Chapter Text
In this story, Jiang Yanli is completely different from the original story. She is also younger than Jiang Wanyin. She may come across as a fluff headed bimbo.
----------------
The marriage agreement between the Lan sect and the Jiang sect was made generations ago. However there were only sons in both the families. Finally the sect leader Jiang was blessed with a daughter, Jiang Yanli. She was an unexpected surprise. The sect leader Jiang Fengmian and his wife were in a loveless relationship. After the Madam of the Jiang sect, Madam Yu had given birth to their son Jiang Cheng, the cultivation world thought that the marriage alliance would again get postponed to the next generation as even the Lans had two sons.
However, three years after their son was born, Madam Yu became pregnant again and this time she did give birth to a daughter. Both the Jiang sect and the Lan sect were happy to finally complete the marriage alliance.
Madam Yu was actually not happy with this marriage. She wanted her daughter to marry the heir to the Jin sect, Jin Zixuan. Madam Jin was her sworn sister and Madam Yu wanted to build an alliance with the Jin sect. And compared to the Lan sect, the Jin sect was richer. But in the face of a centuries old alliance, she was powerless. She however did not waste any opportunity to express her opinion about the two sects and how her daughter would have been happy if she had married Jin Zixuan instead of a Lan.
Since the heir of the Lan sect, Lan Xichen, was too old for Jiang Yanli, it was decided that she would marry the second heir, Lan Wangji. Madam Yu was not happy that her daughter would not become Madam Lan.
Jiang Yanli was confused. She was not sure which of the two prospective grooms she would marry. She herself was unable to choose one of them. She had tried to interact with both of them and both the boys had disappointed her in their own ways.
Jin Zixuan was an arrogant young man who thought he was the heavenly gift to women. Lan Wangji, on the other hand, was cold and aloof to everyone looking down upon all of them. Adding to that, Jiang Yanli was born with a weak health which hindered her cultivation.
At the time she was sixteen she was extremely weak with an almost insignificant golden core and with no great looks or intelligence. In simple words, Jiang Yanli was plain and simple. Other than the name of the Jiang family she had nothing else noteworthy about her.
The general opinion in the cultivation world was that Lan Wangji was a better choice due to various factors.
First- he was the second heir. If Jiang Yanli married him and could not give birth to a child, it is not of great consequence as Lan Wangji was the second heir and was not obligated to have children.
Second- the Lan sect had rules which prohibited anyone bullying her. Therefore, even if she was weak, she would be safe in Lan sect than compared to the Jin sect which was a wiper’s nest.
Third- the Lans were faithful people. The greatest example was Qingheng-jun who married his wife even after she had killed a man and he did not marry again. Therefore, even after being plain and simple, Jiang Yanli will not have to struggle with her husband being unfaithful to her or bring concubines into the household. That was a greater possibility in the Jin sect.
But Lan Wangji was a cold man who did not speak properly to his own family. What kind of relationship could she have with him?
Overall, Jiang Yanli was confused. She had given up thinking about it, deciding to leave it to her fate.
Soon the cultivation world became chaotic. The main reason for this was the Wen sect. Specifically the leader of the sect Wen Rohan. He was always a very ambitious man. Now his ambitions had crossed the boundaries and started affecting the other sects.
He had already annexed a few minor sects by either intimidating them into submission or outright killing them. It was clear through grapevine that now Wen Rohan was planning to attack the major sects. In this regard, it was important to start forming alliances.
The Lan sect and the Nie sect had formed an alliance through a sworn brotherhood between sect leader Nie Mengjue and sect heir Lan Xichen. Now it was the turn of the Jiang sect to jump on board. It was decided that the marriage will happen soon, strengthening the alliance.
However the biggest obstacle came when Wen Rohan tried to stop it by offering a marriage alliance to his son Wen Xu. Wen Rohan knew that Jiang Yanli was a weak girl with no great intelligence. She would be perfect for his son. She would just stay in her place and not interfere into the political scene. At the same time, everyone in the cultivation world knew that the sect leader Jiang Fengmian was not a very strong willed man. He was incapable of controlling his own wife. What would he control other sects?
His son Jiang Cheng was an impulsive and short tempered idiot who had not made any connections with any important people. Therefore through this marriage, Wen Rohan could indirectly control Jiang territory as well.
Wen Rohan also did not want the three sects to join hands with each other. The Jin sect leader was a slimy bastard who could not be trusted even if he was the last man on earth. Having any form of alliance with such a sect would be more harmful than useful.
Thinking about all these, Wen Rohan had sent a marriage proposal to the Jiang sect. It was evident to everyone that this was more a trap than a proposal. If the Jiangs agreed, they would be forced to support Wen Rohan in the future. If they opposed, Wen Rohan would get a good excuse to make their lives miserable.
However, to his surprise, Jiang Fengmian had rejected the proposal stating the centuries old alliance between the Lan sect and the Jiang sect. Since the agreement was very old, even Wen Rohan had to bow down to it.
Wen Xu was not ready to let go. He decided to kidnap Jiang Yanli and use force to make her agree to be his wife. He had tried to kidnap her once but due to the foolishness of one of his subordinates, Jiang Yanli had escaped with the help of a rogue cultivator.
This brought Wen Xu’s intentions into the open. Everyone got to know that Wen Xu was trying to kidnap Jiang Yanli. Jiang Fengmian who got worried decided to get his daughter married as soon as possible.
In this regard, he sent a messenger to the Lan sect, informing them about the situation and asking them to start preparing for the wedding.
Jiang Fengmian was grateful to the rogue cultivator who had brought his daughter safely back home. He introduced himself as Wei Wuxian from Yilling. Jiang Fengmina requested the man to stay for a while longer until Yanli was safely taken to Cloud Recesses and married. Wei Wuxian had agreed.
Today Lan Qiren, the acting sect leader of the Lan sect came over to Lotus Pier to finalise the details of the marriage. He suggested finishing all the wedding formalities right here at Lotus Pier before travelling back to Cloud Recesses. He thought Yanli could be kidnapped on the way to Cloud Recesses if she would travel before her marriage.
“Grandmaster Lan, it is traditional for the wedding to take place at the groom's place. How can we finish all the marriage formalities right here?”
“I understand the traditions, sect leader Jiang. But right now our first priority is the safety of the bride.”
Both the parties went back and forth trying to convince the other party about their idea. Finally Wei Wuxian who was sitting by the side made a suggestion.
“I think it would be good if Maiden Jiang travelled to Cloud Recesses in disguise,” he suggested.
“Please explain Wei Gongze.” Lan Qiren asked.
“I think we need to have a decoy to divert Wen Xu’s attention and Maiden Jiang would travel to Gusu unnoticed,” he said.
“But we will be putting another girl at risk here. I am not sure if it is a good idea.” said Lan Xichen.
“Well, since it is a decoy, the bride in the sedan need not be a girl. A man can dress up as a bride and sit in the sedan and travel to cloud Recesses. Once the wedding party reaches Caiyi town, Maiden Jiang can switch places and travel to the gates of Cloud Recesses.”
Everyone liked this idea. “Who is going to sit in the sedan? We cannot have a man there who is stronger and stockier than Maiden Jiang. One look and anyone would know that it is a decoy.” questioned Lan Qiren.
Jiang Cheng, who was sitting with his father, looked at Wei Wuxian with a scrutinizing expression. “What?” asked Wei Wuxian.
“You have a very lean body and a very thin waist,” said Jiang Cheng. He then realised what he was saying and his face turned red.
But the idea was already out there and everyone else looked at Wei Wuxian in the same way including the prospective groom Lan Wangji.
After a while, Jiang Fengmian said “Wei Gongze, I request you to please help us this once. We have all seen that you are a formidable cultivator. If we are attacked, you will be able to protect yourself. Please, I humbly request you to agree to this.” he almost begged.
After some convincing, Wei Wuxian agreed to be a decoy bride. All other aspects of the marriage were discussed and finalised and soon the marriage preparations started.
Lan Wangji.
Lan Zhan courtesy name Wangji was an obedient son of the Lan family. He was aware of the marriage agreement with the Jiang sect ever since he was a child. He always knew that he was destined to marry Jiang Yanli.
But as he grew up, he noticed that Jiang Yanli was a mediocre person at best in all aspects of life. She was not good in cultivation, did not have any other talents like in arts, literature etc. Lan Wangji had tried to interact with her a few times and had found her severely lacking. She had proved herself to be a very superficial and shallow person.
Another problem was that, at the age of fourteen, Lan Wangji had realised that he was gay. He could not love a woman. The Lan principles insisted that a person should love and respect his spouse. Wangji was sure that he would fail in this aspect. Unfortunately he could not say this out because his marriage with Maiden Jiang was already a definite thing. The only person who knew about his preference was his brother.
Before they could think of any solution, the whole mess about Wen Xu happened and the marriage was planned ahead of schedule. Now there was no time to get out of this predicament.
Lan Wangji travelled with his brother and uncle to lotus Pier to finalise the wedding plans. He did not understand why he had to come. He had no part to play in today’s discussion. But his uncle had insisted saying it was impolite for the groom to be absent. Also this would be a learning experience.
Once they were seated at the lotus hall, Lan Wangji looked around at the people assembled. His eyes caught on to a person sitting behind. Wangji thought his heart would jump out of his chest. The man was the most beautiful person he had ever seen.
Then, sect leader Jiang introduced him as a rogue cultivator Wei Wuxian who had single handedly protected Maiden Jiang safely from Wen Xu and his cronies. Wangji was impressed. It was with great difficulty that Lan Wangji stopped himself from staring at the beautiful man.
But the torture only increased when it was decided that Wei Wuxian would become the decoy bride. He wanted to punch Jiang Wanyin’s face for looking at the man’s waist and speaking in such a disrespectful way.
Lan Wangji’s heart was yelling. ‘No, not a decoy. Why cant you be the real bride?’ He had to use all his Lan training from yelling it out loud. He just looked down at his lap and held himself in check.
Soon everything was finalized and he all but ran out of the Lotus hall before he could do anything foolish.
Wei Wuxian.
Wei Ying, courtesy name Wuxian, was a rogue cultivator. He was trained by his parents who themselves were formidable cultivators. Wei Ying grew up travelling with his parents from place to place. He had diligently learnt everything that his parents taught.
Once he turned sixteen, his parents decided to settle down in one place. They bought a house in Yilling and cut down on night hunting. They however encouraged Wei Ying to travel around and experience the world.
Wei Ying had been travelling through the Jiang territory. He was in Yunmeng city when he encountered a group of Wen disciples harassing a few women. On closer inspection, he noticed that the women were servants from the Jiang sect who were desperately protecting their young Madam.
Wei Ying looked around for something. He found a rat running below a card. He immediately ran to it and caught the rat. He then threw the rat at the disciple who was standing at the back. The disciple screamed like a little child causing a distraction. Using this opportunity, Wei Ying threw a talisman towards the group. The talisman turned into a thick smoke blocking the Wens from seeing everything.
Before the smoke cleared, Wei Ying had pushed the women away from there and led them away. He was successfully able to bring them all back to Lotus Pier.
The sect leader was very thankful for his help and had requested him to stay and help for a while longer.
Wei Ying understood the situation. Wen Xu wanted to forcefully marry maiden Jiang. The Jiang sect had a marriage agreement with the Lan sect and therefore, wanted the marriage to happen as soon as possible before the Wen sect took any drastic action.
He was standing with the Jiang family at the Lotus hall when the Lan family entered inside. Wei Ying’s breath hitched when he saw the most beautiful man walking into the hall. He looked like a heavenly deity in pale blue robes. He was tall and elegant.
But his fantasy was soon broken when he got to know that this man was the groom. Wei Ying had to suppress his desires and concentrate on the current issue. He knew that he was just a rogue cultivator and should not aim way above his station. And this beautiful man was way above his reach. Wei Ying felt like a foolish boy trying to reach for the moon.
Now, all Wei Ying wanted was for this man to safely marry his bride and live happily. So he suggested a decoy. But to his utter dismay, he was chosen to be the decoy bride. Why? Why was he tortured like this?
If he was truthful to himself, he wanted to be the real bride for this beautiful man. But he had to satisfy himself with being a decoy bride. Wei Ying decided that he will satisfy himself with this much.