My brother's wedding night was in full swing! Finally, it was in full swing in the more than limited exuberance of the Lan clan. It must be said that if Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji had gotten married at the "Lotus Pier" the atmosphere would not have been the same! But thinking about it, I am not sure that this ceremony could have taken place, then!

I remembered very well the first time my brother had seen Lan Wangji, he had been subjugated by the youngest of the "Jade Twins". Afterwards, he kept looking for him. Later, I did not believe for a moment that they hated each other! If reading my brother's heart was an exercise I had practiced since childhood, interpreting Lan Wangji's poker face was almost impossible!

In Qishan, I had seen the first crack in his impenetrable mask. Then he had disappeared for three years, supposedly in retirement. I strongly doubted it. I had always thought that something had happened between him and his clan! Especially when you look at the way he acted in the following years. Rumor had it that there was a dispute between him and his uncle and that was why he rarely returned to YunShen Buzhi.

However, today things seemed to be back to normal between him and his uncle! I smiled inwardly. Knowing my brother, the cohabitation between him and Lan QiRen was likely to be eventful! Speaking of my brother, where was he?

I saw Lan Xichen, Lan QiRen and Nie HuaiSang talking a little further. It seemed that a status quo had also been established between Xichen and HuaiSang. The atmosphere was sometimes tense between them during the summits! Although he was courteous, Xichen felt uneasy when he was in the presence of the head of the Nie clan. Sometimes I wondered if that was the only reason!

I joined them. HuaiSang and Xichen were laughing.

"May I join you?"

"Of course, Jiang Gongzi, we are now family!" said Xichen with a sweet smile.

"Do you know where my brother and his husband have gone?" HuaiSang and Lan QiRen nodded their heads negatively.

"I think I saw them sneak out a little while ago! I think they had something else in mind than parading around in front of everyone attached to each other!" said Xichen, smiling frankly this time.

HuaiSang stifled his laughter behind his fan!

"Too bad, but speaking of being tied to each other, where did this tradition come from?"

"Well, in ancient times, before Lan An built the foundation of our Clan, the wedding rituals spoke of "uniting in the bonds of marriage" He materialized this formula by tying the wrists of the bride and groom together with our headband. As you probably know, it is a symbol of control over our emotions. We are only allowed to take it off in front of our spouse because he or she is the only person we can show our weaknesses to! The joining of hands symbolizes the union of lives and their interaction with each other... but in my opinion at this moment their blindfold must have flown in the air long ago!

"Uncle QiRen!!!" SiZhui had just appeared behind us.

He was accompanied by Jin Ling who was holding back laughter as well as Jingyi and Zizhen who both seemed very interested in the floral decorations on the tables!

"SiZhui, my boy, you are a man now. On the other hand you know your 2 fathers, the Jingshi is not particularly quiet at night, fortunately it is far away!"

I looked at Xichen, he seemed flabbergasted to hear his uncle speak in this way!

"Uncle, have you been drinking?"

"No, why?"

"I've never heard you talk like that before.

"It's because of Wei Wuxian! He is rubbing off on me! By the way Xichen, what do you have planned for tomorrow morning?

"Tomorrow morning, Uncle?"

"Yes, for the wake-up call of the bride and groom? ... it is clear that being two men, we can not follow the tradition to the letter. But it would be nice ... "

"To play a good trick on my brother!" I said with a knowing smile.

"An idea, Jiang Clan Chief?

"Maybe..." How about a little personal revenge for my dip in the pool this afternoon. An idea was starting to form in my mind.

"I'm going to need some help... Master Lan, this wedding is a success, but there's a little something missing that the Jiang clan specializes in!"

"Namely?"

"A touch of madness, but more seriously, as you must have noticed, family is everything to my brother. Not family by blood because you know he doesn't have any more but family by heart. Everyone here is his family of the heart, so I propose that we unite to end this wedding on a high note."

"We listen to you Uncle Jiang Cheng, you can count on us, right SiZhui!"

"Okay, but nothing mean and no violence!"

"You can count on me too" said HuaiSang

"On us too" said Zizhen and Jingyi

"Well, the first step is to heat the pool behind the Jingshi, SiZhui, Jin Ling will be your mission. Could one of you get a woman's dress as extravagant as possible!

"I know where to find one" said Zizhen

"Lan QiRen, Lan Xichen, I will need you to make our two grooms believe that we are going to apply the Lan clan tradition. I don't know why, but I have a feeling it might freak them out!"

"Yes, I think so, the 'bride and groom wake-up call' in the past was used to verify that a union had been consummated on the wedding night!" made Xichen. I couldn't help but laugh.

"Perfect, he will be destabilized. Young people, your role when we enter is to dress up and separate them from each other so that HuaiSang and I can take my brother!

"Uncle Jiang, what are you going to do in Die afterwards?"

"It's simple, HuaiSang and I will strip him and put on the dress Zizhen found for us. My guess is that he will try to run away. SiZhui, we need to know the configuration of the Jingshi rooms. We need to figure out in advance where he'll flee to so that we can block him at the pool and ... give him a good bath! Which we will of course join. SiZhui you remember what your father said this afternoon"

"Mnnn, yes, he likes family gatherings full of laughter and joy!" he grinned

"Well is everyone okay?"

"Yes" was the unanimous answer;

I laughed to myself. Dear big brother, this afternoon you got me, but tomorrow you'll be the one to fall into my trap.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)