Chapter Twenty Eight
“Are you ready?” Xi asked as he appeared in the door of their bedroom.
“No,” Leander said. He would never be ready for a family dinner, but since he had been cast in the role of daughter-in-law.
.. or divorced and remarried daughter-in-law, he felt he had to.
He smoothed his hands over his round-necked robes, blue silk with a phoenix embroidered along the sleeve on the side where the phoenix had marked him.
Xi’s robes were silk and similar in cut, but the embroidery on his was a subtle vine on his hem.
Leander envied him for having a simpler style, but most of Leander’s clothing these days showed up with phoenix embroidery.
He would save himself the curse of embellished clothing, only he still hadn’t figured out the trick of using magic to wash clothing, so servants had to take care of that detail, and Mother Huiling controlled the servants.
Xi stepped into their cramped bedroom. “We could claim illness. With the pill master gone, no one would waste a healing pill on a cold.”
“Mother Huiling might,” Leander said. Even when he’d still had a mother, he’d never had someone mother him to the extent Mother Huiling did.
Xi grinned. “She might. Heng said you’re her favorite son.”
That did not make Leander happy. “Eldest brother Zhiyuan should hold that spot, even if Mother Huiling is angry that Heng is pursuing the path of celestial immortality, and I still think it’s stupid to call it immortality when he won’t be technically immortal.”
“If he succeeds in cultivating that well, he’ll be close enough. I still have trouble believing how powerful Chinese magic is.”
“There are trade-offs for that power,” Leander said. He would rather have his power over plants than any pathway to eternal unaging. Or visiting higher dimensions. Or flying. Okay, Chinese magic had a few advantages.
“Dad!” Shanlin shouted as he ran into their apartment. “Grandmother Huiling made char siu pork!” He appeared at the door, his robe in disarray and leaves in his hair.
“Were you climbing trees again?” Leander asked as he crossed the room and started picking the leaves from his tangled hair. With a sigh, he drew the plant life to his hand with magic, leaving Shanlin’s hair messy, but relatively clean.
“Yes,” Shanlin said without an ounce of shame, even though he was wearing formal robes. Leander was unwilling to punish Shanlin, even if he should be more careful with his robes. He had modern jeans for when he wanted to run around like a heathen.
“Let’s go eat some of Mother Huiling’s pork,” Xi said, both hands on Shanlin’s shoulders as he guided him out of the room. “I could eat a qilin.”
Shanlin gave a horrified gasp. “You wouldn’t!”
“If Mother Huiling cooked it, I might,” Xi got Shanlin down the short hall and through the double doors to the family courtyard.
“They’re like unicorns. Eating them would be horrible! Worse because unicorns are associated with people who are innocent and qilin show up for great leaders.”
Leander followed. “And then there’s the fact that qilin are real and unicorns aren’t. I think that’s a significant difference.”
“Unicorns might be real. We haven’t gone to Europe to search for one.
When I grow up I’m going to find one.” With that, Shanlin ran for the main house, likely to get treats from his grandparents.
Auntie Daiyu might be right about grandparents spoiling children beyond reason, but after the suffering of the previous few months, Leander didn’t want to be the disciplinarian.
He had to be, but for now he let Shanlin enjoy being pampered.
“I like hearing him talk about growing up,” Xi said.
Leander gave him a questioning look.
“He acts like he’s going to survive long enough to grow up,” Xi clarified. “Actually, you’ve been doing the same lately—talking about how to market your baskets to the wider magical community without oversaturating the market. That sounds like you plan to have a long and prosperous life.”
Leander took a deep breath and considered that.
He hadn’t realized he’d changed that much, but Xi was right.
“It feels safe here.” Leander feared that was a false sense of security.
Eldest Brother Zhiyuan’s scowls brought to mind C-dramas and poisoned teas, and the Nie family had so much power and money that they must have enemies of their own, but this home with its courtyards and quiet servants and thick walls felt. .. safe.
Xi walked up the stairs to the main house and opened the door for Leander.
“It does,” he agreed. Leander walked in to find Shanlin dancing about the parlor with a scarf trailing behind him.
Leander blinked, startled, but then he saw the magical outline of the dragon around Shanlin, the illusion mimicking the dragon costume professional players would wear during public celebrations.
Mother Huiling was clapping along while Father Xiaobo waved his hand in time to magical music that filled the air.
Eldest Brother Zhiyuan was sitting in the chair farthest from everyone else, scowling.
“Former husband of mine!” Heng sang, delight in his voice. He spent so much time calling Leander his former qidi that the translation had managed to penetrate Leander’s brain despite the earlier mistranslation. Qidi meant husband. Leander would never make that mistake again.
“That joke grows old,” Leander said dryly.
Heng’s smile grew wider. “I do not believe so. I still enjoy the joke, ‘brother.’” He slung an arm over Leander’s shoulders.
“You forget the former part,” Leander said, ducking away. “You have sworn yourself to celibacy as a partner or children would distract you from your path.”
Father Xiaobo’s music hit a sour note and Mother Huiling stopped clapping. Even Shanlin felt the shift, although he compensated by singing the words to Father Xiaobo’s song. Loudly. Off key.
“You are vicious, former husband of mine.” Heng glared at him, but Xi pushed between them on his way to the parlor.
“Visciousness and creativity in insults are his two defining characteristics,” he agreed. He caught Leander’s arm and pulled him into the house. “Mother Huiling, the house smells delightful. I fear I will eat so much I will require a digestive pill to walk.”
She laughed, and the pall that had fallen over the room cleared. Mostly. Eldest Brother Zhiyuan was still scowling, even as Mother Huiling called them all to the dinner table.
Father Xiaobo settled at the head of the table. “Youngest Son Lian, I fear I require an answer as to the name you would choose. We must register your business with the authorities, and even in magical China, changing government documents is a feat that requires the intervention of higher powers.”
The dishes Mother Huiling had summoned, including the char siu pork, paused in the air before continuing their journey to settle on the table.
Her hopeful expression should have made Leander feel trapped.
After all, he’d rejected the idea of going into a family when he’d been an actual orphan.
Violently rejected. He’d once thrown a drying rack full of dishes on the floor when the staff had even suggested he should move in with a do-gooding couple who had been volunteering at the home.
Instead, an unfamiliar—and slightly uncomfortable—warmth spread through his chest. She wanted him to claim the Nie name, to be not an in-law but a legally recognized part of the family. Leander swallowed, struggling with emotions that felt too large.
“Nie Lian appears to be an auspicious name,” Leander said as calmly as he could manage. His voice still cracked in the middle.
Mother Huiling clapped her hands together so hard that she released a small burst of magic that made the shutters rattle. “Excellent! With your ling baskets and Favored Son-in-Law’s shadow decorations, the Nie family will be the envy of all Ring City.”
Leander noticed she gave Xi an upgrade to “favored.” From the scowl on Zhiyuan’s face deepening, he’d noticed as well. He had many friends who lived in his apartments, and if he was drawn to one as a qidi, he should have announced the relationship before Leander became a son of the house of Nie.
“I am looking forward to this glorious feast,” Father Xiaobo said, “but I do not feel it is enough to celebrate another new son for the Nie family. We should announce a new feast.”
Mother Huiling huffed. “You want another excuse to drink.”
“I would not turn one down,” Father Xiaobo said before he started serving himself food.
Heng started telling a story of a feast from his own childhood when his father had tried to climb on the roof.
“Lies! Slander and lies!” Father Xiaobo cried as he smiled so much that the skin around his eyes wrinkled.
“Don’t think I will share my hangover potion with you idiots,” Mother Huiling warned as she dished up her own food.
“I won’t need it. I know how to avoid overindulgence,” Leander said. For one second, he was horrified at his own audacity and the insult he’d given both Eldest Brother Zhiyuan and Father Xiaobo.
Before he could apologize, Father Xiaobo laughed. “You’re a proper Nie now. I’ll teach you to get drunk,” he promised.
“Stop corrupting my last chance at a filial son,” Mother Huiling complained.
Heng and Zhiyuan both protested loudly, only one with any real anger.
It was awkward and loud and wonderful and terrifying.
He wondered if all families were the same.
The family he’d had as a teenager had been.
Tecca and Finn dancing around each other, with Finn making promises to Leander in the dark because they shared a bedroom but then sitting with Tecca at lunch at school.
Petel had disappeared after junior year and Ireen who had lost herself to drugs.
Karn had been the quiet one and then Xi.
Creek. Leander had always felt like Tecca and Finn had failed him, but he had carried the guilt of failing Creek.
So yeah. Maybe all families were wonderful and terrifying in equal measure.
He smiled at Shanlin and then at Xi. Even with all the drawbacks, having a family was much better than the alternative. Life might not be perfect, but Leander was starting to think he had a right to expect it to be good.