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"There is someone else who is talented. Have you considered him as an option?"

"Someone else? I don't know who that is, shixiong."

"You do know him, from when he was a guest disciple in our school years. We were in the same classroom."

"Ah? Yes, we had classes with guest students often, but only sect members are viable. We cannot summon a person from another sect to be a lecturer for months."

"What if he married into the sect and lives here already?"

"Well, that..." Lan Zhihao paled in realization. "Shixiong! Are you talking about, uh, your cultivation partner? You cannot be serious!"

"Why not?" Lan Wangji glared, ready to throw down and break a new bone if his shidi started to insult his husband. "Wei Ying exceeds the required level of knowledge. He would enrich our junior disciples' future expertise. He also has the charisma to win them over and make them interested in a challenging class."

Lan Zhihao tried to sit up, but the pain made him wince.

"I understand this, but please consider that Wei-gongzi is also a demonic cultivator and he might... I mean, the elders will be certain that he might teach some forbidden content to our children."

There it is.

"He does not want to impart his knowledge in that area. Never has. If he wanted to teach his demonic cultivation, he would have had disciples already. Wei Ying has been helping me informally in my night hunting assistance with juniors, and he never showed interest in teaching anything but ways to combat it or how it vaguely works."

"Aren't there rumors he taught Lan Sizhui how to control fierce corpses, including the Ghost General?"

"False, he knows not. The Ghost General and Sizhui are... on friendly terms. No one controls Wen Qiongli into doing that. He's just a chaperon."

The expression of disbelief on his shidi's face was almost comical to Lan Wangji. He relished in it.

"Do you truly think," Lan Wangji insisted, "I would be better at teaching talismans and artifacts than him?" Or even you?, he thought but he bit his tongue. "Wei Ying invented the flags, as you know. He's the best option not only inside the sect, but in the entire world."

The man winced, maybe from the ache or maybe from Lan Wangji's insistence. Or both.

"Listen, shixiong, I know. Between us, I even had a copy of the booklet he published on how to break the rules by using loopholes when we were juniors ourselves. He does have a gift for explaining his ideas. But again, the families of the sect and clan will give me grief if I put the Yiling Patriarch in charge. And there's the newest rule..." Ah yes, that damned rule. Lan Wangji hated it so much, but Uncle changed subjects whenever he asked for its removal. "Please understand that you might be less of an expert than Wei-gongzi, but you're a renowned, respected cultivator."

A safer option, he meant. Coward.

But speaking of loopholes... Lan Wangji could also think of a few.

"Is it acceptable if Wei Ying plans the classes and evaluations, but I make sure they're morally suitable and I impart them myself?"

"Hmmm. I don't think they could object to that with those conditions. If you take the job, what you do with it is your responsibility."

"Would they blame and punish you for my decisions?"

"I don't think so, no."

"Then I shall accept."

Lan Wangji smiled on the inside. On the outside he just bowed respectfully.

You can't be married to Wei Ying without learning a few tricks.