Chapter Text
"If Gusu has the twin jades then we will be the twin heroes of Yunmeng."
Tears furrowed those cheeks to end up falling on the pillow, how many times has he had that dream already?
"Jiang Cheng let's drink together", "Jiang Cheng, shall we go pheasant hunting?", "Jiang Cheng let's go to Gusu", "Jiang Cheng, you have helped me so many times, one more, just one more", "Jiang Cheng my back hurts, can you walk slower", "Jiang Cheng... "
That voice kept repeating over and over in his head and was a constant in his dreams
"Then cut it off, tell them to defect, from now on, whatever Wei Wuxian does, it has nothing to do with the Yunmeng Jiang sect."
Sometimes they were good memories "Don't worry, we won't tell Uncle Jiang what happened, I fell down playing and scratched myself."
Sometimes...sometimes he just wanted to rip his heart out "they are family too", "tell them to defect", "a Xian", "shijie!", "You said you could control it!"
Why did he have to make so many mistakes?
He remembered them, every one, especially the shouts.
"Wei Wuxian is dead, his shidi killed him, the Jiang sect leader" he remembered that announcement, he remembered that day... lie, he wanted to scream, that news was a vile lie, at that moment, at that moment...
"Jiang Cheng, you have finally come" the burning blood clouded his senses as he looked at that man, the one the world declared war on, the one who stood on the side of justice, the one who only protected, the one who made mistakes, the same one he loved, the man his sister gave her life for. The same one, the one she had just stabbed.
"You were always so skilled with the sword" the ink stained blade trembled in his hands and a red thread ran between the chapped lips.
"It's over Wei Wuxian" the venom was thick in his words, but his heart threatened to come out stuck in his throat, or perhaps it was a knot that made his eyes sting and presaged an anguished cry.
"You're right" he uttered barely with difficulty, "it's over" exhaustion interrupted his speech due to gasps "it really should have ended long ago" Jiang Cheng could not react in time, when he saw the seal of the tiger stygian break in front of his eyes and the dense, rotten energy begin to devour the trembling figure in front of him. Amidst agonizing screams his heart finished bleeding to death.
Jiang Cheng tried, he tried and tried to stop it, to prevent it from continuing to crumble, he screamed and between heartbroken cries he let out his name and perhaps also his feelings, and so it went until the dense energy dissipated.
A minute passed without moving, without doing anything, only seeing that red puddle. His body trembling, disgusted, scared, he felt everything overflowing from every pore of his skin.
"Wei Wu... Xian" tears began to stream down his face and he fell to his knees, he covered his face with his hands trying to hide his pain warped expression. "Well... well you know, you deserved this" a hysterical tone covered his voice, "you deserved to die, this is what... this is what..." before he could continue speaking a cough choked him. And on the black blood fell the remnants of that broken heart, petals, colorful and small petals start to come out in each retching
"Because you... you had to leave" he spoke to the emptiness between sobs "you also had to leave me, you abandon me just like everyone else" he looked up and wiped his face full of tears and saliva. He then looked at that weapon, the flute that only the patriarch of Yiling could carry, Chengqing.
"Wuxian... Wuxian forgive me, please come here, come back... I need you, Wei Wuxian, Wei Ying it was not true what I said, Wei Ying come back!" desperately he began to crawl to where the flute was staining his clothes with blood in the process, he took the flute with trembling hands.
"Wei Wuxian..." he begged without consolation "shixiong, shixiong please come back to Yunmeng with me, I need you with me, you said we would be together, that we would be the two heroes of Yunmeng" as his voice rose in pitch and hopelessness "you said you would be with me like your father accompanied mine".
"Wei Ying" but no one answered his calls, "Wei Ying, I love you please come back, you can't be dead, you can't die like this!"
With each new word the Jiang sect leader arched his body more over the blood and tears combined with the blood, he clung to the flute as if his life depended on it while broken down in sobs he wasted his vocal cords.
Then after a while he stopped... without energy to cry, like a sculpture, static in its place, only being reclaimed by the tremors of his recent shuddering cry.
He came out of that cave as if he were a corpse, completely bathed in the blood of the vile and cursed patriarch of Yiling.
He arrived at Yunmeng with cold skin. The throbbing muscle in his chest was silent, he was convinced that at some point in the journey he must have thrown it up, because he couldn't feel it beating in his chest. He was also dragging his bleeding soul, leaving pieces of it with every step he took.
That day, the day Wei Wuxian died, Jiang Cheng stopped living.
He was in Yunmeng, every year the same, on the anniversary of the day the world turned his sad existence upside down. People celebrated and cheered "Wei Wuxian is dead" always the same mantra year after year after his return from the siege of Yiling.
But it was not right, because everything seemed normal?
Are you all blind, are you all idiots!
There is a corpse walking in front of you, it exudes death and pain with every step it takes, why don't you attack it, don't you realize it is so dead, its skin is cold, its heart is not beating, but it is there, and they call it "Jiang sect leader, Jiang sect leader congratulations for your revenge"... Who the hell is the Jiang sect leader, what revenge are you talking about?
Here is only Jiang Cheng and he died together with his shixiong.
"Jiujiu"... it's a different call, "jiujiu" is repeated from below, a golden smile, and clinging tightly to his legs in a kind of embrace.
Ba dumb... the sound of thunder echoes in his ears and the rest of the noises fade ba dumb, it sounds again like a drum, resuming its beating.
"Jiujiu" the call is repeated and Jiang Cheng comes back to life.
"Jiujiu" not bad for first words.
"Jin Ling" breathes and the earth turns again.