Five uneventful and Wei-Wuxian-free years later--

"Your Imperial Majesty, I regret to inform you that I have news about Wei Wuxian."

"Underminister, it has been 19 years since the first time Wei Wuxian was mentioned in the Court. We can assume that it is too much to hope for that, in the intervening time, he has grown any more mature, wise, or even stable."

"Your Imperial Majesty, reports suggest that he has begun using demonic cultivation to... make textiles?"

"Textiles? We were not aware that this was something that demonic cultivation could do."

"Your Imperial Majesty, he... appears to have set each fierce corpse to do a particular small task over and over again. This speeds up manufacturing so that robes which would take a woman many months to sew are taken from cotton to being ready to wear in a single day." 

"If the fierce corpses do the same thing over and over again, how do they make the clothing fit? Would you not simply churn out tunics that do not fit?"

"Your Imperial Majesty, the fierce corpses manufacture several different 'sizes' of tunic for different people. The tunics do not fit as well as one sewn by hand, but the process of taking them in to fit a body takes much less time than making the entire tunic, and many peasants find them satisfactory as is. Variety in wardrobe, it seems, is as important to the peasants as fit."

"They're just tunics, underminister. How few could they have, two dozen?" Who thinks he is out of touch, and who realizes that they are meant to laugh? If Wei Wuxian is making tunics for peasants, that is concerning in that he is once again back and active and not night-hunting and having sex with Lan Wangji, but the emperor tries to focus on the things he can control, like the court and every non-cultivating citizen in the Empire, and not things he can't, like a forty year old man who seems to be finally settling down and producing clothing: a somewhat feminine profession, but then he is a cutsleeve.

"Your Imperial Majesty, the demand for his so-called 'mass-produced' clothing seemed to have outpaced his willingness to do it, particularly since he is easily bored. So he has started to train peasants in demonic cultivation."

"He is training peasants. In demonic cultivation. The same art that is speculated to be partially responsible for the impulsivity and self-control to the extent that he was distracted mid-fight by his enemies mocking him about his utter inability to confess his romantic feelings at the age of 35? How many have died so far?"

"Well, Your Imperial Majesty," the Underminister says judiciously, "previously the three most famous demonic cultivators were, before they did demonic cultivation, a candy-obsessed serial murderer, one of Jin Guangshan's other bastards who was a cutsleeve regularly assaulted by his family members, and Wei Wuxian. They were also all sixteen or seventeen. Apparently the impulsivity and loss of control of emotions associated with demonic cultivation is much easier to manage if you select middle-aged householders known for their reliability and calmness."

"The man has matured. You say that there is substantial demand: by how much is he undercutting the housewives for peasant garb?"

"Your Imperial Majesty, a completely finished garment costs perhaps a day's wages."

The emperor pauses. "How fast can he train peasant demonic cultivators, and how many tunics a day can each produce?" Is this going to be a fad, or a fundamental challenge to the stability and traditions of the empire? What will women do when they no longer devote a substantial fraction of their time to making clothing? He can't imagine it stopping at tunics.

The Underminister gives some statistics that are frankly quite terrifying. Within a few decades Wei Wuxian could easily be producing clothes for the entire Empire.

"Arrange a joint meeting with the Minister of Harmonious Production and the Minister of Proper Behavior to discuss this in more depth. What is he expected to do with that much money?"

"Your Imperial Majesty, he doesn't really seem to be using the amount of money he has right now. Much of it is reinvested back into his factories. Reports suggest that Lan Wangji, Wen Ning, and Wei Wuxian live in a very large and luxurious mansion, own a lot of rare books about cultivation and fancy liquors, throw lavish parties, and have funded the Jiang Clan taking on additional disciples and pursuing certain building projects. --They have also adopted either five or six children but as I understand it their child adoption is limited by spare time and not finances."

"And what is the Ghost General doing?"

"The Ghost General Wen Ning," the Underminister says carefully, "is the primary caretaker of their five or possibly six children."

Ah, maturity. Wild and violent teenagers, turned to productive men. Very feminine men who do tailoring and take care of children, but cutsleeves can be like that. "What sorts attend their parties? Middle-aged householders selected for reliability and calmness can't be great company."

"Your Imperial Majesty is perspicacious. Wei Wuxian's parties are far more popular among the householders' offspring. --The major cultivation clans officially disapprove of Wei Wuxian's actions. The Jiang disciples are permitted to attend, and even Sect Leader Jiang has been spotted. Minor Nie and Jin disciples sometimes attend, particularly the Nie, as Wei Wuxian's factories are in their territory. For reasons we are uncertain of, the Ghost General is very popular among the Lan juniors, and they regularly sneak out of the Cloud Recesses to get drunk and otherwise break the rules of their sect. And Wei Wuxian has made business connections with many rogue cultivators."

"Business connections with rogue cultivators? What do those even entail? Are they also becoming demonic cultivators?" A brief pause. "Lan Wangji hosts parties where Lan juniors get drunk and break the rules of their sect? The man noted for his adherence to all the rules of his sect?" Another. "This official disapproval seems very nominal: why did they dare officially disapprove of someone who is likely capable of killing them all, and not do anything further? Do not do an enemy a small injury."

"Your Imperial Majesty, Wei Wuxian thought that overland travel was too slow for selling his tunics, so he hired rogue cultivators to fly the tunics throughout Your Imperial Majesty's empire. The clans, obviously, disapprove of this, but there is little they can do while participating in trade makes the rogue cultivators so very wealthy." Pause. "Lan Wangji himself does not participate in parties, but I understand that his relationship with Wei Wuxian has loosened his attitude towards rules considerably." Pause. "It is difficult to coordinate action against Wei Wuxian, because the chief cultivator is so indecisive. He is dithering about the appropriate punishment, and whether it is permitted to forbid Wei Wuxian to do this at all, since the official policy of the cultivation clans has always been that anyone may teach cultivation, and how it should be addressed without irritating Wei Wuxian who could kill them all, and how to set policies without upsetting the peasants who quite like their new tunics. He has in fact dithered so much that Wei Wuxian set up all his factories in Nie territory, and now he is dithering about how to expel them."

"The rogue cultivators of the Imperial Communication Service have never been interested in becoming merchants before: what convinced them? We had thought it beneath their dignity." Not that they weren't opinionated dignified enough even as messengers: it was at least a relatively effective way for generals and magistrates to understand that cultivators would not pay them proper respect, even ones under the command of the Empire, and the Communication Service was usually understanding.

"Does it seem that the choice to set up all of his factories in Nie territory was necessarily deliberate, or did he simply pick a location and then build factories around it?"

"Oh, and incidentally: why is it five or six children? Why is information so hard to extract? Wei Wuxian has never seemed interested in hiding anything." Wei Wuxian's romantic incompetence and self-repression Do Not Count and the emperor Does Not Want To Consider That.

"Your Imperial Majesty, wealth is very convincing and access to secret cultivation knowledge that one would not otherwise be able to have is more convincing. Lan Wangji himself was Wei Wuxian's first merchant, and it is difficult to argue that being a merchant is undignified when a Twin Jade is doing it. Presumably Wei Wuxian set up his factories in Nie territory because Nie Huaisang would dither too much to actually expel them." Pause. "The uncertain child is Lan Sizhui, who mysteriously appeared in the Cloud Recesses at the age of five. He has no known family but was raised by Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen. At present, he lives with Wei Wuxian, Wen Ning, and Lan Wangji and helps with the children and educating the peasants. He refers to Lan Wangji by formal title and to Wei Wuxian and Wen Ning as his uncles. We believe him to be Lan Wangji's illegitimate child."