"Yeah, obviously, fuckhead. That's the whole point. We're gangsters. It ain't gonna be all nice and fun, is it?" Wen Chao sneered as he slapped the side of Nie Huaisang's head in annoyance. "You're such a sissy. You gotta grow some balls and get your shit together or you're gonna be dead by the time my dad takes over."
His father didn't tolerate the weak or the useless. He shoved Nie Huiasang into the backroom and shut the door behind him. "Okay, let's call your precious da-ge." He pulled out his phone and started to search for the number.
"Is your father really capable of that? So impressive..." And he wondered just what the plan here could be. Taking out all the other gangs would be quite the task. He wished he could have talked to Lan Zhan and find out just what had gone down with them. He used his fan to hide the lower half of his face as he thought about it, waiting for his brother to pick up.
He supposed he could update him on just what was happening here at least and then see what to do from that point.
"There's nothing he can't do." Wen Chao boasted as he waited for the older brother to pick up. He did, eventually, and there was silence at first before the eldest Nie spoke.
"What do you want now, you Wen dog? Where is my brother?!"
"Temper, temper. He's right here with me." Wen Chao tsked and then reached over, grabbing Nie Huaisang harshly on the shoulder and squeezing a particularly painful pressure point that his brother had taught him. On his own body but still. "What did you want to say, little Nie?"
Nie Huaisang didn't have to fake the pained cry. Enduring pain had never been for him, he didn't see the point.
"Da-ge!," he called out, sounding desperate and scared, which was only partially acted. All right, it was hugely exaggerated. He didn't believe that Wen Chao posed much danger to him. "It's horrible! Wen-gongzi is so in control." He really wasn't. "All of us young masters are here and he scares us all, even the second young Lan master." He wanted to let his brother know that Lan Zhan was with them and alive. Given his injury and the uncertainty of what had happened with the gang, he wondered whether that was valuable information. "The young master Jin and Jiang-xiong are very brave, but, da-ge! I am so scared!"
A medium level of scared, he'd say. Maybe lower. "Wen-gongzi is in charge and he is scary." He really wasn't. He really needed his brother to know that Wen Chao had nothing under control and that he would therefore be just fine.
"Are you okay?" Nie Mingjue asked, putting away every little detail for later. Nie Huaisang was a strange boy. Weak and pathetic but cunning as a fox. He could escape his lessons with ease and lie to him so boldly and with such conviction that sometimes he believed it. Honestly, he wondered if his brother wasn't just playing games. "I want him returned unharmed or there will be hell to pay."
"Don't threaten us. You want your little boy back? Beg for him. Come here, in person, and bow to your betters. When you kowtow, we will give you your brother back." Wen Chao spat out as he shoved Nie Huaisang away. "You have until Friday."
"Why Friday?"
"... Erm." Wait. Why did he question that? There wasn't an actual deadline but, well, you know. "Friday is the end of the week."
"it's sensible to wrap up business before the weekend," Nie Huaisang said encouragingly, because he wanted to bolster Wen Chao up further and to keep his brother from entirely rattling him. A rattled Wen Chao would be much more difficult to deal with, until he got a good handle on him. "Da-ge, please don't wait around until Friday. I am scared Wen Chao will find out all the secrets I know if we are alone much longer."
Or else he would just like to give him some incentive to focus on him, alone, so that he could implement some actual planning. "Anyway, banks are closed on the weekend. So the Wen would have to wait until Monday to close out the accounts of the gangs they take over."
Why did he say Friday? If Nie Mingjue didn't come by Friday then he would have made a statement and his dad would not know unless he told him. And if he told him, he was in deep trouble for pushing a deadline. He was so panicked, he was barely listening. Just trying to justify all of this.
"I see." Nie Mingjue was quiet for a moment. "By Friday, you say? Is that true of all of the gangs. Lan Xichen would perhaps like to know."
"No!" Wen Chao said a bit too panicked, grabbing the phone. "Just stick with what you're given and stay out of others business. You heard what I said already so -- make up your mind!" God, he hoped he came on Friday or he was so dead. "If you don't come, be warned, I will have all the secrets."
And with that, he hung up. Swiftly. Eagerly. God, that was terrible!
"Whoa, Wen-gongzi! You are so brave. I would never talk to da-ge like that." Indeed he wouldn't, partially because he wasn't a complete idiotic fool like Wen Chao clearly was. Also because his brother was terribly intimidating, even to him. Some days, especially to him. "I have never seen anyone stand up to him. You are truly strong."
He bowed his head in awe, made sure to mix some fear into it, and then tried prodding. "You don't really want my secrets, do you?"
"Yeah, I'm not scared of anyone." Wen Chao agreed, not realising it was pointless, fake sucking up that was happening. He liked kind words so he didn't like to challenge them. He rarely got them from anyone else so he liked what he could get from others. Whores, his underlings, hostages - all valid.
"Of course I want your secrets. Are they about what the Nie plan to do? Because they won't succeed. No more than the Lan clan did when my brother went for them." Wen Chao boasted, never one to keep his cards to his chest.
"I hear your brother is ruthless. The Lan clan must be devastated." Both young masters still alive though, he had taken note of that. Nie Huaisang wondered just what Wen Chao thought he was threatening here. "My brother is clan leader and he is a strong fighter. He won't give up territory easily..."
Nie Huaisang looked around, despair in his eyes. And then he looked at Wen Chao, as if he had just had an epiphany. "Perhaps we could make a deal, Wen-gongzi."
"We destroyed their base of operations. I have the second master and my brother is tracking the first as we speak. He has a tip. Some lowly librarian - Yao-- something. He's going to torture the location out of him and we'll have both Lans by Friday." Why Friday? Why did he keep saying Friday? He really had to stop.
Of course, no, he didn't really connect that Nie Mingjue knew where Lan Xichen was. Given what had been said. He was not the brightest for sure. "What deal? Cause you don't have nothing I want."
Yao-ge. If he was involved, that explained why his brother knew how to get in touch with Lan Xichen. That meant that Meng Yao was sure to be spinning an elaborate web and he had to ensure that he wouldn't accidentally get in its way. However, he doubted Wen Chao was accounted for. He was too stupid. If he was less stupid, this would be easier.
"Because of my secrets," he reminded him gently, while fanning himself and lowering his eyes demurely, "Few know how to enter the Unclean Realm. If you promised me my brother will be unharmed, maybe I can tell you."
"Yeah but we don't need a deal for that. You're a wuss, I can just torture it out of you. How many fingers would you have to lose before you told me? You'd never wave that pretty fan again." Wen Chao was a brute, all options were violence for him. He didn't see a way to handle such things without a little destruction.
"Tell me what you want from me and I'll see if the deal is more fun than cutting off fingers. And once those are gone, there's always toes and teeth." He giggled manically, his eyes sparkling with a morbid delight.
All right. This talk of torture was quite off-putting. It was not surprising that this was where Wen Chao's mind went but it did mean he would have to radically refocus his mind. Which might work best if he scrambled it first. So he leaned back, flicked his fan a little to half-close it, and he looked up at Wen Chao.
"I will teach you about pleasure that you can't even imagine." Wait, he would have to be clearer in this case. "Sex. That's what I'm talking about."
"Why a dude? Ew!" Weng Chao looked at him in disgust and pushed himself back. If his brother ever caught wind of anything like this, he'd beat him half to death! That gay shit was only for westerns and whores with no other source of money. "I got plenty of girls, you dumb fag. I don't need you."
What could a guy even do? Wasn't it all just butt stuff? He didn't mind anal, with girls, it was fun but he didn't really want to have anything in him.
"Ah, nothing like that." Huaisang caught himself easily, leaning back against the wall. He stood much more confidently now, having dropped his mark for the moment. At least a little. "It is not at all the way you think. The games I know how to play, they have nothing to do with fucking."
He used the vulgar word on purpose, even as he covered his mouth with his fan for it. He was still a young gentleman, after all. "They are about deeper desires. Women don't really know how to pleasure a man like you, Wen-gongzi. Isn't there always something missing?"
Not every girl was willing to suck him off and let him fuck them. It was annoying. Also when girls nagged for foreplay. Like he wanted to eat a girl out - he wasn't going to do that shit. It was about him, not her. "They're still young girls so they're pretty shit, you know? I did a whore once but I don't really do it any more, my brother told me you get dickrot that way."
So mostly he went after highschoolers. They were unspoilt then.
Ugh. He was terrible. Wen Chao should not be allowed near women. Honestly, if his plan worked the way he anticipated, Huaisang saw it as a public service for multiple reasons. To hide his reaction to that open display of grossness, he lowered his eyelids and opened up the fan, as if such talk was simply too much for a young gentleman.
Then, with a snap, he closed the fan entirely, slamming it against his open fan. An astonishingly loud sound, he always admired that. "Your whip, A-Chao." He changed how he addressed him. He doubted Wen Chao would catch on to it right away. "You really like it, don't you? You like to watch when it hits someone's skin."
The slam of the fan was loud, he jumped a little and then looked at Nie Huaisang. Eh. He was a pussy, he had nothing to fear. He just smirked up at him. "The whip? Heh, you like it? It was my idea. My brother said to use a knife or a gun but this is way smarter. You know why? It hurts and you don't have to get close." Life-hack. He couldn't be overpowered if he had distance. Or, at least, he thought he couldn't.
Stupid Lan bastard, grabbing his whip. "I like to play with stuff like that. Be unconventional." He loved the sound of the whip, the way it cut through the air - magical.
"I get that. I think it is part of why I like the fan. A small thing can still make a big impact. A loud noise." He snapped the fan back open with an elegant and well-practised flick of his wrist. It was a beautiful fan that he carried with him right now. It was black, with a dragon and a tiger on it. Honestly, he thought of it as his WangXian fan, in honour of his friend Wei Wuxian and the Second Lan and what he hoped would blossom there.
That symbolism didn't matter right now. Right now, what mattered was catching Wen Chao's eyes and holding his gaze. "Can you take pain, A-Chao? Like the pain your whip can deal. Or my fan."
It took him a moment to comprehend what was even being said to him. It always took him a moment. He was not a fast thinker.
"Oi! Don't talk to me in such a way, how dare you?!" Wen Chao snapped because why was this little sissy calling him A-Chao. As if he had any right or say over such a thing. Wen Chao pulled himself upright, proud and nervous, his eyes on the fan. What about the fan? Anyone could take a fan. It wasn't a weapon. "If you speak to me in such a manner again, I will beat you into nothing."
"Anyone could beat me into nothing. I'm not much, am I?" Nie Huaisang raised his eyebrows, challenging. He had seen that hesitation and he had seen a spark there. He was certain of it. So he had to take a risk, for his clan, for his brother, for the good of the city. He would dominate the hell out of Wen Chao. It was the most efficient way toward peace. "Anyone can beat me. But not a lot of real men know how to take pain. Didn't you see the young masters in the other room, whimpering because of you?"
Only one had whimpered and it had been over a dog, not Wen Chao. Whatever. "I am curious how you could handle it. If you are stronger than them."
"What? You think I can't handle pain? Please. I've been shot before." He had not, a bullet grazed his arm and went right into Wen Zhuliu but he had handled it about as well as one might expect Wen Chao to have handled it. He panicked under pressure, he feared to be belittled and attacked, to lose whatever ground he had. He gulped and looked at Nie Huaisang, not sure what was happening.
His voice had changed. His tone. He sounded different. His heart was racing and he wasn't sure why. "I am stronger than any of them. Whips are nothing. I could hold up under torture fine. Us Wens are built different."
"Show me," Nie Huaisang demanded. Then he took a decisive step forward, closed his fan with a sharp sound and, a moment later, he slapped the side of the fan against Wen Chao's cheek with quite a bit of force.
He held it still thereafter, so he could put the tip of it right against Wen Chao's cheek. Looking into his eyes, he allowed himself to smile a little. "You show a lot of strength. Maybe you'd be worthy of truly showing me what you are made of."
He wasn't sure what it was about this whole thing that froze him entirely. It was the strides, the confidence, the eye contact. The way he looked at him, it almost made him shiver. It reminded him of how he felt any time he looked at that Xue Yang psycho. There was a coldness to it, even with the almost playful tone.
When the fan hit him, he winced and held still, his face really hurting. It was embarrassing. If he reacted in pain, he would show weakness. So he had to act unbothered. "Didn't hurt. Barely felt it." Ow.
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His father didn't tolerate the weak or the useless. He shoved Nie Huiasang into the backroom and shut the door behind him. "Okay, let's call your precious da-ge." He pulled out his phone and started to search for the number.
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He supposed he could update him on just what was happening here at least and then see what to do from that point.
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"What do you want now, you Wen dog? Where is my brother?!"
"Temper, temper. He's right here with me." Wen Chao tsked and then reached over, grabbing Nie Huaisang harshly on the shoulder and squeezing a particularly painful pressure point that his brother had taught him. On his own body but still. "What did you want to say, little Nie?"
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"Da-ge!," he called out, sounding desperate and scared, which was only partially acted. All right, it was hugely exaggerated. He didn't believe that Wen Chao posed much danger to him. "It's horrible! Wen-gongzi is so in control." He really wasn't. "All of us young masters are here and he scares us all, even the second young Lan master." He wanted to let his brother know that Lan Zhan was with them and alive. Given his injury and the uncertainty of what had happened with the gang, he wondered whether that was valuable information. "The young master Jin and Jiang-xiong are very brave, but, da-ge! I am so scared!"
A medium level of scared, he'd say. Maybe lower. "Wen-gongzi is in charge and he is scary." He really wasn't. He really needed his brother to know that Wen Chao had nothing under control and that he would therefore be just fine.
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"Don't threaten us. You want your little boy back? Beg for him. Come here, in person, and bow to your betters. When you kowtow, we will give you your brother back." Wen Chao spat out as he shoved Nie Huaisang away. "You have until Friday."
"Why Friday?"
"... Erm." Wait. Why did he question that? There wasn't an actual deadline but, well, you know. "Friday is the end of the week."
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Or else he would just like to give him some incentive to focus on him, alone, so that he could implement some actual planning. "Anyway, banks are closed on the weekend. So the Wen would have to wait until Monday to close out the accounts of the gangs they take over."
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"I see." Nie Mingjue was quiet for a moment. "By Friday, you say? Is that true of all of the gangs. Lan Xichen would perhaps like to know."
"No!" Wen Chao said a bit too panicked, grabbing the phone. "Just stick with what you're given and stay out of others business. You heard what I said already so -- make up your mind!" God, he hoped he came on Friday or he was so dead. "If you don't come, be warned, I will have all the secrets."
And with that, he hung up. Swiftly. Eagerly. God, that was terrible!
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He bowed his head in awe, made sure to mix some fear into it, and then tried prodding. "You don't really want my secrets, do you?"
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"Of course I want your secrets. Are they about what the Nie plan to do? Because they won't succeed. No more than the Lan clan did when my brother went for them." Wen Chao boasted, never one to keep his cards to his chest.
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Nie Huaisang looked around, despair in his eyes. And then he looked at Wen Chao, as if he had just had an epiphany. "Perhaps we could make a deal, Wen-gongzi."
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Of course, no, he didn't really connect that Nie Mingjue knew where Lan Xichen was. Given what had been said. He was not the brightest for sure. "What deal? Cause you don't have nothing I want."
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"Because of my secrets," he reminded him gently, while fanning himself and lowering his eyes demurely, "Few know how to enter the Unclean Realm. If you promised me my brother will be unharmed, maybe I can tell you."
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"Tell me what you want from me and I'll see if the deal is more fun than cutting off fingers. And once those are gone, there's always toes and teeth." He giggled manically, his eyes sparkling with a morbid delight.
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"I will teach you about pleasure that you can't even imagine." Wait, he would have to be clearer in this case. "Sex. That's what I'm talking about."
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What could a guy even do? Wasn't it all just butt stuff? He didn't mind anal, with girls, it was fun but he didn't really want to have anything in him.
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He used the vulgar word on purpose, even as he covered his mouth with his fan for it. He was still a young gentleman, after all. "They are about deeper desires. Women don't really know how to pleasure a man like you, Wen-gongzi. Isn't there always something missing?"
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Not every girl was willing to suck him off and let him fuck them. It was annoying. Also when girls nagged for foreplay. Like he wanted to eat a girl out - he wasn't going to do that shit. It was about him, not her. "They're still young girls so they're pretty shit, you know? I did a whore once but I don't really do it any more, my brother told me you get dickrot that way."
So mostly he went after highschoolers. They were unspoilt then.
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Then, with a snap, he closed the fan entirely, slamming it against his open fan. An astonishingly loud sound, he always admired that. "Your whip, A-Chao." He changed how he addressed him. He doubted Wen Chao would catch on to it right away. "You really like it, don't you? You like to watch when it hits someone's skin."
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Stupid Lan bastard, grabbing his whip. "I like to play with stuff like that. Be unconventional." He loved the sound of the whip, the way it cut through the air - magical.
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That symbolism didn't matter right now. Right now, what mattered was catching Wen Chao's eyes and holding his gaze. "Can you take pain, A-Chao? Like the pain your whip can deal. Or my fan."
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"Oi! Don't talk to me in such a way, how dare you?!" Wen Chao snapped because why was this little sissy calling him A-Chao. As if he had any right or say over such a thing. Wen Chao pulled himself upright, proud and nervous, his eyes on the fan. What about the fan? Anyone could take a fan. It wasn't a weapon. "If you speak to me in such a manner again, I will beat you into nothing."
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Only one had whimpered and it had been over a dog, not Wen Chao. Whatever. "I am curious how you could handle it. If you are stronger than them."
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His voice had changed. His tone. He sounded different. His heart was racing and he wasn't sure why. "I am stronger than any of them. Whips are nothing. I could hold up under torture fine. Us Wens are built different."
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He held it still thereafter, so he could put the tip of it right against Wen Chao's cheek. Looking into his eyes, he allowed himself to smile a little. "You show a lot of strength. Maybe you'd be worthy of truly showing me what you are made of."
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When the fan hit him, he winced and held still, his face really hurting. It was embarrassing. If he reacted in pain, he would show weakness. So he had to act unbothered. "Didn't hurt. Barely felt it." Ow.
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