still needed time to think. Wei Wuxian had turned his cell phone off after that. 

And then he’d been called into Lan Shenghan’s office and was told the official news of his promotion to Creative Director. And news like that spreads fast. 

Since then, the people he ran into had started calling him Director Wei, thinking that since Su She wanted to be called Director Su, then Wei Wuxian would want the same. Which, no, he did not. It wasn’t even an actual director’s rank, just the title given to middle management team leaders. Not upper management like their Marketing Director, Lan Shenghan, or the IT Director like Lan Zhan… no. He did not need nor want ostentatious titles. 

And now that Wei Wuxian had taken over Su She’s job, he couldn’t just sit in his workroom and hide away from everyone, doing his designs. He had to actually liaise and interact with others, which was a welcome interruption from the war waging in his head that, honestly, he was glad for. He wasn’t lying when he replied Lan Zhan a day after the last text that the last two weeks before the launch event would be hell. Probably for Lan Zhan’s department too, seeing as how they were actually setting up the service itself while marketing was doing the promotional legwork. And Wei Wuxian would be running around himself since there was no time during this preparation period to look for new creative staff. They barely had a week left. 

It gave him little time to dwell inside his own head, and he could push unnecessary thoughts about… He could push unnecessary thoughts aside. 

The woman opens the door wider and comes inside. 

Wei Wuxian thinks her name might be Shenli. Definitely a Lan. 

“The delivery from Yao Manufacturing are here. The lobby reception just called. They’re going through a clearance check first and should be up in ten minutes.”

“Oh, good!” Wei Wuxian nods. “Tell them to meet me at the 20th! There’s a larger room we can use to do the checks and the packing distribution for the gift bags. Also, could you help me notify the Events team? They should be there to check through the gift items to make sure they’re correct and up to standard. Then we can let the Yao guys go if everything is okay.”

“Got it, Senior Wei!”

“Thanks, Shenli.” 

Her smile widens. Okay, correct name, then. Wei Wuxian smiles back and returns to his desktop screen to save the designs he is currently working on so he can head to the 20th floor. He tracks his mouse pointer to the two different applications open to save his files, and all of a sudden, it stops moving on screen even though his actual mouse is still moving in real life. 

Oh, hell no. 

He gives the computer another thirty seconds to start responding, and when it doesn’t, he curses aloud again. 

Wei Wuxian’s hand flies to his office phone receiver, and he’s just about to press the buttons from memory, when he realizes who he’s actually calling. 

No no no. 

Nope. Wei Wuxian slams the receiver down and smacks himself in the forehead. He almost called Lan Zhan. No. Not going to happen again. He doesn’t have time for this. For his heart and mind to go into another raging spiral or debate. Now that he thinks about it, it’s ridiculous that he had even managed to get through to the IT Director that first time he needed help. And it was even more ridiculous that said IT Director had even bothered to help fix his freezing problem when Wei Wuxian was panicking out of his mind. Anyone else of that status in the company would have hung up on him or scolded him for calling the wrong number. Or asked him to shut up, at least. 

But Lan Zhan had helped him. And had listened to him talk and had even tried suggesting he open a lesser number of applications next time he was working. Which, to be fair, he did try to listen. Look at him now. With only two applications open and he still ends up with a frozen screen problem. 

He looks for the company phone directory and tries another number from IT. This time he makes sure to check that they were listed as internal tech support. 

“Hello, Cloud Recesses IT.” A voice drones, deadpan. And not in the Lan Zhan-way he’s used to but in a I’m-so-bored-at-my-job way. 

God, don’t start comparing everyone to Lan Zhan. Wei Wuxian chides himself. Everyone will fall short of your expectations, and then where would you be?

Again, he pushes his thoughts aside and tells the guy on the line what’s wrong. 

“Uh, yeah. So I gotta run off for a bit, do you think you could fix this if I give you remote access?”

The voice says yes, and Wei Wuxian gives him his CPU serial number, his mind dredging up really pleasant memories of how Lan Zhan had told him where to find the serial number during their first call. 

He leaves his workroom to head to the elevators. Meet the manufacturers. Check the delivery. Gift bags. The event. Distraction. He needs a distraction. More distractions. The more the better. 

*****

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, 5th floor, Employee Cafeteria 

Jingyi looks around their table. Everyone just doesn’t seem to be in the mood to talk today. And Zizhen still isn’t here yet. They’ve only got forty minutes for lunch, and now fifteen of it is gone. 

Jin Ling is picking at his yam cake, poking holes into it with his chopsticks but never really picking a piece up. Sizhui isn’t even bothering to touch his food yet. He’s staring at it like it contains the answers to the universe. 

If only it did. Jingyi stares at his own bowl of wonton noodles. He knows they’re all frustrated at the same thing:

That the adults whom they respect happen to be just so bad at getting their personal lives together. It feels a bit strange to be thinking such disrespectful thoughts at Sizhui’s father — freaking Hanguang-jun — but all four of them have come to the conclusion that both parties are at fault in this situation. 

Jingyi looks at the clock on his phone, and starts shoveling the noodles down. He motions the other two to start eating as well. They’ve barely got twenty minutes left before Jingyi has to report back to Yanyun-jie and Sizhui and Jin Ling have to report back to Senior Liu. 

The launch on Wednesday is putting everyone on their toes. And according to Sizhui and Jin Ling, who are assisting the programmers at the software and hardware level on the 32nd floor, the IT department is especially fastidious and perfectionistic when it comes to preparing their new service, seeing as how the new servers will go online live before the press conference at the launch event. 

And Yanyun-jie is busy on the 33rd making sure everyone is doing what they're supposed to be doing, and doing it well, and that Hanguang-jun will have his speech ready for the launch. Jingyi is helping her where he can and is suitably overwhelmed; he doesn’t want to think of the stress everyone else is under right now. This was definitely not what he had in mind when he took up project management in uni, though he is enjoying the process in an almost masochistic kind of way.

Zizhen appears and drags a chair out from under the table, unceremoniously dropping himself into it, a large steamed bun in his hand. He’s already eating faster than any normal person with common sense would consider safe, judging by the amount of steam rising out of the bun. 

“Oh my god. I need a real break so bad.” He moans around mouthfuls of pork. 

Sizhui looks up from his noodles. “That bad, huh?”

“Yeah. The whole department is a mess. And Wei-ge’s team is so short of manpower.” Zizhen sighs. He had been told last week by Yanyun-jie to go back to Marketing to help out. They suspect that Hanguang-Jun had been the one to arrange that. The interns were well aware of what Wei-ge was expected to do by himself when they were squatting in his workroom. And now that he got promoted but with no official team to work with except himself… well, Hanguang-jun was definitely thoughtful. 

“You guys won’t believe what happened. I just heard about it this morning.”

Jingyi perks up. “What! Is it Wei-ge? He hasn’t been replying in our WeChat group.”

“He’s been really busy. There was some mistake.” Zizhen lowers his voice and his head. “Last week when the Yao Manufacturing guys came over to deliver the door gifts that Wei-ge had designed, it turns out that they received the wrong one. It was a dated design, and the latest one that was approved by Director Shenghan didn’t get sent out at all.” 

“What?” Jin Ling says, outraged for his uncle. Jingyi tries to hide a smile at that by eating another wonton. He’ll definitely tell Wei-ge about it when this is over. 

“Who sent the wrong one?” Sizhui asks. 

“Get this — it was Senior Su. He sent it out like, a month go and didn’t even check if it was the finalized version.” 

Jingyi clicks his tongue. “He’s not even here and he’s still causing trouble.” 

A chorus of agreement runs through their small table. 

“So now Wei-ge has to find a way to take the old design as a base to improve on instead of his finalized original, so that the Yao guys can repurpose the existing gifts instead of manufacturing entirely new ones. He’s been at it the whole weekend. He came to work this morning looking like a corpse, with his usual black clothes and bloodshot eyes. It was pretty freaky.” Zizhen takes another bite of his bao. 

Sizhui’s face pinches a little in concern. “Has he had lunch? Maybe you should bring something back for him.”

“He’s not even here. He had to head down to the event venue with a bunch of people from the Events team. They’ve started setting up the stage and whatnot and he needs to be there to make sure the installation of the banners and backdrops are correct. I’m working alone from his workroom now. Doing last minute preparations and helping him if he calls.”

Jin Ling rubs his face. “Man, I can't wait for this launch thing to be over.”

They all nod empathetically. Two more days. 

“So… has he said anything?” Jingyi asks. 

“About?”

“About you-know-who!” Jingyi hisses. Sizhui gives him a look that Jingyi can immediately interpret as “Why don’t you just say it’s my dad.”

“Nothing. He’s been so focused on the event, and trying to fix that stupid design mistake. Though I’m pretty sure he’s trying to distract himself.” Zizhen looks askance. “I kept seeing him looking at his phone last Friday when I got sent down there. You know. Like he wants to call someone.” 

“Or he wants someone to call.” 

“Dad’s been that way too. He’s been… quiet. Way too quiet.” 

Jingyi does not want to imagine a Hanguang-jun that is quiet even to Sizhui. 

“Ugh, as much as I don’t want to think about dajiu falling in love, what’s our next move?” Jin Ling asks, automatically turning to Jingyi. After almost two weeks, it seems like he’s been unofficially nominated as the lead mastermind behind their Dad Loves Uncle Loves Dad plan, 

(“Ew, Jingyi can you not call it that .” Sizhui visibly cringes while Jin Ling shoves Jingyi with a “There are literally so many other titles you could use.”

“But they’re our literal and symbolic dad and uncle and they love each other!”

And Zizhen just looks upon the three of them, fond.)

But at the moment even he is drawing blanks now that both these adults were deliberately giving each other space? Like who does that nowadays. And it’s so much harder now that they both know who the other is, which does not help at all. He much preferred it when Wei-ge was still oblivious and openly pining, and Hanguang-jun was quiet but would smile just the tiniest bit like he had a secret no one else knew about. 

Now, according to Zizhen, Wei-ge was purposely drowning himself in self-persecution and work, and from Jingyi’s observations, Hanguang-jun is still quiet… and that’s it. Just quiet, with no spark, and no sign of mirth in that stare. That’s how he is these days.

Jingyi shakes his head. At this rate, they can only try something after the event is over with. Then those two will have no excuse not to deal with each other. He says as much out loud to his friends. 

“Plus, we need to convince them to just talk to each other. Or meet each other. Or even go find each other.”

“Especially Wei-ge.” Zizhen adds. “He’s working so hard now, but it’s obvious he’s distracted.”

Sizhui says quietly, and a little uncertain, “I can try to talk to my father. Encourage him a bit. Maybe he’ll push for a meeting and Senior Wei will agree.”

“Oh, I could ask my mom to interfere! Dajiu always listens to her.” Jin Ling’s eyes light up, then dim a little as he grumbles. “Everyone listens to her.”

“Even Hanguang-jun, apparently.” Jingyi smirks. Jin Ling’s mom sounds like a cool person he’d like to meet. “I wonder if she gave him cooking instructions that time we came over.”

Jin Ling makes the face he always makes when people start talking about his family. “Eat your noodles, Lan Jingyi.”

Jingyi laughs. Two more days. And then for heaven’s sake, they can get this going. 

***** 

Gusu Exhibition and Convention Centre, Hall 8

Lan Wangji bows to the applause from the crowd in front of him, their faces neatly lined in rows and rows that disappear, past his vision facing the spotlight focused on him. He picks up his stack of prompt cards and neatens them on the dark wood podium. 

The emcee for the evening beams at him. “Thank you for that rousing introduction to our company’s new cloud server systems, Director Lan. This is truly an innovation that will make these platforms more accessible, convenient and reliable for our future clients.”

Lan Wangji gives her a small nod.

“This way please, Hanguang-jun.” She gestures towards the back of the stage where the stairs leading down are, Yanyun already stationed there in her smartest navy pantsuit. She grins at him and gives him a tiny applause below her waist, and Lan Wangji allows himself to be led by his secretary away from the podium. The emcee has gone back to addressing the audience, the front half made up of important guests, sponsors and the back half of members of the public who had already pre-purchased the service and a small number who had won the raffle online to attend the event. 

“May we invite Chairman Lan and CEO Lan back on stage to commence with the ribbon cutting and official server launch?”

Lan Wangji ignores the stage. His job is officially done tonight, and he won’t be needed there at the press conference later since the head of programming will be there to answer questions about their new family service cloud. 

He’s two steps above the actual floor when he catches sight of Wei Ying. The light is dim in the convention hall, all the spotlights focused on the stage, but that red hair tie holding up a messy high ponytail is unmistakable, even with the foggy lighting on the sides. 

He’s leaning against the wall to the side, behind a number of booths set up to showcase their new server functions and allow the public and sponsors to try them after they go online. Wei Ying’s eyes are closed and he looks… tired. His oversized black cardigan is dropping off one shoulder, exposing the grey t-shirt underneath and the suggestion of his collarbone, just… there . 

“Boss?”

Yanyun turns around, most likely because he’s stopped walking midway down the short staircase. Her eyes follow Lan Wangji’s gaze and she looks back at him with understanding in her eyes, her voice sly. 

“Do you wanna go say hi?” She hints, none too subtly. 

Lan Wangji glares at her. 

“Oh, please do it. It’ll put all of us out of our misery.”

“Us?” 

“Yeah. Like, me. Your son. His friends. Your brother.” Yanyun stares back at him. “I could go on… would you like a list?”

Lan Wangji looks at her icily. “No.”

But he finally makes it down from the stage and looks back in Wei Ying’s direction. Wei Ying is now awake, looking a little confused, but talking to a man in a smartly pressed black business suit. He doesn’t look too happy. 

Lan Wangji moves forward towards the booths. 

At that moment, a loud horn trumpets and something bursts, followed by streamers and confetti wildly floating down towards the floor around the stage and the first few rows of audiences. The audience cheer loudly as Lan Wangji glances up the stage to see his brother and uncle surrounded by a few Lan elders and important looking sponsors, all holding two large red ribbons together on opposite sides of the stage. A cameraman is taking photos of the ribbon cutting, and they all smile widely, hair and shoes shining in the spotlight. 

Yanyun nudges his arm forward, away from the stage. His job now over, all that is left is the press conference and the demonstrations before the audience will be free to wander around the event space. 

The audience stands now, still applauding loudly, partially obscuring his view of the booths.

Lan Wangji reaches the side wall and moves towards the nearest booth, where he finds the man in the black suit, and no Wei Ying. 

The man in the black suit turns out to be Lan Shenghan, the marketing director and also a distant cousin. And Wei Ying’s boss. His real boss, not the low-life serving his suspension. 

“Han-ge.” Lan Wangji nods politely. 

“Ah, Wangji. Nice work on the servers! I tried it out earlier. Never seen speeds so fast!”

“Thank you, Han-ge. My team of programmers have worked hard.” Lan Wangji gives another small nod. “Thank you as well, for your department’s hard work. This showcase looks great.”

It does, indeed. This hall happened to be one of the smallest halls in the convention center, but it was still not a space to be trifled with. The stage itself and the audience of nearly two hundred people were surrounded by cleanly arranged booths and counters for demonstrations, as well as the opposite side of the hall being made into a sizeable bar for drinks and a buffet nearby, with waiters meandering in and out of the seats and standing tables. The colors were bright, but had a hint of class despite its fun overtones. 

Lan Wangji looks back at the stage where his brother and uncle are still posing for photos with important people. The backdrop is stunning, vibrant and modern but also elegant, spanning across the entire forty foot long stage. 

He remembers seeing this design more than a month ago, when Wei Ying had called him to fix his frozen screen. The actual size of it was huge. No wonder the file had hung his computer while he had this open with a few dozen other applications open. And the colors and elements seen in the backdrop were recurring all over the hall, from the buffet table labels to the name cards of the sponsors on their seats, to the banners and signages around the booths, to the sturdy paper gift bags arranged on tables by the door for attendees to take on their way out. 

It was very impressive. He’d seen some of Wei Ying’s previous work when he was looking for evidence against Su She, but that had been small printed copies or flat digital thumbnails of the design files. To see them all laid out in an actual event space was… stunning. 

How had Wei Ying been producing work like this for years by himself and still not gotten any recognition for it, working all cramped in his tiny workroom set apart from everyone else? 

Lan Shenghan took it all in together with him, and was nodding in agreement. “I have to thank you, Wangji. If it weren’t for you discovering that situation with Su She, our Wei Wuxian would still have been buried under that man’s lies.” 

Lan Wangji nods, secretly pleased. He hopes it does not show on his face. 

“Was that him? The man you were talking to just now?”

“Oh, yes. That was him. Wei Wuxian.”

“You looked angry at him just now.” Lan Wangji states, his voice neutral. Lan Shenghan was a good man, but he still wanted to find out the reason why. 

“Ah,” Shenghan fiddles with his left cuff link a little. “You saw us talking?”

“Mm.”

Shenghan throws Lan Wangji a rueful look. “Actually, my apologies, Wangji. He didn’t do anything wrong. He… he was watching you and kind of fell asleep during your introductory speech. And I told him off a little, what if someone else saw him? It was rude, but he’s been running himself ragged, trying to split himself seven ways preparing for this launch. Don’t hold it against him, yeah? I just sent him home to rest.”

Wei Ying had been watching him on stage? Lan Wangji schools himself, and his face. Try not to look too pleased. Or anxious. Or anything. 

Despite Wei Ying’s very much perfunctory and sparse replies to Lan Wangji on WeChat this past week, it was obvious that he was holding back. Even Lan Wangji could tell. 

And tonight… he was paying attention to my speech? Lan Wangji feels almost giddy. Clearly Wei Ying was still… interested. In him, if Lan Wangji was so bold as to assume. He felt something inside his chest give a little flutter. 

He looks at Shenghan staring at him, gauging, and gives a polite nod, turning to go. “No need to worry, Han-ge. Tell him he did a great job.”

Lan Wangji sees Yanyun waiting for him nearby, her raised eyebrows asking him why he came out of the booth boyfriend-less. “I am heading home, Yanyun.”

She nods, saying nothing, but still looking disappointed in him. Not for long, Lan Wangji decides. 

Tomorrow . I will ask him out tomorrow. 

*****

Cloud Recesses Headquarters, 33rd floor, IT Department, Director’s Office

Lan Wangji puts the office phone receiver down onto the dial pad a little harsher than he intended after hearing the dead tone of an unanswered call for the umpteenth time. 

Today was the day. The day he would talk to Wei Ying, push for something more, maybe even a future for the two of them (or closure might be good too— a traitorous voice that sounded unsurprisingly like his uncle hissed quietly). Whatever it was, he had promised himself last night. He was going to fix this… this impasse that they have both arrived at. If they were going to keep skirting around the issue, around each other… He did not know about Wei Ying, but Lan Wangji himself might just go mad. 

Yanyun had not heard him making up his mind, but she was clearly supportive and kept eyeing him surreptitiously enough. She looked like she wanted to say something or ask him something, but held herself back when Lan Wangji looked at her. 

Yang-jie had heard directly from him during his car ride home, and was supportive too. She was not happy about how this had developed, saying it could have been resolved if only he had said something earlier to Wei Ying that rainy morning, or had spoken faster before his Uncle came charging in. It was not something that he did not already know; he has spent the last two weeks pondering the possibilities of how everything went wrong or could have gone better (hard to say, really). Plus she was not afraid to let him know what she thought about his uncle’s close-mindedness. Lan Wangji had to hold his cell phone slightly away from his ear when she started raising her voice (read: shouting) in frustration. 

However, Wei Ying is putting a huge damper in his plans to just talk it out by not picking up Lan Wangji’s calls now, and not even reading his WeChat messages.

After the successful event last night, everyone was taking a break, changing paces by slowly settling loose ends and payments due, and also to evaluate the positives and areas for improvement of last night’s reception. 

Lan Wangji was therefore expected to look through the troubleshooting log for the demonstrations last night, and possibly speak to the programmers to work out any kinks in the system to fix before the majority of the public accessed the new servers. 

Except he could not. Not with thoughts of Wei Ying in his head. Not when he just wants to hear Wei Ying’s voice, something he has not heard for more than a week, and it is driving him slightly insane and very much to distraction. 

( Lan Wangji knew what this feeling really was. But he did not want to name it.)

He picks up the receiver and hits redial, only for the tone to continuously ring once more, a battle of who was going to give up first — Lan Wangji getting himself hopeful that this time Wei Ying will answer, or the ringing that will mock him for as long as it can before asking him to leave a message. Which he did, the first three times, at spaced ten minute intervals. 

There is no answer again. 

Lan Wangji checks his WeChat. No reply either. 

Lan Wangji usually prides himself on his restraint, and patience. But not for this. 

He needs to talk to Wei Ying.

He zips out of his office, surprising even Yanyun, and takes the elevator to the 23rd. 

At the marketing department, Lan Wangji sees the different teams gathering, praising their event last night and also giving each other feedback they heard from either the sponsors or public attendees. A quick scan tells him Wei Ying is not with them, which is concerning because he should be involved in these discussions too. 

Some of them notice him and stare, but he ignores their meeting and moves towards Wei Ying’s workroom. He knocks. 

And he waits. 

When no one answers, he pushes the handle down to open the room… only to be greeted by darkness. 

Later, Lan Wangji will be embarrassed about his lack of subtlety in showing his disappointment and the strangled noise of frustration that escapes his lips. He does not need to know how many people here heard him curse under his breath. 

He makes eye contact with one of the women from across the floor, and immediately asks her. “Where is Wei Yi — where is Wei Wuxian?”

Everyone stops their discussion and looks at Lan Wangji in surprise.

“He uhhh… he got sent home.”

“Why?”

The woman with whom he made eye contact with rushes towards him, and says to him in a softer voice. “He came to work this morning and nearly collapsed. So Director Shenghan told him to go home and rest.” 

She hesitates. Lan Wangji very nearly wants to shake her to make her speed up her explanation. 

“The past two weeks were… not easy, for our department. And Wei-xiong has been tanking a lot of the work by himself.” 

Lan Wangji bites his lips, hoping his face does not give away how he really feels. The woman does not look as worried as Lan Wangji feels, but whether that is because Wei Ying really is okay, or because she does not really care, Lan Wangji is unsure. 

He thanks her for her time and rushes back up to his office. 

Yanyun gives him a surprised look again from her desk, and he supposes it is warranted since he rarely rushes anywhere. 

Once inside, he pulls up the HR database and tries looking for Wei Ying’s file. One good thing about being the IT director is that he has unfettered access to most employee’s information. 

It does not take long for him to find it, and he scans the file, looking for his home number and address, but not before he notices Wei Ying’s employee photo attached to the top right of the document. It must have been taken at least five years ago. 

The Wei Ying back then was a little gaunt looking, with bags under his eyes, but he was still giving the camera a completely guileless smile. It did not look too different from what Lan Wangji saw two weeks ago, albeit there was a real joy to his smiling face that is not there in this photo. 

Lan Wangji calls Wei Ying one more time on his cell phone, and expectedly does not get an answer. All this while his heart is jackrabbiting, and then he makes another decision. He will look for Wei Ying. Copying down the man’s address, he stands to leave. 

Not even halfway to the door, Yanyun knocks politely from outside and sticks her head in. She again looks surprised to be catching him rushing somewhere. 

“Uh… boss.” She whispers, her head gesturing to somewhere outside the door. “You’ve got company. Um, brace yourself?”

Lan Wangji frowns at her and then the door is flung open, and in steps his uncle and his brother. 

Lan Wangji wants to roll his eyes, but does not. He looks at them, schooling his features into what he thinks can be considered calm, even though he kind of wants to push them aside and run to the elevators. Their timing could not be any worse. 

Lan Xichen gives his younger brother his usual benign smile, and Lan Qiren looks at his nephew like he is being forced to be here and does not like it one bit. 

“Wangji.”

“Shufu, xiongzhang.” Lan Wangji gives his customary bow, and watches as Yanyun mouths him a “jiayou” before closing the door behind her. 

“Were you going somewhere, Wangji?” His brother asks, looking at him stand in the middle of his own office. 

“Yes.” Lan Wangji says without hesitation. “I am going to look for Wei Ying.”

Lan Qiren’s eyebrows go up so high, Lan Wangji knows that if Wei Ying were here he would laugh his head off. 

Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen do not comment on that, though. They were raised to keep their opinions to themselves in front of their elders, after all. 

“Why? What for?” His uncle demands. 

Lan Xichen clears his throat, catches Lan Qiren’s eye and jabs his head pointedly in Lan Wangji’s direction. 

Lan Wangji looks between the two of them. “What is going on?”

“Ah, Wangji.” Lan Xichen says. “Shufu has something he wants to tell you. May we sit?”

Lan Wangji silently gestures them towards the sitting area meant for meetings with clients. He does not want to settle back into his desk. 

They all sit down gracefully, and Lan Xichen sits next to his uncle, opposite his brother.

“Shufu.” Lan Xichen says, nudging his elbow. 

“Fine, fine.” Lan Qiren replies. 

Lan Wangji is confused, and remains quiet, staring at the both of them like they are some comedy duo whose jokes fly right over his head. 

His uncle clears his throat, and says in a low voice. “Against my better judgement, I will give this Wei Wuxian a chance.”

Lan Wangji can feel his own face loosen up. This… was not what he was expecting, but he’s not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. 

“I am… very glad to hear that, shufu.” Lan Wangji says softly, lowering his gaze. 

They all sit in a rather uncomfortable silence, Lan Qiren not saying anything, and Lan Wangji being rather curious but not daring to ask more. 

His brother sighs loudly. “You two. Just need to talk more. Wangji, shufu and I were very impressed with the launch event yesterday. As were the elders. The amount of planning and work that went into it must have been tremendous.”

Lan Wangji’s head perks up, looking from his brother to his uncle. 

His uncle is nodding in agreement, but he does not say more, so his brother continues. 

“We’ve also heard from Lan Shenghan. The event looked great. He is very pleased with the work Wei Wuxian has been doing, and said that it is clear that he works very well with others — he’s a natural leader.”

Lan Wangji knows this, so he just says “Mn.” 

“Therefore…” Lan Xichen looks at his uncle imploringly. 

“Yes, alright. He deserves a chance. I have been rash to judge him so quickly without knowing much about him. But you, Wangji, you should be careful too. He may be good at his job, and deserve this promotion, but you know nothing about him personally.”

“Do not worry, shufu. I plan to.” Lan Wangji interjects before his uncle can say more. His uncle is just trying to protect him, that much is obvious, but probably not in the most delicate way. 

His brother is beaming at him, and Lan Wangji really wants to crawl under his desk and hide from that look, knowing that his brother is happy for him, but also knowing what else his brother could be thinking. 

“Wei Ying was sent home this morning. He might be overworked. I will find him and check if he’s alright.” Lan Wangji says. “And to talk. We need to clear some things between us.”

“You do that.” Lan Qiren huffs, and stands up brusquely. “We have to look after our employee welfare as well.”

He turns towards the door without another word. Lan Wangji watches him go, pleased with his uncle’s grudging permission, but also knowing that he will most likely never get an apology for the things his uncle had said to Wei Ying, for being the reason that they actually have things to clear up between them in the first place. Again, Lan Wangji will take and appreciate the compromise. 

After the door closes, he turns to his brother, who is still smiling at him. 

“Xiongzhang, did you… ?”

“I did.” His brother nods. “I spoke to him last night.”

Lan Wangji lets his mouth curve into a small smile. 

“Thank you.”

His brother laughs. “You’re smiling.”

Lan Wangji feels his ears heating up. If his brother notices anything, he does not mention it. Instead he says, “You don’t need to thank me. It wasn’t my idea.”

“It was not?”

“No. It was your son’s. You can thank Sizhui for calling me first.”

Oh heavens. His behaviour must have had Sizhui so worried. For his son to call his uncle to ask for advice or help… he was the luckiest man on earth, but he also felt like the stupidest. 

“Wangji, stop it.” His brother says promptly. He could always read him like a book. His smile goes from teasing to gentle. “I know what you’re thinking, and you are not a bad parent. Sizhui is just more perceptive than others his age, we both know this. And he wants you to be happy.”

Lan Wangji feels like his heart is going to burst. And he has not even spoken to Wei Ying yet. He does not know what to say, but it is clear his brother understands his silence, and knows that his little brother is feeling a little emotional now. 

Lan Xichen stands up. “I’ll leave you to it, then. Jiayou, didi! And make sure when everything is settled you call Mianmian. She’s been hounding me non-stop as well.”

He gives his younger brother an all-knowing grin before closing the door behind him. 

Lan Wangji does not know if he wants to laugh or cry. 

So he does neither. He goes to pick up his suit jacket, as well as his work messenger bag. If everything goes according to plan, he probably will not be returning to the office for the rest of the day. And if it does not, then well, he will probably not want to return to the office anyways. He’ll tell Yanyun to arrange for him to take the rest of the day off. 

He picks up the troubleshooting reports and places them neatly one by one into his work bag; it’s not something to leave lying around, even in his office. 

It is then that he hears a loud knock on the door. Lan Wangji returns to his quick packing. Yanyun will just have to handle whatever this is herself. 

And then another loud knock, followed by a lot of muffled conversation and some more loud knocks on his wooden office door. 

Lan Wangji straightens and looks at the door. That is definitely not his secretary. Then before he can say anything, the door opens garishly and in falls his son and his three friends. They stumble in as though they were pushing each other in a playground and not at all like they work here. 

Lan Wangji’s eyes widen in alarm, while they stop short and stare at him, and he stares back. They straighten themselves immediately. Sizhui and Jingyi look determined, while Jin Ling and Zizhen look just a little overwhelmed. 

“Hanguang-jun!” Jingyi gives a little wave.

The other two follow suit, except for Sizhui who is a little awkward, like he does not know how to address his father. 

“Hello. Why are you two,” Lan Wangji motions to Sizhui and Jin Ling. “Not downstairs at work? Does Senior Liu know you’re here?” 

“We’re on coffee break!” Jin Ling blurts. 

“And you are in my office because…?” He waits for them to complete his sentence. And they take a while, but they do get there. 

“... Because! You need to go and talk to Wei-ge already!” Jingyi says, puffing himself up slightly, then adds sheepishly like an afterthought, “Hanguang-jun.”

“Yes!” Zizhen adds. “It’s clear he’s not happy! And you’re probably the only reason he’s working so hard until he forgets to look after himself! I know, because I’ve been seeing him since last Friday!”

“And since Hanguang-jun, you were the one who assigned Zizhen to go help him, you clearly care about him too!” Jingyi continues. 

“I… assigned Zizhen to him?” Lan Wangji asks, checking. 

“You did… didn’t you?” Zizhen asks cautiously. 

“I did.” Lan Wangji confirms after a moment of silence. He did, but how did they know? He specifically told Yanyun to make it sound like it was an order from her . Was he that obvious about it?

“So you do care about him!” Jin Ling declares. 

“... I do.” 

Sizhui is smiling now, but thankfully still silent. Lan Wangji does not want to know what Sizhui might say to add on at this point. He was being told by a bunch of kids more than fifteen years younger than him what to do. If it was about any other thing he might have glared them out of his office the moment they started. 

“And he obviously cares about you too! You two need to pull yourselves together already! Or everyone around you is going to implode from frustration.” Jingyi says, and then once again adds more calmly, “Hanguang-jun.”

“Just talk to him, Dad.” Sizhui pipes up. “Face to face. You can’t talk through WeChat forever.”

“I know—”

“Bonus if you do that because then he can’t run away or avoid you! He’s pretty good at that, and shutting himself out!” Zizhen adds. 

“Like how he has been ignoring all our texts since last night.” Jingyi grumbles.

“You have been texting him?” Lan Wangji asks, surprised. 

“On and off, yes.” Sizhui admits, and Jingyi adds on. “So full disclosure. The plan was for us to convince him to talk to you . Because, you know, you’re technically our boss, now. And he’s not. Hanguang-jun.”

“And we kind of gave him till after the launch event yesterday, but he hasn’t been replying us since last night.” 

“I know. He is not replying me either. He left work early today, and I am about to go look for him.” Lan Wangji says, slowly, gauging their reactions. 

“I told you guys! He was looking like a corpse since a few days ago. Like all that was keeping him running was the caffeine from his coffee and tea.” Zizhen whispers loudly. 

“You’re going to look for him?” Sizhui asks.

“Yes.” Lan Wangji picks up his messenger bag. “I was about to.”

“Oh.” Jin Ling says. “So… we probably didn’t need to barge in here. Like a bunch of idiots . Great idea, Jingyi.”

Jingyi shoves him. “Someone needed to do something!” 

“Sorry, Hanguang-jun.” Zizhen interrupts, bowing slightly, but smiling. “Jingyi and I sort of saw Chairman Lan and CEO Lan come in. Then when Chairman Lan left he didn’t look very happy, so we got kind of worried, and we called Sizhui and Jin Ling up for an intervention.”

Intervention? Lan Wangji wants to laugh at them for their nosiness, but at the same time… for these boys to be so worried about him and Wei Ying… well that said a lot. So he smiles instead. 

And everyone of them except Sizhui looks at him in shock, probably not used to him smiling. 

“Thank you. For caring about Wei Ying, and me.” Lan Wangji says. “If that is all, I will be on my way.”

They all nod vigorously as he walks past them. 

“Dad!” Sizhui says abruptly. Lan Wangji stops. “Yes?”

“You’re going to his place to look for him?”

Lan Wangji frowns. “Yes. To check up on him.”

“Don’t forget to bring him something!” 

“Oh.” Lan Wangji says. Sizhui is talking about one of their rules. Always bring a gift when visiting someone. 

He blinks worriedly at his son. He does not often go over to other people’s homes.

“Bring him something… like flowers?”

The boys burst into laughter, but Lan Wangji does not take offense. He himself is rather perplexed. “No!” Sizhui grins.

“Food!” Zizhen suggests. “He’s been running around doing work and hasn’t been eating well.”

Food… food was a possibility. He could pick up something on the way. Lan Wangji nods. “Thank you for the reminder.”

The boys all smile at him, looking enthusiastic as though they were the ones about to look for Wei Ying themselves. Lan Wangji stops at the door and looks back at the four of them, standing in the middle of the room, still looking eager. 

They look back at him, waiting. 

Lan Wangji clears his throat. 

“Please leave my office.”

“Oh!” They laugh and hurriedly walk past him holding open the door, Sizhui shushing them to keep their laughter down as they go out. 

Lan Wangji shakes his head and closes the door behind him. 

Once outside, Yanyun is standing there, already acutely aware of what had happened inside. He should have known that she was also involved in this “intervention”. 

She looks very pleased, and the boys are giving each other looks of triumph. Lan Wangji sighs deeply. 

“I’m so proud of them.” Yanyun says like a true older sister. 

“Bless you boys.” She pats Jingyi and Sizhui’s shoulders. Then she looks up at her boss. “And bless you two idiots in love.”

Lan Wangji has never known his secretary to be such a romantic. And she has always been spunky, but it is rarely directed at him. 

Jin Ling sucks in a deep breath and punches Jingyi in the shoulder. “Oh my god, that’s so much better. We could have called the plan Operation Idiots in Love! Look at the shit title you came up with, Lan Jingyi!”

Lan Wangji stares. The interns had a mission title? Of course they had a mission title. He does not want to know what the title Jingyi came up with was. 

Yanyun laughs as she shoos her boss away with a “Jiayou!”, and Lan Wangji graciously takes his leave. 

As he’s waiting by the elevator, he realizes just how many people he has behind his back, supporting him, and wishing for his happiness. He feels encouraged, but at the same time there is always the possibility that Wei Ying might not react the way he wants. He pushes that thought away.

Take it a step at a time. He calms his breathing and his heartbeat, picking up at the prospect of actually confronting Wei Ying in unknown territory. 

He looks back at his office door. What started out as a phone call inside that room… he was going to make sure it ended up as something more outside of the office. 

*****

Wan Qiao Street, Block 1102, 4th Floor, Unit Number 6, Wei Wuxian’s Apartment

“Ughhhhh.” 

Wei Wuxian opens his eyes, thankful that he had the sense to pull his blinds closed before dropping to sleep on his couch. He can barely remember how he managed to get himself home just now. 

What he does remember is how Lan Zhan had looked last night, all the way from the little booth he was standing behind. Even from afar, he had looked good, surrounded by the stage lights. All spiffy-looking and upright in his grey slacks and light blue jacket embroidered with white trim. His hair was tied up neatly in a half-ponytail, trailing like a waterfall of ink behind his back.

He had stood up on that stage and welcomed everyone, then went about introducing their new family cloud concept. He spoke precisely and to the point, and you couldn’t take your eyes off him. At least, Wei Wuxian couldn’t. 

And his voice. The microphone picked up every little nuance of Lan Zhan’s voice, enough for Wei Wuxian to spot the differences in his inflection — this was his professional voice, his public speaking voice. It was something that Wei Wuxian had never heard before, and it was mesmerizing. Like every sound he had memorized of Lan Zhan speaking over the phone had been given a makeover. It was still his Lan Zhan’s voice, but with shiny new clothes or something. 

Wei Wuxian remembered he couldn’t take his eyes off the man as he walked on stage, an air above them all, and then when he started talking… Wei Wuxian had closed his eyes to just listen . It didn’t even matter what Lan Zhan was saying. He hadn’t heard that voice in two weeks. And now, while the audience was silently enraptured by his introduction, Wei Wuxian knew what it felt like to be engulfed by Lan Zhan’s voice via surround sound speakers. 

And he had drifted off because the next thing he knew Lan Shenghan had gently nudged him awake and lectured him about how bad it would look if sponsors or the public noticed a Cloud Recesses employee dozing off in one corner. 

So Lan Shenghan had told him to go home and rest, and he did. He probably slept on the bus as well, seeing as his home was more than an hour’s bus ride from the convention center. 

The rest of the night passed in a blur, and Wei Wuxian doesn’t even remember forcing himself awake and going to work, but he must have because the next thing he knew he was on the floor and everyone in the department was crowding around him, and the almost empty cup of tea he was holding was spilled across the office floor. 

Then their boss had thanked him for his hard work the past two weeks trying to get things ready for the event and fixing others’ mistakes, and had sent him packing home in a cab paid for with company expenses. 

Wei Wuxian pulls himself off his couch to see his work backpack, his phone and a taxi receipt strewn across his living room floor. At least he made it this far before faceplanting. 

He picks up the receipt and cringes when he sees the amount. Oh wow. Must have been rush hour when he left the office. Good thing Director Shenghan was nice enough to put it on the company tab. He laughs when he thinks about Lan Qiren looking into the accounts and finding out Wei Wuxian had spent a full day’s worth of meal money on a taxi. 

Speaking of that man. Wei Wuxian thinks about Lan Qiren’s nephew, and recalls how his first thought after waking up was literally of Lan Zhan standing on stage, haloed by the stage lights. Heavens, he was in so deep. 

Wei Wuxian has the rest of the day off to rest, and — he looks at his phone — it’s only 1pm. Half a day left to do what he wants, and now he has no work to distract him from thinking… from thinking about… 

Huh. He fidgets with his phone a little, then notices the twenty-three missed calls and forty-eight unread messages. 

Wei Wuxian’s mouth drops open slightly. What in the world? He hasn’t gotten this much attention since the last major project incident. He checks the missed calls first, and sees a whole list in red. 

Sizhui (2)

Jin Ling (2)

Jingyi (3)

Zizhen (2)

Lan Zhan (14)

Wei Wuxian groans. Was there something he was missing? What are the odds Lan Zhan and all the interns would call him all in the same morning?

He opens up his WeChat app, thinking they may have texted him, and quickly runs through the list of whose texts he has yet to read. Of course the interns had texted him in their group conversation, lots of “Wei-ge! We need to talk to you!”s and a few calmer “Are you busy now? Let us know when you’re free to talk, Senior Wei” type texts from Sizhui and the obligatory “DAJIU where the hell are you! You’d better not be ignoring us on purpose!!” text from his nephew. 

But none of them mentioned what it was that they needed to talk to him about. 

Then he sees a few texts from his colleagues from marketing — they’ve gotten to know each other quite well over the past two weeks working on the launch event — hoping he gets some well-deserved rest after all his efforts. He smiles at that. 

And then his smile turns into disbelief when he sees that Lan Zhan has left almost twenty messages ranging from, “Well done, Wei Ying, the setup looks very good” to “If you’re free, I think we should talk” to “It would be really nice to see you face to face” to “Wei Ying? Are you alright?” and finally it ends with “Hope you are alright, Wei Ying. I will see you soon.”

Wei Wuxian blinks. What does I will see you soon mean? He tries to think. Has he arranged any meeting with Lan Zhan? He remembers the last time they even texted Wei Wuxian had just said that he needed some space, especially with the launch coming up. He scrolls upwards to check. That’s right. There’s nowhere in the chat where he agrees to meet with Lan Zhan. And yet…?

As much as he has tried to ignore those thoughts, they keep on popping up in his mind. Thoughts about Lan Zhan, thoughts about their late night texts and early morning phone calls, sharing meal updates, Wei Wuxian talking about his nephew and siblings and Lan Zhan talking about his son and his brother. 

Maybe it’ll be a good thing to meet Lan Zhan now that the major launch event is over. He’ll be back to doing much smaller work assignments, and he can start choosing job applicants to expand his creative team. He’ll definitely have more time to think about Lan Zhan. They do have stuff to talk about, to work out.

Wei Wuxian doesn’t know how long he spends on his phone, pondering, thinking of Lan Zhan, but he is brought out of his reverie when his doorbell rings. It’s set to a ridiculous tune of some old cartoon theme song, and he almost forgot about it because no one who’s been visiting needs to use it; his jiejie and Jiang Cheng have a copy of his key. 

He drags himself off his couch, and hopes it’s not the landlord here to complain about something. He hasn’t done anything worth complaining about. A least not for six months. 

Wei Wuxian doesn’t check the peephole (because which bad guy comes to your house at 1.13 in the afternoon and knocks on your door, right?) and twists the lock, flinging the door open. 

His jaw drops slightly. 

Standing outside his shabby apartment door, looking for all the world like he doesn’t belong here, is Lan Zhan. 

There’s no mistaking that long hair, but now instead of a high half-ponytail, it’s back to his relaxed everyday style, pushed to one side, over his left shoulder and tied up loosely with that famous Lan clan white ribbon. 

And now, Wei Wuxian can finally, finally look his Lan Zhan square in the face. Not from a reflection in an elevator, not from the side view while juggling three hundred pamphlets and catalogues, and definitely not from almost fifty-feet away while he himself is in the dark. 

Lan Zhan is tall. Taller than Wei Wuxian, even, by a little bit. He’s dressed in grey slacks today, with a white dress shirt, sleeves folded up to his elbows in the summer heat, and his tie nowhere to be seen, the epitome of casual business wear. Gosh, he can see Lan Zhan on the cover of a magazine. 

His face is rather narrow, features refined, almost like a statue. Too perfect. And then he looks Wei Wuxian right in the eyes, and oh, his eyes are almost hazel, with the strong afternoon sunlight shining down from the corridor balcony, reflecting off the flecks of amber towards the center, reminding Wei Wuxian of honey, of liquid gold, and the slight traces of faint yellowish almost-greens — like the palest of white tea leaves that was gifted to him — around the rims. 

Wei Wuxian blinks, and Lan Zhan blinks too, his lashes soft against his cheeks. 

And then like a flood inwards, the two of them exhale at the same time, as though they have both forgotten how to breathe. 

“Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian whispers, and at the same time receives a soft “Wei Ying” in return. 

Their moment standing there seems to last forever. And future Wei Wuxian will kick himself when he thinks about how stupid they must have looked standing one inside and one out like that, just staring at each other in the heat of summer when everyone would want to hide indoors. 

And then he remembers, yes, it’s summer, and he’s making Lan Zhan wait in the sun right now until they both come to their senses. 

He sees Lan Zhan holding nothing but his cell phone in one hand, and a small brown paper bag in another. 

“Hi, Lan Zhan.”

“Hello, Wei Ying.”

“How did you…?”

“I found your address from HR.”

“Oh! W—Would you, uh, like to come inside?”

“Yes, please.” Lan Zhan nods. Wei Wuxian moves aside from the door frame, and Lan Zhan takes his shoes off, enters and arranges them neatly next to Wei Wuxian’s shoe rack. 

And then he remembers that he just woke up and shit, he greeted Lan Zhan at the door looking like… like he just woke up. 

“Uh… why don’t you take a seat first, and let me freshen up! Sorry, I kinda just woke up and I didn’t know you’d be at the door, and—”

“Alright. It is no problem, Wei Ying. Take your time.”

“Oh, great! I’ll be right back!” He stumbles over to his couch to push some of his things away to make space for Lan Zhan, then points over to it as he runs off towards the bathroom. 

Oh shit. This was… not how he had expected their first proper meeting to go. Wei Wuxian winces when the first drop of cold water splashes onto his face. He scrubs it for all he’s worth, then re-ties his ponytail a little so you can’t tell which side he slept on to make it crooked. He looks at himself in the mirror. Good thing he didn’t change out of his “work clothes” when he got home this morning. His jeans and t-shirt can’t compare to Lan Zhan’s office wear, but it’s way better than meeting Lan Zhan in his pajamas. 

When he comes out of the bathroom, Wei Wuxian finds Lan Zhan sitting on his couch, posture perfect, back straight and looking around slowly at different things in his living room. Yeah, maybe he should have cleaned up more. But it was either himself or his living room, and Lan Zhan was waiting. 

Before he sits down, he pours a cup of iced oolong tea he’s been keeping in the fridge. It’s from a bottle and not from leaves, but it’s the best he has. He should have brought some of his leaves home from work. Too late for that now. 

Wei Wuxian settles in next to Lan Zhan on the couch, about one person’s space in between them, and hands Lan Zhan the cup of iced tea. 

Lan Zhan accepts it silently, and nods in thanks. He looks at Wei Wuxian like it’s the first time he’s seeing him, and Wei Wuxian feels his cheeks warm slightly under the attention. 

“Hope this tastes okay for you!” Wei Wuxian begins, trying to distract himself from Lan Zhan staring at him. “It’s probably not as refined as you’re used to. Thank you for the tea leaves by the way… I still drink them everyday! Almost done with the jasmine oolong — that one is my current favourite.”

Lan Zhan takes a sip while Wei Wuxian talks, he nods along slightly, and then his eyes soften and he lets out the tiniest smile on his lips. “You are most welcome, Wei Ying. Thank you too. For the bubble tea.”

“Ahhhh, that, that was nothing! I’m glad you liked it!” Wei Wuxian smiles back, completely mesmerized by the small curve of Lan Zhan’s lips. He’s right. He knew he could tell when Lan Zhan was smiling on the phone. There was just a change in his voice. A softness that wasn’t there last night in Lan Zhan’s speech, but always there when they were on the phone together. 

“Um…” Wei Wuxian breaks their gaze, and looks down at his fingers, realizing that he’s been fiddling with one of his cushion covers. He stops. He’s usually not speechless like this. Jiang Cheng used to say he wouldn’t shut up even if the world was going to end. But now, he’s trying to put two words together. He just can’t believe he’s actually sitting across from Lan Zhan, on his couch, in his house, no less. 

“Why are you here, Lan Zhan?” Wei Wuxian asks. 

“I… I came to find you.” A pause. “To see if you are alright. Your department coworkers said you nearly collapsed at work.”

Wei Wuxian can’t help but giggle. Lan Zhan came all this way…?

“You were…”

“Worried about you, yes.” Lan Zhan says, seriously now. His eyes, now sheltered from the sunlight, are a dark honey brown. “Working too hard.”

“Well, yeah. I admit it’s been particularly stressful… they told you that too, huh?”

Lan Zhan shakes his head. “Zizhen.”

“Aiya, that boy and those interns! You’d think they were older than me the way they kept asking me about my day and checking if I’m pushing myself too far.”

“They told me you looked like a corpse.” Lan Zhan says, deadpan. 

Wei Wuxian barks out a laugh. “Right. But I’d make a good-looking one, no?” 

“Mn.” Lan Zhan answers without a second’s hesitation. 

Wei Wuxian stares, and then feels his face heating up again. “Lan Zhan, you gotta give me some warning. You can’t go around agreeing to jokes I’ve made like that.”

“Not a joke. And you started it.”

And just like that, talking to Lan Zhan became just as easy as it was back when they were chatting on the phone. Wei Wuxian would say something totally ridiculous, and Lan Zhan would counter it with either quick acknowledgement or something ridiculous of his own, which was amazing in itself because of his rather non-expressive conversation voice. And now, Wei Wuxian had the luxury of actually looking at Lan Zhan while he heard him talking, which was… definitely a new experience (especially after having been deprived of this for more than a month, even though he really had no idea what he was missing). 

Lan Zhan seemed to be going through the same thing. He’d stare at Wei Wuxian while he’s rambling and gesturing, and that little smile stayed on his face a lot longer than Wei Wuxian expected it to. 

Their easy conversation turns to work, and Wei Wuxian remembers something he had wanted to tell Lan Zhan since two weeks ago. 

“I haven’t thanked you, have I?”

“For what?”

“For helping me out of my shitty working situation. You really didn’t have to, but I’m really glad you did. So thanks, Lan Zhan.”

Lan Zhan stills (or becomes even stiffer than he normally is. Wei Wuxian doesn’t understand how he maintains his posture. He’s been sitting here with Lan Zhan for nearly twenty minutes and while Wei Wuxian is slouched over a large cushion, one leg propped up on the couch, Lan Zhan is sitting upright with his hands clasping the cup of iced tea on his lap, looking so poised that Wei Wuxian can feel his own back aching in sympathy).

He suddenly looks down at his cup, and says in a low voice.

“Don’t mention it; I wanted to help.” 

“It was nice of you. To think of me and help.” Wei Wuxian says shyly. He can’t recall the last time someone stood up for him before. Even his jiejie and Jiang Cheng, though they supported him privately, were not allowed to say anything in public by Madam Yu. Uncle Jiang too. 

“May I ask, Wei Ying?” Lan Zhan says, tentatively, to which Wei Wuxian nods.

“Why did you just let him take credit? You clearly do not like him.”

“Ahhh, that.” Wei Wuxian laughs forcedly. He didn’t know how much to tell Lan Zhan. He wanted to tell him everything, but at the same time… it was something he was still struggling with (or rather, avoiding). He decides to tell Lan Zhan the vaguest of recounts for now. 

“He was blackmailing me, with something I didn’t want others to know about. I did something… that I do not regret doing. But it hurt my family, and their company. And eventually I was forced to leave my job. Your uncle didn’t tell you? My adoptive father told him.”

Lan Zhan shakes his head. 

“It’s okay. You can probably find it on Weibo or something. Just type my name in and you can find loads of articles — it was a pretty big scandal back then.”

“There is no need. You can tell me when you’re ready.” 

Lan Zhan is no longer smiling, but the look in his eyes is so sincere, that Wei Ying feels his eyes itching. He has to temper the urge to just fling his arms around Lan Zhan. How did he deserve someone like Lan Zhan in his life?

“Thanks, Lan Zhan. And thank you again… for everything.”

“Thanks is unnecessary.” Lan Zhan pauses. “And I am very sorry, Wei Ying. Truly. For keeping who I was from you. I should have told you from the start.”

Wei Wuxian falters from the unexpected apology. He was shocked yes, but he was never angry at Lan Zhan for not telling him. He understands it’s hard to get a word in sometimes, when he runs his mouth. Wei Wuxian only wished that he didn’t have to hear the truth from Lan Qiren, but he’s not going to tell Lan Zhan that. It was definitely no fault of his. 

“It really is okay, Lan Zhan. You didn’t keep who you are from me. Besides, I already know you. And your job title is just a small part of that. All the parts of Lan Zhan that I know from the last month and a half are part of you too, right? And I… I like those parts.”

Lan Zhan doesn’t say a word in reply, but Wei Wuxian looks closely at him, and discovers the cutest thing — Lan Zhan’s ears are turning red. Or at least the one on his right unobscured by his hair is. 

“Lan Zhan, are you blushing?”

“I am not.” 

Sure, he isn’t. Wei Wuxian wants to laugh out loud. This ear-reddening image is definitely not one people would expect of Hanguang-jun. Thinking of Lan Zhan’s title, Wei Wuxian is suddenly brought back down to earth. 

He clearly likes Lan Zhan. A lot. 

But then he thinks of Lan Zhan’s title, and Wei Wuxian thinks can’t go around smearing Hanguang-jun’s reputation like this, right? With Wei Wuxian’s nonsense, and his behavior and his… everything. 

Lan Zhan probably notices how his expression has changed, because he asks suddenly, “Wei Ying, what is wrong?”

Wei Wuxian laughs humorlessly. He doesn’t know if he should mention this, but then he decides he can’t keep any more secrets from Lan Zhan, not after how long it took for them to get here. 

“Nothing much, I just— I was just thinking about something… about what Chairman Lan said to me.” 

Lan Zhan’s face suddenly falls back into the expressionless mask he first saw in the elevator. The difference is startling, and Wei Wuxian realizes that in all their interactions so far (well, mostly in the rain, and now here on his couch) Lan Zhan rarely shows this to him. It’s like there’s a mask, but when Lan Zhan is talking to him, and looking at him, the mask kind of slowly fizzles away. And if he’s honest with himself, Wei Wuxian would like to keep it that way. 

Lan Zhan’s face might have changed, but he’s still calm, and Wei Wuxian finds out why when he suddenly says, “My uncle approves.”

“What?” 

“My uncle, he has given me permission. To give you a chance.”

Wei Wuxian frowns. “Really? When was this?!”

“Before I left the office today.” 

“So like, he gave you his ‘blessing’?” He emphasizes the word with finger quotes. 

“Yes. Not that we need it.”

“We don’t?” 

“No. I was coming to look for you when he and my brother interrupted me.”

“That’s… that’s good, then.” Wei Wuxian blinks slowly. “Right?”

“Yes. My brother is supportive of me.”

“Oh my god, Lan Zhan that’s so nice! My brother told me to stop whining and do something otherwise he’d make me. At least my jiejie was nicer about this. And she’s supportive too.”

“Mn.” 

“But what about— you know. About everyone else? At Cloud Recesses.” Wei Wuxian asks. Lan Qiren approving might be one thing, but everyone else (even those who had no idea who Wei Wuxian was or didn’t even know Hanguang-jun in person) might not…

“What about them?” Lan Zhan interrupts his thoughts. 

“Won’t they…?”

“I do not care.” Lan Zhan says firmly. 

Wei Wuxian can’t help but laugh at that. Lan Zhan is nothing if not determined, Wei Wuxian can tell from the hardness in his voice, and from the focus of his expression as he looks at Wei Wuxian, unblinking. 

“I guess we can take whatever comes when it comes, then.”

Lan Zhan nods, understanding. The “together” goes unsaid, Wei Wuxian thinks. They exchange smiles, Wei Wuxian’s bright and contagious, and Lan Zhan’s small but fond. 

They’ll definitely get there. Wei Wuxian knows it’s not a safe road he’s walking on, but it’s definitely somewhere he wants to go. And it seems Lan Zhan wants it too. They can deal with whatever comes their way together. 

Lan Zhan checks again if Wei Wuxian is okay, and he explains that he was just really exhausted after dealing with everything at work. And then his stomach takes the completely opportune moment to growl loudly. 

Lan Zhan stares at him, then looks down at his stomach. 

“Oh, yeah, and I probably haven’t eaten anything since yesterday?” Wei Wuxian pats his stomach to calm it down. 

“It was too hectic to remember, then when I got home I just slept, and I went to work this morning, and kinda, fell down, I guess.” Wei Wuxian shrugs, not looking Lan Zhan in the eye, knowing the disapproval he will see there. He already knows what disapproval will sound like in Lan Zhan’s voice when he forgets to take care of himself. He does not need to know how it’ll look when those honey colored eyes judge him. 

All of a sudden, a brown paper bag is thrust into his hands. 

Wei Wuxian looks at it. It was the one Lan Zhan was carrying at his door. 

“What’s this?”

“I forgot. Was supposed to give it to you earlier. It is known that we should not come to others’ house empty-handed.”

“What? Lan Zhan, you brought me a gift just for coming over?”

“It is important.”

Wei Wuxian laughs. The bag is heavy. “May I?”

Lan Zhan nods. 

He peels off the tape closing the bag together, and looks inside to find… three bottles of chili oil. 

Wei Wuxian lets out an excited huff and a loud shout. “Lan Zhan!”

He looks up and sees Lan Zhan looking at him, his eyebrows slightly closer together than normal, and his bottom lip slightly pursed. Was he nervous?

“How did you know?”

“You told me you like spicy food.”

Wei Wuxian can’t even remember when he told Lan Zhan that specifically. 

“And Jin Ling mentioned which brand you liked best.” 

“Ahhh that nephew of mine. He does like me after all!” Wei Wuxian coos, picking one of the bottles out to check that yes, this is the brand he normally uses. “And you, Lan Zhan! This is a one-way ticket straight into my heart, you know that, right?”

Lan Zhan’s ears do that cute reddening thing again. He nods imperceptibly, and then says, “I’m glad.”

Lan Zhan insists on making him eat, which, yeah, he definitely could do with some food. And then because he has no idea what is going on, Lan Zhan ends up in his kitchen, cooking for him. 

Wei Wuxian had freaked out at first, but Lan Zhan had just given him one of his tiny smiles and said, “I owe you a lunch, remember?”

It was almost two now, but that obviously didn’t matter. 

Lan Zhan had asked for an apron, but Wei Wuxian didn’t own one because he doesn’t live like that, and said so. Lan Zhan sighs and just starts poking around his fridge for ingredients. It’s a good thing it’s only midweek so he does have some groceries left, albeit a sad selection of it. 

Wei Wuxian watches Lan Zhan cook, settling himself leaning against the countertop while he jabbers on. Lan Zhan seems to be able to handle both cooking and entertaining him at the same time. It’s pretty elegant, the way Lan Zhan cracks an egg with one large hand, his long fingers manipulating the eggshells open. Wei Wuxian thinks he could watch this forever. And the domesticity of it all squeezes something in his chest, refusing to let go. 

Within twenty minutes, Lan Zhan is ready with two omelettes of different sizes, and a side of tossed salad from some leftover greens his jiejie had given him last weekend when he was busy working. 

They eat in front of the couch at Wei Wuxian’s cluttered old coffee table (he had to push all the magazines and one or two sketchbooks aside to make space), and Wei Wuxian felt bad that Lan Zhan was going to sit on his floor, but Lan Zhan waved him off and just sat down, crossing his legs in his expensive dress pants. 

Lan Zhan pushes the much larger omelette in front of Wei Wuxian. 

“To make up for this morning and last night.” 

Wei Wuxian doesn’t argue. The omelette is light and fluffy, and filled with a mixture of diced tomatoes, small potato cubes and chopped broccoli. He didn’t realize how really hungry he was until the smell of freshly cooked food was floating around his living room. 

Lan Zhan watches him eat as he had watched Lan Zhan cook. There was an almost-smile there, and Wei Wuxian could tell that he looked pleased. There’s leftover potatoes and scrambled egg left, and he finishes that off too. 

All the while, their conversation doesn’t stop, just like it didn’t stop over the phone. It’s a familiar and at the same time, new situation for both of them; familiar voices, but now with an actual presence beside each other. 

Wei Wuxian could get used to this. 

And judging by the contented look on Lan Zhan’s face, he could too. 

They talk for hours, about everything and nothing at the same time. It’s hard to know when to stop, when he feels so comfortable.

And then Lan Zhan says, “Wei Ying, I want to show you something.”

“Huh?”

“… it is at my apartment.”

Wei Wuxian throws Lan Zhan the slyest side-eye he can. “You wanna repeat that?”

“I want to show you something in my apartment.”

Wow, is he thinking too much? Or did Lan Zhan just invite him over to his place?

Oh well. He was always a firm believer of trying new things, and going to new places. This counted, right?

“Sure!” He beams. 

*****

Mudan Heights, 18th Floor, Lan Wangji’s Apartment

Lan Wangji is nervous, and he wonders if Wei Ying can tell. 

He fumbles for his keys just a little, while Wei Ying looks around the carpeted floor of the corridor in awe. It was a nice apartment, Lan Wangji knew, one of the nicer blocks of the district. 

He glances at the other man as he turns the lock open. Wei Ying is currently looking like he might take off his boots just to feel the carpet under his toes. 

Lan Wangji ushers Wei Ying inside, where they remove their shoes together. 

It is a strange sensation. He does this routinely with Sizhui all the time — whenever they come home together, and he does not think twice about it. Here, while Lan Wangji slips out of his dress shoes and Wei Ying is holding onto the door frame for support while removing his boots, he thinks this is something he wants in his future. This routine, with this person. 

Wei Ying looks around the apartment in quiet awe, and Lan Wangji lets him. It is not much bigger than Wei Ying’s, but definitely much neater. Lan Wangji was raised to keep things where they belonged, to return things to the places they are taken from, to organize and maintain balance. A clean home is a stable home, after all. And in turn Sizhui learned to do the same. 

Stepping into Wei Ying’s apartment this afternoon had been… fascinating. His home was just like his workroom, organized chaos in which only the owner could decipher. And it spoke volumes about the owner’s personality. 

Lan Wangji frowns now. Thinking about Wei Ying’s home and comparing it to his. Decidedly, his apartment fell rather short in terms of having character. He wonders if Sizhui has ever felt this way about living like this with his father. 

But just having Wei Ying here changes that. He gravitates towards one of the few decorative pieces of art on a short bookshelf — a misshapen vase or cup (Lan Wangji still does not know which) that Sizhui had made in elementary school. It was a shade of bright blue with random white paint blots on it. 

Lan Wangji thinks it might have been clouds that Sizhui tried to paint on it. 

Next to it is a framed photo from around eight years ago and Wei Ying takes a closer look, careful not to touch. He looks at Lan Zhan. 

“My son.” 

It was a photo taken on Sizhui’s 12th birthday. His son could not remember his biological parents, but he could remember his own birth date. 

Lan Wangji still remembers that day — it was one of the happiest of his life. He had been agonizing over what to give the boy, and had thought of something that both terrified him and warmed his heart, the former if Sizhui rejected it, and the latter if Sizhui had accepted it. 

( He had wanted to propose a formal adoption of the boy. His A-Yuan had been with him for almost eight years, but they have never mentioned adoption. But the more he thought about it, the more Lan Wangji was sure it was something he wanted too. Very much so. 

After cutting his son’s favourite carrot cake, he had told A-Yuan about it. The boy was silent, but said he had a surprise of his own. Lan Wangji had worried so much that he was being rejected, but then he was presented with a large brown envelope, and in it was a thick stack of adoption papers. 

Everything inside was filled, left only with a blank for the adopting parent’s signature, and another blank for the child’s courtesy name. Lan Wangji had felt his eyes growing hot. 

“This is… A-Yuan, how did you get this?” Lan Wangji had flipped through the folder in complete shock. 

Little A-Yuan had climbed onto the couch next to him and hugged his arm. “For us. So we can be official! I asked Xichen-bofu to help me, and he got a layer and everything!”

Lan Wangji bites his tongue. “A lawyer?”

“Yes! One of those! All you have to do is sign!”

And he did. And he gave A-Yuan his courtesy name and wrote it down on the document. 

They had set up the camera to take the photo of them. Lan Wangji holding his son close, and Lan Sizhui holding up a piece of carrot cake. )

He tells Wei Ying a shorter version of the story, and Wei Ying listens with rapt attention. He puts the frame down. 

“That’s so sweet, Lan Zhan! So where’s your little A-Yuan? Will I get to see him?” 

Lan Wangji tries to control himself. He had wanted to come clean with Wei Ying about everything, who he was and what he worked as, and that also means telling Wei Ying about Sizhui. 

Wei Ying looks one last time at the photo. Lan Wangji controls himself from letting any emotion on his face. He is sure that Wei Ying is able to read him pretty fluently after talking and staring at each other for the past five hours. Lan Wangji is confident that when Wei Ying finds out, he will find it just as amusing as his brother does. 

It is a little past six in the evening now, and Sizhui should be home any moment, if he is not already. Lan Wangji nods. “He should be home soon.”

Wei Ying nods enthusiastically. 

“There is something I want to show you before that.”

“What is it?”

Lan Wangji leads him first into the kitchen to get some fresh cut cucumbers, and then into the study. 

Inside, the rabbits rustle inside their hutch, which they always do when they hear father or son come in. Their pen is made up of a thin metal grill, so they can still see outside it. 

Wei Ying looks at the pen curiously and then back at Lan Wangji. He hands him some of the cucumber sticks. 

“Go ahead.”

They approach the pen quietly together, and Lan Wangji dangles a stick of cucumber outside the hutch. Wei Ying does the same, and not long after, two little noses sniff their way out, coming out for the treat. 

“Lan Zhan.” Wei Ying whispers, looking at the two rabbits. He notices right away. 

“These are the rabbits…?”

“The ones you saved, yes.” 

Wei Ying’s eyes go round as saucers, just as Lan Wangji hears the front door open and close. Perfect timing. 

“But I thought they were… that Sizhui adopted them?” Wei Ying flounders for a bit. “How did you get them? You know I was thinking of asking you, but then I thought you might have been too busy with your son’s friends coming over that time and—”

“Wei Ying. I know. I’m glad you thought of me.”

“B-But then how did—?”

The study room door opens. “Dad! Are you home yet? I thought I saw your shoes outs—”

If it was possible, Wei Ying’s eyes grow even rounder. 

“Senior Wei!” Sizhui squeaks. The highest Lan Wangji remembers it being since his voice broke during puberty. 

Lan Wangji tries to stifle his laughter but fails. He lets out the softest laugh, and lets his barriers down, knowing that even if his laugh is not particularly loud like Wei Ying’s, his own eyes definitely show it. 

“Lan Zhan! What the—”

“Wei Ying.” Lan Wangji interrupts, giving Sizhui a small pat on his shoulder. “This is my son. A-Yuan, courtesy name Sizhui. I think you know each other.”

Wei Ying just bursts out laughing, cogs clicking into place as he runs through a rambling tirade of, “What, isn’t he like, ten?”

“Okay, this makes so much sense now, like why would a ten-year-old make you lunch, right? That’s way too dangerous.” 

“And oh my god, so I bought Sizhui two drinks that day? Don’t tell me you drank it all, you’re always too calm for your own good.”

“Right, I totally see the resemblance now. You know when I met you, Sizhui, I did think of Lan Zhan, you were so calm and quiet and oh my god so your son isn’t ten .”

“Senior Wei. I’m twenty.” Sizhui sighs, but the look he is giving Wei Ying is one of affection. “You were right, you’re so bad with ages. First you forget Jin Ling’s, and now mine.”

“Wow, so you know how to tease your seniors now, huh?” Wei Ying gives Sizhui’s head a quick ruffle. 

He looks back Lan Wangji. “I still don’t know what is going on but I’m pretty happy right now.”

Lan Wangji says serenely, “They were trying to get us together.”

“Oh, that I know. They’ve been my number one fans since day one, eh?”

Lan Wangji raises an eyebrow and looks at his son. Sizhui scrunches up his nose slightly and says, “We just knew about Senior Wei’s mystery IT boyfriend and we were cheering him on.”

“So... is that me? The mystery IT boyfriend?” Lan Wangji points at himself and asks nonchalantly. 

Sizhui’s eyes widen at Lan Wangji. 

“Maybe. Or you could just be the boyfriend… if you want.”

Sizhui’s wide eyes turn to Wei Ying. 

“I think… I’ll go get dinner started, Dad. Um. See you outside when you’re ready?”

“Mn.” Lan Wangji nods, he turns back to the other man in the room, not taking his eyes off Wei Ying as the study door closes gently with a click. 

“I think I would like that.”

“Me too.”

“Very much.”

“Same.” 

They stand in silence for a few more seconds, then Lan Wangji says, “Would you like to stay for dinner?”

“Aw, Lan Zhan! You don’t even have to ask!” Wei Ying starts to glow like a pine tree on Christmas Eve. “Do you have chili oil?”

“We will have to get some for the future.”

“I can wait for that.”

Lan Wangji nods, a small smile forming. “Shall we help Sizhui with dinner.”

Wei Ying nods back, grinning cheekily. “Of course! He kinda owes me a lunch too!” 

“Mn.” Lan Wangji reaches the door to open it, then feels something warm slip into his other hand. It clasps gently around his fingers, and a small explosion of warmth fills his palm. 

He looks down at it to find Wei Ying’s hand, snug inside his own, as though they were made just for holding each other. Lan Wangji squeezes his hold a little, and he receives a squeeze back. 

They walk out to the kitchen together, hand in hand, where they find Sizhui not actually preparing nor cooking anything, the kitchen still as clean and untouched as they had left it this morning. 

He’s standing in the middle of the kitchen, leaning on the island counter and texting furiously. 

“Sizhui?” Lan Wangji calls quietly, hoping not to startle his son. 

“Oh! Hey! Dad. And Senior Wei. I was just…” 

“Just…?”

Lan Wangji looks at his son. Lan Wangji might allow chatter during meals, but some rules were non-negotiable. Like telling the truth when asked by your father. 

“I was just… Updating. Jingyi and the guys.” Sizhui deflates a little. “About… all this.” He waves his hands in their general direction. 

“Oh!” Wei Ying perks up. “Come on! That’s not enough!”

He lifts up Lan Wangji’s hand in his and shoves it towards Sizhui. 

“Wei Ying!” Lan Wangji says, louder than he intended, shocked by the sudden pull.

“Send them a photo! This is real proof!” 

Before Lan Wangji can protest, his son snaps a quick picture with his cell phone and presses a few quick keys. Sizhui’s eyes are twinkling, definitely amused at his father’s expense. 

Lan Wangji closes his eyes for a second. At least his son is supportive of him and Wei Ying. Wei Ying cheers loudly and Lan Wangji sighs again. He looks pointedly at Sizhui and says, “Tell them I do not want to see this on social media. Especially Lan Jingyi.”

*****

Dinner flies by, and Sizhui goes back into his room to work on one of his side university projects, leaving the two of them alone. 

Lan Wangji takes out some dried lotus root chips for Wei Ying to nibble along with their pu’erh tea. He does not blame Wei Ying for still being peckish. 

In the future, he will need to have a larger stash of snacks kept in his kitchen. That and chili oil. And some rice wine. He has heard Wei Ying tell him enough about that over the phone to know that the man enjoys his liquor, though he is too polite to ask Lan Wangji if he has any, knowing well that he does not drink. 

For the first time, he almost wishes he does not have to go to work tomorrow. If he could just stay here forever like this, watching Wei Ying feeding the rabbits with cucumber while feeding himself lotus root chips, he would be very content, indeed. 

Wei Ying looks up at him from the white rabbit in his lap, and gives him the brightest smile yet. “Hey, Lan Zhan!” 

“Mn.” 

“I totally didn’t see this coming at all, you know.”

“What?”

“That our first date would be nearly eight hours long.” Wei Ying smirks. “Or that we’d start at my shabby apartment and end up in your fancy one.”

Lan Wangji feels his face warm. First date?

It has been more than a month since they have known each other, less than a day since they have seen each other, and less than three hours since they declared themselves boyfriends . 

“You’re blushing again.”

“I am not.” Lan Wangji says. It is not a lie if he believes in it. 

Wei Ying giggles and pops the rest of the lotus root chip into his mouth, crunching them loudly. Lan Wangji picks one chip up to chew on. 

First date.

And it definitely will not be the last. 

~ Epilogue ~

Three years later

Mudan Heights, 18th Floor, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian’s Apartment

Sizhui and his father wait patiently outside their front door. 

It has been nearly six months since Wei Wuxian moved in with them, and every weekday morning they end up waiting for him at the door without fail. 

“I’m done! I’m ready! Coming!” Wei-ge pushes his backpack into Sizhui’s arms to hold, bending down to lace his combat boots while his dad closes the door behind them and locks up, pocketing the key neatly into his wallet. 

“Okay, let’s go!” Wei-ge chants. He grabs his backpack from Sizhui and bundles towards the elevator like an overenthusiastic child waiting for their first day of school. 

The same as every morning, he is the last to get ready but the first inside the elevator. 

Sizhui chuckles, and sees the fondness in his father’s eyes as he says, “Wei Ying.” 

His father has never been happier. 

Back when he was first found, Sizhui had thought that he was taken in by this strong and silent man, always there to make sure that Sizhui was safe, but not saying a word the entire time. And then gradually, the man began to let go, little by little. He was still quiet, but not as guarded. He would laugh when Sizhui told a joke, or turn fierce when Sizhui told him about bullies at school. His emotions were always something that was hidden from everyone else, but not Sizhui. 

And then three years ago, Sizhui had thought that that man was back. The strong, silent, guarded man he knew as a child. He had tried not to show it, but Sizhui knew his father was upset, and possibly hurting. 

His uncle had said it was because of matters of the heart, and Sizhui knew immediately where his father’s heart was. 

As an intern, he could only do so much. But as a son, he could look to others who loved his father as much as he did to actually help. His uncle, for one. Yanyun-jie, his father’s secretary and personal assistant. And then Yang-yi as well. And his friends — now his best friends. They all tried. 

So seeing his father now, with someone who loves him back in that way — it was pretty nice. Nice because he knew his father was full of love, even if he didn’t show it. And Wei-ge was the only person other than himself, who was able to draw that love out, that shone in his eyes and in his almost-smile and the gentle touch of his hand. 

It was a noticeable change. Everyone at work noticed it sooner or later before they finished their internship, even if not all of them knew the reason why. 

And by the time Sizhui, Zizhen and Jingyi had graduated from university and joined the Cloud Recesses as official employees just a year before, everyone already thought of Hanguang-jun and Wei Wuxian’s office whirlwind romance as old news. 

Even in the Finance department where he now worked, Sizhui did not get as many questions as he used to about Hanguang-jun, like “What’s he like at home?” and “Didn’t you know how cold and untouchable he used to be just a few years back?”

Sizhui also heard from Zizhen, who was having the time of his life working under Wei-ge in Marketing, that their department was so sick of listening to Wei Wuxian wax poetic about the love of his life Hanguang-jun that everyone would constantly remind and warn each other not to mention the IT director, before another round of How-much-can-Wei-Wuxian-talk-about-Lan-Wangji-before-everyone-begs-to-be-sent-back-to-work takes place. 

Which is a brilliant strategy to encourage workplace productivity, if Sizhui does say so himself. 

Zizhen’s favourite story to tell, of course, was that one time after Wei Wuxian was being his usual cheerful and annoying self during a department meeting, when Su She had stood up and asked Wei-ge to shut up. 

And even then that didn’t deter Wei Wuxian from being a minor annoyance to everyone around him. But he was friendly, and fun, and he got the job done (as Jingyi liked to say), and so most people overlooked the annoying part in exchange for the pleasant workplace environment and encouraging attitudes. 

Having interned under Wei-ge himself, Sizhui could attest to that.

Zizhen was particularly pleased to talk about how Lan Shenghan himself had asked Su She if he had anything against Hanguang-jun and Wei Wuxian talking about him, and Su She had just sat down in a huff, denying everything, when the whole department (or rather company) knew he was still sore about Hanguang-jun being better than him at almost everything when they came into Cloud Recesses together, and then being the one to expose Su She’s mediocre attempts at treachery and lies, and then finally for falling in love with the one person in the office he hated the most, who also now happened to be his boss. 

Jingyi, who was also in Marketing, but in the Events team, had laughed so hard at that. And at this point, the two of them in Marketing were more respected after one year of being juniors there than Su She had ever been in the past fifteen years. 

Jin Ling, when he heard, was positively grinning from ear to ear. “Serves him right.” He had said, and then later added hurriedly, “Don’t tell dajiu I said that. He’s annoying enough as it is when he thinks I don’t like him.”

And the three of them would always nag at him to graduate from university and do well, so he can come back to Cloud Recesses with all of them; having a completed internship there is already a shoe-in. 

“As long as I don’t end up in dajiu’s department. Sounds like hell.”

Sizhui recalls that night last week when all four of them hung out for the first time in a month. The office gossip was always there, but the three of them made a point of collecting the most ridiculous ones for Jin Ling for when they finally meet him. 

And some of them were really ridiculous. Like how Creative Director Wei had apparently gone out of his way to plant little origami rabbits all over the IT floors for the last Qixi festival for Hanguang-jun to find, and up till now, the programmers and tech support staff were still finding random paper rabbits tucked in odd places like behind their large cloud server hardware, sitting atop some random wall sockets that wasn’t in use anymore, or slotted in between some poor IT technician’s stack of post-its. 

And when they found out from Wei-ge that that one was actually true, Jin Ling had rolled his eyes and looked at Jingyi, saying, “Are you proud, Lan Jingyi? You created that.”

Sizhui smiles to himself, sitting in the back of his father’s car, thinking of all the funny things that have happened and the sheer chaos that Wei Wuxian has brought into their lives since 1) he is no longer shuttered away in his workroom, and 2) he has the undying love of one senior management figure and his son, and 3) he also has the popularity vote with most of the company (minus one grumpy Chairman — Sizhui will secretly apologize to his granduncle for that one). 

Wei-ge is in the passenger seat, chattering away as usual, and Sizhui’s father is multitasking rather well, listening to his boyfriend and driving them to work at the same time. 

He catches Sizhui looking at him in the rear view mirror. He doesn’t say anything, but his eyebrows raise just a millimeter in question. Sizhui shakes his head, still smiling, to indicate that nothing is wrong, and his father’s gaze softens. He nods once and focuses back on the road. 

Once they reach the office and have the car parked, Wei-ge is doing his usual run through of plans for the day, since he tends to forget them. They walk together towards the elevator lobby. 

“Anything on for dinner tonight?” Wei-ge asks, his face showing that he remembers having something planned, but not knowing exactly what. 

“We’re meeting Yang-yi and Jin Ling’s parents for dinner, right?” Sizhui prompts. “At their new restaurant.”

It turns out that Yang-yi was elementary school classmates with Jin Ling’s father, so of course his mother insisted they all meet up for dinner one night. Jin Ling will be there too, so Sizhui is glad for someone else there being his age. 

“Oh, right, yes, of course, I remember that.” Wei-ge laughs. Sizhui and his father share a look that conveys to each other just how little they believe that. 

They enter together, and Sizhui presses the buttons for the 19th, 23rd, and 33rd floors. All this while, Wei-ge hasn’t stopped. 

“... so I’ll be done with the meeting by eleven. Will probably reach back here at twelve, and I can pop by for lunch! Your office or mine?”

“Mine.” 

“I’ll pick up some food on the way back then!” Wei-ge declares. “Sizhui, wanna join us?”

“It’s alright, Wei-ge. I’m having lunch with Zizhen and Jingyi.”

“Ah, those two! Don’t worry, I promise I won’t hold them back too late!” 

Sizhui chuckles and watches as the elevator rises closer to their destinations. 

“We will see you after work, then.” His father says. 

“Mn!” Sizhui nods.

“Five-thirty!” Wei-ge says, as though he wasn’t the one who had just forgotten about their dinner plans earlier.

The elevator stops at the 19th floor and opens its doors to the Finance department. Sizhui steps out of it, waving as he goes. 

He turns back to catch a glimpse of his father and his… almost-father (by this point he kinda sees them as both of his dads) and he watches them wave bye to him at the same time, before their hands find each other, and the elevator door shuts. 

It’s something he sees nearly everyday now when they go to work together, and along with Wei-ge’s satisfied grin and the look of contentment on his father’s face, Lan Sizhui thinks it is something he hopes he’ll see for many years to come. 

~ The End ~