"Uh, it's kind of a long story, but--we eloped. And we adopted this baby." 

"A-Xian..."

"I'm completely serious, Shijie!" And then, to demonstrate, he kisses Lan Zhan. Poooossibly more enthusiastically than a simple demonstration calls for but they just got married, okay, he is allowed to be overly enthusiastic about kissing his ~husband~.

This is embarrassing, but kissing Wei Ying is worth all possible amounts of embarrassment. He kisses back.

"Apologies for lacking an official ceremony, Jiang-guniang. You would have been invited."

"Ah! I'm not offended, don't worry, this is just...a surprise. Last I was aware A-Xian hadn't even worked out he had feelings for you." 

Surprised blinking.

"He spoke of you often, though. What happened?" She chucks A-Yuan under the chin. "You didn't come out of thin air, I bet." 

He glances around the public hallway, where nobody else is at the moment but someone could show up at any second. "That's actually a really complicated story and we're planning to lie about most of it for general audiences. Preferably including Uncle Jiang and Madam Yu. And the true story is kind of really hard to believe. Probably Madam Yu will show up any minute now wanting an explanation so the real one can wait, but--I'm not lying to you about it, even by omission by not letting you know ahead of time that the explanation I'm giving everyone else is false." 

"A-Xian, did you have something to do with what's been happening in Qishan?" 

"...Between me and Lan Zhan we had pretty much everything to do with what's been happening in Qishan." 

"How--no, explain later, you're right, Mom really shouldn't hear this." 

Almost as though summoned by the mention of her, Yu Ziyuan sweeps in. 

"Wei Wuxian! Where have you been? Everything's been in chaos as people were looking for you! Don't you have any idea how your actions affect others?" She spots Lan Wangji and her scowl deepens. "You've even managed to drag the Lans into this!?"

She can be scowled at right back.

Not having met Lan Wangji before, it might be difficult for Yu Ziyuan to distinguish between 'dignified, reserved, possibly bored' and 'radiating utter disdain', but Wangji does his best to convey the latter.

"Madam Yu." He speaks her name more like a warning than a greeting.

"Lan-gongxi. I apologize for whatever trouble my husband's ward may have caused you." 

"My husband has caused me no trouble, Madam Yu."

"Wait, what?"

"Wei Ying and I have wed."

"So, what happened was that there was a young couple living out in the wilderness and the husband died while the wife was pregnant and then the wife died after the baby was born and she managed to get past the wards on Lotus Pier and walk me out to where her baby was and make me take care of it. And then when word came to Jiang Cheng at Cloud Recesses he and Lan Zhan came to look for me and they found me and Lan Zhan broke the spell the ghost had on me by kissing me," the kissing part was not part of the original story Lan Zhan had come up with and he had agreed to deliver but Oh Well, "and it was the most romantic thing that had ever happened and we got married and adopted the baby." 

...

"Well, I hope you know what you're getting into," she tells Lan Wangji. 

"I do."

"Wonderful," she says, and leaves. 

Phew. That could have gone so much worse. 

It really could have. 

Jiang Yanli snuggles baby A-Yuan. He's just so snuggable. 

"So if that's not what really happened, and you don't want to say what really happened out here, I think A-Xian's room would be a good place," she decides firmly. 

"Sounds good." 

He tows Lan Zhan and Shijie to his room. It's cluttered, with talismans complete and partial scattered about, Suibian leaning against the wall, and dirty laundry heaped in one corner. He pauses to pick up his sword and draw it partway out of its sheath, just marveling for a moment that yes, he has a golden core again and can use a sword. 

Then he puts the sword down again and sits on the bed. 

"So...this is going to sound really, really crazy." 

"A-Xian, two weeks ago you hadn't noticed you had a crush on this boy and now you're saying you two are married. I think we've crossed that line already."