Wei Wuxian held A-Yuan's hand as they crossed the street to the small park that he had been practicing his sword forms in. A shift must have let out nearby, because there were a lot of cars going past. The idea of Wen Yuan sneaking out to see him while Wen Popo was sleeping, navigating the traffic on his own, when most drivers might not have even seen him had his chest constricting.
"A-Yuan," Wei Wuxian said once they were safely into the park. "Promise me you'll let Popo know before coming out to see me. If she's too tired, I can come pick you up, ok?"
"Mmhm. Are you going to show me the dances now, Xian-gege?"
Wei Wuxian was not sure how committed Wen Yuan was to following the 'no sneaking off' rule, but he would try to keep reinforcing it.
"These are special dances, called sword forms," Wei Wuxian said. Many of the sword forms that Wei Wuxian practiced were Jiang. But he had lost the right to teach those to anyone else. He could not teach Wen Yuan the Jiang forms. But he could teach him other, more basic things that he'd learned before he joined the Jiang.
"Swords like cultivators carry?"
"Yep! That's right. But before you can carry a real sword, you have to practice, so you don't accidentally cut someone or yourself. Cultivator swords need even more practice."
"Because you have to use your golden core for them, right?" Wen Yuan asked.
Wei Wuxian should not be surprised that the child had heard of golden cores already. His last name was that of one of the 5 great sects, and he lived with Wen Qing, who studied golden cores for a living.
Still, he had to fight the flinch at the mention.
"Yeah. That's right. You have to have a golden core to use a spiritual sword." Wei Wuxian managed to keep his tone light and his face neutral as he said the words, ignoring the way the empty space inside him seemed to throb at its name being called, and the way his empty hand missed the familiar weight of Suibian.
"Qing-JieJie says that—when I'm older—I can test for being placed in one of the apprentice classes if I want to, and learn how to cultivate. But I have to be at least 6."
Wei Wuxian nodded. Most sects took disciples starting at the age of 6 or 7. The general belief was that younger children did not develop golden cores well, as their bodies were still learning general motor and language control.
"My mother started teaching me when I was about three. Not the sword forms, exactly, but some things that helped me form a golden core pretty early. But I didn't start sword forms until I was almost eight."
"How come?" Wen Yuan asked.
Wei Wuxian deflected, not wanting to get into his whole messy past. "Ah. Long, boring story. Do you want to practice with me?"
Wen Yuan nodded. "Can you teach me how to build my golden core like your mamma taught you?"
"We'd need to ask your Popo and Qing-jie for permission. But I can show you some of the forms for now."
Wen Yuan paused, as though considering whether or not to try to argue, but in the end agreed. They lost track of time, with Wei Wuxian working on his own core training exercises but also helping correct Wen Yuan's form and demonstrating different moves.
The late spring sun was warm, with a light breeze to keep them from getting too hot. Wei Wuxian relaxed into the familiar role of teacher, encouraging and teasing A-Yuan until they were both laughing too hard to maintain proper breath control.
It was the best afternoon he'd had in a long time.
They hadn't brought any snacks or water with them, so it was less than two hours when Wen Yuan announced he was thirsty and they had to head back.
When they came into the apartment, Wen Ning was still resting and Wen Popo was sitting at the small desk with three small, neat stacks of Wei Wuxian's notes and designs and one larger, messy one that she appeared to still be sorting through.
Wen Yuan looked over at Wen Ning, then said in a whisper (which was actually as loud as a regular speaking voice, but he was at least trying), "Popo. I'm thirsty. Is there juice?"
Wei Wuxian knew for a fact that he did not have any juice in his fridge (and wondered, with a sort of painful hope, if he should start stocking it… if A-Yuan would be over enough for him to do that). Wen Popo had clearly come prepared, as she pulled out a juice box from her large purse while they removed their shoes.
"Here you go, A-Yuan. Now, why don't you go sit quietly on the couch and watch some videos on my phone."
Wen Popo handed him her phone, which he happily accepted with the juice box, and went to sit on the sofa as instructed.
"Ah. Yuan-er is such a good kid," Wei Wuxian said, watching as Wen Yuan wriggled his way to sitting on the sofa, his little legs barely clearing the seat cushion, much less touching the ground. "He was, um, asking if I could help him build up his golden core."
Wen Popo raised her eyebrows. "He's only four. We were going to allow him to begin training at six, if he was accepted into the Lan outer disciple class."
Wei Wuxian wondered why they were thinking of having him train with the Lan, when his last name was Wen. But given Wen Qing and her brother had decided to live and work here, there probably was a reason. Wei Wuxian was the last person to throw stones about leaving one's home sect.
"I started learning at three, from my mother. Qing-jie says the base of my golden core was formed by the age of four, and it was fully developed by the time I was seven, before I ever joined the… a sect."
Wen Popo's eyes widened, then looked sad. "You must have had a very powerful core, in that case."
Wei Wuxian knew he couldn't say much about it, but he nodded.
"Hmph," she said, a spark of anger in her expression. "Well, if that's the case, I have no issue with you teaching our little A-Yuan. In our sect, they don't think kids can focus or sit still enough for earlier training to have much of an impact."
Wei Wuxian shrugged. "I was never one for sitting still. But the method my mother used didn't need me to."
Wen Popo looked curiously at him. "I'm guessing that's part of the research my A-Qing is doing with you."
Wei Wuxian didn't know what he was allowed to say or not, but Popo didn't need a response.
"Well. You clearly don't need this old woman's advice on building back your core. I never had much strength in that area, anyway. Where you clearly do need my advice is on how to protect your inventions and actually get paid for them. Starting with the fact that—until these are patented—you should never just leave them with someone you barely know! I could have walked out of your apartment with the whole stack of them and filed patents on them, claiming them as mine, and you'd have no way to prove otherwise!"
Wei Wuxian blinked. It had never occurred to him that his talismans were valuable enough for someone to bother stealing. "You'd have to pay a lot of money to patent and register them. I mean… it's not like I can afford that. As long as people can make use of them, I don't really care. They're just… ideas."
Wen Popo sighed. "Child. Ideas are worth things . Do you have any idea how the real world works at all? Do you have any idea how much money the Jin sect makes on its butterfly talisman? Or how many night hunts the Lan are called in for based on their proprietary techniques to communicate with the dead?"
Wei Wuxian honestly had no idea, which must have been clear on his face because the old woman let out a tired sigh.
"A-Ying. You will never have to join a sect or worry about rent or food again if we can get even a handful of these patented and sold. For the simple ones, like the food preservation talisman…," she gestured to one of the piles. He recognized the talisman on top as another one of his ideas for manipulating how much an object weighed, so it would be easier to move large things. "... or other ideas that don't have a cultivation use, but would have civilian applications, you would need to market to the general population. You can outsource the production of it, or hire cultivators to help you make them if it really takes off. But if you sell enough of them, it can make you a solid income. Even if you only make a single ¥ off each sale, if you sell a thousand a month, you've got a solid income."
"If there was any money in this, then wouldn't some other sect have already patented it? It's a pretty basic idea," Wei Wuxian said.
"Basic for you, maybe. But most people couldn't have come up with this, especially not in so short a time. Besides, cultivators don't really bother with the problems of regular civilians. Even if they thought of it, most would consider things like this beneath them," Wen Popo said. "But that doesn't mean there's no money in it. Where modern science can't fix a problem, cultivation sometimes can. And the same is true for talisman use in cultivation. Usually, cultivators use other methods, drawing off their cores. After all, what's the point of spending all that time cultivating a golden core if you can get the same results without one? But there are still times when talismans are used in the sects as well. When other cultivation methods fail. Those cases are more rare, but there can be a lot of money involved."
She gestured to a second stack of Wei Wuxian's talismans. "It doesn't have to be a talisman. Any secret techniques are valued. Things that other cultivation sects can't do. The Lan are most known for this, between their chord assassination technique and things like Inquiry. But I've never seen anything like the ideas you've drawn out here. Decide which ones you want to use for your own proprietary cultivation, or which you want to sell to the sects."
"Sell to the sects?" Wei Wuxian asked.
Wen Popo nodded. "The Jin charge each sect a licensing fee, based on the number of members of the sect, to use their butterfly talisman design. I don't know the exact amount these days, but it's a lot . The same with the design of the qiankun bags. The reason those bags are so expensive is that no one knows how to make them other than the small company that produces them. So they can charge what they want."
Wei Wuxian nodded slowly, his mind turning over the possibilities of the different ideas he'd worked on. Qiankun bags were started at 10,000 ¥. Only the richest cultivators and largest sects could afford them.
Of course, not many inventions were so useful that someone could charge that much. But he had never really thought about his ideas in that light. It felt like it must be a trick, to be able to make money off something that was just a hobby for him. In his experience, life just didn't work that way.
"Most of this, I was just messing around. Sometimes it was because I needed it on a night hunt. I never really thought about whether anyone would pay for it or not."
"Hm," Wen Popo said, disapprovingly. "It's no wonder your former sect's finances are in a mess, if this is the sort of care they take with their assets."
Wei Wuxian flinched at the reminder of the Jiang. As First Disciple, should he have been more assertive to figure this out? Maybe Madam Yu would have been less angry with him if he'd made her sect rich.
"Whatever you're thinking, stop," Wen Popo said. "I happen to be related to your getaway driver. You were not in a position to change the overall culture of the sect. That can only come from the top. It's the same reason I'm here, along with A-Qing, A-Ning and the others. Whatever we thought or wanted, we answered to Wen Ruohan when we lived under his domain."
Wei Wuxian wasn't sure it really let him off the hook, but he understood that it would have been very hard to convince Madam Yu of anything.
"The past is the past. What we need to do now is form a plan," Wen Popo said brusquely. "You have some good ideas. I haven't even gotten through them all, but there are already some that I know you could sell. We need to get them patented and registered before you start showing them off. But you don't make money just from having a patent. You need to get a market for it. Most cultivators belong to a sect that does that for them, but you don't. So we need to find a way to get people to find you. I don't know how it all works these days, but social media seems to have made people a lot less talented than you famous. And let's not even get started about that face of yours."
Wei Wuxian felt his cheeks heat. He liked to flirt as much as (probably more than) the next guy, but there was something about hearing Wen Popo talk about it that made him flustered.
"I c-could help," Wen Ning said from the bed.
Wen Ning's color was looking much better than before as he sat up, with none of the shakiness that had gripped him earlier.
"There are different a-algorithms that platforms use that increase your chances of going viral. I c-could help you set it up."
Wei Wuxian felt almost light-headed. Things were moving so fast, and he felt like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. It couldn't possibly be this easy to make a living, to get himself free from Madam Yu's shadow.
"And you're sure that none of these were registered with your old sect?" Wen Popo asked.
Wei Wuxian pulled out the documentation that his shidi had provided, handing it to her without comment.
She skimmed it quickly, then muttered something about shortsighted clan leaders before handing it back.
"Our first order of business is to get at least the first batch patented, based on the ones you want to showcase in your videos. I'd do a mix that have some use for night-hunts, and some for civilian use."
"I don't really know how many chances for night-hunts I'll get until I can make a name for myself." Wei Wuxian said. He then explained about the research he had done earlier that day, and his thoughts about trying for a moonshot night hunt to try to break through the noise.
"Can I night hunt with you, Wei-gege?" Wen Yuan asked, the mention of night hunting having distracted him from the cartoon he was watching on Wen Popo's phone.
"Not until you're older," Wei Wuxian said. Wen Yuan looked unhappy at this. "Remember how we said first you have to learn the sword forms without a sword, and build your core, before you can use a spiritual sword?"
Wen Yuan gave a disappointed sigh. "But Wei-gege will teach me?"
"As long as you don't keep sneaking off during naptime," Wen Popo said sternly.
Wen Yuan giggled, then went back to whatever he had been watching on the phone, now that the chance of night hunting was off the table.
"Are you a good enough cultivator to try for one of the top kill spots?" Wen Popo asked sternly. "It won't do you any good to get famous by getting yourself killed doing something reckless."
"I couldn't do anything that required a lot of brute strength right now. But if there's something I can outsmart or use my talismans on, then yeah. I could handle it."
The hard part would be knowing the difference before he was neck deep in the hunt, but that was Future Wei Ying's problem.
Wen Popo gave him a stern look, as though reading his thoughts. "Before you go rushing off on a night hunt, you should set up an appointment with that pretty blind doctor that A-Qing works with. He'll have some pointers on things to look out for that you might not have had to worry about before."
Wei Wuxian agreed that Xiao XingChen probably would be a good person to talk with. He didn't want to get a claim to fame by being hurt in a stupid, avoidable way. Probably the first few videos should not be livestreamed, until he figured out what his limits were. He'd have to worry about things like cuts getting infected, and broken bones taking weeks or months to heal instead of days.
He couldn't afford to be injured for weeks, much less months.
"Fuck. I'm going to need actual gear," he sighed, then winced at the glare Popo shot him for using bad language in front of A-Yuan. Fortunately, the boy was absorbed in watching the small screen and had tuned them out.
"I can send you the links to the top channels and streamers," Wen Ning said. "Though most of those come from the sects. So they… are more produced. But there are also some civilian channels, and those can be pretty big as well. M-maybe we can find a way to get an audience without you needing to do something dangerous."
Wei Wuxian felt suddenly exhausted, and somewhat over his head. Head-to-head against established sects felt like a pretty uphill battle when he couldn't even afford a single set of cultivation robes. Much less whatever other equipment he was going to need.
He smiled at Wen Ning in a way he hoped was convincing. "Ok, cool. I'll check them out tonight."
"In the meantime, pick five talismans that you think you'd use on night hunts. And two or three with civilian uses that you think could sell. It will take some time to get the paperwork filed, and I want to have everything in order before you go live with any of this."
"Popo. I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I can't even afford one patent, much less 7 or 8."
"Do you think I'm hard of hearing? I know you don't have any money, A-Ying. But I do."
Wei Wuxian opened his mouth to object, but Wen Popo lifted her hand to stop him. "Wen Ruohan and I didn't see eye to eye. So I retired earlier than I would have liked to. Because I'm still officially part of the sect, I can't really work with any of the other sects. And civilian law isn't the same as cultivator law, in terms of credentials. I'm too old to go back to school. I've been looking for a good investment opportunity to bolster my retirement plan," the old woman said. "I'll pay for the patents, and file them for you. You can give me 5% of the profits you make."
Wei Wuxian hesitated. "Five percent seems really low. What if it doesn't make the cost back? I should at least have to pay you back your investment, if I can't make it work."
Wen Popo gave him an exasperated look. "Remind me never to let you do any negotiations when it comes to selling these. A-Ying. That's how venture capital works . If you make it big, I still get 5%, which is way more than any interest rate I'd get if I loaned you the money straight-up. And I've been around long enough that I'm not worried about getting my money's worth out of this. If anything, you should be arguing me down. "
Wei Wuxian couldn't imagine a case where he'd want to screw over someone who was helping him out. "If it weren't for you, I never would have known to try to sell them for anything."
"And that thought will give me heartburn for the next week," Wen Popo said. "Now, pick which ones I'm filing, and we'll clean them up so I can get the paperwork filled out."
Wen Popo had already set the food preservation talisman aside. Wei Wuxian flipped through the remaining pile of non-cultivator talismans, but most required a spiritual power to activate. He'd need to think about it more.
The night-hunt talismans and designs were easier.
The compass of Evil, the binding/bonding talisman, the spirit lure talisman, and the spirit suppression array.
"These," he said, handing them to Wen Popo. "I need to think more about the others, but these I know I'll need on any night hunts I do with my core as low as it is right now."
Wen Popo looked them over and nodded. She asked him questions about each one, including possible variants. "It's a common tactic for cultivators to look through registered patents and then change one small thing and try to claim it as their own. So listing out all the potential variants ahead of time means you can patent them all as a bundle."
Wei Wuxian then wrote out a long list of potential variations on each one, documenting exactly how it would change the effect of the talsiman with each small change. When he was finished, he looked up to find Wen Popo staring at him in amazement.
"You just made all of that up, right now? On the spot?" she asked.
Wei Wuxian shrugged. "Yeah? I mean… it's not that hard. I just had to think about what changes would still make it viable, and list them out."
Wen Popo shook her head. "Well. At least I won't have to worry about running out of funds in my old age. You're going to put A-Yuan through college at this rate."
Wei Wuxian thought she was likely exaggerating, but he could see Wen Ning vigorously nodding his head, looking equally excited.
"Wei Laoshi is amazing," Wen Ning said.
"Hm. So it seems," Wen Popo said, gathering up the papers. "Well, I'll have plenty of work tonight to get these all written up. I'll have them filed within the next few days. It used to take weeks for them to hit the system, but now that everything's online, there will be a record of the patents being filed within a week. Even if it takes longer for them to get processed and approved in the registry, you're safe to use them once we have the filing number. No one can come and claim them after you have that."
A knock on the door signaled the arrival of Uncle Four and his car.
He gave Wei Wuxian an assessing look when he opened the door.
"Hmph. You're looking a lot better than the last time I saw you, kid. Thanks for taking care of our A-Ning for us while I was out on a run."
"A-Ying has offered to work with A-Yuan on developing his golden core," Wen Popo said, gathering up her things. "That little scamp has been sneaking out at naptime to watch A-Ying training in the park."
Uncle Four looked at all the papers Wen Popo was packing up.
"What's all this?" he asked.
Wen Popo gave a short laugh. "Our retirement, and a bit of karma coming back to bite his former sect."
Uncle Four looked like he still didn't understand, but allowed Wen Popo to herd them all out the door. Wen Ning took the camera, saying he would charge it tonight to see if it was damaged or just out of battery, and thanked Wei Wuxian again for letting him rest.
"Ayio, it was no big deal. I live right across the street. You can come by anytime you need a rest."
Uncle Four gave a short nod to Wei Wuxian. "Have A-Ning give you my number. If ever you need anything, or run into any trouble with anyone from your old sect, you just give me a call."
The gruff old man had a no-nonsense presence about him that filled Wei Wuxian with warmth. This was not a man who wore a facade or put on pretenses with people. Whatever this man had seen when he had driven Wei Wuxian away from the Jiang, he was firmly on Wei Wuxian's side. He might not know the full story of what had happened, but he was at least someone that Wei Wuxian didn't have to try to explain things to.
As the Wens left his apartment, he realized how lucky he'd been that he hadn't gotten the job at Cloud Recesses. He likely would have had to rearrange his schedule for when he came to get his tests done in the lab, and he wouldn't have been there for Wen Ning.
He wouldn't have had time to teach Wen Yuan the basics of cultivation in the afternoons.
He wouldn't have had to scramble to think of how to support himself, so he wouldn't have been talking about his talismans to Wen Popo. If she was right—and he was still struggling to believe it—then his talismans and inventions could help the Wen financially as well as himself.
He would have missed out on so much.
He would do his best to be successful at this new endeavor, not just for himself but for the Wen as well.
Wei Wuxian spent the rest of the evening scrolling through the links that Wen Ning had sent him. The sect channels were—as Wen Ning had said—highly polished and edited. They rarely did live streams, and were edited to ensure that the cultivators they showcased were picture perfect in whatever they were doing, wherever possible. This was especially true for the Jin, that actually had soundtracks to them, as well as some sort of filter on them because Wei Wuxian had seen Jin Zixuan in person and his skin was not that white.
The fact that Lan Wangji actually was as pretty in real life as he appeared in the Lan videos was slightly annoying. The guy might be an uptight asshole, but Wei Wuxian still found himself watching several of his videos slightly dazed by the graceful precision with which the man was able to apply extreme force. And if he found himself slightly hypnotized watching those strong, slender fingers plucking the strings of the guqin in one of the cultivation exhibition videos, well… he was definitely not alone, judging by the stream of comments on the video. The explicitness of some of them made him blush and close the thread, wondering how people even thought of stuff like that, especially about someone as pristine as Lan Wangji obviously was. The man would never do such crude things with the hands he had trained so well for cultivation.
The cultivators that the sects showed were usually their heirs and maybe one or two other prodigies, but they clearly wanted the attention (and rankings and awards) kept close. Possibly it was also because the heirs were the best cultivators, but he wasn't sure. The Wen did highlight Wen Zhuliu, but they also had clearly staged and enhanced videos of Wen Chao, so it was a little unclear.
In call cases, they were dressed in clothing that reflected the status of their sects, and using the latest cultivation equipment right alongside of their expensive spiritual weapons.
Wei Wuxian had Suibian , but there was no way he could go head-to-head with them on formal cultivation looks.
He'd have to find a different angle.
He looked through the different social media apps to find out what the larger civilian channels did. There were a lot of reaction videos, which he had no interest in, but the overall theme that he saw for channels that did well was that they were provocative in some way. Either sexually (the most common) or with extreme opinions or content.
He also accidentally stumbled across some civilian channels who did cultivation cosplay, some of whom were imitating actual cultivators. There was a restricted 'adult content' channel that had a thumbnail of two attractive-looking civilians wearing extremely sheer 'cultivation robes', that Wei Wuxian almost wished he had the money to subscribe to if only so he could laugh at how furious Lan Wangji would likely be if he knew about it.
He looked up and realized it had gotten extremely late, so he shut off his phone and got ready for bed. If Wen Ning was feeling better the next day, he could ask him for advice on where to start.
Wen Qing was not sure what to think about the way Wei Wuxian was now such a core part of her entire family. Wen Popo had been more excited than Wen Qing could ever remember seeing her as she poured over the chicken scratch notes of evidently genius talisman designs and other ideas that Wei Wuxian had just… handed over to her. Popo had grumbled about that a good bit the night before when they'd gotten back from Wei Wuxian's apartment.
"It hadn't been more than five minutes after I told him not to just hand his ideas off to anyone and he was letting me take the whole pack home in my bag without a single word. It's a good thing you brought him home with you, A-Qing. That boy needs someone looking out for him."
It was very clear from her tone of voice that Popo had decided to be the one to take on that job. Wen Qing hadn't intended to bring Wei Wuxian into the core of her family when she took him away from Lotus Cove. In her experience, adults outside of Wen Ning, Uncle Four, and Popo were not to be trusted.
Wen Qing did not have friends. She had co-workers whom she tolerated (and some she did not), she had her family, and she had her research. She had no interest in anything else.
Yet somehow, Wei Wuxian had become inextricably entwined in both. And Wen Qing was somewhat shocked that she was not mad about it.
Of course, she gave no sign of that when Wei Wuxian came into her lab that morning for his tests. She grilled him about his meditation log, eating and sleeping habits just as ruthlessly as always, not once mentioning the stack of talismans on her kitchen table that Popo had still been working with when she'd left that morning.
Wei Wuxian was currently laid out, shirtless, on the examination table, so that Wen Qing could finish the ultrasound of his nascent golden core. She had only just started the scan when the doors to the exam room banged open.
"Jiejie," Wen Ning's voice was raw, sounding somewhere between anger and tears as stormed in, his eyes blazing, with dark circles under them as though he hadn't slept at all.
Fury was written in every line of her little brother's body, his hair wild as though he had run to her lab all the way from their apartment. Wen Qing had never seen him like this. Not since that little shit cousin of theirs had beat him up as a joke to show off to his friends. Wen Qing had put an end to that. Wen Chao still couldn't handle even being in the same room as her.
But that had been years ago, and Wen Qing had been so careful to keep her brother out of situations that could get him hurt. What had happened? Fear swamped her as she saw how her sweet, gentle brother seemed to be physically trembling in anger.
"Wen Ning!" Wei Wuxian said, his voice full of concern as he swung his legs over the side of the bed to sit up. "What happened?"
Wen Ning's eyes snapped to him, and her brother's whole face abruptly crumpled. "W-Wei Laoshi! T-they…," he cut off, unable to speak more.
There was agony in her brother's voice, and Wen Qing fought to keep calm as she tried to find out what had happened. Her first priority was making sure Wen Ning was ok. She raced over to him, grabbing his wrist and pressing two fingers against the meridian to check to see if his qi had been imbalanced due to whatever happened. His illness made him sensitive to qi attacks, and even a mild strike, if done precisely, could have dire consequences for him. If someone had hurt her brother, she would find out who.
As if echoing her own thoughts, Wei Wuxian's voice sliced through the air in the room like a blade.
"Did someone hurt you?" Wei Wuxian asked. His voice was hard, with a dangerous edge that she had never heard him use before.
The air in the room stirred, despite the windows being closed, and Wen Qing felt the tiny hairs on her arms and the back of her neck stand on end. She was still checking her brother's qi but she turned to look at Wei Wuxian, though she could already tell that Wen Ning's qi appeared to be ok.
She was not a powerful enough cultivator that she could sense the precise strength of another cultivator's core from a distance, but she was strong enough that she could sense… something in the air around them, coming from Wei Wuxian. The energy in the room shifted, not like an attack but like… a giant sleeping beast, lifting its head to look around. It didn't feel like regular cultivation, but Wen Qing couldn't imagine what it could be. Wei Wuxian's core was nowhere near strong enough for her to be able to sense it from this far away.
Wei Wuxian's expression was fierce and deadly, utterly unlike his normal friendly demeanor. His eyes were dark, with the faintest tinge of red at the edges.
This was the face of a highly trained cultivator who could take on a nest of demons and come out alive and basically unharmed… the face of a man who would lay waste to anyone who hurt her little brother.
One of the sensors on an experimental detector that she had been considering using on Wei Wuxian started to whine from across the room. From the corner of her eye, she could see a small stream of smoke starting to rise from the sensor.
Wen Ning did not seem to feel anything wrong, or—if he did—he ignored it.
"Not me. Wei Laoshi," he said, stumbling towards Wei Wuxian, pulling free of his sister's grasp. She let him go, having already checked him enough to know he was upset but unharmed. "You… they… how could they!?"
Wen Ning placed his shaking hand on Wei Wuxian's stomach, where his core used to be, and burst into wracking, heart-wrenching sobs, his back hunched up so that his head was almost to Wei Wuxian's shoulder, despite Wen Ning being slightly taller.
Wei Wuxian stood frozen for a moment, then carefully put his arms around Wen Ning, pulling him into a gentle hug. He looked lost as he stroked the younger man's hair as he cried into Wei Wuxian's chest. The strange, coiling energy in the room dissipated, like a puppet with its strings cut. Wen Qing felt her own emotions surging up at the sight.
For better or for worse, Wei Wuxian was part of her family now. She would find out what Wen Ning had discovered that had made him so distraught. She was pretty sure she knew what he'd found out. She just wasn't sure how.
"A-Ning," Wen Qing said, her voice firm and controlled. "What happened?"
"T-the camera. Wei Laoshi's camera," Wen Ning managed. Wen Qing could see Wei Wuxian's body tense, though he continued to gently stroke Wen Ning's hair. "The s-storage on the c-camera was full. It's used on hunts where the camera might be out of range. I wasn't sure if Wei Laoshi would n-need what was on it. So I checked to see what it was."
Wei Wuxian's face went pale. "Fuck. Wen Ning. I—"
"They almost killed him, JieJie," Wen Ning said. "He saved them. He killed the nest of demons. Jiang Wanyin t-tried to choke him, after Sect Leader Jiang died. After. And then the woman in purple. S-she—," Wen Ning could not continue. Wei Wuxian looked stricken, whether at the unexpected reminder of the trauma he had suffered, or at the sight of how much it had upset Wen Ning to see it play out live.
"I know," Wen Qing said. She actually hadn't known about the choking part, but her brother was clearly not up to talking about it at the moment and Wei Wuxian was definitely not up to hearing it rehashed. "We got him out. He's safe now."
Wen Ning lifted his face from Wei Wuxian's chest to look at his sister with wide, tear-swollen eyes, but there was fierce determination in their depths. "JieJie. We can't let them… we have to.."
Wen Ning was almost hyperventilating. Whatever he saw on that video must have been incredibly traumatic. Wei Wuxian wasn't looking much better. He looked once more like the injured, shattered boy she'd found in the Jiang medical ward.
Neither of her boys were looking like they could handle being out in public. Wen Qing sent a note to Popo that they were coming back early, and typed out a quick note that she would be delayed in doing her rounds that day. The Lan doctor she often worked with was there, and could cover her shift if there was an emergency.
"We're going home," she said decisively.
Wei Wuxian looked over at her, blankly, his face pale but shuttered. "Yeah. Take him home. He should rest."
He gently released Wen Ning, stepping back so that he could leave with his sister. Wen Qing took Wen Ning by the arm, but then reached over and took Wei Wuxian's arm with her other hand.
"All of us are going home," she said brusquely.
Wei Wuxian's haunted eyes widened in surprise, clearly expecting to be left behind. He opened his mouth to speak, but Wen Qing just tightened her grip on his arm.
"Don't be stupid. You're coming with us."
No one in the lab looked twice at the sight of Wen Qing pulling two grown men who towered over her out of the office. Neither size nor hierarchy had ever been a barrier to Wen Qing asserting her will on those around her, and anyone who worked with her for more than a week was familiar with this.
A text from Uncle Four said he was on his way, and would meet them at street level.