Chapter Text
It’s like this: Jiang Cheng doesn’t mean to mess things up, but it happens nonetheless.
He tells himself that it’s Wei Wuxian’s fault anyway, so he doesn’t feel that bad about it.
~*~
The thing is, they lose. Jin Guangyao is smarter than them, Su She is more dedicated than they thought, and Nie Huaisang not as clever as he thought he was. Guanyin Temple is collapsing on them and though Wen Ning has managed to pull the juniors to safety, the rest of them were on their own.
Jiang Cheng is going to die, sitting next to his brother as he screamed over the body of his (soulmate? lover?) Lan Zhan. There is blood pooling all around them, seeping into the silks of his robe. Zewu Jun is slumped over, eyes wide and uncomprehending of the fact that his brother is dead, that the rest of them will also soon be dead, and all because of his precious A-Yao.
Slabs of rock fall from the ceiling and crash into rubble nearby. The sound is deafening, so much so it chases away the sounds of Wei Wuxian’s agony. When the ringing fades, the screams don’t return, but Wei Wuxian rears wildly towards him, hands slick with Lan Wangji’s blood gripping Jiang Cheng’s face.
“I’m sorry,” he says, though Jiang Cheng notes that he doesn’t sound sorry at all. “But it’s going to have to be you.”
Talisman paper appears out of somewhere and slams into his chest with enough force to drive the air from his lungs. Wei Wuxian brings their foreheads together with the same kind of force and Jiang Cheng is dazed.
“Save us, please,” is the last thing his brother says to him before the talisman paper on his chest lights up and spreads fire throughout his body.
Jiang Cheng wants to scream, but he doesn’t get the chance.
~*~
The children of Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan are born beautiful. Their daughter is sweet even in her infancy, as if all of life’s joys combined to make the little girl’s smile. She is a mix of her parents both, the soft roundness of her father’s face and the slender poise of her mother.
Their son is not born sweet, but no less beautiful. He seems like he is all his mother, sharp angles and slim waist, but bones of steel. The boy rarely smiles, save for when he is with his sister, and his eyes have held a heavy weight of knowing since birth. He encompasses none of life’s joys, but always seems to be a tempest that is barely contained. He learns to speak young, bypassing the babble of a child’s language almost completely. His words are not harsh, but carry a weight that makes people pause.
When the boy is six, he tells his father that he needs a brother. “An older brother, a shixiong of my own,” he clarifies with his usual solemnity. “It’s important.”
When the boy is seven, Cangse Sanren and Wei Changze visit Lotus Pier with their son Wei Ying. The boy’s arrival marks the first time that someone outside of Jiang Yanli is graced with a smile by the young sect heir. “Thank you for bringing my shixiong,” he says to the boy’s parents before taking his hand and leading Wei Ying away.
There is much whispering and murmuring after this meeting. The lady of Lotus Pier is incensed, admonishes her son when he refuses to let Wei Ying leave his side. When her son is unmoved by her fury, she turns it on her husband. “Did you put him up to this?” she hisses while Zidian crackles on her finger. “Are you trying to find a way to keep them here? Would you use your own son to fulfill your baser desires? When will you understand he left on his own?”
Their arguing upsets everyone, but their son is not affected. He walks with Cangse Sanren down to the end of an empty pier on day, far away from the ears of others. They stand at the end of the pier and speak at length for some time. When they come back, Cangse Sanren asks her son if he wishes to stay with his new friends while his parents leave for a night hunt.
This development worsens the situation between Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan. A particularly loud blow out sees Jiang Cheng leaving Wei Ying in the care of his A-Jie and then confronting his parents. The boy is not yet eight, but speaks as a man with decades of life infused in his words. “You embarrass yourselves.”
His mother, Madam Yu of Lotus Pier, looks like she might strike him down right then. His father, Jiang zongzhu of Yunmeng, looks at a loss, as he often is with the storm of his wife and the oddity of his son. Jiang Cheng thinks he should feel some sympathy for his parents, but the joy he has in having them alive again is outweighed by his frustration with their shortcomings. He is a young boy, but also a man who lived longer than either of them.
“Father’s love of Wei Changze has nothing to do with Wei Ying and I,” Jiang Cheng stares at his mother and frowns slightly as if he is disappointed in her. “You may feel jilted mother, but acting as though the love between you was stolen by some outside entity is beneath you. If there was not some love between you, how could you have made Jiang Yanli, she who is love in all it’s wonderful forms? Such a good thing cannot come from hatred or indifference. The loss of that love so soon after her birth is a crime that you both bear fault for; the punishment should be shared between you two and kept away from others.”
Yu Ziyuan cannot find words to articulate the depth of her rage in that moment. Jiang Fengmian only looks concerned and faintly disturbed. “If your sister was made of love, were you not also made in such a way? Why do you speak of love dying with such ease?”
“I am not made from love, father,” Jiang Cheng walks closer to his mother, his aged eyes an unfit match for his young face. “I am a storm created betwixt you two; Zidian’s purple lightning and Yunmeng’s flooding rain. One day, you will understand better than you do now.”
Then the boy touches his mother’s hand, his fingertips brushing along hers. A fleeting touch, but enough contact for when Zidian sparks to life and slips down from his mother’s hand to wrap snugly around his ring finger. The silence of his mother’s courtyard is stifling, a slight step between grief and horror. He smiles as he runs a finger over the purple ring on his hand before pulling it off and slipping it back onto his mother’s finger. “Wei Ying is my shixiong; he always has been. I will not let anyone, even those I love, take that away. Not ever again.”
Yu Zixuan is breathless as her rage bleeds its way to fear. “Who are you?”
A shrug, an older motion on a young body. “For now, I am Jiang Cheng, your son and sect heir to Yunmeng Jiang. One day, I will be Sandu Shengshou and then you will see the necessity of Wei Ying.”
Wei Ying stays, his parents come and go. The lady and master of Lotus Pier watch over two young boys in Yunmeng purple robes with the icy fingers of uncertainty clenched about their throats.
~*~
Meeting Cangse Sanren explains so much of what his shixiong will become. It is at times comforting, and more times it is vexing.
“A-Ying was nine when it happened, so it will be soon. A night hunt near Yiling-you must not go.”
Cangse Sanren laughs just like her son did (does), teasing and unapologetic and uncaring of the propriety of the moment. "You cannot change a person's nature, little lord; that is the first thing my master taught me."
Jiang Cheng frowns, dislikes being called a 'little lord' and knows that his dislike is why she persists in using it. "I am not asking your to change your nature. I only ask that you focus your energy on that part of it that loves your son. He will need you for what is to come."
But she can only cluck her tongue and shrug, careless in her movements like she is with her life (like her son will be with his life). "I will try, little lord. But I'm not made for life with a sect. If I was, I wouldn't have come down the mountain, leaving all my martial siblings and master behind without a backwards glance."
Cangse Sanren lives past the time she died in the other life. She comes and goes from Lotus Pier, spending weeks or months with her son and husband there before running off into the night with her husband to chase after some monster or mystery. Wei Ying stays in his new home, better than being abandoned at an inn, and tells Jiang Cheng of his dreams of joining his parents when he is old enough.
Jiang Cheng delays the inevitable for only two more years. Wei Changze survives the night hunt gone wrong and spends four months in the infirmary before he is able to walk about on his own. Cangse Sanren lives long enough for Jiang disciples to bring her to the infirmary along with her husband, rasping a teary goodbye to her inconsolable son. Yu Ziyuan arrives in a flurry of purple silks and seems to waver a moment before she scoops Wei Ying into her arms and leads him away when asked to do so by the boy’s mother.
“Forgive me, if you can little lord,” Cangse Sanren whispers as the healers rush to do something that will not save her in the end. “I tried for as long as I could, but a snake sheds its skin easier than a rogue cultivator.”
Jiang Cheng shakes his head. “I’ll forgive you if this does not become your legacy to your son. I never understood him so much as I do now, knowing how you are.”
Jiang Fengmian is also in the infirmary, gazing between the bloodied sheets of Wei Changze’s cot and the unending spill of blood on the floor beneath Cangse Sanren. Jiang Cheng does not need to see the restrained horror in his father’s face to know what is coming.
“Go to Wei Ying, son,” Jiang Fengmian runs a hand over Jiang Cheng’s hair in a gesture of comfort that surprises him. His father’s thumb wiping the wetness of his cheeks is the first time Jiang Cheng realizes that he’s crying, has been crying for a while, and the grief is suddenly fierce and overwhelming.
He knows, feels it, that Cangse Sanren breathes her last before his foot lands outside the infirmary doors. The thought makes him stumble, but he recovers and continues onto his mother’s rooms, where a wailing Wei Ying clutches at Yu Ziyuan in a way that would have gotten him lashed in another life.
It does not make him feel any better. This is Jiang Cheng’s first failure of his brother in this new life. He is not foolish to think it will be the last.
~*~
In the last life, three spiritual pups came to Lotus Pier for a short while before being sent away. In this life, three pups are allowed to stay, though they do not share a single master as before.
“One for each of you,” Yu Ziyuan says shortly, handing off one animal to each of her children and her ward. Wei Ying is wide-eyed at the bundle of black and gray fur that is thrust his way, he reaches out to accept it with hands that tremble with uncertainty rather than fear. Yu Ziyuan does not immediately release her grip on the last pup, as she had done with her children, and leans forward until Wei Ying raises his eyes to meet hers. “Name it well,” she orders, the warning implicit in her tone.
Wei Ying flushes and nods his understanding. Yu Ziyuan had not been as amused as their fathers had been with the Suibian incident. The only real reason he had escaped with such a mild scolding then had been because Yu Ziyuan had still been dealing with her unease at Jiang Cheng’s unveiling of Sandu just prior. Sandu Shengshou he had promised his parents, and every day brings him closer to it. Wei Ying is no less brilliant in this life than he was before, but now Jiang Cheng has the unfair advantage of memory. He is years beyond his shixiong and other junior disciples, and while that brings his mother immeasurable pride, it also brings her great discomfort.
“What are you going to name yours?” Wei Ying asks later, when they have escaped to Jiang Yanli’s rooms with their new pets. The little pups are excited by their new surroundings, romping all over the bed and each other while the three children laugh at their antics.
“Bai-fu,” Jiang Yanli is the first to answer, giving her little white pup a finger to nip at. “She is too pretty to be without a pretty name.”
“Huiqing,” Jiang Cheng snorts as his grey pup jumps on Wei Ying’s pup and nips aggressively at her sister’s ears. Wei Ying makes a strangled noise and scoops his pup away from Huiqing’s baby fangs and cradles the little creature to his chest. It takes a moment for Jiang Cheng to stop staring; Wei Ying’s previous fear of dogs had been nearly incapacitating. It is surreal to see him, even at twelve, to be at ease with a dog in his hands.
“A-Cheng, maybe you should find a more fitting name,” Wei Ying wrinkles his nose at Huiqing who is now yipping at him in great agitation. “Might I suggest Po-fu?”
“If you name yours Ruozhe, then sure,” Jiang Cheng moves from the floor to join his jiejie on the bed, scooping Huiqing up into his hands and scratching gently behind her ears. Wei Ying remains on the floor, pouting up at Jiang Yanli in a poor imitation of hurt.
“Shijie, A-Cheng is being mean to my puppy!” Wei Ying lets out a theatrical wail, bringing said puppy to rub against his cheeks. “My poor little Daiyu-to be cursed with such an uncaring and vicious shushu!”
Jiang Cheng only rolls his eyes (because of course Wei Ying would have 'jade' in his pet's name) and brings Huiqing up to eye level. “Don’t bite your little sister,” he admonishes with a smirk. “Bite your idiot bo-fu instead. Might keep him in line.”
Another gasp. “Shijie!”
Jiang Yanli’s laughter rolls over both of them and though he still pouts, Jiang Cheng can see the shine of pride in Wei Ying’s eyes.
Save us is what his brother asked, before slamming Jiang Cheng years into the past. Jiang Cheng thinks that if he can at least save this, it would be more than good enough.
~*~
Jiang Cheng does have a plan. He has thought about this long and hard, he’s had seventeen years to think and plan and try to map out contingencies. He makes moves that he thinks will move them closer to a happier ending, but there aren’t any guarantees. He can't think of any conceivable way to deal with the Wens before they become a problem. For all that he remembers the training and skills of his former life, he is still a child and his body can only do so much. He dreams of sneaking into the Nightless City and slitting the throats of Wen Ruohan, Wen Chao, and Wen Xu before they can start a war that kills thousands. Awake, he cannot find a reality where he can do that and live. So he keeps to things that he can do-things he can make happen.
He keeps Wei Ying’s parents from dying on a night hunt outside Yiling when Wei Ying is nine. He does not stop Cangse Sanren from dying on a night hunt outside Yunping that also ends up crippling her husband. Wei Changze lives now, in Lotus Pier, with his son. He does so without his wife, and without his right arm, severed as it was just above his elbow.
Wei Changze’s presence at Lotus Pier also affects Jiang Cheng’s own parents. The icy indifference and explosive confrontations of his previous childhood have faded away into something different. In his previous life, Yu Ziyuan had railed against the memory of Cangse Sanren and Jiang Fengmian’s supposed obsession. Now, watching the three adults in his life dance awkwardly around one another, Jiang Cheng thinks that loud denouncement had been deliberate. His mother’s pride must have railed so much at the idea that she was second place to another man that very publicly she used Cangse Sanren’s name.
Years after his wife’s death, Wei Changze is settled at Lotus Pier like Jiang Cheng imagined he must have been before his marriage. The immediate aftermath of her passing was difficult. Jiang Cheng had been expecting rage or drunkenness or something destructive. But, however much his son resembles him (and it is quite a fair bit), Wei Changze’s character is much quieter and softer than Jiang Cheng could have ever guessed. Wei-qianbei folds into himself after his wife’s passing, goes quietly into seclusion in an isolated part of the residence and will only see his son on occasion. Wei Ying is grieved of the parting, permanently from his mother and temporarily from his father. And as always, this grief is covered up with wide smiles and wild antics that veer just shy of causing bodily injury.
It is fourteen months before Wei-qianbei finds the strength he needs to emerge from isolation, and suddenly Jiang Cheng experiences life with a calming, restraining influence on his wild shixiong. Wei Ying is still Wei Ying; he comes up with hare-brained schemes, sulks like a child to obtain soup and sweets from Jiang Yanli, steals away from lessons to hunt pheasants, and entices Jiang Cheng into many misadventures involving the old man’s farm. But he is also different, his wild nature curbed in a way that is not stifling but rather like a sign of growing maturity. He flirts shamelessly with the girls in town, but doesn’t slump all over the place like a rag doll when in lessons. He’s still the best in kite shooting, but now goes with their little shidis to collect the kites and arrows. He'll lounge about on a boat, drifting aimlessly on the lake while he dozes, but after he's completed his duties for the day. It is in all the little things, and it is all Wei-qianbei.
Once, Jiang Cheng is twelve and Wei Ying is thirteen and Jiang Fengmian is watching them spar. Jiang Cheng is obviously better; he has over three decades of experience over his shixiong and it shows. Yet still, Jiang Fengmian only corrects his son and praises his disciple. It does not really mean anything to Jiang Cheng at this point; he’s lived through this disappointment before. And he thinks that Cangse Sanren was right; perhaps it is just too difficult to change people’s nature. Perhaps some things are always meant to be. Jiang Cheng knows his father loves him, but Jiang Fengmian is no better at showing at love in this life than he was in the previous one. Jiang Cheng, now twenty-eight years removed from the boy who had chased his father’s favour with unrelenting failure, is not that upset by it.
Wei-qianbei is another story.
“Have you turned into your father, after all?” is the quiet admonishment when Wei-qianbei comes across the scene. Jiang Fengmian is startled by the accusation while the boys are curious and Jiang Cheng a little perturbed. He knows very little about his Yeye, and that has not changed even in this second chance at childhood. And like his mother’s insistence of Cangse Sanren’s responsibility for the distance in her marriage, this omission by his father seems dangerously deliberate.
“Shidi,” Jiang Fengmian is upset by the comparison, but his eyes have softened in that way they only do when Wei-qianbei is nearby. It makes every interaction seem so intimate and personal that the children often slip away rather than bear witness to it. “I know how we hated it in our youth, but he was right in his own way. The heir should not sit easy.”
Wei-qianbei shakes his head, disappointment so clearly etched upon his face that Jiang Cheng flushes for shame. "Shixiong, have you remembered his lessons but not his legacy? How much love was there between father and son in the end-how much resentment between friends?" Wei-qianbei pauses to smile at the younger boys, runs his left hand over Wei Ying's hair. His right sleeve is pinned up as it usually is, just below where the stump of his arm ends. Wei-qianbei has never seemed hindered by his crippling. The loss of his wife monopolized all of his initial sorrow, but even after, when he has to work at strengthening his left hand, training with it, writing with it, and struggling with it, Wei-qianbei never seems aggrieved. Jiang Cheng does not know how he is not drowning in a sea of his own bitterness.
When Wei-qianbei looks back at Jiang Fengmian, there is that light of familiarity, of love that has aged and soured some over the years, but remains potent in its effect. "Please, do not use my son to make yours hate himself-or worse, hate you."
Jiang Fengmian falters, the words like a solid blow to the head, and his father looks dazed. Wei Ying exchanges a nervous smile with Jiang Cheng before bowing to his sect leader and walking away with his father's guiding hand between his shoulder blades. Jiang Cheng watches his father silently agonize over the mild admonishment from his shidi and reflects on how a few quiet words from Wei Changze had such a devastating impact on Jiang Fengmian whilst years of Yu Ziyuan's loud beratements achieved not even one bit of consideration.
He thinks he understands his mother's anger more clearly when he sees how two children and decades of marriage fail to move her husband in the slightest. Maybe it would have been better if Jiang Fengmian had hated his wife, like she accused him daily. Hatred, at least, would have been a reaction, an acknowledgement of her in the role she held in his life.
The utter indifference must have ate at her like so much poison.
~*~
Save us is such a large task; Jiang Cheng is sometimes resentful that he was given it in the first place. It seems rebirth hasn't settled all of his bad temperament.
He does his best, as much as he can, without having to say too much or show his hand too quickly. Cangse Sanren was the only person Jiang Cheng had ever spoken to truly about who and what he is. He did it, as he often rationalized, because being Baoshan Sanren's disciple, Cangse Sanren was unlikely to disbelieve him (or worse). What is probably more true is that he wanted to tell Wei Ying, but this Wei Ying is not yet the Wei Wuxian who would have been able to help him with this, so he settled for the person who reminded him the most of his brother. Who fit the bill better than the man's own mother?
(He also knows that he will slit his own throat before telling Wei Ying, even when he is fully Wei Wuxian, because to do so means that his idiot shixiong will find some way to die tragically for the sake of others and Jiang Cheng is not allowing that this time around.)
But really, he is on his own. Jiang Cheng has come close to say something like the truth to his parents, but always making sure to stop just shy of it. His parents are often uneasy around him, and he doesn't care because that is a useful reaction he can often twist to get things done his way. When Jiang Cheng is looking for a way to keep an eye on the key players of before, he takes up letter writing with Nie Huaisang under the guise of practicing diplomacy with the next generation of leaders, his future peers. It is easy to pull Wei Ying into the endeavour, because he and Nie Huaisang have always been the same kind of frivolous. Jiang Cheng knows the most important figure is out there, the son of a prostitute working in a brothel that in another life turned into a temple, but there is no reality in which Jiang Cheng will be able to convince his parents that he needs to buy the freedom of some prostitute he's never met. And then he starts thinking of the events that he remembered, of how Meng Yao is horribly jaded by all things that happen to him after going to meet his father, but also knowing that path is the one that led him to killing Wen Ruohan. Jiang Cheng is not sure he wants to remove any piece of that puzzle, when he is already so unsure about how the little changes he tries to make daily will impact the future.
(He theorizes that he can always just kill Meng Yao after, before he can become Jin Guangyao but that won't solve the problem of Jin Guangshan's greed).
There is also the matter of Lotus Pier. Jiang Cheng will drown himself in the lake before he lets his home and sect burn down like before. There is no saving anybody if Lotus Pier falls. So, he pushes and prods and mostly bullshits his way into improving security. Lotus Pier has always been opened, free to let people come and go without scrutiny. Jiang Cheng argues with his father about having guards posted at the entrance, not to necessarily restrict entry, but to keep an eye on the comings and goings. Wei-qianbei is able to settle the matter by suggesting it would be a good way to train disciples on how to engage in risk assessment. It turns into a class that every disciple must attend, rotating shifts of guard duty and submitting reports on their observances. Wei-qianbei assesses the reports and his father allows it to continue even though he doesn't necessarily see the value of it.
It is easier to pull Wei Ying and the junior disciples into his plans, as long as he is clever about. Jiang Cheng thanks a childhood of tricking Jin Ling into doing things he didn't want to do (like eat vegetables, take a bath, clean up after himself, not be a holy terror to the servants all day long). They play 'war games' in two teams, one which devises a defense strategy for Lotus Pier and the other which has to attack. Wei Ying leads one team and Jiang Cheng leads the other; they trade off playing offence and defense, and though it makes him sick to the stomach, raids are conducted monthly on Lotus Pier to such great fanfare that soon the senior disciples are also involved.
(Everyone shouts and runs and enjoys these days while Jiang Cheng bites his tongue until it bleeds to keep the grief of a life not yet lived at bay.)
It is also stupidly easy to goad Wei Ying into inventing talisman for a myriad of reasons, but also for one main one. "We'd be punished less if we knew someone was coming so we could hide the evidence."
His shixiong is as brilliant in this life as the last. Nie Huaisang comes to visit in the summer when Jiang Cheng is fourteen and the sheer amount of nonsense the two of them get into necessitate Wei Ying to prove that brilliance again and again. Three different types of talismans made just that summer, meant to alert them whenever someone is in ten feet of approaching their location. And only two of them malfunction and cause minor explosions. Nie Huaisang has stars in his eyes as he tucks as many working talismans as he can in between the pages of his yellow books, praising Wei Ying and Jiang Cheng to sky and beyond.
"Da-ge is always trying to sneak up on me, to make sure I'm practicing my sabre work," Nie Huaisang looks at Wei Ying with such intense gratitude that even Jiang Cheng feels bashful. "Wei-xiong, Jiang-xiong, the fates have blessed this lowly one with the most divine of friends. I only wish you were both older and could come with me for the Gusu Lan lectures. I've already failed once and Da-ge is threatening to release all my birds if I fail a second time!"
"Sorry, Nie-xiong, but we're not to go until this infant is at least sixteen," Wei Ying pushes Jiang Cheng's shoulder and triggers an impromptu wrestling match. He continues speaking once Jiang Cheng lets him out of the headlock that won him the skirmish, picking up his former train of thought so seamlessly that one would think he hadn't stopped talking five minutes ago to try and take Jiang Cheng's legs out from underneath him. "You'll be long past graduated by then-but maybe we'll come visit you on the way there-or the way back! Then you can show us all your birds and the entirety of your reading collection."
Jiang Cheng purses his lips and says nothing. He knows Nie Huaisang has zero to no chance of passing the lectures this year, and that he will most definitely be there in two years time when the Jiang contingent is invited to attend. The only one of the friends who would be absent at that time would be Wei Ying.
Jiang Cheng just needs to figure out how to make that happen.
~*~
The thing is, Jiang Cheng is constantly juggling this event and that one, trying to determine which to let be and which to alter. He's not arrogant enough to think he's making the best choices in every case, but he makes up his mind and sticks with it. And one thing he decides early on is that the only way to save his brother is to make sure he never gets anywhere near Yin Iron. To make that happen, Wei Ying cannot go to Cloud Recesses.
Finding a reason to leave him behind is pointless-there's not any excuse Jiang Cheng could give that would convince his father or wouldn't hurt Wei Ying deeply. It has to come from somewhere, and if it comes from Wei Ying himself it would be best. Jiang Cheng spends a week feeding Wei Ying information on the thousands of rules of Gusu Lan sect and how terrible the food is there. It only makes Wei Ying pack an extra qiankun pouch full of Yunmeng spices and design nefarious plots for how he's going to get his hands on as much Emperor's Smile as he can get-which is not that different than what happened the first time. Jiang Cheng cannot convince Wei Ying that he doesn't want to go, not when Jiang Cheng is definitely still going, and Wei Ying doesn't want to be apart from his shidi that long. And as disgustingly warm that sentiment makes him feel on the inside, it frustrates Jiang Cheng to no end. If Wei Ying doesn't decide to not go, then either Jiang Cheng has to make it so he is incapable of going or not allowed to go. And since he is as weak as his mother often lamented in his previous life, Jiang Cheng cannot bring himself to injure Wei Ying 'accidentally' to force him to stay behind.
Jiang Cheng resolves himself to then figuring out how to keep Wei Ying away from the Yin Iron drama waiting for them in Cloud Recesses and trying to piece together everything he had ever been told about Wei Ying's escapades with Lan Wangji that led him to it. Which, of the two, seems the most insurmountable of the tasks. How the hell would he keep Wei Ying away from Lan Wangji in any circumstance? Those two idiots were trapped in each other's gravity from almost the moment they first met.
The frustration from not finding a solution leads Jiang Cheng to being more irritable than is his usual. Wei Ying assures everyone Jiang Cheng is just nervous about leaving home for the first time without his parents, and the phrasing of this sentiment leads to a scuffle in the training grounds that accidentally demolishes two training dummies and knocks one of the healers into one of the lotus ponds. As both are kneeling in the ancestral hall, ears still ringing with his mother's tongue lashing and trying to quash any giggles lest someone hear them, Jiang Cheng sees a path open before him, one that he had forgotten about before.
In their past life, the evening before departing for Caiyi town, Wei Wuxian had tried to entice Jiang Cheng into a drinking competition because "who knows when we'll get our hands on wine amongst those stuffy Lans" and in deliberate ignorance of his plans to sneak in Emperor's Smile while there. Jiang Cheng had turned him down, soundly, and hide all the wine jars Wei Wuxian had brought and practically tied his brother to his bed to stop him from going to find any more liquor. At that time, he had been afraid of leaving home without his parents for the first time, and for such a long time, that he didn't want to risk being sent there without Wei Wuxian. So he did his best to save his brother from his own stupidity and they had left for Caiyi town bright and early the next morning.
The night before their departure in this life, Wei Ying leads Jiang Cheng to a dark storeroom full of wine and shidis and shimeis who would be accompanying them the next morning. Instead of being responsible and sending everyone to their rooms, Jiang Cheng lets them drink, especially Wei Ying. The drinking competition goes long into the night and maybe he should have called it to an end sooner, but Jiang Cheng wanted to make sure Wei Ying is caught being embarrassingly drunk by one of the parents. His mother would be best, and Wei-qianbei would also work. If it's Jiang Fengmian, the whole exercise would be moot because if one thing didn't change from that to this life is Jiang Fengmian's inability to dole out proper punishment for any of Wei Ying's misadventures.
He does not plan on losing track of Wei Ying and two of their shidis while trying to coerce the others into their beds. He definitely does not plan on those idiots to be so stupid as to see who can fly the furthest on their swords while drunk. None of that stops him from being in the infirmary before dawn with Wei Ying, Wei-qianbei, and his parents while the healers reset the broken bones in Wei Ying's leg. Jiang Cheng feels sick as he looks down at the pain pinched face his brother makes while the healer does his work. He notes absently that it's the same healer they pushed into the water just last week.
"Well, I suppose we should be glad that the idiocy of Yunmeng Jiang sect heir and his head disciple reared it's head at Lotus Pier," Yu Ziyuan speaks with a smile, but it is not a comforting expression. The swift manner in which Wei Ying's face goes from pained to alarmed shows his shixiong sees it as well. "I would hate to think what sort of utter, disreputable, shameful nonsense with which you would have disgraced your family in front of Gusu Lan sect!"
Wei Ying's shoulders tremble as his head drops and Jiang Cheng, not often cowed by his mother's scolding since being reborn, cannot keep his eyes up for shame. The intention had been to avoid injury, but as they got older, Jiang Cheng finds it is a lot harder to mitigate the consequences of his actions when Wei Ying is involved. Some things stay the same, no matter what.
It is beyond obvious Wei Ying will not be accompanying Jiang Cheng to Cloud Recesses tomorrow. The disappointment in his shixiong's eyes makes the guilt churn faster in his gut, bubbling up his throat. Jiang Fengmian suggests that he writes to Lan Qiren, to have Wei Ying join a bit later, but it before Yu Ziyuan can snap at the suggestion, Wei-qianbei shuts it down entirely. "No," he murmurs, looking his son square in the eyes. "I think, this time, A-Ying will deal with the consequences of his recklessness. He will not attend the guest lectures."
Wei Ying shrinks into himself even further at this. Jiang Cheng catches grief from his parents over 'setting a good example' before being shuffled off to bed. He stays in his room for an hour before sneaking back out to the infirmary and under the covers of Wei Ying's cot. "I'm sorry," is the first thing he says to his shixiong.
Wei Ying smiles bright and shakes his head. "Not your fault, shidi," the smiles tips off his face and fades into a pout. "It's my own fault. Kind of disappointing, Nie-xiong was going to bring some of his best books for us, you know? If you can't bring them back, at least memorize them so you can recreate them for me when you get back."
"I am not spending my time at Cloud Recesses memorizing yellow books for you!" Jiang Cheng huffs and tries not to laugh, because Wei Ying is ever Wei Ying and he never used to appreciate that until it was gone. "Now chin up, at least you'll have A-Jie here. I'll be buried under books and boiled, tasteless vegetables while you gorge yourself on A-Jie's soup and shoot kites and flirt with the girls in town."
Wei Ying tips the corner of his lips upwards. "The girls would be sad if I wasn't here to flirt with them," he agrees with a sage nod.
Jiang Cheng represses the urge to roll his eyes and spends the hours he should be sleeping whispering under the covers on Wei Ying's infirmary cot. Jiang Cheng promises to do his best to entice Nie Huaisang and his yellow books back to Lotus Pier while Wei Ying solemnly promises to overfeed Huiqing so that she will be monstrously fat upon Jiang Cheng's return. This starts a scuffle that gets Jiang Cheng ejected from the infirmary with an hour to spare before he is supposed to depart for Cloud Recesses. He is exhausted when he bows goodbye to his parents, but he has been through much worse than a night without sleep. They are late getting out on the road and the inns of Caiyi town are full again in this life, but Jiang Cheng does not tarry. He leads his disciples up the mountain and presents their invitation at the gates in a spectacularly dull and routine entry into the Cloud Recesses. And even though he misses his brother, Jiang Cheng reflects that it's nice to walk past the guards with the dignity of a young master instead of kicking his feet awkwardly at the gate because Wei Ying cannot help but to embarrass him.
~*~
He honestly forgets about Lan Wangji, at least initially. Jiang Cheng has spent his last sixteen years hatching plots and agonizing over what to do and what to undo, and generally reveling in having his family returned to him in full. The ache of Cangse Sanren and what she could have been if she lived longer lingers and the absence of Jin Ling is not overcome still, but the gaping hole that had replaced his heart when A-Jie and Wei Wuxian died had closed. There is such serenity in knowing that if he runs to his brother's room that Wei Ying will be there, or he can sit in the western pavilion and eat the lotus seeds A-Jie peels for him.
Lan Wangji, he admits he doesn't think much about beyond an extension of Wei Ying. The years had somewhat cooled the instant flare of anger he used to associate with the man. Since he made the decision to keep Wei Ying from Cloud Recesses, Jiang Cheng spends even less time thinking about Lan Wangji. If Wei Ying is not here to encounter the Second Jade, then most of the events that lead to the discovery of the Yin Iron in Gusu will not happen. Jiang Cheng knows where the Cold Springs are and which day Wei Ying went missing with Lan Wangji. He can step in, maybe even smuggle the Yin Iron out of Gusu before anyone is the wiser. Or, maybe the Yin Iron will not make itself known to him or anyone and he can nudge either Lan Qiren or Lan Xichen towards it and go home in one piece. He doesn't believe the Yin Iron can be avoided entirely, not when the Wen sect already knows that it's here, but Jiang Cheng doesn't have the means to force the issue when he so desires. He's learnt to be flexible these past years; he has to wait and act accordingly. The only difference is his determination to keep his brother by his side, free of the demonic taint that drove him away the first time. It may be selfish, Jiang Cheng knows it is selfish, but he's prepared to make hard choices to keep Wei Ying safe.
But it is so close now to the time when everything becomes darker and more dangerous. Being back in Cloud Recesses is so strange; he cannot help the spike of anxiety that chases his sleep away. He abandons his bed and tries meditating to calm his mind. He usually does well with meditation, but it is not working for him today. There is too much nervous energy for it to help.
He muddles on it for a second before grabbing Sandu and stepping out into the night air. The guest quarters are empty of all but Jiang disciples. The greeting ceremony is in three days, other sects will start trickling in the day after tomorrow. Most will want to enjoy Caiyi town as long as they can. It means that these rooms will remain mostly empty for the next day at least and Jiang Cheng heads out to the courtyard certain a little sword practice wouldn’t disturb anyone.
He starts slow, gliding Sandu through the Yunmeng sword forms one by one. He picks up speed and force as the time goes by, soon leaping and twirling around an imaginary opponent. His breath comes quicker now and sweat beads on his upper lip and forehead as he lunges forward in a powerful thrust-
“It is past curfew.”
He falters and just barely avoids impaling himself on his sword. He knows the voice that just interrupted him, but he doesn’t understand why he’s hearing it. The late hour and Wei Ying’s absence should have meant that Lan Wangji would be abed. But he is not.
Jiang Cheng turns and finds him standing on the roof of the building nearest to the entrance of the courtyard. As always, the first time seeing Lan Wangji is jarring. The absurd beauty of the man is easy to forget when you go so long without exposure. Lan Wangji stands there, a pale white-robed specter framed by the dark of the night sky, his skin positively gleaming under the light of the moon. The Second Jade of Lan looks near the same, though a bit rounder and softer in this flush of youth. But the expression, that placid look of disinterest, of silent derision-that remained the same.
It takes Jiang Cheng a minute to shake off his shock, to chase away the ghosts of his past. He remembers his manners, brings his hands together in a proper salute. “Forgive this disciple, Lan-er-gonzi,” Jiang Cheng makes sure to keep his tone even and calm. “I was having trouble sleeping and thought some fresh air in the courtyard would help. I had thought it would be okay if I didn’t leave the guest wing.”
“Must remain in room past curfew,” Lan Wangji clarifies as he steps off the roof and lands soundlessly on the stones of courtyard. He stands, eyes not exactly meeting Jiang Cheng’s, one hand held behind his back and the other gripping Bichen at his side. “Return at once.”
A sarcastic yes, Hanguang Jun rests on the tip of his tongue. He pulls back from the familiar twinge of acidic resentment Lan Wangji’s presence evokes in him, reminds himself that he cannot engage with Lan Wangji now as he had in that last life. Technically, Lan Wangji hadn’t done anything to earn that resentment.
Yet.
“Apologies, Lan-er-gonzi,” Jiang Cheng bows again, hands gripped together tight enough to whiten his knuckles. “This disciple will take care not to breach the rules again.”
Finally those amber eyes slide his way, seem to acknowledge Jiang Cheng as a person, not a pile of dirt on the road to be avoided. He returns Jiang Cheng’s salute gracefully, rises and says “Jiang-gonzi, see yourself to the Library Pavilion after breakfast for punishment.”
“Punishment?” comes barking out of his mouth before he can contain it. Jiang Cheng takes a second and then tries again. “I’m afraid I don’t quite understand, Lan-er-gonzi. Punishment for what?”
Lan Wangji looks at him like he is a particularly dull-witted child. “Broke curfew-punishment.”
Oh, how he has not missed the conversational skills of the Second Jade. Why use ten words when zero will aggravate people into not talking to you at all? Jiang Cheng debates the merits of demanding an explanation, of taking this beyond Lan Wangji to Lan Qiren or Lan Xichen, but knows he won’t. Wei Wuxian kept Lan Wangji’s focus on him by being mischievous and belligerent. Jiang Cheng has no interest in keeping Lan Wangji’s focus.
“Of course,” he manages not to visibly seethe, to keep his voice level and somewhat comparable to Lan Wangji’s dulcet tone. “May I ask of the punishment? I will need to inform my sect disciples of the duration of my absence and see to their schedule while I am occupied.”
Lan Wangji blinks, his eyebrows move fractionally before his face goes as still as stone once again. “Copy the disciplines-three times.”
Copy out a set of three thousand disciplines, three times, for the great crime of stepping out of his room for half an hour? He didn’t even go anywhere, didn’t disturb anyone-there’s no one here for him to disturb! How like Hanguang Jun to be such a-
With great effort, Jiang Cheng manages a quick nod. “Until tomorrow, Lan-er-gonzi. Once again, this disciple apologizes for his error.”
He manages to make it to his bed, collapsing face-down on his pillow, before the curses spill from his lips. Five minutes! It only took five minutes back in Lan Wangji’s company and his previously achieved tolerance towards the man is gone! The flare of anger at his name is back and the complete frustration with Hanguang Jun’s entire existence makes him want to stab something. Jiang Cheng has lived two lives and no one, not even Wei Wuxian, can utterly agitate him like the Second Jade of Lan.
It’s going to be a long year.
~*~
It is relatively easy to send the Jiang contingent off to Caiyi town for a day of fun before the lectures begin in earnest. Jiang Cheng drops a bag of silver into Jiang Shirong’s hands and waves away the protests of going without him. He does not it clear that no one is to go drinking and he is not reticent to use the looming threat of his mother’s anger to emphasize how much they should not go drinking. Then he makes for the Library Pavilion.
His only goal is to escape the ordeal without making any sort of impact whatsoever. Jiang Cheng doesn’t want to get sent home before he needs to, and he definitely doesn’t want to make an enemy out of Lan Wangji before the Yin Iron situation is handled. It will make his life infinitely easier if nobody pays any extra attention to the Jiangs from Yunmeng during their time here. Leaving Wei Ying at home means some of the problems will resolve themselves, but he still needs to keep any Jiang disciple from overhearing Jin Zixuan disparaging Jiang Yanli and keep them from getting too close to Nie Huaisang’s mini-black market of yellow books and illicit materials. It’s a lot to juggle and all of it easier if Lan Wangji isn’t watching them like a hawk every second, like he had before because Wei Wuxian was just too troublesome and too proud of it.
Lan Wangji sits towards the far end of the library and Jiang Cheng greets him with a small nod. Predictably, there is no real acknowledgement from Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng bites down an angry remark or two before settling at the desk just across from his morning jailor. Paper, brush, and ink are laid out for him, along with a copy of all three thousand plus disciplines. Stifling the urge to growl unhappily, Jiang Cheng picks up his brush and begins his copying.
Time does not fly. Each minute drags on with alarming lethargy. Jiang Cheng keeps at his copying, mind occupied with imagining all the furious and insulting things he could shout at Lan Wangji if things were different. He repeatedly reminds himself that copying is better than being caned, and if Wei Ying isn’t here to smuggle Emperor’s Smile into the dormitories, he likely won’t have to deal with any corporal punishment.
Hours pass while Jiang Cheng copies. Lan Wangji sits across from him, sedately reading one book or another. Occasionally, Jiang Cheng looks up from his work and catches those amber eyes for a second before they slide away. Am I that pretty, Hanguang Jun? is definitely not something he can say, but he feels a bit of satisfaction in thinking privately. His tone would be very snide while saying it; he would curl his upper lip just a bit to properly convey his disdain for Lan Wangji’s existence. It would be curt and cutting, and though he can’t say it, it is great fun to think about.
When he is tackling the last half of his third copy, both he and Lan Wangji are interrupted by the arrival of Lan Xichen, who doesn’t look that happy to see the two of them there. “Wangji, Jiang gonzi-good morning to you both.”
Jiang Cheng quickly puts his brush down, taking care to hold his sleeve so as to not smudge the wet ink on his paper. He returns Lan Xichen’s salute with his own. “Good morning, Lan gonzi.”
Lan Wangji’s “Xiongzhang,” is both greeting and subtle questioning. Lan Xichen looks impossibly fond as he gazes upon his younger brother, something Jiang Cheng doesn’t understand at all. Lan Wangji is too aggravating to cause any rational person to feel fondness.
(He’s well aware that people could say the same about him, for though he is better at controlling his temper in this life, the oddity of the Jiang sect heir does not go long uncommented upon in Yunmeng.)
“I was a bit surprised to hear that you would be overseeing punishment today-lectures have not yet started,” Lan Xichen smiles benignly at Jiang Cheng and tries very subtly to signal something to Lan Wangji with his eyes. “Surely Jiang gonzi has not done something to earn punishment so soon.”
“Broke curfew,” and that sounded a bit petulant. Jiang Cheng realizes that Lan Xichen is trying to admonish Lan Wangji for doling out punishment to him and wonders why the man couldn’t have appeared hours ago. What was the point in coming now, when he is almost finished his copying?
Lan Xichen’s smile wobbles at that, face speaking of an elder sibling’s long suffering. “Wangji, I’m not so sure the violation was so-“
“It is all right, Lan gonzi,” Jiang Cheng picks up his brush and resumes his copying. “I did break curfew and on my first night. What kind of example would it set if Lan-er-gonzi tolerated such a thing? It is my great shame that my actions were disrespectful of Gusu Lan’s disciplines, especially since I had studied them ahead of time.”
Lan Xichen recovers and his smile seems slightly less forced. “You are too kind, Jiang gonzi. However, I’m sure a warning would have been more effective in this case. I was surprised you did not bring it up with my uncle or myself before at breakfast.”
“Do not disrespect the elder,” Jiang Cheng rattles off easily. “It would not be good for this disciple to try and get out of punishment by going over Lan Wangji.”
“Do not be unreasonable,” Lan Xichen recites back to him. “A warning would have sufficed.”
“Would it be the same for a Lan disciple?” Jiang Cheng keeps his eyes on his paper as he writes. “Do not disregard laws and rules. I knew not to go out at night, Lan-er-gonzi caught me, and I have been punished. And now-“ he puts down his brush again and looks up at Lan Xichen, “I’ve finished my punishment. Would it be okay if I were dismissed to my rooms?”
Lan Wangji rises, comes over and collects his copies and makes a quiet, but long show of checking them. Lan Xichen’s smile becomes more and more pinched the longer Lan Wangji stays silent. Finally, after a tortuous few minutes, Lan Wangji gives Jiang Cheng a little nod without really looking at him. Digging deep for the serenity of mind to not punch the Second Jade in his expressionless face, Jiang Cheng rises and bows to both young masters of Lan.
“Wangji, really . . .” Lan Xichen’s quiet admonishment begins before Jiang Cheng is even out the door. Jiang Cheng just rolls his eyes and shakes out his cramping right hand as he heads for the blessed solitude of his rooms.
It’s going to be a ridiculously long year.
~*~