Chapter Text
When A-Yuan had first come to stay with Wei Ying, he’d had a really bad ear infection and he’d cried constantly and Lan Qiren had come knocking on Wei Ying’s door with a scowl on his face.
Lan Qiren was Wei Ying’s next door neighbor and possibly the biggest annoyance in his life. Before he’d adopted A-Yuan, Lan Qiren had objected to every single thing Wei Ying did, from playing music (not even loudly!), to cooking spicy food (why would he have a problem with that?) to leaving his muddy boots in the hallway, to, Wei Ying didn’t know. Existing, probably. It was like having another Aunt Yu in his life, honestly, except that all Lan Qiren could really do was threaten to call the landlord and get him evicted.
“I’m sorry, Uncle,” Wei Ying said, when he opened the door to Lan Qiren’s scowling face. “Nothing I do is working- he won’t stop crying.”
“He?” Lan Qiren demanded, craning his head as if to look past Wei Ying. “Where did you get a child?” Wei Ying rolled his eyes; typical of the man to assume Wei Ying had kidnapped a child or something.
“He’s my cousin’s,” Wei Ying said. “She couldn’t look after him any longer, so I took him in. It was that or let him go into foster care.”
Remarkably, Lan Qiren’s scowl lessened. “That’s very responsible,” he said. He paused. “Does he have an ear infection?”
Wei Ying nodded and sighed.
Lan Qiren frowned at him. “You need to get some sleep,” he said. “Children are a lot of work.”
“I know, Uncle,” Wei Ying said. “Thank you, Uncle.”
Artwork by serse
The next day, just as Wei Ying had finally gotten A-Yuan to sleep, there was a knock on the door again. Wei Ying jerked the door open, biting his lip so he wouldn’t just start yelling at whoever had knocked.
Lan Qiren stood there again. Wei Ying blinked at him. Lan Qiren offered Wei Ying a paper bag. “I got some medicine,” he told Wei Ying. “I used to use it when my nephews had ear infections. It was very effective.”
“Thank you, Uncle,” Wei Ying said, shocked, taking the bag.
“The instructions are with the medicine,” Lan Qiren said. “I also brought some candy the child might like, and some food. You’re too skinny; it’s not good for looking after a young child.”
“Thank you, Uncle,” Wei Ying said again.
They ran into Lan Qiren in the elevator a week later, A-Yuan snug in his stroller, Wei Ying blinking with exhaustion.
“A-Ying,” Lan Qiren greeted him.
Wei Ying blinked at him and wondered if he was imagining this.
“This is your cousin’s baby?” Lan Qiren asked.
Wei Ying nodded. “This is A-Yuan.”
Lan Qiren sank down on his haunches so he could smile at A-Yuan. Well, twist his mouth into something like a smile. “Hello,” he said, seriously, to the small child.
A-Yuan, who was gumming his fingers, looked at the old man.
“You should have teethers for him,” Lan Qiren advised, with a frown.
Wei Ying sighed. “I know,” he said. “I should have a lot of things I don’t have. I haven’t had time to go shopping or anything.”
Lan Qiren frowned. “I still have some of my nephews’ things in storage,” he said. “I will look through them and see what’s there.”
“That’s not necessary, Uncle,” Wei Ying said.
“They’re just going to waste as they are,” Lan Qiren declared, with a sniff. “I had saved them for when my nephews had children, but at the rate they are going…” he scowled.
“Not the marrying type?” Wei Ying asked, a smile creeping onto his face.
“A-Huan is married,” Lan Qiren said. “To a man.”
“Ah,” Wei Ying said.
“And A-Zhan is gay as well,” Lan Qiren said, with a frown. “I don’t think he’ll have children.”
“Well,” Wei Ying said, perhaps a little too flippantly. “Don’t give up too soon, Uncle. I’m gay and I have a child now. Perhaps your nephews will as well?”
Lan Qiren’s face went thoughtful in a way Wei Ying had learned to be alarmed at on the face of any older person. The look of ‘why are arranged marriages outdated again?’ and ‘if I try to set up my child, what’s the worst they could do to me?’ and ‘I admit I am actually this desperate for a grandchild.’
Wei Ying suddenly wished he had not spoken. The last thing he wanted to do was to somehow end up going on a date with Lan Qiren’s nephew, who would undoubtedly be just as rule-bound and disapproving of everything as Lan Qiren was.
A few days later, Wei Ying had just arrived home with A-Yuan after a long hard day of work when there was a knock on the door.
“Aiya!” Wei Ying exclaimed. “What now?”
“Aiya!” A-Yuan repeated enthusiastically.
Wei Ying cracked the door open, A-Yuan hiding behind his legs. It was Lan Qiren, holding a box. Behind him stood a very handsome man, holding a much larger box.
For a moment, Wei Ying let his lust run away with him as he admired the way the man’s tight pants hugged the curve of his ass and how his biceps were perfectly framed by his short-sleeve dress shirt.
With my luck, he thought, this will be the married nephew and the unmarried one will be short and ugly.
“Uncle!” Wei Ying greeted him. “What can I do for you?”
“Uncle!” A-Yuan repeated, squeezing out from behind Wei Ying’s legs and latching onto Lan Qiren.
“I’ve brought the items I mentioned the other day,” Lan Qiren said. “My nephew, A-Huan, helped me.”
A-Huan smiled widely at him.
“Ah, Uncle, you didn’t have to,” Wei Ying said, moving aside so Lan Qiren and A-Huan could enter the apartment. It was a much tighter fit with three grown men there.
“No trouble,” Lan Qiren said. “As I said, they were just growing old in storage, since A-Huan and A-Yao refuse to adopt some children.”
A-Huan smiled the smile of a person who has been asked when they were going to give their family children since they came of age.. “There’s still time,” he said.
Lan Qiren huffed.
“Hi, I’m Lan Huan,” A-Huan said, holding out a very nicely shaped hand to Wei Ying. Gods, he needed to get laid.
“Wei Ying,” Wei Ying said. “And this is my little radish, A-Yuan.”
Lan Huan nodded. “Uncle has told us all about him,” he said. “Thank you for brightening his life. As you have heard, his nephews have so far neglected to give him grandchildren.”
“I’ve heard something to that respect,” Wei Ying said. “Ah, do you want tea?”
“Oh, no need, no need,” Lan Huan said. “I really have to go! I’m going to be late for A-Yao as it is.”
Ah, Wei Ying thought. This is probably the married nephew.
“Okay,” Wei Ying said, glad he wouldn’t have to entertain- he really was exhausted. “Well, thank you again. Huan-ge, uncle.”
“You make sure you feed that baby lots of soup,” Lan Qiren said. “Not too spicy. Spice is bad for his health. Yours too, A-Ying.”
“Yes, uncle,” Wei Ying said. “I’m just about to make some soup now.”
A-Yuan was frowning up at him when he closed the door. “Soup?” he repeated, with a frown.
“Nah,” Wei Ying said. “Fish fingers.”
A-Yuan cheered and clapped. “Fish fingers!”
I really am a bad parent, Wei Ying thought.
To Wei Ying’s surprise, the contents of the boxes, while old, really were nice; all well-made toys, wooden trains and blocks and some lovely stuffed animals that looked like they’d been hand-sewn, as well as some very nice clothes that A-Yuan would grow into. A-Yuan immediately latched onto a stuffed rabbit, sewn from blue and white calico, and refused to go anywhere without it.
“Ah,” Lan Qiren said, when he next saw them. “I’m glad he’s enjoying the things I brought.”
“Yes,” Wei Ying said. “Thank you so much again.”
A-Yuan sucked on the stuffed rabbit's foot, hiding behind Wei Ying in feigned shyness.
“That was A-Zhan’s favorite toy as well,” Lan Qiren said, with a little sigh. “Oh, A-Ying, my nephew has sent me home with leftovers- you should take them as a meal for you and A-Yuan.”
“Oh, no no, I couldn’t,” Wei Ying said, remembering how horribly bland the last food Lan Qiren had brought him was.
“Nonsense,” Lan Qiren said. “You’re so thin- you’re clearly not eating enough.” He gave a frown that Wei Ying recognized from the aunties who ran the stalls in the market and were always forcing extra dumplings and pancakes on him.
“Really, uncle,” Wei Ying said. “Please, I’m fine.”
“Nonsense,” Lan Qiren said again. “When do you have time to cook? You’re a single father. Take the food,” and he forced a bag of takeout containers into Wei Ying’s arms.
“Okay,” Wei Ying said. “Um, thank you.”
He sighed as he let himself and A-Yuan into the apartment. “This is not the end of this,” he told the child. “It’s going to be boring food for life, I’m afraid.”
A-Yuan chewed thoughtfully on the cloth rabbit’s foot.
“Well it’s all well and good for you,” Wei Ying said. “You’re eating rabbit for dinner.”
Sadly, Wei Ying’s prediction had come through. Lan Qiren appeared with remarkable frequency. He must listen at his door, Wei Ying thought, dismally, accepting container after container of horribly healthy food, all steamed vegetables and freshly made tofu and bitter soup.
“Ugh,” Wei Ying said, squeezing half a bottle of chili garlic sauce into his bowl. “I’ve never eaten this healthfully in my life. A-Yuan, you’re going to have to be prepared for your baba to live for a very long time.”
“Okay,” A-Yuan said. The little traitor seemed to like Lan Qiren’s food.
“A-Ying,” Lan Qiren said, the next time he saw them, “what are you and A-Yuan doing for the Mid-Autumn Festival?”
“Ah,” Wei Ying said, running his hand through his hair. “I wanted to go to my sister’s, but she lives too far away and I can’t get enough time off of work, so I think we’re just going to celebrate it, the two of us.”
“Nonsense,” Lan Qiren said, sniffing. “You can’t spend the Mid-Autumn Festival alone! It’s a time for family. You’ll come with me to my nephew’s house.”
“Oh, no, Uncle,” Wei Ying said. “I can’t intrude on your family gathering! It would be so rude.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, A-Ying,” Lan Qiren said. “You wouldn’t be intruding anymore than that A-Yao is.”
Wei Ying blinked, not sure what to do with this. Wasn’t A-Yao Lan Huan’s husband?
“It would be improper for A-Yuan to not be able to celebrate the festival,” Lan Qiren declared. “He should be raised in the proper traditions.”
A-Yuan looked up at Wei Ying, chewing on the stuffed rabbit. ‘Proper,” he said, pulling the foot out of his mouth.
Wei Ying sighed. Might as well give in now, he thought. He never won against meddling old people. That’s how he always ended up coming home from the market stuffed with dumplings.
“Okay,” he agreed.
“Good,” Lan Qiren said. “A-Zhan is coming to pick me up at noon. Please make sure you and A-Yuan are ready.”
A-Zhan, Wei Ying thought. The probably ugly unmarried nephew. Great. “Okay,” he said again. “What should I bring?”
“Bring?” Lan Qiren repeated, shocked. “You won’t be bringing anything! A-Huan will provide everything!”
Wei Ying narrowed his eyes. Was this a trap? It sounded like a trap, like when your aunts and uncles force you to take gifts of money and then complain to Aunt Yu about how greedy you are. He’d stop by the bakery and pick up some mooncakes, he thought. Lotus-seed ones; then he can just say that they are a tradition of his family. They couldn’t possibly be construed as offensive in that light, could they?
Satisfied he’d avoided yet another pratfall, he closed the door and ushered A-Yuan into the kitchen. There were more stupidly healthy leftovers to get through.
Of course they weren’t ready at noon. They would have been, except that Wei Ying’s work had called with an emergency he’d had to talk them through, then A-Yuan had peed himself in his excitement, then he’d misplaced the stuffed rabbit and they’d had to tear the apartment apart looking for it.
When the doorbell rang, Wei Ying was sweaty and dusty from trying to lift furniture to look behind it, his hair sticking up all over the place, and A-Yuan was, for reasons only known to himself, running around with only a shirt on.
“I’m sorry we’re late, uncle!” Wei Ying called, throwing open the door.
He blinked, momentarily confused. He’d thought it wasn’t Lan Huan who would be picking them up, but there he was, looking even more gorgeous than he’d looked last time.
But no, Wei Ying, realized staring stupidly up at him. This wasn’t Lan Huan. Lan Huan had had a wedding ring and a bright smile. This man had golden-brown eyes and an expression that seemed to bore straight through Wei Ying.
A-Yuan snapped Wei Ying out of his stupor, barreling past Wei Ying and into the legs of the other nephew.
Wei Ying remembered, suddenly, that his child was running around half-naked.
“Uh, hi,” he said.
The beautiful nephew blinked. Wei Ying noticed he was holding the stuffed rabbit tenderly in one hand.
“Bunny!” A-Yuan ordered, reaching up to the stuffed animal.
The beautiful nephew carefully handed the bunny over. “I found him in the elevator,” he said. His voice was just as beautiful as the rest of him.
A-Yuan wrapped one arm around the beautiful man’s leg and stuffed the bunny’s foot into his mouth.
Lan Qiren bustled into the hallway.
“A-Ying!” he scolded as soon as he saw the tableau. “You’re not ready?!”
“Uh, sorry, uncle,” Wei Ying said. “We lost the rabbit.”
Lan Qiren narrowed his eyes at the sight of the pants-less child chewing on the rabbit’s food.
“Well, go, go, get ready,” he said, making a shooing gesture. “Can’t be late, that A-Yao will get all sniffy about it.”
“Right,” Wei Ying said, still feeling dazed. “I’ll just… we’ll just… come on, A-Yuan.”
He grabbed his son’s hand and tried to pull him gently into the apartment.
“No!” A-Yuan protested. “Stay with gege!” He gripped onto the beautiful nephew’s leg more tightly.
“A-Yuan!” Wei Ying exclaimed.
“I will come,” the beautiful nephew said. He lifted A-Yuan up into his arms as if he didn’t weigh an ounce and carried him past Wei Ying into the apartment. “Where are your pants?” he heard the beautiful nephew asking A-Yuan, and A-Yuan’s answering ‘there’.
A snort from Lan Qiren made Wei Ying realize he was still standing in the doorway, gaping.
“Oh,” Wei Ying said. “I’ll just go get our things. Yeah.”
“Fix your hair!” Lan Qiren ordered, as Wei Ying wobbled back into the apartment. “You look like a hedgehog!”
The beautiful nephew was watching approvingly as A-Yuan demonstrated his prowess in putting on his pants, ignoring the cramped mess that was their apartment. Wei Ying wandered into the tiny bathroom and splashed water onto his face, only remembering, when he wandered out into the kitchen area that he’d gone in there to brush his hair. Feeling reckless, he finger combed it for a few seconds before grabbing the bag with all the things two year olds mysteriously needed and the shopping bag of mooncakes.
He looked over and caught the beautiful nephew staring at him and blushed.
“Sorry,” he said. “It’s been a hectic kind of… well, life. Thanks for helping.”
“I put my pants on all by myself,” A-Yuan boasted.
Wei Ying smiled at him. “You took them off all by yourself too,” he said.
A-Yuan grinned and stuck the bunny’s foot back in his mouth.
“Are you ready to go?” the beautiful nephew asked, gently, and Wei Ying nodded and grinned.
“Come on, little radish,” he said to A-Yuan. “Gege and uncle and us are going to go celebrate the mid-autumn festival and have too much sugar.”
“Yay!” A-Yuan cheered. “Sugar!” He grabbed the beautiful nephew’s hand and pulled him towards the door.
The beautiful nephew’s car was much too nice for Wei Ying’s grubby trainers and A-Yuan’s grubby paws. (How had he possibly managed to get so dirty? He’d been clean, Wei Ying swore he had been clean when they left the apartment. Now his face was streaked with dirt. Where had it come from?)
The beautiful nephew frowned at Wei Ying. “He should have a car seat,” he said.
“Ah, yeah,” Wei Ying agreed, with a shrug. “We hardly ever ride in cars, though, so…”
The beautiful nephew made a face as if he might be considering going somewhere there and then to buy a car seat, but Lan Qiren made an impatient noise.
“We can’t do anything about that now,” he said. “We’re already late.”
Reluctantly, the beautiful nephew gave in and opened the back door for Wei Ying and A-Yuan.
Lan Qiren spent the drive to Lan Huan’s apartment catching his nephew up on all the gossip concerning people, Wei Ying, if he knew anything about aunts and uncles, would bet the beautiful nephew knew nothing about, though he made interested noises in all of the right places. He kept checking the rear view mirror and frowning, Wei Ying saw, especially whenever he had to use the breaks which, since they were in the middle of a city, was pretty much constantly.
Lan Huan’s place was swank. There was an underground parking garage and a doorman in a uniform and everything. Wei Ying whistled, earning a sharp look from Lan Qiren, who muttered something about A-Yao’s needless ostentation.
They rode up a very roomy and smooth elevator to one of the upper floors and Lan Qiren, as was his right as Uncle, opened and strode in the apartment without knocking, A-Yuan following closely behind him until Wei Ying yanked him back so he could pull off his shoes.
Lan Huan breezed in as Wei Ying was struggling with his dirty trainers.
“A-Ying!” he said. “A-Yuan! We’re so happy Uncle convinced you to come.”
“Thank you for inviting us,” Wei Ying said, politely, trying not to stare around the room in front of him. Lan Qiren hadn’t been wrong about needless ostentation. He held out the shopping bag. “I hope you don’t mind,” he said. “I brought some lotus seed mooncakes. They’re traditional in my family.”
“Oh, thank you so much!” Lan Huan gushed, taking the shopping bag. “I love trying new types of mooncakes! Where is your family from?”
“Uh,” Wei Ying said. “Yunmeng.”
“Yunmeng!” Lan Huan exclaimed. “What a beautiful place!”
“Have you been there?” Wei Ying asked, then suddenly realized he was blocking the entrance and the beautiful nephew had been waiting patiently to take off his shoes.
“Oh, sorry,” he said, stepping aside, and wishing he’d had the forethought not to wear his socks with the flying pigs on them.
“I’ve visited Yunmeng a few times,” Lan Huan said, leading Wei Ying across the gaudy living room. “A-Yao’s sister-in-law is from there. Isn’t that right?”
A small man was standing in an equally ostentatious dining room, having what looked like a very stilted conversation with Lan Qiren.
Wei Ying’s mouth dropped open.
“Yao-ge?” he said.
“Ying-di!” Meng Yao exclaimed. “What a coincidence! And is this your son? I heard you adopted a cousin’s child from Yanli.”
“Yes,” Wei Ying said, feeling for a moment that someone- the universe- had just played a colossal prank on him. “This is A-Yuan.”
“You already know each other?” Lan Huan asked, pouring a cup of tea from a teapot on the dining room table and handing it to his uncle.
“A-Ying is Yanli’s didi,” Meng Yao explained, dimpling in a way Wei Ying had never trusted.
Four pairs of eyes settled uncomfortably on Wei Ying as he wondered exactly how much the Lans had heard about him. Nothing, he hoped, though Meng Yao was sure to change that.
He laughed, awkwardly. “Yeah,” he said. “I was hoping to visit her during the holiday, but she lives too far…”
“Of course,” Lan Huan said, sympathetically. “Much too far to travel for such a little boy for such a short time.” He smiled down at A-Yuan, or tried to, but he wasn’t by Wei Ying’s feet, where he expected him to be.
“A-Yuan!” Wei Ying exclaimed, turning and venturing back into the living room, where the little boy was playing some kind of game with the stuffed bunny and the beautiful nephew.
“Oh,” Wei Ying said, feeling all melty all of a sudden.
The beautiful nephew looked up at Wei Ying and didn’t smile, exactly, but didn’t not smile. His face was all soft and kind. Wei Ying sunk down onto an expensive looking sofa.
The beautiful nephew turned back to A-Yuan. Somehow he seemed to have cleaned the dirt off of A-Yuan’s hands and face in the short time A-Yuan had been out of Wei Ying’s sight. He was making the little stuffed bunny hop around the Persian rug, pretending to eat the leaves and flowers woven in it, while A-Yuan laughed.
“Oh my god,” Wei Ying whispered. A soft sound made him look up and he saw Lan Huan looking down at him, an amused look on his face.
At the end of the day, the beautiful nephew, Lan Zhan, drove them home with, as Wei Ying had predicted, vast quantities of slightly-less-healthy-than-usual leftovers. A-Yuan had drifted off to sleep, worn out from all the attention and excitement and sugar and Lan Zhan had carried him to the car as carefully as if he had been made out of spun sugar, putting him down gently in the backseat and buckling him in.
When they got to the apartment building, Wei Ying was surprised when Lan Zhan parked and carried the baby up to Wei Ying’s flat, where he laid him down in his little bed, tucking the stuffed rabbit in beside him while Wei Ying hovered, his arms full of plastic containers that he dumped onto the counter, then followed Lan Zhan out into the hallway.
“Thank you,” Wei Ying said.
“It was no trouble,” Lan Zhan said, his ears going a little pink. Wei Ying’s heart did a little bumpity-bumpity in his chest. He produced a thin wallet from somewhere and pulled out a business card. “If you need anything, please contact me,” he said, handing Wei Ying the card.
“Ah, thank you, Zhan-ge,” Wei Ying said. “You’re too kind.”
“I am not just being polite,” Lan Zhan said, with a small frown. “I mean it. A-Yuan is… good. You care for him all alone. Uncle is very fond of you.” He held out the card again. “Please.”
“Ah, yes, thank you, Zhan-ge,” Wei Ying said, taking it.
Lan Qiren appeared in the hallway. “Still here, A-Zhan?” he asked with a frown. “You should be home sleeping!”
Lan Zhan did not sigh, but Wei Ying suspected that was only from a great deal of practice.
“Yes, Uncle,” he said. “I’m leaving now.”
Wei Ying had suspected that Lan Qiren’s fondness for A-Yuan and by proxy for him would dry up once the old man had heard all Meng Yao had to say on the subject of Wei Ying. Lan Qiren, after all, loved gossip and Meng Yao had it in spades. The whole sordid tale would come spinning out; Aunt Yu, the Wens, the other Wens, the money, and Lan Qiren’s visits to saddle Wei Ying with impossible amounts of healthy food and twisted little smiles at A-Yuan would dry up and any very slight chance Wei Ying might have had with the beautiful nephew would be done with.
But they didn’t. A few days after the mid-autumn festival, Lan Qiren again showed up at their door, carrying yet more food.
“Ah, Uncle,” Wei Ying said. “I haven’t gotten through half of the leftovers you gave me a few days ago. Take pity on my poor stomach.”
Lan Qiren snorted. “You should eat more,” he insisted, shoving the containers into Wei Ying’s arms. “Where is A-Yuan?”
“At his aunt’s house,” Wei Ying said. “She was away for the holiday, so she took him home to spoil him.”
“It is good for him to have family,” Lan Qiren said, approvingly.
“Yes,” Wei Ying said. “I’m glad he has so many people to rely on.”
“You will come for family dinner with us on Sunday,” Lan Qiren said.
“Ah?” Wei Ying asked. “I will?”
Lan Qiren nodded. “A-Zhan will be here at five. Please be ready.”
They, of course, were not ready at five. They were ready at twenty minutes to five and then A-Yuan somehow managed to sneak into the bathroom and squirt an entire tube of toothpaste into his hair and when Lan Zhan knocked on the door Wei Ying was frantically trying to wash it out and A-Yuan was naked and both of them were soaking wet.
He opened the door and grinned up at the beautiful man. “Ah, Zhan-ge,” he said. “I’m sorry we’re not ready.”
“Don’t apologize,” Lan Zhan said. “I understand that children are unpredictable.”
Wei Ying laughed. “Yeah, that’s an understatement,” he said, only catching A-Yuan’s arm just in time as he tried to run past Wei Ying to hug Lan Zhan, still naked and soapy and soaking wet. “Let me just finish dealing with this one, and then I’ll be ready.”
“Do not feel that you need to rush,” Lan Zhan told him. “No one will mind if we’re a little late.”
Wei Ying smiled at him and herded A-Yuan back towards the bath-tub.
They were back in the hallway a few minutes later, dried and dressed, Wei Ying carrying A-Yuan’s bag in one hand and the stuffed bunny in the other.
He knocked on Lan Qiren’s door and the two emerged a moment later.
“Zhan-gege!” A-Yuan cried, jumping up into Lan Zhan’s arms. Thankfully, the man had fast reflexes.
“Sorry, uncle,” Wei Ying said. “He decided to wash his hair with toothpaste at the last minute.”
Lan Qiren unsuccessfully tried to hide his smile.
Lan Zhan carried A-Yuan down to his car and then buckled him in and Wei Ying was so distracted by trying not to drool over the sight of the gorgeous man talking softly to his son that it took him a moment to realize that there was now a booster seat in Lan Zhan’s car.
“Zhan-ge!” he exclaimed. “You bought a booster seat for him?”
“I did not like to drive with him unprotected,” Lan Zhan said.
“But…” Wei Ying said, flabbergasted.
“A-Ying,” Lan Qiren scolded him. “Get in the car- we’re going to be late.”
“Sorry, Uncle,” Wei Ying said, and scooted into the car, beside an A-Yuan who was looking very unhappy about the booster seat situation.
At dinner Meng Yao smiled his faux-innocent dimply smile at Wei Ying and all the Lans acted completely normal towards them, as if Meng Yao hadn’t spilled any of the business with Aunt Yu and the Wens and the Wens.
He got his chance to ask him about it in the kitchen, volunteering to help him clean while the Lans took turns telling A-Yuan how precious he was. “A-Yao,” he said, drying the dishes while Meng Yao washed them. They were horrible, all gilt-edged, and dishwasher and microwave unsafe and it was honestly giving Wei Ying horrible anxiety just to be handling them.
“Yes, Ying-di,” Meng Yao asked, turning his dimples on him.
“You didn’t tell Huan-ge or uncle about me,” Wei Ying said.
Meng Yao’s dimples grew impossibly deeper. “No,” he said.
“Why not?” Wei Ying asked. “I’m pretty sure uncle likes me better than you and I know you don’t do well with… ah… competition.” A ridiculous statement all around; Meng Yao was Lan Qiren’s nephew in law, Wei Ying just an annoying neighbor, and yet he was pretty sure he knew how Meng Yao viewed the world.
Meng Yao turned back to the dishes. “A, A-Ying, I’m playing the long game,” he said.
“Oh,” Wei Ying said. “So you’re using it as blackmail?”
Meng Yao tilted his pretty little head. “We don’t have to be rivals, A-Ying,” he said. “We could be… friends.”
Wei Ying bit his lip to keep from asking whether Meng Yao actually had any friends. He seemed like the type of society wife Aunt Yu had always disdained, who stabbed each other with words and could never be trusted. (Aunt Yu was the type of woman who could be trusted to always use an actual knife.)
“I’m not, you know,” Wei Ying began.
Meng Yao raised his eyebrows at him.
“I’m not playing a game of any sort,” Wei Ying said. “Lan Qiren just kind of… adopted me and A-Yuan? He forces food on me and drags me to these dinners? I don’t know why- I’m loud and annoying and kind of a trash panda, like you should see my apartment. This isn’t… like I know I’m the one who brought up the word ‘competition’, but I don’t have any agenda.”
“Oh, A-Ying,” Meng Yao said, condescendingly. “I know. You are the last person anyone would suspect of subterfuge. Besides, maybe, Lan Zhan. There’s a boy who wears everything on his face.”
Wei Ying looked at him, confused. “Lan Zhan’s face is always completely blank,” he said.
“Oh, A-Ying,” Meng Yao said, again. “Look closer.”