The thing about Lan Qiren is that he is tired. He’s tired, you guys, he’s so fucking tired. His brother impulse-marries a murderer and Qiren spends the next ten-odd years/the rest of his life dealing with the fallout; having to run the sect while his brother is in seclusion until his brother’s older son is old enough to take up a leadership position; having to RAISE his brother’s sons because his brother is too wrapped up in his own fee-fees to step up and be a fucking father and their mother isn’t allowed to mother them; realizing he’s their only parental figure left forever once his sister-in-law and brother both die, probably as a result or side-effect of the physical and mental toll of indefinite seclusion.
And then Wangji falls in love with a murderer. And then Xichen falls in love. And then the guy Xichen falls in love with turns out to be a murderer. And Qiren is so tired. It is so easy to not fall in love with a murderer. They are almost certainly the easiest kind of person to not fall in love with he’s pretty sure. Why does this keep happening. Fuck.