It’s an unspoken rule that Yilling Wei Sect AU Meng Yao is in charge of Xue Yang. Neither of them are entirely sure how this arrangement came to be, it’s one of things that sort of just happened during their first few years in the burial mounds.

They both pretend to hate it, but Meng Yao is lowkey pleased that he’s the only person Xue Yang really listens to, even compared to their patriarch! And Xue Yang has gone full Annoying Younger Sibling. Yes, he HAS made it his life’s mission to annoy Meng Yao in every way possible, but if Meng Yao ever looks like he’s actually upset with him for even a second, He Will Cry!

Everyone outside the sect thinks they hate each other until one of them gets injured and the other goes full feral I Can Pick On My Brother But You Fucking Can’t.

Nie Mingjue sees Meng Yao struggling to whip his terrible flighty adopted younger brother into a respectable member of society, torn between letting him be himself and turning him into someone the world can rely on, and has a dizzying moment of “Oh no. He’s friend shaped.”