Chapter Text
When Wei Ying was six, his parents went night hunting and never came back. The legendary Madame Yu and her companions Yinzhu and Jinzhu went looking for his parents, slew the monster, found his parents bodies, gave them an honorable burial, and took Wei Ying home to Lotus Pier to be a servant and companion for his son as Yinzhu and Jinzhu are to her.
Wei Ying has always known this story, and has always been grateful to Madame Yu.
He also knows that he is being made into a weapon, just like Yinzhu and Jinzhu were, just like the also legendary Core-Melting Hand. When he was twelve, he traveled with Madame Yu and her maids and her children to Meishan and Popo Yu examined him and gave him a bow that never runs out of arrows--or maybe it fires the same arrow, over and over, because there's nothing left in the target or the kite or the deer after he takes it down, just a hole.
He's seventeen now and he's been practicing day and night for as long as he can remember. He can shoot more than one arrow at a time now. He can shoot from horseback, from the top of a carriage, blindfolded. He can shoot around corners. He can shoot lying on his back. Young Master Jiang calls him "Never-Missing Archer."
He likes that name. He likes being Jiang sect's great treasure. He likes that he doesn't have to bother with the education that Young Master does in the arts and calligraphy and poetry, that he can just swim and run and train with bow and sword.
"Guess what?" Yinzhu says over dinner.
"The family is going to Qinghe? I knew that already, I heard Yan-jie getting out Young Lady's cold weather clothes," Wei Ying says.
Jinzhu swats the back of his head. "Stupid! Don't assume. Young Lady and Young Master are going to Gusu for the summer and you're going with them. You will valet for Young Master and keep him safe. "
"It's up a mountain," Yinzhu says. "It's cold up there."
"Oh," Wei Ying says, nodding.
"But the part you'll like is that the Young Master's dogs aren't allowed to come. No pets in Cloud Recesses. A whole summer without dogs," Jinzhu says.
Wei Ying beams at both of them and they laugh. He's never liked dogs.
He goes to find Young Master after dinner and finds him in the kennel, sitting among his pack. Wei Ying leans over the half-door and wrinkles his nose. "Dog smell," he says to Young Master Jiang Cheng.
"Shut up! Just because you don't like them. Little Love smells like osmanthus and honey," Jiang Cheng says, holding the round-faced orange creature up in front of his face. The dog smiles at Wei Ying and lolls her pink tongue.
"So you found out about the lectures?" Wei Ying says.
Jiang Cheng nods. "I don't know why they don't even allow spiritual dogs. They're going to lose all their training."
"Fifth shidi and sixth shidi will look after them. I think it's going to be great."
Jiang Cheng scowls at him. "What do you have against dogs, anyway?"
Wei Ying opens his mouth and stares. "Young Master, have your brains fallen out your ears? Don't you remember when we were six?"
Jiang Cheng suddenly blushes. Clearly he remembers. "Oh. That."
"When you found out that I was going to turn seven a week before you?"
Jiang Cheng flushes harder. "Yes."
"And you told your dogs to bite me into the hospital rooms," Wei Ying said.
"They weren't going to do it!"
"To bite my birthday away! I was so scared! I was so little, littler than you, and those dogs were so big compared to me! They came running up with their teeth open! They were going to bite me to death!" Wei Ying cries out.
"Dramatic!" Jiang Cheng says.
"And then your mother shouted at them to sit down, and she was so ferocious that you and I both sat down too," Wei Ying says, grinning. "And you got such a spanking."
"And extra lessons for a year on how a gentleman behaves to servants," Jiang Cheng sighs. "But that was so long ago!"
"They still are waiting for my blood," Wei Ying says. "Look at Princess. She has my taste in her mouth already."
Jiang Cheng looks at Princess, a tall sight-hound with golden hair and comical eyebrows. He looks back at Wei Ying.
Wei Ying isn't scared of Princess, not really, but he remembers the teeth at the level of his head and can't be so sanguine about her long golden face. "She has the heart of a tiger," Wei Ying says.
"That was bad of me," Jiang Cheng says, his eyes lowered. "I did a lot of bad things when I was little, but I think that's the worst."
"I don't know. Remember when you didn't want to wear your new festival robes and you threw them in the lake? Your mother did all that embroidery on it, and she hates embroidery."
Jiang Cheng groans. "Stop, stop! Why don't I know all the rotten things you did when you were a kid?" he asks.
"I was never badly behaved," Wei Ying says sweetly.
That's not true at all, of course, but Wei Ying's childish tantrums were less memorable. Things like refusing to carry firewood for the kitchens just got him a spanking from the cooks. By the time he was old enough to be in the public eye, he was old enough to know that misbehavior wouldn't be tolerated by Yinzhu and Jinzhu and Madame Yu.
He's a servant, the son of a long line of Jiang sect servants. If he's not a hard worker, he doesn't have a home here.